Spot the lady: rachel henning finds herself in the bush

Abstract

The letters of Rachel Henning provide us with an insight into the way a woman in the mid-nineteenth century responded to drastically changed geographical and social circumstances. When Rachel Henning emigrated to Australia, she found that her solid sense of her “self” as a middle-class English lady was severely tested. Not only did she have to adjust to a changed physical landscape, but to various incursions into her social and family space by women outside her class and her race. Her reactions to these challenges can be traced in the letters she wrote home to her sister Etta. Gradually, she redefined herself quite happily in relation to the new Australian landscape. However, she was more resistant to women outside her own class, engaging in a rather desperate programme of “othering” these women, through sarcasm and humour, for the benefit of her English audience.