Elise Barney

Elise Barney (nee Rivers) was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1815 and died on 5 July 1883 in Fortitude Valley, Queensland, Australia. Elise was appointed as the first full-time female postmistress at Brisbane (1855-1863), following the death of her husband Leiut. John Edward Barney. John and Elise Barney arrived in Queensland in 1848.

Archival Resources

Portrait photographs of C. Powell and Mrs Elise Barney

Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, Queensland (1865)

See page 1035

Books

A Pioneer Family of Queensland: Lieutenant Colonel George Barney, Captain John Edward Barney, Mrs Elise Barney, 1835-1865: pre and post separation and the Gladstone settlement: including chart of part Barney family tree

Keith Jobst, 1997.
Published Brisbane: CopyRight Publishing.

Mrs Elsie Barney: pioneer postmistress

Manfred D. Cross, 1979.
Published Brisbane: Postal-Telecommunications Historical Society of Queensland.

Elise Barney (1815–1883) postmistress

Desley Deacon, 1988.
In Heather Radi, 200 Australian women, a Redress anthology, Broadway: Women’s Redress Press

Newspapers

Shipping Intelligence, Arrival

Moreton Bay Courier
22 July 1848

Domestic Intelligence, Post Office

Moreton Bay Courier
15 December 1855, p. 3

Death

Brisbane Courier
6 July 1883

Parliamentary Papers, Defalcations in the Post-Office

Brisbane Courier
11 May 1865

Online Resources

Barney, Elise (1810-1883)
Barney, Elise (1815 - 1883)

Papers and pamphlets

A Marriage of Convenience: Women and the Post Office in New South Wales, 1838 to 1938. A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Ross Warwick McLachlan
University of New South Wales