Shona Riddell: Lighthouses, daring rescues, and an ANZAC tortoise | ABC Conversations Podcast

Shona Riddell joins Sarah Kanowski on ABC Conversations

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Shona Riddell’s great, great aunt Mary Jane Bennett was the very first lighthouse keeper in New Zealand.

Mary tended the light at Pencarrow Lighthouse at the entrance to Wellington Harbour while also caring for her 6 children as a single mum.

There were many other women in the 19th century who were lighthouse keepers, especially in the Unites States.

Some of these keepers engaged in daring rescues, such as the English teenager Grace Darling.

Grace lived with her family at Longstone Lighthouse in the North Sea and helped rescue shipwrecked sailors in the middle of a storm.

Crowds flocked to the island to meet Grace, and Cadbury named a chocolate bar after her.

Shona also tells the story of other of her ancestors who were part of a failed colony in the Subantarctic Auckland Islands… and of the family pet, Peter the tortoise, who was once New Zealand’s ‘oldest ANZAC veteran’.

Further information |

Guiding Lights: Extraordinary Lives of Lighthouse Women available through Exisle Publishing

Credits

Carmel Rooney, Executive Producer

Sarah Kanowski, Presenter

Michelle Ransom-Hughes, Producer

Broadcast 21 Jan 2021

#podcast #conversations

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