Southern Tablelands History Matters

Funny Hill Woolshed, Binda

2012-03-05T13:51:00.002+11:00

A fine example of a weatherboard shed, preserved and cared for over the years by the Carr family, who have owned the property since 1850.

It is built mainly of stringybark and yellow box felled and milled on the property. The large ironbark posts (measuring up to 68 in. diameter) were placed in position with the aid of a bullock team. This shed, built in 1906, replaces the original one that was destroyed by fire. The old Ferrier press, No.246, was saved and is still in use.

The woolshed has an atmosphere like no other building, brought to life once a year during shearing when it takes on a new lease of life. The interior, dark by contrast with the fierce glare of the sun outside, has matured to a mellow brown. Its timbers have been burnished by the grease from the wool to a fine dull patina that is reflected by the sun burning through the skylights and doorways.

Men work silently and the sound is the drone of the shearing gear as the wheels spin above the shearers’ heads. The shearers in their uniform dress of blue – singlet and denims – line the board, bent double peeling the fleece from the struggling sheep. The handpiece of the shearing machine buries itself again and again in the thick wool until the fleece is shed like an old coat.

Text and image source: Australian Woolsheds by Harry Sowden (1972), pp.59, 65.

Do you have memories of the Funny Hill woolshed? Are (or were) you a shearer? Have you attended the Funny Hill Picnic Races? Please share your memories.

The Argyle Apple - Eucalyptus Cinerea

2012-02-20T11:50:00.003+11:00

Forest Trees of New South Wales

… Another kind of forest-tree, which is also exempt from shedding the bark, and which, from its singularity, is worthy of being mentioned, is called the apple-tree, and as it grows generally in the richest alluvial flats, it is considered an indication of good soil, but neither has this tree any claim of fraternity with the apple-tree of our orchards. The reason of this appellation was for a long time a mystery to me, nor could any to whom I applied solve the problem. One day, however, I observed a black making an incision with his tomahawk into one of these trees, which produced a clear watery fluid, to which he applied his lips and seemed pleased with the draught. I then requested him to make an opening for me, which he did, and I caught more than a pint of fluid in a tin vessel, which upon tasting, I found to possess an acidity by no means unlike cider. Indeed the rough cider which is generally used by the hard-working labourers of Devonshire, is not at all more pleasant to the palate than the juice thus procured.

Text and image source: Sketches of New South Wales: Written and Illustrated for The Saturday Magazine in 1836-1837 by William Romaine Govett (1977) pp.24-25.

Eucalyptus cinerea: The beautiful blue grey foliage of this tree is one of the first images a visitor gets of this area. Although it occurs from near Sofala down to near Tumut it is most common in the Goulburn districts and the name Argyle Apple derives from the old name, County Argyle, for the area. The latin name, cinerea, means ash-coloured, a reference to the powdery white covering on the leaves and buds.

Homage to the Argyle Apple
in Goulburn Library

from the Artists Statement:
The landscape of dry grass and the
blue of the Cookbundoon hills is
seen through the tree trunks ...
Mary Hall (1992)

An unusual feature of the tree is that it usually keeps its juvenile foliage throughout its life. Only occasionally (and mainly in cultivation) does the Argyle Apple produce its elongated adult leaves. The trees do not flower and set seed every year. The flowers occur in October to December and are creamy white, in clusters of three close into the stem almost hidden by the leaves. Leaves are produced commercially for the cut flower market by bollarding or coppicing the trees and protecting them from insect attack with insecticides. The timber is strong and dense but usually far too twisted and knotty to be of use except as a decorative detail or as firewood.

Source: Wild Windellama: articles from the Windellama News September 1997 to November 2001 by Carina Clarke (2002).

Has anyone in your family been so impressed by the trees growing in our region that they are moved to create artistic works about them? Please share your memories.

Health Services c1950

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Hospital and Ambulance services 1949

Goulburn Base Hospital c1950

There are five public hospitals in the Southern Tablelands Region and one private one, while another public hospital is projected. They are (with bed numbers at 30th June 1949, shown in parenthesis) at Goulburn (182), Yass (66), Crookwell (46), Queanbeyan (36), and Braidwood (27), and St John of God Hospital (83) at Goulburn, whilst the proposed hospital is to be at Captains Flat, but is as yet only a clearing station containing four beds.

All have X-ray equipment and at Goulburn public hospital there are pathology services and special X-ray equipment.

District ambulance centres are located at Goulburn, Queanbeyan and Yass. Goulburn also has branches at Braidwood, Captain’s Flat and Crookwell.

Text source: The Southern Tablelands Region: A Preliminary Survey of Resources (1949).

Images: Goulburn Base Hospital (c.1950), St John of God Hospital from Goulburn: Queen City of the South (1952), and Goulburn District Ambulance (c.1960)

During the 1940s and 50s, did anyone in your family have involvement with the operation of hospitals or ambulance services around the Southern Tablelands districts? Please share your memories.

Aboriginal communities of the Yass district

2011-12-07T09:30:00.001+11:00

The Yass to Boorowa district is part of the former Ngunawal language area. Its Aboriginal family networks were linked with major Aboriginal settlements in central NSW such as Brungle station, Erambie and Warangesda mission. It contains some of the earliest areas of European pastoral settlement, with the development of two distinct Aboriginal ways of life. The first was the camps, drawn to the edge of Yass, the main ‘magnet’ of settlement. The second was people in small farm blocks. They attached themselves to large landholdings (stations), surviving on small farm blocks, or provided seasonal labour. These early Aboriginal small-scale farmers are now almost forgotten. They represent a fascinating phase, before the Board was formed in 1883 to actively manage a reserve system. Some of the earliest historically known Aboriginal figures, now turned into local legend, belonged to this colonial period. Some of their descendents lived on farms or reserves; others moved into the expanding cities.

…

The families of Yass and Tumut/Brungle were so connected, that they should be treated as a single group. Many Yass households had close relatives in Brungle. Yet in terms of settlement form, they comprised three distinct communities: Brungle ‘Aboriginal station’, the town fringe campers in Yass and the people camped on Aboriginal farmlets near Rye Park.

…

The pastoral town of Yass contained unrecorded camps on places near the early town, such as the showground, during the 1830s to 1880s. Showground camps are mainly known from local white oral history at places such as Cowra, Queanbeyan, and Yass. The predated the formation of the Board in 1883, which set aside a series of small Aboriginal reserves near the towns.

The Yass and Tumut districts contained three identifiable but kinship linked communities: The Yass town campers, the Brungle reserve people, and the Rye Park farmlet residents. Oral accounts point to families, such as Russell and Lane at Rye Park, regarding themselves as very separate from the locally residing ‘fringe’ families at Yass, who were integrated at a quite different level into the town’s economic life.

Source: Extracts from Survival Legacies: Stories from Aboriginal settlements of Southeastern Australia by Peter Kabaila (2011), pp.197-199.

Are you descended from the Aboriginal communities of the Yass district? Please share your memories.

North Goulburn Football Club 1937

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Reserve Grade Competition Winners 1937

Top Row: H Armstrong, L Coughlan, D McPherson, B Squires, F Squires

2nd Row: H McSullea, D Shepherd, T Withers, J Collins, R Jones, G Bradford, D Waters

3rd Row: E Norman (coach), N Stevenson, W Hurley (Capt), W Sharman (Vice-Capt), F Connolly (Pres).

Was anyone in your family in this football club? Please share your memories.

St Kilda Cottage and Hadley Private School

2011-11-02T11:04:00.000+11:00

St Kilda Cottage, later Hadleigh or Hadley

Hadley Private School
Beppo Street
c.1910

A semi-detached, National Trust classified building located at 21-23 Beppo Street Goulburn. The central portion was built in 1862 as a private residence by Rev Puddicombe, later Archdeacon at St Saviour’s Cathedral Goulburn. Of Flemish bond brick, with stone quoins and sills and with stone stables in the rear, the building is of simple Victorian Gothic style. Additions to the east and west occurred around 1879 by Archdeacon PCK Rowe. In 1892, it was the residence of CL Swanston whose daughter Maud married Mr F Zouch Moriarty in October of that year.

The building came into use as a school under Miss AH Studdy in 1898. In 1905, Mrs Anderson changed the name to Hadleigh. In 1944 the building was listed as part of the estate of M & E Anderson.

Sources: Goulburn Heritage Study (1983); 1890 Goulburn City Council Rates Index; Goulburn House Names Past and Present compiled by ET Cross (1999, with later additions).

Did anyone in your family live in St Kilda, or attend Hadley/Hadleigh Private School? Please share your memories.

Geoff Meredith, Racing Car Driver

2011-10-07T11:14:00.000+11:00

Windellama was once the home of racing car driver Geoffrey Charles Meredith. He lived at Buburba, Windellama for a time around 1925-27 where besides being a racing car driver he was a grazier.

Geoff Meredith in his 'Bugatti' at Maroubra

Geoff Meredith owned several French “Bugatti” sports and racing cars. At one stage he drove a Brescia Bugatti on Gerringong beach at 100 m.p.h. and also drove on the old Maroubra speedway in Sydney in 1925-26.

He does not seem to have been at Windellama for very long as he only appears there in the 1926 electoral roll. During his time at Windellama he was visited by other notable racing drivers such as Hope Bartlett, Albert Vaughan, Leo Salmon and Phil Garlick.

In 1926 he was elected Vice President of the Goulburn Motor Club. Meredith raced extensively at Penrith and Maroubra speedways with limited success and he even turned his hand to motorcycle racing.

Goulburn hosted the Australian Grand Prix in January 1927 at the Racecourse. Geoff Meredith raced his type 30 straight 8 Bugatti at this event which he won with his friend Hope Bartlett second.

I can remember my late mother speaking of Geoff Meredith and his Bugatti car and also of Salmon and Vaughan. She probably met them when they visited the district.

Later in 1927 Geoff went to New Zealand and raced his car on Muriwal beach without much success. He went to England in 1928 to manage a team of Australian motorcyclists who were trying to interest the English in the new sport of dirt track speedway.

Not having been in England very long he went to the Isle of Man to view the motorcycle races but contracted pneumonia and died in Nobel’s General Hospital in Douglas, Isle of Man on 13 June 1928.

He was buried in the Borough Cemetery, Douglas, Isle of Man.

References:

Electoral Rolls.
Papers of my late mother.
One For The Road. Jack Pollard.
Goulburn Evening Penny Post.
Sydney Morning Herald.

Story by Tom Bryant 14 November 2006

Do you have a family member who was involved in the Australian Grand Prix of 1927 in Goulburn? Please share their memories.

Lake Bathurst

2011-09-27T14:54:00.001+10:00

Where Christians first prayed in 1820

These days the desolate shores of Lake Bathurst look an uninviting location for the first church service in what was known as the ‘New Country’ or the southern districts of New South Wales, celebrated in 1820. There’s a memorial to this service at the lake, dry as a bone in 2005, but carrying plenty of fresh water in 1820. Early homesteads, pioneer graves and reminders of explorers also figure on this trail. There’s an echo of a sensational Arctic disaster of the 1840s, a World War 2 fuel store to be seen, numerous churches and an illustrated reminder of the writings of Henry Lawson.

The surveyor, explorer and settler James Meehan (1774-1826) who discovered Lake Bathurst on 3 April 1818, described it as a ‘large lake exceeding 10 miles [16.1 km] in circuit’ while the ‘quantity of ducks and other wild waterfowl on the lake and marshes are beyond description or comprehension’. The lake when full covers an area of about 1450 ha and is said to hold water more consistently than its bigger neighbour, Lake George.

Meehan named the smaller lake after Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, a commendably patriotic act by a convict transported for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. He received an absolute pardon in 1806.

Allan Cunningham, botanist and explorer came this way in 1824, a female Aborigine who had ‘acquired a colloquial knowledge of English’ telling him that she had lived all her life, about forty years, near Lake Bathurst and could remember a time when it was a mere sandy flat, perfectly dry. Cunningham recorded the lake as a ‘body of water five miles [8.05 km] in length by one [1.61 km] in width and saw ‘black swans, duck of various kind, shags, divers and pelican’ on the lake.

Source: Unlocking History’s Secrets: Journeys along the Canberra Region’s Heritage Trails by Graeme Barrow (2005)

Did your ancestors have any historical connection with Lake Bathurst? Please share your memories.

Kialla School

2011-09-19T15:25:00.000+10:00

The Kialla settlement is on, and to the south east of the dividing Range some 3,000 feet up on the Central Southern Tablelands of NSW. Crookwell lies 6 miles to the north west and Goulburn is 24 miles to the south east. Sydney can be reached through Goulburn via the Hume Highway in about 160 miles. The word “Kialla” comes from the Aboriginal language and means “The Home of Demon Spirits.”

Kialla Schoolhouse

[One of the] earliest settlers to take up land at Kialla was Thomas Hayward who selected two blocks of 40 acres and a portion of 100 acres adjoining these in 1864 [near the junction of Kialla and Pejar Roads]. The school site of two acres, measured in November 1871, originally formed a part of Hayward’s portion 76. The school site was dedicated 14th February, 1873. On the opposite side of the road to the Public School, John Gibson took up an area also in 1864, of 320 acres situated at the head of the Kialla Creek. Other early settlers at Kialla in later years included the Kennedys, the Prices, the smiths, Charles George, William and Charles Lane, James Gillespie, the Churchills, the Adams, Gay, McPaul and Hills group and the Keith and Mouatt group.

The Half Time Schools of Crookwell and Gullen, [“Gullen” being situated about two miles south of Kialla Public School of today at the junction of Grabben Gullen, Goulburn and Crookwell roads], opened on 1st April 1869 in a large and rather shabby hut at Gullen and in the St Mark’s Church, Crookwell. Less than 3 months later the teacher was dismissed from the service because of his insobriety. The new teacher was Mr Hadding King.

The parents were anxious that Gullen School be raised to full Public School status. Mr James Gillespie, secretary of the local board, wrote in October 1869: “There are 29 children attending and if it was a Full Time Public School, there would be many more.” At the close of 1870 a new teacher Mr Hugh MacPhee was appointed. He was 63 at the time of his appointment. He does not appear to have kept good health during his years at Gullen.

On 1st February 1871, Gullen received full Public School status and Crookwell was closed. Inspector McIntyre’s visit found 40 children enrolled. In 1871 a local committee consisting of John Gibson, William Kennedy, Thomas Hayward and Andrew Price, decided to apply for aid to build a permanent school building.

After the committee had chosen a school site, the Lands Department in February 1872 approved their two acre selection, part of Thomas Hayward’s conditional purchase. The land was said to be central to the population, sufficiently elevated to be central, to be out of flood reach, and while the soil was considered to be clayey it was well drained. Plans went ahead for the building of the school but apparently not quickly enough.

The new school was finally completed late in 1873. Benjamin Francis and Thomas Dearlings contracted the work for $250. It was made of local rubble stone with stringy bark timber work. The building, 36 feet by 16 feet high contained one large school room and a small classroom and it was meant to accommodate 60 pupils. A teacher’s residence was not built because the local people could not afford the cost.

Source: Kialla Public School: A Century of Education 1869-1969
Photo courtesy Julie Appleton (Mona Vale, 2011)

Did anyone in your family attend "Gullen" or Kialla School? Please share their memories.

James Chisholm MLC

2011-09-13T11:02:00.000+10:00

The Hon James Chisholm … first saw the light in Sydney on the 6th November 1806. His education was obtained chiefly at the well-known school kept by Dr Halloran, which he attended for several years, after which he was sent into the country to learn the work incident to a pastoral and an agricultural life. On the farm of “Cowpastures”, now known as “Gledswood”, he remained and worked for several years ... About forty years ago he removed to his present residence, “Kippelaw” on the Wollondilly River, about eight miles from Goulburn. The farm of “Gledswood” is now in the possession of his eldest son, who resides there with his family. The success which has attended his efforts is a proof of the worth of the man … Mr Chisholm’s life removed him from that life which brings men prominently to the front, and the circumstances that surrounded him kept him in the comparatively obscure position of private life. His time was devoted, for the greater part of his life, to pastoral and agricultural pursuits, which he carried on in an extensive manner, and over a wide area. Besides the estates of “Kippelaw” and “Gledswood”, he has had, and now holds, both cattle and sheep stations in the Bland district, the business of which is attended to by his sons.

Shortly after Responsible Government was established in New South Wales, Mr Chisholm was elected to a seat in the Legislative Assembly by the constituency of Yass, which he occupied for some time. Although he was not a speaker, he did good service, as his practical views and his experience of men and things were large and valuable. On the 17th October 1864 he was nominated to a seat in the Legislative Council, where he has become one of the most regular attendants … His vote, though usually a silent one, carries weight … In private life the Hon James Chisholm is widely known to a large circle of friends, and is highly respected by all with whom he is brought into contact. His is a well-known figure in the Australian Club, where his quiet and unobtrusive manner, his geniality, and his venerable appearance, have made him one of the most esteemed amongst its members. His kind disposition makes him the most companionable of men, and his refined manners stamp him as a gentleman. He was married about sixty years ago, and has a family of seven sons, all married; while in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren he can see that for many years will be perpetuated the heritage that he has given them of an honest life and a revered name. Mr Chisholm died at his residence, “Kippelaw” whilst these sheets were going through the press.

Source: “Australian Men of Mark” Vol 1 (c.1900) pp383-4.

Did you have a Member of Parliament in your family history? Please share your family memories.

Iron Lace and Foundries

2011-08-31T16:55:00.001+10:00

Coolavin Hotel, Goulburn

… One of the uses to which cast iron – also known as wrought iron or “iron lace” – was put, was the decoration and use in the home. The decoration took the form of open-work iron balusters on verandahs which was strong, allowed free access of air and came in many patterns. Open fire grates found favour with householders, as did garden seat ends, fire dogs, stoves, umbrella stands and a host of other articles.

The first recorded foundry identified in Goulburn was that of Evans Taylor, who was advertising his business in the Goulburn Herald in 1866. Various advertisements over successive years name him as engineer and gunsmith, and that he had established in business in 1849.

Byrne & Son were operating from 1866, and there is still a great many castings of Byrne and Son around Goulburn. Another early foundry was that of Ayling Brothers, branded Ayling Goulburn, later Hodkinson and Ayling, then Simpson and Jones and finally George Simpson. This establishment was situated in Yass Road. Matt Gibbons had a foundry on the southeast corner of Faithful and Addison Sts. There was AW Wardle, who advertised as an “engineer and boilermaker”.

Mulwaree Street, Goulburn

In 1881, Byrne and Son sold RT Ball and Co. By this time, Yass Road is referred to as Cowper St as the establishment was located on the corner of Cowper and Mundy Sts. RT Ball appears to have dominated the foundry business for some years in Goulburn as he seems to be continually changing partners and buying out other foundries. Subsequent ‘partnerships’ include Macfadyen, Ball and Bryant (1883) and Ball, Incher & Co (1883), with Ball & Incher dissolving in 1885.

In 1888, RT Ball & Co approached the Minister for Works with an offer to build railway trucks in Goulburn. On inspecting the facilities, the minister approved of the building of roling stock. Ball & Co, thus assured, built a large works establishment on the Church of England Glebe beyond Baxter’s Factory in 1890. The company built vans and trucks and fulfilled two large orders for the railway department. They employed some 150 to 200 men.

Coromandel St, Goulburn

By 1894, with banks failing and falling on bad times, the buildings were sold and demolished by the mortgagers, which put an end to the industry. The church lost some £850 in rent. After winding up of the company, it went back into business as the Goulburn Engineering and Foundry Works with RT Ball as manager. This foundry made many articles from heavy castings to stove parts and was especially notable for their iron grates and fireplace backings.

Sources:

1. Goulburn buildings fine ornamentation: an era of rich works by Stephen Tazewell in Goulburn Post, 28 Aug 1986, p.8.

2. Goulburn Lace and Foundries by ET Cross (1995)

Do you have any iron lacework on your house or property? Was it produced by a Goulburn foundry? Please share your memories.

Yass Town Rail Bridge

2011-08-10T12:10:00.002+10:00

The Yass Town railway truss is highly significant because it was the major component of infrastructure on the historic (infamous) Yass Tramway. It is a highly visible and imposing structure and it set the course for the adoption of American bridge technology in lieu of the previous dominance of British bridges so favoured by John Whitton. Despite being abandoned, it still retains its original fabric. It is a landmark structure in the history of railway bridges in New South Wales.

Yass Rail Bridge
by John Immig (2005)

Historical Notes: When the extension of the Main South Railway from Goulburn to Cootamundra was being planned in 1870 it was intended to take the line into Yass Town. However, following a site visit by Engineer-in-Chief John Whitton who recognised the route would involve more than one crossing of the Yass River by expensive iron bridges, the line was shifted 5 kms (3 miles) north which required no crossings of the river but bypassed the town. Despite the vehement protests of the townsfolk, the Departmental route was adopted and the line was completed to Bowning (north west of Yass) in July 1876 with a station about 3 km (2 miles) north of Yass Town.

So, although the Yass residents could not have the main line through their town, they persistently petitioned successive governments to have a branch line and were eventually successful. In 1889 the Minister for Public Works authorised construction of a lightweight railway or tramway from the renamed main line station, Yass Junction to the town. It could have stopped at the Yass River with passengers and goods transhipped the short distance into town via the existing iron lattice road bridge. But no, the tramway had to go into the town, so a large (200 feet) span steel truss was built over the river.

The bridge represented a gross over capitalisation of a line that would prove to be operationally expensive and never showed a profit. Contractors Kerr & Cronin completed the line in July 1891 for £13,156 and McMasters’ bridge cost £5,412 in an all up cost of £27,318. So the bridge represented 20% of the final cost, just to satisfy town ego and have a grand opening ceremony in the town by the Governor, Earl of Jersey, on 20th April 1892.

Detail of the Yass Rail Bridge
photo by John Immig (2005)

Despite the Railway’s displeasure with the line, the bridge was in fact a technical milestone. Prior to this, the dominant main line metal bridge was the heavy wrought iron lattice truss, fully imported from England. But on the eve of John Whitton’s retirement, the winds of change were blowing. The technical and economic merits of American bridges was widely recognised and independent groups of engineers in the Railway Construction Branch under Henry Deane, the Existing Lines Branch under George Cowdery and those in the Tramway Branch were designing and planning to construct large American steel trusses and Yass got the first.

Physical Description: A single span, lightweight steel Pratt truss of 61m (200ft) span on brick piers with timber beam approaches.

Source: NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, Heritage Branch Website online database at www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_01_2.cfm?itemid=5012296.

Photos: Yass Rail Bridge – views by John Immig 2005

Did anyone in your family work on construction of the Yass Town railway? Please share their memories.

Early settlers in Sutton

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Sutton’s first settler, John Brown, was previously a Methodist minister and moved from Devonshire in April 1827. Following the premature death of his wife, in 1831 he occupied land just to the north of the present town site, on a property now known as ‘Jerrabiggery’. He erected fencing, a small weatherboard cottage and dairy, and purchased sheep and cattle. Sadly though, all Brown’s efforts were in vain, for a severe drought at the time caused his crops to fail, and disease brought about the loss of all his sheep and cattle. In December 1833, he was forced to sell his land to William Guise, of ‘Bywong’, who had already acquired large areas of land to the south of this plot. Guise, the son of a sergeant in the NSW Corps, was apparently related to Louis XVI’s wife, Marie Antoinette.

‘Bywong’ is situated some six kilometres north of Sutton. Under Guise’s control, its boundaries were extended, stretching through most of the southern end of Gundaroo. William Guise remained there for many years until his death in 1850. The Guise family, including a brother, Richard, was among the largest in the area, and although their name is rarely seen nowadays, some descendants remain in the district through female lines.

In 1835 surveyor Robert Hoddle selected a site for a village reserve while he was surveying further grants for William Guise. The provision of the site was in accordance with the Surveyor-General’s policy at that time. The area had some attractive features and a reasonable water supply as it was located at the confluence of the Yass River and McLaughlin’s Creek. Guise’s son-in-law, Joseph Sutton, owned a relatively small property adjacent to this site known as ‘Woodlands’.

Source: “Sutton Public School: 125 Years of Education, 1871-1996” by Rob Lord.

Have you lived in or near Sutton? Please share your memories.

Laggan Roads and Transport

2011-07-26T10:20:00.001+10:00

"Resting Place" by EM Todkill (2005)

Early roads from Goulburn to Tuena – one went via Kingsdale, Sooley, Mt Wayo, Woodhouselee, Laggan and Peelwood. The other went via Mt Wayo, Pejar, Crookwell, Binda and Junction Point.

Mining machinery and boilers were hauled by bullock teams through Laggan to the Tuena goldfields. Roads were in very poor condition and became almost impassable after heavy rain and snow.

Laggan Hotel by John Immig (2005)

There were Inns all along the way. The trip from Goulburn to Laggan took 4 days: Day 1, Goulburn to Kingsdale; Day 2, Kingsdale to Mt Wayo; Day 3, Mt Wayo to Woodhouselee; Day 4, over the range at McAlister to Laggan.

In 1878 Laggan-Taralga Road was surveyed.

Source: “1850s Laggan: Historic Wheat Growing Area”. Tourism brochure, c.2000

Were your ancestors ‘on the road’ around Laggan? Please share their memories.

Policing the Southern Districts

2011-07-20T12:07:00.000+10:00

During the penal period and early days in New South Wales, Goulburn was a garrison town. Early settlement doubtless had occurred in the district before the area was properly explored. Towards the latter part of the 1820s the Colonial Secretary and Surveyor-General were actively engaged in correspondence and development of the area.

On the 29th June 1829 the Surveyor-General communicated to the Colonial Secretary that the Governor had approved of the area to be known as the ‘Goulburn Plains’ and district of ‘Argyle’. Historical records show that Lieutenant McAlister was the Commander of the 2nd Division of the Mounted Police stationed at Goulburn Plains on 16th October 1830 by General Order of His Excellency, Governor Darling. From early 1830 to the latter part of the century, serving Police were mainly soldiers from English Regiments. The Police strength was shown as: Mounted Police – One Captain, One Sergeant, Fourteen Troopers and One Dismounted Trooper – Goulburn. Many of their day-to-day duties were associated with ‘summons-serving’, ‘loitering around hotels’, ‘impounding goats’ and ‘lagging drunkards to watch houses’.

Mounted Trooper Herbert Germer,
(c.1912) joined the New South Wales
Police Force on 1 June 1911 and
was transferred to Goulburn as a
Mounted Trooper late in 1913
where he worked until 1915.

About the mid 1800s, armed robbers and bushrangers were active in the Goulburn, Breadalbane, Collector and Braidwood areas, and naturally the Police were encouraged to direct their efforts to the ‘protection of life and property’.

Source: Souvenir Program - The NSW Police Academy Attestation Parade: Ceremony of Conferring the Freedom of the City of Goulburn on The NSW Police Academy and the Goulburn Police (23 April 1986).

Has anyone in your family history served in the NSW Police Force? Please share their memories.

Longreach or Brayton?

2011-07-14T09:33:00.001+10:00

Why the name Brayton?

When the first Post Office opened on 1st July 1862, it was on the property ‘Longreach’ and was named after this historic property. The Post Office retained the name Longreach even after the next Post Office building was opened on ‘Barfoots’.

This continued until 15th November 1913 when, with the establishment of a telephone office, it was decided by the residents of the area to call the Post Office ‘Brayton’, this being the name of the property on which the office was established. The reason given for the change of names was that ‘Longreach’ was being confused with its namesake in Queensland.

The strip of land is the area surrounding the Brayton Cemetery. When the Post Office was transferred to a building on ‘Glenraven’ it retained the name of Brayton. Mr Lacey said the property ‘Brayton’ was so named by his great grandmother in honour of her girlhood friend Lily Brayton. Lily Brayton was quite a well known English actress and the Lacey family have an enchanting photograph taken when she was appearing as Katharina in the ‘Taming of the Shrew’.

After the war, Lily Brayton’s photo appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald under the heading “Grandpa’s Pin-Up Girls”.

The name of Lily Brayton lives on in the Brayton area and certainly adds glamour to what is now a quiet rural setting.

Source: author unknown, from a series of articles on Brayton, held in the Regional History Room of Goulburn Library.

Does anyone in your family have recollections of Brayton? Please share their memories.

Apex Club of Goulburn founders

2011-07-05T12:50:00.001+10:00

Goulburn Apex Club
AMP Building (courtyard)
late 1937 or early 1938

This photo shows most foundation members (Geoff Williams absent), and including some of the early appointees.

Back Row: Eric Parton (KIA), Alan Raynham, Eric Bouchier, ? non-member, Darcy Pauley, Laurie Claire, Alan Weeks, Frank Gulson, Jim Tustian, Laurie Craig, George Brown.

Seated: John Ohlback, Bob Worthington, George Spence, Mick Broadhead, Frank Weeden, Hal Freckelton, Ted McGilvray (KIA), Jim Byrne, John Drummond.

Front Row: Harold Lees, Allan Gulson, Max Hay, Earle Johnson, Don Robertson, Tom Chisholm.

Source: Apex Club Archives, held Goulburn Library

Was anyone in your family associated with the Apex Clubs of Goulburn? Please share your memories.

Charles Allalook, Tarago Storekeeper

2011-06-27T09:45:00.004+10:00

In the 1800s and early 1900s an illiterate Indian man, Charles Allalook, known as Rahm At Khan kept a general store at Tarago.

He was well respected in the district for his honesty and a story goes that once when he couldn’t remember who he sold a bag of sugar to he added it to all the accounts he sent out for the following month and about 50 people paid for the sugar.

Allalook's Store, Tarago (undated)

There was possibly a boot makers business in the left hand side of the building as the man on the extreme left seems to be holding a shoe and a hammer.

Later he retired from the store and became a hawker. He was said to be a very good cook, washing his hands every few minutes. When killing a fowl to cook he would say a prayer over it, what is possibly now known as halal.

In 1929, aged about 75 he was given a farewell banquet in his honour on his departure on an overseas trip to India, Singapore, Java and England.

On his return he went to live in Sydney where he died on 7th October 1935 at 563 Elizabeth Street. He was buried in the Mohammedan section of Rookwood Cemetery. He never married. His cousin, Moonsie Khan, a farmer of Lake Bathurst survived him.

Article and photo provided by Tom Bryant.

Does anyone in your family remember Charles Allalook or the Khan family of Tarago? Do you have any idea what the letters S.P.Q.R or S.P.O.R seen on the roof of the building may mean? Please share your memories.

Goulburn Lands Office

2011-06-17T10:51:00.001+10:00

Old Goulburn Lands Office

The Lands Office in Goulburn was originally in Foxall’s buildings in Auburn Street. In 1887 a new courthouse was completed, and when alterations (variously reported to have cost £400 and £1000) were completed in 1888 the old courthouse became the Lands Office. The staff from the Cooma Office was transferred to Goulburn, which had been a ‘one man office’. The District Surveyor at Goulburn, Edward Twynam, was appointed Surveyor General in 1887.

The old courthouse had been designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis in the Greek Revival style and built in 1849. Dormer windows … were probably constructed during the renovation of 1888, [and] cast a bright, even light into the old drafting room.

The Lands Office is now in the State Office Building, Auburn Street.

The Goulburn District was an area of early pastoral settlement, but later in the century was upheld as an example of successful closer settlement. Thousands of ruined small farmhouses, overgrown with roses or blackberries, signify the failure of many of these small holders in drought or depression. Miles Franklin, who grew up near Goulburn, writes with strong feeling of the way of life of the Australian ‘peasant’ in her novel My Brilliant Career. Franklin contrasts the Romantic liberty of the pastoral runs of Bruggabong and Caddagat with the misery and hardship of the drought stricken small farm of Possum Gully. She strongly suggests that the agricultural peasants of the Old World have been re-created in Australia, by the Selection Acts.

Source: The Crown Lands Office Centenary Sketchbook by Ian Marr (1985).

Image: Former Court House and later Crown Lands Office Goulburn (c1900)

Were your ancestors land transactions influenced by closer settlement and the Selection Acts of the 1800s? Please share their history.

Charles Ledger's Alpacas

2011-06-08T10:46:00.002+10:00

Charles Ledger c.1852

As early as 1803, Governor King had suggested introducing llamas. However, there were no serious attempts to farm these animals until 1853, when Charles Ledger suggested their introduction. Ledger proposed that as alpacas (Lama pacos) thrive at elevations of 14,000 to 16,000 feet in Peru the species would do well in the Monaro Plains of New South Wales. He discussed the proposition to introduce both llamas and alpacas with the Governor, Sir Charles Fitz Roy. Thomas Sutcliffe Mort was a successful businessman in Sydney who had an interest in textiles and could see that the blending of cotton, silk, and alpaca would enhance the future of the wool industry. Mort supported Ledger in his efforts and delivered a paper on the Alpaca to the Australian Society in 1857. Ledger claimed that he was promised a grant of 10,000 acres if he could bring 100 alpacas into the colony. In order to get the animals he had to evade the ban placed by the Peruvian Government on their export. Ledger assembled a mixed herd of approximately 600 alpacas and llamas in Peru, near the border of Bolivia. He drove the herd overland to Argentina, then on over the Andes mountains in Chile. The journey was fraught with difficulties and many of the animals were lost during the trek and during a severe snowstorm in the Andes. Ledger arrived at Copiapo, on the Chile coast, with 336 of his original herd. He shipped these on the Salvatore and eventually reached Sydney with 276.

Unfortunately for Ledger, by the time he arrived back in Sydney, alpacas had been introduced in Victoria in 1853 and by Titus Salt to South Australia in 1857 and 1858. Ledger’s animals were now old news to the populace.

On arrival, Ledger’s animals were turned out in the Sydney Domain, then transferred to Liverpool and finally to Wingello, near Goulburn. By 1861 the herd had increased to 417. The Government purchased the whole flock for £15,000, one of the conditions being that Ledger would be appointed superintendent of the flock. Ledger, who was unable to conform with public-service book-keeping methods, was dismissed, although he managed the flock successfully. After Ledger’s dismissal, sheep scab appeared in the animals, followed by severe losses. During the 1862 and 1863 drought, in which 200 of the camelids died, the Government decided to disband the flock and offered llamas and alpacas for sale, eventually giving them away to graziers.

Source: The Australian Ark: A History of Domesticated Animals in Australia by Ian Parsonson (1998).
Image: Arthursleigh: A History of the Property 1819 to 1979 by Chrissy Fletcher (2002)

Has anyone in your family been involved in alpaca farming in the Southern Tablelands? Please share their experiences.

ANZAC Day

2011-04-19T11:39:00.001+10:00

ANZAC was the name given to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey early on the morning of 25 April 1915 during the First World War (1914-1918). As a result, one day in the year has involved the whole of Australia in solemn ceremonies of remembrance, gratitude and national pride for all our men and women who have fought and died in all wars. That day is ANZAC Day - 25 April.

Unidentified military
unit at
Aerodrome, Egypt
Feb 29, 1916

The 25th of April was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916. It was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services in Australia, a march through London, and a sports day in the Australian camp in Egypt. In London over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched through the streets. A London newspaper headline dubbed them “the knights of Gallipoli”. Marches were held all over Australia; in the Sydney march, convoys of cars carried wounded soldiers from Gallipoli attended by nurses. For the remaining years of the war, ANZAC Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns, and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in most cities.

During the 1920s ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the 60,000 Australians who had died during the war. In 1927, for the first time every state observed some form of public holiday on ANZAC Day. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of ANZAC Day culture.

Goulburn's ANZAC Day
celebrations, 1917

With the coming of the Second World War, ANZAC Day also served to commemorate the lives of Australians who died in that war. In subsequent years the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include Australians killed in all the military operations in which Australia has been involved.

Information sources:

ANZAC Day at http://www.anzacday.org.au/ – ANZAC Day Commemoration committee (Qld) Inc.
The ANZAC Day Tradition at www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.asp - Australian War Memorial .

Our photo of servicemen in Egypt from the Southern Tablelands Regional Library’s collection, is otherwise unidentified. The name L Missak or Missan (the photographer?) does not appear in the Australian War Memorial’s biographical databases. Maybe these soldiers are part of a British unit? Can you help us identify these men? Please share your memories.

Taralga and its Wind Farm

2011-04-12T09:52:00.002+10:00

Taralga is located on the Southern Tablelands of NSW in Upper Lachlan Shire, about 3 hours south-west of Sydney, and 40km north of Goulburn. The first known visit to the Taralga region by white men was by Charles Throsby in 1819, who was journeying to Bathurst in search of new grazing land. By the 1820s Macarthur’s son James and nephew Hannibal had established themselves in the region. An 1828 census revealed a small number of residents in Taralga and the township started expanding in the 1850s. Schools, churches, stores and public houses began to appear over the next 20 years, and many of these buildings still remain today. For this reason, Taralga village was listed on the National Trust of Australia register in 1981, in which the impression of the town was described as one of ‘buildings within landscape’. The population of Taralga has fluctuated from 100 residents in 1863, to 723 residents in 1891, to half that number following the depression of the 1890s. Today the population stands at about 350 residents. Upper Lachlan Shire is strongly rural in character and agriculture has been a feature of the economy; however major shifts have been occurring towards new agricultural ventures and it is becoming a popular destination for retirees and those wishing for a lifestyle change.

The Crookwell Wind Farm
built on 'Wharekarori'
was the first for the Upper Lachlan Shire

In November 2004 a wind energy development company, RES Southern Cross, lodged a Development Application (DA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with Upper Lachlan Shire Council. RES Southern Cross were proposing to construct a 69 turbine wind farm at Taralga, though they later downsized this to 62 turbines as they did not have landowner consent for 7 of the turbines. These turbines would be located along ridgelines 3-7km to the east of the Taralga village stretching for 11 km north to south on privately owned rural properties. 11 properties would be within 1km of a turbine, with 7 being properties hosting a turbine.

In December 2004 the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning announced that all wind farms with more than 30 turbines would be declared State Significant and subject to his determination, and directed the Upper Lachlan Council to refer the Taralga DA to the Minister. The DA and EIS were publicly exhibited until 31 January 2005, and 218 submissions were received from the public and interest groups. 165 of these submissions objected to the project, 30 supported the project and 23 raised concerns but did not state a clear position of objection or support. Additionally, two petitions were received including one objecting to the project, signed by 138 people, and one supporting the project, signed by 168 people. In January 2006 the Minister granted approval for a 54 turbine wind farm, having assessed that 8 of the turbines would have unacceptable visual amenity impacts.

The proposal created significant discussion and conflict within the community. A group of local residents who objected to the wind farm formed a local action group called Taralga Landscape Guardians (TLG) and appealed to the Land and Environment Court against the Minister’s approval. The appeal was based on 3 central issues; visual impacts, noise impacts and impacts to flora and fauna. In February 2007 the Court rules that the wind farm could go ahead subject to conditions, granting consent for the original 62 turbine proposal and allowing an increase from 2MW capacity turbines to 3MW capacity turbines. In his ruling the judge suggested that resolving the conflict between the concerns of the TLG and the broader public good of increasing the supply of renewable energ6y had not been easy, but that ‘the broader public good must prevail’.

Source: “Community Perceptions of Wind Power and the Role of Community Ownership” by Alison O’Neill pp.12-13.

Are you a member of Taralga Landscape Guardians? Have you been fighting for or against the various windfarm proposals in and around the Southern Tablelands? Please share your memories.

Tanning and Tanneries

2011-04-04T15:05:00.001+10:00

From an Industrial Survey in 1960 …

The latest figures … show that the abattoirs produce about 36,000 cattle skins per annum. It is, therefore, feasible to consider the establishment of a tannery to process these skins. The skins belong to the owners of the beasts; a local tannery could not, therefore, expect to buy them all owing to prior arrangements and affiliations of the owners. However, a fair sized tannery could be established provided it was able to purchase a substantial proportion of the skins, and it would employ about 40 or 50 operatives.

Baxter's Tannery, c1952

Mr Harold Baxter has stated that his Company has not any intention of restarting their tannery, but the shoe factory would offer a ready market for hides provided they were of the required quality. Its present requirements are approximately 25,000 whole hides per annum.

The labour force of a tannery is almost exclusively male, which could present some problems particularly as tanning is not considered a very popular industry. There is not a great deal of skill required by operatives; the necessary ‘know-how’ is mainly vested in supervision and executives.

There are two types of tanning, namely chrome tanning and wattle bark tanning. The former process is used for uppers and the latter for soles. The equipment is only to a certain extent interchangeable, but the capital cost of establishment would be substantial. It is, therefore, recommended that the larger tanners in Sydney and Melbourne be approached, and it would be necessary for them to import their key personnel. It is felt that an attractive proposition could be presented emphasising the local source of skins and a market for hides actually in existence in Goulburn.

Derelict tannery building
Gibson St, Goulburn
prior demolition c.1994

Wattle bark used to be quite an important forest product in the area. Sales from Tallaganda Shire in 1955 were valued at £20,000. There should be no difficulty in obtaining local supplies for a Goulburn tannery.

Factories normally concentrate on making either heavy leathers, such as sole or strap leathers, or else on light leathers such as upper leather and calf. Only about ten establishments in Australia make both heavy and light leathers.

Source: Industrial Survey of the City of Goulburn (1960) pp.43-45.

Photos: Baxter’s Tannery, c.1952; Old tannery, Gibson St, Goulburn c.1994.

Was anyone in your family a tanner? Please share their memories.

Tirranna Picnic Races

2011-03-29T10:58:00.001+11:00

George Lambert's untitled oil on canvas painting of the
Tirranna Picnic Race Meeting (1929)

The Tirranna Picnic Race Club was set up in the 1850s, most likely in 1855, because, although the Silver Jubilee meeting was held in 1876, The Golden Jubilee (50 years) was celebrated in 1905. It is possible that evidence of the year of origin was brought to light later. So we will assume 1855 to be the beginning of what seems to be the most enduring as well as one of the most highly esteemed picnic race clubs in Australian history. This is not just because of its continuity or even the high social position of its guests, but for the quality of the horses competing there over the years. There is in existence a famous painting by GW Lambert ARA entitled ‘Tirranna Races’ which has done much to publicize this old club.

Tirranna is one of three original properties on the Braidwood Road a few miles from Goulburn. It was taken up by Dr Andrew Gibson in 1827 and is still occupied by the Gibson family today. And for the 150 years the Gibsons have been associated with blood horses and racing, both in Goulburn and Tirranna. The old racecourse is overgrown and too soft to race on now. Today the Club, now the Tirranna Polo and Picnic Race Club, have their annual race meeting a few miles further along the road to ‘Springfield’.

1872 was a vintage year. The Railway was through to Goulburn and many visitors from Sydney attended. It was also Prodigal’s year. He was Goulburn’s horse of the seventies, and soon nation wide was to be hailed as the successor to the great Jorrocks. Prodigal, like Jorrocks before him, suffered from lesser animals taking his name and their defeats being attributed to the real Prodigal.

Source: Kings For A Day: The Story of One Hundred and Fifty Years of Horse Racing in Goulburn and District (1988) by John Bartley.

George Lambert’s Tirranna Picnic Race Meeting oil on canvas painting is held in the University of Melbourne Art Collection (www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/frameworkresources.ashx/Articles/16/PdfFileName/797D6DDDB10C584A581B84DFFA31BA30/05_Lambert.pdf).

The Springfield Collection in Canberra’s National Museum is also a source of interesting material, including a photo at www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=74910 , and a recent posting via their ‘Landmarks’ blog at http://nma.gov.au/blogs/landmarks/2011/02/21/garments-and-grasses .

Does your family have any recollections or family stories about the Tirranna Picnic Races? Please share these memories.

Burrinjuck Dam Centenary Celebrations 2009

2011-03-21T09:35:00.003+11:00

Burrinjuck's Churches

Charlie Rice's house c1937

From the Yass Tribune, 26 Nov 2008 …

Punt builders, 1937

Next year [2009] marks 100 years since work started on Burrinjuck Dam, a structure that sparked huge economic and population growth, totally transforming the Murrumbidgee valley. State Water Corporation (http://www.statewater.com.au/) is inviting former dam workers and the local community to join events planned for October 2009 to mark the 100th anniversary, including a commemorative service for the people who died during the 19 year construction project and secondary works. As the state’s first irrigation dam – and the world’s fourth largest at the time – Burrinjuck dam’s construction drew thousands of workers to the Yass area and once completed in 1928, supplied the burgeoning Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Many of the immigrants who worked on the project went on to establish the intensive farming for which the MIA is nationally renowned, fuelling prosperity and the growth of population centres like Wagga, Griffith, Leeton and Narrandera.

Sheds - note the tree growing through the middle!

... The launch of celebrations began the process of acknowledging the historic and significant asset, the people who built it, operational staff – past and present – and of remembering those who sadly lost their lives in its construction.

Does your family have any memories of the building of the dam and its later reconstruction phase, or of the more recent Centenary Celebrations? Please share these memories.

In the words of the Governess ...

2011-03-16T09:51:00.002+11:00

The pioneer group of six governesses sent to Australia by Miss Maria Rye prior to the formation of the FMCES [Female Middle Class Emigration Society] scheme, arrived in Sydney on 20 September 1861. As one was to write, Sydney was then nearing the seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundation … Its population of about 95,000 lived in the city and in the surrounding suburbs … Farther out were the villages …

At the time the governesses arrived, education in New South Wales was a haphazard affair. There were five systems, one National (Government) and four denominational (Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist), all receiving some government funds, but educating, in all, fewer than half the children of school age. There were also many hundreds of small private schools of variable quality. Many middle- and upper-class children were educated at home, but in the poorer parts of Sydney and the newly settled farming districts, large numbers of children received no schooling.

… The first group of FMCES governesses arrived … in high hopes that their services would be in great demand. The group – Emily Streeter, Georgiana Mounsdon, Ellen Ireland, Gertrude Gooch, Mary Phillips and Miss Butterfield – had left England just over three months earlier aboard the Rachel. The reception the governesses received was not what they had expected … Mary Phillips, regarded by [fellow governess] Gertrude Gooch as ignorant and the worst sort of person to go to Australia, wrote from Cooper (Cowper?) Street Goulburn on 16 June 1862. Commenting on an article that appeared in the London Times on the work of the FMCES, Mary Phillips wrote to Miss Rye:

… the Times I think was right, there is no opening here for a number of educated Females – a few who have friends may do very well. I know from my own experiences that anyone coming here without friends must fare very badly. Had it not been for my friend Mr Pearce (who still continues his kind interest in me) and with whom I stayed five weeks before I obtained a suitable engagement, I should have felt deep regret for the step I had been persuaded in taking. … [Bishop Barker] was absent at the time of our arrival, but my friend introduced me to his Lordship immediately on his return and as I was going to Goulburn to undertake the duties of teaching, which engagement I obtained by answering an advertisement in the Sydney Herald, his Lordship gave me an introduction to the Revd Sowerby [first Anglican clergyman in Goulburn], and … one to the Revd Leigh [curate in Goulburn 1858-1864, assigned to country work in the Crookwell, Binda, Taralga and Lake Bathurst districts]; from the latter I have received the greatest kindness, the situation I had taken proving a most miserable affair and I leaving after a stay of three weeks. Mrs Leigh invited me to stay with her and after a pleasant week spent with her she obtained me an engagement which I am now filling and still bears a kind regard for me.

I am now acquainted with all the Goulburn Society and have a few friends to whom I am attached. So I may say I have been fortunate, but by all I hear from persons of considerable experience and good standing it is not advisable to send a number of Governesses out here, there really being no demand for them – in Sydney I can assure you the difficulty of obtaining an engagement appeared to me the same as in England and with regard to the voyage I must say that we were exceedingly uncomfortable … the fare being bad and the house constantly wet from the time we rounded the Cape. ... by the manner His Lordship expressed himself at the interview I had with him, I do not think he would advise any more being sent out as we were.

The remaining member in the first group to write to the Society, Ellen Ireland, seemed the least able to cope with life in a new country. She was often sick and at one stage spent some months … being nursed back to health. Her first letter, dated 18 February 1862, was written from Newcastle, where she was employed.

… I went to Goulburn first and glad I was to get away from there. I never met such rude children in all my life. The Bishop [Barker] and his wife visited that City while I was there and I was introduced to them by the Rev Leigh, Clergyman there, at a public Meeting and Mrs Barker called on me before they left Goulburn; they were very kind indeed …

Do not, Miss Rye, send any more ladies out Second Class. I shall never forget the passage in my life and when we arrived no one to meet us …

Her last letter was written more than a year later, on 20 August 1863, from Market Square, Goulburn.

This was my first engagement when I came to Goulburn, but the Children were so unmanageable I was obliged to leave. Since then, my health has been very bad, and Sydney does not agree with me at all, so I thought as Mrs Butler asked me to come back and told me the children were better, I would return to Goulburn. The climate is much like dear old England and Mr and Mrs Butler very kind people, so I trust to be able to remain … The Clergyman and his Wife are the only people here I visit … it is very cold, but I have a fire in my room morning, and night, Mrs Butler is so afraid of me having the croup again …

Ellen Ireland died, unmarried, on 6 October 1888 at Prince Henry Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney, of cerebral apoplexy at the age of fifty years and was buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Rookwood. On her death certificate, her occupation is given as governess. She had been born in London, the daughter of John Ireland, physician.

Source: The Governesses: Letters from the Colonies 1862-1882 by Patricia Clarke (1985).

Further information on the FMCES is available at http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0806fmces.html.

Have you had a governess in your family? Are you a descendent of one of the FMCES women? Do you know anything about the Butler family that provided employment for Ellen Ireland? Please share your family’s memories.

Bullamalita and Ovine Johne's Disease

2011-03-07T09:10:00.003+11:00

Of major concern in the sheep and wool industry is the rise of a condition known as Ovine Johne’s Disease or OJD. “Since Ovine Johne’s Disease (OJD) was found in Australia in 1980, it has proven to be a costly disease. It spreads slowly, is difficult to detect early on, reduces weight gain and wool production and can kill about 10% of adult sheep each year if left unmanaged … OJD is a wasting disease caused by the sheep strain of the bacterium Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, which grows mainly in the small intestine”.

From "Wool: The Australian Story"

Bob Peden’s Bullamalita Merino Stud near Goulburn is one such property that has been affected in the recent past by OJD – their experience was published in “Wool: The Australian Story” by Richard Woldendorp, Roger McDonald & Amanda Burdon (2003, p.128).

A factsheet with further information on OJD is available for download at: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/health/specific/sheep/ojd/about/ojd.

Has your family had to deal with OJD? Please share your experiences.

The Bells of St Saviour's

2011-02-28T10:59:00.003+11:00

St Saviours Cathedral c.1935

The Bell Tower at St Saviour’s [Goulburn] is a relatively recent addition to the main body of the Cathedral. For over 100 years the tower base stopped at a level halfway through the present bell ringing chamber – the junction between the new and the clean but weathered old stonework can still be seen. Although this tower and a spire above had been part of Edmund Blacket’s original design for the whole cathedral, no funds had been available. Then in 1984 the NSW Government allocated $1,000,000 as an Australian Bi-centenary grant to St Saviour’s for the tower and spire to be built. This, with other donations and fund-raising activities of about the same amount, was hoped to cover not only the construction costs but also a set or ring of 12 bells to be named after the 11 ships of the First Fleet from England, plus Captain Cook’s Endeavour.

St Saviours Cathedral, viewed from Montague Street
Photo by J Immig, 2001

Unexpected underpinning of the existing tower foundations increased early construction cost estimates … the tower was completed but there was no money for purchasing bells. [With a new round of fundraising] a ring of 8 bells from the Church of St Mark in Leicester, England … were bought. One was re-cast to become the Supply by its original makers, Taylor Foundry of Loughborough, and retuned; the other seven each had new names inscribed on the outsides and all were re-hung in St Saviour’s. With much Anglican Pageantry, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie hallowed the bells and named them Sirius, Alexander, Scarborough, Charlotte, Prince of Wales, Lady Penrhyn, Friendship and Supply in March 1988. The finally completed tower (albeit without spire but including bells) was opened and dedicated in November 1988. Since then a further two bells, Fishburn and Golden Grove have been donated by the Rev Terry O’Brien and installed – and hopes are high that a full ring of 12 bells will be hung in due course.

Source: Sounds in High Places: featuring musical sounds in three of Goulburn’s Heritage Buildings, Saturday 13 March, 2004. Text by David Penalver.

Click here for more information about the history of St Saviours Cathedral and its bells.

Did you attend the service of the Hallowing of the Bells at St Saviour’s? Are you a bellringer? Please share your memories.

Family Relationships

2011-02-21T12:02:00.001+11:00

Belonging to a family

Oh, Lord: help me. If you don’t, I’ll ask my uncle in New York.

Jewish folk saying.

Families are based on kinship; members belong by blood (birth), by affinity (marriage), or through the courts (adoption). In adoption, the adoptee becomes a legally accepted member of the biological family with the same rights of inheritance as a person born to the family. One exception may be the inheritance of an ancestral estate which, by prior will or entail, must descend to a “blood” relative.

Some families extend a special affection to special friends under the umbrella of “fictive kinship”. These people are treated with deference and respect even to the point of using familial terms when addressing them [eg Uncle or Aunt].

Sometimes a person lives with a family but isn’t a member by blood, marriage, or adoption. In this situation, the designation is “foster-child” or “foster-parent”. (Technically, the term “parent” is reserved for one’s mother and father, but general usage has enlarged the meaning to include grandmother and grandfather, and others acting in the parental stead).

Some primitive societies, in their innate wisdom, made use of foster relationships by traditionally sending children to live with maternal or paternal uncles and aunts. The idea seemed to be that by removing the emotional anxiety felt by the natural parents, the child more easily matured.

Source: “Kinship: It’s All Relative” by Jackie Smith Arnold (2000), p.25.

Oallen Ford Bridge

2011-02-16T10:08:00.001+11:00

Up until 1934 the road between Windellama and Nerriga could not be used on a regular basis due to the condition of Oallen Ford crossing. There was no bridge over the Shoalhaven River then and when the water level was too high a detour had to be made via Braidwood.

Dredge at Oallen Ford

The matter of a bridge came before Mulwaree Shire Council on a number of occasions but as it was on the border with Tallaganda Shire and the proximity to Nerriga it was felt it was more a matter for Tallaganda Shire.

James Dunn of Nerriga and others put a petition to the councils and in early 1934 an often heated meeting was held on the banks of the Shoalhaven River near the crossing. Following the meeting and representations to the NSW. government the go ahead was given to build a bridge. The cost of £1600 being funded by a grant of £1000 and the remainder of the cost to be divided between the two shire councils.

The designs were drawn up by the Engineers of the two councils and Mr. J. Harrison the Mulwaree Shire engineer supervised the work on the bridge. The bridge is of five spans and over 120 tons of concrete was used for the piers. Due to there being no hold ups in the construction because of bad weather the cost of the bridge was just over £1430.

For years the crossing of the Shoalhaven River was a risky endeavour but the bridge opened up the road between not only Windellama and Nerriga but provided a road from Goulburn to the coast.

Over 200 district people were present for the official opening at 3 pm on 7 October 1935. The official party was made up of J.M. Tully and H.J. Bate MLA’s in the NSW. parliament, the Mayor of Goulburn Ald. T.P. Manion, President of Mulwaree Shire Cr. J.J. Walsh, Mayor of Braidwood Ald J.J. Roberts, President of Tallaganda council W.U. Alley, President of Clyde Council Cr. Boag and the Minister for Local Government Mr. E.S. Spooner.

Oallen Ford Bridge

After Mr. Spooner cut the blue ribbon and declared the bridge open a discussion was held to decide which car would be the first to drive over the newly opened bridge. While the party were making this decision a motor car could be heard in the distance and then a very travel stained old touring car came into view, bounced over the stones on the Nerriga side and rattled across the bridge without knowing the honour they had bestowed on themselves which would have had some people remembering the incident at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge a few years earlier. The occupants of the car were Mr. E. Shaw, Mr. C. Pryke, Mr. H. Alcock and Mr. T. Alcock all of Dumbleton who had been camping near Nerriga and were unaware of the new bridge or the opening ceremony.

After the opening ceremony a dinner was held at the Commercial Hotel at Nerriga followed by a dance, these two functions being organised by the Nerriga Progress Association.

References: Goulburn Evening Penny Post 8-10-1935 and 10-10-1935. Submitted by Tom Bryant 2011

Do you remember the Oallen Ford Bridge opening - was anyone from your family at the event? Please share these memories.

Cotta Walla-Third Creek and Pejar

2011-02-07T10:58:00.002+11:00

Portion of larger map by Jane Lyons, c.1995.

From Range to River:

Roughly east and south-east of Crookwell township lie the three small localities of Cotta Walla, Third Creek and Pejar. Now only local names, nevertheless, the three areas once held considerable significance in their own right. In particular the two districts of Cotta Walla and Pejar seem to have encompassed larger areas than the localities now known by those names. The small area known as Third Creek, so named because of its proximity to the creek of the same name, appears always to have been a kind of “buffer zone” between the two larger centres.

Nearest the township of Crookwell itself, Cotta Walla sits astride the Great Dividing Range at elevation of around 914 metres. Setting actual boundaries for any locality is difficult, suffice it to say that at the present time, Cotta Walla could be said to extend from near the township of Crookwell, to the Wollondilly river at Broken Bridge on the Roslyn Road, and then southwards down stream of that river toward “Lake Edward”. Cotta Walla has undoubtedly the most fertile soil of the three localities, … and … provides some of the best farming country in the Crookwell Shire.

Pejar Dam, following construction.
Photographer unknown, c.1980.

Adjoining Cotta Walla is the small area known as Third Creek, sandwiched in a narrow strip roughly between the Dividing Range and Middle Creek. Rising high on a plateau on top of the range, the Third Creek is the smallest of the three creeks which drain south into the Wollondilly, and in summer soon dries to become at the least a few spring fed water holes. Still fairly elevated, snowfalls are likely to be heavy as are the winter frosts. Dropping further down towards Pejar, snow falls are less frequent.

As the land falls away towards the Wollondilly, Pejar is drained by the Pejar Creek which rises towards Woodhouselee and flows into the river at the site of the Pejar Dam, and a number of creeks converge from north and west.

Original inhabitants:

Though there remains virtually no evidence of aborigines, the districts were no doubt visited by tribes before white settlement. It may be that the area was part of the territory of nomadic tribes who visited in summer and returned westward as winter approached, though Colin Gray in his history of the Gray family quotes family stories of ‘Pejar Aborigines’ in the 1830s and 1840s.

A little further west must have been close to the area frequented by the Wiradjuri tribe from whose language the name Grabben Gullen is said to have originated. This tribe roamed far to the west but whether they came as far east as Pejar or Third Creek is not known. The discover of a few stone axes in the Third Creek area indicates visits, perhaps in dry times as water would have been available from springs in the area.

Information source: From Range to River: History of Cotta Walla-Third Creek and Pejar by Stuart William Leary (1997).
Map: Crookwell and District Touring Map designed by Jane Lyons, Crookwell Design Studio for the Crookwell Shire Tourist & Promotion Association, c.1995.
Image: Pejar Dam (post-construction) c.1980 – view looking north-west, where the Crookwell Road heads through the Third Creek and Cotta Walla areas toward Crookwell.

Do you have family connections in the Cotta Walla, Third Creek or Pejar areas? Please share your memories.

Richard Bull of Windellama

2011-02-01T09:09:00.002+11:00

OUR FIRST POST MASTER

Richard Bull's ornate headstone
St Saviours Cemetery,
Goulburn

The first Post Master at Windellama was Richard Bull, a farmer at Windellama. The location of the farm has not been established. He only operated the Post Office for about eight months when Mrs. Cartwright took over.

On 24 January 1864 Richard went out to round up his cows when the dogs startled a kangaroo. He gave chase and coming near a tree with a low branch he tried to pass on the other side but the horse swerved to the side where the branch was.

The Branch struck the unfortunate Richard in the abdomen flinging him to the ground. Dr. Waugh of Goulburn was sent for but there was nothing that could be done and Richard died at 1 p.m. the following day. He was buried in the old St. Saviours cemetery at Goulburn, his grave being marked by a carved headstone.

Richard was born in 1833 at Liverpool into a large family, his parents being John and Mary Bull. He was married in 1855 to Maria Rowley of Liverpool. They had 5 children, John Thomas born 1856, Richard N born 1858, Sydney E born 1860 (died 1862), Charles F born 1862 and the last one, Mary L was born a few months after Richard died.

For a number of years Richard’s brother John Bull operated the “Carriers Arms” Inn in Grafton Street, Goulburn.

After Richard’s death Maria and her children moved back to her parents at Liverpool where she died in 1873.

References:
* Goulburn Evening Penny Post
* Goulburn Monumental Inscriptions
* NSW Birth, Death and Marriage Index

Contributed by Tom Bryant (7-9-2000)

Do you have any family connection to the Bull brothers, Richard or John? Please share your family's memories.

Wakefield Park

2011-01-24T15:16:00.002+11:00

Photos by John Immig (2005)

Can you shed any light on the people, the vehicles, the buildings or any of the features seen in this series of images? Please share your memories.

Baw Baw Public School 1892

2011-01-18T09:08:00.001+11:00

Teacher: Mr Fitzell.

The school burnt down in 1910.

Source: Photo and information kindly donated to the Library by Mervyn Rixon.

Do you know anything about the building or the students of Baw Baw Public School? Please share your memories.

Goulburn Liedertafel - 100th concert

2011-01-10T11:09:00.005+11:00

On 7 October 1912, Goulburn Liedertafel celebrated its 21st birthday by presenting its 100th performance in the form of a grand Concert. In the Souvenir Booklet produced for the occasion, the Society looked back on its first 21 years …

Goulburn Liedertafel 1891-1912

by WA MacDonald.

On the 4th of May 1891, the following advertisement appeared in the local newspapers:

GOULBURN LIEDERTAFEL

Liedertafel Hall 1912

Intending members of the above are requested to attend the meeting to be held in the Mechanics’ Institute on Wednesday, the 6th May, at 8 pm. Business – enrolment of members, appointment of officers, adoption of rules, etc. GH DOUBLEDAY, Hon. Sec. pro tem.

There were about 15 persons present, Mr J W Deering being in the chair. The motion that a musical society be established on the lines of the Sydney Liedertafel, to be called the Goulburn Liedertafel was carried. A Provisional Committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs H Gaskell, JG Holloway, E Quartly, JT Cox, and FE Whatley, with Mr GH Doubleday as Honorary Secretary.

Miss Heagen and Miss Oliver 1919

From this modest beginning there has grown up the Goulburn Liedertafel, a Society which probably takes rank as the foremost of the provincial musical societies of Australasia. It has now completed 21 years of unbroken existence, and will give its 100th concert on Monday, 7th October 1912, a record of which it is truly proud.

The Liedertafel continues today as the Lieder Theatre Company (www.liedertheatre.com), and lays claim to being the longest running theatre company in Australia. In their current historic premises, they have been performing plays and musical theatre since 1929. More recently, an enthusiastic Lieder Youth Theatre Company, under the direction of Chrisjohn Hancock, nurtures upcoming talent – providing a troupe of artistes who not only perform on-stage, but also support a host of other community activities and events such as the Lilac Festival, with stilt walking and street-theatre.

Sources:
* Goulburn Liedertafel Souvenir 100th Concert October 7th 1912
* Goulburn Lieder Theatre Company – http://www.liedertheatre.com/
Photos:
* Souvenir booklet 100th concert
* Liedertafel Hall 1912
* Miss Heagen and Miss Oliver, 1919
* Liedertafel orchestra 1912

The Orchestra - 100th Concert
Goulburn Liedertafel

Have you or anyone else in your family been involved in Lieder Theatre productions in any way – either on- or off-stage. Please share your memories.

Bourke Street Public School, Goulburn

2011-01-04T14:31:00.001+11:00

A Touching Tribute

Schoolchildren Show Love For Departed Teacher

When Miss Catherine Tracy, the beloved teacher of the infants in the Goulburn (Bourke-st) Public School, died, her pupils mourned her sincerely.

To-day a beautiful marble cross stands over her last resting-place in the Kenmore cemetery. It is the loving gift of the little ones.

The memorial, which bears the inscription “Erected by the pupils of the Goulburn Public School to the memory of their teacher, Miss Catherine Tracy,” is surrounded by a marble coping. It was erected during the holidays and neither Mrs Tracy or her daughters were informed of the fact. When they visited the grave last week they found the cross in place and were overcome with feelings of the deepest gratitude.

It is understood that Mr Wigg, Principal of the School and the staff, took an active part in the work of raising the necessary funds, which were subscribed by the children.

Source: “Goulburn Evening Penny Post”, Thursday 10 January 1924.

Was anyone in your family involved in placing the memorial to much-loved teacher Mrs Catherine Tracy? Please share your family’s memories.

Librarians love Christmas cheer too!

2010-12-21T09:05:00.004+11:00

Our Ghosts of Christmas Past

Who said librarians were boring? Southern Tablelands Regional Library staff have always enjoyed a bit of Christmas fun! Here is a nostalgic look at some of our Library's current and former staff from parties over the last ??? years.

Can you remember any of these staff members? Would you know what years the parties may have been held?

Please share your memories

Southern Tablelands Regional Library staff would like to extend our best wishes to all library clients, fellow workers, friends and family. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a healthy happy New Year.

Gold at Rose Lagoon

2010-12-13T09:46:00.001+11:00

THE NEW GOLD-FIELD AT ROSE LAGOON

We have recently seen the parties who have been sinking shafts and prospecting in the neighbourhood of Rose Lagoon. Two gentlemen in particular, of considerable experience in these matters (an experience gleaned in California and Victoria), assure us that the country round about there has a highly auriferous appearance, presenting all the indications that are to be observed wherever large deposits of the precious metal is found to have existed. There has not as yet been any particular instance of success, but the gold appears in such regular, though small quantities as to leave very little doubt but that there is sufficient to be found here to reward the zealous and enterprising who may venture to this locality. We would recommend parties proceeding there to go well prepared with implements of labour and rations sufficient for about a month’s sojourn. The large reward that is about to be offered for the discovery of gold in this district should also operate as a stimulant to the greatest exertions.

Source: Goulburn Herald 14 October 1854.

Rose Lagoon, also known as Rowes Lagoon, is located 8km north-east of Collector and can be seen on the southern side of the Federal Highway when heading to Canberra from Goulburn.

Do you have any family stories about the finding of gold around Rose Lagoon? Do you have any other information or photos of this fascinating spot? Please share your memories.

Goulburn's Soap-box Derby

2010-12-07T14:02:00.009+11:00

"Tustian" and "Jaybee Salon", c.1945
Photo from Apex Club archives

"Gulson Special" c.1945
photo from
Goulburn Apex Club archives

Soap-box or billy cart derbies were a popular pastime in post-World War II Goulburn. The local Apex Club held annual events, and these titles were hotly contested. No humble billy carts here! These street racers were purpose-built, often by father and son teams. The contests were noisy with fascinated crowds cheering on their favourites, as seen in these images from the Apex Club archives (c.1945) and former school teacher, Doug Paine (1951).

ANZAC Day, 1951
photo by Doug Paine

Were you or anyone else in your family involved in a Soap-box derby? Did you help to build a billy cart for the race, or cheer on your favourite racer? Please share your memories.

ANZAC Day Soap-box Derby, 1951
photo by Doug Paine

Taralga Railway

2010-12-01T09:25:00.001+11:00

Branch line planning map 1922

With the spreading of the population in NSW in the mid to late 1800s, the movement of produce became more difficult – many roads were poor and often impassable in wet weather. Travelling time was long as the mode of transport was either horse or oxen drawn, and costly. Distances were long and as the population moved further from the coast, they grew even longer.

With the introduction of the railway system it was obvious to those moving produce that they should get railway communication. Many committees representing towns and communities pressed the Government, often with the help of a Parliamentarian, for a railway.

Even some of the railway types varied from horse drawn to tramway or to a proper rail link. Many requests failed, some succeeded but were often too late. Taralga fitted into the latter category.

Timetable 1927

Taralga’s quest began early, such being the case because early construction of the line from Sydney was directed towards Goulburn. A branch line to Taralga was envisaged, particularly as Crookwell wanted railway communication as well.

Taralga was disappointed when the line was opened to Crookwell in 1901 and it took twenty five more years to achieve their link. By this time roads and road traffic had improved and the rail service ultimately became uneconomical for carriage of goods and passengers. Closure became inevitable and thirty years after cessation of services, little remains of the line.

Source: History of Taralga Railway by R Scrymgeour (1987).
Images: Railway planning map, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, Sat Dec 30, 1922 and timetable for the Goulburn-Crookwell and Roslyn-Taralga lines, 1927 from History of Taralga Railway by R Scrymgeour (1987).

Do you remember the Taralga branch line? Do you have any images or stories of the stations, the people or the properties that would have been serviced by the trains travelling along it. Please share your memories.

Goldsmith Street, Goulburn

2010-11-22T11:45:00.003+11:00

Bluestone cottages and a Gothic church

Bluestone cottages,
by Cedric Emanuel (1975)

Nobody quite knows who built the bluestone cottages which nudge at the footpath, but James Sinclair is the most likely contender. The style of the cottages has been likened to those built by early convicts in Tasmania. Rough mortar in the walls provides a contrast in colour to the stone which is indigenous to the Goulburn area. Diminutive front doors and small-paned windows suggest a time when occupiers stepped off the street into a best front room and the soft light of a tallow lamp.

Moses Beard was the publican of the Bridge Hotel, and in the 1850s lived in the terraces which were known as Beard’s Cottages. In the garden at the back, his pump was one of three which supplied town water. Householders lined up for their supplies and, if they wanted it delivered by water cart, the cost was ninepence a cask.

Methodist Church, c.1930

Named after a pioneer Methodist lay preacher, Goldsmith Street did not flourish until the 1870s. The Methodist Church, resplendent in Gothic style with the tower and spire beloved of the Victorian era, dwarfs the lecture hall built by the congregation of 1848.

Source: “Goulburn Sketchbook” (1975). Drawings by Cedric Emanuel, text by Valmai Phillips.
Photo: in collection of the Southern Tablelands Regional Library

Does anyone in your family have connections with the bluestone cottages, or the Methodist (now Uniting) Church in Goldsmith Street? Please share your memories.

Spring Creek, Windellama

2010-11-16T11:08:00.002+11:00

Spring Creek Shearing Shed

On the property of Bessie Williams of Spring Creek stands this shearing shed. Bessie was a ‘legend’ in the Windellama area until her death in her ?90s a few years ago.

Information supplied anonymously, Sept 2010.

Photo by Carina Clark – an entry in the Southern Tablelands Regional Library “Harnessing Our History” Photo Competition, 2001.

Do you remember Bessie Williams? Have you visited Spring Creek? Please share your memories.

Church of Ss Francis Xavier and Joseph, Gunning

2010-11-09T13:38:00.003+11:00

The foundation stone of the Church of Ss Francis Xavier and Joseph was, by permission of His Grace the Archbishop of Sydney, laid on the 9th of June 1859, by Father McAlroy, assisted by Father Bermingham; and it was solemnly blessed by Fathers D’Arcy and Bermingham. The structure is of stone, and in style plain Gothic. The length of the building, including chancel, is fifty-six feet, the width is twenty-three feet, inside measurement, and the height is fifteen. There is a tower attached, which serves, in the under portion, for a vestry, and in the upper story is hung a finely-toned bell. Over all arises a beautiful spire, bearing aloft on that lonely hill, which looks down on the little town, the Cross of Christ. The Church was nine months in course of erection, and cost nine hundred pounds, which was contributed by the generous Catholics now worshipping there. It is situated thirty miles from Yass, and Mass is celebrated there every month by one of the Yass Priests.

Fr McAlroy

There is also a very excellent Catholic School in Gunning. The Catholics number about two hundred and fifty souls.

The rural district of Grabben Gullen, containing two hundred Catholics, and situated thirty miles from Yass and twenty from Gunning, is connected with this Church, and is attended by the Yass clergymen.

Source: A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Yass Mission; From its Foundation, 1838, to the Present Time by Morgan O’Connor (1861).

Images:

• Lithographs, including a likeness of the Church of Ss. Francis Xavier and Joseph, Gunning and Fr McAlroy – taken from A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Yass Mission; From its Foundation, 1838, to the Present Time by Morgan O’Connor (1861).

• Ss Francis Xavier & Joseph Catholic School, by John Immig (2005).

Did anyone in your family attend Ss Francis Xavier and Joseph Catholic School in Gunning? Please share your memories.

Marulan Public School

2010-11-01T09:54:00.003+11:00

MOROWOLLEN PUBLIC SCHOOL

Teminus Hotel, Marulan
Photo by John Immig (2005)

After many months of patience combined with the united exertion of our townspeople, sufficient money has been collected for erecting a public school, together with a residence for the teacher, to which the council kindly responded in granting us a school. This institution was opened on the 1st of June instant by Mr Charles Capon, late teacher of the Marulan public school, and who has proved himself well qualified for his profession. The temporary premises in which the school is conducted was kindly given by Mr Richard Chapman of the Terminus Hotel. Much praise is due to this gentleman for the trouble he has taken in behalf of our educational establishment.

On Friday, the 24th June instant, Mr McIntyre, inspector of schools, favoured us with one of his unexpected but welcome visits; and at the usual hour happy voices were heard, partly joyous, yet fearing the day’s work before them. The number on the class-roll is 36 boys and 32 girls; total 68. The number present at the examination was 28 boys and 29 girls; total 57.

The school was examined strictly in accordance with the table of minimum attainments on the following subjects:- Reading, dictation, grammar, geography, arithmetic, lineal drawing, and English composition.

Several parents of the children were present; and our much-respected friend, Mr Beazley of Caoura, kindly favoured us with his company and expressed himself highly delighted at the clean, healthful, and happy appearance of the children. He also expressed his approbation at the ready answers the children gave; but on account of the late inclement state of the weather many of the children have not been able to attend so regularly as might be wished – consequently were not quite up to the mark.

Unidentified building, Marulan
Photo by John Immig (2005)

The third class worked extremely well. The following are a few of the questions put to the third class, viz:- Notation, 1,003,501; 112lb cheese at 9d; and several other questions testing their efficiency in practice. The last question was properly termed by Mr Beazley a puzzler for little fellow, viz:- If a mile of the railway from Sydney to Goulburn cost £15,000 what would that amount to per inch? The answer was readily given, viz, nearly 4s 9d by R Chapman and William Capon. Their English composition was on the following subjects, viz:- The Kangaroo, Native Bear, Opossum, Reindeer, Dog, &c. Manufactures, Paper, Silk, Pins, &c were also very nicely written upon.

Before closing the subject, I believe we are deeply indebted to the Public Schools Act. There cannot be a doubt that the system adopted in these schools, with regular attendance, an active mind, and the determination of the pupils to do their best, fits them, on quitting these establishments, either for the store, office, or banking-house.

Source: Goulburn Herald, 29 June 1870

Did anyone in your family attend Marulan Public School in the 1870s? Please share their memories.

Crookwell Court House

2010-10-28T10:59:00.002+11:00

Court House Crookwell by Lois Cady (2001)
an entry in STRL's
Heritage in Focus Photo Competition

To replace the original court house, plans were prepared in 1889 and a new brick building, with plastered walls and iron roof was constructed by William Pearman in 1891. The lofty court room was furnished in cedar. One wing was completed at the time and the other added in 1899. The building has proven adequate for Crookwell’s requirements since that time. The original court house serves as the police residence on the corner of Roberts and Goulburn Streets to this day.

Text source: Uplands Pastures: History of Crookwell Shire, New South Wales by William A Bayley (1975).

Does anyone in your family have a connection with Crookwell Court House? Did they help to build it? Did they attend Court there? Please share your family's memories.

Model Dairy Company, Goulburn

2010-10-18T09:28:00.003+11:00

31 Montague Street

Goulburn

Model Dairy (right of shot, behind tree),
and residence at 31 Montague St
c.1920

This building was the residence of Mr Carter the proprieter of the “Model Dairy Company” seen at the right of the picture. My father, Mr Percy Ford and I purchased the old Model Dairy from Mr Carter in 1952 at which time it was an electroplating workshop. We demolished it and built an Accountancy office in its place in 1954.

Mr Carter told us that the “Model Dairy Company” commenced the first bottled milk supply in Australia in 1914. In the 1960s we sold 31 Montague Street to the Lady Belmore Club.

Information supplied by Dallas Ford, 2010.

Did your family obtain their milk through the Model Dairy? Or did someone in your family belong to the Lady Belmore Club? Have you been involved in any of the other businesses that have operated from this site? Please share your family's memories.

A Crookwell Olympian

2010-10-11T14:22:00.002+11:00

Our images show Brooke Pratley (formerly of Crookwell), champion rower, and Olympian in the 2008 Beijing Games.

The Pratley family, with Brooke (centre) at 2006 World Rowing
Championships, Eton, England, where Brooke won the
Womens Double Sculls with Elizabeth Kill.

Brooke Pratley at
Beijing Olympics 2008.

Welcome Home parade,
Sydney 2008.

Australian Rowing Team, practice run at the
Beijing Olympic course 2008.
Brooke Pratley in 7 seat (second from the leading end).

All photos courtesy of the Pratley family.

The Southern Tablelands is proud of our sportspeople! Please share your memories.

Radio 2GN

2010-10-01T15:33:00.002+10:00

Former 2GN building, prior demolition in 1996.
Photo donated to Goulburn Library by Goulburn Medical Clinic.

This building on the corner of McKell Place and Clifford Street [Goulburn] was built in the 1950s by the members of the Goulburn Medical Service. 2GN occupied the top floor and offices of the lower floor on Clifford Street corner. The rest of the building was used as Dr Hazelton’s Pathology Laboratory and two surgeries ... Information provided by Dallas Ford, Sep 2010.

Do you remember the old 2GN building? Please share your memories.

Lake George

2010-09-20T09:08:00.003+10:00

Photo from Lake George Marathon Swim [CD-ROM]
courtesy Julie Lamrock & Peter Bryant.

Lake George near Canberra has dried up several times since first sighted by white men in 1820. but when it is filled sudden wind shifts can whip up waves like ocean breakers and many have drowned there. It can be bitterly cold, too. It was probably madness to try to swim its 8km width in an event organised by beginners at such challenges. But five men and a woman gave it a go on March 12, 1961. (Lake George Marathon Swim)

Lake George is the largest lake in New South Wales. The aborigines called it Wee-ree-waa prior its discovery by a survey party led by Joseph Wild on 19th August 1820. It was described that year as a vast sheet of water.

As the level of the lake falls, the centre of the body of water retreats eastwards, and when the level is low, the lake appears dry. It has an area of about 60 square miles when 14 feet deep and 55 square miles when 7 feet deep. The deepest part is the north-eastern corner, near Kenny’s Point.

Many theories have been proposed for the rise and fall of water in the lake. Some have suggested that the lake is an old volcanic crater and that water escapes into fissures in the earth during earth tremors which sometimes occur in the area. Others have suggested that the water flows away into limestone caves which may be connected to the caves at Mount Fairy, 9 miles to the east. Surveying, geological mapping, and climatological and dryological studies have disproved all of these theories. The floor of the lake is sealed by thick impervious layers of clay and soil, and the fluctuations are due to a delicate balance between run-off of rainfall into the lake and evaporation. The lake receives water from only a small catchment area – 490 square miles. The ratio of catchment area to storage volume when the lake is fairly full is therefore usually small for a natural feature. It is not directly the inter-relation between rainfall and evaporation that determines whether the lake level will rise or fall, but the relationship between run-off into the lake and evaporation.

Several schemes have been proposed to make use of the lake for water storage, but the rapid fluctuations, its saltiness and the cost have ruled these out.

Source: A Country City in an Age of Change: Goulburn. By Christian Brothers Primary Schools Association (1974).

Have you encountered the variable heights of Lake George? Do you remember the Swimmers Marathon of 1961? Please share your memories.

Bullock teams opened up remote areas

2010-09-15T12:01:00.002+10:00

In 1857 the Razorback hill was a
respected landmark on the road
between Sydney and Goulburn.

Bullock power and muscle built the Australian states – gave them entity and the potential for independence. Toiling teams linked the settlements before roads existed, and transported wool from outback stations to the ports in journeys that sometimes took a year, or more. Bullocks shaped the face of the usable country, built the roads and railways, serviced the mines, delivered the timber and made possible the early exploitation of all the riches the continent had to offer.

Had the settlement of New South Wales progressed in a more orderly fashion – had the administration accompanied the outward thrust of new settlement with an outward extension of roads, for example – it is fair to surmise that the bullock teams might not have made the substantial contribution that they did to the survival and development of the State. Conversely, had the bullocks not proved their efficiency in moving wheeled traffic over impossible country, in timber, through swamps, over soft ground and thick sand and under deplorable conditions of feeding, the administration might have been forced to extend its roads more speedily.

Shoeing bullocks at Alf Dean's
Blacksmith's shop, Auburn St,
Goulburn c.1893

[In] the procedure detailed by Thomas Taylor of Taralga, in memoirs he wrote about 1908 … Wool from the Hillas and Pearce properties in the Bannaby district there was carted by dray to Sydney over the ‘Swallowtail Crossing’ of the Cockbundeen or Tarlo river to the east. The alternative was to head south to meet the Main South Road at Goulburn, which is forty-five kilometres from Taralga. But the approaches to the Swallowtail Crossing are by way of very steep hills, still steep today, but worse then, because the surveyors have since found a gentler gradient. The river bed itself is very rocky and rough, the water not very deep, but subject to very sudden rises after rain.

The Bannaby side is the steepest side of the crossing, and here the wool drays carried their heaviest load. At the top of the hill a large tree would be cut and its trunk fastened to the tail of the dray. Nine of the eighteen wool bales of the dray would be unloaded on to the branches of the tree, so positioned that they would not fall off and that they would hold the tree against rolling. At the bottom the teamsters released the tree and reloaded the wool. Two teamsters always travelled together, and on the Sydney side of the crossing both teams were used for each load, to gain the top of the hill. There were other, but less formidable crossings over the Wollondilly river, then over the Paddy’s River, to join the Great South Road just north of Narrawar, or Black Bob’s Creek.

Bullock team with load of wool,
leaving Bigga c.1900

At his birth on 1 July 1829, Thomas Taylor was the first white child born in the Taralga district. His mother was the only white woman there, and as she neared her time a neighbour Tom Esby took her twenty-seven kilometres in a bullock dray to Kitty Wade at Tarlo. On regaining strength she returned the same way – a rather memorable first birth.

Source: Bullock Teams and the Building of a Nation (1980) by Olaf Ruhen.

Has anyone in your family’s history been involved with bullock teams? Please share their memories.

The Binda Ball, 1864

2010-09-06T11:37:00.002+10:00

This poem by John Manifold was his account of what happened on the night of 26th December 1864, and the days following - including the arrest of three local girls involved with some rather notorious bushrangers.

There was never a dance like our Boxing Day ball,
For we found, at the height of the fun.
That the Monks girls were dancing with Gilbert and Hall,
And Christine McKinnon with Dunn.

The bushrangers’ gold in the candlelight flowed,
And we joined in their generous caprice;
But storekeeper Morriss ran off down the road
To Bathurst, to warn the police.

“Bad scran to the blackguard!” cried Margaret Monks,
“There’s time for just one event more
“It’s a matter of teaching good manners to skunks –
“Come on, and we’ll burn down the store!”.

When the traps and the traitor rode up with the dawn
The store had been burnt to the ground,
The dancing was over, the curtains were drawn,
And the bushrangers couldn’t be found.

They arrested Christina and Ellen and Peg,
But we heard the girls pluckily call,
“It was cheap at the price to have shaken a leg
“With John Gilbert, Jack Dunn and Ben Hall!”.

By John Manifold

Source: “The Village of Binda: a History” by Wayne Cummins (1998), p.32.

Do your family's ancestors have any connection with the 1864 Binda Ball? Please share their memories.

Goulburn Steam Museum

2010-08-30T11:01:00.002+10:00

Goulburn Steam Museum postcard, c.1970
showing 1883 Water Pumping Station;
Historic Steam Pumping Engine;
Narrow gauge Steam Train;
Giant Steam Ploughing Engine.

The Goulburn Steam Museum was founded in 1957 when Sydney Steam enthusiast Bruce MacDonald heard that the Goulburn Water Works housed an Appleby Beam Engine that was intact although not in use. He approached Council to gain permission to restore the engine and proceeded with that restoration using his own funds. The Lancaster boilers were not operable so Mr MacDonald obtained a steam locomotive engine, the ‘Wollondilly’, to power the Appleby Engine. A stationary boiler was donated not long after by Goulburn Dry Cleaners and this was then installed more permanently to provide steam to the engine.

Mr MacDonald carried out his work on weekends as a hobby and with the help of other steam enthusiasts. As word got around it appears that donations of decommissioned steam equipment came in from several sources to be restored by the now growing group. This coupled with Bruce MacDonald own enthusiasm in pursuing steam equipment caused the collection to gain momentum, and eventually the site became known as the Museum of Historic Engines.

Buffalo Pitts Traction Engine in the Lilac Time
Parade, c.1962. Built in America in 1912, it was
used for farm work and haulage in the Crookwell
area and donated to the museum in 1965 by
Mr Weatherspoon. Photo courtesy G Isaac.

The museum opened for occasional display from 1958 when the first public viewing of the restored Appleby Engine was held in conjunction with the annual Lilac Time Festival. From 1962 to 1968, the museum opened on weekends only and regularly contributed steam engine trucks or ploughing machines to the annual Lilac Time parade. In 1968 the museum became a full time operation. The railway was laid in 1969 in response to the growing collection of steam locomotives. The intention was to use the restored locomotives to transport people from the entrance to the Pumphouse area. The railway was officially opened in April 1970.

Restoration of Hick Hargreaves
engine, part of Commonwealth
Unemployment "Red Scheme"
program c.1978

The museum continued to operate under the initiative of Bruce MacDonald and the Goulburn Steam Museum Company and to date [1996] has continued to be managed by the Traction and Vehicles Restorer’s Association (TAVRA). In its heyday in the 1970’s, the museum was a popular attraction for both tourists and volunteers who enjoyed working on the engines.

Source: Goulburn Steam Museum: Conservation Management Plan (July 1996) by Garry Dutaillis & Associates Pty Ltd for Goulburn City Council.

Did you ever visit the Goulburn Steam Museum? Or were you part of the Commonwealth "Red Scheme", working on the Museum's equipment? Please share your memories of Goulburn's Steam Museum.

Winderadeen, Collector

2010-08-23T09:27:00.001+10:00

A grant of land of ‘1280 acres more or less’ at Collector to Terence Aubrey Murray is recorded in the Register for Grants and Leases for the County of Argyle 1822-38, ‘being the land promised to the said Terence Aubrey Murray on or before the 15th July, 1829 and of which he was authorised to take possession on 12th March, 1832 as a primary grant’.

According to Gwendoline Wilson, although Murray had built a house at Winderadeen in 1837 he did not live there until sometime between February 1854 and October 1855, despite its suitability as described by Thomas Walker in 1837. Murray had taken Walker up the valley to see a stone homestead of twelve rooms with an adjoining kitchen and nearby stables he was having built for his own residence. There is also a description by Mossman and Banister in 1852:

In about a mile and a half from the foot of the range after passing through some very fine paddocks well-enclosed, you at length come to a complete country gentleman’s residence, consisting of a large stone built house and stables, outhouses, gardens, ornamental grounds etc. This is Winderadeen, the beautiful country residence of Mr Murray … Everything about this place has the air of comfort, and exhibits substantial means on the part of the proprietor.

Some distance from Winderadeen is the almost abandoned residence of the original proprietor of this property, the father of the present proprietor. Here are the buildings and stockyards usually to be found throughout this colony, where there were large establishments carried on under the assignment system.

In the 1841 Abstract of Census Returns, the Murray property ‘Yarrowlumla’ [sic] is recorded as having 108 inhabitants, including eight females and thirty-eight assigned servants. Mossman and Banister’s description of ‘Yarralumla’ in 1852 as ‘a large and commodious residence’ and further detailed by Gwendoline Wilson as being a single-storied, substantial stone homestead with shuttered French windows to wide verandahs, fits the recently restored Winderadeen homestead and also other early Georgian homesteads in the Canberra area such as Duntroon, Woden and Lanyon.

Alterations have taken place at various times to Winderadeen which presents a symmetrical main façade of two pairs of shuttered French doors on either side of a slightly recessed pair of six-panelled front doors. The doorway is outlined on either side by fluted wooden pilasters. Above the doorway is a distinctive fanlight with rectilinear and diagonal glazing bars. A wide south-facing verandah runs the length of the façade and returns on either side of the central section of the homestead. This section consists of two large main rooms on either side of the hall which narrows towards the rear where originally there would have been four or six smaller rooms.

Source: Homesteads of Southern New South Wales 1830-1900 by Maurice Cantlon (1981), p.89.

Images: 1. Winderadeen (1952) courtesy Mrs. Armstrong, in “Some Southern Homes in New South Wales” by G. Nesta Grifiths. 2. Stud Herefords,”Winderadeen” Estate (1946), in “Goulburn Queen City Of The South”. 3. Winderadeen - Collector (2001) by Wesley H Granger.

Has anyone in your family been involved with historic Winderadeen? Please share their memories.

What is heritage?

2010-08-17T09:59:00.001+10:00

Hoyts Ritz Theatre, Goulburn 1946,
since demolished.

Heritage is things of value which are inherited. If the value is personal we speak of family or personal heritage; if the value is communal or national we speak of ‘our’ heritage. More often than not, heritage is thought of in terms of acknowledged cultural values.

Previously, the concept of heritage was relatively narrow and centred on architectural preservation, archaeology, archives and other collecting institutions. However, the term ‘heritage’ now represents ‘a network of interrelated elements – tangible and intangible, natural and cultural (human), personal and collective’ (Ministry of Citizenship and Culture 1987:6).

Heritage is significant to different communities, groups and individuals depending on their values and attitudes and the nature of the heritage resource. Heritage represents the things we want to keep, but the reasons for keeping it are diverse and highly value-driven.

Source: “The Human Dimension of Heritage Management: different values, different interests, different issues” by C Michael Hall & Simon McArthur in Heritage Management in Australia and New Zealand (1996).

Workers in Baxter's Boot Factory, Goulburn 1946

What aspects of the Southern Tablelands region do you feel are of particular 'heritage' value to you and your family? Please share your thoughts.

The Hollis Legacy

2010-08-09T09:38:00.004+10:00

Hollis & Co

Goulburn Dispensary, Auburn St. This Dispensary has been established nearly half a century. It was purchased in the year 1880 by the late Mr H Hollis (who was previously superintendent of the Goulburn Hospital for 20 years). On his death, in 1891, it was continued by the late Dr Hollis, and to the present time has been conducted by the Hollis family. The business has grown with the city, and recently the pharmacy was altered and remodelled and is now the leading pharmacy in the South. Mr H Fleming has been manager for the last 10 years.

Source: Goulburn and the Southern Highlands: an illustrated history from the early pioneering period by Graham Wilson (1916).

The Hollis Fountain

The Hollis Fountain in Belmore Park, Goulburn was built in 1898-99 by public subscription in memory of Dr LT Hollis who was parliamentary representative for Goulburn in the 1890s. Sculptured by Grant and Locke, it is a duplicate of the Diamond Jubilee Fountain built at the same time in St Leonard’s Park, Sydney, on land now occupied by a Bowling Club. Like its Sydney twin, it fell into disuse. It was first renovated by the Rotary Club, possibly around the 1960s, and was seen in operation on special occasions.

Sources: various tourism brochures, including Wandering With History: A self conducted tour of historical Belmore Park Goulburn NSW (c.1960) and Belmore Park (c.1990).

The recently renovated fountain (2009) is once again fully operational, and a new Belmore Park self-guided walking tour has been developed (2010).

Our historic images include:

Belmore Park map in Wandering With History: A self conducted tour of historical Belmore Park Goulburn NSW (c.1960) reprint of original prepared by Mr N Lamrock.

The Fountain, Goulburn Park (c.1910) by E Long, Goulburn; postcard produced by Kerry, Sydney.

Turning on the water: Hollis Fountain, Belmore Park (9 Nov 2009) by L Bonomini.

Do you have any connections to the Hollis family of Goulburn? Do you have memories of the Hollis Fountain? Please share your family's stories.

The Railway reaches Goulburn ... and beyond

2010-08-03T09:17:00.002+10:00

Goulburn: Distance from Sydney 224.903 kilometres. Height above sea level 632.1 metres.
Railway opened 27 May 1869.

A report by Deputy Surveyor-General to the Surveyor-General, dated 10 June 1856, stated:

“When in Goulburn looked over the neighbourhood for purposes of ascertaining the best position for a terminus and the best course for entering & leaving the town … took advantage of Mr Mann’s offer to go down the Wollondilly some five miles, to ascertain his views as to the approach to Goulburn, which presents considerable difficulties.”

“The Great Southern Railway to Goulburn has been opened by the Earl of Belmore today … along Mr Faviell’s contract the train can run with safety at a speed of 35 mph … the line was formally handed over to Mr JH Thomas, the Engineer for Existing Lines. The first train to arrive departed Sydney at five minutes past eight … and arrived at Goulburn at five to four … The first train from Goulburn left that city at twenty minutes past six last night and did not reach Redfern Terminus until twenty minutes to three this morning". (Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1869).

The original layout provided for a platform, with horse and carriage docks at each end, on the west side of the loop. For the opening of the first stage of the Cooma line in 1884, an additional 42-meter long platform was erected in 1883 on the east side of a Down loop leading off the original main track, thus leaving the 1869 main track as a middle road.

Source: Stations on the Track: Selected New South Wales Country Railway Stations – an Historical Overview (2004) by JM Cottee.

Photos: Exterior, Goulburn Railway Station c1908 & Goulburn Railway Station platform 1923.

Has anyone in your family worked on the railways in and around the Goulburn districts? Please share your family’s memories.

Sisters of St Joseph, Binalong

2010-07-27T09:30:00.002+10:00

Binalong: “Bard and Bushranger Territory”

It was AB Paterson who wrote in an old Australian poem –

There's never a stone at the sleeper’s head,

There’s never a fence beside;

And the wandering stock on the grave may tread,

Unnoticed and undenied.

But the smallest child on the Watershed

Can tell you how Gilbert died.

Strangely, these two, the poet and the bushranger have connections with the early Binalong story [of St Joseph’s]. For ‘Banjo’ Paterson formerly lived in the house where the Sisters first resided when they came to Binalong in 1896; and the young bushranger sleeps his last sleep in a grave ‘just down the road’ from where the Convent was built.

Sisters M Clare Gorman and Brigid Maher formed the original community. They shared with those amongst whom they lived and worked Binalong’s perennial problems – shortage of water and marauding ‘possums! The latter were not always dealt with according to the law – and – while the Convent tanks held out, many were the ‘cups of water’ given in His Name.

The Ryan family’s home – now the ‘Black Swan Inn’ – became a temporary residence for the Sisters while Father O’Riordan, parish priest from 1911-1922 erected a large brick Convent, designed to serve also as a Home Science School. Later, renovations and improvements were made by Monsignor W Cahill, parish priest for forty years.

Classes ranged to completion of the Intermediate Certificate, among the students being about twenty boarders. The Convent and school were closed in 1968.

Posterity has erected a ‘fence’ and built stone on stone to mark Gilbert’s grave on the wayside, while the monument to the Sisters who were so much a part of Binalong’s history rests on the tradition of seventy-two years’ service.

Source: Their Story 1882-1982 (1982) by the Sisters of St Joseph with drawing by TK Hart.

Was anyone from your family a nun at St Joseph's convent in Binalong? Were any of your family members taught by these Sisters? Please share your family’s memories.

"A brutal and immoral town"

2010-07-12T09:41:00.002+10:00

The first white men explored the Goulburn plains in 1818, but it was another decade before the place was settled. A road was made by convicts who spent their days and nights shackled together in an iron gang. They were building a road to their own gaol, for that was the first building erected at Goulburn.

In 1836 a missionary called James Backhouse came to the little settlement on the Wollondilly River. He saw ‘a courthouse of slabs, covered with bark, a lock-up house, a few huts occupied by the mounted police and constables, a cottage of roughly cut timber, and a small inn.’

Mr Backhouse was not very impressed. Goulburn was a brutal and immoral town, he said.

There was a gibbet for hanging people and triangles for flogging them in Goulburn. ‘Black Francis’ was the most hated man in the district. It was his job to ride from farm to farm with the local magistrate and flog any convicts who had misbehaved. Some convicts ambushed ‘Black Francis’ one day, and killed him.

There were bushrangers in the hills for several years. Jack Donohue – ‘Bold Jack Donohue’ – was one of them. Most bushrangers were escaped convicts. It took a regiment of mounted police to defeat them. The last bushranger was a man named Whitton. He was sentenced to death in a Sydney court and taken down to Goulburn in a cart. The hangman travelled with him.

Source: “The Story of Australia” by Don Watson (1984), p.76.
Image: Goulburn’s first Court House, built around 1830.

Were any of your ancestors involved with Goulburn’s first court house? Please share your family’s history.

Women at work in 1938

2010-07-07T15:41:00.003+10:00

A Woman’s Place ...

Home Duties: Most adult women in Goulburn in 1938 were engaged in home duties as wives and/or mothers. There were comparatively a lot of unmarried adult females but this was largely because of the presence of large religious communities and the lowering of the marriage rate in the early thirties. Most women were married and cared for a home and children at a time when there was an average of 2.6 children in each family and 4.14 persons in each private dwelling. 4046 (86%) of women listed as eligible to vote on the 1938 Electoral Roll nominated home duties as their occupation.

Another 17 women listed their occupation as in paid domestic service (housemaid, housekeeper, cleaner, etc). That so few did paid domestic work indicates the lack of assistance there was to those who wished to obtain it. The age of the domestic servant had passed, though no doubt some girls who had not yet reached voting age took on such work. Advertisements for domestic help were few. They continued to express preference for qualities such as competence, reliability and refinement. An occasional one was for Protestants only. Most advertisements tended to qualify the work to be done (‘light work’, ‘adult family’, ‘mornings only’). They emanated from a few well-to-do addresses.

Domestic service in 1938 was in the main unpaid, and there was acknowledgement of that but no argument when Goulburn Evening Penny Post cited an American journal: “The economic position of the housewife is rather an anomaly. Her services never come on the market, and she is outside the price system, yet her contribution as producer in the home holds a compelling position in the economic life of a community”.

Domestic chores had been made less burdensome by 1938 with the extension of the city’s water supply, the availability of electricity, gas and the sewerage system. Most of Goulburn (but not yet the East or all of the South) had been sewered by 1938. Electricity improved lighting, though there were few other electrical appliances. Ice chests rather than refrigerators had replaced meat safes. Gas stoves were becoming more common but fuel stoves did the dual role of heating as well as cooking and were not easily displaced. Radios helped break the isolation of the home and provide family entertainment. Lino was cheap and was easy to keep clean. The small fowl pen was easily tended and supplied fresh eggs and on occasions a poultry meal. The burden of domestic duties was increased when menfolk left home to secure work in a camp at Bungendore or Bowral, leaving behind them the jobs of cutting firewood, repairing and mending, gardening and their share of child care.

Other Work: 665 (14%) women listed on the 1938 Electoral Roll were not engaged principally in home duties. It seems about 156 women were required to work to support children dependant upon them. The occupations open to them were not numerous or varied.

Professions: The professions of teaching and nursing were considered most suitable for women – mainly because they called on skills associated with the traditional roles of women – child care, care of the aged and sick, and domestic service. Most of the religious in Goulburn’s convents, novitiate, church hospitals, orphanages and hostels were teachers, nurses or religious.

There may have been more teachers but the government had in 1931 legislated for the automatic retirement of women on marriage, unless there were peculiar circumstances. The government was reconsidering its position as there was a shortage of teachers by 1938.

Source: “Goulburn 1938” by Bruce Pennay (1984), pp.31-2.

Have any of the women in your family spoken about working in Goulburn in 1938? Please share your family’s memories.

Introducing Miss Pratt, Dressmaker

2010-06-29T10:12:00.004+10:00

MISS PRATT

(Late Miss Rawlings)

Wishes to announce to the ladies of Goulburn, after varied experience, she will continue Dressmaking in Rogers’ Buildings, Montague St, where she will be pleased to meet old and new customers.

All work entrusted to me will received my personal attention and will be of the same high standard.

Source: “Goulburn Evening Post” Friday 29 Sept 1933, p.5.

Photos: Rogers Store, Auburn St, Goulburn c.1946.

Does anyone in your family remember Miss Pratt of Roger’s Store? Please share their memories.

Laggan School Cooks

2010-06-22T09:15:00.001+10:00

Laggan:
Laggan is a small town at the junction of the roads to Goulburn, Crookwell and Tuena. It has been a communication centre since the 1850s. Laggan Post Office was set up in 1860 to deal with mail en route. One mail each week was carried by the new route. In 1866 Laggan had a mail delivery once a week from Sydney and Goulburn. The town of Laggan seems to have been in its heyday in the 1860s when the area was an important wheat growing area. In 1866 a steam flour mill was grinding the wheat into flour. Laggan was a postal township and had four stores, a National School, a stone church, a court house, a lock-up, police barracks and three hotels.

Laggan School: A Brief History
The school at Laggan began as a Roman Catholic Denominational School some years before 1868. In 1867 the school was certified a Denominational School that was entitled to State Aid. In 1867 the average attendance was a mere 13.5. There were both Catholic and Protestant children at the school.

In 1871 the school was closed because of low attendances and didn’t re-open again until 1874. In 1879 the average attendance had risen to 25.3. On the strength of this, an application was made to the Council of Education to have the school declared a Public School.

From the beginning of 1964 the Laggan Public School was reclassified as a third class school and a second teacher was appointed. The current situation today in 1992 is that Laggan Public School is a three teacher school with 60 pupils attending.

A Recipe: Hot Bread Sticks by Nicholas Laverty, Pupil Kindergarten.

8 slices bread – crusts removed
3 slices ham, chopped finely
1 cup grated cheese
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ teaspoon curry powder
½ small onion, grated.

Flatten bread with rolling pin. Mix other ingredients. Place 1 dessertspoon mixture on bread and spread, leaving one edge free of mixture. Roll up and secure with toothpicks. Cut roll in half. Lightly brush with melted margarine and cook in oven 180°C for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Source: Quick & Easy Cookbook (1992) Laggan Public School.

Did anyone in your family contribute a recipe to this fascinating cookery book? Please share your memories.

King's College, Goulburn

2010-06-08T11:28:00.002+10:00

This College was established in 1888 by Mr EW Kelso, and ever since that time has been under the guidance and control of the Kelso brothers. The School, though never a large one, enjoys a high reputation in the educational world throughout the States. Its students have won many academic honours, two notable ones scored by its ex-students being the head of Sandhurst, England, and in two successive years the head of the Dentistry of the University of Pennsylvania. This year one of its students has added to its laurels by winning the blue riband of the Junior Matriculation Examination , viz, the General Proficiency Medal. Old King’s College boys are to be found in every walk of life, professional and otherwise, while the School Roll of Honour contains a large and increasing number of names of Old Boys who are at present fighting their country’s battles at the Front.

Source: Goulburn and the Southern Highlands: an illustrated history from the early pioneering period by Graham Wilson (1916).

Images:
* King’s College students 1894 – Back left to right: SS Scarvell, FK Chisholm. Front left to right: NP Campbell, DC Osborne.

* Former King’s College building (2007) by Jack Miller

Did anyone in your family attend King's College in Goulburn? Please share their memories.

McKenzie Family at 'Strathairn'

2010-05-31T08:57:00.002+10:00

Ancestors of the ‘Strathairn’ McKenzie family were Alexander (1802-1875) and Flora (nee McKinnon) (c.1801-1837) who came with their children in 1837 on the ‘William Nichol’ from the Isle of Skye. Flora died on the ship.

One of the children in this Alexander’s family was Donald b.1831 who married in Australia to Christina (need Morrison) and their home was ‘Daisy Bank’ in the Laggan district. They had at least two sons: William Donald (known as ‘Big Bill’, 1870-1936), and George (1872-1902).

William Donald McKenzie married Sarah Ann McDonald (1867-1937), daughter of Alexander and Sarah (nee Murray) McDonald. Their first home was ‘Daisy Bank’ but in 1910 they bought ‘Strathairn’ homestead block, portion 116 in the Parish of Guineacor from Mr Staunton.

The original owner of portion 116 was Lachlan McAlister, then it was sold to Sir John Lackey whose farm overseer was Daniel Parker. Mr Staunton was the next owner in the early 1900s and it was he who built the present homestead and stables at ‘Strathairn’. The homestead was built of bricks made from clay out of his paddock across the Goulburn Road and the hole where the clay for the bricks was dug and burnt is still there across the road from the ‘Ligola’ gateway. Mr Badgery replaced the old ‘chock and log’ fences with new wire netting fences.

‘Strathairn’ was home for William Donald and Sarah from 1910 until they died in 1937, six months apart. They had no children but when William’s brother George died they looked after his two little boys as if they were their own – George Robert and William Donald Junior.

George Robert McKenzie and his sons conducted a very successful dairy farm at ‘Strathairn’, it was a model which others came to see and learn from. After William Donald and Sarah died the ‘Strathairn’ house became home for Les Cameron and his family while he worked at the dairy there. When Mrs Cameron died Les went out to Golspie to live with his daughter and ‘Strathairn’ became home for Don and Elaine after their marriage.

Source: Around Wowagin by Pat Williamson (2004)
Photo: Shooting party at Strathairn (undated)

Do you have any family connections with Strathairn? Please share your memories.

Fishy experiences in 1949

2010-05-25T14:05:00.004+10:00

Tourist activities …

The Region includes many places of natural beauty which at the present time attract tourists and there are great potentialities for further development of the tourist industry. A portion of the southern boundary of the Region is the Australian Capital Territory, in which is situated the National Capital, Canberra, itself an attraction for tourists.

Other places include the Burrinjuck Dam and Wombeyan Caves areas, the Crookwell-Taralga areas and the upper reaches of the Shoalhaven River. The areas where sheep grazing, orcharding and other rural pursuits are carried on are of great interest to the tourist, especially those from overseas.

Good trout streams abound, for example, the Murrumbidgee, Goodradigbee and Cotter Rivers and their tributaries. The Central Acclimatisation Society is constructing a new hatchery below the Burraga Dam. When this is completed it is expected that far great quantities of young trout will be available for distribution in the Region’s streams, leading to a great improvement in the fishery and the attraction of greater numbers of anglers.

Accommodation for tourists is at present insufficient and falls far short of demand in holiday seasons, but this handicap to tourist development should be overcome as building materials and labour can be used.

Source: “The Southern Tablelands Region: a Preliminary Survey of Resources” (1949).
Image: Mulwaree Ponds fisherman c.1950.

Have you explored any of the numerous fishing spots available around the Southern Tablelands region? Please share your stories!

The Yass Mission

2010-05-11T10:35:00.003+10:00

The origins of organised church life in Goulburn’s Catholic diocese are found in the establishment of what in 1838 Bishop John Bede Polding called the Goulburn and Yass Missions. Arrangements were provisional until parishes could be canonically erected with permanent pastors, because at the time of his arrival in Australia, Polding was vicar apostolic, and not entitled to erect parishes with permanent pastors. Also, there was a particular pastoral strategy in Polding’s mind: he had a vision of missioners going out from the monastic centre in Sydney, zealous to spread God’s Word, and returning regularly to be refreshed by community life.

Following Hume and Hovell’s exploratory trip in 1824, settlers began to arrive in the Yass Plains as squatters, later applying for land grants or grazing leases. Of particular interest to the Catholic community were brothers Henry and Cornelius O’Brien, they being the only Catholic citizens of substantial wealth and social standing. Nearly all other Catholics were convict-assigned servants or emancipists.

With his first visit to the area in 1837, Bishop Polding was accompanied by Frs Lovat, Brennan and Fitzpatrick. It would appear by a report in the Australian newspaper of the time that these last two were immediately assigned to the district. Records of their earliest missionary activities have not been located however, probably indicating the provisional conditions under which they worked – perhaps only recording administrations in flimsy notebooks which were lost.

In 1837 Bishop Polding applied to the government for land in Yass for church purposes. He was granted two acres in Meehan Street, which was surveyed by Thomas Townshend on the 31 March 1838, to provide for “purposes of school, presbytery and church”.

The few local Catholics were taken by surprise at Bishop Polding’s second visit to the area in August 1838. Though he had ample reason to make this pastoral tour, hoping to sustain the morale of convicts and enthuse his new communities of immigrants in the countryside, there was also an ulterior motive in getting quickly to Yass. Polding wanted to out-manoeuvre Fr Therry who was prepared to bless a foundation-stone for a church on another site on Cornelius O’Brien’s nearby property. Polding was offended by Therry’s plan, having learned about it from the newspapers. It was eventful trip all round, for when Lovat and Brennan went to prepare the Meehan Street site for the founding ceremony, they found a group of Aborigines camped there. Lovat persuaded them to vacate the site, offering the gift of some priestly apparel to Jacky King, a tribal leader.

Despite this rocky introduction, on 27th August 1838 the Yass Mission was officially begun, with Bishop Polding blessing the foundation-stone of St Augustine’s Church on the Meehan Street site.

Sources:

• Planting the Celtic Cross: Foundations of the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn by Rev Brian Maher (1997).

• A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Yass Mission; From its Foundation, 1838, to the Present Time by Morgan O’Connor (1861).

Images:
• Lithographs of Bishop Polding and St Augustines Church, Yass, taken from A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Yass Mission; From its Foundation, 1838, to the Present Time by Morgan O’Connor (1861).
• St Augustines Catholic Church - Yass by Sylvia Brook (2001) – an entry in STRL’s “Heritage In Focus” Photographic Competition. Note the distinctive architectural features of this beautiful church.

Were your ancestors involved in the development of the Yass or Goulburn Missions? Please share your family’s history.

Reids Flat

2010-05-04T14:51:00.002+10:00

Situated 2000 feet above sea level, on the banks of the Lachlan River is the village of Reids Flat. It lies within the Parish of Numby, in the County of King. At this point, the Lachlan River acts as a border to the Boorowa and Crookwell Shires and divides the counties of King and Georgiana. The Lachlan River rises in the south-east and flows north west, where it joins with the Abercrombie River, and here is forms the backwaters of the Wyangala Dam. The nearest major towns are Cowra to the north-west and Boorowa to the south.

The major industry of the area is sheep and cattle, although some production of crops on the river flats and in the valleys takes place. At one time mining was carried out, but not on a large scale. Perhaps what makes this region so unique is its rugged terrain, being part of the Wyangala Dam catchment area … with massive outcrops of rocks, giant granite boulders, and slate and shale peppering the countryside.

On October 9 1829 Surveyor Robert Dixon reached the junction of the Lachlan River and Grahams, or Gunning Creek. Here he made note of “Mitchell’s Station” and the fertile river flats, which he referred to as “lovely banks”. The early village site, situated on the lower flat, was centred around Thomas Reid’s establishment which was close to where passing trade crossed a natural causeway over the Lachlan River. The site was known as Gunnin, or Gunning, and was often referred to as the “Fish River” settlement. “Reid’s Town” was suggested as a name for the village, however the name of Reids Flat was settled on. The naming of the village was to coincide with the establishment of the post office. To add to the confusion, a government department later chose the name of Numby for the village. Existing on this site during the 1860s was a collection of huts. They were used as a store, pound keepers hut, Thomas Reid’s dwelling and the first post office. These buildings would have originated from the days of Mitchell’s occupation of the area and would explain why they were situated on crown land. It was not until November 1929 that the name of Numby was relinquished and the title of Reids Flat officially gazetted.

Source: “Reids Flat: On The Banks Of The Lachlan” by Helen V Lloyd (1999).

Images:

• Wyangala Dam – photo by Goulburn District Tourism (1974)

• Rugged terrain at nearby Bigga – photo by Goulburn District Tourism (c.1980).

• Shearers’ quarters – formerly the Royal Hotel of Reids Flat. The building was purchased by Ray Webster in 1949, demolished and re-erected at “Woodlands” by Gerald ‘Bun’ Murphy. Photo by John William (2007) – an entry in STRL’s “History in Focus: Pubs With A Past” photographic competition..

Have you visited Reids Flat? Did anyone in your family live or work in the area? Please share your memories.

Remembrance Driveway

2010-04-27T10:36:00.003+10:00

Source: Remembrance Driveway: a living memorial. Route map, Sydney-Canberra by the Remembrance Driveway Committee (c.1985) ...

Motoring between Sydney and Canberra the circular sign is a familiar sight – a green tree mounted on a yellow background. The words ‘Remembrance Driveway’ stand out in red lettering. But what is the Remembrance Driveway all about? That such a question can be asked today is a tribute to those whose memory it celebrates and to the years of peace they won for Australia.

World War II began almost 40 years ago. At the end, five years later, Australia had survived the greatest threat to its existence since the First Fleet landed in 1788. Those serviceman and women who returned – and interested civilians – cast around for some fitting way to honour sacrifice then and in later conflicts. Formal war memorials and the Australian War Memorial were indispensable as custodians of record. But another dimension was sought and, following a suggestion by the Garden Club of Australia, a meeting of interested parties was convened in 1952 by Sir Charles Moses. The concept, for a living memorial of trees and shrubs, was imaginative and a citizens’ committee was formed under the chairmanship of Lieut-General Sir Frank Berryman.

The Project was launched the following year and in 1954 the Queen and Prince Philip each planted a plane tree in Macquarie Place, Sydney, to mark the start of the Driveway. In Canberra the Queen planted a snow gum adjacent to the War Memorial to mark the Driveway’s end. Since those days plantations carrying some 20 000 trees have been established along the Hume and Federal Highways.

Development of the F5 South-western Freeway is leaving much of the Hume a quieter, pleasant roadway … The historic areas form a backdrop for the maturing plantations. Travellers are invited to enjoy the visual beauty of the driveway and to tarry – and to remember – in those plantations set out as parks.

Do you recall when the Remembrance Driveway plantations was being installed in the Southern Tablelands area? Did your family drive past or stop at any of them on the old Hume Highway route when you were young? Have you visited any of these plantaions recently? Please share your memories.

Postcards for Annie

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Our selection of ‘postcard’ photos depicts soldiers of the First World War. These postcards and many more have been donated to Goulburn Library at some point in time – source unknown. Many of them, including some of those shown here, are addressed to ‘Annie’, so presumably Annie, or one of her descendents, is our unidentified donor! We suspect that Annie was a Goulburn girl who kept these postcards as a show of support and respect for the men going off to war.

Many of the Library’s World War I postcard photos were taken around 1916 by Albert E Floate at the Elite Photographic Studio in Goulburn.

Can you identify anyone in these photos? Do you know who our mysterious Annie may have been?

Please share your memories.

The NSW Gaol System

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At 30th June 1954, there were 16 gaols in New South Wales. Six were classed as principal gaols, one as minor, seven as special establishments and two as police gaols. The principal gaols were the State Penitentiary for men and the State Reformatory for women – both at Long Bay, Sydney – the Goulburn Training Centre, and the gaols at Parramatta, Bathurst and Maitland. Each of these gaols is used for a particular class of prisoners.

The State Penitentiary, Long Bay, is used for the detention of persons awaiting trial at metropolitan courts. The majority of prisoners convicted in the metropolitan area are lodged in the State Penitentiary in the first instance, the short sentence men being retained and those serving longer periods of imprisonment being drafted to country establishments. Facilities are provided at Long Bay for the observation and treatment of prisoners suffering from mental or physical defects. The State Reformatory is used for female prisoners of all classes. Special treatment is provided for first offenders at the Goulburn Training Centre, and prisoners convicted more than once are imprisoned at Bathurst and Parramatta.

The minor and police gaols are used for prisoners undergoing short sentences and for the detention of those who require special treatment apart from other long-sentence prisoners. These include Afforestation Camps at Glen Innes, Oberon, and Mannus, the Training Centres at Emu Plains and Berrima, Grafton Gaol, and the Cooma Prison Camp (established in August, 1953). At these establishments, the conditions of gaol life are modified with the object of fitting the men to lead useful lives after release, and for this reason the prisoners sent to the camps are selected with discrimination. Prisoners guilty of serious misbehaviour in other gaols are sent to Grafton Gaol.

The prisoners are classified according to character and previous record, and the principle of restricted association is in operation. Educational classes for prisoners were held in six establishments at June 1954. Libraries in prisons contained 15,258 volumes at 30th June 1954.

Source: Official Year Book of New South Wales No.54, 1955.

Photo: Goulburn Gaol entrance, (undated), ET Cross

Goulburn Gaol continues as an operational gaol today, and is 'home' to the State's 'Supermax' high security facility. If you are a former prison warder, worker or even inmate, would you be willing to share your memories of life within Goulburn's gaol?

Harnessing the horse

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Getting around town the old fashioned way

Until well into the twentieth century horses and horse-drawn vehicles were standard items of equipage around Australian suburban homes. And just as family status nowadays tends to be judged by the number and magnificence of a family’s motor cars, family status was once judged by the number and magnificence of a family’s horses and vehicles.

Rich people took it as a matter of course that they would include stables and coach-houses among their outbuildings, along with quarters for their grooms and coachmen. Rich people travelled in a carriage, barouche or landau, usually pulled by two horses. Their driver and other ‘buttoned and uniformed flunkies’ were often turned out in full livery. Middle class people drove themselves, usually in a wagonette, brougham or victoria, often pulled by only one horse. Some women actually drove themselves too, in lighter buggies, phaetons, jinkers, pony carriages, dogcarts, traps and gigs. Many individuals and firms had cart horses for carting goods around the cities and towns. Some people, rather than bother with a vehicle, simply rode a horse.

Selling horses and horse-drawn vehicles provided a livelihood for many people. So too did providing horsefeed, making and servicing saddles and harness, and shoeing horses. Horses needed constant attention. They had to be fed and groomed, regularly shod and some way found to dispose of their manure. At home this could always be used on the vegetable garden, but in the city streets it was a constant problem, and kept street sweepers busy at the rate of one sweeper for about every 200 metres of road.

In 1901 Australia had 1,662,000 horses, one for every two people. Australia’s horse population reached a peak in 1918 when it was 2,527,149, still about one horse for every two people. By 1970, it was down to 556,000, about one horse for every twenty-six people. We may be sure that not too many of them were used for getting around town.

Text and advertisement source: Getting Around Town: A History of Urban Transport in Australia by Brian Carroll (1980)

Photo: Horse and carriage at Goulburn Waterworks, c.1900

Did anyone in your family use a buggy or carriage – or did they ride their horse to school or work? Please share your family’s memories.

Dalton Gold Fields

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Along the southern section of the Wyangala Batholith numerous gold deposits occur in the Dalton area, but only the Dalton mine is recorded as having had any sizeable production. Some of the other prospects include those of the Jerrawa Gold Field, the Star of Dalton, King Solomon, Golden Dyke and Queen May mines, and the Honeyfields Lookout mine.

At the Dalton mine, en echelon quartz veins in sheared and altered slate contain native gold with pyrite and arsenopyrite. Disseminated arsenopyrite also occurs in the quartzite and more rarely in the slate host. A similarly mineralized deposit 15 km northwest of Dalton, the Jerrawa gold prospect, may also be included in the above description. This prospect is situated west of the granite body enclosing the mines of the Dalton Gold Field. At this locality stockwork rather than simple veining is the predominant form of the mineralization.

The gold occurs in a narrow belt of uniformly sheared slate and quartzite. Shearing strikes from 010º to 335ºM and dips vertically or steeply to the east. The shear zones are traversed by quartz veins. Felton notes that the mineralization occurs in a “bay” f sedimentary rocks, surrounded on three sides by granite (except for the Jerrawa Gold Field). The eastern and western “arms” of the granite strike approximately parallel to the mineralized shear zones to the north. It appears that the granite has intruded along pre-existing zones of weakness in the Ordovician metasediments, and these zones were subsequently used by hydrothermal ore-bearing fluids originating from the granite.

Source: The mineral deposits of New South Wales by NL Markham (1974).

Map: Section showing the Dalton area, produced by NRMA (c.1960)

Southern Tablelands Regional Library has no historic photos of the Dalton area, nor of the miners or mining activities of the past. Can you help? Please share your memories.

Dr George Buchanan

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George Buchanan was born in the USA but graduated MB ChM at Sydney University and later was elected FRACS. He practised in Goulburn from 1911 to 1936, living in Dr Waugh’s old home in Market Street. He was a close friend of both AP Gillespie and RO Williams who doubtless ‘covered’ for one another without becoming partners in practice, as all three were firm believers in solo personal practice. A chronic osteomyelitis in his right index finger forced him to retire from surgical practice and he moved to Manly where he died in 1946.

Source: A Social and Cultural History of Medicine in New South Wales: The Southern Tablelands and Cooma Monaro edited by AJ Proust (1999).
Image: Dr Buchanan (1915).

Does anyone in your family remember Dr George Buchanan? Please share your memories.

Wheat Sheaf Inn, near Crookwell

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The Wheat Sheaf Inn

CROOKWELL RIVER

THIRTY MILES FROM GOULBURN

HORATIO ROBERTS has much pleasure in

informing his friends and the public generally that

he has obtained a

PUBLICAN’S GENERAL LICENCE

For his house situated on the PEJAR ROAD, on route to

the

Tuena and Bathurst Countries.

The house has every convenience for travellers or those

who may favour him with a call, while his stock of

Rum, Brandy, Gin, Formented and all

other Liquors,

will be found equal to any Inn in Goulburn.

No expense has been spared to render the house as com-

fortable as any roadside house in the colony, while travel-

lers may be certain of good fare, good forage for their

horses, and attentive treatment.

The house will be opened on 1st January, 1855, when H.

R. will be happy to see any of his friends and neighbours

on that day to take dinner with him in commemoration of

the event.

Crookwell, December 8, 1854.

Text source: At Your Service: Crookwell Businesses 1848-1940 by Ron Mackay (2005) p.33.
Photo: The former Wheat Sheaf Inn, Crookwell Rd by Robert Bill (undated). An entry in STRL's “Heritage in Focus” Photographic Competition 2001.

Is anyone in your family related to Horatio Roberts, who opened the Wheat Sheaf Inn near Crookwell? Please share your family's memories.

Goulburn's Gaols

2010-03-08T10:49:00.001+11:00

The first gaol in Goulburn was of rubble-stone construction built in 1827 or 1828. It was so badly built that within a few years a second gaol, of slab or log, was built. The date is uncertain, but by 1835 this was also in bad condition. Tenders were invited for a gaol at Goulburn in 1839. That gaol was built in the early forties and stood on the site of the present court house.

The building of this gaol was much delayed. A flood damaged the bricks and later there was a scarcity of labour. At the same time the town lock-up stood in Auburn St, on the site of the present post office with the gaol immediately behind and the stocks in front.

The proclamation of the “New Gaol” as a “Public Gaol, Prison and House of Correction” appeared in 1847. Situated in the very centre of town, it was bounded by Auburn, Verner, Sloane and Montague Streets. The gaol was surrounded by a wall 20 feet high. On the wall were two watch towers.

To see a number of men, some young, some middle-aged, and some with snowy locks, confined within the four walls of a jail for violating the laws of God and man, is one of the saddest phases of human life that the reflective mind can contemplate … were men when contemplating the commission of crime to reflect upon what they are likely to lose, we should have far less necessity for judges and jurors, and criminal lawyers would be at a discount … (Goulburn Herald 16 Sept 1876)

Images: Goulburn Correctional Centre: a plan for the conservation of the precinct and its buildings (1994) by James Semple Kerr, pp. iv & 2.

Did any of your ancestors have connections with Goulburn's earliest gaols? Were they builders or masons, labourers, inmates, police or court officials? Please share your memories.

Elmslea Chambers, Goulburn

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Further up this street [Montague Street] of accountants and solicitors is the extraordinary Elmslea Chambers, built for Frank Leahy in 1935-36. The art deco façade consists of four pilasters faced with pink marble topped by Corinthian capitals and rosettes. Above the entrance, in baked ceramic tiles, is a ram’s head set against a sunburst. This is flanked by paired ibises in stylised vegetation.

The façade is perhaps as much a celebration of the flamboyant personality of this rich pastoralist as of his extensive stock and station holdings, which once extended from around Junee and Wagga Wagga to the Murrumbidgee River. Inside, the walls are lined with pink marble; most of the joinery is Silky Oak. The original octagonal office (private), which Leahy occupied for two years, is at the end of the corridor. The two more modern buildings nearby have been sympathetically designed into this unusual streetscape.

Source: Goulburn and Environs by Timoshenko Aslanides and Jenny Stewart (1983).

Photo: from Goulburn District Visitor Guide (c.2002), produced by Goulburn City Council.

Was anyone in your family involved with the building of iconic Elmslea Chambers? Please share your memories.

Currawang - a bygone era

2010-02-22T09:06:00.010+11:00

The former copper mining town of Currawang is located about fourteen kilometres south of Collector and straddles both sides of the Spring Valley road. The main period of mining operations was from 1865 to 1882, although the mines were reopened briefly in 1897 and 1907. During the period 1866-1872 Currawang was the largest copper producer in New South Wales and the mining and smelting operations had a substantial social and environmental impact on the surrounding district.

Sites of interest at Currawang include the mine site, existing buildings, both occupied and unoccupied, the Anglican church (St Matthias), the Cooper family vault and various hut and building sites. Most of the buildings date from the main period of mine activity from 1865 to 1882. For example, Telegraph Hill dates from 1882, St Matthias from 1874, and the Cooper family vault from 1868. The exceptions are Currawang House and possibly Baxter’s House.

Currawang House is of particular interest. An exact date is not to hand but the evidence strongly suggests that this was the home of Robert Cooper Jnr, who died in 1848, and as such would date to the late 1830-early 1840 period. Much of the Currawang House farm complex dates from the same period. The complex includes two brick wells, one for rainwater and one for river water, a separator room, a dairy, the remains of the kitchen and the laundry, and a very elaborate pig sty. While the site has been abandoned for many years, the structure of many of the buildings, particularly the house itself, are sound, although obviously in need of attention.

Baxter’s House … is a large stone building in relatively good condition, with part of the timber roof still in place. The internal walls are a mix of pug and pine, although some of the internal work is of a more recent origin. There is an outside oven. A more recent and less aesthetic building stands alongside the house. A short distance away are the remains of another small hut site and a brick lined well. There is a local view that Baxters was one of Currawang’s hotels, but the absence of bottle remains belies this.

The Cooper family vault … [lies] ... outside the Currawang town site. Its heritage value lies in its age (1868), its unique pyramidal structure and its obviously close association with the Cooper family, who were important benefactors of the Currawang community. Atop the vault is the inscription “In memory of Francis Cooper born Willaroo Lake George, Feb 1856, died at Sydney Oct 1868”.

There are a number of hut sites in the main town area. They include a hotel site, the school site, machine or blacksmith sheds, and a number of house sites, identifiable by raised mounds, stone, bricks, glass and small dams which were built for household use. With the exception of the house remains on Hennessey’s Hill, the remains of these sites are not substantial. Much of the former town site has long since been reclaimed for pastoral purposes and ploughed over.

Text Source: Lost Mines Revisited: historic mining communities of the Monaro, Southern Tablelands and South West slopes districts (1996) by Barry McGowan, pp.75-76.

Image: Mustering (2003), by Rhys Rowlands - pastoral scene at "Lake View", Currawang. An entry in STRL's “History in Focus: People at Work” Photographic Competition 2003.

Does your family have historical connections with Currawang during the mining era? Please share your memories.

Iron Horses in Bookham

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The village was originally called Bogolong but by the mid-1840s, the name Bookham was used on a map that showed the track from the Yass River to Gundagai passing through the village.

Bookham is the nearest settlement to the spectacular white-water canoeing watercourse at Childowla on the Murrumbidgee. Back on land, the village hosts the annual Iron Horse Race where 'steeds' as diverse as tractors, motorised lawnmowers and other forms of 'iron horse' compete against each other.

Source: Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Australian Places (1993).

Picture: Utes (2003) by Amanda Bolt. Shows some modern 'iron horses' at "Tralee", Bookham. An entry in STRL's "History in Focus: People at Work" Photographic Competition.

Have you ever competed in the "Iron Horse Race" in Bookham? Please share your memories.