Amanda Whilhelmine MIKKELSEN [12868]

  General Notes:

Amanda arrived in Australia 19 Feb 1874, aged 22 on board the ship 'Lammershagen'

Great-Great Gran was a Gold Digger.
By Trisha FIELDING.
It seems that everyone who is researching their family history wants to be able to have some particular claim-to-fame. We all hope to find some exciting skeleton in the closet. Perhaps a wealthy landowner or maybe a convict or two? Even better - someone who was the first to do something.
It was with this in mind that I started researching my family history with great enthusiasm. The story passed on to me was that my Great-Great Grandmother was the first white woman on the Palmer River goldfields. How exciting, I thought to myself. That should be easy enough to prove. Also, easy enough to disprove!
The rush to the Palmer River, in North Queensland began in June 1873 when a party of prospectors, led by James Venture MULLIGAN, found payable gold there. Within months there were 5,000 people (mostly men) prospecting along what became known as the "River of Gold.
Officially, gold production on the Palmer River Goldfield yielded 3.5 million ounces, however, it has been estimated the actual yield was probably 4 times this amount. Official records don't take into account those who prospected without licences, or the gold that was smuggled out of Australia. It was one of the richest goldfields in Queensland.
Locally, prospectors came from as far as Townsville, Bowen, Ravenswood and Charters Towers in the rush to the Palmer. The alluvial gold was rich and plentiful, though it was hard won. Competition for claims was fierce, and simply surviving the harsh conditions of such desolate countryside was no mean feat. Many who set out never even made it to the field. A great number died as a result of fevers, starvation or at the hands of the local Aborigines who fought fiercely to protect their territory.
The Chinese far outnumbered white diggers on the field. Between 1874 and 1876, about 25,000 Chinese landed at Cook-town and walked to the Palmer. That's about 168 miles!
Merchants in China transported thousands of peasants to Cook-town to obtain gold for them and held their families as a bond to ensure the return of gold. One story exists of a man who sent 1,000 ounces of gold back to China every month for four years! The Chinese suffered terribly at the hands of the white diggers as well as the local Aboriginal tribes.
It was actually far more profitable (and probably safer) to have been a storekeeper, butcher, blacksmith or carrier than a prospector on the goldfields. By providing food essentials and other supplies, they generally made a better living than most of the diggers. During the wet season, a shortage of provisions meant certain death. Miners laden with gold starved to death because there was no food to buy. It is hard to imagine that even the lure of gold could have made the diggers and their families willing to endure such hardships. And yet they did.
My Great Great Grandmother, Amanda Whilhelmine MIKKLESEN, arrived in Townsville from Hamburg, Germany in February 1874. Quite obviously, she missed the first rush to the Palmer by at least eight months. The paper trail of certificates that led me to realise that the family legend about Amanda was nothing more than a good story passed down from generation to generation also led me to a deeper understanding of what she was really like.
Amanda was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to parents Jacob Hoyer MIKKLESEN and Anna DONALDSON. From shipping records, I was able to find that Amanda travelled alone, aboard the ship Lammershagen at only twenty years of age. The journey probable cost the equivalent of one pound and she would never see her home country again.
Eleven months after her arrival in Australia, she married a miner, Andrew GRESLEY at Millchester, near Charters Towers in Queensland. Between 1875 and 1881 they had five children, all born in Charters Towers. In 1881 when their fifth child, Charles William GRESLEY, was only five days old. Andrew died from pneumonia.
In 1882, no doubt faced with the prospect of raising her children alone in the Queensland bush. Amanda married Julius WILDER (also a miner) at Ravenswood. The GRESLEY children were raised with the surname of WILDER.
Amanda and Julius's first son, Carl Powell WILDER, was born in Ravenswood in 1884 but tragically died just eleven months later in Charters Towers. Two more sons followed. Charles Christian WILDER was born in 1887 at Croydon King - a mining camp on the Croydon Goldfield. Herbert Christian WILDER (my great-great Grandfather) was born in 1891 at Biboohra, near Mareeba, North Queensland.
Given the date of her arrival in Australia and the dates and places where her children were born, it's doubtful whether Amanda was ever even on the Palmer Goldfield. At least, not in time to be the first white woman there! Considering she married two miners, and they subsequently lived in mining towns like Ravenswood, Charters Towers and Croydon, I wonder if she may have been one of the first on the Croydon Goldfield? The rush to the Croydon field began in 1885 and their son Charles Christian WILDER was born in 1887 at a nearby mining camp, called Croydon King. I guess we may never know.
Amanda was a sturdy woman who was physically capable of hard work and she would strap one of the boys on her back while carting water and digging for gold. It was a hard life. I was shocked to discover that one of her children, Johann Christian GRESLEY who died in Croydon: had his occupation listed on his death certificate as "blacksmith". He was just 11 years old.
With an enduring spirit Amanda built a life for herself during a time of pioneers and prospectors and she was no stranger to tragedy. Her only daughter. Hannah Elizabeth GRESLEY, died as an infant; she buried two husbands and outlived all but one of her children. Amanda was naturalised on August 16, 1907 at the age of 55. She was 76 years old when she died in Charters Towers in 1928. What an amazing woman she must have been.
Published in Australian Family Tree Connections by T Fielding - July 2000
Name: Amanda Wilder
Death Date: 02 Dec 1928
Death Place: Queensland
Father's name: Jacob Mickleson
Mother's name: Anna
Registration Year: 1928
Registration Place: Queensland
Registration Number: 004239
Page Number: 1882

Amanda married Andrew GRISLOR [13352] [MRIN: 4482] in 1875 in Charters Towers QLD. (Andrew GRISLOR [13352] died in 1881 in Charters Towers QLD.)

Amanda next married Julius WILDER [12867] [MRIN: 4329], son of Julius WILDER [13355] and Annie La FRANCAIS [13356], on 13 May 1882 in Ravenswood Queensland Aust. (Julius WILDER [12867] was born about 1836 in Rosenburg Germany and died on 18 Feb 1920 in Charters Towers QLD.)