Woolingubrah | Encyclopedia Of South East History

Woolingubrah, near Cathcart:

Now known as Woolingubrah, a word reportedly meaning “windy place” in the local Aboriginal dialect, the unpretentious weatherboard building standing on an exposed peak of the Big Jack range of mountains had its origins as an inn established during the short lived but frenetic Kiandra gold rush.

Perched high in the aptly named Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Kiandra quickly became the focus of what would be one of the colony’s shortest but most feverish gold rushes. Brothers James and David Pollock made the initial discovery while prospecting in Bullock Head Creek in mid-1859 during a summer grazing sojourn from the Murray. However, although the pair reported their discovery at Tumbarumba, it wasn’t until Gillon, Hayes and Grice discovered the precious metal in Pollock’s Gully in November the same year that the field came to public attention.

Despite warnings of the bitter winter climate, bleakly illustrated by tales of bullock skeletons hanging from tree branches, groups of hopeful diggers were soon wending their way to Kiandra, fifty miles (just over 80 kilometres) north-west of Cooma. In January 1860 Gold Commissioner Cloete wrote to the Secretary of Lands to report on “…a new Gold Field…discovered at ‘Kiandra’ or ‘Gibson’s Plains…” where, he noted, three thousand miners were already at work. Public opinion, buoyed by growing optimism of the extent of this, Australia’s highest goldfield, only encouraged the influx. In one February 1860 week alone, more than three hundred and fifty diggers landed at Merimbula, with even greater numbers coming through Twofold Bay, not to mention the hundreds making their way via land routes from Sydney, Victoria and South Australia. An Eden gentleman maintained that “All who are not mad have left this place for the diggings…” a sentiment echoed at nearby Pambula “…with the reservation that those who are left are not positively mad…”

Many heading to the new field travelled on the vessels plying the southern coastline, landing at Twofold Bay or Merimbula before embarking in the long, mountainous journey either on foot or, for the luckier ones, on horseback. Not surprisingly then, the miners weren’t the only ones keen to take advantage of the opportunities this offered. Before long, shanties, hotels and accommodation houses sprang up along the various routes as station owners and business people moved to make the most of the ever increasing passing trade. One among them was the inn known variously as the Mountain Hut Hotel or Half Way Hotel. Located on the Old Mountain Hut Line or Bridle Track, it enjoyed a

growing custom from the travelling miners although, with its steep gullies and side cuttings up the precipitous sides of what was known as the Coal Hole, it was not an easy route to follow.

Consisting of a bar, dining room, kitchen and six bedrooms, the hotel was housed in a building prefabricated in America and shipped to Australia. As was the case with many of the early colonial gold rushes, the high cost and shortage of labour at the time made the importation of prefabricated buildings an economically viable prospect. Although the specifics of this one are uncertain, it is likely to have been either “1 wooden house” for Williams that arrived in

board the Yarra from Launceston in July 1860, or “1 house” for S. and H. Solomon on the Ellen in August of the same year.

In October 1860 Malcolm McPhee began advertising in a local newspaper “…to inform travellers to the Kiandra Gold Fields and the Public in general that he has opened an Accommodation House at the top of the Old Mountain and Bridle Track Road, being the shortest road to the Diggings from Eden and Panbula…” and then on the 30 October cargo landed at Merimbula on the Illawarra included one hogshead of ale, one case of cordials and one quarter-case of rum for Malcolm McPhee.

The demand for hotel facilities along the route was sudden and would have lasted until about 1863, when trade dropped off almost as rapidly as it began. It is unlikely that the Mountain Hut Hotel would have continued to operate beyond the peak gold rush years.

Originally the lands of the Ngarigo people, by 1828 the area upon which the Woolingubrah building now stands was occupied by Colonial Secretary Alexander McLeay’s stockmen, thus becoming known for a period as McLeay’s Flat. Henry Badgery took over the depasturing license in 1839, installing a superintendent

Advertisement in an October 1860 edition of the Twofold Bay Telegraph.

to oversee the property before taking up residence in the area around 1848. By that time, a total of fifteen males, two females and six children lived on the 16,000 acre property.

Badgery applied for the run in 1848, later selling some or all of the property to George Hebden. After Hebden wrote in 1859 regarding his pre-emptive right of purchase, Surveyor Gordon was instructed to carry out the necessary work and in January 1861, he forwarded the document, made out in Hebden’s name, to the Surveyor General. The following month, however, Hugh Hamon Massie requested that the title deeds be made out in his name instead, he being the owner by that time. Between 1846 and 1851, Massie had been Sub-Collector of Customs at Eden, the first to occupy that position; and in January 1856, became Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Monaro District.

The Crown Plan for Portion 19, dated 9 January 1861, shows Massie as the title holder, although as some notations including references to him were made in a different ink, it is likely that they were made at a later date to the initial inscriptions. Among the remarks originally noted were “…buildings erected as accommodation or public house…” with the name “McPhee”, indicating that he was the licensee of the inn. No stranger to the area, McPhee had purchased land nearby in 1859.

The exact details regarding the establishment of the inn remain vague – although it is apparent that Malcolm McPhee was the licensee, the building could have been imported for George Hebden, Hugh Massie or Malcolm McPhee. No evidence has been found, however, to support local folklore that there had been an inn on the site from 1845.

In November 1861, Massie sold an area of land, including the spot occupied by the inn, to Francis John Payne. Four years later, on 4 October 1865, Payne mortgaged the property, with Henry Albert Nicholson of Little Plain taking over the security just two weeks later. Bailliere’s Gazetteer that year shows Nicholson as occupier of the “Woolingumrah” run. In March 1871, he bought the property from Payne, paying £600 and discharging the mortgage. In June

that same year, however, Henry drowned inthe flooded Little Plain River, at the age of just 41. He was buried at the Dundundra station with two of his children.

Woolingubrah then passed to his younger brother Edward who, at that time, also owned Junction Station. After selling that property, he moved to Woolingubrah and, together with his wife Elizabeth and their eleven children, lived and work there for eighteen years until his death in 1889, aged 57. He was buried at the family cemetery at the Aston station.

Above: Edward Nicholson. Image courtesy of Patricia Clarke.

Edward and Elizabeth’s eldest son Alexander took over management of the station until 1913 by which time it had fallen into debt and was placed up for auction. His brother John was able to forestall the sale and purchased the property from his father’s estate. He and his wife Annie had 11 children and after she passed away in 1905, John raised the brood with the help of his unmarried sister Agnus. After John’s death in 1950, two of his children, John Roxburgh and Ella Maud acquired the property. Neither married and after John Roxburgh died in 1962, Ella Maud formed a partnership, “Woolingubrah Pastoral Company” with her niece Leila and Leila’s husband James DeCosta.

The Nicholson family retained ownership of the property for more than a century, living there until in 1976 when it was purchased by Thomas Leslie Torning. Ten years later the then State Forests bought the area for the expansion of local softwood plantations.

At that time, the question of the former inn’s future was considered. A popular option during the early 1990s was relocation of the structure from its original isolated bush site to Bombala for use by various community groups including the Bomala Historical Society. However, the question of finances continued to plague the proposal, which was eventually abandoned. Conservation work was undertaken on the building in 1997/98.

Now usually referred to as “Woolingubrah Inn”, this is somewhat misleading in that it only became known by the name Woolingubrah after it ceased to operate as a licensed premises.

Although the building was used continuously from the time it was first constructed until the 1970s, first as an inn and then as a homestead, it remained substantially the same was when original erected. Although a number of intrusive elements had been added, most of these have now been removed.

The structure is a simple gabled timber building of three rooms in a row, formerly with a transverse passage. It is single storey, with external weatherboard cladding. French doors at the front lead onto a verandah which extends the length of the building and is partially enclosed. The rear portion of the building includes a skillion with six bedrooms and a passage way. The form and materials used in the structure are consistent with construction during the 1860s, with minor repairs and modification.

The timber used in the studs, weatherboards, flooring and wall lining has been identified as sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), a native of North America; while the joinery is Californian Redwood. The interior is lined with Baltic pine.

The building also features locally sourced construction materials including bearers and joists of Australian hardwood, and wooden shingles, visible beneath the corrugated iron roof, of messmate, also an Australian timber. Although the building was probably originally designed to have a canvas roof supported by a light framework, whether because of deterioration or the bitterly cold winter climate locally, this would have been replaced soon after its erection. Wooden nails (or treenails) of local timber have also been used.

The numbering on the walls and letters and numbers on other structural members confirm the buildings prefabricated origins.

Sited on the edge of an escarpment leading down to the coastal plain, the building is located within a small clearing in the centre of forestry plantations. It faces north, with the escarpment generally running to the east.

The Australian colonies and later the Commonwealth had a close relationship with the prefabricated building concept since the very beginnings of European settlement. The first such structure arrived on the First Fleet in 1788. Although described as a house, it actually consisted of a rigid numbered frame covered with canvas. Purchased in England by Governor Phillip himself for the princely sum of £125, it was erected on the east side of Sydney Cove and

served as Government House until the completion of a more substantial building. This was followed in 1790 by the arrival of the fledgling colony’s second such structure, a prefabricated hospital to replace the ramshackle collection of tents then serving as the sick bay.

The importation of prefabricated or “portable” buildings to the Australian colonies continued to grow into the 1830s, and with the ongoing shortage of labour and cost of materials, particularly in the wake of the gold rushes of the 1850s and ‘60s, the market only increased. The peak year was 1853, but demand continued throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century. Australian architectural historian Professor Miles Lewis of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning has noted that "...they are a telling reflection of peculiar historical conditions which made the transportation of such buildings physically and economically feasible..."

Illustrated pattern books and catalogues enabled customers to browse and buy at a distance with designs ranging from simple cottages right through to larger, more impressive houses and grand villas along with civic buildings such as churches, schools and theatres, industrial and business premises including warehouses as well as hotels and inns. They were constructed in factories in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Hamburg and Liege in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia, and Boston and New York in the United States of America, before being dismantled, every component labelled, packed into wooden crates and loaded onto ships for transportation to Australia. Some options even included floors, wallpaper, carpet and furnishings.

Timber was the most prevalent material of the prefabricated buildings brought to Australia, although cast and corrugated iron were popular. A range of other materials were also utilised including papier mache.

Today, according to Professor Lewis, South Eastern Australia retains more extant 19th century prefabricated examples than anywhere else in the world.

References and bibliography:

1828 Census: Householders’ Returns, Microfilm copy of [4/1238.2-1241] at State Records Reels 2551-2552 and 2506-2507.
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AONSW Bench Books Eden Court of Petty Sessions, 4/5546-50
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Hebden, George, letter, 26 August, 1859.
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