Mary Anne Lovelock was the second of seven children born to George and Mary (nee Shanahan) Lovelock.  Mary Anne was born on the 24 January, 1869 in Bowen, Queensland.

Mary Shanahan was born about 1841 in Burris, Carlow, Ireland, and her parents were James and Anne (nee Doyle) Shanahan.

The Lovelock family came from Berkshire, England.  Mary Anne’s grandfather, James Lovelock, was born in 1808 in Wallington, Berkshire.  He married Eliza Wright in Oxfordshire, England in 1833.  In 1840, George’s parents, with their two oldest children, sailed to America on the ship “Gladiator”.  George and his younger brother, Thomas Henry, were born in New York, USA, before the family then came to Victoria.

Unlike his siblings, George moved to Bowen, Queensland where he and Mary Shanahan married.  Their first marriage took place in the house of the Revd. James Reid (Presbyterian) on the 4 January, 1866.  A second marriage took place at the Roman Catholic Chapel on the 8 January, 1866.

MARRIED

On the 8 instant, at the Roman Catholic Capel, by the Rev. W. McGinty,

George Lovelock to Mary Shanahan, both of the

Kennedy District

Notice appearing in the Port Denison Times on 10th January, 1866

George listed his occupation as bullock driver on the marriage certificate and Mary was a domestic servant, and the usual place of residence for both was listed as Strathmore.  “Strathmore” is a cattle station inland from Bowen.  Six of Mary Anne’s siblings were born in Bowen: Elizabeth b. 1866, Mary Anne b. 1869, Patrick James b. 1870 George Paul b. 1873, Martha b. 1875 and Catherine b. 1878.

In 1879 George decided to move his family to Laura.  On George’s children’s birth certificates, George lists his occupation as a carrier.  It is assumed that he moved from Bowen to work as a carrier in the goldfields.

From there the family moved to Cooktown where the last of Mary Anne’s siblings, Henrietta, was born in 1883.

Mary Anne Lovelock married Charles Joseph Anderson on 12 April, 1890 at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Cooktown.  Shortly afterward they moved to Cairns where the first of their children, Violet Muriel, was born in 1891.  Mary Anne and Charles had ten children – six girls, including twins Holly and Ivy, and four boys, all of whom were born in Cairns

Charles worked on the railways and, according to his daughter Amelia Anderson, was “the boss of big gangs of men on the ridges”.  Charles was transferred from around the north to work on the Kuranda railway and the family moved up the range to Kuranda where the older children attended school.

Mary Anne and Charles lived in a small weatherboard railway house.  The Barron River ran along the back of the house and many good times were spent by the children on the white sand and swimming until it rained and the river swelled up.  The house had no running water and the children helped bucket water from the river to the house for drinking, cooking etc.

Charles used to travel to work on the Kuranda railway by horseback and only come home on weekends.  Mary Anne used to pack his saddlebags with food for the week ahead.  Mary Anne would salt down the beef and would bake her own bread using her own yeast made out of lemon.  While they did have help in the house, the children all had chores including feeding the fowls and chopping brambles for starting the fire to cook on.  The girls also helped with the washing, which was boiled up in a wood fire copper.  The older girls also had to look after their younger siblings.

The family returned to Cairns where they lived on the Railway reserve.  When they first came down from Kuranda to Cairns, Charles pitched two large tents and the family of ten children lived in those two tents while Charles built a small cottage.  The Railway reserve ran right beside the railway line, where the Amart store is now.

Sadly, Mary Anne’s oldest son, George, died from heart disease at just 7 years of age.  George is buried with his mother in the Pioneer Cemetery.

Mary Anne passed away in Cairns on the 16 June, 1924 at 53 years of age and was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery on the 17 June.