Mary Ann Isabella Wellstead was the first Stationmaster and telegraph operator of the Bremer Bay Telegraph Station, and likely the first female telegraphist in Australia. [1] She worked at the telegraph station from 1876-1881. [2] [3]
Wellstead was born on 10 February 1850 in Albany, Western Australia to pioneer settler John Wellstead and Ann Amy Wellstead (née Crawford), and was the couple's first child. [2] Wellstead grew up in Albany and worked on the family's property gardening, milking cows and making butter. [2] [4]
Wellstead's father assisted in developing the section of the Perth to Adelaide, East-West Telegraph Line between Albany and Bremer Bay, where a repeater station was eventually erected in 1875 overlooking the estuary. [4]
In 1876, at the age of 26 years, Wellstead was trained in Morse code by superintendent James Coates Fleming. [2] [4] [5] Fleming then appointed her as the temporary Stationmaster at Bremer Bay, as no suitable stationmasters were available at the time of commissioning, [6] due to the remoteness of the station. [2] [7] She served as Stationmaster [8] until the arrival of three permanent staff, J Lloyd (Assistant), M Ring (Linesman), and GP Stevens (Stationmaster), in late 1877. [2] [4] [7]
Wellstead continued working at the repeater station as a telegraph clerk and assistant [9] until 1881, when she married shepherd and shearer John 'Jack' James Harris at St John's Church in Albany. [2] [4] [5] Harris was also employed on the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line. [2] [4] The track for the road for telegraphs is named 'Wellstead road'. [10]
Wellstead and Harris moved to the outstation at Quaalup Valley shortly after marriage. [2] [4] [5] Two years later their first child, John Wellstead Kent Harris, was born, and grew up to become the Harbour Master at Fremantle. [2] [5] In all, they had four children over the course of their thirteen years of marriage. [2]
Wellstead died on the 13th of December 1894 in her hometown of Albany. [2] Both she and Jack Harris are buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery, Albany. [2]