Lucy Isaacs Graveyard

Statement of Significance

There are three generations of the Isaacs family buried at this site. Connections with Sam Isaacs of “georgette” fame and also the early timber industry in the South West Well respected and successful inter-family relationships between European women and men of American-Jewish descent, combined with aboriginal lineage coming into each new generation on both sides of the families. This monument represents the successful personal contribution of multi-cultural relations both in local families and in the community at large.

History

Assessment 1993 Out ‘in the sticks’ in an isolated, hard to find spot, four white posts help guide the searcher through the bush to the site of three lonely graves. They are located where the second timber mill at Yallingup Siding stood. Remains of an old wooden fence lie on the ground around the comparatively recent natural stone memorial. This is about 60 Cm high with plaque attached and has been erected and cemented to the ground. Articles appearing in the ‘Margaret District Times’ in May 1957 report – While working in the vicinity of the old Quindalup Mill, three employees of Mr X.D. Power, well known Busselton timber miller, found three old graves. They were only mounds but at one time there had been wooden railings, the remains of which were visible. In one of these forgotten graves lies buried Mrs Lucy Isaacs, who was the wife of Sam Isaacs, who is still remembered by many for his part in the saving of so many lives from the ship “Georgette”. Sam Isaacs was born in Augusta in c. 1845. His father, Sam of part American negro and Jewish descent jumped ship in Albany from an American whaling boat. He met an aboriginal woman and Sam Isaacs Jr was their only child. Mrs Isaacs died in November 1893 (the plaque reads 1883). Another grave situated alongside was that of her baby who died just before the mother. The third grave was that of Mrs Mattie Purvis, who died some four years later. Mrs Purvis had been married twice, being originally married to Major Lowe, who before his death was on a whaling ship. Mattie Purvis (the mother of Lucy Lowe) was English and her first husband Major James Lowe was an American soldier who had obtained his rank in the American Civil War. Lucy Lowe married Sam Isaacs at Wallcliffe, Margaret Ricer on 8 January 1870 and they had six children. In December 1876 the wreck of the coastal steamer Georgette at Caldargup (Redgate) brought world attention to the area. Sam Isaacs, then aged about 56 years, and Grace Bussell, braved rough turbulent seas to rescue survivors from the ship which had foundered off the coast. Both Sam Isaacs and Grace Bussell were awarded medals by the Royal Humane Society in recognition of their bravery and selfless courage. For many years the black and white painting of the rescue scene of passengers from the Georgette, now in the August Museum, hung in pride of place over the lounge room mantle piece in the home of Frederick Augusta Isaacs (1882 – 1956) in Margaret River.

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Historic Themes

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