The CURIOUS TALE of AUSTRALIA'S own MISS HAVISHAM

Eliza Emily Donnithorne might not, as locals believe, still walk the overgrown paths of a Camperdown cemetery in a wedding dress as luminous as the moon. But this Sydney recluse and eccentric may well have inspired one of literature’s most tragic romantic figures.

- ANGUS FONTAINE

The strange tale of Sydney recluse Eliza Emily Donnithorne has haunted the world for over 150 years, just a little longer than the strange tale of Miss Havisham, whose tragic figure paints a distressing picture of unmarried women’s prospects in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. But are these two characters the very real Eliza and the fictional Miss Havisham, both jilted at the altar in the unforgiving 1800s linked? Increasingly researchers in Australia, at least, suspect they might be. Born in South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1821, Eliza was the youngest child of James Donnithorne, a judge and merchant in the famous East India Company, and grew up in Calcutta. Tragedy struck in 1832, when Eliza’s mother and two teenage sisters died during the city’s cholera epidemic. At age 63, Judge Donnithorne retired to Australia, arriving in Sydney on September 10, 1838. After finishing school in England, Eliza joined him.

Yet for the motherless, sisterless daughter of an elderly judge, Sydney was a forlorn place. Eliza found her comfort in books and music and, when her father died in 1852, in his estate, a sprawling pile called Cambridge Hall on King Street, Newtown. As a wealthy, eligible young woman living in a stately home, it’s little wonder Eliza, by then in her thirties, caught the eye of George Cuthbertson, either a naval officer or shipping clerk, and set a date to be married.

However, when the day arrived, there was no sign of the groom. After waiting hours, it’s said Eliza farewelled her guests and abandoned the wedding breakfast to insects and dust. She kept her bridal gown on and left the front door ajar in case Cuthbertson came at last.

It became the tattle of the town. Some said Cuthbertson already had a wife in England and feared exposure, but he left not a word of explanation and was never heard from again.