The Sullivan family

On April 5^th 1874, Mary Ann Hannigan married James Edward Sullivan, at St Francis Catholic church, Melbourne – the same church where her parents had married. Sadly, her father, Thomas Hannigan, died on May 23rd, just a few weeks after the wedding.

James Sullivan was born in 1843 in Co. Cavan, Ireland, but his family moved to Scotland when he was one year old. James emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 21, and later to Australia. For most of his life in Australia, James worked as a ganger on the railways, and was known as the only Irish ganger with a Scots accent.

 Gangers on hand-operated trolleys. Safe rail travel depends on well maintained lines. Steel rails were fastened to wooden ‘sleepers’, supported on ballast – coarsely broken stones.

 The gangers travelled up and down the railway lines checking for loose fastenings, and replacing broken sleepers and warped rails.

 James and Mary Ann had seven children, five girls and two boys.

Their first child, Amelia, was born at Yan Yean, just north of Melbourne, in 1875. James couldn’t have been employed with the Railways then, as the line was not extended to Yan Yean until 1889. The family moved to the Western district, where the next four children were born, at Hamilton, Branxholme, and Condah. Then James worked on construction of the rail line from Murtoa to Warracknabeal, and they lived at Minyip, where their two sons were born.

It must have been hard to pack up furniture, bedding, clothes and kids, and move to another small town. It is said that on one occasion, set down beside an isolated railhead with no house ready for them to live in, Mary Ann sat down and wept. And who could blame her? A newcomer with another new home to set up in primitive circumstances, little money, no kith or kin apart from her own small family, and great isolation.

Mary Ann was able to earn some extra income by working as a crossing keeper, opening and shutting the gates at the level crossings.

Throughout their travels, the Sullivans remained strong in their Catholic faith, and when they finally settled in Ballarat the girls attended Loreto Convent. The family made their home at 801 Armstrong Street, Ballarat North, where they were to remain for many years. Their house (no longer there) was called “Cavan” in memory of James’s Irish origins. James died in Ballarat on the 6^th of December, 1918.

The Sullivan girls had beautiful names - Amelia Mary (Millie), Rose Ann, Agnes Elizabeth (Ag), Catherine Alicia (Kit), and Isabella Margaret (Belle). The boys were  James Edward (Jim) and William John (Will). Agnes was my grandmother, and I remember several of the others from my childhood – Auntie Rose, Auntie Kit, Uncle Jim and Uncle Will. It was Millie who wrote the letter to my mother, mentioned in this post.

 Some years ago a couple of glass photo negatives were discovered and developed. One shows Mary Ann, a little wizened lady in black, with her eldest daughter Millie and grand-daughter Molly. She had lived to see one of her sons, Jim, return safely from France in WW1, and she had nine grandchildren.

What changes she must have seen during her lifetime – from bullock train to steam train to motor car, from uncertain mail delivery to the telephone and radio, and from the wild country of her birthplace to the bustle of working-class South Yarra.

The other photo is of my grandmother, Agnes Sullivan, who married Patrick Maher. (Her sister Millie would marry Pat’s brother Michael a few years later). Both Millie and Ag were married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat.

When their father died, there wasn’t much money, and several of the girls went out to work – Ag was a teacher, and Kit trained as a tailoress. They had a busy social life too. Millie kept a diary for 12 months, (she had a bet with one of her sisters), and wrote of going to dances, parties, and visits to friends. They had no car, relying on the trams to get around, and sometimes walking home after the last tram had gone. This diary also records the birth of my mother, on a hot January day in 1908. 

The birth took place at the Sullivan family home, the temperature climbed to 105F, and wet sheets were hung around the room to combat the heat. The diary is now held by the Minyip Historical Society.

Jim Sullivan served in France during WW1, and was badly affected by mustard gas, but returned home safely. He later worked for the railways, and never married, sharing a house in South Yarra with his sister Kit. It was here that Mary Ann died in 1932, aged around 80.