| Historical notes: | INDIGENOUS HISTORY
Gundungurra or Gandangarra people lived in the Southern Highlands area, which includes Mittagong, for many thousands of years. People who spoke the Gundungurra language lived in the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the Goulburn Plains of New South Wales. They lived in small groups of extended family members, who were attached to particular country areas. After Anglo-European settlers caused displacement of Gundungurra people, they often worked on farms or grazing properties within and adjacent to their traditional countries (Di Johnson: 2004).
Gundungurra groups left archaeological evidence of their occupation throughout their traditional homelands, including scarred trees where bark was removed for use as a boat or other object, grinding grooves on rocks where axes were ground, and occupation sites which include middens. Well-worn Gundungurra pathways on ridge tops were often the routes used as the first roads by colonists (Di Johnson, 2004). Possibly this could have been the origin of the Old South Road where the Hassall and Jefferis Cottages are located.
The area is home to the Tharawal and Gungungurra people (Robinson, 2008).
Camden and the Cow Pastures:
The area is associated with the early history of the colony of New South Wales. Governor Hunter named it 'The Cowpastures' after cattle which had strayed from the Farm Cove settlement were discovered there in 1795 (to the south-west of Sydney). Due to the early European settlers, namely the Macarthurs, who established flourishing wool, wine and wheat industries here, the area is said to be the 'birthplace of the nation's wealth' (ibid, 2008).
Mittagong:
(Colonial) settlement in Mittagong developed early in (the 19th century). In 1816 (Governor) Macquarie referred to Mittagong as 'Marragan or Minnikin' and then (surveyor) James Meehan spelt it Mittagong in March 1818. James (?surveyor, John) Oxley also spelt it this way two years earlier. In its early application Mittagong referred to the range, which ends in the Gib (Mt. Gibraltar) but in March 1818, Meehan mentioned 'Mittagong Station Flat'. A village was formed at the Iron Works called 'Nattai' and then known as 'New Sheffield'. In 1848 Thomas Moore gave evidence before the Select Committee on Railways that the neighbourhood of Chalkers Flat was a place where a station could be formed. In 1867 the railway was completed and called 'Mittagong'. This area is now known as Lower Mittagong, where William Chalker had his property in 1821. A permit was granted to him in 1821 that allowed him to go through the Cow Pastures (Southwestern Sydney) with 93 head of cattle with 2 stock keepers to graze his stock on the Mittagong Range. Chalker was the Principal Overseer of Government Stock at the Cow Pastures and for his services received 200 acres of land, but he died before the grant was surveyed. This land was later granted to Elizabeth Sheckell, his widow, who remarried after his death. William Chalker is regarded as a pioneer of the district of Mittagong and his land climbed over the Mittagong Ranges that is now known as Old South Road (Bolst and Conacher, 2014)
In 1827 George Cutler built a building to be used as an inn, which was originally granted to Robert Plumb. This land is known as Portion 73, Parish of Mittagong. Cutler ended up being fined as he anticipated the issue of a license and began selling alcohol. In July 1830 a free license was issued for 1 year and the inn was named 'The Kangaroo' (ibid, 2014).
For some years Charles Sturt resided on a property on Old South Road. In 1836, Sturt as a dairyman employed the notorious bushranger Martin Cash. He began milking two cows, which later increased to eight. Cash said Sturt was a quiet man and was rarely seen (ibid, 2014).
On Rowels Hill in the 1850s the first church was built, which was also used as a school. The church was a slab and bark structure, which was replaced by a better building with the foundation stone being laid on 28/8/1861. In 1873 services ceased and the building (was) demolished with two of the stones being built into the extensions of St. Stephen's Church, Mittagong, in 1928 (ibid, 2014)..
From 1820 to 1835 traffic to the south used the old road that went through Mittagong. When the new line (of The Great South Road) through Berrima opened, the highway over the Mittagong Range and to Bong Bong was deserted. Lower Mittagong was the first (colonial) pioneer settlement of the district (ibid, 2014).
The Great Southern Railway:
1867 was a momentous year. In December, the newly completed railway line from Sydney opened and in anticipation for an influx of people, the owners of the large estates began subdividing, with the first town plots sold in 1863. By the time Moss Vale station opened, the town had a store, postal service and hotel, mainly to cater for the needs of the large number of railway workers and their families who had come to the district. Their small tent communities had sprung up all along the Great Southern Railway line as it forged south to Goulburn. Lewis Levy from Berrima opened the first store, having cannily anticipated the decline in business in Berrima once it was bypassed by the railway. Business people of Sutton Forest saw Moss Vale's potential as the future centre of the district and many of the first land buyers in Moss Vale were Sutton Forest and Berrima people (ibid, 2001, 82).
The coming of the railway to Moss Vale required subdivision of part of Throsby Park estate and provided impetus for the establishment of the town of Moss Vale. Its name commemorates Jemmy Moss, an ex-convict servant of Charles Throsby, who lived in a hut on Throsby land in what is now Spring Street, Moss Vale. Moss had been transported to NSW for 7 years in 1828 for stealing but proved a valued employee to the Throsby family.
The opening up of the Yarrawa Brush (rainforest area, split up and cleared for farming) in the 1860s - the Robertson, Burrawang and Wilde's Meadow area - added to the importance of the rail head at Moss Vale, which became the district centre for sending produce and other freight to the Sydney market (Emery, 2001, 82). |