Now A Gallant and Robust Old Lady.
The little girl grown up, a happy bride-to-be, setting out on a 136-mile ride to Roma for her wedding — a mature young mother, her baby across her knees on a pillow, following her husband from station to station at shearing — it reads like a flash from a Hollywood celluloid epic. It isn’t though, and Mrs. Amelia Jounquay, of Cracow, to whose part it belongs, can tell you of it; and of many other things of Queensland’s yesterday, when a mile was a little longer and the outback further out, and to the telling make commonplace of what we see as heroic.
Mrs. Jounquay was born at Taroom on June 9th, 1859. She was the first white child born there, either in the town or district. Her parents, Mr. Frank Williams and Mrs. Fanny Williams were on Kinnoul station adjoining Hornet Bank station at the time of the Fraser murder, which occurred not long before her birth.
She was the first white girl to attend school at the Taroom State School. When, at the age of 17, she married James William Thompson, a wool-classer, she rode 136 miles from Taroom to Roma for the wedding, and for three years afterwards she followed him on horseback from station to station between Taroom and Blackall, often with her baby on a pillow in front of her.
Later they were on Guambagwine station for years. Her husband died after they had spent 24 years together, leaving her with three sons and four daughters. Six years after his death she married the late James Jounquay. Some years afterwards her husband enlisted, returned, and died of war injuries.
| Photo courtesy State Library of Qld |
When her daughter, Mrs. Helen Anderson died, Mrs. Jounquay mothered her four children, and recently, when her daughter-in-law, Mrs William Thompson, died, leaving five sons and a daughter, she, having reared two families, willingly turned her hand to the rearing of a third. She has 26 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Jounquay is remarkably active despite her 78 years. She visits the pictures regularly and enjoys attending a dance. Her eyesight is, she claims, a good as it was when she was a child, and to prove it she does intricate and beautiful needle work and crochet without the use of glasses.
Mrs. Jounquay has four brothers. Messrs. Albert Williams, of Spring Creek Station, Taroom; James, of Verbena Park, Taroom; Jack, of Keithly, Taroom. and Frederick, of Rosedale. Mrs. Jounquay is an aunt of Mr. R. A. Williams, of Spring Creek, station, Taroom, who married Miss Aileen O’Keefe, of Irvlngdale, who was then headmaster of Spring Creek State School.
| Mrs Amelia Jounquay |
Source
National Library of Australia – Digitised Newspapers
Dalby Herald (Qld. : 1910 – 1954), Friday 3 December 1937, page 3