Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Exeter, England, UK

Biography

diarist and sketcher, was born in Exeter on 24 November 1816, daughter of James Hadden, an English army officer. She married Lieutenant Andrew Baxter of the 50th Regiment in England on 8 February 1834, and soon afterwards travelled with him to Van Diemen’s Land on board the convict ship Augusta Jessie . The marriage was not happy, as Annie confided in great detail to her journal. This was begun on embarkation in 1834 and finally extended to at least 36 volumes of which 32 survive (DL). They give a very full and intimate picture of Baxter’s life in three Australian colonies up to 1865. About 30 pages destroyed by her husband covered her affair with Robert Massie, a Crown lands commissioner, from July 1841 to July 1843. Written by a 'Rustic sister’ (identified as Baxter by Lucy Frost), drafts of carefully composed, descriptive monthly letters dated January-May 1840, survive in a sketchbook (NLA). This also contains her only known drawings: pencil sketches of landscapes and houses, several of views of the property in the Macleay River district of New South Wales where the Baxters settled in August 1839. Baxter’s regiment had been transferred to Sydney in September 1838, then to Port Macquarie, and after about two months at the latter he sold his commission to take up land near Kempsey. The prospect of pioneer rural life did not please Annie who had found even Sydney crude in comparison with Launceston: 'I suppose that about the end of next week we shall have to leave Sydney for the bush—what I shall do there God only knows! I shall be so miserable—no books to read! or any person near me that I care about’. The Baxter home, Yesabba, was a bark hut, occupied 'when only half the bark roof was on – and to add to our discomfiture, it rained almost incessantly for the first three weeks – It certainly was most ludicrous to see the Opossum skin rug nailed up to a rafter, to keep out the rain. We had two rooms – separated by a large Meg Merrilies shawl – The one was our bedroom – the other sitting-room, kitchen & all – We might almost have done without the kitchen – as you will say when I tell you what we had to cook’ (cornmeal and rice). These sketches of bush huts and picturesque views are undated and often unidentified but Yesabba and its outbuildings appear to be there. There is also a view of an L-shaped bush cottage with an incongruous knight on horseback in the foreground, the only evidence in her sketches of the romantic disposition so lavishly displayed in the journals. Otherwise hers are typical amateur drawings, informative but quite conventional, and not particularly accomplished technically despite the inclusion in the sketchbook of a lengthy tribute by one of her admirers (both sketchbook and journal were shown to favoured male friends) who, admittedly, tactfully concentrated on the beauties of the artist rather than the art. In 1844 Andrew Baxter decided to sell out and move to Port Fairy, a journey that took two months and was fully recorded by Annie. There they established themselves on Yambuck Station and built a more substantial colonial homestead – also recorded in the sketchbook along with views of Lake Yambuck, which Annie thought 'one of the most picturesque scenes on the coast’. Life with Baxter became intolerable and Annie finally left him on 15 June 1849, moving to Hobart Town where she kept house for her recently widowed brother, Captain William Hadden, and his children, until they all returned to England in the Calcutta in January 1851. There she lived with her sister, Harriet Woodward, in Staffordshire and with her brother and friends in Ireland, London and France. On 17 January 1857 Annie Baxter returned to Melbourne on board the Anne Royden to wind up her husband’s affairs, Andrew having committed suicide in 1855. She met Robert Dawbin on board and soon after arriving in Melbourne they were married. They lived on various stations in the Western District of Victoria until Dawbin became bankrupt, then lived in Melbourne on Annie’s small income until returning to England, he in 1863 and she in 1865. In January 1868 the Dawbins left for New Zealand. They were at Waiwera until 1870 when Dawbin was dismissed, then they moved back to Melbourne. There, in 1873, Annie published Memories of the Past by a Lady in Australia , drawn from her early diaries. It was not illustrated. She died on her small farm at South Yan Yean on 22 November 1905. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 24 November 1816

Summary

Annie Maria Baxter was a prolific writer who kept meticulous diaries of her life in Australia. Her few surviving drawings are now held at the National Library of Australia.

Gender

Female

Died

22-Nov-05

Age at death

89