An Extract from Quiet City
The following extract is taken from "Unhappy Women" in Quiet City by Carol Lefevre. Quiet City explores the extraordinary and unusual lives of the people now resting beneath the tombstones of West Terrace Cemetery. The illustration accompanying this extract is by Anthony Nocera. The launch will be taking place at West Terrace Cemetery on May 15 at 2pm. Carol will be leading a tour of the cemetery and taking us to some of her favourite grave sites.
Unhappy Women
Of all the unhappy women in West Terrace Cemetery, Winnie Goater stands out. At twenty-one she was already the mother of a three-year-old child and by September of 1906 she was, secretly, 'in a certain condition'. At 2.30 on a Sunday afternoon, Winnie told her mother she was going out for a 'walk with Will' on the Unley Road and would be home in time for tea, and slipped out the front door of their house at 254 King William Street. It was the last time Mary Ann Goater would see her daughter alive.
At the beginning of September, Mary Ann had noticed that Winnie appeared pale and unwell and she had quizzed her about her relationship with the man she had been keeping company with for the past nine months: he was known to her as Will Cameron. Winnie had told her mother that there was no need to worry, that she was quite all right, but Mary Ann remained suspicious.
When Winnie did not return, her mother reported her missing. Mrs Goater had spoken to Will once when he called while Winnie was out, and asked him whether he had employment. Cameron had told her he was working for the government, fixing warning bells on the railways, so in the wake of her daughter's disappearance Mrs Goater enquired after him at all the government offices. Eventually she tracked him to a house in Pirie Street, and when he opened the door, according to Cameron, she 'started up at a terrible rate', demanding to know whether Winnie was inside and accusing him of having ruined her daughter. Will Cameron was adamant that Winnie was not there and that he had not seen her since 13 September, when he took her to the Show.
'But I'll help you look for her,' he said, 'because she's a nice little thing.'
William Cameron boxed clever, but Mrs Goater was having none of it. Somehow she forced him to accompany her to the'Detective Office', where she insisted he account for his movements on the day of her daughter's disappearance. Once there, Cameron suddenly denied that he had even accompanied Winnie to the Show. A furious Mrs Goater accused him of lying, and 'ran him down to the lowest'. She would never give up the search, she said, until she found her daughter, dead or alive.
How those words must have rung later in Mrs Goater's ears, for by then her daughter was dead, and had been buried at West Terrace Cemetery under the name of Mary Elliot.
