Gunning & District Historical Society

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...

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), ...

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...