Henrietta Drake-Brockman

Born on 27 July 1901 in Perth, Henrietta Frances York Jull, was the only child of English-born Martin Edward Jull, public servant, and his wife Roberta Henrietta Margaritta, née Stewart, a medical practitioner from Scotland. Henrietta was educated at a boarding school in Scotland and at Frensham, Mittagong, New South Wales, and studied literature at the University of Western Australia.

She later married Geoffrey Drake-Brockman and moved with her husband to Broome in far north Western Australia. A gifted and independent young woman, she accompanied her husband, a Lands Commissioner for the Department of the North-West, on his work rounds and began to publish her observations for the Western Australian under the pseudonym 'Henry Drake'. The Drake-Brockman's returned to Perth when the Department of the North-West was abolished in 1926.

In the meantime Henrietta's reputation as a writer had become well established. From her experiences of the little-known region of the North-West, she had written sketches and stories, and in the early 1930s published a serial, 'The Disquieting Sex'. She published several plays including 'The Man from the Bush' in 1932, 'Dampier's Ghost' in 1934 and 'The Blister' in 1937. 'Men Without Wives', her best-known play, extended her work beyond the one-act genre and won a sesquicentenary drama prize in 1938. 'Men Without Wives and Other Plays' was published in 1955. She also wrote a number of successful novels including 'Blue North', an historical novel about life in the 1870s, which was serialized in 'The Bulletin' and published in 1934. 'Sheba Lane' (1936) used contemporary Broome as its setting. 'Younger Sons' (1937) was a carefully documented novel of Western Australian settlement and 'The Fatal Days' (1947) focussed on Ballarat, Victoria, during World War II. In an article in 'Walkabout' in January 1955 Henrietta Drake-Brockman, using a translated copy of Pelsaert's journal, diverged from general historic opinion and closely estimated the BATAVIA's correct resting-place in the Houtman Abrolhos. Her subsequent, and last novel, 'The Wicked and The Fair' (1957), centred on the fateful voyage of the BATAVIA in 1629.

Henrietta Drake-Brockman's final book was 'Voyage To Disaster' (1963), which is largely a biography of the BATAVIA's Commandeur and opperkoopman, Francisco Pelsaert. In the book Drake-Brockman's extensive research entailing the use of material from Dutch archives, E. D. Drok's translations of Pelsaert's journals, trips by sea and air to possible wrecksites in the Houtman Abrolhos and discussions with cray fishermen and skindivers allowed her to further deduce the final resting place of the BATAVIA wrecksite and the associated survivor's camps. Drake-Brockman not only published her views in 'Voyage To Disaster' (1963) but also convinced journalist, writer and diver Hugh Edwards to get the West Australian newspaper to sponsor a search for the BATAVIA wrecksite in 1963/64 in the waters around Beacon Island. Although that expedition did not locate the wreck, the interest it generated amongst the local cray fishermen and the developing ties between Edwards, Drake-Brockman, David Johnson and Max Cramer resulted in the wrecksite and associated survivor’s camps being located in June 1963. (Edwards, Islands of Angry Ghosts, 1966)

Henrietta Drake-Brockman was a foundation member (1938) and president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, Western Australia branch, and a committee-member of 'Westerly' . She edited several collections of short stories and her own were compiled in 'Sydney or the Bush' (1948). In 1967 she was awarded an O.B.E. for services to history and literature. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 8 March 1968 and was buried in Karrakatta cemetery, Western Australia.

Australian Dictionary of Biography : http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140709b.htm December 2006