In the early 1900s, the newly minted nation of Australia was besieged by a plague of rabbits. The fleet-footed creatures knew no borders and their spread had been unwittingly assisted by pastoralists waging war on dingoes, which had removed a predator from the food chain. Used in Spring Plains, near Narrabri, in the 1920s, this […]
The Clyde Engineering Co. began with ‘Hudson Brothers,’ a small woodworking shop in the Sydney suburb of Redfern in 1855, with William Henry Hudson at its helm. Initially, Hudson Brothers focused on woodworking; the company designed and manufactured windmills and ploughs, and landed iconic projects like the Great Hall at Sydney University and the Garden […]
Founded in 1909, Guiding is a global movement aimed at empowering girls to become leaders in their communities. The Brownies, aged seven to ten, were the youngest members of the Australian Guiding community until 1996, when the name was dispensed with, a new Guiding Program was introduced, and all members became known as Guides. It’s […]
Trained as a medical doctor, Henry Stephens (1796-1864) relocated his rural medical practice to London in 1829 and started experimenting with inks and transparent stains for timber. Stephens’ tinkering bore fruit when he invented an indelible ink that wrote in blue and dried black. His work was groundbreaking; until then, inks were neither permanent nor […]
Drought, floods and bushfires are part and parcel of a grazier’s life in north-western New South Wales. In the colony’s early days, if the weather didn’t get to the sheep, dingoes often did. As the settlers gradually eradicated the dingoes, rabbits spread like a veritable plague on the land, eating all the grasses. Hungry sheep […]
LJ (Les) Hibbens (1918–1988) was actively involved in all aspects of civic life in Wee Waa. In addition to being elected to the Namoi Shire Council in 1951, Les was District Grand Master of the North West District of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Odd Fellows (1951-2). When Les Hibbens was awarded this certificate, […]
After more than a decade of fundraising and planning by the Wee Waa Historical Society, the Namoi Echo Museum, located on the lands of the Kamillaroi people, opened in 2006. In a section of the museum which highlights the local history of sheep farming, a five-panel mural takes pride of place. Conceived and painted by […]
In addition to bringing us roads, we have the Romans to thank for the humble fruit cake. When Mrs Maunder’s Boiled Fruit Cake placed second at the 1975 Wee Waa Show, she was unwittingly contributing to the legacy of an ancient cake that is so dense that it’s sometimes referred to as ‘doorstop.’ The fruit […]
David Cormie arrived in the Pilliga region in the early 1860s to manage a property for the Dangar family. His wife, Charlotte Cussen, came from a family that had settled there in the 1840s. After their marriage, David and Charlotte had seven children; their eldest, William (Bill), who made this bell, was born in 1866. […]
World War I (1914–1918) stands as Australia’s most devastating conflict when it comes to loss of life and injuries. With a population of less than five million, a staggering 416,809 men signed up to fight. Sadly, over 60,000 of them never made it home, and another 156,000 were wounded, gassed, or captured. Volunteering for someone […]
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We pay respect to them as First Nations people with a continuing connection to land, place, waters and community
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