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Looking across Murrurundi and the Liverpool Plains from the crossing north of the town
 

Murrurundi (including Blandford, Timor Caves, Ardglen, Willow Tree)
Small town at the edge of the Liverpool Range west of Sydney
Murrurundi is a small rural town of about 1000 people situated 327 km north of Sydney, 44 km north of Scone and 417 metres above sea-level. It is quite beautifully located by the Pages River at the foot of the Liverpool Ranges. Mountains loom impressively overhead, particularly to the east and west.

Except for shale mining in the early 20th century there has been an absence of heavy industry in the locality and consequently change has been gradual. Murrurundi and its rural heritage have been preserved. The main street has been declared an urban conservation area.

It is known that the area was occupied by the Wanaruah and/or Kamilaroi Aboriginal peoples before colonial settlement and that the two groups had trade and ceremonial links.

The Wanaruah favoured goannas as a food source, covering larger animals in hot ashes and stuffing them with grass. They also adopted burning off practices as the new shoots which emerged after fire attracted kangaroos which they surrounded and killed with clubs and spears (du-rane) barbed with sharp stones. They also used stone axes (mogo) made of hard volcanic rock bound to a wooden handle.

The Kamilaroi wore opossum clothing and, for ceremonial or ornamental purposes, smeared themselves with red ochre and pipe clay, scarred their bodies and wore decorative headwear. Once one of the largest linguistic communities in Australia their last known formal communal ceremony was held in 1905. By the start of the 20th century there were no indigenous people left in the Murrurundi area.

It is from the Wanaruah place name 'Murrumdoorandi' that the town's name derives. Despite understandable local publicity which claims that it means 'nestled in a valley' it seems more likely that it refers to five unusual rock formations near Temple Court (four now remain) and may mean 'five fingers' or 'meeting place at the five fingers'.

The first European in the vicinity was surveyor Henry Dangar who passed through the area to the west in 1824 while scouting for new grazing lands. When his party was attacked by the Wanaruah's Geaweagal clan he retreated but settlers still moved into the upper Hunter Valley.

William Nowland, a farmer from Singleton (then known as Patrick's Plains), followed in Dangar's footsteps, crossing the Range and establishing a station on Warrah Creek in the Liverpool Plains. He searched for three months before he found the gap just north of present-day Murrurundi in 1827. Others soon followed his dray track which formed part of the Great North Road. Built by 3000 convicts between 1826 and 1834 it was the first road into the Hunter Valley.

William Henry Warland established the estate of Harben Vale to the south of present-day Murrurundi in 1829. The village which developed nearby he named Blandford after his birthplace in England. By 1834 Warland had built a homestead and formed a partnership with Peter Haydon whose brother Thomas also acquired land in the area.

When the government laid out the township of Murrurundi in 1840 Thomas Haydon decided to create the adjacent private village of Haydonton which serviced the local estates, government officers and travellers. In time the name Haydonton fell into disuse. The two, separated by Halls Creek, were amalgamated in 1913 with old Haydonton forming the town's commercial district.

Bushrangers in the district included the Jewboy Gang. They were known to frequent the area known as Doughboy Hollow (the area between Ardglen and Willow Tree). After they murdered John Graham at Scone in 1840 they stopped at Murrurundi, where they exchanged their horses and headed north over the range to the hollow. There police magistrate Edward Denny Day and his party caught up with the gang who were captured after a shoot-out and hanged in 1841.

While the district became noted for its fine wool production, the village acquired a somewhat dubious reputation in the early days. Being a frontier town at the northern edge of settlement it was full of transients, or 'many restless and disorderly characters' as it was put at the time. In the 1840s teamsters and stockmen frequented the Woolpack Inn and the White Hart Hotel.

A good Irish Catholic, Thomas Haydon established the Murrurundi Race Club and a racecourse in 1841 and donated land and funds for the town's first church the same year. The first courthouse and private school were built in 1843 and Australia's seventh national school opened in 1849. In 1867 the population was recorded as being 350.

The railway arrived in 1872 and Murrurundi became an active and prosperous rail centre with a repair shop and barracks while the track to the north was under construction.

Murrurundi became a municipality in 1890. Shale was mined between 1911 and 1915 with the town's population peaking around 1914. Since that time it has settled back into being a service and transport centre. Today it is sustained by quality sheep, beef and horse studs and by both crop and meat production. The sheepdog trials are held in April and the Bushman's Carnival and Rodeo in October. At Chilcott's Creek, 15 km north, the remains of a huge diprotodon were found. It is now in the Sydney Museum.

Things to see:   [Top of page]

Haydonton Inn
Mayne St, named after the Crown Land Commissioner of the day, is the title given to the highway as it passes through Murrurundi. At the southern end of the town, opposite the Shell Roadhouse and still identified by a name plate out the front, is the Haydonton Inn, made of local bricks in the early 1850s.

A little further north, almost opposite Brook St (so-named as it leads to the river), is a skin and wool store built c.1856 of handmade thumb-print bricks.

 

Tourist Information
Continue north, past Victoria and Wade Sts and, to the left, are the council chambers, the town's tourist information centre. You can obtain a walking tour pamphlet here, tel: (02) 6546 6205.

 

Mayne Street
Over the road is the White Hart Hotel. The original dining room remains from the timber structure erected in 1842 by the in-laws of Thomas Haydon. It was enlarged in 1857. The northern end was rebuilt at the outset of the century and the second storey added in 1936. Governor of NSW, the Earl of Belmore, dined here in 1869.

Continue north past Adelaide St (named after the Dowager Queen). To the right, two doors up from the supermarket (erected in 1905 as Dooley's Store), is Bridge House (70 Mayne St) built of local bricks in 1854 for Thomas Haydon's mother-in-law. The iron roof conceals the original shingles.

 

Ben Hall and Murrurundi
The first block of land to be purchased in Haydonton was purchased by ex-convict Benjamin Hall, the father of one of Australia's best-known bushrangers, Ben Hall. The family's original slab cottage (1842), where Ben Hall passed much of his early childhood, was located opposite Bridge House, approximately on the corner of Mayne St and Adelaide St. The family moved temporarily to the Lachlan district in the late 1840s. Ben's parents and some of the children returned to Murrurundi in the early 1850s. There is a photograph of the old cottage in the local history museum.

Also on Hall's original block is 'Rosebank', built in 1889 as the Joint Stock Bank which folded in 1892. It stands at the corner of Adelaide St and Liverpool St. Nearby is Halls Creek which is named after the family.

 

Hotels
The Railway Hotel, constructed in the 1880s, was rebuilt after a fire in the 1920s. Tattersall's, opposite, also dates from the 1880s though it is in a poor state of disrepair.

 

Catholic Complex and Railway Station
St Joseph's Catholic Church. Thomas Haydon, a devout Catholic, donated this land to the church and had a small wooden chapel built on the site in 1841. He oversaw the laying of foundations for a new church in 1855. The current building, made of local sandstone, was completed in 1860. It was consecrated by Bishop Polding. The church has a marble altar with 1000 constituent parts. Behind the church is the cemetery which contains the tombs of town founders Peter Haydon (died 1842) and Thomas Haydon (died 1855) and of Eliza Hall (died 1869), the mother of Ben Hall whom she outlived by four years.

Next door is Murrurundi House which was built in 1880 as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. It is a large two-storey building with an upstairs verandah guarded by cast-iron lacework fencing, a hipped roof, shuttered windows and a central gable topped by a crucifix. It is now a convention centre. Adjacent is the handsome old Catholic school which closed (like the convent) in 1970.

Over the road is the railway station built in 1872 when the line arrived from Scone. Murrurundi was the terminus of the northern line until the Ardglen tunnel was built, allowing construction to extend northwards.

 

Heritage Cottage
Cross the bridge over the river and head north along Mayne St. Just past the post office, on the left, is an old slab cottage taken from the 'Alston' property at Timor and re-erected in 1996.

 

Presbyterian Church
Continue north along Mayne St. To the right is an Italianate building erected in 1897 as the Manchester Unity Hall, a lodge of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. After World War II it became the RSL Memorial Hall. On the left-hand side of the road is the old Presbyterian Church, built between 1886 and 1898 and now used by a play group.

 

 

The Murrurundi Literary Institute, now the local Museum
 

Museum
Next door, on the corner block, is the local museum, situated in the Literary Institute (still emblazoned on the facade) which was built in 1913. It is a symmetrical building consisting of two almost identical structures with steeply-pitched roofs linked by a central hallway.

The town's first police station was erected on this site when the township was first laid out in 1840 and the School of Arts and Mechanics Institute were built here in 1883 but almost entirely demolished in the 1960s.

Out the front are some stocks, a reminders of that part of the building's history and of past systems of punishment. There is also an antiquated iron-wheeled tractor.

The museum contains artefacts of early settlement and local industry, and a collection of historical photographs. The Fishburn Room contains a 1:60 scale model of the HMS Endeavour, built by a member of the Fishburn family who are descended from mariner Andrew Fishburn, a member of the First Fleet. A plaque on the rock outside is in honour of his descendant, Murrurundi-born Peter Norvill who, in 1988, became the first Australian-born pilot to fly solo around the world solo in a fixed-wing aircraft.

The museum is open on the second and fourth Wednesdays and Sundays of the month from 2.00 p.m. - 4.00 p.m., the first and fourth Saturdays from 2.00 p.m. - 4.00 p.m. and the first, third and fifth Sundays from 12.00 p.m. - 3.00 p.m., tel: (02-6546 6142).Diagonally opposite is the old Methodist (now Uniting) Church built in 1890 of locally-made bricks.

 

St Paul's Anglican Church
St Paul's Anglican Church, designed by noted colonial architect J. Horbury Hunt and built of local sandstone in 1872-74. The work was commissioned by the White family (of which Nobel-Prize winning novelist Patrick White was a member).

The roof of the nave is a timber hammerbeam construction clad in slate while internally the ceiling is boarded. There is a cast-iron eagle lectern and a wall surfaced with Italian tiles behind the altar. The windows are grouped in twos and threes between buttresses. The square bell tower was completed in 1913 to a design of Hunt's and was constructed as a memorial to Frederick White of Harben Vale who pushed the original project along.

The single-storey vicarage at 3 Mount St was built of local bricks in 1858. It has a hipped roof, French windows, a timber verandah and ceilings of either plaster, pressed metal or timber.

 

Law and Order
In Murulla Street is the law-and-order complex, combining Gothic and Italianate elements. There are three buildings. The one closest to the road is a symmetrical sandstone and brick courthouse which consists of a central block fronted by a triple-arched portico with two smaller wings, incorporating the police station.

Next to this is the old gaol and lock-up keeper's residence which consists of a two-storey brick block flanked by two single-storey sandstone wings. The ground-level verandah is a later addition. Both were designed by Alexander Dawson and built in 1860-1861 on the site of the original 1842 courthouse. The sergeant's residence at the southern end of the complex was built in the 1890s.

 

Bridge and School
In Murulla St, just before the intersection with Mayne St, is a suspension bridge for pedestrians over the river. The third bridge on the site it was erected prior to 1914.

In Mayne St is the public school. The right side of the front section is the original building designed in 1877. The trees in the grounds are apparently registered with the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The 'Pink House', on the northern side of the schoolgrounds, was made of local bricks in 1854 as a national school. It later became the Methodist parsonage. No longer pink it is now a private residence named 'Elouera'. The two-storey blue building just over the road and a little further north was erected in 1865 as the Joint Stock Bank but became the CBC from 1870-1938.

 

Mayne St - North
The old Royal Hotel which was built in 1863. It has a hipped roof, upstairs verandah and quoins. Cobb & Co. used it as a changing depot until 1867. To the rear of the building are the old stables (best seen from Murulla St), built in 1860 of local sandstone and also used by Cobb & Co. The shingles are now covered with iron.

Continue north along Mayne St. To the left is the old telegraph office, built in 1861. It closed in 1913 when the new post office opened and is now the Cafe Telegraph.

At 180 Mayne St (behind a dense wall of trees) is one of the oldest surviving buildings in town, Bobadil House, which was built of local sandstone in 1843 as the Woolpack Inn. It was constructed for surveyor Henry Dangar.

 

Shale Works
Turn up Boyd St and drive to the T-intersection, turning left into Doughboy St. At its end a dirt road heads up the hill. On the right-hand side of that road it is possible to see some relics of the old shale works (on private property). To the left is the works manager's residence (1912).

Return south along Doughboy St. You can see more relics to your left. Turn right, back into Boyd St, then take the first left into Little St which, en route to the town's new recreation area, takes you past 'Rosedale', built 1848-52 of timber and enlarged in the 1890s. It was once occupied by parliamentarian Sir Joseph Abbott.

 

Paradise Park
Paradise Park, literally at the foot of a steep and densely wooded hill, is a lovely picnic area with shelters, barbecues, toilets, plenty of birds and, at dusk, there are usually some wallabies.

At the edge of the area is a path which leads through the 'Eye of the Needle', a narrow gap between the rocks through which you must pass to reach the summit. The trail continues to the lookout which affords fine views across to the mountains and the valley.

 

Glenalvon
One of the area's earliest properties is Glenalvon. Today it features a single-storey stone labourer's cottage and stables which were designed by J. Horbury Hunt in 1874 for the White family who had, by then, come into possession of the property.

The stables in particular are very distinguished. They are made of rough-hewn sandstone with a brick floor, gabled roofs and a fine ventilator capped by a pyramid design. The sandstone homestead was built in 1916. It has a pitched roof with integrated verandah.

 

Blandford
Blandford was surveyed as 'Murulla' (the Wanaruah name for Mount Murlow to the south-west) with the first land sale proceeding in 1856. It developed as a private village in the 1860s and the name Blandford was adopted when the railway came through in 1872. 2.3 km from the bridge is Blandford Public School, established in 1871.

 

Wallabadah Rock
Continue along Timor Rd. About 3 km from the highway, Scotts Creek Rd branches off to the left, heading northwards.About 16 km along the road is Wallabadah Rock, the plug of an extinct volcano. The base of the rock covers 61 hectares and it rises to 959 m above sea-level. It is possible to climb to the top. In October it is covered with flowering rock orchids. However, it is located on private property so any visit must be arranged in advance with the owners, tel: (02) 6546 6329.

 

Timor and Timor Caves
Timor has an attractive little timber church built of pit-sawn timber by voluntary labour in 1883. Both the initial construction and the centenary renovations were financed by local families. Nearby are the Timor Caves, a series of subterranean limestone caverns. The caves are within walking distance of the road. The Timor Caves are easily accessible but good shoes, a strong light and common sense are a must. Camping is available for a fee, tel: (02) 6546 6089.

 

St Luke's, Blandford
300 m south of Blandford Public School, on the New England Highway, is St Luke's Anglican Church, a small and attractive brick building with a tower buried beneath swathes of rich green ivy. It was another White family commission for J. Horbury Hunt (1879-80).

 

 

The Lookout at Nowlands Gap
Just north of Murrurundi the road rises up into and over the Liverpool Range via the Murrurundi Gap, otherwise known as Nowlands Gap after William Nowland, a farmer from Singleton (then known as Patrick's Plains) who discovered this route across the mountains in the late 1820s.

Today there are truck stops at Nowlands Gap which provide excellent views south over Murrurundi and the upper Hunter Valley. Unfortunately the picnic tables have been stolen twice and the council have now given up.

 

Ardglen
On the other side of the Liverpool Range are the Liverpool Plains, a revelation for pastoralists in the 1830s. After discovering the Murrurundi Gap over the range William Nowland drove his stock northwards over this route and established a new station at what he called Doughboy Hollow, now Ardglen, located 6 km north-west of Murrurundi on the highway. He was subsequently pushed off his land by the Australian Agricultural Company which was granted the million-acre Warrah station in 1833.

 

Willow Tree
Willow Tree is a pretty little village of arts and antique shops at the northern boundary of the shire, 18 km north of Murrurundi along the highway. Essentially a service centre to the rural areas of Warrah and Mount Parry it is situated at the north-eastern corner of the enormous Warrah grant which was made out to the Australian Agricultural Company in 1833. An inn was established on the future townsite but it was the arrival of the railway in the 1870s that precipitated settlement. The village was surveyed when part of the Warrah grant was subdivided and sold in 1908.

 

Gem Fossicking
The area around Murrurundi has some reputation as a fossicking site for agate, naturalite and zeolite crystal, calcite crystals, quartz, petrified wood and limestone fossils. However it has been well scoured and many sites are on private land.

 

 

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Murrurundi