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Maggie Oliver, actress
1871 - Amusements
The Star Dramatic Company are still drawing good houses. Last night they opened at Wards new theatre. During the week the company have played ‘All That Glitters Is Not Gold’, ‘The Pride of the Market’, and ‘Box and Cox’. The acting of Miss Maggie Oliver as “Nan” was excellent, and Mr. Frank Stewart’s performance of Stephen Plum in ‘All that Glitters’ was really a great piece of acting.
Source: Gulgong Guardian, Issue No 32, 23 September 1871
The Theatre attached to Ward's Turf Hotel, capable of seating about 600 persons, is very well supported, being occasionally filled to an uncomfortable extent. The company is comprised of several persons of superior merit, and all give excellent satisfaction. Maggie Oliver has been a great favourite upon several of the gold-fields for some years, and continues to personate those peculiar characters for which she is eminently fitted, with first-class wit and finish. Miss Saunders is also a great favourite, and sings with excellent voice and taste. Mr. Flynn has played during the week, and has also made a decided hit in the delienation of his Irish characters. Nor should the efforts of Master Allen Cameron to please the public be omitted mention. Great pains have been taken in the training of this youthful aspirant to fame, and we must confess that he gives much promise of superior excellence.
1900 - [EARLY PLAYERS]
... Maggie Oliver went to Grenfell (Emu Creek), with Mr. Alick Cameron and company, ... and there she was married and resided there some time. At Gulgong she met many old friends—if I may so call men who had seen her play at Forbes, the 'Flat,' and Grenfell; and she was patronised from the start, for she was always popular. At Gulgong she played with W. J. Holloway, Carey, Douglas, Alick Thompson, J. J, Welsh, 'Old Jimmy' Hasker, Lizzie Dixon, Lizzie Morgan, Amy Chambers, Charlie Brown and others, at Johnny Cogdon's theatre (the Prince of Wales's)...
I saw Maggie Oliver play in 'Oliver twist' at the old Lyceum in York-street, in 1872, after her visit to Gulgong. I was on a visit to Sydney, and patronised the play because Maggie was in the cast; but found both acting and scenery much inferior to what one was accustomed to in Gulgong—Maggie being the one redeeming character ...
[Alick Cameron] came to Gulgong from Grenfell with his clever little son Allan, who is now an alderman in Mudgee, and last year was Mayer of that town. Cameron was a clever actor himself, and both he and the boy (Allan) often played in Gulgong for charities and benefits with 'Joey' Gougenheim (Mrs. Constable), and others. The Darrells (Mrs. Darrell was also an old favorite with the miners, who knew her as Mrs. Robert Heir, and Fanny Cathcart) had a fine ran of six weeks in Gulgong in 1873. They took the town by storm, and between Gulgong and Home Rule must have coined money.—Yours, etc. G.G.J.
