Goulburn Crookwell Railway

 

Early History of Crookwell

 

Situated at 2900 feet in the Great Dividing Range is the town of Crookwell, about 28 miles North West of Goulburn and about the same distance north east of Gunning.

 

The general area was first explored by Dr Charles Throsby, who with three whites and three aboriginals traversed the country between the Southern Highlands and the Bathurst Plains in 1819. On 4th May 1819, Throsby passed close to where Taralga now lies, about 24 miles east of Crookwell, now lies. Surveyor Meehan was next to explore the area and passed through Woodhouselee and camped at Grabben Gullen overnight on 24 April 1820. His camp was only 7 miles south of Crookwell.

 

Squatters soon followed these early pathfinders to take up farms in the area and by the late 1820’s Crookwell River was named, although the origin of the name is somewhat uncertain. Early land grants were to Thomas Bray and Francis Oakes.

 

The early name of the town or town area was Kiama or Kyama. James Gormly indicated this in his notes of the time and that Crookwell was known as Oak’s Station in 1843. No houses existed at that time. Early maps of the time (about 1848) showed Sir Thomas Mitchell had a property ‘Crookwall’ on the Abercrombie River and Kiama was shown as a village reserve. In 1851 gold was first discovered in the area and of course encouraged bushrangers, including Ben Hall. However, little gold was found and the diggings were soon mined out.

 

Up to 1860 wheat growing had become an important industry in the area. Early farmers used potatoes to help break up the land for wheat and then rotated their crop with oats and barley.

 

A map was prepared in 1860 for Surveyor Armstrong who was authorised to lay out a village. The area was from Crookwell River, across the flat to some hills nearby. Close by the site on a river bend was Horatio Robert’s inn, built by him in the 1850’s and which was unfortunately demolished in the 1960’s. Thomas Wade was the occupier of land on the hill eventually taken in by the town.

 

At this time - In the 1850’s - a few more huts were added and the site was known as Kiama. Armstrong filed his report, having surveyed the town on 13th August 1860 and stated that it was appropriate “that the town should be called Crookwell”. He gave no reasons why he chose the name.

 

The main street became Goulburn Street, being the Goulburn Road. Sites for churches were allocated prior to blocks being made available to the public. The design plan was completed in 1872 and the Surveyor General made the plan available for public inspection. Stores and houses began to appear as the first blocks were sold in Yass in 1869. Ultimately, the first building erected on the Crookwell town site the Wesleyan Church was opened on 22nd March 1866.

 

A police station and courthouse was asked for in 1869 as the population was nearing 1000 for the district of five miles around the town. However, nothing came of the request until a robbery at Pejar caused further demands to be made for police.

 

Tenders were called in August 1874 for a Court House but it was not completed until February 1878. However, the courtroom was found to be too small and the ceiling was damaged by snow in September 1878 and caused the building to be flooded. Alterations were made to the building in 1881 but even before this was completed, the building was found to be inadequate.

 

The roads at this time were particularly bad and in wet weather they were virtually impassable to teamsters. Around 1875 coach services were running between Goulburn and Crookwell. The journey in daylight ran once every fortnight. Fares were 15 shillings single and £1 five shillings return. The journey over hilly terrain would take most of the day to cover 28 miles. Passengers were required to dismount from the coach when the steeper hills were encountered.

 

As production of wool, flour and wheat developed, teamsters were required to get this freight to market and a railhead. Large teams of bullocks were necessary to haul the heavily loaded vehicles to Goulburn. Stock for slaughter was limited, because of the necessity to drive the animals to Goulburn.

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