Eliza Fraser

Female, Person

22

Who is Eliza Fraser?

Eliza Anne Fraser was a Scottish woman whose ship was shipwrecked off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836, and who was captured by Aborigines. Fraser Island is named after her.

She was the wife of Captain James Fraser, master of the Stirling Castle. There were 18 people aboard the ship and a cargo mainly of spirits, which may have been involved in the accident. They struck a reef hundreds of kilometres north of Fraser Island. They then launched two boats, one of which landed at Waddy Point on Fraser Island. It was here that she claimed she was captured by Aborigines; her husband either died from starvation or was killed by an Aborigine because he was unable to carry wood. They were stripped of their clothing.

Eliza was found by John Graham, an escaped convict who had lived for six years with the Aborigines, and is said to have gone naked to get the confidence of the Aborigines. Whether John Graham acted alone in rescuing Eliza is a matter of some conjecture. For many years her rescuer was thought to have been another escaped convict David Bracewell.

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Lived in
  • Queensland

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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