The Site BLOG and “about this Site”
Copyright © Geoffrey Svenson 2020
last updated 15th October 2024
Hello and welcome to a slowly evolving heap of stuff…
Parts of this site are a work in progress, with updates being applied when appropriate. This is especially so in regard to the Central West of New South Wales where the research is ongoing.
RECENT UPDATES by date of completion…latest first…
18 September 2024
A revision and clarification of “Thomas Wakefield Chambers“ – newspaper editor extraordinaire at Milparinka.
4 September 2024
About this site… – a few minor adjustments to the wording, and mention of another new page to be developed…one day….
2 September 2024
William Lee and Larras Lake – inclusion of new research outcomes.
– the fate of Matthew Finnegan, found guilty of wilful murder by a jury of 12, but who received a sentence of only two years hard labour for his crime.1 The normal penalty would have been death by hanging.
– confirmation of the link between William Lee and James Larra and Larra’s probable involvement with William Lee’s land acquisitions…
26 August 2024
Conclusions – the Naming of Larras Lake – inclusion of :
- the text of the ‘recent’ article that stated Larras Lake was named for James Larra
- details of an earlier article in the Molong Argus that speculated about the naming of Larras Lake, and suggesting the answer was a dark secret.
10 August 2024
About Change – a rewrite to achieve a more readable presentation.
31 July 2024
Dating the naming of Larras Lake
– inclusion of new information.
– clarifying various events that impact upon the subject.
16 July 2024
About Geoff Svenson
– rewritten to remove an excess of information here…
NOW FOR THE SITE OBJECTIVES and their Status…
The original objectives for this site were:
- To present the outcome of research into a sparse scatter of artifacts that caught my attention one Saturday afternoon in 2004. Many related pages are now live and can be accessed via the CONTENTS TAB and the Central West of New South Wales sub-heading.
- To resurrect the content of a web site I built in 1997. That site (www.milparinka.com) was specifically directed at the history of Milparinka, a town in the far west of New South Wales that was largely abandoned by the 1940s. This has been updated in the form of a Second Edition of 1997’s “What Was at MILPARINKA”2– a booklet that complemented the web page, but also stood alone as a guide to the ruins that were still visible at the time. . The pages involved can be accessed via the CONTENTS sub-heading Far Western New South Wales.
The Central West of New South Wales pages start with an introduction to the area followed by others that present the results of research into specific aspects of site involved. At present these cover the period from 1815 to around 1871.
The earliest of these pages present the web of relationships that led to the Parish of Larras Lake being so named. The information put forward comes from government, newspaper reports and semi-official records with a start date of 1784.
Next is the story of Percy Simpson’s 1823 ‘Marked Line’. Based almost entirely upon government surveyors’ maps and associated field books and journals, but assisted by the archaeological record, the outcome very clearly confirms that Percy’s line ran from Wellington Valley along a route that passed through the vicinities now known as Nurea, Mumbil, Stony Creek, Kerrs Creek…McKinnons Spring… Mullion Creek, March Vale 3 Now “Dawsons Gates” – downhill and east of March and along Frederick’s Valley to a Government stock station at Summer Hill. The earliest map dates from 1829 – six years after Percy Simpson reported that his marked line substantially shortened the route from Bathurst to the Wellington Valley. Perhaps typically, while announcing his shorter route, Percy failed to mention he had the assistance of an aboriginal guide.
The research also confirmed that Percy’s line continued to be used in 1851 when Major (later Sir) Thomas Mitchell used it during his survey of “The Gold Country”.4 He referred to it as the “Old Road to Wellington”. However, research also confirmed that by 1863 things had started to move around a bit. This last point fits neatly with the story of William Coomber’s
Pages that cover 1839 to 1880 outline the lives of people directly associated with the site of the “McKinnon’s Spring” artifact scatter, but not necessarily with the scatter itself. The first few pages present the quite tragic tale of William Coomber, the man who announced his opening of the Welcome Inn on Caleula Creek in October 1857. William’s story and that of his Inn lies at the core of a series of lives and events that underlie the Central West pages. The trail of Coomber’s life continues in a shadowy manner until 1874, after which even the shadows just fade away. What really happened to him in the end is not particularly clear…
On the heels of William Coomber’s story and it’s untidy hiatus comes the relationship between he and Donald McKinnon. This is important because, when Coomber ran into trouble with the licensing laws, Donald and, it seems, especially, his wife Catherine5 Catherine was the daughter of an innkeeper and probably understood the perils of playing mine host better than most people , came to the rescue. Establishing the route of Percy Simpson’s Marked Line was critical to locating the Welcome Inn of 1857 because Coomber had advertised it as being on the road to Stoney Creek – which at the time was Percy’s Line. The story of William Coomber’s relationship with Donald McKinnon flows into that of the Welcome Inn in the years after 1862.
Other pages that fit much more closely to the artifact scatter seen in 2004 are yet to be developed. These will discuss the impact of gold diggings on Caleula Creek in the 1870s and that of railway construction between 1878 and1881. Next the focus will be on two men – Samuel George Gerrish and Frederick Charles Lance – as they relate to the site. The story of Sam Gerrish’s life is another tragic tale and one I want to think about very carefully… As for Lance – well, wait and see…
The final page in this Central West group will suggest the form and probable location of William Coomber’s 1857 Welcome Inn on Caleula Creek6 The year 1857 is emphasized because research does suggest the inn’s location may have changed around 1862. . This last page will also outline a strategy aimed at determining which of three structural remnants that can be seen actually represents the site of William Coomber’s 1857 Inn.
Now for the other objective…
Milparinka, in the extreme far west of New South Wales is now visited by a few more people than was the case when I first visited in the 1980s. Things have changed quite a bit since then. However, of the original structures, the only permanently occupied one continues to be the Milparinka Albert Hotel.
Most of the changes since the 1980s have involved the restoration of former government buildings, some of which had survived more or less intact. Supplementing these are a few less-than-sympathetic new features. However, as always, the Albert Hotel retains much of its fabric from the days when the town was alive with activity. In regard to the Albert a few very well considered adjustments now ensure it present an even more authentic echo of times long gone while maintaining its role as a functioning hotel…
The Milparinka pages equate to a new edition of “What was at Milparinka” – a book I published in the 1990s. Importantly, they now include the story of Thomas Wakefield Chambers. He was the editor of the “Sturt Recorder, Tibooburra and Mount Browne Advertiser”, the local newspaper that provides an incredibly detailed mid-1890s picture of Milparinka. The State Library of Victoria and I shared the cost of microfilming his effort back in the 1990s. 7As far as I know, they are still the only holders of a complete series. It is still an eye-opener to read the bits and pieces of town life he preserved…
Tom Chambers adopted Milparinka and its people in a way few have ever realised. He was very unusual for a person of his background, but for now, suffice it to say he bankrupted himself rather than abandon the community he had taken under his wing…
Also included in the ‘Milparinka’ group is a new page that addresses in detail the links between Milparinka and Afghan cameleers and hawkers. However, the story of the Chinese men who for about thirty years maintained the town’s supply of fruit and vegetables is still awaiting development. There is a reason for this – but let’s just wait a while. Another new page may well be a direct lift from my 1980s and 90s efforts – aimed at painting a picture of town life circa 1895….
Turning to the third objective for this web site, we have the ‘other bits and pieces’. A page about Lobbs Hole, the site of copper mining operations from 1864 to around 1917, is here in the final version. The mine and an attached village had numerous features that just begged for follow-up – think of history and archaeology in an environment of financial opportunism, fraud and manipulation (absolutely good stuff!!). You could change fraud to incompetence except that the persons involved were anything but incompetent… The pages entitled Lobbs Hole Copper Mines summarise initial research from 1985 together with additional information that was put together in early 2021. Sometime in the near future Lobbs Hole (or Lobs Hole – as it seems to be called today) will disappear under the waters of a Snowy 2 dam.
Another page written in the late 1990s looks at the location of Shangri-la, the not-entirely-fictional place that James Hilton wrote about in his 1933 book Lost Horizon. It’s more an analysis of Hilton’s book than either history or archaeology, but then, how does one excavate a myth?
Also in the other bits and pieces is a page written in 2002, about a walking track through Tiger Leaping Gorge in China’s Yunnan Province. This is actually part of an ancient trade route between the tea-producing areas of Yunnan Province and Tibet. As well as personal experiences (which coincided with “Nine Eleven”) this page contains a lot of information that originates from South of the Clouds8 Gerald Reitlinger South of the Clouds – A Winter Ride Through Yun-nan Faber and Faber, London (ND – circa 1940) a book written by Gerald Reitlinger in the late 1930s.
It is still proposed to publish Super-8 movie film and tape-recorded audio from 1979 that presents the surviving components of a locomotive that once hauled copra trains around a plantation in Fiji. No research was done into either the copra plantation or the locomotive. More’s the pity, because when last seen that last-mentioned wonderful thing had given its last ‘k-chonk’, and was lying upside-down and abandoned in a puddle of water.
No matter the reason for inclusion, I do hope the information to be found here clears up some myths that have tended to be accepted as truth. As a general rule spelling reflects Australian usage, and in only one or two places has any attempt been made to estimate the current value of expenditures or costs that are mentioned.
Please enjoy…
- 1The normal penalty would have been death by hanging.
- 2– a booklet that complemented the web page, but also stood alone as a guide to the ruins that were still visible at the time.
- 3Now “Dawsons Gates” – downhill and east of March
- 4He referred to it as the “Old Road to Wellington”
- 5Catherine was the daughter of an innkeeper and probably understood the perils of playing mine host better than most people
- 6The year 1857 is emphasized because research does suggest the inn’s location may have changed around 1862.
- 7As far as I know, they are still the only holders of a complete series.
- 8Gerald Reitlinger South of the Clouds – A Winter Ride Through Yun-nan Faber and Faber, London (ND – circa 1940)