Mrs Edward Bland Atkinson (née Amelia Headland)

Amelia Headland was born in London in 1827, and arrived at Port Chalmers on the ‘Maori’ on 19 August 1853. She was soon courted by the recently-widowed Edward Atkinson, who had a three-year old daughter, and they were married at Green Island on 20 December. The following year the family moved to ‘Clifton Falls Station’ in the Kakanui Valley, North Otago, where the first of their children, Edward Alfred, was born on 10 February 1855 (his obituary in 1934 described him as ‘the oldest surviving white child born in North Otago’).

Amelia gave birth to twelve children over a period of 20 years.  For some of this time, she had the assistance of a local Maori woman, Kooti.  The children were taught at home by a succession of three tutors before schools were established in the district. Family prayers were read every night, and ‘Sunday was kept with all the usual prohibitions’.

When wool was carted to Moeraki by bullock wagon, it was necessary to go on to Dunedin for stores; spade, pick and heavy axe were essential tools to clear tracks and make river crossings. On one occasion, Amelia accompanied Edward, mounted on a donkey, resting overnight at Goodwood, and approaching the city via Roslyn. By 1858 there was a regular steamer passage from Moeraki to Dunedin, and in 1862 Cobb and Co. coaches offered a thrice weekly service at the then very considerable fare of £3 each way.  Amelia outlived her husband by 39 years, dying in Wellington in December 1925 aged 98 years.  She was buried with Edward in the family plot at the Oamaru Cemetery.