HERITAGE NEWSLETTER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS ASSOCIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS INC. NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2012 ISSUE No. 24 Heritage of mountain villages sacrificed for highway progress MANY older residents of the Blue Mountains are lamenting the continual erosion of the unique character of the villages that developed along the in the last 150 years.

The heritage landscape has been swallowed up as the ribbon of highway under construction for several decades presses on to the west. It is only the historians and those long-time residents of the mountains who can recall the unique character which was once the Blue Mountains

Pictured at right are Joseph (left) and Florence (centre) Taggett outside their wood carrier and saw bench business in Hazelbrook, this photograph seems to have man would as a joke lift a car’s back circa. early 1920s. been taken. wheels off the ground as patrons were starting their cars. Born in Somerset in about 1881, In a small mountains economy, Joseph migrated in 1911, served as survival meant multi-skilling, so Public spirited, in 1923 Joseph was a dispatch runner in World War I woodcutting, construction of the elected a lieutenant of the newly- and purchased his home, ‘Oakura’ dam wall at Hazelbrook in 1928 and formed Woodford Bushfire Brigade. in Woodford in June 1920. The general building were amongst his second location of his woodcutting accomplishments. He died in 1939, the wood site business was near the present being then sold to become a service Hazelbrook service station where When working as a garage station. Photograph --- Ken attendant, this immensely strong Goodlet collection BMACHO History conference success THE BLUE Mountains History was most appropriate that the necessary, dimension to conference 2012 held in the organisation’s first conference be BMACHO’s activities, because it heritage Carrington Hotel, held at this venue. brings together more than 100 like- Katoomba was by all measures an minded people to listen to papers, outstanding success. Attendees were exposed to a to meet other historians and, most smorgasbord of speakers the of all, simply to talk during the all- Organised by the Blue Mountains conference opening address being important periods of tea and lunch. Association of Cultural Heritage given by former long-time president Organisations Inc. (BMACHO) the of the Royal Australian Historical “The real action takes place in the conference was attended by Society, Associate Professor R Ian Carrington’s dining-room. This has almost 100 participants. Jack. been happening in this great hotel ever since 1883 although the BMACHO president, Pamela Smith In his address titled Colonial society context has perhaps shifted over reminded those present that and beyond (which is published in the years: I hope that the deals BMACHO had been formed as a full on pages 4-7 of this edition of done today will be less dodgy than result of a suggestion by Professor HERITAGE), Ian said “…a some of those in the past,” Ian Barrie Reynolds at an earlier conference like this is another, said. conference at the Carrington and it

HERITAGE 1 November - December 2012 Contents...... An opinion from the editor...... HERITAGE November - December Heritage appears to go 2012 * P1 Heritage of mountain villages missing from proposed sacrificed for highway progress NSW planning reforms * P1 BMACHO History conference THE NSW state government is then the separation of the heritage success proposing legislation to remove the branch from the planning department. * P2 Opinion - Heritage rights of individuals under the guise of appears to go streamlining the planning process. “Their statutory status has been greatly misssing from reduced, and staffing has reduced their NSW planning What that means is making it easier to capacity to train and support the heritage reforms get developments approved by protection industry.” *P3 Centenary of removing community consultation from Locomotive Depot the approval process. The winding back of the status of the *P3 Colonial past and heritage branch has been of concern to public history The proposed legislation which has heritage groups for sometime and to see * P4 Colonial society been outlined in a government green further degeneration of this authority was and beyond paper, A New Planning System for not what was expected from the promises * P8 Colonial NSW will remove the right of made by the O’Farrell government when Inn Museum a communities to have a say in in opposition. part of town’s development proposals and planning heritage matters directly affecting their lives. It The public should voice their concern in *P11 Heritage farming will also diminish the role of elected letters to local state members, Premier project wins councillors. Barry O’Farrell and Planning Minister prestigious print Brad Hazzard even though the closing award It will permit ‘Enterprise Zones’ with no date for official submissions has passed. *P13 The growth of planning controls to be imposed over gardens in the entire suburbs or local government Margi Fallon’s article is recommended as Blue Mountains areas. It will not protect the required reading for all interested in the *P14 Proposed NSW environment or the heritage. preservation of our heritage and the planning reforms retention of individual’s rights to have a *P16 Cox’s Road - For years it has been accepted that say on planning matters directly affecting Context of the role of planning is to balance the their lives. representative needs of the community and the portions environment with those of the private CONGRATULATIONS *P18 Breakfast tour of interests of developers. IT IS always good to be able to historic chocolate congratulate someone who receives an factory Now the government is proposing to award for excellence and on this *P21 Oldest grave in enact a planning system that puts the occasion as editor of HERITAGE, I Blue Mountains developers’ needs and interests above applaud the efforts of BMACHO individual *P22 Harold Kenneth those of the community and the member Ian Milliss and his associate Dr Campbell environment. Lucas Ihlein who have won the Fremantle monument Arts Centre Print Award regarded as *P24 Historic Houses The O’Farrell government came to ’s most prestigious award. of Mudgee power with a promise to return planning powers to the community but *P25 Monuments and Primarily it is an award for art, but the Memorials it is clear the reform processes have been captured by the same interests subject of the collaborative work, *P26 Get into the spirit Yeoman’s Project (see page 11 brings a of Christmas that gave us the notorious Part 3A under the previous government. new dimension to the pursuits of *P26 War hero project BMACHO; it introduces through launch Local heritage consultant architect commercial graphics the history and *P27 State award for Margi Fallon has produced a timely heritage of agriculture and of Kurrajong Family article which appears on page 14 of topographical mapping. History Group HERITAGE and her views and *P27 Vintage and retro recommended actions are extremely It must be of interest that a farming *P28 Lithgow pertinent. system on the property Nevallan at Museums’ nearby North Richmond is being Networking Group Ms Fallon in her artcile states: ”...over considered for state heritage listing. *P29 Western Crossing the past 10 years the heritage branch commemoration John Leary, OAM - Past president, has been decimated by the removal of *P30 350 years of Blue Mountains Association of staff to the planning department and Punch Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc.

HERITAGE 2 November - December 2012 CENTENARY OF LOCOMOTIVE DEPOT VALLEY HEIGHTS locomotive depot will celebrate its centenary in 2014. In 1988, the Valley Heights Locomotive Depot was closed after 75 years of faithful railway service.

The locomotive depot proudly stands today housing a local heritage museum, thanks to the efforts of local volunteers over the course of last 24 years.

Now in its 99th year, planning is well underway to celebrate its 100th anniversary, a milestone that was doubtful back in 1988.

Some of the proposed events planned include: *an official opening for the celebrations with a special train; *visits by steam locomotives local steam shuttles At the inaugural Trains, Trams and T’s event at the Valley Heights Loco *themed days for historical Depot Heritage Museum early this year, museum volunteers, tram societies. crews and visitors came dressed for the occasion. The event was held to showcase transport in the 1920s. Photograph Andrew Tester These plans albeit in its early change. Committee member of the celebrations, the details of which stages, are very much subject to museum, Andrew Tester said, it will be published in the pages of financial support from the would be great if members of HERITAGE during 2013. community and are subject to BMACHO could support these Colonial past and public history THE KEYNOTE speaker, at last plays a major role in funding dynamics underpinning change and month’s Blue Mountains History institutions such as archives and growth. conference was Professor Paul museums, lies at the heart of public Ashton (pictured below) who took history.’ “Value systems can also be read in as his topic Colonial past and public maps. Monuments and memorials, history. “Public history also concerns public landscapes, processions, memory. There are numerous ways rituals of ‘social integration’, art “Public history can be broadly in which memories are constructed, galleries, museums and official defined, as Paula Hamilton and I reproduced and circulated. Nancy histories also became vectors of have defined it, ‘as a diverse set of Woods’ book Vectors of Memory: memory. practices that communicate and Legacies of Memory in Post War engage with historical meanings in Europe (Berg 1999) investigates “They became part of a process public arenas’. conduits of memorial activity in the described in the second half of the twentieth century. twentieth century by Donald Horne “As the British-based historian as ‘the great drama, endlessly Ludmilla Jordanova reminds us in “But we can apply this concept of playing... of maintaining definitions her wonderful book History in vectors of memory to public history of the nation and its social orders’. Practice, ‘we should remember that in colonial times. the state, which in many countries “During the nineteenth century and “Take maps for example. These beyond, however, this great drama documents were not simply finding was ultimately an imperial, aids. masculine narrative.” Professor Ashton said. “They were often comprehensive recordings of places, circulating in Paul is the co-director of the cultures in different ways and Australian Centre for Public History reinforcing a sense of place in the and the Centre for Creative Practice public imagining. and Cultural Economy & Professor of Public History at the University of “They showed patterns of Technology, . development and often the

HERITAGE 3 November - December 2012 Colonial society and beyond THE following is the text of an public understanding of the area: address by Associate Professor Ian not least, in 2006, it combined with Jack who officially opened the Blue the National Trust to seek real Mountains History conference money, seven figures of money, to organised by the Blue Mountains ‘Rediscover our Heritage in the Blue Association of Cultural Mountains’. Organisations on October 20. That has not happened but a helpful ‘It is a great pleasure to make some relationship with Telstra has funded introductory remarks at this a series of appropriate workshops conference. this year. A lot of mountain water has passed under the BMACHO The Blue Mountains Association of bridge over the last few years. Cultural Heritage Organisations is delighted that so many folk But a conference like this is Associate Professor Ian Jack interested in the history and another, necessary, dimension to If we had held this conference a heritage of the mountains have BMACHO’s activities, because it hundred years ago, each of you found their way to Katoomba today. brings together more than 100 like- could have stayed in a separate minded people to listen to papers, guesthouse tonight. BMACHO is still a very young to meet other historians and, most society beside the Springwood of all, simply to talk during the all- But to congregate in the vicinity of Historical Society, the Blue important periods of tea and lunch. Katoomba is not just a European Mountains Historical Society at phenomenon at all. This has Wentworth Falls, the Mount Victoria The real action takes place in the always been a place of meetings. Historical Society and the Mount Carrington’s dining-room. This has Wilson and Mount Irvine Historical been happening in this great hotel We may call our function today a Society. ever since 1883 although the conference, for that is the context has perhaps shifted over fashionable term with overtones of But thanks to John Leary, Jan the years: I hope that the deals tax-deductibility, but in reality we are Koperberg, Pamela Smith and co- done today will be less dodgy than just continuing an age-old tradition founders, Barrie Reynolds and some of those in the past. of meeting in the Mountains. Peter Stanbury, BMACHO has achieved a great deal in its The Carrington is very strategically The Mountain plateau had been for overview role within the historical sited. Katoomba is a natural place millennia an area where Aboriginal community beyond the Monocline, to foregather. people from different language through John Leary’s splendid groups, Darug, Gundungarra, HERITAGE newsletter, Peter Ever since the railway penetrated , had met, long before the Rickwood’s thoroughly refereed the mountains a century and a half Weatherboard Inn was dispensing Blue Mountains History Journal or ago, Europeans have been tempted dubious hospitality, long before the occasional general meetings to come on up here; an affordable Katoomba Street and Lurline Street organised at various venues. touristic pilgrimage and Katoomba- were lined with accommodation Leura soon developed a remarkable houses, and before the Three And it has tried to obtain state and concentration of guest-houses, over Sisters took on a Europeanised commonwealth funding to enhance a hundred in their heyday. mythology created by Mel Ward in 1949.

As Martin Thomas reminded us in his marvellous book, The Artificial Horizon: Imagining the Blue Mountains, the legend of the Three Sisters as articulated by Ward and his successors is in fact ‘an especially revealing text in the dreamwork of imperialism…, a fragment from an extensive mythological order, emerging from a region … which always, it seems, has been a privileged place for marvel and speculation’ (p.155).

So we are here like others before us over the last 30,000 or 40,000 years, to marvel and speculate. Grand dining room of Katoomba’s Carrington Hotel Continued on page 5

HERITAGE 4 November - December 2012 ‘Like a handshake across the centuries’ Continued from page 4 To These stones are the physical So there are many, many hands see the mountains as a barrier was evidence of Aboriginal trade routes which we should all wish to grasp, a very European construct. At first and habits of exchange. Eugene wherever we go in the Mountains the Mountains seemed a handy went on to coin a very telling and whatever historical curiosity we prison wall to the west of the phrase.‘Holding a stone tool in my may happen to have. Cumberland Plain’s distributed hand [he wrote] I wondered at the penal station. last hand to grasp it: it was like a handshake across the centuries.’ In a quite different way, to Aboriginal (p.5) people the Blue Mountains were a self-evident demarcator, where ‘A handshake across the centuries’. various language groups had a fluid I do wish that I had thought of that boundary, but that said, the phrase, for it is a warm and friendly Mountains were not so much a evocation of how historians should divider as a meeting-place. respond to any physical evidence of Aboriginal hand stencils in the any human activity, of any period. The name, the Great Dividing Red Hand Cave near Glenbrook Range, is profoundly revealing of We should all be shaking hands one type of European outlook. across the centuries in response to All sorts of things may excite our all the variety of cultural heritage curiosity: an ochred hand, or a There was another, simultaneous which surrounds us. It is an powder-magazine beside a convict outlook, however, for the name essential part of historical road, or an elegant stone culvert, or ‘’ is the discourse. remnant plantings on an abandoned antithesis of the romance and gum- country retreat, or, one of my laden exhalation of the term ‘Blue And it helps to remind us that there favourites, a mine-adit cut Mountains’. is no wilderness. The Blue horizontally into the talus from a Mountains National Park which is all narrow ledge where lyre-birds But for the folk who had been around us here was given World display and the archaeologists try enjoying the area for many Heritage status because of its not to lose their tools or their millennia, the Wiradjuri, the natural qualities. colleagues down the 300-metre Gundungurra and the Darug people, drop into the Grose Valley. the Mountains were not a divide at But there is no part of the World all, but a natural point of contact. Heritage area which has remained All this suggests that there is no untrodden by human beings over neat chronological divide. The mountains lay on the periphery many millennia. of several indigenous language Long before Lawson, Wentworth groups and trade routes inevitably Even in the remotest gorges of the and Blaxland, there was widespread led across the plateau. Wollangambe, where the Wollemi Aboriginal knowledge of how to Pine was found with such fanfare, attain the table-top from the plains Father Eugene Stockton, the much- even there you find Aboriginal art- and valleys on all sides, not just loved priestly archaeologist of sites. from the coastal plain, but also from Lawson, recalled how he came to the north and south and west. Aboriginal studies in the Mountains. Here at Katoomba, is not just a wonderful environment: There was detailed information Twenty years ago, in his influential it is still a place full of relics of about how to cross the climactic book, Blue Mountains Dreaming, he European coal-miners and oil-shale landscape of the table-top without told how ‘As a teenager I began to workers, relics which the Hammon falling down a precipice or leaping find stones which did not belong to family has skilfully used to enhance down a waterfall like the the geology of the area.’ (p.5) the cultural value of a trip on the mythologically transformed Mr Scenic Railway. Govett.

And over the last century and a half, For everyone on the mountains, thousands of steps have been cut indigenous or European, travel in into the living rock-faces at the edge the region was at bottom a of this plateau some for miners but ‘negotiation with the perpendicular’, more for tourists. in Martin Thomas’s quizzical phrase. All these Mountain features, and hundreds more like them, have But for the indigenous people it was been created or modified by people country like any other, and the over tens of thousands of years. mountains with their abysses had their fair share of Dreamtime stories Australian Aboriginal flaked stone This is not just a miracle of nature: it of ancestral creation, skilfully tools. Image courtesy NSW Office is nature moderated by men and interpreted in the past two decades of Environment and Heritage women. by Jim Smith. Continued page 6

HERITAGE 5 November - December 2012 Continued from page 5 To the Europeans the Mountains were for a long time an infernal nuisance full of ‘impassable chasms’ , with the plateau an arid and unattractive area to hurry across to get to the other side.

It was only gradually in the nineteenth century that the mystique of the Sublime gathered force and, as Kate Hartig felicitously observed: ‘the aesthetic appraisal of the mountain landscape was cloaked in a romantic image and was expressed by sentiments of exaltation and delight.’

The grand concept of the Sublime in the nineteenth century fostered an appreciation of the savagely scenic.

In Europe, the Alps ceased to be a The gardens at Nooroo, Mt Wilson - the summerhouse framed by confounded nuisance for travellers wisteria, maples and rhododendrons to surmount and became instead So mountain retreats sprang up, gardens on the heritage values of somewhere to walk, to climb, to often in spectacular situations, like the Mountains. sketch, to admire. It is one aspect Yester Grange at Wentworth Falls of the invention of the holiday. or Eurama at Faulconbridge, cool places for the well-to-do to escape Once it was known in the 1810s that ...the irony of the discomfort of summer weather there was another side to the Blue in Sydney or Newcastle. Mountains, leading to promising classic gardens plains for European animals to Two became recognisable hill graze and erode, the stretch from stations in the pattern of the Indian which we love Glenbrook to Mount Victoria was raj: these were Mount Wilson and seen primarily as a hazardous Kurrajong Heights. intermission between the good so much at Mt grazing on the Cumberland Plain And country retreats and hill and the next accessible patch in stations called for gardens, like Wilson... Hartley Vale. those which Silas Clifford-Smith will be talking about this morning. And It always strike me as an irony that And in that intermission there was this is true not only of the hill- the classic gardens which we all precious little for animals or people stations; it is equally true of the later love so much at Mount Wilson are to eat or drink. This perception took gardens, symbolised in the in fact exotic importations created half a century to moderate. The twentieth century by the work of by the deliberate destruction of the Mountains road was still ‘dreary and Paul Sorensen, that ambivalent rich natural vegetation of the basalt desolate’ to Louisa Meredith in icon. cap, with its rain-forest and tree-fern 1839. under-storey. Many of these gardens, and their What happened in the Blue successors, are now on display The character of Mount Wilson is Mountains, as elsewhere in the every year as part of such things as complex, just as its Indian course of the nineteenth century, is the Leura Festival. They are no counterpart, Simla, is complex, for a very European realisation that, less manicured and have created reasons both similar and dissimilar. while a road may very well have no less ruthless clearings of the Neither has a simple, been constructed to lead from A to environment within throwing uncomplicated relationship between B and that one ventured on that distance of the World Heritage park. the original environment and the road at A with the sole wish to reach modified. B as safely and expeditiously as That does not mean that I do not possible, nonetheless there may be admire them nor that I do not And because each has a seasonal pleasures to be found along the way recommend many of them for occupation by the wealthy of which one had not dreamt. heritage listing, often at a state-wide professional folk who need to level of significance. escape hot and humid cities, each It is not quite the world where ‘It is has also a different sort of better to travel hopefully than to But there is a tight-rope to walk permanent resident, those who take arrive’, but it is a world where new when weighing up just what has care of the estates and form their possibilities and new realisations been the impact of some of these own very different community were gradually opened up. throughout the year.

HERITAGE 6 November - December 2012 Continued from page 6 If you have not yet There is an analogue in the service- read Siobhan’s providers, living all the year round in article in the the towns and villages which grew Journal of the Royal up along the railway line from the Australian Historical 1870s onwards. Society in 2003 entitled ‘A Tree and The mountains are gearing up, a Legend: the however, in 2012, not for a making of past and celebration of the Sublime, nor of place in the Blue the long-term impact of mass Mountains’, you tourism, but for a full-blooded should do so, for it dedication to European events of fully lives up to two hundred years ago. Siobhan’s claim that: This conference is a forerunner to The Explorers’ an extraordinary three years of Tree provides an events designed to examine afresh historic case study the European crossing of the of interest in its Mountains in stages through 1813, demonstration of 1814 and 1815. place creation, recognition and A Western Crossing Committee, acceptance, and formed by the Royal Australian also the role of Historical Society and strongly place as marker of supported by BMACHO, has been national and local The Explorers Tree, Katoomba ca 1875. Charles instrumental in bringing together a identity. Bayliss National Library of Australia vn4192094 wide variety of societies, groups and local council agencies from And place is so essential a part of Gardens get their due in a Penrith and Richmond and Mountain studies. nineteenth-century context wider Kurrajong in the east through all the than the Mountains from Silas villages and towns along the Great Siobhan successfully shows how Clifford-Smith, well-known Western Highway and Bells Line of different observers over 150 years hereabouts for his work in the Road right out to Bathurst in the have had widely divergent reactions gardens at the Norman Lindsay west, so that there is a common to the legendary tree, indeed gallery. sharing of information about all the making a rather ordinary eucalyptus multifarious activities which are oreades into a legendary tree. And The mountains have also had a planned. these contrasting views among significant role in literary inspiration. observers have a certain equation John Low, who was inspirational in The commonality of interest among with whether the observer is a local earlier conferences here at the the local government areas of or not. Carrington, was for many years the Hawkesbury, Penrith, Blue local studies librarian at Mountains, Lithgow, Oberon and These are big questions which Springwood. One of his significant Bathurst has never been so clearly should resonate on sites other than achievements there was the articulated and has produced the Explorers’ Tree: they have accumulation of a first-rate significant by-products such as the certainly been resonating recently in collection of literary works of fiction linking of the tourist bodies in Blue yet another reappraisal of the relating in some way to the Mountains City, Lithgow City and alleged convict graves situated just mountains. Oberon Shire. above the Explorers’ Tree on Pulpit Hill: we are now down to only one, The shelves of these hard-to-find No less than the Three Sisters, the but that is the earliest convict grave novels caught my eye the first time I Western Crossing has acquired its on the Mountains, described by browsed in John’s domain at own mythology. This is neatly French explorers in the 1820s and Springwood and the collection enshrined in a tangible shrine here probably on the site located recently deserves more recognition, in Katoomba, the so-called by ground-penetrating radar. particularly because of the renewed Explorers’ Tree, which, as Siobhan success of the writers’ centre at Lavelle has so deftly demonstrated, There are so many topics, great and Eleanor Dark’s old home of Varuna, has a remarkable amount to say small, which still have the capacity here in Katoomba. about almost everything in the last to provide fodder for conferences 200 years, from the Dauntless and symposia held here in the So it was a happy inspiration to Three, through Evans the surveyor Mountains. Today the organisers invite Jill Roe to come and distil and Cox the entrepreneur, through have brought together a cross- from her comprehensive knowledge the convicts who constructed and section of interests. The early of Miles Franklin a paper on Miles’s maintained the changing lines of the colonial period bookends the talks, Mountain Mates. And we close one western road, to the tourist with a Professor of Public History, phase of the proceedings with a revolution and its corollary, the Paul Ashton, at one end and Glynis closer look at our surroundings here service providers, and ultimately the Jones, a curator of textiles and in the Carrington conducted by the dormitory suburb. clothing at the other. in-house historian, Paul Innes.

HERITAGE 7 November - December 2012 Mudgee Colonial Inn Museum a part of the town’s heritage by John Broadley --- president Mudgee Historical Society

THERE are few historical societies in Australia which can claim to ownership of part of a town’s rich heritage.

The site of the Colonial Inn Museum, headquarters of the Mudgee Historical Society, is situated on part of one of Mudgee’s most historic land grants: Portion 181 of the Parish of Mudgee in the County of Wellington, a crown grant of 995 acres which was registered in 1835 to Mudgee pioneer, George Cox.

Although the site contains numerous buildings from various periods, the main museum building dates from the mid 1850s and is A recent photograph of the Colonial Inn Museum one of Mudgee’s oldest.

George Cox and his younger Industry developed – breweries, land on the northern side of Market brother Henry, sons of noted tanneries, foundries, flour mills - Lane immediately adjacent to the Hawkesbury settler and Blue while many shops and hotels were town boundary and ran down to the Mountains road builder, William built; remarkably, many buildings . Cox, were pioneer settlers of from this era remain, although most Mudgee, establishing runs at have undergone transformations. By 1856 John Brooks had Mudgee in February 1822. constructed the existing building – From the early 1850s George Cox in brick, two-storeyed, with a narrow They gradually accrued extensive began to subdivide the south- cantilevered balcony on the front landholdings on the southern banks eastern corner of Portion 181 which facade and two rear service wings - of the Cudgegong River which flows adjoined the western boundary of whose design suggests that it was through the Mudgee valley, while the town of Mudgee which had been intended for use as licensed Blue Mountains explorer Lieutenant proclaimed in 1838. premises. William Lawson occupied the The building was decidedly grander northern bank. These subdivisions varied in size, but mostly comprised a few acres than many of the inns and hotels of the period outside of the town These three men were soon joined and were located along, or close to, boundary. by Richard Rouse senior of Market Lane, the north-western Windsor, Robert Lowe of Bringelly entry to the town. On the ground floor the building’s and William Bowman of Windsor as two front doors accessed the public pioneer settlers of the Mudgee This area rapidly became a busy bar on the right and the ladies’ district. industrial and commercial centre to service the passing hordes on their saloon or parlour on the left. All were, however, largely absentee way to and from the gold fields. Segregated service of alcohol landowners, leaving their Mudgee Numerous shops, a soap factory, a remained the norm until well into lands in the charge of convict foundry, a flour mill, wheelwrights the twentieth century. overseers until the next generation and coach factories sprang up in the vicinity. came of age. In 1857 John Brooks sold the property to George McQuiggan, Several hotels were erected during As a result of the discovery of gold who operated a hotel on the the 1850s between the bend in what in 1851 at Louisa Creek, now premises until 1861. Hargraves, near Mudgee, the is now known as Market Street west and the site of Radio 2MG on population of the district increased George McQuiggan was a Mudgee’s north-western outskirts. dramatically, and the sleepy prominent businessman with an backwater village of Mudgee extensive real estate portfolio in the In 1853 George Cox sold a parcel of became a service centre for the burgeoning town. surrounding goldfields. 8 acres of his grant to John Brooks for £5. This was a narrow portion of Continued page 9

HERITAGE 8 November - December 2012 Continued from page 8 From 1861 to 1864 the building was leased to the Mudgee firm of Dickson & Burrows who operated a store on the premises.

From 1865 until 1923 the West End Hotel operated from the premises by numerous licensees under a variety of owners; in those days the licensee was not always necessarily the owner.

George McQuiggan died in 1874 and in 1880 his trustees conveyed the property to Thomas Wilton who in turn died in 1894.

In 1896 his executor and the executor of his daughter, Annie The West End Hotel circa 1880s Hollis, who had died in 1895, The Roths only held the property The original cantilevered balcony conveyed the property to Joseph briefly, on selling in 1937 to Gibson was replaced by a deep two- Mulley who had been licensee since Harland, farmer of Gilgandra, and storeyed verandah in the late 1890. his wife, Phoebe. 1800s; the ironwork – verandah railing, posts and pillars bear the Joseph Mulley remained licensee The Harlands retained the property mark of Mudgee’s Hansen foundry until his death in 1903, when his until the late 1950s, by which time which started in the early 1880s in widow Sarah took over the licence. they had retired to Mudgee. premises nearby.

In 1958 they sold to Joyce Helena Windows and doors are original and ...not unusual Cole, servicewoman, who in turn the floors and the majority of the sold the property in 1966 to the lath and plaster ceilings are intact. for women to Mudgee Historical Society for use The odd internal door and window as its headquarters and as a have been inserted, moved or be licensees... museum. sealed and the occasional partition wall upstairs has been inserted or The Mudgee Historical Society had realigned. It was not unusual for women to be been formed in 1964 as an initiative licensees, as there had been of the Mudgee Rotary Club and Rooms had been added to the rear several female licensees in Mudgee originally occupied a few rooms in of the wings at various stages, and during the 1800s; in fact, Sarah was the recently-delicensed premises of the previously-open space between the second female licensee of the the Post Office Hotel which was the wings has been roofed over. West End Hotel, as Mrs James adapted for commercial and Dwane had been licensee from residential use. The building has adapted well to 1875 to 1877, succeeding her use as a museum. Its thick exterior husband who had been licensee In the early days of the Mudgee walls mean that the building’s from 1871 to 1875. Historical Society many items were interior has a relatively standard generously donated for exhibition temperature all year round, ideal for In 1905 Sarah Mulley sold the and the museum quickly outgrew its the preservation of delicate items. property to Albert Gentle who held limited space. Thus a search began the licence until 1923 when the to find suitable premises for a Several theme display rooms have West End Hotel and numerous museum. been installed in rooms which other hotels in the town and district originally served a particular were delicensed. The society trustees selected four function during its hotel period. historic premises, but ultimately The building remained the Gentles’ decided upon the former West End The entry is the original bar and it is private residence until its sale to Hotel as being in the best condition set up as such, while the original Rose Bowen in 1927, when it and offering scope for expansion. parlour is accurately set up as a late became a boarding house/flats; it Renamed the Colonial Inn Museum, nineteenth century parlour. was also reputedly used as “lying-in the building remains to this day the accommodation” for women from offices of the Mudgee Historical The hotel kitchen remains a late isolated areas awaiting birth. Society Inc and is the core of its 19th/early 20th century kitchen, and museum displays. this room in particular evokes many In 1935, during the Great comments from visitors: “It’s just Depression, the mortgagee sold the Remarkably, the old hotel building like my Nanna’s kitchen!” property to Wilfred Roth, farmer of has undergone few changes since it Continued page 10 , Mudgee, and his wife, was built circa 1856. Alice Hazel Roth.

HERITAGE 9 November - December 2012 A “gozunder” that fascinated school children Continued from page 9 Upstairs, one of the hotel bedrooms is furnished as a typical Victorian bedroom, along with a commode chair and a “gozunder” (these fascinate school children), while the long room at the front upstairs, which opens onto the verandah and which was used for dinners, meetings and dances, contains the original Mudgee Municipal mayoral desk and chair and councillors’ table and chairs; the long room also houses war memorabilia and a chemist display.

Other theme rooms within the original hotel building are a men’s room, a women’s room, a children’s A panorama of the west of Mudgee township in the late 1800s showing room, “kept for best” room, the West End soap factory in the foreground and at the top centre handicraft room, and a room West End Hotel to the left of the bend in the unsealed road. Image featuring early cameras and record courtesy Mudgee Historical Society Inc players. implements, furniture, agricultural The Mudgee Historical Society Inc When the society bought the machinery, tools, horse-drawn is solely a volunteer organisation property it had been considerably vehicles and cars, and also holds which wholly owns its site and reduced in size and all the old substantial photographic and buildings and relies on the hard outbuildings – stables, outhouses, archival documents collections. work of its volunteers and the sheds – had been demolished. generosity and support of its It is open seven days a week and is membership and the community to Since then an adjoining block of used extensively by local schools survive. land was purchased and a variety of as an educational resource, and as buildings, all sympathetic in design a community meeting place for a It is especially appreciative of the and materials, have been erected or number of organisations. constant support of the Mid- transported to the site. Western Regional Council and its It is also a welcoming place for predecessor, the Mudgee Shire These structures include a visits from local nursing homes, and Council. combined meeting room, kitchen for the last four years the Mudgee and toilet block; a recreation of a Historical Society Inc has hosted a The Mudgee Historical Society Inc vertical slab hip roofed cottage; a courtesy morning tea for local looks forward to celebrating the large gabled storage/display shed senior citizens during National Golden anniversary of its with skillions; and extensive skillion Seniors’ Week. establishment in 2014 and of its machinery and vehicle display existence on site in 2016. sheds. A Moment in Time In 1996 a gabled, corrugated iron- clad former church was re-located exhibition at Hartley to the site from South Mudgee for AN IMAGES exhibition titled a These walks will vary in length and use as display space, especially to Moment in Time will be conducted difficulty, limited to manageable house the museum’s sizeable by Hartley District Progress numbers and only on sections of costumed doll collection; originally Association in June 2013. the original road where landholder’s built in 1906 at Lue, a village to the permission can be obtained. south-east of Mudgee, the church The exhibition will be staged in the had been previously moved in the for two weeks Hartley District Progress 1930s into Mudgee. either side of the Queens Birthday Association has a history weekend. conference scheduled for June 8, More recently, a brand new 2013. curator’s storage and work shed A yet to be named Fair Day on and a blacksmith shop have been June 1 has been diarised by the completed, the latter made solely Governor of NSW and festivities from recycled material. on that day will run from 10am to 4pm. The Colonial Inn Museum and its grounds contain an enormous There will be guided walks along collection of 19th and early 20th the Cox’s Road in May and June. century Australiana: domestic

HERITAGE 10 November - December 2012 Heritage farming project wins prestigious print award

IAN MILLISS pictured, an individual member of BMACHO and his associate Lucas Ihlein have recently been awarded the prestigious Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, for their collaborative work Yeoman’s Project.

Through a series of five prints, the art work explores the influence of Percival Alfred Yeomans, an Australian farmer and engineer whose research into sustainable agriculture continues to attract international acclaim.

Known best for his invention of the “Keyline System”, Yeomans’ enhancements to the practices of land cultivation won him the Prince Phillip Design Award in 1974. Ian and Ihlein have been awarded the $15,000 acquisitional prize, and Yeomans Project will become part of the City of Fremantle’s permanent art collection.

The judges said of the winning entry, ‘In a tight layering of concept and research and through the process of offset lithography, the series references land art, commercial graphics, agricultural advertising and the history of topographical mapping.

The award has special local significance as Yobarnie and Nevallan at North Richmond are the two properties where Yeomans developed and refined his ideas.

Nevallan is still intact and currently under consideration for state heritage listing. Yobarnie has already been partly subdivided; dams destroyed and built on although large parts still remain intact.

by Ian Milliss land outside Richmond that he took controlled by a particular pattern of over when his brother-in-law who tilling based on the “keyline” which If you look to the south when driving was managing the family owned maximises absorption and pasture up the Kurrajong Road from North property died in a bushfire. growth, effectively spreading the Richmond just before you reach irregular rainfall patterns so Kurmond you will overlook a farm He successfully combined water common to Australia. with regular rows of tree belts and retention techniques and tilling dams circling the hills. patterns into an innovative form of Yeomans’ approach directly organic farming designed to renew opposed the conventional wisdom This is the distinctive image of the eroded farmland by rapidly of the time. Nevallan, one of the first properties regenerating topsoil. of the Australian agricultural Collecting and storing large innovator PA Yeomans. Keyline farming focuses on water quantities of run off water on the flow patterns. The layout of farm farm itself for subsequent irrigation Percival Alfred Yeomans (1904 - dams, irrigation areas, roads, was virtually unheard of and was 1984) was an Australian inventor fences, farm buildings, tree lines opposed by government soil known for his “Keyline System” of and water storage are all structured conservation departments whose farm design and management. to maximise retention and repeated priority then (and still now to some recapture of run-off water on the extent) was encouraging rapid Beginning as a novice farmer farm. runoff into watercourses where the shortly after World War 2, Yeomans water is later resold down river to applied his engineering and mining Once rainfall water is captured it is intensive irrigators. training to the degraded hillside used for irrigation but its flow is His advocacy of tyned tillage equipment and a unique cultivation pattern to solve the ravages of erosion and increase soil fertility also conflicted with the simplistic approach of the agricultural chemical industry.

Yeomans later extended his analysis to urban landscape design as well. Part of the Nevallan property at North Richmond Continued Page 12

HERITAGE 11 November - December 2012 He argued that there is a local and Yeomans was global problem of mismanagement energetically devoted of both rain water and human to promoting his effluent caused by poor landscape ideas through his design. several books, extensive education ...a “City programs and field days.

Forest” From the 1950s onward his scheme to techniques were taken up by many process the farmers throughout Australia and nutrients of ultimately worldwide. In the 1970s they led human to the development of the permaculture waste... movement and also influenced other He proposed a “City Forest” farming techniques scheme to process the nutrients of such as the low human waste and slow rainwater tillage movement. flow, arguing that forests should be One of the 5 winning prints deliberately designed and grown as Nevallan is still intact and currently an intrinsic part of cities, a radical Yobarnie and Nevallan at North under consideration for state extension of his techniques for Richmond are the two properties heritage listing. Yobarnie has working on farmland. where Yeomans developed and refined his ideas. already been partly subdivided; dams destroyed and built on Yeomans also designed and although large parts still remain manufactured his own specialised Unfortunately it has been difficult to intact. ploughs and tynes, receiving The get any recognition of the heritage Prince Philip Design Award in 1974. significance of these properties, among the most historically But that is Yeomans’ work. Our investigation is itself now a part of Yeomans’ ploughs work the subsoil important farming landscapes in the art history. by lifting the pasture surface and country particularly given the breaking up root systems without current focus on sustainable In the early 1970s I worked with the overturning the sod. farming. Art Gallery of NSW to curate an exhibition on Yeomans as part of an The deep surface furrows direct The properties were sold after ongoing art world discussion on the water into the subsoil, encouraging Yeomans’ death and continued to definition of art, artists and cultural renewed root growth and making operate for many years as dairy activism. the ploughs particularly effective in farms. regenerating degraded pasture. I was advocating that artists were not defined by the manufacture of certain types of artefacts or media (eg painting) nor by their use of certain distribution mechanisms (eg galleries) but rather by their ability to generate adaptive cultural change using any available activity.

On that basis Yeomans represented a model for a new understanding of what an artist could be, a type of cultural innovator who used any means available to change the culture.

The exhibition was eventually cancelled by the last minute intervention of the Gallery’s Board of Trustees, despite the objections of the director and curators, on the basis that it was a trade show, not One of Yeomans’ ploughs art. Continued page 13

HERITAGE 12 November - December 2012 The Yeomans’ The growth of gardens in project ... the Blue Mountains FIVE half-day (identical) seminars —- Historical development of the art, farming, are being held over the weekend Blue Mountains and its early April 12-14, 2013 by Garden Clubs gardens. of Australia — Blue Mountains zone history and as part of the 200th anniversary of Alison Halliday, co-author of the the ‘Crossing of the Blue Mountains’ best-selling publication A Passion more ... by Blaxland, Lawson and for Place, Gardens of the Blue Continued from page 12 Wentworth in 1813 celebrations Mountains - Bells Line of Road While I moved on to explore similar gardens. ideas in other ways the trustee’s The seminars will cover the growth action was one of many of gardening, within the historical Angus Stewart, noted native plant inappropriate interventions which establishment of the Blue breeder and presenter, ABC TV’s resulted in the Art Gallery Act being Mountains, from pre-settlement “Gardening Australia” — Our Blue changed in 1980 to remove their times, through the early days of the Mountain Gardens of To-day. power over day to day activity in the developing towns and villages of th th Jerry Coleby-Williams, Director - institution. the 19 and 20 centuries; to the spectacular and historic gardens of Seed Savers Foundation, and In 2010 a young artist, Dr Lucas to-day. another prominent presenter of ABC Ihlein, approached me about TV’s “Gardening Australia” program: working with him to recreate this — Into the Future – Challenges and project for a 2011 exhibition on the Opportunities. influence of early conceptual art at The seminars (each of 3 and a half the Australian Centre for hours duration) are open to the Contemporary Art in Melbourne. garden interested public on We received funding from the Saturday, April 13 at Springwood Australia Council and the revived (8.30am – 12.30pm) and Wentworth project has taken a variety of forms, Falls (2.30pm –6.00pm) and the a blog http://yeomansproject.com, a next day (Sunday) at Lithgow (2.30 Beginning with a look at indigenous series of prints (which recently won – 6pm) all for a low cost of $12, native food plants (pre 1813 and to- the 2012 Fremantle Arts Centre school students, free. day) and early market gardens, then Print Award http://yhoo.it/RaZZ91), on to how many of the ‘estate’ and This is a unique opportunity to the display itself which included ‘resort’ gardens were established, learn, from renowned speakers, of artefacts relating to Yeomans and then to the large number of the development of Australian including one of his ploughs, a bus quality residential gardens annually gardening from the early days to the tour and a number of talks and on display, the seminars conclude present, and of what lies ahead for conference appearances. with a look at the challenges and gardeners in the future. opportunities confronting Blue The multi disciplinary nature of the Mountains gardeners, and Numbers are limited but early project illustrates the way gardeners generally, in the 21st bookings can be made by disciplinary boundaries are currently century. telephoning mobile 0488-075-388 dissolving. As the internet and or by e-mail to [email protected]. social media open up the potential The seminars begin at Kurrajong for cheap and widespread on the evening of Friday, April 12 Garden clubs with members distribution and interaction the then Springwood and Wentworth wanting to attend should contact gatekeepers of previously discrete Falls on Saturday 13 and conclude Central Blue Mountains Garden disciplines are being bypassed yet at Blackheath and Lithgow on Club, P.O. Box 164, Lawson 2783, the disciplines themselves are Sunday 14 —- giving Blue Mountains or ring Warren Boorman on (02) being expanded and opened out to garden club members, residents, 4759 2149. a broader range of practitioners, and visitors, a wide choice of with varying results. venues and times to participate in The seminars are an “1813 the program. Crossing “ scheduled event, part of The Yeomans Project now has extensive celebrations being held components that can be classified There will be five high - profile throughout the Blue Mountains as history, art, farming, education, speakers: region from 2013 to 2015, environmental activism, and a concluding with the 200th variety of other previously more Bundeluk, of the Darug people: anniversary of Governor clearly separated activities. “Storyteller” — Bushtucker tradition Macquarie’s visit to “declare open” indigenous plants, pre 1813 and Bathurst, Australia’s first inland In a final irony the original exhibition to-day. settlement. has once again been scheduled for the Art Gallery of NSW in November Associate Professor Ian Jack, 2013, only 38 years late. Royal Australian Historical Society:

HERITAGE 13 November - December 2012 PROPOSED NSW PLANNING REFORMS OVERLOOK HERITAGE VALUE By Margi Fallon Heritage Consultant Architect

MANY may be aware of the There needs to be community cover urban, coastal, regional, outer proposed New Planning System for consultation at the development west and other local areas from a NSW as outlined in the green paper end of the process as well as the state level concept. released for public comment in July strategic end of the process. this year. Submissions for The environment of NSW is diverse individuals closed on September 14 An inverted triangle principal of and the needs of the various and for councils on October 5. planning, proposed by the communities are diverse. Productivity Commission, sets the It was clear from many of the concept of a top down planning The drivers and focus of these submissions that the proposed system rather than a merit based reforms are clearly based on planning reforms will have a major assessment system. Sydney urban growth and effect on community consultation, development issues and these design quality, environmental This will be difficult to achieve issues are not as relevant in protection and heritage within the without a very careful and regional NSW. state. coordinated approach that enables the local and character needs to be What is relevant is decentralisation, The reforms are being developed addressed at the state level. and infrastructure. These are also with the primary aim of speeding up included in the reforms and the development in the state, with many It is difficult to see how this can implementation of the reforms with risks attached. happen in reality. a greater focus on regional NSW will enable this issue to be Despite many reservations being The community is unlikely to potentially addressed. expressed from community, engage at a state level, and will be environment, local government and more involved at a local level. The planned strategic management heritage groups around the state, system of state to regional to the government is proceeding However, what is left to decide subregional to local, will only work if quickly to the development of the strategically at a local level will be the manning of the various offices white paper which will go before pretty small as the state and at each level are located parliament for ratification early to regional plans will provide the appropriately (ie regional and sub mid next year. framework through which the local regional offices in their relevant planning can happen. regional areas, manned by regional OBJECTIVES OF THE professionals, not Sydney based PROPOSED PLANNING The streamlining of the planning ones.) REFORMS process to remove or reduce the The key drivers of this reform are scope of merit based assessment of The manning of the “Independent” ‘growth and development design will need to either be a very bodies suggested in the report is outcomes’, and these will occur at complex system of clearly defined heavily weighted to the planning the cost of quality, environment and code requirements to enable the and developer profession. good design. The removal of the “tick box “ to provide for good word environment from the naming outcomes, or it will create a However, for a good design of the planning instruments is proliferation of the lowest common outcome a broad range of ominous. denominator of design and urban professionals need to be involved in outcomes. the strategic planning bodies The word “heritage” also barely including : appears in the green paper. The outcome of this will only be Heritage professionals, Aboriginal noticed when it is too late. (Noting cultural professionals, A stated objective of greater that the majority of small to medium environmental professionals, community involvement will not be scale developments are not planning professionals, urban met as this is proposed to be designed by design trained design professionals, and restricted to the strategic planning. professionals.) community representatives.

The general community will not be While the green paper appears to The last group -- community able to understand enough of the recognise local government, the representatives, does at its heart end result to be able to fully engage regional and subregional system need to involve local government in strategic planning unless they are has the potential to remove the role councillors. I don’t believe local very honestly and clearly trained and power of local government in community elected representatives and consulted by highly trained planning. can be removed from the professionals, with scale models of consultative and decision making what will land on the ground as a This will not have a good outcome system. After all, that is what they result. as NSW is a diverse culture and it have been elected to do – advocate will not be possible to adequately for the local community.

HERITAGE 14 November - December 2012 three months over the Christmas developer side of the equation and New system period. However, there may be the community side of the equation. signs that this will be extended to aimed at six months through the lobbying of 4. THE DEPARTMENT OF the BPN. PLANNING NEEDS TO BE DECENTRALISED – with the removing Check out the planning reforms Regional Planning Board serviced process and get informed. It is by a regional planning office. That local happening quickly and we may lose office would include planners, many good things if it is not done heritage, environmental and government properly. Aboriginal cultural professionals. The planning reforms and process The regional planning offices need from for consultation can be viewed at : to be located in the regions they http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/a- serve. (ie Bathurst /Orange, . planning new-planning-system-for-nsw. You Grafton, Gosford, Newcastle, can also connect to the Better , Nowra, Wagga, Albury, Continued from page 14 The proposed new system is Planning Network at : http:// Armidale, Tamworth). The old heavily weighted to centralisation betterplanningnetwork.good.do You buildings may still be there. and standardisation of planning can also continue to write to the controls, removing the role of local planning department. Some of the The author government. To me this is a step issues that I have personally put to toward council area amalgamations. the Planning Department are :

While there may be some 1. THE HERITAGE BRANCH efficencies from going to regional NEEDS TO BE REINSTATED AS A councils it cannot deal with some of KEY PLAYER IN THE PLANNING the more specific local area needs. SYSTEM. – over the past 10 years the heritage branch has been For example, the Blue Mountains is decimated by the removal of staff to not a metropolitan area even though the planning department and then it is so close to Sydney – to the separation of the heritage amalgamate with say Penrith would branch from the planning be completely inappropriate as the department. issues of a World Heritage Area are completely different to the issues of Their statutory status has been a Sydney Plains suburban area. greatly reduced, and staffing has reduced their capacity to train and It would be better to retain and support the heritage protection expand the systems already in industry. place which enable the local councils to remain independent, but 2. ABORIGINAL HERITAGE enable some linking of services CONSERVATION – also needs a Margaret Fallon BArch RAIA is such as is provided by WESROC, greater role in planning. Currently principal architect of Integrated or in the central west the WBC planning concentrates on artefacts Design Associates. Strategic Alliance where Wellington, in the ground and a lot of heritage is Blayney and Cabonne work being removed as part of destroy Along with her experience in together in some areas of service. permits which seem not to protect commercial, public and private the systems they should. Aboriginal design projects and construction As a result of the speed with which cultural heritage officers need to be management, Margaret has a these reforms seem to be travelling, part of the strategic planning keen interest in community and a number of community groups system – particularly in regional environmental design issues. have joined forces to form the areas where there is a stronger Better Planning Network (BPN). connection to the indigenous past. Margaret is a heritage consultant and has carried out a This group has been lobbying the 3. THE STATE number of heritage studies in government in a positive way to GOVERNMENTAL PLANNING the Blue Mountains and central ensure the community and OFFICE NEEDS TO BE west of NSW. environment groups have a STRENGTHENED – ie the strategic strategic say in the reforms. planning needs to be a A resident of Wentworth Falls, governmental driven issue not a Margaret has held heritage Most recently they have been consultant driven issue. advisor positions at Blacktown lobbying for an extended period for and Strathfield councils, as well the consultation process for the The government needs to employ as working for a short period of white paper. planners and heritage advisers and time at the NSW Heritage professionals that will be wholly Branch. At present it is planned that the focussed on the community and not public consultation period will be for split between working for both the

HERITAGE 15 November - December 2012 The Cox’s Road - Context of representative portions THE COX’S Road Steering Committee was formed in July 2006 to look at long term objectives and mechanisms to preserve the 1814 Cox’s Road alignment between Emu Plains and the Blue Mountains and Bathurst. The committee was formed with delegates from the Lithgow, Blue Mountains and Bathurst branches of the National Trust of Australia (NSW), and operates under the auspices of the Trust as an informal committee.

In April 2011 the NSW Heritage Office concluded it will list representative portions of Cox’s Road as part of the 1813 bicentennial celebrations of the crossing of the Blue Mountains in recognition of the importance of the road in the history of opening up western NSW. Cox’s Road Project Committee (CRPC) convenor, and an individual member of BMACHO, Patsy Moppett pictured, has produced a series of articles for HERITAGE to provide some of the detail for each precinct of the road, this being the introduction to the series as well as the Emu Ford and Woodford precincts. By Patsy Moppett It is common knowledge that the After considering its options, the SHR committee concluded that AS A follow up to a previous article Cox’s Road was followed up in subsequent years by various other listing of representative portions of on the Cox’s Road in September Cox’s Road would be undertaken as 2011, it is timely that further crossing routes and deviations, resulting in the Great Western part of the 1813 bicentennial information be shared in regard to commemorations of the crossing of the original road across the Blue Highway as we see it today. With increasing interest in the western the Blue Mountains in recognition of Mountains that opened up the the importance of the road in the western region for the wider crossings in general, the significance of the original crossing history of opening up of western settlement of the NSW. colony. should be acknowledged. The Cox’s Road It was understood that this would Project Committee require extensive consultation with (National Trust) owners and other relevant (CRPC) made a stakeholders. submission for nomination of The significance of the road relates Cox’s Road for to its place within early colonial listing on the SHR history and society. under the Heritage Act 1977 in 2010, Sophisticated technology had little to record and part to play in the construction of register the the modest structures that enabled significance of the the opening up of western NSW, road. and the standards and practice of road engineering of the colonial The State Heritage period stand out. Register Committee of the The route traversed a rugged and Heritage Council inhospitable landscape, with of NSW minimal loss of life, with efficient considered its and effective management of labour options for listing and equipment, demonstrating all or part of the basic work patterns and skills. Cox’s Road. The road construction was also The SHR associated with notable public committee was figures of the time including Cox, very enthusiastic Macquarie, Evans and Blaxland. about the proposal and considered A report presented by Grace the route a Karskens in 1988, Cox’s Way, was significant part of carried out as a historical and NSW history and archaeological study of William This monument erected by the RAHS marks the heritage. Cox’s Road, which also touched on location where Macquarie declared the site for other early crossings of the Blue Continued page 17 Bathurst Mountains.

HERITAGE 16 November - December 2012 Grace Karskens’ study, first to bring together available surveys for whole road Continued from page 16 The CRPC has taken some of the Travellers had to negotiate the Dr Karskens’ report was prepared major Karsken’s precincts and steep slopes near Peach Tree for the Cox’s Road Trust, within the elaborated on their significance. Creek until the first bridge was then NSW Department of Lands. The detail documented would assist constructed in 1867, the Victoria in the production of maps and Bridge. The study was the first which brochures for both the 1813 brought together available surveys, bicentennial commemorations and Goods were usually transported historical and archaeological data for the actual listing process. across the river on horseback, and for the whole of the road. For ease people were taken across by boat. of assessment, Karskens divided In 2011 the NSW Heritage Council the route into precincts, within which and Heritage Office emphasised The subsequent development of the one can identify specific significant that they would like to consider weir and Peach Tree Park has remaining features of the original promotion of the history and meant that the eastern approaches road. importance of the road through the to the crossing are no longer publishing of articles and through evident. As part of the initial submission to relevant events over the following the Heritage Council, all of the months. The western side is not too precincts identified by Grace disturbed but any evidence is Karskens have been examined Therefore it is my intention, through overgrown. The narrowing of the under the State Heritage Register a series of articles during the river and the shallow stony crossing criteria. course of the coming issues of are still quite clear, near where a HERITAGE, to provide some of the small side creek, Peach Tree The Cox’s Road Project Committee detail for each precinct, as follows: Creek, enters the River from the has now examined in more detail • Emu Ford east. some representative portions of the • Woodford/Linden road, to reinforce the data • Caley’s Repulse In her report “Cox’s Way”, Grace previously presented to the Heritage • Mount York Karskens states that “this precinct is Council. • Mount Blaxland a historically significant site, • Fish River and beyond marking the starting point of the The choice of precincts does not early mountain crossings and still suggest that other sites are less The Emu Ford illustrates the nature and problems significant. However, the logistics of precinct of water crossings during the early listing such a heritage feature as a The Emu Ford precinct is located nineteenth century”. road route present issues relating to on the at Penrith, just land ownership, access, The following photographs north of the existing weir. It was environmental impacts and so on. document the remaining key probably the first crossing of the features in the vicinity of the river, even before William Cox set Therefore the precincts that have crossing: been chosen for closer examination off in 1814. are identified as the least It was utilised by Blaxland, Lawson vulnerable. and Wentworth, and subsequently by Surveyor Evans to access Emu Traditionally, the stony ridge tops at Island, and what became the Linden and Woodford, and the settlement of Emu in 1832. Mount York Descent have been the most well-known features. Cox began the approaches in July Little has been recorded in regard 1814, the whole crossing to the road beyond Mount York, or construction taking only a couple of the other sections of the route days. through the mountains from the A punt and ferries further to the Emu Ford site view to south west Nepean River. south provided the formal Karskens’ study examines the replacement of the ford in later whole of the route from the Nepean years but were subject to a toll, thus River right through to the Bathurst the ford remained in use as a plains, picking up and analysing all means to avoid the toll for quite remaining features of the route, some time. stopping short of more elaborate It is possible that people travelling survey and archaeological to the west continued to use the investigation along less significant crossing even up until the 1850s, sections. but mapping of the 1860s showed no sign of the crossing. Emu Ford site view to north west

HERITAGE 17 November - December 2012 “Nepean River; banks very steep on the east side”... William Cox July 18, 1814 Continued from page 17 The following extracts are taken from records of the time contained in Fourteen Crossings of the Blue Mountains.

Gregory Blaxland Tuesday, May 11, 1813 “Mr. Gregory Blaxland, Mr. and Lieutenant Lawson took their departure to endeavour to explore the interior of the Country and to effect a passage over the Blue Mountains between the Western River and the River Grose.

They crossed the Nepean River at the ford on to Emu Island at four o’clock in the afternoon and proceeded by their Calculation two Miles through forest land and good grass, encamped at 5 o’clock at the foot of the first ridge of the Mountains”. Emu Ford by John Lewin courtesy State Library of NSW Assistant-Surveyor Evans Friday November 19, 1813 LITHOGRAPHS – Record from Among the group was Major Henry “I directed the Provisions and other Governor Macquarie’s journey Colden Antill who made a deal with necessaries to be conveyed across over Cox’s Road in Aril 1815 Lewin to provide a copy of his the Nepean to the N.E. Point of John Lewin’s (1770-1819) journal in exchange for copies of Forest Land, commonly called Emu watercolour drawings of (Cox’s Lewin’s watercolours. This set is the Island, which was done, and by the Pass ca. 1815-1816) held at the one that belonged to Antill. State Library of New South Wales time everything was arranged References: Evening approached”. document parts of Cox’s Pass. It was during this trip that Governor Fourteen Journeys Over The Blue Mountains of New South Wales William Cox July 18, 1814 Macquarie proclaimed the site and 1813-1841 Collected and Edited by “Began work at 10.00am to make a settlement of Bathurst, George Mackaness, Horwitz pass across the Nepean River; the Publications Inc. Pty. Ltd 1965 banks very steep on the east John William Lewin was primarily a natural history artist and collector. side...”. Grace Karskens, Cox’s Way, In April 1815, Lewin accompanied Historical and Archaeological Study July 19, 1814 Governor Macquarie’s expedition of Cox’s Road and Early Crossings Finished the road down the right over the Blue Mountains to assess of the Blue Mountains, NSW, 1988 bank of the river. The swamp oak the Bathurst Plains for agricultural on Emu side very hard to cut and and pastoral merit. www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au root. In the afternoon began our www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ operations on Emu Plains”. Lewin recorded the journey in 21 heritageapp Major Henry Colden Antill (in watercolour drawings, of which 15 Continued page 19 company of His Excellency are held in this series. Governor and Mrs Macquarie) April 26, 1815 Sir John Jamieson...had requested we would breakfast at his farm Breakfast tour of historic ...situated on the banks of the Nepean, the horses and carriage chocolate factory were sent round to the ford while we HERE is an opportunity to have a Organised by Biznet. were at breakfast, about a mile hot breakfast at The Paragon at down the river, where they crossed Katoomba with a tour of the Check out the link for cost and and came up to the Government historical chocolate factory, booking information http:// stockyard opposite to Sir John’s, Wednesday November 21, from www.biznet.org.au/ …we all crossed in a boat and at 11 7.30 am to 9.00 am. event.asp?pid=10&id=284 o’clock started from Emu Plains, …”

HERITAGE 18 November - December 2012 One of the best preserved sections of Cox’s Road runs through Woodford

Continued from page 18 Woodford Precinct The Woodford precinct is located off the Great Western Highway opposite the end of Tollgate Drive, rising to pass behind the Woodford trig station and Rockcorry cottages.

It joins Taylor Road up until the entry of the track through the National Park back to Glenbrook.

The road here was superseded by the road along the existing Great Western Highway after 1835.

It conveys a sense of the conditions of travel at the time, together with indications of the deviations that occurred trying to avoid the original rough track made by Cox.

As the precinct is quite elongated, An early retaining wall eastern side of a gravelled section of Taylor the features of the road are quite Road considerable, and the route is Road where the road has a gravel accompanied by numerous other surface in good condition. tracks which could be early diversions. One wall comprises up to 1m high of roughly shaped or simply faced The route is clearly defined by stone, stacked with no particular numerous sections of kerbs, coursing or jointing. cuttings, retaining walls and drains which run intermittently along the The second wall is up to 210cm with road. neat squared large blocks with jointing and coursing. Hand chiselled sandstone kerbing The cuttings range from 4 to 40cm in height and up to 25m long and Battering was attempted to stabilise are partly on private land. the wall, and also heightening the embankment. In places there are shallow gutters, curved to direct water away from In her report Cox’s Way, Grace the road. Karskens states that the precinct is one of the best preserved and most Adjacent to the Woodford trig lays a intact sections of Cox’s Road, particularly good section of kerbing. presenting a graphic picture of the work done by Cox’s men on the Rock cutting east of trig station There are low rough cuttings near rocky outcrops and shelves of the the Rockcorry Cottages and low ridge. earthen embankments and retaining walls on Taylor Road. Photographs on this and the next page document key features of At one point there is a carving in the Cox’s Road that is clearly visible. rock face opposite the low retaining Continued page 20 walls.

The pavement to the eastern end is uneven with large expanses of Photographic images on this and natural rock, now covered often in other pages accompanying the sandy, earth and gravel, or clay. The text of this article except where width varies from 12 ft to 20 ft. acknowledged with the caption have been taken by the author, Two sections of early retaining wall Patsy Moppett. run along the eastern side of Taylor Rockcorry road drain

HERITAGE 19 November - December 2012 Continued from page19 The Woodford precinct of the Cox’s Road route does not feature highly in diaries of the period, mainly due to it being a largely featureless track along a narrow rocky ridge with little requirement for construction works.

However some small snippets are recorded. It should be noted that the Woodford precinct may also include the Caley’s Repulse site, as documented by Allan Searle in his “Historic Woodford and Linden” 1980.

He believed that a site in the vicinity of the Woodford trig was a truer site which conformed to all written A portion of the Cox’s Road near the Woodford trig where carved into descriptions of it. However, in this the rock is a kerb on either side, both sides, a clear indication that report Caley’s Repulse is not Macquarie’s order to Cox to build a road “so that two carriages may included, being treated in the pass side by side” was adhered to by Cox. history of the Road as a separate precinct. Governor Lachlan Macquarie - Historic Woodford and Linden April 27, 1815 1980, Allan Searle ‘Woodford ...At a further distance of four miles a sudden change is perceived in the stretch not the appearance of the timber and the About the author quality of the soil – the former Patsy Moppett has worked as a most becoming stunted, and the latter town planner and heritage officer barren and rocky. At this place the in local government in the central comfortable Country became altogether west of NSW for some 22 years, mountainous, and extremely her work including management for travellers...’ rugged... of heritage programs, heritage advisory service, heritage The following extracts are taken Major Henry Colden Antill - April committee and local heritage from records of the time contained 27, 1815 funds. in Fourteen Crossings of the Blue ....Our Road was stony, and some Mountains, all observations being very severe and short hills for the She has also worked in private immediately followed by an loaded carts...... consulting, undertaking planning, approach to a “pile of stones”. heritage and environmental Quoy, Gaudichaud and Pellion – research and reporting. She has a It appears that the Woodford 1819 Bachelor of Town Planning section of the road was not the most ...Soon we saw the ground change Degree and a Diploma in comfortable section for travellers! and the road, although still well Conservation and Land kept, became rather less easy on Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth Management, and has completed account of the inequality of the - May, 18 1813 ...to Mark and Cut other courses related to heritage, ground. The masses of sandstone a passage for the Horses through planning law, property planning, show bare here almost everywhere; the brush returned to their Camp – the environment and the vegetation is poor; and at the very tired and out of spirits -...along permaculture. bottom of great valleys right and a very narrow ridge not more than left, tower these vertical and natural Patsy undertakes history and fifteen or twenty yards over... walls of rock, for a long time heritage research and report insurmountable barriers, which Assistant Surveyor Evans - writing, having written the book “A caused the failure of so many November 21 History of Cow Flat”. She is enterprises to seek a passage ...travelled on mostly Ridges currently working on a history of through the Blue Mountains. overrun with Brush... the Lower Turon goldfields, and References: various family history projects. Fourteen Journeys Over The Blue William Cox - August 18, 1814 Mountains of New South Wales ...and just entered a scrub with Patsy is convenor of the Cox’s 1813-1841 Collected and Edited by Road project Committee, which stunted timber..... The stonemason George Mackaness, Horwitz went forward to examine a rocky Publications Inc Pty Ltd 1965 was formed to undertake the ridge about three miles ahead, and listing of the road on the State on Monday he will go there to work A Historical and Archaeological Heritage Register. Under this to level them. Study of Cox’s Road and Early Committee she has assisted in the Crossings of the Blue Mountains, preparation of reporting for the NSW, Grace Karskens 1988, for NSW Heritage Office. Crown Lands Office, Sydne

HERITAGE 20 November - December 2012 Oldest grave in the Blue Mountains by Peter Chin --- president, Springwood Historical Society PARTLY hidden in the shade of a In 1878, in large tree in a remote part of response to a Springwood Cemetery is the grave parliamentary of Private Francis Smith, one of the enquiry, it was earliest known European to die and reported that a be interred in the Blue Mountains. solitary soldier’s grave was located From the opening of the Western near the site of the Road over the Mountains in 1815 old military post until the late 1830s travellers were but that the required to have a permit from the headstone “is governor to travel to the west in the broken and interest of controlling settlement in supported by a the Bathurst region. sapling.”

To enforce this regulation small Sad to relate, the military posts, manned by three or headstone four soldiers, were established at remains in that points along the road. condition.

From November 1815 there was a In 1886 post at Springwood somewhere in Springwood the vicinity of the present Macquarie Cemetery was monument in Macquarie Road established and which was relocated in 1833 to a the Church of site on what is now the Springwood England portion Mews in Ferguson Road. consecrated and in use by 1887. Private Francis Smith was a Private Smith’s broken headstone which is now member of the 4th King’s Own It was probably not shaded under a tree in Springwood cemetery Regiment which was stationed in long after this that Photograph by John Leary, October 2012 New South Wales from 1832 to the remains of 1837, and with probably three other Francis Smith were exhumed and 1990 and unveiled by Brigadier DJ soldiers manned the Springwood re interred in this section of the McLachlan, Commander of the 2nd military post. cemetery (grave No.91) and marked Military District, assisted by 15 by the broken headstone and foot months old Nathan Dubber of Smith had joined the regiment in stone. Tweed Heads, Francis Smith’s 1813 and served in the Peninsula youngest direct descendant. War, the war against the United While Private Smith’s grave lies States in 1814 and later in the West almost forgotten in Springwood It is to be hoped that action will Indies before returning to England. Cemetery a monument to the soon be taken to restore Private He arrived in Sydney in 1832 and memory of this earliest of our Smith’s headstone since its broken was located at various posts in European inhabitants was erected condition was first recorded 134 Sydney and the Blue Mountains in the small park in the front of years ago. before coming to Springwood in Springwood Civic Centre in May January 1836. Private Smith died at the The King’s Own Regiment Springwood post on May 5, 1836 from causes unrecorded. Because The Kings Own Regiment in which King’s Own (Royal Lancaster this was the only European Pte Smith served was an infantry Regiment). In 1921, it was re- settlement in the area he was regiment of the line of the British designated The King’s Own Royal buried in the bush near the post. A Army, which served under various Regiment (Lancaster). titles from 1680 to 1959. headstone bearing the following After partcipating in every major inscription was placed on the grave: conflict in the late 17th an 18th Its lineage is continued today by the centuries the regiment saw colonial Sacred to the memory of Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment . It service in Australia from 1832 until Francis Smith saw service for nearly three 1837, being stationed variously at Who died May 5th 1836 centuries. In 1751, after various Tasmania, Sydney, Victoria ,South aged 43 years name changes, the regiment was Australia, and the Swan River having served titled 4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Colony under the command of for 25 years Foot. The regiment retained this title Lieut. Colonel J. K. McKenzie. as a soldier in until 1881 when it became The Footnote --- John Leary, OAM H.M. The King’s Own Regt.

HERITAGE 21 November - December 2012 The Harold Kenneth Campbell monument MOST PEOPLE who have driven along Great Western Highway on the west side of Blaxland will have noticed a vault like monument on a narrow strip of grassed land between the highway and Wilson Way.

Some may even have taken the trouble to visit the site to discover that it is a memorial to an individual soldier, one of the 61,513 Australian soldiers of the 1st AIF who lost their lives in the ‘war to end all wars’, the Great War later to become known as the First World War

The monument is a memorial to Harold Kenneth Campbell, who aged 19 years and 5 months, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on June 29, 1915.

His parents gave their written Charles Rosenthal, a local highly the importance of the memorial and consent saying he had “been raised decorated soldier. the park to the township and the to fight for his King & Country”. residents.”. Councillor Wilson took the His father, James Spink Campbell, opportunity to collect donations to Over the years the plaque(s) and of “Beverley”, Blaxland, was named finish paying for the cost of the the gun on the monument have as next of kin. Harold’s occupation memorial. disappeared and the Blaxland – was poultry farmer and James was Glenbrook RSL Sub Branch who a civil servant. In 1928 the Great Western Highway have assumed a de facto ownership on the south side of the railway of it have, with the help of the Blue Harold fought at Pozieres as a station was proclaimed as a main Mountains City Council, organised rd private in the 3 Battalion, road and superseded Mitchell’s restoration and refurbishment, sustained gunshot wounds to his Pass as the main western road. replacing the plaque and repairing knee and leg and died as a result of Consequently, it was decided to the little fence at the base. his wounds in the General Hospital, move the monument to Blaxland Rouen, on August 2, 1916. He is Park, a small park opposite CAMPBELL FAMILY buried at St Sever Cemetery, Blaxland Public School. BACKGROUND Rouen. It was quite unusual for a World In 1926 the Wilson Way over bridge War I memorial to be erected for a On October 22, 1916 the Blaxland intercepted the highway in line with single fallen soldier. Honour boards Progress Association requested Bridge Street but in the 1980s, and monuments in the Blue permission to erect a Soldier’s when the highway was widened, it Mountains were erected in memory Memorial at the intersection of was altered to the present of numbers of men (and a few Railway Parade and Station Street, alignment. women). opposite the station in full view of passengers in passing trains. This alienated the triangle piece of Perhaps Harold was the only land where the monument now Blaxland man who enlisted. Four Permission was granted. It was to stands. The monument which has other men, born in Blaxland, were be a stone or granite pedestal with only been moved once retained its located in the World War I Nominal a machine gun mounted on top. original fence until 1958 Roll; two enlisting in Cootamundra, one in Lithgow and one in Sydney, The monument was unveiled in In 2001 the Blue Mountains City but nothing further is known about 1925 with about 200 people Council requested and received them. assembled. permission from the Minister for Land and Water Conservation to Blaxland was a very small township Councillor Wilson made a speech in rename the park the Blaxland War and Harold would have been quite which he said that it would “stand Memorial Park. well known locally. for ever as a beacon for the boys of the future to do their duty as the Barbara Higginson had lobbied for His parents, James and Edith, and fallen hero had done his”. this renaming and had been sister, Edith, lived in a house called supported by the Blaxland and “Beverley” which was situated The machine gun was one of a District Chamber of Commerce & where the Blaxland Arcade is now number of German guns seized in Industry Inc who commented: “The located. The house was named France. The monument was war memorial is a significant part of after James’ family home or rather unveiled by Major General Sir the history of Blaxland and the property in Boorowa, NSW. Chamber of Commerce is mindful of Continued page 23

HERITAGE 22 November - December 2012 Continued from page 22 William Douglas Adye Campbell in James and Edith were active 1883 and died in the same year. RAFFLE PRIZE community and church workers. James was treasurer of the Urban James married Edith Deacon at WINNERS Area and Progress Association for Ashfield in 1894 and they had two THE following are the results of many years and he and Edith were children – Harold and Edith. the raffle conducted by BMACHO strong supporters of St David’s to raise funds to offset costs of Edith married John Back and they Church of England in Taringha the Blue Mountains History lived in Sydney for a time before Street. conference: moving back to live in “Beverley” in They donated the block of land on Blaxland in 1942. They had three 1st prize - Ticket No 0104 - which the church hall was built and children, Josephine, Kenneth and Accommodation package at The they set up a memorial to their son, Shirley. Carrington won by Ian Milliss in the church. The church was destroyed in the 1968 bushfires. Kenneth became vice chancellor of James Cook University in ...a very Townsville. He married Patricia Cummings, daughter of Regner Olaf Cummings, interesting who was a noted tennis player during the Hopman era. They and currently reside in Queensland. The heritage listed Carrington Hotel, Katoomba prestigious After serving with the military forces 2nd prize - Ticket No 0288 - in World War II, Josephine married Gourmet picnic at Everglades, pedigree Francis Clement Murray. Leura – won by Tom Kent

James could claim a very Shirley married veterinary surgeon 3rd prize - Ticket No 0671 - 2 interesting and prestigious Marcus Richard Edward Durand. metre hand-knitted Alpaca scarf pedigree. His maternal grandfather won by Beth Koperberg was Rowland Hassall, an early In the Hassall family tree on colonial preacher and farmer. Ancestry.com James’ second 4th prize - Ticket No 0605 - marriage and children are not Basket from Hazelbrook His paternal great great recorded. Pharmacy won by Diana Jones grandfather, William Campbell, was a colourful sea captain who owned William, the son of his first 5th Prize - Ticket No 0264 - 2 a ship called the “Harrington”. marriage, is noted as the family tickets to Scenic World won by historian. He died in 1966. Does Jeff Smeaton He had trade connections with John this indicate a family disapproval of Macarthur and settled in Australia the second marriage? We don’t after receiving a land grant of 2000 know. acres near Camden. Managing your With his privileged family collection workshop He named his property, “Harrington background and his position in the STATE Records in partnership with Park”, and there is now a suburb tiny Blaxland community he would RAHS will conduct a regional with this name. have been well known and workshop, Managing Your respected and his loss of a son Collection on Saturday, November The homestead still stands and is would have been felt by all – hence 24. being restored. The Fairfax family the erection of a community are thought to have been the last memorial. Being organised by BMACHO, the private owners. workshop will be held at Hobby’s This article forms the basis of a Reach the property of Blue The Hassall and Campbell family report by Pamela Smith and Mountains Historical Society, 101 members married into other well Shirley Evans of Springwood Blaxland Road, Wentworth Falls. known colonial families including Historians to Blue Mountains City the Antills (Captain Henry Antill was Council’s heritage advisory The workshop will commence at Governor Macquarie’s ADC) of committee. Council has asked its 10.30am and a cup of tea or coffee “Jarvisfield”, Picton. heritage advisory committee to will be available from 10am. comment on a request to council They also frequently married by the Glenbrook-Blaxland Morning tea will be provided cousins so their family tree is Returned and Services League halfway through the workshop and a scattered with the Campbell and (RSL) Sub-Branch to relocate the light lunch will be provided at Hassall surname. monument from its existing 1.30pm. location to within the grounds of James Spink Campbell was married Glenbrook Bowling Club. Bookings are essential by e-mail to: twice, first to Gertrude Williams of [email protected] or phone Yass. She gave birth to a son, to Jan Koperberg (02) 4754 1544.

HERITAGE 23 November - December 2012 HISTORIC HOUSES OF MUDGEE MUDGEE-BASED historian and heritage consultant, John Broadley, earlier this year released his book Historic Houses of Mudgee.

The launch was held at historic House, Mudgee, one of the 19 houses featured from Mudgee town and country.

Friend Dr Judy White of Belltrees, Scone, who also wrote the Foreword and who has connections to several of the houses featured, was guest speaker at the launch.

In the foreword, Dr White, AM writes “The book brings history alive”.

John self-published the book which Mudgee historian and heritage consultant, John Broadley introduces Dr was a passionate personal quest. Judy White of Belltrees, Scone at Putta Bucca House, Mudgee to launch his book, Historic House of Mudgee Over twenty years he undertook all the research, took the photographs, did hundreds of line drawings by hand of the joinery, and acquired high-end desktop publishing skills to produce a print-ready document.

He identifies the site of each house, presents the ownership history, describes the exterior and interior in detail, and also treats the properties’ outbuildings and gardens.

The stories of these houses are an intricate part of the history of the Mudgee district, one of the earliest settled areas (1822) west of the Blue Mountains.

Historic Houses of Mudgee will give its reader an intimate understanding A painting of Binnawee homestead, by Sam Paine, which appears on the of how Mudgee was settled and front cover of Historic Homes of Mudgee how it developed. Reflections on Blaxland’s Blue Historic Houses of Mudgee is available from the author at $70.00 Mountains expedition (plus $15 for postage and packaging). 1813: SOME reflections on His task was to establish a local Blaxland’s Blue Mountains history collection. He secured a Contact: Address: 7 Oakfield Close, expedition is the title of a talk to permanent appointment in Mudgee, NSW, 2850 be given by John Low, OAM at Mt September 1983 and stayed for the Phone: 02. 6372 3365 or Wilson later this month. next 24 years providing a range of 0429 708 218. services to historians in the Blue Email: John’s talk will follow the annual Mountains and beyond [email protected] general meeting of the Mt Wilson Website: http:// and Mt Irvine Historical Society in John, in the words of Professor Ian the Village Hall on Saturday, johnbroadleyheritage.com Jack, has “his own effortless November 10 commencing at mastery of so many unfamiliar 10.30am. corners of Mountains history, [which has] given him a special place in John was employed by the Blue the affections of all right-minded Mountains City Library as a local scholars”. history librarian in March 1982.

HERITAGE 24 November - December 2012 MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS by Shirley Evans - Springwood Historians OF LATE I have been very I haven’t been able to find out the accidents, shipwrecks, bushfires concerned with monuments and difference between a plaque and a and wars. memorials – specifically the tablet. Macquarie monument in Of course many monuments are Springwood and the Harold In this book the tablets seem to be tributes to people we all know from Campbell monument in Blaxland. mostly marble and the plaques history such as explorers, members brass but I can’t be sure of this. of the royal family or political I have also been (very slowly) figures, and there are monuments photographing monuments with the The other form of family tribute in that we know quite well but are help of other members of churches is the stained glass ignorant of their story. Springwood Historians for a window and there are many of possible CD. these, particularly in memory of One such for me was the “Il beloved parents. Porcellino” fountain in Macquarie I have some books about Street, Sydney at the entrance to monuments and I took up one of Two very touching memorials are Sydney Hospital. these and began to browse. The windows in memory of children who book was Monuments and are now unknown. This was sculpted in Florence and Memorials edited by Beryl erected in 1968 by Marchese Henderson, published by the Royal One is in a Sydney church Fiaschi Torrigiani in memory of her Australian Historical Society in 1988 remembering “Wee Crissy” showing brother and father, both of whom and funded by the NSW the Wise Virgins going out into the worked as honorary surgeons for Bicentennial Council. night with lamps lit. Sydney Hospital, and also as a link of friendship between Italy and It lists monuments and memorials The other one is in a Woollahra Australia. throughout NSW. Foundation church in memory of “Ranee Ann”, stones, buildings and cemeteries 1929-1933 – a set of three windows It is a copy of a bronze work by are not included, all the information depicting “child themes”. Pietro Tacca which itself was was contributed, and while there is inspired by an ancient Roman a huge amount of information in this A very sad monument to pioneer marble sculpture. edition the need for a second children was erected by the White Monuments to animals are volume was contemplated at the Cliffs History Group in 1983 which unsurprisingly frequent. time of publication. Some of the stands in front of a small cemetery monuments are illustrated in black containing the graves of five Annis and George Bills, great and white. children named Richardson. animal lovers, established a trust While it is certainly not riveting They died between 1890 and 1892, fund to provide horse troughs reading I found it fascinating and and were thought probably to have throughout the country and even soon began to read in depth rather died of heat exhaustion and bad overseas to give relief to thirsty than skimming. water. horses and there are eleven of these listed. The Glenbrook trough Some memorials are very touching, Predictably, many of the memorials is not listed. particularly those from parents in churches are to men of the cloth, remembering children lost through church workers including a A brass plaque in Sydney pays sickness, accidents or in war. surprising number of choir masters tribute to the part played by the and church benefactors. Clydesdale horse in the They are mainly in churches and development of Australia. take the form of brass or marble There are also many memorials to Continued page 26 tablets or plaques. those lost in disasters – mining

Mare and foal, Scone Matthew Flinder’s cat Trim, NSW Ill Porcellino, Sydney Hospital Library, Sydney

HERITAGE 25 November - December 2012 Aboriginal people also GET INTO THE CHISTMAS SPIRIT remembered in Wauchope BLUE MOUNTAINS Branch of National Trust is having stalls at Continued from page 25 On the lighthouse at Norah Head Leura on December 1 and A statue of a ram at the side of the there is a monument to Bungaree Wentworth Falls on December 8, Cobb Highway near the Wanganella acknowledging his great help in with a Christmas theme. Village acknowledges the debt surveying the coastline near Norah owed to the merino by Australian Head. For more details contact Rhona people. Leach on 4757 2424 One of the most spectacular looking On a wall in the Sydney Botanic monuments was erected in Bondi Gardens the members of the Desert Junction to acknowledge the origins War Hero Mounted Corps erected a large of the Surf Life Saving Movement. plaque dedicated to the gallant project horses that carried them over the It is built of reinforced concrete in Sinai Desert into Palestine in 1915- the form of a wave which is about to launch 1918. break. LITHGOW Another which I think we would all One of the sweetest is a brass Family know is a statue and brass plaque plaque in a Woollahra church History erected by the North Shore erected by the employees of John S Society will Historical Society outside the NSW Hunter in recognition of the happy officially State Library in honour of Matthew relationship which always existed launch its Flinders’ beloved cat. between them. War Hero project later A surprising memorial was erected And one of the most exotic is a this month. in 1970 on the Hume Highway, brass plaque in a Mittagong church Bargo, commemorating the first in memory of Florence Alice Stewart The launch recording by Europeans of the Rawson, wife of Admiral Sir Harry on lyrebird and koala. Rawson (21st Governor of NSW Remembrance Day, Sunday 1902-1909), who died in 1905 and November 11, will be held in the Tessa, the Guide dog is was buried in the Red Sea. Club Lithgow (Bowling Club, 2c remembered in Stockton – a Lithgow Street, Lithgow with realistic bronze Labrador on her The entries are arranged proceedings commencing at haunches complete with guide dog geographically. 2.30pm. harness. The Blue Mountains has Guest speaker, Mr Joe Elkusch surprisingly few entries with only from Springwood RSL Sub two for Springwood and only one of Branch will talk about his World the amazing number of monuments War 2 recollections as a boy, of at Mt York. the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. The book, in a different sort of way, is an index to New South Wales’ There will be a slide presentation social history – social values, by Helen Taylor of the War Hero historic tragedies and pioneering project. achievements. Also attending the function will Further reading be local resident Mr Ron Barker HERITAGE newsletter a son of “Digger” Walter Barker Shirley Evans, The Story Behind the who served in the 6th Light Horse Springwood Macquarie monument, Battalion in World War 1. May-June, 2010 John Leary, ‘...for the relief of Ron will bring to the launch for horses and other dumb animals...’ display, memorabilia brought January-February, 2010 home from Egypt by his father. Patsy Moppett,Tribute to Bills horse Tessa and monument, Stockton Troughs, September-October , 2012 Cost of the afternoon including afternoon tea is $10. Aboriginal people are remembered too. Members of the public are welcome to attend. RSVP to In Wauchope there is a bronze Helen Taylor (02) 63 557 231 or plaque mounted on a block of local Lithgow & District Family History sandstone in memory of the Society (02) 63 531 089, PO Box Aborigines of the Hastings River. 516, Lithgow 2790

HERITAGE 26 November - December 2012 In brief...... State award for Kurrajong Family History Group Valley Heights 2013 calendar FOR MANY years the Springwood Historical Society has produced an annual calendar featuring interesting historic photographs of the local area from yesteryear.

This year the calender will be a joint effort of Springwood Historical Society and Valley Heights Loco Depot Museum.

The 2013 calendar has now been released and features Valley MEMBERS of the Kurrajong- Pictured is Kurrajong-Comleroy Heights. Comleroy Historical Society - Family Historical Society president, John History Group are to receive one of Cooper advising the members of Valley Heights was chosen for this a number of 2012 NSW the Family History Group they have year’s calendar to highlight the Government Heritage Volunteer been recognised with the award. significance of Valley Heights Loco Awards. L-R Wanda Deacon, Carolynne Depot in the lead up to its centenary Cooper, Joy Shepherd and Valerie celebrations in 2014. The presentation is to be made later Birch. this month in Heritage Branch, The calendar is now available and Office of Environment and Heritage, retails at $10 plus $2 postage and Parramatta. Vintage and retro package. The group has been involved in at Everglades In past years the historical society heritage projects related to has largely produced this as a research and recording of family EVERGLADES will be hosting its community service and those and local history; the provision of second Vintage and Retro interested in history and heritage advice to members of the public in weekend on November 17 and might like to support the society by relation to family history research; 18. purchasing a copy and/or promoting and the digital archiving of the sale of the calendar. photographs and other images of This year, vintage and retro the Hawkesbury and surrounding fashion parades will be featured. The calendar can be ordered on district. While the ladies relish the line at fashions of the 30s and 40s, the [email protected] or This work is slow and tedious and men can lust over polished [email protected].” group members have spent a vintage vehicles. tremendous number of hours during the past 7 years developing this There’s plenty of lush green collection’s archives. lawns to sprawl over while Glenbrook Historical watching your kids play Society office bearers Ultimately the archive will be of hopscotch or quoits. AT THE recent annual general immense value to researchers, scholars and students. It will also be Everyone is being encouraged meeting of Glenbrook and District to dress the part. Historical Society, Doug Knowles a valuable model for other historical societies and groups. was re-elected as president. Once you’re done, you can learn to move and groove. All this and He may be contact by e-mail at: a lot more will be up for grabs. [email protected] or VALLEY HEIGHTS telephone (02) 4751 3275. LOCO MUSEUM AGM Cost: Adult $14, National Trust THE 21st annual general meeting of members $10, concessions $12, Former Blue Mountains City the Blue Mountains Division NSW children $8. family $35. councillor, Kevin Frappell Rail Transport Museum will be held Tickets/enquiries: 02 47841938 [email protected] (02) 4739 on Saturday, November 10, at the 8718 has been elected as vice Valley Heights Locomotive Depot president. Heritage Museum commencing at 1.30pm Mary Knowles was elected as secretary and Elizabeth Saxton Apologies can be tabled prior to the (02) 4739 1426 has been elected as meeting by e-mail at treasurer. [email protected]

HERITAGE 27 November - December 2012 Lithgow Museums’ Networking Group -- revealing the history of Lithgow The Lithgow area is a hidden gem Each organisation takes turns pamphlets and postcards were of history and heritage. hosting the meetings and this has handed out along with the first been an invaluable part of getting to Lithgow Heritage Newsletter Visitors and locals alike can enjoy know each other’s museums and outlining heritage events happening the history of one of the most being able to share resources and in September and October in the fascinating areas in Australia promote other museums to visitors. region. through the many museums, historic sites and heritage The group has participated in The most rewarding part of the day organisations. several group activities aimed at was talking to people about the increasing visitor numbers to museums and history and hearing From Aboriginal history through to museums and generally get the their stories of the area. Perhaps the history of the Small Arms word out that Lithgow’s Heritage is this is in fact the most rewarding Factory and from Hartley through to amazing and worth a visit. part of running a museum in Glen Davis there are sites and general. museums to learn about Aboriginal, The first activity was an open day convict, mining, social, railway and for many of the museums in the The latest event was a stall at the factory history. group on International Museums “Back to Hartley” celebrations on Day 2012. International Museums Sunday, October 28, 2012. This In March 2012 a group of museum Day is in May and is celebrated by time the display included a “What is and heritage organisation operators over 30,000 museums throughout it?” table with a variety of from the Lithgow LGA met at the world. mysterious objects for people to Eskbank House and Museum to ponder, a “Who is it?” display of have a chat about how they could With only a short time to organise historic photographs of Lithgow help each other out. and limited advertising most citizens with space for people to museums still saw an increase in comment, displays from the From this initial gathering the visitation on the day of over 500 %. museums and projected historical Lithgow Museums’ Networking images of the Lithgow area. Group was formed. The group has more plans for Participants said, the most International Museums Day 2013 interesting part of the stall was The group meets monthly and its and also celebrating other talking heritage and history and aims are: educating each other to international days like Volunteers spending time with other museum improve the quality of local Day 2012 with an afternoon tea for enthusiasts. museums, networking to promote the wonderful volunteers in all these each other’s museums and share organisations. For more information contact resources, co-operating to create a Eleanor Martin, Lithgow District combined museum experience for The next group activity was a Family and History Society visitors and sharing enthusiasm and combined stall at Daffodils at Rydal. [email protected] 0429 932 319. to enjoy each other’s company as Photographs from the different Contributed by Jan Saundercock museum and heritage enthusiasts. organisations were displayed and – Lithgow Family History Society A spokesperson for the group said it is exciting to be able to work together, take strength from each other and present a combined museums experience to visitors and locals.

There are 12 organisations in the group, some able to attend regularly others coming when they can or contributing via email, etc.

The groups include: Lithgow and District Family History Society (LDFHS), Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum (LSAFM), Simmo’s Museum, Eskbank House and Museum, Lithgow Library Learning Centre (LLLC), Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow State Mine Railway Ltd, Hartley Historical Pictured are members of the group who attended the recent meeting at Village, Portland History Group, Simmo’s Museum at Glen Davis. On the shelves in the background of the Rydal Village Association, Delta picture are old radios and other collectable on display at Simmo’s Expo and Newnes Pub.

HERITAGE 28 November - December 2012 Western crossing commemoration 2013-15 great ideas - thoughts - just being talked about or it’s really going to happen! Background Grants for Macquarie monument and purpose of and Private Smith’s gravestone Springwood Historians and the Private Francis Smith who served in Western Springwood Historical Society HM 4TH The King’s Own Regiment is decided that their special projects buried at the rear of Springwood Crossings for the commemorations would be Cemetery. to work towards the rehabilitation/ Committee restoration of the Macquarie The old gravestone is damaged and The Western Crossing Committee monument in Macquarie Rd, the immediate environs untended. was established several years ago Springwood and the grave of as a sub-committee of the Royal Francis Smith in the Springwood Council agreed to apply for a grant Australian Historical Society Cemetery. on our behalf under the Federal following discussions by the then Government’s Community Heritage presidents of both RAHS and We believe it is important to care for Program and the application was BMACHO. existing monuments and sites and successful receiving $2272.27 for to make their history more the Macquarie Monument and National Trust of Australia (NSW) accessible to the public. $2272.27 for the grave. local branches had also been discussing ideas for special After the completion of thorough The grant funding under this activities in 2013-15 as far back as research by the two groups the program is being matched from a decade or more ago. state and federal government Council Operation Plan funding for representatives and the Blue Cultural and Physical Assets for BMACHO continues to be a strong Mountains City Council were 2012-2013 which is allocated to the supporter of the Western Crossing contacted and representatives from interpretation of cultural and Committee of the RAHS and the groups met with council staff. physical assets and interpretive acknowledges numerous other signage is going to be provided at committees have been established A council staff member has agreed both sites. along the route from Parramatta to that the Macquarie monument was Bathurst including by Penrith, Blue of great historical significance and Mountains, Lithgow, Hawkesbury certainly in need of refurbishment Events workshop and Bathurst city councils as well and an interpretive sign. A Blue Mountains Crossings 2013- as individuals, business and 2015 events workshop will be historical and heritage groups. conducted later this month.

The RAHS Western Crossings Aircraft fly over The workshop under the auspices The brainchild of Philip Hammon is a Committee’s purpose is to provide of Blue Mountains City Council will flyover of a diverse range of aircraft a consultative forum on activities be conducted on Thursday, as part of the celebrations on relating to the commemoration of November 29, 2012 at the Mid Saturday, May 25, 2013. the bicentenary of the crossings of Mountains Community Centre, New the Blue Mountains by: Street, Lawson between 9am and It is anticipated that Tiger Moths, a * Gregory Blaxland, 1pm Super Constellation and an FA -18 William Lawson, and William with fly across the mountains to An invitation is extended to all Charles Wentworth in 1813; co-incide with community events interested in the event to participate * George Evans in 1813; which will be organised at ovals and *William Cox and the road schools from where the aircraft can This workshop will provide party in 1814 – 1815; be viewed as they flyver. information about the Crossings, *Indigenous people how to register an event, what before, during and after white The aircraft will land at Bathurst events are being planned and how exploration and settlement; Airport where visitors can see the to encourage public participation. *Other persons including aircraft on the ground and meet convicts who may have crossed pilots and crews. RSVP by email the Blue Mountains before 1813 [email protected] .For but not received recognition at It is hoped that RAAF, Navy and further information Kerrin O’Grady the time. Army aircraft will also participate at Blue Mountains City Council on 4780 5659 The current chair of the Western while the Royal Flying Doctor Crossings Committee is Dr Anne- Service, RFS, Wespac Rescue and For more information about Maree Whitaker pictured who is National Parks will also be invited. Western Crossing events also president of the RAHS. contact: www.bluemountains ---John Leary OAM A number of flying clubs have also been contacted. crossings.com.au

HERITAGE 29 November - December 2012 RESPECTED Sydney Morning Herald political journalist, Peter 350 years of Punch Hartcher has alluded to the Australian parliament as a Punch Toy Punch and Judy shows began whack his wife and Judy show --- so HERITAGE’s to appear. Like other toys, these with a big stick, editor John Leary has looked to playthings re-created in small scale kill off the history and has discovered this the real-life delights of the world in authorities that violent puppet show celebrates 350 which children lived. come to take years of performance in 2012. him to jail, Most of the puppets were made in chase the ghost away, and, his Punch made his earliest Germany, hand-carved in wood or greatest triumph, vanquish the devil appearance in the 14th century in shaped with papier mache, with himself, all with a merry grin. Italy, in the Commedia del’Arte exaggerated features and colorful Pleased as Punch. dramas, when he was Pulcinella. costumes, ranging generally from about 8" to 20" in height. There was very little in the way of Later, in France in the 16th century, plot that the street watchers had to he became Polichinelle, the There were usually 6 to 12 figures follow - Punch must contend with a “hunchbacked fool of French farce,” in a set, though the number varied. shrewish wife and a screaming and, in 17th century diaries and baby so he murders them both and journals, he is seen in England as It’s easy to see the appeal for is then forced to defend himself Punchinella, Mr. Punch, and finally, children of the Punch and Judy from the law officials and do- Punch. shows – characters of all stripes, gooders who try to get him to the silly, nonsensical plots and gallows. Punch and Judy shows reached dialogues, quaint, decorated, little their greatest popularity in England stages. Often a live dog, Toby, sat The dialogues were passed on in street shows, fairs, and small in front of the stage with a ruff orally without much written down, theatres during the 19th century. around his neck and a hat on. but some authentic texts and scraps Until this time, the often-bawdy do exist. shows were directed to adult Punch, could commit the most audiences, but now they had begun heinous of acts and get away with it! SOURCE: A history of Punch and attracting more and more children. Throw the baby out of the window, Judy by Judith Lile BLUE MOUNTAINS ASSOCIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS INC. REGISTERED OFFICE 14 Bunnal Ave, Winmalee 2777 MEMBERSHIP The following organisations are members of E-mail: [email protected] BMACHO: Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah, Website: www.bluemountains.heritage.com Blue Mountains City Library, Blue Mountains Cultural Heritage Centre, Blue Mountains Historical Society Inc., Blue ABN 53 994 839 952 Mountains Family History Society Inc., Blue Mountains, Lithgow and Oberon Tourism Limited, Blue Mountains World THE ORGANISATION Blue Mountains Association of Heritage Institute, Eskbank Rail Heritage Centre, Everglades Cultural Organisations Inc. (BMACHO) was established Historic House & Gardens, Friends of Norman Lindsay in April 2006 following a unanimous response to a Gallery, Glenbrook & District Historical Society Inc., Hartley proposal from Professor Barrie Reynolds at the 2004 Valley District Progress Association, Kurrajong-Comleroy Blue Mountains Local History Conference which sought Historical Society Inc, Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort, from Blue Mountains City Council the creation of a Lithgow and District Family History Society Inc., Lithgow cultural heritage strategy for the city. Mining Museum Inc., Lithgow Regional Library – Local BMACHO in its constitution uses the definition: “Cultural Studies, Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum Inc, Mt Victoria heritage is all aspects of life of the peoples of the Blue and District Historical Society Inc., Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine Mountains which was later changed to cover Lithgow and History Society Inc. (including Turkish Bath Museum), the villages along the Bell’s Line of Roads. It therefore Mudgee Historical Society Inc., Mudgee Regional Library, involves the recording, preserving and interpreting of National Trust of Australia (NSW) - Blue Mountains Branch, information in whatever form: documents, objects, National Trust of Australia (NSW) - Lithgow Branch, Scenic recorded memories as well as buildings and sites.” World – Blue Mountains Limited, Springwood & District The objectives of the organisation are: Historical Society Inc., Springwood Historians Inc., Transport i. To raise public consciousness of Signal and Communication Museum Inc., The Darnell the value of cultural heritage. Collection Pty Ltd, Valley Heights Locomotive Depot and ii. To encourage and assist cultural Museum, Woodford Academy Management Committee, Zig heritage activities of member organisations. Zag Railway Co-op Ltd. The following are individual members: iii. To initiate and support cultural Ray Christison, Associate Professor Ian Jack, Joan Kent, heritage activities not already covered by John Leary OAM, John Low OAM, Ian Milliss, Patsy Moppett, member organisations. One of the aims of BMACHO is Professor Barrie Reynolds, Dr Peter Rickwood and Dr Peter to bring the various bodies into closer contact, to Stanbury OAM. encourage them to work more closely together and to provide a combined voice on matters of importance COMMITTEE The committee for 2012-13 is: Pamela Smith within the heritage sector. (president), Ian Jack (vice president), Jan Koperberg (secretary), Judy Barham, Joan Kent, Doug Knowles, John AFFILIATIONS BMACHO is a member of the Royal Leary, Dick Morony (public officer), and Scott Pollock. Australian Historical Society Inc. DISCLAIMER Views and opinions expressed in HERITAGE originate from many sources and contributors. Every effort is HERITAGE BMACHO’s official newsletter is edited by taken to ensure accuracy of material. Content does not John Leary, OAM. necessarily represent or reflect the views and opinions of Blue Mountains History Journal is edited by BMACHO, its committee or members. If errors are found Dr Peter Rickwood. feedback is most welcome.

HERITAGE 30 November - December 2012