Annie Ferdinand: emigrated to Australia

[Wolf]

Taken from (submitted by OLDAUSSIE)
PIONEERS’ COUNTRY - The Story of the Pioneering of the Beautiful Country over the Range Inland from Cairns North Queensland. Glenville Pike 1976, Cosmos Printing Press Ltd. Hong Kong. ISBN 9598960 7 4
Page 80.

And then, of course, there was Annie Bags, an eccentric well educated woman who roamed all the roads to the mining fields from charters Towers northwards, carrying her possessions in a couple of sugarbags and wearing clothes also made from bags and accompanied by a mob of cats, dogs, a goat and a cockatoo. She claimed to be a Hungarian countess.

Taken from Cairns Post. Wed 20 April 1910 (may be viewed on the website of the Australian National Library: search for Annie Bags in Queensland Newspapers under Advanced Search.)

Death of "Annie Bags".
"An old identity passed away at the Townsville Reception House on Sunday afternoon, in the person of Miss Ferdinand, better known as "Annie Bags," says the "Bulletin". The deceased was admitted to the Reception House at midday on Saturday, having been sent from the Charters Towers Hospital. She was in a very weak and emaciated condition when she arrived, though she appeared to be conscious, and understood her surroundings at intervals on Saturday and Sunday morning. Her age was given as 59 years, though she looked much older. The old woman, with her eccentricities, was well-known in Townsville, and in fact throughout North Queensland.

Also two small photographs are displayed.

Note - Annie Bags was German born Annie Ferdinand, who died in North Queensland in 1910.
Note - A Reception House generally refers to a place for insane and psychiatric people.
Note - The Far Northern mining field was situated on the Atherton Tablelands, inland from Cairns, North Queensland.