Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/emily-mary-farran

Birth Place

NSW

Biography

photographer and orchardist, was one of the five children of Charles and Isabel Farran whose marriage brought together three pioneer families, the Farrans, the Wilkinsons and the Cunninghames. C.F.T. Farran had migrated to Australia in 1853 and had married Isabel in 1867. In the first decade of the 20th century, after a career as a banker and auditor, he retired to Cotmore, near Moss Vale in the NSW Southern Highlands. There his three daughters ran an efficient, innovative, and scientifically based agricultural project. Dorothy C. Farran (b.1887), who in 1910 became the first woman ever to receive a Diploma in Agriculture from the Sydney Technical College, wrote and lectured widely on the potential for women in well-managed rural pursuits. 'Fruit-growing and gardening’, she claimed in 1911, offered 'a life of independence, with many absorbing interests’. She suggested that to be successful, 'two or three girls should combine and work the farm together’. The possibilities for female autonomy based on the economic independence offered by communal farming seemed endless and had precedents in the co-operatives of silk-growers and bee-keepers which had been a feature of late nineteenth-century NSW. Most of these initiatives had failed, however, due mainly to economic depression, lack of capital and poor siting. The Farran’s hoped to avoid such dangers through scientific management. Just as the concept of efficiency entered the rhetoric of the home, so the Farran sisters applied it practically at Moss Vale. At the Women’s Work in War Time Exhibition held at Sydney in 1916, the three women displayed: (cat.87) 'Fresh fruits, evaporated, preserved, & canned. Vegetables canned & dried. Citrus fruits preserved in various ways …Honeycomb in section boxes…’. They also demonstrated a dryer, peeler, corer, sulphurer and evaporator in use, as well as canning, pruning, soil analysis, planting and grafting. At previous exhibitions Lillian Farran (b.1875) had lectured on various technical matters, including 'geology and the garden’. Cotmore was a 'business proposition’, run for profit. The Farran’s sold most of their produce in various forms. They also made jams, cheese and honey and manufactured pot-pourri and 'Cotmore cold cream’ to sell in Sydney. What Cotmore represents is a successful attempt by three women to combine what would initially appear to be conflicting ideals: 19th-century domestic ideology and 20th-century science, leisure and business, community and independence. Emily’s photography sought this balance too. An advertisement she placed in the Women’s Work in War Time exhibition catalogue offered to supply 'photographs for reproduction in newspapers and periodicals, illustrated articles, pictorial advertisements, calendars, postcards etc. Specialities: Country subjects, hand-spinning.’ Writers: Sear, Martha Date written: 1995 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1868

Summary

A photographer and orchardist, Farran's practice was driven by her practical involvement in the family's innovative and scientifically-based agricultural project. A successful businesswomen, Farran and her two sisters ran the family property and were involved in the Women's Work in War Time exhibition in 1916.

Gender

Female

Died

1941

Age at death

73