Open Writing

Grace Bussell sat on her horse at the top of a great sand dune looking down at the scene below her. A steamship lay wedged at an impossible angle in the surf. The deck was lined with people unable to get to safety as a violent sea tried to destroy the vessel. The way down was daunting but sixteen-year-old Grace did not hesitate as she urged her horse towards the beach.

Grace knew the coast and how dangerous it could be. Wallcliffe, her family home of eleven years, was twenty kilometres away along the West Australian coastline near the mouth of the Margaret River.

Wallcliffe was built in 1865 after the family's first home was destroyed by fire. Grace was five when they moved in. She had two brothers and six sisters; her father was a member of an early pioneering family who had emigrated to West Australia from England in 1865. Her mother was Australian born.

Grace was working in the kitchen with her mother on 1 December 1876. A hot dusty wind had picked up making the day rather unpleasant when Sam Issacs, an Aboriginal stockman working for the Bussells, galloped his horse up to the house. He quickly told mother and daughter of a shipwreck he had come across while riding out near Calgardup Beach.

Grace ran to the cliff top and looked out through a spyglass. Way off along the coast she could see a ship floundering in the rough sea.

It was the Georgette, which had been heading down the coast after leaving Fremantle, carrying 58 crew and passengers. Also on board was a cargo of timber. Not long after starting its voyage the steamship began to leak. It is believed when the heavy beams of jarrah were loaded the hull was damaged. When it became obvious the ship was not going to make a safe harbour one of the two lifeboats was launched. It capsized and all but two women and two children were rescued and made it to shore.

The Georgette continued under sail trying to reach somewhere safer to land. But the captain quickly realised this was not going to happen and attempted to run the ship aground. It was too far from shore for those still on board to reach the safety of the beach. The second lifeboat was launched and almost immediately tipped over.

That was when Grace and Sam arrived. They had loaded up with ropes and galloped their horses along the coast. Once at the site of the disaster they rode their horses recklessly down the sand dune and into the sea. Grace's mount stumbled but kept its footing and swam on out to the wreck. Once Grace and Sam got close enough those on board leapt into the water and grabbed hold of the riders and horses. Hanging on for their lives their fate was in the hands of the two riders as they guided the horses back to land.

Grace and Sam continued back and forth to the stricken vessel for four hours, until all aboard had been rescued. Even though Grace was exhausted when the final person was on shore she rode her horse back home to get more help. Her father organised for the survivors to be brought back to Wallcliffe where her mother looked after them.

The story of Grace's bravery soon got out and was reported around the world. She was compared to Grace Darling who with her father saved five people from a rock in the North Sea off the coast of England. A newspaper article called her 'Grace Darling of Australia' and that was how she was reported across the world.

Grace and Sam's bravery was recognised by the Royal Humane Society in 1878. Grace received a silver medal and Sam a bronze. Grace also received a gold watch from the Board of Trade.

Six years later on 2 February 1882 Grace married Frederick Drake-Brockman who later became the Surveyor General of West Australia. It was he who named Lake Grace after his heroic wife. In 1978 Grace was remembered once again with the naming of Gracetown-a new beachside town on the West Australian coast. But by then Grace had been dead for many years. She passed away in 1935 at the age of 75.

© Paula Wilson

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Paula writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au