For the visitor to Nangutta Station the drive
in from the Imlay Road is a long one through
thick bush and scrub. You think you are in
the middle of nowhere and if you will ever
get to the station. Crossing Nangutta creek
and with the station opening up before you
it is a sight to remember. The escarpment
spreads out before you and along with the
wonderful view, there is an atmosphere that
is just as obvious.
The sandstone escarpment was under the sea
in the Devonian Period, 417 to 354 million
years ago. This place is ancient. The layers
of sandstone in the escarpment draw the eye
and imagination. You have to see it to feel
it.
** From early references the original spelling is Nangutta.
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Sandstone escarpment at Nungatta Station photo K. Clery |
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Calvert, Samuel, 1828-1913, engraver. Shows farm with creek in foreground and Nangutta Peak in background. State Library of Victoria |
NANGUTTA S T A T I ON, N. S. WALES.
Nangutta station is situated in the Monaro
district, closely approximating to the Great
Dividing Range, and lying near to the boundary
between New South Wales and Victoria. Monaro
is a pastoral district, having an area of
8335 square miles, of which 10,119 acres
are under cultivation. The Delegete, Bendoc
and Eucumbene gold-fields are within its
boundaries, the entire district being traversed
by lofty mountain ranges and deep gullies,
in which lie vast stores of undeveloped mineral
wealth. The geological formation is one made
up of various granite rocks, irregularly
interpolating and disturbing quartz bearing
slate of various colors and degrees of hardness,
of which the lower portions are partly overflowed
by trappean eruptions. The area of the Nangutta
station is 32,000 acres, and the grazing
capability is reckoned at 4000 sheep. Our
engraving gives a correct view of the home
station, with Nangutta Creek in the fore
ground, and the mountain called Nangutta
Peak in the distance.
"Not so very long ago we had a traveller,
and Englishman, he had been bushed without
a blanket, he got here in the morning, it
was just beginning to rain and kept wet for
two days, which rose the creeks a good bit.
This traveller appeared a decent sort of
fellow, a painter by trade, and was very
good at taking pencil sketches. He went on
to a ridge one day and took a sketch of the
place, he told us when he got to where he
could get larger paper he would copy it and
send it to us by post. He stayed here until
the creeks went down, he was here a week.
Often when I have thought tramps were in
need I have given them two or three shillings
when leaving. Now I thought this Mr. Painter's
funds were very low, so I gave him four shillings
when he was leaving and sent a lad with him
for fourteen miles so as he would have a
horse over all the creeks on his way to Bombala......But
he forgot to send the sketch.........I heard
of him some time after, he was then in the
lockup at Bedoc, he may have gone there to
take a sketch of the cell."
Excerpt from "Leaves From My Life"
by Alexander Weatherhead.
The information below has been largely collected
and researched by Judy Winters in her study
"NUNGATTA SOUTH" for National Parks
& Wildlife Service of New South Wales
2001. Where I have used excerpts from this
document the source is noted.
I gratefully acknowledge and appreciate her
permission to use this material.
K. Clery
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Below: Excerpt from 'Leases Granted September 29, 1848' |
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Excerpts below from "NUNGATTA SOUTH" by Judy Winters
TIME LINE - NANGUTTA/NUNGATTA STATION
1836 - 1840 | W.T. Morris |
1840 - 1843 | Abercrombie & Co. |
1843 - 1847 | Campbell & Co. |
1847 - 1850 | Imlay Brothers |
1850 - 1851 | Melbourne consortium???/John McLeod |
1851 - 1854 | Sullivan |
1854- 1901 | Alexander Weatherhead |
1901 - 1914 | William Weatherhead |
c.1914 - 1916 | E.J. Brady/Tefley |
1916 - 1918 | Hector Roderick McWilliam |
c.1918 - 1923/24 | Henry Phippard |
c.1923/24 | Alexander Dunbar and Thomas George Dunbar |
c.1924 - 1934 | Dunbar/Dunbar and Napier |
c.1934 | Dunbar and Napier joined by Walker |
1934 - 1946 | T.G. Dunbar and Est. Alexander Dunbar c/- G.T. Napier |
1946 - 2001 | Patrick Osborne Snr. |
For centuries before white man ventured into
the wild unexplored ranges of the far south
eastern corner of NSW and the north east
of what was to later become the State of
Victoria, those lands were the territory
of the Australian Aborigine.
European records tell us that the inhabitants
of the area around Nangutta were a conglomerate
group known as the Bidewell/Bidwell, in one
place this has been translated as "Scrub
Dwellers".
Nungatta means "A place of mourning"
and the Aborigines who lived in this area
were supposed, by A.W.Howitt (Police Magistrate, Gippsland
1863) to be refugees from surrounding tribes,
speaking a mixture of adjacent languages.
G.A.Robinson the Chief Protector of Aborigines
for Port Phillip from 1839 to 1849 was widely regarded as
being the most careful and accurate reporter
of aboriginal named groups, customs, language
and place names for far south eastern Australia.
It is from Robinson's journal that the spelling
and pronunciation of "Nangutta"
as opposed to the current usage, "Nungatta".
Robinson's diary entry dated, Tuesday 14th August, 1844 says:
"Toby (an English speaking guide or
servant) furnished me with a number of words
of the Twofold Bay language, see vocabulary...Nan.gut.er:
Campbell's station 12 miles north of Wongererbul"
On Friday 16th August, 1844 Robinson was
staying that evening at Oswald Brierly's
home as accommodations on shore were much
more primitive. The entry in Robinson's diary
for that day says: Party Maneroo Blacks came on board "Wanderer",
he then recorded their names and the tribe
from which they came. The names include:
Ny.an.go, Nyangutter.
The diary entry ends:
"The above came on board 'Wanderer'
and their names were entered in the visitor
book, I was present."
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NATIVE HUNTERS. Date(s) of creation: February 28, 1870. print : wood engraving. State Library of Victoria |
Robinson makes note in July 1844 that:
"The extensive tract of Country between
Buchan and Twofold Bay is very thinly inhabited
by Aborigines. An extermination warfare by
the Twofold Bay Natives and their allies
has nearly depopulated the country, happily
their feuds have ceased and the few that
remain live in peace."
James O'Rourke a north east Gippsland pastoralist, gave
the following account:
"A number of New South Wales blackfellows
came over into Victoria as far as Buchan.
The New South Wales blacks were never very
bad - nothing like the Victoria blacks who
were very troublesome around Cape Everard
to the head of the Delegate River. This used
to be called Bidwell and the Bidwell blacks
were a wild lot. They would make raids and
steal and maim, and were a terror to everyone...I
never heard that they (pastoralists) shot
any of them but they gave them a great scaring.
(O'Rourke 1910).
Oral histories tell of the extermination
of whole groups of aboriginal people at Nungatta
and Tubbut by poison and gun shot. It have
also been claimed that more Aboriginal people
were killed by blankets than by poison, guns
or white man's diseases because the blankets
replaced the usual animal skin coverings
used by Aboriginals and proved hopelessly
inadequate for the purpose.
Excerpts above from "NUNGATTA SOUTH"
by Judy Winters.
(In my own research, I have interviewed several
of the Oldies around this district who related
rumours and stories they had heard as youngsters
about the shooting of Aborigines at Nungatta.
But it seems it was not uncommon to do this
as one elderly local said it was a pity that
I hadn't been here when old Alf Alexander
was living at Pericoe Station as he used
to go out shooting Aborigines after church
on Sundays. K. Clery)
Excerpts below from "NUNGATTA SOUTH" by Judy Winters.
Joseph Lingard was transported to New South Wales and arrived
in Sydney in May, 1837. His sentence was
completed at "Cambelong" on the
Maneroo and he set out with a companion (seemingly
an assigned convict) to walk through the
largely unexplored country between that place
and "Genore" (Genoa) a Station
under the control of one Captain Stephenson.
Lingard's aim was to trap and kill small
mammals and birds. He then preserved their
skins and pelts with the stated aim of returning
to England with the specimens. No explanation
of this activity was offered in his story.
His story gives details of the country he
encountered on his journey and particularly
mentions the area around Nangutta Station.
"Stephenson had farmed a station near
Cape Howe; between Twofold Bay and Ninety
mile Beach; he and his family had been there
about three months. Mr. Stephenson invited
me down there....I told him I would accept
his invitation.
We had nothing to go by but a mark-tree line
for the whole ninety miles. There was nothing
but mountains all the way and so full of
timber that we could scarcely get through.
The first of these mountains we came to was
Morris's Mountain (Nangutta Mountain), it
was twelve miles of a journey over it.................
................There was timber here of
an almost incredible size. We reached a small
river, we had been informed that if we followed
its margin we should find a station....about
half an hour before sundown we came in sight
of it.......One Weatherhead kept this station
as overseer...it was a cattle station...We
staid (sic) all night...the mistress....said
we had better stay another day...as the way
we had to go was a very rough one...
I saw trees there, I should think one hundred
and twenty yards high and twenty five feet
through the ball; the natives call the trees
stringy-bark or messmate. I saw logs tumbled
down on their sides and mouldering, sunk
perhaps two feet in the ground, yet I could
not touch the height of the ball with my
stretched-out arm...........
Next morning we loaded and commenced our
journey, the mistress sent the man with us
about seven miles, through great forests
of timber, with ranges of mountains on each
side.....
Lingard and his offsider made it to "Genore"
and after ten weeks of shooting and trapping,
he began his return journey to the Manaroo
by joining with the stockkeeper of Genore
Station who was heading to Nan-gutty for
some calves. Their first day's effort brought
them
..............to Wong-a-ra-bar....the journey
was about sixteen miles.....(we) made ready
for our journey to Nan-gutty about seventeen
miles off; the way lay over mountains, ranges,
creeks and vallies (sic) covered with timber,
vines and shrubs of all descriptions. With
great exertion we got to Nan-gutty that evening.
We stopped here all night....we made a start
for Bondi, the foot of the mountain at the
further end of the Manara plains; this journey
was about eighteen miles; we had Morris Mountains
to cross, which was twelve miles over, only
a mark-tree line and a very rugged journey
it was...."
Lingard eventually left Australia in January
1844,having secured a position as assistant
to the cook on board "Aden". He
mentions that part of the cargo being sent
"home" was bark. The bark of the
Australian Wattle was, and still is, used
in the tanning of hides and the gathering
of that bark was to be part of the economic
structure of Nangutta for very many years.
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Alexander Weatherhead died at Nangutta 1901 |
Thought to be: Isabella Stevenson daughter of Alexander Snr. 1892 |
William Weatherhead and family Back row: Mrs Weatherhead, William jnr and probably Maud. Front row: William nursing Annie, Vera, Edgar and probably Eunice. Wife Annie (nee) Black 1899 |
Excerpts from "NUNGATTA SOUTH"
by Judy Winters continues..
In 1840 Nungatta was sold to Abercrombie & Co.
Alexander Weatherhead was engaged for two
years to work the station.
When W.T.Morris sold Nangutta, he recommended
to the new owners one Alexander Weatherhead
who had been in his employ at his Gundary
holdings a few years previously. Weatherhead
was taken on by Abercrombie& Company
as Overseer and the following is extracted
from Weatherhead's own writing in "Leaves From My Life":
"Now I had to think what would be wanted
for Nangutta, there would be very little
there, as it had been an outside cattle station,
with two men on it.
So I got tin milk dishes, butter kegs, tubs,
iron pots and other things. Then I had to
look for some small craft that was trading
along that way, I found there was one going
to Broulee soon, her name was the "Ganny",
I think not more than twenty tons. I bargained
with them to take my family and a good bit
of cargo to Twofold Bay, they got a blackfellow
for pilot as they did not know where the
bay was..."
This pilot was not very efficient as the
Fanny missed the entrance to the Bay and
there was some dissent among the sailors
and the Fanny was to be turned around to
go back but bad weather forced them to stand
out to sea and by chance the entrance to
the Bay was discovered and Weatherhead and
his family were eventually landed.
".....and there was soon a little house
allotted to us and we thought we were better
there than at sea that night, as it did blow
a real sou'wester......There was one white
woman there a Mrs. Ritchie, her husband had
been there as a ship carpenter and had died
there.
Well, after a day looking about I started
for Nangutta, I got a blackfellow to go with
me, we walked up to Towamba that day, the
next to Nangutta. When I got there I found
two men putting up cow bails and other work,
and one man as stockman, there ought to have
been another as pack-bullock man and hutkeeper,
but he had left. Everything had to be carried
on pack bullocks in those day, so after a
day the stockman and I started for the bay
with two horses and three bullocks.
When we got there we packed up what we thought
would be first wanted. Now there was Mrs
Weatherhead, three small children and a young
girl we brought from Sydney we got on very
slowly, and had to camp half way to Towamba,
we managed to get to Towamba next day.....the
next day we got to Perico....the next day
eighteen miles to Nangutta, we managed with
a hard tussle.
What would some of the people in London
think of our next door neighbour being twelve
miles off.....
As we expected two or three more men to get
the cattle mustered, we must have more things
out from the bay.....Mr Morris and Mr Urquhart
came to have the cattle mustered and as there
were no paddocks then, as we got the cattle
in we had to put a brand on them and let
them go again, so as we would know fresh
ones from what had been in.......
I saw we would not do much with the dairy
that summer, so I did not try to get more
men, I thought the best thing I could do
was to get the things out from the bay, so
I went to work with a will....I broke in
two or three young bullocks.....Now I would
start on a Monday morning, go to Towamba
twenty five miles, the next morning up early,
get the bullocks and put the saddles on them,....sixteen
miles from there to the bay over very rough
country, I would try to get to the bay about
the middle of the day......after I got dinner
I got the key of the store and got the loads
all weighed and strapped. There was lot of
clumsy things to go on the quietest bullocks.
Next morning get the bullocks into a small
yard up the hill from the wharf....had breakfast
got the loads in and got to Towamba, the
next day home.....I think it was eighteen
times I went to the bay, and walked all they
way.....I think that before anyone would
do the same work now there would be a strike.
I had a visit from Mr Campbell who was then
superintendent at Gundary, I got him to send
me a couple of men, so we got a bit of wheat
in and other work done through the winter.
In the Spring we started to make a bit of
butter, it had to be carried to the bay on
bullocks, but I had a man to go with me now.
It generally sold pretty well in Sydney.
There was not much demand for cattle, the
third summer I was here we took five hundred,
a mixed lot to Bergalia, the Company had
bought that place, but I began to think things
were not going on well, so I gave my notice
to leave."
Weatherhead took a trip to Sydney that winter
and while there discovered that Abercrombie
& Co. had failed and he then had difficulty
in getting the one hundred pounds owing to
him. He finally took its value in goods from
their store.
"After I got back (from Sydney), we
soon left Nangutta, we first went to Walagara
(sic), near the junction of the Timbillica
and the Genoa Rivers.....We soon after that
shifted to Timbillica, put up two large bark
huts and had to live in them awhile until
I got a house up but we were quite content.
The spring was coming in now. The Mrs milked
the cows in a make-shift yard, so that I
could keep going to get the house and a small
dairy up.....after I got the house up I began
to put up yards.....I was never one of the
unemployed......We did most of our own work,
and never went into debt, and I have stuck
to the same thing all along, out of debt
and danger.."
Weatherhead was no doubt a very hard worker.
His house, yards and all buildings in this
place were totally destroyed by flood and
he then set to work to rebuild everything
on higher ground only to have it all washed
away again two years later. Of course he
re-built!
1843/44 Governor Gipps legalises squatting
1843 Nungatta sold to Campbell & Co.
Alexander Weatherhead continues:
"Nangutta, after I left it, was kept
on in the name of Campbell & Co., but
it had to be sold; Mr P. Imlay bought it.
Fifteen shillings per head for the cattle,
and five pounds for the horses, station given
in, that was a come down. "Mr P. Imlay
came round our way, he was buying stores
to fatten for boiling down. I sold what bullocks
I had......the price was fifteen shillings
per head delivered at Bega.....Then the next
thing there was some talk of gold being found,
so there was soon a prospect of better times.
The next buyer of store bullocks was a gentleman
from Gippsland...his price was two pounds
ten shillings per head but....help him to
Gippsland with them, he tried hard to get
mine, but I would not deal. It was as well
I did not for the next year I got one pound
per head more and delivered them only twenty
miles from home." (Yambulla Gold Fields???)
"The gold soon made a great difference
in many ways.....there got to be a great
demand for working bullocks, I sold some
at long prices."
1846 Proclamation of County Auckland and
Dampier, with related parishes. Parish of
Nangutta created.
1847 An order of Council requires persons
to apply for leases of the runs of Crown
Land which results in leases being granted
in Bega Valley in 1848, 1858. These were
renewable leases for up to 14 years and squatters
in possession were allowed to apply for leasehold
to the runs, without competition. Crown Lands
Occupations acts then reduces existing leases
to five years however if there were improvements
on the land the leaseholder was entitled
to pre emptive rights to that portion of
land.
1847 Nungatta sold to Imlay Brothers. Extract
from "Leaves From My Life" by A.
Weatherhead states:
"I said further back that Mr. P. Imlay
bought Nangutta, he kept it for a few years,
but never made much out of it. Cattle being
at a low price, they were neglected and went
wild. When he sold there was some mismanagement....Imlay
was afraid of a lawsuit and agreed to take
one thousand pound as a lump sum for everything.
The buyers, Melbourne men did well by it,
they took a good lot of cattle off it and
sold them in Melbourne at a good price, then
sold out for five thousand pounds. The buyer,
whose name was Sullivan thought he could
pay it off with cattle....but I knew he had
made a bad job of it...I told him when he
wanted to sell Nangutta I might give him
a bid
...he had two years....then came to me to
let me know he wanted to sell Nangutta. He
wanted one thousand pounds for the goodwill
of the station, I offered him eight hundred
and let him know I would give no more.
At the end of three weeks, he came back and
took my offer, half cash, the other half
when the place transferred to me, when I
heard that was done, I went to Bombala to
see the Commissioner. I found then the rent
had increased from thirty to eighty pounds.
I got one hundred and fifty pounds for the
place I was leaving....Well, there was one
blessing, I was sure of constant work for
a long time.
There was a large bush paddock, everything
else was a wreck, not even a bit of garden,
and not a hut, I wont say house, fit to live
in. I added a bit to one old thing do do
us for a while, then I got two sawyers and
a carpenter, and got a decent house up. ....I
bought the brand of the cattle and horses
for thirty-five pounds from Mr Sullivan,
what were left were very wild. We got a good
few cattle, but it was rough work, one horse
was gored to death, another was ruptured
with a horn. We got some of the horses, but
there is a great deal of danger in going
after wild horses in rough country, and often
getting some of our good horses lamed, so
we found it was best to shoot them. There
is a great deal of danger in going after
wild horses in rough country....so we found
it best to shoot them.
Nangutta was an out of the way place and
is yet. People say well, you are well off
in some ways...but...there are other troubles,
if there is children to go to school we must
have our own school master; or if we required
a doctor, say four visits the bill would
come in for fifty pounds. Then our nearest
Post Office was twenty miles; and we have
kept our own roads. I have never asked the
Government for one shilling, so I have not
been a troublesome subject. Then we have
always kept an open house for all callers,
some will say you wont have many in such
an out of the way place. A few years ago
there were two Melbourne gentlemen came here
one afternoon, they thought we would not
be troubled with many callers, but before
night they thought otherwise, as there were
four more for a night's quarters. After that
some of the family kept an account for twelve
months, and there was one short of four hundred
in the year, but there was no account of
meals given away. I then kept an account
for one month, and there were 38 callers
and 82 meals, most of them stay all night,
some of them thankful, some not."
End of excerpts from "NUNGATTA SOUTH"
by Judy Winters 2001
Further excerpt from "Leaves From My Life" by Alexander Weatherhead
"I think it was in 1868 I began to buy
land over on the Bega side. I bought from
four or five different people until I got
towards thirteen hundred acres, that is all
freehold now. Well, ......we had a daughter
married over on that side, I used to ride
over there now and then, sometimes drive
over and take Mrs.Weatherhead with me. To
drive over at that time was not a pleasure
trip, as the roads were very bad. If it happened
to be a wet season all of the way from Bombala
to the top of the mountain was little better
than a bog, and there were plenty other places
not much better. At one time when we were
over it came on very wet, there were two
or three floods one after another, we were
six weeks from home that time. .... I found
the Box range very bad, great ruts washed
in it, and other places very bad. Before
we got to Rocky Hall Mrs. Weatherhead got
pitched out, it was a heavy waggonette we
had, she went between the wheels, one of
the hind wheels went over her back, and her
face got bruised. She got up quick told me
I had killer her, then laid down again. Was
she Irish? Oh no, she belonged to the neighborhood
of Canny, Newcastle. I could not get out
(of the wagon) quickly enough, when I tried
to steady the horses one of them made a bound
and broke a swingle-tree, but I got them
to a fence on one side of the road, and tied
them up, it was a good while before she could
get over it."
They made them tough in those days as they
had to be, particularly the women who had
many roles: wives, mothers, teachers, seamstresses,
cooks and general hands when needed. Surviving
childbirth in these remote places was not
guaranteed.
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Nungatta Cemetery - Alexander Weatherhead's headstone on right |
Nungatta Cemetery |
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Alexander Weatherhead's headstone |
'Australian Town & Country' December 9, 1871
A TOUR TO THE SOUTH
by Our Special Correspondent.
The Border Land, on the Southern coast of
New South Wales, is as little known in some
parts as the country about the sources of
the Nile.
Considering the rugged character of the district
and to the ordinary traveller the almost
insurmountable difficulties of access, this
can scarcely be wondered at. Passes, defiles,
rocks, gullies, hilly and scrubby ground,
present themselves in succession to the gaze
of the stranger, and unless one has a guide
it is utterly impossible to proceed with
certainty. Yet far back in some of these
wilds, bold and enterprising spirits 'over
thirty years ago' found their way, and made
homes for themselves and reared large families.
To the residence and station of one of these
pioneers, I resolved while on a visit to
Eden recently, to take a trip and see the
surrounding country. Good horses having been
procured, the sun had scarcely begun to light
up the top of huge Mount Imlay, which rose
3000 feet right before us, when we were in
the saddle, and were proceeding under the
shades of Rixon's Bower, a short distance
from Eden. The first seventeen miles is easily
described, along stony and pebbly ground,
across gullies, and up watercourses; then
over hills, along sidlings, relieved by an
occasional oasis, in the form of a patch
of rich pasture on an alluvial deposit, and
all the time endeavouring to make a circuit
of Mount Imlay. Soon after we came to the
Towamba, or Kiah River, a fine broad stream,
which flows into Twofold Bay. There are a
few farms here, a store and post-office,
and a good public school, the latter under
the able management of Mr. Beer. On the right
bank of the Towamba River, is the homestead
of the Towamba Station, the property of C.T.
Stiles and Co.
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Towamba Homestead and bullock wagon. No date |
The station has been cut up considerably
by free selectors, who have taken most of
the choice spots on the river banks, and
the population has so much increased that
there is a second erected on the station,
a few miles higher up, at a place called
Burragate, or Pussy Cat.
Being 'on pleasure bent', I diverged a little
from the comfortable home station at Towamba,
and visited Burragate. The school here is
a half-time one, under the charge of Mr.
G. D. Riley. It is constructed of sawn timber
and shingled, and is a very neat little building.
C. T. Stiles Esq., is the only member of
the local board, and to him is mainly due
the credit of erecting this school. There
were sixteen children in attendance, including
all on the roll. This is the only school
that I have ever visited where the number
in attendance was the same as the number
on the roll. Though only opened a short time,
the children were examined in grammar (including
reading, parsing, and analysis) arithmetic
and geography. They showed considerable proficiency
in these branches; and taking into consideration
the fact that they only get half-time instruction,
they must be either remarkably intelligent,
or the method of instruction must be very
good, perhaps both. Besides their good writing,
I must not forget to mention that other necessary
parts of parental care, school discipline
and the children 's welfare, had not been
neglected. They were all neatly dressed,
and wore boots, and all had clean faces and
clean hands.
Under these favourable circumstances, I
am tempted to give the names of a few of
the scholars whose proficiency was worthy
of mention. viz.: - O. Sherwin, W. Robinson,
A. Binnie, Alice Sherwin, Sarah Robinson,
and Elizabeth Hide.
A few miles from the school there is a grand
sight, worth a day's ride. It is a great
wall of rock, three miles east of Burragate,
and a mile from the Wyndham-road to the Monaro.
It forms part of the Jingery mountains, of
which Mount Imlay is the highest point. This
almost perpendicular wall of rock is calculated
to be 1300 feet high, and 900 feet wide.
About half way up there is a ledge; and from
the highest part there is a waterfall or
cascade, which falls on this ledge, where
there are four or five perfectly circular
wells, filled to the brim with water. The
depth of these wells must be very great,
for we tried to bottom them with saplings
twenty feet long, and did not succeed. There
are pipes in the stone, leading from this
ledge over to the next, at an equally great
depth below, where there is a second well
or couldron-shaped indenture in the rock.
At one end there is an outlet by which the
water escapes down the rocky precipice.
We returned to Towamba from here, passing
several free selections on the road. From
the station (Towamba) we had a long ride
of twenty-four miles, through a country which
was as changeable as the climate - summer
in the morning and winter in the evening.
Between ranges, along cattle tracks, through
sterile country, and then wild passes, followed
by well-grassed and undulating pastoral land,
and at last arrived at an opening where the
welcome sounds of human voices struck our
ears. This is Nangutta station the property of Mr. Alexander Weatherhead
- as bluff, yet genial, and hospitable an
old gentleman as there is in the colony.
Even before we had introduced ourselves,
our horses were taken charge of, and we were
welcomed to a comfortable and well-built
house, surrounded by flowers and emblossomed
in climbers. Such was the spot where Mr.
Weatherhead has made his home. The years
of toil attendant on the opening of this
part of the country must have been very great,
but the worthy owner is well repaid.
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Original Nungatta Homestead | Nungatta Bake House |
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New Nangutta Homestead built c.1918 |
Nangutta is altogether 32,000 acres in extent, and
is now a cattle station. The country is principally
mountainous, and, therefore, only suitable
for pastoral purposes. I was glad to notice
the excellent breed of cattle on the station,
which is in strange contrast to the mongrel
breeds of some parts of the coast, with the
exception of those at Towamba, which are
mostly very fine. The view from Nangutta
House is grand in the extreme. Lofty mountains
clad in verdure, east west, north, and south,
and winding valleys in the centre of which
is a fine stream of water ever flowing, and
yielding an abundant supply for the station.
All these good things are calculated to make
the life of the worthy proprietor and his
family a happy one. The business of the station
and personal attention to their herds relieve
the solitude which might otherwise prevail
among this pioneer family. Mr. Weatherhead
has reared a goodly number of tall, strapping
sons, and fine well-grown daughters; and
they, one and all, inherit the same kindly
feelings which characterise the father. They
are just such people, in fact, as a gifted
writer in a recent number of the Town and Country Journal described in the following beautiful lines:
-
Strong and active, tough and tireless,
open-hearted kindly souled,
such as poets love to picture in the far
off age of gold;
August 28, 1915
'The Southern Record and Advertiser '
LAND FOR SETTLEMENT
The landless dairy farmer is at last going
to have a chance to get a home on the South
Coast of New South Wales, on one of its most
favored properties, as Nangutta is now available,
for application by those in need of a good
dairying home. The vender has made extensive
alterations and has practically exterminated
the rabbit. Thirty miles of netting have
been erected and useless timber destroyed.
The estate has been heavily stocked by starving
sheep during the past eight months and these
should improve the country for dairying purposes.
The land is being sold under Closer Settlement
Conditions and the Settler has only to find
5o per cent of the purchase money as a deposit
and then has nothing more to pay for two
years when an annual payment of 5½ per cent
is payable which covers interest and part
payment off balance of purchase money. The
areas are exceptionally liberal and range
from 455 acres to about 700 acres at prices
from £3 10s to an average of £4. It is magnificently
watered by never-failing running streams
and has many miles of rich lucerne and corn
flats. Having been occupied by one family
for over 60 years, the improvements effected
are permanent and the country which was once
heavily timbered is now very open and park-like.
It is noted for its heavy carrying capacity
and for the large number of prime fat cattle
that have been reared upon it. Numerous enquiries
are to hand by the Vendors from Gipps land,
Riverina and other districts, and it will
be necessary for applicants to quickly apply
if they want a block. The Vendor is erecting
a Cheese factory on the property and will
also securely fence each farm. The area of
Nangutta is 11200 acres and it is divided
into 19 farms. A school will be erected on
the property and telephone connected. The
property com prises the pick of the country
for miles round, and has long been the envy
of the landless dairy farmer. Eden is 40
miles from boundary, Bombala about 30 miles
and Towamba 20 miles. It lies right on the
Victorian border and has a rainfall of over
30 inches. Our advice is - go and see it
for yourselves, and you will secure a farm.