Part 3: Life at Kooringal, and So Much More

My 2x Great Grandparent’s Home in Wagga Wagga

Here we go the final chapter of Jessie, Alexander and the rest of the family’s story revolving around Kooringal.

Part 2 ended with Captain Jack Macvean, Jessie and Alexander’s nephew, lecturing as a returned soldier on the Manly Corso to try and boost those ever-dwindling enlistment numbers. This next find was a real surprise to me and revealed that Jack had other talents and he wasn’t afraid of putting them to use in aid of his fellow troops.

I can’t believe it but I even managed to find a review of the performances that gives a bit more insight into what role Jack was playing.

I know they have Jack’s initials wrong but it is definitely our Jack. I have had a quick dig around Google and Dick Cunningham has quite a substantial role in the musical. He is a tenor part, has a solo and sings a number of the big songs in the show. Good on Jack.

There are no photos of his production but I did find this beautiful picture of a George Edwardes’ Company production that was performed in Aberdeen in 1896 and I think shows what Jack probably would have looked like in the production.

This is the theatre where Jack and the rest of the Amateur Patriotic Opera Company performed in the last week of August 1917.

This building used to be called Federation Hall it was completed in 1891 and it was used originally as St Patrick’s Parish Hall, the church being on the opposite corner. https://stpatschurchhill.org/st-patricks-history-early-years/

The theatre opened on the 31st of May 1913 as the Sydney Repertory Theatre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ward_(theatre)

In another lifetime when I first started working as a junior Barrister’s Clerk back in 1986, I passed this building many times not knowing the family connection. The building has undergone extensive remodelling since Jack performed there but I managed to find this one photo showing only the very corner of the original building and what it would have looked like for Jack.

I love this next article, this is how you know you are fundraising in a rural setting. Alexander and Jessie supporting the Soldier’s Comfort Fund again, this time with a fat sheep.

Article 14: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Our next find is another wonderful opportunity to hear William’s voice from the front.

You might recall that I said earlier in Part 2, hold on to what Isabel mentioned in her letter to Uncle Jeff about the strikers. Well, this is what William was referring to as well in his letter above. But before that, yes, you read that correctly William was wounded for a third time.

It is literally a month to the day since he rejoined the battalion from his Scabies admission. His record says 2nd Occasion, but it was actually William’s third wounding.

This time he sustained a gunshot wound to the wrist. It looks like he was first treated at the 11th Australian Field Ambulance, Casualty Clearing Station, (CCS) then moved to the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station (ACCS) and then finally admitted to the 8th Stationary Hospital at Wimereux. He remained there for 16 days.

Back to William’s letter. Wow, what you can learn from one little article. The strike William is referring to is very famous in Australian Industrial Relations history. It is known as the General Strike of 1917. It started in New South Wales but expanded across the country and by the end of the strike in December 1917 over 100000 workers were involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_Australian_general_strike https://archives.anu.edu.au/exhibitions/struggle-solidarity-and-unity-150-years-maritime-unions-australia/worker-unrest-1917

The I.W.W. William refers to is another whole section of history unknown to me. It refers to the Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary militant organisation established in June 1905 in the USA. Its goal was to see workers in the same unions unite all over the country and eventually take over the workplaces from the owners and run them for the good of all. They had a huge impact here in Australia at the time of Jessie receiving this letter from William. If you are interested in learning more, the link below is where I got this information from, click it for a mind-blowing read. https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-australia/

With everything that William has had to endure throughout his war service, it is no wonder he feels as frustrated as he sounds in his letter and at this time, he still has another fourteen months before he boards that ship homeward bound. Not that he knows that, for him it was an unrelenting, indefinite job, fighting in this war.

Isabel is busy again writing to Uncle Jeff, in our next discovery.

The Q.C. examination that Isabel mentions, was the Qualifying Certificate that was designed to mark the completion of Primary school and to provide the Education Board with some idea of who might be best suited for further education in high schools and also assisted with the allocation of funding. https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/history-of-nsw-government-schools/facts-and-figures/examinations

She doesn’t mention Uncle Willie this time but you can clearly see the effects of the war are obviously taking up a huge chunk of her world.

This phenomenal photo is of Verge Stephens who she mentions.

Verge was a horse trainer who was born in Adelong. I’m making a big assumption here but I think Isabel knew quite a bit about Verge as she mentions that he “…will be returning again.” Meaning that he has returned from the front previously and this is exactly what happened to him.

Verge enlisted in August 1915 got as far as Port Said in Egypt, suffered an acute hernia and was promptly sent back to Australia for surgery in Sydney. He recovered and made it to France in April 1917, then just four months later, on the 28th of August 1917, he was hit by a bomb while fighting in Messines. He manages to survive but loses his sight completely in his right eye, has very little remaining in the left and has multiple shrapnel wounds to the stomach, arms, legs and hands. He returned to Australia in January 1918. Verge ended up marrying twice in his lifetime, had three children and passed away at the age of 72 in 1964.

There is no photo of Nevil Alchin unfortunately and Isabel was correct, he did have a bad time. Nevil actually returned to Australia on the same ship as Verge in 1918. Nevil started his war with two bouts of VD about 6 weeks admission each time in 1916. Then on the 15th May 1917, whilst fighting in France he suffered multiple gunshot or shrapnel wounds to both his legs, buttocks and back, resulting in the amputation of his left leg. Nevil makes the best of it though, he too marries in 1918, eventually has three children and reenlists in 1943 for service in the 2nd World War. He ended the war in 1946 as a Warrant Officer. He passed away in 1965 at Liverpool, Sydney at the age of 66.

The next article is our first mention of David Hunter Macvean (Jessie & Alexander’s second youngest son) since we found out in Part One that he and his wife Amy were living in Tamworth in 1913 where David was working as a Fireman. It confirms for us their whereabouts at the end of 1917.

He and Amy have been married for five years and have had the first of their five children by this stage. Reginald Lyall born in 1913 and Lindsay William born in 1916. The Yeronga Estate we talked about in Part One of these posts. Alexander and Jessie purchased this estate in 1913. I’m assuming here that at some stage after October 1913 that Amy and David made the move to Yeronga. This is when Reginald’s birth is registered in Harden which is about 150kms to the north of Wagga Wagga. I think we can safely say they are in the area in 1916 as Lindsay’s birth is registered in Wagga Wagga in that year.

Now if you have read part one and two of the Kooringal posts you might remember that we have seen these domestic ads, our next article, before. Obviously, with the usual ebb and flow of life, some changes in the Kooringal household and new staff members were needed. I wish we knew who else made up the small adult family apart from Jessie and Alexander.

The next article is a letter to Uncle Jeff again but this time from my grandfather’s sister, Marjorie Macvean. She too like her cousin, Isabel, has some fascinating insights into the families life at the time.

Article 15: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Aunty Marj starts off by mentioning Uncle Willie’s third wounding, which was the gunshot wound to the wrist he sustained four months before she wrote her letter. She then mentions Captain Jack, Maffra W. Macvean, her father’s cousin, and confirms that he has returned from the war.

I think this is a good opportunity to share with you something that has been mulling over in my mind for a while. You know how we don’t have a photo of Jack as an adult. Well my thinking is, now that I have the photo of William Hill Macvean, Jack’s cousin, (generously shared by my cousin, Tony), shown below and we now have this link between Aunty Marj and Jack, (her mention of him in the letter) that I might actually have a photo of Jack but I just didn’t know it.

Here is the photo of William again.

Now check out this photo titled “Rooksdale Family” generously shared by my other cousin, Greg Palmer. I always thought that the bloke in uniform on the right was probably Uncle Willie.

But comparing it now to the photo of William, I don’t think they are the same person, similar granted but not the same. I wonder if this might be the elusive Captain Jack. It is so tantalising to think of but know way to be sure.

Back to Aunty Marj’s letter, I love the fact that she mentions Isabel her cousin. I think we can infer from this that they were definitely in each other’s lives to some degree. Tarcutta where Isabel lives is only 50kms north of Marj at Little Billabong. I also love her mentions of the task around the farm with my Great Grandfather and her brother, either my Uncle Alex or Grandfather, John.

Interestingly Aunty Marj also mentions Nevil Alchin and refers to Katie Molloy’s idea for him. I was intrigued and had to try and find out what it was. I came across this letter from Uncle Jeff to all of the Cousins of the “Banner” which provided the answers.

Article 16: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

The new cousins Aunty Marj mentions in her letter are, Douglas Alexander McKechnie, son of Amy Davina McKechnie, nee Macvean, and Leonard McKechnie. You might recall again from Part One of these posts that Amy visited Melbourne with her mother Jessie to see William off to the war. I found out that Douglas enlisted in World War 2 and ended up flying for bomber command in England and was sadly, shot down and killed at the age of 25.

The other cousin is Thelma Macvean, daughter of David Hunter Macvean and Amy Bloomfield.

Thelma married George Moore in 1949 in Annandale in Sydney. I can’t find any record of Thelma and George having any children. Thelma passed away at the age of 80 in 1998 and is buried at Woronora Cemetery in Sydney.

On a fun side note, now that we have seen that Rooksdale Family photo above, Figure 109b, I wonder if the other bloke standing on the left between Jessie and Jean might be their Uncle, David Hunter Macvean. Especially when you now compare it with the photo of David in Figure 109e.

The next find, another huge donation to the Red Cross Appeal from Jessie and Alexander. £100.00 This is only £8.00 short of the combined yearly wages of four women at the time.

Here is another decent one to the Scottish Women’s War Hospitals.

This next article was a nice little find and shows how much the efforts of the volunteers meant to the boys on the front line. A visit from two returned recipients of their comfort funds. You will notice that William is on the list to receive another comfort package.

I can’t find anything to tie down exactly who Private H Baker was. Obviously, he was from the Wagga Wagga area but the official records on the National Archives don’t match with a H Baker. I found one other article referring to a Private H Baker on Trove that mentions he was a journalist at the Wagga Express before enlisting, so it might be him.

Private William Smith was a different matter, I’m pretty sure this is William below.

He was a 21-year-old Laborer from Albury Street Wagga Wagga when he enlisted at the end of 1916. He saw action in France, was shot in the foot at the beginning of 1917, and then in October 1917 took multiple shrapnel wounds to his arm and wrist. This incident ended his war service. After several months in hospital in the UK, William was shipped back to Australia in January 1918 and discharged.

Next, we have a letter from Ivan, Isabel’s brother and Aunty Marj’s cousin to “Uncle Jeff“. Even though this is a month out from the armistice being signed the feeling is that they knew the war was in its final stages and this level of insight from a 15-year-old rural kid.

First off, the barbed wire in the eye, oh, I can imagine this would have been messy and shows the resilience needed in those times to deal with something like that, no hospital nearby, probably one Doctor in Tarcutta and Mum and Dad to act as emergency attendants.

Ivan shares lots of other details about station life and then gives Uncle Willie a mention. Obviously, the family has had word that William had met someone, fallen in love, and married all while fighting in the war. Here is another story I wish I could uncover.

I can’t find a potential link as yet as to where William and his new wife, Edith Nellie Hill met. I was thinking that it most likely would be that Nellie was a nurse with the Volunteer Aid Detachment (V.A.D) and met William in one of his many hospital stays.

I think the church that William and Nellie married in might have been this one on George Street, Warminster. I have sent an inquiry to the church to see if someone might be able to confirm if it is the same one.

Thanks to Cousin Sally again, we have this amazing photo of Nellie and William together.

I can imagine, that Edith and William probably thought there was nothing extraordinary about them or the lives that they lead but oh to have a conversation with them, knowing the little I know now about them. I know they would probably be reluctant to share but being their great-nephew, hopefully, that would give me some cred.

Now you might have noticed that we are starting to get light on with the mentions of anything substantial concerning Jessie and Alexander. I think this might be a reflection of the fact that they were just trying to deal with what life was throwing at them. When you think about the few precious details that their grandchildren shared about station life in their letters to Uncle Jeff, they too had all these issues with Kooringal, not to mention all the other properties they owned around the district.

I jumped the gun a bit by putting Ivan’s letter from October 1918 above which has mucked up the timeline. I have a few other things to share from earlier in 1918, one of them a major event for the family, but before we move on to these we first have to return to William’s third wounding back at the end of 1917.

I have done some more digging into the details of William’s wounding and the story is amazing. As I mentioned, his third wounding occurred on the 12th of October 1917 and this matches perfectly with a battle that the 39th Battalion were involved in, and it is an infamous one. “The First Battle of Passchendaele, 12 October 1917” https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/where-australians-served/western-front/third-battle-of-ypres

The 39th Battalion was William’s new battalion, he had been transferred from the 29th Battalion on the 27th June 1917, just after he had been discharged from hospital with his second wounding.

From the little bit of reading I have done so far, the battle was an abject failure for the Allies. It had rained heavily the night before on the 11th of October. In actual fact, it had been raining since August and the already crater-pocked ground from the artillery fire which had been mountains of mud for weeks became even more impassable. This quagmire prevented the artillery equipment on the 12th of October from getting closer to the front where it was needed and the small amount of ground that had been won, was all but lost by the end of the day. William was one of 13000 Allied casualties on that first day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele

This extraordinary photo was taken the very day that William was shot, the 12th of October, and shows the devastated land that the troops were fighting through. The very fields that William was walking on that day.

I discovered an account by another Private of the 39th Battalion, Private Edwin John White and wondered, as he and William were in the same battalion, that he might be describing the same conditions William was under until his wounding. What a gift to find. Here is a short summary of what he described.

The attack began at 5.25am and the jumping-off point for the 39th on that day was from Zonnebeke. From the moment they started out for Passchendaele the battalion was heavily bombed. https://archives.passchendaele.be/fr/soldier/6508

They eventually worked their way up to an area called Augustus Wood but serious resistance from the Germans forced them to move back to Waterfields, just north of their position and then eventually the battalion had to retreat to its starting line which was completed by 3.30pm. Presumably, this was back at Zonnebeke. https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/news/7-first-battle-of-passchendaele-facts/

Coincidentally William was fighting near the little village of Tyne Cot this day, situated just on the outskirts of the Woods. Of course the tiny village has taken on huge significance today as Tyne Cot Cemetery, in the lower left of the Google Map above, is the largest Commonwealth Cemetery on the Western Front with 11953 burials. https://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/tyne-cot/

With thousands of men dying in this small area on the 12th, William was so lucky to have survived it. I wonder if this was how he felt whilst recovering in England and I also wonder what effect it had on him knowing that he more likely than not would be sent straight back to this hell hole one his recovery.

If these photos weren’t enough, here is another extraordinary find. This photograph below is confirmed to be taken on the 12th of October 1917 and shows stretcher bearers resting after bringing back some wounded soldiers from the battle of Passchendaele. This could be where William was brought to on his journey back to the Casualty Clearing Station.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Jessie and Alexander back at home, in the dark as to what was going on for William most of the time. This is the headlines that they woke up to on the Monday after Jack was shot. Not that they knew this as yet.

The great ridge system east of Ypres as referred to in the article is Passchendaele. Jessie and Alexander could have probably guessed that this might be a battle that William would be involved in. But of course, they had to wait another twenty three days to receive that cable from base records informing them of his wounding, as mentioned in Figure 105c above.

After William recovered, he rejoined his battalion on the 23rd of November 1917, just over five weeks later and yes they were still in Belgium. It would remain the focus of the 39th Battalion for the next four months, three of which, William would be there for. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51479

According to his service record, William was in the field the whole of the Christmas, and New Year period, right up until the 25th of February 1918. This must have been thoroughly terrible. Hopefully, his Red Cross Parcel found him giving him a small sliver of respite from the horror he was living in.

Living in this hell hole day in and day out obviously took its toll, as William was transported to the hospital sick on the 25th of February 1918. It takes three days to get there but he ends up admitted to the 14th General Hospital in Boulogne on the 28th of February.

Would you believe it, I can’t track down a photo of the hospital but the Imperial War Museum had this watercolour painting in their collection.

This might seem vaguely familiar, checkout Figure 105c above. The reason for that familiarity, the 14th General Hospital was in the same precinct as the 8th Stationery Hospital where William was treated for the gunshot wound to his wrist.

He is then shipped back to England on the 6th of March aboard the St Denis, eventually heading for a hospital in Woolwich.

I have put a copy of this Google Map below, of the journey William took from the battlefield to Woolwich as it just fascinates me how close the fighting was. I suppose growing up in Australia and hearing these names of the battlefields at school, they always seemed so far away and isolated but in reality they were mere hours away from each other.

Later that same day William is admitted to the Brook Hospital in Woolwich suffering from, Trench Fever.

I couldn’t help myself, I went looking and this is what the hospital looks like today.

Most of the original buildings have been demolished and the site has become a housing estate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_General_Hospital

How incredible to find these photos that once again give us a glimpse into William’s actual world.

Now I thought the Scabies research was bad, reading about Trench Fever has me itching all over again. The disease had first appeared in mid-1915 and by the time William was battling it at the beginning of 1918, the ailment had only just been officially confirmed by the War Office and named as Trench Fever. https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/trench-fever.html

There had been lots of debate about the illness and a number of different medical teams had been working furiously trying to work out its cause. It had a massive effect on troops in the trenches on both sides of the front. It was announced on February 14th just eleven days before William’s admission that the disease was caused by the human body louse or more specifically the rubbing in of its feces into the broken skin of its host. (If I could use emoji’s here, this is where I would insert the vomit one.) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(16)30003-2/fulltext

William would have been experiencing fever, fatigue, and restlessness. Lots of troops reported that they just couldn’t find a comfortable spot to rest their body in. He would have also had headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain and if that all wasn’t bad enough it also was known for causing great pain in the back, legs, knees, and feet, and also causing a particularly severe pain in the shins. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(16)30003-2/fulltext

Because the disease remises and reoccurs the average time away from the front for each soldier was about three months. William seems like he might have been a bit luckier than most, his admission all up was about seven weeks. https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/trench-fever.html

He was transferred on the 28th of March 1918 to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford to continue his recovery.

William scored himself a mention on the ILL list for this admission, in the Sydney Morning Herald, shown below.

I know we are a long way from Kooringal at the moment but you can bet that this would have been all that Jessie and Alexander would have been thinking about on a day-to-day basis, what was happening with William and was he safe. We will stick with William for the minute as it is his journey that brings us up to that next big family event.

After recovering from the Trench Fever, William was discharged from Dartford on the 12th of April 1918 and marched into the No. 3 Command Depot at Hurdcott.

No 3 Command Depot was made up of two camps, Nos 5 & 6 and combined had accommodation for 2000 men. You might remember I shared earlier that the Command Depots were set up to take the men discharged from the hospital as a place to recuperate and get fighting fit again in preparation for returning to the front. https://map-of-australia.com/hurdcott-camp/

William was then marched out from the No. 3 Command Depot on the 6th of June 1918, almost two months later and marched into the No. 1 Command Depot at Sutton Veny. Now No. 1 Command Depot is where William went after his gunshot wound to the foot in May 1917 but it was then in Perham Down. It had moved to Sutton Veny in October of 1917.

We know William is still there on the 6th of July 1918 as he lands an AWL charge. He is AWL from the 6th to the 8th of July and forfeits six days of pay. This is just ten days after he and Edith marry.

Now this is really interesting and quite baffling. The next entry on William’s service record is not until a year later on the 1st of August 1919. The remark next to that entry states that he is on indefinite leave until recalled.

I mean, where was he, what was he doing and why is there no mention of anything for a whole year? I’m going to have to look further into this as see what I can find out. So let us put this on hold for the moment because this is where William’s story in July 1918, when he gets the AWL charge, brings us to the next big family event. His Mother’s death.

Jessie was only 64 years of age, and she unfortunately died of complications from diabetes.

What is interesting to me here is that it is her son-in-law, John Burnet who is noted as the informant and not Alexander or one of their children. Maybe an indication of his importance in the family. Her funeral noticed appeared the next day.

She had a number of obituaries printed in different newspapers around the district like this one below from Cootamundra.

Well, they tried to get the details correct. Jessie did indeed have four sons but they mistakenly state David as being on active service, which should have been William, whom they have missed naming altogether in this article.

This is what the church looked like at the time of the funeral.

This is a view of the church as of the end of 2023.

I just discovered that Jessie’s funeral wasn’t held here. I’m sure they would have had a memorial service for her, not that I can find a note confirming that yet. Ah, typed too soon, check out this next article, I’m just giving you a snippet as it contains fairly much the same info as above except for the following.

I thought initially they would have moved from Kooringal to the church for the service but the Reverend Tulloch delivered Jessie’s service at Kooringal and then conducted the burial service at the graveside. It makes sense as Kooringal and the cemetery are on the same road one kilometer apart. What a sight Jessie’s cortege must have been walking down the road from Kooringal. I so wish there was a photo of that.

This is Jessie’s final resting place in Wagga Wagga Monumental Cemetery which she shares with Alexander and Kate, Alexander’s 2nd wife. Kate is on the other side of them.

I’m so surprised, I just found another article about Jessie’s passing that I hadn’t seen before and it has a little bit of new information in it.

I had know idea about the fact that Jessie could play the organ or of course, that she played on Sunday’s at the Howlong Church. I also knew nothing about them donating to the church at Moorwatha.

Moorwatha used to be a little village about 17km north east of Howlong. I say used to be as it has long since disappeared. According to another family history blogger I stumbled upon, this seems to be all that is left of Moorwatha and the church that Jessie and Alexander donated to.

I have mentioned before about Jessie being the one to lay the foundation stone of the Corowa Church back in 1895. I have also shared that I had the amazing luck of stumbling on to a photo of the event in a book on the history of the church on one of my visits to the Mitchell Library in Sydney. I had no idea the book was going to contain this piece of family history gold, it was a pure fishing trip. What a catch!

I know I have shared the photo previously but that was four years ago, so here it is again.

And clearly visible on Jessie’s right is Alexander and below is the exact same spot 120 odd years later.

I know this next article is out of time, it is from before Jessie passes away but I just found it and it is a record of probably one of the last community support initatives she worked on. It was obviously headed up by her daughter-in -law, Bella, married to her son, John, who by the looks of it was also involved. And there are her grandchildren, Ivan and Isabel also attending. I do hope that Jessie was able to attend as well. What a great memory to have of one of the last times they would have spent together.

And here is confirmation that it was indeed Bella running the Red Cross Day.

Reading those obituaries of Jessie’s above really gives us a good picture of just how involved she and Alexander were in their communities which makes these next two finds really special.

I hope Alexander and the family got to see these small tributes to Jessie after she had passed away.

This next find is another letter from Aunty Marj to Uncle Jeff and the Banner Cousins, written just weeks after Jessie’s passing and shows how much her death had affected the family.

Again, Aunty Marj gives us some wonderful insight into life on the farm for kids in the early 1900s. She also mentions the “March to Freedom”. I was interested to find out what this referred to.

It was a recruiting drive initiated by the Minister for Recruiting, that started in Albury on the 6th of July 1918. It was to take in all the major towns on the rail line to Goulburn. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122633280?searchTerm=%22march%20to%20freedom%20minister%20for%20recruiting%22

Like I always say, “…how amazing to find this.”, and I’m saying it here again. How amazing to find this, a photo of the actual march starting in Albury.

The March arrives in Holbrook on the morning of the 6th of August 1918, this is when Aunty Marj gets to see it.

Here is notice of William’s third Comfort Funds parcel getting ready to be shipped out for him in time for Christmas.

Of course there was no way to guarantee that these comfort parcels would get to the front. This was an unknown aspect of the war to me but a quick scan of Trove shows there are numerous articles printed over the course of the war explaining when specifically shipped mail was lost. I can imagine that people, such as Jessie and Alexander, must have had a system in place to record when they shipped their mail or parcels so they could keep track of it through these articles.

Learning of the sinking of the Port Kembla was an eye opener for me. The ship hit a German mine 15 miles off the coast of New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Port_Kembla I had know idea that the Germans came down this close to us in the southern hemisphere this late into the war.

Next we have another letter from Isabel to Uncle Jeff and you can hear, it definitely has a change of tone to it.

Now, I know I’m just being greedy, but “…can we have a photo of the Armistice Procession through Tarcutta, the very one Isabel is talking about?” Well, we sure can.

I just happened upon this photo one time ages ago when I was looking for any mention of Tarcutta online and had it saved a couple of years ago. Then when I found this article of Isabel’s letter it stirred some memories and it took a while to find it but here it is, the very parade Isabel writes about. She will be in that photo somewhere, probably Ivan and her parents as well. I just spied the white bearded bloke in the car, maybe Alexander?

Thanks to Chris Nicholes from Facebook, he put me on to the source book and where to purchase it from. I think a good one to add to the family library collection.

Next I found another mention of David Macvean, William’s brother, continuing his mum and dad’s tradition of donating to the war effort.

This phenomenal photo below is from the War Chest Review and shows those comforts being handed out at Command Depot No. 1, exactly when William, David’s brother was stationed there.

And it was also good to confirm with these next two articles that David, Amy and family were still at Yeronga.

Next a nice example of normal life that most of us now who have supported kids through school would be very familiar with. The dreaded end of year concert and award ceremony. This time it is my grandfather, John Hugh Macvean being singled out.

From what I have read so far, Albury Grammar seemed to be the institution of choice for the males of the family. Of course there is not one mention of the girls and what school they attended after primary that I can find.

I know, the image below is not a good copy of the photo but this is the only one I can find of the school at the time of Macvean’s attending.

This building sat on the corner of those two intersecting streets below somewhere.

Wow, the Macvean kids loved their letters to Uncle Jeff at the Banner, this time, another one from Ivan.

The Welcome Home Ivan mentions was a specific initiative organised by the local community’s, Welcome Home Committee to ensure soldiers returning from the front were given the same sort of acknowledgment home as when they left. They usually had people to meet them from the train station and they organised cars or buggies to transport them home. Other people in the community would decorate their homes with banners and bunting to give a festive feel to the proceedings. https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/blog/2015/04/29/world-war-one-welcome-home-committee-parramatta

Here is a mention of the Welcome Home Ivan was referring to.

This was sad to see this next find, David and Amy Macvean having a clearing sale at Yeronga. This generally happens after the property has sold.

I cant find a for sale notice for Yeronga just as yet.

This next article is about a meeting of the Voluntary Aid Corps and you can see that it shows a donation of food from Alexander was received.

This was not an initiative to support a war effort, no, the Voluntary Aid Corp was set up to assist with the expected rise in number of infections due to the influenza epidemic. (Sounds familiar, we just hit the four year anniversary of Covid-19 being labelled a world wide pandemic.)

This excerpt from their inaugural meeting at the beginning of April shows the local community was indeed taking the threat of this epidemic seriously.

These next two letters from Isabel show the impact the influenza epidemic was having.

Figure 123g3: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

Isabel’s cousin, Jessie Macvean was actually the granddaughter of Isabel’s great-grandfather’s sister, Annie Macvean. Isabel’s great-grandfather, my 3x great-grandfather was John Hugh Macvean, father of Alexander.

I have one photo of Jessie when she was a bridesmaid for a friends wedding in Jingellic NSW in 1927 when she was 17 years old. The bride was, Miss Frieda Unger and the groom, Mr Frances Harvey.

The couple over Jessie’s left shoulder are her parents, Mrs Lillian Macvean née Woodland and Mr Peter Macvean. The bloke who very generously shared this fantastic photo with me, Roland, found my blog online when he was searching for information on the photo in the hopes of reuniting it with Frieda and Francis’s family. In fact he gave me an update, they found Jessie’s daughter was still alive in 2021 and tracked her down to a local nursing home and discovered that Jessie’s great granddaughter worked there as well. Roland was able to send them the original photo for their family archives.

Jumping back to May 1919, my next find was this death notice relating to Alexander’s cousin, John Hugh Cameron, son of his father’s, John Hugh Macvean’s other sister, Margaret Cameron nee Macvean and John Cameron.

John married Margaret Hill who just happens to be the daughter of Alexander’s father’s other sister, Mary Hill, nee Macvean and his mother’s (Hannah Macvean nee Hill) brother, Samuel Hill. Yeah, did you get that it took me about 20 minutes to work it out. Basically, John and his wife Margaret are first cousins.

We are so lucky to have photos of both John and Margaret. Remember Jessie and Alexander lived in Howlong for over 40 years before moving to Kooringal, so I’m sure that they would have been in each others lives even after they moved.

Our next find is an “In Memoriam” mention of Jessie’s passing, not from her family but from friends at “Burrabunnia”

This had me intrigued, I wanted to find out what Burrabunnia was. It took a couple of hours of searching to confirm that Burrabunnia is a homestead that is located at Barnawartha, a little town that sits about 20 minutes west of Albury. It probably would have been a hard day’s horse and buggy ride from Wagga Wagga in Jessie’s time.

I only discovered this because one of Australia’s most famous artists from the early 20th century, Hugh Ramsay, painted a picture of the homestead back in 1904 when he was convalescing there from the effects of Tuberculosis. Thanks Hugh!

With the age of the internet the painting had been scanned and shared and I luckily stumbled upon it. Yay!

I of course wanted to see if I could find out who it might be that was at Burrabunnia that Jessie was connected to. This seemed like a big ask but I just started looking in Google to see what I could find. I eventually came across this small mention from The Border Mail in Albury in 2018.

So two points lining up there, Hugh Ramsay the artist, who we know was at Burrabunnia and the fact that the story was from the right area, Albury. Now to see if there was a connection with Arthur MacKenzie.

I found a small mention on the Chiltern Athenaeum Museum Facebook page in regards to Hugh Ramsay, Burrabunnia and a Mr McKenzie, Bingo! Well I hope.

I moved the search to Ancestry and started searching family trees for a Hugh McKenzie in the Barnawartha area and look what came up for the Electoral Roll listings for both 1915 and 1919.

Arthur Stewart McKenzie, the subject of the above portrait and his wife, Annie. The other McKenzie’s are Arthur’s brothers and sisters according to the information on these family trees. I didn’t know it to look at it just then but these listings contained the link I was looking for.

I went to Trove and searched Macvean & McKenzie and boom, the link came straight up. Sherman Grant McKenzie, Arthur’s brother was the link. Sherman was engaged to Jessie and Alexander’s daughter Edith Jessie Macvean. I just couldn’t believe it, this time I had a win with finding the link and it is a really interesting story.

Now, was is the important word in the sentence above (the italic hint might have given it away). Check out this wonderful summary on the situation below.

How fantastic is that? To be able to discover these connections from that one mention of Burrabunnia in Jessie’s In Memoriam article. It is fleshing out that family story one infinitesimal detail at a time. So frustrating but I think that is why it means so much when it comes together.

I actually was aware of Edith’s breach of promise case brought against her by Sherman. I had mentioned it to one of the research assistants on my last visit to NSW State Archives and they informed me that it was very very rare for the time for a male to bring this sort of action against a female mainly due to the perceived stigma. This is clear when you note the Judge’s tone and description of Sherman’s behaviour as not manly.

So that was a little bit of a rabbit hole we fell into on Jessie’s behalf but now we are back on track. We are on the home stretch in terms of Kooringal and the last few morsels of information swirling around it. There are no further mentions of Alexander that I can find since Jessie’s death, unfortunately.

The next bit of family news relates directly to Ivan’s wish that he shared above with Uncle Jeff, to meet his new Aunt who married his Uncle Willie.

I wonder if this was a surprise for the family or were they already aware of the new addition to the family. That new addition was Jessie Edith Macvean, born in April 1919, in the UK, nine months after her grandmother, Jessie’s death. It is wonderful to see that she is named after her and speaks to the bond that William must have had with his mother. I can only imagine the pain William must have felt hearing that his mother had passed away while he was still stuck overseas on active service.

The Ormonde left London on the 15th of November and it took five weeks to get to Fremantle. I can’t imagine what that journey must have been like for Nellie and William with a nine-month-old baby.

William made his journey home with AIF royalty, you may have noticed the names in the passenger list above. General Sir William Birdwood, Commander of the ANZAC’s in World War One. Lieut-General Sir John Monash, Commander of the 3rd Division in Europe. (William’s Division) And Lieut-Colonel Henry William Murray. Commander of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion and considered the most distinguished fighting officer of the AIF. He was awarded several Distinguished Conduct Medals and was also awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Guendecourt in France. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C168252

I wonder if William got to speak to any of them on the journey home or were they kept separate from the returning troops. If this next report is anything to go by, then I think they probably interacted with them.

I was so lucky to find these photos in Trove. I know they are blurry copies of newspaper print but there are no official photos anywhere online that I can find of this momentous occasion.

These photos accompanied the article above.

Sir General Birdwood and Lady Birdwood disembark at Fremantle. William, Nellie and Jessie continue on to Melbourne arriving a week later on Boxing Day the 26th of December 1919. This next article gives a bit of perspective on what the actual journey on the Ormonde might have been like for Edith, William and the baby Jessie.

I wonder if this was Nellie and Jessie’s experience in section G? What a way to start your new life. Hopefully, the family were on the pier to meet them and whisk them away for some recuperation in a Melbourne Hotel before making the long journey to Kooringal.

Here are a couple of great shots of the New Railway Pier at Port Melbourne as it would have looked for Edith and William when they disembarked that Boxing Day of 1919.

This next photo is a still I took from an astonishing piece of film held at the National Film and Sound Archive. It shows Sir John and Lady Monash with their daughter aboard the steamer Miner. They have just disembarked from the Ormonde and are about to dock at St Kilda Pier for a welcome home ceremony.

This is the 26th of December 1919.

At this very moment of this picture above, William, Edith and baby Jessie are back at the Ormonde, or on the pier, probably hugging Jean and any other family members who might have joined her to welcome them home. Oh I just spoiled the surprise, look what I found below.

Not having any family photos of William’s homecoming I went looking for other returning soldiers from the area that might have had a photo of the occasion. I found this wonderful photo of Private Allan Bruce returning to his family in Morgan Street Wagga Wagga. Just five kilometers from Kooringal.

Allan suffered multiple gunshot and shrapnel wounds in a battle on the 13th of March in fighting in France somewhere. Unfortunately, he had to have his right leg amputated and his middle index fingers on both hands. He returned to Australia on the 16th of December 1917. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3132604&isAv=N

This next article is the one and only mention I can find of William’s return. It is surprising considering he had several mentions in letters from his nieces and nephews to the Uncle Jeff column in the Albury Banner.

I think G Hilton is 22-year-old William George Hilton. Both his younger brothers joined up as well. 20-year-old John Henry Hilton and 18-year-old Bertie Allen Hilton. All three brothers survived the war. Their father was John Hilton which matches up with the “Mrs J Hilton” mentioned above, also George was married in 1913 to Theresa Hardie which matches up with the fact that it also mentions that George was visiting the area with his wife. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5455235&isAv=N

There is one other Hilton from the Tarcutta area, and it just seemed the right thing to do, to mention him here as well. Victor George Hilton, he was 19 years of age and suffered a fractured skull at Gallipoli on the 22nd of July 1915. He died on board a hospital ship heading to Malta the next day and was buried at sea somewhere between Gallipoli and Malta. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5455232&isAv=N

In searching for the Hilton Bros’ I did manage to uncover another couple of mentions of William’s return. Here is a letter from Ivan Macvean, Jessie and Alexander’s grandson mentioning Uncle Willie’s return with his new Aunt. I missed this one initially because I was searching under Ivan’s name, which he doesn’t use in this letter.

Oh yeah, I snuck this one in even though it doesn’t mention William’s return specifically, but it is from Ivan’s sister Isabel to Uncle Jeff about the same time.

Interestingly the Dick Hilton she mentions who broke his collar bone is brother to George, John and Bertie Hilton mentioned above.

I don’t know what the hell that feedback from Uncle Jeff is about, mentioning Isabel’s brother Ivan being ladylike. I wonder what Ivan thought about this.

The reason I snuck this letter in, was that Isabel mentions the Boxing Day sports day as well and that it is in aid of the Honor Roll. And of course, this is the Honor Roll that I found when I first jumped out of the car at Tarcutta when Alex and I visited last year.

Notice all the Hiltons on there? I didn’t know who they were when I took the photo.

Back to the further mentions of William’s return. Unfortunately, again, it doesn’t mention William by name but it is definitely about the banquet for his and George Hilton’s return.

So it was held on the 6th of February 1920 at Brown’s Hall. I could find lots of mentions of functions being held at Brown’s Hall but not where it specifically was located. Another mention in the article above stated that this might be happening to the Hall in the future.

And then it got me thinking, I wonder if this might have been Brown’s Hall that I took a photo of on our visit. It sits right next to the Memorial Hall.

You can see the original building is marked as being established in 1911, Brown’s Hall gets its first mention in 1913 in Trove, so it sort of fits with the timing. I wonder if this is where the community gathered to welcome back William and George Hilton?

We get a final mention from another letter to Uncle Jeff but this time not from a family member but from a young girl named Nita Jackson from “Rotha” at Lower Tarcutta.

We next find Ivan, Isabel, and their mother, Bella Macvean presiding over a fundraising night for the Wagga Hospital Ball.

There is the Hilton family again mentioned and also Mrs Dennis who was responsible for organising the Welcome Home banquet for William and George Hilton. It was nice to see Ivan and Isabel both attending the ball but I wonder who the “Girlie Macvean” was.

My next discovery was a surprise, our first mention of David Hunter Macvean in a while, Jessie and Alexander’s other son.

This was the first I had heard of anything about David being in the pig business.

We next jump to July of 1920 with an interesting piece discussing the fact that Ivan had an honourable mention in a writing competition for the Sydney Mail. The topic was obviously to discuss an incident of the war. I wonder if Ivan chose to discuss any of the incidents that his Uncle Willie or his Cousin Maffra were involved in. To find this piece of family history would be amazing but I’m sure it is long gone.

Then that it is, not another mention of William, Edith, Alexander, Ivan, Isabel, their parents, cousins or my Great Grandparents. It is just nothing until the end of 1920 in December

This Mrs Burnet is Jessie and Alexander’s eldest daughter Margaret Anne Macvean sister to my great-grandfather, Alexander Ballantyne Smith Macvean. She is pictured here in this phenomenal photo (shared by Margaret’s great-grandson, Tony Edwards) with her first husband, John Smith Burnet (remember John was the informant on Jessie’s death certificate) and their eldest daughter Margaret Edith Burnet.

Mount Hope was the property they owned in the Ladysmith area about 22kms east of Kooringal and about halfway between it and Tarcutta. This area is of course where William, Edith and Jessie would settle and where her other brother, John Hugh Macvean, his wife Isabel and their children Ivan and Isabel were living at Strathvean.

I was able to pinpoint exactly where Mount Hope was situated thanks to this article from 1928. Its focus was a man called Thomas Flannagan and it highlighted the fact that he had just bought the Mount Hope property and discussed what his plans were for its future.

Mr Flanagan’s take over and renaming of Mount Hope to Yallambee was only 10 months after John Burnet passed away from heart disease.

A quick Google search revealed that Yallambee is still kicking on 96 years later. It is now being operated as a Feedlot.

That pin-drop next to it’s name above, led straight to its position on Google Maps. I think the building I have circled in black might have been the original homestead, just guessing here as it has mature trees around it.

Now you might have noticed back in (Figure 133) that it mentioned that Margaret and John were staying with Mr and Mrs Macvean. How can this be? you might ask, after all, Jessie had passed away two and a half years earlier.

Yes, sometime in 1920 Alexander who was 74 years of age at the time marries, 64 year old Kate Taylor. I haven’t bought the certificate yet but here is the NSW BDM listing.

There is absolutely no mention of their wedding in the press at all that I can find to date.

Kate, I discovered from Ancestry, was from Beechworth in Victoria, just over the border from Albury. I couldn’t find much in print on Kate, I did find a little bit about her family though. Her father died in tragic circumstances in a buggy accident in 1879, her mother passed away in 1896 and out of her six siblings, five never made it past their teens. Only one sister, Sarah survived till 1946. I wondered what Kate’s connection was with Alexander. How did they meet and why get married?

Ancestry also had a couple of Electoral listings for her from the early 1900s, confirming that she was living in Beechworth and that she was working as a Teacher.

Then low and behold, the next and final Electoral listing I discovered for her, was from 1913, which gave me the link.

Bethungra Park was the link, look who owns it after purchasing it on the 15th of November of 1911.

I then found this rather distressing mention of an accident that happened on the property which confirms the link with the Macvean name. Bethungra Park sits in the Illabo District.

So it looks like Kate and Alexander met five years before Jessie’s passing whilst Kate was working for them at Bethungra Park. I wonder if Jessie interviewed her for the position and also wonder, did they get on?

You know how I just stated that I couldn’t find any other articles for the family till December 1920? Well I was wrong again. I found a few other articles that popped up when I searched for MVean, Mcvean and also just MV.

The first is a report on the annual meeting held by the Women’s Reform League. What is interesting about this is that it mentions Jessie by name and also discusses the effects of the pandemic of their time on their meetings. Which I find fascinating considering we have just come through our own.

Article 19b: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

The next find is a mention of Jessie and Alexander’s granddaughters attending a ball in Wagga Wagga. This is my Grandfather’s sisters, Jean and I think, Marjorie. I’m only guessing here as she was the youngest and they are referring to her as Miss.

I wonder if Jean and Marjorie stayed with their grandfather on this visit. The Masonic Hall mentioned here was built in 1905 and still stands in Tarcutta Street today. https://regionriverina.com.au/riverina-rewind-the-oddfellows-dame-nellie-melba-and-the-oxford-theatre/33776/

There are no historic photos of the hall online that I can find but here is one of the interior from 2020 when it was being refurbished.

The next article is a death notice for Alexander’s sister-in-law, Margaret Kennedy Smith who was married to Alexander’s brother, John Ziglar Huie Macvean. And not only that but another interesting link to note here is, that Margaret’s cousin is Jessie Davina Ballantyne, my 2x great-grandmother who of course is married to Alexander. So both cousin’s married a Macvean brother.

This is the site of 164 The Esplanade and I’m making an assumption here that it is the correct property as the Esplanade today, is an extension St Kilda Road. Perhaps a name change for part of the road at some stage.

This house was built in 1930 so not the one Margaret passed away in but look at the view she would have had.

And we are so lucky again, we have photos of Margaret and John as well.

David appears again in the next find. This time, a fine for a straying horse.

Obviously this next article was part of another business venture for David.

Next it was another fine but this time for his brother, John, from Strathvean at Tarcutta.

The next article was a great little find, a mention of Captain Jack. There has been nothing about him since his appearance in “The Geisha” in 1917.

There is the name Strathvean, again, this time at Nyngan. Obviously a very important name in the family for Jack to name his property this as well.

I found another mention of Strathvean in Nyngan from December 1919 just to confirm the details.

These were not the only properties in the family named Strathvean. Jack and John’s Great Uncle, Hugh Macvean, (brother to their grandfather, John Hugh Macvean) also had a property in Cressy in Western Victoria that he too named Strathvean.

It is such a shame the copy of the photo is so dark, as it would be wonderful to see the homestead properly. It lasted over a hundred years and then this happened on Friday 14th of January 1944.

Over 400 houses were lost in the blaze and an estimated half a million sheep were burnt alive.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11821249?searchTerm=%22bush%20fire%22%22cressy%22

We next find another mention of David, advertising another new business venture. That of a Business and Property Agent and then another article detailing his expanding into the Tarcutta area as a General Commission Agent.

Next we find a 17 year old Ivan writing into Uncle Jeff after a bit of break. He gives some great insight to what was happening in his world at the time.

Here is a little bit more information on the topics Ivan has raised in his letter. I found them on Trove of course and also on a fantastic Facebook page called, Memories of Tumbarumba NSW.

After a couple of hours of searching through the Memories of Tumbarumba site I struck gold. An actual photo of the day that Ivan discussed, the 9th March 1921, the opening of the railway. This photo is taken at the ceremony taking place at Tumbarumba Station before everyone headed down to the opening of the Tumbarumba show. I’m sure Ivan and the family would be in here somewhere.

I just snuck this in to give you an idea of what route the line took from Wagga Wagga. One Facebook user stated that it use to take three and a half hours to travel from Tumbarumba to Wagga Wagga.

Next is a wonderful account of the day.

Unfortunately I can’t uncover a picture of the actual show from this day but I did find a couple of photos of the show grounds to give us an idea of what it might have looked like.

The topic of this next article is what both Ivan and Uncle Jeff, in his response to Ivan’s letter, were referring to about the Gun Tax at the time.

And finally the bush fire Ivan mentioned made it into the Advocate and Farmers and Settlers’ Adviser.

I know this has been a bit of a deep dive on the information in Ivan’s letter but it is just so interesting getting this insight into what is happening directly around Ivan and the family.

This is the last piece of information to discuss, the Bush Nursing Association. I was so lucky to find this next article discussing the details of the association at its Annual General Meeting. It confirms when the association started up service in the Tarcutta area.

So this article above confirms that when Ivan had the barbed wire in his eye, there likely was no Doctor in town and definitely no nurse to assist. Just John and Bella his parents.

And here is the sports day that Ivan discussed.

To finish off, a small mention of the success of the fundraising efforts.

So, moving on from Ivan’s letter, this Government Gazette listing below confirmed some information I had wrong from Part One of Jessie and Alexander’s story. That being, who actually owned the property near Humula station. Earlier articles just stated that it was Mr A Macvean that owned the land near the station, I assumed that it was Alexander. It was in actual fact his brother, Allan Macvean.

I then found this notification of a change of address below, which definitely confirmed that it was Allan and also that he previously lived in an area called Morundah. I have seen quite a few mentions of an A Macvean in this area in Trove but couldn’t be sure who it was referring to. This was a great find in terms of plotting who was where at the time in the family.

Morundah is about an hour and half north of Howlong where Jessie and Alexander used to live.

While searching for information on the Tumbarumba show, mentioned in Ivan’s letter, I came across a couple of nice shots of the station at Humula. This is great to see as you might remember the land holding for Allan was described as being right opposite the Humula Station.

These images of Humula are very rare, there are not many historic ones out there. That is why it is so special to get the opportunity to see the views that Allan and the family would have been so familiar with.

The line closed down in 1974, and the stations fell into disrepair over the years. Most were demolished, some burnt down. What remains of Tumbarumba platform has no public access to it now, as it is part of a logging yard. A section of the original rail line from Tumbarumba to Rosewood has been filled in and made into a bike track.https://debs-world.com/2020/05/23/a-guide-to-riding-the-tumbarumba-to-rosewood-rail-trail-read-all-about-it-here/

I did find a couple of photos online that showed what Humula and Tarcutta stations looked like in 1985.

Now sticking with Tarcutta for the minute, this article below is very interesting, David is purchasing the local bakery business in Tarcutta from a Mr Edwards. I wonder if he was inspired when acting as an agent and selling the Tea house and Dinning room in central Wagga?

Unfortunately there are no historic photos of the Tarcutta main shopping district that I can find online. So I can’t show you what the bakery might have looked like.

The next find is in relation to the death of my Great Grandfather, Alexander Ballantyne Smith Macvean, Jessie and Alexander’s eldest son.

Amazingly there is one photo online, showing the original hospital building in Albury, from 1967 when it was operating as a Lodge. This is where Alexander passed away.

I can’t believe it again, I just found this on Google Maps. The building still stands today 102 years after Alexander’s death.

This photo below is St David’s on Olive Street Albury where Alexander’s funeral was held.

His father, Alexander and presumably his mother Jessie, although she is not mentioned in articles at the time, had been at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of this church on the 14th of June 1905. Little did Alexander know that seventeen years later he would be sitting there at his eldest son’s funeral.

Alexander was buried with his Grandparents, Hannah Macvean, nee Hill and John Hugh Macvean in the family plot in Albury Pioneer Cemetery. This exact spot is where his father, Alexander and the rest of the family would have stood for his burial.

We were lucky enough as a family, to visit the cemetery and stand in the exact same spot and pay our respects. This was in October 2018, ninety six years and six months almost to the day later.

Next we have Mrs J Henry appearing again. It is five years since her last visit to Kooringal in August and September of 1917 which we discussed in Part Two of these posts.

I can still find absolutely nothing to indicate who Mrs J Henry from Victoria might have been or her connection to Alexander or Kate this time. Frustrating.

The next notice is from the 10th March 1922 confirming some stock sales for Captain Jack Macvean at Nyngan.

I wonder if Isabel and Ivan’s parents, John and Bella were peed off when they saw this next advert. The name of their property is incorrect, it should have read “Strathvean”.

It is interesting to note here the mention of John’s ill-health here. I wonder if the passing of his brother Alexander just two months earlier had any bearing on his and Bella’s decision to sell up.

I was trying to confirm when the family first settled at Strathvean but couldn’t find a definitive listing of a date of purchase for this particular parcel of land just outside of Tarcutta. I suspect that it was part of the original land holdings of the Deletroy Estate that Alexander and Jessie purchased back in 1907.

I think John, Bella, Ivan and Isabel probably moved there around 1912. I found a couple of notices that confirm they were living in Livingstone Gully, near Wagga Wagga in 1911.

And you might recall from Part One that John and Bella appear in the Electoral listing for 1913 living at Deletroy, so 1912 sounds good to me for them moving into Strathvean.

I’m assuming Strathvean mustn’t have sold straightaway as it looks like the family are still in Tarcutta in August of 1922.

Ivan is 19 years old when he sets up this business. Hopefully he did better in business than his Uncle David. David declares bankruptcy in 1922.

Oh having this notice below must have just been so embarrassing and belittling for David, to have his issues like this printed in all their glory for everyone to read. Especially when you take into account how successful his father Alexander had been with all his business ventures and his brothers and sister.

Again this next find is just another one of those examples of the minutia of life that was happening at the time.

This listing in the Government Gazette is only two weeks after the newspaper report on David’s bankruptcy and obviously the explanation that Amy his wife had bought the bakery with her own money made no difference to their financial predicament.

Our next find relates to Kate’s passing, Alexander’s second wife. Kate was 67 years of age at the time of her death.

I think we can safely say when you take into account where all the friends of the family are from listed above and the names of the pall bearers that all of the family were in attendance for Kate’s send off.

L. M’Kechnie is Leonard, Amy’s (Alexander’s daughter) husband. We know who John, William (Sons) and Captain Jack (Nephew) are. R B Campbell is of course Robert, Edith’s (daughter) husband and John Hugh Boadle, who we haven’t mentioned before, is another one of Alexander’s nephews. John’s mother, Mary was Alexander’s sister.

I know it doesn’t really mean anything, but I had what I think, was the great luck of being at Kate’s grave site on the hundredth anniversary of her death, the 11th August 2023. It was another one of those moments that if the veil of time could be ripped a little I would have been standing right there with the family. Of course I was a day early because the burial took place on the 12th but you get what I mean.

As I mentioned earlier, Kate lays right next door to Alexander and Jessie who are on her left.

So everyone, thanks for hanging in there with me on this epic story of Jessie, Alexander and the family which has loosely taken place around their time at Kooringal, Wagga Wagga. I hope you have enjoyed reading all these amazing discoveries as much as I have enjoyed weaving them together.

We are at the end, not of Alexander’s story as he lives for another three years and also manages to squeeze in another marriage before he departs. I know, right? I’ll share this in another post. No we are at the end of our connection with Kooringal. This advert appears in the local press and surrounding districts a little over a month after Kate’s passing.

What a fantastic description of the property, especially when you consider we have no historic photo of it.

This is where the auction took place that Wednesday afternoon, The Australian Hotel, Wagga Wagga. The big double storied building with the white trellised balconies.

And this was the outcome of the sale reported the very next day.

And of course with the sale of the property comes the sale of everything else. Obviously these are the things that Alexander couldn’t take with him as he was moving into a much smaller cottage in town and presumably the things Mr Schillier had no use for.

And here is the final mention of Kooringal and Alexander together, five years after Jessie’s passing.

I thought this might be a nice way to end this post by re-sharing the Trevor O’Hehir shot of the new suburb of Kooringal from the 1960s. Remember I posted this view in Part One. We now know that this was Kooringal, Jessie and Alexander’s home in the background of the photo.

When Alex and I were last in Wagga Wagga visiting Xander, we went looking for this view from Willians Hill. We tried with Xander’s help to find the route to the top but were stopped by road works at every street we took. We finally found a way in from the other side of the hill and found what we think was the site that Trevor took his photo from.

When we zoomed in to look for those landmarks that I was able to find in the Google Maps photo that I compared it to in Part one, look what is still standing.

The Brick Dwelling mentioned in the for sale advert, Figure 161, that is clearly shown in the 1960s photo sitting right on Lake Albert Road. This gave us our bearings to know we were facing in the same direction as Trevor O’Hehir when he took his shoot. St Alban’s the white, A framed church on the right of the 60s shot, still stands today but is now hidden by the bush, as too, Kooringal. But they are there.

The final view, my beautiful best friend and road trip partner in crime, Alexandra and me, posing in front of the Kooringal view. One hundred and five years after Jessie passed away there and ninety-seven years after Alexander moved out.