Eumundi Voice - Issue 100, 22 August 2024

Memories of early Eumundi

When I started school in 1935, the main street in Eumundi was just gravel. The School of Arts was two storeys with a combined meeting and supper room and another meeting room on the bottom. The upper rooms were for pictures, dancing and social events.

On the opposite side of the road was a big railway gate and a paddock for holding livestock

before they were loaded onto trains. Opposite the Old Bakehouse was the Bank of NSW with a string of shops.

Further down the gravel road you came to double railway gates which were closed by Mrs Bedington the gate keeper whenever a train was coming. After it had passed, she opened them again for road traffic. This gravel road was the only route to Cooroy and all trains ran through the middle of Eumundi.

Going through the gates, on your left were a number of businesses including the garage owned by the Wilson Brothers, Percy and Jim. Nearby, George Adams built road coaches and horse-drawn vehicles such as carts and sulkies which all had to come through those railway gates. Les Hielscher was his blacksmith.

About 1939 the overhead bridge across the track was built and the Wilson Brothers moved their garage to the site where Hiway Motors stands.

Where Dick Caplick Park is now, the Etheridge Brothers had their sawmill. Just down from the

CWA Hall was another railway gate for access to the yard and goods shed for people to unload or pick up various items transported by rail.

Just a few memories amongst many. Just like our planet, time changes everything but Eumundi has always been my home.

Wally Lait