Charles Dickens never visited Australia, but two of his sons spent time here. And it is thought the sons, or reformer Caroline Chisholm, who corresponded with Dickens, told him about an unusual Australian woman, Eliza Donnithorne, inspiring the character of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.
Eliza Donnithorne was born in South Africa, where her father, James Donnithorne, had worked for the East India Company. Her mother and two elder sisters died during a cholera epidemic in the 1830s.
James Donnithorne decided to retire to Sydney, Australia, residing at a Georgian style house called Camperdown Hall, at 36 King Street, Newtown, Sydney. Years later, the building was known as Cambridge Hall.
After living with her brother and his wife in England for some years, Eliza joined her father in New South Wales.
After this, stories differ. But the gist of the story is that at the age of thirty, Eliza became engaged to an unsuitable young man. But she was jilted on her wedding day, in 1856, when the groom did not appear.
Eliza is said to have turned the guests away from her home and closed the door. She ordered that the wedding feast and the table settings remain, which they did, slowly mouldering and gradually being buried in layers of dust.
In 1886, Eliza died, still wearing her wedding dress.
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| Kyogle Examiner (NSW : 1912; 1914 - 1915; 1917 - 1954), Friday 22 February 1946 |
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| Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer (NSW : 1898 - 1954), Tuesday 28 June 1927 |
