NEXT year a variety of community events will be held in Bundanoon to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its beginnings at Barren Ground in 1865.

It was much earlier, however, that the name Bantanoon (an Aboriginal word for 'place of deep gullies') was first noted by explorer Dr Charles Throsby when he passed through the locality in 1818. So impressed was he with the grandeur and beauty of the gully country that he recommended a portion be reserved to the Crown and 1200 acres in the vicinity of Bundanoon Creek were duly reserved in 1824.

This visit by Throsby came after he had taken part in Surveyor Meehan's expedition to the south country in 1818 that was initiated by Governor Macquarie and guided by the young Hamilton Hume.

Two results of this 1818 expedition connected with the landscape would shape Bundanoon.

The first was the knowledge of the gully country that would later provide timber and coal for a time, and a section of which became the Gullies Recreation Reserve that eventually attracted holiday makers to the area.

The other result was that it led to settlement at Sutton Forest and along a road that proceeded southeast from it. This road came into existence as a result of the 1818 expedition. Meehan explored further to the southwest after a quarrel near present-day Marulan with Throsby who, guided by Aboriginals, returned northeast and explored the gullies. Meehan's traverse became an early settlers track leading to Bungonia and beyond. It branched off the main South Road built by Throsby for Governor Macquarie who, when he travelled down in 1820, was so impressed by the fertile Sutton Forest area he gave it that name and encouraged settlement there. A village soon flourished.

Meehan's track became known as Argyle Road and settlement spread along it. About 10 miles southeast of Sutton Forest it passed within a few miles of present-day Bundanoon's location. Here a locality known as Jumping Rock attracted settlers (today's Ferndale Road out of Bundanoon passes through the area).

Several bark hut inns opened, including that of Maggie Morris, to serve travellers for the decade or so that the road was busy. Early settler families that became established include the Haymans, Jefferys, Hines, Conlons and Dignams. A small private school operated there from the 1840s.

THIS Jumping Rock area was situated a few miles to the northwest from where the line of the southern railway would pass. Earthworks commenced along the line in 1865 and a separate railway-based community began at a locality known as Barren Ground.

Thus the focus of settlement shifted from the Argyle Road out of Sutton Forest to Barren Ground where a workers' tent camp was established by the railway contractors, Forster and Roberts. From 1863 selectors began taking up land in the vicinity, including Samuel Tooth, Charles Jordan and Walter Grice.

The contractors employed a motley crew of labourers, including unemployed from Sydney and immigrant families from England and Europe. Many of these moved on, but some stayed and settled in the area. The first ever mentions of life at Barren Ground began in the Goulburn Herald in 1865 and included reports of theft, drunkenness and alleged rape.

The paper reported on September 16, 1865 that at Berrima Quarter Sessions, William Graham (known as Bill the Jordy) was charged with having, at Barren Ground, stolen from the person of Henry Homsberg (a Swede) money amounting to 15 pounds. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Homsberg had met the prisoner and others at the hut of Charlie Woods, a Forster and Roberts sub-contractor. He had too much drink and, on leaving, he fell and lost recollection; on reviving in the middle of the night he missed his money, suspected the prisoner, and gave information to the police. The paper did not provide the outcome.

In April 1866 the paper reported on an alleged rape at Forster and Roberts contract. James West, a labourer, was charged with having committed a rape upon Christiana Frederica Gotzseh, a German, and pleaded not guilty. Gotzsch was a married woman, living on the contract; she remembered the prisoner coming into her hut asking for bread and meat; he then took hold of her and threw her down on the bed; three men came into the hut shortly afterwards and put him out. The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty and the prisoner was discharged.

It was not just from these raw beginnings that a community evolved, as next week's article on the Tooth family will reveal.

To be continued

This article compiled by Philip Morton is sourced from the archives of Bundanoon History Group and Berrima District Historical & Family History Society, Bowral Rd, Mittagong. Phone 4872 2169. Email bdhsarchives@gmail.com