The Beginning in England and Swan River Colony

The European settlement of Western Australia, was first known as the Swan River Colony. Settlers arrived in 1829 under the command of James Stirling. They landed on an island off the coast and ended up establishing a settlement inland on the coastal plain on a river named The Swan.Charles Gee and his family arrived on board The Caroline at Fremantle on the morning of 12th October, 1829. The Caroline had left left West Tarring in Sussex, England on June 2nd 1829. She was a 400 ton ship and armed with carriage guns. There were 66 passengers on board, 12 horses, 9 cows, 1 bull, 182 sheep, 24 pigs and general cargo.The Gee family consisted of Charles, a carpenter aged 32; his wife May Ann, also aged 32; Charles Junior, aged 12 years; Joseph, aged 10 years; Walter aged 4 and Alfred aged 9 months.Charles and Mary Ann (nee Lasseter) had married in Arundel following the death of Charles' first wife Hannah ( nee Kimbers).The family spent some time in a shack in Murray Street, which now is the centre of Perth CBD. In 1831 their son Alfred died and that was followed by the death of Walter at the age of five.On February 20th 1833 a daughter was born, Charlotte Hannah. In 1836 a brother, Frederick Walter was born.I am descended from Walter as he was always called. It was said Charles stepped off the boat and was asked….."What do you do?" He answered, "A carpenter!" "We have one of them!…you're a policeman." And so was started a dynasty for the 4 generations to my father, Geoff Gee, there were policemen in the Gee family. My Grandfather, Arthur, died in Perth and at the time he was a policeman on guard at Government House. Mum said that when she was courting Dad, he would turn up at her work with a bunch of beautiful roses…often gotten from the fine gardens of Government house. My Gran had a large cat called Mitch. because Gran was such a good cook,( she was trained in Edinburgh and food was very rich) Mitch grew to the size of a large dog. Mitch was given to Grand dad by the Governor of the time, James Mitchell…and so the cat was named. Frederick Walter Gee, known as Walter, was a young man when day shepherding sheep on a fram near New Norcia, north of Perth. He heard a 'coo-ee'. Searching he found a missing priest, Father Salvado almost dead. Walter guided him back to the monastry. (This priest was not the well known Bishop of the times). Later Walter met an Irish girl, Mary Purtell who had come to the State to provide companionship and domestic help for the wives of the early settlers. On April 13th 1857 they were married by the priest whom Walter had saved in the bush.It was the fifth marriage to take place in New Norcia monastry. Walter joined the police force and they lived in a small shack near Dandaragan. They reared a family but Walter was often away on police duties.