), she married Charles James Carleton, a medical student working at Guy's Hospital and who could claim a family connection with the Earls of Dorchester.

[3] Together with their two young children (James Poole Carleton born 23 April 1839 and one other) they left for Australia in 1839, on the Prince Regent.

After a few false starts making cordials,[4] castor oil,[5] and other commodities, Charles (who never completed his degree) became around 1844 medical dispenser to the Colonial Surgeon, Mr. James George Nash F.R.C.S.

[7] It was while at the cemetery in 1859 that she wrote The Song of Australia in response to the Gawler Institute's contest for a patriotic poem that could be set to music, and submitted it under the pseudonym "Nil Desperandum".

The second stage of the Gawler Institute's contest was for a tune for the winning poem as published on 21 October 1859.

[18] Their song was performed at the South Australian Institute soirée at White's Rooms, King William Street, on 14 December 1859 by the Adelaide Liedertafel, conducted by Herr Linger.

During the South Australian Centenary, on 13 March 1936, some three thousand citizens and eight hundred schoolchildren made a pilgrimage to her graveside.

Other poems by Caroline Carleton were contained in South Australian Lyrics published and printed in Adelaide by J.H.