Fascinated by a drawer full of old photographs found following the sale of a family property,i began to do some research; on one of the photographs was an inscription in white ink "First Pioneer Trip". The next mention i heard of Pioneer was a reference to Withers Pty Ltd - The White Charabanc Company. I went on to learn a lot about A A Withers, and the coach companies he pioneered, starting by promoting the beauty of Melbourne in 1905, calling them Beautiful Melbourne Trips. Then i discovered a fleet of Milnes-Daimler vehicles. Withers, determined to be first, set off into the largely unchartered interior of Victoria and New South Wales, then extended the business to Withers Bros Pioneer Motor Co. His son, Perc, took the first tourist coach over the Alps from Omeo to Mount Hotham in 1922.
For tourists who crossed Bass Straight, he stationed a coach in Tasmania, so trippers stepped from the ferry to the coach. In 1923 the business became Pioneer Tourist Coaches Pty Ltd. Eventually the lure of the outback was too much, passengers being taken on the first coach tour through the outback to Darwin in 1927, returning via Queensland.
In 1929 this became his last venture. His sons carried on the business for another 14 years; eventually passing it too another operator who kept the illustrious Pioneer name at the forefront of travel for many years. Finally it fragmented and became associated with other great names in Tourism. After 90 years, the name Pioneer disappeared and is no longer associated with coach travel in Australia. However, the history lives on in this book.

Anastasia Withers and the Eureka Flag.

There is a school of thought that the bolt of material was simply one given to the women by Elizabeth Fry and her friends as she embarked on the terrifying journey to Van Diemen’s Land in 1841. The dimensions even sound about right. Now by candlelight work began. Here Anastasia Withers, wife of Samuel and mother of three children, a woman who had every reason to help the downtrodden, is credited to have helped make the Eureka Flag. Anastasia was a skilled dressmaker and one of my stories has her listening to the words of the miners. This is what I have written.

I sense a presence. It seems like a memory but it has no substance, Emotion is palpable, hanging like a thread that joins me to the women in my past. It entangles me, but does not strangle me. I see in my imagination the young Irish wife, displaced and alone, struggling to deal with overwhelming events. I feel her sense of injustice as men plead with her to help them.
‘You are a dressmaker. You can make us a flag. We must have a flag to rally the men of the goldfields. We cannot do it on our own. You womenfolk can stand with us. Not with guns, but with your needles and threads!’

Now every sound if magnified as women creep into the tent at night. They sew by candlelight while lookouts prowl the camp looking for police spies. They unroll the precious length of blue material to use as the background of the flag. Then cut the enormous lengths of white material, ready to make the cross first, leaving the complicated stars until last. Rubbing their aching hands after hours of straining their eyes and they slip into the darkness back to the security of their own tents. Rough and ready they may be but safer here beside their men-folk.

Already they plan their next trip through the dark of night. They willingly join Anastasia Withers to help make this important symbol of their need for independence from the tyranny of the old ways. They know they face imprisonment if they are caught. They fear for the fate of the children if their role in the planned uprising becomes known. But the Intensity of the need for freedom and liberty cannot be denied.
Hurriedly the women attach it in place when they hear men’s voices approaching. They flee to safety while Anastasia places the ‘Southern Cross’ in the hands of the leader of the Eureka Uprising. The next time she sees it, the flag is flying proudly at the top of the flagpole at Bakery Hill on Wednesday, 29 December 1854 as Peter Lalor kneels to swear the oath in front of the Monster Meeting.

We will never know what injustices they faced but we can no longer doubt their integrity in the struggle to justify their right to freedom. We do know to what lengths the women were willing to go to finish the flag. At last four of the stars are sewn into place but the white material is not large enough for the last star. Anastasia makes a silent exit from the tent returning flushed and frightened with her last surviving garment. A petticoat, that she lays on the floor carefully cutting out the last star.

Later I think I see her watching troopers as they trample and spit on her work. She feels the shame of defeat. Disgrace follows as she flees with her family. Danger is a reality if she is caught. However, her convictions remain strong although now hidden for her families sake. Safe at last many miles to the north near Stawell her husband Samuel plants an orchard and calls it Bristol Orchard after Anastasia’s home city. He buys her the first mechanical sewing machine on the goldfields; perhaps in recognition of her gallant actions during the Eureka Stockade.