Freemantle Rd Connections_Summer issue 2024

INSIDE:

• CONNECTED TO OUR NIGHT SKY

• LIGHTNING - SCARY AND FASCINATING

• SCREEN SAVING OUR CHILDREN’S BRAINS

• IRON MAN AND THE COUNTRY GIRL

• THE SOLDIER SETTLER OF ‘BIMBIMBIE’

• THE PRIOR -ADL AM PIONEER WOMEN

•

4-5 CONNECTED TO OUR NIGHT SKY: R AY PICKARD

6 RFS FEATURE CAPT PHILLIPA JARRETT

7 KILLONGBUTTA CHALLENGE LEIGH THORNE YOUR LOCAL JP ALISON THOMPSON

8 PL ATYPUS PALS WITH PIPER THOMPSON

9 SCREEN SAVING OUR CHILDREN’S BR AINS SAR AH THORNE

10-11 THE IRON MAN AND THE COUNTRY GIRL RHONDA CLAYTON

12-13 THE SOLDIER SETTLER OF ‘BIMBIMBIE’ CHRIS HOGG

14-17

THE PRIOR -ADL AM PIONEER WOMEN MICHELLE M ABBOTT

18

BILLYWILLING A HA ZARD REDUCTION RFS NOTICE

Hi readers,

This issue is the last in the first series of four community magazines that I’ve published for the Freemantle Road community over the past 13 months.

During this time I’ve seen more of the road community come together.

It was heartening to see such a turn up at the Welcome to New Neighbours Event at the Freemantle Shed hosted by Vic and Cher yl Schembri and the new faces at the RFS Christmas Party

This was its intention and why my publishing house introduced and auspiced it inviting your participation and contribution.

The FRC Facebook (FB) group has more than 140 members and continues to grow with six administrators!

The two wonderful advertisers, John Paton and Lorne Ryan have covered its printing costsincluding the flyers for the Welcome Day.

The Autumn issue is under way with the deadline for news items and features end of the first week in May

It’s now time to consider the future of this publication as I never intended to sustain it by myself.

Over the next few months I will be having discussions with interested members of the community as to how we should move for ward If you want to become involved please email me. What I have learnt is that not ever yone is on Facebook!

For many people it is not a safe environment Recently I fell victim to hackers who stole my business FB page by taking over my personal profile which still exists Facebook did nothing to help me recover these two pages after I created another profile Yet I received an invite from FB to administer our FRC group page which I set up! I’ve grown up working in the digital media and never expected to become a victim Facebook is not the solution for bringing people together as we have members who are not online or choose not to use FB. We need to look out for each other and remain connected through community magazines in both printed and digital formats I look for ward to receiving your feedback.

- Marje Prior Writer, Editor and Publisher

Managing

Writer

Proof

Advertising:

Postal

Email: connections@onthestone.com.au

Phone: 02 6337 4131

Website: w w w.onthestone.com.au

Facebook:

Connected to our night sky

Perched high at 860 metres above sea level is the Bathurst Obser vator y and Research Facility on Prior’s Lane, Billy willinga.

In 2018, Ray Pickard bought the property to relocate his obser vator y from Limekilns Road because of the light pollution of the encroaching suburbs.

In 2020 he reopened it to the public only to be shut down by the COVID lockdowns. It was a tough time that also saw the collapse of his marriage forcing him back into the workforce to save his tourism business.

The obser vator y attracts small groups of visitors who are mainly from Sydney and is the first west of the mountains that offers a dark, rural sky.

It is open on the weekends and school holidays with bookings essential as the obser vator y can be ver y popular with often a waiting list of eager visitors.

R ay was 14-years-old when he built his first telescope under the super vision of his science teacher

The boy from Blacktown came to Bathurst in 1998 to build the obser vator y opposite the Cattledrome on Limekilns Road with a redundancy package from Sydney Water where it operated as a tourism business for 20 years

He has reinvented himself a number of times having first graduated in chemistr y from Sydney TAFE, then geolog y at UTS before completing his teacher’s degree at CSU.

He describes himself as a chemist, geologist and a self-confessed nerd

But R ay is more than a nerd. He is a communicator, an educator, a passionate astronomer with a personal interest in indigenous astronomy, and one of few people in the world that studies meteorites.

In June 2021, his work was officially recognised by all the international space agencies with NASA naming an asteroid after him in the solar system

Asteroid 10037 now carries the name R ay Pickard on the NASA website in recognition of his work with meteorites and public education programs

Funding was sourced by local member, Paul Toole, to build his mineral museum next to his telescope to educate visitors about his significant collection which includes a small two gram piece of rock from the moon!

This gave R ay the boost he needed to not give up on his dream He is still developing his property focussing on small groups to create a boutique experience and a viewing site for other astronomers.

R ay fell in love with the 60 acres Billywillinga property on Prior’s Lane when he first saw it after scouring the district for an ideal location

It once formed part of Ern Prior’s property called ‘Oak Hill’ sold to developers in the early 1970s as one of the first major rural sub divisions in the area since the soldier settler blocks.

Ern used to ride his white horse through the thick bush with his stockmen to muster his sheep that involved setting up camp to ‘boil the billy’ and resupplying the salt troughs while the sheep dogs were sent out to do their work

His mother, Laura Prior, also har vested five corner

berries from these hills to make her jam.

R ay shares his property with his horse, Gunnabe, who he rescued from the knacker y and has made himself at home keeping R ay company. He alerts him when visitors arrive and keeps an eye on their activities.

A concrete pad was poured near the obser vator y as a base for other astronomers to set up their equipment to obser ve the night sky and R ay has recently restarted the Bathurst and District Astronomical Society, which is a social group that meets monthly.

For larger groups and bus tours, R ay holds Star Talks at Abercrombie House where he brings a smaller telescope and shares his knowledge about sky law

For further information:

To book a tour call R ay on his mobile 0427 292 214 or visit his website:

www.bathurstobser vator y.com.au.

Note: groups are limited to 10 people and are booked out in advance.

For more information about the Bathurst and District Astronomical Society (BADAS) phone R ay. The group has a private Facebook site

R ay keeps people informed about his sitings through his Facebook: Bathurst Obser vator y Research Facility which is a public site.

Lightning - scar y & fascinating

Lightning is basically a giant spark. They can be from cloud to cloud or cloud to ground. It is caused by an imbalance of charge. The imbalance of charge is caused by air and water molecules caught in turbulent air in updraughts and downdraughts usually associated with storm clouds. Sometimes strikes occur when a volcano erupts and sometimes when large bushfires generate lots of smoke.

There are approximately 1.4 billion lightning strikes ever y year around the world. Places that have storms have more lightning. Tropical areas have more turbulent air, more storms and more lightning

There can be both positive and negative strikes. Most of us are familiar with the negative strikes which are from cloud to ground. The opposite can occur, called a positive strike from ground to clouds higher up in the atmosphere These tend to be about 10 times as powerful as the negative strikes and due to the extra power, they tend to start fires more frequently.

We all know that we should never shelter under trees or outdoors during thunder storms. As a firefighter I have seen dead animals under lightning struck trees The safest place is inside a structure such as a shed or house Stay away from phone lines, water taps and household wiring and associated equipment If you are in a vehicle, stay inside as it is also a safe place.

Lightning does not always strike at the highest point I have seen many trees halfway up a hill, or in

the bottom of a gully that have been struck As a firefighter and land owner of acreage, I have seen many struck trees. Some have been spectacularly destroyed with debris thrown 80 metres away. This debris includes huge splinters of wood the size of railway sleepers embedded half way up a tree 30 m from strike.

Most of these spectacular destructions do not start fires. It is the tree with a ruffle down the side that tends to start fires

If enough rain falls on a lightning struck tree, any fire is completely extinguished If ver y little or no rain falls, fire activity may be immediate. If not enough rain falls, the fire quietly smoulders, then usually next morning, around 10 am, as the temperature rises, humidity drops, surrounding grasses and bush dries out and breeze comes up, the fire starts to spread

There are many examples of people seeing fires started by lightning and being in a position to take immediate action stopping the fire from becoming a major event One person put out the fire with a picnic blanket, that is all he had in his vehicle Others have used their boots to quickly scrape a mineral earth line around the ver y small fire A branch from a green tree can work to beat out the edges of a fire. I know of a person that managed to stop a fire with his bare hands, as he scraped leaf litter away from fire edge

As a property owner, carr ying a knapsack of water and or a rakehoe in summer on your ute, provides you with the tools to stop or contain a small fire

In all these examples, the first

By Phillipa Jarrett, Captain, Freemantle Volunteer Bushfire Brigade

action should be to ring 000 or have someone ring 000 for you. If you are unsuccessful in dealing with the fire, you want the red fire trucks on the way. You can always ring back and say the fire is out

Ever yone who works or lives in the area, if we have had storms, please keep an eye out for fires starting after storms. This usually happens the next day, but I have heard of examples taking up to a week to kick off.

Please take care when nature launches a storm in our region.

During fire season, October 1st through to March 31st, you MUST have a permit.

These can only be issued by a permit officer.

Contact your fire control centre to organise a permit:

Bathurst - Chifley Fire Control Centre 1300 258 737

Cabonne - Canobolas Fire Control Centre 02 6363 6666

Killongbutta Challenge

Call for organisers & volunteers

The Killongbutta Road is an amazing engineering feat. Car ved into the side of a beautiful valley it follows the Macquarie River for about six or seven kilometres with spectacular uninterrupted views across the beautiful grazing properties it passes through.

The road was recently upgraded by council providing wonderful access for those who own the properties along the way.

At the end of Killongbutta Road, is the property known as ‘Killongbutta’ that is part of Cassinia Environmental’s portfolio It is a conser vation, revegetation and biodiversity project with approximately 30,000 trees planted in the last couple of years.

Leigh and Sarah Thorne reside on the property and manage the project.

Leigh and Sarah also are involved with Musaale Australia Ltd. which

has been supporting socioeconomic disadvantaged children and families in Uganda since 2006. ‘Musaale’ means friend in the Gishu language. To date Musaale has provided a vocational community centre in the village of Bwagogo in Uganda with a tailoring and woodworking project in progress It has also provided medical clinics and supported schools and a number of community projects Musaale supporters sponsor children and teachers, to assist with education, school uniforms and food for students.

This year in September a team led by Leigh will travel to Buwagogo and commence an aquaculture pilot program building fish ponds and setting up a closed system that will provide fish for food whilst also fertilising current vegetable gardens.

Musaale will also continue to assist with community projects and

provide a medical clinic

So what has Killongbutta Road got to do with all this.

Leigh is looking to run a fundraiser that will involve a run along the length of the Killongbutta Road to the front gate of ‘Killongbutta’ and back again.

This will indeed be a challenge with some of the steep inclines involved but the participants will have an incredible adventure and beautiful sights to see.

It is intended that the participants will pay a fee to enter and there will be substantial prize money for the winner/s on the day

Leigh is looking for people from the local community to assist with organising the event and also volunteers to assist on the day.

If you are interested in assisting with the fundraiser ‘Killongbutta Challenge’ please contact Leigh Thorne on 0425 812786

Your local Justice of the Peace

Have you ever needed a Justice of the Peace (JP)?

Well now you have access to a JP locally within our community. Alison Thompson of Killongbutta has recently become a JP and is able to ser ve the local community and undertake the following:

• Certify copies of an original document

• Witness a statutor y declaration

• Witness an affidavit

The most common reason that people need a JP is to certify copies of documents and there are many organisations that require a certified copy of a document like a birth certificate to make an application, obtain a licence etc

Having a local JP will hopefully make that a bit easier especially on weekends!

For further information:

You can contact Alison on 0414 687 475 to make an appointment to have documents signed

You can also verify Alison’s credentials by visiting the following NSW government website: JP Public Register | Communities and Justice (nsw gov au) and searching by name.

Our junior writer Piper Thompson from Killongbutta has researched and written this article about bees

Protecting our busy native bees

Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey.

Australia has over 1,700 species of native bees and in the Bathurst region, there are several fascinating native bee species that contribute to the local ecosystem. These include stingless bees, Yellow & Black Carpenter bees and the Blue Banded bees (pictured) – these striking bees have distinctive blue bands across their abdomens.

Remember that there are still many discoveries to be made about our Australian native bees, and your obser vations could add to our understanding of these important creatures

Did you know?

• B ees help produce 1/3 of our food supply by pollinating crops and plants

• B ees Help provide ½ of the world’s fibres, oils, and other raw materials by pollinating plants that produce them

• B ees help create many medicines by producing honey and other products with medicinal properties

• B ees provide food for wildlife by pollinating plants that are sources of food for animals

• B ees help prevent soil erosion by pollinating plants that stabilize the soil and prevent water runoff

What would happen if there were no bees?

We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain.

A world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion.

Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables.

Commercial agriculture that depends on bees to pollinate their key crops to supply the world’s population would collapse and businesses would shut down causing massive economic repercussions around the world

The loss of bees would effectively change the entire food system!

What can you do?

Up close & personal

It was an awesome moment when my grandson, River Hopper, came across this water dragon camouf laged on an old post at the Killongbutta causeway.

River, from Sisters Beach, Tasmania, was returning from his holidays with his mother Angela, when she spotted this dragon guarding its post.

It remained still while we got up close. So proud, so regal and so obliging to let us take its photo - editor

There are many things you can do to help protects bees which include buying Australian honey, plant a bee-friendly garden and avoid using pesticides around flowering plants and report pests and disease concerns.

For more information

10 facts about honey bees! | National Geographic Kids (natgeokids.com)

Screen Saving our children’s brains

By Sarah Thorne

Technology has exploded into our lives, demanding our attention and offering better connectivity, productivity, community, information, education, entertainment, convenience and the promise of far more. While technology can be ver y helpful in some contexts, it can be problematic in others.

Our brains are designed to work linearly but digital media can impose multitasking and often demands processing multiple stimuli at speed. This has a negative impact on neural pathways in the brain, particularly on young, developing brains

Research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies showed that by the age of 13-years-old, Australian children spend on average three hours per weekday and almost four hours per weekend day on screens.

Brad Huddleston, author of Digital Cocaine and The Dark Side of Technolog y, explains that video games and social media sites are designed to maximise dopamine release to the brain. This makes these features of technolog y intensely engaging, leading to addictive behaviour because of the extent of dopamine released during digital use.

Steve Pope, a British counsellor and Psychotherapist who specialises in addiction states, “Spending 2hrs on a game station is equivalent to taking a line of cocaine in the high that it produces.”

It is well documented that a scan of the brain of a gaming addict shows a honeycombed and hollowed out pattern almost

identical to a scanned brain of a cocaine addict

Brad Huddleston explains that when the nucleus accumbens or ‘pleasure centre’ in the brain is excessively flooded with dopamine, the brain begins to release a chemical wall to protect itself against overstimulation This constant interface will eventually lead to emotional numbness.

Some symptoms of addiction to look out for are anger and aggression along with anxiety. Sleep disturbances, irritability, fatigue and depression, lack of motivation, scattered attention span and a disconnect from relationships and learning are some of the marks of an individual addicted to screen use.

A digital detox is recommended if digital use is having a harmful effect, using only analogue entertainment during this detox period

Catherine Steiner-Adair, a Clinical Instructor in Psycholog y at Har vard University and author of The Big Disconnect; Protecting Childhood & Family Relationships in the Digital Age, advises the following few points;

‘Don’t put your baby in front of a screen. Ever! ‘

A baby learns to self-soothe best from a parent

‘ Think hard about placing your toddler in front of one too (T V is a screen)’

The pre-literacy sensorium in the brain needs to develop through hands on, multi-sensor y experiences at this age

Practical advice includes the removal of entertainment tabs when studying to reduce task

switching along with ensuring phones and other devices are in a separate location. This provides for the brain to concentrate on a single focus and thereby enhance learning and memor y.

It is advised that to maintain a balance for brain activity, create an environment of 80% analog and 20% digital tools

Reading is highly effective for absorbing information at a pace that the brain is able to retain and then generalise into ‘schemas’ or connected memor y

Learning a musical instrument, learning a language and memorising text such as poetr y, proverbs or stories are three proven ways to regrow dendrites in the brain and increase its functioning capacity.

It is advised to keep screens outside of bedrooms. They are best curated in communal rooms where time and content can be monitored and discussed.

The good news is that the plasticity of the brain means that it can recover from digital addiction and return to health with digital detox, outdoor, analogue activities and non-digital forms of recreation within a relatively short period of time.

Other sources and for more information;

https://www.amenclinics.com/blo g/its-official-video-gameaddiction-is-a-mental-health-disor der/

https://www brainandlife org/artic les/how-do-video-games-affect-thedeveloping-brains-of-children

https://nwef org/2021/09/29/your -childs-brain-on-digital-cocainewith-brad-huddleston/

The iron man and a countr y girl

The Edwards stor y by Rhonda Clay ton

In September 2023 we lost one of our locals, Patricia Edwards, known as Pat who resided on the property ‘Hillside’ at Milkers Flat for over 50 years.

Her husband, Wally died from a medical condition, ‘Steele Richardson Syndrome’, 16 years earlier

I’d like to tell you a little about my folks

Pat and Wally both came from big families. Mum the third of seven siblings and dad, the fourth of six

They both had a rough childhood with hardly anything.

Mum first met dad at the Hampton Public School and later again at the Wangarri Sawmill at Hampton where she used to stack timbers. Little did she know that meeting was going to be the beginning of a beautiful romance that would develop into a loving and lasting partnership of nearly 50 years.

While working at the sawmill Dad’s boss dared him that he wouldn’t be able to throw Pat down the sawdust heap

So being the daredevil and larrikin that he was, he kindly obliged and that day onwards their relationship blossomed.

After the sawmill burnt down Pat worked as a waitress at Hampton Halfway House and Jenolan Caves before going into nursing at Bloomfield Hospital in Orange.

They married on 12 April, 1958 and had two children, Little Wally (dec) and myself.

They purchased ‘Hillside’ in 1972 from Edie Tobin and stayed in the old school hut while renovating the homestead to make it liveable

Mum had a ver y strong passion ... she loved animals It wasn’t unusual to find her walking around with half a dozen pet lambs following her She often took in sugar tailed gliders, kookaburras, magpies, wallabies to name just a few that needed to be cared for

Later on they invested in another property at the end of Freemantle Road call ‘B elerada’ (approximately 5000 acres).

Dad valued mum ’ s judgement and opinion as she had a keen eye when it came to stock. They also had a Dorset Stud for some years Pat worked side-by-side with Wally in all farming tasks except ploughing until he became incapacitated

Dad was a volunteer for the Bush Fire Brigade for well over 20 years and gave a helping hand with the Freemantle bushfires in 1985.

He also orchestrated and pushed to hold the Junior and Senior Stockman Iron Man events at the Bathurst Show for three years in a row in the 1980s.

Although dad’s education was

ver y minimal he was ver y bright and could turn his hand to anything-

He was nine-years-old when he got his first job cutting props in the Jenolan Caves Forest. There’s a knack when it comes to handling horses and dad had all the talents of a horse whisperer... he was 13 when he caught and broke his first brumby near Jenolan Caves.

He was ver y successful as a cross countr y runner and would train by chasing the draft horses home in the evening that he used for snigging the logs each day in the forest to keep fit.

He started woodchoping when he was 10 and won his first woodchop competition as a 14-year-old in 1949 with his brother Tommy in the Butcher’s block event (cross cut sawing).

During his lifetime he won many trophies and championships in woodchoping, cross countr y running, agro olympics, equestrian, stockman ironman and many more.

Dad was a workaholic with a great sense of humour who loved fishing.

To me he had all the attributes and was the epitome of a ‘true champion’.

We lost Little Wally on the 6 May 1983 in a vehicle accident which devastated us. Dad died on the 27 November, 2007

Mum and I battled on alone working the farm for 16 years. She was in essence a true ‘ no frills’ countr y girl at with a loving and caring heart.

Pictured isWally with the National Stockman Iron Man trophy and Hero at Narang, Queensland, 1987

‘ Mum and I battled on alone working the farm for 16 years. She was in essence a true ‘ no frills’ country girl at heart. ’

Below: Rhonda with her mum and Ginger

Rhonda, Little Wally, Wally and Pat

Their wedding & the Edwards brothers winning at the Cootamundra Show

Photos by Rhonda Clayton

The soldier settler of ‘Bimbimbie’

The Edmonds stor y

Frederick Cleverton ( Cleve)

Edmonds was born in 1890 at Woolich, Sydney. He married Cicely Treatt in 1919 and came to the Freemantle district to take up a Soldier’s settlement block at ‘Bimbimbie’, Killongbuttga Road, in the Spring of 1933.

They had just moved from Brindabella near Canberra, where they sadly lost most of their possessions when Brindabella homestead burnt down the night before they left.

B efore the war, Cleve lived in Sydney, where he worked as a telegraph operator for Reuters new agency, where one of the highlights of his work there was taking the message that the Titanic had sunk

Cleve enlisted ver y early in WW1, and participated in the dawn landing at Gallipoli as part of the 3rd battalion AIF.

He was wounded that day after reaching the front line and digging in. A sniper had begun picking off the men in the line one by one, shooting them in the head.

However, Cleve was shot in his arm, with the bullet passing through and ricocheting off his identity disc, most likely saving his life

After recuperating in Australia, he returned to ser ve in France, after hiding the contractures in his hand when having his medical, by hanging his coat over his arm Those contractures caused by the arm wound were lifelong.

Cicely also came from a Sydney family, the Treatts.Her father Frank B Treatt was a police magistrate who had a part in setting up

by Chris Hogg

children’s courts in Australia, and was also one of the founders of Royal North Shore Hospital Her brother, Vernon Hadden Treatt, was a Rhodes Scholar and Q C, becoming Crown Prosecutor of the NSW Supreme Court and later entering politics, ser ving as the third leader of the newly formed NSW Liberal Party.

Cleve built a comfortable home at ‘bimbimbie’, overlooking the river He was tremendously strong, carr ying their cast iron Canberra wood stove across the river on his back.

He built a suspension bridge over the river for access to the house, but this was later swept away in floods Thereafter, access was by boats, which he built himself.

The house was surrounded by

gardens and an extensive orchard, Cleve having previously spent some time as an orchardist in the Griffith area.

Cicely and Cleve led a humble but comfortable life at ‘Bimbimbie’ farming sheep.

They became a part of the community there, and Cleve was one of the founding members of the Freemantle Bushfire brigade

Son Tony ser ved as a pilot in WW2, and later became a science teacher and head of the science department at North Sydney B oy ’ s High, and writing some science textbooks

Son Peter set up home just across the river His passion was knowledge, devouring books and encyclopedias to educate himself. He lost by one point when competing against Barr y Jones, the champion of BP Pick-A-B ox, a television quiz show hosted by B ob Dyer in the 1960s.

Their daughter Jennifer married George Howarth and together they set up home at Billywillinga

Cleve and Cicely often had family visiting, and were ver y sociable until their activities became much curtailed due to Cicely’s Alzheimer’s disease, and her death in 1960

With the help of his son Peter, Cleve carried on until his unexpected death in Concord Repatriation Hospital in 1965, just a few short months after the death of his daughter Jennifer

He was sur vived by sons Tony and Peter With his death, ‘Bimbimbie’ passed out of the hands of the Edmonds family.

Jennifer riding on the dry river bed under the swinging bridge

Jennifer and Tony with their parents at ‘Bimbimbie’

The Edmonds family home, later dismantled by son Peter who carted it across the river to extend his home.

Cleve, Cicely and Jennifer in their garden

Cicely Edmonds

Inheriting family memorabilia

By Michelle Mabbott

Memorabilia and stories pass on. The generational link like a chain, that click together.

It’s been a challenging task to write this abbreviated family histor y with a longer version preser ved for my family.

As the eldest child and executrix (I have a younger brother) I had to attend to the estates of both of my parents, when they passed

I gathered any family memorabilia and heirlooms, and the special Bathurst histor y items that formed the vast acquired collections of all their lifetimes.

My mother inherited all the family goods of Hannah Adlam’s house in Croydon from her spinster Aunt, Heather Adlam, who lived there until it was sold. My mother supported Heather right up to her old age and was apparently the only family member who liked ‘old things’

The contents included the ancient family bible, with annotations of family names and dates going back generations of Adlams, a collection of family clothes and linens, sewing ephemera and Hannah’s steel crochet hooks, a collection of spectacles, Hannah’s rocker, photos and correspondence, much documentation, Henr y Prior senior’s gentleman’s toiletr y box, jeweller y, just part of the precious hoard and of course her eldest sister Charlotte’s art.

My parents had retired from Sydney to Umina Breach, then Woy Woy on The Central Coast. In processing their estates, I became so wear y from the years of the endless winding drive up and down the coast from Sydney One day I

started to fall asleep at the wheel, and woke up just in time as a guard rail loomed towards me with a sheer drop below.

It was time to leave it alone

Ten and a half years later, I am back onto the family histor y hunt. We are a family of collectors I was able to find ver y old, original newspaper clippings, photos, and scrapbooks from my mother and grandmother, documents, birth and death certificates, and correspondence from relatives.

I’ve visited the Bathurst Historical Society and Museum and searched on TROVE. Several relatives, including my mother, had started the genealogical searches

My mother writes, that she knew all her countr y Aunts and Uncles, except for Charlotte who passed away when she was only three. Family correspondence reveals they all kept connected.

I’ve visited the Holy Trinity Church, on my last trip to Bathurst with husband Chris. Seen the family grave plot of Hannah and Alfred, including their baby son Albert. Hannah and eldest daughter Charlotte’s remains were transported there from Sydney. Hannah was a member of the Holy Trinity Church, being baptised, confirmed and married there. Next time I’ ll view the Prior family graves.

My trip also included a lovely Prior family get together at Libby Dallimore’s new home on Freemantle Road at Milker’s Flat which overlooks the Prior’s ancestral land.

The Priors and Adlams farmed together at Eglinton with two of

Hannah’s young widowed daughters living at the ‘Hillside’ homestead on Freemantle Road for a while in the early days.

Mum always said, ‘Arlington’, the Eglinton farm, was a great example of a working farm and hamlet with its several outbuildings, dair y and yards, and should have been kept Alas, progress has seen it disappear into modern residential development.

In various family collections, we have the wonderful visual record of the farming activities of the Adlams and Priors. Building haystacks, chaff cutting, machiner y like the large steam engine, horses, and the women were on site too in one picture Thanks to the archive (now digitised) by Libby Dallimore, and the family collection held by Andrew Prior.

Now is the time to enjoy grandchildren Our first two granddaughters, are eighth generation Australians The first, Elkie, has had each month of her first year marked by a photo on Hannah’s heirloom rocker

The Prior-Adlam pioneer women

Elizabeth Anderson (pictured) came to Australia from Haddington Shire in Scotland, on the ship ‘Nabob’ in 1855

I have a slim book of hers, given on that voyage about Bishop Leighton

She looks dramatic in this photo in a long black gown, cape with ribbons and bonnet, yet kind

She was our first matriarch in this countr y, and was seven years older than her husband Henr y Prior Jnr when they married at Kelso on the 8 September 1858

Henr y Jnr came from Gloucestershire in England as a seven-year-old with his father Henr y Snr on the ‘General Hewitt’ in 1843 His father left behind his other three siblings after their mother, Hannah Keeping, died. His youngest brother, Charles joined them in 1859.

Elizabeth and Henr y Jnr had seven children: five boys and two girls.

My great grandmother, Hannah, (below) was the eldest child of Henr y Prior Jnr, and Elizabeth Anderson I have her grandfather’s (Henr y Prior Snr) gentleman’s cedar, brass-detailed, toiletr y box.

Jean Prior, their youngest daughter, was engaged to be married to John Anderson from Killongbutta But in 1891 Anderson broke off the engagement based on rumours affecting Jean’s reputation

Jean sued Anderson for 5000 pounds for breach of promise in the Sydney Supreme Court and a settlement was reached with Anderson paying 300 pounds in damages, expressing his disbelief “in any imputation against the plaintiff and regrets that she has been the victim of a slander ”

It was Jean who talked her father into changing the property name from ‘Milkers Flat’ to ‘Hillside’ during the 1890s (ref Freemantle vs

Bathurst by Jim Buchan)

Family legends were passed down, about my pioneering great grandmother, Hannah Palser Prior.

B orn at the grand home

‘Kelloshiel’, Roxburgh near Eglinton when the Prior’s leased the R ankin flour mill. She married Alfred Adlam, a farmer born in 1859 whose family lived at Dunkeld. My mother said that Hannah left a life of luxur y to marr y Alfred Her wedding dress is an exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum. The couple lived at ‘Arlington’ their farm at Eglinton in a small brick and timber cottage, raising 10 children - six girls, and three boys, and a foster child. It was a house full of children, but their youngest Albert died at 11 months.

They fostered a baby boy called Tommy Braghetta, as the father had seven other older children to raise. His mother had passed away of the flu when he was only a few hours old. Sadly, little Tommy also passed away aged two Hannah, bore children for nearly 18 years, and was described by my mother as ‘ a bush nurse and midwife’ travelling out in her horse and sulky to aid local birthing mothers

Hannah had a home help for her own brood, a woman called Silly Sally who I’m led to believe had an intellectual disability. She also worked for the Prior family at ‘Hillside’ where she lived in the attic.

Home life at ‘Arlington’ would have been crowded with 10 children and two adults

My mother (Norah Clark) drew a house layout from memor y from her visits and holidays at ‘Arlington’ It provides an invaluable insight into a settler’s cottage. It had only four bedrooms, and two enclosed small rooms on the verandah. Often called sleepouts, for expanding families, which often happens with

‘ The women were as industrious as the men. ’

old cottages Fitting all those children into that space, with some quite young and babies, must have been a challenge

By modern standards only having one bathroom, for bathing about once a week, and an external kitchen and laundr y, it would have been tight. The dining room was in the kitchen next to the fuel stove An eat-in diner as the British would call it The dining table had long benches, there was a walk-in pantr y, a hanging meat safe, a hanging hessian water bag and water was rationed.

Later on when owned by Violet, Hannah’s daughter, one front verandah room became a dressing room and one of her son ’ s slept in the other sleepout verandah room Violet had an office near the kitchen At one side of the kitchen was a parlour, only opened for visitors, with beautiful antique furniture

There was lattice screening both sides of the front verandah, and a long corridor hallway ran through the house, with bedroom doors left open at night. Maybe to cool it down? The space between front and back sections of the house was also a breezeway. Next to the bathroom but entered from outside, was a sewing room.

The women were as industrious as the men As a farmer’s wife, Hannah can be seen in a photo wearing a sturdy full-length apron with pockets, a coverall Hannah’s daughter

Violet, (Auntie Vi), her second husband Walter and two sons, moved into ‘Arlington’ when Hannah moved to Sydney Vi sold eggs to The Egg B oard, and grew asparagus for Edgells. They also grew corn Vi also wore a hessian apron. She had an office near the kitchen, as she had to keep a record of the eggs sold to the egg board I still have a box that says ‘Eggs’.

There was a dair y on the land

there, originally wattle and daub, but later rendered The thatched roof also upgraded to a tin one. Plus a poultr y run, chickens and turkeys

In one photo of Hannah and Violet, both women wore leather boots whether buttoned or laced Auntie Vi gave Mum a family heirloom, velvet-lined box set, of button hook and shoe horn I also have a timber spice chest made by her husband Mum last stayed there in 1953 four years before her marriage with her sister Charlotte. I saw the farm from outside in 1964 when a child with my family at age six.

As well as losing a baby son, another son Cecil aged five, lost half his arm in a chaff cutting accident The limb had to be amputated below the elbow. Years later our family drove over to his address in Sydney to collect the first of two heirloom rocking chairs.

Alfred’s father Matthew, from Dunkeld, had a threshing machine and a chaff cutter, which was used in conjunction with the Prior

Hannah and Alfred Adlam’s wedding por trait and their home at ‘Arling ton’, Eglinton (1907)

‘Possessions are reminders of loved ones lost , a holding on of the essence and memor y of family members.’

Hannah’s wedding dress on display at the Powerhouse Museum listed as Hannah Palser Prior

family

It wasn’t all hard work. There were little luxuries and social occasions Finer y was there, and adornment as I see in jeweller y collections I have. Hannah did exquisite crochet, (some donated to The Powerhouse) with Australian motifs There was money for professional photo studio shots in Bathurst town.

They also had good books, music, art, homelife, beautiful clothes of their own, or admired others clothes for their style and craftsmanship. Violet sewed beautifully, did the finest pintucks, and won prizes at the agricultural show. Heather was a perfectionist

sewer, already a teacher, this was done in the school holidays when she went back to stay at ‘Arlington’. Charlotte was the artist in the family, but Violet painted too. By all my mother’s accounts, they lived full and enriched lives, and were well educated.

I have inherited the two antique china dolls that were my grandmother Thelma’s and Heather’s, so hopefully there was time for play amongst the chores.

Family fortunes shifted dramatically for Hannah and her family after Alfred’s sudden death at 65 years on 16 Januar y 1922 when he collapsed in the garden at ‘Arlington’.

Hannah moved to Sydney settling into her new home ’Glen Isla’ at Croydon with her two youngest daughters: Heather and my grandmother Thelma.

Charlotte, after living an independent life as an artist, died aged 50 years in her mother’s home on 24 June 1933 Hannah died five years later on 16 July 1938 aged 79

I think of that house of women. Hannah, losing her baby, her foster child, her husband, and her eldest daughter. There is a beautiful quote from the newspaper death notice about her ‘By her gentle disposition she endeared herself to all who knew her, and leaves behind a fragrant memor y of many kindly deeds’. Possessions are reminders of loved ones lost, a holding on of the essence and memor y of family members I’m starting to feel that too, never thought of myself as sentimental. Each day I see, and often use, the tin tea caddy from that home, in blue with windmills.

It would have been held by each of them

Above Hannah sitting with five of her children.

Standing with her daughter Violet, son-in-law Walter McGregor and son, Alber t

BILLYWILLING A HA ZARD REDUCTION

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU SEE FL AMES

Call 000

You will be asked fire, police or ambulance.

Please have read y:

• your location - the rural address is best

• a cross road or feature, such as 2 km past Macquarie River

• directions on how to access the fire, (some properties are large and have numerous access points, or the fire may be better accessed via a neighbour)

What can you see?

(eg fire approx 500m from house, flame front 20m running fast)

Then activate your plan This may involve calling someone not near the fire and asking them to call your neighbours

Write here your rural address and the phone numbers of your neighbours and other people you need to call.

My Rural Address:

Note:

you

Published

Contact:

connections@onthestone.com.au

Phn: 02 6337 4131

PO B OX 8 BATHURST NSW 2795

Facebook:

Freemantle Road Connections