Wentworth Post Office built 1899 in Greek Classical style. Pilasters beside doorway, roof pediment, paired windows and perfect symmetry. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Wentworth Post Office built 1899 in Greek Classical style. Pilasters beside doorway, roof pediment, paired windows and perfect symmetry. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
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| 説明 | Wentworth – founded in 1851- oldest river town. In the mid 1840s the junction of the Darling and Murray became known as McLeod’s Crossing after a local white settler. McLeod opened a hotel of sorts here in 1853 and because of the number of overlanders camping here a police officer was stationed at this remote corner of NSW from 1851.A small unofficial town emerged at that time. By 1858 McLeod’s Crossing (also known as Hawdon’s Ford) had grown as the river boat trade commenced in 1853/54 and more stations along the Darling were occupied. The government decided to survey a town here which it did in 1858 and they changed the name to Wentworth, after the pioneer who had crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813. Town blocks were sold in 1859 and the town declared in 1860. The nearest town to Wentworth at that time was Blanchetown established in 1855 in SA. The government had opened a Post Office in McLeod’s Crossing in 1855 which is the date often taken for the establishment of this river port. By 1851 a number of big runs along the Darling had been established including Pooncarie up river by William Campbell. By 1853 the NSW government estimated that there were 300,000 sheep along the Darling in the vicinity of Wentworth. Both William Randell of Gumeracha and Francis Cadell of Goolwa opened station stores in Wentworth in 1856. (William Randell moved to Wentworth and lived there with his family for some years before returning to Gumeracha.) Also in 1856 the River Murray Navigation Company opened a store in town to sell station supplies and receive bales of wool. All goods were transport to and from Milang and Goolwa on the Murray. The town boomed. By 1861 it had over 200 residents, a doctor, stores, hotels, police station, court, a small hospital, school and wharf facilities. Wentworth was civilisation in the outback! It was almost 1,100 kms from Sydney but a mere 420 kms from Adelaide. Pastoralists were able to get 14 year leases to their runs after 1861 and many invested more and expanded their flocks, hence almost doubling the trade in Wentworth. Wentworth mails were delivered from SA by boat and from Melbourne overland. In 1864 a bank opened and the first Customs House was erected to handle import and export duties on goods to and from SA. When the great Murray flood of 1870 occurred Wentworth was isolated for months. By the 1870s the town had churches, it had been declared a municipality and a famous SA pastoralist had acquired the huge Avoca Station. That was Daniel Cudmore of Yongala station near Jamestown. Avoca station occupied the triangle between the Darling and the Murray, covering 10 miles along the Murray and 25 miles up the Darling. The wealthy Cudmore invested heavily in the station sinking £63,000 into it over the next thirty years from 1876 on fences, irrigation pumps for lucern paddocks, new shearing machines etc. His homestead, Avoca is still a station but takes in bed and breakfast guests these days. Daniel Cudmore Junior built his summer home at Victor Harbor, the gracious and huge Adare House. Daniel acquired more properties in the Riverina and in QLD, including sugar plantations using Kanaka labour. He loved Wentworth and donated to the town; including maintenance funds for the beautiful St. Johns Anglican Church and he also paid the stipend for the Anglican vicar. St. Johns is stunning church for a town like Wentworth. When he Daniel Cudmore died Avoca Station was taken over by his barrister son Sir Collier Cudmore a well known SA Legislative Council member for many years but another family member Arthur Cudmore actually lived on the property. Collier Cudmore is best remembered for calling Premier Sir Thomas Playford a Bolshevik because of Playford’s desire for the government to set up and run the Port Augusta power station! Collier sold Avoca station in 1914. It was sold to Ben Chaffey, one of George Chaffey’s sons from Mildura! When his father returned to the US Ben stayed on as a pastoralist. Ben Chaffey kept Avoca, mainly for horse breeding, until his death in 1937. He had horses that won the Caulfield Cup and the Victorian Derby etc but he failed to win a Melbourne Cup. Also in the 1870s the Catholic Church (1872) was built and work started on the Wentworth Gaol (1879). Following the implementation of the Chaffey irrigation scheme at Mildura, a similar program was started at Wentworth in 1890 but it grew slowly. The main area of irrigation was centred on what is now the township of Dareton which we passed through on our way to Wentworth and after 1900 the area around Gol Gol directly opposite Mildura. Apart from irrigation Wentworth emerged as a major junction point for trade to Broken Hill after the mines there started up in 1886. Cobb and Co ran a coach service from Melbourne to Broken Hill via Wentworth. But the river trade started to decline once the NSW government built a railway across the western plains to Bourke on the Darling in mid 1880s. During the great shearers’ strikes of 1894 trouble brewed along the Darling and a boat carrying non union shearers was set alight and destroyed. In the 20th century Wentworth witnessed the dying days of the river trade as more railways (to Mildura amongst other places) were built. Road transport finally ended the river boat trade in the 1930s. The first bridge was built across the Murray from Mildura to enable access to Wentworth in 1927. This was also the era when pastoral leases were resumed by the government and land converted for irrigation fruit blocks, especially after World War One for soldier settler blocks (and again after World War Two.) Great stations like Avoca became small, almost unviable operations. As road transport took hold the links between Wentworth and the SA river towns faded. Some Wentworth Buildings. 1.The Post Office. This fine stucco classical style building with perfect symmetry, fancy cornice under the parapet roof line was built in 1899. It replaced much earlier post offices. It is beautifully maintained. 2.The Court House. The first court opened in the 1850s but this fine red brick building was erected in 1880 at the height of Wentworth’s importance as the major river port in Australia. The corbels indicate that the original roof was slate; it has shady verandas, and rounded windows. The opening date was linked to the opening of the Wentworth Gaol. 3.The River Murray Trading Company Store. This company was established in 1882 when the building was opened. But Wentworth previously had had many other companies such as the earlier (1856) River Murray Navigation Company. The fine brick store indicated the wealth of the company at that time. 4.The Uniting Church. The first Presbyterian Church manse was the first brick building in Wentworth, built around 1859. The attached church built in 1863 has long since been demolished. This current Presbyterian Church was opened in 1881. 5.Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church. This was the first Catholic Church in the Darling area and the second church in Wentworth. The foundation stone was laid in 1871 and the church opened in 1872. In front of the church is the Catholic School which was built in 1925. It closed in 2006. Around the corner is the former Nunnery (once a prominent citizen’s home) which the sisters purchased in 1892. In the grounds next door is the St. Ignatius Catholic School- a delightful wooden building erected in 1911. It was used for additional class rooms for the 1925 Catholic School until 1950. 6.St. John’s Anglican Church. The parish was formed in 1871 and work began soon after on the church. Locally made bricks were used but the stone was carted to Wentworth on barges from SA. It probably opened in 1872 or 1873. The steeply pitched roof looks very English, and the street facing gable above the entrance doors makes for a dramatic façade. The proportions of the tower are excellent and like the main body of the church the red brick buttresses contrast with the cream limestone and cream painted stucco quoins around windows and doors. The size indicates the importance the Anglican Church placed on the future prospects of Wentworth. The manse next door was opened in 1874. Inexplicably the church was not consecrated until 1947!7.Wentworth Gaol. Work started in 1879 and was completed by 1881. The design of this gaol was also used for those at Hay and Dubbo. It used local bricks and bluestone from Victoria. The gaol was used until 1927 when it became extra classrooms for Wentworth School! This arrangement ceased in 1963. The gaol was small and mainly housed short term prisoners awaiting sentencing and the like. 8.The Old Custom House. This is hard to recognise as it is now a private residence and much changed. It was designed in 1884 by the prison architect as a small wooden building. It belied the importance of Wentworth which was only exceeded in customs handling by Sydney and Newcastle in the 1880s. The record was 31 steamers arriving in one week. In 1890 Wentworth exported £1.276 million pounds of goods. 11, 000 to 12,000 bales of wool were loaded a year. 420 vessels used Wentworth in just one year in 1890. Over 200 vessels worked the Murray and Darling Rivers at any one time. We can see one of them, the PS Ruby. Apart from paddle steamers many barges plied the rivers too. Captain Cadell owned the Ruby and used it to transport goods up the Murray for the Melbourne market. Wentworth: interesting facts. •Sir Charles Todd, the SA Post Master General, the surveyor of the overland telegraph from Adelaide to Darwin which led to the link up to London, was a keen astronomical observer. In 1882 in order to get the best observations of Venus he set up a temporary observation centre in Wentworth. •Yelta Aboriginal Mission is opposite Wentworth across the Murray. The junction of the Darling and Murray rivers was a special place for all the local aboriginal tribes from along the Murray and the Darling. Huge corroborees were held here. The Anglican Church wanted to convert the Aboriginal people to Christianity so a survey was done of the area in 1854. It reported that Aboriginal groups were camped along the rivers every 10 to 15 miles. A mission station was set up in 1855 but encountered great difficulties as the local tribes all spoke different languages. Yelta Mission was sold and closed in 1870. Reverend Goodwin ran it.•The confluence of the two great Australian rivers is clear to see with the Darling being much redder and browner than the Murray. The waters flow beside each other for many metres before they merge into one. •Lake Mungo National Park. This is located about 100 kms north east of Wentworth. It is part of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage area. It is an especially important archaeological site as it has unearthed for the world the oldest human remains found in Australia and the oldest cremated body found in the world. Sediments have been layered at Lake Mungo for over 100,000 years and Mungo Lady is estimated to be over 40,000 years old. She was discovered by an archaeologist in 1969. There is evidence of human habitation around the Lake from 50,000 years ago. Mungo Man is believed to have lived between 40,000 and 68,000 years ago which makes this modern human skeleton an amazing find. It is now generally accepted that all modern humans are descended from a small group of modern humans in east Africa that moved out of that region about 60,000 years ago. The existence of modern man at Lake Mungo means the African humans spread across parts of the globe very quickly indeed. |
| 撮影日 | 2012-01-17 14:16:20 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | DSC-S950 , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.001 sec (1/800) |
| 開放F値 | f/5.1 |