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Cummins, SA: Agricultural Past and Abounds With Art

Cummins, South Australia, is located on the Eyre Peninsula, 67 km north of Port Lincoln and 270km west-northwest of Adelaide.

This interesting rural town with a significant agricultural past abounds with art and places to explore.
The 

The Nauo Aboriginal People

The southern side of the Eyre Peninsula is part of the traditional lands of the Nauo people (various alternative spellings).

Christian Gottlieb Teichelmann (1807-1888), and Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann (1815-1893), Lutheran missionaries and pastors, were the first Europeans to work and establish schools for the Aboriginal people of South Australia. Their anthropological inquiry concerned such matters as, marriage laws, ceremonial life and religious beliefs of Aboriginal people; as well as linguistic and ethnographic records of various Aboriginal groups, including those living on the Eyre Peninsula. The Native Tribes of South Australia

They seem never in a hurry to start in the morning, and it usually requires a great deal of talking and urging, on the part of the more eager, before a movement is made. When arrived at the camp, which is always some time before sunset, the first thing to be done is to make a fire and roast the small animals that they may have killed (kangaroo and other large game, being roasted on the spot where it is killed, and what is not eaten then, carried piece-meal to the camp.) After the meat is consumed, the women produce the roots or fruit picked up by them during the day; and this dessert also over, the rest of the evening is spent in talking, singing or dancing. (Schürmann, 1879)

Never, upon any account, is the name of the deceased mentioned again for many years after, not from any superstition, but for the professed reason that their mournful feelings may not be excited, or, to use their own expression, "that it may not make them cry too much." If they have occasion to allude to dead persons, it is done by circumlocution, such as these: I am a widower, fatherless child, childless, or brotherless, as the case may be, instead of saying: my wife is dead, my father, child or brother is dead. If a death occurs among them in the bush, it is with great difficulty that the name of the deceased can be ascertained. In such a case, the natives will remind you of incidents that may have happened in his lifetime, that he did such a thing, was present on such an occasion, &c., but no persuasion on earth will induce them to pronounce his name. (Schürmann 1879)

Renowned as a fierce warrior and immoderate lover is Welu, who, being foiled in his amours by the Nauo people, determined to exterminate the whole tribe. He succeeded in spearing all the men except Karatantya and Yangkunu, two young men, who flew for shelter into the top of a tree. Welu climbed after them with the intent to murder them also; but they had the cunning to break the branch on which he was standing, when, tumbling headlong to the ground, a tamed native dog seized and killed him. He has since been changed into the bird that now bears his name, and which in English is called the curlew, while the memory and names of the two young men who escaped his fury are perpetuated by two species of hawk. (Schürmann 1879)

The Nauo is spoken in the southern and western parts of this district, and seems to deviate from the Parnkalla by a broader and harsher pronunciation and different inflexions or terminations of the words, verbs as well as nouns; many words, however, are totally different. (Schürmann 1879)

[T]hey seem to think that the fate of man in this world is in some degree dependent on his good or bad conduct. The following anecdote will best illustrate their views on the subject: It was reported by a native that at or near Streaky Bay a black man had been shot by a whaling party for spearing a dog belonging to them, and which had been furiously attacking the native; some time after, the crew of a whaler wrecked in that neighbourhood came overland to Port Lincoln, and when it was hinted that perhaps one of them had shot the black man, the natives at once assigned that act of cruelty as the cause of the shipwreck. (Schürmann 1879)
The picture represents four Aboriginalsgetting ready to dance at a "Corrobboree" at Carriewerloo Station.Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 1 July 1905

First Europeans

In 1627, aboard the vessel Gulden Seppart (Golden Seahorse), the Dutch Captain Francois Thyssen and Pieter Nuyts charted the area around Ceduna, SA.

In 1802 Matthew Flinders mapped the coastline of the South Australian coast between January and April 1802, in the HMS Investigator.
Matthew Flinders, English explorer
In January 1803, the Frenchman Louis-Claude de Freycinet charted the area for the Nicholas Baudin expedition, which circumnavigated the globe. In 1811 he published the first map showing a full outline of the coastline of Australia.

In 1836 Colonel William Light surveyed the Port Lincoln area. 

Edward John Eyre explored and extensively mapped the land of the Eyre Peninsula, 1839–41.

1900s

From 1846 South Australian counties and hundreds were established to enable regulation and administration of land transactions. The Hundred of Cummins was proclaimed in 1903, with land sales beginning in 1904. Prior to this, the area mostly consisted of pastoral leases. 

Farmers began buying land in the Hundred of Cummins in 1904, which was named after the politician William Cummins, a member of the Upper House in Adelaide, from 1896 to 1907, for the district of Stanley at Clare.
 MR. WILLIAM PATRICK CUMMINS,M.P. Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 14 November 1896
Ernest Albert Atkinson and John Durdin established a farm in partnership, on Sect 2 Hd of Cummins. Some of this land was subdivided to create a town at the junction of several roads beside the railway line.
 
Pioneering in Cummins District.

Wheatfields Replace Mallee Scrub. Experiences of Mr. John Durdin. 

CUMMINS, November 15.

Mr. John Durdin, of Cummins, who celebrated the 72nd anniversary of his birth on Tuesday was born at Cape Jervis. Although he left his native district at an early age. he can well remember the methods adopted there at harvest time, when the reaping was done by hand, and the wheat thrashed by a horse thrashing-machine. His father was the first farmer in the Cape Jervis district to use a Mellor stripper. The machine was drawn by a team of bullocks. With the opportunity of only eleven months at school Mr. Durdin started work at an early age, driving bullocks when only 11 years old. His father took up land at Kulpara, then known as South Hummocks, in 1869. A few years later he removed to Lochiel, where he resided for 6 years, then returning to Kulpara and taking up land in the hundred of Clinton. 

Mr. John Durdin was married in 1884 to Miss Bidgood, the 'ceremony being conducted at the Methodist parsonage, Kadina. Mr. and Mrs. Durdin lived on the farm at Kulpara for 25 years and in 1904 in company with Messrs. C. H. Atkinson and W. Farmilow, he left  for Cummins, travelling overland with teams and belongings. The journey occupied 13 days. The party arrived in this district on February 14, 1904, camping for a week near Cabot's Hill, The country was thickly covered with mallee and it was a difficult matter to find a clearing large enough on which to erect a camp. Mr. Durdin and his eldest son lived in bachelor style for 2 years, all provisions being procured at Tumby Bay. Other early settlers in the district were Messrs. O. A. Hall, B. Dangerfield, Laube Bros., and the Siviour family. 

The first post office was at White's Flat and later at Stokes. Mr. W. Cabot of Yallunda Flat for a considerable period was butcher for the district and the distributor of local mails. The settlers at that time realised the disadvantages of poineering, and always worked with a view to assisting each other. Mrs. Durdin joined her husband at Cummins in 1906, where they have resided since. Mr. Durdin has seen the district transformed from a forest of mallee without a 'railway to a prosperous wheat-growing district with the town an important railway junction. He has always been actively connected with the Methodist Church as trustee, Sunday-school worker and choir leader. For over 45 years he has been a member of the Albert District Independent Order of Rechabites and is a P.C.R. of the order. The members of the family are : — Mesdames A. J. Kock (Lameraa) and A. Fuss (Cummins), Miss Durdin (Cummins, Mr. J. R. Durdin (UnT garra), and Pastor Ira Durdin (Stradialbyn). There are also 17 .^randchildren, Mrs. Durdin's three brothers are J. J. Durdin of Prospect, S. DuWin (Wallaroo), and T. Durdin (Melton.) 
Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1954), Friday 22 November 1929, page 3

The Cummins show was first held in 1904. 

The galvanised iron Institute, built in 1906, was used as the state school from 1912 to 1921. In the 1920s, the Anglican Church rented the building and bought it later, to use as a hall.

The first building in Cummins was the little wood and iron Institute on land donated by Mr John Durdin

The Port Lincoln-Cummins railway, completed in 1907.
Cummins Cashstore and post office, SA, Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 23 January 1909
Cummins Show, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 11 November 1911
Cummins Methodist Church, completed in 1912, located at 68-72 Bruce Terrace, Cummins, SA. Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 21 December 1912

WWI

Ernest Albert Atkinson: ATKINSON. Service number 1878. Private 10th Infantry Battalion. AIF WW1. Born 5 Dec 1893. Home Town: Cummins, Lower Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Died Killed in Action, Hazebrouck, France, 18 April 1918, aged 24 years

1920s

The Tod River is the only stream on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia with a reliable water flow. The Tod River Reservoir was built across the river between 1918 and 1922. Port Lincoln and Cummins, and thousands of acres in the southern part of the Peninsula will receive water from this point. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 11 March 1922
SCENE AT CUMMINS RAILWAY YARD,. WHICH AT THE TIME OF TAKING PHOTOGRAPH WAS FULL FROM END TO END WiTH WATER TANKS AND EMPTY TRUCKS. Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 28 April 1923
Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), Saturday 24 April 1926
Mr. P. D. S. Cooper, of Cummins, with the one-ton truck he purchased from Maughan-Thiem Motor Company. News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Tuesday 20 December 1927
Henry Siviour, with his two sons, Messrs. William and Richard Siviour, took a tract of land comprising 14,000 acres at Cummins, Eyre's Peninsula, SA, in 1903. Mr. Siviour was the first farmer in that locality. News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Thursday 2 May 1929
 The post office and railway yard garden at Cummins, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 17 October 1929

1930s

The new flour mill at Cummins, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 19 November 1931
Mr. A. C. Fuss's homestead at Cummins having spent a couple of years there, and helped to construct the railway line to Whyalla. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 7 September 1933
Cummins Ramblers, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 October 1934,
SA centenary hall opened, built from brick, in 1936. 
West Coast Recorder (Port Lincoln, SA : 1909 - 1942), Thursday 4 February 1937
Cummins Institute, SA, West Coast Recorder (Port Lincoln, SA : 1909 - 1942), Thursday 4 February 1937

1940s

DANCE AT CUMMINS. The R.A.O.B. Centenary Ball was held at Cumminsrecently. Some of the dancers who attended. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 30 May 1940
CUMMINS SHOW. A corner of the showground at Cummins, where a record show was recently held. The attendance was about 3,000, and the gate takings £190. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 6 November 1941

Private Advices: Mr. and Mrs. L. Schmitt of Cummins, have been notified that their eldest son. Pte. W. H. Schmltt. previously reported missing, is now a prisoner of war in Batavia. Pte. Schmitt has two brothers serving in the forces. Cpl. J. M. Schmitt (AIF, returned) and J. E. Schmitt (RAAF).
Private Advices (1942, October 2). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954)

The Cummins Area School was officially opened in 1942 by Sir Shirley Jefferies, Attorney General and Minister of Education in the Butler and Playford Governments from 1933 to 1944.

1950s

The Eyre Peninsula rail network in operation since 1907, was once the largest employer in the region, with over 600 workers in the 1950s and 1960s.
The new Cummins Hospital, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 October 1951
These women members attended the recent Lower Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Bureau conference at Cummins. They are, back (from left) — Mcsdrmes J. Walter, M. Murchison and T. Nicholls, Miss B. and T. Pope and Mrs. F. Rowe. Front —Mesdames F. Coles and B. Sharp and Miss M. Gardiner. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 2 October 1952
Eyre Peninsula country carnival footballers as they returned from a bus trip in the hills yesterday afternoon. They are (from left)— Top, W. Lawrie (Cummins),L. Freeman (Pt. Neill) and V. Woods (Pt. Lincoln). Front, F. Post (Cleve), J. Mo Gcever (Pt. Lincoln), D. Harvey (Pt. Lincoln) and J. Cronin (Cummins). Eyre Peninsula country carnival footballers as they returned from a bus trip in the hills yesterday afternoon. They are (from left)— Top, W. Lawrie (Cummins),L. Freeman (Pt. Neill) and V. Woods (Pt. Lincoln). Front, F. Post (Cleve), J. MoGcever (Pt. Lincoln), D. Harvey (Pt. Lincoln) and J. Cronin (Cummins).Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Thursday 2 July 1953
Cummins Ball, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 29 July 1954
Cummins SA Show, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 November 1954
A machinery field day was held at Cummins on Thursday last week when there was a big attendance of farmers from southern Eyre Peninsula. ABOVE (left to right): Messrs. R. Sands, D. Fitzgerald, H. Hodge, R. Lockwood and F. Roedigea interested in one of the many implements. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 26 August 1954
A spectacular parade of tractors and farm implements at a recent field day at Cummins, SA. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 2 September 1954

2008

The Cummins Christmas Wonderland was started in 2008 by a very small group of volunteers, who created fun displays celebrating Christmas and other children's themes.


Around Cummins


House on Railway Terrace, Cummins, SA, built 1910
Cummins Institute, SA, built 1936
The Gothic porch and facade of the Methodist Church built in 1912 and still in use as the Cummins Uniting Church, SA. denisbin
The railway workers accommodation barracks in the Cummins Railway Station yards, SA. denisbin
The Presbyterian Church. First church in Cummins, SA. Opened October 1912. Closed 1921. Became the Masonic Hall 1926. Now privately owned. denisbin
The state school began in the Institute in 1912. This stone and brick school room was built in 1921. Now used as a kindergarten, Cummins, SA. denisbin
 Mosaics in the SAR South Australian Railways themed park. The bronze statue of a wheat lumper. Cummins, SA
 Mosaics in the SAR South Australian Railways themed park. The bronze statue of a wheat lumper. Cummins, SA
Cummins Milling was established in 1930 during the depression by Aubrey Heidenreich, SA. The first mill burnt down in 1933, so the existing building was rebuilt in 1934


Things To Do and Places To Go

Port Macquarie, NSW: A Town First Built by Convicts

Port Macquarie is located halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, on the North Coast of NSW. 

Situated on the Hastings River, Port Macquarie is a vibrant coastal town with a rich and diverse history. 

The Birpai People (a number of variant spellings)

The Aboriginal understanding of the world, often called the Dreamtime, was a term used by early anthropologists which relates to a time before, when heroic ancestral spirits, often with supernatural abilities, created the earth, the sky and everything else. 

When the Ancestral spirits came up out of the earth and down from the sky and walked on the land, they travelled, hunted and fought, and as they did so, they created all the people, animals and vegetation. The ancestral spirits also gave the Aboriginal people rules for living and their totems.

If the totem you are given was a kangaroo, then it would mean that your ancestor was a kangaroo, and all kangaroos are your relatives. You could not hunt or eat your totem animal. 

The Birpai People also tell a Dreamtime story of three brothers from the Birpai tribe, who were killed by a witch named Widjirriejuggi and buried where mountains now stand.

The Gathang Aboriginal language mostly disappeared after the last fluent speaker died in the 1960s. Linguists are working to recreate the language using old recordings and research.

Bark was removed from suitable trees to make objects such as shields or canoes by making deep cuts in a tree with a stone axe or other tool. Hastings River oyster farmer, Thomas Dick, took photos of the Birpai people in the early 1900s, making shields or performing other traditional activities.

Thomas Dick also recorded many of his observations about Aboriginal people:

"The aboriginal woman during
the period of pregnancy recognised
that too much laying down all day was
no good for the mother to be, and
they led an active life right up to (he
time of birth. The new-born baby
was wrapped in possum skin, the fur
side inward, and was carried in the
mother's dilly bag, slung on her back
and fastened around her neck with a
tough vine."
News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW : 1882 - 1950) 7 August 1943

Bark canoes and spears were used in shallow waterways to obtain fish.

Great forces of change were soon to impact Aboriginal people, who had been separated from other human groups for thousands of years. Their way of life, use of land and culture was to be seriously affected. It would be a clash between the most culturally and technologically dissimilar humans to have ever come into contact. (1.)
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.,  Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW. Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 24 October 1924
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.Armidale Chronicle (NSW : 1894 - 1929), Saturday 28 April 1923
Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.Armidale Chronicle (NSW : 1894 - 1929), Saturday 28 April 1923

British Explorers

On 12 May 1770, James Cook sailed along the coastline now known as Port Macquarie-Hastings. He wrote:

"In the PM as we run along shore we saw several smooks a little way inland from the sea and one upon the top of a hill which was the first we have seen upon elevated ground since we have been upon the coast. At sun set... three remarkable large high hills lying contiguous to each other and not far from the shore bore NNW. As these hills bore some resemblance to each other we call'd them the Three Brothers."

Interestingly, the hills that Cook called the Three Brothers, were the subject of the Aboriginal Dreamtime creation story of three brothers, mentioned above.

Tacking Point was named by Matthew Flinders, the first person to circumnavigate Australia in July 1802, with his cat, Trim.

Europeans first visited the Port Macquarie area in 1818, when John Oxley surveyed the region and named it after the Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie. Oxley camped at the end of today's Owen Street.

The Hastings River was named after the Governor-General of India at around the same time. Although it was not explored properly until Oxley returned in 1819.

Penal Settlement

In 1821, thirty-three years after the British settlement at Port Jackson, Governor Macquarie sent Captain Francis Allman, with 40 soldiers and 60 convict labourers, to Port Macquarie, on board the Lady Nelson, the Mermaid and the Prince Regent, to establish a new penal settlement, which was to serve as a place of secondary punishment for convicts of the worst kind.

Port Macquarie became the most northerly settlement of the colony.

Newcastle was the first penal settlement for secondary punishment from 1804 to 1824, followed by Port Macquarie from 1821 to 1832.

Normally, sailing to Port Macquarie would have taken 3 days, but due to gale force winds, the ships had to take refuge at Port Stephens for 14 days and Trial bay for more than a week. The ships reached Port Macquarie 28 days after leaving Sydney and were wrecked entering the harbour due to the shallow bar. Most of the Allman family's possessions were washed overboard during the voyage.

Macquarie made a personal inspection of Port Macquarie just before he relinquished his post and sailed for England in November 1821. He also selected land adjacent to the Hastings River as the first farm for the settlement. He said of the Aboriginal people:

"lately manifested a very hostile spirit...by frequently throwing spears at the men employed in procuring rosewood and cedar, a very useful man was killed".

Also, in November 1821, sugarcane began to be grown in the region, in the area of Port Macquarie's courthouse. The first sugar mill was established in 1824, but the industry was abandoned in the 1860s.

A log building with plastered inside walls was built for female prisoners. A well in Munster Street was used by the women.

Stephen Partridge, who had been the Superintendent of Convicts, become the first publican in Port Macquarie in 1830.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 17 March 1821
The first Government House in Port Macquarie, built for commandant Francis Allman in 1821, was a one-storey weatherboard building. Other buildings were divided into Military Department, Civil Administration and Convict Accommodation.

By 1822 other than the weatherboard buildings for the commandant, there were barracks, a guardhouse, provision store and granary, hospital, St Thomas's Church and bark huts for 300 male convicts and kitchen gardens. (where Port Macquarie Primary School now stands was once the Soldier's Brick Barracks)

As convicts became aware of the road over the Blue Mountains, built 1814-15, many tried to escape westwards, and so, more convicts were sent to the isolated Port Macquarie. However, by 1825, Governor Brisbane had decided that the penal settlement at Port Macquarie would soon close as escape was too easy.

The supply ship Isabella was seized by convicts in 1824 when she was anchored off the bar at Port Macquarie. Out at sea, the pilot and the ship's crew were cast adrift. The Isabella was never heard from or seen again. Two cannons at Gaol Point were fired at the escaping convicts.

From 1824 to 1826, a post office building was constructed. The post office moved to one of the overseer’s cottages by 1830.

Rollands Plains was established in March 1825 as part of Port Macquarie Agricultural Establishment.

In 1825 there were 1100 prisoners at Port Macquarie.
 
Archibald Clunes Innes was the commandant of the penal settlement from November 1826 to April 1827.  During the 1830s, Innes was extremely rich. Then, during the1840s credit squeeze, he lost almost everything. In 1852 he was bankrupt. The ruins of his house lie 11 kilometres south of Port Macquarie. 

Four convict brick-making sites have been found next to natural clay pits on the Lake Innes Estate.

By September 1827 there were 530 convicts at Port Macquarie.

Australia's fifth oldest church, St Thomas' Anglican Church, was built by convict labour between 1824 and 1828, with walls of one-metre thick hand-made brick. Governor Macquarie directed that the Church be built before the gaol as it had more chance of saving souls.
Port Macquarie St. Thomas' Church, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 19 November 1919
An early map shows that a gaol was built about 1824. A new gaol was built between 1837 and 1840, east of the military barracks at the top of Clarence Street. However, convict transportation to NSW ended in 1840. (Cockatoo Island in Sydney was still planned as a place of secondary punishment in 1839, closing in 1869)
 
By about 1825, almost 1,500 convicts were engaged in public works, timber getting and agriculture. Military personnel, public officials and convicts had separate housing at this time. A brick building adjacent to the military barracks received some alterations in this period and in 1826, became the new Government House.

The  cutter, Regent BIrd, built at Port Macquarie, was launched from the dock on 30 July 1827.

In 1828, Aboriginal people were issued blankets. This initiative was instigated by Governor Macquarie in 1814. Traditionally, Aboriginal people used animal skins of possums or kangaroos. The "Blanket lists" also detailed Aboriginal people's English name, Native Name, Probable Age, Number of wives, Children, Tribe, and District of Usual Resort.

Eliza Edwards (nee Winnicott) was Matron of the Female Factory at Port Macquarie and the wife of the gaol keeper, Thomas Edwards, who was originally one of 300 convicts transported on the Lady Castlereagh in December 1817.

A proclamation was issued inviting free settlers into the area on the 15 August 1830. However, Port Macquarie continued as a convict settlement until 1832. Liquor had been excluded, in theory, from the settlement until the arrival of free settlers.

Postal services were extended to Port Macquarie from Sydney GPO in 1830.

After the closure of the penal establishment, the town was laid out by the surveyors, with a new grid of streets. The penal buildings used as a depot for "specials" (educated prisoners) and invalids.

 "The Settlers Arms", run by Charles Farrell, was the second hotel license for Port Macquarie.
New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Wednesday 24 September 1834
Smallpox outbreaks devastated Aboriginal people at Port Macquarie during 1831. Aboriginal People lived with infectious diseases such as trachoma, yaws and hepatitis B for thousands of years. However, they had never been exposed to smallpox and had no immunity. (1.) Historians debate whether smallpox was introduced by Makassan trepangers in northern Australia, or by the British.

Sydney Monitor (NSW : 1828 - 1838), Wednesday 18 April 1832
Port Macquarie, NSW, 1832 / painted by Joseph Backler, Dixson Galleries, Joseph Backler arrived in Sydney as a convict in 1832, and within a year he was sent to Port Macquarie penal settlement in 1833 because of poor behaviour. While in Port Macquarie he was commissioned to make several views of the settlement. At least four of these have survived — all taken from the northern side of the Hastings River. State Library of New South Wales
English-born convict James Hardy Vaux, who wrote a dictionary of "flash" or cant language for the commandant of the penal settlement at Newcastle (Coal River) in 1819, was sent to Port Macquarie in 1831, and wrote, The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict in Port Macquarie.
Relics of convict days in Old Gaol, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918
A new barracks for invalids was opened in 1840. Many free settlers arrived to the town which had 41 brick & 25 wooden houses, a Female factory, Gaol, and Prisoners barracks. 

From the 1830s-40s, the remaining convicts built roads, a gaol, a dam and a bridge over Kooloonbung Creek.

C.B.C., the first bank at Port Macquarie, opened in 1840. Closed in 1844.

In 1840 the Settlers Arms was held up by bushrangers the Jewboy gang. See here

A road was built from the New England region in 1840. 

The Methodist Church opened 1841. And in the following year, the Presbyterian Church and School were established.

The depression of the 1840s impacted many people of the area.

The ex-convict James Tucker, using a pseudonym, is alleged to have written whilst at Port Macquarie, three works: "Jemmy Green in Australia", a comedy in three acts; "The Grahames' Vengeance", a historical drama in three acts by "Otto von Rosenberg"; and "Ralph Rashleigh or the Life of an Exile", by "Giacomo di Rosenberg", the advertisement of which was dated 31 December 1845. The manuscripts of these works were first noticed publicly in the Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 1892, the author being described as "a convict, an architect by profession … who had been transported for forgery." See here 

Many pastoralists grew maize, sugar cane and established vineyards.

Douglas Vale Vineyard was established in 1859. However, the homestead, the oldest timber building in Port Macquarie, was built in 1862. First wine produced here in 1867.

Port Macquarie School of Arts established in 1866.

Edward St Aubyn Kingsford (harbour pilot) lived on the corner of Owen and Burrawan Streets in 1868.

The courthouse was designed by colonial architect James Barnet and built in 1869.

The Electric Telegraph connected Armidale to Port Macquarie in 1869. A telegraph station opened at Port Macquarie in the same year.

1870

Clarence Street, Port Macquarie, NSW. c1870
View of town showing back of Royal Hotel and old Court House - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1870
Tacking Point Lighthouse was erected in 1879.

1880s

The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate was published from 1882 to 1950.
View of Clarence Street looking east from Horton Street intersection - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1880
The 968-ton iron steamer Wotonga struck rocks near Tacking Point, Port Macquarie, on 2 January 1882, there was no hope of recovery.

1890s

Historic Roto House was built in 1891 and belonged to the Flynn family.
Jacob Healey's Family Emporium. C 1890. Horton St, Port Macquarie. The Sydney Photo Co.SLNSW
Port Macquarie Council building opens on Clarence Street in 1892.
Port Macquarie Post and Telegraph Office, no date, NSW State Archives
Port Macquarie Court House, NSW, no date, NSW State Archives
 Port Macquarie Gaol, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 12 November 1898,
Port Macquarie gaol closed and the new police station opened in 1899.

1900s

Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - very early 1900s, Aussie~mobs
 Offical opening of the Port Macquarie Cottage Hospital, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 30 November 1901
Port Macquarie Brass band, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 30 November 1901
Aboriginal Mission House and school opened in Wauchope in 1903.
Port Macquarie area, NSW, circa. 1905. Ceremonial carving of tree in process. Headdresses of that type not usually associated with NSW. Photo credit: Thomas Dick
 A wing of the old Gaol, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 25 September 1907
 One of the entrances of the old gaol. Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 25 September 1907
 The Ruins of Lake Innes Mansion, near Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 1 April 1908
A corner of one of the yards, showing a section of the cells, Port Macquarie Gaol, NSW. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 1 April 1908
Hospital in Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - 1908, Miss Brenda Bertram was appointed Matron of this hospital in 1908. Aussie~mobs
 Oddfellows Lodge procession in William Street on way to Oxley oval - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1910
Port Macquarie does not have a railway station. However, Wauchope train station is nearby. The North Coast railway line was built between 1905 and 1932.

WWI

Studio portrait of 3193 Private Henry George Reynolds, 18th Battalion, of Port Macquarie, NSW. A buttermaker prior to enlisting on 7 August 1915, he embarked from Sydney, NSW, aboard HMAT Suevic on 20 November 1915. He was killed in action in France on 4 August 1916, aged 23. AWM
St. Agnes' R C Church, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915 ((The original St Agnes Catholic Church on Church Hill, Port Macquarie, was built in 1878)
Methodist Church, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915
The Presbyterian Church and Manse, Port Macquarie, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915
Arrival of "North Coasters" recruiting march in Port Macquarie during World War I - Port Macquarie, NSW, 1916, by Splashes Studio, State Library of New South Wales
The North Coasters camped on Gaol Hill. It was then the Showground - Port Macquarie, NSW, January 1916, by Splashes Studio, State Library of New South Wales
William Street, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 15 May 1918

1920s

"PORT MACQUARIE, Thursday. — Centenary
Day was celebrated at Port Macquarie 
yesterday.
Proceedings began with a procession sym-
bolic of Oxley entering from the tablelands
over 100 years ago. It was headed by six
aborigines in native costume, carrying spears,
boomerangs, nullah nullahs, and dead mar-
supials. Following were 10 mounted men.
dogs, water casks on pack horses, seven horses,
and a waggon, and a bullock waggon."
PORT MACQUARIE. (1921, April 1). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930)

The Port Macquarie War Memorial was originally dedicated on 30 March 1921, additional plaques for other conflicts have been added over time. In 1966 the memorial was relocated and later re-dedicated on 2 November 2000.
Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 20 April 1921
 Centenary celebrations - Port Macquarie, NSW (Junior Red Cross), 1921
Soldiers' Memorial Port Macquarie, NSW, 1922, NSW State Archives
Horton St Port Macquarie, showing Soldiers' Memorial, NSW. Dated: 1920-1922, NSW State Archives
Aboriginal scenes on the Hastings River, NSW, Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 28 November 1924
Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW : 1882 - 1950), Saturday 20 November 1926

1930s

Royal Hotel at Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - circa 1930, Aussie~mobs
Hatsatouris' theatre and shops (Ritz theatre, now Majestic Theatre on Clarence St)) was built 1937. 
Paget Hall, the home of Captain Thomas Paget Morton, who had served in the Napoleonic wars, was demolished to make way for the theatre.
 MR. PETER HATSATOURIS, Port Macquarie GREAT Screen CONTEST Opens DOOR to FAME! Search for Film Stars of the Future Closes Shortly; Enter To-day! Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 21 July 1934
 The oldest building in Port Macquarie, NSW, dating from 1821. It originally served as a surgery or outpatients' dressing room in convict days. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), Friday 25 February 1938

1940s and WWII

Royal Hotel, Port Macquarie, NSW, in 1940, Aussie~mobs
Hotel Macquarie at Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - circa 1940, Aussie~mobs
Horton Street, Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - 1940s, Aussie~mobs
United States of America Liberty Ship "Starr King" sinks off Port Macquarie, NSW, after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. During the six months after 18 January 1943, Japanese attacked 21 Allied ships totalling 109,651 tons off the East Coast of Australia and ships totalling 50,022 tons were sunk. AWM
Women's pea picking contest at port Macquarie, NSW. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 30 October 1943
The Women’s Agricultural Security Production Service (WASPS) made a significant contribution to the national war effort during World War 2 by ensuring food crops were planted and harvested. The Port Macquarie WASPS branch was formed in April 1943.
 The Women's Agricultural Security Production Service known as W.A.S.P.S. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 10 August 1944,

1950s

Horton St. Port Macquarie, NSW, in the 1950s
Sister of St Joseph’s Convent and boarding school, corner of Hay and Hayward Streets, Port Macquarie, NSW, from circa 1950. Now known as “O’Reilly House”
Port Macquarie Airport opened in 1955.

1960s

Outside the Hastings District Historical Society Museum, Port Macquarie, NSW, 1966, Paul Balf
View of Port Macquarie, NSW, from the tower of St. Thomas' church - 1966, Aussie~mobs
View of Port Macquarie, NSW, from the tower of St. Thomas' church - 1966, Aussie~mobs
Inside St. Thomas' church, Port Macquarie, From a booklet printed in 1966 about the ongoing restoration of this historical church. Aussie~mobs

1970s

Grace Easterbrook led the Port Macquarie Conservation Society in a campaign against high-rise development in Port Macquarie. The first high rise was built in 1969.
Originally known as the Historic Well Motel, Port Macquarie, NSW, the hotel was built in 1966 and then named for the two wells that remain within the hotel grounds, c1971
Ritz Theatre, Port Macquarie, NSW in the 1970s
Port Aloha Motel, Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - 1970s, Aussie~mobs
Residents of Port Macquarie asked the Builders Labourers Federation to place a green ban against the construction of high rise buildings on beach head and water front in 1974.

1990s

Nancy Wake, a prominent figure in the French Resistance during the Second World War, had lived for some time at Port Macquarie, and in 1997, she left Australia for England.

2000s

Port Macquarie skyline, NSW, 2007, bikewandering
The Alma Doepel in Port Macquarie, NSW, in 2008
Australia's oldest ship reconstruction, Notorious, a 15th Century Portuguese or Spanish Caravel, at Port Macquarie, 2013
A shipbuilding company based in Port Macquarie won a contract with the US Army worth more than $250 million in 2014.

The SS Wollongbar II, a freighter torpedoed by a Japanese submarine In 1943, killing 32 people on board, was discovered in 2020 off Crescent Head (58.6 km from Port Macquarie).
 
Around Port Macquarie


Port Macquarie's Historic Courthouse, NSW, was built in 1869
Port Macquarie Museum, 22 Clarence Street, Port Macquarie NSW, built 1830
Ritz Theatre, Port Macquarie, NSW
Hayward House, Port Macquarie, NSW, believed to have been the home of Charles Hayward who arrived in Port Macquarie in 1826. Built about 1840, second level added 1850
Hamilton House" (former school) and "The Manor House" 188-198 Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie, NSW
Historic Flagstaff, Port Macquarie, NSW
Port Macquarie Backpackers, NSW. Port Macquarie Backpackers named “Elsinore” by the Hibbard family, who build and lived in it from the late 1800s
View of lady Nelson Wharf, Port Macquarie, NSW
Port Macquarie, NSW
The Big Spindle, on Windmill Hill, Port Macquarie, NSW, is named "Folly" and is a play on the original name of the area "Gillman's folly". Major Innes had a windmill built here in 1825 to grind wheat and corn for the government
Port Macquarie Astronomical Observatory is situated above Town Beach in Rotary Park, NSW
Lighthouse Beach is located below Tacking Point Lighthouse approximately 7kms from Port Macquarie, NSW
Lake Innes Ruins, Port Macquarie, NSW


Things To Do and Places To Go

Free Heritage Walk App (search Apple Store, Google Play or Microsoft)

Heritage Walking Trail



St. Thomas’ the fifth oldest Anglican Church

Port Macquarie Historic Courthouse

The Port Macquarie Shipwreck Trail -features some thirty bronze circular plaques embedded into the lawn within Town Beach Park, fronting the Hastings River.