The Jim Osborne Memoirs - Who's who of new settlers

With 25 new farmers in the Northern Midlands, all starting off on their own for the first time under the Soldier Settlers Scheme, there were quite a few stock and station agents and wool brokers ready to take the new business opportunities. 

Fourteen of these new farms were on the Macquarie River, between Cressy and Campbell Town, seven were on Woolmers, just south-east of Longford, and four – the pick of the bunch, as subdivided – on Clyne Vale, just east of Epping Forest. 

These were the larger grants and on rather better soil than the others. It was always there that the Federal Minister for repats (repatriated soldiers) would stop on his tri-annual visits of inspection. Having seen them, he would quickly be off to the lake country for a few days of fishing in company with the local director of land settlement, who also enjoyed pursuing the trout. He didn’t even visit the Woolmers or Macquarie settlements.

Strange, but not surprising, was the general opinion.

So who got all the blocks then?

Clyne Vale at Epping was the “jewel” in the Soldier Settlements in Northern Tasmania. It had been very skilfully improved over many years by the late Mr Lewis Burbury. 

It needed very little extra development and for several reasons these were the “prime blocks” to be offered to returning servicemen.

Far larger than those at Woolmers on the Macquarie River near Longford, they were ready-made. They were twice the size of the others granted and were really going concerns, able to be in full production without much further expense.

The four lucky returned men whose names were drawn for “blocks” at Clyne Vale were Gordon Gleadow (AIF Infantry 2/12th Battalion), Ian Nicolson (Sergeant 2/8th Field Regiment), David Roberts (RAAF) and Bob Rodway (also Sergeant 2/8th Regiment). 

At Woolmers seven settlement blocks were developed – six as fat-lamb farms, designed to carry 900 fat-lamb ewes when fully developed, and a seventh which was considerably larger but fairly heavily-timbered in parts and requiring much more work and capital from the new settler.

That block went to Ed (Denny) Love (2/40th Battalion and POW).

Those to receive the fat-lamb blocks were Peter Bailey (Anti-Aircraft Artillery), brother of Jim Osborne’s wife Gill, Jack Chisholm, Charlie Lyne (2/12th Battalion and Rat of Tobruk), Arthur (‘Dido’) McGee (Rat of Tobruk), Rex Salier (2/40th Battalion and POW) and Dick Thomas (Z Force AIF).

By far the biggest settlement area was on the Macquarie River, 14 miles south-east of Cressy, virtually halfway between Longford and Campbell Town.

This was the combination of four properties – Lake House, Delmont, Coburg and Newham Park.

Lake House, set between the junctions of the Lake and Macquarie rivers, had been owned by Mr Roderic O’Connor of Connorville. It was divided into five farms, which included a strip of Delmont.

Alphabetically, the 14 settlers who moved into what is known collectively as the Macquarie Settlement were: 

Harry Gardner, ex RAAF and the youngest of all the settlers, who took over the house block of Coburg and retained its name.

F.H. (Peter) Henry, a sergeant in the 7th Division AIF machine-gunners, got the other half of Coburg, which he named Woodrising.

Roy Higgins, 2/40th Battalion and POW, took over the top portion of Lake House and named the block Staunton.

Tom Hingston, 7th Division, ASC, called the part of Lake House he drew Cheriton.

Steve Hodgman, Lieutenant Colonel AIF, drew the river end of Delmont, which he named Shelstam.

E.L. (Eric) Maher, ex RAAF, was a Victorian who drew the house block of Newham Park but soon moved back to Victoria.

The Oliver brothers, Frank (the older) and Walter, AIF, drew lots two and four (with Tom Hingston their corner neighbour). Frank built his house by a group of existing tall pine trees and so named his farm The Pines. Walter decided to call his property Terra Bonna.

I drew lot 11 – the last choice of all the 14 post-war Macquarie settlers – and named it Taranaki.

Keith Richardson, ex RAN, received a far bigger “block” – the only one on the Macquarie Settlement that had no river frontage. It was deemed by the Agricultural Bank to be a “wool property” whereas the others were regarded as “fat lamb jobs”. At 1890 acres, it was well over double the acreage of any of the other blocks. Keith named his place Carnarvon.

Frank Rigney, a very early enlistment in the AIF, in 1939, who became a member of the 6th Division and served in Palestine and Egypt, was given the privilege of the first choice of all the Macquarie “blocks”.   

He did not have to go through the ballot as he was the stepson of Mr Arthur Thirkell, from whom the government acquired Delmont, Coburg and Newham Park. Frank chose the top half of Delmont and retained that name for his new home.

Bruce Wall drew Lake House with its lovely imposing two-storey homestead built by the Corney family in the 1830s or ’40s. 

Bruce was the only bachelor among the Macquarie settlers and concentrated on fat lambs, Corriedales and a small but quality Hereford stud. Perhaps none of the other settlers with families to provide for could possibly have lavished the time and the finance to maintain Lake House as Bruce did.

David Webster, ex RAN, drew a block of Newham Park which he called Chanak.

E.G. (Ted) Young, a gunner in the 2nd and 4th Artillery, 7th Division AIF, drew the “block” between Taranaki and Chanak, which he named Mittagong (and ultimately sold to Jim Osborne in the early 1970s).