Grace Bussell

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Grace Bussell

Grace Vernon Bussell (1860 – 1935), later Grace Drake-Brockman, was the 16-year-old heroine of the SS Georgette disaster in Western Australia on 1 December 1876. Bussell, along with Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs, helped save the lives of around 50 people with a quick thinking rescue from shore. She is now regarded as Australia's official national heroine [1].

Grace Bussell was lauded by the press at the time and became known as the Grace Darling of the West after the English heroine. She was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society.

Grace was born to the well-known and prosperous Bussell family. She married Frederick Drake-Brockman in 1882, and died aged 75 in Guildford. Her daughter Deborah Vernon Hackett became well known in the Australian mining industry.

Several places named in her honour. Grace is commemorated by having had several places named in her honour. One of these is the coastal hamlet of Gracetown, north of Margaret River. Another is the wheatbelt town of Lake Grace. Additionally, a street in the Canberra suburb Cook named after her.