A Beautiful Valley

The last 2 days have been spent driving around the Clarence Valley and it is a beautiful place. In fact rather than trying to describe it in too many words, I'll let some pictures we took do the talking. Yesterday I wanted to check out canoe entry and exit points and the general canoeability of the river. We drove up on the North side through Copmanhurst and then to Lillydale where there is a bridge over to the South side. We then headed upstream to The Gorge and back to Jackadgery where I talked to the caravan park owner who has canoed much of the river. He reassured me that there were no hidden nasties where I wanted to go. From there we headed back into Grafton.

The river at Copmanhurst, just downstream from Ramornie Homestead on the far bank.

Old stock hut at Towgon Grange, just downstream from The Gorge.

The river at the bottom end of The Gorge.

Today we headed out to Ramornie Station that Great, Great Grandfather Charles Tindal bought in 1852 after having spent time working for Edward at Yulgilbar, as well as on other stations in the area. Like Edward, Charles went back to England in the mid 1850s and returned with a wife, Anne Amory Travers  (I'll explain our somewhat complicated family tree in a later post). On their return they built Ramornie Homestead in 1858 and it still stands today. My father's mother Phyllis Theodosia Grant Tindal lived there as a child before her family went to back to England. When she died Gran left me a small, childs chair which she said was made for her at Ramornie from local timber.

Ramornie Homestead 

If you want to know more about Charles Tindal, try this link to his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tindal-charles-grant 1238

The stables at Ramornie, looking pretty much as they must have in the 1860s.

There is a number in the phone book for Ramornie Station and I'd tried it several times with no answer so we decided just to take pot luck. No one was home when we got there but I took the liberty of taking a number of pictures and left a note to say we'd called. The house looks to have a family living there with children's things around. It's in a fairly original state so gives a feel of what it once was.

Ramornie guest quarters.

Ramornie Meatworks on the Orara River from an album of photos of Grafton and surrounds held at the Mitchell Library. Charles was a patriarchal employer and built a village and school for his workers, adjoining the works. The album contains a number of other pictures of the works and village and can be viewed at acms.sl.nsw.gov.au

All that remains of the village at Ramornie Meatworks - the school bell post.

We then drove about 15kms back towards Grafton to the site of the Ramornie Meatworks that made Charles Tindal most of his money. We called into the house overlooking the site to see if they owned the land. A friendly older bloke, Don, did indeed own the land and when I explained my purpose was happy for us to take a poke around. Don said it was a "crying shame" what was happening with the Ramornie Homestead because he had heard it had been left empty and subject to vandalism. However, I was able to reassure him that isn't the case at present as it is clearly being lived in and looking ok.

Fig tree growing out of the Meatworks ruins.

From here to the trees in the background was once all Meatworks with the village up  onthe on the slopes to the rear left. Now just Don's cow paddock.

From the Meatworks we drove down to the Eatonsville Crossing. (Eatonsville Station was known locally as Eat'nswill in recognition of the bonhomie of it's owners.) This was the first point on the river where it could be crossed and given that it is about 80kms from the mouth, you can get some idea of how big this river is. While I say it was a crossing, it was notorious for people drowning in attempts to do so. Bear in mind that in the 19th century most Europeans couldn't swim so if they lost their footing or hold on their horse, that was it. (If horses can swim naturally, you'd think humans could!) Charles Tindal's younger brother was one of about 30 people to have drowned here and a cemetery was established on the north bank to bury many of them. In fact of 4 Tindal brothers, 2 drowned in ships off the Australian coast and a third here. Charles was the only one to survive! Hence my theory that it is a grand Australian tradition to drown trying to get here and that rather than trying to stop them, we should only allow migrants who arrive in leaky boats, on the basis that that is the kind of aspirational, can-do spirit that made this nation great!

The Eatonsville Crossing. Apparently its changed a bit in that bits were blown up so boats  could more easily pass through. Doesn't look too dangerous to a swimmer though. The cemetery is on the hill on the far bank.