Sprig From the Shores
The Hickey Family in Iluka
Since Australia’s colonial beginnings, Irish migrants have played a major role in the development of townships across the country. The Hickey family in Iluka, a small fishing town at the mouth of the Clarence River, was no exception.
John Hetherington Hickey Sr. (d. 1926) and Eliza Gore Hickey (née Phillips) (1861-1894) were originally from Clonmel, County of Tipperary, Ireland before they eloped around 1877. After spending time in North America, the couple somehow found their way to Iluka a decade later.
At the time, the town was only accessible via coastal steamers or river ferries. So, when the Hickeys established a post office and general store following their arrival, the town was transformed. As the first Postmistress, Eliza would have taken charge of the earliest mail exchanges with passing steamers. But, following her passing, the role would be filled by various family members – most notably Elizabeth (1887-1965) and Bill (1886-1973), two of the nine Hickey children.
As the Hickeys became a fixture in their new home alongside a few other Irish families, it is interesting to remember where their journey started. In 1900, a little blue cardboard box arrived to their very own post office. Inside the box was a pressed shamrock accompanied by a poem, which read:
Then Pilgrim if you bring me from that far off land a sign,
Let it be some token, telling of the dear old land once mine,
A sprig from the shores of Ireland would be dearer far to me,
Than all the wines of the Rhine-land, or the arts of Italy.
Now living by the sea on a distant continent, it may have been a small comfort to hold a piece of the home they had left behind.
