Purchase of Bergen op Zoom, return to England, Mary's death

Intelligentsia: Blanche Mitchell, daughter of explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell. Her letters and diaries provide a picture of the life of the small Darling Point intellectual elite including the Boultons. This is the fifth in a series on the lives of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connections.  

On 25 August 1852, Edward Baker Boulton (EBB) and wife Mary sailed for Australia accompanied by the two children born while the family had been living in England, Emily (1851) and Edward Oswald (1852). 

EBB was now a member of the Darling Point intellectual elite whose members included Charles Nicholson and Robert Lowe, later Viscount Sherbrooke.

The family settled back happily into Darling Point life with its mixture of literary and artistic endeavour, intellectual discussion, balls, picnics and other social outings. Five additional children were born during this Sydney period.

We know as much as we do of this period because of the letters of Blanche Mitchell, the daughter of surveyor and explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell’s death in 1855 had left his family in some financial difficulty. Blanche seems to have been accepted as part of the Boulton family group and described their activities in her letters. 

The Boulton brothers seem to have purchased Bergen op Zoom station outside Walcha soon after Edward’s return, for in August 1853 EBB mortgaged Bergen op Zoom plus other assets to raise the then large sum of £5,900.

In 1855, EBB entered into a partnership with David Bell that would last until 1876. Bell, who seems to have lived on and controlled the actual management of Bergen op Zoom, would become a very successful pastoralist, buying Muluerindie station in 1873 then Rimbanda station in 1875.

Despite his growing success and the attractions of Sydney life, EBB missed England and Europe. On 18 May 1859, the family sailed for England on the SS Camperdown.

While advertised as a fine ship, it was a bad trip especially for Mary who was pregnant again. In December 1859 Mary died at her parent’s place in Ireland, probably from complications associated with the birth of her new daughter, also named Mary.

Following Mary’s death, EBB moved his large brood back to his English home area, installing them in Tilley House near Wem. There on 6 June 1861 he married Rachel Gwynn. Over the next ten years they would have another ten children, making for a very large brood indeed!

Edith, their first child, has already appeared in our story. An accomplished artist, she was to be the mother of writer Arthur Ransome and EBB’s confidant when it came to the painting they both loved.

During this English period, EBB pursued his artistic endeavours both painting and exhibiting. The family itself lived in some style. The 1871 census shows that they had seven servants including a governess and two nurses. I think the last three were badly needed!

I suspect that EBB might have stayed in England. However, events now intervened that required his return to Australia and to Walcha.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 19 February 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Building dynasties in New England

Crystal Palace exhibition, 1851. Attended by Edward Baker Boulton and his wife, this was the first of the great expos that were such a feature of the second half of the 19th century.This is the fourth in a series on the lives of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connections.  

Over the years that I have been sharing our past with you, themes recur. One is the way in which some of our big pastoral families identify with Australia and their immediate areas, while others are torn between their new home and the UK and Europe they left behind.

The Wrights and Northern Whites fall in the first group, Edward Ogilvie (Yulgilbar Station) in the second.

Ogilvie wanted to build a dynasty, but he was also in love with European life and especially Italian life and art. His conflicting ambitions would lead to dynastic failure.

Edward Baker Boulton (EBB) belongs to the second group. While he would die on the New England and be buried in Walcha cemetery, his heart lay elsewhere. As grandson Arthur Ransome summarized, he was always more interested in his art than his sheep.

Following his marriage to Mary Atkinson on 3 April 1850, EBB decided to take his wife to visit the Great Exhibition (the Crystal Palace Exhibition) of 1851.

Driven in part by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, this was the first of the great international expos that were such a feature of the second half of the nineteenth century.

Few places were immune from their allure. In an earlier series, I mentioned that Armidale soap maker George Mallaby exhibited his wares at the 1900 Paris expo.

EBB and Mary had travelled to England with Mary’s parents. Initially they lived in a house that Mary’s parents had purchased, before moving to a leased place of their own.

We do not know much about this period beyond the facts that two children were born (Emily 1851, Edward Oswald 1852), while EBB continued to sketch and paint.

The Boultons were still in England when on 17 June 1851 an advertisement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald that would change the family’s direction,   

In 1834, John McLean had taken up a run near Walcha that he called Bergen-op-Zoom, a reported tribute his relatives Allan and Francis McLean who had assisted the Dutch in the defence of that town against the French.

McLean had died, and now the 44,800 acre run was advertised for sale as part of his deceased estate.

The Boultons’ focus had been the central west. Now they were to acquire Bergen-op Zoom, in so doing bringing them within New England's history.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 12 February 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Artist and pastoralist

Edward Baker Boulton, Sydney: town and harbour 1879, the Royal Collection. Boulton was a prolific painter throughout his life, including a number of New England scenes. This is the fourth in a series on the lives of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connections.  

On 27 September 1835, Arthur Ransome’s grandfather Edward Baker Boulton (EBB) left Liverpool Docks for NSW on the Ellen. He had just turned 23.

We do not know what family discussions were held prior to his departure. We do know that he arrived in Australia with some financial resources and would later be joined by his brothers in various pastoral activities.

EBB’s love of art was already well entrenched. He took his sketch book with him on the Ellen and sketched throughout the voyage, leading to a book of pencil sketches published in 1837.

The colony of NSW was 48 years old in 1836 with a European population of 78,929. About 35% were convicts, many more the children of convicts.

There was a small upper class groups of officials, landowners and merchants who had accumulated significant wealth and were now investing some of it in new mansions including Lindsay (1834-36), Elizabeth Bay House (1835-39) and Carthonia (1841).

On 1 October 1836, Governor Bourke granted grazing rights to pastoralists beyond the “Limits of Location” in return for a £10 annual license fee to come into effect from New Year’s Day 1837. This triggered a land rush.

EBB began investing in real estate and grazing rights in Sydney and the Central West on his on his own and in conjunction with his brothers. By September 1842 he was sufficiently established to sell a large portfolio of land titles to a group including his friend Oswald Bloxome for the substantial sum of £1,700.

Bloxome (1802-1888) was ten years older than EBB. Both were interested in painting, with Bloxome becoming patron of English marine painter Sir Oswald Brierly while Brierley was in Sydney.

Both were interested in pastoral expansion. Bloxome took up a large block on the New England which he named Rangers Valley after his family home in England, The Rangers. The Boulton brothers were still focused on the Central West, where by 1848 they held 228,400 acres in the Wellington Valley.

From the beginning, EBB had set about establishing himself within Sydney’s small local elite. He joined the exclusive Australian Club in September 1838 and by1842 he had also become secretary of the Union Assurance Company.

He also continued painting and exhibiting. Much later, his grandson Arthur Ransome would remark that his grandfather was always more interesting in painting than in his sheep!

On 3 April 1850, EBB married Mary Atkinson, daughter of Anglo-Irish entrepreneur James Atkinson and wife Mary. Now established, he decided to take his new wife to England to see the Great Exhibition as their honeymoon.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 5 February 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Celebrated author Arthur Ransome's Australian connection

Swallows and Amazons has number of references to Australia. This is the third in a series on the lives of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connections.  

The late 1920s found English writer Arthur Ransome and wife Evgenia settled in the English Lake district where they would spend the rest of their lives. The Manchester Guardian offered Ransome a full time position as foreign correspondent, but he declined this in favour of a new writing project.

The result was Swallows and Amazons, published at the end of 1930, the book was the first in a series that established Ransome as one of the best and most popular English children's writers.

Swallows and Amazons follows the outdoor adventures of two families of children as they sail and play on one of the local lakes. The Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) sailing a borrowed dingy, Swallow, meet up with the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy) in their dingy Amazon.

The book is a lovely picture of outdoor life and of adventures centred on Nancy and Peggy's uncle Jim Turner (Captain Flint) and assorted baddies.

Swallows and Amazons has a number of references to Australia.

The Walker children's mother Mary Walker was Australian. At one point in the book, Titty Walker muses: "I wonder whether the real Queen Elizabeth knew much about ships". Mother responds that, "Queen Elizabeth was not brought up close to Sydney Harbour."

Arthur Ransome had never visited Australia. Why, then, the references to Australia?

The answer lies in Arthur's mother, Edith, the daughter of Australian grazier Edward Baker Boulton and his second wife Rachel Gwynn.

Arthur was only 11 when his grandfather died in 1895, but retained clear recollections of him. He would have learned more from his mother, for she was close to her father. They shared an interest in art and frequently discussed their painting in the regular letters that passed between them.

This brings us to the Australian leg of our story described by John Edwards in his 2004 book, Edward Baker Boulton: Australia's Forgotten Artist.

Lavishly illustrated with Boulton's own paintings, the book traces Boulton's life from his birth in England in 1812 to his death at Walcha in 1895.

Edward Baker Boulton was born in Shropshire, England, on 29 August 1812, the sixth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Boulton nee Baker. Despite economic ups and downs, the Boultons were a prosperous middle class family with some capital.

As described in previous series, NSW boomed during the 1830s. Wool prices were high as were stock prices, fueled by demand for sheep and cattle to stock the new land claimed within the ever expanding frontier. Speculation in land and stock was rife, with fortunes being made and sometimes lost.

In 1835, Edward Boulton decided to join this rush.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 29 January 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Arthur Ransome's life of danger and intrigue

Russian beauty: Evgenia Shelepina. Tall, attractive and intelligent, Evgenia became the love of Arthur Ransome's life. This is the second in a series on the life of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connection.  

In May 1913, English writer Arthur Ransome left England for Russia. This began the second stage in his life, one marked by adventure, danger and romance set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. It reads like a spy novel and in some ways it was.

On that first trip, Ransome stayed in St Petersburg for three months travelling and learning conversational Russian. He returned to Russia on visits in 1914 and 1915 before becoming the Moscow based correspondent for the Daily News in November 1915, a post he held for four years.

The Russian Empire was in turmoil, drained by war. The Tsar’s attempts to reform failed because of indecision and internal conflict, and in November 1917 the Bolsheviks seized power.

Ransome sought an interview with Leon Trotsky, effectively the number two in the Bolshevik hierarchy. There he met Evgenia Shelepina, Trotsky’s personal secretary.

A committed Bolshevist, Evgenia was very tall, attractive and intelligent. Restless, unhappy in his personal life, Ransome was immediately attracted. A relationship developed that would last the rest of their lives.

Ransome’s knowledge of Russia and its language, his connections with Evgenia and other members of the new Government, informed both his writing and the reports he seems to have provided to British intelligence.

I don’t think that Ransome was ever a spy in the conventional sense, he was too erratic for that, too supportive of the Bolshevik side. However, his reports do seem to have been valuable.

In 1919, Ransome brought Evgenia out of Russia to Reval in Latvia where Ransome was now based. It was a dangerous escape, one that left Ransome with a serious gastric illness, a problem that was to plague him all his life.

Based first in Reval and then Riga, Ransome was now the Russian correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. He and Evgenia wanted to marry, but that required a divorce from Ivy.

After increasingly bitter negotiations, Ransome and Ivy were finally divorced. On 8 May 1924, Arthur and Evgenia married at the British consulate in Reval.

In February 1925, Arthur and Evgenia returned to England, setting up home in the Lakes District. Ransome loved this area and it was convenient to the offices of the Manchester Guardian, still a major outlet for Ransome’s writing.

This move marked the start of the third phase in Ransome’s life. It is now time to introduce the New England connection in Ransome’s life, a connection that would influence his later writing.

 Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 22 January 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia

Another paper that I missed out on was this 2016 Nature paper "Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia" The abstract follows:

High-coverage whole-genome sequence studies have so far focused on a limited number1 of geographically restricted populations2,3,4,5, or been targeted at specific diseases, such as cancer6. Nevertheless, the availability of high-resolution genomic data has led to the development of new methodologies for inferring population history7,8,9 and refuelled the debate on the mutation rate in humans10. Here we present the Estonian Biocentre Human Genome Diversity Panel (EGDP), a dataset of 483 high-coverage human genomes from 148 populations worldwide, including 379 new genomes from 125 populations, which we group into diversity and selection sets. We analyse this dataset to refine estimates of continent-wide patterns of heterozygosity, long- and short-distance gene flow, archaic admixture, and changes in effective population size through time as well as for signals of positive or balancing selection. We find a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggests that at least 2% of their genome originates from an early and largely extinct expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) out of Africa. Together with evidence from the western Asian fossil record11, and admixture between AMHs and Neanderthals predating the main Eurasian expansion12, our results contribute to the mounting evidence for the presence of AMHs out of Africa earlier than 75,000 years ago. 

Pagani, L., Lawson, D., Jagoda, E. et al. Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia. Nature 538, 238–242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19792

The Moyjil site, south-west Victoria: possible hominin occupation c 120,000 years ago

This another of those articles that I missed, the results of a dig at Moyjil Port Ritchie at the entrance to the Hopkins River, Warnambool on Victoria's south western coast. The dig investigated a charcoal and burnt stone feature associated with a scattered midden. Dating indicates a date around 120,000 years ago with the evidence marginally supporting a cultural over natural origin.

The abstract follows:

Claims for a human presence in Australia beyond 60,000 years ago must have a strong evidence base associated with rigorous methodology and intense scrutiny. In this light we present excavation results for Charcoal and Burnt Stone Feature #1 (CBS1) located within coastal dune sediments at Moyjil (Point Ritchie), Warrnambool, that independent geomorphic and OSL dating indicates is of Last Interglacial age (~120,000 years ago). While on plausibility grounds the cultural status of a feature of such great antiquity in Australia is unlikely, a cultural origin for CBS1 is less easily dismissed if assessed with an age-independent methodology. A broad range of macroscale discrimination criteria has been used to assess whether CBS1 is either a cultural hearth or a natural feature such as a burnt tree stump. On balance, evidence marginally supports a cultural origin over a natural origin. However, the absence of associated stone artefacts and faunal remains and the presence of burnt root wood precludes definitive statements on the cultural status of the feature. Our case study is methodologically instructive in terms of the potential complexities and issues of equifinality involved in the archaeological identification of ancient hearths. 

McNiven Ian J. , Crouch Joe , Bowler Jim M. , Sherwood John E. , Dolby Nic , Dunn Julian E. Stanisic John (2018) The Moyjil site, south-west Victoria, Australia: excavation of a Last Interglacial charcoal and and burnt stone feature — is it a hearth?. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 130, 94-116. https://doi.org/10.1071/RS18008

Comment

The results attracted considerable interest at the time because they seemed to push back the date of Aboriginal occupation of the continent to perhaps 120,000 years. The abstract is cautious in its conclusions about cultural as opposed to natural origin.

As we get more dates from Asia, the possibility of earlier hominin occupation of Sahul becomes more plausible.  The issue that then arises is whether they are Aboriginal or an earlier hominin species such as the Denisovans, given the tension between earlier dates and some of the dates attached to Aboriginal occupation by genomic modelling.

First pages of a literary life

1913: Crowd gathered outside the court following the decision in the Lord Alfred Douglas libel case. Arthur, Ivy Ransome, left. This is the first in a new series on the life of English children's writer Arthur Ransome and his Australian connection.  

2020 begins with another New England story, this one about a famous English children’s author, a nineteenth century Australian squatter and prolific painter and a Walcha property with a most unusual name.

Our story will take us from English literary life in the first half of the twentieth century back though the Russian Revolution to the aftermath of the Oscar Wilde Affair. We then travel further back to Sydney Town of the1830s before moving forward following the story of a large English-Australian squatting family.

Arthur Mitchell Ransome was born in Leeds on 18 January 1884, the eldest child of Cyril Ransome and his wife Edith nee Boulton.

This was an academic, intellectual family. Cyril was a history don at Yorkshire College, later Leeds University, while Edith was a talented amateur painter, a love she inherited from her father, Edward. Father and daughter seem to have written to each other regularly, sharing their interest in painting.

Arthur seems to have been a bookish, somewhat withdrawn, child who did not get on well with his schoolmates. I think that he compensated by creating a vivid internal world, one that would appear later in his books.

In 1897, Cyril Ransome died from a bone infection that even a leg amputation had failed to stop.

The relationship between Arthur and his father was complicated. Cyril seems to have been very much the Victorian father, both withdrawn and demanding, sometimes harsh Arthur would regret all his life that his father’s death stopped him getting to know Cyril, when they might have talked as adults and helped Arthur understand.

Upon leaving Rugby in 1901, Arthur Ransome enrolled in science at the Yorkshire College. I have no idea why, for he had already decided to be a full time writer.

Less than a year after enrolling, Arthur obtained a job with a London publisher and began writing for literary magazines. This allowed him to make the jump into full time writing.

Ransome published his first book in 1904, a collection of essays This was followed by a stream of publications, none especially successful apart from Bohemia in London (1907).

In 1908, Ransome fell in love with Ivy Constance Walker. They married in March 1909. It would prove a disastrous marriage for both because Arthur could not give Ivy the love and attention she needed.

In 1913, Oscar Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas sued Ransome for libel over a commissioned 1912 piece on Wilde that Ransome had written. Ransome won, bankrupting Douglas in the process.

Ivy stood by Ransome during the trial, indeed she seems to have enjoyed the attention, but Ransome was exhausted and wanted to escape. A few months after the trial, he left for Russia on an extended research and writing trip, starting a new stage in his life.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 15 January 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Local history groups hold keys to uncovering the past

Speedy Purchase, Quick Return: The small settlement of Kookabookra lay south east of Glen Innes, one of many now vanished country settlements.The records of the Kookabookra Court of Perry Sessions are just one of the records held at the New England Archives and Heritage Centre,

I hope that you had a happy Christmas. May the New Year be peaceful, successful, wet and fire free!

I published my first Express column in December 2009. Since then I have written 474 columns. This year, I hope to take you still deeper into the remarkable tapestry that is our history.

Last year, I wrote a short series on the cultural, social and economic importance of family, local and regional history. This post focuses on some of the historical resources available in Armidale. Later, I will deal with resources outside Armidale.

Armidale has a number of historical societies. The peak societies are the Armidale Family History Group and the Armidale and District Historical Society.

The Family History Group focuses on family history, but can provide broader information to provide an historical context. The Historical Society focuses on history, but can also provide information relevant to particular families. The two societies work closely together, with many common members.

Both maintain growing collections of historical material. Both have reading rooms open to the general public manned by volunteers who can provide advice on the topics you are interested in or direct you to other sources of information.

The Armidale and District Historical Society is located at 114 Faulkner Street, the old Dumaresq Shire Council Chambers. It’s open Monday to Friday, 10.00 to 16.00.

The Family History Group reading rooms in the Kentucky Street museum precinct at the Dangar Street end are open Monday 14.00 to 17.00, Wednesday 10.00 to 16.00, other times by appointment.

Just across the road from the Family History Group in the Newling library building lies the University of New England Archives & Heritage Centre, the jewel in Armidale’s historical resources crown.

The Centre has a large collection of primary and secondary materials relevant to New England’s history and is a great resource for students, locals and family and regional historians. The Centre is open Monday to Friday 9.00-17.00.

Down Kentucky Street from the Heritage Centre you will find the New England Regional Art Museum (open Tuesday-Sunday 10.00-16.00) and the Aboriginal Cultural Centre & Keeping Place (open Monday to Friday 9.00-16.00, Saturday 10.00-14.00).

Two other resources are the Armidale City Library (Rusden Street) and the Dixson Library at the University. Apart from its general material, the City Library has a small local reference section upstairs, while the Dixson is a major library that Includes a specialist collection covering New England.

This post provides just a taste of local resources. Later this year, we hope to release a full resource guide for use by students, teachers, locals and visitors.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 January 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Campaign beats loggers and saves Dorrigo National park

Dorrigo National Park today. What we have today is due to the activity of dedicated locals such as Ray Spinaze. This is the fourth and final in a short series on the early days of the Dorrigo National Park.

From the beginning, the trustees appointed to oversight the Dorrigo Nature Reserves faced a fundamental problem. They had responsibility, but no money.

The first small reserves had been created in 1901, the bigger Mountain Reserve in 1917. A first government grant of £5 was received in 1920. The next grant of £100 from unemployment relief funds did not come until 1933! It would be 1965 before there was enough money to employ the first ranger.

With the only income coming from the lease for grazing of a small portion of land, there was little that the trustees could do beyond some blackberry control and endeavouring to keep paths clear.

This created real governance problems as trustees lost heart, retired or died. Between 1940 and 1949 it appears that the Trust did not meet at all. Then came another of those energising events. 

There had been problems with illegal logging and shooting for some time.

In 1949, the Thora sawmill lodged an application to log the Park. As local member, Roy Vincent was able to block the application and get the Trust restructured, but in the absence of funding, the Trustees struggled.

In 1954, responsibility for the management of the Park was transferred to the Dorigo Shire Council, passing to the Bellingen Shire Council in 1957 following the forced merger of the Dorrigo and Bellingen Shires. A Management Committee was formed to oversight the Park in the place of the Trustees.

The merger of the two shires created bitter resentment on the Dorrigo Plateau Locals believed that they had little in common with the coast and that the merger would submerge their interests to their cost. This resentment turned into direct action when the Bellingen Shire Council recommended that logging be allowed in the Park.

Local solicitor Ray Spinaze led the Dorrigo response.

Born in 1914, Spinaze was a descendent of the Veneto (Italian) families who had been attracted to the South Pacific by the ill-fated dreams of the Marquis de Rays. When that failed, the survivors established New Italy between Byron Bay and Grafton, now a significant tourist destination.

Spinaze had been dux of Lismore High School and then trained as a solicitor. On the boat to Sydney for exams, much coastal travel was still done by steamer, he met Georgina Cochrane. The couple married in 1941 and then settled in Dorrigo where Spinaze had bought a practice.

Spinaze’s campaign blocked any attempt to log the Park. Because of the tensions between the Park management committee and Council, responsibility for the Park’s management was taken away from the Bellingen Shire Council and given back a newly reconstituted Trust.

The Park as we know it today had been born. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 18 December 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019