Conclusions

Conclusions – Naming the Parish of Larra’s Lake

Note: This is the last a of lengthy series of Larras Lake pages. To access the whole story please click here to access the first of the pages involved.

At the very beginnings of this series of web pages it was stated that the Parish of Larras Lake is James Larra’s enduring memorial. I have no doubt as to the accuracy of this claim, but demonstrating the link between James Larra, Licensee of the Freemason’s Arms at Parramatta, and the original European name for a watercourse in the Central West of New South Wales has been, and continues to be, a challenge.

The watercourse lent its name to the Parish of Larras Lake. That conclusion was easy to reach, but tracing the origin of the watercourse’s name has been much more complex. The help given by James Larra to two young girls, Elizabeth and Hannah Harris, is very likely to have been involved, but the role played by William Lee is a little less clear, as is that of William Cox and a few others. However, small pieces of circumstantial evidence suggest William Lee was closely involved, while the links which have been established between Lee, William Cox (Commandant at Bathurst in 1818) and George William Evans (Assistant Surveyor-General) suggest the latter two were definitely in the background.

Although some of the early research suggested Larra’s Lake ¹ may have been named between 1821 and 1828, the possibility of Cox’s influence in the matter while he was Commandant at Bathurst between 1815 and 1818, together with that of George William Evans and William Lee, now suggests an 1818 date. This is especially so given that both Cox and Evans had been closely associated with Larra in the Loyal Parramatta Association, and that by 1814 Larra’s standing in the community had been dealt a considerable blow by the machinations of enemies who sought to avenge enmities created through Larra’s apparent loyalty to the colonial administration.

The possibility that Larra, a Sephardic Jew and former convict, was not an acceptable prospect for membership of the “Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and Benevolence” may also have been a factor. If so, Cox’s support for the naming of Larra’s Lake(s) would have been his way of acknowledging that Larra had been way ahead of the Society…

In contrast, it is easy to accept that William Lee was involved in attributing the name, given that Lee’s de facto step-father had at one stage been linked to the mother of the girls taken in and cared for by Larra since they were very young. That Larra had ensured both were well educated and reasonably wealthy in their own right could not have gone unnoticed. That Larra had arranged for Elizabeth to marry into even more wealth when she married Lang would also have been noted. That Hannah had not exactly behaved in a manner that would help her prospects was a different story, but one which Larra appears to have taken as part of life. That too would have been noted. And, when William Lee was given an opportunity to accompany William Cox, who could assist him with introductions while engaged in critical infrastructure works for Government, it looks very likely that James Larra not only encouraged and guided him, but may subsequently have helped arrange a favourable marriage to the daughter of a wealthy fellow inn-keeper. Finally, James Larra, the ship-broker and negotiator, may have helped with the financial and strategic advice that led William Lee to acquire ² the very large area of prime grazing land that he called ‘Larra’s Lake’. Whatever the assemblage of reasons involved, the balance of probability suggests that a combination of influences, including that of William Cox, George William Evans and William Lee led to the naming of a string of small lakes connected by a watercourse, for James Larra, former convict-for-life and licensee of the Freemasons’ Arms at Parramatta. The people mentioned knew him sufficiently well to recognise the selfless effort that he had put into the future prospects of at least three native-born ‘orphans’ at a time when few others cared. That two had prospered and the third did quite well in the merciless environment of early 19th Century colonial enterprise appears to have been attributable very largely to the efforts of James Larra. How many others were helped by his apparently generous nature has not been established.

Despite the survival of a newspaper article suggesting the idea, none of the early maps of the area involved evidence ‘a pretty body of water’ called Larra’s Lake – or even Larry’s Lake – at the confluence of Larras Lakes (Creek) and the Bell River. However, in 1815 Evans had indicated a largish waterhole a little removed from the river on what became Larras Lake Creek. That John Rogers did not show the waterhole on his 1829 map of Creeks on the east bank of the Bell River perhaps indicates it had been largely obliterated by erosion and siltation by the time of Rogers’ survey fourteen years later, or that it was not particularly expansive in the first place. Another possibility is that Evan’s map, being of a very large area, does not accurately present such detail. Regardless, when the last of the Government Stock Stations, that at Three Rivers, was abandoned some time prior to February 1832, there was a rush for land in the vicinity of the Molong Valley and the Bell River, and by 1834 the name of Larra’s Lake Creek had been employed to represent a boundary of several leases of land in the Molong District. In at least one instance William Lee was then already the holder of a grant by purchase over adjoining land.³

The Parish of Larras Lake gained its name from the original European name – Larra’s Lakes – for a string of small lakes. These were on the watercourse, now called Kerrs Creek, that forms the northern boundary of the Parish.

When first seen by a European in 1815, the lakes, linked by a watercourse, formed a progression from the Mullions Range to the Bell River. That year, George William Evans, who mapped the lower reaches of the watercourse and other tributaries of the Bell River, represented all as strings of waterholes linked by dry, or very nearly so, watercourses. With the exception of the Lachlan River he did not attribute any names to the watercourses encountered.

While the topic still needs to be addressed in detail, it is assumed that Evans did accurately depict the number, relative size and approximate location of the waterholes and lakes shown on his map. Regardless, at some point during the next fourteen years, the watercourse he depicted as linking a string of at least four small lakes acquired a name – “Lara’s Lake(s)”

The outcome of the present research does not support an undeniable assertion that the watercourse or the string of lakes was named Larra’s Lakes as a tribute to James Larra, licensee of the Freemason’s Arms Inn at Parramatta. However, the number and the nature of links between key players suggests this was the case.

The name was most likely put forward in 1818 by George William Evans, then one of the two Assistant Surveyors-General for the Colony, on the basis of a suggestion made by William Cox and William Lee. Both Cox and Lee were closely associated with Evans, and all three knew James Larra. Another part of the web of relationships is the assertion that Governor Macquarie, John Oxley, and James Larra were Freemasons while Evans and Cox may also have been adherents to the principles of that craft ⁴. John Oxley was also Surveyor-General to the Colony and Cox was Commandant of the settlement at Bathurst.

1818 was also the time when preparations were being made by Oxley for a journey of exploration down the Macquarie River, on which he was to be accompanied by Evans. As part of those preparations Evans, Cox and, probably, William Lee, were involved in assembling supplies and equipment at Wellington Valley. The route in use between Bathurst and the Valley passed the confluence of the watercourses that became known as Larras Lake Creek and the Bell River. That location was probably used as a respite on their several supply journeys between Bathurst and the Valley, but assessment of the possibility is incomplete.

James Larra died on 11th February 1839, and was buried in Grave No 4 of Section C of the old Devonshire Street Jewish Cemetery in Sydney ⁵. As Bergman states ‘not a single newspaper recorded the passing of one of the most successful and well known men of the early decades of New South Wales’. His burial was not one of the 30,000 that, according to Cathy Dunn ⁶ “were exhumed and were reinterned at Bunnerong Cemetery Botany (La Perouse) and other cemeteries as per requests by family members in 1901 to make way for Central Railway Station. ”

The name of the watercourse that contained the three or four small lakes was changed to Kerrs Creek in a process that appears to have been a gradual transformation that commenced when the Dubbo-Orange railway was under construction around 1880 ⁷ and Andrew Taylor Kerr was the local member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Kerr’s father had been William Lee’s overseer ⁸ and had married at the Green Swamp Inn, near Bathurst the same year as Donald and Catherine McKinnon ⁹ when Catherine’s father was licensee of that establishment.

THIS is the last page in the Story of Larras Lake

1
Or perhaps Lara’s Lakes
2
Note that the naming of Larra’s Lake predates Lee’s acquisitions but not the development of a long-term strategy possibly suggested by Larra to a 21 or 22-years old William Lee
3
“Colonial Secretary’s Office, Sydney, July 16, 1834. YEARLY LEASES OF LAND.“Colonial Secretary’s Office, Sydney, July 16, 1834. YEARLY LEASES OF LAND.

AT One o’clock of Friday the nineteenth day of September next, the Collector of Internal Revenue will put up to AUCTION, at the Police Office Sydney, the Lease or each of the undermentioned PORTIONS OF LAND, for one year, commencing 1st October 1834, on the Conditions authorised by Government…

15. Bathurst, at Molong, on the north bank of the Nandillion Ponds, 640, Six hundred and forty acres ; bounded on the west by the second section line cast to the south-eastern corner of William Lee’s grant; on the south by the Nandillion Ponds; on the east by the section line dividing it from lot 16; and on the north by a line west to include the quantity: applied for by Thomas Kite.

By His Excellency’s Command,
ALEXANDER M’LEAY.
Colonial Secretary’s Office, Sydney, July 10, 1834.” mfn] (The Sydney Herald, 21 July 1834)
4
According to a list published at https://www.lodgedevotion.net/devotion-newsletter-content/famous-australian-freemasons/large-list-of-notable-and-famous-australian-freemasons
5
Australian Genesis op. cit.
6
in http://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/devonshire-street-cemetery-sydney-1819-to-1891/
7
Some aspects of that construction will be included in the page that addresses the life of Samuel George Gerrish
8
refer Wikipedia article William Lee – Australian Politician
9
see page entitled Donald and Catherine McKinnon