During Edmund Barton 's term as prime minister , his wife and children continued to live in Sydney . There was no official prime minister 's residence in the temporary capital , and " the prime minister 's salary of £ 2,500 ... was not enough to allow for Jeanie and their younger children to live with him while in Melbourne " . She did accompany her husband to the 1902 Colonial Conference in London , and attended the coronation of King Edward VII ; she was tasked with presenting Queen Alexandra with a possum-fur carriage rug as a gift of New South Wales . The Bartons took on daily social engagements during their visit , and were well received . According to Geoffrey Bolton , " the daughter of a Newcastle publican and the son of an unsuccessful Sydney stockbroker found themselves moving easily in a closed society intolerant of the parvenu or the ill behaved "
1902 Colonial Conference
1902 Colonial Conference
Jane Barton