Country News
19th Century News
Newspaper articles that offer insights into life in Bothwell during the 1800s.
Sources Used: TROVE. https://trove.nla.gov.au; FamilySearch: Australia, Tasmania, Government Gazette, 1833-1925. https://www.familysearch.org.
⚠️ Accidents ⛪ Church & Community
📰 Country News 🏏 Cricket
⚰️ Deaths, Inquests & Obituaries
🌧️ Floods, Fires & Storms 🏛️ Municipal Council
👮 Police, Court Reports & Bushrangers
🎯 Rifle Club 🛤️ Road Trust
🏫 School News ✒️ Testimonials
We have now a very neat gaol built here, and very good barracks, and we are about to build a chapel. An inn is also about commencing in the township, which is very rapidly increasing in size and importance. We have mechanics of all kinds in it, and we want only a good road to be made between this and the Green Ponds. If the government would give us a small gang to put on it, we would all join in assisting, but without the help of government it is too much for us to attempt.
CLYDE. In making a tour through the country last week I visited the Upper Clyde, Bothwell, on my return home, and was struck with the improvements in that settlement since my last visit there. Mr Vincent, who keeps the inn at Norwood, has built a good brick house, forty feet by forty-two for an inn. The house contains ten rooms, with outbuildings, and is two stories high. In my travels from Hobart town to Launceston, I found no house to equal it, for I find that other settlers at Bothwell are about erecting brick buildings, seeing such a pattern in them. Doctor Sharland has been appointed District Surgeon, and government is about to erect a brick building for his reception. Many large buildings are now going on. Mr Axford has commenced a brick building close to his flour mill. Mr Garrett preaches regularly at Bothwell every Sunday. Mr Sharland, the Assistant Surveyor, is still at Bothwell, busily employed in measuring grants.
The Surveyor General returned this week from a visit to the Den Hill, where he has laid out, we learn, a new line of road from the Black marsh to Bothwell. By following up the valley from the former place instead of ascending by the old steep line to the left, the ascent is rendered much more gradual, and the dangerous pass of the saddle, which has been the death of so many bullocks, is entirely avoided. We trust that a sufficient force will be forthwith placed on this most desirable undertaking, by which the fine and now populous districts of the Upper Clyde and the Shannon will be made doubly valuable.
This little Township, the Settlement of a number of industrious Scotch Settlers, is progressing in a greater degree than most of the other Townships in the interior. It possesses a Literary association of 30 Members with a Library of about 500 Volumes under the care of the Presbyterian Minister, who is Honorary Secretary and Treasurer; and a School house recently erected at the joint expense of the inhabitants and the Government, for £600, at which 54 children attend, the Master being one of the trained Schoolmasters sent out from Home.
At present there is not a vacant house in the Village, all being occupied by a steady respectable and industrious class of Mechanics and Labourers.
An occasional imbiber appears at the Police Office and pays his mite in aid of the General Revenue, and now and then a case of non-payment of wages comes before the Bench.
Bothwell had recently a visit from one of the Candidates for Legislatorial honours, whose speech of three hours’ duration so won upon the hearts of some of his hearers that "some who came to scoff remained to pray;" in other words, after signing a Requisition to another Candidate, promised their Votes to this.
The view at present of the Denison Range and Wylds Crag from this is most grand, the mountains being perfectly white with snow and looking like icebergs at sea. The ice near the Township is ¾ of an inch thick.
The weather, which for some time past has been very wet and cold, appears to have settled in fine, and the farmers are all bustle and activity getting in their crops. They are all very good with the exception of the hay, which, although abundant, is not of first-rate quality. Potatoes are very plentiful and will be very cheap. Onions are also very plentiful, but little sale for them. The blight is fast disappearing from amongst the turnips and garden crops.
On Tuesday the sale at Dennistoun was very numerously and respectably attended. The stock sold remarkably high, the proceeds amounting to nearly £8000! Indeed, the feed is so abundant that there are plenty of buyers and none willing to sell.
Our Township is very dull, although the Wesleyans are making a stir in the religious portion of the community, they having built a neat chapel in close proximity to the Church. Mr Blake gave a piece of ground and £20 towards its erection. Messrs Ife, Wiseman, and others have taken up the cause warmly. The building, which is just completed, will be opened for Public Worship early in March. This has rather roused the zeal of the other religious sects; and the Church, the state of which is no credit to the Township, stands a chance of being repaired.
The monotony which ordinarily pervades this township was broken through on Monday, the 6th inst., and considerable stir, bustle, and excitement created by the advent thereto of several country gentlemen whose faces are not seen every day in the week, some as J.P.'s to attend a Court of General Sessions, others to a Board of Works' meeting to be held immediately afterwards; there were also to be seen a number of persons ambitious of employment under the Board waiting about anxious to learn the result of the tenders they had sent in, and a suitor or two under the Small Debts Act.
The "great event" of the day, however, and which drew forth the largest concourse of people was a flat race, to be followed by a steeplechase to be run over the old and lately neglected Bothwell course. This latter affair had been fixed to come off at 12 o'clock noon, but the "promoters of the undertaking," (to borrow a phrase out of our Waste Lands Act) two gents belonging to the Hamilton district, on its being intimated to them that several admirers of the sport would be unable to attend and witness the race in consequence of their prior engagements, like men of sense at once gladly consented to allow business to take precedence of pleasure, and postponed the affair until after 2 p.m.
It is time to hasten to the race course where a very large number of "sightseers" had already assembled, including most of our landed gentry, nearly the whole of the inhabitants of the township, and several strangers from adjoining districts. The preliminaries usually undergone on regular racing occasions having been entered into and adjusted, the nags, one a black, the other a bay, both ridden by gentlemen riders, made their appearance. At the word "off" both horses started fairly side by side together, but they did not keep that position long; the black soon shot ahead several lengths, and kept his opponent at the same distance apart right away to the winning post. The same result attended the steeplechase between the same two horses and same riders; the black in this race took the lead over the first fence, a four railer, and kept it the whole way round. Both horses struck the top rail at first leap, the black incurring no inconvenience; the bay, however, nearly fell, causing his rider to make sundry gyrations, and had he not had at the time a good fast grip of his saddle, somewhat after the fashion of "grim death to a lee backstay," he undoubtedly would have "come to grief." On recovering his proper seat, off went man and horse again, taking the fences in beautiful style, the same as their leader, right away home to the trysting place without hindrance or accident. The race, it was said, was got up more for the sake of testing the paces and capabilities of the horses than anything else, the stakes being only £5 a race. The affair, slight as it was, caused considerable interest and amusement in these dull times, and was fortunately unattended with any accident or unpleasantness.
A Board of Works meeting was now held; there were seven tenders for supplying and erecting the telegraph poles between Bothwell and Melton Mowbray, and the fortunate tenderers were Messrs James Moyes and Joseph Blake, price at the rate of 9s per pole; the highest tender was at 14s. Messrs Moyes and Blake also received the contract for the Blue Hill and Ouse Road, Mr Polkie for the work at the Jordan Bridge, and Mr Webb for some work on the Shannon Road. After other requisite business had been disposed of, the meeting broke up.
The insulators and wires have been sent for to England, and are expected to arrive in the colony about December, when the apparatus will be fixed up under the immediate directions of the Inspector of Electric Telegraphs.
HOBART, Dec. 5. The Hon. N. J. Brown, M.H.A., today introduced to the Premier, Minister of Lands, and Attorney-General a large deputation from Bothwell, who urged the extension of the Brighton and Apsley railway to Bothwell.
Mr A. McDowall, Warden of Bothwell, said if Apsley was made the final terminus it would not only be detrimental to the Bothwell district, but a loss to the colony, as the extension of the line to Bothwell would make the railway, as a whole, more profitable. There were extensive tracts of land upon which a large population could be settled, and the advantage would not be confined to that locality alone, as the whole colony would benefit from this extensive district being opened up. Bothwell had been paying for many years £750 in real estate duty, which went to construct other lines, and it should now be granted similar facilities. There were no engineering difficulties, and Mr Denniston Wood, one of the largest landed proprietors, offered to give any of his land required for the railway free of charge, and when the railway was constructed that gentleman would immediately take steps to convert his large sheep walks into small holdings. He read a document signed by a number of landholders agreeing to give the Government the land required without compensation, providing that the line was securely fenced.
Mr John Bisdee said there was no township at the present terminus of the railway, and an extension to Bothwell was necessary to make a complete work.
Mr Maurice Weston also spoke.
The Premier said Ministers were alive to the fact that the days of macadamised roads had gone by, and that in the future the iron horse would supply the place of the main roads. The present terminus he regarded as temporary, and the time would come when the line would require to be extended. Ministers, however, had to face not only the extension of this line, but also the general problem of railway extension. The Chudleigh people were already beginning to demand that the line there be extended; the Parattah line of railway must sooner or later be extended to Tunnack or a line of railway constructed from the Jericho siding to Tunnack, and away on to the East Coast. Then they could not expect the Fingal Railway to finish where it did, and the line in course of construction to Ulverstone could not stop there. Ministers, therefore, had to face the demand of the country for railway extension in very many directions, but at the present moment it was impossible for Ministers to pledge themselves to any particular extension. Of this, however, they might rest assured that, directly Parliament considered it prudent to move in the direction of railway extension, the claims of Bothwell would be considered equal to the claims of other districts, and that there should be no further extension of railways without the extension to Bothwell being part of that scheme, or at any rate of the scheme considered. But in the meantime the question of finance stepped in, and he would remind gentlemen, resident in Bothwell, that it was through their members that they could give to Ministers that assistance most necessary for real progress, viz., assistance in putting the financial house in order. If during the coming Parliamentary session Ministers were successful in submitting proposals to accomplish this, then it might be taken that having put the finances in order further progressive works would follow. He looked to Bothwell and other districts requiring work to act as an incentive to their members to assist Ministers in rectifying the finances of the colony, as until provision was made to pay off the present deficit, Parliament and the country would not be prepared to receive a proposal from any district for railway extension. He saw no reason why, during the next few months, satisfactory proposals should not be made for paying off the deficiency, after which progressive works could be considered, which would include railway extension, and when such proposals were made they must take care that Bothwell was not left out in the cold. He thought Parliament would insist on the present works being carried out before proposing new ones, but there was no reason why 1890 should not see them in the field with further progressive proposals.
Mr Brown thanked the Ministers for their reception, and the deputation withdrew.
Bothwell is very dull just now, in keeping with the great depression prevailing all over the colony, and there are at the present time more unoccupied houses in the township that has been known for many years past. Amongst them is that fine building lately erected and needed as a branch of the Commercial Bank, and which was closed a week ago, is convincing proof of bad times. The late manager, Mr Charles Drake, without doubt, was a good officer, and always cautious and obliging to all who came in contact with him, and did his best to make the bank pay, but hard times have evidently been too much for him, and the directors had, therefore, to close the bank. Mr and Mrs Drake were both highly respected by the whole of the inhabitants of the district, and the united hopes of the latter are that the bank authorities may see their way to give Mr Drake another opportunity equal to the one he now loses through no fault of his own.
The threshing machine has about finished its work for the season in our district. On the whole, the crops here will compare favourably with other districts. On some farms the return was low, and this, coupled with low prices, is very disheartening. Without a doubt, our farmers need to be stout-hearted men the way times are.
Diphtheria seems to have left our district at last, for which we all ought to be very thankful. It should be a lesson to us all to see to our sanitary affairs better in the future. At the same time let us hope our health officers will awaken out of their lethargy, and attend to matters pertaining to their official duties. The memory of the last victim to this fell disease, Lillie Evans, will remain green for some time to come, as she, with the rest of her family, was ever to the front in matters connected with Church work and other like affairs. The family in their sad bereavement have the sympathy of all classes and creeds.
Monday, 13th inst., is the time appointed for the holding of our annual sports, which should prove interesting if the clerk of the weather proves in good temper, and grant them a fine day for the holiday.
At our annual autumn sale held recently by Messrs Roberts & Co., there was a large yarding of stock. I think on the whole, considering the times, the prices obtained gave satisfaction, though they were low compared with the prices a year or two back.
Here, as well as other places, unfavourable comments are made about the closing of our post office at 5 o'clock, thereby causing inconvenience to many. For the people living in the township it matters not, but for people living in the bush it seems hard for them to be compelled to leave off work in the middle of the afternoon and come in for the mail should they want it, whereas under the old order of things they could finish their day's work, and then get their mail and by so doing they lost no time. I do not think our country post office officials are so overworked that the change was needed. I fail to see any great benefit to the new order of things, especially as the telegraph office is open later on, thereby preventing the officials from leaving the office for more than a brief period.
A pleasant evening was spent here on Saturday, the 20th July, in the form of a children's concert, and as it was for a good cause it was well patronised, passing off without a hitch. The instrumental and vocal performers were Mesdames Chamberlain, J. H. White, Misses Denholm (2) and Spurling, Messrs C. W. Sims and F. McRae, and a strong chorus of children, numbering 40 voices. One of the numbers given being The White Garland, in which the juveniles performed their parts in a very creditable manner. Financially, the entertainment was also a success.
Wonder often arises as to what our councillors are about, some of our streets being in a very bad state, particularly High-street, the centre being washed away by the recent heavy rain, leaving a great gutter there. To improve matters, there are several heaps of timber scattered about in dangerous positions for passers-by. It has, to my knowledge, been there for upwards of six years. It belongs to one of our councillors; therefore it is needless to ask why it has not been removed ere this?
The chief topic of conversation here is the bad times and bunny, and how to get rid of him. At present we are rather overdone in the "patent trap" line, and trying to imagine the amount of brain required to invent such marvels. We are apt to quote the well-known refrain, "And as we gazed, our wonder grew. That one small head should carry all it know."