John 'Jack' Kelly
John ‘Jack’ Kelly was married to Louisa Kelly (nee Briggs) and was a drover. He took sheep, cattle, and goats across to the Flinders Ranges and from Hungerford to Deniliquin. They had no vehicles, just horses, carts, and dogs. These trips could take six months or more. They took grazier’s sheep along the ‘long paddock’ – the stock routes that criss-cross western NSW. Some of the others who were in these droving parties were Amos Kelly, Harry Kelly, and Dan Kelly. Their destination was usually Deniliquin or the Yelta saleyards at Mildura.Jack, a Ngiyampaa man, used to tell Dreamtime legends and stories of his life around the campfire. He taught his children and tracking skills and knowledge of bush food.
Robin Murray
Robin ‘Doonie’ Murray was born on the Menindee Mission to Bridget and Jim Boy Murray. His grandfather, George Murray, was the last ‘King’ of the Ngiyampaa Tribe. ‘Doonie’ spoke fondly of his uncle Geordie Murray who was a ‘clever man’ who lived at Carowa Tank Mission; but outside of the Mission fence. Geordie was associated with the move of the Carowra Tank people to Menindee in 1933 when the mission tank dried up.Doonie’s mother died when he was a young boy and he and his brother Freddy were adopted and lived with Jack and Louisa Kelly (his uncle and aunt).
George & Eliza Green
In 1848, with the help of his father, 18-year-old Patrick ‘Paddy’ Green gathered a mob of sheep, oxen to pull his well laden two-wheeled bullock drays, some dogs to keep the stock in order, and shepherd stockmen to help him. After obtaining an occupation licence costing ten pounds, the party set off.Leaving Swan Hill and travelling up the Darling River for a month they reached ‘unoccupied’ land opposite Laidleys Ponds. Paddy staked out his run by claiming approximately 40 miles of river frontage with his split gum hut positioned at the halfway mark. Green decided to name his property Wurtindeli, the Indigenous name for echidnas which were plentiful in the area. In 1849, Green welcomed McCabe, the government Surveyor, to the area who formalised the boundaries.After a while, the pressures, the fears, and the loss of stock became too much for young Green, so he sold the property to the Phelps brothers, who named it Albermarle.Patrick returned to his father’s station before heading to the Victorian goldfields, and in 1858, he married seventeen-year-old Eliza Fairchild in Adelaide. Having made some money on the goldfields, Patrick returned to Menindee and bought Edward Wicker’s store, in the process becoming the local Port Master. Before establishing himself as a storekeeper, he dismantled the very humble store and replaced it with a large brick one with a storage cellar underneath and a verandah across the front.Behind the store Patrick attached a comfortable residence for his wife and young family. He called it for old times’ sake, ‘Wurtindeli’. The river steamers were still running as far as the hotel when he ordered the bricks, roofing, doors, and windows from Adelaide, however, when the time came the following year to stock-up his store and furnish his house, the steamers had stopped running. Harry Brand from Overland Corner, with his five teams of bullocks and their drivers, were engaged to pick up and deliver about nine tons of general stores to Patrick at Menindee.Over time, Green became a successful storekeeper and a generous citizen.
Edward Forde Esq.
Edward Forde was born in Monkstown, Ireland, to Henry Forde and Ellen (nee Adams). As a young man he travelled to New Zealand, where he worked in the New Zealand Department of Harbours and Rivers from 1857–1859. In the early 1860s, he became the highly respected Chief Draughtsman in the NSW Department of Harbour and River Navigation based on the north coast of NSW. When Forde was 35, he married 32-year-old natural history illustrator, Helena Scott, at Ash Island near Newcastle in 1864.At that time, Forde was described by a contemporary as ‘a gentleman no less admired for his amiable disposition than distinguished for his scientific attainments’.The intrepid newlyweds moved to Sydney, then in 1865, they travelled to Adelaide and embarked on a surveying expedition along the Darling River between Wentworth and Bourke. Helena, an adventurous and keen-eyed naturalist, collected plants along the way, planning to publish a study of the flora of the Darling River on her return. She made a sketchbook of the camps and plants along the Darling and recorded relics from Bourke’s doomed journey, which had taken place only five years earlier.
Ah Chung family
William Ah Chung was born in Guangzhou, China in 1842 and married Emily Helyar in 1869. Emily was born in England and came to Australia as a 19-year-old. They arrived in Menindee in 1880, and William became one of Menindee’s first market gardeners. He winched water up the steep river banks of the Darling River and carried it in two buckets on a yoke across his shoulders to water his vegetables.Although we don’t know exactly what vegetables he grew, C.E.W. Bean mentions, in his classic book On the Wool Track, published in 1910,that along the Darling ‘there was a garden of a certain Chinaman… in it there grew every conceivable fruit, except perhaps the custard apple. Bananas, strawberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, peaches, plums, quinces, pears, lemons, cherries, grapes, not to speak of cauliflowers, cabbages, tomatoes, celery, and most of the vegetables in the cookery book… although it must be admitted that the cherries and bananas did not flourish…’Emily had 10 children at Menindee, and tragically seven of them died in infancy. Sadly, William drowned in the Darling River in 1911, aged 70.
Robert J. Files
Robert John Files was born in Stawell, Victoria and was well known in the Broken Hill district. He was a grazier at Hazel Dell station approximately 50 miles out of Menindee on the Ivanhoe-Menindee Road, for about 28 years. In his younger days he was well known as an athlete, a particularly good foot runner. Robert had eight sons and four daughters.
Jack Sanders
Jack Sanders was the teenage son of Stephen and Margaret Sanders, who drowned at their station. An article in the Barrier Miner Feb 1927 records the tragic event.Willy’s Tank DrowningFinding of Coroner at Inquest at MenindeeIn the Menindie Courthouse yesterday Mr. R.C. Atkinson, S,M. and coroner, conducted an inquest into the death of Jack Wentworth Sanders (17 ½ ) who was drowned at Willy’s Tank about three miles from Box Tank, on January 24. Sergeant E.V. Marden deposed that he went to Willy’s Tank in response to a telephone message on January 24. He examined the body of Jack Wentwoth Sanders, and found no marks of violence. He had the body conveyed to the parents’ residence at Wirryilka Station. Peter Neilsen, boundary rider, residing at Wirryilka Station, deposed that he went with Sanders to the tank to pull out two sheep which were bogged. After doing the work Sanders said he would go in for a swim. Witness inquired whether he could swim, and Sanders said, ‘If a man can’t swim this, he ought to be kicked’. He swam nearly to the other side, and witness went to a windmill. Witness started to oil the windmill when he heard Sanders cry out. Sanders then disappeared. Witness got down from the windmill and went into the water up to his neck, but was unable to get to Sanders. Seeing there was no chance of saving him witness ran to Box Tank, got a motor car, and then went to the station and informed Mr Sanders of the occurrence. There were no sticks near the tank to get the boy out. The tank is only 15 yards wide where Sanders entered the water. Henry Faust, contractor, residing at Menindie, deposed that he was working at Wirryilka Station on January 24 when Neilsen came to the station on a motor lorry. He said that Jack had been drowned, and witness went to the tank with three other men. Witness went in and recovered the boy in about seven feet of water. The body was about 15 ft from the bank. An unsuccessful attempt was made to restore animation, the men working for about two hours. Stephen Sanders, manager of Wirryilka Station, deposed that he last saw his son alive between 3 o’clock and 3.30 on January 24 when he left with Neilsen to attend to a windmill at Speculation Tank. His son was 17 years of age and was born at Menindie. He could swim very little as far as witness knew. The coroner returned a finding that Jack Wentworth Sanders was accidently drowned while bathing in Willy’s Tank on January 24.
Reuben Clifton
The Western Grazier 1947, recalls the sad passing of Menindee teenager, Reuben Clifton.Fatal fall from horse‘On Wednesday morning a very sad accident occurred, resulting in the death of Reuben Clifton (18), a local lad, who was popular with everyone.The boy was galloping a horse through the township when it stumbled, and he fell heavily to the ground. This was at 10.30 am. He was critically injured, suffering concussion. There was soon a crowd at the scene and the lad was taken to his home. He resided with his mother.The Bush Nurse was contacted and was soon on the scene. The nurse at once realised that the end was near. Shortly after the boy died…. The fatality cast a real gloom over the township.’
David Edwards
David Edwards was the Menindee blacksmith. He built his home and ‘Smithy’ behind the ‘Wood & Son Store’: the present Red Sands Café. Sometimes his young son George pumped the massive bellows while his father David made the horse shoes. The blacksmith’s shop was a welcome haven for the locals, especially in winter when the warmth of the forge comforted the men who gathered there; cutting their plug tobacco, rolling their cigarettes, and yarning away the time of day while waiting for their horses to be shod.
George Fullerton
George was the son of Rev. Dr. James Fullerton, a Presbyterian minister who emigrated to Australia from Ireland in 1837 and became the Police Magistrate of Warialda. His mother was Mary Jenkins, daughter of a well-to-do ex-convict.At the age of 13 George was awarded prizes for Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, before beginning his training in law, most likely at the University of Sydney. He qualified as a barrister and was admitted to the bar in 1867.When George was 28, in 1871, he married Georgiana Sarah Clarke, eldest daughter of Henry Clarke, Esq. of Randwick. He was appointed Police Magistrate at Warialda in 1871 and visited Moree, Bingara, Yetman, and other surrounding towns. Georgiana accompanied him to Warialda and their two eldest children were born there.In 1875 George was appointed the Inspector of Public Charities and reported on the ‘Destitute Children’s Asylum at Randwick’ and was scathing in his reports of the beatings received by the children.In 1876 George was promoted to Commissioner of Crown Lands for the districts of Wellington and Bligh, and the growing family relocated to Dubbo.
William Faust
In 1866 Prussian born William Faust, his wife Maria and their young family arrived in Menindee and established a substantial hardware business. They became one of the key families which shaped Menindee into a thriving community over the following decades.Faust’s Store was constructed from the bricks which once made up the Menindee Hospital, which was built in 1866 but sadly went to ruin due to lack of support. Faust carted the bricks from the site near the current rail bridge, by dinghy along the river and built his store in the township close to the punt crossing, just down from Maiden’s Hotel.
Klemm family
Johann Samuel Klemm arrived in Adelaide as a young man of 20, emigrating from Prussia with his parents due to their Lutheran faith. Along with most of their fellow immigrants, Johann went to the Barossa Valley in South Australia to live, and by the time he was 28, he owned 215 acres of farming land and was a well-respected member of the community. He was appointed special constable in the Angaston district in 1853 and served as a councillor for two years. However, the lure of gold fever was too tempting, and in 1865 he hitched his horses to two well laden covered German wagons, and with his young wife, Johanna Rosina (Schilling) Klemm and six young children, went overland to Victoria. With some shady characters about the goldfields, Johanna Klemm carried her own personal revolver for the journey.After three years of fruitless fossicking and on hearing of the mineral rush to the Barrier Range, Samuel decided they should pack up their belongings and try their luck at this more recently discovered field. Samuel, with his family, left Bendigo in 1868 and gradually made their way back to the Barossa Valley. They stayed a short while visiting relations, before arriving at Mundi Mundi station two and half months later. They lived in their covered wagons and tents for some time before Samuel realised they had made a mistake and the family moved to Menindee to live.They eventually purchased a block of land for seven pounds and built a house on it. Their children soon married into local Menindee families including sixteen-year-old Bertha Klemm who married Charles Ludwig Young whose father was tragically murdered by bushrangers when carrying out his duties as a hawker.
Reta Jackson
Reta Margaret (Klemm) Jackson was born in Menindee in August 1917 and enlisted in Adelaide as a 23-year-old in 1942. She served in the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircraftwoman during WWII and was discharged in 1944. She passed away in July 2000 aged 82.
Norm Edwards
Albert ‘Norm’ Edwards and his siblings lived with their parents on a small paddle-steamer called ‘Daisy’ on Lake Pamamaroo. They settled there in the late 1920s where the family worked as fishermen. Getting bored of the fishing lifestyle, Norm was inspired by a travelling circus and left home to tour the country as a trapeze artist. During WWII he enlisted and an article in the Western Grazier - December 1943 notes:Mr Norman Edwards arrived on last Friday’s Comet from Sydney and is spending a short leave at his home at Pamamaroo Creek. He is looking fit and well after 13 months service in the NT as a member of the O.Q Corps.After the war Norm returned home to Pamamaroo, and to supplement his income from fishing, he demonstrated the skills learned in the circus. During the mid-1950s, visitors to the lake would be entertained by Norm performing a range of bizarre feats including high-wire balancing, contortions, and bending iron bars with his teeth. At one point in time, Norm was training to feature in a Tarzan style movie being shot in Queensland. Unfortunately, this never eventuated, so Norm was left delighting crowds especially during swimming days at the lake.
Charles & Ellen Hart
Charles Hart was born in Hertfordshire, England. He married Ellen Ryan in 1861 in Victoria and they moved to Menindee in 1886. Their son, Arthur Edwin Hart, became the saddler in Menindee before taking over Larloona Station.Charles and Ellen Hart are the great-grandparents of Kevin Charles Hart, more commonly known as Pro Hart, the famous outback artist.
Charles Wreford
In The Advertiser, February 1941, Mr. W. Hawkes recalls visiting the area, stating that:‘In 1882, I went to Moorara, a million acres station about 100 miles up the Darling from Wentworth, as a kind of jackaroo-overseer. The station was owned by Barritt and Wreford, as also was Mallara, about opposite Pooncarie. Charles Wreford managed Moorara, and Charles Barritt Mallara… Wreford and Barritt had married two sisters – the Misses McDonald, of Euston or Swan Hill… Charles Wreford, was a particularly smart young Devonian, who came out in the 1860s… Being spotted by Bagot and Bennett in those far-off days, he was entrusted with the charge of several thousand wethers in the open country, now known as the eastern plains. He made such a success of the enterprise that he gained fame, and before long Mr. Joseph Barrit, of Lyndoch, approached Wreford with a view to his managing Moorara – a position that he accepted.‘Often when my boss (Mr Wreford) and I were camped out together, we had many chats about our lives, all of which established that Charles Wreford came out alone from Devonshire.’
Nicholas Sadleir
In 1852, 16-year-old Nicholas Sadlier travelled from Ireland with his 20-year-old brother John. On arrival, Nicholas made his way immediately to the goldfields of Ballarat, Victoria, where he stayed until 1857 and grew into a tall, lean, good-looking man of six feet three inches. He was contacted by his enterprising cousin, John Lecky Phelps, who suggested that he become a jackeroo and he worked near Mt Murchison (now Wilcannia) before taking over the role of manager at Phelps’ Wurtindeli run at Menindee at the young age of 25. He proved to be an energetic manager and soon became a shrewd, well-informed grazier who treated the Aboriginal people on the station kindly.Sadlier managed the property well through droughts and floods. During the major flood of 1864, the highest on record, he moved his men, a bullock dray of rations, and what stock he could out beyond the black country to the higher red country until the water receded back to its channel again. When he returned, he was amazed to see the wide variety of birds, wild game, and wildflowers.Sadlier saw the potential of the flood country providing green feed throughout the droughts and he and his cousins, the Phelps brothers, took out new grazing licenses until they eventually owned over a million acres with a 40-mile river frontage. This large station was named Albermarle, after the Duke of Albermarle. By the mid-1870s, Albermarle was carrying 200,000 sheep.Sadlier had the grand Albermarle homestead and impressive gardens built on a high point above flood levels where there was a permanent water supply from a large waterhole in the river surrounded by river red gums. The property became known as the show place and hosted many important visitors to the region.
John de Courcey Harrison
John De Courcey Harrison was the only son of Brigadier-General Standish Henry Harrison and Mrs Harrison of Castle Harrison, County Cork, Ireland.Before arriving in Australia, John had served with the Royal Irish Regiment, in which he obtained a commission as Lieutenant on 5 September 1908. After retiring from this regiment, he proceeded to Australia, where at the outbreak of WWI he was residing on the Darling River.In August 1914, he proceeded to Morphettville, and went into camp with the Imperial Reservists, and by special arrangement, was permitted to accompany a quota of Imperial Reservists abroad. On discharge from this unit, he become available for duty with the Australian Infantry Force (AIF.)He was appointed a Lieutenant in the AIF on 21 September 1914 attached to the 10th Battalion. During his unit’s service at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, he was promoted to the temporary rank of Captain on 25 May 1915. After being evacuated due to ill health, he was admitted to hospital in England where he reverted to his substantive rank of Lieutenant.He was attached to the 1st Divisional Headquarters in France at the end of 1916 and returned to the 10th Battalion, where he was placed in charge of a company and promoted to the temporary rank of Captain in February 1917. He was wounded in the attack of Le Barque, again reverting to the rank of Lieutenant, before being transferred to the 27th Battalion. He was affectionately known to rank and file as ‘Shrapnel Jack’ or ‘Telescope jack’ owing to his ability to compress himself with an absolute minimum of space, should the occasion warrant.
Frederick Brewer
Before a bridge was built across the Darling River, the only way to cross was via a flat-bottomed punt which was winched along a cable by hand. In the late 1800s, Frederick Brewer was Menindee’s puntman, and he carried people and livestock across the Darling on a daily basis. Unfortunately, on 2 May 1879, Frederick fell off the punt and drowned in the course of his duty, leaving behind a widow and three children. He was described as ‘a very old resident and was much respected’. He was 44 years of age when he drowned.
John Maiden
A tragic accident occurred in November 1919, when William Maiden’s young son was killed in a freak accident. An article in the Barrier Miner, recalls the event:‘At Menindee on November 4, John Edward Maiden, a lad, son of Mr. W.E. Maiden, licensee of the Menindie Hotel, fell from a load of wool being carried on a lorry drawn by three horses, and received internal injuries, which resulted in his death a few hours later. Mr. T.M. Cohen, PM and Coroner, on November 8 conducted an inquiry at Menindie Courthouse into the circumstances surrounding his death. Mr Weeding deposed that on November 4 he was driving a team of three horses attached to a lorry in Menindie. He noticed that some children were on top of the wool which he was carrying, but he did not disturb them. After some time he noticed one of his horses jump ahead. He looked down and saw the child, John Edward Maiden, strike the hock of one of the pole horses. He stopped the horses and jumped down. The child was then lying in front of one of the rear weeks. He picked the child up and asked him whether he was hurt, and the boy replied ‘I don’t feel hurt’. The boy’s hand was grazed. Witness carried the boy about 50 yards, and later he was taken home in a motor car. Daniel Tomlinson deposed that he was an unregistered medical practitioner practising at Menindie. On November 4, John Edward Maiden was brought to him in a state of extreme collapse, and was suffering from shock. There were no serious marks of external injury. He treated the boy for shock. The development of the case showed that there had been serious internal injury.'James Leslie Maiden, aged 9 years, deposed that he deceased was his brother… he stated that the deceased fell off the load and struck the hock of one of the shaft horses. Colin William McKenzie, aged 8 years, gave similar evidence.
Margaret & William Maiden
In 1866, during the cool of winter, William Maiden, son of pioneers Samuel and Elizabeth Maiden, decided to ride over the track taken by Burke and Wills to the Gulf of Carpentaria just six years previously. The point that he and his fellow travellers wished to make was that had Burke set out in the winter rather than the heat of summer, the trek could have been accomplished with ease and safety.Each of the three men on this journey took only their one riding horse, a meagre swag, and a gun, planning to live off the land throughout the entire journey. There had been good rains throughout much of inland Queensland since the tragic journey that Burke endured, and so the three men, who travelled to a point about 180 miles south of the Gulf’s Flinders River, abandoned their trek which they likened to a picnic, so easy and pleasant had been their undertaking.William Maiden stated that criticism of Burke had been largely unfair, since he had been sent out to face the desert in the summer months during a prolonged drought which had sapped the explorers’ physical reserves. Unlike the young Menindee lads, Burke had not ridden through vegetation green from the recent rains and country filled with wild fowl and many species of wild game. As William Maiden‘s trip demonstrated, it was the extremely hot, dry summer during a long drought that had led to the Burke and Wills tragedy.A few years later in 1869, William Maiden, now 27, built a small inn next to Captain Cadell’s store. The roadside Post Office Depot was transferred from Cadell’s store to this inn, so William called it the Post Office Hotel. Only a year later, he became disillusioned with his hotel and went back to fencing and carting!
Charles Maiden
In 1888 Charles and Elizabeth Maiden purchased thePamamaroo section of Kinchega Station, which was a 10,000 acre parcel of land with frontage to the Darling River. They soon settled there with their seven children. Unfortunately, the cycle of droughts and floods made the property neither large nor productive enough to earn a sufficient income, so Charles, leaving his eldest sons in charge, left home for long periods to dig dams, fell timber for river boat fuel, trap and poison rabbits for their skins, and he took charge of the annual woolwash at Topar Station. He later purchased a further 20,000 acres next to Pamamaroo and the property became known as Mt Brown Paddock.The family kept a small herd of goats on the property, to provide them with milk and butter, which Elizabeth made in a churn. The goats also provided entertainment and Charles built a small cart which the children would harness to a goat, spending many hours exploring the countryside and carting wood home.
Alexander Cameron
Alexander was the son of John and Ellen Cameron of Rochdale, Menindee.He was born at Yartla Lake, Cuthero Station, in 1886 and worked as a station hand before enlisting at Liverpool in 1915 at the age of 29.Alexander was a Private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, 8th Reinforcement. He fought in Egypt and the Western Front. He was Killed in Action in France in 1916 during the Battle for Pozieres. He is remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. Private Cameron was awarded the 1914–1915 Star, British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
Samuel & Elizabeth Maiden
Samuel Maiden was a sawyer in a sawmill in Middlesex Country England before coming to Australia as an assisted immigrant. He and his wife Elizabeth (nee Langford) arrived in 1854, along with their five children, William, Elizabeth, Sarah, George, and Charles.By 1855 Samuel Maiden had purchased a bullock wagon and a flock of sheep for rations and commenced a trek up the Murray and Darling Rivers. With the prospect of sufficient work as a sawyer in Menindee, Samuel and Elizabeth decided to settle there with their young family.
Charles Young
Charles Young, also known as Carl Friedrich Wilhem Jung, was born in Germany in 1801.Tragically, Charles was murdered at the age of 73 by bushrangers in the Barrier Ranges. At the time, Charles was a hawker and was returning with new stock from Adelaide.Bushrangers conducted holdups and robberies along the northern rivers around 1869, and two wild men named Baker and Bertram took to the west after stealing horses from Mount Murchison (now Wilcannia). They staged holdups around Cobham Lake, and in an escalation of their crimes, then murdered Charles Young.They were soon brought to justice after this exploit and Bertram was hanged for the crime.Charles’s customers for his pots and pans were amongst those who buried him and his widow, Christine Young, and their son remained in Menindee.
John Agnew
The Sydney Morning Herald, 1891, records that John Agnew, was a 26 year old jockey was killed in a tragic riding accident. The article notes that:An accident which has terminated fatally happened on the training course near here on Saturday morning. It appears that John Agnew, who is in the employment of Messrs. Miller and Nicholas of Broken Hill, took the racehorse Maelstrom out for his usual jumping exercise, and was in the action of clearing a jump when the horse struck a rail, unseated the rider, and rolled over him. Agnew’s chest was hurt and his lungs were badly injured. He lingered until 1 o’clock on Sunday morning.Agnew was a young man highly respected by all who knew him; sober, straight-forward, and full of good qualities.
The Owen family
John Owen and his wife Mary were Quakers from Wales and John had spent most of his early years working on his father’s farm for his board and keep before emigrating to Australia. He was 25 and Mary was 23 when they arrived and their baby daughter, Alma, had been born at sea on the journey out assisted by the ship’s surgeon. Alma was the first of nine children.In 1857, John Owen and his young family arrived on the lower Darling, and although they did not initially take up land, they were later to become a pastoralist family on the river and one of the few original families who were still on the Darling more than a century later.Within weeks of arriving in Adelaide, John found himself shepherding sheep at Tolarno Station and later became its manager.In 1875, he took out a selection on that run, much to the ire of his former boss. He was granted 10,240 acres known as ‘Twenty Mile Yards’, which was the distance from the Tolarno homestead. The station later became known as Wanda. His two sons took up smaller leases on Tolarno in the 1890s and between them they somehow made a good living from these small holdings which were gradually enlarged over the years.
Henry Tomlinson
Henry John Tomlinson (also known as John Henry) was born to English parents who migrated to Tasmania in 1854.Henry moved to the Australian mainland in the early 1870s and married Mary Alice Shields in Bendigo, Victoria. Henry John worked as a contractor for some time early in his marriage, moving the family around Victoria and finally settling in New South Wales. They had nine children together, with only six girls surviving.At the age of 34, Tomlinson took over his first lease of a hotel in Cobar, New South Wales, called the Thermungya Hotel. He ran the pub until 1895, working both as a hotelkeeper and contractor.In 1895, at the age of 40, Henry took over the lease of the View Point Hotel in Wilcannia and was the publican there until 1898, when he sold the View Point and bought the lease for the Miners Arms Hotel in White Cliffs.Henry owned the Miners Arms until around the age of 60. During this time the Tomlinson family did brisk trade from the mining in the area. Henry was also at the centre of a controversial court case involving his nephew, who was staying at the hotel at the time, and was accused of robbing the mail coach in 1901.
Annie & Aileen Underdown
The Underdowns were another prominent pioneering family in Menindee and at one point, Lycugus ‘Ted’ Underdown was the licensee for three of the hotels in Menindee, the West End, Maiden’s Hotel and the Albermarle Hotel.The obituary for Annie Underdown in the Barrier Miner 9 January 1928, notes:‘Annie May Underdown, licensee of the Albermarle Hotel at Menindie, died in the Hospital at 10 o’clock last night from kidney trouble and heart failure. She was born at Menindie 50 years ago and stayed there until her marriage to Mr. Lycurgus (‘Ted’) Underdown, who as then employed as overseer on Kinchega Station. They did not return to the station after marriage, Mr. Underdown going into the local office of Bagot, Shakes and Lewis, but he was only there a little while before going to take charge of the West End Hotel at Menindie. He later took over the Menindie Hotel and in 1914 went into the Albermarle Hotel, which he held until his death in 1921. The license was then taken over by Mrs. Underdown. She leaves two daughters, Mrs. F. Warren of Bona Vale Station, and Miss Aileen Underdown of Menindee.
Martin Hehir
Mr Martin Hehir was part of the paddle-steamer era on the Darling River and a very active and well-respected member of the Menindee community. He travelled by river boat to Wilcannia where he stayed for a couple of years and then found his way down river to Menindee, where he remained until his death in 1967.In 1928 he became the licensee of the Albermarle Hotel to assist the young, single female owner, Miss Aileen Underdown, who was unable to hold a liquor licence at that time in NSW.
J. Burgess
The records tell us that John ‘Jack’ Burgess is buried at Menindee cemetery somewhere - in an unmarked grave. While the exact location of his grave is unknown, it is possible that he might be buried beside James Joseph Burgess and that they might have been related. We know nothing of James Burgess, however stockman, John 'Jack' Burgess was something of a celebrity in the area.In the early days of settlement, cattle were driven from the northern farms down to the markets in Victoria along the Darling River. Convincing the cattle to cross the Darling River before the bridges was very tricky, and once mid-stream, if they panicked in the deep currents they would drown, unless accompanied by a confident stockman on horseback. One of these stockmen was local identity, John ‘Jack’ Burgess. Jack was a well-known drover who used a bullock called ‘beauty’ and its mother for the purpose of decoying or leading cattle over the Darling River at Wilcannia. Jack would send his tamed and well-trained pair across the river and the mob, sometimes numbering 900 cattle, would soon follow. An article in the Barrier Miner of 1893, recalls that they saw Burgess,‘well mounted, come out from apparently among the mob; he was travelling a full-grown steer, whose mother was following some 300 yards behind (just in advance of the moving body of cattle). The steer took to the water almost as willingly as the dog who swam by his side…. On reaching the other side of the river the steer shook himself and then bellowed for his mother, who answered the call of her offspring and made straight for where he had crossed. The drovers kept the other cattle in a straggling line behind their mentor… the current was running so strong that the main body of cattle landed on the other side of the river fully 100 yards below the spot where they took the water’.
Bridget Pain
Bridget Pain, wife of Menindee’s founding father, Thomas Pain, died at the age of 33, leaving behind a family of one daughter and three young sons. Bridget was born in King’s County, Ireland, the daughter of Patrick and Bridget Egan (nee Kelly). The family emigrated to South Australia where Bridget married Thomas Pain (formerly Payne) on 20 March 1850. In the 14 years they were married, the Pains lived in Adelaide and Wentworth before moving to the Central Darling to build their hotel in 1853.While living in a simple log hut, Thomas took two years to build the hotel, which was completed in 1855. He was soon granted a licence to sell ‘fermentous liquor’. Their hotel was soon welcoming some famous guests, such as paddle-steamer Captain Francis Cadell (who bought the log hut and made it into his store in 1859), and in 1860, Robert O’Hara Burke and William Wills.
Joseph Dunne
It was Joseph Dunne who developed the famed Netley Station and by 1871 he had extended its boundaries from the western bank of the Darling River to the South Australia border, a holding of just under a million acres. Netley was renowned for being the land of ‘milk and honey’. The large orange orchards, grapevines, and gardens supplied the 200 staff with fresh fruit and vegetables and the station boasted a store, pub, school, and a smithy. It was also a port of call for paddle-steamers making their trips up and down the river.In good years, Dunne ran almost 115,000 sheep, 750 head of cattle, and 820 horses at Netley. The sheep were shorn in the 48-stand shearing shed, twelve months of the year. Dunne’s vision was to develop the property to run 100,000 sheep and 10,000 cattle.In 1867, Joseph began selectively breeding what was to become the prestigious ‘Netley Shorthorn Herd’. This herd was regarded as one of the ‘finest back-country herds in any part of Australia’.Dunne also experimented with steam pumping, and by 1875, his neighbours were following his innovations. The irrigated lucerne sustained his breeding stock, as well as his racing horses and pedigree stud bulls.Around 1870, Joseph constructed an impressive red brick homestead and out-buildings at Netley (now known as Bindara) Station. The bricks were fired on the property using local clay, and the rest of the building materials were transported up the river by paddle-steamers. His homestead, known as ‘Government House’ overlooked the Darling River and is still in use today.Sadly, in September 1874, at the peak of his success, Joseph drowned in Menindee Creek at the age of 47. His premature death stunned many local residents.
Edward & Patricia Power
Sadly, few people knew how to swim in the early days of settlement and drowning was common. A particularly tragic episode occurred in 1935 when two children, Edward (Ted) Power aged nine, and his sister, Patricia, aged eight, drowned in the river, only a few hundred metres from the homestead on Haythorpe Station, just outside of Menindee. The children were playing in the clear and shallow water of a sandbar before they were carried into deep water and drowned, in full view of their mother and governess who were sitting on the riverbank. Unfortunately, neither of the women could swim, but they both made a valiant effort to rescue the children while being fully clothed, almost drowning themselves in the process.
Larkins family
James and Jane Larkins were some of the original settlers of Menindee and became a strong pioneering family of the district.During the summer of 1877, James Larkin, 55-year-old owner of the Shamrock Hotel passed away. Larkin’s wife Jane sold theShamrock to one time employee and current Menindee tailor, John McMahon, and she moved her family of four young children across the river where she took out a pastoral selection. This was a very brave move for a young widow and mother to make given the harsh conditions and to take on what at the time was considered a man’s job in a man’s world. Jane married Charles Power the following year and their combined properties became what was to be known as Haythorpe Station. Haythorpe remained in the Larkin-Power family for almost a century.
John Cleary
John and Annie Cleary (nee Hourigan) arrived in Australia in 1867 from County Cork, Ireland and settled in Maryborough, Victoria, before relocating to Wentworth.Following the bountiful years of 1869–1870, the years 1871 and 1872 saw only average rainfall and no navigation on the Darling River. Well diggers were in demand as much as ever before. It was during this period that John Cleary arrived in the Central Darling from Wentworth with his young family to carry out well sinking contracts. John, and later his sons were to become involved in various contracting occupations in the region over the following decades, but unlike so many other hopefuls, they never sought to try their luck at pastoralism.
