Jessie Litchfield

Jessie Sinclair Litchfield (18 February 1883 – 12 March 1956) was an Australian author and Northern Territory pioneer.

Litchfield was born Jessie Sinclair Phillips at Ashfield to contractor John Phillips and Jean Sinclair, née Reid. Jessie was educated at Neutral Bay Public School and was taught by Mary Cameron. She married Valentine Augustus Litchfield, a miner whom she had met on a ship to Darwin, on 21 January 1908 and they moved around the Territory: West Arm, Anson Bay, Brocks Creek, the Ironblow mine, the Union reefs and Pine Creek. In 1909 she wrote to the Messenger, a Victorian church newspaper, describing "Chinese and blacks [as] my nearest neighbours", and her reports may have contributed to the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission.^[1]

By the time her husband died in 1931, Jessie was a mother of seven and had published Far North Memories (1930) based on her experiences. She wrote five books as well as short stories, articles, and verses, and pursued a career as a journalist, becoming editor of the Northern Territory Times and Government Gazette in 1930. The Times was purchased in 1932 by the union-owned Northern Standard, prompting many battles with the conservative Litchfield. She was Darwin press representative for many papers, including Reuters, for six years.^[1]

Litchfield was evacuated to Sydney in February 1942 and bought a small library, which she re-opened in Darwin on her return. She campaigned for self-government in the Territory and contested the federal division in 1951. Litchfield was awarded the coronation medal for outstanding service to the Northern Territory in 1953, becoming its first justice of the peace in 1955. She was involved in the founding of the North Australian Monthly in 1954. Litchfield died at Richmond on a visit to Melbourne in 1956 and was cremated, her ashes scattered over Darwin.^[1]

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