What was at Milparinka – Chapter 3 – Guided Tour

( A GUIDED TOUR) What is at Milparinka Now?

The best way to understand Milparinka is to walk around and these notes have been written as if you are going to do just that. Each sub-heading is numbered, and there is a plan of Milparinka which can be accessed by a click on the button marked  PLAN (Above left) . The Plan will open in a new window or tab and remain so until you take action to close it. How you switch between the plan and this page will be governed by your device. On a desktop clicking back and forth between tabs seems to be the most reliable method. Location numbers on the plan match those allocated to sub-headings below.

If you know where to look, and what to look for, there is still quite a lot to be seen of the old Milparinka. But, as with all ghosts, it is mostly the shadows of something that are seen – the signs that something was there many years ago… In 1985 it was only a little bit more in your face…

In this revised version of the 1995 book only a half-hearted attempt has been made to adjust for change that has taken place since then. Where practical, if something described has now disappeared, additional notes and, in some cases, photographs or a rough plan of what was before will be uploaded as this version matures.

START BY going for a walk down to the Historical Precinct and the courthouse, which is at number 4 on the PLAN. The courthouse was built in 1896-97, by which time Milparinka was already dying. But of course no-one had realised that – especially the government 1,250 kilometers away in Sydney. Next to the courthouse is the old police segeant’s house and the lockup, and beyond that, two more buildings. Go to the one furthest away, and we’ll start there… at the Milparinka Post Office…

The road from Broken Hill used to run up the slope from a creek crossing downstream from here. It then ran by the front of the Post Office, the police station, police sergeant’s house and the courthouse, and on past the Albert Hotel. So…let’s go for a wander…

1.         Milparinka Post Office

The post office building was finished in 1901, which makes it one of the newer buildings in town. If you go inside and look around you will see that it included living quarters for the postmaster and his family, as well as the post office itself.

The first mails into this part of New South Wales were started in April 1879. The route followed by the mailman, who used a horse to ride, and led another carrying the mail, ended at Mount Poole. That, of course, was the sheep run occupied by Duncan M’Bryde. The mail started at Wilcannia, which was then the furthest west that coaches were used. Wilcannia was a river port, and the junction of several coach routes – from Hay and Deniliquin, and from Bourke and Cobar. Broken Hill had not even been thought of at this time.

On 16 July 1881, the end of the postal route was changed to Milparinka. The first post office was a two-roomed corrugated iron building which had a verandah on three sides. The building was described by an inspector as ‘the meanest, dirtiest and most uncomfortable place in town’. But the post office stayed there for ten years until November 1891, when it was moved to a stone cottage which was located behind the Royal Standard Hotel. In 1997 the ruin of this cottage could still be seen, marked on the PLAN as number 40. It was known locally as Hughie O’Connor’s place. In 1891 the cottage had two slaughter yards close by, both of which had pig and cow pens attached. As you can imagine it probably smelled pretty bad at times. But, as the following snippet from the newspaper shows, the pigs didn’t always stay in their pens!

Pigs, pigs, pigs… We have received frequent complaints from townspeople about the trouble and annoyance of stray pigs… They are a confounded nuisance! They walk through wire netting fences like so much tissue paper. The police are always going to see to it but they never do. Too much talkie talkie and no action. So it remains to the local paper to sound the tom tom. So after this notice owners of pigs had better look out. (Sturt Recorder, 7 February 1896:2).

And then, at last, the post office moved into the new building. That was in July 1901. Six years later the government decided to close the post office and have one of the businesses in town do the work instead.

When the post office was closed, there was a bit of a squabble over what was going to happen to the building. This was all made more difficult by the fact that it was built by the New South Wales Post Office, a government department which ceased to exist when the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Some of the residents of Milparinka were smart enough to realise their luck. Before anyone could do anything about it, someone had moved in… It took the government six months to even realise it had happened, and another six months to get the people out. So Tom Baker’s family had a very nice home to live in for a little while. As an aside, Tom Baker was NOT “The Baker”  – nor was he a pastry cook – he was Mr. Thomas Baker, brother of William Baker.

Next the post office became the school and various schoolteachers occupied the residence that formed part of the building. Then the school was closed. Another of the remaining families in town arranged to rent the house from the government, and so the building continued to be used until around the 1920s. Then the family which was renting it moved onto a property a bit further west of Milparinka. Someone else needed a roof for a home they were building, and it seems that they took the one from the post office! Now it is just a stone shell. But it is still one of the better preserved ruins in the town.

 2 .       The Police Station

Next door to the post office is the police station. It was not a very big building, but as you can see when you go inside the ruin, part of it had a green-painted concrete floor. This was the office part of the building, and the other part was probably quarters for the police officers while they were on duty, but more research is required into this and the police sergeant’s house next door…

[The information used here came from a number of sources when Raylene Ogilvey and I were trying to put together a plan of the town in the mid-1980s. Much of it relied upon peoples’ memory of the town, and at that time there were some people around who had first-hand knowledge, but it would be nice to do that last bit of research to clean things up.]

3.    Police Sergeant’s House & Milparinka Lockup

Next along the row of buildings is the police sergeant’s house, and behind it, the Milparinka lockup. Both buildings now form part of the Heritage Precinct but were derelict in 1984. Between 1985 and about 1998 they were occupied by Harry Blore, who did make some effort to render them weatherproof, using corrugated iron obtained from one of the other ruins in town and windows to replace those that had been vandalised some time before.

A police presence at Mount Browne became fact almost as soon as the gold discovery was announced, and probably relocated when a settlement of sorts began to form at Milparinka. However it is not clear when the sergeant’s house, the lockup and the police station next door were constructed.

The records for Milparinka show that it must have been a pretty lively place for a policeman to work. Most of the time they were occupied in dealing with drunks and sorting out quarrels between residents of the town. But at times they had to go on patrols to other places, such as Mount Browne, Warratta, Cobham Lake, and Coally. And of course, if someone went missing, they tried to find them. They also had to get people to put their pigs back in their pens, and try to stop sly-grog selling. The newspapers published a few articles that tell us a little bit about the nature of their work and various side-issues.

As a first example, there is the occasion in 1887 when some people appear to have become bored while waiting for the coach. (The Tibooburra coach left the Albert Hotel around 12 midnight) To keep themselves occupied they barricaded the police constable inside his premises, while they went around the town hanging things like a bedstead from one of the storekeeper’s flagpoles, and a black bucket from another, dragging carts, ladders and wheelbarrows into the street, and putting signs up around the town. It seems that Constable Schweicker was NOT at all amused, especially as he was asleep at the time, and the coach was long gone by the time he found out.. (Wilcannia Times, September 16, 1887).

Another of the early newspaper reports is interesting because of the way it is written…

“At the Milparinka Police Court on Wednesday 1st inst., before Mr. E.L. Maitland, Esq., P.M., James Ferguson, for being drunk and disorderly, was admonished and discharged. For permitting his tongue to run at very high pressure Jimmy was mulct in the sum of two pounds ten shillings with the alternative of four weeks durance vile, and for coming the Frank P. Slavin ticket with the ‘Peelers’ pugilist Fergy was fined three pounds with the option of one month’s free board and lodging in Her Majesty’s establishment” (Tibooburra Telegraph, 7 October 1890:4).

Frank P. Slavin was a fairly famous boxer in 1890, and the total of the fines (five pounds ten shillings) was quite a lot of money – about the same as a thousand dollars today!! Have a look at the lockup behind the police sergeant’s house. That building was ‘proclaimed’ a jail in 1891, which meant that someone could be kept in it for anything up to six months! They had to be let out for exercise – but just imagine what it would be like to be stuck in that – even for a month. Jimmy Ferguson was probably lucky the proclamation had not been made when he went to court. He would have gone to Wilcannia jail if he didn’t pay the fine.

But Jimmy Ferguson was not the only person in Milparinka who liked to fight. He was just silly enough to get into a fight with the police! And it seems that whenever the police were out of town things got lively… One such occasion was in 1897. The Sturt Recorder reported it as follows:

“A Street Row
Seldom has a more disgraceful scene occurred in Milparinka than that which took place in Loftus Street on Tuesday night. Some free and independent electors came into the town during the day to see about their electoral rights and made things what is termed ‘lively’. After the departure of the coach they commenced to quarrel with some stranger and also amongst themselves, and there being no police to prevent it, started a fight. For fully an hour the main street was the scene of the wildest disorder, and the foulest language was shouted at the top of men’s voices.
As far as we could judge there were two or three couples had a “go in”, but the principal combatants had it out to a finish and it must have been very satisfying. (Sturt Recorder, 26 February 1897:2).

4. The Milparinka Courthouse

The original courthouse at Milparinka was a corrugated iron structure, located more or less opposite the place where the post office building was eventually built. It may have been a bit further up the hill, but there was no sign of it even in the mid-1980s. Nel Barlow seemed to think it was somewhere there – her mum had told her so… Regardless, the early reports of matters heard before the police magistrate’s court would still raise some eyebrows, much as they did in the 1880s. An example is given below…

20 October 1885
Milparinka October 6th The Milparinka Bench
Great surprise was manifested here yesterday morning at the action of Mr C McA King PM and as the matter is of considerable public importance I give the matter just as they occurred and as briefly as possible.
On Monday 5th Instant two cases were down for hearing at the Police Court – the first being Morton v O’Connor for assault, and the next a cross-summons, O’Connor v Morton also for assault. At about the usual time, 10 o’clock, the PM Mr King opened the court, when Morton was, as is customary, called on three times. After a lapse of about a quarter of an hour he was again called, but not appearing his case was struck out, whereupon O’Connor withdrew his case and then left the court. He, O’Connor, had gone some distance away when the PM called him back, and when he had got back inside the court the PM, in open court and before a good number of people in and about the precincts of the court, then addressed him, O’Connor. “I have called you back to caution you. I know you have committed the assault and Morton told me all about it. You are a big man and it is very cowardly of you to call a smaller into your house (hotel) to assault him. You are licensed to serve the public peaceably, and not to break the peace. If you want to fight, get a man your own size and take him down the creek and have it out.” Is it not monstrous when you reflect that not a tithe of evidence was taken on either side, that a police magistrate, who should be the dispenser of even-handed justice should thus address one of the parties? Much consternation is felt here by the public at such a flagrant abuse of power and what nearly every individual in the town considers a foregone conclusion as to the guilt of one of the parties irrespective evidence.
Another case. This being Tuesday morning, being Licensing Court day, the same party interested in the former cases, appeared to apply for a renewal of his license for the Albert Hotel. He had, however, unfortunately destroyed or lost the original license which the PM persistently stated must be produced. O’Connor made repeated efforts to induce him (the PM) to grant the renewal and undertook to make an affidavit that he had lost the original or that it must have been destroyed; but the PM distinctly refused to grant the renewal.
Fortunately, later on during the day, after the Court had closed, O’Connor, discovered, on perusal of the Licensing Act P71 S76, a remedy in the following paragraph:
“Whenever his license shall be lost or destroyed a licensee under this Act may apply to a licensing magistrate for a certificate under his hand that such license has been issued to such licensee, and such magistrate upon being satisfied that such license is lost or destroyed and has not been forfeited or transferred may grant a certificate to that effect and upon production such of such certificate and upon payment of one pound such licensee shall be entitled to a duplicate of such licenses which shall be in the same form as possible and of the same force as the original license.”
The licensee upon discovering this at once goes to the PM and points it out to him, and then end of it is that the PM requests him to see him tomorrow.
During the whole of the time that I have been your correspondent for this district I have been very careful in abstaining from unfavourable comment in regard to court cases. I am more anxious to further the law and assist, as far as lies in my power, its administrators than otherwise, but the occurrences above referred to are of great public importance. I feel it my bounden duty to give publicity to the matter with a view of providing against a recurrence of such injustice. I hear from very good authority that the progress committee intends taking action in these matters and I certainly think it advisable that they should. The importance of the subjects must bear my apology for trespassing so much upon your valuable time and space.
Matters on Mount Browne are still so very quiet that I have nothing of sufficient importance to occupy your space and as most of our visitors have left for the Tibooburra Races, things are also very quiet here. (The Wilcannia Times, 20 October 1885 )

On June 10, 1890 another account of matters heard before the Court at Milparinka appeared in the Tibooburra Telegraph. Of interest, perhaps, here, is the severity of the penalty imposed… However, it might be borne in mind that James Ferguson, charged in this case with larceny was “Pugilist Fergy”, already mentioned as having got into a fight with the police… Note, also, that this article is headline “Milparinka Police Court” but George Blore ‘gave information to the police at Tibooburra’ . I doubt that this is an editorial error, but why Tibooburra rather than Milparinka is a bit of a mystery.

June 10, 1890, p2c3
Milparinka Police Court – Tuesday June 3rd, – Larceny
James Ferguson, in custody, was charged with the larceny of three pairs of blankets of the value of two pounds, the property of George Blore. Constable Neil Rankin deposed: ‘From information received I went to Mokerley to where a mob of cattle had been camped. The cook was there alone. I asked the cook if he knew anything of some blankets that had been stolen from Blore’s lime kiln at Milparinka. He replied in the negative and said that I might search the camp. I then searched the tent and ultimately found three pairs of blankets, produced, behind a saltbush about five yards from the camp. They were covered over with a bag. I said ‘Those are the blankets. Who brought them here ?’ The cook said ‘They are some blankets one of the men picked up on the road. I said ‘Which man ?’ He replied ‘Ferguson.’ I took possession of the blankets, which I now produce, and proceeded after the cattle. I met the accused coming towards the camp. I asked him where he had got the blankets. He said ‘I picked them up near Milparinka. I thought they were a dead man’s blankets.’ I arrested the accused and brought him to Tibooburra and charged him with stealing the blankets.’
George Blore deposed: On 26th May last I sent three pairs of blankets down to my lime kiln as it was raining. On the following Wednesday my men came up and informed me that the blankets had been taken. I then gave information to the police at Tibooburra. I identify the blankets produced as my property and value them as some two pounds.
John Webber deposed: On 26th ultimo I took three pairs of blankets given to me by Mr.Blore, to the lime kiln to cover it up from the rain. On the Tuesday morning I took them off the kiln and hung them out to dry. On the following day I went for a load of lime and found that the blankets were gone. I then informed Mr.Blore there were some drovers about the kiln all day Tuesday and on Wednesday I noticed cattle tracks all around the kiln.
The accused pleaded guilty and elected to be summarily dealt with. The Bench sentenced Ferguson to two months imprisonment with hard labour at Wilcannia Jail.

Things probably went on much the same in the corrugated iron courthouse for the next few years. Then, on February 2nd 1896 the Sturt Recorder reported that construction of the new courthouse was under way. This was, interestingly, followed in the newspaper by Tom Chamber’s comments about pigs wandering the streets and the Royal Standard Hotel robbery, both of which are addressed later in this “tour”.

The Courthouse
The blocks of stone that are daily being carted to the site of this new building portend the solidity of the structure that is in the course of erection at Milparinka. When finished it will doubtless be a great acquisition to the town and will afford …facilities for the dispensing of the business in our courts and give a dignity to the proceedings which they sometimes lack at present.
Let us hope that it will be followed by the erection of a suitable Post and Telegraph Office. (Sturt Recorder Tibooburra and Mount Browne Advertiser , 2 February 1896, p2c6)

The Courthouse appears to have taken a little while to build, but for the present suffice it to say that more than eighteen months later – on October 8th 1897 – The Sturt Recorder reported as follows:

P3C2
The New Courthouse
Although the opening of the new Courthouse was an event worthy of being celebrated in some way or other, not the slightest demonstration was made to mark the occasion. We know that Mr.John Ducat, PM and the Goldfields Warden for the District has moved into his new offices and that the quarterly licensing and other courts were held in the main building on Monday last the 4th Inst and that in future the business of our law court can by reason of suitable accommodation be conducted in a dignified and befitting manner and we congratulate the town and district accordingly.
Not withstanding that the building reflects the highest degree of credit upon all who have had to do with it and we are fully alive to the advantages that are likely to accrue, we cannot dismiss from our minds that the one absorbing fact that the town is still without the water or commonage accommodation that it requires and that, without these necessary adjuncts to settlement, progress that would be in keeping with the time is impossible.
If the Government and officers concerned in our ( we had almost written welfare) existence will reflect they will remember that although a courthouse was asked for many years ago it has never been pressed like the water and commonage questions. Thus showing that the latter were considered more urgent than the Courthouse by the inhabitants and who with any commonsense could say that the people were wrong. If it was a question which should come first – the courthouse or water and commonage unquestionably the latter should have been carried out first. However now that the want of a courthouse has been supplied it is to be hoped that a good water supply and commonage that will meet all public requirements and will give the trustees an opportunity of fulfilling their trust will very shortly follow.

5, 6, 7.        The Rouerts, Tom Chambers, Tom Baker

We are still walking back up Loftus Street, Milparinka from the post office – towards the Albert Hotel. Of course, as already said, during the town’s heyday Loftus Street ran past the front of the post office, police station and courthouse. There was no playground or memorial park. Nor were there any trees…they don’t seem to last long here unless someone is constantly ensuring they do get some water. In the mid-1980s Raylene Ogilvey had managed to grow some quite healthy pepper trees opposite the Albert Hotel. They are all long dead.

After the courthouse, we come to the first cross-street – Thompson Street. On the other side of this street, towards the Albert Hotel, was a structure built of corrugated iron. The land on which it stood had been purchased by Alfred Aldworth when the town was formally laid out, and it may have been the site of one of the original stores at Milparinka as Aldworth was manager of W.C. Palmer and Co’s store in the town. Even in 1985 there was nothing to show for the store or the house and almost everything that is now on that site has arrived since 1986.  Nel Barlow, who was born at Milparinka in 1903 remembered that the Rouart family lived in a house located here in about 1910.

Nel (personal communication 3^rd September 1988) told me of the time when one of the Rouert children was dying from pneumonia. All of the other children in the town just came and sat in the street outside the Rouert’s house. There was no church at Milparinka, and they didn’t really know much about religion. But it seems that they did try to pray for the little girl to live. And she did. The girl’s name was Lina Rouert .That spelling, by the way, is as advised, quite emphatically, by Nel Baker (personal communication, 25^th May 1988). I imagine that it is how it was spelled on the blackboard at school… However, shortly after the original edition of this book was published I received a letter from one the family telling me that the correct spelling was Rouart. That the spelling of names changes over time is certainly nothing new.

The next place along the street is also completely gone now. Instead there is a telephone exchange structure which was installed around 1984. There was also a great slab of concrete which is not that much older, but appears to have been the foundation of a carrier’s shed dating from the 1970s. However, a hundred years ago there was another structure between the Rouert’s and the Albert Hotel. It comprised two houses with a shared wall between, one behind the other. The one at the back was the home of Thomas and Ellen Baker and their family in about 1910. Nel Baker was one of that family.  The front house was occupied by Thomas Wakefield Chambers.

There is a question in my mind as to where Thomas Wakefield Chambers is buried. There is a headstone in Milparinka cemetery which indicates he is buried there, but in 1985 the headstone was located here, the site of his last home. Tom Chambers had a glass eye which he used to take out on occasions and put on the counter in his office. Nel Barlow remembered him very well, mostly because of the time that she and some of the other children in town had to go to his office to pay the money for the common. His eye was lying on the counter of his office… The kids never went back… Tom Chambers cared about Milparinka much more than people knew and it was in his nature to do the best he could for the people around him. He was no doubt impatient in his old age, and was never particularly patient with people who did not conform to his ideals, but it was Tom Chambers who wrote all of the things which tell us about life in Milparinka – the pigs wandering around, street fights, tin-kettling, and the Chinese, Afghans, coach drivers and various entrepreneurs.

Crosschecking a few things that can be confirmed suggests what he wrote was always pretty close to the truth – at least as Tom Chambers saw it. Although according to Nel around 1910 his printing press, office and house were on this block of land, the printery was originally located further up the street, near to the chemist shop which is discussed later. When he arrived in Milparinka as a partner in Woodfall Swanson & Chambers, a firm of Wilcannia merchants, he managed the local branch store which was probably on this site. It was in his hands until 1892 after which one of his sons was manager. From that point on Tom Chambers occupied a variety of roles. Of course he had the newspaper from 1893 to 1899, but he also acted as an agent for real estate and operated a labour-exchange of sorts. He also received income from a variety of government appointments and other agency-like arrangements – such as  “Dr. Watson’s Pink Pills for Pale People” which he advertised extensively in his newspaper from about 1896. 

Thomas Wakefield Chambers was always on any committee. He tried to get the people to build a hospital, he tried to get a hall built so that the people could hold dances whenever they liked, he tried to get the government to build a dam across the creek so that Milparinka would have a decent water supply. It seem that he was the only one who did try, which is a bit sad. Tom Chambers was a very special person, even though some people really hated him – mostly because he wasn’t afraid to tell the truth… He had two sons, both of whom predeceased him. One – Ernest – who had managed the store after his father moved on to other adventures, died at Milparinka at the age of 28 years – of heart failure. The other son – Albert – died in Western Australia – also of heart-related problems. Ernest’s wife still lived in Milparinka in 1915, but information found in late 2020 strongly suggests that she later moved to Thargomindah with her mother-in-law Kate Chambers, where they became an integral part of that community.

8, 9.     Cottage and W.C. Palmer & Co’s Store

We cross to the other side of Loftus Street now, and walk back a bit towards the post office – probably about opposite the end of Thompson Street.

There was once a cottage here, opposite the Rouert’s house, probably built of corrugated iron. The land had been purchased by Samuel Penrose in 1885 who did build a cottage on it, which was eventually brought by Tom Chambers. Nel Baker (personal communication Raymond Terrace, NSW, 25 May 1988) said her mother had told her that it burned down, but that it was the place where the magistrates always stayed when they came to town for the court sittings. It may well have been the first courthouse building, and the original post office.

Next door was another building, which had a cellar underneath it. In 1986 the cellar was full of old beer cans. This building was the premises of W.C. Palmer & Co, general merchants, but it became a residence by the early 1890s. W.C. Palmer & Co was formed early in December 1880 and had their main store at Wilcannia. Some of their advertisements in the Wilcannia Times give a good idea of what was available in the back-blocks of New South Wales at the time, but just when they ceased trading at Milparinka is unclear. However, the records of the Commercial Banking Company strongly suggest the assets of the firm were in the process of being assigned to trustees on 1^st February 1884.A small part of their Milparinka store is included in the image of the Royal Standard Hotel (see below). This shows that the facade of the building was was of random-sized cut stone. Behind their store was a yard which had a stone wall all around it. At the back of this was another building – just a little one – which was probably a slaughterhouse. Part of the yard was a cattle pen, and there was probably a pig pen as well – some of the pig pens mentioned by the post office inspector in 1891.

When the firm of W.C.Palmer & Co folded, their premises were acquired by Alfred Aldworth who had been their manager in Milparinka. Within a few years the cottage was sold by his widow to Cornelius Clune, who owned the Royal Standard Hotel next door. Cornelius brought it for his wife, to give her a home away from their hotel. However, when times got bad at Milparinka he rented the cottage whenever he could, to various people including the school teachers, as was remembered by Nel Barlow, discussed below. The photograph of old tin cans was taken near the site of Mrs. Clune’s cottage.

10.       Coach Office

Right alongside W.C. Palmer & Co’s building was the Cobb and Co office. It was only tiny, squeezed into what used to be a laneway between the store and the next building. W.C. Palmer & Co were agents for Cobb & Co in 1885 which probably explains why the coach office was located where it was. Cobb and Co coaches operated through Milparinka until about 1897, when they pulled out of the market for the far west of New South Wales. The Cobb & Co name was first used at Wilcannia by Kidman & Nicholas but when they ceased operations Robertson and Wagner tied the name to their operations.

As an aside, Kidman was later Sir Sidney Kidman “The Cattle King”. More about him can be found in two very informative books written about him – the first being “The Cattle King” by Ion Idriess, published in 1934, the second  “Kidman – the forgotten King” by Jill Bowen (1987).

From the beginnings, Morrison Brothers, who may originally have operated out of Bourke, were in direct competition with Cobb & Co. Theirs was the first coach to depart Wilcannia for Mount Browne when the gold rush commenced in 1881.

“Local Intelligence

“Pioneer Coach. – Donald Morrison, looking as happy as a big sunflower, started with a team of well-conditioned horses, five in number, for the rush at Mount Poole and Mount Browne last Saturday. Among the passengers we noticed Mr. Vandenberg of this town. We wish all who venture so far away from home the luck which they deserve,… Copies of the Wilcannia Times were forwarded by this opportunity to our friends at the diggings. (The Wilcannia Times, 17^th February 1881, p2c3)

Less than two weeks later a further article in the Wilcannia Times confirmed that “A coach contractor named Morrison has started a coach from Bourke to Mount Poole, which leaves tomorrow on the first trip. The fare is ten pounds. A meeting has been held in Bourke respecting the opening of a direct road to the diggings.” (The Wilcannia Times, March 1^st., 1881 p3c1)

Morrison Brothers continued to operate coach services throughout Western NSW until the 1920s, but by that time the firm had been converting from horse-drawn to motorised transport for several years. The conversion of the services from Milparinka took place quite early in the process partly because of the cost of maintaining coach horses on the country to be traversed.

Nel Barlow, together with her grandmother, was a passenger on the last coach to operate from Milparinka to Wilcannia and on to Cobar, just before Easter of 1916. Nel, who was 16 years old, was being given a special treat – a visit to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

That first leg of the journey, from Milparinka to Wilcannia, and then to Cobar, took two days. In Cobar they caught the train to Sydney and went to the Royal Easter Show. When they came back the coach had been replaced by a motorised “charabanc” – a vehicle somewhat like a car but with  three rows of seats, sometimes four. Luggage was in the “boot” (as in the coaching days) – or on the running boards… It had been her first visit to the outside world.

11.       The Royal Standard Hotel

The Royal Standard Hotel used to be the next ruin on this side of Loftus Street, and was just about opposite the Albert Hotel. It was built some time in late 1881 or early 1882 by Frederick Connors. As suggested by the image below it had a wide verandah all along the front. All the hotels in Milparinka had verandahs but most had a floor of dirt, or, at the very most, of flat stones. But the Royal Standard Hotel had a wooden verandah, and the staff wore really smart starched white aprons. At least they did for special occasions, such as when the photograph was taken in 1884 or 1885. There is also a bearded man in the image who stands out – wearing a broad-brimmed white hat and a white suit. He is also in the image of the Albert Hotel (taken later the same day) which was across the street. (If anyone can throw light on his name I would be interested to know. )

However, the Royal Standard was probably very expensive to build, and a bit too grand for the rough-and-tumble miners from Mount Browne and most other residents. In all probability Frederick Connors borrowed money or bought beer on credit from Edmund Resch who at the time was a brewer in Wilcannia. Resch was given a mortgage over the hotel in June 1885, and when Frederick Connors could not repay Resch, he foreclosed.  Cornelius Clune, who was related to Connors, (personal communication, Nel Barlow) became the owner of the Royal Standard Hotel on 4 June, 1888.

 In 1985 you could wander around the ruins of the Royal Standard and parts of the general layout of the hotel were quite clear. Down the side furthest away from the coach office were the foundations of a row of small rooms – probably some of the bedrooms of the hotel. There was also evidence of a courtyard at the back, and a passageway – probably just wide enough for a coach to pass – that led into the courtyard from Loftus Street. It was between the hotel and the next building up Loftus Street – the Bank.

It is really quite difficult to decide what was going on with the Royal Standard hotel. It was certainly the nicest hotel in town, but it seemed to have a lot of problems. Perhaps the biggest of these arose in January 1896, when the newspaper reported a “Daring Burglary in Milparinka“. This involved the theft of a safe containing ‘seven hundred pounds worth of property’ from Cornelius Clune’s room in the Royal Standard Hotel. Mr. Clune had decided to sleep in the open on the night in question. If you have been to Milparinka in January you will understand why this could be so – it is very very hot. The report continued:

No-one in the house was disturbed by any unusual noise…and the loss of the safe was not discovered until about seven-thirty on Saturday morning…
The booty was then taken further away near the bank of the creek on the Tibooburra Road. The safe was there opened…  For the present the whole affair is enveloped in mystery. Mr. Clune has offered a reward of fifty pounds for the recovery of the documents which are of no value to anybody but himself… (Sturt Recorder, January 3, 1896:2)
At the site where the safe was opened ‘about five ounces of gold and two sovereigns were found on the ground’ and a month later ‘…All valuable papers such as deeds, Mr. Clune’s will, and the Bank deposit slip receipts, were discovered in an outhouse at the rear of the premises, and placed in the hands of the police…The most curious feature of the matter is that there were thirteen sovereigns found with the papers.’ (Sturt Recorder, February 7, 1896:2) Two men from the town were charged with stealing the safe (Sturt Recorder, March 6, 1896:2), but after six of the witnesses had been examined…
‘His Honour stopped the Court and asked the jury to return a verdict of not guilty as there was no evidence against the prisoners…His Honour said the house where the gold was found was an isolated one built on blocks high off the ground and anyone could chuck the tin of gold there. And two respectable-looking men like those who were arrested on suspicion…’ (Sturt Recorder, April 24, 1896:3)

For the next four years Cornelius Clune was the subject of considerable newspaper attention. Few of the hotel’s clientele made court appearances and the Clune family appear to have been reasonably free from charges such as ‘providing liquor to Aboriginal natives of Australia’ and trading at illegal hours. But there was a lot of very bad blood around the town. Cornelius Clune brought charges against William Baker, who had been a licensee of the Albert Hotel, and was then a storekeeper in the town. He claimed that Baker had ‘with intent to defraud, branded with a firebrand a steer’ which Clune claimed as his property. (Sturt Recorder, April 9, 1897:3) When the case was heard Cornelius called his three sons, Hugh, Cornelius Jnr, and Austin as witnesses, while Baker called four witnesses, at least one of whom was a relative (Mr. Tom Baker). ‘The defendant was clearly proved to be the owner of the animal he branded (and) the case was dismissed with costs of £4/12/0.’ (Sturt Recorder, April 23, 1897:2)

Then in May 1897 ‘The town was thrown into a state of commotion…when it became known that Mr. Cornelius Clune, of the Royal Standard Hotel, had been arrested by the police, charged with having meat in his possession that he could not account for.’ (Sturt Recorder, May 14, 1897:2)

According to the newspaper account, Mr. William Baker had sold a heifer to the local police constable, Senior Constable Wood. Baker, then in business as a butcher, had admitted both the heifer and a cow of his were in his yard with others on the previous Monday. As they could not be found afterwards, Constable Wood had given notice to Mr. Baker to produce his heifer.

‘This put Mr. Baker on his metal and he went out to search for the cow and heifer, feeling certain he would find them together, but could only find his own cow and she had been recently shot in the ribs. This aroused his suspicion, and on making further search he found tracks which led to his giving information to the police…’ (Sturt Recorder, May 14, 1897:2)

A long account of Cornelius Clune’s court appearance followed, the outcome of which was the imposition of a fifty pound fine. The fine was paid, but a week later ‘The carcass of a valuable horse belonging to Mr. William Baker was found in the Evelyn Paddock…’ (Sturt Recorder, June 4, 1897:2).

Later in 1897 Senior Constable Wood saw ‘four pigs crossing Loftus Street just below the Police Station… He looked into (the) pig yard where the defendant keeps his pigs and there were none there…’ (Sturt Recorder, October 8, 1897:3). Cornelius Clune was found guilty of allowing his pigs to be at large and was fined 20 shillings plus four shillings and sixpence costs.

Although the Sturt Recorder seems to paint a rather unfavourable picture, Nel Barlow, (personal communication 3^rd September 1988) said the Clune family were in fact really nice people. She obviously knew them well, and her several comments suggested that the Royal Standard was ‘a lot better than the other one’ but that it did not get the custom, possibly because it was a bit too grand. Nel also stated that the school teachers used to stay there. Cornelius Clune’s wife, Mary Anne, was always known a Lottie and they had a daughter Winnifred  who was at school with Nel.  

The possibility exists that the Clune family simply did not fit in with the underlying nature of the community, but another undercurrent might also have found its way into the mix… I want to think very hard about that one.

12.     The Bank

Now we come to the bank. This was the premises of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited until 1885. On 16 August 1881 the bank had opened their new branch at Milparinka. Another branch opened on 2 September 1881 at Tibooburra, but closed there sixteen and a half months later. The Tibooburra accounts and two of the staff were transferred to Milparinka. Although the Milparinka branch had opened on 16 August 1881, it is not clear where it was first located. However, it moved to this building around 23 November 1881 when a payment of £1-0-0 was made for shifting the safe to the new premises.

The land upon which the bank’s ruin stands was originally purchased by G. Frazer, but that name has not been found anywhere else in connection with the town. The building had been purpose-built for the bank, and the branch records show that as at 31^st March 1883 rent of £10-0-0 was paid to “Smith”. The bank records also show that a cedar counter, safe, revolver, stamps, candles, firewood and a signboard were paid for between October and November 1881, and that a water tank and the safe were transported from Wilcannia – the tank at a cost of £3/0/0, the safe for £3/8/6. The original staff were A.L. Dawson and E.A. Blomfield, but by 1883 salaries were being paid to J.W.Hogg and S.H.Parr both of whom had originally been the staff at Tibooburra.

A quick look through the records of the Bank suggests a very large part of its business involved the purchase of gold, and the names of those who sold to the bank and the quantities of gold purchased is probably the best indicator we have of who was finding gold and also how much of it was used in payment for goods purchased from the local storekeepers. However, it is worth noting that at least before the bank opened at Milparinka much of the gold recovered was taken away by those who had found it.

The purchase price for gold was 78/6 or 78/0 per ounce  (i.e. £3-18-6 per ounce). At the time this original research was undertaken a listing of names was made, together with some of the larger quantities of gold involved. Some of these were:

Month/Year	Surname	Weight (oz.dwt.g)
August 1881	Comeford Todd Heuzenroder Gilbert Hickey Bell	25.4.4 26.6.9 6.0.14 1.4.6 5.6.10 1.1.6
September 1881	Heuzenroder O’Loughlan Hickey Heuzenroder Joyce Heuzenroder Hammat O’Laughlan Hickey Hickey	14.19.20 61.17.4 24.14.0 16.1.12 6.6.22 16.2.7 10.12.20 97.6.6 13.13.0 39.18.3
October 1881	Kemp Heuzenroder Evans Evans Heuzenroder Heuzenroder Heuzenroder	21.0.0 18.0.0 12.10.10 10.13.16 12.0.0 13.14.2 3.0.0
November 1881	O’Connor Cullim	8.10.14 2.0.0
December 1881	Nolan (December 19)	1.0.0
January 1882	Bamess (January 25)	1.8.21
February 1882	Penrose (February 23)	1.14.19
May 1882	Parr (May 29)	0.18.14
September 1882	Bigmore (September 6)	1.13.16

Of course there were many other entries in the Bank’s Bullion Account for smaller quantities of gold, but even so the pattern of purchases probably shows that most of the easily-won gold was recovered in that first six or so months. There is also an entry in the Bullion Account for the sale of a nugget weighing 12.2.21 on 23rd September 1882 and for another of 2.5.12 on 30th October 1882.

On 13th July 1886 the Board of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney resolved to close the Milparinka branch and by 1916 the building was the home of Rose Smith. This does tend to confirm that ownership of the building was almost always in the hands of the Smith family. In 1985 it was still regarded as the property of Mackie Smith who lived at that time on Moallie Park station. Mackie died on 28th January 2001 and is buried in Milparinka Cemetery. His grave is marked “In Loving Memory of BLORE (MAC) SMITH – A GENTLEMAN AT REST”. I only met Mackie one time but in my opinion his epitaph is absolutely deserved.

The bank building had stone lintels over doors and windows which gave it a little more substance, but even so the similarity in construction suggests all but the government buildings were built by the same contractors, one of whom was quite probably Alfred Bigmore, discussed a little later.    

That the courthouse and other government buildings at Milparinka are made of hewn stone has made them far less susceptible to the ravages of the weather or an impact-related thump. A very good example is the post office, made from hewn and properly mortared stone. Even though it’s roof went walkabout in the 1940s, the foundations and walls of the structure are wholly intact eighty-five years later.

13, 14.        The Albert Hotel

Across the road from the bank is the Albert Hotel. The hotel dates from at least March 1882, when a license was granted to Patrick Frances Kenny for a public house called the Albert. A suggestion has been in circulation for a number of years that the hotel was built by George Blore, and certainly two of the earliest diggers on the Mount Browne goldfield were Ashwin and Blore – the latter quite probably being George Blore – [“Ashwin and Blore, the next Prospectors Claim, have washed six loads which averaged half ounce to the load” in The Age {Melbourne) of 21 March 1881] However, as explained below, there is reason to question the suggestion that George built the original hotel. However, he may have been responsible for additions over time, and was definitely responsible for arranging the construction of stables in1890.

George was also one of the committee responsible for the formation of the Sturt Recorder Newspaper Company (A predecessor to the Sturt Recorder, Tibooburra and Mt Browne Advertiser) in 1888, and in 1890, by which time he was both owner and licensee of the Albert Hotel, he had men employed around a lime kiln in the vicinity of Milparinka. In 1890 he was also the owner of a hotel at Coally which consisted of two buildings connected by a cane-grass roof. The front of the principal building was built of wood, the remainder being of galvanised iron, lined with matchboard and hessian, with a calico ceiling. (Tibooburra Telegraph, 23 Dec 1890).

However, none of the early records of Milparinka suggest that George was involved with the Albert Hotel or even in Milparinka at the time of it’s construction in 1882. In view of this, a line of ongoing enquiry is the possibility that either Alfred Bigmore or one of two others was responsible for the initial work in building the Albert. Bigmore was an early storekeeper at Milparinka but ceased in that occupation almost a quickly as he started. He is also reputed to have been a skilled builder of stone walls. As such he may have been responsible for the construction of several structures for which evidence remains at Milparinka and which were built in the same fashion as parts of the Albert – for example, the Bank building and Baker’s (much later) store. However, other parts of the Albert are more similar to the hotel’s stables that George Blore is clearly documented to have had built in 1890 but there is still no evidence that he was the stonemason who did the work.

Underneath the hotel’s bar are the remains of a cellar . These were concreted over some years ago and according to Harry Blore this work was done by he and a couple of mates in 1974. At the same time hatches that had given access to the cellar for lowering beer barrels and the like were sealed.

On 27 December, 1882 the publican’s license for the Albert was transferred from Kenny to Samuel Penrose who continued with the license until 8^th December 1885 at which time the building and the land upon which it stands was brought by George Blore, grandfather of Harry. This is when a link to George Blore was created, and five years later he was making some improvements. The Tibooburra Telegraph (November 4, 1890:3) reported these as follows:

‘Go It George

‘At the rear of the Albert Hotel, Milparinka a stone building is being erected which upon enquiry we find is intended to accommodate race horses for the coming meeting. The building, when completed, will comprise four spacious horse boxes and a loft overhead for horse feed. The Christmas meeting of the Milparinka Turf Club takes place at the Milparinka Racecourse on Friday and Saturday 26th and 27th of December next. Good prizes are offered and those hearsay men owning nags that are fleet of foot should peruse the Club’s advertisement appearing elsewhere, when no doubt many will be well repaid for so doing.’

In 1985 the stables erected in 1890 were the generator shed, but you could still see the horse-feed troughs if you cared to look. However, even at that time the stables were not particularly stable (Hah!) and were removed a few years later.

By June 1893 George Blore had moved to the Royal Hotel and William Baker had become proprietor of the Albert, with ‘good accommodation for visitors, first class billiard table, best brands only of wines, ales, spirits, cigars etc., good stabling and loose boxes – horse feed always on hand.’ (Sturt Recorder, June 2, 1893:1).

However, Baker appeared in court charged with ‘retailing from licensed premises’ (he had sold someone a bag of sugar!) and six months later sold his interest to ‘Mr. Robert Kelly, erstwhile of Messrs Cobb and Co’s Telegraph Line of Coaches’. Robert Kelly added ‘good paddock accommodation’ to the claimed attributes of the Albert (Sturt Recorder, April 5, 1895:2).

Kelly also became the agent for the mail coaches in August 1895 (Sturt Recorder, August 16,1895). The agencies for Kidman and Nicholas (Cobb and Co.) Coaches, and for Morrison Brothers, remained with the Albert Hotel for many years. However, in June 1897 Robert Kelly sold out to Thomas Hill and became licensee of the Coally Hotel (Sturt Recorder, June 18, 1897:3).

After Kelly left, the Albert went through a period of attention from the police. Senior Constable Wood, “on oath”, said ‘On Sunday afternoon last I saw eight or ten men congregated around two men who were fighting in the Albert Hotel yard…’ The accused, John Adams, a miner from Mount Browne, thought Senior Constable Wood was only joking when arrested for riotous behaviour in a public place … ‘The bench fined Adams five shillings or two days in the lock-up and cautioned him against repeating the offence and especially in refusing to give his name when asked’ (Sturt Recorder, July 30, 1897:2).

A few months later Senior Constable Wood again brought attention to the licensee of the Albert Hotel when he charged Hill with selling liquor at prohibited hours. Hill explained that he had, while serving three men who he thought were travellers, suddenly found a cheque which he had lost. ‘Several men who were in the billiard room heard me say that I had found the cheque and I asked them to have a drink but I took no money for it… The Court fined the defendant 20/- with costs of court.’ Hill was also charged with ‘serving Tommy Thomson, an aboriginal native of Australia , with drink on 20th September last’ and in defense stated ‘He is not an Aboriginal. I did not know there was any harm as he is a Victorian blackfellow… The Court fined the defendant two pounds with costs, and the bench remarked that two pounds was the lowest penalty that could be inflicted and warned the offender against being convicted a third time under the Act, as he would then be liable to have his license cancelled’ (Sturt Recorder, October 16, 1897:2).

On another occasion the hotel’s yardman, George Wade, was accused of stealing a coat, a watch and two bottles of whisky from Benjamin Bradford, a boundary rider from Cobham. The coat and watch had been left on the hotel yard fence, while the two bottles of whisky were in a saddle-bag. George Wade spent fourteen days in the Milparinka lockup (Sturt Recorder, December 4, 1897).

George Blore returned to the Albert in December 1899 at which point we loose track of the detail because the record ceased with the cessation of the Sturt Recorder Tibooburra and Mount Browne Advertiser.

15.     Chemist

Harry Given had arrived on the Goldfield in 1881 during the initial excitement at Mount Browne and Tibooburra. According to Tom Chambers he ‘proved on many occasions of great value to the sick and ailing, whom he often attended without the prospect of fee or reward’ (Sturt Recorder, 11 August 1893:2). The jury at the inquest into his death on 8 August 1893 returned a verdict that ‘the said Henry Bennett Given came to his death at Milparinka on 7 August 1893, from the effects of poison (to whit strychnine) taken by himself on the same day while of unsound mind.’ (Sturt Recorder, 11 August, 1893:2).

The next chemist at Milparinka was “H.L. Garriques, MPS (USA) Consulting and Dispensing Chemist late of the Apothecaries Company, Broken Hill, and Thargomindah Hospital, Queensland”. He could be consulted at his rooms in Loftus Street Milparinka, two doors below the ‘Recorder office’. Mr. Garriques specialised in dentistry – ‘teeth extracted and stopped painlessly, with or without cocaine’ (Sturt Recorder, 7 December 1894:2), and was married at Milparinka on 12 September 1897. (Sturt Recorder, 19 September 1897:2). The Sturt Recorder reported that Harry Garriques left Milparinka on 15 January 1898, and expressed the hope that he would return when the prospects for the quartz reefs at Warratta looked more promising.

In the 1890s chemists completed metallurgical analyses, as well as acting as dentist and doctor when the occasion required. When a dynamite store blew up at Milparinka, injuring two men, it was the chemist who tended them. As far as we know they did survive.

16.     Tailor

The next shop up the street in 1897 – located between the chemist and the newspaper office – was the tailor’s shop. It was quite small, and, as already mentioned, was one of two shops side by side in the same building. It probably served a number of different purposes over time because before 1897, when the advertisement below appeared, the tailor’s shop occupied the rooms adjacent to the Albert Hotel later used by T.W. Chambers.

On 4 November, 1890 the Tibooburra Telegraph contained an advertisement:-

 “J.C. Tippet, Tailor and Outfitter, Milparinka. Suits from £3/10/-, trousers from £1/5/-. Style, fit and workmanship guaranteed. Patterns of the most fashionable tweeds and coatings always on hand. Ladies riding habit and ulsters a specialty”.

Tippet’s name appeared again on 27 January, 1891, but it seems his business did not last very long and another tailor took his place – Edward Bateman (Sturt Recorder, 22 February, 1895:2). Bateman moved into his new premises between the Chemist and the Newspaper Office during January 1897 (Sturt Recorder 8 January, 1897:3) and in August the same year advertised “For Sale – Dress Coat and Vest. Fashionable cut. English make. Measurement 38 inches. Nearly new. Cheap.” (Sturt Recorder, 6 August 1897:3).

Many of the old photographs from Milparinka show that in the late 1890s the men generally wore suits when out and about, complete with waistcoat, even in the middle of summer. But it is also clear that many people simply could not afford to buy new clothes. As the advertisement suggests, much of the tailor’s business was in making alterations and repairs for the residents, and occasionally arranging the sale of unwanted items.

17.     Newspaper Office

The next building (or rather, the next missing building) was the newspaper office. This is where the ‘Sturt Recorder’ was published. As should already be apparent, it’s full name was a much more grandiose – “The Sturt Recorder, Tibooburra and Mount Browne Advertiser”, published at Milparinka by Thomas Wakefield Chamber for just eight years. Tom Chambers was a complex person, and to understand him requires a knowledge of his background. To help with this and to give him the credit he certainly deserves, he has been given a separate page in the record of the far west.

On 1^st October 1897 Tom Chambers indicated that he had engaged a compositor to replace Mr. Hillis, who, it would seem, left in a bit of a huff… The name of the replacement was William Wordsworth, expected to arrive in a few days… His name may be appropriate but no formal record has been found of his existence.

Without the newspaper published by Tom Chambers  we would know next to nothing about life as it really was at Milparinka. His newspaper came out on Friday mornings and contained news from Australia and from England, South Africa and India. However, most of its content was devoted to happenings in the township of Milparinka and the general vicinity, usually in a quite measured tone.

18.       Cocky’s Store

We are now about opposite Cocky’s Store. There is nothing left of it now, because the building was dismantled and used to build a  house at Mokerley Tank for Harry Blore’s family in the late 1940s. It was right alongside the Albert Hotel, more or less opposite the bank.

Cocky was “Cocky the Chinaman” to just about everyone – he was even known as “Cocky” in the newspaper. But his real name, in Australia at least, was Tom Gox.

Cocky’s Store was built of corrugated iron, and, according to Helen Baker, out the back he had a lot of other corrugated iron sheds and lean-to’s. What was in them is anyone’s guess. There were other Chinese around Milparinka so it is just possible the sheds contained Chinese goods that were not obtainable elsewhere. Further, at least some of the ageing Chinese men at Milparinka used opium, and it is possible Cocky included that substance in his range of wares. However, it is equally likely to have been sold by the Chemist, its use being quite legal until the late 1890s. That the local Chinese used opium – probably as a pain-killer – is obvious because the Chinese sites near Milparinka presented the remnants of numerous opium-related artifacts including packaging for the substance.  However, almost all Europeans of the time also used opium, it being a major component of many cough medicines and quite a few other remedies which were readily available in all parts of Australia before the 1900s.

19.       A.C. Geyer (originally C.F.H. Heuzenroeder’s)

There was another store in Loftus Street, Milparinka in 1893. It was owned by Mr. A.C. Geyer, and was next door to Cocky’s store. Just where is easy to decide, because it was exactly opposite to Baker’s Store,  mentioned later. Augustus Christian Geyer had purchased the business from one of the very first storekeepers at Milparinka – Carl Ferdinand Hugo Heuzenroeder.

As the photograph shows, when Karl Ferdinand Hugo Heuzenroeder owned the store it was a corrugated iron building, and quite small. The land was later sold to Alfred Bigmore, who owned the next block down this side of Loftus Street, and the store became Mr. Bigmore’s home. When it was Heuzenroeder’s store it carried a wide range of goods, and acted as the agency for one of three coach lines which then served Milparinka. When he took over, Augustus Geyer advertised simply that he was a general storekeeper, and there seems to be no real record of what he sold..

20, 21, 30.      Alfred Bigmore’s House

Quite a bit further down Loftus Street, on the same side as Cocky’s store was another house. This was owned by Alfred Bigmore, an Englishman who had lived in Milparinka from the beginning of the gold rush. The house (building 30) had a big verandah, and was located just along from the top of the bluff as you come up from Evelyn Creek. If you look very carefully you can just make out where it was.

Very little is known about Alfred Bigmore, but we do know that in the very beginning he had a store, after which he had a billiard hall (building 20), and later still he operated a ‘public library’ and advertised in the Sturt Recorder. You could pay three pence to join his library, and borrow books, but there is no more information about this enterprise. However, Nel Barlow certainly remembered him, and when we discussed Milparinka in 1988 she was able to given quite a picture of him. The following information comes from that conversation.

After he died his books were stored in the old post office building for a while, and used by the school children. How they got to be there is uncertain, but perhaps he left them to the school. Then, when the Milparinka school closed, they were taken by the Education Department and given to the school at Tibooburra!! The people of Milparinka were not exactly impressed by that… Bigmore’s billiard hall was back down Loftus Street towards Geyer’s Store and Cocky the Chinaman’s. It had been there since at least 1882 and was probably his original store. It may have become the town’s dance hall after he died, because about that time Milparinka certainly got a public hall. As usual, after Tom Chambers stopped publishing the Sturt Recorder there is nothing to tell us where it came from.

In 1898 he brought Geyer’s (Heuzenroeder’s) old store (building 19) and lived in that next door to his billiard hall. It would seem, however, that he continued to own his original residence near the bluff, mentioned above.

When Alfred Bigmore died in 1915, the local residents swooped upon his home and other properties and found gold sovereigns hidden all over the place. Some were in a tobacco or cigarette tin, but others were just tucked up amongst the rafters of his home. He must have been quite a rich man, but evidently he had no family. He was never mentioned in the newspaper, except for one or two advertisements, and he was never in trouble with the police. When the bank was at Milparinka he sold a few small parcels of gold to it but he is just one of those people who we may never know much about. However, Nel Barlow did say he was a very good builder or stone walls. If so, he just might have been the person who built so many rubble-and-gypsum walled buildings around the town…including the bank and Baker’s Store. On that subject the Tibooburra Telegraph (6 October 1890) hints otherwise, in that it contains a mention of “George Blore’s lime kiln” perhaps suggesting that the lime used to line the rubble and burnt gypsum walls represent a link to George. However by the time of that mention most of the structures that had rubble-filled walls had already been completed.

22.       The Blacksmith’s

We have got a little bit ahead of ourselves now, so we need to cross over Loftus Street and go back up the hill a little, almost back to the printery – say back to a point opposite the loading ramp where Cocky’s store  used to be…

Next is the road which now leads up to the airstrip. It arrived some time in the 1970s. On the southern side of this road is a concrete slab where the newspaper office, tailor and chemist used to be. On the other side of this road there used to be indications that it was the site of the blacksmith’s premise. A few years ago there was still a pile of bits and pieces here from the smithy – scraps of iron, old door handles and locks, bolt, nuts and similar things. They have gone now so there is nothing left to suggest this was the site of the blacksmith’s shop at all. But in 1985 if you had looked at the ruins here very carefully, you might have noticed that they are a bit strange – there was a fireplace which was built too high off the ground, and signs that it had become very hot at some time.

The blacksmith’s shop was not very big, but it probably had a yard which ran back from the street a way, and a corrugated iron roof over part of the yard to provide shade. If it did then the signs of it have been lost. Perhaps most of the yard was actually where the road is now.John Stewart, General Blacksmith and Wheelwright advertised ‘horses shod and all general work done on the shortest notice’ when his advertisements first appeared in the Sturt Recorder (19 January 1894). It seems that he was replaced after six months or so, because another advertisement soon appears in the newspaper – ‘TJB begs to inform his numerous friends and the general public that he has taken the old shop, where all kinds of smith’s and wheelwright’s work will be executed upon the shortest notice, in best time and at the lowest charges. Horse-shoeing a specialty (Sturt Recorder, 24 August 1894:1). “TJB” was T.J. Burt.

“TJB’s” advertisement appeared again in January 1895, but by 31 May the blacksmith advertising was ‘T & J Godier, Blacksmiths and Wheelwrights, Milparinka and Tibooburra’ (Sturt Recorder, 31 May 1895:3).

And then in January 1897 the Sturt Recorder contained an advertisement “To Let – The Old Blacksmith’s Shop, Milparinka – Apply T.W. Chambers”. It was nearly two years later that John Thomas, Blacksmith and Wheelwright, late of Silverton Coach Factory announced that he was about to open a shop at Milparinka (Sturt Recorder, 22 October 1898:3).

Edward Kuerschner, who took over the premises some time after 1900, was the last blacksmith at Milparinka. In the mid-1980s his blacksmithing tools had become part of his family’s memorabilia.

23, 24, 25.      Bakers Store

There is a bit of uncertainty here, as Nel Barlow referred to Baker’s store as being owned by Tom Baker, Nel Baker’s uncle. It may be that William Baker was actually William Thomas Baker, but then there is also a Jeremiah Baker somewhere in the mix. ( I may be getting the generations confused – more snuffling around required) However…

Right next to the blacksmith’s shop was Baker’s Store. There is a big hole in the ground here, which was a cellar to William Baker’s new premises, completed in 1895. The image below dates from 1985, but this is one ruin which was much the same in 2021, except for a little more accumulated rubble. A much earlier image supplied to me by Kate Holmes, a fellow Historical Archaeologist, confirmed that the upper level of Baker’s store had rubble-filled walls, but the façade and the cellar were, in part, of hewn stone.

Although my research has not confirmed the location of William Baker’s original store, it was probably one of the several corrugated iron structures that Nel Barlow stated were in his yard behind the new store. Regardless, his new store was the last to close in Milparinka. It was a very large stone building, where he, assisted by his wife, Letitia and “Miss Baker” sold a wide variety of goods. An idea of the range can be gained from Mr Baker’s advertisements in the Sturt Recorder:

“William Baker, General Storekeeper, Wine and Spirit Merchant, Milparinka, begs to announce that he has completed his new premises in Loftus Street where he intends to offer his customers the very best goods at the very lowest prices on prompt cash terms. Station requirements always on hand at cost price, carriage added. W.B. invites inspection of his large and various stock of groceries wines and spirits. Special attention is directed to the first arrival of summer drapery, consisting of etc., novelties in new stuff and cotton dress goods, fancy dress muslins, crimped zephyrs, galatea stripes, print, blouse spots, self-coloured crepons, plain and fancy cotton drills, calicoes, sheeting, towelling, and every description of household linen. Ladies and gentleman’s boots and shoes in great variety and of the best quality. Menswear of every description. The best assorted stock of haberdashery in the back country. Millinery and dress-making a specialty, and this department will be under the superintendence of Miss Baker. Popular and fashionable lines in straws laces and ribbons. W.B. wishes to impress upon his numerous friends and the general public that his present season’s importations have been purchased for cash and will be sold at such prices that defy competition.’

That advertisement is from April 1895, but being the owner of such a big store did not mean everything was fine for Mr. Baker. On one occasion the Sturt Recorder reported ‘This week Mr. William Baker, storekeeper of this town received via Wilcannia nine tons of supplies which left Sydney on the 12th of March last – just eight months ago. The cause of the delay was that the paddle-steamer on which they were shipped (after a long trip from Sydney to, perhaps, Adelaide), arrived about ninety miles short of Wilcannia and had to wait for the next rise in the Darling River’. (Sturt Recorder, November 19, 1898:2).

William Baker continued to trade well into the 20th Century. Dances and socials in his building were a big part of the social life at Milparinka just before the First World War. These ceased during that  war when most of the town’s ‘eligible young men’ enlisted. That the town inherited a hall from Alfred Bigmore may also have had an impact upon the viability of dances at Baker’s store.

In contrast with most of the ‘establishment’ at Milparinka, William Baker and his family seem to have had a quite close relationship with the Chinese and Afghan residents, and with the Aborigines. The reason is not at all hard to find – His wife, Letitia, was of Indian (or perhaps more correctly, Afghan) descent. Clearly William Baker did not entertain the prejudices that were held by a post-office inspector who reported this as the reason why William Baker was not a suitable candidate for appointment as post-master. However, in contrast, it does seem that many of the children who lived at Milparinka spent quite a lot of time playing around the Chinese gardens. This subject will be addressed in more detail in a page (yet to be developed) about those gardens.

Various images from the site of William Baker’s Store, 1969/73 to 2021

26, 27,28, 29.            Cottages

Further down Loftus Street, on the same side as William Baker’s store are a few more ruins. The first two are the ruins of houses, together with a couple of sheds and the usual outhouses. One was occupied by the Bamess family, the other by the Smiths and Mrs. Penrose. Mrs. Penrose was the midwife for a very large part of the far west, and in the 1980s people still talked about her, and some of the other women who lived in the town, with quite strong affection. Her husband, Samuel, had been the licensee of the Albert Hotel in 1884. Nel Barlow was her grand-daughter.

Nel Barlow, as Helen Smith (but sometimes also referred to as Helen Halliburton Penrose) grew up in one of these houses. It was Nel who told me about the track (now the more bare strip of dirt) down the hill over the road from their house,  where her brothers used to slide down the hill. There is also a memorial to George, one of her two brothers, on the road-side where their front door used to be.

Frederick Bamess was a baker, but his son, Frederick C. Bamess was a stone-mason – and one of two engaged in the construction of the Courthouse and Post Office buildings between 1896 and about 1900.

Even further down Loftus Street, level with the present crossing of Evelyn Creek, are the remains of the very first European structure at Milparinka – the Royal Hotel.

31, 32.            The Royal Hotel & Hotel Stables

The Royal Hotel was built by ‘Mr. M’Bryde of Mount Poole Station for the benefit of travellers’, probably late in 1880. M’Bryde (or McBryde) sold his Mount Poole property in 1885, and at the same time the Royal Hotel was sold. The purchasers were Matthew Lang and Alexander Scott of Melbourne. They were wine merchants, but Matthew Lang became a resident of the far west, probably until his death on 16 March 1896, when the hotel was transferred to William Baker.

Thus William Baker had a second source of income, but it was not without a cost. The Sturt Recorder recorded his purchase with the following:

‘The Royal Hotel

This property has been purchased by Mr. William Baker for four hundred pounds cash and a complete renovation of the premises, with new stables and yards at the rear will immediately be commenced….This act of the property having fallen into the hands of Mr. William Baker is a sufficient guarantee that this old and commodious hostelry will for the future be conducted in a style to ensure the return of the business that the house commanded in former times.’ (Sturt Recorder, January 10,1896:3)

But even before the purchase, Baker had advertised as proprietor of the Royal Hotel, claiming ‘only the best brands of wines and spirits, good accommodation and civility. Excellent stabling, horse feed always in stock. Simm’s sparkling ale constantly on draught. Best billiard table in the district on the premises’ (Tibooburra Telegraph, December 9, 1890:3)

The hotel was also the scene of various community gatherings, and of at least some social occasions. One of these took place on Christmas night, 1890, and was reported by the Tibooburra Telegraph as follows:

‘On Christmas night a dance took place at Mr. W. Baker’s Royal Hotel, Milparinka. The attendance was good, the fair sex mustering in strong force. At about twelve midnight the host and hostess provided an excellent repast, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all present. The party broke up during the wee smaa hours ayent the twal, all seeming to have a good time. There were some very pretty dresses worn. All looked so nice it would be invidious to say which was ‘the belle’ ” (Tibooburra Telegraph, December 23, 1890 [issued December 30, 1890]:2)

It seems, however, that between 1890 and 1896 the Royal was leased or managed by a number of others. One of these, George Blore, was in possession at the time of the first issue of the Sturt Recorder on Friday, 2 June, 1893, advertising simply ‘Best Brands of liquors kept. Good Accommodation’. George has already been discussed in connection with the Albert Hotel.

By late 1897 the Royal Hotel was being managed by Mr. Edward Baker, probably related to William (Sturt Recorder, December 25, 1897:2). Edward Baker was granted a renewal of his publican’s license without a murmur at the sitting of the Milparinka Licensing Court in January 1898 (Sturt Recorder, January 8,1898:2). Edward Baker was also granted his application for a publican’s booth at the Milparinka Racecourse on December 26 and 27, 1898, but in January 1899 retired on account of ill health. The license for the Royal Hotel was transferred to his brother, Jeremiah (Sturt Recorder, 28 January 1899:2).

From 1896 when William Baker purchased it, the Royal Hotel was the accepted venue for town meetings, whether to discuss the presence of camels on the town common, the prospects of mines being developed at Warratta, or the possibility of a town hall. The debate about the cottage hospital also continued here. Prior to 1896 these meetings had been held at the Royal Standard Hotel.

The creek flats on the northern side of the road nearby are where the ‘Afghans’ used to camp, and on one occasion a particularly heavy thunderstorm over Mount Poole led to the water in Evelyn Creek to backing up almost to the Royal Hotel. Evelyn Creek has always flooded like that – it did so for Charles Sturt. To add to Sturt’s problems, when he tried to move a day or so later, his drays sank into the mud of the creek flats so far that only the top of their wheels could be seen. He had already noted tree trunks caught high up in the forks of red river gums along the creek.

At the rear of the hotel ruins are those of the stables, and then further along the road to Mount Poole is another ruin (location 33). This one is quite hard to find, but it seems to have been another house. There is no record of this, as is the case with so many other structures in Milparinka.

34.       Creek Flats

The creek flats, on the other side of the Mount Poole road from the Royal Hotel, are where the ‘Afghans’ used to camp with their camels. There is nothing there to show that they ever existed, but they are a very important component of the Far West’s history. Also on these creek flats were the equally important Chinese vegetable and fruit gardens .

Both groups were essential to the Europeans who lived on the higher ground above their ‘camps’. Without the ‘Afghans’ and their camel strings, wool would never have got to market, and the people would have had to wait even longer for goods to arrive. Only the camels could always get through on the track to or from Bourke or Wilcannia, or in later years, Broken Hill. Similarly, the history of Milparinka clearly demonstrates that only the Chinese had the skill-set and perseverance required to produce crops in the situation they encountered, and that only they would have been willing to start over when their garden beds were destroyed by flood waters just about any time it did rain.

As demonstrated by the image above, the camels really were the “ships of the desert” and carried all kinds of things into the outback – potatoes and onions, flour, chaff, even corrugated iron and nails. A fully grown male camel could carry almost four hundred kilograms, so they were a very useful animal. They also carried things out again – but mostly they were the way that 200kg bales of wool started their journey to markets in Sydney or Melbourne or London.

Separate pages (see “Contents” or the page header above) now put forward the tale of the Afghans and their camels in the Far West of New South Wales and the story of the Chinese vegetable and fruit-growing enterprise. How the latter came about was enough to prompt the Goldfields Warden to include their story in his annual report to Parliament…

35.       The Quarry

Now we are turning back towards the township again. From the rear of the Royal Hotel the ground rises over a rocky outcrop towards the airstrip. Part of the rocky outcrop is pretty jumbled up because this is where most of the stone for the town buildings was quarried. However, it does look to be quite fractured, suggesting it would not have been used for the courthouse, police buildings, or the post office. Where that stone was quarried remains to be determined.

However, continue through the quarry and scramble up the rocks. From here you can look down the slope to the ruins of Milparinka or down towards the Royal Hotel site just visited.. From here you also have a decision to make. You can go back down the slope to the Albert Hotel, or you can continue across to the school.

36, 37, 38       Two more cottages & the Dairy

If you take the airstrip road back to the Albert Hotel you will pass a couple more ruins (locations 36 and 37) on the left-hand side of the road. The road actually cuts across these.

An already mentioned, the alternative route choice is to continue across the slope. There is nothing much at first, but after about three hundred meters you will come to the ruins of the school

39.       Milparinka Public School

This was a wooden building on stone foundations which faced the town (and the Albert Hotel). In later years in gained a wooden verandah down each side but it always had wooden steps up the front. It was abandoned some time before the First World War  when school classes were relocated to the former post office building. By the 1940s someone had taken the school building’s damaged roof for use somewhere on a property they had recently acquired and the rest of the school fell to pieces or became firewood like most of the other abandoned buildings. Look around you carefully and you can still see the line of stones which piled up against the schoolyard fence. You can also see that the school had two toilets associated with it. The remains of them a little further across the slope – just a few rocks, more or less in a square, and about the right size. A billy-goat got stuck in one of the toilets during the school holidays, and died there. It seems that no-one found out for a few days, but the toilet smelled a whole lot worse than ever when school started back…

And, now back down to the front of the school you can see, from a break in the lines of stones where the fence used to be, where the gate was.

Milparinka Public School commenced in May 1883, but after 1896 it shared its teacher with the school at Mount Browne, and classes at Milparinka were only held every second week. The school did not open at all between January and August 1897, because there was no teacher, and closed for good in July 1926. But long before that the school building had been abandoned. A bad windstorm had almost blown the roof off it, and because no-one could be bothered to fix it, classes were held in the old post office building.

40.       Hughie O’Connor’s

Back down the slope now, through the schoolyard gate if you can find it. In 1997 the ruins of this stone cottage were obvious, about a hundred and twenty meters away in the general direction of the courthouse and almost behind the Royal Standard Hotel. The land it stood on was originally purchased by Frederick Connors, the first owner of the Royal Standard. There is not much more that can be said now because the building is now gone.  However, it faced the school, and even though it was nearer to the school than most other houses in Milparinka, it seem Hughie O’Connor was always late…

Hughie’s family had been around Milparinka from early in the town’s history, and it was possibly he and his sisters who found a bottle of strychnine, with the tragic results that was reported in the Sturt Recorder (30th August 1895, p2c5) …

On the morning of the 27th inst. the infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Connors, named Sarah Elizabeth, was fatally poisoned by strychnine…It appeared that the child in company of a brother and sister were at play in the yard adjoining the house and Mrs. Connors noticed the elder girl spitting something from her mouth, and upon asking the child what she had eaten she pointed to some pink crystals on the ground, some of which Mrs. Connors picked up and asked Mr. Blore, who was in the yard at the time, what they were. He gave it as his opinion that it was strychnine. Further inquiry, hastily made from Mr. Wm Baker placed the matter beyond doubt and steps were immediately taken to give the child an emetic. Whilst so engaged, the youngest was noticed to fall against the table and upon Mrs. Connors taking her in her arms she immediately exclaimed that she was stiff already and Mr. Wm Baker noticed a quantity of strychnine on her pinafore as if spit from her mouth. Immediate attention was given her but the remedies applied proved unavailing and she died in a few minutes. The children, it appears, had access to an outer room, formerly occupied by an employee of Mr. Connors who left about a fortnight since. Mr. Connors knew that he had strychnine, but thought when he left he had taken it with him. Mrs. Connors, unfortunately, was unaware that there was any strychnine anywhere on the premises….The burial of the child took place on Wednesday, and all the town was stirred to take part in the proceedings, especially amongst the children. The little coffin containing the deceased was decorated with wreaths and flowers and born to its last resting place by Misses Kathleen and Louisa Baker , Maggie and Lottie Clune, Emma and Louisa Bamess, Florrie McNamara and Lizzie House. No R.C. priest being accessible the service was read by the Misses Baker in an impressive manner.

The grave of Sarah Connors is one of the many unmarked and now unrecorded burials in the Milparinka Cemetery…

41.       Milparinka Waterhole

The images above illustrate the raison d’être for Milparinka. That on the left appeared in the Australasia Sketcher and was taken from a glass-plate image captured by Frederic Bonney in 1881. Although the source of the image is known and a large number of others captured by the same photographer, including some almost certainly taken the same day, are in various Sydney museum and library collections, the original has not been located.

And so…

That is the township of Milparinka. If you wander around a bit you will still come across other little ruins. Some are more apparent than others, but many are just a cleared square of ground with a slightly more dense scatter of rocks around the outside of the square, and quite hard to see. They probably date from the very first days of the gold rush, when people put up calico tents at Milparinka while they waited for it to rain. It is absolutely impossible to say who lived in them, but there used to be similar shadows near Thompson’s Creek a little outside Tibooburra. You might also find places where people had built little dams across gullies in an attempt to catch water when it did rain. These may also date from the very earliest period of Milparinka’s European history or they may have been built by much later visitors . Some, according to Nel Barlow, were built by the children who lived in Milparinka. No matter what, they are part of the history and the archaeology of a very isolated and lonely town. Milparinka was a long long way by coach or horseback from any of the big cities. It still is…

Thanks for Your Time

There is much more to Milparinka than has been covered in these “tour” pages. However, the information about the Chinese market gardens and the ‘Ghans that was given brief exposure in the story of Milparinka as published in 1995, is now presented separately in order to ensure their involvement is given an adequate level of recognition. The Europeans complained bitterly about the prices the Chinese charged for fruit and vegetables, but were never able to grow their own.  The Afghans too were totally under-appreciated and yet, without them, the community at Milparinka (and at Mount Browne) would have died of starvation before the town was two years old.

Also omitted is a lot about the coaches themselves and their drivers, and a marvellous tale about one coach trip from Wilcannia and a major change where two coaches were supposed to meet. The coach did not turn up and the joining passengers wandered along the road looking for the coach… with the coach horses tagging along… The horses were supposed to wait in the yard and be changed when the coach arrived, but they too got sick of waiting… How much of the tale is fantasy is not at all clear, but it still encourages a smile.  The coach stories will be reserved for some pages about Tibooburra, which hopefully will be given attention in the near future.

RETURN to CONTENTS – What was at Milparinka