REACHED THE CENTURY.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19632, 19 July 1935, Page 5

REACHED THE CENTURY.

ABORIGINAL PRINCESS

WELL-KNOWN IN QUEENSLAND

(Empire Press Union). BRISBANE, July 4

At an age variously estimated as between 102 and 104, Princess Elizabeth of the Noon-knockles tribe (or more prosaically, Mrs Bulsey) has died at her home at Dunwich, on the Queensland coast near Brisbane. .She was a princess of a once powerful tribe, the grand-daughter of a hero king, a lady’s maid at Government 'House, a spectator at a convict lashing, and the wife of a South Sea islander. She was a figure of importance and was one of the best known identities of the district, but an illness from which she had suffered for some time Interfered with plans to present her to the Duke of Gloucester on his visit to the locality last December. She was a grand-daughter of the famous King Billy, hero of the wreck of the Sovereign in 1847. The vessel, an iron paddle steamer, was wrecked on the Amity Bar, and the king of the tribe was responsible for saving 40 lives. For his act of bravery he was rewarded, and set out as a fisherman with boats and nets.