Calico Ceilings:
The Women of Eureka

Calico Ceilings: The Women of Eureka (Five Islands Press) was launched at the Eureka 150 Democracy Conference in Ballarat on 26th November 2004.

The book tells the Eureka story from the point of view of the women, both collectively in terms of living conditions and events, and individual stories which have amazing variety - the woman who gave birth during the battle, the women who sewed the original Southern Cross flag, women who supported their husbands, women who were teachers, writers of letters to newspapers and to Governor Hotham, women who petitioned the Governor to release their husbands arrested for not having licences, women who helped men to escape in a variety of imaginative ways when atrocities were committed immediately after the battle, the wife of the editor of the Ballarat Times who took over running and editing the newspaper when he was gaoled for sedition. And so on...

Calico Ceilings interweaves historical evidence with the poetry, which provides the imaginative interpretation of the quotations, artworks and historical information. The book, thoroughly researched over several years, formed the basis for Kruss's conference paper about the women at the Eureka 150 Democracy Conference at the University of Ballarat on 26 November 2004.

With this timely and original contribution to the vast body of Eureka literature, Susan Kruss has struck gold. Brave, challenging and lovingly crafted, Kruss's poems give voice to the long-forgotten women who inhabited a particular place at a particularly important time. In doing so, Kruss takes her place among the new breed of 'creative historians' . The texture and emotion of her writing resonate beyond the known historical facts and myriad myths of Eureka (try reading 'A Drowning' without a hard lump in your throat). This book is a testament to the potent combination of imagination, empathy and history. The Australian story is richer for this welcome telling. (Dr Clare Wright)

With a thorough regard for historical detail, an imaginative grasp of character, and an easy and assured poetic ear, Kruss has created a memorable book. The women of Calico Ceilings will resonate deep within the collective psyche for many years to come. (Jordie Albiston)

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Ellen Clacy 1853 (pp.153-4) writes about a man buying gold satin to take home to his wife. I have imagined a wife and her response. Lustre cloth was made from alpacas and ranked with silk as an expensive fabric. Satin should have been cheaper, but in this case the digger believed it was better and paid much more than it was worth.

Parrots gather in immense swarms, and usually in the least hidden parts of the woods ... the trees are many-coloured and the ground is nothing but a living carpet, where rubies, turquoises, emeralds and opals twine together in wild arabesques. (Antoine Fauchery, Letters from a Miner in Australia, p.49)

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Ann Gaynor was born in Armagh, Ireland. She came to Australia with her parents and brothers. She married George Duke in March 1854 at Chewton and the young couple came to Ballarat. Ann was one of the women who sewed the Southern Cross flag. She was near the end of her first pregnancy and was inside the Stockade when the soldiers attacked. A baby son, John, was born to Ann and George Duke on 13 December 1854 in a roadside hut on the way to Bendigo as they escaped. He was the first of twelve children.

Calico Ceilings: The Women of Eureka is available at a range of outlets, including: