Historical Australian Towns

Gundagai, NSW: On The Murrumbidgee River

Located almost midway between Sydney and Melbourne on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, Gundagai is a small town in Southern New South Wales.

Gundagai's built heritage can be enjoyed by engaging in a two-kilometre walk to historic points of interest. And close to the town, there are scarred trees and an Aboriginal bora ring used for ceremonies.

Wiradjuri People

The Wiradjuri people have lived over a large part of central NSW for many thousands of years.

Dreamtime and Creation stories told of ancestral spirits who created all things on earth, the land, sea, rivers, mountains and animals.

These stories would also connect people to totems, which would define Aboriginal peoples' roles and responsibilities and cultural rules and obligations. Totems were associated with animals, plants, landscape features and the weather. The river, for example, might be thought of as an ancestral creation snake.

The Dreamtime beings were law-givers, who provided the societal rules, for which any infringement could mean death. Marriage rules stopped those of the same totem marrying, which helped to prevent the inter-marriage of those closely related to each other.

R.H. Mathews (1841–1918), the ethnographer and surveyor, wrote about the initiation ceremonies of the Wiradjuri here

Two types of Boomerangs were used by Wiradjuri people to hunt animals. A returning boomerang would frighten animals, while a non-returning boomerang was used for hunting prey up to 100 metres away.

Stone axes were used for cutting trees, skinning animals and making implements, like coolamons (bark implement used for drinking and digging).

Man and women had clearly defined roles: women made nets and baskets by weaving grasses and reeds, and men hunted animals. Other customs and practices were also performed by men and women separately.

Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954)

George Augustus Robinson noted the presence of smallpox in 1844, near Gundagai, where the Wiradjuri people were "strongly marked with smallpox".

According to the book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Aboriginal Australians were decimated by smallpox, measles, influenza and other diseases as, unlike Europeans, they had not domesticated wild animals and plants. Europeans had acquired genetic resistance to viruses carried by domestic animals.

Aboriginal Australians were also genetically isolated from the rest of humanity for about 50,000 years.

Not understanding why so many of their people were being afflicted by illness, the Wiradjuri engaged in complex ceremonies, dances (waggana), songs and practices calling on the spirit Baiame, the "All-Father", to protect them against smallpox. Tharrawiirgal, the adversary of Baiame, they believed was responsible for illness.

There are at least nine regional variations of the creature known as the bunyip to some Aboriginal Australians. The bunyip is a water creature/spirit who lives in swamps, billabongs, creeks and rivers. This mythical creature would kill anyone who got too close to their water source.

There are also Wiradjuri stories of ghosts, minmin (min min), lights which follow or approach people, and magic mirrii (dogs).

The river flats at Gundagai were used by the Wiradjuri people as a camping and meeting place and hunting grounds.

Carved trees (Dendroglyphs) were used by Wiradjuri people. Lindsay Black (1941) divides carved trees into two types: for burial sites and bora grounds.

Explorers

1800s

The explorer's Hamilton Hume and William Hovell passed to the south of Gundagai in November 1824, followed not long after by settlers and sheep.

William Warby, who was born at Campbelltown, NSW, to an ex-convict father, travelled south-west, "beyond the limits of settlement" and established a run named Minghee, (MIN-gee, Aboriginal for "unwell"), North Gundagai, in 1825. (at the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers).

The explorer and soldier Charles Sturt passed through present-day Gundagai in 1829 during an exploration of the Murrumbidgee River. A cairn marks the point where Sturt crossed the river.

Captain Charles Sturt, 1853, Portrait of Captain Charles Sturt, 1795 - 1869, explorer, soldier and public servant. From the portrait by J.M. Crossland in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. Another almost identical version is in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

The brother's Peter and Henry Stuckey took up "Willie Ploma" in South Gundagai, in 1829. The weeping willows around the river at Gundagai were said to be planted by Peter Stuckey from cuttings taken by William Balcombe, the NSW Colonial Treasurer 1823-29, from trees around Napoleon's grave on St Helena.

In 1830, on the north bank of the river below Gundagai, the Thompson family first took up a station at Mickey's Corner, near Kimo Hill. The town of Gundagai was founded in 1838 on a crossing of the Murrumbidgee River.

"Mr Brodribb's second station was selected
on the spot where the important
township of Gundagai now stands. With the
assistance of one man and a few aborigines. Mr.
Brodribb washed and sheared his 1200 ewes, and
the wool was pressed by the hutkeeper with a
spade into the rough primitive box made by
themselves on the station".

Squatter." Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) 24 November 1883

Many Aboriginal people were employed from an early date by settlers in and around Gundagai.

Gundagai was gazetted as a township in 1838. A punt service at Stuckey’s Crossing was the only place to cross Murrumbidgee River at this time.

The name "Gundagai" may come from the "Gundagair" pastoral run of William Hutchinson (1838). Or the name may be Aboriginal in origin, perhaps meaning place of birds, or cut with a hand-axe behind the knee (referring to the shape of the river).

In 1839 the Gundagai region experienced such a severe drought that it became a chain of waterholes. Conflict between squatters and Wiradjuri people erupted at this time, perhaps due to competition for resources.

Joseph Andrews established the first public house and a post office at Stuckey’s Crossing (Ford).

The first sale of land occurred in December 1842, with only two purchasers buying allotments.

Robert "Bluecap" Cotterell and gang, robbed Mr Andrews, the Gundagai postmaster and innkeeper in 1843.

In 1844, the bushranger, Cashan, alias Nowlan, was being sent to Cockatoo Island, when he broke out of the lockup and travelled to Gundagai, where he stuck up Mr Nicholson's station, taking clothes, provisions, horse, saddle, and bridle.

Gundagai residents after several floods grew concerned and petitioned the NSW government to relocate the townsite. Aboriginal people had repeatedly warned about floods in the area.

The Old Mill, the first at Gundagai, was built in 1848 by Mr J Morley for Edward Flood and Thomas Hanley as a flour mill. The building has withstood many floods including: 1852, 1853, 1870, and 1925. Though the floods have put some holes in the walls.

By 1850, twenty houses and four hotels had been built, with another two on the southern side of the river. While a courthouse and lock-up were under construction.

Gundagai was the principal town south of Yass on the Sydney-Melbourne road in the 1850s and an important stop for travellers on their way to the Victorian goldfields.

A combined National School and teachers' residence was constructed in 1851 in weatherboard on stone foundations.

1850s

In 1850, near Tarcutta, south of Gundagai, two bushrangers held up the Royal Mail, stole the Albury and Melbourne mailbags and rode off with the mail coach's horses.

Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser (NSW : 1848 - 1859), Saturday 25 May 1850

On 24 June 1852, the Murrumbidgee River flooded, burst its banks, destroying 71 buildings and killing one third of the town’s 250 inhabitants.

Residents were clinging to the treetops. Some were swept away in the flood torrents and others died in the trees to which they clung.

"As night drew in, the unavailing cries

for assistance all around
became fearfully harassing. Crash after
crash announced the fall of some house
and the screams that followed the engulfhing
of those who clung till the water attained its
greatest height, about 11 o'clock at night, and
began to fall at 3 A.M. on Saturday. Up to
this time, about 34 houses had been washed
away, and 60 lives lost."

1852 'NEWS FROM THE INTERIOR. (From our Correspondents.) GUNDAGAI.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 5 July

Henry Bingham, the Crown Commissioner for the Murrumbidgee District, praised the actions of Yarri, Jacky Jacky, Long Jimmy and one other Aboriginal person, rescuing more than 40 people using bark canoes, at Gundagai. This flood remains one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

Confusingly, the heroic Yarri mentioned above, is thought to have been responsible for the death of John Baxter at Caiguna in Western Australia during the expedition made by Edward John Eyre in 1841. The Aboriginal community at Brungle also seem to have blamed Yarri for the death of a part-Aboriginal woman, Sally McLeod, near Gundagai in 1852.

However, Yarri saved the life of John Hargreaves during the 1844 flood, and the Hargreaves family developed a friendship with Yarri and he lived on their property at Tarrabandra until his death. A nulla-nulla and shield believed to belong to Yarri, was presented to the Gundagai Historical Society by John Hargreaves' grandson Dallas. There are a number of memorials, places and structures named in Yarri's honour.

After the flood, many individuals and families were left destitute.

Major Joseph Andrews, who was really a sergeant, erected the first home in Gudagai, and opened it as a hotel. Jacky Jacky, the Aboriginal man involved in saving people from the floods was employed by him.

After the 1852 flood, the townsite moved away from the river flats and up to the slopes of Mt Parnassus.

Captain Cadell of Goolwa reached the town in his paddle steamer in 1853.

The inspiration for the Dog on the Tuckerbox statue can be traced to a doggerel poem, "Bullocky Bill", published anonymously by "Bowyang Yorke" in 1857.

1860s

The town lock-up needed to be rebuilt. Alexander Dawson, the colonial architect, designed the building and Charles Hardy won the tender for its construction in 1859. Further additions to the gaol occurred in 1861, and in 1863, a kitchen was built. The stone boundary wall was constructed in 1866.

Streets were named after European literary figures, such as Pope, Byron, Ovid and Virgil.

In 1861 payable gold was found at Spring Flat, near the town.

In February 1862, the bushranger Peisley was captured near Mundarlo, and by that evening, was lodged in the Gundagai Gaol. Peisley was later hanged at Bathurst.

Bushranger, John Molloy (Jack in the Boots), at one stage robbed the Australian Arms at Snake Gully, was captured in 1862 at Bethungra (West of Gundagai).

In November 1864, Ben Hall’s Gang, comprising Johnny Gilbert, Ben Hall and John Dunn, held up a mail coach between Gundagai and Jugiong and shot and killed the 32 year-old Sergeant Edmund Parry.

Australian News for Home Readers (Vic. : 1864 - 1867), Saturday 24 December 1864

St Johns Anglican Church was built in 1865.

The Prince Alfred Bridge was built between 1864 and 1867, to replace the punt ferry that had linked the settlements on the north and south banks of the river. It was one of the first iron truss bridges to be built in NSW and an excellent example of early engineering.

Bridge at Gundagai, N.S.W., 1867 / photographer William T. Bennett, SLNSW

1870s

Andrew George Scott, better known as the bushranger Captain Moonlite, held 30 people prisoner at a farm near Gundagai. Senior Constable Webb-Bowen was killed by Captain Moonlight, in November 1879, during the hostage incident at McGlede's farm. Moonlite was tried for murder and hanged in 1880.

Moonlite’s final wish was to be buried near his two friends in the Gundagai cemetery:

"My dying wish is to be buried beside my beloved James Nesbitt, the man with whom I was united by every tie which could bind human friendship, we were one in hopes, in heart and soul and this unity lasted until he died in my arms".

His request was not granted by the authorities of the time, but in January 1995, his remains were exhumed from Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney and reinterred at Gundagai, next to Nesbitt's grave. (Nesbitt was fatally shot during a hold-up near Gundagai in 1879)

DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH BUSHRANGERS AT M'GLEDE'S FARM, NEAR GUNDAGAI. Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier (NSW : 1872 - 1881), Saturday 29 November 1879

The steamer Platypus, built for service on the Murrumbidgee, made several trips to Gundagai from Wagga Wagga durring 1879.

1880s

Yarri was buried in the Gundagai cemetery in 1880.

Asbestos was being mined between 1880 and 1921 at the Jones Creek workings, northwest of Gundagai.

In 1880, bushrangers held up the Chinese Camp at Gundagai.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church built 1885.

Gundagai Railway Station opened in 1886.

Brungle Mission Station was established in 1888 by the Aborigines Protection Board.

Ida Pearce standing by a bark hut at Reno goldfields, Gundagai, New South Wales [picture] / Charles Gabriel, between 1887 and 1927

Buying rabbits from the "Rabbito", Sheridan Street, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1887.
SRNSW

Two women at Gundagai railway station [picture] / Charles Gabriel, between 1887 and 1927

1890s

A second gold rush begins in 1894.

Murrumbidgee Blacks- corroboree party, NSW, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 24 April 1897

The railway line from Gundagai to Tumut began in 1899, requiring a railway viaduct over the Murrumbidgee and the river flats. This opened in 1902.

1900s

"The railway station at Gundagai, New South Wales - early 1900s" byAussie~mobs is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Mr George Rice, half-owner of the fabulously rich gold mine at Long Flat, near Gundagai, the recent discoveries in which have caused a great sensation in local mining circles. Mr. Rice is here seen with a dish of wonderfully rich specimens; the dish contains over £1000 worth of gold, just as it was taken from the mine. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 1 September 1900

Herbert Hoover (later president of the US) was a mining engineer at the Prince of Wales mine, Gundagai, around 1900.

The Niagara Cafe cafe was established in 1902 by a Kytherian Greek, Strati Notara, and then the Castrission family installed the Art Deco interior and exterior in 1938.

Dr Charles Louis Gabriel was Gundagai's doctor in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He fought for a hospital for the town, which opened in 1904 in Otway Street. Between 1899 and 1900, Dr Gabriel also took many photos of the town.

1. Mail morning at Cauvarel's Royal Hotel, Gundagai, NSW, 2. Gundagai Hospital and Church of England, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 19 November 1902

A BUSY MORNING AT GUNDAGAI RAILWAY STATION. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 19 November 1902

A store in Sheridan Street, Gundagai, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 19 November 1902

R. E. JONES'S GENERAL STORE, SHERIDAN-STREET. Gundagai, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 19 November 1902

ELLIOTT AND GROTH'S RICH FIND AT GUNDAGAI, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 22 April 1903

Manchester Unity Oddfellows, delegates conference at Gundagai, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 20 January 1904

Nurse outside new hospital, Gundagai, New South Wales, ca. 1904 [picture] / Charles Gabriel

In front of Gresham's Hotel, Sheridan Street, during the Dunlop reliability trial, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1905

"Gundagai, N.S.W. - 1907" by Aussie~mobs is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Tom Wills, in his childhood, lived at Burra Burra near Gundagai. He is credited with co-inventing Australian Rules football and for being coach and captain to the first Australian Aboriginal cricket team.

Gadfly (Adelaide, SA : 1906 - 1909), Wednesday 8 January 1908

"View of Gundagai, N.S.W. - early 1900s" by Aussie~mobs is marked with CC PDM 1.0

"Gundagai Hospital, N.S.W. - early 1900s" by Aussie~mobs is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Jimmy McKinney and P.J. O'Donnell in the first car in Gundagai in Sheridan street, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1905-1927

In 1909 Gundagai obtained a mains water system.

The Long Tunnel Mine, Gundagai, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 29 March 1911

The Long Tunnel Mine, Gundagai, NSW, rock crusher or "dolly pot", Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 29 March 1911

Sydney-Melbourne road (Great South Road) is declared a main road in 1914.

WWI

Henry Guildford “Harry” Bale (1891-1915). Landed at Gallipoli on Anzac Day as part of the 8th Battalion. He was killed 4 months later on the 27 August the day after his 24th Birthday. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 13 October 1915,

The Seventh Light Horse Regiment of World War 1, Gundagai, New South Wales, ca. 1918 [picture] / Charles Gabriel

Wirth's circus comes to town, Sheridan Street, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1887-1927 (Gabriel, Charles Louis)

Group of women at Fontenoy, Gundagai, New South Wales, between 1912 and 1927, by Gabriel, Charles Louis, NLAUST

Dray with poles in front of the Post Office, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1887-1927

"At a recent meeting of the New South Wales Board for
the Protection of Aborigines, it was reported that James
Williams, a full-blooded aboriginal lad, who had received
his education at Brungle Station, had won three first prizes
and one special for handwriting at the Gundagai show, the
competition being open to all comers in the Gundagai
Tumut district."

Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938) 11 July 1917

1920s

A poem by Jack Moses referenced the Bowyang Yorke poem and the Dog on the Tuckerbox was published in the 1920s.

"Along the Road to Gundagai" is an Australian folk song written by Jack O'Hagan in 1922 and was first recorded by Peter Dawson in 1924. However, O'Hagan first visited Gundagai in 1956.

Star Hotel, Gundagai, NSW, in 1924

The 1925 Flood from the top of Sheridan St overlooking Prince Alfred Bridge, the rail viaduct and the old flour mill. Gundagai, NSW

Local graziers, Jabez Nicholls, Charlie Mudear, saddler and Sam Nicholls dressed as swaggies in front of Ryans, Gundagai, New South Wales [picture] / Charles Gabriel, between 1887 and 1927

The old Gundagai Flour Mill in Sheridan Lane was also known as "The Sundowners" because of the swaggies who camped there each night.

THOUGH HE HAS SEEN 66 SUMMERS this " Murray River" sundowner, thinks nothing of covering 30 miles in a day. His bluey is carried on an improvised wheelbarrow. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Thursday 9 February 1928

ELEVEN REASONS why swimming can be indulged in with- perfect safety at Gundagai South.— The life-saving team. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Thursday 9 February 1928

A dog monument was first erected at a site nine miles from Gundagai in 1926.

Gundagai stonemason Frank Rusconi suggested a memorial using the legend of the Dog on the Tuckerbox in 1928.

The Gundagai Theatre of 1928 was built in Art Deco style, as is the Criterion Hotel up the street.

The foundation stone of the Gundagai Cenotaph was laid on 24 May 1928.

The fine memorial erected at Gundagai in honour of the men who enlisted from that district for the Great War was unveiled by Major-General C. P. Cox on November 10. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 21 November 1928

Sheridan Street, Gundagai, New South Wales, 1900-1927 (Charles Gabriel)

Horse & sulky in front of Criterion Hotel, Sheridan Street, Gundagai, New South Wales [picture] / Charles Gabriel, between 1887 and 1927

1930s

The court house burned down in the 1930s but was faithfully re-built.

The Dog on the Tuckerbox monument was erected in 1932.

The Gundagai Avenue of Honour was established 1930s to commemorate WW1.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Lyons) unveiling the memorial to the pioneers on the camping ground
near Gundagai on Monday, Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 30 November 1932

Cootamundra Herald (NSW : 1877 - 1954), Thursday 16 July 1936

The Dog on the Tuckerbox, Gundagai, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 10 August 1938

Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 10 August 1938

Mr. J. Rusconi, of Gundagai, photographed with his masterpiece in marble, which took 28 years to build. Twenty kinds of Australian marble have been used. Mr. Rusconi also built the "Dog on the Tuckerbox" monument near Gundagai. Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Tuesday 19 September 1939

1940s and WWI

The first trainees in the N.S.W. Women's Land Army, under the auspices of the Women's Australian National Services, are in camp at Billabong, Gundagai, the station property of, Mr, and Mrs. J. W. C, Beveridge. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 2 July 1940

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 27 June 1940

The Niagara Café in 1942 provided a midnight meal for Australian Prime Minister John Curtin.

Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 28 March 1945

Gundagai branch of the Red Cross has raised £9068 Mesdames J. 0. Robertson (Treas.), R. Long, C. Johns, J. Howard (V.P.) R. Beatty <V.P.>, T Hamilton P. turner (V.P.),H Scott, O. Palmer (Sec. ), A Hunt,
' Snr (Patroness). R. W. Hitchins (V.P.), J. Robinson (Pres.).Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 28 March 1945

1950s

Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955), Friday 26 March 1954

1970s

Gundagai Gaol closed in the 1970s.

The Prince Alfred Bridge closed to traffic in 1976.

1980s

The railway line closed in 1984.

The famous two-day Snake Gully Cup racing carnival in November takes its name from the famous radio show of the 1950s, "Dad And Dave".

1990s

A wooden bridge that crossed Morleys Creek was burned down by Gundagai Shire Council in the 1990s.

2000s

A bronze sculpture of Yarri and Jacky Jacky with a canoe was unveiled in Gundagai in 2017.

There are 65 gazetted historic mine sites around Gundagai.

Gundagai has four bridges spanning the Murrumbidgee flats: the historic Prince Alfred Bridge, the timber Railway Bridge, and the dual Sheahan bridges of the Hume Highway.

Around Gundagai

The former Gundagai Methodist Church building, Gundagai, NSW, built 1930

The Gundagai, NSW, train station was officially opened on 21 July 1886

Rusconi's house in Gundagai, NSW, "Araluen" on Sheridan Street near the cenotaph

The Old Mill, Gundagai, NSW, was built in 1848 by Mr J Morley for Flood and Hanley as a flour mill

Gundagai Theatre, NSW, was built in 1928 and had 524 seats

114 Sheridan St, Gundagai, NSW

Court House, Gundagai, NSW

116 Sheridan St, Gundagai, NSW, "Surrey", built c. 1880 by Billie Payne, a Cobb & Co. coach driver

Annual Tractor Pull, Gundagai, NSW

A bronze sculpture of Yarri and Jacky Jacky with a canoe was unveiled in Gundagai, NSW, in 2017

Main Street of Gundagai, NSW

Gundagai, NSW

Lotts Family Hotel/ The Family Hotel. Built in 1858. Opened as Fry's Hotel. Later was the booking office for Cobb and Co coaches, Gundagai, NSW

Anzac Day, Gundagai, NSW. St Patricks Catholic School in Gundagai, NSW, next to the Catholic Church and the convent

Buildings at Gundagai, NSW

The Criterion Hotel, Sheridan Street, , Gundagai, New South Wales

Niagara Cafe in Gundagai, New South Wales, established 1904

Timber viaducts, showing early engineering solutions to crossing a major flood plain, Gundagai, NSW

Gundagai Uniting Church building, NSW, was originally erected for the Presbyterian church in 1901

The St John's Anglican Church Gundagai was opened in 1867, NSW

Sheridan Street, Gundagai, NSW

Gundagai Museum, NSW. Alexander Dawson, the colonial architect, designed the building and Charles Hardy won the tender for its construction in 1859

National Australia Bank - Gundagai, New South Wales. Built 1887

"Memories, Gundagai Railway Station, New South Wales" by crissouli is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Post Office - Gundagai, New South Wales. Built 1880

Gundagai Bakehouse, NSW, established 1864

The former Gresham hotel, built 1853, Gundagai, NSW

Things To Do and Places To Go

Gundagai's Architectural Heritage Walk

Museums and Places To Visit

Old Gundagai Gaol

The Wiradyuri and Other Languages of New South Wales by R. H. Mathews

NOTES ON THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES (1907)

Talbot, VIC: A Living Ghost Town

The town of Talbot, in Victoria, Australia, can be found 15 km south of Maryborough and 130 km north-west of Melbourne.

Located in the heart of the Goldfields region, Talbot has many historical sites and buildings.

The Dja Dja Wurrung People

Living around the Talbot area for thousands of years, the Dja Dja Wurrung People told creation stories centring around Bunjil, the ancestral creator spirit, often depicted as a Wedge-Tailed Eagle.

According to the Dja Dja Wurrung Dreamtime stories, Bunjil made the mountains, rivers, flora, fauna, and laws for humans to live by.

Like many other oral cultures around-the-world, the Dja Dja Wurrung people used the landscape to tell and recall Creation stories, which trace the journeys of ancestral spirits and their laws.

According to the writer Bruce Chatwin, "Aboriginal Creation myths tell of the legendary totemic being who wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes - and so singing the world into existence".

The ancestral spirit was also believed to be part of the landscape, living in rocks, trees, the earth and sometimes, in the wind and rain clouds.

Two Aboriginal Australian men in traditional clothing and paint for a coroboree, Author / CreatorVictorian Railways, photographer.Date[ca. 1945-ca. 1954]

The meaning of Dja Dja Wurrung, according to E.S. Parker and his son, Joseph Parker, comes from djadja the word for "yes" (yes, yes, tongue/speak), which if true, would be unusual as names for language groups in this region are often based on "no".

Dja Dja Wurrung is classified as one of the Kulin family of languages. In 1878, 700 words were written down by Joseph Parker, who was the son of one of the Assistant Protectors of Aboriginal people. He also learnt the Dja Dja Wurrung language. Robert Hamilton Matthews recorded some of the Dja Dja Wurrung language, and parts of the grammar in 1904.

Like other Kulin peoples, there are two moieties (totems): Bunjil the eagle and Waa the crow and adherence to a patrilineal system. These moieties would determine an indivuduals behaviour, social relationships and marriage.

Patrilineal descent meant that Dja Dja Wurrung children inherited the totems of their fathers. People belonging to the same totem were not allowed to inter-marry. Marrying within one’s totem (moiety) was traditionally punishable by death.

Dja Dja Wurrung people used bark for making gunyahs (shelters) and coolamons (used for dishes and for digging).

Man, whole-length, wrapped in skins and cloth, standing in front of bark shelter, two women seated on ground next to him also wrapped up, spears and shield propped against branches piled on right. A dog stretched out asleep on right another in middle foreground. Farm buildings visible on left with open land and bush in background. Victorian Aboriginals and mia mia / Fred Kruger. c1880, SLVIC

Located along Pollocks Road, Talbot is an Aboriginal Shelter Tree, a red river gum (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis) believed to be about 700 years old. The tree has a hollowed-out centre and was used for shelter and by Dja Dja Wurrung women giving birth.

Between Talbot and Maryborough there are four rock wells dug by the Dja Dja Wurrung people.

In 1839, E.S. Parker also noted that yams (murrnong) were the main vegetable eaten by Dja Dja Wurrung in the area. As well as other tubers, bulbs, roots of sedges and rushes, Parker wrote they were "easily extracted by the women with their digging sticks".

The Dja Dja Wurrung men hunted kangaroo, wallaby, emu, possums and birds, and speared fish in the rivers.

Aboriginal hunting required high levels of expertise and athleticism, the British Library’s catalogue, 1899

Hunting and gathering require complex skills and knowledge and is passed on to each generation.

E. S. Parker, also observed that with European settlement: "The very spots most valuable to the Aborigines for their productiveness - the creeks, watercourses and rivers - are the first to be occupied".

Possum Skin Cloaks (djarun) were worn in the colder months. Skins would be left to dry, then scraped with rocks or shells; the skins were rubbed with fat then sewn together with the sinew of kangaroo, using a bone needle.

Fire was an important means to manage the landscape for Dja Dja Wurrung people. However, fire was part of the culture and belief systems too. As fire historian Stephen Pyne wrote:

"Without campfires there would be no storytelling. Without torches and bonfires, there could be no ceremonial community after dark. Without the protective radiance of the hearth fire, Aborigines were defenceless against the evil spirits that marauded the night in search of souls to devour. Fire was ubiquitous in Aboriginal ritual and myth because it was ubiquitous in Aboriginal life".

There is evidence that smallpox, perhaps introduced first from the north by Macassan traders, swept through the Dja Dja Wurrung in 1789 and 1825.

Settlers

The first European settler in the Talbot area (Back Creek) was Alexander McCallum who established "Dunach Forrest" between 1839-41.

In 1839, Donald Cameron also selected land and named his run "Clunes" after his home in Scotland.

The third expedition of the New South Wales Surveyor-General Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1836, crossed the Great Dividing Range between Mount Cole and Mount Greenock (close to present-day Talbot).

Engraving of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell

Gold

Gold had been found in Victoria before the official date of gold discovery in 1851, which sparked the gold rush. But these finds had been isolated, and those who found gold often kept the knowledge to themselves.

The first gold rush in Victoria was in 1848, when a shepherd named Thomas Chapman found gold at Daisy Hill (later Amherst) on Hall and McNeill's "Glen Mona Run". This find attracted a lot of attention after the gold was sold in Melbourne at a Collins Street jeweller.

The Argus newspaper reported that fifty men had rushed to Daisy Hill, in hopes of finding gold, in February 1849. But Captain Henry E. Pultney Dana and the native police were stationed in the area to stop any unauthorised occupation of Crown Lands and so stopped the "rush".

Australian Native Police unit in 1870

A well-known prospector, Dr Herman Bruhn, found gold near Amherst in 1851. Then in about May 1852, a group of Germans found gold nearby, what would later become Amherst Cemetery, close to Daisy Hill.

Official Discovery

The first official discovery near Talbot was made by two men at Daisy Hill Creek in 1852. One of the men was named Cowley, the other was John Potter. Potter claimed they found a nugget while trying to free a bogged wagon. This was known as Cowley’s Rush.

Years later, E. Carton Booth, wrote in his book, Another England: life, living, homes and homemakers in Victoria:
"All sorts and conditions" of men started off for the diggings. It is doubtful whether.' the first expedition was looked upon in a serious light, for the most unlikely persons possible joined in it. Dog-carts, buggies, outside cars and inside cars, any and everything on wheels, or circular contrivances that looked like wheels, were laid under contribution..."

The next major gold find was in early 1854 at Kangaroo Flat along Back Creek, about two miles southwest of Talbot.

Gold was discovered at Opossum Gully, Amherst, in October 1854. A rush began and the Adelaide Lead was opened.

The Post Office at Back Creek on 24 February 1854.

Goodwoman’s Hill rush commenced in March 1855 behind Dale Goodwoman’s Hotel.

The Chinese arrived in May 1855 and established camps in Long Gully and Nuggetty Gully.

At the start of 1855 there were approximately 2500 diggers and business owners at Back Creek as well as 300 women and children.

Back Creek and Amherst were to be surveyed in 1855, but many people left for Fiery Creek in September 1855, and this led to the cancellation of Back Creek town survey.

Black Douglas, a well-known bushranger, was caught at Adelaide Lead, on Sunday 5 May 1855.

"One of the stirring incidents of the
early days was the capture of Black
Douglas, the bushranger. He was taken
by the diggers some miles out, and
brought into the town. A big police camp
had been formed in the town for the gold
escort The four-horse coach which car-
ried the gold was flanked with a line of
mounted troopers".

"MARYBOROUGH'S JUBILEE." Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954) 23 July 1904

Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), Wednesday 23 May 1855

In June 1855 there were about 10,000 diggers at Back Creek and Daisy Hill. Riots took place there in June 1855 at Adelaide Lead.

The Town Develops

The Scandinavian Lead, found by prospectors, Carl Hallem, Adolph and Carl Olsen and Joseph Bell, was the richest and most enduring gold discovery in the area. The Scandinavian Lead opened in early 1859 on the site of today's Talbot. Horse-powered haulage whims were used to raise ore or water from the mine. but steam engines took over.

The diggers who rushed to Talbot found areas “alive with gold”. Between 1851 and 1896, the Victorian Mines Department reported that 1,898,391kg of gold was mined in Victoria.

A reservoir built in 1858 by Stewart and Farnsworth on Stony Creek, provided miners with water for sluicing at Back Creek.

In 1859 two new leads adjoining the Scandinavian Lead were discovered: the Rocky Flat and Union leads (opened by a party of Welshmen).

By March 1859 there was an estimated population of 15,000.

"The rush to the Back Creek has assumed gigantic proportions; several thousand are already congregated on the spot, and every hour of the day fresh bodies of miners are pouring in. Stores and other places of business, as well as grog shanties, are being erected by scores, and in short all the signs are there which denote a monster rush".

BACK CREEK, AMHERST. (1859, February 22). Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser

By the start of March 1859 the developing main street was being called Scandinavian Crescent.

World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Saturday 18 December 1909

During the 1850s gold rush, the population of Victoria almost trebled as hopeful diggers flowed into Melbourne, from overseas and other areas of Australia, then onto the goldfields.

The newspaper, Amherst and Back Creek Advertiser began 5 March 1859. Robert Clark established the Back Creek Register at Talbot in 1859. In the following year, the North Western Chronicle was published. The Talbot Leader dates from 1861.

"Crime is frightfully on the increase in this district, and the hordes of thieves and murderers on the rush are becoming emboldened from the comparative immunity which they enjoy. At present Detective Slattery and a handful of constables are the only men to keep down hundreds of villains of the deepest dye. The report I have forwarded you, of the murderous attack on Mrs Ross, is only one of several crimes ... Several cases of sticking-up have come to our knowledge ... A butcher named Wills was pounced on by four armed men near Sault's Hotel ... A woman was stabbed in the face on Wednesday night ... On Tuesday night a man had his jaw broken ... The feeling among the inhabitants is one of great insecurity. A Court of Petty Sessions will he held daily at Wrigley's Hotel, on and after Monday".

"BACK CREEK, AMHERST." Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918) 17 May 1859

[Talbot, Vic.] : Theatre Royal, 1859, Saturday November 12, 1859

1860s

Name Change

After the Victorian Governor visited the area of Back Creek in 1861 the name was changed to Talbot, possibly to honour the Talbots of Malahide Castle, Dublin or the Talbots of Shrewsbury, England.

Survey of allotments took place in 1861-62.

"GREAT FIRE AT TALBOT.
£12,000 WORTH OF PROPERTY DESTROYED.

A destructive fire broke out in the Scandi-
navian Crescent, this morning. The cause is
unknown. It lasted two hours and a half, and
destroyed the, undermentioned properties:—
Henderson, bootmaker ; Bowman, bootmaker ;
Ford, fruiterer ; Frazer, hair dresser ; Golden
Cross Hotel ; Samuels, gold assayer ; Theatre
Royal and Hotel; Clarke, stationer; Evans,
tent, maker ; two unoccupied buildings ; the
London Tavern ; Scott, hay and corn store. On
tbe opposite side of the street : — The Municipal
Chambers; London and New York Hotel ;
Rob Roy Hotel ; Harris's school. The total loss
is about £12,000".

GREAT FIRE AT TALBOT. (1862, December 5). Mount Alexander Mail

In 1864 there existed a Court House at Talbot, borough offices, seven schools, a street of shops, two breweries, churches, two soap and candle factories, sixteen hotels, coach services and general carriers, and a number of crushers. The population of about 3,400 varied as miners moved about.

The Gold Rush would cause significant disruption to the traditional ways of life of Aboriginal people. Some Aboriginal people, however, participated and benefited from the gold rush.

"A party of aborigines had a windfall the other day near Talbot, in the shape of nuggets. Walking over the old ground in Blacksmith Gully, they picked up two nuggets, one weighing a trifle over 1lb, and the other about 1oz. 2dwt. These nuggets had evidently been thrown up from some of the neighbouring claims by the original workers. “Possessed of so much wealth, viz., 51 pounds 14 shillings” says the [Talbot] Leader, “the party proceeded to invest themselves in black suits and bell-toppers, and having thus dressed themselves, they swaggered about Amhearst, cutting such airs as to greatly amuse everyone who chanced to see them. The last time they were seen they were trying to make a bargain with Mr Harling for the purchase of a buggy, but the price being beyond their means, taking into consideration the outlay for black suits and bell toppers, they at last requested the loan of a horse and buggy to drive into Talbot, but their wish in this request it appears no one would gratify”.

CROXTON COMMON. (1864, July 30). Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser

“The Aborigines of this district” says the Talbot Leader, “seem to have a peculiar faculty for picking up valuable nuggets of gold. On Thursday, the remnant of the Daisy Hill tribe, while wandering about the old holes in Blacksmiths Gully, Amherst, picked up a nugget weighing six ounces. Mr Douglas of that town, having changed their gold for notes, the party spent about half of the cash upon new clothes, and adjourned with the balance into the bush”.

ITEMS OF NEWS. (1865, September 23). Mount Alexander Mail

Bailliere’s Victorian gazetteer in 1865 recorded Talbot as having " ...two breweries, a soap and candle works, a hospital, a mechanics’ institute, a county and other courts, 19 hotels, private schools and a National school (1858). There were also a gas works (1859)".

Talbot Town Hall was built in 1862.

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church opened in May 1865.

The court house was built in 1866.

Bull and Mouth Hotel 1866.

Prince Alfred (public) School opened 1869.

1870s

The Primitive Methodist Church was built in 1870.

The Phoenix Hotel was a hotel in Talbot, Victoria, c1870, 37 Scandinavian Crescent

St Michaels Church of England, Talbot 1871.

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church of Talbot 1872.

The Talbot Railway Station was built in 1875 to link the towns of Talbot and Amherst with Ballarat and Maryborough.

The Rip Van Winkle mine at Talbot, VIC, around 1875

1880s

Staff outside the offices of the Talbot Leader, 1880, SLVIC

Population of Talbot in 1881 was 2318.

The Talbot Wesleyan Church held a Chinese Baptisimal Service for converts in 1881.

Lyons Commercial Hotel Building Fyfe St, Talbot. The hotel opened in 1859. It had 26 rooms, and was the stoping place for the Cobb & Co coaches. The owner of the hotel held animal sales in the street in front of the hotel once a month. The hotel closed in 1962 and the front 2 story section was demolished in 1991

1890s

Repairing embankment, Talbot Reservoir, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 12 October 1895

Borough hall, Talbot, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 12 October 1895

The finders of the 115oz nugget near Talbot, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 15 May 1897

1900s

Talbot Railway Station, Victoria, n.d

August 19 1909, the night train from Ballarat was heading to Maryborough in western Victoria, when the rail bridge over McCallum's Creek, which had been weakened by flood waters, collapsed as the train crossed it. The Bridge at Dunach (between Clunes and Talbot, VIC). There were no fatalities and and only one female passenger was injured

WWI

Studio portrait of 2151 Private (Pte) Harry Tarzwell Gale, 4th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion, of Talbot, Vic. Pte Gale enlisted on 6 July 1915 and embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Hororata on 27 September 1915 and returned to Australia on 18 January 1919. Pte Gale previously served with the 46th Infantry, Citizens Military Force. See also DA10620. AWM

Studio portrait of 50 Driver Robert Hall, 50th Battery, Australian Field Artillery, of Talbot, Vic. He was gassed in France and died in hospital in England on 5 July 1918, AWM

Talbot Leader (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), Saturday 23 June 1917

1930s

Raising a tractor which fell through an old bridge on the Talbot to Maryborough Road, Victoria, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 16 August 1930

"A relic of the gold days - The old Bar of the Glasgow Arms Hotel now delicensed, at Talbot, Vic. ...", 1933, SLSA

News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Monday 27 July 1936

Talbot, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 19 September 1936

1940s and WWII

"CPL, D. McKAYE FISHER, 23 and PTE, JAMES
ROLAND FISHER, 27 both reported missing are
sons of Mr and Mrs A. J. Fisher, Amherst. Pte
D. McK. Fisher, who enlisted in October 1939 was
stationed at Cobram as a Methodist home mis
sioner, and Pte J. R. Fisher, who enlisted in
November 1939 was a poultry farmer. Both lived
at Talbot".

"PERSONAL NOTES ON OVERSEA CASUALTIES" The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) 12 June 1941

Talbot, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 2 May 1945,

Talbot Fire Brigade, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 2 May 1945,

Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1955), Friday 23 January 1948

Employees of Talbot branch of Maryborough knitting Mills, with manageress (Miss D. Kennedy), in centre, VIC. Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 19 October 1949

Camp Street, Talbot, VIC, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 19 October 1949

Talbot, VIC, Red Cross, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 19 October 1949

1990s

The Talbot train station closed on 12 September 1993.

Most of Talbot and Clunes shire was united with Maryborough city and most of Bet Bet and Tullaroop shires to form Central Goldfields shire, on 19 January 1995.

2000s

Victoria’s only private astronomical observatory is located at Talbot. It is open to the public and was completed in 2002.

Just 5 kilometres north-west of Talbot is the town of Amherst, first settled in 1855. However, most of Amherst's buildings, which at one time included seven general stores, an inn and a hospital, have been destroyed by bushfires.

Around Talbot

Carnation Flour sign Talbot, VIC

The Aboriginal Maternity Tree is a giant River Red Gum, estimated to be about 700 years old, Talbot, VIC

Located in the bushland alongside Possum Gully Road, Amherst, about 10 minutes from Talbot, VIC. Believed to be the original site of a Chinese Joss & Bath House

Scandinavian Crescent, Talbot, VIC

Talbot Town Hall built 1862, VIC

The former Bull & Mouth Hotel, Talbot, VIC, built of local basalt in 1865 by William Owen. The original Bull & Mouth Hotel was opposite and was demolished to make way for Heales Street

Court House - Camp St, Talbot, built 1861

The former Goodman's Phoenix hotel and Bank of Australasia, Talbot, VIC

Lyons Commercial Hotel Building Fyffe St, VIC, built 1861. Originally Thomas Wriggley operated a hotel on this site. Patrick Lyons operated the hotel in 1861, it had 26 rooms