EARLY SETTLEMENT - Mudgee, P.3

Allan Cunningham, explorer and botanist, was one of the first to settle in Mudgee.  
 

First settler names in the district and properties Mudgee becomes a village

George Cox married Eliza Bell, a daughter of Archibald Bell of Richmond, in 1822. He built a home on the Burrundulla Flats and in 1830, added sheep from his Mulgoa home, Winbourne, on the Nepean River in the Mulgoa Valley. George appointed his son, George Henry, to live and oversee the Burrundulla property. George visited his Burrundulla home twice a year from Mulgoa.
 
Edward Cox, who lived at Fernhill near St Thomas’ Church Mulgoa (George and Eliza’s first home) settled a property at Rylstone where his main flock was pastured.
 
In the 1820s, settlers began to arrive—Fitzgerald, Jamison, Rouse, Blackman, Dulhunty, Ashcroft, Bowman, Steele, King, Hayes, Lowe and Walker, up through the Cudgegong River, through the Capertee and Glen Alice Valleys and up the Turon over Razorback. The first land grant was to Captain Henry Steel, granted in 1823 for services during the Napoleonic Wars.
 
LV Dulhunty was granted 2,000 acres of river frontage where Putta Bucca homestead now stands, with William Lawson granted 717 acres beside him. Henry Cox was granted Cullenbone, Robert Fitzgerald was granted Dabee near Rylstone and Edward Cox adjoined him on Rawdon. James Walker was granted Lue in 1823 and William Hayes took the present Havilah property. Robert Lowe received Wilbertree and his stepmother, Sarah Lowe was granted Goree. William Bowman took a grant at Mullamuddy.
 
Henry Cox continued to farm the land around The Camping Tree on Wilbertree Road he was granted in 1825, the first site for the town before it was moved to its present site, 3kms upstream, because of constant flooding.
 
In 1834 the present site of Mudgee, east of the Camping Tree and west of George Cox’s Burrundulla, was proposed for a village. Blackman was among the first to buy land at the new site in 1838, when 20 allotments bound by Douro, Market, Court and Mortimer Streets were auctioned in Sydney. He owned the first hotel in Mudgee and the first store. The new site of Mudgee was gazetted as a village on January 12, 1838. Mudgee was declared a municipality on February 21, 1860, making it the second town settled west of the Great Dividing Range.

Previous |  Content |  Next

Early settler Richard Rouse Photo thanks to Gulgong Museum

Early settler Bessie Rouse, Richard Rouse’s daughter. Photo thanks to Gulgong Museum