sketcher and novelist, was born at Balliston, County Limerick, Ireland, only daughter of Terence Murray, a paymaster in the British Army, and Ellen, née Fitzgerald. Her brother James Fitzgerald Murray (1806-56) wrote to her in Sydney in 1830. Anna Maria was educated at the Ursuline Convent, Cork, her mother having died when she was six and her father being stationed in Portugal for much of her childhood. A sampler she embroidered at the convent is dated 16 May 1824 (National Library of Australia [NLA]). After her father retired from the army, he brought Anna Maria to Sydney. They lived at Erskine Park near Penrith.
On 5 May 1828 Anna Maria Murray married Captain George Bunn, an agent for the Erskine Park property and reputedly one of Sydney’s wealthiest merchants. He built Newstead House at Darling Harbour as their home. There Mrs Bunn drew a pencil self-portrait which she later developed into an oil painting (private collection). Three children were born: John William Buckle , George Harris and a daughter who died in infancy. Captain Bunn died suddenly in 1834 leaving a large debt on his estate, and it was perhaps a desire to pay this off which led to Anna Maria Bunn’s writing for publication. Four years after his death The Guardian , the first novel to be published on the Australian mainland, appeared anonymously. It sank without trace. Because incest figures largely in the plot, Walter Stone suggested it may have been suppressed by Mrs Bunn’s family, but the topic seems to have aroused no controversy at the time.
During the 1840s Anna Maria Bunn went to stay with her brother Dr James Murray at Woden, on the edge of the Limestone Plains in southern New South Wales (now Canberra, ACT). By 1850 she was spending half her time there and half at St Omer, Braidwood, the property left to her by her husband. Her album (NLA) dating from this time includes competent watercolours of insects and flowers—mainly English ones from her garden—as well as pencil views mainly by her son William. It also contains recipes, verse and newspaper cuttings about the family, including one reporting her husband’s death.
Anna Maria and William moved to St Omer permanently in May 1852. She died there on 23 September 1889, leaving the property to the daughter of her younger son, George. Botanical art and a little unpublished poetry seem entirely to have replaced novel writing after her one unappreciated effort.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
