Wayfinding in the CBD

Historic Wayfinding in the Bathurst CBD, follow the signs to read more about the history of the oldest inland settlement west of the Blue mountains.

Wayfinding

Public Museums

Public Museums emerged in the early 19th century alongside the drive for technical education for the working classes. The learning philosophy of the day embraced that new knowledge was revealed not just though books but also though science, experimentation, and the study of objects. From the 1830’s settlements in the NSW colony established Mechanics Institutes later to be called School of Arts devoted to adult (working class) education. The NSW Government matched community fund raising however the School of Arts were community-led organisations and often included ‘Museums’ and ‘libraries’ with a variety of books, specimens and collections borrowed or donated from within their communities.   

Bathurst first formed a Mechanics institute in the 1840’s but it wasn’t until the late 1850’s that it began to have broad support.  By the 1860’s it was renamed School of Arts and had established buildings on the corner of Howick and William Streets. By the 1890’s following lobbying from the Bathurst Community, and the School of Arts Board in particular, the colonial government called for tenders for the construction of a ‘technological college’ and a ‘technological museum’.    

What is now known as the former TAFE building is the result, the adjacent ground floor corner was a public museum.  The building opened in 1897 and the Museum, with its own entrance off William Street was open soon after. Its initial collection was a combination of the School of Arts mineral specimens and the collection from a Community Museum housed on Keppel Street.  The collection included a stuffed lion, various minerals, fine porcelain and textiles from all over the world, latter it included a Cobb and Co coach.  The Museum closed in the late 1970s and anything of value in the collection was transferred to the NSW Powerhouse Museum.  The rest found its way to the Bathurst tip (surprised locals found the lion there) and the Bathurst Historical Society Museum.   

A Bathurst Councillor (Les Wardman) intervened in relation to the Cobb and Co coach, and with the assistance of Premier Neville Wran, received approval for Bathurst Council’s ownership of the Coach. The coach is listed as both a local and state heritage item and has been fully restored. It can be viewed at the Bathurst Information Centre and is one of a suspected six remaining.   

Bathurst operates a diverse group of local Museums. Each has unique and extraordinary collections to explore though tours, learning programs, and continually evolving exhibitions and events: 

  • Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum  
  • National Motor Racing Museum  
  • Bathurst Rail Museum  
  • Chifley Home and Education Centre  

 A number of community museums also operate including Bathurst District Historical Society Museum and the National Trust Miss Trail’s House.  

Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum (Provided by Bathurst Regional Council)

Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum (Provided by Bathurst Regional Council)

School of Arts (right), formerly located near corner of William and Howick Streets. (Provided by Bathurst Regional Council)

Cobb & Co

A diversity of transport services was developed though the 19th and 20th centuries to deliver people, products and services to the new rural settlement areas including private horse stage coaching. In 1862, Cobb and Co shifted their headquarters to Bathurst to merge with the existing Western Stage Co after initially establishing in Victoria. At Bathurst, Cobb & Co expanded rapidly with their comprehensive approach, reliability, speed, comfort and for their transportation of gold and mail.  The company had the most successful coaching system in the world based on distances travelled and length of time of operation. 

The New Yorker, James Rutherford (Executive Managing Director), drove the first coach at Bathurst.  Under his leadership, the firm became vertically integrated, building factories to build their custom ‘Australian’ coaches utilising Australian timbers (blue gum and ironbark) and adapted for the harsh terrain.  The Bathurst Coach Factory was a major employer. It was there that a new form of support under the coaches was developed; leather thoroughbraces cradled the passenger seat and took the ‘jolt’ out of the ride.  

Cobb & Co also acquired pastoral properties to breed their ‘Coacher’ horse and to produce fodder and grain. Contrary to popular belief, the Coacher was not dominated by draught breeds (such as Clydesdale) but was a mix of trotter, draught horse, thoroughbred and later the Arabian. These horses were 14 to 16 hands high, wide-chested, strong, and muscular with fine legs, speed and stamina. Horses were changed frequently about every 25km to 30km so as to maintain coach speed. Many horses in today’s racing industries descend from Cobb & Co bloodstock.  

The Cobb & Co experience was an egalitarian one.  In 1882, Cobb & Co introduced the 8-hour day for their workers much to the consternation of other employers in town. The Coaches were known to carry a multitude of nationalities to the goldfields, transported rich and poor in one carriage, employed Aboriginal people and women, and patronised hotels owned by women and men from all nations.   

Mrs Byrnes was the mother of 13 children and drove a coach between Canowindra and Orange in her spare time, her children (when there was room) riding along with her.  Legend has it she saw a bushranger ambush ahead and, afraid for her children’s safety, told them to disembark and hide in adjacent bush. She drove up to the ambush alone, then returned after the holdup to collect her children.   

An original Cobb & Co coach from the Sofala to Bathurst route in the Bathurst Red and Gold colours can be viewed at the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre. 

cobb
Factory – workers at Bathurst Factory (Source: Cobb & Co Heritage Trail Bathurst to Bourke by Dianne de St. Hilaire Simmonds, 1999.)

Australian Modified Cobb & Co Coach
Coach (Source: Cobb & Co Heritage Trail Bathurst to Bourke by Dianne de St. Hilaire Simmonds, 1999.)

‘Peace Celebrations’ in Bathurst, late 1918. From 1876-1911, Cobb & Co leased the School of Arts building on the corner of Howick an William Street (right). To the left is the former Bank of Australiasia and the former Technical College.  Source: BDHS.

Bathurst Rebellions

From 1821 the new Governor of NSW, Sir Thomas Brisbane, ‘privatised’ the convict system and ended the former Governor Macquarie’s limit on inland settlement. This led to an explosion in land grants to the Colonial Pastoralist elite, keen for more land and free convict labor to work them. Convicts were assigned to the road gangs under military supervision prior to being assigned to a master. Their conditions worsened. They faced reduced rations, harsher punishment, and raids by Wiradjuri Warriors whose land had been usurped. A ticket of leave was offered to convicts as motivation, though if earned, they would still be required to live and work in the district, report to a magistrate, and attend church regularly. However the terms by which a ticket of leave was earned was not only unclear to convicts but practically unachievable.  

In November 1829, John Lipscombe gave his convict of only two years, Ralph Entwistle, one last task before being granted a ticket of leave. It was unusual for Entwistle to be promised a ticket of leave so early. In reality, he was ineligible. Nevertheless, he was to transport a load of merino wool to a market in Sydney. On the first day of the journey, Entwistle and three other men skinny dipped in the Macquarie River/Wambuul to relieve themselves from the hot weather. They were spotted by the entourage of the passing Governor Darling. Entwistle received a public flogging of 50 lashes on charges of ‘causing an affront to the Governor’ despite the Governor never having witnessed the skinny dipping himself. Entwistle was arrested, his ticket of leave nullified by Libscombe, and was trialed under authority of a Bathurst Magistrate who had competing merino wool interests in the district. The wool being transported was confiscated.  

Resentful of his poor treatment from his master and authorities, in September 1830, Entwistle absconded from Libscombe’s farm, Stowford, with a band of nine convicts who became known as the ‘Ribbon Boys’ (aka the Ribbon Gang). They roamed the region collecting members and stealing food, guns, horses, ammunition. At one stage they rumoured to be 80 people strong. Governor Darling, fearing others would also rise up, sent the 39th Regiment from Hyde Park barracks to take action against the rebels. Three bloody battles followed with the ‘core’ Ribbon Gang eventually being captured in the Abercrombie Caves.      

The captured Ribbon Gang members were the first to be trialed under a freshly minted ‘Bushranger’s act’ (“Robbers and Housebreakers Act” 21 April 1830). On 2 November 1830, ten men, including Entwistle, were hung on custom gallows specially erected in the vicinity of what is now known as Ribbon Gang Lane. It was the largest public mass hanging in NSW history.  

Executions in the CBD continued within the brick walls built around the former goal, located on what is now Machattie Park. The walls stacked approximately 5m high limited public spectatorship.

Part of panorama of Bathurst, looking north and taken from tower of the Catholic Cathedral, 1870-1875. Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

References:
Bialowas, H 2010, Ten Dead Men: A Speculative History of the Ribbon Gang, CSU Print, Bathurst.
Shaw, I.W 2020, A Concise Guide to the Bathurst Rebellion, [https://aguidetoaustralianbushranging.com/2020/10/30/a-concise-guide-to-the-bathurst-rebellion/], A Guide to Australian Bushranging, accessed 14 February 2023.

There’s a reason why the Wiradjuri people avoid the Abercrombie caves. A dreamtime story tells of a dark tale of Mirragen, the cat-man. He was renowned as a great fisherman and used his skill and knowledge of spells to catch his prey. For some time, he had only been able to catch small fish in the rivers near to his home. Mirragen was not satisfied with this and so he set out in search of bigger and better prey.

In a deep hole at the junction of two mighty rivers lived a monster that was half fish and half lizard. His name was Gurangatch. Mirragen arrived at the deep hole and, peering into its depths, saw Gurangatch. The cat-man cast spells to try and catch Gurangatch but the monster was too clever and stayed at the bottom of the pool where the spells would not reach.

The next day, Mirragen tried his magic again but this time he also poisoned the water with tincture of bark. Gurangatch began to float to the surface, but just in time he realised what was happening to him. He knew he had to do something or he would be caught.

The only way that he could escape was to burrow through the solid rock. When Mirragen saw that Gurangatch had escaped, the chase began. As Gurangatch burrowed, he created new rivers and the tunnels in the rock became the Wombeyan Caves and the Jenolan Caves. Despite enlisting help from the Bird-men, Mirragen was not able to capture Gurangatch.

In Wiradjuri oral history, Abercrombie Caves was created by Gurangatch being relentlessly hunted by Mirragen. It is a place that is avoided, respecting its dark creation history.

Source: Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation elders, 2023.

K Keck, 1991, Cave Chronicles.

Blue Bee Mural

Birrunga Wiradyuri with Kane Brunjes, Stevie O’Chin, and the Bathurst Wiradyuri Elders Blue Banded Bee Creation Story 2022, 6 m x 15 m, Post Office Building, 230 Howick St, Bathurst.

Birrunga Wiradyuri’s mural tells the creation story of the blue banded bee as told to him by his Elders:

The bees come from gibirrgan (the southern cross). They fall down to earth from these stars and when they first begin falling from the sky, they are bright white balls of light. As they fall and get closer to earth, they become glowing golden balls and when those golden balls land on earth they become our bees.

The important role the blue-banded bee plays in the ecosystem holds special significance for the Wiuradyuri. Other elements of the mural design, such as the white five-lined circular motif representing a Songline, explore the five aspects of the Wiradyuri central lore of Yindyamarra: to do slowly – to be polite – to be gentle – to honour – to respect.

Blue banded bees (Amegilla) are endemic to Australia, with eleven varieties found in all states and territories except Tasmania. These beautiful bees are recognised for the bold blue stripes on their abdomens, five on the males and four on the females.

Blue banded bees are important pollinators. Their long tongues allow them to access deep pollen reservoirs. They are also buzz pollinators which means that they can grasp flowers and vibrate them to shake pollen loose. The flowers of many of our native plants, and some crop plants such as tomatoes, are specially adapted to be pollinated by buzz-pollinators.

Blue banded bees are known as stingless bees. In many ways the benign nature of the blue banded bees embodies the strengths of the Wiradyuri lore of Yindyamarra. The bees in this mural are stylised and have specific symbolism in their design.

Artwork design was undertaken in consultation and collaboration with the Bathurst Wiradyuri Elders, the Traditional Custodians of the Bathurst region. The mural was painted by Birrunga Wiradyuri with Kane Brunjes and Stevie O’Chin, young First Nations artists who Birrunga mentors through the Birrunga Gallery’s three-year Cultural Creative Residential program.

Birrunga Wiradyuri is a Wiradyuri man. He is the founder and principal artist of the multi award winning Birrunga Gallery and Dining in Brisbane’s CBD and is dedicated to fulfilling his cultural responsibilities, following, and practicing the central Wiradyuri law of Yindyamarra. Birrunga is a practicing visual artist whose narrative works explore the spirituality of the Wiradyuri people, in historical and contemporary contexts.
Birrunga has undertaken numerous public art commissions, and has exhibited widely, including a solo exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 2020. Birrunga participated in the Australia Council’s Custodianship Program in 2020. Through his work at the Birrunga Gallery he mentors young First Nations artists through the Birrunga Gallery’s three-year Cultural Creative Residential program.

Kane Brunjes is a Gunggari, Kabi Kabi man practicing in both public and gallery realms. Through his art practice Brunjes aims to solidify and represent a visual portrayal of how he views and reacts to the environment surrounding him with consideration to history and story. Now working exclusively with Birrunga Gallery he continues to develop these core foundations with a guided lens of expertise. Brunjes is the inaugural participant in Birrunga Gallery’s 3-year Cultural Creative Residential program.

Stevie O’Chin is an Aboriginal artist of the Kabi Kabi, Waka Waka & Koa tribe on her father’s side, and Yuin Nation on her mother’s side. Her paintings are inspired by her surroundings and the stories told by her parents and family elders. Stevie hails from a large family; many whom are artists from both her parents’ side. She was influenced from a young age and has learnt to paint from watching her family members. She is now carving her own path and has grown into an accomplished artist in her own right. O’Chin is the second participant in Birrunga Gallery’s 3-year Cultural Creative Residential program.

Irish Famine Women of Colonial Bathurst

Irish women found their way to Bathurst in the 1850s through an emigration scheme designed to move orphan girls from the over filling Irish Poor workhouses to the Australian colony. The selection process was strict. The girls were generally of ages ranging between 14-18 and were required to have a certificate of ‘unblemished moral character’ from the Master and Matron of their workhouse. Of the 3514 girls, records show that nearly 10% could read and write, 32% could read only and 40% could neither read nor write. Embarking on the 3–4-month voyage, they could only bring with them a small box in which to keep their clothes and small items.

Despite the apparent desire for women as wives, mothers and servants, the specially selected Irish Catholic girls entered a political climate in Australia where the sympathy for famine-ravaged Ireland was not enough to overcome anti-Irish Catholic sentiment. Upon arrival, the girls were described as a ‘useless, incompetent horde of ignorant children’, an affront to the colony.

In Bathurst, the Irish famine girls were housed in the vacant military barracks in the old gaol building on what is now Machiattie Park. Before marriage, they were subject to relentless drudgery and labour-intensive work as servants to married women of the emerging middle class. Annual wages were £5-11 ($1,501 – $3,302.27), depending on age and skill. On average the Irish girls were married within 3 years of having arrived in the colony. If not already indentured to Bathurst, for some, marriage was the cause to be relocated. For 55 girls, their lives in Bathurst began due to being banished from Sydney for bad behaviour. Approximately 185 Irish girls are recorded to have spent time in Bathurst, if not having lived out the rest of their lives in the town or surrounds.

Part of panorama of Bathurst, looking north and taken from the tower of the Catholic Cathedral, 1870-1875. Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Religious bigotry aside, many ‘delinquent’ girls became well established and highly respected in their communities. If the dangers of childbirth were survived, the women typically had large families; on average 8 children and one woman had as many as 15 children. Juggling demanding domestic duties with entrepreneurship, some Irish women ran boarding houses, hotels and inns, were employed as teachers, and, though it is not well documented, assisted their husbands as successful bakers, builders or shoemakers. Mary Ann Adderly, banished to Bathurst for neglect of duty and disobedience, married Matthew Rose who built The Royal Hotel in Milthorpe and held over 60 acres of land. After his death in 1889, and for the proceeding 20 years until her own death, Mary Ann was a widow, hotelkeeper, mother to 13 children and grandmother to 96 children. Her estate was valued at £1780, or approximately $472,593.11 in 2023.

Photo thought to be Mary Ann Adderley

Photo believed to be of Mary Ann Adderley, circa 1875. (Source: https://studylib.net/doc/18826626/read-her-story—irish-famine-memorial)

Reference:

L.G. Blair and P. McIntyre 2019, ‘Fair Delinquents’? Irish Famine Orphans of Colonial Bathurst and Beyond’, Eitherside Publications, Robina.

The colony was not receptive of the Irish famine girls. Fearful of the colony being overrun by Catholics, the girls faced severe religious bigotry for the fault of not being raised as Protestants. Their skills were immediately denounced, perhaps rightly so as the colonists had unrealistic expectations of the domestic skills of rural Ireland girls.

 

Bathurst and surrounds seemed to suit the Irish famine girls in comparison to the city. The girls showed a willingness to learn and to overcome the stereotypes placed upon them, however servantry or marriage did not keep them safe from experiencing domestic abuse, sexual assault, or the horror of predeceasing their own children. In 1869, Ellen Burke lived in a tent with her husband and 8 children. Her eldest daughter, Ellen, was nearly 12 when she poisoned herself with strychnine and arsenic. Convulsing, she refused to be touched and when asked why she poisoned herself, she replied that if she was flogged, she couldn’t live.

 

Bridget Hammond, an orphan servant aged 17 who could neither read nor write was repeatedly raped at her workplace by a convict also in service to the home. Shame prevented her from making any complaint to her employees. The perpetrator, Henry Gratton, appears to have been committed for the rape but as Bridget had not reported the incidents, there was ‘insufficient’ evidence to prosecute. The account of Gratton’s bad character was enough to cancel his ticket of leave. Hammond was then sent to the Bathurst immigration depot with one last chance to find a place to work, an attitude contrary to the duty of care the government had to the girls of the immigration program.

 

Some lived up to the ‘delinquent’ stereotype. Jane Cunningham was seen in the Bathurst court for taking ‘sundry liberties with the Queen’s English not permitted by the Vagrancy Act’. The case was dismissed as a neighbourly dispute. Mary Anne Duffy, at 22, married her husband William Connor of the Sofala goldfields, aged 44, and after three weeks of marriage abandoned her husband and was charged in Bathurst with vagrancy. She was routinely reported in the press for obscene language, vagrancy, and drunkenness.

 

Mary Daniels was banished to Bathurst and soon after her marriage at 17, abandoned her husband with Margaret Parsons, also 17. The two were caught and charged with having stolen £265. Margaret claimed ignorance of the theft and the money was not found with Mary’s belongings. The case was dismissed. Upon being told she was to return with her husband, Mary begged the court to send her to gaol as she preferred it to returning with her husband, was at first refused, and upon reapplying received sympathy and could exit via a separate door to her husband. It is not known what happened to Mary Daniels. Her husband died 8 years after this incident.

 

Reference:

L.G. Blair and P. McIntyre 2019, ‘Fair Delinquents’? Irish Famine Orphans of Colonial Bathurst and Beyond’, Eitherside Publications, Robina.

 

The Chinese of Bathurst

The Chinese of Bathurst – William Beacham

Early Journeys Over Songlines

Most highways and major roads in Australia follow the Songlines and pathways that Aboriginal people originally used to cross the continent.

Songlines form part of the First People’s oral histories. They can be thought of as oral maps that traverse Country and identify
important places for ceremony, family and resources. These points of interest are memorised through song to guide travellers. Songlines that have survived colonisation remain to be amongst the oldest recorded oral history stories in the world. 

There are Songlines throughout what is now known as the Blue Mountains that are used to access the Bathurst region today. The routes generally follow the Songlines used by many First Nations groups. Up to 10 First Nations groups are responsible for the knowledge about these Songlines.

Songlines are not just used for walking; their use has a purpose. Songlines are imbedded with messages that direct people to rich locations for food such as the Wiradjuri area between the foothills of the Blue Mountains and Kelso, and the Dharug area where people of the Galari clan trekked to access seafood feasts and ceremonies. The Songlines can also be used for trade and other ceremonies along the way.

Not one of the ten or more First Nations who traverse common grounds have ownership over the busy thoroughfare through the Blue Mountains area. The many Nations are caretakers of this shared Country.

In the early period of Australia’s colonisation, written history highlights the trouble that colonists had with passing over the formidable Blue Mountains. Accounts show that numerous attempts were made to overcome the mountains by following watercourses which only lead them to impassable waterfalls.

Written texts do not specifically state the reason why the mountains were finally able to be surpassed. One text states that Aboriginal People were not encountered however their presence was known (Read 1988). We know from oral histories that ten or more First Nations travel across the mountains so it’s unlikely that they were not encountered. It is probable that the only way that the route was ‘discovered’ by colonists was by following behind the pathways originally set out by First Nations who regularly travelled these Songlines.

As history is written, in 1813 Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson began their expedition over the mountains by hatching an ‘original plan’ to follow the ridges instead of watercourses (Barker 1992). Using this method, the colonists breached the previously impassable mountain Country and reached as far as the junction of two streams now known as Cox’s River and Lowther Creek, west of Hartley. There, the trio came upon a Wiradjuri camp which had very recently been abandoned. They returned to Sydney to inform Evans of the route, leading to Evans discovering Bathurst.

References

Barker, T 1992, A History of Bathurst Volume 1 The Early Settlement to 1862, published by Colorcraft Ltd, Hong Kong

Read, P 1988, A Hundred Years War: The Wiradjuri people and the state, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Songlines and Stories in Bathurst

Throughout Bathurst there are many significant and sacred Wiradjuri cultural areas. Most of the colonial era civic or significant buildings have been built on and in their place.

Oral history tells us that there is a cave system beneath the Bathurst Courthouse and the Council building. The cave system was used for Wiradjuri war ceremonies. Close to this location stands the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon.

Underneath the Catholic Cathedral is a place of silent reflection. Today, there is a Wiradjuri yarning circle in the courtyard garden to honour this sacred space.

Two ceremony circles also lie underneath the Town Square that you stand on now.

These Wiradjuri cultural areas are connected by songlines between Wambuul (Macquarie River) and Wahluu (Mount Panorama). William Street generally follows the same course of the Sacred Songline of Wahluu that young Wiradjuri boys use in a ceremonial rite of passage to become initiated men to warriors. Along their journey, the boys have the opportunity to stop at multiple ceremony circles and places of reflection where they can decide whether they are ready.

Only those who feel that they are ready to become men will progress to the final preparation area. This requires passing through the area that is now occupied by the Charles Sturt University campus. Today, universities are considered to be the final stage of schooling. It is in the same general area that the Wiradjuri boys make their final decision to go to Wahluu.

Those who are ready walk with the women around the side of Wahluu to the women’s site. From there, the boys go to the men’s initiation area where they face challenges to become men and are taught essential life skills like making boomerangs and spears. Then, when the men have completed their rites of passage, the men and women come together for a celebration.

Every year, the Bathurst 1000 echoes this rite of passage in non-indigenous culture. The Bathurst 1000 Transporter and Driver Parade uses William Street to slowly shuttle champions of racing to Mount Panorama, following generally the same route as the Sacred Songline of Wahluu. On Wahluu, the best drivers challenge each other on the internationally famous Mount Panorama Racing Circuit, just like the Wiradjuri boys challenge each other, brother vs brother, mate vs mate.