Mary Dobie's Grave - 1880

Artist Mary Dobie was visiting Opunake to visit family members when she was murdered at Te Namu Bay on 25 November 1880.

She was buried here and this memorial was later erected by the local members of the Armed Constabulary. A portion of the cross which originally topped the monument has been re-set on a plinth in front.

Mary Dobie contributed her sketchers to the well-known illustrated newspaper, The Graphic, run by her uncle, and was touring New Zealand along with her sister and mother. The diary she and her sister Bertha wrote on their voyage out to New Zealand in 1877/78 was later published as the book, The Voyage of the May Queen.

On the day of her death, Mary was heading out to sketch Taranaki Maunga. When she didn't return, a search party set out to look for her, eventually finding her body under a flax bush at Te Namu Bay.

Initially, Walter Stannard and Tuhi (Tuhiata) were both charged with the murder, but at the inquest Tuhi stood up and declared he was guilty. He was taken to Wellington for trial, where he was later hung.

The inscription on the memorial reads:

IN MEMORY OF

MARY BEATRIX

DAUGHTER OF

MAJOR H. M. DOBIE

LATE MADRAS ARMY

AND

ELLEN DOBIE

BORN 22ND DEC 1850

DIED 25TH NOV 1880

THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY THE

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS & MEN OF

THE ARMED CONSTABULARY STATIONED

AT OPUNAKE AND CAPE EGMONT

DECEMBER 1880

Mary Dobie's brother Herbert - who spelled his name with two 'b's (Dobbie) - produced, in 1880-81, a now-rare book on New Zealand ferns. They are known as the 'blue books' because they had 'nature-printed' white silhouettes of fronds on a blue background.

In 1921 Dobbie produced a regular book on ferns using photographs. It subsequently went through several editions.

Books

The Many Deaths of Mary Dobie: murder politics and revenge in nineteenth-century New Zealand, Hastings, David, 2015

Famous New Zealand Murders, Dyne, D.G, 1969

The Voyage of the May Queen, edited Brockman, M, 

Lady Travellers: the tourists of early New Zealand, Dawson, Bee