OAV foundation day essay
Answers
“Good morning everyone…
I reckoned when I was first asked to make this address that I was on a hiding to nothing, having to talk about the history of Braidwood to the people whose families, or even themselves, were the history of Braidwood. As a hick from over the hill, I hadn’t been here more than a handful of times in my life before I became involved with Council. But here I am nonetheless, having accepted the challenge.
It’s not every day that a Mayor of a shire has the privilege of inviting the community to share in the celebration of the 175th anniversary of their town. But so it is today. Before proceeding, however, I would like to follow on from Uncle Max’s comments and acknowledge that there were indigenous communities in the area long before European settlers arrived. In these proceedings I would like to formally recognise their living culture and their unique role in the life and history of this region.
The last time I stood up here to talk about some aspect of Braidwood history, I was roundly berated for propagating false myths about a locally bred thoroughbred racehorse. I’ll endeavour to avoid doing anything of the sort on this occasion, having enlisted the assistance of a couple of local historians in preparing these notes.
What I’d like to do is to briefly step back in time and trace the steps of our fair Braidwood, from its genesis to the present day, having become in the process the first town in Australia to be listed on the State Heritage Register.
The 20s and 30s
European settlers first appeared in the area in the early 1820s, as the early explorers crossed the Great Divide and searched for alternate routes to the coast. It wasn’t until 1839, however, that a town plan was surveyed for Braidwood, and that is what is recognised as the birthday of our town. Some years earlier, however, one Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson settled in the area. Dr Wilson, of Scottish heritage as many will be aware, was the surgeon superintendent on a number of convict vessels that transported some of the earliest European immigrants to Australia’s shores. He originally took up land in Van Diemen’s Land, but ultimately moved to the mainland, around Lake Bathurst, and then subsequently to the site on which we find our town of Braidwood today.
Even before the township was actually surveyed, Dr Wilson was playing a pivotal role in the establishment of the settlement. He was not only a surgeon, but also a pastoralist and community leader, even filling to the role of local magistrate at times, having organised the construction of the first courthouse in the town in 1837.
While this might seem a little unusual, that a courthouse might be one of the earliest public buildings constructed in the area, we need to remember that a significant proportion of the local population in those days were ‘government men’, convicts that had been assigned as labourers to the local landholders. While the names of many of the pastoralists carry on, we shouldn’t forget the contribution made to the establishment of our town by these less fortunate souls.
As fate would have it, Braidwood’s early days were marked by events that would prove to characterise the Australian landscape. The area was hit by severe drought in the late 30s and early 40s, something with which many here today will be only too well acquainted. The general economic situation was desperate, and many immigrants would undoubtedly have returned home to Ireland except that Ireland too was similarly stricken, 1840 being the height of the potato famine. Ireland lost almost 50% of its population in a five-year period from either starvation or emigration.
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