The Mudgee Guardian & Gulgong Advertiser has a recent report about an Aboriginal man who has been eluding police for around six years for alleged murder and rape, and who was recently sighted in an area in northern NSW where Jimmy Governor hid out.
It's a place called NOWENDOC which is near the town of Walcha.
The main road through the area is called Thunderbolt Way, named after another elusive 'bushranger' called Captain Thunderbolt.
The present day 'bushranger', Malcolm Naden, shot a police near his camp, wounding but not killing him.
Jimmy Governor and his brother Joe did the same when they were on the run.
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A comparison with Jimmy Governor, who raped and murdered in 1900, is made in the Mudgee Guardian & Gulgong Advertiser story and can be viewed by clicking here:
Aboriginal man, Malcolm Naden, likened to Jimmy Governor
There is a reward of $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars, for information leading to Naden's capture.
Jimmy Governor had £1,000 on his head.
He was captured by a group of civilians, not the police, aided by the local 'bush telegraph' of farmers who were on the lookout for him.
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Click on this link to see a Google Map showing what a perfect place NOWENDOC is to hide out Nowendoc, NSW
See the very good Wikipedia website on Nowendoc too at Nowendoc, Wikipedia
Please donate some money to Wikipedia if you are able.
They do a great job, sharing knowledge with the world for free.

SPECIAL TREAT

The State Library of NSW has kindly given me permission to establish a link to their slide show of a selection of photographs from the Holtermann Collection. Go straight there and take a look at them by clicking on the link in the left sidebar of this blog.
Enjoy!

This photo of 'a girl's instution' taken in Gulgong in the early 1870s appears to me to be that of a home for very young unmarried mothers.
Some of the girls with small children, and others who appear to be pregnant, look like they have barely reached puberty.
The condition of the girls can be seen more clearly in the original photograph on the State Library of NSW's Holtermann Collection website.
They were all housed in a slab hut with a bark roof.
At the time this photograph was taken, Gulgong had a population of around 10,000.

Group outside a girls instution, Gulgong
Holtermann Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Australia
Digital order no.: on4_39062
Not to be copied without permission from the Mitchell Library

A bark house like this one was the cheapest form of housing in Gulgong during the early 1870s goldrush.

Bark house, Gulgong area
Holtermann Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Australia
Digital order no.: on4_38934
Not to be copied without permission from the Mitchell Library

This is a photograph of the hotel where English author, Anthony Trollope, stayed when he visited Gulgong in October 1871 - Selff's Sportsman's Arms Hotel.

Mayne Street showing group outside Selff's Sportsman's Arms Hotel
Holtermann Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Australia
Digital order no.: on4_39875
Not to be copied without permission from the Mitchell Library

Herbert Street, Gulgong
Holtermann Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Australia
Digital order no.: on4_38863
Not to be copied without permission from the Mitchell Library

HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF GULGONG

I gratefully acknowledge permission from the Mitchell Library and State Library of NSW to publish some photographs of the NSW goldmining town of Gulgong from the Holtermann Collection taken during the goldrush in the early 1870s.
They were taken by English photographer Henry Beaufoy Merlin and his assistant Charles Bayliss, and commissioned by successful goldminer and merchant, Bernard Otto Holtermann.
Fortunately they had the foresight to see the importance of documenting such an important event in Australia's history.

Panorama of Gulgong from Church Hill
Holtermann Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Australia
Digital order no.: on4_38955
Not to be copied without permission from the Mitchell Library

Ethel Page's parents moved to Gulgong some 20 years after this picture was taken, between 1893 and 1897.
Good quality gold was still being found in Gulgong in October 1889, and payable gold was discovered there in May 1896.
In September 1895, there was a goldrush at nearby Yamble.
This may have been what made Ethel's father move to Gulgong, plus the greater prospects of work for a labourer in a rapidly growing town.

GULGONG SNAP SHOTS BEFORE GOOGLE EARTH

Back in the early 1870s, an English travelling photographer set out to photograph every town in New South Wales.
His name was Henry Beaufoy Merlin (aka Murlin) and he lived up to his namesake in the magical way he portrayed his subjects.
In 1872 he was commissioned by wealthy goldminer and merchant, Bernard Otto Holtermann, to document the goldrush town of Gulgong.
At that time Gulgong was just three years old but already a boomtown with numerous hotels, several theatres, a circulating library, coffee rooms, a Chinese boarding house, and a 'shaving, shampooing and hairdressing salon'.
This wonderful collection of glass plate photographs is held by the State Library of NSW and I am hoping to obtain permission to publish some of them on this blog.
The photographs of the housing stock clearly demonstrate the socio-economic pecking order that existed in Gulgong from its earliest days.
Ethel Governor (nee Page) said she lived in a 'house' with her parents and siblings there.
This was a step above living in a tent which some families did, particular labourers like her father.
The lowest form of housing was a bark hut followed by a slab hut made out of rough hewn pieces of trunks of trees.
Next came the weatherboard with the house made entirely from wooden planks.
If the owners of bark or slab huts came into the money, and did not want to move, they could have a weatherboard facade placed around their original homes.
The next step up was having a house built on pillars which raised the floor and helped keep snakes out and cool the inside in summer.
The poshest house in Gulgong was on pillars, rendered, and with a shingled roof and verandah.
Fences also appear to have been status symbols with a picket one the most desirable.