THE AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY

 

Administrative history

The Australian Agricultural Company (AA Co.) was established in London in 1824 and, supported by an Act of Parliament and a Royal Charter, took up a million-acre grant in New South Wales to raise merino sheep. After some uncertainty, the land finally chosen was in three blocks: 464,640 acres between Port Stephens and the Manning River (Port Stephens Estate), 249,600 acres on the Liverpool Plains west of Willow Tree (Warrah), and 313,298 acres at the Peel River south of Tamworth (Goonoo Goonoo). It was established in all three locations by the early 1830s. Within a year of its formation, the company also became involved in coal mining at Newcastle, taking over the government’s operations there. After protracted negotiations, the company’s new pit was opened in 1831. In return for a promise of considerable investment, the company was to be protected by a virtual monopoly that lasted until 1847. The arrangements included a 2000-acre land grant at Newcastle, which the company added to with the purchase of Platt’s Estate (2000 acres) in 1838.

 

The company’s pastoral and coal-mining activities were intended to be carried on with a large complement of convicts under the supervision of officers, overseers and skilled mechanics, many of whom were recruited on contract in Britain and Germany. With the ending of assignment in 1838, general economic difficulties in the 1840s and the increasing realisation that Port Stephens was unsuited to sheep, the company had to give serious consideration to its future. The period 1849 to 1856 was marked by much internal upheaval and reorganisation, compounded by the general dislocation of the gold rushes. In the mid-1850s the company’s sheep operations were transferred to Warrah, while the northern part of the Port Stephens Estate was developed for cattle. Around Stroud, land was sold and leased for agricultural purposes and there was some timber getting.

 

In 1852 gold was discovered on the Peel Estate and anticipating considerable return from mining, the Estate was sold to a new company, the Peel River Land & Mineral Company (also based in London). The mineral deposits, however, came nowhere near expectations. The Peel Company’s activities remained pastoral, based at Tamworth, though a series of leaseholds were taken up (and sold) in New South Wales and Queensland to complement Goonoo Goonoo. These included Currawillinghi near Brewarrina (NSW) in 1881 and Avon Downs (NT) in 1921.

 

During the second half of the 19^th Century, the AA Co. carried on its dual interest in coal mining at Newcastle and sheep and cattle raising at Warrah. After World War I, the company gradually withdrew from coal mining, including its interest in Hebburn Ltd, purchased in 1902. From the turn of the century, the company increased its land sales at Newcastle, concentrating its activities at Warrah and Windy (West Warrah) and other properties, notably:

Corona near Longreach (1902);

Bladensburg near Winton (1915);

James McLeish Estates: Sandy Camp, Pillawarrina and Narraway at Coonamble (1946); Northern Territory Pastoral Co.: Rockhampton Downs (1948);

Cooper River Pastoral Co.: South Galway, Qld (1948);

Ivanhoe Grazing Co., WA (1950); and

Connor, Doherty and Durack: Auvergne and Newry, NT and Argyle Downs, WA (1950).

 

From 1910 both Warrah and Goonoo Goonoo were greatly reduced in area by resumption and subdivision.

 

From 1932 the AA and Peel Companies Australian interests were managed jointly, with the General Superintendent based at Goonoo Goonoo and the Australian Secretary at Newcastle. In 1959 the Peel Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of the AA Co. In 1976 the company’s tax domicile was transferred from London to New South Wales and the Head Office was established in Tamworth. The Australian Office was moved from Newcastle to Tamworth in 1965.

 

The records of the AA and Peel Companies, from both the Australian and the London offices and some of the stations, occupy in excess of 315 shelf metres and 100 reels of microfilm. The records of the AA and Peel Co.’s London office include the minutes of the Court of Directors 1824 –1964 together with the minutes of its committees, the minutes and annual reports presented to the shareholders meetings 1825-1953, share registers 1874-1970, and ledgers 1825-1947. However, by far the largest and most frequently used series is that of the despatches from New South Wales, written by the Agent/ Commissioner/ General Superintendent to the Directors, at least monthly from 1825 to 1976. The despatches, with their frequently voluminous enclosures, cover a wide range of company and general matters. They are indexed except for the period to

Contd. from previous page …………..

1830 (for which other internal aids are available) and 1854-58. For the period 1899-1948 there are also ‘private despatches’ addressed to the Chairman.  The records of the London office of the Peel Company are similar – however the excellent run of despatches from 1853 is not indexed. There are large gaps in the Australian office records before 1856 although some out-letter books and an incomplete set of despatches have survived. Records of the Colonial Committee, including the minutes, are held in the Macarthur Papers at the Mitchell Library. The Committee, which existed 1824-30, was composed of James Macarthur, H H Macarthur and James Bowman.

 

Records concerning coal

As mentioned above, the AA Co. was involved in coal mining in Newcastle, first as the only and later as one of the biggest mining companies to 1906. The records cover all aspects of the getting and selling of coal and include the General Superintendent’s general correspondence on coal matters (1856+), detailed statistics of coal raised and sold, with the break down of costs (1883+), the Colliery Manager’s monthly reports 1862+), fortnightly pay sheets for each pit (1870+), together with minutes and other papers of the Northern Coal Sales Association (‘The Vend’) (1887+). There are also several hundred maps of the coalfield (some of the 1850s, mostly mid 1860s+).

 

Records concerning land

The company’s initial grant was one million acres plus two thousand acres at Newcastle. Some farms and grazing lands were leased in the 1840s. In 1847 the company finally received title to its land and began to consider its alienation. In the early 1850s townships were laid out at Stroud, Carrington and Gloucester (all at Port Stephens), (West) Tamworth, (West) Nundle and Goonoo Goonoo, and the first subdivisions were laid out at Newcastle and Pit Town (Hamilton). Tea Gardens (which the Company called ‘Coweambah’) was surveyed in 1864 and Willow Tree (on the Warrah Estate) in 1908.

 

In 1849 the Directors promoted an emigration scheme which included a 50-acre selection at Port Stephens, but the plan had little success. Most land at Port Stephens was sold by private contract (often through a pre-emptive lease) with the occasional auction. In 1903 the whole of the northern section of the Port Stephens Estate (about 150,000 acres) was sold to the Gloucester Estate Syndicate for subdivision.

 

At Newcastle and Hamilton there was a steady sale of town lots as well as the leasing of urban and agricultural land after 1850. In the early 20^th century there were several major subdivisions including Hamilton Garden Suburb, which was planned in 1913 and developed during the 1920s. The records include details of lands sold (the duplicate conveyances are held in the Archives at the University of Newcastle) and leased, applications from the public to buy and lease, correspondence between the General Superintendent and the Company Surveyor, auction posters and several hundred maps.

 

Records concerning indentured servants and emigrants

Between 1825 and the 1860s the AA Co. brought to Australia over 600 men, almost all employees under some form of contract, many of them accompanied by their wives and children. In the 1820s the men who came were the senior officers of the company (including Robert Dawson and the company’s first Agent in New South Wales and his successor, entitled Commissioner, Sir Edward Parry), sheep overseers from Scotland, France and Germany, and skilled mechanics. Between 1838 and 1842, with the ending of assignment, the company engaged several groups of colliers, shepherds and Irish labourers, with mixed success. In 1849, as mentioned above, the company floated a short-lived emigration scheme. At the same time they sent out colliers for Newcastle. To counteract the depletions of the gold rushes, more miners were sent out from the Midlands, Lancashire, Wales, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and in 1854/5 several groups of shepherds and miners from Germany. The last group of miners came in 1862 in the aftermath of the 1861 Coal Strike, through the offices of the British Emigration Commissioner.

 

The Archives has an index to these ‘indentured servants’ together with notes on sources of information on them. It should be noted, however, that there is little information, except in a very general form, about the people employed directly in the Colony, whether convict or free, in the period before 1870.

 

**Additions have been made to the Australian Agricultural Company and the Peel River Land & Mineral Company collection (Australian and London Offices) since this article was published in 1985. Records received include: registration and legal documents, solicitors' files, financial papers, operational records, share records, registers of directors etc., station records, publications, maps and plans and realia.

Article taken from:  The Noel Butlin Archives Centre (Australians at Work)Website

 

A.A. COMPANY EMPLOYEES

 

As well as the general history of the A.A. Company “Pure Merinos” has a listing of free immigrants brought out from overseas to work for them (including Chinese and Germans).

 

One of my husband’s ancestors – Hezekiah Gregory was listed as arriving on the “Globe” in April 1841 with his wife and family.  I wrote to the Australian National University Archives of Business and Labour in Canberra for more details and received copies of several letters in which he is mentioned along with two carpenters and bricklayers. 

 

Hezekiah’s contract was rewritten and he was eventually employed as a sawyer rather than the carpenter he was originally contracted as. Over the next eight years 5 more children were born at Port Stephens and two more at Liverpool and Dungog.  All A.A. Company estates.

 

In 1851/2 Hezekiah was among the first to purchase farm land from the company – Lot 15 Parish of Booral for $48.

 

On 28^th September 1841 Susannah Browning married Joshua Craven at Carrington.  Joshua had been a convict assigned to the A.A. Company but by the time of his marriage he was a free man.  Following their marriage the couple returned to Stroud and it was here in St. John’s Church of England they witnessed the wedding of Susannah’s sister Hannah to Thomas Norton who was another convict assigned to the A.A.Company.  Just two years after her marriage Susannah died and was buried in the churchyard at the Church of England section of the Stroud cemetery.  Joshua remarried but he died in 1847 and was also buried in Stroud.  The part of the inscription on his gravestone which can still be seen reads:  Valuable servant of the A.A. Company who was suddenly removed from this life into eternity ….34? years.

Article submitted by Member Barbara Wilkes

TRANSLATIONS

 

Wanting to translate a foreign language to English and visa versa.

Go to Babel Fish Translation http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/ and follow the instructions below

To translate a block of text to or from English:

1.    Either write the text directly into the given box or copy and paste text from another source into the box.

2.    Then click on “Select from and to languages” a drop down menu appears.

3.    Make a choice of what language translation is required.

4.    Next click “Translate” and it’s done.

You can also have a webpage translated by entering the webpage address and following instructions 2. 3. 4. above.

Happy 20th Birthday

Our group 20 years ago

As my mum’s birthday was in May and she was in her eighties I tried each year to spend some time with her in my home town of Brisbane. I must have missed seeing the public notice that Bronwyn Simms and Margaret Patterson put in the paper. They called for anyone with an interest in their family history to meet at the Casino Library with a view to forming a mutual interest group. I also missed the excitement of so many people turning up that they almost did not fit in the meeting room! A group was formed with Bronwyn as President.

I joined as member 22. Helen Trustum and Jan had joined at that first meeting. The group met in the meeting room on Tuesday nights and members brought along any books or resources they thought might be of interest to others. The town librarian Judith Saunders was a great help and purchased what her budget would allow to help the group. Our very first book was “The 1828 census” was donated by Terry Eakin who had family ties in this area although he worked in Mt Isa. The government were only just starting to release Birth Death and Marriage indexes (up to about 1885!) so we were very happy that Sue McLennan allowed us to use the books and records she had purchased for her own use.

For some time we kept our minimal resources on the shelves in the nook beside the vestibule as you enter the library. We were zealous in our efforts to raise funds to purchase resources. We had a bus trips to local places of general and historic interest including Helen’s private museum. We provided food and drinks at clearing sales and helped RSL ladies with their catering for functions when they needed extra hands. One major and memorable event was our fashion through the ages Luncheon at the RSL Club. Jan in particular put in an amazing amount of work in organising that. There were so many costumes hung up all around the Caban home it is a wonder the family had room to sleep and eat!

Another regular fund raiser was selling Billy Tea and Damper at the Lismore Show Historic Village. The dampers were cooked at home but we really did make the tea with water boiled over an open fire. It was worth the effort to hear the customers reminisce about their memories of the Good Old Days and to hear Bill Mason play a tune on his saw or recite poems such as “You are the Heifer in the Cow Yard of my Heart”. With the sole electric light turned off and sitting there by just the fire light, the hubub of sideshow alley magically vanished!

Street Stalls and raffles regularly brought in helpful sums. Members used their other talents to make and donate items of jewellery, beautifully dressed bride dolls and lovely crocheted items which I am sure have become family treasures in the homes of lucky winners.  

As our president Bronwyn and her husband were involved with the stud cattle breeders association they felt our group might provide a good service for them and make some needed income for our group by having a stall in their section of the newly established Primex. What we served has faded from my memory but I do remember working in the tent and MUD glorious MUD… and the dust on windy days and as we kept on with this we became quite professional and moved up to the luxury of a hired food van. There was some very chilly starts with the ground covered with frost. It was hard work on the part of those who did the organising in particular but it brought in money that allowed the group to purchase almost everything you now see in this room.

We had quickly outgrown our small public space in the town library and the committee has negotiated with the School of Arts that the FHG have the use of space in one of their rooms upstairs. I felt strongly that being on the second floor would limit the use of our resources to those who could climb the stairs. This drawback was solved when the School of Arts installed the chair. Now life has moved on and I have been near to having to use it myself! The school of arts have been an ideal landlord.

Over the years the group has taken part in Beef Week events with enthusiasm by having a float for several years until insurance laws made it impossible to hire a suitable truck. We have on occasions set up historical displays covering the walls of the room with posters relating to stations in the district or local identities. Sometimes we have set up window displays. We have also sponsored writing competitions and talked at local schools. We have also hosted groups for both the Primary schools and the High school to come to our room and learn to research their family history. During Naidoc celebrations er have issued special invitations to interested people from their communities to come to the rooms to access records that could solve their special difficulties.

Jan has called our group The Happy Chat Group and I think a lot of research brick walls have been demolished by discussion around the coffee table. Bronwyn and Steve had a disaster of the home they were renting catching fire in the middle of the night and they lost everything. They chose to move away as did others such as Judy Reynolds who was the first newsletter editor of our magazine which allowed us to set up an exchange with other groups throughout Australia. Brain Hughes who was our president for some time, also moved away to be nearer to family, as did Maureen Haling who donated books from her personal library. The grim reaper has taken lots of our members Joyce Smith and Daphane Shephard being a couple of names that come to mind.

Shirlee Burley was another who contributed all her energy and enthusiasm to the group but family circumstances caused her to move away to further her study and interest in history. Bev Boston also contributed her skills as a trained librarian. She taught me how to mend the books, accession them and to keep them in good order. She remains a good friend but unfortunately her short term memory is worse than mine!

We have also been very lucky to have a hard working group who have spent hundreds of hours at their typewriters and keyboards turning our cemetery headstone transcriptions and other information into hansom looking publications which we can sell with pride! We are also lucky to have members who come to the room regularly to make the resources available and to help others. For a small group we are open an amazing number of hours! We need to treasure those happy to dust and use the vacuum cleaner, to make the curtains and cushions and to move the furniture about as our needs change.

Today the family history group celebrates its 20th birthday and I think we can look back with pride at what we have achieved by working together. Who would have ever thought in the 1980’s there would be such a boom in computers and the wonderful resources available on CD’s and the magic of the internet.

Submitted by Barbara Wilkes.

The first committee consisted of Bronwyn Sims, Margaret Patternson, Judy Reynolds, Julie Clifford, Barbara Wilkes, Shirley Schulz, Helen Trustum, Joyce Smith and Nerilyn Cowen. At their first meeting there was over 40 people in attendance. After 4 months there were 56 members and over 30 people attending the meetings. The group had listed for their resources 20 books, 5 microfiche groups and several newspapers. The “Crossing Place” magazine got its name, where Clay and Stapleton set up their camp. It became the crossing place for settlers, mail deliveries and travellers to cross the river.

September 24th 1987 saw the groups first major project get off the ground. This was to transcribe the West St Cemetery.    

 

                  

 Persistence Pays

Recently I learnt that when a Coroner completes an inquiry into a death, he sends the cause of death to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. A new complete death certificate showing the cause of death can be issued.

Member 25.

Our tangled web.

Harriet Stiles was born in 31st March 1840 at Butterwick NSW. She was the daughter of Edward Stiles and Harriet Pooley Foreman. She did not live a very average life. It would seem that she had a child born out of wed lock (Mary Stiles) to her sister’s husband, George Barnes. At 19 years old Harriet married William Clapham, they had 6 children during their marriage. The youngest child was born in 1871. Harriet is then believed to have married Christopher Roles bearing 3 more children, first child being born in 1876. Previous researchers if this line had found no record of William Clapham’s death. Recently it was uncovered in QLD he died 5th January 1904 in a Toowoomba asylum.

This leaves us with the questions did Harriet and William Divorce? Did she commit bigamy? We can’t find a marriage record for Harriet and Christopher maybe they just lived together? We can’t find any divorce records. We did find Christopher Roles first wife’s (Elizabeth) death. She died 1898 in the Toowoomba Asylum. What we do now know is that both Harriet and Christopher were together the same time as their first partners were still alive. Elizabeth is mentioned as on Christopher’s death certificate along with the children of their marriage. No mention is made of Harriet or their children. Christopher died 6th May 1887 in Glen Innes.

Harriet then remarried Henry Rummery of 21st December 1889. Her name is given on the marriage certificate as Harriet Clapham Roles. She Died in Glen Innes. 

Submitted by members Judy Caban 1 Merrigan St Kyogle 2474 and Ray Ronan 102 West St Casino 2470

Fatal Flu Outbreak

The war in Europe was over, but a new threat faced the world early in 1919, when, from Russia came an invader that proved to be very hard to repel .THE DEADLY PNEUMONIC FLU.

In January, New South Wales was declared an infectious state. Cases of the fatal flu started to crop up. First in Lismore starting in February. There would be 101 cases reported by doctors, and 57 deaths in Lismore.

Casino was one of the worst hit towns in the state. By the month of May, 26 people had died in a makeshift hospital in the showground pavilion. Emergency hospitals were also set up in the School of Arts building and The Masonic Hall.

When the epidemic had passed, 45 Casino people would have died, out of more then 600 who had contracted the virus. Those who died included Volunteer Aid Detachment members Miss N Devlin, 39, who was in charge of the girls at the show ground pavilion, Mrs A W Norton, 32, and Nurse Guieren of Casino Hospital.

Not so hard hit was Byron Bay, where in June the public school was taken over for an emergency hospital. In the following 3 months, 67 people had been hospitalised there, but no deaths were recorded. Australia’s population at that time had reached 5 million, and between January and August, 10,000 had died from the flu.

Kyogle reported about 360 cases. An emergency hospital was set up at the Drill hall. (Does anyone know which hall this is?).

 

Prison Hulks

Prior to transportation, convicts were often imprisoned in the hulks of many famous old warships which had been moored in the Thames Estuary or Plymouth Harbour. Conditions on board those floating gaols were appalling and the standards of hygiene were so poor that disease spread quickly. As mentioned in the section on English prisons, although there was a strong lobby movement regarding the living conditions on the hulks, the English government delayed building new gaols and preferred to search for new places to send her convicts instead. Many of the convicts sent to New South Wales in the early years were already disease ridden when they departed and a huge loss of life through typhoid and cholera epidemics was the result.

The State Archives Office of New South Wales (SAONSW) has a microfilmed collection of the English Hulk Returns dating from 1783 to 1803. They list the prisoners awaiting transportation and give their name, age, place and date of conviction, their sentence and in some cases, a record of their state of health and when and where the discharge took place. These records are also readily available elsewhere in Australia and outline the costs associated with the hulks.

The Phoenix Hulk was used as a prison ship in Sydney Harbour from 1825 to 1837 and the SAONSW also holds hulk records for that period. They give the convict's year of arrival, ship, free or bond status, place of origin, religion, trade or calling, details of admission to and disposal from the hulk, and occasionally a note about their behaviour on board the hulk. Description Books (1833-1837) and Discharge Books (1825-1833) were also kept and the Entrance Books are partially indexed. In Tasmania, an ex-naval ship called the Anson was used to accommodate female convicts. Some hulk lists are included in the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) but may not be very extensive. Several specialist books have been written about various hulks and the conditions the convicts were exposed to. Although it does not list the convicts on each hulk as such, Charles Campbell's "The Intolerable Hulks - British Shipboard Confinement 1776-1857" does list the hulks by name, the year they were placed into service, the estimated time they stayed in service, their typical prisoner count and station.