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Stuart Town

Our History

History of mining

The earliest official report of gold in the Stuart Town area was made by Edward Hammond Hargraves (discoverer of Australia's first payable gold field at Ophir), in 1851 while travelling along the Macquarie River. He recorded that alluvial gold was to be found along most of the river.

Later, in 1851, Muckerwa Creek was included in a list of places where gold had been found, and these alluvial deposits were being worked in 1852.

New rich finds at Muckerwa Creek, Specimen Hill, and Stoney Creek (now Farnham) caused a rush in 1855.

The Ginger reef was opened in 1857, Post Office and Poormans reefs in 1858, and Beehive in 1859. The Beehive was one of the main deposits in the area of Farnham which had become a small town in 1860.

Other reef deposits were opened up during the 1860s including German Jack, Chump mine, Swallows Nest, and Redfern, Canadian and Chinamans reefs; many of these workings had stopped by 1870.

The alluvial workings around Farnham, Stuart Town and Burrendong were partly exhausted by 1873.

Sir Alexander Stuart (1824-1886)

Stuart Town was originally known as "Ironbarks", made famous in the Banjo Patterson poem The Man from Ironbark. With the event of the railway coming through in 1889 the name was changed to Stuart Town, named after the then NSW state Premier Sir Alexander Stuart.

Merchant and parliamentarian, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, and having worked for a merchant in Scotland arrived in Sydney in 1851. In 1852 Stuart joined the Bank of New South Wales. By 1855 he joined R. Towns & Co. and became prominent in commercial circles.

Stuart was elected a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for the seats of East Sydney (1874-1879) and Illawarra (1880-1885). He was a member of the NSW Legislative Council (1885-1886). Stuart was appointed Colonial Treasurer (1876-1877) and Premier and Colonial Secretary (1883-1885).

Stuart had been a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales since 1874, a New South Wales commissioner for the 1876 Philadelphia International Exhibition, an elective trustee of the Australian Museum in 1881-82 and a vice-president of the Highland Society of New South Wales. In 1886 he went to London as New South Wales executive commissioner for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. Soon after its opening he died of typhoid fever on 16 June at 52 Stanhope Gardens, London, and was buried at Roxeth Church near Harrow-on-the-Hill.

History courtesy of: www.adb.online.anu.edu.au

Robert Askin

Born Robin William Askin in Stuart Town in 1901, he changed his name to Robert William Askin in 1971 by deed pole. Askin grew up in Glebe NSW and was a keen footballer (Rugby League). Askin began his working life in the Rural Bank and joined the Australian Army during World War II and served in New Guinea and Borneo.

With a solid working-class background and trade union affiliations, Askin may have gravitated to the Australian Labor Party, but he joined the conservative Liberal Party of Australia in 1947 after a chance encounter with an army colleague. He rapidly rose through the party ranks and soon became president of the party's Manly branch. He was the state member for the seat of Collaroy from 1949 until the seat was abolished by a redistribution in 1973, when he became member for Pittwater until his retirement in 1975.

Askin was elected leader of the NSW Liberal Party in 1959 and became Premier of NSW on 1 May 1965, ending the 24-year rule of the Australian Labor Party and winning against Labor's incumbent, Jack Renshaw.

Askin was noted for his "phenomenal" ability to remember faces, an "uncanny" feel for public opinion, a mastery of political tactics and for his combative relationship with the media.

History courtesy of: stuarttown.org.au