North Star online

Do you know, I know New England pretty well, but I have never been to North Star, a small farming community in New England's north west. Nearby communities include Boggabilla to the north, Moree to the south. The Aboriginal community that I mentioned in Toomelah the movie opens in cinemas is not far away.

North Star is now the terminus of the branch railway line that once ran to Boggabilla from Moree. There is a story here. When the line was under consideration, one of the Progressive Party members for the then Northern Tablelands seat (David Drummond) fought to have planning for the line extended into Queensland to junction with the Queensland network. The move was opposed because it might divert wheat traffic from Sydney.

I mention North Star now because the community has taken to the internet in a big way via:

• a community web site
• a Facebook page
• and on Twitter (@NorthStarNSW)

Well done, but a suggestion. Do tell people where North Star actually is and how to get there!

Postscript:

To ask, sometimes,is to receive. Thanks to the miracles of twitter, the good folk at North Star added material to meet my suggestion as to the location of North Star.  

Moree launches job site

I see from the Moree Champion that the town has created a web site to facilitate job matching.

Moreeplainsjobs.com is an initiative of Leonard Holt Rob (LHR) and a program - "The Brolga Project" - piloted by Moree Plains Shire Council. The Project provides university students with work experience opportunities in rural and regional Australia.

The new site allows employers to advertise vacant positions and jobseekers to upload full profiles, thus adding to the range of information sources. 

The breakfast meeting held to launch the site was attended by employers and students who are either looking for work or will be soon - upon completion of their degree - and representatives from Moree Plains Shire Council and LHR.

Both moreeplainsjobs.com and The Brolga project will liaise with each other in the future where their goals align.

Moree has had problems for some time in attracting workers. According to the census data, between 2001 and 2006, the Shire's population actually declined from 15,680 to 13,976. The most recent population estimates suggest that that decline has stopped. However, Moree needs to be able to fill job vacancies if the area's population is to grow.

Moree gains Brisbane air service

I see from the Northern Daily Leader that Brindabella Airlines has launched it's Moree-Brisbane flights.

The photo shows pilots Captain Shane Carr and Captain Todd Kristenson welcoming Brindabella chief executive officer Michael Rasmussen on board the historic Brindabella flight.

I have written a fair bit on this blog about both the history and current position of civil aviation in New England. I really hope that this service succeeds.

Moree's location as the largest centre on the western side of New England creates problems for the town. It's not actually all that far west, about 428k or a bit over five hours driving time from the coast, but its far enough west to create service delivery problems with the way services are now structured. For example, it is a bit over three hours drive to the big base hospital in Tamworth. The time is much worse if you have to rely on public transport.

The service will allow Moree people to access Brisbane services. It will also give Brisbane people better access to Moree.

Moree train photo puzzle

 

Can you date this photo of Moree Railway Station carried by Archives Outside? Andrew did a pretty good job when he wrote in a comment:  

The car in the foreground has the licence plate 1775. The photo is between 1910, when the first NSW licence plates were issued, and 1912 when the Govt. started to issue them with NSW on the plate.

The photo may in fact be a little bit older than 1912 depending upon then Government attitudes to the retention of older plates.

I was wondering if anybody could add anything more? For example, there appear to be two trains. From the photo, from which directions were the trains running? Or is it just one train passing through, with the other having arrived earlier.

The thing that puzzles me is that the train on the left has clearly unloaded (note the whicker-ware baskets), while the one on the right is getting ready to go. Yet my memory is that goods vans were in the back, which suggests that both trains came in from the same direction. Was one the train to Moree from Sydney, the second the through train to Inverell?  

What else can you see in the photo that I have missed?

Belshaw’s World: A closer look at Kamilaroi and language

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on Wednesday 16 September 2009. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here.

Over the last few weeks I have been reading Michael O'Rouke's three books on the Kamilaroi. Michael kindly sent them to me after reading one of my posts on the Aboriginal languages of New England

A Gunnedah boy who went to school in Armidale at De La Salle College, Michael’s writing is informed by a deep knowledge of the country as well as the historical sources.

The first book in the series, Kamilaroi Lands: North-central New South Wales in the early 19th century is a local/regional history, but of a very different type to most of those published.

Self-published by the author in 1997, the book is a detailed and painstaking exploration of the life of one Aboriginal language group at and in the period immediately following European settlement.

For those who do not know the Kamilaroi, they occupied a huge sweep of Australia from the Upper Hunter north along the Western Slopes and Plains into southern Queensland. Depending on the exact boundaries, we are talking about an area of more than 80,000 square kilometres.

You will sometimes see the name Gamilaraay used instead of the more traditional Kamilaroi.

Gamilaraay - gamil + array: literally no + having or having gamil for no – denotes a form of speech, the broader language spoken by the Kamilaroi as a whole. Even here, Gamilaraay could be used to describe the language (that speech which has gamil for no) or, by implication, its speakers (those who use gamil for no).

I find it easiest to continue to use the now traditional Kamilaroi to describe the people, reserving Gamilaraay for the language.

Michael's book starts with language.

He explores the ethnographic and linguistic evidence as it relates to the boundaries between the Kamilaroi and surrounding language groups. In doing so, he draws out the way in which names attached to area, to specific local groups, to language, all come together to confuse

He also shows how the distribution of Aboriginal place names adopted by the European settlers can actually help indicate the distribution of groups if you know the underlying language structures.

Michael then explores Kamilaroi social structures and ways of life. This is ethno-historical detective work. Suddenly we see traditional structures and relationships as they stood at a point in time emerging from the mists of the past.

When I first studied traditional Aboriginal life at University all those years ago I saw the anthropologists’ interest in kinship structures as obsessive and eye-glazing.

To some degree I still hold this view and for the same reason. It can interfere with understanding of other aspects of Aboriginal life.

That said, I do not think that you can understand the life of the Kamilaroi without understanding kinship structures.

The three level structure, to use the anthropologists’ terms, of moiety, section and totemic clan provided a framework that integrated all natural phenomena, not just the human population. In human terms, everything had a place and everything was in that place.

I still have to work out how best to explain all this in simple terms that even I can understand. While the principles themselves are simple enough, the way those principles interacted in practice can be quite complicated.

Each man, women or child in the Kamilaroi world belonged at birth to one moiety, one of two sections in each moiety, one of the totemic clans. We know that there were at least sixty-four totemic clans divided between the two moieties.

This structure was expressed in people’s names.

Like all Kamilaroi, the 18th century Kamilaroi war leader, the Red Kangaroo, had three names. There was a personal name that has not survived. Then came his section name, Gambu, marking him as a member of the Gubadhin moiety. Finally, there was a totem name, Ganur or Ganura or “red kangaroo”.

Kinship was central to Kamilaroi life.

A person coming into a strange group for trading or ceremonial purposes was always allocated a kinship position if one was not already held. The kinship structure allowed all people including strangers to be allocated a formal kinship place.

The language used by Aboriginal people today – brother, sister, auntie, uncle – link back to these previous structures because they express relationships in formal kinship terms independent of actual blood ties.

Moree records its Aboriginal oral history

I see from the Moree Champion that Moree has taken steps to record its oral history. And a good thing too!

Taking the waters in New England - Boomi

This is a story at two levels.

At one level, it illustrates the complexity of New England history. At a second level, it is the story of a village reinventing itself to fight downturn.

Growing up, I knew about Moree's mineral waters and artesian spars. However, this was something that was a little alien. I did not know that generations of European migrants came to Moree to take the waters. I also did not know that Moree was not alone.

The village of Boomi lies 85km north west of Moree, 92km south west of Goondiwindi in Queensland. Like Moree, but more quietly, Boomi is also a centre for artesian waters. Its artesian hot spa and cold pools were in fact built 1903 and have since been modernised.

In March 2008 the Boomi post office closed. Closures like this can be devastating to a small community. With a population of just 70 and its surrounding residents numbering around 250, Boomi fought back to reclaim its place.

The Boomi Community Co-operative, a group of 100 who basically exist for the good of the town, decided to offer free caravan sites on the primitive campground next door to the pool.

Along with opening up the campsites, the Co-operative opened up a small general store to sell basic groceries. The store is run entirely by volunteers and most recently is now serving light meals.

Prior to the general store opening, the nearest supermarket was either in Moree or Goondiwindi, both an hour’s drive away.

Word of mouth tends to be the strongest form of advertising among the grey nomads. Since March, the caravan park has seen around 30 vans per night parked there. The demand has allowed the Co-operative to now charge for the caravan sites, although the rate is an incredibly reasonable $5 per night.

Ruth Hickson, a local woman who volunteers her time to promote the town, said business at the campsite and pools is now growing steadily with some caravanners actually using Boomi as their base.

“One couple from South Australia, they set up here, then they go off touring for a few days and come back again,” said Ruth.

“The pool is as much of a draw-card for the locals as visitors but the decision to promote it to caravanners has really paid off.

“We’ve got a diesel fuel service just about ready to open up and we’re planning for an unleaded petrol station to happen soon as well.

“The strength of community support is fantastic and we’ve got a number of other projects planned to boost tourism here."

The pool itself is the closest thing to an oasis in these hot parts. Not only is there a 25 metre cold water pool, there’s a pool filled with hot, healing artesian water. Regular visitors to Moree’s artesian pools will rave about the healing powers of this water.

Artesian water is up to 2 million years old and is known in many cultures to have healing powers. The mineral rich water flows from nearly a mile underground from the great Artesian Basin.

The pool has become a terrific place to relax either in the water, on a poolside lounge or on the lush green lawn under the shade sails.

I really liked this story. To quote Ruth Hickson, “If we keep going this way then we’ll see more and more services coming back to Boomi.” And that's a bloody good thing.

For more information phone 02 6753 5336 or for interviews with Ruth herself phone 02 67 537 260.

End of Historic Toorale Station

Today (Friday 5 December) saw the clearance sale on Toorale Station, a 91,000 plus hectare property at the junction of the Darling and Warrego Rivers 60k downstream from Bourke. The sale followed Toorale's purchase by the NSW Government with Federal assistance for a reported $23.7 million dollars.

This was one big sale. The station's 30,000 strong merino stud plus its 1,500 cattle had to be dispersed, the last wheat crop harvested and sent to silo, over 900 lots of farm machinery etc collected and presented for sale. All this has seen trucks scurrying across New England and beyond in one last big burst of economic activity.

Toorale Station occupies a special place in Australian history. It was first taken up by the Europeans in 1857. From 1880 to 1913 it was owned by the legendary Samuel (later Sir Samuel) McCaughey. At various times McCaughey owned or shared in twelve stations in New South Wales and three in Queensland with a total area of about 3,250,000 acres (1,315,242 ha).

The old shearing shed on Toorale was built in 1873 and in 1894, 265,000 sheep were shorn there. Until 1880, Toorale wool was taken to Adelaide by river barge.

In 1896, Sir Samuel McCaughey built a large homestead on Toorale for his favourite niece, Louisa, who was married to his manager, Mathew Robinson. The imported Italian marble fireplace in the Toorale Room at the Port of Bourke Hotel was "rescued" from the homestead which is now in ruins.

The Australian writer Henry Lawson (and here) arrived in Bourke by train in September 1892, his one way ticket plus 5 pounds having been proved by J F Archibald of 'The Bulletin'. He spent two months living in Bourke, then walked to Toorale with his mate, Jim Gordon, where they signed on as rouseabouts for the latter part of general shearing.

After about one month in the Toorale Shed, they walked back to Bourke via Gumbalie for Christmas 1892. They then spent six weeks walking to Hungerford on the Paroo River on the Queensland border, and back to Bourke. A round journey of 450 kilometres! Lawson then worked in Bourke for about four months, principally as a house painter, writing in his 'spare time'. He returned to Sydney on a train drover's ticket in June 1893, in charge of five trucks of cattle.

Some of Henry Lawson's works from this time include "A Stranger on the Darling", "The Darling River", "In the Storm That Is To Come", and "Bourke".

This is not going to make much difference in how much water is going to flow into the darling. I have lived at toorale my whole life and know how much water the property can store. The government buying this and letting the water flow through is only going to make the town of bourke suffer and many people will lose their jobs. It all sounds so good on paper and through the media but until you go out there you will never understand how little of a difference this will make... it is a bad move. Local blog comment from Ed.

The sale, the first major land and water purchase under the Federal Government's $3 billion National Water Plan, will see the station turned into a national park, its water entitlements returned to the Darling River, and dams on the Warrego River removed.

Toorale presently holds yearly extraction entitlements for 14 billion litres of water and proponents claim that the deal means an average of 20 gigalitres will be returned to the Darling River each year.

All this has generated very mixed views.

According to Federal Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong, it is a deal for the environment.

Well, this is all about taking action in the Murray-Darling Basin. We know that the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin are in difficulty.

We know that we need to do more to return water to the river for the benefit of all of the communities which rely on these rivers for their livelihoods.

We also need to do more to improve the environmental health of these rivers.

The Minister's views are echoed by environmental groups, as well as some graziers down stream who hope to benefit. However, this support far from universal.

Some doubt that the sale will have any real impact on water flows in the river.

Prior to the sale, property manager Tony McManus argued that the quantity of water he's using for irrigation is minimal.

The amount of water we store here and we take here I think would have very little impact on the lower Darling and the Murray River.

I think it would only make the river run for a little bit longer and a little bit further and I think it would have more detrimental damage done to the district than the benefits to the environment.

I think it's just a knee-jerk reaction to something that's caused by drought and low rainfall.

Others argue that there are better approaches anyway, and that the whole deal is flawed.

The government is seriously in the process of incorporating cropping land in a national park. So any pretence that this might involve even the most rudimentary need to conserve the existing ecological or habitat values of that crop land is absurd in the extreme as there are few enduring habitat attributes of a ploughed field.

And all we are left with is a very unambiguous demonstration that the underlying intention is to remove humanity from that landscape at any and every opportunity.

There is more than 14 million hectares of vigorous regrowth in the NSW part of the MDB and many more millions of hectares of thickenned woodland in both public and private tenure.

The prudent thinning of this vegetation, to return the percentage canopy cover to its pre-settlement levels, will, according to the well tested science of Zhang and Vertessy et al, deliver significantly more than the claimed requirement for 1.5 million megalitres of additional river flow. Blog comment, Ian Mott

Locals worry about the impact on the town and district economy. Bourke's population has been falling, while the town has a large indigenous population. The sale means the loss of over $5 million in agricultural production, along with an estimated 100 jobs. This is roughly equivalent to Sydney losing 750,000 jobs.

Quoting Mr McManus again prior to the sale:

It's a wonderful property and we're producing food and fibre and I would hate to see it sold off and locked up as a national park.

I think it's such a magnificent property that can produce some magnificent food crops, some wool, beef, mutton.

I just think it's too good a property to be shut down and not used for Australia's production.

It is very difficult for to balance all these arguments in the absence of proper information. Certainly some of the reporting does not help:

THE NSW and federal governments have taken the unprecedented step of buying a massive water-hungry outback cotton station to transform it into a national park as part of an ambitious multi-billion-dollar plan to save the dying Murray-Darling Basin.

NSW last night paid $23.75million, with substantial commonwealth assistance, for the Toorale cotton station in northwest NSW, in a move that will boost flows to the parched Murray-Darling Basin by up to 80 gigalitres a year. Media report on sale. Bold added.

I think that we can say the following with a degree of certainty.

The phrase "Murray Darling Basin" is misleading. The biggest problems lie in the south along the bigger Murray River. The extent to which environmental flows far up stream on the Darling will have any effect on the water position down stream in South Australia is uncertain.

If we focus just on the Darling, it may be (as Minister Wong argues) that the agreement delivers a significant boost to environmental flows in the Darling River, whilst also providing a boost to the NSW reserve system. However, I haven't really seen any compelling evidence for this. I am not saying that it isn't there, just that I have not seen it.

The NSW Government recently introduced a horror mini-budget cutting services throughout regional NSW. It has been struggling even to pay day-to-day bills in the public hospital system. So its commitment comes at a big opportunity cost.

Very roughly speaking, the purchase cost $23.75 million. To this has to be added the cost of removing the dams on the Warrego and creating minimal national park facilities. Say for rough estimating purposes, $500,000, bringing the all-up capital cost to $24.25 million. At a conservative cost of funds of 6%, this equals an annual cost of $1.94 million.

The new National Park has to be maintained. Yes, I know that NSW is already struggling to maintain its national parks, but we have to assume that they are going to spend something. There may be some income from Park fees, but this is likely to be small. Just for rough calculation purposes, assume annual Park costs are about $200,000. This brings annual costs to $2.14 million.

Cessation of rural production on the property will reduce rural production by $5 million. Add this, and the annual cost of the purchase increases to $7.14 million.

At least some of those previously directly or indirectly employed will go onto benefits. This number will decline with time as either new jobs are created or more people leave the district.

Just for rough back of envelope purposes, lets add $300,000 in additional benefits payments for the first three years. Now we have an annual cost of $7.44 million, falling to $7.14 million after three years.

Is the value of water returned to the river worth this annual cost? I have no idea. I have never seen a cost-benefit analysis.

These numbers are not mean to be precise. They do indicate the need to be cautious in simply assuming that things like this purchase make sense.

Sources

This story has been mainly drawn from the following sources.

• 9 September 2008, ABC, Govt under pressure to buy Toorale Station
• 11 September 2008, ABC, Toorale Station sale to 'hit Bourke hard'
• 11 September 2008, Farm Weekly, Govt takes Toorale Station and its water for $23.7m
• 11 September 2008, Australian, State in cotton station buyout to save Murray River
• Clyde Agriculture, Port of Bourke Hotel
• 11 October 2008,
Campaigning for National Parks is Against Australian’s Bush Ethos: Part 1, Buying Back Tooralee
• 5 December 2008, ABC, Bush Telegraph

Helping the Kamilaroi (and others) find their family history

There was a rather inspirational story in the Sydney Morning Herald of the work done by Noelene Briggs-Smith in helping Kamilaroi people in particular find out details of their family history.

By way of background for readers outside New England, the Kamilaroi were the Aboriginal language group occupying New England's Western Slopes and Plains. Those who are interested can find a map showing Kamilaroi territory here.

Noelene works for the Dhiiyaan Indigenous Centre in the Northern Regional Library in Moree. I have referred to this library before as a source of information on the Kamilaroi. I could wish that there were more like it.

L J Hill's great Namoi Mud album

My thanks to Radio National for introducing me to L J Hill's Namoi Mud. RN has run two tracks so far, and I think that it is great!

I know this country, while Hill's lyrics deal with human experiences.

New England's east-west highways - the Kamilaroi

Map: Kamilaroi Highway

Named after the Kamilaroi peoples, the Kamilaroi Highway leaves the New England Highway just north of Willow Tree. From there it runs north-west through Quirindi to Narrabari and then veers west through Wee Waa, Burren Junction, Walgett and Brewarrina ending at Bourke.

Part of the highway goes through contested, marchland territory from a New England perspective. If you look at the road map, the first part is clearly in New England. However, the far western portion has moved in and out of New England's boundaries.

A key influence here lay in Bourke's role as a river port. Dissatisfied with the loss of traffic and especially wool down the Darling River to South Australia, the colonial Government in Sydney pushed what was called the Main Western Line northwest to Bourke, arriving there in 1885. This drew Bourke and surrounding areas more firmly into Sydney's orbit.

During the Northern (the name New England was not adopted for the new state area until 1931)separation agitation in the 1920s, some suggested boundaries did include Bourke. However, the boundaries recommended by the Nicholas Royal Commission (1935) excluded Bourke and the far west portion. Then the 1967 plebescite boundaries followed Nicholas, to the great distress of many nearby areas who wanted to get out from Sydney and saw themselves as part of New England.

At 607k (around eight hours driving time), the Kamilaroi is not an especially long highway by Australian standards. It is also a very interesting road. In the words of the highway site:

The Kamilaroi Highway route to Bourke from the east coast takes you into the agricultural heartland of NSW, cruising through golden fields of wheat, sunflowers and canola; past the rugged mountain ranges of the Nandewars and Mt Kaputar; and on to the sunburnt plains of the Outback grazing runs.

Along the way, the Kamilaroi’s iconic towns and settlements give you every excuse to extend your journey over several days, with each stop presenting its own unique slice of life in the bush.

I think that this is pretty correct.

For related posts about the towns and regions along the highway see:

• Kamilaroi Highway - Werris Creek Railway Monument and Museum
• Kamilaroi Entry Page. This provides an entry point to posts about the Kamilaroi Aboriginal peoples.
• Werris Creek Railway Timeline
• Teaching in New England - Braefield 1916-1923
• The Outstation now Open
• What has Jane Austin got to do with food in Regional Australia?
• Polocrosse & Narrabri
• Experience a slice of the drover's life - Boggabri
• In Search of the Tastiest Tomato

Moree mentoring attracts interest - congratulations to Peter Strang

Back in June I wrote a short post on the work of Dick Estens and his colleagues in creating employment opportunities for Moree's Aboriginal young.

I see from an article in the Moree Champion that this work has continued. My congratulations to Peter Strang for receiving the initial AES award for his work in Moree's mentoring program.

I think personally that this type of action is very important. Whatever the issues and approaches may be at state or national level, action at local level to improve opportunities for New England's Aboriginal kids is critical. Without this, other things will fall over.

Gwydir River - Introduction

Map: Gwydir River catchment.

I am not sure that the above map is goming to come out in any readable form. But you should be able to see the full map in bigger form by clicking on it. I won't know, however, until I load the post - it did, I see.

My last introductory post on Bingara reminded me that I had said very little about New England's western rivers, those rivers flowing west from the New England Tablelands. While these rivers carry less water than the better known coastal rivers, they are still major streams in their own right and form a significant part of the Darling River system.

The Gwydir River is one such, rising in the Tablelands to the south of Uralla. Over coming posts I will tell a little of the Gwydir River story.

Posts

Gwydir River - Kentucky Creek

Gwydir River - Rocky River