Florence Eliza Lord: more than historic homes

F E Lord (Florence Eliza Lord) is best known for a series of over 140 illustrated articles on historic homes in the Queenslander from January 1930 to December 1932. It attracted interest because many readers would have known of the homes, usually quite different from their own. Their owners had some importance in the community and there were pictures to tantalise the readers’ interest. However, there was also another factor: the author treated her audience as a friend with whom she was comfortable and familiar; her tone was informal and confiding while she drew on her own knowledge, and sometimes that of friends and relatives, to provide the histories. It was fascinating reading – an easy, appealing, direct trip to the past.

Her early writing

However, F E Lord wrote hundreds more articles. Her grandparents were in the Moreton Bay region from the beginning of free settlement, and she grew up in the rural environment of the Dawson Valley on Eurombah station.  Her deep affection and respect for it and the people of that world is another distinctive feature of her writing.

By the end of the 19th century, newspapers were more attuned to specific audiences, so there were sections for women, another for the man on the land, and even a corner for children. Eighteen-year- old Florence came to public attention in 1897: when writing under the name of ‘Wilga’, she had a two-part story published in the Children’s Corner of the Queenslander titled Kangaroo fete. It told a lively tale of the celebration a kangaroo family put on for their friends, including oppossums, native bears (koalas), rock wallabies and others, until the party was broken up by a pack of dingoes. She was clearly familiar with the characteristics of her animal creatures, but the social conventions were very much those of late 19th century society.

In 1899, the writer for the Queenslander’s Children’s Corner invited ‘Wilga’ to recount her life on the Dawson. ‘Wilga’ described the excitement of the mail arriving on their rural property and wrote of her home.

“I think you would call this a pretty place; to me it is perfectly lovely sometimes, the present being one of them, as we have had nice rain, but it is universally considered pretty. Our large house is situated on a hill, and faces a large lagoon or small lake, of great depth, with a large clump of willows growing on its edge. The cattle and horses folding on the opposite side combine to make up a charming picture.”

She described the trees and the effect of seasonal changes, the flowers and animals in enthusiastic, informed detail. In 1913-14 her children’s book Kangaroo Kingdom was published. It followed the path of relating an exciting story of the animals but with a very human social context. Her sister Rubina provided some illustrations.

Florence Lord continued writing in this vein but extended her reach to the Daily Mail where she wrote ‘For the young folk’. She included her other interest, photography, when she promoted a competition for children on 5 August 1922, p 12.

A wider audience and subjects

By the end of 1922, Florence Lord had not only expanded the newspapers for which she was writing, but also moved on to covering more about the inhabitants of rural communities. In Diamond Valley she described the life and people on a soldier settlement inland from the Sunshine Coast. Her admiration for the hard work and endurance of those, originally from city jobs, toiling on their fruit farms shines through. She explained more about how this settlement survived, and widened her audience in articles such as For the Man on the Land: banana growers tilling the hills: some novel aids, later generously illustrated to accompany her item From Diamond Valley to Maleny.  Other Sunshine Coast places she described include Obi Obi and Mapleton, places that have changed dramatically.

She also wrote for a female audience in the Brisbane Courier’s ‘Home Circle for the women’. A two-part series Women of the west outlined stories where an individual ‘rose to the occasion like a true woman of the bush’ (Brisbane Courier, 1 February 1923, p 12) to save men in challenging predicaments such as unconsciousness, or out of control horses in remote locations. She saw ‘a typical Australian bush girl full of courage and self-reliance.’ (Brisbane Courier, 8 February 1923, p 12).

She wrote of place names, the bushranger Captain Starlight,  a couple of articles about the explorer Leichhardt, including an account of some of the remaining relics of him, again drawing on her family’s knowledge and that of her circle.

She also wrote of other diverse places, such as Mt Gravatt: a Brisbane beauty spot, and of those looking for an alternative to Dunwich Benevolent Asylum in the illustrated item The Shack-dwellers of Tarragindi: picturesque colony of old-age pensioners.

Florence Eliza Lord’s background

Florence was the second child of William Lord and Marianne Mclean, born on 22 July 1879 at Cockatoo Creek in the Dawson Valley. Her family was linked to the early days of the Darling Downs and its economic and social activities to which she alluded in many of her articles and elaborated on in The Lords of Kangaroo Point and Drayton. Her accounts of life in the early 20th century were in such publications as Queensland newspapers, Walkabout magazine, Sydney Mail and Steering Wheel and Society and Home. Her memberships included the Royal Society of Queensland, the Lyceum Club and the Bush Book Club. In 1901 her engagement to Arthur Warner, son of Canon Warner, was first announced in the Darling Downs Gazette of 26 October 1901, p 3, but widely publicised in Queensland and down south. Not long before Christmas, the Gazette said Florence was a guest of the Warners in Toowoomba. That was the last reference to the couple. She experienced the rigours of country life as well as its freedom and joys. In 1902, overburdened by financial woes, her father, William, committed suicide. From 1908 to 1921, Florence lived at South Brisbane with various members of her family, describing herself on electoral rolls as a governess, lady’s companion and a nurse. On the 1921 roll she was a manageress at residential accommodation, Lucinda, George Street, but then she returned to South Brisbane as a lady assistant. In 1936 she was living in Highclere Street, Clayfield as a journalist. On 27 June 1942 Florence, having moved to Melbourne to live with her sister, died in a hospital aged 63.

Florence Eliza Lord was of her period in history but had links to the beginnings of the free Moreton Bay Settlement and early interactions with Indigenous people, bushrangers, the explorer Leichhardt and the social circle at Newstead House. She experienced some of the tragedy of uncertain times but directed her respect and affection to those who dealt with adversity courageously. Her accounts of early Queensland are notable for the stark differences from today’s places and the attractive, informal way she engages her audience.

Find out more

Search Trove historical newspapers, magazines and newsletters using terms such as F E Lord, Florence Eliza Lord and F.E.L. to find many more articles about early 20th century life.

Read Queensland Lords : Edward & Eliza Lord's colonial family / Janet Spillman to discover more about early Moreton Bay and the Lord family.