Cheryl Anne Brown

In 1853 a lone woman, wearing a dress made entirely of cormorant feathers, is rescued from an Island off the south coast of South Australia. How did she get there? What becomes of her?

This project is inspired, among many things, by the young women of the Earl Grey Irish Orphan Scheme. Over 4000 girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years were sent to Australia to become domestic servants and help rectify the imbalance of the sexes in the colonies. As some of those girls were landing ashore at Adelaide between 1848 and 1850, the site of Goolwa was being established as a major river port. White settlers had already taken up land in the region creating pastoral properties, while the south coast had been host to sealers and whalers for decades before South Australia was declared a colony. The Black Faced Shag draws broadly upon this history and the conditions and choices for women in Britain and Australia at the time