Tangmangaroo local and author Helen Middleton has recently published her first book, ‘Tangmangaroo Life on Lachlan Valley Way,’ which sold out at its launch held at the Tangmangaroo Anglican Church. She has strong ties to the area with family having lived in the area for 83 years.
Mrs Middleton was delighted to have an enthusiastic response to her book from the community.
“It was a large wow, I couldn’t believe it. People provided me with information and photos,”
She also thanked publisher Tony MacQuillan and her cousin John Hamblin who have helped along the way.
‘Tangmangaroo Life on Lachlan Valley Way’ dives into a rich history of the Tangmangaroo area, discovering the lives of the land’s forebears.
Inspiration for the book struck after a meeting following a bush fire. Mrs Middleton remembers standing around with a cup of tea, chatting along with other locals, including the Bartons and Corkhills.
“People were saying ‘I wonder who owned this land before we came.’ They were saying, ‘one day we’ll find out who the previous owners of this land.’ They were wondering what was in this land, what was there, and what did the people do? It inspired me to start searching around,” she said.
After eight years of dedicated research within both community knowledge and historical records, ‘Tangmangaroo Life on Lachlan Valley Way’ was completed.
Mrs Middleton explained that families came out on the ships from England to settle in Tangmangaroo during the late 1800s. Original settler families included the Bartons, Bests, and Goodwins. Joseph Barton, for example, came to Australia on board a migrant ship, the ‘Golconda.’
“They worked the land, they had vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, and they had the sheep and the cattle. They grew cotton at one stage,” she continued.
“The locality is identified by the headwaters of the Boorowa River, itself a headwater of the Lachlan River, which eventually joins the Murrumbidgee, then their waters flow into the Murray River,” wrote Mr MacQuillan in the book’s foreword.
“The schools were beautiful, they were little old fashioned sheds, huts of slab timber and bark. The children walked for three to four kilometres or went by horse and sulky or rode their ponies, some rode bush bikes,” said Mrs Middleton.
She explained the schools were half-time schools, which might have run two days at Tangmangaroo and then another two days at Kangiara.
‘Tangmangaroo Life on Lachlan Valley Way’ is filled with beautiful pictures of these schools and many more fascinating subjects. Mrs Middleton was able to unearth many of the photos and knowledge from the collective memory of elderly Tangmangaroo residents, most of whom have now passed away.
“I had some sandwiches on my front verandah with the elderly people, people older than 80. We talked about what their forbears did, what their great-great-grandfathers did. They showed me some photos that had been handed down to them. That’s what gave us some beautiful photos for the book,” said Mrs Middleton.
“That included all the different little schools. There was Grassy Creek, Felled Timber, Willow Hill, Kangiara Creek, Tavistock, Tammangaroo, Limestone Creek,” she listed.
One of the earliest schools was Willow Hill School, founded in 1878 and taught by Tangmangaroo local Dorothy Buckmaster. Another teacher in 1932 was Alissa Hunter, who married into the Frost family.
On the book’s cover is an artwork by Robert Hoddle, 1794-1881. Mr Hoddle was an early surveyor of the Tangmangaroo area, an amateur artist and later Surveyor General of Victoria.
Mrs Middleton and her publisher, Tony MacQuillan, have taken out a second order of books which will be available later this month, to be sold at Yass and District Historical Society and the Yass Valley Information Centre for $50 each. Mrs Middleton said she hopes to have several copies at Yass Library in future.
Southerly Jones
