Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide

Acquiring a room of her own
For much of her life Spence clearly found some kinship with those who would benefit
most from the rationalisation of capitalism. Increasingly, though, as she grew
older, she held that labour could and should benefit equally. But there was nothing
in Wakefield’s scheme about equality of the sexes. She had expanded a provision
about numbers far beyond its original intention. She was also careful not to stress
that experience did not fulfil the hopes of the ideologues.
The early years of the settlement were troubled by the unspecified division of
authority between the lieutenant governor and the resident commissioner, strife over
financing administration, and – despite all the preliminary wrangling over the ‘sufficient
price’ – speculation in land. By the time the Spences arrived late in 1839, the
first two officials had been replaced by George Gawler, who took over the functions
of both. He dealt with the difficulties of unemployment, and inadequate provision
for establishing the infrastructure necessary for a viable European settlement, by
embarking upon a program of government-funded building. He supplied the funds
by drawing promissory notes on the British government. New arrivals in the colony
with little capital would, temporarily, stand a better chance of winning a living by
staying in Adelaide than by moving on into the countryside. 34
Spence described the situation into which her family moved in 1839 thus:
There had been a great drought in Australia, and seed cost 20s. to 15s. the
bushel … bread was 2.9d the 4-lb loaf, and it got dearer and dearer, till it
got up to 4s … Wages were very high, and even those who came to South
Australia with the determination to farm were terrified to risk putting in
such costly seed in a new untried climate. 35
Like many other early settlers, frightened as well by stories about snakes and ‘blackfellows’,
the Spences stuck to the town. They stayed in a house in Gilles Street for a
month, then bought a marquee and pitched it on Brownhill Creek, on the slopes of
the south-west end of the Adelaide hills. There they camped for seven months, living
mainly on the ton of rice they bought as the cheapest available food, and keeping 15
cows, a pony and a cart, which enabled them to sell milk in the town at a shilling a
quart. Winter drove them back into Adelaide: they rented a house, and yards for the
cows on West Terrace for £75 a year. 36
By that time, mid-1840, discussion about ways of raising revenue for local administration
and public works had revived the subject of forms of representation for
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