Friends of Hastings Cemetery

This they did, and the lady took the bait with a celerity which exceeded the most sanguine anticipations....and the old lady [sic] devoted herself to the duty of finding money for the enterprise with an ardour that was quite pathetic. She got it into her head that a magnificent coal-field would be discovered which would find employment for all the unemployed in Victoria, and which would be the means of lifting the colony out of its present unfortunate depression.

In 1895 Geraldine returned to London, it is thought with Delia and her son Owen (the other son remained in Australia.) Geraldine retained properties in Victoria until at least 1900.

Delia died in London in 1900, aged 50.  Geraldine lived on until 1931 and at the time of her death was living in Cheltenham.  Her estate was valued at £1,412.

If you want to know more of the failed mining venture a book has been published in Australia

“Enchanted Beneath the Bluff : Agnes & Geraldine’s Pursuit of Elwood’s Elusive Blacj Diamonds” by Isaac Douglas Hermann & Heather Andrea Arnold.

There is a copy available to view held by OHPS at the History House.

By January 1894 Melbourne Punch had this cartoon comment to make

He [the spiritualist] then directed them to sink a bore on the St. Kilda Bluff, being aware from his own personal knowledge that an extensive bed of the best anthracite smokeless coal was to be found a good long way below the surface.  He told them that they would all be millionaires in a very short time, and directed them to look up a wealthy maiden lady [Geraldine]who lived in one of the southern suburbs, to represent the case properly to her, and get her to find the capital.