Stan Grant Senior, the father of the acclaimed Australian journalist, also named Stan Grant, has been working to preserve the Wiradjuri language in collaboration with linguist John Rudder. The language is now being taught in schools and other educational institutions.
| English | Wiradjuri |
|---|
| Are you well? | Yamandhu marang? |
| Yes, I'm well. | Ngawa baladhu marang. |
| That's good. | Marang nganha. |
1840s
The area, which would later become the Tambaroora/ Hill End goldfields, was first used by William Cummings and George Suttor during the 1840s to graze livestock.
Hill End
was named Bald Hills until 1867, while the locality was named Tambaroora (now a separate town). Hill End was something like a suburb of Tambaroora, but all that changed with the gold rush.
1850s
It was probably convict shepherds who were the first
Europeans in the area. But things changed when Edward Hargraves found gold at Ophir, near Bathurst in 1851.
The First Boom
A newspaper article claims that in 1851 a party of prospectors,
"passed by what was afterwards the site of the village of Tambaroora they saw a couple of police troopers and a black-tracker pitching camp, but their objective was the Dirt Holes Creek rush, and they did not stop. Not being able to secure claims there, they started back again a day or two later, and on reaching the police camp were astonished to see hundreds of miners busily at work on rich auriferous drift. It appears that the black tracker, in loosening the ground for a tent post-hole, had unearthed a fair-sized nugget of gold, and hence the mining activity". (
3.)
In 1852, Tambaroora and the northern diggings at Hill End were designated as a goldfield after gold was
found at Dirt Holes in 1851 and later at Tambaroora Creek.
News of the gold finds spread fast, and in 1852, 370,000 hopeful immigrants arrived in Australia. This caused huge social change, with the rapid
transformation from a convict colony, to one with a rapidly growing population of free settlers.
The influx of hopeful miners tried their luck at Turon, Oaky Creek and Ophir Fields and then moved into the Tambaroora area.
James McEachern and his two brothers opened a store at Tambaroora, at the foot of the Red Hill, located north-west of Hill End Village.
In 1852, James McEachern also established the Tambaroora Association of Alluvial Miners, which may be one of the earliest trade unions movements formed in Australia.
In 1852, a local cricket match
was played here.
The population of Hill End was evidently growing in 1852, as a a publican license was issued.
However, as the focus was on alluvial gold in the early days of the gold rush, Hill End and Tambaroora developed around the creeks and dams used for this purpose.
The village of Hill End was first surveyed in 1859 and a town plan laid down, as Wattle and daub and timber slab structures began to
be constructed using the available vegetation.
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| Early photograph of junction of Clarke Street (right) and Tambaroora Road (left), looking south, Hill End, NSW |
The alluvial gold diggings on Hill End Creek, Specimen Gully and Nuggety Gully, had been exhausted by the end of 1853. But major reef
gold discoveries were being made in the hills and ridges during the 1860s.
1860s
In 1860, a village was proclaimed by the name of Forbes. In 1862 The name was altered to Hill End.
Hill End was a remote and isolated town, with the
journey of the mail coach from Bathurst taking twelve hours. Things changed in October 1862, when the Telegraph line reached Hill End (Tambaroora) from Bathurst via Sofala. The Telegraph Office opened, enabling messages to come and go from this remote region to communicate with rest of the Colony and the world.
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| Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1861 - 1864), Monday 6 October 1862 |
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James Lowe, Cobb and Co's first driver on the Sofala-Bathurst run. He sold the business and moved to Hill End, where he established the Club House Hotel
|
1870s: The second gold rush
It was 2 a.m. on the 19th October 1872 when prospector Bernhardt Holtermann discovered a 286kg gold mass at Hawkins Hill, Hill End. This was the world's largest "nugget" of gold ever found.
This mass of gold, quartz and slate, known as "Holtermann’s Nugget",
was revealed after the use of explosives.
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| Bernard Otto Holtermann with the world's largest "nugget" of gold, North Sydney, 1874-1876, albumen print from composite photographs by Charles Bayliss & Beaufoy Merlin [attributed] State Library of New South Wales |
The Holtermann Nugget was crushed in a stamper battery and melted down to extract the gold. Holtermann was soon to become a very rich man. The mansion
he built in St. Leonards, Sydney, is now part of Shore Grammar School.
Bernard Holtermann, who unearthed the largest piece of reef-gold in the world, commissioned a photographic company
to document gold towns in New South Wales and Victoria from 1872 to 1875. And so, businesses, churches and the schools of towns such as Hill End were photographed in their heyday.
The Polish miner, Hugo Louis Beyers, was also involved with finding the Holtermann Nugget at Hawkins Hill mine. Beyers also became mayor of Hill End. Later he organised the planting of Pines and deciduous trees along Tambaroora Road (named Beyers Avenue in 1928).
The usual ethic tribes and sectarianism of the times existed at Hill End, as it did at other places in the colony:
"The traveller on leaving Tambaroora for Hill End finds hills to theright of him, hills to the left of him, hills in
front of him, and then they are hills. First
on the right is a hill, on the slopes of which
rest a group of suburban homesteads, forming
German Town. The German, with all his love for
Fatherland, is never more at home than whan he is
abroad, and no nation furnishes better colonists than
Germany, but unlike Englishmen the Germans cluster,
build to themselves towns within towns, and thus
surround themselves with home associations in
foreign lands. The Cornish are more numerous
at Hill End, however, than the Germans."
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 3 December 1872
Fortune hunters flocked to Hill End from all over Australia, Europe and the US. Hill End had become
the richest quarter-mile in the world, boasting twenty-eight hotels, five banks, two newspapers, a brewery and even, a Parisian hairdresser.
From 1872 Hill End was known as Sargents Hill.
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| Gold minehead, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of NSW |
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Miner's and shack, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales
|
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| Family outside slab hut with bark roof, Hill End, New South Wales, circa1872, National Library of Australia |
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| Horse and cart bogged in what was originally a gold digging outside Meares flooded Criterion Store, Clarke Street, Hill End, Winter 1872, by American & Australasian Photographic Company, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Couple with seven children in front of their cottage with bark roof, Hill End, 1871-1875 / American & Australasian Photographic Company, State Library of New South Wales |
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| B.O. Holtermann (2nd from left), Richard Ormsby Kerr (centre) and Beyers (2nd from right), with reef gold from Star of Hope mine, 1872, attributed Henry Beaufoy Merlin, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Joseph Nowell's Crown Hotel, Hawkins Hill, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| J. Baptiste, hairdresser and tobacconist, Hill End, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Reef Street, Hill End, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Holtermann's Buildngs, Hill End, NSW, circa 1872, Shops, l to r: American & A/asian Photographic Co., Observer office, Prof. Curtain, Mrs McDowall's millinery, W.Johnstone bootmaker, [weatherboard building], Hill End Dispensary, Bakery on the corner, J.Baptiste hairdresser, State Library of New South Wales |
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| T.Monie's Hotel, Hill End, NSW, 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| James Tattersall's Hotel, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Woman and shop-house, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Two cottages and family, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Winter snow falling, 1872, Hill End, NSW, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Group of men outside A. Ritzmoller & Co.'s Berlin House, draper and clothier store, Short Street, Hill End, New South Wales, circa 1872. National Library of Australia |
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| Miners at "The Reward", at Hawkins Hill, Hill End. NSW. Between 1870 and 1872, Hawkins Hill yielded very rich gold deposits |
The Business of Gold
Mr Goin had a shop which offered “shaving and hair cutting”, while Jean Baptiste, “late of Paris”, who
moved into a brick building in Short Street, operated a “Shaving Shampooing Saloon” and sold tobacco and fancy goods.
There were other hairdressers and barbers, including On Gay & Co., which was run by two employees of the main Sydney store. A Chinese slab-mud temple, was also built at Tambaroora in the 1870s.
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| Group of men outside the weatherboard and slab Chinese store of On Gay & Co. general storekeepers, Sydney Branch, grocery & drapery store, Clarke Street, Hill End, New South Wales, ca. 1872. National Library of Australia |
Boom Years
During the boom years of 1871 – 1874, about 8,000 people lived in Hill End and Tambaroora, and it became the nation’s largest inland settlement. There are claims that there were "fifty thousand whites and fifteen thousand Chinese, within the two-mile road between the towns bearing a constant stream of traffic." (
1)
"The streets were thronged by a motley crowd; the stores and places of business crowded with customers; the little theatre so densely packed by an admiring audience, that there was not what is facetiously called “standing room,” and even the public-houses, whose name is legion, were crammed. Yet I saw less, far less, drunkenness than can be met with in any street in the metropolis after 10 o’clock at night. There were very few inebriates, no filthy dishevelled women, no crouching loafers, no abject vice. The general aspect of the crowds of decently dressed folk who thronged “The Hill” was that of respectability rough indeed in many respects, and loud and noisy too, in some instances, but not disreputable, and altogether good-humoured."
Hill End to Chambers Creek, via Turon, From an occasional correspondent,
Empire, Sydney NSW Friday 7 June 1872.
Cobb & Co
Cobb & Co. coaches were making the journey from Bathurst to Hill End daily during 1872. However, as the coach approached Monkey Hill, between Sofala and Hill End, the driver would request that the passengers get out to walk, according to a report in the Sydney Morning herald.
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The mail coach leaving Hill End in the eighties, NSW. Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954) |
The reporter also claimed that Clarke Street was muddy and the houses close together. Shoot and bowling alleys abound, he said and three banks. The local school was being extended, having 200 children; the master, Mr Thomas Yates, with four assistants. (
2)
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| Clarke Street scene, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Schoolboys and teachers, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Two men in the door of Muscutt's Norfolk Dining Rooms, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Richard Russell, saddler, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Cummins' general store, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Weal's Australian Hotel, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
Living at the town of Hill End during the boom times must have often been noisy and dirty, with the construction of the mine pit heads and the endless thumping stamper batteries, that crushed the ore, and the hissing steam boilers and the clanging of machinery. Local stories tell of the town's people being unable to sleep if the stamper batteries stopped.
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| Thomas Chappell's stamper battery, near Bald Hill on Hill End Creek, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872. national Library of Australia |
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| House and children, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
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| Man standing outside Mrs. H. Peterson's Colonial Wine and Coffee Rooms, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872, National Library of Australia |
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| Wythes' Metropolitan Hotel, Hill End, NSW, circa 1870-1875, State Library of New South Wales |
The Slow Down
After 1874, with gold becoming harder to find, mines began to close down and people moved away to pursue other work in other places. By 1875, there were 4000 people
still living at Hill End trying to work the mostly exhausted alluvial and reef mines. In April of 1874, a fire swept through Clarke Street, causing great destruction.
By 1900, the Mudgee paper,
The Western Post, reported this: “Hill End people are now hardly able to find the bare necessities of life.” And in 1907, the Borough Council of Hill End ceased to exist due to financial difficulties and
became part of the Turon Shire.
Some Notable People
The Wythes family were shopkeepers and publicans at Hill End and Thomas Wythes was elected Hill End’s first mayor. Elizabeth Evans was the hospital matron and Selina Sarah Elizabeth Anderson, born at Hill End in 1878, was to become the first woman to contest a seat in the Australian House of Representatives.
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| Selina Sarah Elizabeth Anderson (1878-1964), parliamentary candidate, trade unionist and photographic retoucher, was born on 12 May 1878 at Tambaroora Road, near Hill End, New South Wales, Worker (Wagga, NSW : 1892 - 1913), |
WWI
ELLIS, Alfred Edward : Service Number – 17552. Army / Flying Corps. Born Hill End, NSW. See more
here
Robert George Garner was born on 8 March 1891 in Hill End, New South Wales, Australia, the son of Clara Garner. Interestingly, Robert's ancestor, Charles Garner, was an African American born in Indiana, USA, in about 1832. Also said to have Aboriginal ancestry. Unit: 17th Infantry Battalion. POW, Read
more
1920s
Hill End was also home for many people, as Bruce Goodwin recalled, “Memories of
my childhood home at Hill End are full of happiness and security… Mum was a great homemaker in a period when homes had to be made. She was forever papering the walls and making new curtains and cushion covers, varnishing the furniture and polishing the lino.”
Bruce Goodwin also owned Northey’s Store in the 1950s, which is located towards the northern end of Clarke Street. This building originally operated as the Colonial Wine and Coffee Rooms in 1873. Bruce's wife, Betty, not only worked in the store but also as a midwife.
1930s
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Cobb and Co. workshop at Bathurst. Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Monday 2 August 1937
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1940s:WWII and Arts Town
MCNAMARA, Francis Albert (Barny): Service Number – 1756
here
Hill End became an almost forgotten ghost town until 1947, when an article about the town was written in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sydney-born artist Donald Friend read the article and became intrigued by the descriptions: "the country is pitted with diggings that twist and burrow like the trenches of some old battlefield." With his curiosity aroused, he convinced his friend, painter Russell Drysdale, to take a trip to the almost deserted Hill End and nearby Sofala, where they began to work on their art. {Donald Friend has a tarnished reputation}
After this, many Australian artists began
to visit and live at Hill End. The book, by Gavin Wilson,
The Artists of Hill End (1995) includes artists such as: Margaret Olley, Jean Bellette, David Strachan, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley, Jeffrey Smart and Gary Shead.
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| The cricketers (1948) oil on canvas, Russell Drysdale -fairuse |
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| Margaret Olley, Backbuildings, 1948, oil on board, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia -fairuse |
1960s
A man walking his dog in the village of Hill End in 1961 found a box inside a derelict house. Inside this box was the diary of the then 22-year-old Mary Maclean, who travelled in the cargo hold of the ship
Africana from Glasgow to Australia in 1865.
2000s
When the New South Wales Governor Sir Hercules Robinson journeyed to Hill End in March 1873, he claimed that: "... I arrived here with my body black and blue, and my brain addled." In 2010, the 17-kilometre stretch of road from Sofala to Hill End was finally sealed, putting an end to the bone-jarring trip. Now, it's a pleasure to travel.
2016: A nuclear waste facility will not
be built at Hill End because community opposition to the proposal was so strong.
Today, fewer than 200 people live at Hill End. But history buffs will be beguiled by the remnants of the town and the soothing silence as they wander about and fall back in time into the town's rich past.
Around Hill End
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| Craigmoor, two-storey timber house boasts embellished timberwork and other impressive Gothic features, taking the Duke of Elgin’s hunting lodge in Scotland as its design cue. Original owner James Marshall built Craigmoor in 1875. Inside the house, four bonnets hang on the wall, that belonged to the Marshall sisters. You can also see paintings, pottery, magazines and books, along with furnishings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, belonging to the Marshall family. |
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| The Hill End Hospital, NSW, built in 1873 |
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| The Great Western Store, Hill End, built 1870 |
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This building now known as Northey’s Store, Hill End, NSW, was built in 1872.
Contained: Peter English’s tailor shop.Thomas Ackland’s first cabinet making shop.
The Colonial Wine and Coffee Rooms. Mattinbgn |
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| Beyer’s Cottage was the home of Mayor Hugo Louis Beyers, Hill End, NSW, built in 1865 denisbin |
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| The Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Hill End, NSW, was built in 1875 Mattinbgn |
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| The Royal Hotel, Hill End, NSW, was built in 1872 |
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| General Store and Bakery, Hill End, NSW, denisbin |
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| The Hill End Public Hall, NSW, circa 1900 |
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| Denman's Cottage, 19th century Victorian cottage, built from stone, which was rare at Hill End, NSW |
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| Former Dodd’s Family Hotel was built, circa, 1872, Len Bang, Hills End, NSW |
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| Corregated iron shack cheekily called the Hill End Hilton, Hills End, NSW |
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| St Paul's Presbyterian Church, built 1872, Hills End, NSW |
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| Bills horse trough at Hill End, New South Wales. Bills horse troughs are watering troughs that were manufactured in Australia financed by a trust fund established through the will of George Bills. Mattinbgn |
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| Warry's Cottage, in Beyers Avenue, Hill End, NSW, is a 1870s miner's cottage |
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| Murrays cottage was the Hill End, NSW, residence of contentious Australian artist, Donald Friend |
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| Stanley Hosie's store was completed in 1872, Hill End, NSW |
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| Haefligger's Cottage, the home of artist Jean Bellette and art critic Paul Haefligger, Hill End, NSW |
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| Looking over Hill End, New South Wales, Mattinbgn |
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| The cottage belonging to the Ackermann and Krohmann families was built between 1860 and 1880. Members of the family owned the "Club House Hotel", Hill End, NSW |
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| Bryant’s Butcher Shop, built circa 1870s, Ian Cochrane, Hills End, NSW |
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| Hill End Post Office, NSW, built 1872 |
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| Faraday’s Cottage, built of wattle and daub in 1872, as the first police officer's residence and lock-up, Hills End, NSW |
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| Snow at Hill End, NSW |
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| Cornish quartz roasting pits, Hill End, NSW, Martin7d2 |
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| Crudine, NSW, on the road to Hill End, NSW |
Things To Do and Places To Go
