Historical Australian Towns: December 2025

Wollombi, NSW, a small village in the Hunter Region, is rich in Aboriginal and early settler history.

The Awabakal, Wanaruah and Darkinjung People

The town of Wollombi sits at the junction of the lands of the Awabakal, Wanaruah and Darkinjung people. 'Wollombi' actually means 'meeting place.'

Between 1893 and 1917, R.H. Mathews published over 170 papers on the Ceremonies, Languages, Society and Arts of Aboriginal Australia.. Matthews, while working as a surveyor in the Hunter Valley in the 1880s, formed friendships with Aboriginal people and began recording their language.

It should be noted that Matthews and another ethnologist, John Fraser, invented names for tribes and languages that did not exist (3.)

It appears that Aboriginal people from the Brisbane Water district, now called 'Guringai', and those from Lake Macquarie called 'Awabakal,' known by Mathews as Wannerawa / Wannungine, are are the same ancestral Tribe as the Wollombi tribe from along the south side of the Hunter. (4.) The Kamilaroi people expanded into Hunter Valley, causing tribal tensions (2.)

A small, temporary shelter, traditionally used by Australian Aboriginal people, also called a humpy, a gunyah, wurley, wurly, wurlie, mia-mia, or wiltija, these shelters are made of bark, branches, leaves and grass

Aboriginal weapons, Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria, R H Matthews, 1907

Aborigines of Australia, R H Matthews, 1898

The Burbnng of the Darkinnng Tribes. By R. H. MATHEWS (1897)

Aboriginal cultural attributes of the Upper Hunter Valley

1790s

A smallpox epidemic swept through Aboriginal clans from 1789, and spread inland. Also affecting the Aborigines in the Hawkesbury-Hunter Ranges. Aboriginal people had no immunity at the time. (Smallpox had a devastating impact on Europe. During the 18th century it is estimated to have killed around 400,000 people annually)

1820s

The Howe exploration from the Hawkesbury to the Hunter river in 1820, was greatly assisted by Aboriginal guides, Myles, Mullaboy, Murphy, Whirle and Bandagran.

John Blaxland jnr in 1824, first found that the Aboriginal people of the area called their country 'Wallambine'. Thomas Mitchell, who was Surveyor-General of New South Wales from 1828 to his death in 1855, stated 'I will not suffer any surveyor to give to any river or place any other than the proper native names'. He instructed that the term be used as 'Wollomb' and the people called the 'Wollombi Tribe' during this period,

During the term of Governor Darling (1825-1831), gangs of convicts were set to work to clear and build The Great North Road. Wollombi was once a thriving village on this thoroughfare, where bullock trains, mail coaches, goods and people travelled.

The Great North Road (Mount Manning to Wollombi Section) was built between 1830 and 1832 by convict road gangs, having been surveyed by Heneage Finch (1830–1831), under the leadership of Sir Thomas Mitchell.

The Great North Road at Wollombi sat at a crossroad going east to Maitland and Newcastle; or north to Singleton, the Upper Hunter and New England. The road was an engineering achievement, with the oldest known stone bridges on the Australian mainland. The section between Mt Manning and Wollombi comprises many individual elements with unique properties of design and workmanship.

Edward Payne was tried for stealing a wether sheep on 15 Mar 1824 in Maidstone, Kent, England. He was sentenced to transportation to Australia for life. He became a farmer at Payne’s Crossing near Wollombi.

1830s

In 1830, Peninsula War veteran, Thomas Budd was granted an allotment of 100 acres on the banks of the north arm of the Wollombi Creek. He was also appointed as a mounted policeman in the Hunter River area, and then as special constable and pound-keeper for the Paterson Plains district.

Wollombi was established as the administrative centre of the district.

Wollombi is surveyed, with allotments offered for sale in 1833.

John McDougall, who was transported to Australia in 1820, was conditionally pardoned in 1836 and appointed Keeper of the Pound at Wollombi.

David Dunlop, in 1839, became a police magistrate at Wollombi village, as well as Aboriginal protector. He constructed a stone house at Wollombi. His wife, Eliza, wrote the poem 'The Aboriginal Mother' in 1838, which she composed against the Myall Creek massacre. (29 Aboriginal people were killed by eight colonists After two trials, seven perpetrators of twelve accused were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging)

1840s

The Governor Gipps Inn opened in 1840.

An iron bark slab cottage built in 1840, is now a shop.

The 1840 St Michaels Catholic Church. was destroyed by floods in 1893. The stones were taken to a new site and the church rebuilt.

David Dunlop, the Magistrate of Wollombi, organised the construction of Mulla Villa in 1840. Built in sandstone by convicts. The convict built prison cells date back to the 1840s.

Of about 12 inns between Wollombi and Millfield, at least 5 were within 1.3 miles of Millfield.

Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848), Thursday 3 September 1840

Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939)

A flour mill opened in 1844. It burnt down in 1904.

Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), Friday 13 October 1944,

St John’s Anglican Church built from 1846 and designed by noted architect Edmund Blacket.

Wollombi Cemetery consecrated in 1849 by Bishop Tyrell.

1850s

Wollombi Valley's vineyards have been producing wine since the 1850s.

The Wollombi General Store was built in the 1850s .

Waugh's Australian almanac. (1858)

According to the Maitland Mercury, 18 January 1854, Aboriginal people were working in agriculture and were skilled in the 'use of the sickle' in wheatfields during harvest time. (1.)

The Maitland Wollombi road was lined with horse and bullock teams bringing the farmers' produce from Wollombi and district to Maitland markets -corn, wheat, oats, Wollombi wool, wattle bark, as the old hands used to call it.

1860s

The first school opened in 1860.

Public Hall built 1860.

Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Thursday 24 November 1864

The telegraph arrived in 1860 from Sydney to Brisbane. The office opened in a sandstone residence was built in 1855.

Black Billy, a 'half caste' bushranger was causing havoc in the Wollombi district.

YELLOW BILL Y AGAIN Stoppage of the Wollombi MailOn Wednesday, soon after noon, the. Wollombi' máil boy was stopped by Yellow Billy, at the Twenty-one Mile Pinch. The- mail-boy, whose name is William Brennan, and who is only thirteen years old, states that Yellow Billy, whom he recognised from description, and who was armed with a gun, ordered him (Brannan) to ride into the bush with him. After riding together about half a mile from the road, the bushranger told the boy to throw the mail-bags on the ground, and to move on about ten or twelve yards ¡ he then opened the bags, and sorted and opened the letters. The bushranger seemed to the boy to get a' pretty good bundle of notes from the letters, which, after looking over carefully, he put in his pockets ; but he burnt a number of letters, and-among them, the lad thinks he burnt some cheques.The bushranger then ordered the lad to tie-up the remainder of the letters, and strap them on his saddle, and this done, Brennan was ordered to ride back again toward the road, in front of Yellow Billy. When they neared the road, the bushranger stopped the boy, and detained him there about half an hour, when he told him that there were not many people travelling ón the road, and he might go. The lad then, with the letters' thus restored by Yellow Billy,'pursued his journey to Maitland without further interruption, and gave information to the police.'Brennan says he recognised the man to be Yellow Billy by the description he had heard of him and his horse at the WolIombi township. He was riding a light chestnut horse, in very good condition, the two hind feet white. The man was a half-caste, having a dark, dirty Californian hat, a 'suit of dirty tweed clothes, long boots, and the lower part of his face covered by a dark comforter tied round his.neck; he had blankets strapped on his horse, and a double-barrelled gun..The mail between Wollombi and Maitland is a horseBell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Chronicle (NSW : 1860 - 1870), Saturday 11 August 1866

For many years the late Mr. Hickey was mail contractor between Maitland and Wollombi, and afterwards ran a passenger coach.

New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Friday 12 August 1864

The first police station and Courthouse were built in 1866. The original Courthouse built in 1840, was of timber.

The original Wollombi Tavern opened in 1868 but it burnt down.

1870s

Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Thursday 9 December 1875

1880s

The sandstone school and teacher’s house built in 1881. Closed 2014.

The photo is around the time of the Wollombi Public School opening in 1881

The Family Hotel, Wollombi, NSW, owned by the Kenny family in the 1880s. Demolished 1950s.

Wollombi was the granary of the state in days gone by. It supported four hotels, several large stores, a flour mill, wheelwright and blacksmith shops, etc. It had four police, a resident Police Magistrate, a Clerk of Petty Sessions, its Court of Quarter Sessions, and District Court, and also a bank. (5.)

1890s

Wollombi General Store was built in the 1890s.

Kenny’s Folly, built in 1893, is now known as Grays Inn.

Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939), Saturday 12 January 1895

1900s

A Bullock Team Drawing Logs from Wadigan Mountain, near Wollombi, NSW. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 27 July 1901

Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 27 April 1910

In 1911 the population of the village was 406.

Wollombi general Store, NSW, 1913

Studio portrait of 371 Private (Pte) William Alexander Diplock, 1st Battalion, of Wollombi, NSW. A school teacher prior to enlistment, Pte Diplock embarked from Sydney with C Company on HMAT Afric on 18th October 1914. After transferring to the 1st Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery he was promoted to Corporal (Cpl) and on 8th October 1917 died of wounds received in action. He was buried in the Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France. AWM

1920s

Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Monday 3 January 1921

Bullock train passing Mulla Villa, Wollombi, NSW, no date

Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Saturday 21 November 1925

Aboriginal trackers work with the Wollombi police throughout to the 1920s-30s.

CATTLE STEALING CASE, which caused a stir in Wollombi district. — Top: Courthouse and the "exhibits." Bottom, Constable Taylor and a blacktracker. Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Wednesday 30 January 1929

The Maitland Post Office was

established in 1829, and
that at Wollombi ten years later,
with a weekly mail service, — horse-
back. For the period between the
late twenties and the early 'thirties,
the settlers of Wollombi-Cessnock
district received their mail matter
through the Maitland Post Office.
The Convict System was in full blast
in those days, and the country roads
were regularly patrolled by soldiers,
well-mounted and heavily armed.
Their principal duty was to keep in
touch with the ticket-of -leave men—
to prevent their absconding and join
ing up with the bushranging frater
nity.

The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder

Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), Tuesday 30 June 1931

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954), Friday 31 March 1933

Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), Friday 10 February 1933

Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), Tuesday 30 July 1935

Singleton Argus (NSW : 1880 - 1954), Friday 19 March 1937

World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Saturday 17 December 1938

Portion of the old Sydney coach road between Awaba and Wollombi. The old furrows made by the coach wheels have been scored more deep by torrents of rainwater. Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), Wednesday 14 June 1939

1940s and WWII

Reminiscences of Mrs. Amelia Sternbeck, Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1971), Friday 30 January 1942, Here

Wollombi, NSW, no date, Special Collections

Name Owen Patrick Smith
Birth Date 15 Jul. 1892
Birth Place Wollombi, New South Wales [Wollombi]
Enlistment Date 1939-1948
Enlistment Place Cessnock, New South Wales
Military Service Branch Army, Citizen Military Forces
Service Number N288860
Next of Kin Mabel Smith
Series Description B884: Army Citizen Military Forces

Volunteer Air Ob-server Corps, in the Newcastle district of New South Wales joined in the rescue of United States Army person-nel, who parachuted to safety before Kheir transport plane crashed while travelling from Brisbane to Sydney.Two of the 20 men carried by the plane were killed, and a lieutenant and two sergeants were admitted to Cess-nock hospital with injuries. The trans-port carried, in addition to the crew, soldiers on leave from New Guinea.Mrs. G. M. Andrews, wife of the Chief observer of the V.A.O.C., was on duty at the observation post at Wollombi, and while watching it she saw the starboard airscrew fly off, and the motor fall from the wing. The wing then began to crumble. ..the machine .-.rapidly lost height, and a number of men were seen to- make parachute jumps from it The aircraft then disappeared out of sight over a ridge.Leaving his wife to report. Mr. Andrews immediately set out in his car in search of the survivors. Five were picked up, including a number of the crew. Andrews then got- in touch with the police and went with them in his car to locate the remain-der: All were found, ? 13 perfectly safe, but the other two were casualties as a result of their parachutes failing to open on account of the low altitude at which they had jumped.Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1965), Saturday 11 March 1944

Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), Friday 20 April 1945

1950s

Wollombi, a village about 80
miles from Cessnock, on the
old Sydney-road, is completely
isolated by flood waters.

Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), Saturday 17 June 1950

1960s

Population was 151 in 1961.

Mel Jurd operated the Wollombi Tavern (called the Wollombi Wine Saloon and later the Wollombi Wine Bar) produced ‘Dr Jurd’s Jungle Juice’ which can be bought at the Wollombi Tavern or ordered on its website.

1970s

The Courthouse closed in 1970. Now a museum.

Around Wollombi

The Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, Wollombi, NSW. On 30th September 1840 the Reverend John Bede Polding, first Catholic Bishop of Sydney, laid the foundation stone on land bought for £5, near Cunneen’s Bridge on the Wollombi Brook. After the great flood of 1893 the church was dismantled and, stone by stone, moved and rebuilt on its present site between the Old Post Office and the Forge