Wilhelmina Rawson

Wilhelmina Frances Rawson (1851–1933) was an Australian author and authority on culinary and domestic practices. She is recognised as the first female cookbook author in Australia, writing recipes and household hints for life in colonial Australia which first appeared in 1878.

Early life and family Wilhelmina Frances Cahill was born in Sydney on 10 October 1851. She was also the social editor of the Rockhampton People's Newspaper from 1901 – 1902. She also lobbied to have children taught swimming in schools. At that time race relations between white settlers, the local Aboriginal peoples and the kanaka servants formed complex hierarchies in colonial Queensland society. This is evident in Mina's books.

Memoirs Mina's first husband, Lance Rawson died in 1899. He was her former husband's partner at Boonooroo. It was in these years that she wrote about her experiences of life as a colonial pioneer woman among the Aboriginals and the kanakas, who worked in the sugar plantations along the Mary River in Queensland. The memoirs of life on the cattle station and sugar plantation were serialised in a series of newspaper articles, "Making the Best of It" published from December 1919 – July 1920 in The Queenslander and "Stories of the Old Black Labour Days" published in The Courier-Mail.

Her second husband died in 1906. She died in Sydney on 19 July 1933 and was survived by her two sons and two daughters.

Works