Catherine McMahon

This meticulously researched story of Catherine McMahon covers her life before and after she became a convict in Van Diemen's Land.

The lives of her two husbands are also covered. First John Copley, a Yorkshire man convicted of sheep stealing, who survived a term on Norfolk Island, before meeting and marrying Catherine.

They struggled for permission to marry, established a business, were declared insolvent and moved, illegally, to Victoria.

They lived and raised a family on the Victorian goldfields before selecting land at Jallukar, near Stawell.

John died in 1876 and Catherine struggled to keep the land.

She fought a bushfire, the Lands Department, land selection laws prejudiced against women, the local Shire Council and squatters.

She won. She sold the land in 1888 and three years later married Thomas May.

He was also a convict and his life is covered from Brighton in England to transportation at the age of 14.