Gunning & District Historical Society

Francis Lawless: Condemned Criminal, Colonial Architect, Pioneer Grazier A Government jail gang. Francis Lawless spent his first years in the colony on a gang such as this before rising to become a valued and respected citizen in Sydney and later Gunning.  Drawing by Augustus Earle: National Library of Australia. In this two part series by guest blogger Carmel Peek we meet two of Gunning’s earliest settlers, Francis and Catherine Lawless. As a young man Francis achieved the rare double of escaping a life prison sentence and later being condemned to death by hanging. He rose from this to become a self taught architect who designed and constructed some of Sydney’s Georgian era churches and public buildings. He is recognised as a foundation contributor to the architecture of Australia - one of only 35 historical figures including Sir Thomas Mitchell, Francis Greenway and Elizabeth Macquarie to be so named. His wife Catherine was an early “Currency Lass” – a white child...

Poppy and cross and GDHS teaspoon laid on J.O.E. Noble's headstone At the top of the Gunning Cenotaph on the side facing Yass Street, are the names of Alfred and Joshua Noble. In planning her trip to the European battlefields, their great great niece Sharon Buggy asked Gunning and District Historical Society for an item of remembrance from Gunning.   When she visited the Somme Battlefields with her husband in May 2017, she took some GDHS teaspoons featuring Pye Cottage. Joshua Oswald Earl Noble was born at Ourimbah and is buried in Peronne Communal Cemetery. Alfred Lawrence Noble was born at Boulder Hill, Gunning and is buried at Cite Bonjean Military cemetery, Armentieres. Boulder Hill was on the route of the new railway in 1875, only 8 miles north of Gunning. Both young men enlisted in Goulburn and soon after, their father notified his change of address (as next of kin) as Collector. The beautifully kept cemetery at Armentieres Sharon writes: My husband and I abs...

Telegram from Teacher, Lionel Barber, Announcing the Destruction of the Chain of Ponds School 1916 State Archives and Records NSW – NRS 3829, School Files 5/15362.1, Chain of Ponds School By Garry Norman Smith At four o’clock on a Friday morning in October 1916 the Chain of Ponds Provisional School was destroyed by fire. According to the records uncovered at the State Archives and Records NSW, “There is nothing left intact but the tank and the chimney”. The school building was not insured but the teacher’s residence was covered; the residence was not damaged. Mr Lionel Barber, teacher at the school, sent a telegram from Gunning to the Chief Inspector, Mr Dawson, to inform him that the school had been destroyed and that the matter was in the hands of the police. As it turned out there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the fire. Lionel Barber received permission to sell off the furnishings, the school’s “very choice cow”, “in full milk” and the sulky “in splen...