Eliza Fraser was a Scottish woman whose ship was shipwrecked on the coast of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia, on 22 May 1836, and who was captured by Aborigines

Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...

. Fraser Island is named after her.

She was the wife of Captain Fraser, captain of the Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle (disambiguation)

Stirling Castle is a castle in Stirling, Scotland.Stirling Castle may also refer to:* HMS Stirling Castle, a number of Royal Navy ships* MV Stirling Castle, a liner built in Belfast in 1935 and scrapped in 1966...

. There were 18 people aboard the ship and a cargo mainly of spirits, which may have been involved in the accident. They struck a reef

Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....

 hundreds of kilometres north of Fraser Island. They then launched a boat and landed at Waddy Point on Fraser Island. It was here that she was captured by Aborigines; her husband either died from starvation

Starvation

Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...

 or was killed by an Aborigine because he was unable to carry wood. They were stripped of their clothing.

She was found by John Graham, an escaped convict who had lived for six years with the Aborigines, and is said to have gone naked to get the confidence of the Aborigines. Eliza later married another sea captain (Captain Greene) and returned to England. Controversy followed when she requested from the Lord Mayor of London funds for herself and her children as she was left penniless after her husband had died, not mentioning her marriage to Captain Greene or the £400 received in Sydney by a fund set up to help her. A sensationalised account of the incident was sold in London.

Fiction

Patrick White

Patrick White

Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...

 wrote a fictionalised account of the incident in the 1976 novel A Fringe of Leaves

A Fringe of Leaves

A Fringe of Leaves is the tenth published novel by the Australian novelist and 1973 Nobel Prize-winner, Patrick White.-Plot:A young Cornish woman, Mrs Ellen Roxburgh, travels to the Australian colonies in the early 1830s with her much older husband, Austin, to visit the "black sheep" of the family,...

. Other writers to have written her story include André Brink

André Brink

André Philippus Brink, OIS, is a South African novelist. He writes in Afrikaans and English and is a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town....

, Kenneth Cook

Kenneth Cook

Kenneth Cook was a prolific Australian journalist, film director, screenwriter, TV personality and novelist best known for his works Wake in Fright, which is still in print five decades after its first publication, and the humorous Killer Koala trilogy.Born in Lakemba, New South Wales, Cook...

 and Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje

Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...

. Sidney Nolan

Sidney Nolan

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...

 painted a wide range of personal interpretations of historical and legendary figures, including Eliza Fraser.

Film

In 1976 a drama film titled "Eliza Fraser" ("The Adventures of Eliza Fraser" was an alternate title) was made about her. Susannah York

Susannah York

Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...

 played the title role, and the film was directed by Tim Burstall

Tim Burstall

Tim Burstall was an Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for the motion picture Alvin Purple....

. It was the first Australian film with a seven figure budget, costing $1.2 million to make.