Squatters Castle describes his death as occurring as a result of being thrown from a horse in a railway underpass on the outskirts of Bowral. A train went over head, the horse was spooked and he came off. He was taken back to the house he was renting for the summer but died there a few days later. Edward was 81 at the time and presumably would have been fit enough to live on for some years more given that riding is not an occupation for the infirm.
It seems that the railway still pretty well follows the same route as it did in 1854 and I was able to locate the only place where it goes over the road "on the outskirts of Bowral". It is on the Old Bowral Rd about half way between Bowral and Mittagong which are about 5 kilometres apart.
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On the day I visited, another elderly gentleman was experiencing a crisis of his own at this spot. When I pulled up to photograph the underpass an old fellow was leaning on the fence and clearly not feeling the best. He was shaky, red in the face and having trouble standing, let alone walking. I asked him if he was ok and he replied "not really".
His name was Patrick and he confessed that he'd decided to walk into Mittagong to visit the shops because they were a bit cheaper but he'd underestimated the degree of hilliness on the road. While it wasn't a particularly hot day, it was sunny and he was wearing a thick oilskin jacket which wasn't helping. He had had the foresight to take a water bottle but had just about emptied that. I asked him if he'd like a lift anywhere. He said a lift to the bus stop would be lovely as he could catch a bus home from there which is what we did. En route we chatted and he told me he was 71. His conversation was sufficiently lucid for me to assess that he was just overcome with the walk and not experiencing anything more serious and that it was safe for me to let him make his way home on the bus.
Searching the internet I found newspaper references to Edward having taken a house called Fernside for this, and the previous, summer. A bit more internet searching revealed that this house was in Oxley Drive so we went looking for it. Fernside was originally on 15 acres and there was only one house on Oxley Drive in the section indicated that appeared to be old enough to fit the bill. It was just a kilometre or two from the railway bridge.
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| Fernside, Bowral |
No one was home so I left a note with my number and then visited the local historical society. Their files suggested that this was Fernside and a few days later a phone call from the house's current owner Pru, confirmed that it was. Pru believes that the house was only single story in the 1890's the dormer windowed upper section having been added in the early 20th century.
Pru was keen to chat about her house and coincidentally, her father owns a number of furniture items that were originally at Yulgilbar. He bought them at auction many years ago. I suggested she encourage him to contact the archivist at Yulgilbar as they might be interested in details of these items.
So as I said, not directly part of Edward's journey but a very significant location in his life, never the less.
