Rediscovering Ginninderra:
Mary Maloney
Born: 1841; Died: 1909; Married: [Walsh]
Mary Walsh (or Welsh) is thought to have been born around 1841 in Ireland and arrived in Queanbeyan in 1859. About a month later she married Robert Maloney of 'Stone Hut farm', Yass Road. Mary and Roberts son's birth certificate lists the marriage as being in December 1859 in John McNamara's house, Woden. The marriage was registered in Queanbeyan on 3 January 1860.
Samuel Shumack wrote : "Michael McNamara and his wife arrived from Ireland and secured land south of Queanbeyan. Towards the close of 1858 Mrs McNamara sent home for her sister Mary, who was the youngest in the family, and about August 1859 Mary and her brother Joe Walsh arrived at Queanbeyan.
The local priest took the matter up, with the result that Mary Walsh and Robin Maloney were married within a month of the former's arrival in the district.
I must say it was a happy union. I found Mary Maloney a good friend during her long residence at Canberra, and she and her husband were ever ready to respond to a sick call". (Shumack p.98)
Robert and Mary farmed at 'Stone Hut farm', Yass Road, Ainslie.
The origin of Mary Walsh/Welsh remains uncertain and still being investigated as there is some uncertainty as to her birth place, arrival and parents. Mary's grave record has the name Walsh, although others refer to Welsh.
A Maloney family tree states that Mary arrived on the ship 'Caribou' in 1859 and was bought to Australia by her brother Edmund Walsh, living in Queanbeyan. She was listed as 'Farm House servant, Roman Catholic'. Her parents were listed as Edmund Walsh and Honora Maroney and both parents were deceased.
The Shumack reference is to Michael and John McNamara who were born to Patrick McNamara and Mary Walsh and after time working for the Murrays at 'Woden' finally settled at Burra.
John had married Margaret Welsh in Ennis, Claire in 1845, the daughter of Michael Welsh and Mary O'Loughlin. Michael McNamara married a Mary McNamara of unknown parentage.
Mary and Robert Maloney had 13 Children –
Mary (1861-1879) FLANNERY Bridget Cecilia (1863-1949) BLEWITT
Richard (1864-1946) Maria (1867-1946) DARMODY
Robert (1868-1956) Margaret (1870-1958) O'ROUKE
Ellen (1872-1962) READ Katherine (Kate) (1873-1941 GREIG
Annie (1877-1939) PATERSON Sarah Jane (1878-?),
Mary (1880-1900) Catherine (1881-1882)
John (1882-1972).
Robert died in October 1889 in Canberra, and Mary in June 1909.
Their son Richard and Maggie (nee Read) Maloney merged the property into 'Hillside'.
In 1932 Samuel Shumack visited Canberra after an absence of seventeen years and wrote,
"My thoughts on beholding Canberra after an absence of seventeen years are better imagined than described. My mind's eye sees ....... I see a figure pass in torrential rain with a bundle in her arm, through water and mud ankle deep. It is Mary Maloney, who has received a sick call and was ever ready to respond to the same.
Those are pioneers of the early days and the present generation know them not; they are a tablet in the archives of the great land of Australia." [Shumack p.167]
