Gunning & District Historical Society

Hannah Luxon: Colonial Servant by Garry Norman Smith Hannah Barnes was born in Northumberland, England in 1830, the daughter of William and Margaret Barnes. She was baptised at Earsdon, Northumberland on 16 April 1831. Hannah Barnes married William Luxon (1819-1884) in 1850. The England census of 1851 records that Hannah and William and their 10-month-old son, Edward, were living at North Shields, Northumberland. William was a joiner and cabinet maker. On 29 January 1853, the Luxon family arrived in the colony of New South Wales aboard the Tamar . The voyage had taken 100 days without any stopovers. The Luxor Family listed on the 'Tamar', 1853 Hannah and William were to have at least six children, including Edward. Not long after their arrival, Hannah and William left Sydney for the Yass district. Five of their children were born in the colony and their births were registered at Yass. In 1855 the Luxons were among the subscribers to the...

Gunning to Newnes and Beyond: Roy Irwin Alchin by Garry Smith Roy Irwin Alchin with Grandson Garry Norman Smith 1949 Roy Irwin Alchin (1897-1976) was born in Gunning on 23 January 1897, the son of Edward Alchin (1863-1941) and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964). Roy’s great grandfather, Ambrose Alchin, had come to the Gunning district in the late 1840s with his family - wife Ann and their children. The British Parliament approved the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act in 1901. In that same year Roy was a four-year-old boy playing around the family home near the common in Gunning. Little is known about Roy’s childhood but it is known that in the year of Federation, Roy made the newspaper when he badly fractured his leg while running around the house. “ Goulburn Evening Penny Post”, Saturday 16 March 1901, 7 (via TROVE) Roy grew up in a strictly Methodist household; at the age of ten years Roy and his sister Myra took par...

  Benjamin Pollard  –  Father of 26 By M.D. Friend Catherine Creek - Jerrawa  When Benjamin Pollard died in 1915 at ‘Sunrise View’ near Dalton, New South Wales, he had recorded a remarkable statistic; fathering 26 children. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact only one of the 26 children died in infancy; even with a serious diphtheria outbreak in the area which claimed many young victims in the early 1860’s. Pollard bounty immigrant shipping slip The family first settled at ‘The Oakes’ near Camden before relocating to Jerrawa by bullock waggon in the search for land of their own. Father William and son Benjamin had both purchased land at Jerrawa by 1856. While living here it is alleged (in the obituary of Williams daughter Ellen Pollard nee Ginn) that father William was held up by bushrangers when traveling to Yass to pay for his Jerrawa land purchase. The story goes that the bushrangers “demanded money, only to receive a ‘not negot...

John Alchin (1821-1901) This article, about a publican who was also an adherent of a religion which abhorred the demon drink, is by guest blogger and Alchin family chronicler, Garry Smith. In the early years of the Australian colonies alcohol consumption was heavy but is shown to be lower than in some other countries at that time. The decade of the 1830s saw the highest per capita consumption although the gold rush period of the 1850s was probably comparable. From 1860 to 1900 consumption fell strongly. John Alchin (originally John Waters Gaynes) arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1838 with his “adoptive” family – Ambrose and Ann Alchin and their six children. Although Ann Alchin, John’s natural mother, and Ambrose Alchin were recorded as “Baptist” on the passenger list of the arrivals aboard the Palmyra, the family lived their lives as staunch Wesleyans. There are many uses of the word Wesleyan over time. When the Alchins arrived in the colony, Wesleyans were...

Hazel Doris Alchin with nephew Garry Norman Smith By Garry Norman Smith Hazel Doris Alchin is arguably the oldest living direct descendant of Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and Ann Alchin (nee Waters) (1799-1858). This image is of a woman who recently turned 95 years old. Hazel is from two long lines of pioneer families: the Thompsons of West Pennant Hills and the Alchins of Oolong Creek and Gunning. Roy Irwin Alchin (1922) and Doris Irene Thompson (1919) While Hazel’s father, Roy Irwin Alchin (1897-1976) was born at Gunning, she has never actually visited the town.  (l-r) Daphne, Doris, Hazel, Roy, Joyce & Ellen Alchin c1938 Charles Alchin and Mary Alchin (nee Stear) Roy married Doris Irene Thompson (1902-1990) in 1922 at Dural, New South Wales; Hazel was born that same year at Dural. Hazel and her four sisters lived their early lives in The Hills District. Her grandparents, Edward Alchin (1863-1941) and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964), ...

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 wa...

Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and John Alchin (1821-1901). Land on Oolong Creek was first made available for sale by auction in 1851, although several farmers had already taken up selections there prior to that year – men such as Simeon Lord (land grant) and Thomas Brown (land purchase). Announcement of Land Auctions, Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser, 25 October 1851, p. 4. The location of land in these years was always described according to creeks, for example, near “Blackeney [Blakney] Creek”, “commencing at Pudman Creek”, “at Jerrawa Creek, near the head of Oolong Creek” or “at Oolong Creek or Chain of Ponds”. It was valuable to know where these and other water courses started and finished. Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and his sons John Alchin (1821-1901), William James Alchin (1827-1918) and Charles Alchin (1837-1908) were active in land transactions from the 1850s and into the 1860s at Oolong Creek. Dalton and Oolong Creek were the “seats” of the...