Life Story

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When Patrick Woods was laid to rest in this unmarked grave, his burial was paid for from Colac Hospital funds. A year later, the grave would also receive thirty-year-old labourer Thomas Davis of Beech Forest. 

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Patrick’s final days were brief and difficult: after almost a week battling pneumonia, he was admitted to Colac Hospital and died the following day. The Colac Herald reported that the weather at the time had been “very cold with heavy showers of rain at frequent intervals” — conditions a splitter like Patrick endured daily. The article described him simply as “Mr P. Woods, a woodcutter from Whoorel, who leaves a wife and family — I’m afraid in none too good circumstances.”

Patrick was born in Dublin and was 35 when he married Margaret Unsworth in Wigan, Lancashire. Four years later, with two small children, they embarked on the immigrant ship Hydrabad, arriving in South Australia in February 1878. They came seeking opportunity, yet their years in Australia would prove harsh. By 1888, four of their seven children had died, and the family was living in a railway camp at Ballan when Margaret gave birth to twin boys.

It is not clear how long the Woods family had been in the Colac district when Patrick died. In time, Margaret gathered her surviving children and left Australia for New Zealand, where most would spend the rest of their lives. Their youngest son, Andrew, later served in the New Zealand Army during the First World War.

An obituary for Margaret recalled that Patrick had “thrown up a good position in England to seek the gold said to be so plentiful,” only to find the promises ill-founded. Despite hardship and loss, the family endured, carrying Patrick’s memory with them across the Tasman.