Gunning & District Historical Society

Gunning District Bird of the Month for February – The White-fronted Chat White-fronted Chat at Werribbee Treatment Plant:  Image courtesy Russell Cockman http://www.russellsastronomy.com This is the second in a monthly series inspired by Gladstone Weatherstone. a dedicated and knowledgeable amateur naturalist who lived at Lyndfield Park near Gunning from 1941 until his death in 1996.  He had a particular interest in birds.  Between 1962 and 1981 Gladstone kept a notebook in which he recorded bird sightings on his farm and its near surrounds. Gunning District History Society [GDHS] holds a copy of Gladstone’s bird list transcribed by his son John. These articles will highlight some of the things Gladstone recorded, try to place them in context and see if we can glean any lessons about the recent history of our district.  Photo of Gladstone at right courtesy of his son Wayne Weatherstone. The White-fronted Chat  On 11February 19...

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...

All Saints Church, Staplehurst, Kent.Photo by Julian P Guffogg [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia. By Garry Norman Smith All Saints Church, Staplehurst was mainly built in the 12 th and 13 th centuries, although the south door dates to 1050. It was in this church on 7 July 1832 that Ann Alchin was baptised. Her parents, Ambrose and Ann Alchin took their family to the colony of New South Wales a little more than six years later in 1838. After time spent in Sydney and the Camden district, Ann’s family settled in the County of King, where her father Ambrose took up land at Oolong Creek. Once a part of the district, twenty-three-year-old Ann Alchin married twenty-two-year-old Thomas Bayley, farmer, on 1 August 1855. They had at least ten children between 1855 and 1875. Thomas Bayley (1833-1885) was born at Kangaroo Point (Bellerive) in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1833, the son of Robert Bayley (1801-1864) and Mary Hogan (1796-1862). Both Robert Bayley and Mary Hogan have ...

Memorial plaques for the Browns and the Wilsons, Dalton Methodist Church The year 1861 proved to be a sorrowful one for many of the residents of Wesley Vale and the Jerrawa Creek area. Along with scarletina (scarlet fever), the rapid spread of diphtheria among the children of the district took a heavy toll on families. Among the local families to suffer the loss of children were Thomas and Sarah Brown of Wesley Vale. Fatally affected also were the children of John and Elizabeth Wilson at Jerrawa Creek. The Dalton Methodist Church has two significant memorial plaques, the one mentioning the Brown family and the other tells the story of the Wilsons. Both families lost children to the diphtheria outbreak in the district- all in the year 1861. John and Elizabeth Wilson Tom Brown, so well-known for his varied and vigorous evangelism from the time he arrived in Wesley Vale in 1847, and his wife Sarah, lost three children in 1861. David aged 14 years, Mary aged 9 and Ebe...

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...