Early Jottings of the Upper Page and Isis River Districts
The earliest settlers reached the Page in 1826. W. H. Warland took up land to start a station, he called it Harben Vale after his mother's maiden name, the village that eventually grew around this area he called Blandford after his home town in England.
Another early settler was Captain Scott who had come north from St. Heliers near Muswellbrook, selecting country on Scott's Creek calling it Stonehenge.
This country was on the eastern side of Scott's Creek, about where Goodwood Park is today. Scott evidently did not stay long as he does not get a mention again in any records. By 1832 Warland was anxious to return to England and was looking for someone to take charge of his property while he was away.
In Sydney he met Peter Haydon and Peter Brodie, Peter Haydon had arrived in the Colony in 1830. He took a government job while he looked around for investment, as he had money for the purpose. The two Peters met in Sydney and became friends and meeting Warland, it was arranged they take charge of Harben Vale while Warland was away.
Peter Brodie going there first: A letter from Peter Haydon to Peter Brodie says: “hope you and your family arrived safely.” The letter was addressed C/- Redbank which was out of Scone. Residents had to go all that way for mail for some years.
There was a letter from Warland, posted from Trial Bay on the South Coast of N.S.W. We have never been able to find out who else but Peter consisted of the Brodie family who went to Harben Vale. When Peter Haydon started coming to the Page he began to look around for investment himself, taking up the Bloomfield Block in 1832.
There was a very small settlement forming on the Page north of Harben Vale and exactly one mile downstream from the present town of Murrurundi. There was an Inn, a store and quite large stockyards. This settlement was calling itself Button Town. It was about where Mabyn Vale is now, but closer to the river.
At a land auction in Sydney Peter Haydon bought the land which he was to call “Glenalvon” for 5/- per acre, for he and Peter Brodie. Peter Haydon to supply the finance and Peter Brodie the management, more of this later.
At the same auction Peter Haydon brought for himself what was to be called the Commodore Block of 811 acres situated on the south side of the Page River and the south side of Halls Creek and including the beautiful area of Paradise Park. This land was purchased for 5/- per acre. Button was at the sale, Peter Haydon writes to Peter Brodie, poor old Button was upset. “We must see what we can do for him”, but Buttontown did not survive as settlement started growing on the north side of the Page.
A storekeeper Rundle wheeled his store supplies in a wheelbarrow the one mile to the new site. Rundle became a very successful storekeeper, later selling out to Alexander Brodie and going to Maitland.
Henry Nowland had found a way over the Liverpool Range in 1827. A way had been found earlier from the Merriwa side through Pandora's Pass.
These rich Liverpool Plains began to be used, though they were out of bounds of any government control — the Liverpool Range being the barrier and Murrurundi became the frontier town. Amongst the first people to build was Henry Dangar who built the Mountain View Hotel. This delightful old place had a few name changes and owners. It is now called “Bobadil” and is owned by the Kelaher family.
Mr Kelaher died young leaving his widow to bring up a family. They owned Wonderland on the Liverpool Plains which she leased to the Haydons until her own sons were old enough to manage Mrs Kelaher was a Miss Serie, an early family in the area.
The joint Stock Bank opened in 1864. It went broke and was taken over by the newly established Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney Tom Haydon was its first teller. He used to ride in every day from Blandford. A diary entry records hay taken to the Page for Tom's horse when the river was in flood. He was unable to go to work.
The Royal Hotel had a date 1863 carved in stone over the front door. It is still functioning today, having had a variety of proprietors. At one time William Wightman, whose wife was Mary Anne Teys. After he died she married again, a Mr McLean and they continued to run it.
Rosedale was built by the Halls who were already settled in Scone. A few people rented Rosedale, one was Joseph Abbott from Wingen. He was later to go into Parliament.
Joseph was a solicitor, he received a knighthood from the Queen. Rosedale was later bought by the Wilsons. Mrs Wilson living to a great age, her daughter Mrs Nicholas lived with her.
The Wilsons have their own freehold burial plot on a small rise at the back of Rosedale; there are a lot of family graves. The Wilson family have left money to the Church of England for the maintenance of this plot.
The Teys family were establishing themselves at Temple Court. They came in 1853 and as well, they had country out on the Queensland border at Boomi. This property they called Baranga Crossing and it joined country called Kunopia held by the Wightmans.
Another fine old home, Ethelstone, was built in quite a sizeable paddock. It had various owners and Mrs Thomas Haydon and her daughter Molly lived there after her eldest daughter Caroline married Dr Rufus Bell.
The Haydons had been living at Bridge House which was built by Caroline Wightman, Mrs Haydon's mother. It was the place they went to when Bernard Haydon was married to Blanche Elizabeth Wakeford. They left Bloomfield for him to make his home there. The Wakefords came to town when the railway was being built. Mr Wakeford was a civil engineer and had a contract to build a portion of the line. They lived in Professional Row. A wag nailed up a board one night “Professional Row”. A skit on all the professional people living there and the name stuck. It is Professional Row today, though not many homes remain.
Ethelstone, was occupied by quite a few people ~ Judge Meymott lived there and when the railway came to Murrurundi in 1872, the siding Temple Court was put in for his convenience.
When Dr Bell died on August 14, 1902, his widow Caroline went to Ethelstone and remained there till she died in 1921. Bridge House from the time of Dr Bell has been a doctors' residence and the house itself carried a National Trust plaque.
Lovely old Greenheyes was built about 1869 by Mr Tebbit who had a flour mill, but moved his operations to Quirindi closer to a better grain growing area. J. B. Bosley was the first miller, previous to his operating people had to take their grain to P. A. Wright at Aberdeen, who ran the Aberdeen Hotel as well as the flour mill.
The Court House and gaol are the same today; lovely old buildings, together with the Church of England, they are a beautiful group of buildings.
The Church of England is built of sandstone. There is a lovely tiled wall behind the Altar. This was erected from tiles obtained from Italy, in memory of a clergyman called Rev. Lewis. He must have been very popular as this would be an expensive memorial whatever the time.
Unfortunately, it has been allowed to fall into disrepair and for a long time it was covered with heavy brocade curtains. I hope it will be repaired. It will be shame if it is not saved. St. Paul's Murrurundi was designed by the architect Horbury Hunt, 1874.
The bell tower was added in 1913 while the Rev Arnold Conally was the rector.
The name Murrurundi means five fingers on a hand, an aboriginal word for the five spectacular rocks that stand sentinal near Temple Court. Some of them are no longer upright.
Other early settlers were the Singles at Creswell Park and the Boyds, who gave Boyds Creek its name.
After the Warlands returned from England the Brodies moved to Glenalvon, where they made a fine garden and fruit trees, there was also a tenant farmer there who had a vineyard. Another lovely old building, the Literary Institute (now the home to the Murrurundi and District Historical Society Inc.), was the area's cultural centre. It was used for Balls and people giving private parties, for concerts and visiting singers and artists.
There was no dearth of entertainment. It was also used as a library, the librarian who was on duty all the time was called Mr Dovang, he only had one arm.
Recently the Shire offered this building for peppercorn rent, to be used as an historical society. We had a meeting with only five present. I thought it would be a pity to miss out on this old building, so very well suited for a museum. I asked the meeting to give me some time and worked on friends and got their confidence, so at the next meeting we had 18 members, which was enough to form an Historical Society. I was elected its first president and remained in that position until I resigned when I came to live in Dubbo in 1983.
The president today is Des Dugan (2023) but it was Reg White on its opening. Ted and Jane Delahunt had come to town and came to their first meeting. Jane offered to be secretary. How lucky we were to have them, they both did a power of work getting the Museum operating. I was so very sorry when I heard they had left. I was surprised at the amount of interest there is in the museum and the number of travellers who call. It has all been so very worthwhile.
Opposite the Museum is the Bowling Club which has incorporated part of the old Murrurundi Hospital, adjacent to the Public School. It was a very nice hospital. In those days local communities had to fund their own hospitals. Race meetings would be held and sports days and the Annual Hospital Ball was one of the events of the year.
The Commercial Bank opposite the School is an early building. There were several Hotels and Inns dotted about the country, at a suitable distance apart for a day's travel by buggy.
In front of Bobadil, Alexander Brodie had built a home. It was a replica of Bridge House, without the surgery on the end. Alexander had a lot of different jobs, first of all as the first school master. Later he bought J. B. Rundle's Store. He married Frances Riddle, Caroline Wightman's niece and sister of Alexander Wightman's wife. He ended up with a property in Quirindi.
The Shale mine operated for a number of years. The Shale was brought over the mountain by a flying fox cable. You could see these buckets swinging along, the Kerosene Mountains are behind the Pentland hills, occasionally men would come over on the flying fox.
The home we know as the Ranch was built for the mine manager who was a Scotsman, in 1912. It is a nice home with a wonderful view of the rocks on the Temple Court side of town.
There was a small railway track from the Shale Mine across to Temple Court Railway to be hooked onto a goods train on the main line. The mine later closed. Murrurundi was very fortunate in those days to have a stone mason. His name was Chadburn.