Gunning & District Historical Society

Butcher Shop on the Corner of Warrataw & Saxby Streets By Kim Lees The centre for the business end of Gunning is now Yass Street, but this was not always the case. Up until the 1960s there were numerous shops and businesses at the railway end of Warrataw (previously Waratah) Street. With the introduction of the railway line in the 1870s the top end of Warrataw Street became an important part of town. Frankfield House (known to us as 'the boarding house') which had been there for many years was originally a staging post for Cobb & Co. coaches and a hotel until the 1920s when it was closed. It later became a guest house and operated that way for many years. It has had a number of owners over the years, including T D Roche, Mrs Hookway, the Edwards family, Herb Pollard (who ran the Dalton mail run whilst his wife ran the guest house), Jack & Stella Range, ‘Alley’ Morgan (who also ran a taxi service in Gunning) and my family from 1963 until 1972 when it was pri...

Waratah (now Warrataw) Street, Gunning, circa 1905. Article by Kim Lees The Lees family emigrated from Germany in the 1850’s as Bounty Immigrants under a scheme to bring citizens from various countries to Australia to assist in establishing farming and other industries. They came from the wine growing area of Grossbottwar, some 26 kms north of Stuttgart. It has been possible, through a German Ancestry organisation ‘Beyond History’, to trace the Lees family in Grossbottwar as far back as the late 1500s, some 6 generations before the family emigrated from Germany to Australia. In 2013 I visited Grossbottwar where I met with a cousin and his family who still live there.  The Lees family (parents Johannes (48) & Louisa (44) and children Conrad (20), Adam (16), Jacob (14), Fredricka (9), and David (6)) travelled to Australia on the Dutch Barque ‘Helene’ with 215 other German Immigrants. The youngest child, a daughter Christiana (aged 5 months) died on the voyage to Aust...