{{Short description|Australian historian (1942–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Babette Smith | image = Babette Smith.jpg | caption = Babette Smith in 2014 | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM|size=100}} | birth_name = Babette Alison Macfarlan | birth_date = {{birth date|1942|04|02|df=y}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2021|11|22|1942|04|02|df=y}} | education = Frensham, Mittagong (1959) | alma_mater = University of Sydney | occupation = Colonial historian, mediator, business executive | known_for = Convict research, particularly women | children = 1 | awards = NSW Premier's Prize for Regional and Community History, 2015, and Annual History Citation, NSW History Council, 2021. }}
'''Babette Alison Smith''' (2 April 1942 – 22 November 2021) {{post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM}} was an Australian colonial historian, mediator and business executive. She wrote books about the convicts transported to Australia.
== Early life == Born 2 April 1942, Babette Alison Smith (nee Macfarlan)<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|date=2021-11-27|title=Death Notice: Babette Alison Smith|url=https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/427558/babette-alison-smith/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-27|website=Sydney Morning Herald|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127223305/https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/427558/babette-alison-smith/ |archive-date=27 November 2021 }}</ref> was the daughter of Bruce Panton Macfarlan and Barbara Macfarlan (nee Scott). Her father Bruce saw active service as a Group Captain in the RAAF during WWII, was a barrister and later served as a judge in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Babette spent her early school years at SCEGGS Redlands, and in 1955 she became a boarder at Frensham,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chronicle News: Chronicle 2019: Babette Smith OAM|url=https://www.frensham.nsw.edu.au/community/alumni/news-of-old-girls/chronicle-news|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=Frensham|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225102659/https://www.frensham.nsw.edu.au/community/alumni/news-of-old-girls/chronicle-news |archive-date=25 February 2021 }}</ref> Mittagong. After leaving school, she completed a BA at the University of Sydney while working at the Supreme Court as a judge’s associate to her father.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Overington|first=Caroline|date=23 November 2021|title=Celebrated historians Babette Smith, Stuart Macintyre have died|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/celebrated-historians-babette-smith-stuart-macintyre-have-died/news-story/9a7c523fec73bade9d617eafc3ed7ea3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20211124045135/https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/celebrated-historians-babette-smith-stuart-macintyre-have-died/news-story/9a7c523fec73bade9d617eafc3ed7ea3|archive-date=24 November 2021|access-date=24 November 2021|website=The Australian|url-access=subscription|language=en-AU}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite news|last=Price|first=Jenna|date=18 March 1995|title=A mother and the making of a man . . .|volume=70|page=5 (Saturday Magazine)|newspaper=The Canberra Times|issue=21,884|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127518691|via=National Library of Australia|access-date=24 November 2021}}</ref>
== Career == '''Entertainment Industry'''
Babette was a convener of the Opera House Younger Set, a fund-raising group for what was then a vacant site on Bennelong Point. Babette learned the business side of the performing arts through her job with director Stefan Haag at the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. She was Harry M. Miller’s production assistant for ''Hair<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|date=11 May 2018|title=Smith, Babette: Interviewed by Jeannine Baker: Oral History|url=http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=Babette%20Smith;rec=0;resCount=10|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=National Film and Sound Archive|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123154855/http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=Babette%20Smith;rec=0;resCount=10 |archive-date=23 November 2021 }}</ref>'', and worked on the sets of three Australian films including ''Silver City<ref>{{cite news|date=1 November 1983|title=Films in Production: Silver City|volume=13|page=8|newspaper=Filmnews|issue=11|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213733194|access-date=24 November 2021|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and Year of Living Dangerously''. Moving to television, she worked for several years at TCN9, where she became in-house producer of special events.<ref>{{cite news|last=Musgrove|first=Nan|date=1 November 1972|title=They Bring You the Talk of the Town|volume=40|page=10|newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly|issue=22|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55471305|access-date=24 November 2021|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> She helped create a women’s talk show and worked on many programs, including what she called “Friday Night goes to the dogs” – the Don Lane variety show that switched almost seamlessly from musical items to greyhound races at Harold Park. Her next big job was marketing manager at Hoyts Cinemas, where she made a point of championing Australian movies.
'''Australian Historian'''
After the birth of her son in 1977, Babette took up a family tree that her father had begun: family lore suggested that there was a convict somewhere. Following the maternal line, she found that there was indeed a convict, Susannah Watson. She was lucky enough to discover Susannah’s letters to one of the daughters she was forced to leave behind in England. Convicted for stealing to feed her family, Susannah made the most of life in Australia, which she described as a plentiful country. She lived to old age and her Australian-born son Charles Isaac Watson founded newspapers. Susannah’s letters are now in the Mitchell Library.
Babette's first book, ''A Cargo of Women'', grew from this discovery that her great-great-grandmother, Susannah Watson, was a convict transported to Australia in 1829.<ref>{{cite news|date=23 June 1990|title=Convict woman's letters reveal a heaven in hell|volume=64|page=21|newspaper=The Canberra Times|issue=20,160|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120894017|access-date=24 November 2021|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> ''A Cargo of Women'' is an original work, combining Susannah’s story with the lives of 99 other prisoners on the ''Princess Royal''. Scholarship and narrative flair are the hallmarks of Babette Smith’s work. For her, convict women were neither whores nor society’s victims, but individuals doing their best in very tough times. In ''Australia’s Birthstain'' she examined the role of homophobia in attitudes to male convicts; in ''The Luck of the Irish'' she followed a cohort of male prisoners.
'''Bar Association, Mediation & Other Roles'''
Babette served as chief executive of the NSW Bar Association from 1993 to 1997,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Collection 1: Babette Smith papers, 1986–2004|url=https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110332679|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=State Library of New South Wales|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123142737/https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110332679 |archive-date=23 November 2021 }}</ref> the first woman to do so.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Cunningham|first=Ilsa|date=9 June 2015|title=High praise for history author Babette Smith|url=https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/3134957/high-praise-for-history-author-babette-smith/|access-date=23 November 2021|website=Blue Mountains Gazette|language=en-AU}}</ref> She worked as a mediator for Legal Aid, Strata Titles and Farm Debt. She was also an official visitor for Corrective Services NSW, working out of Silverwater and Lithgow jails.<ref name=":1" />
She was a member of the Australian Republican Movement and served on its NSW Committee for two years.<ref name=":0" /> She was invited to present the 2009 Russel Ward Annual Lecture at the University of New England.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=Russel Ward Annual Lecture|url=https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/hass/news-and-events/russel-ward-annual-lecture|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=University of New England|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417104525/https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/hass/news-and-events/russel-ward-annual-lecture |archive-date=17 April 2019 }}</ref>
The Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales holds two collections of her papers (25 boxes) covering her research, writing and employment.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Collection 2: Babette Smith further papers, 1743–1854, 1980–2015, and lock of hair belonging to Susannah Watson, 1877|url=https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110581491|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=State Library of New South Wales|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123142737/https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110581491 |archive-date=23 November 2021 }}</ref> Jeannine Baker interviewed Smith in 2018, with the recording held by the National Film and Sound Archive.<ref name=":3" /> == Honours & Recognition == Smith was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to the community, particularly as an historian and author".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ms Babette Alison Smith|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1152207|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=It's an Honour|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123053340/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1152207 |archive-date=23 November 2021 }}</ref> ''The Luck of the Irish'' won the 2015 NSW Premier's Prize for Regional and Community history and was shortlisted for the Australian Historical Association’s Kay Daniels award for excellence in research in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Congratulations to our AHA member winners of the NSW Premier's History Awards!|url=https://theaha.org.au/congratulations-to-our-aha-member-winners-of-the-nsw-premiers-history-awards/|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=Australian Historical Association|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307090657/http://www.theaha.org.au/congratulations-to-our-aha-member-winners-of-the-nsw-premiers-history-awards/ |archive-date=7 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Shortlists for AHA 2016 prizes and awards announced|url=https://theaha.org.au/shortlists-for-aha-2016-prizes-and-awards-announced/|url-status=live|access-date=23 November 2021|website=Australian Historical Association|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422112253/https://www.theaha.org.au/shortlists-for-aha-2016-prizes-and-awards-announced/ |archive-date=22 April 2017 }}</ref> Recognising the importance of her career and contributions to Australian colonial history, she was awarded the Annual History Citation by the NSW History Council in 2021 shortly after her death.
== Death == Smith died on 22 November 2021 from endometrial cancer.<ref name=":4" /> She was survived by her son, Joshua.<ref name=":5" /> Following her funeral and cremation, her ashes were scattered up near Palm Beach lighthouse, in the same location as her parents.
== Publications == === Non-fiction === * ''A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson and the Convicts of the Princess Royal'', NSW University Press, 1988, {{ISBN|978-0-86840-067-9}}; 2nd ed., Sun Australia, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-7251-0635-5}}; 3rd ed., Rosenberg Publishing, 2005, {{ISBN|978-1-877058-33-2}}; 4th ed., Allen & Unwin, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-74175-551-0}} * ''Mothers and Sons'', Allen & Unwin, 1995, {{ISBN|978-1-86373-866-8}} * ''Coming Up for Air: The History of the Asthma Foundation of New South Wales'', Rosenberg Publishing in association with the Asthma Foundation of New South Wales, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1-877058-17-2}} * ''Australia's Birthstain: The Startling Legacy of the Convict Era'', Allen & Unwin, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-74175-675-3}} * ''The Luck of the Irish: How a Shipload of Convicts Survived the Wreck of the Hive to Make a New Life in Australia'', Allen & Unwin, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-74237-812-1}} * ''Defiant Voices: How Australia's Female Convicts Challenged Authority: 1788–1853'', NLA Publishing, 2021, {{ISBN|978-0-642-27959-0}}
=== Novel === * ''A Cargo of Women: The Novel'', Pan Australia, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-330-27222-3}}; 2nd ed., Pan Macmillan Australia, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-4050-3977-2}}
=== Chapter contribution === * "Integrate Not Separate", in ''Cutting the Cord: Stories of Children, Love and Loss'', edited by Debra Adelaide, Random House Australia, 1998, {{ISBN|978-0-09-183526-2}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website}} *[https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/convict-women_-babette-smith/13319830 The convict women who defied authority] – 2021 interview by Phillip Adams, Late Night Live * {{IMDb name}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Babette}} Category:1942 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Australian women historians Category:University of Sydney alumni Category:20th-century Australian historians Category:21st-century Australian historians Category:Historians of Australia Category:Australian women business executives Category:20th-century Australian businesswomen Category:20th-century Australian businesspeople Category:21st-century Australian businesswomen Category:21st-century Australian businesspeople Category:20th-century Australian women writers Category:21st-century Australian women writers Category:Australian women lawyers Category:20th-century Australian lawyers Category:21st-century Australian lawyers Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia