Gunning & District Historical Society

First Settler Lawless House in Lade Vale Still to be Found New Questions to be Answered The Story So Far In an earlier story on Frank and Catherine Lawless, the first settlers in Lade Vale, I speculated that the remains of a substantial granite block house in the district may have been the work of builder/bricklayer Frank on his circa 1826 land grant.  You can find this article at https://gunninghistory.blogspot.com/2018/07/first-settlers-in-lade-vale-frank-and.html. I now know this suggestion was ill founded.  The ruins are not of Frank’s making nor of his time – but they are still of historic interest and raise further questions. Archaeologist At Work Some weeks ago retired professional archaeologist and Lade Vale/Jerrawa local Jon Winston – Gregson, land owner Brendan O’Reilly and I had a close look at the site.  Brendan and I were amazed at the well based observations Jon was able to make during his informal site assessment.  For me, it was akin to...

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...