James David Gormly, near Gulgong, ca 1900
Source: Kevin Varney
James David Gormly (far left) was the shire engineer at Mudgee. His father was James Gormly MLC. His mother was Margaret Cox.
NEWS ITEMS
Mr. James David Gormly, who died at his home at Lane Cove, Sydney, on 13th January, saw much of the early development in the Wagga Wagga and Bourke districts. He was born 78 years ago at Wagga Wagga, where his father, the late Hon. James Gormly, M.L.C., was one of the leading mailcoach proprietors in New South Wales. By that time Cobb and Co. had not, to any great extent, extended their activities to this side of the Murray, from Victoria.
In 1872 Mr. Gormly gave up his coaches and settled on the land near The Rock in the Wagga district. He took up one "free selection" of land for himself and five more for his children. Thus young David Gormly became a "Free Selector" of land in 1872 at the age of 8 years.
When the family governess dismissed her pupils in the afternoon, four of them went "on home" to their respective huts, so as to comply with the conditions of three years residence attached to their "free selections." The fifth child was allowed to remain at the homestend because the boundary line of her land ran right through the centre of her father's home.
Young David got his first job when he was about eleven years of age, and travelled for some months with his father's sheep to the mountains around Batlow and Tumbarumba districts.
David's next job was a bigger one; he assisted to take the family sheep and horses from his father's land on The Big Springs Station, near Wagga, to Caronga Park Station, near Bourke, a modest trek of about five hundred miles. David was then nearly 14 years old, but he could do a man's job. Caronga Park was absolutely devoid of any improvements when David Gormly's father bought it and water had to be carted twenty miles when the first big tank was excavated, but unbounded energy by the owner assisted by his two sons, Louis and David, and a good team of men soon saw the 160,000 acres converted into a profitable sheep station. David's father sold his station, and then bought and sold other grazing properties with very satisfactory results, and in 1881 he relinquished grazing and settled in the town of Wagga Wagga, and Louis and David went to school again.
David finished his education at St. Ignatius' College, Sydney, and when leaving there in June, 1884, he was dux of the college. A very creditable performance for a youth who had so many interruptions in his early school days.
After leaving college David became a land surveyor's assistant in Sydney, but the land boom burst in the early nineties and suburban subdivisions went out of fashion. He then went to Hillston as Town Clerk and later became an officer of the Public Works Department. When local government came into force, David again took up duties as a Shire Engineer. He also held a certificate which entitled him to hold the position of Shire Clerk. Thus he was sometimes a Shire Engineer and sometimes a Shire Clerk, always carrying out his duties with great satisfaction to the Council which employed him. He spent many years at Mudgee and Gulgong, and when he retired in 1930, he settled down in his home "Elphin," Dorrit-street, Lane Cove, not far from his old college, St. Ignatius, on the Lane Cove River. Mr. Gormly was twice married, his first wife being a Miss Power, daughter of the well-known family of Robert Power, of Toongabbie. A family of five by the first marriage were David, Linda, Ursula, Margaret and Minnie, and these are left to mourn their loss.
His second wife survives him, and also one son of the second marriage, James. Mr. Gormly was an exemplary Catholic and zealous friend of the poor. He was a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society for 50 years, and at the date of his death was actively engaged as treasurer of St. Michael's Conference. Following the Requiem Mass in St. Michael's Church, the interment took place in the Northern Suburbs
Cemetery, Sydney.
