Perring Family History

ALUMY CREEK SCHOOL

The weatherboard school and residence, on their original site. An 1872 school building. The grounds feature two huge Moreton Bay fig trees which were planted in 1890 at the request of the teacher who was concerned at the lack of shade. The school closed in 1969.

Butterwick near Seaham, NSW, Australia. Butterwick is a small community, not far from the historic town of Paterson.

Goonoo Goonoo
25 km south, just off the New England Highway, is Goonoo Goonoo (said to mean 'plenty of water'), one of NSW's most historic sheep stations. The property was granted to the Australian Agricultural Company in 1832. They received 600 000 acres here and at Warrah, west of Willow Tree, in exchange for a portion of their one-million acre Port Stephens grant. The land was selected and surveyed for the company by explorer Henry Dangar and stock began to arrive in 1834. Goonoo Goonoo became the company's regional headquarters in 1841. What remained of the old property was sold by the company into private hands in 1985.

A number of old buildings, which once formed a semi-autonomous village, remain. The chapel is to the rear of the homestead (1840). There is a gabled rubblestone store cum post office with brick arches (1853), a large brick woolshed (divided into three gabled sections) on a hill, and a memorial fountain in remembrance of G.B. King, the son of Elizabeth Macarthur and Philip Gidley King. The property is halfway to Wallabadah, just east of the highway along a side road.

quatters began to arrive in 1830. However they were removed when the Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) was awarded an enormous grant. The land was selected by Henry Dangar and the first 6000 sheep arrived in 1834. It was allocated in two separate parcels, the larger being Goonoo Goonoo, on the southern bank of the Peel River, which became the company headquarters in 1841.

Tamworth was established as a company station and camp on the Goonoo Goonoo grant. A private village began to develop on the western bank of the Peel River in the late 1830s with a few huts and stores on the eastern bank to cater for teamsters who crossed the river at that point. A lock-up was established and a postmaster employed in 1840. A survey for a townsite was carried out in 1849 and Tamworth was gazetted in 1850 with a population of 254 recorded the following year when the first school was set up. The town name comes from a town in Staffordshire, England, represented in the British parliament by Robert Peel.

The gold finds at Nundle in 1851 proved a boon to the town. The first newspaper was established in 1859 and, the following year, the first decent bridge over the Peel River was built.

Tamworth became a major coaching station and milling centre in the 1860s. The population increased from about 650 in 1866 to about 3000 in 1876 when it was declared a municipality. In 1878 the railway from Newcastle was extended to West Tamworth.

In 1888 Tamworth became the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to have a municipally-operated electric street lighting, earning it the nickname 'The City of Light'.

In the 1920s Tamworth became the centre of the New England New State Movement which wanted to create a separate state. It resurfaced in the 1960s.

During World War II the showgrounds were used as an army-training camp and an RAAF flying school was set up at the aerodrome which had opened in 1932. Tamworth was declared a city in 1946 and enjoyed significant growth in the 1960s and 1970s.

The association of the city with country music started in the late 1960s. Local radio station 2TM discovered the scale of the potential country music audience when it began broadcasting its programme 'Hoedown'. Tamworth capitalised on the success by establishing the Country Music Awards in 1973. Now January's Australasian Country Music Festival, which witnesses ten days of entertainment, is the major event on the calendar.

The Tamworth Agricultural Show is held in March. The Tamworth Country Theatre, a live radio-broadcast concert, is held on the third Saturday of each month.

The town of Manilla is situated in picturesque country at the junction of the Namoi and Manilla rivers. It is the centre of a district engaged in wheat growing, mixed farming, wool and cattle. The first European settlers arrived in the 1830s and a settlement grew in the 1850s when George Veness built a store, shop, residence, and became the first postmaster

On Greenbah Rd (the Gwydir Highway), at the western outskirts of town, beyond the golf club, is a cemetery. Perhaps the most famous grave is that of Charles Dickens' youngest son, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens. It is located to the left of the main gates. Young Dickens arrived in Australia in 1868. His father died in 1870. He spent the rest of his life in Australia becoming the mayor of Wilcannia and working for the Lands Department in Moree from 1900 until his death in 1902.

Another headstone marks the tomb of Mary Brand who, along with her husband, effectively founded the townsite in 1852 when she opened a store. In 1861 she established the first inn. Her daughter, buried alongside, was the first white child born in Moree. Kangaroos gather here at dusk, but visitors are advised not to attempt feeding.

Port Stephens was sighted in May 1770 by Captain Cook who named it after Philip Stephens, secretary of the Admiralty. He also noted smoke from Aboriginal campfires, presumably belonging to the Worimi tribe who occupied the land from Port Stephens north to Wallis Lake and inland to the Maitland area.

The first Europeans to take up residence in the area were five convicts whose boat sunk off the Port in 1790. They were seen as reincarnated ancestors by the Worimi who aided them and accepted them into the tribe.

The harbour was entered by the convict ship the Salamander in 1791 and charted by deputy surveyor-general Charles Grimes in 1795 who described it as low and sandy. He noted that the Aborigines were taller and more solid of build than those in the Sydney area, that their languages were entirely different and that their canoes and huts were larger. When Lieutenant-Governor William Paterson made out a report of the expedition he foresaw no further interest in the site.

Governor King ordered a survey of the Port by William Paterson in 1801 and it was personally inspected by Governor Macquarie in 1812 who found the port 'good, safe, and capacious' but abandoned his plans as there were too many shoals and the land was considered too barren to support a colony.

Timbergetting commenced in the area in 1816. The exploitation of the area's abundant supply of oysters also began at this time with their incineration for lime at Carrington, Stockton and Fame Cove.

The Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) were granted half a million acres on the northern side of Port Stephens in 1826 and a base of operations was established at present-day Carrington with 80 settlers, 720 sheep and some horse and cattle. Over 200 acres were quickly cleared, vineyards established and, by 1830, an extensive settlement was in place with 600 employees, 11 permanent houses, workshops, military barracks, a smithy, a school, a shearing shed and slaughter house and other temporary buildings. Tahlee House was built for the first manager in 1826 (see entry on Karuah).

The first permanent settler was Captain William Cromarty who was granted 300 acres of land adjacent the Karuah River. In the early days passing ships and whalers used the harbour as a source of wood and water. The approaches to the Port were dangerous and there were plenty of shipwrecks: 24 by the time the first lighthouse was built at Point Stephens in 1862. Another was erected at Nelson Head in 1872. Though they may have stemmed the tide they did not end the wrecks.

After the burning of live oysters for lime was prohibited in 1868, due to stock depletion, the cultivation of oysters for consumption got under way, rapidly expanding in the 1920s, particularly at Oyster Cove. As a result the Port is now the largest single oyster-producing area in Australia. Lobsters were successfully trapped from the second half of the 19th century by Greek and then Italian settlers.

The first survey at Nelson Bay was carried out in 1874 and a post office was opened in 1883. Schools were established at Hannah Bay (now Anna Bay) in 1879 and at both Salt Ash and Nelson Bay in 1883. The Hunter River Steam Navigation Company ran picnic excursions into the area from the late 19th century into the 1940s. In the Second World War Port Stephens was used as a base by the armed forces who trained 20 000 American and 2000 Australian servicemen.

Paterson (including Woodville)
Tiny village on the Paterson River
Paterson is a tiny but attractive little hamlet settled amidst mountains on the Paterson River which has its source in Barrington Tops to the north. The main road and trainline twist through this village which is located 175 km north of Sydney and 18 km north of Maitland.

The area was once occupied by the Gringgai clan of the Wanaruah Aboriginal people. The first known European in the area was the man whose name the town was to adopt, Colonel William Paterson, who, in 1801, surveyed the area beside the river that Governor King named in his honour. As with so many colonial settlements timbercutters, after local supplies of cedar, followed in the footsteps of the explorers and surveyors. Indeed the Paterson River was then known as the Cedar Arm due to the abundance of timber. By 1818 there were known to be eight farms along the river, six of them belonging to convicts.

The first land grant in the area was made to Captain William Dunn in 1821 on land by the river to the south of the town. The land on which Paterson was built was granted to the husband of Susannah Matilda Ward. When he died she had to fight for the grant but Ms Ward was well connected and in 1825 she received 600 acres at the limit of the river's navigability. In 1832 some of her land was required for the construction of the village so she swapped 90 acres of her land on the western side of the river for property both on the eastern bank and under what is now Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Although the townsite was the third to be surveyed in the Hunter Valley, after Newcastle and Maitland, it was not proclaimed until 1833. Paterson soon became an important river port. As such it also became a service centre to the surrounding community. Considerable supplies of tobacco were grown, as well as grains, grapes, wine, citrus fruits and cotton. Shipbuilding also commenced with the development of the river trade.

Many early settlers were Scots and hence a Presbyterian Church preceded an Anglican establishment. Indeed St Ann's, built in the late 1830s, is said to be the oldest Presbyterian Church on mainland Australia.

The river trade began to decline in the 1850s as the road to Maitland improved. Timber mills were established by the 1870s. In its heyday Paterson had four stores, five hotels, two shipyards, a sawmill, a tannery, four blacksmiths, two butchers, a bakery and a boarding school for girls.

By the time the railway arrived in 1911 the long-term decline of river transportation had taken its toll. With bizarre symbolism the railway line passed directly over the wharf and a mishap during the construction of the railway bridge badly damaged one of the local ships. The same boat was nearly destroyed again when a spark from a steam train set it ablaze. The last cream boats visited the area in the 1930s.

Throughout the 20th century agriculture has been the major source of local income. Citrus production was particularly strong at the turn of the century with an estimated 30 000 cases being handled at the port each year.

St Ann's Presbyterian Church
On the other side of the crossing, to the right, is St Ann's Presbyterian Church. Many early settlers in the area were Scots and St Ann's, built in the late 1830s and still holding services today, is said to be the oldest Presbyterian Church on mainland Australia. As a sign of the Scottish highland presence and of altered folk traditions, the church's first teacher had to be skilled in Gaelic grammar. The building has arched lancet leadlight windows with timber tracery.

Grafton
Substantial and attractive town on the NSW North Coast
Grafton has a very beautiful and very gracious city centre characterised by wide streets, elegant Victorian buildings, a superb location on the banks of the Clarence River, a sense of solidity, and a long-standing concern with civic beauty, manifest in the 6500 trees and 24 parks which adorn the city. In fact, the first ornamental trees were planted as early as 1874 and the city's famous jacaranda stands in 1907-08.

Grafton is located about 40 km due west of the coast and 625 km north-east of Sydney at the junction of the Pacific and Gwydir Highways. The city is bisected by the Clarence River which, for many years, proved a barrier to the connection of the city centre (on the northern bank) with Sydney.

The Clarence (known to Europeans as the 'Big River' until 1840), with its tributaries - the Nymboida, the Orara, the Mann and the Coldstream - constitutes the largest river system on the northern NSW coast. Draining over two million hectares it contains over 100 islands, including Susan Island which lies between Grafton and South Grafton.

With a population of 18 500, Grafton is the major settlement on the Clarence River and the commercial centre of an extensive agricultural and pastoral district. The fertile river flats have encouraged dairying, sugarcane plantations and mixed farming. Fishing, the raising of pigs and cattle, the processing and marketing of primary produce and engineering are also important.

The area was occupied by the Gumbaingirr Aborigines at the time of European colonisation. It is thought that the first whites in the area were convict escapees from Moreton Bay who passed through the area in the late 1820s and early 1830s. One of their number, Richard Craig, reported a big river and a plenitude of valuable timber when he arrived at Port Macquarie in 1832. He was later employed by a Thomas Small of Sydney who, inspired by Craig's reports, sent off his brother and two dozen sawyers on board the schooner, the Susan, to the 'Big River'. It was the first European vessel to enter the river. Other cedar-cutters followed in their wake. Small took up a large parcel of land on Woodford Island, opening the way for other pastoralists along the river that Governor Gipps named the Clarence in 1839.

A store and shipyard were established, on what is now South Grafton in 1839 and shipbuilding would remain a major local industry until the end of the century when the railways began to dominate internal trade.

A wharf, store and inn adorned the northern bank by the early 1840s . Until 1861, when a punt service commenced, the only interaction between the two settlements was by row-boat. This area was known collectively and imaginatively as 'The Settlement'.

Twenty establishments were listed on the Clarence River in 1841. The district was surveyed in 1843 and a police magistrate appointed in 1846, at which time the population was recorded as 120.

A township was laid out in 1849 and named after the Duke of Grafton who was the grandfather of Governor Fitzroy. The first land sale took place in the early 1850s, a school opened in 1852 and the first Anglican church in 1854. The population, by 1856, had grown to 1069.

Wharves were established in the 1850s and Grafton benefited both from its location on the main coastal road to the north and from gold discoveries on the upper Clarence River. It soon became the major town on the Clarence and was declared a municipality in 1859. That same year, Grafton became home to both the Clarence and Richmond River Examiner and the first National School north of the Hunter River.

Sugar-growing commenced in the 1860s but dairying ultimately proved more successful. Development was further stimulated by the commencement of selection in the 1860s. A steam-driven vehicular ferry was established at this time.

Grafton was declared a city in the mid-1880s, by which time its population had surpassed 4000. The arrival of the railway at Glen Innes in 1883 and the completion of the Casino to North Grafton line in 1905, contributed to a slow decline in Grafton's importance as a regional port although the river trade chugged along until the 1950s.

In 1897 South Grafton established itself as a separate municipality and the two settlements were not amalgamated until 1956. This separation must have been due, in part, to the absence of a bridge. Remarkably, this situation was not rectified until 1932. It is even more remarkable when one considers that the rolling-stock of the Sydney-Brisbane railway (which reached South Grafton in 1915) had to be ferried across until that time. Still, when it did arrive it was a most unique construction, consisting of two storeys with the railway running underneath the road. It was, furthermore, a lift bridge, although the decline of the river trade saw the lift section sealed.

Poet Henry Kendall lived here as a child until 1852, only to return in the early 1860s when he worked as a clerk for solicitor and fellow-poet J.L. Michael who drowned in the river in 1868. The founder of the Country Party, Earle Page, was born at Grafton in 1880.

If you would like to supply or acquire additional information please contact us via the mail link.