Old newspapers are a great source of information about early Gunnedah and along with Trove give today’s residents a snapshot of what life was like when the fledgling down was beginning to develop along the banks of the Namoi River.
Walter Douglas came to Gunnedah with his parents in 1866, just 10 years after the settlement had been declared a town.
In a newspaper interview in 1935, he said his recollections of early Gunnedah went back to 1869 and the days of the bushranger Thunderbolt. Frederick Ward (his real name) had become something of a folk hero due to his gentlemanly behaviour and his tendency to avoid violence.
He recalled being the only member of the family allowed to say goodbye to his aunt when they were leaving Quirindi for Gunnedah as Mrs Cook’s store and hotel had been held up by Thunderbolt that day. It was considered that the bushranger, no matter how he might deal with men, was not likely to harm a child. Mrs Cook had a watch hanging in her bedroom which had been a gift from her father and she being anxious that Thunderbolt might take it, she asked her young nephew to go and hang a towel over it. Walter had obliged and the watch escaped Thunderbolt’s notice.
Walter recalled Thunderbolt coming in as his aunt bade him goodbye and shook his hand before giving him a tin of lollies he had taken from the store “free of charge”.
Walter said in the interview that he and his sisters had enjoyed eating the lollies during the journey across the Breeza Plains ‘just as much as if they had been honestly paid for’.
When the family party arrived in Gunnedah it was via Maitland Street which was then the main street of Gunnedah. The first family the children spoke to enroute to Burburgate Station was Mr GJ Kuhl, father of Mrs JA turner who then had a store in Maitland Street.
Previously their father had met Mr James Nowland, father of Mrs EJ Delander who then kept the Paragon Hotel.
Walter remembered the kindness of Mr Kuhl who came from his store and gave the children and their mother some lemonade and biscuits as their father had already sampled ‘something stronger’ at the Paragon.
Years later Walter started work with his father and many of the buildings they cut timber for are still standing, including George Cohen’s stately home Roseneath Manor.
He said much of the timber for building was cut in saw pits using a steam plant owned by TP Willsallen who had it placed close to a big wool wash on Gunnible Farm.
After their refreshments, the family went on to Burburgate Station which was then managed by Mrs John Lloyd. Here Walter’s father shingled many of the station buildings in the days before galvanised iron was used for roofing.
The family had only been at Burburgate for a few weeks when Thunderbolt held up the station store and took all the rations and tobacco he wanted. At this time Robert Munro was the storekeeper at Burburgate.
Walter Douglas remembered Thunderbolt’s mate leaning on coils of wire with a levelled and cocked rifle covering the door of the store.
The family later moved to Gunnible Station where the principal residence was then on the Orange Grove Road and Walter’s father did part of the shingling of the Gunnible Woolshed. He said the shingling was a big job and was let in sections at a price for 10′ by 10′ square.
When this job was finished the family went to Sydney Perrett’s property Frogmore Park to shingle the homestead.
After completing this job, the family moved into Gunnedah and lived on the corner of Bloomfield and Marquis Streets, opposite the residence of Martin Schutz, the grandfather of James Schutz – this was the year 1869.
Walter’s father carried on a business as a carpenter and funeral director for some years.
In the interview, Walter Douglas recalled the names of many well-known residents at the time, including James and Robert Nowland, Arthur Turner, Edward Loss (undertaker), Mr Goddard who became the librarian at the School of Arts where he was later found dead.
Walter Douglas recalled that the gaol at that time was in Maitland Street on the corner of Elgin Street and George Davidson’s father was the lock-up keeper, after being appointed by the then Justice of Peace at Tamworth.
Other familiar names at that time were Paliser, McIntosh, Clegg, Joan and George Bridge, Jas Pullen and Mrs McDonald who kept a hotel in Maitland Street.
Walter’s memory of other pioneering families included Golding, Cohen, the bootmaker Arthur Hunt, Jacob Westerweller whose son Emil was later elected mayor of Gunnedah and served six terms. He also recalled the Stott family, the Webbers, McFarlane, the Whites, Gardeners, Jackson the Shaws, Cantrell, Owens and Mrs Campbell who lived on the site of Wragge & Co and Flemming and Ross.
When Walter Douglas came to Gunnedah, Conadilly Street, had not been cleared of pine and box scrub and the pound yard was on the site of McAdams Store, which in 1935 was on the corner of Conadilly and Marquis Streets. He said the police residence had been built in 1872.
Walter remembered that the Mornington area from the ‘cemetery to the creek’ had been owned by a Mrs Hume. He said a water course ran down Marquis Street past the old Church of England to the river where the boat was kept for river crossings before the bridge was built in 1884.
He remembered that the block of land from Gale’s Garage to the lane and back had belonged to Ben Shaw and that Kilcoy had been Ben Shaw’s farm.
The river crossing and the abundant supply of water made the area a favourite stopping point for drovers and from these tiny beginnings, what was known as The Woolshed became the fledgling town of Gunnedah, which today would hardly be recognisable to Walter Douglas who died in 1941.
His wife Emma (Poole) had died in 1935. Born at Morpeth in 1862, Emma had come to Gunnedah by coach via Tamworth in 1880. The couple married at the Methodist Church in Gunnedah in 1883 when Rev. Halse Rogers was the circuit minister. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in September 1933.
A death notice revealed the couple’s surviving children – Charles (Gunnedah), Leslie (Sydney), Howard (Gunnedah), Norman (Newcastle), Aubrey (Gunnedah), Oswald (Gunnedah), May and Rhoda Douglas (Gunnedah) and Mrs T. Pleffer (Sydney). Walter, the eldest son had died in Queensland nine years earlier. Nineteen grandchildren were noted.
Cleaning up after the 1910 flood at Roseneath Manor, in Maitland Street. The home was built by George Cohen in 1878. Timber for the structure was cut by the Douglas family.
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