The Alchin Family Property in the 1850s

Land, adjacent to Walsh’s Road, Dalton, once owned by Ambrose Alchin (Photo by Author)

In the 1850s my Alchin family procured land out along Oolong Creek, to the north of what is now the town of Dalton. In the years 1852 to 1863 Ambrose Alchin and his sons transacted several purchases of land.

Location of land in photo above
(Source: Upper Lachlan Shire Council Road Map; Department of Lands, 2010)

By cross-referencing old land maps with today’s Google Maps, I closely located portions of Alchin land in 1864 and plotted them onto a modern-day map; frustrating fun but the exercise enabled me to recently drive through Dalton onto Walsh’s Road and photograph the “Alchin panorama” adjacent to the very dusty road.

Near Oolong Creek, along Walsh's Road (Photo by Author)

When Ambrose Alchin died at Oolong Creek on 13 November 1877, his last will and testament (dated 26 October 1872) left his Oolong Creek land to his second wife Emma Alchin and five children. Emma was provided with “… all that portion of land containing thirty-seven acres on which any house now stands together with the farm containing forty-two and a half acres.” Ambrose made his mark on the will that was witnessed by Isaac Butt and William Yelverton.

And the land? To be continued, perhaps. Who owns it now?

Ambrose and John Alchin held land bounded, in part, by Oolong Creek and the now Walsh's Road, in the 1850s & 1860s (Department of Lands)

Garry Norman Smith is a regular contributor to the Gunning & District Historical Society's blog. If you have an idea for an article or photographs you are willing to share, please contact us at gunninghistory@gmail.com.

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