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Zoe Button (c. 1877–1948)

Zoe Button (c. 1877–1948), née Watson, also known as Zoe Clements and Zoe Murdoch, was born at Kynuna in the late 1870s, daughter of MaryAnn Watson (b. c. 1862), an Aboriginal woman from Hamilton Downs, north-west of Winton, Queensland. She was a foster mother to Andrew (Jack) O'Chin at Barambah (later Cherbourg) Aboriginal Settlement. She died at the Lazaret on Fantome Island in 1948.

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Citation details

'Button, Zoe (c. 1877–1948)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/button-zoe-31989/text39475, accessed 26 April 2025.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Alternative Names
  • Watson, Zoe
  • Clements, Zoe
  • Murdoch, Zoe
Birth

c. 1877
Kynuna, Queensland, Australia

Death

10 April, 1948 (aged ~ 71)
Fantome Island, Queensland, Australia

Cause of Death

leprosy

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

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