COMMONWEALTH BANK

Fiddlers Hame, 139 Mayne Street Gulgong

Source: Col Bailey, Goldfields Motor Inn Gulgong

CommBank’s first branch in Gulgong opened on 16 January 1956 in a leased premises on the corner of Mayne and Medley Streets ... where The Fiddlers Hame is located today. It was leased from Mr. C. A. Lund. In 1961 the branch relocated to its current location.

Source: Steven Politzer, Group Archivist, Group Archives, Eveleigh, NSW

Commonwealth Bank, 110 Mayne Street Gulgong

Source: Vince Wang, Google Maps Photo Contributor

In 1960 the Commonwealth Bank showed their faith in the town by building a new bank. At that time very few appreciated the need to preserve the authentic nature of the town.The CBA gave their building a high, modern all plate glass facade. When a film crew was shooting "Between Wars" in 1974 they found the glass front of the bank didn’t fit with 1924 aspect of the set. They disguised it by erecting a temporary verandah. This was later replaced by a permanent one after prompting from the Conservation Society.

Source: Goldfields Motor Inn Gulgong

COULEY

James Couley married Elizabeth Cheetham. Their children 10 included:

• ELIZABETH - born 1882 in Gulgong district (NSW BDM 22160/1882 (mistranscribed as COWLEY); married Alfred FITZGERALD 1899, near Gulgong
• JAMES "Jim" COULEY - born in Gulgong district (NSW BDM 24080/1883) (mistranscribed as CONLEY); enlisted 19/7/1915
• CHARLES - born 1885 Coonabarabran
• MATILDA - born 1886 Coonabarabran
• SOPHIA - born 1886 Coonabarabran
• WILLIAM -  born 1888 Binnaway/Coonabarabran; enlisted 13/1/1916
• GEORGE - born 1890 Coonabarabran
• ALICE -  born 1892 Coonabarabran
• MARY - born 1894 Coonabarabran
• JOHN "Jack"- born 1896 Coonabarabran; enlisted 16/3/1918

Jim Couley (bn 1883) was one of 10 children, the eldest son and a younger brother to my great grandmother Elizabeth (bn 1882, married Alfred Fitzgerald 1899 near Gulgong). Their mother, also Elizabeth (nee Cheetham, Aboriginal, daughter of Matilda Murphy and I'm unsure if Wiradjuri or Gamilaroi nation) died in 1898 in Coonabarabran Hospital when her youngest child was just 2 years of age. 

Jim never married and was 55 years when he died (1936) from Pulmonary Tuberculosis at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick after living his last few years at a health sanitorium in Sydney. Two of Jim's brothers also served in WW1, William enlisted 13/1/1916 and baby of the family Jack enlisted 16/3/1918 and all three returned to Australia in 1919. 

Source: Pauline Kuhner

Indigenous soldier

Representative of the broad cross section of men serving in the AIF is the next Indigenous MM winner James Couley. His occupation, as again with many Indigenous men, was in the rural sector: a shearer, his tallies often averaging 180 sheep a day. He was also a prominent bareknuckle fighter, his achievements in this regard being known to many in the Gilgandra and Coonamble districts.

Taken on strength by the 1st Battalion he was a tall man of 5’ 11½’ (181.6 cm), 168 pounds (76.2 kg) in weight and with an expanded chest measurement of 41¾” (106 cm). When the War broke out "Big Jim" was the first man in Coonamble to enlist for active service abroad.

Heroes do not fit any stereotype and James Couley has a record littered with being absent without leave, drunkenness, disobedience and using “improper language to a superior officer”. Yet when on active service it is a record which also displays the fighting qualities prized in a soldier.

In May 1917 the 1st Battalion was involved in heavy fighting, on this occasion at the Second Battle of Bullecourt. The battalion’s war diary records that on May 6 the Germans put down a “heavy barrage” and that the battalion on their right was driven back and that the position of the 1st had become “critical”. It was only after an hour’s heavy fighting that the position was restored. It then goes on to describe how the “fighting had been at close quarters” and that the enemy’s shelling had been “exceptionally heavy, destructive and constant”; it concludes with praise for how the men had “coped”.

These then were the conditions under which James Couley was to display “conspicuous gallantry”. As with Simpson, Couley’s bravery concerned the rescue of the wounded. He had been a bomb-thrower and stretcher bearer, sometimes carrying the men on his back and he had done so for 72 hours.

Awards for bravery in times of war seem paradoxically split between those who take and those who save life; for James Couley it was for the latter. In spite of what might appear to be a chequered time during his time in the army, he had at Bullecourt shown selfless heroism. On several occasions his name was mentioned in despatches, and among members of the 1st Batallion he was known as the "Uncrowned V.C."

Source: Brad Stubbs.
University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis: "My own darling laddie". In search of George Wenham: an Aboriginal Anzac and the history of denial (Pages 272-275) by Michael C. Wenham BA, Dip. Ed.

HEWSON

Edward William Hewson married Tamar Hildergarde Clark in Tallawang in 1893 (NSW BDM 3758/1893). 

Their children included:

• Ida M - (NSW BDM 16051/1893)
• Ethel - (NSW BDM 30340/1894); died aged 3 months on 12 February 1895 from exhaustion after gastro enteritis of 2 days' duration. 
• Edith - (NSW BDM 7172/1896)
• Vera A - (NSW BDM 8250/1899)
• Emily A - (NSW BDM 2905/1900)
• Charles - (NSW BDM 2619/1902)
• Lola May - (NSW BDM 14288/1903)
• Edward - (NSW BDM 25835/1905)

John "Brummy" Hewson, a sawyer at Tallawang 1869

Source: Christopher Hewson

SEIS

 
Harry Seis and Mari nee Williams, 1937-9
Source: Amber Hague

Mari Seis nee Williams, 1937-9
Source: Amber Hague

A prosperous grazier, who was a frequent visitor Brislington private hospital, ultimately married an employee of the establishment. These people were HARRY SEIS and MIRIAM MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, known as Mari.

MAYNE 112-116

Pye's Furniture and Hardware Showroom, 1960s
Source: Barbara Gurney

112 - BERYL's CAFE

Prior to the construction of the current brick building, Pye’s Furniture and Hardware Showroom was located at 112 Mayne Street Gulgong.

Ken MacLean built the brick building circa 1977-1978 with builder, Wilf Brown. It was Ken's fourth electronic /electrical shop in Gulgong, the first being about 1954. He sold electrical gear and performed repairs out the back.

Ken sold the shop to William (Bill) Gossage in the early 80s (and/or sold the business to Darryl Adams Mudgee 1980-1981).

In the mid-80s, John O'Brien had a video rental business in this store (he also had a jewelry shop across the street and a Discount Electrical business at 88 Mayne Street).

In 1988-89, this, and the adjacent building (No 114) were joined together as an expansion of Garry and Marg Meredith's IGA Foodtown, continuing until 1999. 

From about 201o to 2011, the buildings at 112-114 Mayne Street were used as a temporary hospital while the MPS was being built on Goolma Road. Somewhere between 2012 and 2014 the buildings were separated back into individual premises.

114 - THE DENTISTS of GULGONG
- built in 1978 by Gloria and Bill Gossage as a shop and flat; later opened as a Supermarket run by Garry and Marg Meredith (1979-1999).

116 MAYNE - THE PROPERTY SHOP

- built approximately 1972 by Gloria and Bill Gossage then opened as a TAB.

Meredith's Supermarket, ca 1993-94

Source: Margaret Meredith

Meredith's Supermarket, ca 1993-94

Source: Margaret Meredith

Meredith's Supermarket, ca 1993-94

Source: Margaret Meredith

Meredith's Supermarket, ca 1993-94

Source: Margaret Meredith

GEORGE BLANNING

George Henry Blanning, aged 34, married Amelia Mary Tattersall, aged 21, in Gulgong in 1877 (NSW BDM 3651/1877). Their children included:

• GEORGE - born 1878 in Gulgong (NSW BDM 17045/1878); He married Elizabeth Carter Wade in 1899, in Gulgong. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 4 daughters. He died on 22 January 1950, at the age of 72 and is buried in Gulgong Cemetery.
• George N - born 1900
• Marjorie M - born 1904
• Kenneth J - born 1908
• Gwendoline V - born 1910
• Daphne E - born 1912
• Doris W - born 1915
  
• AMELIA MARIA - born in Gulgong in 1880 (NSW BDM 19089/1880)
• JOHN J - born in Dubbo in 1882 (NSW BDM 12122/1882)

Amelia Mary Tattersall, remarried in 1884.

BRISLINGTON

Brislington House, Gulgong

Brislington House, Gulgong

Brislington House, Gulgong

Advertisement Gulgong Advertiser -1936

‘Brislington Private’ Hospital, Home Street,

Outdoor Patients also Attended,

Sister Grace I. Hague, Phone 75

Source: Amber Hague

Brislington House, at 5 Homer Street Gulgong, was built for Mr. Edward (Ted) Stott in 1899, by bricklayer and builder Mr. Alex Wildman. Ted Stott married Margaret McMillan in 1900. They occupied Brislington until 1930. Mrs. Stott was a midwife and used the house as a hospital, but was not registered as a Private Hospital.

In 1930 Ted Stott sold the house and property to his brother Mr. George Stott. George's daughter, Miss Goma, was a double certificate sister and registered Brislington as a Private Hospital and continued running it from 1930 until she married in 1936.

Nurse Stott was a very good friend of Nurse Grace Slapp, as they went through their training as nurses together. Another close friend to Grace Slapp, was a Nurse Jarrett who delivered Denis Slapp when he was born 1944 at 'Nurse Jarrett's Private Hospital, 21 Mary street, Lidcombe.

Nurses Stott, Jarrett and Hague/Slapp of Brislington Private Hospital
Source: Amber Hague

In 1936, Sister Grace Hague nee Slapp took over the business from her friend and continued to run it as a Private Hospital until 1940.

In 1936 Mr. Harry Seis leased the property from his uncle, George Stott, until 1940. Mr. Harry Seis gave up the lease in 1940 and Mr. Len Price took it over. Upon Mr. Price taking over the lease, Brislington ceased being a Private Hospital and became a private home again.

Late in 1949 the property was sold.

Doctor Allport arrived in Gulgong in 1919 and died in Gulgong whilst walking into the Hospital. A son who is a Solicitor and a daughter who married a Dentist Mr. Les Griffin survived him.

Source: Gulgong Historical Society Inc. & Pioneers’ Museum – Research Centre. Mrs. Diane Campbell, Research Centre - 12th September 2006

Elsie Bateup - born at Brislington, 2 July 1936