THE CHINESE PRESENCE IN THE CANBERRA-QUEANBEYAN DISTRICT, PRE-1862, PART 2, by James McDonald

This is part of a series of articles on non-Anglo/Celtic migration to the Canberra-Queanbeyan district in the 1824-61 period. We have limited the investigation to the early colonial period, prior to the implementation of the Robertson land reforms in January 1862, which brought an influx of free selectors into the Canberra-Queanbeyan district and throughout NSW, dramatically altering the migration story.

PART TWO: The five Chinese shepherds at Cuppacumbalong [1]

The first recorded Asian residents in the Canberra-Queanbeyan region were recruited from Sydney by James Wright, sometime before June 1852, to work as shepherds at Cuppacumbalong.

Wright’s son, the flawed historian, William Davis Wright, recounts events related to these workers on two occasions.[2] The first is in an article on historical events connected to Tharwa, which was published in the Queanbeyan Observer on 29 March 1895. That article was written in response to the interest generated in the district from the opening of the new Tharwa bridge two days prior.[3] The second is in his book, titled Canberra, which he published in 1923, to take advantage of the upcoming opening of Parliament (at that time, anticipated for 1925) and the interest generated in the new national capital.[4]

In his book, William Wright says that the labour shortage in the district in 1851, due to the gold rush, was so severe that his father:

… went to Sydney and brought back five Chinamen to act as shepherds. These were not half bad, and some of them were still with us when Cuppercumberlong (sic) was sold to L. F. de Salis (sic).[5]

Wright goes on to explain how the men worked as shepherds and assisted during the great Murrumbidgee flood of 1852; although, in his earlier account he says it was 1851, as we will see.

In 1852 we had very heavy snow, so deep that the Chinamen were kept busy for several days cutting branches from the trees for the sheep to eat the leaves. The snow was followed by seventeen days’ continuous rain, causing the great Gundagai floods, and we had to turn out of our house – eleven of us – at one o’clock in the morning and walk through a backwater knee deep to find a safe place as well as we could.

The water was over four feet deep in the house next morning, and our refuge was the dairy hut, in which limited space we were huddled together – 24 in all.

For two weeks we had a miserable time, but the water subsided at last and gave us the opportunity of assessing the position. It was indeed a disastrous flood, doing immense and permanent injury to country and rivers.[6]

Further on in his book, when talking about the flight of Long Jimmy from Canberra after his fight with Noolup, he says:

I did not hear of him again, until the time of the great Gundagai floods, when he turned up and helped to rescue a drowning Chinaman.[7]

This latter incident is described in greater detail in his 1895 article, which is quoted below.

One rather amusing incident was: we had five Chinamen in a hut near where the new Tharwa bridge is now building. Four of them came away when the big bell rang for them (as they had been told to do in case the river did come up) about one o’clock in the morning. The other man refused to come and would not be persuaded. He said if the water rose to his bed he would get on the table and if it rose to that he would get on a door that was across the tie-beams and which sure enough he had to do before morning. I recollect when we went down in the morning to look for him the water was about thirty yards out round the Hut and was within eighteen inches of the roof. My uncles who had by this time come from Booroomba, fixed up an old horse trough to go in for him when Long Jimmy the blackfellow, turned up and he brought Mr. Chow out, who did not refuse this time to come.

I recollect there were twenty-four of us, including the five Chinamen, lived in a two-roomed hut at the old dairy station for two weeks. The next year, 1852, we had another flood but it did not reach within a foot of the one the year before. Still we all had to turn out.[8]

Wright is a highly unreliable source and even when what he says seems to be correct, the details are often amiss. However, on this occasion, there is a good range of corroborating evidence, most of it solid. Despite a few questions of detail, it shows that Wright’s account bears up fairly well. Concerning the contradiction in dates, we should probably accept his revision of 1852, given that that year was certainly the worst flood ever recorded on the Murrumbidgee.

But the diluvian tale presents another minor dilemma. Long Jimmy is also thought to have assisted the Gundagai victims during the great flood of 1852.[9] This places him about 160 km away by road at Gundagai, where he participated, it is believed, in the rescue of that town’s citizens with his Wiradjuri friends, Yarri and Jacky Jacky, in what remains Australia’s most devastating flood in terms of loss of life.[10] There is a statue dedicated to the Wiradjuri pair in the main street of Gundagai, such a celebrated act it was. Floods take a long time to subside and the river peaks at different times and in different places, so he could have been helping at both sites. But I think it is more likely to be the case that his connection with Gundagai is a conflation of what he did at Tharwa, and that the tradition that he was one of the Gundagai rescuers is false.[11] Wright does not place him at Gundagai.

The other detail of interest to us in the Wright passages is that the recalcitrant flood victim is named: Mr Chow. He has the distinction, therefore, of being the first named Asian individual living in our district. In this way, Mr Chow holds a special place in our history.

William Davis Wright
From the frontispiece to Canberra, 1923

Further evidence about the Cuppacumbalong shepherds comes from three separate police reports in 1854 of runaway Chinese workers employed by James Wright. The first man is revealed in the court report of the Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser and the NSW Police Gazette.[12] These documents, from May 1854, show that one of the Chinese shepherds at Cuppacumbalong, Yo Quin (sometimes, Queen), had absented himself without leave from the service of James Wright, had been apprehended in Goulburn, and was sent to Queanbeyan to appear before the Bench of Magistrates, of which, James Wright was one, himself. The NSW Police Gazette even includes a rudimentary description of him.

It could be argued that Yo Quin simply wanted to try his luck on the goldfields or perhaps personal affairs were drawing him home, but I suspect that poor conditions at Cuppacumbalong were also of concern.

We cannot trace Yo Quin any further in the colonial records. But before we leave him, we need to address a chronological question. If the men were recruited to Cuppacumbalong on or before June 1852 (the time of the great Murrumbidgee flood), as I suspect, then legally there could be no valid indenture contract extending beyond June 1854, and Yo Quin must have absconded at the very end of the second year of his contract unless he had signed on for another year as a regular worker or had been recruited separately at a date after June 1852. But this seems unlikely. And as another four men abscond in October (as we will soon see), it would appear that the Cuppacumbalong shepherds had all signed up for another year on regular contracts.

The conditions which George Forbes Davidson was offering his Chinese workers in 1838 (described in Part One), suggest that the terms of the initial contracts were akin to slavery in the first year and were not much better in the second, so there would be plenty of valid reasons for running off, no matter how benign the employer may have been. But let us be clear, James Wright was a callous master known for his macabre interest in personally inspecting the floggings of convicts punished in his service. This is all well documented.[13] And it was not just the convicts who worked for him but also the European employees, who absconded in breach of their contracts. For example, Charles Duming was charged with absconding from the service of James Wright when he was apprehended by the Chief Constable of the district in January 1854, the same year as the Chinese runaways.[14] So, there must have been plenty of good cause for Yo Quin to flee.

As it happens, four more Chinese shepherds absconded from Cuppacumbalong on the night of 20 October 1854. The extract from the entries in the NSW Police Gazette give us their names and descriptions. It was thought that they were headed either for the Monaro or Braidwood, which, if true, may indicate that the motivation was the gold diggings rather than returning home via Sydney.

We do not know what happened to Teh Tsan, See Hock, Ug Moo, and Ko Tsn. After this report, their names (or cognates thereof) have not been definitively identified in the records. Wright does not refer to any issue, and we might infer that the workers returned but, as noted earlier, he is an unreliable source.

It may be possible that Ug Moo is the 22-year-old, Aug Moo, who travelled with 76 other Chinese passengers from Sydney to Geelong in 1852 to work on farms emptied of workers who had left for the goldfields.[15] It may also be possible that See Hock is the See Hok who arrived in Sydney in 1852 and is listed in Darlinghurst Gaol in 1853 along with six other Chinese men on undefined charges.

At least one Asian worker remained at Cuppacumbalong into the 1860s. This is the possible seventh identifiable Chinese worker named, Theak, who is described as a Chinese shepherd buried in the original Cuppacumbalong cemetery on 19 August 1867. The only name with whom Theak might be matched is See Hock, but we can only guess whether they are in fact the same individual. I suspect that they are, as there are only ever listed five shepherds from that one intake in 1851-52. It may be possible that Yo Quin is Ko Tsn, which trims the list to five men. But this is purely speculative.

According to Bruce Moore, Theak was aged 75 and the last of the Chinese shepherds employed originally by James Wright but in the service of Leopold Fane De Salis since he had acquired Cuppacumbalong in 1855/56.[16] Theak’s was one of the three burials swept away by an 1870 Murrumbidgee flood, which prompted De Salis to contract Thomas Tong to move the cemetery to where the raised, circular cemetery is now sited near Cuppacumbalong homestead.

Endnotes

1. Please note that offensive racist terms used in the period are included in this article. This study builds on what I have already written in J. McDonald, Canberra: II. Colonisation (1824-1861), second edition, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 255-6, 290, 319-22; J. McDonald, J. Canberra: III. Pastoral Plutocracy (1862-1906), Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 200-5. That original work benefited from information generously shared by Monica Tankey in 2022-23. I also appreciate the detailed feedback of Ann Tündern-Smith, who is editing the series. Information was also shared by Joanne Maples and Tony Maple on a number of Chinese residents in the Goulburn and Braidwood areas, even though these towns are outside what we have defined as the Canberra-Queanbeyan district.↩

2. Wright’s limited value as a historian is discussed at J. McDonald, Canberra I: From Antiquity to the Invasion, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2023, pp. 307-9.↩

3. For the lavish opening celebration at Tharwa Bridge, see J. McDonald, Canberra: III. Pastoral Plutocracy (1862-1906), Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 147-50.↩

4. For the release of his book and the national curiosity in Canberra in 1923-27, see J. McDonald, Canberra I: From Antiquity to the Invasion, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2023, pp. 306-7. Note that Bruce Moore (Cotter Country: a History of the Early Settlers, Pastoral Holdings and Events in and Around the County of Cowley, NSW, privately published, Yamba, 1999 [2006 reprint], pp. 56-7, 142) combines without acknowledgment both Wright passages for the information he includes on the Cuppacumbalong Chinese shepherds. It appears that he was not using any otherwise unknown source. Also see S. Blair and A Claoué-Long, ‘A Landscape of Captive Labour: Conserving and Interpreting the Evidence of the Convict Era in the Contemporary Landscape at Lanyon in the ACT’, Canberra Historical Journal, vol. 31 (March), 1993, p. 16; N. Brown, A History of Canberra, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2014, pp. 19-20.↩

5. W. D. Wright, Canberra, John Andrew, Sydney, 1923, p. 34. The sale to De Salis seems to have been finalised in May 1856.↩

6. W. D. Wright, Canberra, John Andrew, Sydney, 1923, p. 34. ↩

7. W. D. Wright, Canberra, John Andrew, Sydney, 1923, p. 34. For Long Jimmy see J. McDonald, Canberra I: From Antiquity to the Invasion, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2023, p. 169.↩

8. Queanbeyan Observer, 29 March 1895, p. 4.↩

9. A. Jackson-Nakano, The Kamberri: a History from the Records of Aboriginal Families in the Canberra-Queanbeyan District and Surrounds, 1820-1927, and Historical Overview, 1928-2001, Aboriginal History, Canberra, 2001, p. 92. Cf. Elizabeth McKeahnie in Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 9 April 1920, p. 2.↩

10 See J. McDonald, Canberra I: From Antiquity to the Invasion, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2023, pp. 169-70.↩

11. It is intend to make this clear in the revised edition of Canberra I planned for release, later in 2026.↩

12. Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser, 6 May 1854, p. 2.↩

13. See J. McDonald, Canberra: II. Colonisation (1824-1861), second edition, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp: 111-13.↩

14. See the NSW Police Gazette, 2 January 1854.↩

15. See G. Serle, The Golden Age: a History of the Colony of Victoria, 1851-1861, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1977, pp 1-28.↩

16. See B. Moore, Cotter Country: a History of the Early Settlers, Pastoral Holdings and Events in and Around the County of Cowley, NSW, privately published, Yamba, 1999 (2006 reprint), pp. 183, 224.↩

THE CHINESE PRESENCE IN THE CANBERRA-QUEANBEYAN DISTRICT, PRE-1862, PART 1, by James McDonald

This is part of a series of articles on non-Anglo/Celtic migration to the Canberra-Queanbeyan district in the 1824-61 period. We have limited the investigation to the early colonial period, prior to the implementation of the Robertson land reforms in January 1862, which brought an influx of free selectors into the Canberra-Queanbeyan district and throughout NSW, dramatically altering the migration story.

PART ONE: Plans to exploit Chinese labour in the district, 1830s-40s[1]

(a) The consideration and development of exploitive Asian labour schemes

In the late 1830s, with convict transportation finishing in 1841, the colonial authorities were considering schemes to recruit alternative labour. It was apparent that they could not rely on free migrants arriving in the colony under their own means, as few within this group were happy to take long-term work on the frontier, let alone under demanding conditions and working for tight-fisted squatters and squires.[2] So, they had to consider subsidised models. This continued to be discussed in the consultations and submissions leading up to the NSW Government’s Report from the Committee on Immigration in 1841, which ultimately delivered the successful assisted passage scheme loosely based on the ‘bounty’ scheme, which had seen so many Irish and British migrants arrive. The usual arrangement was to pay their passage but see them indentured for six months or so upon arrival, receiving rations and a low wage.

In Queensland, where it was harder to attract European workers, the vile practice of ‘blackbirding’ started in the 1840s. It is not so surprising when we consider that slavery had only been abolished by the British in the 1830s. In other colonies, so-called Chinese or Indian ‘Coolies’ were recruited to fill the consequent labour void (e.g., on the Atlantic island of St Helena).[3] Hence, the Asian labour model had proved successful elsewhere in the empire and so there was increasing interest in testing it in NSW.

It was in these circumstances that serious consideration was given to replace convict labour with indentured workers from India and/or China.[4] Of course, this was one form of exploitation being replaced by another and the low cost to the employer explains why so many of the pastoralists supported the idea. But the authorities seemed to be concerned about large scale non-European migration. They also preferred the bounty scheme and its successor as curing two evils: (i) helping alleviate pauperism in Britain; and (ii) helping balance the convict/emancipist core in Australia with more free migrants who also came with a strong motivation to succeed. Hence, the idea of importing cheap Indian and Chinese labour was not taken up by the Government.

Nevertheless, the idea still had appeal to some entrepreneurs, interested in raising funds to recruit Chinese workers themselves. The Coolie Association of NSW was established to advocate for this model.[5] The first large, contracted group of Chinese labourers to arrive in the colony seems to have emigrated from Xiamen in Fujian Province per Nimrod in 1848. They were deployed to Kyeamba, south of Wagga Wagga.[6] Even before this, throughout the 1840s and well before the gold rush, a number of Chinese labourers had arrived in smaller informal groups or as individuals signed up in lop-sided employment contracts with conditions not much better than an assigned convict could expect

(b) Davidson’s ill-fated Chinese migration scheme, 1837-38

A very early ambitious private scheme, which had direct relevance to the Canberra-Queanbeyan district was the plan advocated by Gordon Forbes Davidson in 1837, to recruit Chinese labourers as indentured workers to NSW. He was targeting single male ‘Chinese mechanics and labourers’.

Davidson wanted to recruit up to 500 workers arriving at Singapore in ‘junks’ from China and then transport them in a separate British vessel to NSW.[7] His brother – either John or Andrew Davidson – would act as the agent in Singapore, which was the obvious entrepôt as it was so close to Australia and Hong Kong was not yet a colony.

By June 1837, Davidson had 57 of the most senior pastoralists from NSW listed as ‘subscribers’ to his scheme. Each paid £5 per worker in advance to cover up-front costs. In Davidson’s advertisements, he said that he expected the total costs on landing per head not to exceed £11-12. Collectively, these pastoralists had sought 335 workers. This was an average of 5.9 Chinese workers per pastoralist.

Davidson’s plan had three prominent squires of the Canberra-Queanbeyan district sign up and pay their deposits. They were Charles Campbell (two workers), George Thomas Palmer (three workers), and Thomas McQuoid (five workers).[8] Although these three men’s main properties were in our district, it does not necessarily mean that they were hoping to fill positions on Canberra-Queanbeyan properties. They could have been recruited for elsewhere. The low numbers subscribed by Campbell and Palmer also suggest that these more established squires were hoping to test the model before committing to anything more substantial.

George Thomas Palmer

Courtesy Hall Heritage Centre

Under Davidson’s model, the Chinese workers in NSW in their first year would be expected to work on rations alone – which makes it a form of direct slavery – and only in the second year of indenture would they earn £1 per month with rations, which Davidson claimed was an amount twice as much as they would be earning in Singapore. After the two-year indenture, Davidson said that ‘they would expect wages something nearly equal to what free Europeans get here’, but he goes on to say that pastoralists could expect most of these workers to move on and to be replaced by further indentured workers at little cost and that his plan was to secure further groups of Chinese workers each year to sate demand.[9]

Another interesting feature in the model was the expectation that workers were matched with jobs suiting their skills which he described as follows.

Carpenters, Cabinetmakers, Wheelwrights, Millers, Blacksmiths, Bricklayers and Brickmakers, Gardeners, Cooks, growers of Maize, Sugar, and Tobacco, and general labourers, I can with perfect safety recommend them. As Shepherds, I doubt whether they would answer.[10]

The last line, predicting a reluctance of them to engage as shepherds, basically rules them out as suitable for work on the large estates of the Canberra-Queanbeyan district. It seems strange that he had so many pastoralists subscribed, when shepherds were precisely the kind of workers they were after.

As it happened, the money for the advance payments was somehow lost in transit from Sydney to Singapore and the scheme died. Davidson had to reimburse the subscribers. In September 1838, all he managed to salvage was a cargo of sugar and a ‘sample’ of four Chinese workers, which seem to have been used by himself along with ‘six Bengal Coolies’ at the Maitland estate he was managing.[11] He did his best to restart the scheme but had no takers after the disaster that was his first attempt.[12] In his memoir of 1846, Davidson conveniently fails to mention the fiasco but cannot help to exhort his readers with the potential of a planned Chinese migration program, which he says could be administered out of the new colony of Hong Kong.[13]

(c) Report from the Committee on Immigration (1841) and its aftermath

Charles Campbell’s response to questions for the NSW Government’s Report from the Committee on Immigration has survived.[14] He described to the Committee in July 1841, what he thought was the best economic model and why his family had pursued a bounty model targeting British workers. The Campbells understood the lure and impact on tenure of good wages and were prepared to invest about £105 per two-years for a couple.[15] When questioned about cheap foreign labour from India and China, Campbell did not argue against it, but he was hardly enthusiastic, which is a little surprising given his reliance on Indian lascars on his own ships.[16] He was even less excited about the prospect of recruiting Aboriginal workers. He said, cynically that ‘it would not be found impossible gradually to convert the Aborigines of this country, a tribe of indolent hunters, into indolent shepherds’.[17] So, it seems that the Campbells preferred a model in which they were prepared to pay for what they considered high quality British workers whom they would encourage to settle. They had very few Irish and no non-Europeans employed. Their workforce was predominantly English with a large minority of Scots recruited from 1835.[18] In 1841, Charles Campbell knew that the financial crisis, was still not over, as he himself experienced when he was unable to meet the payments on Palmerville, but he was unwilling to cut costs by using Chinese labour.

Charles Campbell
Courtesy State Library of NSW

Interestingly, the main point that Campbell wanted to bring to the attention of the Committee on Immigration – which he repeats a few times in his evidence – was that the real economic impediment was not the cost of labour, but the price of land. He said labour shortages drove up the wages and an over-supply of land undermined lot values, yet the government was wasting effort in trying to dampen wages and making matters worse by inflating the price of the land it released, especially when land prices had plummeted during the last years of the 1838-42 drought and recession. Campbell’s criticism made sense, but it may also have seemed a little disingenuous to the Committee, as the Campbells had managed to accumulate a virtual ‘dukedom’ with little difficulty, and there was never any serious dearth of buyers in the good years.[19]

Endnotes

1. Please note that offensive racist terms used in the period are included in this article. This study builds on what I have already written in J. McDonald, Canberra: II. Colonisation (1824-1861), second edition, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 255-6, 290, 319-22; J. McDonald, J. Canberra: III. Pastoral Plutocracy (1862-1906), Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 200-5. That original work benefited from information generously shared by Monica Tankey in 2022-23. I also appreciate the detailed feedback of Ann Tündern-Smith, who is editing the series. Information was also shared by Joanne Maples and Tony Maple on a number of Chinese residents in the Goulburn and Braidwood areas, even though these towns are outside what we have defined as the Canberra-Queanbeyan district.↩

2. M. Darnell, ‘Indentured Chinese Labour: Squatters’ Salvation or Society’s Ruination?’, Queensland History Journal, vol. 25.4, 2023, p. 327 (re: G. F. Davidson, Trade and Travel in the Far East: or, Recollections of Twenty-one Years Passed in Java, Singapore, Australia, and China, Madden, London, 1846, p. 200).↩

3. T. H. Brooke, History of the Island of St. Helena: From Its Discovery by the Portuguese to the Year 1823, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, London, 1824, pp. 377, 381-2.↩

4. See G. Wilson, Murray of Yarralumla, Tabletop Press, Canberra, 1968 (revised edition, 2001), pp. 258-9.↩

5. Australasian Chronicle, 27 September 1842, p. 2. Also note the Australian Association of Bengal, which supported the recruitment of Indian ‘native servants’.↩

6. M. E. Tankey, ‘Chinese Part of Canberra-Queanbeyan Scene Since 1863’, Canberra Historical Journal, vol. 8 (September), 1981, p. 43.↩

7. There were other British colonial administrators with similar ideas who were using their personal connections with Singapore to advocate for Chinese labour in the empire (e.g., John Crawfurd, James Alexander Steward-Mackenzie). See A. Datta, Review of ‘Stan Neal, Singapore, Chinese Migration and the Making of the British Empire, 1819-67’, Britain and the World, vol. 14:2, 2021, p. 192. ↩

8. I was first made aware of their involvement by Tony Maple and thank him for this lead. ↩

9. All these conditions are set out in Sydney Herald, 19 June 1837, p. 4; 22 June 1837, p. 4; 26 June 1837, p. 4. Cf. Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, 15 June 1837, p. 2. A misreported summary is in Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 19 July 1837, p. 3. ↩

10. Sydney Herald, 26 June 1837, p. 4. ↩

11. G. F. Davidson, Trade and Travel in the Far East: or, Recollections of Twenty-one Years Passed in Java, Singapore, Australia, and China, Madden, London, 1846, p. 205; Sydney Herald, 9 July 1838, p. 1; Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 14 September 1838, p. 3. Also see Davidson’s letter of 29 January 1838, published in Sydney Herald, 28 June 1838, p. 4. ↩

12. See his letter dated 12 May 1838 published a year later in Sydney Herald, 3 May 1839, p. 2. ↩

13. G. F. Davidson, Trade and Travel in the Far East: or, Recollections of Twenty-one Years Passed in Java, Singapore, Australia, and China, Madden, London, 1846, pp. 203-5. ↩

14. Also see the Campbell papers in the NSW State Library: ML A3587 (with M. Roe, Quest for Authority in Eastern Australia, 1835-1851, Melbourne University Press. Parkville. 1965, pp. 47, 71-4).↩

15. E.g., see the remuneration of Edward and Mary Smith in 1852 (W. J. M. Campbell, Four Pioneers of the Limestone Plains: Edward Smith, born 1822, died 1888, Mary Smith, born 1818, died 1907, Matthias Smith, born 1817, died 1903, William Kilby, born 1811, died 1902, Federal Capital Press, Canberra, 1955, p. 12).↩

16. See J. K. S. Houison, ‘Robert Campbell and the Wharf’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 23.1, 1937, p. 1. ↩

17. See §12 of the NSW Government’s Report from the Committee on Immigration, 1841. ↩

18. On the detail and mythology attached to the putative Scottish shepherd model at Duntroon, see J. McDonald, Canberra: II. Colonisation (1824-1861), second edition, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 252-8. ↩

19. The ‘dukedom’ criticism comes from John Lhotsky (A Journey from Sydney to the Australian Alps Undertaken in the Months of January, February and March 1834, R. Ackerman’s Repository of Arts, London, 1835, p. 68; with J. McDonald, Canberra: II. Colonisation (1824-1861), second edition, Sorley Boy, Melbourne, 2025, pp. 170-1). The wealth of the Campbells seems to have earned them mistrust and envy (e.g., S. Shumack, S. [ed. J. E. and S. Shumack], 1967 [1977 reprint], An Autobiography, or, Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers, ANU Press, Canberra ,1967, p. 141). ↩

Lost to the Flood: The Unlikely Rise—and Disappearance—of Chief Constable Thomas Webber

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Lost to the Flood: The Unlikely Rise—and Disappearance—of Chief Constable Thomas Webber

In 1853, the Chief Constable of Queanbeyan, Thomas Webber, died and was buried. Not long after, a devastating flood swept through the district. Today, the location of his grave is lost, likely erased by the river that once ran beside Queanbeyan’s early cemetery. But Webber’s story is too vivid to be buried with him.

From Death Sentence to Australia

Born in 1799 in Abbotskerswell, Devonshire, England, Webber’s life could have ended before it truly began. At 22, he was sentenced to death for stealing a tea chest containing two £1 notes. In a time when such crimes often led to the gallows, his sentence was commuted to transportation for life. In 1822, he arrived in Sydney aboard the convict ship Asia, listed as a ploughman from Devon with a ruddy complexion and hazel eyes.

Redemption and Duty

Webber’s new life in Australia began as a convict servant to a Mrs. Drummond in Liverpool, NSW. But he didn’t stay in chains for long. By 1831, he’d earned a Ticket of Leave for his help in apprehending runaway convicts. That same year, he married Mary Oxley, herself a convict, in Parramatta. Their troubled relationship ended tragically in 1834 when Mary drowned in the Georges River after a drunken argument with Thomas.

Despite this personal turmoil, Webber rebuilt. In 1835, he sought permission to marry again—this time to Elizabeth Smith, daughter of fellow convicts. He was granted a conditional pardon in 1839 and formally became a constable, a rare honor for a former convict.

The Chief of Queanbeyan

By 1851, Thomas Webber had risen to Chief Constable of Queanbeyan. It was a dramatic transformation—from a man nearly hanged in England to a lawman in colonial New South Wales. He witnessed his daughter’s marriage in May 1853, then died just weeks later at the age of 51. The cause of death, according to the inquest, was a “Visitation of God”—a term often used for sudden, unexplained natural deaths.

He was buried in the Queanbeyan Church of England cemetery on June 11, 1853.

A Grave Washed Away

But July 1853 brought a catastrophic flood to Queanbeyan. Newspaper accounts describe widespread destruction, including damage to the mill, houses, and the riverside cemetery. During a later court case, a constable testified that attempts to locate Webber’s grave were thwarted—the floods had washed away the earth. His grave, like much of early Queanbeyan, had vanished.

Legacy in the Mud

In 1859, Elizabeth Webber, his widow, received a small pension—a rare acknowledgment of her husband’s public service. Yet the man himself is now remembered mostly in fragments: a stolen tea chest in England, a drowned wife, a life rebuilt through law enforcement, and a grave lost to the river.

Thomas Webber’s story reminds us how precarious both redemption and memory can be. His grave is gone, but his improbable journey from convicted thief to Chief Constable deserves a place in the history of early Australia.

Bungendore & District, WW2 - 8 June 1943

 Bungendore & district, NSW

8 June 1943 

Presentation by CRHR Member - David McDonald 

on 3 April 2025

This is an edited version of Author unknown 1943, ‘Fruits of war organisation in small town’, Canberra Times, 8 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2636279. The images have been added by the author of the blog post.

 

Note that the term 'War Organisation' was a short-hand expression referring to the Commonwealth Government's Department of War Organisation and Industry. 

And see: ‘Decline in rural centres’, editorial, Canberra Times, 8 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2636197, regarding the WOI: Dept of War Organisation of Industry. 

And see response (mostly off-topic): 'Nulla Nulla' 1943, 'Bungendore still alive', Queanbeyan Age, 22 June 1943, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266174570. 

Note that 2025 is the 80^th anniversary of the end of WW2. We will commemorate VE Day 8 May 1945 and VP Day 15 August 1945.

A picture of what War Organisation has done in small rural centres is provided by the example of the town of Bungendore, about 25 miles from Canberra.

Source: https://hlrv.nswlrs.com.au/ Copyright expired - public domain

 

These images: Copyright expired - public domain 

The town marks the junction of the branch railway to Captain’s Flat and before the war the town served a population of 800. To-day, it is a centre of desolation, with empty houses and shops, stripped of business activity and denied elementary services.

A recent visit to the town established that for periods varying from a few days to almost a month, the residents had no supplies of lighting kerosene and had been compelled to sit in dark homes relieved only by candle light.

But the days and nights are not spent in brooding over their lot. Although Bungendore has been denuded of eligible manpower, those at home have contributed as much to the war in proportion [to their population] as any of the more fortunate centres in Australia.

Twelve months ago, when evacuees were seeking homes inland to avoid coastal and air attacks, every house in Bungendore was occupied. This relieved the depressing effects of war for a month or two, but the lack of essential services drove the new arrivals away and now none remains. War organisation has reduced Bungendore to dependence on one general store, one butcher, one baker and one bank. But the town has no doctor, dentist, chemist or hairdresser. Because the town is within a certain radius of Queanbeyan, general store, which is conducted by Mr. W. Ryan, is unable to stock medicinal preparations and other lines in common demand, including tooth paste.

Source: Google Maps

 

The inability to secure suitable supplies forced the local comforts fund to suspend sending

parcels to the more than 140 men from Bungendore who are on service with the forces. In a corner of the general store stood a pathetic group of bottles and cans, each with a tag awaiting the arrival of kerosene supplies, and this tag as well as a list of some 60 names indicated a home that had no lamp fuel.

 

Copyright expired - public domain  

Recent loss to the town was when the town blacksmith, who also conducted the air observation post, was removed from the town.

 

Copyright expired - public domain 

The town had at one stage a well-organised A.R.P. service [Air Raid Precautions] under Senior Warden E. Gardner, but the first-aid teacher has been transferred from the town and only two stretcher-bearers now remain to carry on with a depleted warden’s service.

There is no picture show and since the war no visiting show has passed through the town. In the main street there is a row of seven empty shops, which by no means completes the list, bearing mute testimony to the blight that has come on the centre.

But an active Red Cross branch, a local Patriotic and Comforts Fund, a tireless branch of the Country Women’s Association by their records show that Bungendore people are holding their chins up. Every call that has come to large cities and towns has been answered from Bungendore. 

The town’s contribution to the Australian Comforts Fund, for 12 months was £300, and to the Australian Red Cross £334. This came from little more than 200 homes.

 

Copyright expired - public domain  

Clothing was sent to the bomb victims of Britain, sheep-skin vests to men overseas, funds are subscribed for the Prisoner-of-War Fund, and the camp libraries receive a quota of books and papers. Camouflage net making, in this district [the Canberra district] received its start from Bungendore, for it was the secretary of the Bungendore C.W.A. that gave instruction to the first net workers at Queanbeyan and thus to Canberra. Bungendore has contributed more than 250 nets from its own netters. More than ten tons of paper waste has been sent to the Salvage Collector.

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100933778 Copyright expired - public domain 

Sheepskin vest: Flight Sergeant R J Eaton, RAAF, Australian War Memorial, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL33288 Copyright expired - public domain 

Copyright expired - public domain 

 

Recommended citation: McDonald, D 2025, Bungendore & District, WW2 - 8 June 1943. Presentation by CRHR member, David McDonald, on 3 April 2025, Canberra & Region Heritage Researchers, blog post, https://crhr-cbr.blogspot.com/2025/07/bungendore-district-ww2-8-june-1943.html.

Analysis of a Location of a Historical Photo of a Woolshed

Analysis of the Location of a Historical Photo of a Woolshed

by 

Tony Maple

Context

A Canberra historian proposed a hypothesis that the location of a historical woolshed photo was at the Glenburn woolshed.   Would terrain profiles analysis falsify or support that hypothesis?

The historical photo was sourced from Sylvia Curley who stated it was of the Duntroon woolshed.  Earlier analysis suggested Duntroon was unlikely location and that it may have been of the first Cuppacumbalong woolshed. The slope at the top right of the historical photo was a diagnostic feature -- what location would produce such a gradient?

Technique

I first compared the slope in the right upper corner of the historical photo with those on the horizon visible from Glenburn Woolshed and then from Cuppacumbalong Woolshed.  To do that, I used both Peak Visor's Panorama 3D tool and Google Earth Pro to generate terrain profiles from locations close to the two woodsheds.

Panorama 3D Analysis

I first used Panorama 3D to generate two views of the horizon from Glenburn woolshed: 1) North towards Amungula trig, and 2) North East towards Mt Cohen.   Neither view produced slopes that aligned to that in the historical photo.  See both below.  

I then used Panorama 3D to generate a single view of the horizon from Cuppacumbalong woolshed.  The slope matches very closely, if not exactly.

Result.  The Panorama 3D terrain profile comparisons falsify Glenburn woolshed as being the location.  Rather, the comparison strongly suggests the historical photo was taken at the site of the Cuppacumbalong woolshed.

Google Earth Pro Analysis

I then applied Google Earth Pro to the same question.  The terrain profile it generated suggests there is no slope on Amungula trig - Mt Cohen horizon that comes close to that in the historical photo.

In contrast, the terrain profile generated by Google Earth Pro closely—if not exactly—matches the slope evident in the historical photo.

Conclusion

The terrain profile analyses using both Panorama 3D and Google Earth Pro falsify the hypothesis that the historical photo was taken at or near the Glenburn woolshed. 

 
Rather, the analyses indicate the location of the historical photo was much more likely to be at Cuppacumbalong woolshed.

Portrait of Charles Studdy Daley (1887-1966) held by Canberra & District Historical Society

Music in Canberra during World War II

Presentation by CRHR member Val Thomson on 3 April 2025

Part of a series about World War II in Canberra and Region

Notes (transcription)

C. S. Daley was amazingly active, not just in planning but also in musical and generally artistic circles. President of the Canberra Musical Society, which served Canberra from the earliest days until the 1950s. He encouraged the formation of a city band and the national Eisteddfod.

"Alongside his official duties, Daley contributed to the human heart of Canberra, believing in a community built by community. A talented musician, he created the Canberra Society of Arts and Literature, was integral to the Canberra Musical Society and played in the Stromberra Quartette. He managed local concerts produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and often hosted international artists in his home.

"...a regular attendee at St John the Baptist Church in Reid. Well-regarded for his music skills, in 1934 he was asked by the newly established St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Forrest if he could fill in for a few weeks until the parish could find a permanent organist. This arrangement with St Andrew's continued for the next 18 years, all without payment."¹

(Jessie Daley was also a member of the Canberra Musical Society, and president of the Canberra Ladies' Choir, among many other contributions to Canberra.)¹

Topics

(Transcription)

1. Introduction; 2. Wartime context; 3. Musical Organisations; 4. People & Places; 5. Conclusion

Introduction

(Transcription)

"Since the last annual meeting, there had been a significant deterioration in the international situation, and with graver risks nearer home, Australian activities must be concentrated upon those things vital to the war effort. Various suggestions had been made, ranging from proposals for a complete recess to a revision of the type of activity upon more modest and locally centred efforts. Although many citizens were devoting themselves to war work, there was still widespread interest in music, as something fundamental, and as affording much needed relief and recreation to sustain other vital activities."

– CMS Annual Report

"Any suggestions that music should be abandoned until after the war was ridiculous. In England they had found that without music, the bottom fell out of everything."

– Mr Horace Fuller, at the CMS AGM

"Music is a component part of our lives. Canberra should be the home of music."

– C. S. Daley at the CMS AGM

Notes

All quotes are from the 1941 Annual Report of the Canberra Musical Society.²

[Aside: My child] Quin commented that it was wonderful how it took a national emergency to make people appreciate the arts, and how they then promptly forgot. The WWII situation was mirrored during the COVID outbreak. So many people were saying that music got them through the tough times – and now we're supposedly back to normal, with precious little support or appreciation for musicians.

Stock image used in slide

Photo: Canberra, ACT. 1942-03. A member of the staff fitting blackout curtains to a window in one of the rooms of Parliament House. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C257210

Wartime context

(Transcription)

1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945³

Canberra remained a small country town prior to World War II, far more rural than urban in its nature and size, with little to mark it as Australia's capital other than Parliament House and the developing War Memorial.³

"Washington is one of the few national capitals - actually, I believe Canberra is the only other one - from which a world-wide war effort is being directed, but which in itself has not suffered any physical war damage. Nevertheless, it must be regarded as a war-shocked city."⁴

"The bush capital ... was wonderfully silent and peaceful. War in Europe and China was so far away. The only threat from the air in Canberra was the occasional swooping magpie."⁵

Picture from Rex Beamish of a clothing ration card passed on to him by his Aunty Thel

Wartime context continued

Transcription

• Japan entered the war in 1941
• Fear of invasion
• Blackout imposed 1942
• Windows blacked out
• Cars: one hooded headlight
• Torches not allowed
• Evacuation & air raid trenches were built
• Rationing of essential commodities – 1942
• Shortages & general austerity

Notes

Fears of invasion grew after Japan's entry into the war in 1941. A blackout was imposed on the city in 1942. Windows had to be blacked out, cars could only use one heavily hooded headlight and even torches were not allowed. Evacuation trenches and air raid shelters were built although fortunately proved to be unnecessary. Other than for practice, air raid sirens only sounded twice in February 1942 and March 1943.⁶

Rationing of essential commodities was soon part of life. Ration books were issued in June 1942.⁷

[Typists & secretaries arriving in Canberra] shared the exigencies of wartime life particularly rationing, which involved handing over their food coupons to the hostel management; restrictions on interstate travel which made it difficult to visit families in other parts of the country; as well as shortages and general austerity.⁷

[I]n the winter of 1943 … heating was turned off in all government buildings to conserve coal for the war effort.⁷

Transcription

"Treasurer Ben Chifley appealed to Australians to intensify their efforts to conserve the nation's resources by limiting their spending to the barest necessities."
- The Argus, 20 February 1943⁸

Population of the Australian Capital Territory³

(Transcription)

1911: 1,714

1930: 9,000

1945:13,000

1957: 39,000

Wartime musical groups 1

Transcription

Canberra Musical Society
Stock image

Combined Church Choirs
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Canberra Ladies' Choir
Stock image

Canberra Male Choir
Stock image

Notes

Canberra Musical Society

Formed in 1928 in merger of Canberra Orchestral Society and Canberra Philharmonic Society, but had an earlier incarnation in 1913 at Duntroon. Originally had a choir and an orchestra, but by the late 30s (after the Depression) had become an entrepreneurial organisation rather than a performing organisation. It ran celebrity concerts for the ABC throughout WWII. Their number halved, from 4 pa to 2 pa. [A]cted locally for the ABC until it established its own office in Canberra.⁹ There was pressure to run locally-based concerts.² CMS made a distinguished contribution to Canberra music until the early 50s, when it, the Canberra Ladies' Choir, and the Canberra Male Singers (descended from the Canberra Male Choir) merged with the Combined Church Choirs.⁹

Canberra Combined Church Choirs

First concert in 1942, with 76 voices.¹⁰ During the war, Church choirs were depleted by enlistments or the transfer of members from Canberra. At its peak it had more than 50 members, but at the end there were only 25, of which 18 were women. As well as concert platform and church performances, the choir has many times sung at official functions… Disbanded in 1953 following lack of public support and difficulty in securing sufficient male singers.¹¹

[Aside: I've been unable to establish when it reconvened as Canberra Combined Churches Choir, but I remember being beaten in the Eisteddfod by this group because they had uniforms and we (St Paul's Manuka, then the best Church choir in Canberra) didn't.]

Canberra Ladies' Choir

Formed at the start of 1939, and lasting till the mid-50s, the CLC gave annual concerts and eventually two major concerts a year. There were also social evenings with "numbers" by the choir and solo items from members. First annual concert: "Works by a wide variety of composers will be presented, and some of Canberra's leading talent will be represented in quartettes, duets and solos, also instrumental and elocutionary items."¹² [I remember concerts like this in the 50s. I also remember the extensive use of the word "render".] Moonlight concerts, musical evenings, Christmas carols, Sunday afternoon concerts of sacred music at the YWCA, fundraising for the war effort throughout.¹²

Canberra Male Choir

Formed in 1929, it had a membership of 60 before the war. In addition to its local performances the choir gave concerts in other towns and was a successful entrant from 1936 onwards at the Wagga, Grenfell and Wollongong Eisteddfods.⁹ "Membership of the Male Choir dropped dramatically due to enlistment for service, and it gave one of its last concerts on 21 June 1939…"¹³ Joined postwar by the Canberra Diggers' Choir, the CMC became the Canberra Male Singers.¹³

Wartime musical groups 2

Transcription & image sources

Canberra City Band
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

National Eisteddfod
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Dance Bands
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Canberra Amateur Operatic Society
Source of this photo

Notes

Canberra City Band

Est. 1920s. [S]erved Canberra for many years, sometimes under great difficulties. Unemployment [Great Depression] caused many bandsmen to leave Canberra. Succession of bandmasters. Mr. Les Pogson carried the flag for many years but finally the band dispersed during the war. PM Ben Chifley [1945] was responsible for a new set of instruments being purchased for the band. … the band in its blue and gold uniform is now [still] a familiar sight in Canberra festivities.⁹

Eisteddfod

The [Canberra] Male Choir set up the first Canberra Eisteddfod, held in 1939.¹⁴ Canberra Eisteddfod Society AGM "at the Albert Hall last night decided unanimously to recommend to the council the continuance of juvenile competitions".¹⁵ The Society [CMS] continued its affiliation with the local Eisteddfod Society and members gave personal assistance in the running of the 1941 Juvenile Eisteddfod.² "...it [CMS] had been very largely instrumental in promoting the eisteddfod in the past but the war had suspended these activities."¹⁶

Dance Bands

There were heaps of dances during the war, raising money for the war effort, and keeping the populace entertained. "I have many fond recollections of dances and balls held at the [Albert] Hall in the 1940's and early 1950's and of the music played by various orchestras."¹⁷ Harry O'Brien's orchestra "dispensed the music" at lots of dances - last mention November 1944. Johnny Jones and his orchestra - last mention September 1941. Pogson's Concert Orchestra - he moved to Albury in 1939 and returned to Canberra in 1948. Lawler's orchestra/Fred Lawler's Orchestra/Lawler's augmented orchestra/Pogson and Lawler's Orchestra - still going in the 1960s, according to Trove (CT ads).

Canberra Amateur Operatic Society

In 1933 Dr. Rolland Fraser took the initiative in the formation of the Canberra Amateur Operatic Society, the first production by which "No No Nanette" was staged at the Capitol Theatre in June 1934.⁹ Didn't find much on them. CCCC produced light opera throughout the war. "In 1953 the Canberra Philharmonic Society was formed absorbing the Canberra male singers and the remainder of the Canberra Amateur Operatic Society."⁹

Performance Places

Transcription & image sources

Causeway Hall
Opened in 1926
Image: National Archives of Australia: A3560, 777

Institute of Anatomy Lecture Theatre
Institute founded 1931
Image: National Museum of Australia collection

2CA Theatrette
First 2CA building, Mort St
Canberra and District Historical Society, Resource ID 15761, Location Photograph 2058

[Autumn leaves, stock image] x 2

Albert Hall
Opened 1928
William James Mildenhall c.1928. National Library of Australia: Call Number: PIC P583 Album 827*nla.pic-an11030057-331

[Autumn leaves, stock image]

Blue Room, Hotel Canberra
Opened 1924
Canberra and District Historical Society, Resource ID 15459, Location Photograph 1756

Notes

The Capitol Cinema presented a mixed program of theatrical acts and films, not music.
–NFSA, https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/87730-capitol-theatre-manuka

People

Transcription

Sir Robert Garran – Horace Fuller – Les Pogson – William J. Hunt – Mrs. Eric Mitchell

Notes

Sir Robert Garran

Commonwealth solicitor-general. 1st pres., Canberra Society of Arts & Literature (1926-1938); vice-pres., Canberra Musical Society (1928-), where he sang and played the clarinet; Federal Pres., Council of Encouragement of Music and the Arts (1945); published translations of Heinrich Heine's 1827 work Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs") in 1924, and of the works of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann in 1946. "There has hardly been a cultural movement in this city with which Sir Robert has not been identified in loyal and inspiring support, as his constant aim has been that Canberra should be not only a great political centre but also a shrine to foster those things that stimulate and enrich our national life..." – C. S. Daley¹⁸

Horace Fuller

Member of CMS, first conductor of CCCC, tenor soloist. Opposed CMS's focus on celebrity concerts. "Great national days should be celebrated in Canberra with musical festivals. Festivals should also be held on the anniversaries of composers such as Handel, Bach and Beethoven. Nothing in the way of musical fare was too good for the capital." Took over CLC in 1943.¹⁹

Les Pogson

Clarinettist, dance band leader, leader of the Canberra City Band, founder of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra⁹

William J. Hunt

Fine bass voice; first associated with the Canberra Male Choir in the early 1930s as both a soloist and as a choir member. A keen proponent of the need for an eisteddfod in Canberra to encourage young performers, and was actively involved in the Male Choir's initiative in setting up the first Canberra Eisteddfod, which was held in 1939. Proposed & was first president of the current Canberra Philharmonic Society.²⁰

Mrs Eric Mitchell

Soprano soloist in many concerts of the period, and conductor of the Canberra Ladies' Choir from its inception in 1939 till she moved to Brisbane in 1943.²¹

Conclusion

Transcription

"Christmas Eve 1945 was very special. World War Two had ended and families were together again after long and worrying separations, so it was a fitting occasion to present Canberra's first Carols By Candlelight.

…

"The singing was led by the Combined Churches Choir, and Children's Choir and orchestra…"²²

The Canberra City Band still plays at Canberra's Carols by Candlelight.

About the image

Walter and Doris Duffield carrying Walter's double bass circa 1925 at Hotel Canberra. Credit: ANU Archives. Walter was the first director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory at Mt Stromlo. Walter and Doris played in the Stromberra Quintet along with C S Daley and others. It didn't play once war was declared. Full story: The Hotel's First Guest

Notes

The lawns in front of the old Parliament House were thought an ideal setting and the King George V memorial, then located opposite Parliament's front entrance, would provide a ready-made stage for the performances. Officials of the Department of the Interior were not keen. After some unofficial approaches by the YMCA President, Mr H.F.E. Whitlam (the former Prime Minister's father), the way was prepared to hold a community gathering to be known as 'Carols By Candlelight'.

A souvenir program costing 1/- was prepared, with proceeds to the Aid for Britain Appeal to send food parcels. There was a brief outline of the history of the capital, which then had a population of about 14,000 and the organisers hoped the event would be "the starting point for the development of a Canberra Christmas Festival".

The National Anthem, God Save The King, opened the evening which was compered by Albert Clark. The singing was led by the Combined Churches Choir, and Children's Choir and orchestra under the direction of Ralph Levy. The program included 11 well-known carols, four soloists, a film The Hymn of the Nations and a pageant of the nativity.

As there was no electricity at the site, other than a long lead for the film projector, committee member Bill Dunbar made up 24 flares using long poles with jam tins swinging at the top. These were filled with a flammable concoction which burnt brightly but gave off obnoxious black smoke. Boy Scouts carried these primitive illuminations among the crowd. A few spills from the tins didn't do much for the lawns and although some bearers received minor burns, they kept cheerfully balancing the flaming tins. The event was a success and the happy crowd of nearly 2000 people concluded the evening [with] Auld Lang Syne.²²

Sources

Transcription

1. Charles and Jessie Daley - Canberra movers and shakers, 4 September 2022 | Marg Wade, The Riotact https://the-riotact.com/charles-and-jessie-daley-canberra-movers-and-shakers/589548
2. MUSICAL SOCIETY (1942, April 8). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved March 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2586594
3. History of Canberra. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canberra
4. WASHINGTON IN WAR TIME (1942, October 31). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved December 14, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17829315
5. Diary of Eilean Giblin, a prominent resident of Canberra during World War II. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6134596/elections-werent-always-so-hectic/
6. 1307.8 - Australian Capital Territory in Focus, 2006. ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/09/2006. Australian Bureau of Statistics. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/B43FFBFD93BFC572CA2571E600180BCF?opendocument
7. The Australian National Capital in World War II By Patricia Clarke. 2013, ISAA Proceedings 2013: Canberra: Capital and Creativity. Publisher: Independent Scholars Association of Australia Inc.
8. Economic value of war savings (1943, February 20). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 9. Retrieved December 14, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11337099
9. Culture Takes Root In National Capital (1963, March 12). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 38. Retrieved March 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104590462
10. THE CRUCIFIXION (1942, April 4). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved March 30, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2587038
11. COMBINED CHURCH CHOIR DISBANDS (1953, September 1). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 2. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2889936
12. CANBERRA LADIES' CHOIR (1939, December 8). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 4. Retrieved March 20, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2518222
13. Campbell, Peter. Canberra Choral Society: A Capital Choir for a Capital City. PC Publishing, Canberra, 2002.
14. Obituary: WILLIAM J. HUNT Important role in musical history (1988, November 29). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 4. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110617784
15. EISTEDDFOD (1941, September 9). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 2. Retrieved December 18, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2595512
16. MUSICAL SOCIETY SEES SCOPE FOR GREATER ACTIVITY (1945, March 17). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved March 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2620255
17. Westlake Newsletter 2013, p15, MEMORIES OF THE ALBERT HALL & FRANK DUNSHEA'S STORY https://www.isccc.org.au/isccc/wp-content/uploads/11Dec2013_Westlake-Newsletter.pdf
18. Re Robert Garran:
    WHAT PEOPLE — ARE DOING (1945, July 11). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 4. Retrieved March 22, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2635337
    Francis, Noel (1983). The Gifted Knight: Sir Robert Garran (PDF). Canberra: Noel Francis (Australia); Australian National University Press (worldwide). ISBN 978-0-9592095-0-1. Quoted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Garran
19. Re Horace Fuller:
    MUSIC IN CANBERRA (1942, May 13). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved March 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2576057
    COMBINED CHURCH CHOIR DISBANDS (1953, September 1). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 2. Retrieved March 22, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2889936
    CANBERRA LADIES' CHOIR (1943, November 12). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved April 2, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2656961
20. Obituary: WILLIAM J. HUNT Important role in musical history (1988, November 29). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 4. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110617784
21. Mrs. Eric Mitchell: I could only find references to her on Trove as a vocalist, soprano, and conductor of the CLC 1939-1943. She moved to Brisbane in August 1943. CANBERRA LADIES' CHOIR (1943, November 12). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved April 2, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2656961
22. CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT (1994, December 8). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 20. Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127259157