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231 Litchfield, Jessie Sinclair (nee Phillips)

Date Range:1883 - 1956

Description

Jessie Sinclair Litchfield (nee Phillips) was born on 18 February 1883 at Ashfield, Sydney, second child of John Phillips, contractor, and his wife Jean Sinclair, ne Reid. The family lived in various country towns until 1895 when they returned to Sydney. Jessie attended Neutral Bay Public School, where one of her teachers was Mary Cameron, later Dame Mary Gilmore.
On 21 January 1908 at Darwin Jessie married Valentine Augustus Litchfield, a handsome miner she had met on a ship to Darwin. They moved wherever the diamond drills were sent, first to West Arm, then to Anson Bay, Brocks Creek, the Ironblow mine, the Union reefs and Pine Creek. Conditions were isolated and crude but Jessie became committed to Territory life. She wrote in 1909 to a Victorian church publication, the Messenger, describing her hardships: 'Chinese and blacks my nearest neighbours', eighty miles (129 km) from town by land, twenty (32 km) by sea, three (4.8 km) from the nearest white woman and two (3 km) from the nearest white man. Her plea for mission stations may have influenced the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission.
When the diamond drills finished, Val found work in Darwin with Vestey's meatworks. By the time of his death in 1931, Jessie, mother of seven, had written Far North Memories (Sydney, 1930) based on life in the diamond-drill camps. A passionate and prolific writer, she completed five books, as well as short stories, articles and verse. She advanced her career as a journalist when, desperately in need of an income, she overwhelmed objections and in 1930 captured the editorship of the Northern Territory Times and Government Gazette. Vigorous, self-reliant and enterprising, she edited the Times until June 1932 when it was purchased by its union-owned rival, the Northern Standard, with which Jessie, vociferously conservative and anti-communist, had fought many an ideological battle. She was Darwin press representative for several Australian and overseas papers, including Reuters for six years.
In February 1942 she was compulsorily evacuated to Sydney where she purchased a small lending library, 'The Roberta', that she reopened in self-built premises in Darwin after the war. A self-trained photographer and historian, she was something of a local expert on Territory affairs. Writing to influential people, she crusaded for Darwin, which she envisaged as 'the Great Front Door of Australia', and for Territory self-government. In 1951, when 68, she unsuccessfully contested the Territory Federal seat as an Independent, campaigning by taxi over 3000 miles (4828 km).
In 1953 Jessie Litchfield was presented with the coronation medal for outstanding service to the Northern Territory and in 1955 became its first female justice of the peace. In 1954 she helped to establish the North Australian monthly, serving as assistant editor and Territory correspondent. She died on 12 March 1956 at Richmond, while on a visit to Melbourne, and was cremated. Her ashes were scattered over Darwin. Like most strong figures, Jessie had her critics but the flood of tributes included Dame Mary Gilmore's; 'She was a builder, an influence and an historian. Her interest never dulled and her spirit never failed. She personified the true Territorian'.
Her manuscripts and estate of 3000 were left to the Bread and Cheese Club, Melbourne, to establish an annual Jessie Litchfield literary award for Australian literature, preferably dealing with Territory life.

Inventory of Series

Series Id	Series Title	Series Date Range	Number of Units	Public Access	Location
NTRS 3169	Copies of historical notes relating to the Northern Territory	c 1946 - c 1946	1	Open	Darwin (NTAC)
NTRS 1735	Correspondence about election campaigns and Alice Springs	1948 - 1952	1	Open	Alice Springs