Early Jottings of the Upper Page and Isis River Districts
As mentioned earlier in this story, Captain Scott settled on Scotts Creek calling the block Stonehenge. I will endeavour to trace the people who first took up country on the Creek.
Up from Stonehenge were the Morrissey family, further along the Creek, Jerry Gorman, his son Patrick Gorman followed ownership after Jerry died. Patrick was a huge, tall man, who used to shear to make extra money, as the blocks were small.
The land was allotted on the English and Irish systems, and of course with such an uncertain rainfall and the different type of soil and hotter climate, it did not perform like the land they had come from.
Patrick Gorman used to shear at Harben Vale, and would walk to work, about three miles and be there to start shearing at 7 a.m. and then walk home again. My memory of Patrick from an early age, was of him riding a skewbald pony much too small for him, with his legs almost on the ground. Theirs was a very nice piece of country and ran from the Creek over to join the Bloomfield boundary near the woolshed. Patrick was as straight as a ramrod, even as an old man. His nephew, Jimmy Hillis, lives there now.
Russell Parkins' country, called Rossmore, was first selected by Jeremiah Carey, who came from Roscommon in Ireland. Travelling up Scotts Creek, next we come to Purcell's block in an almost circle made by the Creek. Mrs Purcell was a huge woman and we were fascinated as children, as she always wore men's blucher boots.
Mrs Purcell made every post a winner. She used to ride in to Murrurundi with eggs and home-made butter in a basket over her arm. Her son, Michael, worked at Bloomfield and married Rosanna Hunt, who was also working at Bloomfield. My grandfather, Bernard Haydon, by this time owned The Big Flat on Scotts Creek and Mick and Rosanna were given the job of looking after that place. They remained there for the rest of their lives.
Another Purcell, Paddy, also worked at Bloomfield. He was a shearer and married Maggie Mullins. They were provided with a cottage on Bloomfield. They moved when older, to a cottage Paddy built on the flats at Blandford. We children loved Maggie and never missed an opportunity to visit her.
Tom Purcell, who worked his mother's country as well as shearing, later started a dairy, but apart from a small lucerne flat, the country was not enough. They had several daughters. Mrs Purcell started a boarding house in Murrurundi and the girls worked in Dooley's Store for a long time. One girl married Constable Howard. Later still, they went to Sydney and had a boarding house in Potts Point. Tom died there as the result of him going too soon into a room that had been fumigated. The girls were very good musicians.
Continuing up Scotts Creek, the next selection was Callinan's right on the Creek with a wall of fascinating rock, over the Creek from the house. This is the house Combo and his wife lived in after they got married. Combo developed T. B. and died while the children were quite small. Tom Callinan, the original son of the first Callinan settlers, went to Blandford and leased the Plough Inn from William Greer. Later, he ran the White Hart Hotel. He had one son, Len Callinan, who I think did mostly bush work.
Next up the Creek is Spring Mountain Paddock. The original settlers, I think, were Brogans. There were two Brogan's Paddocks, one called just Brogans and the other one Little Brogans. They went to the Tamworth area and a few years ago had property on the Manilla Road.
Next comes Greer's Mountain, a long Mountain with three distinct clumps of trees right on the top. These are sheep camps. You may not know, but sheep go to the highest place in whatever paddock they are in to camp at night, thereby feeding all the way up and all the way down next morning thereby working and eating all the country. Cattle don't do this. The Big Flat country was part of the Greer's Mountain. It is still called Greer's today.
Next block on the right side of the Creek is called Grahams. Then the Big Flat, first selected by Greers. William Greer was born there. It was a fascinating old house, made of round timber with hessian lining and in parts stuck over with newspapers and the most enormous fireplace I have ever seen. It had bench seats all the way round and could take a very big log. Stuart Haydon bought it from Greers and when Stuart went to the Gulf country, he sold the Big Flat to his brother, Bernard, who was only about 22 years old. A big flood in 1940 demolished this old house.
Further up the Creek is Hammonds Paddocks. The country closes in a bit here and you climb a short range, which is the watershed that divides Scotts Creek from Warlands Creek. As these settlers sold out for various reasons, Bernard bought them out, until he had a very nice lot of country.
Mick and Rosanna Purcell raised a big family. Raph, Johnny, Jimmy and Greg, daughters Agnes, Maggie and Imelda. Raph later had his own property at Pangela but later sold out and went to live in Sydney. Johnny was the Bloomfield bullock driver. He was a huge man and he was the first person I knew who died of cancer. Jimmy worked all his life on Bloomfield. He married Loretta Murphy and they had 10 children. They are good riders and supported very well all the sports days and later Rodeos that were on.
Greg went to the War and didn't seem to settle down after it was over Agnes married Bede Wheelahan, Maggie married Paddy Gogarty, an engine driver and a great worker for the rodeos, Imelda married Ted Murphy.
Bernard Haydon, my grandfather, was a very just and fair man, who did his best to help the small settlers in any way he could. He was a member of the Land Board for a great number of years and attended sittings in Murrurundi, Quirindi and Tamworth. The Land Board woke up when he was 84 years old that he was well past retiring age. They wrote saying he must resign.
Then the people of Blandford gave him a Testimonial Dinner and presented him with a gold watch and chain, in recognition for all the help he had given them over the years. If they could not afford rams, he would rent them out at two pounds a season.
When the Land Board Inspectors came to do their check to see if the Selection Holders were fulfilling their conditions about living on their blocks, they always stayed the night at Bloomfield. If Bernard knew any of them were away doing other work, he would send a man out very early next day and tell him to put some evidence of living in their cottages, light a fire, hang wet shirts on the line, drop fresh manure in the yard and when he would arrive later with the Inspector, would say: “Oh, old Jack can’t be too far away, he has had his breakfast, the fireplace is still warm.” I suppose really this wasn't quite cricket but it was one way of side-stepping stupid officialdom.
By 1925, the country had been inundated with rabbits. They were in plague proportions and it took a huge amount of money and work to eradicate them. There are quite a few about today and I feel apprehensive about the future as the people today cannot imagine what a plague is like.
When we were kids, our source of pocket money was rabbit skins. We were all taught to shoot and we would spend our weekends shooting up on Scott's Creek Nobody appeared to worry about us as we always turned up by evening and we never shot anyone. There is one story about brother, Hilton and me. He was about eight years old and I was 18 months older. On our way to Scott's Creek, we met one of the Bloomfield jackaroos riding back to the homestead. He said, “Gooday, kids. Where are you off to?” Hilton's reply was: “Shooting foxes”. (Hilton with a Daisy air gun propped up on his saddle) When I think of it now, I can see the grin on the jackaroo’s face, but he never said anything.