Somerton School Centenary 1880-1980

I
ESCHOOL
THE PEOPLE
THE DISTRICT
SOME
sc
100 YEARS
r E -ATI
co
-0
0-) ^D
s'i
=(
Pi
0
2-5
cr
E^'^:;^K^^^^^^^
^.^c^=^r^::^sî^;^^^^t^srs^-^^'^
FOREWORD
^^.s?^s^^::^^^T,
/z0^^^-. ^^
E^,^^ ^^^^^^^^
=^^H5:i=ESS^^r?=;?
EiEEESSP^1= ^v^
^[^"s^r^"^'"^^^. ^=s?
yÊS^S^^^^^"^.
^ ^^^^=:^^^^
^T.r"co^^,
'^^^^^^^^^'^
7o /;^^7;;;^mo^^^p;"êrf/f_^^^^
access
to
ha.e relied
/^.
^7;., '^'^ zr,zL7S.CT^zizie2 wimê:oop0^^^^^
on
'forTn'y Lc^^<f^^ss^'^'^5t^^^êôffero.;^l^s
^r^^^^^,
^^^^^^"^^^^^^
o/n"^re"we^"oT^^n"'/5,ro.w^ 'le '".
of the booklet,
As people
read
arld
discuss the contents
^ô^^^^Z;^^^^^^^^
I
^^^'S^^^^K^^^^^Ê
Mike Cashman
0/7 behalf of the History Sub-Committee.
F"" '^^ssz^^^^^
s^s.., ^.,,
/
~
CONTENTS
Foreword.
Message from the Minister for Education

Message from the Director of Education
Page No.
.2
. ... .4
5
School History .
Supplementary School History.

Special Achievements - Ex-Pupils
Early Days,
Family Histories . . .
.6
. . . 72
...... 25
. . .... 27
45
Bective Soldiers'Settlement
The Gold Expeditions .
Keepit Dam
Somerton Hotel History ,
Somerton Post Office History

Somerton Police Station.
Somerton Village. . .
Cricket . . .
Tennis. .
Horse Racing in Somerton.
Tamworth & District Gliding Club

What !s a Country Town?
Rainfall Registrations.
^
Ls
^S-i
50
..... 57
. . . 52
..... 56
.... . 58
Churches. . .
Halls. . , .
49
59
. . 65
.
66
.... 69
73
... . 75
78
. . 83
. . . 84
message from the Minister for
Hon. Paul Landa, LLB., M.LC.
Mr. Paul Landa - New South Wales Minister

for Education - 1980
The year of 1880 was of enormous significance to the structure of education in this State as the passing of the
Public Instruction Act saw the establishment of public schools throughout the countryside. One of those schools
was Somerton Public School, which this year can claim 100 years of service to its community.
As the years passed and new developments and concepts modified and moulded the Department of Education,
these trends were reflected at Somerton.
For small schools like Somerton, the art of survival is woven into the fabric of a school over generations and
this history seems to add something special to the quality of the education it provides. Studies have shown repeatedly that it is in small schools that children most often reach their maximum potential.
Factors which are beneficial to the type of education a child receives are the non-streamed classes of the small
schoo7,-where children of varying ages have a chance to reach their own level by listeningto the lessons given to the
senior students.
It is a family type atmosphere and the teacher can usually give almost individualised attention as he or she is
aware of a child's background and problems. Another benefit is the involvement and support of the local community and the interest of parents and residents in their children and the school.
Somerton school has forged a strong relationship with its community to whom it owes its establishment, exist-
ence and improvement. In return, it has repaid that interestby equippingits pupils with independenceand resourcefulness,the qualitiesof good citizensand the sound basics of education to take them through life.
I send by best wishes for the success of the centenary celebrations and all those who are associated with them.
The support and backing shown in the past has laid the foundations for a bright future which extends, I am sure,
well into its second century.
A message from the

Director for Education
n
Mervyn J. Wasson, B.A.

Mr. Mervyn Wasson - Director of
Education/North West Region.
theS: hoârlnT
ls a
lons time in the "fe
of
man
or
woman-
but
centwV
is ê
"tere
flick of . n eyelid in
:^s^SS^=S=^S;=
s?iasE^sss=:îiî^^
nc^Môl^^ ^ ^^^^^tw^n^^^tt:^^^^
S^:^^s^s^^^s^^^SES
haveThde^te;? tSo7atcea';ltucrh^Lpnu^c, le^M^,n.h",succeededbeyond t,hewildest-P-tations.Whocould
^^^^.zr'^^^ÊSSSS
...-^ ,:;:;^h;.:;,:IM,r,^::,zr;:,^::""'bc"- "'"- - >" -
^5?JE=HSS^=^==ss
sZ:;I^^Z
^b^S^S^:;'1'confidence
in the
c<uautyof'^-î^^^cL
Merv Wasson,
Director of Education,
North West Region
Somerton Public School History

(Research Branch - Dept. of Education)
Over three years elapsed between the application
to the Council of Education for a school at Somerton and the opening of the school in February 1880.
There were several good reasons for the delay, but it
did mean that some of the children who so' badly
needed a school in 1876 lost their opportunity for all
aston had died, for not only had Thomas Woolaston
taken over as postmaster but a further application'for

a school the following year showed him as the parent
or guardian of the children listed under M. A. Woola-
stein's name in 1876.
time.
The first time the Council of Education, which

controlled all the government schools of new South
Wales from 1867 until the establishment of the
Department of Education in 1880, heard from Somerton was when it received a letter from the postmaster.
Mr M A. Woolaston in January 1877. Asadvised-by
Inspector Bradley of the Armidale district, Mr. Woolaston enclosed an application for a Provisional School
and asked for financial aid towards erecting the
necessary building. Provisional Schools were designed
for areas which could not ensure the minimum average
attendance of 25 required for a Public School. Since
1875 the Council of Education had met the full cost

of Public Schools, but parents were supposed to
The Councilaccepted Bradley's recommendations,

a"d. forma"y Sranted the application on 5 ApriL
1877. After that there was silence, until Thomas'
Woolaston wrote late in September, in reply'to 'the
Council's query, to say that the local people'had not

yet called tenders for the school building because of
severe drought had prevented them raising the 50
pounds or 60 pounds necessary for their share of the
building cost. Nothing happened over the ensuing
three months, and the Council wrote to Woolasto^
again. He replied late in December to say that he had
collected 30 pounds but the drought was still continu-
ing, and there were now ever more children "growing
"P in ignorance". "We are badly in want of a school'7
he pleaded - could not the Council take allthe
supply and finance the building and furniture for a
circumstances into consideration and pay all but the
ProvisionalSchool building.
ston to spell out exactly how many children were
Provisional School, while the Council paid the teacher

and provided books and equipment. In special cases
the Council might contribute towards the cost of a
The application form from Somerton was dated 27
November 1 876 and included the names of 27 child'.
ren from eight families. The need for a school was
obvious, since the nearest schools were at Carroll
(opened 1869) and Keepit (opened 1875), both'som'e
twelve miles away. The application was referred to
Inspector Bradley for report, but the needs of hishuge

district
stretching
to
the
South
Australian
border
prevented him from getting to Somerton until March
1877. He had no hesitation in recommending the
granting of the application, since the number of
children both within the accepted travelling distance

of two miles and just over that distance was quite
enough to keep up the necessary attendance. He'also
30 pounds?
After some hesitation, the Council asked Woola-
guaranteed to attend a school. On discoveringthat the
total was 42, the Council now sent an application

form for a Public School up to Somerton, and Woola-
ston^hurriedly collected the necessary signatures and

>, and returned the form late in February 1 878.
Once again Inspector Bradley was delayed,and not
wtH
August did he visit Somerton again an'd report

that a Public School should definitely"be established^
in a buildingof sawn slabs to accommodate 40 pupils.'
The Council therefore granted the application on 16

September, and by November the Council's architect
had prepared building plans in accordance with'his
stock plan IB. The schoolroom seated 36 pupils, six
each at long desks and forms arranged on 'a stepped
floor or gallery. Attached was a teacher's res'idence
believed that the residents were sufficiently poor to

justify the Council's paying half the cost of erecting a
cheap building on the site in the townshipalready set
comprising three rooms. The building was to have

weatherboard walls and shingled roof.
inspector Bradley also recommended that the
In March 1879 a tender for 523 pounds was

accepted from Philip Smith of Manilla, the school to
be^ready for occupation in four months. Unfortun'-
aside for a school.
citizens be appointed as the local committee
to supervise the building and operation of the school:
J,ames
Ham'". ^keeper; Thomas Crotty, inkeeper;
Richard Rowland, farmer; William Verrier, sawyer,:
Thomas Woolaston, postmaster. Possibly M. A. Wool-'
atêlythe Council-s clerk of works discovered a couple

of ^months later that Smith was "not a tradesman'7
and ordered him to demolish what he had done so-far.'

Then unusually heavy winter rains came, and Smith
had to be granted an extension because he was unable
had. the prescribed sets of old and New Testament
to get his materials along the boggy roads.
the building took shape, and m "October 1'8"79""t'^

Council's architect had the brass founder C.'Hallid
send the standard "small bell in frame" up'to Smith7.
extracts. The only other sources for lessons were three
maps and some reading material on cards.These limit'.

resources were typical of the period, when
t,he-overwhelmins ProPortio" f the school'day'wa's

^YOtecLt dr""ng. PUP"^ i" reading, writing a^
arithmetic, ; a little time was devoted "to history and
"
The^building^was finally read^ for occupation

on_2,4 January. 1880> ""d the Council decided" n"ot"to
penalise Smith because the wet weather had'continued
and he had in any case allowed himself two litt[e"t'i"r^
^l^ "^ct:.
AISO- de5Pite^he eariier fea,. ;Z
was soundly constructed.
Somerton's first teacher, William Goard, was
appointed on 29 January 1880, but did not arrive m
Somenon and open the school until early Februarv.'

A 21^year old bachelor, he was a trained teacher'wh'o
had been in the service for four years. The school "ms
lucky toget him' and he was very popular "dur'ing'his
rather brief stay at Somerton.
^,, when Goard left Somerton in 1881 he filled in an

inventory of school material as required. He-had"a
^ ^mererlt. re^n8boo^'fmm'^^
were.
ôr!tr ^LPUP"^went-.
as
They
geography, singing and needlework, and object lessons
or. -elementary s(:ience which was "sually

û!ht;. ILW as. extremely narrow .'"d-mechan7c'a'l
.
an
form.. of education. '" which pupils ne7r'ly"al"w^s"s^
passively at their long desks.
,... s.omerton. public sch001 had 46 PUP"s enrolled in
-ts Rw^ month or two, but after that"there"was "a

steadY., declmsLThe enrolment stayed "above' 30"untH
the_end of 1882, during which year a weathershed"wa's
ejected nties
a^the_forschool, and then hovered in "the"tens
the next few
A~t the"enduo?
yearsanodo. tle
the enrolment was only eleven and the
^^bookslwhlch
far "the
came
overwhelm,^
fron'ôîe^
att endance five, and not surprisingly the Department

Êducation decided at the beginning of\ 887 'that'The
^hooLwould_not be open that yw- Unfortunateiy'
th^surviving records provide no explanation7or"th7s

decline, and most of the files for this period'can "not
be located.
the '"^National Board books which h'a'd been In'uTe
;llso. ut^wales since the 1840>s- a"dthe''Austr"^
lan Reading Books produced in the'1870^ He'alw-
ll
SH,MS'^^^'^^s^,
^^'"s's,sfc-""-.
M-''^^^s^^^^[^^,
^^fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^s
When the school was closed the building was left

in the care of Constable Tubman of Somerton Police
For nearly 30 years after that, the records of

Somerton Public School are few in number and
Station. In March 1887 he reported that a violent
generally of the most routine kind. The building
storm had knocked the kitchen chimney onto the kit-
chen roof, and the Department agreed to repair both

the chimney and the roof. The care taken of the
premises was justified in 1889, when the Department
decided that there were enough children in the district

to justify re-opening as a Provisional School. Unforunately, the correspondence files for this year are
also missing, so all that is known is that John Ward
was appointed teacher in November and that by the
end of the year the enrolment
was fifteen and the
average attendance thirteen. The figures rose to 29

and 22 respectively by the end of 1890, and in january 1891 Somerton once again became a Public
School: it has remained one ever since.
Ward was a rather lackadaisical teacher, but he did

not get into serious trouble with the Department
until 1892, when he was suspended and called upon to
adequately accommodated the numbers of children in

the district, Silas Clifton and Thomas Bissell were
good, reliable teachers who remained at Somerton
for many years, and no major problems arose to disturb the smooth running of the school. The occasional
repair work on the building was necessary - for
example, the old shingled roof was replaced by iron

in 1911 - but apart from that the Department hardly
had to think about Somerton. Major changes were
made throughout the State in 1904 to the School
curriculum and teaching methods, but no one from
Somerton commented
on the revolution brought
about by the so-called "New Education". It went a

long way towards replacing the mechanical drill of the
nineteenth century with a more pupil-centred education, in which children learned by doing and concrete
examples of arithmetic or geography or nature study

were used instead of the bookish learning which had
dominated the schools previously
show cause why he should not be dismissed for an

"intemperate indiscretion in Quirindi". In common
with other teachers from the district, he had gone to

Qurinidi for the first week of the mid-winter vacation
in order to sit for examinations for promotion. Having

completed one paper, he vanished at noon on the first
day and apparently enjoyed a long binge. The Department at first planned to dimiss him, but in view of his
nine years' service and the
need of his wife and three
young children decided to severely reprimand him

for his misconduct in indulging to excess in intoxieating drink", and to remove
him to a Provisional
School. The sentence was carried out in October 1892.
In the meantime the residents of Somerton had
been urging the Department to carry out a number of

repairs to the school building, laying particular
emphasis on the need to re-frost the windows to keep
the sun off the children. The Department had put off
the work because of lack of funds, but following a
petition late in 1891 - prepared, very unusually, by the
mothers of the pupils rather than the fathers - painting and repair work was carried out during 1892.
In 1 898 the teacher's residence was enlarged and

repaired, and in 1903 the schoolroom was enlarged by
extending it by eleven feet six inches at the front.
As the district inspector explained, the existing schoolroom seated 36 children and provided air space for
34 at the current standard of ten square feet per

child. But in June 1903 the enrolment was 54, and the
average attendance for the quarter was 41.
Mrs. Mary Richards, who is the oldest living resident

of Somerton at 83 years of age. She attended the
school for a short time in the first decade of the cen-
tury. Her mother, Clara Verrier, was one of the origina/ 32 enrolments in 1880, at the age of 16,
'/// ^f
There was more activity at Somerton during Stan

Gallagher's period at the school, from 1929 to 1932.
In 1934 the new teacher, Henry Whittaker, prepared a careful case for the appointment of an assist-
A Parents and Citizens Association was formed during
ant teacher. He pointed out that the enrolment of
1929, and early in 1930 the men spent a weekend
55, with an average attendance of 48, was divided into

nine classes, with the twelve pupils in Seventh to
Ninth Classes following a secondary course, and that
this load was too much for one teacher. Whittaker's
cutting and erecting posts in order to fence off an
area for a school garden. The Department then sup-
plied two rolls of wire-netting, which the parents put

up: it appears that the main pest to be kept out of the
garden were the local turkeys. A tennis court was also
arguments were successful, and Somerton's first assjst-
ant, Frank Greer, was appointed in June 1934.
laid out and fenced about this time.

A number of repairs to the school and residence
were carried out in 1931. One was the removal of the
old stepped gallery and its replacement by a level

floor: the added flexibility this change gave schools
had been recommended among the New Education
reforms of 1904, but it took many years before all the
old schools were remodelled. One change which was

not made in 1931, because the Great Depression had
severely cut the Department's funds, was the replace-
ment of the frosted glass windows with clear glass and

the installation
of frames
which would
enable the
windows to be lowered more than a few inches. It is

interesting that Gallagher and others felt so strongly
about the dark and ill-ventilated schoolroom in the
1930's and yet in 1891 the parents had been so fear-
ful about the effects of sun: in the nineteenth century

too much light and air was generally regarded as
dangerous.
The presence of two teachers in the old, cramped

and dilapidated building made school life at Somerton
very difficult, and in November 1934 it was decided
to erect a new school. The P. & C. Association had
first asked for a new building in November 1933,

when the secretary Mrs. A. Cooper criticised the
existing building as old, depressing, badly lit and
ventilated, crowded and badly in need of repair; she
also believed it was a disadvantage to have the residence attached to the school. The Department agreed
that a new school was necessary, but many other

places had more pressing needs in this period of Depression and limited funds. From May 1934 a new
secretary, Mr. F. Allsopp, bombarded the Department
and the local Member of Parliament with monthly

letters repeating the arguments for , a new school.
She also promised that if new buildirig was erected,

the 77 members
of the P. and C. Association would
Flourishing vegetable gardens in Somerton School of the mid 1950's.
Somerton School in the mid-1950's. Can you find the small tree growing in the
foreground in the present playground?
erect a new fence. Her case was considerably strengthened once an assistant teacher was appointed, and in
From
the
time
the
new
school
building
was
underway, the teacher and the local inspector urged
November the Minister for Education approved the

preparation of plans. A two-roomed wooden building
with a sliding partition was designed, accommodating
56 pupils, and in March 1935 tenders were called to
build the school and two new toilets, and to remove
the Department also to replace the old residence,

which had the same drawbacks as the old school and
was also very damp and unhealthy. The Department
and re-erect the weathershed. The work was done by
800 pounds. The old school and residence building
W. Thomas of Sydney for 575 pounds, and the new

school was occupied on 1 November 1935. The P.
and C. Association erected the new fence as promised
was sold for 72 pounds early in 1938 to Mr. F. Inches

of the Somerton, who removed it from the site.
Somerton Public School therefore finished the1930's
during the same year; the Department supplied the
in fine material condition.
finally agreed, and a new residence plus a garage for

the teacher's car was erected during 1937 for some
wire. Nor was that the end of the parents' activities,
for during 1937 they donated two new wall maps and
20 pounds worth of library books to the school.
10
(Compiled by Jan Burnswoods)
SOMERTON
SOMERF<
ON THE WAY TO KEEPIT DAM
B. B.Q. CHICKENS
_SANDWICHES READY TO GO
OUTBOUARD FUEL & TWO STROKE OIL

PARTY ICE
FISHING BAIT
RADIATOR HOSES & FAN BELTS

"TRY" OUR PRICES FOR TYRES & TUBES
OIL CHANGE & GREASE
. *. & J. I. GARDNER
PROP.)
PHONE (06 7) 697566
11
upplementary History of
Somerton School
Plans were drawn -for the original school by Mr.

Allan Mansfield Arch and sent to the Inspector of
Schools, Mr. Bradley (Armidale) on 23/11/1878, to
Public School,
Little Plain,
Inverell.
close on 1/2/1879.
9th December, 1881.
Several tenders were received, the first from Mr.
W. Dowes on 29/1/1379 for 679 pounds if studs and

weatherboards or 639 pounds if sawn slabs. After all
applicants had been interviewed it was found that
some lenderers had hardly ever driven a nail and had
no building experience at all. Decisions had to be
made and finally the tender of 523 pounds irom Mr.
Phillip Smith was accepted, as related in the previous
/ must only repeat to you what I have said to the

other dear girls who have favoured me with letters
since my arrival at my new home, and that is, that I
know not how to express my deep thank fltlness to

you for all the great favour you have conferred upon
me. How pleasing It is to receive letters from friends
account.
An
Dearest Clara,
interesting fact is that the school bell and
frame, which still stands at the existing school, was

purchased
from
the
Newcastle
Steamship
Co.
on
16/10/1879 for the sum of two shillings.

The first teacher, Mr. William Goard, taught at
Somerton on a salary of 120 pounds per annum.
Indeed his stay in Somerton was short-lived, as he
moved after about 2 years on to Little Plain in Inverell
in November
1881, and later to Currabubula,
where he
taught at both places.

Something of the man, his pupils and the times in
which they lived can be gauged from the following
letter, which was written by Mr. Goard to Miss Clara
Verrier (17), later Clara Urquharf - the mother of
Mary Richards, local Somerton resident.
at any time, but how doubly pleasing and gratifying

is it for a teacher to receive such genuine expressions
of love and esteem from his pupils, as I have received
from each one of you since last we said "Good Bye"!
It is now more than ever that I am experiencing so
keenly the separation from you all. Each day as it
comes seems to add to my burden of sorrow, until
my grief is almost overwhelming. Perhaps it is the

want of friends to comfort me that makes my life so
wretched, but I can assure you Clara, my dear girl,
that were I placed in the midst of the gayest society
imaginable, there would stiff be the same feeling of
loneliness present. I can't shake it off, do what I will.
Anticipating the pleasure of a visit home is buoying

me up at present, but how shall I feel when the holi-
days are spent, and I have to return to this dreary

spot! It is the thought of having to do so that makes
me look forward to them with little hope of pleasure.
Wouldn't it have been nice could I have stayed and
prepared you all so nicely for the concert we intended having at Chirstmas? It was very cruel that we had
to separate at such a time, and I know we should have
acquitted ourselves in a very creditable manner indeed.
Have you forgotten the "Gambler's Wife"? Whenever I
hear it again it will always bring to my mind fond and

affectionate recollections of dearest Clara.
Indeed I
intend to learn it off myself, if only for your sake,

Clara.
/ am so pleased with you for writing in such a
friendly, familiar manner. Oh, if you could only realise

how I treasure your letters! And the more you take
me into your confidence the more I shall like you.
Consider me always your dearest friend, and say to me
what you would to a brother. How it has parried me
since to think we were not more sensible of each
w. ,
Moving the old School. The building was moved

from the school block in 1936, to the adjacent
(eastern) block to make way for the new school.
12
other's worth, while we were together as Teacher and

Scholar! Perhaps it was my fault, for I know I failed,
alas! too often, to take the advantage of the chances
/ had of proving my love and esteem for you all.
And
your school
days are over at last, Clara!
Although I should like you to know a deal more, yet

/ feel proud to think you have given me the honour of
being your first and only tutor. Indeed it would make
me jealous to think you were under another's care.
And what about Lucie and Edith, and Carrie, dear
Carrie! Are thy still going? If you have left school

Clara, do try the induce your parents to let you enter
some profession if they can possibly manage it. It
would give me the greatest pleasure to see you lead
a happy life, and I am sure in whatever position you

may be placed, you will be a credit to it, with the
many excellent qualities you possess. Ask your mother
to grant me this favour, and give you what you want,

and what I want so much, and if you obtain your wish
be sure and let me know.
There
are many
other matters
I should
like to
speak about, Clara, but I scarcely have time to do so

at present. When I reply to your next letter, if you
should ever favour me with one, I may have more
cheerful news to communicate.
With kind regards to your dear parents, and Wiltie
and Henry, and love to your old schoolmates,

Believe me, dearest Clara,
Ever your true friend,
W. 5. Goard.
When the first petition was drawn up amongst

local residents in 1876 to establish a School in Somer-
ton, the list of children shown to the eligible for

schooling at that time were as follows;
Edwin
Harris (13), Henry Harris (12), Elizabeth
Harris (10), James Harris (9), Ellen Harris (8), Clara

Harris (6), Arthur Harris (4), Harriett Woolaston (14),
John Woolaston (12), Thomas Woolaston (10), Sarah
Woolaston
(7), William Woolaston
(5), William Now-
land (10), Lydia Nowland (8), Edith Nowland (4),

Ellen McBean (7), Jessia McBean (6), Emily Crotty
(12), Clara Crotty (10), Thomas Crotty (7), Kate

Crotty
(5), George Crotty (3), Jane Steeles (8),
Joseph Steeles (6), James Steeles (4), Annie Steeles
(3), Edith Alderton (13), Clara Verrier (13), William

Verrier (11), Henry Verrier (9), George Gibson (13),
Amma Stains (6), Jane Jeffries (12), Emily Jeffires
(10), Amelia Jeffries (8), Annie Jeffries (6), Archie
Robson (9), Mary Robson (9), Martha Robson (5),
John Elsmere (5), Annie Sims (14), James Sims (14).
Quite a number of those listed eventually attended
the school when it eventually opened a little over 3
years later.
When the School was first opened, a scale of fees

was arranged, which amounted to one shilling per
pupil per week, 9d each for two children of one family

and 6d each for three pr more. Many hardships were
suffered in the early period with the result that some
parents asked to be relieved from payment of school

fees due to failure of crops in 1886.
When the closure of the School on 10/1/1887,

due to deminished attendance, -the local policeman
was given the responsibility of ensuring that no harm
should come to the empty school buildings. Records
show that the teachers in this early period were not
really happy with their conditions and surroundings,

mainly due to the remoteness of the area.
The children of Somerton Public School, taken in 1947. The teacher is Robert Levingston.
13
Attempts have been made to trace the origin of the name Somerton, which appears to have been first
used in the 1850's, at first in conjunction with Summer Hill, and later replacing that name. It is probably
o replica of the Somerton in England which dates back several hundred years, and on enquiringwith the
Historical Society in that town, they suggest the origin of the name as "summer dwelling", dating back
to the early 17th century.
5 crt
engineering
ALAN ABRA
697639
IT ITS MADE IN STEEL WE CAN MAKE IT. BULKS

BINS, SHEEP FEEDERS, CATTLE FEEDERS, FIELD
BINS, GRAIN AUGERS, SHED FRAMES, PIG FEEDERS,
WEIGH CRATES-
PIG EQUIPMENT SPECIALISTS
The first 70 years of the existence of Somerton School in the 1880's saw some big developments in
agriculture in Australia, including the invention of the Wolsely shears, and stump-juinp plough and
Mackay's Combine Harvester. Thomas Mart initiated frozen meat export and the N. S. W. Department of
Agriculture was established, also in that decade.
14
Many years later, the teacher's salary was gradually
climbing and on 2/6/1916 stood at 216 pounds per

annum, less 24 pounds for the use of the residence.
Eighteen years later on 16/11/1934, it was 439

pounds/5/4 per annum.
Upon completion of the new School building in
1935, Mr. H. D. Whittaker was the first teacher to

perform duties in the new building, with an enrolment
of 50 pupils and one assistant teacher Mr. Bert King,

co-incidentally a great-uncle of one of the present
pupils.
All furnishings from the school room - including
desks, seats, tables and chairs - were of red cedar. and

were taken by the Department before the demolition
work started. The cost of demolition of the old school
house was 5 pounds, and the work was carried out by

Mr. F. Macdonald of Somerton - blacksmith, carpenter
and 'Jack of all Trades'. All materials were used by
Mr. Macdonald to erect cottages on land owned by
Mr. Frank Inches, adjacent to the school ground and

also opposite the local police station. All demolition
work was completed by 20/1/1938.
During the first half of the century of the school,

many epidemics occurred, including Typhoid Fever,
Diptheria and Whooping Cough. The school was closed
twice for short periods owing to the outbreak of
Typhoid one child losing its life and other seriously

ill.
An analysis of enrolment and average attendance at
the School over the years shown the following;

1880 (Enrolment - 32 / Average attendance - 26);
1885 (20/12); 1890 (29/22); 1895 (40/34); 1900
(36/30); 1915 (40/12); 1920 (28/20); 1930 (46/40);
1935 (53/44); 1940 (42/36); 1945 (35/28): 1955
( - ,49); 1960 (62/60); 1965 (66/58); 1970 (18/18),

1975 (32, -, 1980 (41 /-)
The school has had a total of 2 headmasters/

principals over the years, details as follows:
William S. Goard (date of appointment 29/1/1880)

Francis H. Muston (4/11/1881); Charles R. Austin
(25/6/1883); Grace Hollings (14/9/1885); Lillian
Frazer (8/5/1886); John P. Ward (8/11/1889); John
The children of Somerton Public School, taken on 27/9/1929, when Stan Gallagher was the teacher.
15
M. Brown (12/10/1892); Henry Thomas (15/7/1896);

Silas Clifton
(24/6/1905);
Benjamin
Freeman
(19/6/1915); Thomas
Bissell (27/9/1916); Stan
Gallagher (17/1/1929); William Bruce (30/5/1932);

Henry Whjttaker (13/12/1933); Norman McLaren
(15/7/1940); Valentine Kesby (14/1/1944); Robert
Levingston (9/1/1946); John Payne (2/2/1954);

John R. Tooher (27/1/1959); Ralph T. Dark
(2/5/1959); Lindsay Harris (29/1/1963); Keith
Kimber (2/2/1972); Neville McDonald (28/1/1975);

Mike Cashman (29/1/1979).
The school gained its first assistant teacher (Mr.
Greer) in 1934, and since then the following assistant

teachers have taught at the school:-
Mr. McLaren, Mr. Gary, Mr. Agnew, Mr. Mahony,

Mr. Donnelly, Mr. Mein, Mr. Neilson, Mr. Woiherspoon, Mr. Bruce, Mr. King, Mr. Greer, Mr. Mathews.
Miss Carlos, Miss Tapp, Miss Forbes, Mrs. Alywin,

Mrs. Henry and Mrs. Bearup.
At different stages over the years there were near-
by schools at Bective Soldiers Settlement, Carroll Gap
A continuing part of the school activity calendar

since 1936 has been the participation in the Bective
Sports. Somerton School managed to win the T. H.

Woolaston Trophy for Smalls Schools Competition in
the years 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979 and
1980, against apposition such as Byamee, Bective
Soldiers Settlement, Bithramere, Tintinhull. and
Limbri.
Hockey has been a feature of the school sport
since 1975, the school winning Tamworth (Saturdaymorning) Competitions in that time, and producing
several North West and State representatives. Several
talented cricketers have also emerged from the school

over the years.
The reminiscences of a number of ex-pupils, as

related in the questionairres distributed prior to the
Centenary Celebrations make interestingreading.
One of the earliest memories of school life comes

from Mrs. Marjory Pearson (nee Alderton),
and Bona Vista the latter being the closest, and the
closure of these schools led to increased enrolment at
Somerton.
^
<
<i.
v"set
Somerton's first school hockey team - 1976
Back. ~ Anthony Abra; Darren_swain, Thorn Archer, 'Yogi'McGrath, Nev McDonald (Coach)
Front - Scott Swain, Lonnie Gardner, David Gardner, ~

16
'Bruce Swan. 'Russel'l'Swan, Tony Heywood.
One of the earliest memories of school life comes

from Mrs. Marjory Pearson (nee Alderton), who
attended
the
school
from
1904
to
1913.
most
memorable event was the sighting of the first motor car

to drive through Somerton from Tamworth to Gunnedah in about 1908. The children were allowed out of
school to watch it drive slowly past.
Clarrie
Moffat,
who
started
School
many tales of his adventures on the Clarence River and

organised Red Cross concerts for the War effort.
Ronald Mortimer (1935-40) recalls a Reverend
Battersby motoring from Manilla every Thursday in
is Capitol Chevrolet to give scripture lessons. He
usually gave young Ronald and his bicycle a lift home
on the running board.
in 1910, has
provided a wealth of information. He recalls that a

child had to be 6 years of age to start school, and
that the main examination was for the Qualifying
Certificate (QC) at the end of the Primary grades.
Empire Day provided the year's biggest school celebration, and the sports held on that day were graced
by the Lolly Man, who was eagerly sought after by the
children. Boys and girls were strictly segregated in
the playground. .
Mrs. Phyliss Guascoine, who attended from 1926
to 1935, says that Arbor Day was a memorable event
in those days and that the Gould League meant an
enjoyable day walking along the banks of the Peel

River to identify different birds.
During the second world war, according to David

Blaxland, many parents met each Wednesday to form
a knitting circle for the war effort and at the end of
the war says Reg Wilkinson (1942-50), the school

pupils marched down the main street beating tin-cans.
The publicans, Mr. & Mrs. Alan Roach, then shouted
all the pupils a lemon squash.
Fay McDonald
(1937^0) and her twin sister
delighted in playing tricks on their headmaster, Mr.
Whittaker, who could not tell them apart.
Peter Walker (1949-50) and Nola Bulkeley (195053) both recall the notorious mock hanging of three
boys while they attended the school. Peter Walker
Claims
One teacher
of the
1930's
is remembered
in the
affection by William Fletcher and Russell Blaxland,

among others. He was Mr. Bill Bruce and was apparently kind and considerate, always striving to make
lessons interesting. Russell Blaxland writes: "A great
many memories of this teacher come to light and I
will enlarge on one of them which consisted of a
nature study afternoon along the Peel River to Bective
Station. First, we had a lecture and inspection of the
old convict ruins below where the Allsopps lived on
Bective and then Mr. Bruce strode ahead, under a big
straw hat and the head of his charges, every now and
then stopping to point out and describe a lot of interesting things. It is quite possible that this method of
teaching, at the time, may have been contrary to the
rules of strict educational systems, but I would
maintain that he knew it was a very good part of what
a proper education is all about. I do not remember
him losing his temper, either inside or outside of the
to have besn one of the 'victims' while Geoff
Swain was also a victim. The perpetrators of the crime

had. best remain anonymous. Nola goes on to speak
of building a 'cubby', with friends, from dried limbs
and leaves and then proceeding to cook potato chips
on a primus inside the 'cubby". She says they were
lucky not to be burnt.
Sisters, Pam Garret (1953-59), Jenny Ford (195560) and Diana Russell (1961-67), all nee Woolastons,
have varied memories of school days. Pam won 1st
place in the 33yds. infants sprint at the first P. S. S. A.
carnival ever attended by Somerton Primary at No.
2 Oval, Tamworth. Jenny remembers that a school
council
was
formed
while she attended
the
school
and Diana remembers being taught in the Somerton

Hall due to renovations to the school building.
classroom".
Mr. Whittaker, an Enlgishman who afso taught at

Somerton in the early 1930's tried to encourage an
English accent in the children's speech, says ex-pupil
William Fletcher, and was also a strict disciplinarian,
according to Mrs. Lucy Wickham (1937-1942).

Una Goldthorpe remembers Mr. and Mrs. McLaren
as kind teachers who Took much interest in the pupils
towards the close of the 1930's. Nothing was trouble
to them and you could always turn to them for help
and advice, she says Mrs. Lucy Wickham agrees with
this, adding that Mr. McLaren played the violin, had
Somerton School Hockey Team (Girls) -1980

Back - L. Miller, L. Reid, F. Avard,
Middle - R. Swain, M. Abro, j. McGrath, K. Avard
Front - L, Cannon, L. Dowe, F, Dowe, T, Faint,
K. Swain.
17
Several ex-pupils have also described how the

school grounds have changed over the years.
Mrs. Ethel Nutman (nee Ettie Maxwell),a pupil of

the decade of this century, says that the'^chool
grounds were, at that time. rough and unmown.
In 1923 Mrs. Berths Roach (nee Harwood) remembers

that the school had a post and rail fence. By 1930,
writes William Fletcher, the grounds were grassy with
an enclosed vegetable garden at the northern end.
There was an old 'ant-bed' tennis court and paddock

near the school was used for pasturing horses during
the day.
situation has obviously been remedied as the school
grounds of 1980 must be some of the most attractive
and well-kept to be found in any public school.
It istelieved that in its 100 year history, Somerton
Public School has had around'1000 school~chil'd^n
pass through it. during their primary education. There

are possibly as many as 700 of these ex-pupils still
living today in the Centenary Year.
At the date of pubNcation the school has 41 pupils
In 1933, Norma Pankhurst (nee Avard) remembers
that the grounds had become neat and tidy and that
the vegetable plots were maintained by the pupils This
was ô become a long-standing tradition. According
to Ronald Mortimer the original school building

dated 1879, was still in use until1935 when the pupils
moved into a new building. The original school
building was moved east one hundred yards behind the

houses of Norman Wise, Ernie Chalker and" Mr"
McGrath. Laurie Gardner was one of 'the' tractor
drivers who helped move the old school.
During the early years of World War II, say Neville

and
Mrs. Una Goldthorpe, the
pupils'bu'iit
and air-raid shelter at the rear of the school and'a
flower garden had been added to the front of'the
school. The school grounds may have deteriorated
little in the ensuing
years
by 1950.
Mrs. Noia
Cupples
Bulkeley (nec Swain) says that much of the grounds
were barren or with long, dry grass. However^hat
as
enrolled,
comprising 24 girls
17
boys.
Of
These
whilst teaching services are provided by Mike Cashman

"rincipal) and Pam Bearup (Assistant). The-P &"'C
Executive comprises Geoff Swain (President)/Heather

Avard (Secretary) and Edna McGrath (Treas'urer')1,
whilst John Penman is the District Inspector"of
Some^special features of the school in 1980 are the
School Parliament, School Choir, Explorers"Club

environmental Education) and the Mature Area.
im portant
for Presentation
light, Anzac Service,Open Day and Year 6 Farewell".
dates
on
the calendar
are
M&st of the children move on to Peel High School

their secondary education.
Somerton Pri^ry School ,n a picturesque ground setting, 1980. The school bell is
all that now remains of the original school.
18
and
^ are in the Infants class and 25 in the Primary class"

School captains are Lynda Miller and Julie Mc'G'rath^
The Present pupils are
YEAR 4
Craig Elson, Mark Woodward, Paul Miller, Hayley
KINDER:
Mower, Fiona Dowe, Louise Dowe, Trevor Swain,
Robert Heywood, Michael Welsh, Mark Bearup,
Byron Verning, Fiona Avard, Rosalie Swain.
YEAR 1
Adam
Mower,
Julie McGrath.
Tammy Miller, Mathew Hodges, Caroline Dowe.
Nicole Mower, Phillip Swain, Jason Verning, Melanje
O'Sullivan, Anthea Cooke, Fiona Abra.
YEAR 5
Damian
O'Sullivan, Wayne
Faint,
YEAR 6
Lynda Miller, David Jones.
YEAR 2
Nicole Moffat, Sonya Swain, Kylie Avard, Roslyn
Swain.
YEAR 3
Leesa Cannon, Heidi Hodges, Michelle Abra, Tania

Faint, Cheryl Jones, Kylie O'Sullivan, Kerri Swain.
Alien Bearup.
Pupils and Staff of Somerton Public School in Its Centenary Year, 1980.
L to R.Third
Backrow
row-
Mark Woodward, Trevor Swain, David Jones, Wayne Faint, Byron Verning.
Heidi Hodges, Michelle Abra, Fiona Avard, Lynda Miller, futie McGrath, Rosalie Swain,
Kent Swain.
Second row
Mark Bearup, fason Verning, Paul Miller, Craig Elson, Todd Coleman, Glen Bearup, Phillip
Swain, Robert Heywood, Mathew Hodges, Michael Welsh.
Front row -
Tommy Miller, Anthea Cook, Roslyn Swain, Tania Faint, Kylie Avard, Leesa Cannon,
Teychers -
Mrs. Pam Bearup and Mr. Mike Cashman.
Absent
Nicoie Moffat, Sonya Swain, Fiona A bra.
Oamian, Ky lie and Melanie 0 'Sullivan; A dam, Nicole and Hay ley Mower and Cheryl Jones.
19
os
JD3/, /(JDU31U33 3 ill
u/ pauBisap - uiaiqwa ,001/35' uo}jaiuos /"" St/J.
iiaans iniais
Gu!Uj3/\
-iail!W ojpuos- 'iflDjyM oupj 'pj ompoo^ ifiaqaz/u 'poow^H
'PJBAV
-13LIW3H
'S3UO( UX-]
'UIDMS
ujoqj Dg
'LIIDMS
SDy
'UIDW.
/<liag
(y oj -]) -:woy
atjooy /(a/jit^s
^093 (y 01 -I) -:Moy
auf/nDj
}uoj_j
!j3Dg
33MJ3S
Ana wziiy {ooii3S0861 1 pajaWfB - /ootps 3i/l WM uoiiopossalus^m D WM siuajod awos
^s-<
S . !.
<iA
,
^
.N
^0 ~
^
!J
J^.y
\\<
^J>^l^hl'l^
s.x!
1^
^^v,..
ii^Si
'^ .i^
s "
^" <e~"i . >^
^^ly^
'S14? & 4 -t
i'
S^N^l
^
^
î ^^^^
'';'!.
CM'
lit
^11
4 Ml-^^1
\^:'
^. ^f^S
ST"
31i
ts- <u
"'
?it
8 is -i
0
<-:
>>-
"
0 S; ~--
i^?
?u
5 = S
~~ - 5.
^ -s
1^1
^
^ .^Hji^
J^
Nf^f
i'" J'^'J^
^
-rl4th. *A-
'jfy^
<^
^ i ^'<^J
!lr^
...^.
g.fiiii
'n -st
i3
^-^
y-
+-. '
zz
/'rr^T"y'v?
-&/
rwy, ^--y^
/-^^- r-'wv.
^ ^.^^^
,
-^^^^r^^--^
/, ^.y^^.^
/
'yt//^^.,
^^', ', ' ^/ "^'^;'.^-^ ^

_
""yy^ 'yyy^y\
'f
...
i ?-^^\ i
i. -f 'r^^'w^
I , /^/
r. '^-^l
"'^t^^'-y
/r7
?1
i , :^? i
11
'
''"'
/'
^'^/^'^' i
y/
II
-^^
^/^ l^^^ ' I -^/-<r
ft w.'f^ ^-w
sA 0s
// ^fty--^.^
. -y^f^' ?/ ^f'^. ff^ '^y ""^^
' '^^.r^^/^7^^^î^y7-1 ' !' ' ,
^ T^^y ,
< ^7
v ./
^^^1)
^'w
"r^j.y/iv/.j
r--w"7^
-^>_^1
^ i/c-7vyy^
. o/^w.yyw^/-^^
' . s-
^'r/^
-f >y^7^('t""'^;4|
i'J/ PV^ I
-t/j^-w^.y:'.-.-. -^.j
'^y^y
I
f.J
{.,
y^yv
i't'"y
|'"-yw^" yf
l/'w;?;, . ^yry
e/w
?"f"5)
^ /"^
^T
'[niliasf"" "II t")>" I]"]' 'A"']ixl?>"'"' " '"" i"i* '"UPI"l.'l '"" '"V 1")l''l""' tV"'l
inpotp^ 3i|tinj p'"<'t[ojd ;"I1 I" -iiw iip "'"'J a";i"^R!r. piKXUlîn
-jafun ""|l iirp!. Sitlpisai iiajni^'jju (Rtim[)iBnQ -in:; riTOjnj 'p,>ii?iojJ[ii;n .^11 3.^
-/ii'?-wz.y. ;;i
.u
IODII. IS .inn.lii
v .w
j. N:<idisnMV, LK:-l
K 3' 3
-.? 3
M '? S_
-?-t
"Sl
s 3"
\ ^-n^y "%^?
-
3 n
li
j y \^^. -^f ^Z
1-^t^.
Si
"y,^q
I ^ ' î-n5(/ ^ "?^Y-7

f>wvy-^
tl?
Ill
Ill
II'?
/ I wy^y^{/;y-my^
-a-r^4y{^ff ff/\ ^-"T^^^-.'W ^^

T/\ y/-"^^
1^1
r
^jj
"o' . "_
IS?
^yr^
'^
^^yw
.
ill
11 r
-^- .--,^ -.TT^. ^
-^ .
ill
5 ic 3-
^.7%:r^>? -^^"^y^
-1-'^
i. ^
^''
:Q
in.l
\'i)i. i. v. )i'i<idV
oj.
XHSNV
?.
i &
11
om&
<?{ Clfswd^.
ESTIMATE OF TEACHER'S TRAVELING EXPENSES.

estimate of the exf>enses of. .
in proceeil'ivgfroin. . .
^îi^<~-' ^.
tT-i^/it^- ._ _
Schwlal
FARE
^/-*-x-^to take char'ge of tht
^7^^^^-
BY
^^
7?^ .,
./
^-.(CA;~"*
,0-
'^<,~'
^-^^2
'^^ <, ^ ^. ^ -;
/^: f
i- ^ '!
-(;-
/ft ^
PERSONAL SAGGAGS
TNGENCIES, ':/..
f^^
^"'-/-
"-^-v^ ^
-^J- ^
_/y_
'^cwt.i-il of Edtttotwn Office
Sydn^, 3""^^.
^SD
4 ^ . c.
'^} "'^.. :. ^
ft
A claim for travelling expenses by William 5. Goard, Somerton's first teacher, in taking up his new
appointment, dated 21211880.
23
;..
/nl/-(9-Or
^t/Si./C
SCHOOL.
i^MO TCffCHCHS
MesfueMce.
z\
The plan of the original school

and residence, built in 1879
and opened in 1880.
lllii
L__'!IIP [
aa
j"-Ul
secr'on
ei. ff^TIOH.
-"u
o^
ffs/otfC..
;/
-HOOf
ft/fM.
-xfouefa SCMI. C.
^^
n
|0: t
rSM/fivs /r.
yy^/v^-!^j^.
ffi w/az.
;I
^^x^y^f
C-H t? (i'/V^
/A /9/K.
^SfCTÔ/v
-- Fu
-^_.-
t?. J<~ ^C^CO^
Special Achievements Ex-Pupils

Ex-pupils of Somerton Public School have entered
into many vocations. A few of them have been remem-
bered by their contemporaries as having done particularly well in their chosen sphere.
John Whitehead, who attended the school briefly

during the early years of World War Two, is now beleived to be an Air Commodore in the R.A.A.F. in
Canberra.
Tim Walker, who attended
the school during the
ant secretary to the Minister for Community Develop-
ment, Mr. Earner, in South Australia and is now in

an administrative position with the organization
known as Community Involvement Through Youth.
Lynnette Chaffey gained a Doctorate of Philosophy in Modem History and Robert Woolaston a
Doctorate of Philosophy in Wool and Pastoral Sciences
having gained highest overall marks in his undergraduate degree at the University of New South Wales.
Robert is now working as a farmer and grazier in the
late 1920's, was decorated for bravery, receiving the

George Louis Trophy, while a member of the New
Somerton district.
South Wales Police Force. Later he became the State
Though these were the only ex-pupils drawn to our

attention as having done particularly well in some
sphere many ex-pupils expressed the sentiment that
most of their peers became worthy Australian citizens.
Liberal Member for Sutherland and Miranda and sub-
sequently served as Government Whip in the administration period of Tom Lewis.

Keith Swan
and
Arthur
Gore have
both
made
notable achievements in the racing world. Arthur Gore

attended the School from 1914 to 1922 and became
a horse trainer in 1946. He was the leading trainer in
the North West for nine consecutive years, from 1964

to 1973. He has trained the winner of every cup race
in the N. N. W. D. R. A. and is the only trainer to ever
train the Grafton Cup winner and the South Grafton

Cup winner in the same year. His other major wins
have been that of 'Scottish Crag' which won the
Lightning in Brisbane and 'Dewaroy' which won the
Newcastle Cup. He has also trained the winners of
many metropolitan races.
Keith Swan attended the school in 1941 and
became a horse trainer in 1950. He trained his first
winner at the age of nineteen. He was the leading

trainer in the North West in 1973, 1974 and 1976
and has been runner up on many occasions. Among
his most prominent wins have been that of 'Nirangi'
in the Tattersall's Cup and 'Nuit Jean' in the Country
Cup.
Other notable achievements in the field of sport
have been those of Charles Moffat in cricket, Phillip
Coleman in rugby league, Thomas Woolaston in rugby

union and John Stanton in rodeo.
Many ex-pupils of the Somerton School have gone
onto tertiary education with varying degrees of success
but those who have attained the highest distinctions
in this area have been Don Wark, Lynnette Chaffey
and Robert Woolaston. Don Wark completed on
Honours degree in Philosophy at the Australian
MANILLA NEWSAGENCY
170 Manilla Street, Manma
Telephone 8 5 1564
Try us FIRST for Greeting Cards for all

occasions, Stationery Gift lines,
Watches, Toys, Papers & Magazines
Remember shopping locally supports the
local community
EROS FERNERY
at Carroll
Proprietor: Norma Ison

Ii
Open every
' \
SAT. SUN. MON. TUES. WED.

9 to 5
Variety of ferns including maiden hair,

ptevis, ribbon grass, polypodiums and
MANY MORE!
National University gaining highest marks in the third

year Honours exam. He went on to work as in assist-
25
One source has it that Ben Bridges "the last of the recognised bushrangers" once resided in Somerton,
living where Mr. and Mrs. Col Cupples now reside in Brooke Street. Others would have us believe that
there are still some modern "bushrangers" active in Somerton.
THE FARMERS <

~G
GRAZIERS
OPERATIVE
CO. LTD.
The Farmers
own Company
for total farm care
. LICENSED AUCTIONEERS,
STOCK & STATION & REAL
ESTATE AGENTS
Executive positions of the Somerton School P &C Association in 1980 are:- Patrons - Bill Scott and
Bernle Lye; President - Geoff Swa/n^ Vice-Presidents - Geoff Cooke and Barbara Swain; Secretary'Heather Avard; Treasurer - Edna McGrath. Meeting attendance In the centenary year has varied from'10
to 15.
28
EARLY DAYS
THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Although quite a number of aboriginal implements

have been found
The Aboriginal people in this area were a group of

sub-tribes, which people themselves called the
Kamilaroi. The origin of the name is intriguing. In
this part of Australia, the aborigines were known to
each other by the way they used the word "not" or
in the Somerton
District over the
years, the knowledge of any significant aboriginal
sites (occupation, art, burial, ceremonial etc. appears

to have long since passed into oblivion, at least in the
European consciousness).
"no", and as far as the people from this district were
concerned, their word for the negative was "kamil".

When they pronounced the word, the aborigines
tended to almost miss the sounding of the third
syllable, with an accent on the first syllable (pronounced "Komilroy"),
There seems to be no certainty regarding the origin of these aboriginal people. Some possible clues can
be found in the Wallabadah manuscript; an exercise
book that somebody discovered many years ago at

Wallabadah Station. It was written by William Telfer,
born in 1843, possibly the second white boy to be
born in this area. He lived here all his life as a stockman, and was in contact with a number of fullblood-
ed aboriginals.
His manuscript refers to the local
aboriginals is a result of what they told him, the

general conclusion of which are as follows;
The ancestors of the Kamilaroi people would
appear to be the Kuring-gai people, who inhabited a
narrow strip of land between the sea and the Great
Dividing Range, from Kempsey to Sydney. According

to legend, away back in the Dreamtime, one wave of
the Kuring-gai, possibly the Awabakal, migrated up

the Hunter Valley over the Ranges, down the Muelerindi or Namoi River, as far as the "Great Wide Awful
River' which we now know as the Barwon River.
Other Kuring-gai people who had come over the
mountains from near Port Stephens were met on the
Calala (Peel) River a Goora, which we now know as
Some idea of the number of aboriginal dwellers

in the Goora (Somerton) district may be gained from
the recorded estimates of Edward Mayne, the first
Commissioner
of
Crown
Lands
and
'Protector'
of
Aboriginals in the Pastoral District of Liverpool Plains.
Soon after setting up his isolated outpost at Goora
(Somerton) in 1839, he reported having sometimes

seen as many as 700 blacks encamped together, and
estimated a combined aboriginal population of
between 2,000 and 3,000 through the region bounded
by the Peel, Namoi and Gwydir Rivers, all within his
area of responsibility. In 1842 he estimated a populalion of around 4,000 in an increased supervision area,
which he claimed was around 80,000 square miles.
His estimate of tribal groupings was from a minimum
of 10 to a maximum of 150. He commented that the
majority of the aboriginal population were in the

northern part of his district, as the southern part had
been in the possession of white people since the mid
1830's, and he did not believe that more than one
thousand aboriginal natives could be found in the
district up to 200 miles north of the Liverpool Range.
This would lead us to believe that, by the 1840's
perhaps no more than a couple of hundred aboriginals

would have been active in the Peel Valley at any one
time.
Somerton. Goora has two possible meanings - 'Kangaroo' or 'wind'. The fusion of these two sections
would appear to have produced the Kamilaroi people.

The Kamilaroi people never seemed to actually fight
as a tribe. They spent most of their time fighting each
other, although as far as known in this particular
area, they were a fairly peaceful group of people.
There was not the conflict that was reported from
certain parts of New England, and perhaps down on
the Breeza Plains, and further out around Narrabri
and beyond. Whether this degree of peacefulness may

have been attributable to any wisdom on the part of
the newly-arrived white settlers, would be an interesting question to pursue.
Taken in the 1930's, this photograph shows the ruins

of the convict compound erected to provide convict
labour for the Summer Hill Station nearly 100 years
before. Alas, the ruins were pulled down to use in
the foundations for the present Somerton Bridge.

27
WHITE SETTLEMENT
To the best of our knowledge it was not until the
first day of Spring in the year 1818 that the first

group of 'white-European' explorers came into the
vicinity of present-day Somerton. Led by the N.S.W.
Surveyor-General of Lands John Oxley, a party of 14
men, up to 19 horses and a number of hunting dogs,

entered into the Peel Valley at a point near where the
Somerton-Breeza Road now crosses the Peel Range.
Included in the party were the eminent George Evans
(deputy Surveyor-general), Charles Frazer (Colonial
Botanist) and Dr. John Harris (Medical Practitioner),
and also 10 convicts, who all eventually gained
pardons and were given land grants followingthe epic

journey. The party had set out from Bathurstinfune,
1818 to attempt to prove the existence of an inland
sea. Deterred from their purpose by an encounter with
the Macquarie Marshes the group struck eastwards,
encountering the Warrumbungle Range (which he
named the Arbuthnot Range). Later, to avoid climb-
ing the Melville Hills (Peel Range) he proceeded to the
north-east for a time, which eventually brought him

to a suitable crossing-point to enable him to enter the
Peel Valley.
His journal reads
"We pursued our course to the E-N-E, winding
through rich valleys bounded by lofty, forest hills for
seven'miles, when by a gentle descent we entered a

rich and spacious vale, bounded on the east by very
high hills, and on the west by others less elevated.
At twelve miles we'stopped at some ponds near the

centre of vale. (This would have been on Sandy Creek,
about 7 km upstream of its junction with the Peel
River). The hills were very stony, of various species -
Oxley went on to describe his three-day journey

through the Peel Valley, crossing the Peel River just
above its junction with Tangaratta Creek. The party
made its way east to the coast at Port Macquarie,
and then survived a difficult trip back to the small
Port Stephens settlement from whence they returned

to Sydney by boat. It was this first epic-journey of
Oxley and his men that led to further exploration and
eventual settlement of the Liverpool Plains, including

our own Somerton District about 1 5-20 years later.
In the years following Oxley there was some
isolated 'squatting' along the Peel (Calala) River. Probably the closest to Somerton was one Joseph Brown
who ran a cattle station (1600 cattle) at Wallamoul

a few kilometres downstream of the present
Tamworth, who had apparently moved into the distnet in the late 1 820 's.
It is debatable who was the first white man to have

set foot in the vicinity of the present Somerton vill-
age, but the major contenders would probably be

Joseph Brown himself, his overseer Cann, Sir Thomas
Mitchell (Oxley's successor as Surveyor-General)
or Henry Dangar (Oxley's assistant surveyor and
representative of the Australian Agricultural Company). Support for the Brown or Cann theory would
spring from the fact that Mitchell obtained information at Wallamoul on December 11, 1831, soon after
entering the Peel Valley, that the Peel River turned

wes..v<irds to join a stream known locally as the
Muelerindi (Namoi) coming from the north-east. This
would suggest that either of these men, or possibly
their stockmen, may have explored along the Peel to
its junction with the Namoi, which would have taken

them through the site of present-day Somerton.
Of Mitchell we have stronger evidence that he
ridges of the hills and occasionally on their sides, were
actually passed through Goora (Somerton). He set out

from Sydney in November, 1831, mainly to check
the claims of the colourful George Clarke (alias
"George the Barber"), a convict who escaped from his
assigned station near Singleton, and joined an aborig-
imposing in the scenery, but it was simple and attractive from its richness and extent. The hills sometimes
rose into singular forms, which were continually
Plains/Breeza Plains area and to steal the cattle. There

is strong evidence that he stole some of Joseph
granite freestone and pudding-stone; They were,

however, well covered with grass and quite clear and
open; The valleys and levels excellent with good timber, chiefly apple tree, box and gum. On the higher
many fine cypresses; There was nothing grand or
changing in our progress and appeared well calculated
to afford an ample range of sheep pasture. The exten-
sive vale in which we stopped was named Goulburn

Vale. in honor of the Under-Secretary of State for the
Colonies".
inal tribe in the Boggabri District. He taught the

natives to raid the squatter's stations in the Liverpool
Brown's cattle at Wallamoul, probably in 1830 or

1831, which may well have brought him through
Somerton en route, making him the first white man
to do so. On returning to white civilisation Clarke told
an amazing story about the "Kindur River", a massive
stream that he claimed he had discovered, flowing
away to the North-West.
28
The theory of an inland sea, or perhaps a mighty

stream dissecting the entire continent, was still strong-
ly held, and it was Major Thomas Mitchell who set

out to try to find this river.
Travelling via Werris Creek and Currabubula, at the

head of a 14-man party, Mitchell entered the Peel
Valley in the gap to the east of Mt. Duri (then 'Turi' aboriginal for 'water-weed'). As previously mentioned
he visited Brown's station at Wallamoul, describing it
as 'The lowest cattle station upon this river', which
indicates that he came upon no other white settlement as he moved further downstream towards Goora
(Somerton). On December 13, 1831, he set out into

what he called 'terra incognita' (unknown land) in
Six years before Mitchell, in 1825, Henry Dangar,

assistant-surveyor, had been instructed by Oxley
to investigate the newly discovered 'Goulburn Vale'
(Peel Valley) as a potential site for the land grant
sought by the newly-established AA Company. In a
difficult trip, completed on foot when their horses
died of exhaustion, the party was able only to dissect
the south-east corner of the Peel Valley. Soon after
Messrs. Nowlind, Baldwin, Macqueen, Singleton,
Palmer, Loder, Onus and Williams became the first
settlers on the Liverpool and Breeza Plains, to the
south-west of present-day Somerton. Drought years
(1828-29) in the Hunter Valley gave added impetus

to this movement north.
In 1827 the explorer Allan Cunningham unsuccess-
search of the 'Kindur". He did not follow the Peel

River the entire way, as he could see that it made big
fully sought an entrance to the Peel Valley, north-west
sweep to the north and west and south, and then

generally west again. He cut across country and then
his northerly course. He crossed the great bend of the
came
on to the Peel River and eventually crossed a
gully which he found very hard to his bullocks and

drays to negotiate, which was probably Sandy Creek,
about 4 km from
Somerton.
The party saw several
kangaroos but the grass was so tail that the dogs had
no chance of catching them. At one time Mitchell
saw a kangaroo squatting, took careful aim and fired,
but to his surprise he saw it bound away. Going to
investigate, he found the kangaroo dead. It was the
mate which had bounded away. One of the natives
who, significantly, had met some white people previously, was greatly impressed with Mitchell's marksmanship, but of course Mitchell realised that the
rifle he was using was much better than the old
muskets that the squatters could have had.
Continuing on. Major Mitchell reported in his
journal about a strip of limestone containing fossilised crynoids (a type of water-lily). This same rocklayer can be seen at the present Keepit Dam turnoff
from the Oxley Highway, a white strip running along
the southern part of the road.
Mitchell followed
the Peel to its mouth
on the
Namoi, realising that the surroundings tallied closely

to George Clarke's description. He then came upon
'a very large stockyard and the ruins of a dwelling,
surrounded
by "numerous (aboriginal) encampments and the bones of bullocks". It was here that he
identified the brand of Joseph Brown on some of the
remaining hides. Identified by his aboriginal guides,

this
was
the site of George
Clarke's community,
situated in the vicinity of the present Wean Racecourse.
Mitchell
continued
on
to
the
Gwydir,
Mclntyre and Barwon Rivers, before returning to

Sydney. His good news of excellent pastureland gave
further encouragement to further settlement.
of Currabubula, and skirted westward before resuming
Namoi River at Carroll and passed northward through

the site of present-day Bingara, continuing on to the
Darling Downs. On his return journey he crossed the

Namoi
downstream
of
Gunnedah,
travelling
west
of Curlewis, en route via Segenhoe (Scone) to Sydney.

Had Cunningham found a way through the range near
Currabubula, he may well have laid claim to be the

first European to tread on Somerton soil.
At
the same
time that Mitchell
was travelling
westwards along the Peel (December, 1831), Henry

Dangar was himself in the Peel Valley on a later )ourney, unbeknown to Mitchell, to carry out a detailed
survey of soil types, pastures, water resources and
timbers on the orders of Edward Parry Commissioner
of the AA Company. Unfortunately no detailed map

or records of Dangar's journey has been located, but
it seems evident that he explored in detail the Peel
and Mooki River systems. It is improbable that he
travelled north of the line of the Peel River and thus
it is quite likely that he may also have set foot in

what is now Somerton, also in December, 1831.
Soon after, in March 1832, Edward Parry, after
whom the Parry Shire was named, set out from Port
Stephens with Dangar, Charles Hill and William Telfer,

a Scottish shepherd, to inspect the Liverpool Plains
and the Peel Valley. Proceeding via Quirindi and Currabubula, the party travelled a route between Duri and
Dunover Mountains - following Major Mitchell's path
of the previous year along the present stock route
between Duri village and Duri Peak. The report of the

trip mentions that they 'fell into Major Mitchell's
dray track'. The party travelled across the valley,
through present-day Bithramere, over Tangaratta
Creek towards Uriari Mountain. They came across the
Peel River probably between the present Bective
homestead and Somerton village. The report mentioned that a recent fresh in the river had made a river-
29
crossing impossible, and after proceeding along the

river for a couple of miles, they camped on a "pretty
green" a little upstream point of Somerton village,
which Charles Hall (who was employed at the AA
Company as an overseer of sheep) "caught two fish,
which proved to be excellent eating". A further extract from the diary on March 27, 1832 related
"Very fine clear night. Several native dogs about. We

saw two large birds today, new to us. Mr. Hall thought
they might be the bittern".
EARLY SETTLEMENT
In 1830 Governor Darling had issued an order
which forbade anyone settling north of the Liverpool

Range, placing the Peel Valley/Liverpool Plains'out
of bounds. His reason for this decree was in theory
that he could not provide sufficient police to afford
protection against the aboriginals. Although not
defined, another obvious reason was that he could
not provide sufficent surveyors to survey the land that

people would want to settle on, so that their claims
Continuing down-river to the junction of the Peel

and Namoi, they followed the Namoi upstream to
could be properly noted.
dine and stock up on provisions at Wallamoul Station
Darling's successor, Governor Bourke, was reluctant
Manilla and then turned back eastwards, stopping to
before returning back to Port Stephens via Crawney

Pass. During the six-week journey Parry had been
pleased by the 'much good country, with excellent

apple-tree patches in all the valleys, and recommended
certain tracts (later Warrah and Goonoo Goonoo
Stations) to the AA Company!
Supported by the views of Major Thurnas Mitchell.
to grant all of Parry's requests for the land he had
recently explored. Mitchell argued that Parry's claims
would cause hardship to the 'poor people'Squatting,
ableit illegally, on the plains and that it would retard

future settlement. Eventually Parry won his case and
the AA Company took possessionof the new propert-
^10/^^^T"15/" 5cor/o"rf 5^f-n'^" rte ^rtc^" ^^" ^ ^ Ao^

builtby jesseA^rdnearly 100yearsago,and typicalofthe typeofresidence'in7he"last7enctury.
,.,.
30
ies in 1834. Much of the delay was caused by the

presence on both sites of sheep and cattle belonging
to illegal squalters which the AA Company had d\ff\culty in removing. After his 1832 journey with
Dangar, Parry had listed six squatters on the Peel,
caring for a total of 3600 cattle and 1700 sheep.

These land holders were Joseph Brown, George and
Andrew Loder, Gostwyck Cory, W. Warland and
William Dangar (Henry's brother).
trol of the Commissioner, John Durbin. Elderly residents of Somerton can recall that many years ago, the
buildings were in a fair state of repair and that the
manacles o.f the prisoners were still in the walls (Note photograph of the crumbling compound taken in the
1930's). On the same rise were located stone stables
and Summer Hill homestead, residence of the district's
first farming settlers. The stone for the buildings was

reportedly quarried from a point within a kilometre
or two south-west of the site (lckeringill's) and some
However, in 1836 the act was changed to legalise
of the stone blocks can still be seen in their original
government control. Settlers could now take up large
heritage in 1947, when the foundations were being
squatting and hence to bring it for the first time under
tracts of land for ridiculously small rentals. A fine

season was reported in 1837 on the Peel holding (Peel
location. Alas, however, a severe blow was dealt to our
laid for the approaches to the present Somerton

Bridge. What remained of this historic police outpost
River, Land and Mineral Company) in which it was
at that time the most northerly in New South Wales,
from the late want of rain, the adjacent country was
job.
stated "though the streams were deficient of water
clothed with excellent grass, and the pastures were
abundant".
was removed to use 'readily available' stone for this
Mayne had not been long at his new headquarters
Wheat and maize had been planted as early as
1834, but results were not encouraging. Another disappointing harvest in 1835 was folowed by a better
one in 1836. Encouraged by the new Act and by the
improving fruits of farming, the population of the Peel

Valley began to increase. It is difficult to believe that
some of the better land along the River around Somer-
ton was not taken up by prospective squatters by the

mid 1830's, but we have no official record of any
landholder before Cobcroft (Menedebri) and Pringle
(Summer Hill).
when he was severley castigated for choosing Goora

to establish his buildings. The Governor was very
displeased and demanded an explanation as to why a

place situated on a more prominent road was not
chosen. The mounting pressure eventually led to the

transfer of the headquarters to Tamworth,
where
Mayne set up his buildings in the vicinity of the pres-
ent Prince of Wales Park.
Part of the duty of Mayne's stockkeeper, a man

named Kelly, was to take possession of all unbranded
cattle over 1 year of age, which automatically became

government property. Since circumstances and per-
A further Act in 1839, under Bourke's successor,

Governor Gipps, made stock returns compulsory and
levied and annual tax of one half-penny per'sheep,
haps laxness often meant delayed branding musters

in parts of the large, unfenced runs, a squatter could
find himself with cattle which he believed to be his
a penny-halfpenny for each head of cattle, and threepence for each horse pastured north of the Liverpool
Range. The money was to be used manily to finance
the operations of the Border Police, a new law-enforcement body under the control of the 7 Commissioners for Crown Lands, whose task it was to issue
licences, collect fees and prosecute offenders.
had one real weakness, which was his fondness for

"the bottle". It has been reported that, because of
this "Kelly made many trips for nothing". When the
The Liverpool Plains District Commission, includ-
ing the Peel Valley, fell to Edward Mayne, based at

Invermein, in late 1838. With a further change in
boundaries in 1839, Mayne moved his headquarters
to Murrurundi.
His area extended
north
and west
own, but which technically were not his at all. Thus

Kelly was kept busy.
However, many of the squatters found that Kelly
stock-keeper arrived at a cattle run on one of his
special missions, he was soon being most hospitably

treated by the owner or manager. The "amber liquid
flowed freely" and when Kelly was inebriated "the

next ruse was to hide his horse". When Kelly was
recovered from his drunken stupor, he was still im-
mobilised because he had no horse to ride. In the
'indefinitely' from the Liverpool Range. However,

soon afterwards he found it necessary to set up an
meantime all available men in the neighbourhood had
outpost for his roving Border Police at Goora, later

renamed Summer Hill and later still Somerton. The
cattle in question had received the owner's brand.
buildings were located on the rise overlooking a point

about 300 metres downstream of the present Somerton Bridge, and the outpost was later under the con-
been recruited, cattle had been mustered, and the
When there were no "cleanskins", the stock-keeper

was able to recover his horse and return to his head-
quarters, probably assuring Edward Mayne that no

unbranded cattle could be found.
31
With the establishment by Edward
Mayne of this
outpost) court hearings were held at Somerton for the

Western section of the Liverpool Plains District. It
was not until later, with the survey of a town site at
Tamworth and mining of gold at Nundle and Hanging Rock, that the Commissioner moved his Liverpool
Plains headquarters from Somerton to Tamworth,
probably around 1 844, where the succeeding Commis-
in his report were 1197 horses, 110529 cattle and

267107 sheep, a tiny 388 acres only under cultivation,
and a total tax assessment of 1262 pounds. The more-
accurate 1841 census listed 1598 resident Europeans

(1424 males/174 females), but the survey methods
were very primitive indeed. In 1846, the number of
white inhabitants of the Liverpool Plains was surveyed
in an official census as 2110, living in 233 dwellings.
sioners were Francis Allman, Roderick Mitchell and
Amongst these were 29 convicts, employed on proper-
John Durbin.
ties, some of whom were providing labour on Summer

Hill Station.
When first established in 1 839, Commissioner

Mayne had at his disposal a total of 10 white constables, some of which were Peninsula War veterans,
and a number of black troopers. Much time was
reportedly spent 'pacifying wild blacks on the

Mclntyre and other cutback rivers' and later it was
found
necessary to establish a further more remote
outpost at Warialda Convict bushrangers also posed

a problem to the Border Police during the 1940's
in the Peel Valley (eg. Edward Davis, Wilson, Bradish,
Branigan, "Coxen'sTom', 'Long Ned').
There were 28 people in Mayne's original establish-
ment at Somerton (27 male, 1 female). All were single,

except 2 males and 1 female, who were married.
Only 2 of the group were free men, the remaining
26 being under some state of bondage. The 1841
census states that the group lived in one stone and
six wooden buildings, only one of these being un-
inhabited at the time (presumably the stone gaol).

Edward Mayne's offical return for the period July
to December, 1840,showed that there were 1,154
whites living on 130 stations under his administration
in the Liverpool Plains (1078 male/77 female) of these
513 were convicts (507 male/6 female). Also listed
The survey also quoted 600 acres being sown to

wheat and 200 acres to corn.
In August 1848, the Government Gazette gave the

first comprehensive list of Peel Valley holdings, with
twenty properties mentioned, under the control of
sixteen lessees. These included the largest single holding of Bubbogullion (now Bective), occupied by
Robert Pringle.
It is interesting to note that in 1839, the only
places in the whole North West/New England region

that had been officially proclaimed as villages were
Somerton and Armidale, both proclamations occurring
in that year. Town proclamations were then to follow
for Armidale (1849), Tenterfield (1851), Glen Innes

(1852), Gunnedah (1856), Tamworth (1859) and
Dungowan (1860). (Somerton was proclaimed a town
46 years later, in 1885, 5 years after the opening of
the local school).
Members of the Somerton Light Horse in 1930. Left to Right - Tom A vard,
Cliff Crewes, Pat Harwood, Clarn'e Moffat, Ernie Grewes, Stan Harwoood,
Arthur Gore, Archie Woolaston and Joe Lawson,
32
convict labour. Which bore prolifically up until the

turn of the century. The English Blue Fig trees were a
Possibly the first person to take up land in this

part of the valley, close to Somerton, was Onus,
perhaps as early as 1 833. An Onus family had squatted
in the Quirindi-Blackville area and were dispossessed
when the AA Company took over the title as part of
their Warrah grant. It is quite possible that this family
feature of this orchard, and their fruit was often

enjoyed by people travelling by horse or coach from
may have moved
can still be seen (see photograph). There are signs
in to squat temporarily along Onus
Tamworth to Gunnedah. The 1864 and 1910 floods

destroyed much of the orchard, but the remnants
of a further
Creek, near Somerton.
orchard
a further kilometre or so down-
stream, close to the river. Mayne's buildings may well

Almost-co-incidental
with the establishment of
Edward Mayne's outpost in 1839, was the commencement
of
Summer
Hill
Station
with
its homestead
located on the same site overlooking the river at the
northern end of the present Somerton village. The

instigator was one Robert Pringle, whose influence
was felt in the valley for many years to come. Pringle

was born in Scotland in 1800, arrived in Sydney in
1824 and first squatted at Rocky Creek, near Killarney Gap, in 1834. Pringle moved into the Peel Valley
as early as 1839, his first holding appearing to be
Summer
Hill
Station,
which
he
named
census lists 30 people in his household,
the
1841
8 of them
children, and the majority of the rest seemingly

assigned (ticket-of-leave) convict servants working his
ever-expanding estate. The original Pringle Station
homestead (1840), predating the current Bective
Station homestead (1862), was built by the assigned
convicts. These men worked on the station during the
day, returning to the settlement in the evening. On
the river flat between the homestead and the present
bridge, was an impressive orchard, also worked by
have been taken over for use by the occupants of
Summer Hill Station in subsequent years, which may

explain the discrepancy between opposed claims that
the stone building down from the hill was used as a
stable or as a convict compound, (probably both are

right, at different periods in time).
The road north from Murrurundi branched off
from the lower side of Duri across the Peel Valley to
Summer Hill, thence across the Peel River to Manilla
and beyond. The river was probably crossed at what is

known as Blaxland's Crossing, downstream of the
present bridge. There was also a road through to Tamworth in the 1840's, the forerunner of the Oxley
Highway, the Somerton section of which was known
as the Summer Hill Road. The original road would
appear to have followed the river flat between Bloomfield Street and the river. Bloomfield street later
became the main Tamworth-Gunnedah Highway, with
a road branching off to Summer Hill Station (later

Scotland Street), about 1914; and later still Brook
Street, in 1937, now the present Oxley Highway.
^
K'-'I"'
s
! "I
All that remains today of the magnificent Summer Hill orchard, managed by convict labour in
the early days of the Somerton settlement. Most of the English Blue figs were washed away in
the 1864 and subsequent floods.
33
Pringle installed James Muggleton or possibly

McLeod as manager of Summer Hill Station soon after
taking up occupancy, apparently then residing himself

further upstream at Bubbogullion, at the site of the
present Bective Station complex. The property name is
said to be an aboriginal corruption of "Bobby's
Gunyah", referring to Pringle's residence on the
banks of the Peel, sited on a bend in the river so that
he could look both up and down stream.
It is recorded that the AA Company carried out

some of its 'boiling - down' operations for the production of candle tallow on Pringle's property as early as
1846. but it is uncertain whether this took place on
the Summer Hill or Bubbogullion section of his land.
As sheep were selling for sixpence a head in the early

1840's, and around 6 shillings could be gained from
melting down an average carcass, it was certainly a
sound economic proposition.
The name Summer Hill remained in regular use for

the village at least up until 1858, although by this time
it was also known by the alternative name of Somerton. The latter name was possibly first used as early as
1848.
Possibly the next resident of Summer Hill Station
was John Freeman, who had been Potter MacQueen's
stockman near Breeza in 1832. It was Freeman who
countersigned Commissioner Edward Mayne's census
of the Liverpool Plains and the Peel River on July 20,

1841, which would indicate that he was at least in the
District, possibly on Summer Hill Station, by that
The Wells Gazetter of 1847 shows him as the

owner of Summer Hill Station, and it would appear
that by that time the property may have passed out of

the control of the Pringle family.
In 1847, the tenure of a land lease was increased
to 14 years, so that anyone who had land leased in

1847 had it tied up to 1861.
German's 1852 survey map shows "Bubbogullion,
R. Pringle" about where the present Bective Homestead now stands, and a fenced paddock about 1. 2km
x 0. 3 km to 0. 6 km in width, extending from the
'gunyah' upstream on both sides of the river. This

seemed to defy the law and that nobody was allowed
to 'straddle' a stream.
Further, in German's 1 852 survey, he marks a line

due north from the mouth of Sandy Creek (4km
upstream from Somerton Bridge), labelled MenedebriBubbogullion boundary on the northern side of the
river. He has a note to say that the western boundary
of thp Bubbogullion run on the southern bank of the

Peel was in dispute and is not yet decided on. Gorman
marks "Summer
Hill, John Freeman" on the western
confines of the present Somerton village. Freeman's

house, possibly that used earlier by Edward Mayne
and the Border Police, was in the middle of a triangular shaped paddock, the base being the river, around
which the road had to deviate. About half a kilometre
from
the river, around
About
which the road had to deviate.
half a kilometre
from
the river, and about one
time.
OflBB HBB8 B BO'B BBB a B B VS-STSWWS 8 66 fl B-B VS s's'sws'wvws < a a-a-8-B-ff'a-6-a-(-fl-rimTfl-Ta-B-
Almost 400 people plan to return to Somerton for the

Centenary Celebrations, comprising ex-pupils and exteachers of . the school; ex-residents of the district,
and
their families.
These
include several from
inter-
state eg, Doreen Tivendale (Runaway Bay, Queensland), Nev Cupples (Brisbane, Queensland), Margaret,
William, Rosemary and {anelle Fletcher (Millmerran,
Queensland), Nola Bulkeley (Mulgrave, Victoria),
Pam Garrett (Brisbane, Queensland), Maurice Chalker
(Hendra, Queensland) Ronald Porter (Elizabeth,

South Australia), E, Stewart (Brisbane, Queensland),
Dave Hey wood (The Gap, Queensland), Anne and
Graham Bowtell (Page, A. C. T. ), Doreen Snellin
Twelve months before the Somerton Centenary

Celebrations, in October, 1979, an Afternoon Tea
Get-Together was arranged in the grounds of the local
school
as a
centenary
were a number
Community
promotion
of the older members
activity.
Invited
of the Somerton
still residing in the district and amongst
those who attended were Clarrie Moffat, Col Cupples,

Brace Cooper, Mary Avard, Mary Richard, Lucy
Harwood, Irene Cupp/es, Phy Ills Gore, Ena Scott,
Irene Baker, Eva Pettit, Barbara Maunder and Mirrie

Harwood, as well as a number of the present P & C
Association,
(Stradbroke Island, Queensland),
B.fl B B.t.U a ^<LJIooBBBnanBBaa qjtft_ oo a a o o a a an aJ{o o.K.M.ff .-- BB. BBBBffBB 9.9.9.9 999.
34
kilometre on the Tamworth side of Somerton (about

where the present Highway deviates from the former
one), Gorman marks on the edge of a small knoll
"Sheep Station - R. Pringle". This was still in the

bounds of the Somerton Reserve, so although Freeman was controlling Summer Hill, Pringle still had a
sheep station nearby.
It is significant that Summer Hill is not included as
a run or station in the 1848 official Government

Gazette. Only Menedebri and Bubbogullion are men-
tioned, although Summer Hill was between them.

Perhaps Pringle originally established his headquarters
at Summer Hill, then moved his headquarters upstream to Bubbogullion, whilst intending to retain
Summer Hill. Cobcroft, the original holder on Menedebri may have taken the opportunity to install his
own manager at Summer Hill as an outstation of
Menedebri,~thus the disputed boundary issue, as both
Cobcroft and Pringle claimed Summer Hill.
john Freeman, co-signatory on Edward Mayne's

1841 Census of the Liverpool Plains was perhaps the
first manager of Summer Hill Station. He was later to
become licensee of the Liverpool Plains Arms, Somer-
tons first hotel.
In August 1848 the Government Gazette provided
the first "comprehensive list of holdings in the Peel
Valley area, showing 20 runs under the control of^6

lessess. Pringles Bubbogullion spread over 147,200
acres around the proposed Bective village, and by
the early 1860's his leaseholdings mushroomed to a
mammoth 425,000 acres. However, during this time
Pringle must have encountered financial difficultii:s

as'the Bank of Australia took over the title of both his
Bobbogullion and Comoo Comoo runs from 1848 to

1852.
Pringles 1848 holding would have included^ all
country"bounded by Menedebri to the West, thej'eel

Range to the South and the AA Company to the East.
The Bubbogullion-Goonoo Goonoo boundary was
near the 14 mile peg (22.5km) on the Tamworth-
Gunnedah Road, near the present Campbell's Corner.
The fence-Iine went from near Attunga right through

to Duri Peak.
An extract from the supplement to the N. S.W.

Government Gazette of 19/9/1848 shows Robert
Pringle's claim to the lease of Bubbogullian as follows:
"Bounded on the east by the estate of the Austral-
ian Agricultural Company, on the southern side of the

It is interesting to note that John Freeman is
listed as still being a resident of Somerton in Greville's

official Post Office Directory (1875-1877).
Peel River, and by Attunga Creek on the northern side

of it; on the south by the Duri Range of mountains;
on the west by a line thence to Peel's River, striking
. .^,e p^ Tên
aro^W ^^wsthe^^9^ of50mertw s fir5tpioneer
'residence on Summer Hill Station, built in the early 1840's.
35
it at a point about 1 mile east of Mr. Cobcroft's hut

(Menedebri) and by a line running north from the
point where it receives Sandy Creek, to the range of
mountains dividing the Peel and Namoi Waters; and to
he had pre-empted a total of 2,931 of some \<tery

strategically placed land, giving him control of Bubbogullion's permanent water, as well as buying up all the
the north by that range".
reserve and later other areas from his run fronting the
Peel. Within a few months of the operation of the Act,
he made further pre-emptive 'purchases on Bubbogullion, totalling 2334 acres, in seven portions ranging
from 209 to 773 acres at 1 pound per acre.
In spite of the 1847 orders about straddling

streams, the land extended across the river as far as
the top Attunga - Somerton road. On the total
147, 200 acres, all of which was leased, Pringle ran 70
cattle, 11 290 sheep and paid an annual rental of
27pounds-10-0 (about t800 in our present spending
power-1980).
Pringle's water frontage was given as Attunga
Creek. This information is intriguing because unless
his boundary was situated north of the present At-
tunga-Manilla Road, which is unlikely, his Attunga

Creek frontage would have been supplied by Pringle,
this water frontage may have been given to draw attention away from the fact that he straddled the Peel.
Pringle may have cunningly listed Bubbogullion north
as one station (frontage - Attunga Creek) and Bubbogullion south as another (frontage - Peel River), making no mention of the fact that the two stations actually met at the Peel River, his land-holding thus
straddling the Peel River. Station-owners listed in the
Tamworth-Gunnedah-Manilla
triangle in 1858
were
Cohen and Levy ('Tuckeraman'), Jenkins ('Woolomoul'), Pringle ('Bubbogullion' or 'Bective'), Cobcroft,
Dight ('Hunary Hill' and 'Carrolt'), Hamilton, Bell
('Keepit'), and Baldwin.
In 1861 there was a land Act passed which enabled
any person to select 40 acres of land already leased

to a station, providing you could 'prove' that you
had made up a certain amount of 'improvement' to
the land. You could buy the 40 acres of land for 5
shillings deposit, with the remainder of 15 shillings per
suburban
farms and town allotments
in the Somerton
In this way, Pringle regained Summer Hill, and his
manager appears to have been one of his in-laws. John

Pritchard Inches, a grazier of Summer Hill, was a
brother of Mabella Inches, who was Mrs. Robert
Pringle. He had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Inches,

who died of croup at 2 years 5 months in 1861
and was buried in the old Bobbogullion cemetery,
near the present Bective Station entrance. Frank and
Jim Inches, well-known names in early Somerton,
were both sons of John Inches, and hence nephews of
Robert Pringle. Frank was a bachelor, but Jim had a
daughter, Lillion Inches, who died a spinster in the
1860's.
The first entry in the St. Pauls Church (West Tamworth) Marriage Register records the fact that on September 21, 1849, the Reverend E. Williams performed
the marriage of Batemour Smith and Euphemia Arnott
at Summer
Hill.
The Squatting Directories of 1865 and 1884

shows that following acreages for the large holdings
in the District. (1865 acreage listed 1st, 1884 acreage

listed 2nd).
Attunga (42, 240^3,700), Bective (80,000; 107,
900), Carroll (28,000 ; 61,500), Durham Court
( ; 96,500), Keepit (25600 ; 83,480); Klori
( -
; 17,800), Menedebri (40,320 ; 34,000), PRLM
acre. Payable on fairly generous terms. Pringle was then

forced to buy some of the land that he was leasing
by a process of 'peacocking' - i. e. buying up all of the
most valuable pockets of land, and pieces with best
water-frontage etc. This placed other prospective
Co. (313, 298 ; 313298), Woolomoul

12, 800), Piallaway (38, 000 ; 177, 600).
buyers at a disadvantage, and left much Bective
south about 6 km and from east to west about 3 km,
intact. The Parish maps from around the turn of the
(11, 520 ;
German's 1852 survey map marks, but does not

name a rectangular reserve measuring from north to
with the Peel River running just north of midway. The
century show that much of the land was actually

bought by Pringle. By 1861, or soon afterwards, Pringle had purchased all of the land immediately adjacent
to Somerton between the road and the river, both up
Police Station and the south-western boundary is

about 3 km south of the river. In 1855 part of the
and down stream
river formed the northern boundary and the dimen-
and on both sides of the river. There
might be some truth in the story handed down that

Pringle at one time was practically selling the shirt off
his own back toget money to buy more land.
The Robertson Land Act came into operation in
October 1861, but Pringte's land preservation strategy
was well established by that date. Prior to that date
36
western boundary is about 2km west of the present
reserve was set aside for the town of Somerton.
The
sions of the other boundaries were - western/2.25 km,

souther/1.72 km and eastern/1.32km.
The first-known town map had three streets parallel to the river Bloomfield (the present Police Sta-
tion), Scotland (the present Post Office) and Brooke

(the present Highway). There were four cross-streets Milkmaid (the present school), Joshua (the present
road to the bridge), Grant (in which the Somerton
Hotel was situated) and Echo Street (west of Grant

street). Other minor streets included Echo Street and
Peel Street, but these latter names hardly survived past
the surveyor's board and were not in common usage.
Later maps (eg. 1891) showed, in addition, Rockeby

Street, Yesterday Street, Chillon street, Rochester
Street and Chrarles Street, all running parallel to
Milkmaid Street, all but two of which have now been
closed off.
the corner of Milkmaid Street and Bloomfield Streets
for many years after the highway had shifted to

Scotland, and later Brooke Street. Both tracks re-joined a short distance to the west of Summer Hill Homestead, and continued parallel to the river for another
400 metres, then divided again. One track continued
parallel with the river, and was labelled "To the

etc. " and
the other crossed the river at a
point about 500 metres north-west of the hotel. It was

marked "Good
The following description is made of Somerton

in Greville' official Post Office Directory if 1875 -
1877. " a post town in the electorate of Liverpool

Plains, police district of Tamworth, is distant from
Sydney 273 miles northward. Routcsteam to Newcastle, rail to Murrurundi, coach to Tamworth, thence
22 miles. Office post only. Mails close at the G. P.O.
on Thursdays and Saturdays at 9.30 p.m. and arrive
on Saturdays at 11.00 a.m. and on Tuesdays at 5.30
p.m. ; leave for Sydney on Tuesdays and Fridays at
4.00 a. m. and arrive on Wednesday and Saturday
mornings. The district is a pastoral one, but many

selectors have taken up land there for farming pur-
The original map marked the teamster's routes.

As mentioned earlier the main road divided at the
western end of the village, one track going to Summer
Hill homestead and beyond, and the other to the
south of the house. A shop (Swain's) was located on
Namoi
Both Inches and Mccarthy were brothers-in-law of

Pringle.
Ford", and was labelled "From Borah
Creek and Bingara", thus justifying the claim that

Somerton was a direct route to the North West.
Suburban lots were drawn up to the west of the

town while north of the river, and approxmiatley west
of the present bridge, there were 67 suburban lots,
ranging in size from 18 to 75 acres. Robert Pringle
bought most of these in the north and western area,
although in the latter part he had some competition
from James Swain and John Perfrement.
The earliest Post Office Directory listing householders in Somerton is that of 1867, which lists 14
names, as follows:
David Arnott (shepherd - Bective), James Barnes

(carrier - Somerton), Phillip Ewing (labourer - Bective),
Joseph Freeman (labourer - Somerton), John Inches

(farmer - Cawall Gap), Thomas Keating (labourer Summer Hill), Thomas Mabbott (blacksmith - Somerton), Martin Murphy (labourer - Bective), Herbert
Mccarthy (superintendent - Summer Kill), Robert
Pringle (grazier - Bective), John Perfrement (grazier Menedebril), Edward Swain (squatter - Menedebril),
David Wiison (labourer - Bective), Thomas Woolaston
(labourer, Somerton).
poses.
The (male) householders listed as being resident in

the district at that time were as follows;
1875
Jesse Avard jun; Alexander Anderson (Keepit);
Francis T. Adams; James Barnes (Farmer); James

Bendle (Carpenter); Thomas Benerd; John Bla^land
(Squatter-Keepit); Thomas Bond (Bootmaker); W.

Borthwick (Squatter); T. Brattan (farmer); David
Brown (Menedebri south); Richard Brown (squatter),
Thomas Brown (Bective); William Baker (sawyer);

Arthur Blaxland (squatter-Keepit); Donald Cameron
(Peel river); Dugald Cameron (stockman); Thomas
Cannon (shepherd-Bective); Benjamin Chapman;
Richard Chapman (drover-Bective); John Coligan
(Keepit); Michael Connolly (farmer-Peel River); j.
Crotty jun. (carrier); John Crotty sen. (farmer-Peel

River); T. Crotty (carrier); Edward Conlon (farmerKeepit); Alexander Chapman (farmer); John Cupples
sen. (farmer); John Cupples jun. ; Thomas Cupples;
John Coolahan (selector-Keepit); W. Eggeston (bootmaker); Phillip Ewing (farmer-Attunga Creek); J.

Falkner (store-keeper-Summer Hill); John Fitzgerald
(carrier-Keepit); John Freeman; Charles Frindle
(Keepit); R. F. Franklin (grazier); George Gardener
(farmer); Thomas Gibson (sheperd); Rev. F. Gough;

r<nTB-r<nrB a 6 a 're a a B a a-aTaTrinnnnrBTnn
The question of relative size of floods always excites
an active debate. The following flood levels (max.
heights) were recorded on the Namoi River at Gunnedah
in the period 1900-1974.
7 - Feb. 26, 1955 - 9. 06m, 2 - Jan. 16, 1910 9. 40m, 3 - Feb. 2, 1971 - 8. 97m, 4-July 25, 1900 8. 96m, 5 - Feb. 11, 1956 - 8. 84m, 6 - Jan. 15, 1964
- 8. 59m, 7 - March 18, 1908 - 8. 65m, 8 - ] an. 8,
1974 - 8. 52m, 9 - Oct. 26, 1955 - 8. 47m, 10 - July
23, 1950 - 8. 33m, I 1 - July, 3, 1924 - 8. 23m.

S BOB 0 6 BO 0 00 CO C B 00 OJU> B 0 OB <, B B Mjjff
37
Alexander Gardner (grazier-Keepit); John Gardner
(grazier-Keepit); William Gayner (farmer); Humphrey

Gayner (farmer); Edward Hunt (farmer-Keepit)';
James HOPkins (sawyer); John Inches (farmer-Peel
River); W. Irving (squatter- Tulcumbah); William Irwin
(selector), John
Johnson
(storekeeper-Keepit);
Thomas Jones (carrier-Mount Seir); Robert Johnsto'n
(selector); Thomas Keating (overseer-Bective); Thomas

Kelly (stockman-Bective);William Kingscott (squatter)
Hugh King (farmer-Keepit);James King (farmer-Keep^
it), John Lomey (Keepit); John McBean (driver-
Bective); B. McCaffery (Farmer-Peel River); Bernard
McCaffery (farmer-Peel River); Herbert 'Mccarthy

(squatter-Summer Hill); John' McGrath (Keepi't)';
H. Marr (farmer); Jason Marr (farmer); H. J. Maxwell
(grazier); Geo. Miller (farmer); C.' Arthur" Neil

(farmer); W. A. Nicholson (grazier); T. Nisbett
(farmer); Jason Perring (farmer); Patrick Phelan
(farmer); E. G. Ratliff(farmer);Wilfred Russell (farmer); Thomas Sims (carrier); Harry Smith (farmer);
Thomas Smith (farmer); William Verrier (farmer);

Geo. Watts (farmer); Robert West (farmer); James
Wood (grazier); Geo. T. Woolaston (grazier);'John
C. Woolaston (farmer); M. A. Woolaston (postmis-
tress); A. & H. Woolaston (farmers); Sarah Woolaston
(dressmaker);William C. Woolaston'(farmer).
John Maher sen. (farmer-Keepit); Martin Mahe'r

(carrier-Keepit); John Maher jun. (farmer. Keepit);
Michael Maher (farmer-Keepit); John Mulholland
(shepherd); Thomas Mabbott '(blacksmith); Denis

McPhillamy^ Michael McCosker (farmer^Keepit)-;
Thomas O'Brien (farmer-Peel River); Frank O'Har'a
(butcher-Carroll Gap); James O'Neill' (farmer-Namoi

river); Robert Oness (shepherd-Keepit);'R.H. O'Kelly
(selector); George Porter (farmer-Keepit);' George
Perfrement (farmer-Peel River); J. Perfrement (squat-
ter-Menedebri north); Robert Rodd (squatter-Keepit);

Joseph Reeves (carrier-Namoi River);-William Roberts'
(grazier); Richard Rowland (storekeeper); James

Smith carrier); Thomas Smith (stockman-Keepit);
James Swain (Innkeeper); R. Skews; William Sander
[sawyer); Phillip Smith (wheelwright); Benjamin
Singleton; John Sims (carpenter);-John Skelton
(teacher-Keepit), John Skelton jun. (farmer-Keepit};
George Swain (squatter-Oakey Creek), James Swai'n
(squatterOakey Creek); John Swain (farmer-Oakey
Creek); Thomas Tattam ( selector); Joseph Verrie'r
(sawyer); Patrick Walsh (shepherd-Bective); Samuel
Ward (carpenter); Jesse Wenban (carpenter)Fpeter

Wiley (wellsinker-Bective); John Wilson (ga'rdener-
summ6r Hill); George Woodley (sheperd-Bective);
W. F. Woodley (Innkeeper);Thomas Warden; Thomas
Woolaston; Thomas George Woolaston (selector);
Charles Watson (selector).
By contrast, the resident householder listed in subsequent periods are as follows; (all taken from copies
of the N. S. W. Post Office Directory).
1906
Jesse Avard (farmer); G. S. Baker (farmer); Robert
Baker (Somerton Hotel); Thomas Bowman '(farmer);

David Brown (station owner); Richard Brown (graz-'
icr); Capel Brothers (Menedebri north station);
Thomas Chaffey (grazier);Thomas Cunneen (farmer);
Thomas Cupples (farmer); Joseph Hatch (stock

dealer); William Hood (farmer); F. John and James
Inches (graziers); N. C. Lawson (store); W. Leach
(farmer); Fred Mabbott (farmer); Harold Mabbott
(farmer); E. S. Man- (farmer); E. W. Marr (farmer);

38
The headstone on the grave of Robert Pringle,

the driving force behind the early growth of
1914
Bective Station.
Jesse Avard (farmer), E. C. Berthon (station manager);
Herbert Betterson (farmer); David Brown (station

ow"er); Richard Brown (grazier); E. A. Brown (pm);
G W. Brown (store); H. Burling (Somerton Hotel);
Thomas Carr (station manager); Thomas Chaffey

(grazier); G. Coombes (farmer); Thomas Cunneen
(farmer); Thomas Gore (farmer); G. G. Graham
(farmer); Joseph Hatch (stock dealer); David Heugh

(store): William Hoad (farmer);J. B. Inches (butcher);
F. Inches (grazier); J. W. Lawson (grazier);W. Leach
(farmer); G. S. Lister (farmer); L. L. Lloyd (grazier);
J. B. McGovern (farmer); Fred Mabbott (farmer);

Harold Mabbott (farmer); J. A. Moffat (sawyer);
Patrick Phelan (farmer); Pinnacle Dairy Co. ; G. Poetschka (farmer; Thomas Smith (farmer); William
Urquhart (grazier); William Verrier (farmer); R. D.
Walker (farmer); George Watts (farmer); Joe Watts
(farmer); Mrs. H. Wilkinson (farmer); H. S. Wood
(farmer); Jason Wood (grazier);W. J. Wood (farmer);
Don Woolaston (farmer); G T. Woolaston (grazier);
C. Woolaston (farmer); C. William Woolaston (farmer);
1934
Jesse Avard (farmer); Thomas Avard (farmer); J. E.
Brandon (farmer); A. Bright (farmer); R. N. Bright
(firmer); C. R. Brown (grazier); David Brown (station
owner), j. S. N. Brown (grazier); ). 0. Brownhill
(farmer); W. E, Bruce (teacher); E. A. & A. T. Chaffey
(graziers); E. P. Chaffey (farmer); Keith Cooper (farmer); Cowell Brothers (farmers); 0. Cruwys (farmer);
William A. Davidson (farmer); Mrs. M. Dawson (farmer); Keith D. Doyle (farmer); W. Druce (teacher);
A. R. Ford (farmer); E. E. Goldfinch (farmer); F. L.
Hoad (farmer); Joseph Hatch (stock dealer); A. H.
lckeringill (farmer); F. H. Inches (grazier); J. B. Inches (auctioneer).
1948
Thomas Avard (farmer); J. Barrett (farmer); F. Blaxland (farmer); J. E. Brandon (farmer); C. J. Bright
(farmer); C. R. Brown (grazier); J. S. N. Brown (grazier); A. Burell (farmer); E. A. & A. T. Chaffey (graziiers); E. P. Chaffey (farmer); Keith Cooper (farmer);
William A. Davidson (farmer); Mrs. M. Dawson (farmer); Keith D. Doyle (farmer); F. Fullbrook (farmer);
E. E. Goldfinch (farmer); F. L. Hoad (farmer); N.
Horniman (farmer); A. H. lckeringill (farmer); F. H.

Inches (grazier; J. B. Inches (auctioneer); Wilfred
Kong
(butcher); Joseph
Lock (farmer); ). B.
McGovern (farmer); A. J. Mcllroy (farmer); D. Mortimer (farmer); T. Newman (farmer); Chas T. Norris
(farmer); D. Pearson (farmer); Alien E. Roach (farmer); William H. Roach (farmer); W. Scott (storekeeper)
A. Sharp (farmer); P. Morgan (publican); W. Stewart
(farmer); S. Swan (farmer; W. J. Tapp (farmer);
G. L. Taylor (grazier); V. Thibault (farmer); R. D.
Walker (farmer); R. Walsh (farmer); Joseph Watts
(farmer); Thomas H. Woolaston (grazier); R. J. Wor-
Jesse Avard was born around 1859 in the Singleton

area, and came from there to Somerton around 1873,
when only 13 yeears of age. He is believed to have

travelled up on his own, although his relationship with
Hannah Avard, wife of of James Swain, the local
publican from the early 1860's is not clear. It is reported that he was held up by bushrangers on the way
north. He travelled in a cart pulled by horses and the
bell which was on the horse-team is still in the possession of the family. One of his sons reports that the
only tools he used to build his slab-hut were an adze,
handsome, home-made spirit level, hammer and nails.
The old slab-hut, part of the original residence prob-
ably built just short of one hundred years ago is still

standing in Scotland street, but problems of finance
have thwarted an attempt to preserve the building as

the centre-piece in the grounds of Somerton
Public
School.
The hut was built of hand-cut cypress pine slabs,

with a corrugated iron roof, the timber being obtained
locally. The residence was originally in 2 sections living and eating area, joined by a catwalk. Most of
the living area was blown down in about 1968, and
the rest has now disappeared. An interesting feature of
the remaining portion is the gap cut into the top
verandah beam to allow for jesse Avard to pass
through without hitting his head - he was about
6'4".
He was a very clever man with his hands and could
play musical instruments, including the violin. His

leatherwork was also a speciality, and he worked for
some time as a saddler and blacksmith in Somerton,

as well as carrying on farming activities. He remained
illiterate throughout his life. Horses were indeed one
of his great loves and he trained several race-horses
over his lifetime, the stables being situated at the
western end of his building block (since disappeared).

Two
race-horses
that come
to mind
are Odd
Warren
and Hard Times, and it is recalled that he sometimes
led them behind a sulky to race-meetings held at

Camden Park near Duri. 'Pop' Gore usually rode
Odd Warren. The return trip was approximately 60
miles.
cester (farmer).
The first man mentioned in all but the last of
these Directory lists was Jesse Avard, of which I can

here give a pen-picture, which may throw further
light on the times through which he and many others
like him lived in Somerton.
The first Tam worth-Gunnedah mail car, driven

by Mr. Greeson.
39
It is recorded in the Bective ledgers that Jesse

Avard was employed on Bective Station as a shearer
and boundary rider in 1891, commencing in January
he was paid 15 shillings a week, and for a period of

4 weeks and 3 days he was paid a salary of 3 pounds-7-
6. The manager at the time was Guy Smith and the

overseer James Starr.
Jesse raised a large family at his home in Somerton.

Following his death in 1940, the house was left to his
son Tom Avard who later sold it to Bert Barnes. Geo.
Avard is still alive, approaching 100 years of age at
Allandale Private Hospital, Cessnock, and is the oldest
living ex-pupil of Somerton school. Other ex-pupils

of the school who lived in the house at some time
during its history, were Valerie, Heather and Nyall

Campbell and Denise King. The present owner of the
hut is Mr. Barnes' niece, a Mrs. Potts.
Peter Avard, grandson of Jesse is a current resident

of Somerton and he currently has two children (Fiona
-Year 4) and (Kylie - Year 2) attending the school at

Somerton
Charles and Emily Wilkinson were also interesting

residents of Somerton, and like many other families,
they had their share of hard times. Emily Wilkinson,

to many of her friends "Toots" or "Aunty Toots"
was a hard-working
Christian woman
and midwife.
Although she bore eight children of her own, she was

always on call, day or night and in that era probably
attended
more confinements
than any other doctor
in the district. Many times leaving home by horse and

sulky, she kept late hours and was sometimes
fencer. He and one of his sons held shearers stands for
some years in Bective shearing shed and two other

sons were employed as shed hands. Bective shearing
shed was one of the largest in the state in the earlier
part of the century, consisting of 32 stands. With his
sons, he also carried out many fencing contracts on
Bective
Estate and surrounding properties. One
contract was for 8 miles of rabbit-proof fence, for
60 pounds a mile, this being the Bective boundary
fence fronting the Tamworth-Gunnedah main road
from one mile wast of Somerton to one mile east of
Bective homestead. Charlie was also an old-time
musician and many times helped out at Somerton
dances with his button accordion and concertina. In
his younger years he also played the violin and mouth

organ. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson had three sons serve in
the A. 1. F. during World Warr II and during those years
they themselves moved to Tamworth.
"-. -.^
The present Smith residence at Campbell's Corner, midway between Tamworth and Somerton.
It is a renovation of the original 'stopover' Inn, buillt in 7876, for the Cobb and Co. coaches
travelling between Tamworth and Gunnedah.
40
away
for days at a time, mostly for little or no fee. Many

people owed their lives and thanks to her. Charles
Wilkinson, or "Old Charlie" was a shearer and contract
Another perspective of Somerton history can be

gained from a study of the Somerton cemetery. There
are reports of a grave having been unearthed on the
northern side of the river, which may belong to an
earlier burial site, but burials at the present town

cemetery date back to a least 1886, and probably earl-
ier, as there is some visual and verbal evidence that

unmarked graves were not uncommon in the earlier
days. The oldest recorded burial was that of Thomas
C. Woollaston in 1886, aged 18 and the cemetery
would appear to have been last used in 1851 for the

burial of Evelyn 0. Chaffey, aged 56.
Somerton cemetery is situated about a mile south
of the village and was dedicated on July 30th, 1875.
It contains about V/i acres. As buggies and sulkies

were the only forms of conveyance and no hospital
was available, most of the Somerton residents died at
home.
Others to be buried in the in the cemetery over the

years include;
Hugh Cameron - 1889 (60); George Ernest Woolaston - 1890 (1 year 10 months); Thomas Woolaston 1891 (83); Clara Urquhart - Mary Richard's mother -
1898 (33); Martha Setchfield - 1899 (74); Samuel

John Woollaston - 1901 (40); Mary Ann Woolaston -
1905 (70); David James Maxwell -1 908 (45); Hannah

Coombes - 1909 (37); Gordon Woolaston - 1910 (7);
Frederick Wood - 1913 (5 months); John Charles
Woollaston - 1922 (57); Eliza Wood - 1922 (75);
John Wood 1923 (77); George T. Woolaston - 1929
(71); Alice E. Woolaston - 1944 (82).

The first mail service passing through Somerton
started around 1855. John Gill had the contract for
a mail service once weekly by horseback from Tamworth to Carroll to Gulligal (on the western bank of
the Manoi between Gunnedah and Boggabri -virtually
It is recalled that a horse-drawn hearse was being
used as late as the 1920's, with the burial of Mrs.

Verrier (no headstone).
destroyed in the 1864 flood). The contract was for
144 pounds a year. (approximately $3800 at today's
prices).
The hearse would be a sprung coach and the burial
service would be read by a mourner and then the body

would be interred in the Somerton cemetery.
66 YEARS OLD AND RAPIDLY
APPROACHING OUR OWN CENTENARY!

MAX & KIM STEWART OF
.
^.SfewWS^.
A UCTIONEERS, STOCK & STA TION AGENTS
Congratulating Spmerton on attaining its centenary and

thank the Somerton folk for their support over the years
We look forward to a continuing association for'the

next one hundred years.
41
coach
service from Tam worth to Gunpedah
possibly started in the 1870's. The present Campbell's

Corner, about midway between Tam worth and Somerton, was a stopping point, and the House (hotel) there
was built in 1 876. The coach also stopped en route at
Bective homestead and Somerton, before travelling
on to Carroll and Gunnedah. By 1883 the coach service ran three times weekly - down one day and back
the next. A total of 1, 141 pounds was spent on roadwork between Tamworth
the river along tarred wooden irrigation pipes and

earth channels. A number of Chinese labourers were
employed on the tobacco project at Old Menedebri.
Good quality tobacco was produced, but the venture
proved eventually unprofitable, being unable to
compete with the American product. Amongst those
working on the tobacco were Herb, Garnett, Walter,
Ernie, Tom and Frank Wilkinson, Bill and Carl Smith,
Charlie Aiken and Charlie Mook.
and Somerton in 1891. and
another 768 in 1892. The coach continued to operate until around World War 1, Jim Pool being the
coachdriver, after which it was replaced by motorised
transport, (see photograph of Greerson's Mail car).
The original coach was drawn by four horses, and

travellers could embark at the Somerton
Hotel for a
meal. The team of horses was changed at Mr. Inches

stables, in Joshua Street, while Miss Wood 'boiled
the billy' Mail was dropped off at the Post Office/

Store on the corner of Grant and Scotland Streets.
The advent of the railway to Tamworth on October 17, 1878 and to Gunnedah on September 16,
1879 opened up marketing facilities for a large tract of
high-potential farming land in the North West, and
wheat-growing districts like Somerton, now had improved access to the coastal markets. Local district
consumption had not permitted anything near maximum cultivation levels, and record acreages were seeded with wheat in anticipation of the arrival of the
A little-known fact is that the first hanging in the
old Tamworth Gaol, on June 23, 1876, was that of
a Somerton resident, Michael Connolly, listed as a
'farmer. Peel River, Somerton in the 1875 Post Office

Directory. An extract from the Tamworth Observer of
28/6/1876 reads - "The morning of Wednesday last,
23rd June, will long be remembered in connection

with the history of Tamworth. On that date was,
carried into effect, for the first time in the district,
the extreme penalty of the British law, the subject
being the body of one Michael Connolly, who was
sentenced to death at the last Quarter Sessions by

acting - Judge Davis, for the murder of his wife at
Somerton.
Connolly
had
been
transported
servitude. After serving his sentence he became a freeselector.
railway.
Older residents will remember well the visits of the

Picture Show Man to Somerton. Mr. Gordon arrived
in his old-covered truck about every 2 months and the
shows were very popular. The films were shown in the
old hall which stood as late as 1946 in Hagan's

Paddock on the highway (Brooke Street). The hall was
constructed of corrugated iron, and comprised an auditorium, stage, 2 dressing rooms and a supper room.
The hall was usually packed out, accommodating about
60 people, and the films were shown directly off the
R. & 1. SCUTT
FARM & STATION SUPPLIES
233 Manilla Street,
Manilla.
Telephone: 85 1565
back of the truck. Silent movies were the order of the

day and included Charlie Chaplin movies.
Mr. Gordon's advertising slogan was "North,

South,
East and West - Gordon's
Pictures Still the
Best". Clarrie Moffat can recall rewinding the film for

Mr. Gordon for the sum of one shilling when he was a
young boy. The Magic Lantern Show was another that
visited Somerton occasionally.
One of the more interesting variations in the farming history of the district was the tobacco-growing on
Menedebri, Old Menedebri and Bectjve Stations, which
commenced in the early 1930's. Irrigation was provided by an old charcoal fired suction-gas pump (12"
bore) on Menedebri Station. Water was pumped from
42
to
Tasmania in 1848 as a convict for 14 years penal
Congratulations Somerton from
COHEN'S CHEMIST
396 PEEL STREET,
TAMWORTH.
Ph. 66 2091
For all presciption dispensing

Revlon, Orlane & Mary Quant
Cosmetics
Photographic and Photofinishing.
. r- '^
i.- . ^ ^
Probably the oldest standing residencein the Somerton district- an old brickcottage i
the Peel River on "Murrami" dating back to the 1870's.
Phone 697567
SOMERTON MOTORS
OXLEY HIGHWAY SOMERTON
REPAIRS TO ALL TYPES OF MOTOR
VEHICLES
On Farm Repairs to Farm Machinery,

Oxyand Electric Welding
Diesel Engines and Stationary Engines

V. A. JONES, Prop,
43
A section of the map of the Colony of New

South Wales drawn by Sir Thomas Mitchell
(Survey or-General
of New South
Wales) in
1834. It shows the Liverpool Plains and Peel
Valley region, largely explored by Mitchell in

1831,
Somerton
is listed by the aboriginal
name 'Goora', and the Muluerindie River was

the original name for the Namoi.
! I
i ?!!
\-..
^'y.
W'l. ^
'\ ' ^
\ ^^Y
-'--;<"
-> "
44
/ \^ . ^,.^.JC"st'f^WÛ.h^.^^w
fx\
^"
'V
'\
FAMILY HISTORIES
The Swain Family
The Woolaston Family
Along with many other pioneer families, the name

of Swain has been synonymous with Somerton district
for a very long time.
The Swain children who at present attend the
school are seventh-generation Australians, the original

Samuel Swain having arrived in Australia around 1832.
His grandsons George and James Swain followed the
building of the railway line through as young men,
setting up business at jump-Up Creek near Lochinvar
and later at Wallabadah. James married Miss Hannah
Avard at Murrurundi.
The two brothers set up partnership and purchased
the property of South Menedebri, Somerton. They

disposed of the property in 1869 and purchased the
Somerton Inn, which was managed by Mr. and Mrs.
James Swain, George Swain and his family moving to

Moonbi.
In 1808 John Woolaston, cabinet maker of Bir-
mingham, England, and his wife had a son Thomas.
Thomas emigrated to Australia and married Mary

Anne Baker who was born in Gloustershire in 1835.
They settled at Narrabri. Each time Mary Anne was
about to have a child she rode a horse to Maitland,
staying with the Clift family at Breeza on the way.
It was little wonder that the first few babies did not
survive. A daughter Mary Anne survived for three
months in 1855 and in 1858 George Thomas was
born followed by Samuel John, in 1861, Harriet
(later Hatch) in 1863, John Charles in 1865, Thomas
Claverdon in 1868, Sarah (later Lawson) 1870, and

William Capewell in 1873. Thomas and Mary Anne
settled for a time at Wandabar Station, Curlewis but
came to work at 'Menedebri', Somerton when many of

their cattle died of anthrax. They later opened at
store in Somerton, near to where Swans now live,

which has since burnt down. Mary Ann was to be
Somenon's first Post Mistress. Thomas and Mary Anne
were both finally buried in Somerton.
Mr. and Mrs. James Swain left Somerton to iive on
their property at Carroll for a while but later returned
George Thomas, their eldest son, was to marry
to Somerton Inn where Mr. Swain died. Mrs. Swain

carried on the business for many years. She died in
Tamworth in 1930, but she lived long enough to see
her son return to the family property "Kilphysic".
Alice Evelyn Bignall, who was born at Dungog. They
This property is still carried on by her great-grandson.

It is interesting to note
that James
Swain's
daughter Adelaide Kate was married to Samuel James

Perfrement at
St. Mark's Church, Somerton, in
1878. S. j. Perfrement was the owner of North Menedebri. After the marriage they went to live on "Oak-
leigh" Piallaway which is still owned by their descendants.
lived miles from Somerton on the property 'War-
minster'. George was a teamster who carried wool

from Walgett to Maitland and station supplies in tne
reverse direction, AtWarminster the following were
born - Ethel, 1883, Thomas Henry, 1885 (married

Lillian Heugh), Amy 1886 (married Ken McLennan),
Ernest (dec.), Elsie, 1889 (married Guy Proctor).
The family then moved to the property 'Caloola'

on a land settlement plan of 5,000 acres. There the
foliowing were born - Gladys (married David Web-
ster), Evelyn (married Ernest Chaffey), Florence

(married Graham Hardacre), Amelia (married Keith
Cooper) and Gordon (dec. ). Later the property
The present six Swain pupils at Somerton School

are the great-great grandchildren of George Swain,
'Keelendi' was bought from Bective and George

Thomas built there. The property 'Stratharlie' was
one of the partners who owned the Somerton Inn in
then acquired.
the 1800's.
The Woolaston family is represented in Somerton
today by Thomas and Robert and their families. The

boys are grandsons to Thomas Henry and Lillian
Woolaston and Robert's children, Emma and Alex the
sixth generationof Woolastons to live in the Somerton

district.
45
S:^^'^^^^^:^^M.
theydeci^toê'^nôf^^;^^^^^0
50 impressed them that
-?-
(+*+}
Royal Insurance
5 facts that give
'
YAI/ the'edge
1. Pioneers in insurance in Australia since 1848.
"c'a$'2rn0s0,p0a00mdeatf astanclfairaveragingover
3. Service throughout Australia from over 80 service

centres.
4. Royal insuresyour home, itscontents, your car.

property, boat, business and life. " ""'""''"'
5. Over 130 years experienceworld wide.
Royal Insurance
:i
Australia Ltd.,
405 Peel St., Tamwort
^..^'^'^
S'^'S5Sz;?;;r;/;^ ^00^;
^^
553pnê'schools ;/rt'^^^/WSÔO^Sl/.w^^^^
1-^-4'/.d pound per persw. '^ ^"' lnere was a public debt of $30 ""Itio" ^d the average t7xâ's
46
The Brown Family

In 1868, the well known Somerton district prop-
erty was purchased by brothers Richard and David
Brown. Richard was to have three children, Noel
(born 1885, died 1951), Roy (born 1887, died'197-3)
and Dorothy (born 1890, still living). Noel, Roy and
Dorothy zll attended the Somerton Public School

from 1890 to 1899. Noel and Roy together with their
father, later bred trotting horses and were very suc-
cessful racing one particular horse in New Zealand.
During the 1940-s they bred blood horses having
a very successful sire called 'Final Victory'. Noel was

to marry Ida May Wightman in 1910 and five children:
Joyce, Cyril, Nigel, Sheila and Nancy were born.'
Noel Brown settled at Weabonga for twelve years

foliowing his marriage and was President of Cockbum
Shire for a time. Noel's two sons, Cyril and Nigel,

attended Somerton School from 1924 to 1928. Nigel
Brown died while a prisoner of war in Borneo'in

1945. Cyril Brown married Elizabeth Dowe and
Lynne, Robert and James were born in 1949, 1951
and 1954 respectively and attended the Somerton
School from 1954. Lynne has since married Patrick
Elliot and lives in Sydney with daughter, Salley
Elizabeth. The Brown family is represented in the

Somerton district today by Robert, his wife Narelle
and son Daniel at 'Kilmeston' and James, wife Denise
and daughters Rachel and Michelle at 'Moorawara'.
Roy Brown married Lilla Brown in 1927 and

Margaret, Merryll and Jean were born. Roy Brown
sold his portion of 'Menedebri' in 1958 and retired to
Sydney. Dorothy Brown married Stewart Beit and
Peter (dec. ), Donald and Patricia were born.
ELEGANT FROCK
SALON
253 PEEL ST, TAMWORTH (OPP.

(OPP. T.A. B.)
PROP. DENYCE ROACH

"Clothes for all occasions"
WE ARE PLEASED TO BE ASSOCIATED
WITH, AND INCLUDED IN THIS PUBLICATION

FOR THE SOMERTON SCHOOL CENTENARY
47
The Chaffeys from

Lottery Va/e
Lewis William Gardner was born at Combogolong

in 1859 and married Elizabeth McDonald who was
born at Young in 1 862. The couple had nine children,
one of whom", Hilton (known as George) moved to
Somerton district from Muswellbrook. He wasbornât
Gulargambone in 1892 and married a Somerton girl,
Lottery Vale was first settled in 1887 by Thomas
A. Chaffey in what was believed to be the first land
ballot in N. S.W. He was a son of William Adolphus
Chaffey who was born at Martok in Somerset, Eng-'

land, emigrated to Australia and settled at Rock View,
KootingaL Thomas married Patience Swam whose
father was licencee of the Somerton Hotel. They had

five children; Earnest, born 1890 who went of living
at Lottery Vale after serving in the A.l. F. in World

War 1; Hannah Amelia, born 1892, married William
Olivia Hatch who was born in 1895.
This couple had seven children; Laurence (dec. ),

Arthur (dec. ), Thelma (Coles) Mack Una and Fay
(Goldthorpe and McDonald) and Ronald Their
mother Olivia Gardner passed away in 1971 having
being predeceased by her husband Hilton, in 1964.

Laurie'married Laurel Wilkinson. Laurie passed away
in 1974 and his widow (Laurel) has now settled in
Tam worth.
Davidson and lived at Clermont Park, Somerton;
Colin, born 1. 896, died 1898; Arthur, born 1899

who married Marjory Chenery and lived at Trelawney
(where John Morgan now lives) had three daughters,

Gwen, Peg and Wendy; Edna, born 1904, married
Dwurt Stone and lives in Sydney.
Earnest married Evelyn Woolaston from Keelendi
and they had four children who attended Bona Vista

School; Max, now living at Donggala after serving in
Justin and
Robyne
Flannery would
like to congratulate Somerton School
the R. A. A. F. in World War 11. He had five children,
on obtaining their centenary and wish

all pupiis well for their future:
Robert has settled at Donggala. Ross, who lived at
Justin Fannery's Pharmacy
gan and moved to Nebo in Queensland where he drew
Phone: 85 1651
Lynette, Robert, Wayne, Carmen (dec. 5 days), and

Sonya, all of whom attended Somerton school and
Trelawney after Arthur moved to Tamworth, had

three son's, David, Roger and Peter, who all attended
Somerton school. Ross sold Trelawney to John Mor-
Robyne Planner/ H. B. A.
13 1 ManiUa Street, Manilla.
a block of land. Joan, who now lives at Kyeamba
near Wagga. lan, who continues to live at Lottery

Vale had" two sons, John and Kim who attended
Somerton school. John has now returned to Lottery
Vale.
The Gardnet FamiSy
Warleigh and Barnes

CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR
* Agreeable Prices
* Friendly Service
The Gardner family are represented in Somerton
today by their two sons Barry and Noel, their wives

Mary and Jancie and four children, Maria, Lonnie,
David and Donna. A third son Gary, resides in
Tamworth with his wife jenny and their two children
Teresa and Leslie.
48
* Ample Parking
Open till 6.00 p. m. Weekdays

12.00 noon Saturdays
110 Manilla Street, Manilla,
Phone: 85 1261
BECTIVE SOLDIERS' SETTLEMENT

As one travels west from Tamworth
along the
Oxley Highway, at the foot of the ten mile hill, there

is a sign on the left pointing south which says - "Bective Soldiers' Settlement". Sixty Three years ago that
sign was not there as it was all Bective Station.
As the Diggers returned
from the 1914 - 1918
war, our Government decided to resume parts of the

vast stations that land-locked towns and villages and
settle returned soldiers on these blocks.
Bective Station controlled large areas of land so

the decision was reached to throw open the land on
the southern side of the Oxley Highway extending

from the thirteen mile (approx. ) to the twenty mile
peg. There were forty three blocks each eager to make

a success of their block. There was no easy way. They
came with their axes, picks and shovels and fenced
their blocks. They built their homes, brought their

wives and reared their families. They formed an
Association
called
the
"Bective
Soldiers
Settlers".
Their meetings were held under a large apple tree in

Keith Doyle's block near Sandy Creek. Here they
discussed their grievances. In 1922, the Right Honourable William M. Hughes the Prime Minister of
Australia, attended
one of their meetings and
addressed . the settlers. The soldiers felt very honoured

by his visit.
The men endured many hardships at that time carting water, bad roads, coping with horse teams,
furrow ploughs, kerosene lamps and hessian cool
safes. Some prospered and some did not, but all
were united in a spirit of friendship and comradeship.
Today this land is one of the most productive in the
Tamworth District. There are only eight blocks still
owned by the families of the first settlers - Cooper,
Doyle, Avard, Roach (2), Heyman, Rowland and
Orman. Two of the old Diggers still live on Oscar
Scott and Orlando Heyman. Mrs. Myra Dawson,
whose husband died in 1928, carried on with working
the farm and made a success of it. All three live in
Tamworth and all are well up in their late eighties.

Footnote:
Bective Station owner J. S. Vickery had sold off

22, 000 acres (44 farm blocks) in 1910, followed by
another 2,000 acres in 1911, prior to the 30,000 acres
resumed for the Soldiers' Settlement in 1918. Subse-
quent sales reduced the size of Bective still further,

so that Vickery's 90,000 acres and 100,000 sheep at
the turn of the century, had been reduced to a little
more than 5,000 acres and 3,000 sheep in the mid

1960's. By 1960 his great-grandson, J. R. Vickery had
abandoned sheep altogether to concentrate on cattle,
for which he has introduced lot-feeding.
SOLDIERS' GROUP PURCHASE

AREA No. 15, 1918-19
Purchase
number
Ernest W. Campbell,
Portion
number (160); 2 William E. Stringer (162), 3 James

H. Horneman (162); 4 Cullen J. Browne (163);5 John
H. Bryant (166); 6 W. G. H. Orman (167); 7 Orlando
S. Heyman (168); 8 George A. Heyman (169); 9 J. M.
Heyman (170); 10 Ernist A. Roach (171); 11 Ernest
K. Cruwys (172); 12 John 0. Harding (173); 13
Archibald Anderson (174); 14 Joseph Lock (176);
15 Percy Nicholl (178); 16 George Rowland (179);
17 Alec Hole (181); 18 Oswald Pankhurst (182); 19
25 William H. Roach (175); 26 Keith D. Doyle (176);

27 Oscar C. Scott (177) 28 Keith Cooper (178);
29 Thomas H. Avard (183); 30 James 0. Brownhill
(184); 31 William W. Stewart (185); 32 Arthur Moeller

(186); 33 Arthur J. Mcllroy (187); 34 James E. Smith
(189); 35 William J. Ward (190); 36 Norman C. Scott
(191); 37 Darcy C. Baker (192); 38 Richard Dawson
(193); 39 William A. Girdler (195);.40 William R.
Morriss (196); 41 William K. Nolland (135);42 James
A. Jenson (136); 43 Hilton A. Wilkinson (63).
Edmund Isaacs (183); 20 William Lane (184); 21

Robert Miller (171); 2 Clifford Cruwys (172); 23
Frank E. Wilkinson (173); 24 Gore E. Stewart (174);
m-B-6-a Bat 66066 S-rS-S'SWTSWWVS'SWFVTS'a BB'tBBaa866 6-fU BftaaaaaBfl fl-6Tt-(i-6~e-BTnrtTni

The peace and quiet of a country road was shattered one day in 1908. A horse-drawn lorry was taking
60 dozen bottles of cordial to Lister's store at Somerton. When passing through Somerton Gap the horses
bolted and of the 720 bottles only two remained unbroken.
49
The Go/d Expeditions of

1903 and 1935
On July 28, 1903, Mr. Joe Hatch of Somerton, as
one of the Van Strake Expedition, started from Alice
Springs with camels to explore the McDonald Ranges

and the barren country that lies between there and the
mining centres of Western Australia. On Christmas

Day, 1903, after five months of incredible privation
Mr. Hatch and another member of the party staggered
back to civilization at Duketown near Laverton. The
Party's leader. Miller, had perished in the desert.

It was during the worst of the party's hardships
that )oe Hatch "stumbled on his El Dorado,^ which

from all accounts may have been the wonderful find
supposed to have been made by Lassetter and known
as' 'Lassetter's Reef. )oe
had been desperately
searching for water and detached from the others,
came across a fabulous reef of gold which stood out
of the ground to a height of two feet and stretched

away for a distance of perhaps half a mile until it lost
itself in a mountain. In desperate need of water, )oe

could do nothing beyond picking up a nugget the size
of a potato, carving his initials in a nearby tree and
taking stock of the general geographic Features of the

area.
]oe Hatch slept on his dream of returning for

thirty two years until in 1935 a Tamworth Syndicate
was formed for the purpose of relocating his find.
The 1935 expedition, led by Joe. Hatch, comprised
Ivan Jensen, Jim McNight and Laurie Gardner. They
George Thomas Woolaston (left) and his

brother-in-law Joseph Hatch who led
the gold expeditions.
In 1938, )oe Hatch by now an old man, returned
travelled to the sight via Broken Hill, Port Augusta,
with an expedition led by Frank Maher. This party,
ed utilities. After almost a month of searching in an
the illness of )oe Hatch was also forced to return
Kalgoorlie and Laverton in two specially recondition-
plagued by dry waterholes, unmanageable camels and
area three hundred and fifty miles from Laverton they

returned to Tamworth, unsuccessful but greatly
empty-handed.
enriched by their adventure.
Members of the expeditlonary party whichsearched forgold in Central Australia,

'including Mr. Joseph Hatch (Somerton Resident), second from right.
50
KEEPITDAM
The function of "firing the first shot" in the
construction of Keepit Dam was performed by the
Premier of N. S. W., the Hon. Alex Moir, on April
30th, 1938. About 300 people were present. Already

a good serviceable road, including a high-level bridge,
had been constructed from the Oxley Highway,
beginning at a point mid-way between Carrol I and
Somerton, over the Peel River to the site of the dam.
A number of cottages, barracks, workshops and offices

had been built.
Keepit Dam was finally completed in October,

1966, after monumental delays stretching over twenty
years.
A lot of Somerton men were employed on the

works and at one time there were only four working
men in Somerton, the rest being involved in work on
the dam. When work on the dam's site re-commenced
after the war in 1945 most of the Somerton men
worked their periods from three to seven years. This
After the opening ceremony construction work
gave a real boost to Somerton.
proceeded a pace and by 1941 between 300 and 400
men were employed on the job. At this juncture

Japan
threatened
Australia
with
invasion and
the
building of dams was forgotten for nearly four years.

During the war much of the work done disintegrated
and became useless or nearly so. Further, the problem
of sitting created a necessity for recasting construction
plans.
Quicklay International Pty. Ltd.

Australian
Distributors
P.O. BOX 367, TAMWORTH, 2340

TELEPHONE: (067) 657666
MAKERS OF THE CABLEVEY FEED TRANSPORT SYSTEM

WHICH GIVES YOU AUTOMATION IN YOUR HOG FEEDING
OPERATION, YET IT ALLOWS YOU TO RIGIDLY CONTROL
THE AMOUNT OF FEED FOR EACH PEN ... IN GESTATION,

FARROWING, GROWING HOUSE OR FINISHING HOUSE.
51
HISTORY SOMERTON
The earliest record of a public house in Somerton
goes back to 1848, it being the Liverpool Plains Arms,

the licensee being John Freeman, presumably also the
original manager of Summer Hill Station. In that year
a licensing court was set up for the first time in Tamworth and a total of nine hotels were licensed in an
area extending from about Barraba to Currabubula,

including the afore-mentioned. This was a mere 30
years after John Oxley had found his way into the
Peel Valley.
Freeman's Inn would appear to be the fore-runner
of the Somerton Hotel, which came under the control

of James Swain at least as early as 1865, and remained
in his hands for many years thereafter. It would
appear as though James Swain employed licensees
while engaging in farming activities ar Carroll. Alfred
McKenzie was listed as publican in 1869, during re-
presentations for establishment of a Post Office, as

was Thomas Crotty in 1876, during representations
for the establishment of a school. Crotty was the
centre of a well-publicised court case held in Tamworth. Both he and William McFarlane, another
Somerton resident were charged with stealing a
' bullock
from
the
somewhat
unpopular
squatter
Alexander Rodgers, of Attunga Station. The jury as

locked up until midnight and emerged to pronounce
both defendants guilty, a surprise decision in those
days as the verdict in these 'selector v squatter'court

cases invariably went in favour of the former, which
HOTEL
Thomas Barr may also have been a licensee in this

interim period, prior to James Swain taking over
occupancy again in th el ate 1870's, remaining until his
death in 1884. Mrs. Hannah Swain (nee Avard) then
carried on in the business for many years.
An interesting story has been handed down from

which is recounted here;
^w.^. :"..
"One June day, James Swain was in Tamworth

serving on the jury, leaving his wife in charge of the
hotel. A young man, who Mrs. Swain barely knew,
came in to cash a large cheque which he claimed was
for his Keepit Station wages. Although she had her
suspicions, Hannah Swain cashed the cheque. As the
day wore on her suspicions deepened, so at about
4.30 p.m. she saddled a horse to ride to her husband

in Tam worth.
Having ridden for about 9 miles, it was completely

dark. The horse shied and twisted around several times
so that she completely lost all sense of direction, the
road then being no more than a track winding through

scrub. After a while she perceived a light and rocFe
towards it. It was the home of Mr. and Mrs. James
Whinfield. They persuaded her to stay for the night,
and at her request, woke her about 4. 30 next morning.
After a quick breakfast she resumed her journey to
Tamworth; reaching there just as the sun was rising.
She made for the Post Office Hotel where her husband
was staying and told him the story. Also staying there
usually had popular public support.
Somerton Hotel in the early 1900's on the corner of Grant and Bloomfield Streets.
The Police Station can be seen in the (left) background.
52
'aui - ^
^^
!._ -> ... . .. . -
-. -..^
AV^-
Part of the Historical Display at the Somerton Centenary Celebrations is on exhibition of period costume
in the Primary classroom. It has been arranged by Stewart Halbisch, an art teacherat Peel High School,
who was been collecting the fashion of yesteryearfor about sixyears. Hisextensivecollectiondates back
to the 1830's and most of the pieceshave been restored by Mr. Halbisch to near originalcondition.
-""mMmBBB .1
318 PEEL STREFT, TAMWORTH. 2340.
Auctioneers, Stock,
Property and Real Estate

Salesmen
Congratulate the Somerton

School on its 100 years of
valuable public service.
Have a happy celebration.
Robert Pringle had a family of two daughters, Mabella Winton Pringle and Catherine jeanette Pringle.
The former 'married Herbert McCarthy and they are believed to have lived in the stately stone homestead
at Summer Hill. After the death of her husband, she married a grazier, Philip Parker Macarthur King,
o son of Philip Gidley King - grandson of Governor King, superintendent ofGoonoo Goonoo Station and
Tamworth 's first mayor.
53
was John Perfremeni. The young man under suspicion

had already arrived by coach and was staying at the
In 1891, there died at Somerton a very old resident

in the person of Thomas Woolaston who had conduct-
same hotel, waiting to catch the train to Sydney.
ed the Somerton Hotel for many years and was a very
James Swain went to the man's room, and while he

was speaking to him, within the room, John Perfrement kept pacing up and down the corridor just outside the young man's room with a heavy, rhythmical
tread of which any policeman would have been proud.
prominent resident of the town.
The man confessed the cheque was a forgery. As

he appeared to have a genuine hard-luck story James
Swain allowed him to keep enough money to pay his
hotel expenses to buy a ticket to Sydney and to stay
at a boarding house till he found work but recovered
the rest. Hannah Swain returned to Somerton by

coach, the horse tied on behind."
v
(Although not having an exact date for this incident, it would
v "-*.
u
i*f
of course
on
the old coach-route
a daily trip, in alternate directions - i. e. to Gunnedah

one day, back to Tamworth the next. En route from
Tamworth the coach stopped at Campbell's Corner,
Bective Station and Somerton, before proceeding on
to Carroll Gap and Gunnedah. Meals for the travellers
were provided at the Somerton Hotel, while the horses
were being changed.
Somerton Hotel was also a regular accommodation
stopover point for horse-travellers between Tam worth
and Gunnedah in the early days. An instance of this
was the Tamworth Cricket team, travelling by

Wakely's Horse Bus, stopping off at the Hotel en
During the Swain occupancy local legend strongly

supports that the well-known bushrangerThunderbolt
on the Saturday night (on the return trip), following
paid a visit to the Somerton Inn and received a meal

there. It is recorded that in December, 1865, Thunder-
bolt engaged in a brief but spirited shootout at

Griffin's hostelry
at
Carrollj
wounding
one
of two
policemen in the arm.

James
Swain, William
Jones became
Flett. Hall's Post Office Directory of 1901
lists T. Tickle as the licensee, whilst Robert Baker is
listed as licensee by the N. S. W. Post Office Directory

of 1906. This was the year that the hotel was burnt
down, being rebuilt by Frank Inches who also ran the
business. The 1914 Post Office Directory lists H.
Burling as the licensee.
route to Gunnedah on the Friday night and again late

their match in Gunnedah.
Licensees other than those listed above were (not

in chronological order) - Messrs. Dooley, Winter,
Brady,
Arneil,
Woolaston,
Dowe,
Mills,
Magill,
Morgan, Spicer, Myers, Wilson, Roach, Wrigney,
licensee, and during the 1890's the licensee was

Thomas
*.(
was
the year that the railway arrived in Tamworth).
Following
^
have been post - 1878, as this was
Somerton
between Tamworth and Gunnedah, the coach making
Chappel, Ellis, Renfrew, Dalgleish, Waterman,

Nagle and Hayes.
Reid,
An attempt was made to transfer the hotel license
elsewhere in 1941-42, but a court case was won by

local residents Harold Swan, Wilfred Kong and Norm
Horneman, retaining the license in the village.
It is believed that the Somerton
Hotel was one of
the first buildings in the village to be lit by electricity,

with an imported 240 V power plant being used there,
at least as early as the 1930's.
Somerton Inn, when William Jones was the proprietor. The woman with the two children is Mrs. Jones and the tallest
child (on her right) is Sarah Woolaston (who married Bill Woolaston). The woman in the white apron is Mrs. Kong
(Wildred's mother). On Mrs. Kong's right is Joe Mabbott.
54
Prior to World War 1, two of the most regular

visitors to the Somerton
Hotel were Bruce Mabbot and
Joe Brown. Mr. Mabbot a bachelor lived with his

parents on a farm between Hoads, and Chaffeys on the
Attunga Road and was employed in seasonal work.
When not working he rode to Somerton Hotel every
to find that someone had unharnessed
the horse, taken
it into the adjoining paddock, and reharnessed it with

the sulky on one side of the fence and the horse on
the other. It is not recorded what response this evoked
in the unfortunate patron!
afternoon, arriving around 1.30, and remained until

about 5 in the winter or until 6 o'clock (closing time)
A less savoury tale came from much earlier times

when local legend is strong that a man on horseback
in the summer.
killed himself in colliding with an
During the war he got a job out at
Keelendi, and from then on he came every Saturday

evening, returning on Sunday around 11.30, and stay-
iron gate at the
Hotel, as he galloped, away from a dispute that had

broken out in the Hotel, the rider dying instantly.
ing on for the midday meal and leaving again around
After this event, parents were able to use the scary
3 p.m. to tend to the calves and milking at Keelendi.

When there was a dance or any entertainment on a
Saturday night he would pen the calves up before he
left and have his evening meal at the hotel.
tale of the 'Headless rider' to effect in disciplining
Between the two wars on the main entertainments
at the Hotel was the playing of cards (usually euchre

and crib), especially on a Saturday nightj and it was
quite common to see 3 or 4 games going on at once.
The games were played for drinks, losers to 'shout'. In
their children.
Alas, about 130 years of history came to an end

when the old Hotel was burnt to the ground in December 1972. A temporary
bar was put into service
over the following 4 years. The needs of the District

are now being served by Cathy's Tavern, which has
pride-of-place on the Oxley Highway.
those days a beer cost sixpence and if the winner

wanted to buy a more expensive drink, he had to pay
the difference. Some of the regulars were B. Moffat,
J. Brown, F. Inches, J. Inches, J. Avard, A. Roach,
A. Woolaston, ). Hatch (Jnr.), 1. Cupples, S. Swan,

J. Harwood, C. Wilkinson, J. Brownhill, ). Gore, J.
Lawson, C. Moffat, D. Willis and N. Campbell. On
occasions Messrs. J. McGovern and F. Inches played
chess for hours at the hotel.
Another popular game at the hotel from days gone

by was called 'Pitch'. It was played in front of the
hotel near a big tree. Iron saucer-shaped coits, each
weighing around 11/2 Ibs., were pitched towards, two
iron pegs about 11 yards apart to see who could get
closest. Each player was allowed two throws at a time,
and again the loser 'shouted'.
In the bar a game took place called 'Nearest the

Wall". From a line on the floor each player would toss
a penny at the opposite wall to see who could get
closest. The closest would be allowed to throw all the
pennies in the air and take all the coins that came
down heads!
The second-closest would throw the
remainder up, taking all the 'heads' again, etc., and so

the game progressed until all the pennies were used up.
Humorous tales abound from life at the old Somer-
ton Pub, including the following; 'one of the regulars

was in the habit of driving his horse and sulky to the
hotel, then proceeding to tether the horse to the fence
outside. One New Year's Eve, this particular patron
emerged from the hotel a little 'under the
A fter the fire. The old Somerton Hotel burnt down on
December 3, 1972, the original hotel building having

also burnt down in ] 906,
weather'
and stumbled towards his means of transport, only
55
Somerton Post Office History

Postal records of Somerton date from July, 1869,
when residents petitioned for the establishment of a
Today the Somerton Post Office serves 120 households and mail services from the Post office covers
post office. Mrs. T. W. Woolaston was appointed as
264 kilometres a week.
annum. Mrs. Woolaston remained as Postmistress for
In 1953 the telephone exchange became automatic

and now there are over 100 subscribers connected to
postmistress in 1869 on a salary of 12 pounds per

36 years until her death in 1905. Over the years her
salary had been progressively increased - in 1874

it rose from 12 pounds to 15 pounds, in 1875 to
18 pounds, in 1884 to 26 pounds and in 1894 to

29 pounds 10 shillings.
EARLY MAILS
In 1869 Somerton was served by the following mail

contract: Catherine Hume of Gunnedah. Tamworth,
Carroll and Gunnedah twice a week, on horseback,
140 pounds per annum. The first mention of

Somerton in the contract occured in 1873, when the
contract was described as:
A. L. jannison ofTamworth.
Tamworth, Somerton, Carroll and Gunnedah twice

a week, by four-wheeled coach, two or four horses,
90 pounds per annum.
POSTMARK NUMBER
Following the introduction of the first adhesive
postage stamps in N.S.W. on 1st January 1850, a

number was alloted to each post office. The postmark number of Somerton was 546.
Following the death of Mrs. Woolaston her daughter Mrs. Sarah Lawson became Postmistress in 1905
on 23 pounds per annum. In 1907 she became tele-
the annex. After the bombing of Darwin in 1942,

the Post Office became a reporting office for the
Volunteers Air Observers Corps. When a plane was
sighted or heard day or night a direct telephone call

was put through givingthe direction,time and possible
number of engines. For this purpose the Post Office
was given a Certificate of Record and appreciation
for the service.
When the Somerton Banking Agency was opened

at the Somerton Post Office, a depositors list was
commenced. The depositors are shown in the order

in which they opened their banking accounts with the
agency.
D. M. Proctor, L. ). Leach, V. Watts, C. K. Burwood, S. T. Miller, A. T. Woolaston, Henry Lee,

A. T. Chaffey, R. McGrath, E. McGrath, ). R. Hatch,
C. ). Moffat, W. M. Wood, R. E. Woolaston, T. W.
Dawson. L. Rushbrook, K. R. use, H. S. Wood, E. A.
Chaffey, C. Creeveys, C. M. Woollett, H. L. Avard,

R. M. Kelleher, W. H. Roach, John Konz, ). A. Ryan,
Somerton Rec.Sp.C/tee, F. M. Crump, A. R. Gore,

J. W. Crump, R. P. Woolaston, A. Rose, T. Wilkinson,
E. Wilkinson, W. W. Wilkinson, F. j. Wilkinson, Somerton Pres. Church, R. Richards, H. McGrath, L. 0. I.
phone operator as well as Postmistress, and was paid
Wilkinson, H. E. Stranger, H. H. J. Roche, N. M.

Harwood, R. Tickle, A. W. Stewart, C. J. Stringer,
ance was increased to 35 pounds per annum.
Stringer, S. M. Harwood, M. C. Harwood, 1. Cripps,
Postmasters since 1910: G. W. Browne 1.3. 1910;

Mrs. G. W. Browne 6.5.19U; ). F. Hoban 30.9. 1915;
wood, C. A. Stringer, T. M. Watts, W. A. Mcllroy,
at scale rates, depending on the number of subscribers connected, calls handled etc. In 1908 her allow-
J. W. T.awson 1.6.1918; A. G. Mann 14.3.1936; Mrs.

K. 0. Mann 1.6. 1 940, G. W. Scott 6.4.1 942.
NEW PREMISES
On the 7th January, 1943, the post office was
removed from the premises owned by the late

Postmaster,, Mr. Mann, to the residence of the current
postmaster, Mr. G. W. Scott. Mr. Scott had to pay

part of the cost of removal as it was unlikely that the
revenue gained from the office would cover the
expense involved in moving it.
TELEPHONE - The first telephone exchange opened

onTs'th" November, 1913. On 28th October 1953
a" rural" automatic exchange replaced the manual
switchboard previously in use.
56
H. ). Harwood, A. M. Gray, N. N. Brown, S. V. Harwood, J. T. Hatch, E. M. Cupples, j. W. Crump, G. M.

J. Kyle, B. M. Harwood, E. G. Harwood, E. L. Har-
). A. Chaffey, F. W. Hoad, H. Brown, 0. R. Wilkinson,
1. Turner, F. M. Allsopp, H. M. Woolaston, A.

Mcllroy, C. D. Hoad, F. E. Wilkinson, E. A. Cooper,
Somerton Lodge, S. I. Chaffey, E. Chalker, F. N.
Frost, F. A. Chaffey, ). Yeates, N. Matheson, H. R.
Swan, T. Moore, E. Cruwys, A. B. Bowman, K. A.

Cooper, M. Ellis, B. M. Roach, D. M. Harwood, L. E.
Harwood, L. Larwood, K. D. Mortimer, ). Harney,
P. W. Harwood, B. D. Head, A. A. W. Vickery, Somerton Tennis Club, J. K. Ellis, H. A Gore, I. D. Cupples,
I. M. Watts, F. Allsopp, F. R. M. Greers, R. S. & S.
Imp. League of A., D. Allsopp, ). Young, Olive Lawman, K. 0. Mann, T. Fitzgerald, T. Fitzgerald, R. W.
Stephens, A. C. Mann, H. E. King, E. M. Wilkinson,
L. V. Inches, E. J. Wilkinson.
FOR ALL LIVESTOCK, REAL ESTATE &

PROPERTY SALES
WOOL & INSURANCE
MERCHANDISE & BUILDING SUPPLIES
275 PEEL ST.. TAMWORTH

AVRO ST., TAMIND
CNR. AVRO & JEWRY ST., TAMINDA
FOR SERVICE AND PRESCRIPTIONS
HALL'S PHARMACY
342 PEEL STREET.
TAMWORTH
PHONE 662895
57
Somerton Police Station

Apart from the fairly brief stay of Commissioner
Edward Mayne's Border Police from 1839, at which
time Somerton was the most northerly police out-
post in N.S.W, police were firststationed at Somerton
on a permanent basis during 1879. In 1898 alterations
and repairs were recorded as having been carried out

on the'police station indicatingthat a buildingowned
by the department had been standing for some time.
The names of early Somerton policemen are not re-
corded, many records having been lost or destroyed

over the years. However, it is known that a Constable
John Byrne was stationed at Somerton between Aug-
ust and November, 1884; that Constable 1st Class J . C.

Adams was there from 28/6/1888 to January, 1890;
Constable Roderick Fraser from December 1895
to March 1907; and Constable 1st Class Richard
Young from 6/7/1907 to September, 1915.
It was during Richard Young's term that thepres-
ent'police station on the corner of Joshua and Bloom.
fielcf Streets was built. It originally contained a rewdence"an office and a separate cell. This^layout
"emains"except that a separate two^stall ^stable and

forage'room'has now fallen into disrepair. The old
separate cell has also been replaced by a portable
,
wooden cell with an iron roof.
Somerton Police Station was closed temporarily
in 1943 as a war economy measure. It reopened^\n

October, 1946 but was closed again from May, 1955
to")uiy, '1960. During this time the station was still
used"as a residence"for police attached to nearby
towns.
Police attached to Somerton since 1933: con-
stable"V/c~Samuel H. Lawman from 12/9/1M3^;

Constable" 1/c Leslie Hungerford from ^4/4/1941
Stationclosed march 1943 - OctobeM946
Co"nstable"Frank Morgan from 25/1/1947; Constable
)am'es"C Millington from 15/7/1950; Station^closed
"1955 to July 1960; Constable 1/c M. ]. Mulligan
from "1/7/60, ; Constable 1/c J. i. êedsman ^from
>; Constable 1/c (later senior <-onstaDie;, w. n.
Moriey' from'18/4/1966;
Constable 1/c
(later_ Senior
D. A.
1/c
Constablefl. Hi'll from 3/7/69;
Cam'pbell'fror" 21/6/73; Constable 1/c_R. ). Halt from
Constable
U/7'/75; Senior Constable H. G. Tunnicliff from

10/6/78.
No account of the history of policingin Somerton
would be'complete without mentioning some of the

exploits" of the policeman who possibly served there
longer than any member of the force.
58
Roderick Fraser was the Constable at Somerton
for almost twelve years and later in his career attained

the rank of Inspector 3/c before retiring in 1928.
While being attached to the district he participated

in the hunt for the Governor brothers and also carried
out some valuable rescue work during the Tamworth
floods. Earlier in his career he arrested one of two
criminals who had robbed a bank at Barraba and
murdered its manager, Mr. Mckie. This arrest led to
the apprehension of the other wanted man and both

were subsequently executed at Tamworth goal.
Ex-lnspector 3/c Fraser died at Earlwood on 27th

May, 1940, aged 72.
Police were first stationed at Somerton on a per-
manent basis during 1879. In 1898 alterations and

repairs were recorded as having been carried out on
the police station indicating that a building owned by
the department had been standing for some time. The
names of early Somerton policemen are not recorded,
many records having been lost or destroyed over the

years. However, it is known that a Constable John
By me was stationed at Somerton between August and
November, 1884; that Constable 1st Class J. C. Adams
was there from 28/6/1888 to January, 1890; Con-
stable Roderick Fraser from December 1895 to March

1907; and Constable 1st Class Richard Young from
6/7/1907 to September, 1 915.
ASHERS-JEWELLERS
OF 301 PEEL STREET
TAMWORTH
Extends best wishes to

Somerton on their
Centenary Celebrations
Telephone
662057
Somerton Village
One early reference to the village of Somertoii
(previously known as Summer Hill) is from a Gazeteer, dated 1866, and is probably correct to about
1863-64, and this would be the first description of
Somerton. :
"Somerton, County Inglis, is a small roadside

hamlet on the Peel River, lying 12 miles north-east
of Carroll, and 21 miles north-west of Tamworth.

There is an inn, the Somerton, Swaine's, in the hamlet.
The surrounding country is flat and lightly timbered".
German's survey map (1852) marks but does not
Apparently Bloomfield Street - Summer Hill Road

was designed as a Tamworth - Somerton Road.
Although no-one can remember it in use, older resi-
dents have been told that the road did go that way.
As far as they can remember, the main road went

via Scotland Street, and soon after World War D,
the present highway was laid down through a paddock

along what had been the old Brook Street survey line.
The former highway is still trafficable.
The old and new roads meet a mile east of the
village and on the western side of the reverseslope of
name a rectangulai reserve measuring from north to
a hill on which Somerton stands.
boundary is about 1% miles west of the present police
RAILWAY
of the river. In 1 855 part of the reserve was set aside

as the town of Somerton. The river formed the north-
It must have been a great disappointment when the

railway line was not extended to Somerton. The
south four miles, and east to west two miles, with the
Peel River running just north of mid-way. The western
station and the south-western corner was 2 miles south
ern boundary and the dimensions of the other bound-
aries in chains were - western, 112; southern, 86;
eastern, 65%.
The town had three streets parallel to the river,
Bloomfield (the present police station and old hotel
site),Scotland (the present hall and Post Office Store);
and Brook (the present high). There were four cross-'
streets, Milkmaid (the present school); Joshua (the

present road to the bridge); Grant (the old hotel
corner); and Echo (12 chains west of Grant Street.

Bloomfield Street continued a couple of chains past
Echo Street, west towards Gunnedah. There was

another one, a short one, Peel Street, which went from
the Grant/Scotland Street corner south-west towards
the present highway. No one seems to be able to
remember Echo, Peel or Brook Streets actually existing beyond the surveyor's drawing-board. On the
coming of the railway opened up marketing facilities

for "an immense area ofback-country" from Barraba
in the north-west to Moonbi in the north-east, as well
as centres surrounding Tamworth
like Cobbadah,
Manilla, Somerton and Bective. All of the large wheat-
growing districts for which local consumption had not

permitted anything like the cultivation which was
possible. In fact before the turn of the century, when
consideration was being given to building a branch
line from Duri to Somerton, passing through the
present Bithramere and Winton, record acreages of

wheat had been planted in anticipation of the railway's arrival. (The railway arrived in Tamworth on the
17th October, 1878). The line to Somerton reached

the stage of a tentative route being set out. However
the coming of motor transport made such a line economically unsound.
above street plan, land for school and police station

was set aside in their present positions.
The map marked the teamsters' routes. The track
from Tamworth came along Bloomfield Street, then

directly below the school it went between Bloomfjeld
Street and the river just below the old hotel it divided
- one track going direct to Summer Hill house and
beyond, and the other to the south of the house.

Both tracks re-joined about four chains west of the
house and continued parallel with the river for another
fifteenchains,then divided again.One track continued
parallel with the river, and was labelled - "To the
Namoi etc. " - and the other crossed the river at'a
point about '/< of a mile north-west of the hotel (old
site)._l was marked - "Good ford", and was7abell"ed

^-,'. Tr^ B?rah creek and Bingara"; thus justifying
claims that Somerton was on the direct route to the
te: ^
A load of wool on Joe Lawson's Truck
north-west.
59
SOMERTON BRIDGE
move in 1901 to have a bridge erected over the Peel
Neville Alien Jones and Leslie George Jones, two

Somerton farmers, established Somerton's first service
station. It was first an Ampol Service Station, then
Esso and about 1977 became a B. P. Service Station.
Noel and Janice Gardner run the present service sta-
This first bridge proved too small and too low but it
service station.
1949-50. Unfortunately for our heritage the builder

of the second bridge (a contractor, said to have been
is "Somerton Engineering" run by Alan Abra. He
Keepit Progress Association was largely responsible
for the erection of Somerton bridge and the opening

of a road from Keepit to Manilla and another road
from Keepit to Somerton. This association made a
River at Somerton. The agitation went on for several

years for it was not until 1910 that work commenced. The bridge was not actually opened until 1911.
tion and shop with provision for the sale of meals and
refreshments, bowsers, spare parts and lubritorium.
Neville )ones still runs his workshop at the back of the
was not replaced until the present one in about

A. Gam) used, as foundations for the approaches to
the second bridge, the ruins of Commissioner

Mayne's 110 year old headquarters.
The most recent commercial venture in Somerton
specializes in all types of stock feeders, and metal

fabrication.
Perhaps one of the oldest commercial ventures
(apart from the hotel) would have been the sawmill.
GARAGES
From about 1930 onwards an elderly Mr. McDonaid conducted a garage (workshop only). There are
stories that there had been a coachworks there years
From late last century George Moffat had a sawmill

near the present Presbyterian Church. In about 1900
he removed it to near the river.
before. Mr. McDonald died post-World War II. In 1958
The opening of the old Sorr, erton Bridge in 1911. Work was ^"edoutMt^w^0^
d^p^âu^'byê'flood onâtyear. Itwas located a littleupstream ofthe present bridge.
/'
60
'^
^M.
^^^ ^<?s
The open ng ceremony for the old Somerton Bridge in 1911. The two standing tallest are
G, T, Woolaston and (on his right) Harry Levien, the local member at the time. Who is the little girl
in the foreground, and what is she thinking about?
"OLLYDENE"
Poll Hereford Stud

Somerton
Sires in use
Jayenn Senator by Inverary Comrade
Ollydene Commando by InveraryCommando

Ollydene Spitfire by Jayenn Senator
Stud'and Commercial Bulls always available
HEYMAN PARTNERSHIP
PHONE (067) 697516 Enquiries

Welcome
61
Commercial
There have been a baker, butcher and blacksmith
as long as people can remember.
From World War 1, until about 1935, Somerton
BAKERS
For several years, from early this century, but at

broken periods, bread was baked in Somerton by Mrs.
Frank Miller, formerly Susan Carey, daughter of
Robert Carey, until she and her husband moved to
Tam worth.
people depended for their meat on people such as

Wilfred Kong (afterwards a horse trainer). Also Laurie
Gardner and John Hatch (as partners) and James
Harwood. The butcher's shop was apparently next to
the baker's shop (near present horse stables) and was

owned firstly by Wilfred Kong.
In 1935 G. W. & ). E. Scott bought the butchery
In February 1923, James (a rural worker) and

Caroline (nee Davis) Harwood, came from Carroll and
Mrs. Harwood began baking bread to supply local

needs. Her son Herbert James Harwood, recalls that it
was a family affair in that her children helped 'mum'
mix the dough. However when Clifford Lawson began
to run the baker's cart from Attunga to Somerton in
the early 1920's the needWas no longer there and Mrs.
Harwood discontinued baking. TheHarwoods rented
the baker's shop from J. B. Inches. It was about where
the horse stables now are.
which they conducted in conjunction with their store.

The butchery continued until about 1948 during
which time it supplied meat to Keepit Dam. (Mrs.
Scott was postmistress at Keepit Dam). The reason for

closing the butchery was the amount of money which
would have been needed to have been spent on the
slaughter yards out near the cemetery, would have

made the undertaking unprofitable.
GENERAL STORE AND POST OFFICE
Somerton Post Office has been invariably associat-
Prior to Mrs. Harwood's baking, Mrs. Inches used
to bake the bread. (The Inches had rebuilt the hotel
which had burnt down, hence the change of management).
BUTCHERS
ed with the general store. In July 1869, the residents

petitioned for the establishment of a post office in the
village and recommended that the postmistress be

Mrs. T. W. Woolaston, who, with her husband con-
The original Somerton Store. A commericai postcard showing Somerton General

"StorTandfost 'Office. The photograph was taken around World War 1. Note the
"variety of transport. Printingon the front of the store includes the words Grocery, Drapery, Ironmongery, Boots.
62
dueled the store. Mrs. Woolaston assumed office
BLACKSMITHS
police station but a few years later was shifted to the
The first. recorded blacksmith was James Mabbott,

who was the son of a Joseph Mabbott, a blacksmith of
Tamworth and whose name is listed in the Post Office
on October 1st, 1896, using part of her general store.

The store was thought to have been near the present
corner of Grant and Scotland Streets (about a block

west of the present Post Office).
Mrs. Woolaston remained as Postmistress until her
death on October 5th, 1905, when her daughter (Mrs.

Sarah Lawson) succeeded her. The store and post
office passed out of the Woolaston family on March
1st, 1910, when Mrs. Lawson sold out to G. W.
Browne and then followed several short periods of
ownership of the store.
Directory of 1867. Another very early blacksmith was

Thomas Barr, a selector from what is now Kootingal.
(This was somewhere in the 1870's).The blacksmith's
shop was next to the old hotel and when the latter was
destroyed by fire in about World War I time, the
former was burnt down also but not replaced.
In more recent times Mr. McDonald was the blacksmith. He was known only as "Old Mac" - no first
name. According to one report Mr. McDonald came to
Somerton driving on Oakland car, about 1926-27
vintage, and set up business as blacksmith, wheelwright, farrier and general odd-job man in an old slab-
sided blacksmith's shop that some years before had

been run by an old gentleman with a foreign accent
(name unknown). This shop was situated on the northwest side of Mr. G. W. Scott's Store and Post Office.
One of Mr. McDonald's regular customers to have

his horse shod was Mr. Bruce Mabbott, a bachelor,
who worked for many years on "Keelendi" (at that
time owned by Mr. G. T. Woolaston). Mr. Mabbott
perhaps could have been a relativeof the first recorded
The front of the Somerton General Store and Post
blacksmith, Mr. James Mabbott). In later years when

the blacksmith trade became slack, Mr. McDonald,
Office which was destroyed by fire in the J930's.

This store was situated on the comer of Grant
then built an addition on to the blacksmith's shop and
and Scotland Streets
In the 1930's (according to one report) the old

Post Office and store was demolished and some of the
materials may have been burned on the site. (Others
report that this store was burned down). A new building was erected and business as usual was carried on.
The owner during this period was a Mr. A. G. Mann.

According to this report it was this new store which
Mr. Mann brought a shed from Bective in which to
carry on his business until the store was rebuilt. It
was rebuilt only as a Post Office, because during the
was
Mr. Mann joined the A. I. F. during World War II

and was later killed in action holding the rank of
Captain.
In 1937 Gordon William and Ena Scott opened
a store at the present site and in 1942 the Post Office

was transferred there too.
a Mr. Tom Fitzgerald. After a few years Mr. Fitz-
gerald left Somerton to take up a position in a garage

at Telegraph Point on the coast. Mr. McDonald carried
on the business himself, for a while, then went into
the building trade carryingout some contracts for Mr.
Frank Inches which included the dismantling of the
old school and residence and re-erecting same as
cottages on vacant land adjacent to the Public School.
Mr. Mann built which was destroyed by fire.
1930's depression, store-keeping at Somerton

scarcely profitable.
opened a garage (workshop only) in partnership with
Mr. McDonald died post-Worid War II, reputedly while

out shooting with friends.
The most recent blacksmith was Samuel Higgott

who died in the early 1970's. There is no blacksmith
now.
OTHER STORES (From 1900 onward*)

There was one situated on the north-eastern side
of the old main street (the residence may still remain),

hear the concrete culvert on the south-eastern end
of the village. This was a grocery and produce store
run by Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Lister, who later shifted
to Farley near Maitland, (both deceased).
63
Another grocery and produce store built of con-
crete by a Mr. Scholes, faced the approach of the Peel

River Bridge. This was later sold to a Mr. Hughes and
again in later years to a Mr. Harry Higgins.The rear
end floor of this building was, and still could be, at
a higher level to facilitate the handling of produce on

and off what ever conveyances were used. This was
Another small store on the western end of the
village was run by Mr. )im Buck who used to sell
fruit and vegetables, confectionery, tobacco, cigarettes
etc. In later years this building was occupied by Mr.

Arthur Gore, horse trainer. This building was direct-
ly opposite the old site of Lawson's Store and Post

Office.
done through double doors nears the rear of the building.
In later years this building was owned by Mr. and
Mrs. Frank Wilkinson Snr. and after some alterations

was used as a residence. Mr. Wilkinson later passed
away, and Mrs. Wilkinson now lives as Moss Vale.
B B 0 0
0000
ManHla conned a Sports Day on Bo. ing Day, 1886. A foot^cefoÔ po. nds a side^ r.n êen
"G. 'Bi'gnal'loVManillaand 0-Neill of Somerton, and was won by the latter.
Roy WallaceofSon,erton isrerr.eêreâ^^^

diving
passed
'hlym"o'neuy'bag'. Aufw the'fioodhad
he went
for his money
bag and found it!
FAY AND CARL JAMIESON WELCOME ALL

CENTENARY VISITORS TO
LAKE KEEPIT KIOSK

(DAM WALL END)
Take away food
Hot and cold drinks
Hire Boats Canoes Catamaran
Groceries
Petrol and Oil
_ . , ^ ..
Souveniers Mariner Motors and Equipment.
LICENSED LIQUOR DEPT.
Choice selection of sparkling and table wines
Tooheys'rT oothsKB
interstate-beer
ayiscount
Dink and Eat Well at the Kiosk

PHONE (067) 697606
64
prices.
CHURCHES
The first regular church services held in Somerton
appear to have been conducted by Tamworth clergy
of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Anglican denominations, from
1868
onwards.
Ministers travelled
on
horseback to attend services in halls, at homesteads
and private residences and in the case of the Anglican
It is believed that the present St. Mark's was
completed and opened in late 1904.

A
harvest
festival
was
a common
occurrence
in
many rural areas, and consisted of each congregation

decorating the church with the best examples of their
minister, to the first St. Marks' present War Memorial
own
Hall, in about 1880.
and fruit. At the conclusion of the service, the results
The first recorded Anglican service in Somerton

took place from the Manilla Parish on Easter Day,
10th April, 1898, in St. Mark's Church. The church is
known to have been blown down around 1900 and to
have been later replaced. Services were held at
Summer
Hill homestead
in the interim.
Around 1903 the parishioners of Somerton were
harvest,
including
grains, vegetables,
flowers
of harvest were sold and the proceeds of the sale were
donated, in the above-mentioned case, to the purchase

of new seats.
No Catholic church was ever built in Somerton,

as families preferred to worship in Gunnedah.
However district services were held periodically at
Bective Station. During the construction of Keepit
Dam, a priest came from Gunnedah to say Mass at the
trying to raise money for the erection of a new building. On the 18th March, 1903, a dedication service
public hall at Keepit Dam and many of the Somerton

residents attended.
was held, which was attended by 110 people - 78

adults and 32 children. The offertory from this
service was donated to the church building fund.
Again on 21st January, 1904, with the Reverend A. R.
Pegler in attendance, it is noted in church records,
Harvest Festival offertory was donated to the purchase
As with the Catholic denomination, the number of

Wesleyans, or Methodists, were never sufficient to
warrant the building of a church in Somerton. However the spiritual needs of these people were looked
of seats.
after by more of those "travelling ministers". The

Reverend Joseph Hopkins, the first Wesleyan minister
St. Mathew's Presbyterian Church Somerton. A commercial postcard, the photograph having been
; -. /: ? ' -.
'..
^-."'. -
taken in the early 1900's.
'
....
65
Tribute should be paid to those courageous minist-
to be appointed to Tamworth, recalled while he was

here in 1868-71, he preached at Somerton and receiv-
ers 'who'travelled out to Somerton in those early
He had also preached at Carroll where the publican,
ent,"the journeys were often long and tiring. Hospitality'was gratefully received by them at the homes of
e'd hospitalityfrom the Swain and Perfrementfamilies.

a Mr. Griffen, welcomed him.
Early services for Presbyterians would have been
as for the Anglicans with ministers travelling out to
Somerton from Tamworth and later from Manilla.
As far as is known, in the late 1890's the Presbyterians
years to care for the spiritual needs oftheir flocks.

As the roads were poor and in some cases, non-exist-
their parishioners. Nor were they daunted by the

trials of nature. The Reverend W. A. E. Parrot who
travelled to Somerton from Manilla,recorded on
May, 1903: "River up, crossed on horseback'
bought the old Somerton private hall and used it for

worihip until around 1904, when the present St.
Matthew's, part of Manillacharge,was builtalong side

the hall, opposite the present store.
HALLS
The first two halls to be built in Somerton, were
owned, with old hands believing the first one
to'have been established in the early 1890-s on the site
of 'the' present Presbyterian Church. This hall was

owned and built by Mr. J. B. Hatch, and was used for
bazaars, dancing and concerts.
The second hall was owned and built by Mr. Frank

inches, and was situated just off the Oxley Highway
(then"'known as Brooke Street) on the corneô^

Isshua Street (which leads to the bridge). Itronsisted
of"a"galvanised iron roof and walls, the floor and
stage being of cypress pine. The supper room had an
When a Presbyterian Church was found to be
ea'rthen floor. All food and water for dances was

heated on an opengalley which comprised two up-
The exact date of demolition is not available butjt is
from
buc kets hung. All heating
winter there'was always a roaring log fire with, one
necessary in the early 1900-s, ). B. Hatch d"atedriie

hallTand to the Church and the hall was demolished.
ktwwn~that Sunday School was taught in_the Presstands, i"J911-, _wit11

byterian"Church where it
Ethel"and~Gladys Woolaston as teachers.These ladies
travelled in every Sunday morning from "Keelendi'
rights with a steel bar across from whichwood

two 4fire.
gallonIn
a
was
imagines, always several backs beingwarmed.
now
by buggy
Front view of the War Memorial Hall, officially opened 14th July,
66
1954.
Older residents can recall silent picture shows being

shown in the hall several times a year, Penn's Pictures
being one of them, with the operator travelling around
by horse-drawn wagonette, on the side of which was

displayed a large picture of a pen with ink dripping off
the nib. Possibly this could have been around 1910
as Penn's are recorded as showing in Tam worth around
then. The wagonette used to do a circuit of the district
and sometimes Somerton was visited twice a year.
Local identities Clarrie Moffat and the late Ron

McGrath Snr. as young lads were often called on to
assist the operator by rewinding the films some
afternoons
while the carbons were checked. If they
were required to help at night in the showing of the

films, the patrons should have been able to assume just
which films held the interest of the young boys - the

exciting, interesting ones were wound through slowly
to enable the two boys to savour them to the full.
Dull, uninteresting ones were fed through at a much
faster rate. Later on, the
horse-drawn wagonette was
replaced by motor lorry, and the silent pictures by

"talkies"
Displayed on the front section of the War Memorial Hall,

these names are of those who fought and those who fell.
The projector and associated equipment was not
permitted to be set up on the floor of the hall, one

presumes for safety reasons, so a small room had to be
built on the left-hand side of the front entrance.
People remember during the years of the Second

World War each soldier being given a send-off in the
hall and being presented with a watch and band. If

one peruses the Honour Roll mounted on the front of
the present hall one can see there must have been
many such send-offs. The local ladies also held their
"knitting bees" for the soldiers, and in the hall during
those difficult years. As well as being used for many
general functions this hall was also used by the

Somerton Agricultural Bureau to hold its meetings.
Displayed on the front section of the War Memorial
Hall, these names are of those who fought and those

who fell in the Great War.
67
The present hall was built as a memorial to those

who fought and fell during the two World Wars, and
stands on the comer of Joshua and Scotland Streets.
The land was donated by Mr. Jack Morris of Manilla.
Mr. Morris had been canvassing for donations for an
The hall was offically opened on July 24, 1954,
by the President of Peel Shire Council Councillor ). E.
Mills, the same time as the electricity supply to the
village was switched on. The hall has been the focal
point of most of the village's social activities, ever
R.. S. L. Club in Manilla and called on brothers Stewart
since.
and Harold Swan for a donation. He was told that

Somerton-ites were in need of a hall in Somerton and
perhaps he'd care to donate to that! Mr. Morris told
the Swan brothers that if they could get a donation of
Several balls are held during each year, together

with luncheons, darts, 21st birthdays, and wedding
50 pounds he himself would donate the ground for the
are held in our hall.
receptions are just some of the varied functions which
hall. It is presumed they acquired the 50 pounds,

because soon after, construction of the present hall
was commenced.
The bricks were second-hand, supplied by Peel

Shire and were carted from Werris Creek by voluntary
labour with trucks. The bricks were later cleaned and
stacked. Cypress logs were donated by Mr. Frank
Jones, the Keniffs, Mr. Len Strand ring and Mr. and
Mrs. William Swain, cut by axe and carted by volun-
tary labour in trucks to a sawmill in Tamworth was

put down with the help of voluntary labour. Locals
The Honour Rolls displayed at the hall commemorate those men and women of our district who fought
and died during the two World Wars. There are also
two Honour Rolls which display the names of those
of Bective and district who served. These two Rolls
were brought and mounted in the Somerton hall

after disposal of the old Bective hall.
An active Hall Committee, led by President Noel
Gardner, attends to the care and maintenance of the
hall during the year.
started the building and the Shire sent out builders to
1<
complete it.
THE SOMERTON CRICKET CLUB IS

PLEASED TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS
BOOKLET AND WISH SOMERTON
SCHOOL EVERY SUCCESS ON ITS
CENTENARY.
AS FAR AS WE CAN ASCERTAIN CRICKET HAS BEEN
PLAYED ON AND OFF AT SOMERTON FOR OVER 100 YEARS
BUT IN CASE THE GAME HERE ISA BRIEF RESUME:WHAT IS CRICKET?
Cricket is quite simple. You have two sides ours and theirs. One out in the
field and one in.
Each man in the side that is in goes out, and when he is out he comes in and
the next man goes in until he is out.
Then when they have all been in and are all out, the side that has been out in
the field comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get out
those coming in. Sometimes there are men still in and not out. Then when
both sides have been in and out, including not outs, that is the end of the
game.
It's really simple although sometimes it has some people stumped!
68
CRICKET
Cricket made its appearance in Manilla and district
in the early 1870's so it probably could be assumed
that Somerton cricket made its debut about the same
and visiting teams up to the First World War, which

caused a general suspension of competition cricket,
together with most other sports, one assumes.
time.
Cricket was resumed after the War, with Mr. Vince

The first mention
of a Somerton
cricket team was
in 1894 where, in a match against Carroll, Somerton

made 154 runs whilst Carroll replied with 75 and 65.
Somerton is recorded as being one of several district
teams, others being Keepit and Wongo Creek. Keepit's

team had no less than five Brady's as players, with
the mainstay of the Somerton team being recorded
as the Moffats. while Gardners
inated
and Abberfelds
dom-
the Wongo Creek team. (It could perhaps be
mentioned that of the total of 19 players in the

present
Somerton team, 10 of them are Swains,
with 9 of them being brothers.)

The first cricket pitch, which was made of dirt,
at Somerton was established presumably in the late
Watts recalling his first game in 1918, along with Mr.

Clarrie Moffat,
years thereafter.
both youngsters
playing for many
Aroung the time of the First World War, the

present older residents and ex-residents were only
young children so much information of this time
is lost, but some of the earlier cricketers are remembered as being:
Roy and Noel Brown, Tom Woolaston, Bert
Perfrement, Harold Spencer, Dick Hatch, Alex Moffat,

Tom Hatch, Jos. Watts, Mr. Gaffney (schoolteacher
from Carroll Gap), Stewart Swan, Ernie Moffat,
Don Woolaston, Charles Moffat Snr., Mr. Clifton
(Somerton schoolteacher) and Davey Willis.
1800's on the flat in front of the old hotel, near the
river. The boundary ran right to the edge of the old

tennis court, near the old fig trees. It is assumed
that this ground was used by the local cricketsrs
&*..
In
1920
the
Manilla
Cricket
Association
was
re-
formed with the competing teams named as - HalfHoliday, Somerton Independents, Upper Manilla,
Wongo Creek and Saturday Half-Holiday. The refer-
^.. it
^ -- -. "c ^
SOMER TON CRICKET TEAM OF YESTER YEA R
Back Row.-- (L to R) - Joshua Watts, Vince Watts, Tom Woolaston, Sam Lawman, Stewart
Swan, Cyril Brown, Harold Quick.
Front Row:- (L to R) - Lionel Watts, Henry Moy, Clarrie Moffat, Tom WiWnson, Nigei Brown.
69
ence to the teams named as "half-holiday" apparently referring to the associations that were formed
to press for a half-holiday on Saturdays as opposed
The first motor transport for the team is recalled

as being supplied by Mr. Harold Spencer who owned
a Ford T motor lorry, then later on Mr. Joe Lawson
to Wednesday half-holiday.
(from the old Post Office) and Mr. Bert Perfrement,
The pitch was moved in the early 1920's for the

same reason as the tennis court was moved, possibly
due to the purchase of the ground in front of the old
hotel. The pitch was re-located to the recreation
ground. A major working bee was held with all players assisting in the putting down of the ant-bed pitch.
of the Somerton club to their "out-of-town" matches.
After the First World War, some of the players

remembered
as being part of the Somerton
team
were:
Stewart Swan, Stan Harwood, Ken Worcester,

Clarrie Moffat, Allan Roach, George Wilson, Bill
Scott, Cecil Woolaston, Jos. Watts, Tom Woolaston,
Frank Blaxland, Ernie Wilkinson, Paddy Harwood,

Pat Worcester, Don Woolaston, Reg. Woolaston,
Roy Colguhoun, Herb. Hardy, Jim. Gore, Bert
Perfrement,
Cecil Swan, Vince Watts, Sam
Lawman
(the local policeman, with a very appropriate name)
Neville Newman, Alex Tapp, Norman Swain, Pat

Kenniff, Davey Willis, Harold and Bob Quick, Frank
and Sam Ingham, Nigel Brown.
who both owned Ford T cars, carried the members
After the Second
World
War,
the club was re-
formed again in 1948 and has continued off and on

since then.
The oldest Minute Book available gives the club as
being re-formed again in September, 1963, with

membership fees set at 15,- per member. Those present at the meeting were:
R. Chappell, Chas. Moffat, L. Moffat, ). Swan,
). Rowley, B. Gardner, G. Baker, M. Brady, B. Jenner,

R. Heyman, J. Brown, A. McKnight, N. Cupples, G.
Noad, P. Harwood and R. Wood.
In the Minutes dated 29th July, 1964, an application to the Shire for assistance in the way of a loan to
construct a new pitch had not been granted. However
the Shire agreed to provide men, materials and equipment to construct a new pitch of 6" re-inforced con-
crete. Volunteers from the club dug out the existing

pitch, carted sand and formed the new pitch.
I !-
As can be seen by the number of players, the club

was very active and many social and competition
matches were played both " at home" and away.

The only means of transport being by horse, it is
imagined many early mornings were spent saddling
up and travelling to such places as Piallaway, Carroll,
Manilla, Wongo Creek and Keepit Dam. After the
advent of the car Hall's Creek was also visited.
The first game played on the new pitch was the

President's 11 versus the Secretary's 11. It is not
recorded as to who the winners were.
Many
donations
of various items for raffles are
recorded, among them being "a raffle to assist in the

cost of practice nets; First Prize - sheepdog pup". This
was won by K. Corbett.
On the old Recreation ground, in the riverside paddock oppos'te

the Somerton
70
Hotel.
The club was currently re-formed again in September, 1976, with 14 people present at the meeting and
9 apologies, with membership set at $5 per adult

player. There are now 19 members, with two teams
playing; one in the Tamworth Sunday Morning Competition, and one in the Gunnedah Saturday After-
An end-of-season presentation is held each year

with trophies being presented at a ball held in the
Memorial Hall. The club is indebted to Mr. G. W.
Scott and Mr. Brian Rhodes for donations towards
their presentation.
noon Competition.
ODDS AND SODS ABOUT CRICKET

Current members
are:
Geoff, Ray, Max, Graham,

Douglas, Stuart,
Maurice, [an and Noel Swain, Terry Swain, Mike
Cashman
Stuart
(Somerton
McLeod,
schoolteacher),
Sid
Byrnes,
Peter Norris, Hal, Peter and Kevin
Burke, John Hibbart (schoolteacher from Carroll)

and Keith Orth.
Somerton
Oldtimers recall cricket being played on Sundays

up until the appointed time for church, and the sight
of the minister's car coming over the bridge, when all
on the ground downed "tools", hurried up to the
church and took part in the worship. At the end of the
service, the players made their way back to the
ground, took up where they had left off and proceeded on with the game.
Cricket Team of 1980
Back - (L to R) - lan Swain, Graham Swain, Noel Swain, Geoff Swain, Peter Norris.
Front - Stuart Swain, Maurice Swain, Harold Burke, Mike Cashman, Peter Burke.
Absent- Terry Swain, Stuart McLeod.
71
A TRIBUTE TO OUR
PIONEERS
We honour them, our early settlers in this our
Centenary year. "Theirs were .thehea^to^Dare'^
They fought floods, fi'resand droughts and the village <

Somerton was founded.
For forty five years we have been privileged toser^
the people'of'Somertonand we cherish-the friendships

we have made.
We trust we have served you well in the Post Office, o^

General Store and Newsagency, and especially in
Welfare of the village.
We thank you for your loyalty and friendship.
G. W. & J. E. SCOTT.
"The Friendly Store

SOMERTON
72
TENNIS
The first tennis court built in Somerton is thought
to have been a private one built by Mr. Jim Inches for
his daughter Lilian in the early 1900's. It was situated

on land across the river from the old hotel in Bloomfield Street, close to the river and next to the old
cricket ground.
General feeling on the desirability of a public court

led to a meeting being called by Mr. Stewart Swan and
it was decided to put in a court on the recreation
ground. This court was approximately on the spot
where the children's playground now stands and was
in use in 1917, and could possibly have been for a
few years before. The exact date of the re-location
cannot be brought to mind by the older tennis players who would have used this court. There is an idea
that the tennis court and the cricket ground were
re-located about the same time, possibly due to the
ground being purchased.
Players who would have used the court about this

time
Tennis was enjoyed by a large number of people
at that time, with many private courts about having

their own teams which would often participate in
tournaments at Somerton and vice versa.
As membership became too great for one court it

was decided to build two courts and face them in the
alternate direction. This work was done by a plough,
scoop and dray - all horse-drawn by Mr. Archie Woolaston and Mr. Herbie Avard, curring away the top bank
and levelling the surface. Ant-bed was carted by horse

and dray for the topdressing, all work being done by
a team of voluntary workers, led by President Stewart
Swan. Owing to a lack of water, a pipeline was laid

from the recreation ground tank supply to the court,
to supply the much-needed water.
The club has had many enthusiastic helpers during
the years, with Stewart Swan a tireless worker, constantly rolling and working on the courts. (He is
recalled as being the main one to re-start both tennis
and cricket again after the War.)
were:
Stewart Swan, Clarrie Moffat, Stan Harwood, Mr.

&
Mrs.
Bissell.
Mr.
&
Mrs.
Don
Woolaston,
Mirri
Harwood, Stella Harwood, Bertha Harwood, Nell

Harwood, Robert Quick, Mr. & Mrs. McGovern,
Lil Inches, Cliff Crewes, Cecil Ruse, Doris Ruse (Mrs.
Fred Hoad) Paddy a& Lucy Harwood, Mr. George
Gardner, Joe Hatch, Mr. & Mrs. George Cupples,
Mabel Swan, Cecil Swan, Bert Swan, Arthur Gore,
Phyle Gore, Doug Walker, Frank Ingham, Ronald
McGrath, Flow McGrath, Les McGrath, Ernie Chalker,
When he left the district, the club lapsed until
June 1958, when Mr. Laurie Gardner called a public

meeting and the club was re-formed with Mr. Gard-
ner as President. The meeting was attended by 38
people where the fee for the year was set at 5/- per
member, plus 1/- ball fees. Those present at the meeting were-
Vince Watts and Norman Cupples.
Played on the Recreation ground courts where they are now located.
Note the cars in the background. Playing costume has changed, since
those days!
73
C. Cupples, Mr. L. Harwood, K. Mahoney, G. Lane,
Bob & Lorna Heyman, Gary Aylett, lan and Noel
Power, B. Guascoine, W. Hicks, C. G. Moffat, H. j.

Moffat, Mrs. M. Hatch, Mrs. N. Swan, Mrs. L. Gardner,
Mrs. P. Guascoine, Mrs. Baker, Mill L. Inches, Mrs.
A. 'Hatch, Mrs. E. Wilkinson, Mr. Reg Wilkinson, Mrs.
F.' Wilkinson, Miss B. Cooper, Mrs. G. Lane, Mrs.
G. W. Scott, Miss C. Baker. Miss A. Wilkinson,Trevor
Chalker , Mrs. M. Harwood, Mrs. A. Gore, Anne
Chalker, Mrs. ). Hatch, Mrs. E. L. Hatch, L. Watts,
McGrath, Chris & Doug Perrett with several new local
C'. J'. Moffat, N. Cupples, R. Carpenter, G. Baker^W.
Swain, David Gardner, Olive Thompson, Sue & Leisa

residents intending to join the club.
In recognition of Stewart Swan's service to tennis
in the area,"a move has been made to see that Memorial
gates are 'erected at the recreation ground in his

memory. The intention is to unveil these gates during
the Centenary Celebrations.
L. Gardner, Mrs. E. McGrath, G. W.Scott.
The club has continued since 1958 with a total of

26 persons attending the last Annual General Meeting
in February, 1980. Yearly championshipsare held for
senior and junior players and numerous tournaments
are"held throughout the year, with many players
country for us all to enjoy.
participating.
There are probably many, many incidents which

occurred on the tennis court over the years, but which
have faded from memory but one that is recalled by Mr
and Mrs. Bill Scott was the day Tommy Gore and his
father, plus two others decided they were going to
show the young ones there was "no art in playing
tennis". A game was quickly organised (the other
There is also an active Ladies Social Tennis Club

which'plays one day a week during the winter, with
many enjoyable days being held.
Players participating in the club are:-
i I-
What a pity there cannot be some recognition for

all those many, many people in bygone years who
worked and toiled to establish the recreational and
other facilities which are in all small villages over the
Max'&Velma Brady, Jan & Noel Gardner. ^ )im

Pauline and joanne, Heywood, Col Cupples, Stuart
and Chris Swain, Edna McGrath & Ronald, Diane
Moffat, Graham & Pauline Swain, AnthonyÂbra,

Bryan Cupples, Ron & Wendy Cupples^Peter Noms,
Douglas and Barbara Swain, Maurice & Sharon Swain,
participantsnot remembered) and they all met on the
court. The exact outcome is not remembered but
apparently all players retired with the unanimous

decision that "yes, there was an art in playing the
game of tennis .
1' ;
I
-TIDY
SCHOOL AND WORKWEAR CENTRE
"Shearer Centre"
Cnr. Peel & Fitzroy Streets, Tamworth.
WE WISH SOMERTON SCHOOLEVERY SUCCESS

"IN iT SCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS, AND ARE
PLEASEDYO BE INCLUDED IN THIS PUBLICATION.
74
"I
-t
'
"
^JE-&>J. 1^<A:uKi.&fc^.-A^^y,^^ ^^.;-*A^LaL. ^^^
Horse-Racing in Somerton
From the earliest days of Somerton it has always
been rich in Racing-lore, and many are the tales told
of owners, horses, trainers and race-meetings.

The first organised racing new recalled was the
All Height racing or Bridle racing that took place from

at least the turn of the century. The main venue for
these annual meetings was the Dry Cow Paddock,
about 2km from the village centre, to the left of the

Somerton-Manilla
Road. This was then a part of
Vickery's Bective Station, and permission was sought
to conduct the meeting there each year. The area was

relatively clear and flat and there was sufficient room
to hold races from 2 furlongs to half a mile (400 to
800 metres). Prior to this some racing may have occurred as part of the Sports fixtures held along the rive^
flat adjacent to the junction of Onus Creek and the

Peel River.
The early meetings were held to raise money for

charity (e.g. Tamworth Base Hospital) and also for the
War Effort (World War I), and were held under the
ing, etc. These various sports activities were held
during the morning, with the horse-racing being programmed
in the afternoon. The day was mainly a
local district function, there being obvious difficulties

in transporting horses long distances in those days.
However, there were usually people and horses in
attendance from such centres as Attunga, Manilla and
Tamworth, the horses usually being led to Somerton at the back of a sulky. Entrants did not need to be
registered with the A.J. C. to compete in All Heights

Racing, and any horse competing that was so registered was barred from racing at A. J.C. meetings for 12
months. There were, however, quite a few examples of
horses that commenced racing at A. J. C. Meetings,
turned to All Heights racing, and then later returned
to racing at registered meetings. An exception to the
A. J. C. rule was for those horses who measured 14.2
hands or under, which could compete at either A. R. C.
or A.J.C. meetings.
Horse-trainers were well to the fore in these
rules of the Australian Racing Club. The meetings

were held in conjunction with the traditional Sports
earlier days, with custodians such as Frank Inches,

Jim Inches, Jesse Avard, Archie Woolaston, Wilfred
Kong and Joe Lawson (Vet.) being involved prior to
races, Step the Distance, Drive the Nail. brnnm thr^,>,-
World War I. Included amongst those who rode at the

All Height Meetings were Arthur Gore, Frank Cameron
days, involving such activities as bending races, flag
The originalclub committee at Somerton 's firstrace meeting in 1937
Back row - (L to R) Nigel Brown, C. Brown (Treasurer), K. A. Cooper, N. D. Horneman, K. Doyle,

W. Kong.
Front row - ]. f. Mills, A. Chaffey, H. R. Hawker, {. S. N. Brown (President),W. Nogell (Secretary)

H. Swan.
75
Reg Ford, Stan Harwood, Jim Hardman and Pat
Ryan. Arthur Gore, well-known racing identity now

training in Somerton, recalls riding his first winner on
a horse called Tiddy Turn at the old Dry Cow Paddock
course in 1923. Some useful performers going round
at the time in All Heights Racing in Somerton were
Ngoora (trained by jesse Avard) and Solong (trained

by Joe Lawson). Some top A.j.C. performers were also
trained in Somerton in the early years of the century.
In January, 1902, Cast Iron Beauchamp - Little Nell),
bred at Durham Court (Manilla) and owned by ). B.
Inches at Somerton, won the New Year's Gift and the

Carrington Stakes at Randwick. In 1908 F. H. Inches
was the owner - trainer of Royal Merv, which won the
Wilfred Kong also trained some top AII-Heighters,
including Odd Warren, Pickford and Oddress.

AII-Heights racing was popular in the district
around the turn of the century, with Clubs active at
Tamworth, Gunnedah, Carroll, Breeza, Piallaway,
Rushes Creek and Manilla (Durham Court), as well as

Somerton. The nearest registered A. J. Clubs were at
Tamworth and Gunnedah.
Nothing visible appears to remain of the AII-Height

activities in the Dry Cow Paddock. For a couple of
years the Sports were held at an alternative site, on the

northern side of the river, immediately on your left
first 2 year old race ever decided at Newcastle, and
as you pass over the present Somerton bridge travelling towards Manilla, now a part of 'Swanton'. Some
top performer was Golden Wire, owned by F. H.
racing was also held at this new site.
went on to win the Stradbroke in Brisbane. Another
Inches; and trained on the reserve near Old Menedebri.

Ridden by Les Winters, a Gunnedah District jockey,
Golden Wire was rated by his trainer, Wilfred Kong, as

possibly his best-ever horse.
Around the mid 1920's All-Height racing was

transferred to the Somerton Common, adjacent to the
present training track. The area afforded a bigger

track, and a combined Sports-Racing programme
continued to be held on the unsurveyed track. Later,
One of Wilfred's most consistent performers was
during World War II, rules were relaxed to allow All-
Two Rings, who he also trained for Frank Inches. In

10 years of racing Two Rings had an amazing total of
232 starts (covering 211 miles) on 22 different courses
race-horses at the Patriotic Meetings, and these were

very well attended.
Heighters to race side by side with registered (A.).C.)
between 1924 and 1933, winning a total of 47 races.
They certainly bred them tough in those days!
A thrilling finish in the Somerton Cup, held at the Somerton Racecourse on May 25, 1963. On the rails is the
winner School Prince, trained by Arthur Gore, defeating the grey Blue Stone, with Boisand third.
76
^7'y^^ \
;"":'"' ''' ,*
'!-?>>;
^&^&^S^&^^si, ^âsi ~i.
se^-'-1-1"
In 1937 a meeting was held at the Somerton Hotel

to form the Somerton Jockey Club, affiliated with the
A.j.C., to promote racing in the district. The

Committee elected included R. Hawker (Patron),
). Brown (President), W. Nagell (Secretary), Cyril
Brown (Treasurer), A. Roach, K. Cooper, N. Horneman, K. Doyle, J. Mills, A. Chaffey, H. Swan, W.

Kong, R. Woolaston and N. Brown - all members now
deceased with the exception of Cyril Brown. The first
move of the Committee was to acquire a suitable site.
The Department of Lands was asked to grant the Club

a site on the Somerton Common and have it surveyed.
The grant was not received kindly by some of the
Commoners, however preparations went ahead. Arthur

Burrell ploughed the track and the local Sports
Association made their funds available for the use of
the newly-formed jockey Club, in return for a promise
of assistance with the Sports fixtures. Donations and
membership fees were also relied upon for early fund-
formed, and racing was able to continue. Arthur Gore

was elected President of this Club, with Wilfred Kong
the Secretary, and the Club had the distinction of
raising more money than any other branch of the Peel

Shire towards the war effort.
After the war the Somerton Jockey Club was the

first to revive racing in the N. N. W. R. Association.
Whilst awaiting re-licensing of their race-tracks some
other nearby Clubs held their meetings at the Somerton race-course - namely Keepit Diggers, Tamworth
Picnics, Tamworth jockey Club and Gunnedah Jockey
club. This period immediately after the war brought
probably the biggest crowds of racegoers to Somerton.
ing the initial membership fee being one guinea. After
However, as other Clubs commenced racing, more and

more of the racing dates previously allocated to
Somerton were allotted elsewhere. By 1967 the Club
was left with only one date and the Committee decided tha the expense required in maintaining the
got on its feet.
beyond the Club's assets, and in 1968 the Club ceased
much hard work, mostly voluntary labour, the Club
The first racing date granted to the Club by the

North & North West Racing Association was October
23, 1937. With makeshift buildings and flags flying the

Somerton Jockey Club was born. The first meeting
proved to be a big success. However, country racing

ceased when the War broke out in September, 1939.
An A. J. C. exemption was granted, allowing a Somerton Branch of the Peel Shire Patriotic Fund to be
Racecourse facilities for one day's racing a year was

to race.
During the 31 years of A. J.C. racing the village of
Somerton became famous for the racing honours that
were shared by owners, trainers and horses. The late

Wilfred Kong, one of the first committee, was leading
trainer of the N. N.W. D. R. Association for nine years.
One of the horses that he trained was De La Salle who,
Three of the modern 'stars' of horse-racing in Somerton. Up-and-coming jockey Sue McGrath is
flanked by trainers Keith Swan and Arthur Gore (her grandfather - recently deceased).
77
after winning 11 races in the country, went on to win

the Epsom Handicap, the Caulfield Stakes, and also
ran third in the Caulfield Cup - arguably Somerton's
greatest protege. Wilfred Kong died in 1952. He was

succeeded by Arthur Gore, who started out as a jockey and then headed the trainer's list for many years,
training many notable horses including Poinsiana,
Granada, Merry Jack and Dewaroy (a Newcastle Cup
winner). Arthur was still leading in winners up until
his very recent death, including the current local

champion Drop-A-Note who has 3 consecutive Randwick wins to his credit in 1979-80, as well as a string
of Cup wins in the North to his credit. His best training

effort was leading in 84 winners in one season. The
I )
i
late Archie
Woolaston
was well-known as a trainer
and will always be remembered as one who did much

to foster racing in Somerton, Keith Swan is currently
the leading trainer in the N. N.W. R. D. and has brought

much
fame to the village with many
winners each
year. Long-serving Committee members have included

Edgar Mills (President - 12 years), Ena Scott (Secretary - 15 years). The ladies of the village, headed by
Mr. Phyliss Gore and Mrs. Charlette McGrath conducted the refreshment
booths at the race-meetings and
raised over 100 pounds toward the building of the

Somerton
Hall.
Another star on the Somerton racing horizon is

Sue McGrath, who is currently pioneering the rela-
tively new field of women jockeys with substantial

success. Daughter of Edna (ex-Club Secretary) and
Max (local trainer) and grand-daughter of Arthur and
Phyliss Gore, Sue is certainly part of a racing family
Tamworth & District Gliding Club

The
Tamworth
and
District
Gliding
Club
was
inaugurated at a meeting, held in Tamworth, on 5th

June, 1961, and chaired by Alderman Stan Cole, who
was, at that time, Mayor of Tamworth. A Committee
was elected, consisting of Max Kokegei (President),

Alan Wall (Vice-President), J ill Thackray and Ron
Mortimer (Joint Secretaries) and Max Cathcart (Treasurer). Also present at the Meeting were John Riley and
Pat Carter (E. W. A. Executive), Paul Levin and Charles
Willis (E. W. A. Staff) and eleven others.
On 4th July, 1961, a. Constitution was adopted and
by 22nd August negotiations had commenced for

purchase of a T31 (Slingsby Tutor) two seater glider
from R. A. N. Gliding Association at Nowra. Construction of a winch had also commenced.
By 19th September, 1961, the T31 glider had

arrived in Tamworth, and on 13 October it was
launched, by winch, at Tamworth Aerodrome. Flying
continued at that site for over a year.
In December, 1962, following negotiations by Ron

Mortimer, flying commenced from a field on the
North side of the river at Somerton, across the road
from Max Chaffey's house. The glider was towed out

from the aerodrome each day, initially by road, but
later aerotowed by one of Airfarm's Tiger Moths, by
arrangement with Basil Brown.
Following negotiations with the N. S.W. Lands
Department, permission was obtained in July, 1964,

to establish a gliding strip on Somerton Common;
during the same month a Kookaburra glider was ordered from
Edmund
Schneider of Gawler, S. A. and a
deposit of 250 pounds forwarded.

78
On 16th December, 1964, the Southgate Trophy,

donated by John Ives, was presented to Bill Bruyn as
an initio Pilot of the year. Assisted by sponsorship
from E. W. A. and T. A. A., John Wakefield was able to
attend the National Gliding School at Gawler.

Following demonstration flights at Narrabri in
February and March, 1965, the T31 glider ws sold to
the Maoi Aero Club in May of that year. This sale
assisted in financing purchase of the Kookaburra

glider, which was towed by road from Gawler in June,
1965. Flying of the Kookaburra
at Somerton
com-
menced in July, 1965, and continued until December,

1971, when it was severely damaged in an outlanding
in the village. The two pilots, )im Miller and Alwyn
Francis, were uninjured.
During the period the Kookaburra was in operation
many pilots learned to fly and went solo in it. These
included Paddy and David Baldwin, Dick, Kath and

Patricia Buckley, facquie Dean, Debbie Miller, Peter
Muldoon, Colin Alston and David Alderdice.
The Kookaburra was sold as a wreck and a second
hand Bocian purchased from
a club at Gladstone,
Queensland. Delivery was immediate and little flying

time was lost.
In October, 1970, plans for a hangar were submilled to Peel Shire Council, and in November, 1970,
Paddy and David Baldwin were made Honorary Life
Members of the club in appreciation of their effort in
building and donating a new winch. This is still in use.
tEJ
The Bocian two seater was seriously damaged in a
landing accident on the Somerton strip early in 1973

and the club was without a training aircraft for some
months. About August, 1973, a Blanik all metal two

seater glider was obtained from Bill Riley of Tocumwal. The damaged Bocian was sold to John Wakefield
for 1. 1,000. When some doubt devloped regarding
It is worthy of note that from the time that Jim

Miller took over as Treasurer, in August, 1968, the financial position of the club seemed to stabilise, in spite
of a number of mishaps which could have wrecked it;
also. thanks
were recorded
in the minutes to Nev
Jones and H. Reid for running raffles to assist the

club.
ownership of Blanik (The previous owner attempting
to repossess it), negotiation with Riley resulted in its

being replaced with another Blanik, VH-G1K, which is
ed a Gliding Instructors' Course at Wagga and was
still in use by the club.
awarded an Instructor Rating.
During the years 1970-73 theTamworth Branch of

the Air Force Association sponsored gliding training
for some Air Scouts and Air Training Corps members.
Of these Philip McFarlane, a Senior Air Scout, went
solo and is now training with Tamworth Aero Club as
a power pilot, and Kevin Pottinger, a former A.T. C.
In August-September, 1972, David Baldwin attend-
On 2nd December, 1975, Kath Buckley was the

first member of the T. & D. Gliding Club to complete
the requirements for the Gold "C" gliding badge with

a flight of 308 kilometres, Quririndi Aerodrome Binnaway - Somerton - Quirindi Aerodrome. In
January, 1976, Graeme Baldwin had his first solo
cadet, is now an Equipment Officer at Amberley

R. A.A. F. Base and a member of the R. A.A. F. Gliding
flight.
Club at Amberley.
The "Mucha" Single seater glider was bought by

the club in early 1976, from Alwyn Francis, who had
In May, 1970, Warwick Deane leased his "Mucha"

single seater glider to the club for use by senior pilots.
bought it from Warwick Deane when he purchased the

later "Cobra" in 1973.
A Blanik g/ider towed by a Piper Super Cub at Somerton Common.
79
In April, 1976, negotiations commenced with the
Lake Keepit Park Trust which ultimately resulted in

the establishment of the new gliding strip at Keepit
Dam. Since flying commenced at Keepit on 16th

December, 1977, the popularity of that site has been
such that it was decided to unite the New England
Armidale, and Tamworth Clubs, the club now being
After the death of Paddy Baldwin, early in 1977,

his family presented a "Paddy Baldwin Memorial
Trophy" to be awarded to the Pilot of the Year selected by popular vote each year. Coincidentally, this
Trophy was awarded to Graeme Baldwin in 1977.
It was awarded to Bill Smith in 1978 and Dick Buckley in 1979.
called Lake Keepit Soaring Club.

Somerton has not seen the last of gliding activities.
Other members of the club who have completed

the Gold "C" gliding badge are Dick Buckley and
Graeme Baldwin in December 1976 at 60 and 17 years
respectively, the oldest and youngest members to gain
A successful Glider Engineers Course was conducted

at the Somerton Memorial Hall at the end of April,
1980. This was attended from places as far apart as
Canberra and Lightning Ridge.
that badge, and, on 31st December, 1979, Jabez

Nichols and Bill Smith.
rmnnrm <TBT'B a a ana BTnnnnmT
A tragic event took place during the early days of Bective. Some aboriginal women were so fascinated by
'the white-women'sclothing on the clothes lineat the station headquarters, that they attempted to remove
'some'one night. The dogs 'werearoused and attacked the women, killing one and badly mauling the other
'before the whites could beat them off. To prevent a repition of the tragedy, Robert Pringie built a very
high fence around the compound.
A tribute to the early settlers and to all those who

served in the forces.
MAX, MERLE AND ROBERT CHAFFEY

OF "DONGGALA" THE HOME OF
POLL DORSET RAMS
HEREFORD BULLS
PRIME LAMBS AND VEALERS
we also grow grain and lucenre hay.
PHONE (067) 697533

80
'^
Somerton Braille Book Club

Somerton has become well known to educators of
the blind; world wide. In 1957 the Somerton Braille
Book Club for Children was formed following an
article in the Sydney press about the need for illustrated stories for blind children.
It is still the only known organisation of its kind

and annually tactile books for blind children are
requested and donated to schools for the blind in

Australia, New Zealand, England and Zambia.
Productions from the Somerton
Braille Book
Club will be presented this year at the World Conference for educators of the visually handicapped at
Hamburg in Germany by Mr. G. Smith, Principal, M.

H. School for Blind Children at North Rocks.
To members of the community of Somerton, past
and present, who have contributed to and encouraged

our chosen project I extend my grateful thanks for
much research and pioneering was required for books
to reach their present standard of perfection.
For many years illustrated Braille books were

produced for schoolage blind children but more
recently pre-school blind, deaf-blind and multi-handicapped blind children at North Rocks. N. S.W. Centre
(Mrs. ) Nell Woolaston,

President, Somerton Braille Book
Club for Children.
for blind children have known the joy of picture

books and tactile reading aids donated by the club.
A very successful Bridal Display Concert was held in
Special guests speakers at Somerton Centenary meet-
promotion. An enthusiastic crowd of around 160
well-known Tamworth historian who assisted greatly
the Somerton Hall in November, 1979, as a Centenary
'persons was present to witness proceedings. Included^

on the program was the modelling of around 40
wedding gowns, originally worn from as early as 1921
through until 1979. A total of 19 women offered their
servicesas models, and $157.00 was raised towards the
Centenary from the evening's activities.
ings over the past 18 months have been Lyall Green,

in providing information towards the eventual com-
pilation of this booklet; Terry Miles, Principal of

Attunga School, who told us about their Centenary
organisation in -1978; and Mrs. Walter, from the

Tamworth Musical Society who brought out a variety
of period costumes to help initiate our Period

Costume Competition.
It is reported that the first car to be owned in .Somer-
recalls how the teacher, Silas Clifton, took the

children down to Bloomfield Street (then the main
The present (1980) school-captains of Somerton

Public School - Lynda Miller and ]ulie McGrath were privileged in May of this year to accept an invitation by the N. S. W. Minister for Education to attend
o special ceremony at Observatory Hill, Sydney, to
mark the centenary of the N. S. W. Department of
Education. The school-captains and Principals of each
first motor-vehicle to ever travel through Somerton,
aries this year were invited to attend. Accompanied
ton belonged to ]. B. Inches, around 1915. It was a
red vehicle which seated 2 in the front, with access
through doors at the back. Somerton School expupil Phyliss Pearson, now in her 80's in Tamworth,
highway) to witness the exciting moment of the
of the 23 schools in N. S. W. celebrating their centen-
by Principal, Mike Coshman, they also found time for
in the year 1908, driven by a Mr. Wills-Allan.
o guided tour of the Opera House, as well as an inspection of several points of interest in The Rocks area.
Altogether, there are 23 schools, in N. S. W. (including^

Somertonj, sharing their Centenary year in 1980
with the N. S. W. Department of Education (Depart-
Horse-drawn
coach services in the Peel-Valley
ment of Public Instruction). They are - Bourke
commenced in the 1840'sand operated for the foilowing 70 years. In the Tamworth area the changing
'stations'seem to have been about every 14 miles
New
Temora, Uranquinty, Wagga Wagga North, Wilber-
Goonoo station, another near Moonbi, one at Klori

and one at Thomas Sciilly's place on the Gunnedah
force, Windellama and Woolbrook.
Road.
Street. Bunnaloo Street, Castle Hill, Comleroy Road,

Concord, Graman, Granville, Holmwood, Junee,
Krambach, Lake Cargelligo, Mosman, Mount Pleasant,
Lambton,
Sutton
Forest, Tambar
Springs,
(23km). One changing station was near Goono
81
Some idea of the increasing volume of traffic passing through Somerton may be gained from the following
annual, average daily traffic figure, recorded at a point 10km west of Tamworth on the Highway.
7959- 740; 1964- 1100; 1968- 1270; 1972- 1450.
KEN'S KITCHEN
LOCATED AT "CATHY'S TAVERN"
REGULAR MENU OFFERS
OVER TWENTY VARIETIES OF
EAT-INORTAKE-AWAY
DISHES.
ALSO CATERS FOR
PARTIES IN FUNCTION ROOM
Enquiries Welcome!
II
PHONE: 697505
uOOD SERVICE - REASONABLE
II
PRICES!
Were you at the /ast Somenon Cup Meeting held at the local race-course (May 22, 1968)? The starters
were Mydalla, Ancestor, Excellent Queen, Doughline, Tausigny, Income Tax, Step High, Rozshah, and
Bencfemeer Boy. The winner was Doughline, trained by Arthur Gore and ridden by C. Foster.
82
What is a Country Town?

A country town is a collection of houses built
in pure air so rarely found in cities.
They hate red tape which always seems to be

bound more strongly around country needs that those
of the cities.
Country towns are of all sizes from one-pub-onestore village which is known as a one-horse town, to
the larger ones which have their own municipalities,

hospitals etc.
But, all have one thing in common
and that is the
They pity people forced to live in the rush and

bustle of metropolitan areas and treat with tolerance
the city visitors who try to partonise them.
They dislike the ex-resident who returns, full of his
partisanship of its people for their own bit of world.
own importance and attempts to lord it over them.
The people who live in country towns are called

residents. They spend much of their time sitting at
meetings about this and that and the only reward for
press as prominent citizens.
They enjoy their sport, their wireless serials and

their own newspaper, which, no matter the title given
by its proprietor, is affectionately known as "the
local rag" and read with eagerness and attention never
accorded to other papers.
They know all about one another's affairs and

whose cheques are good and whose husbands are bad.
They share one another's joys and sorrows and give
generously to every worthwhile and not-so-worthwhile
In a country town, a man is judged not by his

clothes, or his bank balance, but by his sincerity and
worth to the community
their efforts is that of being referred to in the local
cause.
Who would wish to live in a city?
'I
They may quarrel amongst themselves, but quickly

band together against outsiders who dare to criticise
local affairs.
An aerial view ofSomerton,
83
Rainfall Registrations
The rainfall measurements are expressed in millimetres (ie. metric measurement). If converting to points of rainfall,
multiply by 4 (Note - 25.4mm = 1 inch of rain).
The registrations were the official recordings at Somerton Post Office (31-0 S, 150 - 39 E, Elevation 366m), with
the exception of the period from 1891 to 1902 inclusive, and the years 1937, 1938, 1939, 1946, 1970 and 1973,
where there were no Somerton statistics available. The recordings taken at Bective Station, a few kilometres to the
east; have been substituted for these years, giving a complete record for the period.
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
II
II
;li
ii
^ .1
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
84
Rainfall (mm)
fan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May
124
66
40
69
116
35
142
103
70
26
34
17
15
16
103
23
89
37
41
350
121
43
54
43
18
66
166
211
73
58
28
69
22
71
25
15
153
42
36
134
58
71
101
289
0
45
20
18
33
72
71
59
23
56
22
30
29
50
32
51
93
44
59
18
22
50
38
9
165
80
91
3
55
55
71
31
53
91
61
64
112
153
0
0
10
117
58
25
12
133
183
10
84
14
89
41
30
49
42
26
16
38
35
65
35
0
4
121
69
36
53
57
94
175
28
13
40
42
82
60
0
106
38
45
19
n
12
25
12
24
13
91
37
37
62
20
53
83
68
14
20
47
20
27
66
45
27
53
21
87
19
18
31
85
25
98
14
52
22
59
16
15
283
131
50
89
28
141
21
41
117
53
20
38
53
63
46
34
57
38
70
64
11
102
16
26
25
17
20
12
n6
105
10
0
2
5
12
3
Jun.
July
Aug, Sept.
Oct
Nov.
73
124
13
34
61
28
42
30
54
30
24
18
95
28
29
108
116
82
39
28
59
18
19
88
83
68
25
89
41
91
45
40
33
80
57
27
28
22
10
0
29
77
86
63
17
24
62
99
70
34
24
9 6
5
56
28 102
20
16
23
12
49
14
34
20
97
28
93
47
12
47
79
70
74 9
22
25
57
74
53
80
58
21
33
31
13
18
174
96
62
70
27
73
40
91
35
56
45
333
86
28
16
50
32
38
83
26
25
34
20
12
71
18
25
16
21
56
32
23
17
88
59
45
12
26
25
67
27
116
95
18
57
26
55
19
45
45
27
99
72
91
41
42
50
34
107
39
36
99
41
23
46
10
0
37
65
31
125
12
78
21
4
14
39
Dec. Total
33
667
91
18
61
119
54
92
44
22
99
0
29
82
35
792
825
774
546
529
590
513
482
596
458
328
649
720
66
21
648
577
186
103
663
738
42
87
736
801
51
17
84
152
589
445
639
512
118
520
67
35
94
31
37
39
109
64
26
97
85
33
46
78
205
53
10
28
54
12
68
178
671
710
579
355
742
14
84
57
33
26
22
96
121
32
39
26
86
80
104
34
98
7
64
36
15
40
14
39
10
47
71
98
23
5
70
56
88
84
36
39
39
22
49
37
26
78
48
46
53
55
45
2
55
127
108
36
16
11
14
68
40
37
34
117
92
86
83
45
130
19
12
49
48
97
124
107
78
36
28
86
149
14
14
19
84
65
95
89
798
509
397
753
474
470
508
739
447
486
689
485
788
651
fan.
1935
Rainfall (mm)
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
127
41
115
32
70
16
174
16
133
58
72
63
83
87
69
69
31
23
58
81
49
31
40
62
41
19
146
no
162
0
18
19
197
105
161
278
72
89
206
102
250
144
201
40
82
Feb.
24
54
29
33
Mar.
66
56
62
38
78
71
10
33
124
156
42
91
134
58
319
266
88
34
144
7
80
74
29
6
15
26
8
30
79
39
127
Apr. May
n
4
26
36
22
49
24
12
85
60
20
12
1
57
86
0
42
44
34
5
135
41
0
61
40
16
48
93
18
3
49
37
12
14
28
13
44
29
74
44
3
60
36
4
70
21
19
58
75
31
72
81
11
7
0
13
0
44
30
0
147
61
27
48
22
68
23
13
27
37
68
35
62
9
9
31
93
24
24
25
28 129
m
61
70
66
6
22
5
4
18
12
0
43
94
o ns
42
90
63
76
45
10
13
0
1
38
151
170
119
55
24
66
35
64
16
3
3
0
Jun.
)ul. Aug Sept.
9
11
34
43
62
51
22
34
45
61
37
21
35
37
41
16
80
43
17
46
67
36
26
17
168
21
44
28
14
10
47
99
51
64
20
81
74
107
59
48
0
45
24
13
48
62
4
38
21
12
42
33
64
17
24
63
129
56
10
112
24
91
35
35
15
68
0
76
0
29
41
48
51
20
24
63
46
32
56
54
68
24
32
60
39
78
62
27
,9
6
8
5
55
27
1
28
24
21
48
47
24
24
15
31
16
52
4
13
36
45
41
19
79
81
S3
69
56
44
34
6
18
Nov.
57
46
62
132
58
33
15
18
17
158
19
13
79
28
52
138
70
16
45
11
31
69
13
47
28
22
119
18
32
27
18
38
35
22
43
34
65
19
26
11
27
70
39
27
11
46
30
57
42
51
11
34
29
107
65
20
50
17
35
27
21
74
62
Dec. Total
Oct
\\
128
56
53
18
65
46
61
95
130
228
0
71
29
133
68
74
15
12
51
125
75
13
10
65
88
32
5
17
60
0
36
39
33
12
31
42
22
0
3
94
0
6
463
438
553
436
421
345
596
560
558
460
478
286
561
870
1005
390
710
450
485
930
56
823
126 410
102 535
74
54
65
74
102
47
87
37
41
75
598
105
176
54
62
37
495
71
86
674
659
77
760
11
640
55
120
99
46
30
293
465
391
44
665
62
150
44
52
83
1
852
738
742
414
539
477
45
25
591
730
6
123
0
648
827
429
16
82 0
36
28
96 126
54 110
15
74
111
66
47
57
46
23
67
24
75
69
53
36
44
33
94
90
Monthlyrainfall record (higheôvê^^.^^ _ (289mm); April 1905 - (175mm)jMay ^^^
îi^Si^S^^^
,
^;o^s a.,n .adfa,,en .onecalendarye.,t.e re.st.tionwou.d .,ve .eena .an^ 2444..(.6 .c.es),
;:;:r~,:d^^r-^""'^r=^"94'<"o-)'4'h '" Msm"1's'b -'"'
^ , - l,BS,.l, ..- - I"'-!. "- - "2'32"nm)'4tt- "" 1"5"'""-"1'- 1'"'

(355mm).
85
Market prices quoted in Manilla March 1899, by

H. I. Fenwicke, who opened an auction market:-
Butter - 9d/}b; ducks - 4/-/pair; eggs - Sd/doz. : bacon Sdflb; cheese - 5d/lb, honey - 2d/lb; lemons - 4/-f case;
grapes - I'/Sd/lb; pineapples - 8/-f case; lucerne hay
-501-1 . ton, chaff - J/6/bag, barley - 2/6, bushel;
fowt-wheat - 2/6, bushel; potatoes - 4/6, cwt; store
pigs - 151-each; The price of meat in 1900 was 3d to
4d per Ib, and haircuts were advertised at 6d.
Letter from Parent to Teacher - 1902
Sir,
Will you in the future give my son easier somes to
do at nites? This is what he's brought hoam two or

three nites back: 'If fore gailins of here will fill thirty
Organisation for the Somerton Centenary Celebrations

commenced with the holding of the initial public
meeting in March, 7979, and since then a total of 16

public meetings have been held. Chief executive
elected on the organising committee were Noel
Gardner (President), Geoff Cooke (Vice-President),

Elizabeth Woolaston and Mike Cashman (Secretary
& Assistant Secretary}, Ecfna McGrath (Treasurer).
Sub-Committees were formed for History (Research),
Publicity, Ceremony, Ball, Fete, School Sports,
Community Sports and Procession, and these met
regularly up until the date.
Did you know that there are at least 6 other Somertons throughout the world, and we have been in touch
to pint bottles how many pints and half bottles will
with all of them to advise, them of our Centenary

Celebrations. Their details are as follows:-
nothin of it at all, and my boy cried and laughed and
ninegailinsof here fill? Well, we tried and could make
Somerton County Council, County Hall Taunton,

England, TA 1 40 Y.
sed he didn't dare go back in the mornin without doin
it. So I had to go and buy nine gallin barrel of here

which I could ill afford to do, and then he went and
borrowed a tot of wine and brandy bottles. We fill
them, and my boy put the answer down for an answer.

/ don't know where it is right or not as we spilt som
while c/oin it.
P. S. Please let the next some be in water as I am not

able to buy more here.
Somerton, Shire of Whittlesea, Epping, Victoria,
*
*
*
3076, Australia.
Somerton, Arizona, U. S. A., 85350.
. Somerton, Ohio, U. 5. A., 43784
Somerton, St. James, Jamaica.
Somerton, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., 19116.
Many ex-pupils of the school will remember

Competing in the Bective Sports, which have been
From the "Golden Days" of Education.
held since 1936. Somerton school was this year the

winner of the T. H. Woolaston Trophy for the small
7. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys

before beginning work.
various winners inscribed on this trophy are as follows;
2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and

scuttle of coal for the day's session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs

to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week

for courting purposes, or two evenings a week
if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, teachers may spend the
schools competition as the Bective Sports and the

1936 - Byamee; 1937 - Bective Soldiers Settlement;
1938-39 - Byamee; 1940 - Bithramere; 1946-47-48 - Byammee;
1955-56 -
1949-50 - Bective Soldiers Settlement;
Byamee;
7 95 7- 58-59-60-61 -6 2-63-64 -
Bithramere; 1965 to 1969 no record; 1969-70-74 Somerton; 1972 - Limbri; 1973-Somerton; 1974-75-
no record; 1976 - Tintinhull; 1977 - Somerton; 1978 Tintinhull; 1979-80 - Somerton.
remaining time reading the Bible or other good

books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly

conduct will be dismissed.
7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a

goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during
In the first W years otwdiication at Somerton School,

the following occurred 1880 1881 -
his declining years so that he will not become

o burden on society.
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form,

frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in
o barber shop, will give good reason to suspect his
worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
9. The teacher who performs his labour faithfully
and without fault for five years will be given an
increase of two shillings and sixpence per week in
his pay providing the Board of Education approves.

yb
Public Instruction Act was brought into ex-
istence; Water Supply Act established.

Female students admitted to Sydney iiniver-
sity; Smallpox discovered In Sydney.

1883 -
Silver discovered at Broken Hill.
7 887- Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

7 888 - Centenary of Australia's colonisation; Centennial Park established in Sydney.
1889 - Henry Parkes speech for Federation; Hawkesbury River Bridge opened. Also, during that
decade, rail links were established between
Brisbane - Sydney - Melbourne; Telephone
exchanges were set up in all capitals and the
Federation movement gained momentum.

Somerton School Centenary 1880-1980

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Somerton School Centenary 1880-1980

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

I

^7;., '^'^ zr,zL7S.CT^zizie2 wim^e:oop0^^^^^

discuss the contents

0/7 behalf of the History Sub-Committee.

Message from the Minister for Education

Supplementary School History.

Somerton Hotel History ,

Somerton Post Office History

Horse Racing in Somerton.

Tamworth & District Gliding Club

message from the Minister for

Hon. Paul Landa, LLB., M.LC.

Mr. Paul Landa - New South Wales Minister

A message from the

Mervyn J. Wasson, B.A.

Education/North West Region.

lons time in the "fe

Somerton Public School History

Over three years elapsed between the application

There were several good reasons for the delay, but it

did mean that some of the children who so' badly

needed a school in 1876 lost their opportunity for all

aston had died, for not only had Thomas Woolaston

taken over as postmaster but a further application'for

or guardian of the children listed under M. A. Woola-

stein's name in 1876.

The first time the Council of Education, which

Wales from 1867 until the establishment of the

Mr M A. Woolaston in January 1877. Asadvised-by

and asked for financial aid towards erecting the

necessary building. Provisional Schools were designed

for areas which could not ensure the minimum average

attendance of 25 required for a Public School. Since

1875 the Council of Education had met the full cost

The Councilaccepted Bradley's recommendations,

Council's query, to say that the local people'had not

building cost. Nothing happened over the ensuing

three months, and the Council wrote to Woolasto^

again. He replied late in December to say that he had

collected 30 pounds but the drought was still continu-

ing, and there were now ever more children "growing

"P in ignorance". "We are badly in want of a school'7

he pleaded - could not the Council take allthe

supply and finance the building and furniture for a

circumstances into consideration and pay all but the

ston to spell out exactly how many children were

Provisional School, while the Council paid the teacher

November 1 876 and included the names of 27 child'.

ren from eight families. The need for a school was

obvious, since the nearest schools were at Carroll

(opened 1869) and Keepit (opened 1875), both'som'e

twelve miles away. The application was referred to

Inspector Bradley for report, but the needs of hishuge

prevented him from getting to Somerton until March

1877. He had no hesitation in recommending the

granting of the application, since the number of

children both within the accepted travelling distance

enough to keep up the necessary attendance. He'also

After some hesitation, the Council asked Woola-

guaranteed to attend a school. On discoveringthat the

total was 42, the Council now sent an application

ston^hurriedly collected the necessary signatures and

Once again Inspector Bradley was delayed,and not

August did he visit Somerton again an'd report