ALMOST FORGOTTEN
A Virtual Memorial Experience
Catherine Mastin
(1834-1899) CofE Sec 15A Grave 24
NAME
Catherine Mastin
DATE OF BIRTH
1834
CATEGORY
Almost Forgotten
DATE OF DEATH
1899
CEMETERY
Colac Cemetery
Life Story
Her death certificate suggested she had never been a mother, yet years earlier Catherine herself declared she had given birth to five children.
Born Catherine Smith in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1834, she was the daughter of Samuel Smith and Elizabeth McLelland. In 1843, nine-year-old Catherine arrived in Sydney aboard the Broom with her parents and two younger brothers. Her father, an agricultural labourer who could read and write, later became a school teacher in the colony.
At some point Catherine married a man named Mills, although no record of the marriage has been found. By the time she married Charles Mastin at Barongarook in 1880, she described herself as a widow, stating that her husband had died in Sydney “date unknown” after being absent for about nineteen years.
More revealing still was her declaration that she had borne five children — three living and two deceased. Yet little trace of these children has been discovered and none appear connected to the Colac district.
Life with Charles in the Stony Rises district was demanding. Charles also farmed land at Barongarook and briefly pursued hopes of finding coal on the property, but financial troubles followed and he was declared insolvent.
For Catherine, advancing age brought painful hardship. Repeated accidents further weakened Catherine; in one incident she was knocked over by a goat while milking, and later suffered another fracture after accidentally sitting where a chair had been removed.
In 1899 she entered Colac Hospital suffering from gallstones and died there two months later, aged 65.
Catherine and Charles rest together here, while the lives of the children she once claimed seem largely lost to history.
Research by Raye Loughnan
Story by Merrill O’Donnell
Narrated by Deb Baillie
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Life stories have been researched and compiled by the Colac & District Family History Group Inc. and its independent contributors. This material must not be copied or reproduced without permission. AI tools have been used to assist.
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© Colac & District Family History Group Inc 2026
This profile is a potted biography prepared from more extensive research undertaken by the Colac & District Family History Group (CDFHG). For additional information, historical records, or further research relating to this individual, please contact the CDFHG team.