In August 2013, Frances Schifferli exhibited a diptych, Silent Witness, in the Shark Bay Art Exhibition. In this quilt Frances, a founding committee member of the Writers Group and newcomer to the Irish SIG at Family History WA, combines her interests in family history and textile art into a uniquely creative storytelling medium. One half of the wall hanging illustrates the journey of almost a thousand kilometres, from Roebourne to Shark Bay, made in 1884 by Thomas Carmody and his wife Emily. At Hamelin Pool their child, eight months old Onslow Thomas Carmody, succumbed and was buried behind the Telegraph Station. The second image on the quilt depicts the family greeting Thomas Carmody’s sister, Ann Barnard and husband John, who were pearling at Denham (Freshwater Bay). The manager of the Hamelin Pool Caravan Park and Café was very taken with the art work.
A Brief Life:
The story of Onslow Thomas Carmody BY FRANCES SCHIFFERLI Thomas Carmody, the second youngest child of six, was born to Patrick and Mary Carmody shortly after the family arrived in the colony aboard the Palestine in 1853. They had migrated to the Swan River, from St Lukes, a poverty ridden suburb of London, having previously escaped Limerick and the devastation that accompanied the potato blight of the 1840s. Patrick took up farming in York and son Thomas went on to acquire his own property after he married Emily Snow in 1882. What then inspired this young couple to sell up lock stock and barrel – stripper, reaper and mower, chaff cutter, ploughs, horse, cart and
Frances subsequently exhibited the diptych at the QuiltWest Exhibition in May 2014, where it was awarded the President’s Choice. She then donated it to the manager of the Hamelin Pool Caravan Park, because she thought visitors to the park would like to know the history behind the little grave that is still preserved onsite. You can view the quilt where it hangs in the park’s café, which is the former Telegraph Station. Onslow Thomas Carmody was Frances Schifferli’s first cousin, three times removed. Following is the narrative of the Carmodys’ epic journey in 1884. “Silent Witness” by Frances Schifferli 72 | THE IRISH SCENE
