The countryside around Moss Vale

 

Moss Vale
Major centre in the Southern Highlands
Moss Vale is located 124 km south-west of Sydney via the F5 Freeway and 672 m above sea-level. It is a quiet country town of 5690 people (1991 figures) which functions as a service and administrative centre of Wingecarribee Shire. Like many Southern Highlands towns the climate and the planting of European trees combine to create an English village feel.

The area was once occupied by the Dharawal Aborigines, though they had, in effect, been driven off or killed off by the 1870s. The first European party to investigate the district was that of ex-convict John Wilson in 1798. They had been sent by Governor Hunter with the object of accumulating factual data about the southlands to discourage convicts who were escaping and heading south in the belief that China was but 150 miles away. Wilson had been living with the Aborigines for some years and had almost certainly been in the area prior to the expedition. His party were the first Europeans to sight the koala and lyrebird (at present-day Bargo).

Over the next decade there were minor forays into the district by the likes of John Warby and a botanical collector for Joseph Banks named George Caley. The Hume brothers, probably in the company of their uncle John Kennedy, investigated the area in 1814. With pasturage around Sydney becoming scarce John Oxley and his stockmen drove some cattle into the area the following year.

In 1817 Charles Throsby, Hamilton Hume, Joseph Wild and others explored the country west of Sutton Forest. They returned in 1818 with surveyor-general James Meehan en route to Jervis Bay passing through the eastern portion of what is now Moss Vale. The following year Throsby and Wild were back again en route to Bathurst. Governor Macquarie awarded Throsby 1000 acres for his efforts and made him superintendent over the construction of a road from Picton to the Goulburn Plains. Macquarie visited the construction site and Throsby's land grant at Bong Bong, just north of present-day Moss Vale, in 1820. It was the governor who suggested the name 'Throsby Park'.

A site for the establishment of a village to be called Bong Bong was surveyed in 1821. It became the first European settlement on the Southern Highlands but was never proclaimed, perhaps because the flow of the Wingecarribee was uncertain at the townsite and building material was scarce. Throsby's servant Joseph Wild, who also contributed greatly to the exploration of the area, received 100 acres adjacent Throsby's. His hut was located adjacent the Wingecarribee River near where the Bong Bong Bridge now stands. A police building and huts for the accommodation of a military detachment were also amongst the first buildings, though the most popular was the Argyle Inn.

However, Bong Bong was short-lived. It was surveyed in 1821 but the road to Bong Bong was unpopular as it entailed crossing the Mittagong Range and travellers preferred the route via Berrima to the west. Hence the village did not prosper. In 1837, as a sign of its demise, the post office was moved to Berrima. All that remains today is Christ Church, consecrated in 1845 after the village had ceased to exist.

A visitor to the future site of Moss Vale in 1853 observed that there were five slab and bark structures and wheat being grown. The subdivision of land around the position of the prospective railway station began in 1864. At the time the only inhabitant in the immediate vicinity was Jeremy ('Jemmy') Moss, who was one of Charles Throsby's herdsmen. It was from him that the town's name derives.

In anticipation of the railway line the Moss Vale Hotel was erected in 1864 or 1865. Instead of following the route of the main road to Berrima the line terminated where Moss Vale now stands. When the station was built it was called Sutton Forest while the post office, also established in 1867, was called Moss Vale. The nascent township's first store also opened that year, the first school in 1869, the first bank branch and newspaper in 1874 and a police station in 1877.

The population increased from 134 to 570 between 1871 and 1881. The village prospered in the late 1870s and 1880s for a number of reasons: it lay on the road to Robertson, it grew as the main service centre for the dairying, market gardening, and sheep and cattle raising district, a railway line to Port Kembla was laid for the transportation of the area's stores of limestone, and, like other Southern Highlands town, it became a popular holiday resort when the trains enabled wealthy Sydneysiders to discover the beautiful scenery and healthy climate. This trend was encouraged when Mrs Throsby removed to the original cottage of Throsby Park and leased the main homestead to the Governor of NSW, the Earl of Belmore, thus advertising the desirability of the location for tourists.

The years from 1880 to 1888 saw churches built by the main denominations - Presbyterian (1880), Anglican (1881), Methodist and Catholic (both 1888) - while the present post office building was erected 1890-91. Moss Vale was declared a municipality in 1888.

Things to see:  

Moss Vale Visitors Centre and Historic Walk
The visitors' centre has leaflets outlining an historic walk.

 

 

Leighton Gardens in the centre of Moss Vale

 

A Walk around Moss Vale
Leighton Gardens in Argyle St (the main thoroughfare) is a pleasant spot for a picnic. There is a band rotunda. In spring and autumn the trees in the park are spectacular.

Further up Argyle St, on the western side of the road, is the old Dominican convent - an impressive building with a row of elm trees leading to the front portal which looks like it has been lifted out of rural France and placed in the middle of Moss Vale. It is now Aurora College. In recent years the convent has changed function a number of times.

Just past the convent turn right into Waite St (Berrima Rd) and on the first corner (Browley St) is the Anglican Church, built in the 1880s but much altered. Turn left into Browley St and the Presbyterian Church is to the right (1879). Also in Browley St is 'Kalourgan', thought to have been the residence of Mother Mary McKillop (Australia's first official saint) for a short time. The Catholic Church is in Garrett St (head north off the main street into Lackey Rd and take the first left).

The Southern Highlands Regional Gallery can be found in Railway House, Argyle St. It is open from Fridays to Sundays from 10-4. There are two antique shops on Argyle St - Clock Tower Antiques at 249 Argyle St in the old post office building - and the Argyle Street Galleries at 582 Argyle St. The antiquarian bookshop, The Book Gallery, is at 551 Argyle St.

 

 

Throsby Park

 

Throsby Park
The most impressive residence from this time is Throsby Park, now administered by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is an impressive colonial Georgian residence set on land granted to Dr Charles Throsby in 1819 in recognition of his pioneering work exploring and opening up the South Coast and Southern Highlands.

Throsby built a cottage on the land in 1823 for his nephew as he preferred to remain at his home in Glenfield and had no children of his own. The nephew, another Charles, and his wife Elizabeth built Throsby Park in 1834. Elizabeth was one of only four people not killed during a Maori attack on a cargo vessel in New Zealand in 1809 when she was two. The survivors were rescued by Alexander Berry, a friend of her father. She was only 16 when she married Charles. She bore him 17 children and lived to be 83. Her great-great granddaughter still lives in the rear section of the residence and runs Throsby Park Riding School, which operates from the stables (c.1836), contact (02) 4868 1017.

 

The main lounge room at Throsby Park

 

Throsby Park is largely unchanged and retains much of the original furniture, cedar joinery and fittings. It is a huge, one-storey, 27-room house built of locally-quarried stone. Wings extend from the main block to form a courtyard enclosed by a separate kitchen. There are cellars, servants' attics, six-panelled cedar doors, marble and stone fireplaces as well as a grand drawing room and dining room. The 1823 cottage is also still standing and there are farm buildings, including the sandstock-brick barn (c.1828), which was formerly used as a shearing shed and is now a private residence. Guided tours for groups can be organised by ringing (02) 4887 7270 or (02) 4868 2721. The general public's only chance to see the homestead and grounds is during open days in Tulip Time (September-October). Ring (1800) 656 176 for more exact details.

To get there head east of Argyle St along the Illawarra Highway for 1.5 km and turn left into Throsby Park Rd.

 

Tudor House Preparatory School
Further down the Illawarra Highway, to the left, is the famous Tudor House preparatory school, the primary school for boys who usually continue their studies at The Kings School at Parramatta. Among the school¹s most famous old boys was the novelist, and Nobel Prize winner, Patrick White, who wrote of the school in his autobiography, Flaws in the Glass: 'The school to which they sent me was far enough from Sydney to foment terror in the heart of a timid, introspective child, anyway in the beginning. It was patronised by the grazier class and Sydney families with social pretensions. The climate was bracing. The boys, like those of any school, were said to love everything about it. The building was a mansion in the Thames Valley Tudor style favoured by the Australian rich in the early part of the century.'

 

Other Attractions in the Area
Moss Vale Golf Club is in Arthur St, contact (02) 4869 2091. They also have a lovely guest house for holidaymakers known as The Dormie House, contact (02) 4868 1014.

Just north of Moss Vale is the site of the first European settlement in the Southern Highlands, Bong Bong. To the right, before Bong Bong Bridge is Christ Church, consecrated in 1845 after the village had ceased to exist. It survived because it was supported by people in the district and is still used today. The cemetery is historic and contains descendants of Throsby's nephew, as well as the tomb of Joseph Wild.

Cross the Bong Bong Bridge over the Wingecarribee River. On the right, behind a white gate in the pine trees, is a cairn which marks the site where the first settlement on the Southern Highlands stood.

Just past the cairn is a branch road to the right which leads to Cecil Hoskins Nature Reserve on the banks of Bong Bong Reservoir. This wetlands site has several walking tracks, as well as picnic and toilet facilities. There are plenty of waterfowl, as well as water rats and the occasional platypus. Kangaroos and wallabies can be seen on the eastern side of the reserve which was named after a prominent scion of the Hoskins family, principal figures in the foundation of Australia's iron-and-steel industry. Cecil Hoskins, one-time chairman and joint managing director of AIS, formerly lived at Moss Vale. There are leaflets concerning the animal life in the area available from the Fitzroy Falls Visitors' Centre, contact (02) 4887 7270.

Further north on Moss Vale Rd, to the left, just north of the Bowral Flight Centre, is historic Briars Inn, originally the Royal Oak Hotel, built c.1845. This two-storey brick building was owned by the Throsby family until 1943 and was then renovated. One of Charles Throsby's children lived there until 1891.

A short distance south of Moss Vale, Oldbury Rd heads north off the Illawarra Highway. Therein lies Oldbury homestead, a two-storey stone Georgian house built in 1828 by James Atkinson on land he was granted in 1818. It has a timber Doric portico and cantilevered timber stairway with a separate kitchen and cellar.

Another way to see the surrounding countryside is to take a ride on The Cockatoo Run, a leisurely train trip on olden-style carriages (pulled by steam train except in exceptional circumstances) to Robertson or down to the lllawarra. It operates from Saturday to Tuesdays and on public holidays, contact (1800) 64 3801.

The Wangaruka Berry Farm, on Nowra Rd, has fresh berries, jams, pies and home-made ice-cream in season (December to April), contact (02) 4887 7278.

The Moss Vale Agricultural Show is held in March. The largest markets of the Southern Highlands are held on the fourth Sunday of each month at the Moss Vale showgrounds on the Illawarra Highway.

 

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Moss Vale