For Ellen Dawson, her royal status was never bestowed, but taken in self-acclaim, and became another colourful Goulburn tale.
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Born Ellen Telfer in 1847, the ‘Queen of the South’ of Cowper Street married Thomas Dawson at age 23.
The book Grand Goulburn reveals the two lived in a hut they called the ‘royal palace’, so daubed in tar on the exterior, with the Union Jack raised in one window.
Thomas Dawson, a local mail contractor, was the ‘King of the South’. Their eldest son, William ‘Dookey’ Dawson, was ‘Duke of Australia’. Dookey would flourish a sword when he appeared in public.
Described as an eccentric and strong-willed woman, Mrs Dawson could be found selling postcards of herself along Auburn Street. Her attire was regal in fashion, and it was said she paid rent collectors in peppercorns, collected from a tree planted in her front garden.
The King and Queen would find themselves in royal scandals, with their house sometimes at war with other residents of the time.
The Evening Penny Post published a court report on January 7 in 1886 in which Mr Dawson was accused of hitting his neighbour with an axe after alleged property damage by a small child.
Mrs Dawson “threw a stone at me and drew a knife,” said neighbour Matilda Buckley. Mr Dawson, during the hearing, was reported to have quietened his outspoken wife by whispering, “I pray, Your Majesty, be quiet”. In his final defence, Mr Dawson said the axe was used as a shield. The court fined the Dawsons five shillings.
The Queen held court with a magistrate again in 1890, fined for obstructing the footpath. The judge heard there were frequent complaints about Mrs Dawson’s bad language and begging.
The pair was also in court in 1892 with allegations an escaped prisoner attempted to break into their house and kill them.
Tested for mental health, the police magistrate concluded she was “more a rogue than a fool”. Some said it was a facade to generate income, as Mr Dawson was afflicted with chronic rheumatism.
On May 15 in 1915, Ellen Dawson died at the age of 68, having suffered a paralytic stroke, as reported in an obituary by the Post.
Goulburn man Bill Lambert is a great-grandson of the ‘Queen’.
He grew up in the ‘palace’ and remembers the sword, pictured. “I loved when my mother told me tales of Ellen,” he said. “We don’t know when or why she chose to be the Queen.”
Mr Lambert said the royals remained a topic of family conversation today, and a matter of pride as their antecedents.
