sketcher, was the eighth child of Marshall Waller Clifton and Elinor, née Bell, a sister of Elinor , Louisa and William Pearce Clifton . After coming to Western Australia with her family in 1841, she lived at the settlement of Australind until her marriage to Harley Robert Johnston, a surveyor, on 31 December 1845. She then lived at Alverstoke, a property managed by her husband, and had five children. After visiting England in 1850 the Johnstons built a new house, Moorland, where Mary and her children continued to live after her husband died in 1853. She died at Picton, Western Australia, on 18 July 1893.
Mary’s only known drawing, View of the Commissioner’s Cottage in Koombanah Gardens , a pencil sketch dated 6 July 1841 (private collection), shows the huts and tents of the new settlement surrounded by trees. Her description of each building is inscribed on the back. The view is extremely similar to one by her sister Elinor and is annotated almost identically; presumably they sketched side by side.
This entry is a stub. You can help DAAO by submitting a biography.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
