GRACE BUSSELL
by Patrick O'Leary
The Western Australian coast is littered with
wrecks. The West Australian Maritime Museum lists
78 known wrecks along the South West coast alone.
Few of them are remembered for anything other than
loss and tragedy. One stands out.
On 1 December 1876, the combination steam
and sail schooner S.S. Georgette, with a cargo
of jarrah and sundries, sprung a leak 32 kms
out to sea. An initial attempt to get a boat
off ended in disaster when it was stove in.
Two women and five children were drowned.
Willie and James Dempster and two crewman,
Dewar and Nunan, put off in the ship's gig
and rescued the survivors. They made for the
shore and reached Injidup twelve hours later.
Meanwhile the Georgette, her pumps inoperable,
was being bailed by the passengers and crew.
After a desperate run to the coast under sail
she grounded in Calgardup Bay, south of Prevelly
and began to break up. This pitiful scene
was witness by an aboriginal stockman, Sam
Isaacs, who immediately rode to the Bussell
homestead and delivered the news.
Another boat had been launched but was swamped
in the rough conditions of the surf. By the time
Sam Isaacs and the other hero of the hour, Grace
Bussell, arrived they were met with a scene of utter
misery, women and children thrown from the boat
in the boiling surf. Sixteen-year-old Grace had
no hesitation, from the accounts left to us, in
plunging into the surf on her horse. Over the course
of four hours she and Sam Isaacs fought the waves
and the wind and snatched a number of women and
children from certain death.
According to a plaque at the site "all on board
reached the shore in safety and were taken to Wallcliffe
House, the home of Grace Bussell, where they were
welcomed and given shelter." For her efforts
she was awarded the medal of the Royal Humane Society.
Another source mentions that having read the account
of her exploits in Perth Frederick Drake-Brockman
rode 300 kilometres from Perth to meet her. They were
later married.
It is clear that the young Grace Bussell was made
of stern stuff. She had to be, given the unforgiving
nature of the newly settled area around what was to
become Bussel Town and then Busselton. It is easy
to forget, given our comfortable lives today, that
only a few generations ago sturdy pioneers were laying
the foundations for what was to become one of the
South West's most popular destinations.
September 2001
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