Gunning & District Historical Society

 November Bird of the Month Latham's Snipe:  Image courtesy Mark Lethlean    Image courtesy Wayne Weatherstone This is number eleven in a 12 part series in which we take a bird recorded in Gladstone Weatherstone's notebook between 1962 and 1981, see if anything is different today and, if so, try to explain why.   Gladstone was an expert amateur naturalist who lived on Lyndfield Park near Gunning from 1941 until 1996.             The Visitor from Japan On 11 November 1971 Gladstone wrote, “Japanese Snipe flushed today from reeds in creek.  First recording here” .  His words show no emotion, but he must have been excited.  This small wetland bird, weighing only around 200 grams, had just fetched up on his farm after flying some 8000 or more kilometres from Japan and south-east Siberia!     Snipe have been making their annual journey to Australia for perhaps thousands of years.  Their...

 On the site of Chain of Ponds School. (l-r) author Garry Smith, GDHS archivist Keith Brown, Harold Hazell & Lyn Polsen (nee Hazell) This article is by guest blogger and Alchin family chronicler Garry Smith When the Chain of Ponds School burned down in October 1916 only the stone chimney and the water tank were left standing. The children still in attendance in that year were transferred to Lade Vale School. Among the many local names in attendance at the school during its history were Alchin, Hinds, King, Robinson, Waters, Bayley, Hately and Hazell; I am related to some of these families. Among the recent visitors to the site of the long gone school was Harold Hazell and his daughter Lyn Polsen (nee Hazell). Although I was there to represent the Alchin family, it is noteworthy that Harold’s grandmother, Mary Jane Hazell (nee Alchin) (1875-1941) was my great aunt. She was the daughter of Charles Alchin (1837-1908) and Mary Alchin (nee Stear) (1843-1897) – my grea...

Parramatta Female Penitentiary or Factory (Picture via Trove). By Garry Norman Smith Robert Bayley (aka Bailey) and Mary Bayley (formerly Piper, nee Hogan) lived for many years at Chain of Ponds where Robert farmed and built up a significant flock of sheep. While he and his family were resident in the area, Robert was pretty much a model local citizen. That was not always how Robert lived his early years in the colony. A convict stain was left behind in Van Diemen’s Land when Robert Bayley, Mary Hogan (Piper) and their collective children, sailed aboard the Eudora from Hobart Town, departing on 30 July 1837 bound for Sydney. Robert and Mary brought with them their own five offspring and an adult son and his wife from one of Mary’s previous relationships.  Robert Bailey’s [Bayley] entry in the Conduct Register of Convicts Living in Northern Tasmania 1822-1844. TAHO: CON31/1/1 Image 210/page 112 (With the permission of Archives Office of Tasmania 2006). Robert Ba...

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...