Our First Taste of Family

Inverell is an attractive town but I was keen to get to Glen Innes 70km further on where our first family connections begin. Inverell and Glen Innes both have attractive and well preserved late Victorian/Edwardian streetscapes and I'm starting to think I may have to rethink describing Stirling Tce as one of the best preserved examples of same. Perhaps best in WA.

We stayed at the Poplars Caravan Park in Glen Innes which I was moved to review on TripAdvisor as the best value in 5000kms because it is! Lovely spot despite the fact that it got down to -6C on our second night here (yes that's a minus sign) and the water in our van hose froze causing the hose coupling to pop open with the pressure.

Sorry. This photo should be below the one of the Tindal family but sometimes this blog has a mind of its own. It insisted it should be here! It's in the beautiful garden at Virginia/Tatiara.

I knew that dad's maternal grandfather, John Travers Tindal and his wife Mary, who was Edward Ogilvie's eldest daughter, had lived here just before John died in 1926, on a property called Tatiara. I inquired at the local historical society about the location of Tatiara and was told by the lady there that it was now called Virginia and she gave me the location. However, she said a family member is very unwell and said that while it should be ok to drive past, she asked me to not call in as it is a difficult time for them.

John, Mary & Dorothy Tindal in the gardens at Tatiara in 1922. Relatives & friends may be struck by John and Mary's resemblence to current family members! John was 62, only 2 years older than me when this was taken.

Again, this should be below the 1922 photo of the house but it didn't want to. It shows the same side as the older picture.

Virginia today, from the front. 

We went up there today and while I was taking some photos across the paddocks from the road, a charming lady named Rose, who was checking cattle on a quad bike, came across to ask what we were doing. When I explained, she said that it was her family property and that her sister Margaret,who lives in the old house is very interested in the property's history and probably would welcome a visit despite her husband's illness. She rang her to check and we were invited to come up.

Tatiara in 1922. Today the trees are much bigger obscuring this view but the house is little different (although lovingly preserved). Both these 1922 pictures are by photographer Michael Terry from a large collection of his in the National Library. 

Margaret proved just as charming as her sister and showed us around the house which was built in 1885. It's timber and iron with some magnificent polished cedar doors and paneling and many of the original ripple glass window panes. Her grandparents, Harold & Beatrice Mott bought it from the Tindals just before John died in 1926 and the Mott family have owned it ever since. The original Tatiara property was about 300 acres and the Motts also purchased the larger Virginia block over the road, combining both properties under that name.

After visiting Tatiara/Virginia, we took a circuit drive up to Emmaville which has a fascinating local museum, and then across to Deepwater which has another facility, essential to any good tourist destination, a great pie shop!