Family History of the Cregans and the Gills

The Cregans of County Leitrim, Ireland

The baptism record opposite is reportedly for Peter Creegan (unverified - source Ancestry.com). A birth year of 1834 would fit with the birth years of his children. However, there were other Creegan families in County Leitrim, so this could be another Peter Creegan.

According to birth records of his children, Peter Creegan was a farmer.

We have no direct information on the birth (or baptism) of Anne Kiernan. We estimate a birth year of 1834 based on her age of 50 in 1884, when she died.

Alternative surname spellings for Anne are: "Kiernan" or "Kiernon", according to the several Irish birth log entries of her children; and "Keernan", according to the death certificate of her daughter Catherine.

The photo opposite is claimed (on Ancestry.com) to be of Anne Kiernan.

Peter Creegan and wife Anne Kiernan had, we think, twelve children (three sons and nine daughters):

• Mary, born c.1853, baptised 01/05/1853
• John, born c.1855, baptised 27/05/1855
• Catherine, born c.1857, baptised 09/05/1857
• Bridget, born c.1859, baptised 27/02/1859
• Ann, born c.1861, baptised 05/05/1861
• Francis, born c.1863, baptised 22/06/1863
• Anne (Annie), born 24/09/1864, baptised 25/09/1864
• Elizabeth (Eliza), born 08/12/1866, baptised 02/12/1866
• Peter, born 24/09/1869, baptised 28/05/1869
• Margaret, born 18/06/1871
• Alice, born c.1871, baptised 04/04/1871
• Ellen (Nellie), born c.1873, baptised 21/04/1873

We have records of births, and therefore actual birth dates, for only four of the children. The other birth dates we estimate from the date of baptism.

For two of the children, Elizabeth and Peter, the date of baptism precedes the date of birth. We do not have a definitive explanation for this. We suspect that the registered date of birth was later than the true date, perhaps done by the parents to avoid a fine imposed for late registration. This, of course, means that the accuracy of each of the above birth dates is questionable.

The dates for Margaret and Alice are curiously close to each other. It is possible that they were twins, though more probably they are two names for the same child. Supporting this theory, there was an adult Alice Cregan whom we know much of, but no record of Margaret Cregan other than this birth record. Additionally, we have only a birth record for one and a baptism record for the other.

This Creegan family were from County Leitrim, Ireland. The records we have show that the births were all in the district of Mohill in that county. Creegan was not an uncommon name in Leitrim, and during this time there were other children born in the county, and even in the same district, with this surname. Mostly, we rely on the registered names of the parents and their townland to identify the children correctly.

The district of Mohill was broken up into numerous "townlands", which were areas of typically 1-2 square kilometres. The Creegans lived in the townland of Killyvehy in the Mohill district. The map opposite shows Killyvehy (shaded blue) in relation to the Mohill township - the two being about 7 kms apart as the crow flies. In fact, Killyvehy is closer to the small village of Cloone, this being only 5 kms away to the north and where all of the Creegan children were baptised.

Killyvehy was home not just to Peter and Anne Creegan, but also to their eldest son, John Creegan, who married and had a family there. There are other Creegans who lived at that time in the Mohill district. It is likely that they are related to our Creegan family, but the information we currently have is quite sketchy. Today, there are Creegans still living in Mohill district. There is, in fact, a Creegan's Pub in Cloone, which we think is owned by a descendant of a brother of Peter Creegan.

Of three of the Creegan children we know nothing other than their birth or baptism: Mary, Ann, and Francis. They probably each died very young.

Catherine Cregan Comes to Australia

The following Cregan children emigrated to Australia during the 1870s and 1880s: Catherine, Bridget, Annie, Elizabeth, Peter, Alice, and Ellen. Their mother, Anne, also made the journey, though their father, Peter, did not.

Those of the family that went to Australia went to Queensland, but not all on the same trip. Catherine was the first to emigrate, and she went alone. She traveled aboard the Robert Lees sailing ship, which left London on 14/12/1877. Pictured opposite is this ship after it was subsequently purchased and renamed as the Roscrana.

Catherine arrived in Moreton Bay, Brisbane, on 02/04/1878. She is listed as "Catherine Creggan", age 19, passenger number 136, on page 1491 of the ship's passenger log.

What Catherine Cregan did upon arrival in Moreton Bay is not known. As noted in the articles opposite, the immigrants from the Robert Lees were temporarily housed in the Immigration Depot in Brisbane and given free train passes, or perhaps sent, to other parts of Queensland.

It was apparently standard practice, in both Queensland and New South Wales, for the state government to provide temporary shared accommodation for new immigrants and help them gain proper employment.

Catherine and Edward Stevens

It was about 18 months after her arrival in Australia that Catherine Cregan married Edward Stevens in the Catholic Church of St Joseph, Dalby, Qld, on 03/10/1879 (Qld marriage reg. 1879/C/223). We have a copy of their marriage certificate. It says that both Edward and Catherine were living in Yulebah (Yuleba) at the time, with Edward a labourer and Catherine a servant. Their witnesses were Hubert Jones and Mary Ann Hennesy: neither name has any known links to Catherine or Edward. Perhaps they were friends or employers.

Edward Stevens was born in Berkshire, England, c.1858. His father was Robert Stevens, who worked as a labourer. According to the above marriage certificate, Edward's mother's first name was Martha, but we have no other information on her.

Edward Stevens emigrated to Queensland aboard the ship Alexandra, departing London on 07/01/1874 and arriving in Brisbane on 11/04/1874. This information comes from his record of immigration from FindMyPast.co.uk, shown opposite.

Edward and Catherine Stevens had four children (one boy and three girls):

• Mary Ann, born 10/07/1881 (Qld birth reg. 1881/B/27919)
• Louisa Agnes, born 25/03/1883 (Qld birth reg. 1883/C/818)
• Elizabeth (Cis), born 16/08/1884 (Qld birth reg. 1884/C/4902)
• Robert Edward, born 08/03/1886 (Qld birth reg. 1886/C/9063).

During the 1880s, Catherine and Edward Stevens were living in Queensland and growing their family, but details on their lives are hard to find. The only information we have comes from the birth certificates of their children and the arrival information of Catherine's sisters. We do know that the Cregan sisters did live together in various locations, particularly through the 1880s, but beyond that, as well.

We know that in July 1881 the Stevens couple were living in Bowen Hills, an inner northern suburb of Brisbane, when Mary Ann was born. However, Catherine's sister Bridget Cregan had arrived in Brisbane fifteen months earlier, on 14/04/1880, and it's possible that Catherine and Edward would have left Yulebah to be in Brisbane to meet Bridget off the ship.

Nineteen months later, in March 1883, Edward and Catherine had moved north to Nudgee Crossing. Daughter Louisa was born there. It's interesting that a Mrs Musgrove was the attending nurse for the births of both Mary Ann and Louisa.

The third Stevens child, Cis, was born in Mackay on 16/08/1884, so the Stevens family evidently had moved there by then from Nudgee Crossing. Many more of Catherine's Leitrim family were also in Mackay at that time. Bridget had married a local Mackay man, William Boland, on 22/07/1883, Furthermore, mother Ann Cregan, and sisters Annie, Elizabeth, Alice, and Ellen, were also living in Mackay around that time. In fact, Annie had disembarked in Mackay in June 1882, so perhaps Bridget was living in Mackay by then.

As far as we know, the Stevens family next moved to Accommodation Creek, a small settlement between Ballandean and the state border with New South Wales. This is a long way from Mackay, and why they chose that location is not known for sure. However, Edward made a successful application there for a victualler's license (see newspaper advertisement opposite) and began the "Accommodation Creek Hotel". He states that he had not run a hotel before.

There was much railway construction in the area at that time, building the line from Stanthorpe south, through Ballandean, to the state border. The workers (navvies, as they were called) undoubtedly made up a large portion of the hotel's customer base. The advertisement also gives a short description of the hotel, and it states that the Stevenses owned the premises. The date of the advertisement indicates that the family had moved to Accommodation creek sometime between August 1884 and June 1885. We also know that the next child Robert was born in that area on 08/03/1886.

We believe that sisters Annie, Elizabeth, and Alice went with the Stevens family to Accommodation Creek, with Bridget and Ellen remaining in Mackay (though it's possible Ellen also went to Accommodation Creek).

On 01/08/1886, just a year after starting the hotel, Edward Stevens died at the age of 28 - when his son, Robert Edward, was about 5 months old (Qld death reg. 1886/C/4004). His death certificate indicates that Edward died of alcoholic poisoning. Edward Stevens was buried in Stanthorpe Cemetery. An interesting item on Edward's death certificate is that Catherine and Edward had a daughter, name not given, previously deceased. We have not found any record of her birth or death, though.

The Arrival of Catherine's Leitrim Family

Bridget Cregan, the second eldest daughter of Peter and Anne Cregan, perhaps encouraged by the relatively agreeable life that Catherine was finding, herself made the journey from Leitrim to Queensland. Bridget sailed on the ship Queen of Nations, which departed from Plymouth on 14/01/1880. It arrived in Brisbane on 14/04/1880. She is listed as "Bridget Cregan", age 21, entry number 125 on page 332 of the ship's passenger log.

Two years after Bridget's arrival, the next sister, Annie, followed. Annie Cregan was aboard the steamship Camorta (pictured opposite) when it departed from Plymouth on 26/04/1882. She disembarked in Mackay, Qld, on 25/06/1882. Her entry on page 798 of the ship's passenger log lists her as "Ann Creegan", age 18.

There were two further voyages by the Cregan family members.

On 07/01/1883, the ship Ravenscrag departed from Plymouth bound for Queensland. On board were sisters Elizabeth, Alice, and Ellen, with their mother, Anne, and cousin Michael Cregan. They arrived at Rockhampton on 16/04/1883. In the ship's passenger log, Elizabeth appears on page 714, and the others are on page 713. On this journey, some passengers were sick with typhoid fever. Upon arrival, affected passengers had to be quarantined on Mackenzie Island, a tiny island at the mouth of the Fitzroy River. It is not known if the Cregans were included. Otherwise, the news was good for the immigrants from this ship, in that they were readily finding employment.

In the last of the journeys made by the Cregans, Catherine's brother Peter was on the steamship Merkara when it departed from London on 20/09/1887. It arrived at Brisbane on 15/11/1887. His entry on page 318 of the ship's passenger log lists him as "Peter Creegan", age 16.

Details are hard to find also on how Catherine's family from Leitrim were faring and where they were living after their arrival in Queensland. We have provided some information in the previous section, but the article opposite, from many years later in the Daily Mercury (Mackay), 26/06/1948, p.2, recounts some of the stories of the sisters.

In that article, Mrs Alice Graham is Alice Cregan, and Mrs Nellie Bird is Ellen (Nellie) Cregan. Their nephew Paul Boland is Bridget Cregan's son. Miss Nell Bird is Ellen (Nellie) Cregan's daughter. Kate Bryant (nee Boland) is Paul Boland's younger sister and, therefore, the niece of Alice and Ellen. So, we could say that Paul Boland was hosting his sister Kate, his cousin Miss Nell, and his aunties Alice and Ellen (Nellie).

The photo opposite is of sisters Nellie Bird (nee Cregan) and Alice Graham (nee Cregan). It seems likely that this was taken on their reported trip to Mackay in 1948, perhaps at the home of Paul Boland, where the sisters were staying.

Evidently, Bridget, Alice, and Ellen lived in Mackay soon after arriving in Australia. The two younger ones, Alice and Ellen, went to school there. Bridget married a Mackay man, William Boland, on 22/07/1883.

An obituary for the three girls' sister Elizabeth O'Rourke (nee Cregan), published in the Tweed Daily, 29/07/1944, p. 2, sheds further light on the lives of the Cregans in the 1880s. It, like the above article, says that Catherine had lived in Mackay during that time, and that, in fact, she was in Mackay when Elizabeth immigrated (with Alice, Ellen, mother Anne, and cousin Michael) in April 1883. So, it seems that all five Cregan girls, and their mother, Anne, were in Mackay at that time. This was just after Catherine's second child, Louisa Stevens, was born (on 25/03/1883 in Nudgee Crossing). Furthermore, Annie Cregan's ship, the Camorta, offloaded passengers at a number of ports down the Queensland coast. That Annie chose to disembark in Mackay suggests that her sister Bridget might have been living in Mackay as early as June 1882.

Just over a year after arriving in Australia, at the age of 50, Anne Cregan (nee Kiernan) died on 13/05/1884 of pneumonia and was buried in the Mackay City Cemetery (Qld death reg. 1884/C/2940). We have a copy of her death certificate. It seems that all the Cregan sisters were living in Mackay at the time of their mother's death.

The girls' brother Peter was still in Leitrim at this time, not immigrating until November 1887, but he, too, lived in the Mackay area, for part of his time in Australia. Tragically, some years later, he died in a work accident at the Mt Bassett quarry in Mackay, on 05/04/1901. He was buried alongside his mother, Anne, in the Mackay City Cemetery. Peter had also lived some years at Woodlawn, close to Lismore. According to electoral rolls, he worked there as a labourer from 1894 until 1900. We suspect that Peter lived with Catherine and her family during his initial years in Australia - from 1887 until perhaps 1891.

Opposite is a photo of the tombstone of Anne Cregan and Peter Cregan in the Mackay City Cemetery.

The Cregan Siblings Who Stayed In Leitrim

We have seen that Catherine and six of her siblings sailed the long journey to Queensland. Two other siblings remained in Leitrim: John and Margaret.

Apart from her birth record, we have no information at all for Margaret. It is possible that she left Leitrim, perhaps left Ireland altogether, though it is unlikely to have been to Australia, for we would surely have found a trace of that. On the other hand, she might have stayed in Leitrim, and it could be that she died young. This is all assuming Margaret actually existed: as mentioned above, Margaret might have actually been Alice Cregan by another name.

For John Creegan, the eldest of the Creegan siblings, we have much more information. While we do not have a birth record for John, we do have a record of his baptism, which took place in the village of Cloone on 27/05/1855 (see opposite).

John Creegan married Bridget Nicholls (or Nicoll) in Mohill, County Leitrim, on 06/02/1883. On the marriage record, both John and Bridget are listed as farmers. Bridget was from the Mohill townland of Edenbaun, about 2 kms from the townland of Killyvehy.

John and Bridget had the following children (six boys and three girls), all born in Killyvehy:

• John, born 18/12/1883
• Anne, born 12/02/1885
• Bridget (Bessie), born 15/09/1887
• Michael, born 14/05/1889
• Peter, born 26/11/1890
• Kate (Kathleen), born 23/03/1893
• Peter, born 27/04/1894
• Matthew, born 10/09/1897
• Hugh, born 28/05/1900

There were two sons named Peter. The first, born in 1890, died at age 2 on 03/04/1893 from bronchitis. Their next child born after that date was named Peter as well.

We have Irish census records for years 1901 and 1911, providing useful details of John and Bridget's family.

The 1901 census lists all children except the first Peter, who had died, and the eldest child, John Jnr, who was aged 16-17 then. We have no information on where John Jnr was in 1901. The 1911 census shows that all three daughters had left home by then, and the four youngest sons were either at school or helping on the family farm.

In fact, the three girls Anne, Bessie, and Kate had emigrated to the USA between 1901 and 1911. Later, in 1915, Matthew also emigrated to the US. While sons Peter and Hugh remained in Leitrim, whether Michael emigrated to the US or remained in Leitrim is unclear.

We have further details on the lives of the children of John and Bridget Creegan (a separate web page).

The Gills of Grafton

Henry Gill was Catherine Cregan's second husband. He was born c.1859 in the Grafton, NSW, area and was the third eldest child of Henry Gill Snr and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Hamilton).

Henry Gill Snr was born in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, in the late 1820s. We are not certain of his exact date of birth. One record we have gives it as 01/08/1828. However, his age at death gives us a year of birth of 1825 or 1826.

Henry Gill Snr worked as a seaman before coming to Australia. Part of his entry in the UK Seamen's Registers is shown opposite. (We also have the full record.) This records his date of birth as 01/08/1828, as mentioned above. It also says that he began as a seaman in 1842 (aged 14) and obtained his seaman's ticket at age 17 in 1845. The full record shows that Henry Snr had the rank of Ordinary Seaman throughout years 1845 - 1847. His voyages after 1847 are not recorded.

Elizabeth (Eliza) Hamilton was born in Belfast, County Antrim, c.1834. She emigrated to New South Wales aboard the Joseph Somes sailing ship. It departed from Plymouth, England, on 21/10/1851 and arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney, on 01/02/1852. Her entry in the ship's passenger log says that she was 21 years old at the time. This would give a birth year for Elizabeth of 1830 or 1831, conflicting with her obituary, which suggests a birth year of 1834. The more likely year of birth is 1834 - it is possible that Elizabeth exaggerated her age when emigrating.

As a single female immigrant on this ship, Elizabeth would have been accommodated in Hyde Park Barracks, awaiting employment opportunity.

The entry for Elizabeth in the ship's passenger log gives her religion as Church of England, her "calling" as "cook and housemaid", and that she can read but not write. There is also an Immigration Log for the passengers of that journey. Elizabeth's entry says that she had no relatives in Australia and that her parents, James and Mary Anne Hamilton, were dead. This is the only information we have on Elizabeth's parents.

Henry Gill Snr also happened to be on board the Joseph Somes when it made that journey from Plymouth to Sydney. Henry Snr was one of the ship's crewmen and had the rank of Able Seaman.

Sometime after landing in Sydney on 01/02/1852, Henry Snr absconded from his seaman's duties. His name was among a list of absconding seamen gazetted on 09/03/1852. He was, presumably, meant to be back on board the Joseph Somes when it sailed out of Sydney, but decided, for whatever reason, to remain in Australia.

We do not know when Henry Snr and Elizabeth met each other. It might have been on the journey to Sydney, or they might have met in Sydney after arrival. Likewise, we are unsure if Elizabeth was the reason Henry Snr decided to stay in Sydney.

It seems that the authorities never caught up with Henry Snr. Later that year, on 11/10/1852, Henry Gill Snr married Elizabeth Hamilton in St James's Church of England in Sydney. We have a copy of their marriage certificate and also a copy of their entry in the marriage registry of St James's Church.

Together, Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill had ten children (seven boys and three girls):

• James, born 20/01/1855 (NSW birth reg. 4128/1855 V18554128 42B)
• Elizabeth (Eliza), born c.1857
• Henry, born c.1859
• William, born 08/10/1861 (NSW birth reg. 7853/1861)
• Henrietta, born 30/08/1863 (NSW birth reg. 8126/1863)
• John Henry, born 28/09/1865 (NSW birth reg. 9276/1865)
• Joseph, born 28/08/1867 (NSW birth reg. 9853/1867)
• Frederick Clarence, born 28/08/1869 (NSW birth reg. 11437/1869)
• Edward, born 01/10/1871 (NSW birth reg. 10824/1871)
• Ann (Annie), born 24/06/1874 (NSW birth reg. 741/1874 187400741 160, or possibly 741/1874 V1874741 160)

The eldest child, James, was born while Henry Snr and Elizabeth lived in Sydney. According to this transcript of his baptism record, James was baptised at St James's Church of England, Sydney, on 09/12/1855. At that time, Henry Snr and Elizabeth were living in Kent Street, with Henry Snr working as a drayman.

In the late 1850s, the Gills moved to Grafton, NSW, where, with the possible exception of Eliza amd Henry, the remaining children were born. Their movements around this time are rather vague, however.

In the obituary of son James, we find that the Gills went up to the Tooloom gold diggings, which was near the Queensland border in the Clarence River headwaters. This must have been around 1859, when a rush was on there for gold. It is not clear how long they stayed in the area, though, or what success they had there.

Henry Gill, in his obituary, is described as a Grafton native. However, we have no birth certificate for either Henry or the eldest daughter, Eliza. One explanation is that one or both children were born in the Tooloom area, which was a long way from any large town, perhaps making it difficult to register a birth.

Additionally, the obituary for Elizabeth Gill (nee Hamilton) says that they went from Sydney to the New England area, then on to Grafton. Tooloom does lie in the north-east part of the New England region.

Throughout their time in Grafton, Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill had residences in Bacon Street and later in Fitzroy Street. We know from the birth notices of their children that they moved from Bacon Street to Fitzroy Street between 1863 and 1871. Henry and Elizabeth purchased many properties in Grafton during their years there. The first that we know of they bought in January 1865 and it was a 1.4-acre block on the north-west corner of Fitzroy and Duke Streets. This location is now in the Grafton CBD, but it might have been the residence for the Gills from about 1865 onwards.

Henry Gill Snr ran a carrier business for many years in Grafton. He had also previously been in partnership with a Henry Gunthorpe (or Gunthorp) of a similar business in Grafton. Carriers in that time drove horse-drawn carts or wagons for the transportation of goods. They were also called carters or draymen.

There appears to have been a bad falling out between Henry Gill Snr and Henry Gunthorpe. There were multiple court appearances resulting from altercations between the two men in the mid-1860s. After their business partnership split, they each set up their own carrier business in Grafton.

Henry Snr also opened, in 1881, a general produce store in Fitzroy Street, Grafton, selling various vegetables and grains. (See advertisement opposite.) He still had his carrier business then, but by this time his eldest sons James and Henry were working as draymen for him. This, perhaps, allowed Henry Snr time to run his produce store. A conveyancing document we have from August 1881 refers to Henry Gill Snr as a "hay and corn dealer" rather than a drayman.

Henry Snr sold his carrier business in May 1884 and moved with his wife, Elizabeth, to live in Sydney. It does appear that the Gills were well-liked in Grafton and would be missed there (though perhaps not by nemesis Henry Gunthorpe).

After Henry Snr sold the carrier business, the new owners, the Walsham Brothers, kept Henry (Jnr) on to manage it for them. Henry (Jnr) would, however, stay in Grafton for only two or three more years.

It is not known exactly which of the children went with Henry and Elizabeth to Sydney in 1884. We know that James and Henry remained in Grafton, and that daughter Eliza was married and returned with her husband from Sydney to Grafton that year. The next two eldest sons, William and John, appeared in electoral rolls at their parents' home in Sydney in the 1890s. Most of the other children were still quite young: the youngest, Annie, being just 9. So we suspect all but the eldest three Gill children went to Sydney with their parents in 1884.

We think that Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill lived initially in Glebe when they moved to Sydney in 1884. Specifically, at 39 Talfourd Street. This was a property that Henry Snr bought the previous year (1883), and we think that his daughter and son-in-law, Eliza and Charles Mackie, lived there from that time. However, the Mackies left Talfourd Street for Grafton in 1884, about the time that Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill moved in.

Henry Snr bought a second Glebe property in August 1884 - another house - this one at 24 Darghan Street (numbered 28 at that time). He and Elizabeth subsequently moved there from their Talfourd Street home, though they did not sell Talfourd Street until August 1886.

Henry Snr and Elizabeth moved once again soon enough. In February 1886 they bought a riverfront house at 60 Louisa Road, Balmain. (This area is called Birchgrove nowadays.) They named it Grafton House, and they lived there for about eight years.

During his years in Sydney, Henry Snr worked with Her Majesty's Customs (i.e. the NSW customs department) as a "tide waiter". Tide waiters were customs officers who boarded vessels at port to check their cargo. Henry would certainly have known his way around those ships, having been a seaman as a young man, though he would have been checking mostly steam ships rather than the sailing ships he would have once sailed upon.

Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill sold their Louisa Road home in October 1894. They then moved back to Grafton, although perhaps not immediately. Their daughter Annie was married in Louisa Road - we think at their home - in December 1894, when they were said to be still living in Balmain. April 1896 is the earliest date that we know they were once again living in Grafton. Upon that return, they lived somewhere in Fitzroy Street, possibly at their old address on the corner of Duke Street, which they still owned. However, in April 1898, they bought another house at 96A Queen Street just a street away from the busy centre of Grafton, and they lived there for the next few years.

In late 1901, Henry Snr and Elizabeth bought several adjacent lots in Newington Road, Marrickville. (This street was called Emily Street in 1901.) They moved into one of these: house number 55 (numbered 71 in 1901). Soon afterwards, their daughter and son-in-law Annie and Ernest Simons moved in next door at Number 57 (numbered 73 in 1901).

We have mentioned only some of the properties purchased by Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill. Below is a list of all those we know of. In many cases, the addresses given are approximate and are given in today's terms. Over time street names and house numberings can change, as can lot dimensions. For example, the property we list as 55 Newington Road was actually 71 Emily Street in 1901 when the Gills bought it. Also in the list below, the dates link to associated title deeds or conveyancing documents. Title deeds (or certificates of title) contained all transactions, within some date range, related to the property, including sales, mortgages, inheritances, and they usually gave a small sketch of the lot location. These operated under the "Torrens Title" system. Under the alternative system, called "Old System", a conveyancing document (an "indenture") was created for each transaction on a property, such as a sale. These difficult-to-read documents rarely included a sketch of the lot, though they did include the sale price, which title deeds did not.

One of the most valuable properties the Gills owned in Grafton was 42 Prince Street. This was a prime location in the main shopping/business street in the town. Henry Snr bought it in 1877 but had it rebuilt in 1894 to provide shops at ground level and offices upstairs. It was built by Henry Snr's son-in-law Robert Crews, husband of daughter Henrietta, and appears to have been a substantial building for the time. One of the shops was occupied by baker Charles Young Mackie, husband of another daughter of Henry Snr's and Elizabeth's, Eliza. This business was called the IXL Bakery and Refreshment Rooms.

The (undated) picture opposite shows some of the buildings in Prince Street, near the corner of Fitzroy Street. We think that the building in the centre with the gabled roof, and partly hidden by a tree, might be the Henry Gill building mentioned above. The grand two-storey building on the left of it is the AMP Society building.

Another photo from year 2021 of the same scene in Prince Street, shows the Commercial Bank building still in place (but no longer a bank), the AMP Society Building gone, but the suspected Henry Gill building apparently still intact, at least structurally, though its shops at street level are very different.

At the age of 70, Elizabeth Gill (nee Hamilton) died on 29/01/1905 in Annandale, NSW. She was buried in Rookwood General Cemetery, Sydney. Her obituary opposite appeared in a Grafton-based newspaper, the Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 04/02/1905, p. 4. This Annandale location was at 202 Young Street: the home of Elizabeth's daughter Henrietta and son-in-law Robert Crews.

Henry Gill Snr died just six months later, at the age of 79, on 13/07/1905, also at the Annandale home of Henrietta and Robert Crews. He was buried in Rookwood General Cemetery, Sydney, alongside his wife Elizabeth. When Henry Snr died he was still living at 55 Newington Road, according to his probate notice from the Grafton Argus, 24/07/1905, p. 1. Also, appearing opposite is an obituary for Henry Gill Snr from the Tweed Herald and Brunswick Chronicle.

We have death certificates for Elizabeth and Henry Snr.

The grave of Henry and Elizabeth Gill (nee Hamilton) is pictured opposite, with a close-up showing the inscription:

Also opposite are memorial cards for Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill. These are the only two photos we have of them.

All of the Gill children ultimately left Grafton. The last one to leave was son John, who stayed in the town until around 1908, when he was in his early 40s.

There is more detail below of the lives of sons Henry Gill and James Gill. There is also more detail on the other Gill children and their families here (a separate web page).

Henry and Catherine Gill in Queensland

After the death of her husband, Edward Stevens, in Accommodation Creek in August 1886, Catherine Stevens was widowed with four young children. She moved to the small town of Oxenford, near Coomera, soon afterwards. She obtained a victualler's license in April 1887 and began running the Railway Hotel, located next to the Oxenford railway station. This hotel is pictured opposite. The date of this photo is unknown, but it looks to be from roughly that time. Oxenford station no longer exists, but it was about where the M1 and Hope Island Road now intersect.

It appears that Catherine was drawn to the Coomera area because her sister Annie O'Rourke and her husband, Timothy, were living there then. In fact, Catherine might well have resided with the O'Rourkes upon her arrival from Accommodation Creek for a short time, remaining there until she moved into the Railway Hotel. Annie and Timothy had moved to Coomera after marrying. Beforehand, they had both been living in Accommodation Creek. Presumably, Annie was living in the Stevens hotel, and Timothy was a navvy living in a navvy camp.

An old article from The Telegraph (Brisbane) mentions Catherine Stevens during her time running the Railway Hotel in 1887 and relates what it was like then at Oxenford. The South Coast Railway was under construction in those years, so there was a large navvy population in the area, many no doubt frequenting Catherine's hotel.

After six months running the Railway Hotel, Catherine Stevens (nee Cregan) married Henry Gill, on 22/09/1887 in Coomera (Qld marriage reg. 1887/C/1104). We have a copy of their marriage certificate. It was a Catholic marriage, performed by Rev. James O'Reilly, but we don't know if it was performed in a church. There was a St Mary's Catholic Church in Upper Coomera, but it was built c. 1891 - four years after the marriage.

It is not known what brought Henry Gill to Oxenford, or whether he had come there directly from Grafton. But the above marriage certificate says that he was working as a carpenter at that time. It may have been related to the railway construction, for he had no family ties in the area that we know of.

Another curious entry on that certificate is the two witnesses: Eliza Creegan and Hugh Creegan. Of course, Eliza was Catherine's sister. However, we cannot say who Hugh Creegan is. Presumably, he is a relative of Catherine's, but we can find little other information on him. There was a Hugh Cregan who immigrated into Mackay in November 1882 aboard the ship Compta, which sailed out of London. See page 239 of the Compta's passenger log. Given that our Cregan family were in Mackay around that time, it seems likely that this immigrant is the one we seek. We do not know anything of his origins, however.

After his marriage with Catherine, Henry became licensee of the Railway Hotel, although Catherine was, at that stage, the one with hotel-running experience: twelve months with Edward Stevens at Accommodation Creek, and six months on her own at Oxenford. As far as we know, Henry had not run a hotel before. We believe this change of licensee was due to a law at the time that married women could not hold a liquor license.

Henry and Catherine Gill had five children (two boys and three girls), in addition to Catherine's earlier four:

• Henrietta Magdalene (Ettie), born 09/07/1888, Coomera, Qld (Qld birth reg. 1888/C/6457)
• Catherine Margaret (Kate), born 25/02/1890, Acrobat Creek, Qld (Qld birth reg. 1890/C/1480)
• Henry William Joseph (Harry), born 22/09/1891, South Lismore, NSW (NSW birth reg. 19550/1891)
• Veronica Eileen (Vera), born 29/09/1898, Murwillumbah, NSW (NSW birth reg. 32693/1898)
• Peter John, born 08/10/1899, Murwillumbah, NSW (NSW birth reg. 5334/1900).

The following year, in October 1888, with Henrietta three months old, Henry and Catherine sold their license at the Railway Hotel to the Bolands, William and Bridget. Bridget was Catherine's sister. She and William had been living in Mackay up until then, with William running a saddlery.

Upon relinquishing the Railway Hotel business, Henry applied for a hotel license in Mooloolah, Qld, in the region now known as the Sunshine Coast hinterland. His application was rejected, however, as reported in that linked article.

Henry tried again, applying in January 1889 for a hotelier license in Mellum Creek, not far from Mooloolah. But, again, the licensing court refused him.

Still Henry persisted and was successful one month later, in February 1889, in taking over the Mooloolah Hotel and store. (The legal transfer of license was made official in April 1889.) The Gills held a housewarming in the hotel in April 1889, which seemed to go off well, despite a scuffle breaking out!

The Mooloolah Hotel business was not kind to the Gills, however, and they went insolvent later that year, their business assets being advertised for sale in September 1889. The hotel passed back to the Gills' lessor, and previous licensee, George Laud Bury. This asset sell-off included the property (land and buildings) of their previous hotel, the Oxenford Railway Hotel, the license of which was still owned by the Bolands at that time. It is not known what caused the financial failure of the Gills' hotel, but, during their time there, there was much wet weather in the area, greatly damaging roads and restricting the amount of railway construction and other outdoors work. This would, no doubt, have impacted the hotel business.

Further problems ensued for the Gills later that month when Henry was fined the substantial sum of £30 for selling liquour without a valid license. Presumably, this occurred after Henry lost his licence at the Mooloolah Hotel. The linked article says that Henry was then living at Eudlo (Flat), just north of Mooloolah.

On 25/02/1890, the Gills' second child together, Catherine (Kate), was born. According to the birth certificate, the birth occurred at a small settlement near Eudlo called Acrobat Creek, which we assume is where the Gills were then living. The birth was registered two months later, however, on 01/05/1890, with Henry giving his address then as Stanley Street, South Brisbane, and his occupation as carpenter. Evidently, the Gills moved from Acrobat Creek to South Brisbane during those intervening two months.

Some time later that year, 1890, Henry and Catherine Gill moved to Wivenhoe, just west of Brisbane. In December 1890, Henry, listing himself as a timber-getter, applied for a victualler's license in Wivenhoe, wishing to run a hotel/inn on their existing premises. We have no information that this came to fruition, however. Henry was listed as a timber-getter also when he acquired the Mooloolah Hotel license. It seems, then, that, during these years, when Henry was not running hotels his work alternated between carpentry and timber-getting.

Just a month later, in January 1891, Catherine Gill was at the Ipswich Police Court charged with disobeying a summons related to a previous charge of her selling sly grog (usually, selling alcohol without a license) in Woombye, just north of Mooloolah. Just as Henry had been for a similar offence, Catherine had been fined £30 in the Woombye Police Court, apparently without her being present. The date of her offence was not given, but the incident opens the possibility that the Gills were living in the Woombye / Mooloolah area again in late 1890 for a short time.

Henry and Catherine Gill Move to New South Wales - Northern Rivers

Given their abovementioned financial and legal struggles, perhaps Henry and Catherine Gill were ready for a fresh start in a different state. Well, it seems that later in 1891, Henry and Catherine did, indeed, leave Queensland and move to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, for their son Henry William Joseph was born in September that year in South Lismore. We have a copy of Henry William Joseph Gill's birth certificate. This certificate shows that Henry Gill was then working as a carpenter and within the next two months had moved from South Lismore to Byron Bay. That November, Henry appeared in the Lismore Small Debts Court due to an unpaid debt owed to J. W. Wilson, a Lismore store owner.

The following year, in August 1892, Catherine Gill appeared in the Byron Bay Court on a charge of selling sly grog. This time she was acquitted on the basis that her husband was with her at the time of the incident. This suggests that Henry had a license to sell alcohol but Catherine did not. However, we have no information of any hotel or other business that the Gills were running at this time.

Information on the Gills in their time around Lismore and Byron Bay in years 1891-1894 is sketchy. One item we have from this period is that in March 1892 Henry Gill was reportedly the wharfinger at the Byron Bay jetty (a wharfinger was a jetty manager). Additionally, the linked article says that Henry was to move to Coffs Harbour to be the wharfinger at the soon-to-be-opened Coffs Harbour jetty.

That article is possibly in error, however: there is no other evidence suggesting that Henry was wharfinger, and, also, government gazettes at the time say that John Hocquard held that position at the Byron Bay jetty.

A further twist is that Henry's older brother, James Gill, moved from Grafton to Coffs Harbour later that year, 1892, to become the first wharfinger at Coffs Harbour jetty, a posting he held for about ten years.

Electoral rolls from these several years list Henry Gill as living in The Pocket (just north of Mullumbimby) for a short time - around 1891-1892 - before moving to Byron Bay and working as a storekeeper. We do not know what type of store this was, however.

The Pocket soon came to be called Billinudgel, though there is still a rural area to its west called The Pocket now. But in the early 1890s, The Pocket (Billinudgel) was a small town with stores and a hotel (the Tramway Hotel) and a workforce in the area constructing the railway line to Murwillumbah. It was reported at the time to be larger than Tweed Heads, for example.

In December 1893, Catherine's two youngest sisters, Alice and Nellie (Ellen) Cregan, attended a ball in Mullumbimby. At that time, both girls were still single and we think they were living with Catherine and Henry Gill.

About one year later, in January 1895, Henry Gill won a road works contract in the Mullumbimby area. Apparently, during this period, and into the 1900s, the NSW government would tender out much (if not all) of their road works to private contractors. There are records for Henry Gill tendering and sometimes winning contracts in subsequent years for other road works in the Tweed district, and also into Queensland. We do not know if Henry had done any such work previously, though he might possibly have done so during the period 1891-1894.

Henry and Catherine Gill Move to the Tweed

Henry and Catherine Gill moved to the Tweed district in 1895, and there they would live out the rest of their lives. That year, returning to their hotelkeeping trade, they began running the Condong Hotel at South Murwillumbah.

The Tweed area was expanding commercially at that time. The Condong sugar mill had opened 15 years earlier, in 1880, to service the local cane farmers. Also, the railway from Lismore to Murwillumbah had opened the previous year, 1894. Passenger trains terminated at Murwillumbah, but the line extended through to Condong, allowing the sugar mill to freight its produce to Byron Bay for shipping.

However, the Condong Hotel was actually located closer to Murwillumbah than to the small town of Condong. It was on Condong Road (which became part of the Tweed Valley Way) just on the Murwillumbah side of the small bridge over Condong Creek, near where Boral Timber is now located. Unfortunately, we have no picture of it.

The Condong Hotel no longer exists. It closed down in 1914, its license having been revoked. We suspect the main reason was that the ferry across the Tweed was replaced by a bridge in the early 1900s. The bridge being upstream of the ferry pushed the Condong Hotel farther from the main part of South Murwillumbah.

But, in fact, the Gills had moved from the Condong Hotel long before then. By July 1897, Henry and Catherine Gill had moved closer to the centre of South Murwillumbah, becoming licensees of the Royal Hotel. This was located in Bray Street, opposite the Murwillumbah railway station. (Bray Street no longer exists: it eventually became part of the Tweed Valley Way.) At South Murwillumbah, the Gills had their eighth child, a daughter Veronica Eileen (Vera), born on 29/09/1898.

Catherine and Henry Gill did not sell up completely when they left the Condong Hotel area, though. In October 1898, a nearby cottage that they retained was destroyed by fire, along with the cottage next door. Fortunately for the Gills, their property was vacant at the time and was also insured.

The Gills' presence in Murwillumbah was noted by one newspaper reporter on tour south from Brisbane in July 1899. She seemed impressed by the Gills and what they were doing with their Royal Hotel.

Pictured opposite is the Royal Hotel as it looked about 25 years later, in 1924.

On 08/10/1899, Henry and Catherine Gill had their last child, a son Peter John.

The Gill children were being raised as Catholics, it seems. During September 1901, Catherine (Kate) Gill, in a letter she wrote to the Playmate Postbag feature of the Catholic Press, advised that there is no local Catholic school for them to attend, so they go to public school in Murwillumbah.

The following week, Henrietta (Ettie) Gill followed her young sister's lead and also wrote to the Catholic Press Playmate, and further explained that her town should be getting a Catholic school soon. Moreover, she provided the readers a free dose of Murwillumbah geography!

Henry Gill, while running the Royal Hotel, was also doing further road work contracts in the Tweed district, such as at Condong Range in December 1901, and in the Byangum area in May 1902.

It seems then that a good share of the work at the Royal Hotel was done by Catherine, along with her older children. Dealing with customers in a hotel would have had its ups and downs. But judging by this amusing story from the Tweed Advocate, 14/01/1903, p. 2, Catherine Gill and the kids were more than up to it.

However, one incident at the Royal Hotel in March 1903 was rather more serious. One boarder at the hotel, a Charles Clifford, refused to pay his weekly room rental. It ended in a confrontation between himself and both Henry and Catherine. Henry punched or slapped Clifford in the head. The man died some weeks later in Lismore Hospital from cerebral haemorrhage. Henry was charged with manslaughter. Fortunately, he was acquitted due, it seems, to insufficient proof that the strike caused Clifford's death.

Henry Gill was also civic-minded, running, in August 1902, for a place on the very first municipal council for the town of Murwillumbah. He made a good pitch to the voters, but fell short by two places, finishing eighth in a field of twelve.

Catherine and Henry Gill had, apparently, become quite settled in the Tweed district and enjoyed more business success than in their final years in Queensland. Over the years, three of Catherine's sisters also found a home in the area, as did Henry's older brother, James Gill. In and around the town of Murwillumbah, the lives of the Gills and the Cregans, and all of their children, thereby became intertwined. We pick up the story of Henry and Catherine Gill again a little later.

Now, we move on to the stories of each of Catherine's sisters who had followed her to Queensland from County Leitrim.

Bridget Cregan and the Bolands

Bridget Cregan was the second eldest daughter, after Catherine, of Peter and Anne Cregan. She is pictured opposite. As mentioned earlier, sometime after her arrival in Australia in April 1880, Bridget went to Mackay. Many of her family members also came to live there in that period of the early 1880s.

On 22/07/1883, three years after coming to Queensland, and three months after the arrival of her mother and three of her younger sisters, Bridget Cregan married William Joseph Boland, a local of Mackay (Qld marriage reg. 1883/C/955). The wedding was held in St Patrick's Church, Mackay. We have a copy of their marriage certificate. The female witness to the wedding was Mary Creegan. This is obviously a relation of Bridget, but we know nothing else of her, unfortunately.

Bridget and William Boland had nine children (five boys and four girls):

• Peter Joseph, born 10/11/1884 (Qld birth reg. 1884/C/4962)
• Paul Askin, born 25/06/1886 (Qld birth reg. 1886/C/5615)
• Catherine Ann (Kate), born 16/12/1887 (Qld birth reg. 1887/C/6595)
• William John, born 06/12/1889 (Qld birth reg. 1890/C/7817)
• Thomas Henry, born 01/03/1892 (Qld birth reg. 1892/C/7655)
• Ellen Mary (Nellie), born 28/12/1893 (NSW birth reg. 22697/1894)
• Alice Elizabeth, born 18/11/1895 (NSW birth reg. 5414/1896)
• Robert James, born 23/10/1897 (NSW birth reg. 33446/1897)
• Veronica Bridget (Vera), born 06/04/1901 (NSW birth reg. 14847/1901)

William Boland ran a saddlery in Wood Street, Mackay. The advertisement opposite was running through 1888 in the Mackay Mercury.

In October 1888, however, the Bolands turned their hand to hotelkeeping, taking over the license at the Railway Hotel, Oxenford, from Henry and Catherine Gill.

Bridget and William were still running the hotel at Oxenford when, on 07/11/1891, their eldest son, Peter Joseph Boland, drowned in Yauns Creek, a tributary of the nearby Coomera River. He was three days short of his seventh birthday. An inquest was held into the death. Evidently, Peter was in the company of two other boys, William Henry Dodd and Robert Meredith Pidd. One boy threw a stick out into the creek where the water was deep and Peter went after it. He went underwater and the other boys didn't see him again. We have the transcript of the inquest.

About seven months later, in June 1892, the Bolands were deemed insolvent, ending their business at the Railway Hotel.

The Bolands moved to the Tweed area about 1893: their sixth child, Ellen Mary (Nellie), was born in the Murwillumbah district, as were the remaining three children. This was two years before Catherine and Henry Gill moved to the Condong Hotel in South Murwillumbah, though the Gills had been in the Northern Rivers region since 1891. Electoral rolls indicate that, more specifically, the Bolands were living in Burringbar around 1893, with William working as a labourer. It could be that William worked on the Lismore-Tweed railway, which was under construction at that time.

In 1896, William Boland opened a saddlery in Murwillumbah, as he had done in Mackay. He maintained this business for many years. His advertisement from the Tweed Herald, 04/08/1905, p. 5, appears opposite. Around 1909, he moved his saddlery from Wharf Street into Main Street, as indicated in the second advertisement opposite, also from the Tweed Herald.

Sadly, at age 49, Bridget Boland (nee Cregan) died in Murwillumbah Hospital on 03/01/1909. Bridget was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery. We have a copy of Bridget's death certificate. She died from cirrhosis of the liver.

After Bridget's death, William and the children stayed in Murwillumbah - for some years at least. William, along with eldest children Paul Askin, Catherine Ann, and William John, had a Mooball Street address in the 1913 Electoral Roll.

It was in Murwillumbah that, on 02/03/1920, at the age of 62, William Joseph Boland died. He, too, was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery. His eldest living son, Paul Askin Boland, had recently taken over the saddlery after having just returned from the First World War the previous August. William Boland's deceased estate went into bankruptcy, so perhaps it was fortunate that the family saddlery business survived. We have William's death certificate. He died of cardiac hypertrophy and renal failure.

The saddlery was run by Paul Boland until around October 1926, when he sold it to a Patrick Joseph McKenny. Paul moved to Queensland a year or two later. Over time, all but one of the Boland children (Alice) moved away from the Tweed.

There is more detail on the Boland children and their families here (a separate web page).

Annie Cregan and the O'Rourkes

Anne (Annie) Cregan is pictured opposite. As mentioned earlier, she arrived in Australia on 25/06/1882, disembarking in Mackay. She was 17 years old.

Four years later, on 06/06/1886, Annie Cregan married Timothy O'Rourke (Qld marriage reg. 1886/C/1617). As a young man, Timothy had also emigrated, c.1880, from Ireland, having been born in Newmarket, County Cork. We have a copy of their marriage certificate.

The marriage certificate says that both Annie and Timothy were living in Accommodation Creek at the time of their wedding. Catherine and Edward Stevens were there then, living in and running the Accommodation Creek Hotel. Presumably, the two witnesses, Alice Cregan and James O'Rourke (Timothy's brother), were also living in Accommodation Creek. It is probable that Annie and Alice were living with the Stevens family. Timothy and James were possibly both working on the railway construction that was happening in the area.

Annie and Timothy O'Rourke had a large family of thirteen children (six boys and seven girls):

• Margaret Ann, born 11/08/1887 (Qld birth reg. 1887/C/5896)
• Catherine, born 27/09/1888 (Qld birth reg. 1888/C/6523)
• Mary McDillan, born 26/02/1890 (Qld birth reg. 1890/C/2995)
• Timothy Joseph, born 16/08/1891 (Qld birth reg. 1891/C/2964)
• Ellen Mary Agnes, born 14/04/1893 (Qld birth reg. 1893/C/2506)
• Agnes Elizabeth, born 04/11/1894 (Qld birth reg. 1894/C/2660)
• John Michael, born 10/12/1896 (Qld birth reg. 1897/C/2428)
• James Peter, born 07/09/1898 (Qld birth reg. 1898/C/2676)
• Lucy Bridget, born 31/07/1900 (Qld birth reg. 1900/C/2715)
• Veronica Alice, born 02/11/1901 (Qld birth reg. 1901/C/2591)
• George Patrick, born 10/10/1903 (Qld birth reg. 1903/C/2204)
• William Joseph, born 26/11/1905 (Qld birth reg. 1905/C/3550)
• Denis Vincent, born 08/11/1907 (Qld birth reg. 1907/C/4087)

The O'Rourke family photo opposite, judging by the apparent ages of the children, must have been taken about 1916. All thirteen children were present, except for Catherine, who was not living in the Ramsay area then, and Mary, who had previously died at just 4 years of age on 10/07/1894 (Qld death reg. 1894/C/1078).

After marrying, Timothy and Annie O'Rourke moved to Coomera, where Timothy continued working as a labourer. At that time, there was also major rail work happening in Coomera for the South Coast line, so Timothy might well have been employed there. We think that his brother James might have gone with Timothy and Annie.

We think the first two O'Rourke children were born in Coomera, but the third was born in Ramsay, a farming district just south of Toowoomba. Annie and Timothy moved there from Coomera around 1889. In Ramsay, they ran a successful dairy farm called "Mount Lake" and thus made their fortune, so it was reported many years later in Timothy's obituary. We have birth certificates for the first and third children, Margaret and Mary.

In 1891, Timothy apparently inherited a 160-acre property in the Ramsay district from his brother George O'Rourke, who died on 02/12/1889. Additionally, another newspaper report says that Timothy bought a property in the same vicinity earlier, in 1885. We think that these two properties were actually adjacent. Additionally, it seems that Timothy's inheritance might have triggered his and Annie's move to Ramsay.

The electoral rolls of 1895 indicate that the O'Rourkes owned properties either side of Wilsons Road, east of Ramsay. This, we think, was their Mount Lake dairy farm. A probate notice in the 1930s for Timothy indicate that this property comprised portions 34 and 36 of Colin Parish, Churchill County, on the eastern side of Wilsons Road (these being the two properties mentioned in the previous paragraph); and portions 4v, 62, 3641, and 3843 of Ramsay Parish, Aubigny County, on the western side of Wilsons Road. Mount Lake is located between the intersections of Wilsons Road with Mt Neale Road to the south and Sawpit Road to the north. It had a combined area of about 600 acres, though some of that was probably bushland.

The same probate notice also says that the O'Rourkes owned a farming property in nearby Budgee of several hundred acres: a subdivision of various lots located to the east of the intersection of Fiechmans Lane, Budgee Road, Macginleys Road, and Orourke Road. (Presumably, this last-mentioned road was named after our O'Rourke family.) We think that this property was called "Kenmore" and was farmed by son Timothy Joseph O'Rourke from about 1917 onwards.

Three land maps from the early 1970s mark out the above two properties, Mount Lake and Kenmore.

Timothy O'Rourke died on 08/03/1928 at his Mount Lake property. (Qld death reg. 1928/C/1017). He was buried in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.

The obituary for Timothy O'Rourke, shown opposite, and printed in the Toowoomba Chronicle, 13/03/1928, p.3, provides an outline of the lives that he and wife Annie led in Queensland.

In about 1933, Annie O'Rourke, then widowed, moved from Ramsay to a new home at 10 Goggs Street, Toowoomba. On 27/05/1937, at the age of 72, Annie O'Rourke (nee Cregan) died (Qld death reg. 1937/C/2267). We have a copy of Annie's death certificate. Annie was buried alongside Timothy. Their shared tombstone is pictured opposite.

Annie O'Rourke's obituary appears opposite. We do not know which newspaper it was published in. It indicates that, before her death, Annie had left her Goggs Street home to live in Eton Vale with her eldest daughter and son-in-law, Margaret Ann and William Augustus Duggan.

The O'Rourke "Mount Lake" farm was taken over by son George Patrick O'Rourke after the death of his father. George lived there until around 1960. We do not know what became of Mount Lake after that. We have no information of any other O'Rourke family members living there after that time.

There is more detail, including photos, of the O'Rourke children and their families here (a separate web page).

Elizabeth Cregan and the O'Rourkes

Elizabeth Cregan (pictured opposite) emigrated to Australia, disembarking in Rockhampton on 18/04/1883. With her were her mother, Anne; younger sisters, Alice and Ellen; and cousin Michael Cregan. It seems that both Bridget and Annie Cregan were living in Mackay at this time, and the newly arrived Cregans went north from Rockhampton to join them. Elizabeth's obituary says that her eldest sister, Catherine Stevens (nee Cregan), was also living in Mackay then.

Elizabeth Cregan married James O'Rourke in St Stephens Cathedral, Brisbane, on 03/02/1890 (Qld marriage reg. 1890/B/13868). We have a copy of their marriage certificate.

James O'Rourke was a younger brother of Timothy O'Rourke, the husband of Elizabeth's older sister Annie. James, too, was born in County Cork, Ireland, in the town of Kilskean. He emigrated to Australia, sailing into Brisbane on 21/02/1888, a number of years after brother Timothy had arrived. Pictured below is James O'Rourke standing beside his brother Timothy.

Elizabeth and James O'Rourke had seven children (three boys and four girls):

• John William (Jack), born 17/12/1890 (Qld birth reg. 1891/B/47367)
• Timothy Peter, born 08/09/1892 (NSW birth reg. 26539/1892)
• (Margaret) Pearl, born 26/07/1894 (NSW birth reg. 36098/1894)
• James (Jim), born 06/06/1896 (NSW birth reg. 26715/1896)
• Elizabeth Ann (Cissy), born 14/04/1898 (NSW birth reg. 17049/1898)
• Annie, born 24/01/1900 (NSW birth reg. 8436/1900)
• Mary, born 24/02/1904 (NSW birth reg. 8179/1904)

Sadly, each of the two youngest children, Annie and Mary, died on the day it was born.

The above marriage certificate indicates that Elizabeth and James were both living in the Caboolture area at the time of their wedding. We think they were both, in fact, living in the nearby Eudlo area, which is where Henry and Catherine Gill were living at the time. It seems likely that Elizabeth lived with her sister Catherine throughout the latter's travels through Accommodation Creek, Oxenford, Mooloolah, and then Eudlo. As for James, his advertisement for a lost horse indicates he lived in Eudlo in September 1889, five months before the marriage. The marriage certificate indicates that James worked as a navvy, and there was certainly rail construction at that time in the Eudlo district.

The eldest child, John William, was born in Stephens Road, South Brisbane, which is where James and Elizabeth were living at the time, with James working as a labourer. We have a copy of John's birth certificate.

The next child, Timothy Peter, was born in the Newtown district in Sydney, and the remaining children were born in the nearby district of Waterloo. Evidently, Elizabeth and James O'Rourke moved from South Brisbane to the inner suburbs of Sydney c.1891.

Sands Directories from that period provide further information on where the O'Rourkes were living then. From c.1892 to c.1894, they resided at 5 Union Street, Newtown, (since re-numbered to Number 15). It appears that that house, a Victorian terrace, is still standing.

By 1895, the O'Rourkes had moved to the suburb of Botany, specifically, to an area known then as Frog Hollow (or Frog's Hollow). This was where the industrial estate is now in Banksmeadow, on the northern side of Botany Road between Foreshore Road and Beauchamp Road. They lived in a street there called Pople's Terrace until around 1901. During those years, James O'Rourke worked as a fellmonger, meaning he worked with wool in a tannery or wool processing business. There were numerous such companies in the Botany area at that time. The two nearest to Frog Hollow were "Springvale" and "Floodvale"; it is likely that one of them employed James O'Rourke. Living in the same street for some of those years where the Bird family, Ellen Bird being the younger sister of Elizabeth. We do not know their house numbers, so it's possible that the Birds lived in the O'Rourkes' house.

James and Elizabeth moved to Wellington Street, Mascot, around 1901. Their house was located on the western side of the street, between Coward Street and Henley Street. They were there for only a year, however, before moving to nearby 17 Alfred Street, also in Mascot, in 1903. (Mascot was known in those days as North Botany.) We have the title deed showing their purchase of that property. Electoral rolls from 1903 to 1908 list the O'Rourkes with an Alfred Street address and with James working as a carter. We also have the birth certificate of the last child, Mary O'Rourke (born February 1904), which gives their address as Alfred Street and James's occupation as teamster. A teamster could have been a carter, or someone who drove teams of bullocks or work horses. In 1906, the O'Rourkes purchased the property next door at 19 Alfred Street, which perhaps they rented out.

In 1909, Elizabeth and James O'Rourke sold their two properties in Mascot and moved to Murwillumbah. Two of Elizabeth's sisters, Catherine and Alice, and their families, were in the Murwillumbah area at that time, as were the Boland family of sister Bridget, who had died in January of that year. (Two other sisters were living in Queensland: Annie (Ramsay district, near Toowoomba) and Ellen (Ipswich).)

James O'Rourke took over the carting business in Murwillumbah of Henry Gill in that year, 1909. He then ran it for about ten years.

Business must have been good for the O'Rourkes, for they were soon able to buy property around Murwillumbah. Their initial purchase seems to have been 2 Railway Street, bought from Catherine Gill in February 1909. We think the O'Rourkes lived at this address throughout their years in Murwillumbah. They had a farm in Condong in the 1910s, though they did not run it themselves. It was being run by a B. Smith in 1915 as a dairy farm (perhaps under lease). We think this might have been the 1.5-acre property on the south-west corner at the intersection of the railway line and Buchanan Street, which they purchased in 1911.

Back closer to the Murwillumbah township, the O'Rourkes bought two adjacent lots just up from their home, at 10-12 Railway Street. This was in June 1915. Two years later, in July 1917, they obtained a grant of a block of crown land for £75. It was located in Waterloo Street, west of Queensland Road. Within months, however, they sold it to the local Catholic clergymen. This block has since been subsumed by the Mount St Patrick College grounds (and that section of Waterloo Street no longer exists). In 1919, they bought a substantial farming property in Condong, comprising 157 acres. Over time, they leased it out to a number of people, rather than working it themselves. We think it was mainly used for sugar cane.

In April 1919, James O'Rourke became licensee of the Queensland Hotel in Tweed Heads, and consequently moved there from Murwillumbah with Elizabeth and the three youngest children, Pearl James Jnr, and Cissy.

The O'Rourke carting business in Murwillumbah was taken over at that time by the two eldest sons, John William O'Rourke and Timothy Peter O'Rourke, each of whom was married by then. In fact, the carting business became known as "O'Rourke Bros" and continued on for many years. The boys did, however, fail to register that new business name correctly, and for their trouble incurred a small fine.

The O'Rourkes remained at the Queensland Hotel until James sold the license, to an Ernest Charles Law, and retired from work in November 1925.

Both James and Elizabeth were community-minded. Elizabeth joined church committees and helped organise fund-raising events in Murwillumbah and in Tweed Heads. James successfully ran for local office, becoming an alderman on the Coolangatta Municipal Council in April 1924. The following year, James appeared in a group photo of this council (back row, second from the right).

Through the 1930s, the O'Rourkes were living in Brefney Flats, Coolangatta, which, according to this report on a fire, was almost adjacent to the Queensland Hotel.

The name "Brefney" was significant for both Elizabeth and James. Apart from their naming of "Brefney Flats" in Coolangatta, James and Elizabeth also gave the name "Brefney" to their home in Railway Street, South Murwillumbah, in the 1910s. Brefney is an anglicised version of Breifne, an ancient kingdom in Ireland. In fact, one part of Breifne was called Breifne O'Rourke (or West Breifne), which was controlled by the O'Rourke clan and it covered the current-day Irish county of Leitrim, Elizabeth's native county.

The O'Rourkes had purchased ownership of the Queensland Hotel property at some point. The hotel license was held by a Henry Ottomar Bourne from December 1927 to October 1935, at which time James O'Rourke again took over the license. He did not retain the licence for very long though. He sold the business to Martin Thomas Kelly in April 1936.

On 21/03/1937, at the age of 69, James O'Rourke died in St Vincents Hospital in Sydney (NSW death reg. 409/1937). He was buried in the Tweed Heads Old General Cemetery. We have a copy of James's death certificate. James died of pneumonia and myocarditis.

After her husband's death, Elizabeth moved, with her son James Jnr, across the border and up the hill to reside in a house at or near 20 Boundary Street, Tweed Heads. This was a property bought by James Jnr back in December 1932.

In February 1940, Elizabeth and James Jnr sold their Boundary Street home and moved to another of their houses at 42 Frances Street, Tweed Heads, on the south-west corner of Beryl Street. James Jnr had purchased this property in November 1938. This home the O'Rourkes also called "Brefney". The large weatherboard house there in year 2022 looks old enough to perhaps have been the one that Elizabeth and James Jnr lived in.

Elizabeth O'Rourke (nee Cregan) died in Sydney on 28/07/1944, at the age of 77 (NSW death reg. 19284/1944). She was buried beside her husband, James, in the Tweed Heads Old General Cemetery.

It is rather sad that many of the children of Elizabeth and James died relatively young. Only Margaret Pearl reached an age beyond the 50s, dying at the age of 77. Apart from the infant deaths of Annie and Mary, Timothy Peter died at the age of 31 in a house fire in Murwillumbah. Elizabeth Ann (Cissy) died at the age of 26, just one year after her marriage. John William died at the age of 52, and James Jnr died at the age of 47. Two of these children, Elizabeth Ann and James Jnr, are buried beside their parents in the Tweed Heads Old General Cemetery. Their graves are pictured opposite.

We have more detail on the lives of the O'Rourke children here (a separate web page).

Alice Cregan and the Grahams

Alice Cregan was with her mother, Anne, and sisters Elizabeth and Ellen (Nellie), and cousin Michael Cregan, when she disembarked in Rockhampton on 18/04/1883 from the ship Ravenscrag.

As mentioned earlier, this group travelled north to Mackay, where sisters Catherine, Bridget, and Annie were reportedly living at that time. Alice was still young enough that she attended school, with sister Ellen, in Mackay.

Alice's movements after her early times at Mackay are not precisely known. She was, however, a witness to the weddings of her sisters Annie, in Stanthorpe on 06/06/1886, and Elizabeth, in Brisbane on 03/02/1890. This evidence suggests that Alice lived with her sister Catherine through the years roughly 1885 - 1896, and possibly with one of the other older sisters for some of that time. She would have been a useful child-minder for her sisters then, and also useful in the hotels that Catherine ran.

Alice Cregan married Thomas Cartner Graham in Lismore on 14/02/1896 (NSW marriage reg. 1278/1896). We have a copy of their marriage certificate.

Not long after their marriage, Alice and Thomas Graham were living in the Murwillumbah area. Their daughter Margaret Ann was born there in January 1897, and, by November that year, Thomas Graham was licensee of the Condong Hotel in South Murwillumbah. This was the hotel that Henry and Catherine Gill began running in 1895. In fact, Henry Gill was running the Condong Hotel until at least May 1896, so it is quite possible that the hotel license transferred from the Gills to the Grahams sometime between that month and November 1897.

The fire in October 1898, previously mentioned, that burnt down a cottage owned by the Gills also damaged the Condong Hotel but did not destroy it. This was during the time that the Grahams had the hotel.

Alice and Thomas Graham had ten children (six boys and four girls):

• Violet May, born c.1892
• Margaret Ann, born 15/01/1897 (NSW birth reg. 5161/1897)
• George Cregan, born 14/05/1898 (NSW birth reg. 23507/1898)
• Robert Peter, born 19/10/1899 (NSW birth reg. 32680/1899)
• Thomas Joseph, born 22/05/1901 (Qld birth reg. 1901/B/2986)
• Pearl Catherine, born 26/01/1903 (Qld birth reg. 1903/C/6158)
• John Cartner, born 14/08/1905 (NSW birth reg. 25624/1905)
• Hugh Cartner, born 07/01/1907 (NSW birth reg. 5676/1907)
• Vincent James, born 23/05/1910 (NSW birth reg. 29188/1910)
• Jean Alice, born 15/10/1912 (NSW birth reg. 46101/1912)

The first child, Violet May, was born several years before Alice and Thomas were married. We know that Violet was born in the Byron Bay area (from a marriage certificate of Violet's), but we do not have a birth record for her. Alice, we think, was living with the Gills in the Byron Bay area in 1892, so it seems that Alice gave birth to Violet when she was still single.

In December 1900, the Grahams sold their Condong Hotel license to a Patrick Finucane and moved to Tweed Heads. There they bought the license of the Federal Hotel from Denis Hartigan, who had only recently built it and who retained ownership of the premises for many years. Two of the Graham children, Thomas Joseph and Pearl Catherine, were born while the Grahams were in Tweed Heads, hence their Queensland birth registrations.

The Grahams left the Federal Hotel in March 1903, its license being transferred to Thomas's brother Andrew Armstrong Graham. (From that last link, we know that the Graham brothers had emigrated to Australia from Scotland.)

Moving from Tweed Heads, Thomas and Alice Graham went to Lismore, where they began running the Coffee Palace (or the Grand Coffee Palace) as a boarding house. The plan for this establishment was for it to undergo major renovation, obtain a hotel license for it, and re-name it as the Hotel Metropole. After initially refusing the license request in January 1903, the licensing court in Lismore ruled in favour of the Grahams in April 1903. The Hotel Metropole had its grand opening on 14/07/1903.

Opposite is a picture of the Hotel Metropole about 20 years later, in 1924. It was described in 1903 as the largest hotel in New South Wales north of Newcastle, with 56 bedrooms and lavish interior. An article and photo from October 1903 gives another view of the Hotel Metropole. The hotel was located in Keen Street, but unfortunately it no longer exists. Articles such as this, as well as old Lismore photo comparisons, suggest that the hotel was located near Woodlark Street, where new Hotel Metropole is located in year 2023. The new Hotel Metropole bears no resemblance to the original one other than in name and location.

The Grahams were not at the Hotel Metropole very long, however. They finished there in February 1904. Firstly, there was a break-in at the hotel just one month prior. More critically, though, Thomas Graham went insolvent and underwent bankruptcy proceedings through March and beyond. We have a copy of Thomas's written statement to the bankruptcy court explaining the cause of his indebtedness.

From Lismore, the Grahams returned to Murwillumbah. In 1905, Thomas was working as a labourer, but, by 1908, Thomas was working as a fettler, according to electoral rolls. The following year, they moved out to Dunbible to work as farmers. But then, by 1913, they moved again to Dungay to work a 105-acre dairy farm, according to Sands Directories. Certainly, they were farming in Dungay in September 1913, when their eldest daughter, Violet, was married.

Thomas's brother and sister-in-law Joseph and Elizabeth Graham bought a dairy farm in Dunbible in 1912, and in 1919 they leased it to Thomas and Alice. This was a large property of about 290 acres and it was called "Goodwater". Its western boundary was Dunbible Creek and its southern boundary was about 500m north of where Stokers Road crosses the railway. It comprised Portions 52, 53, and 72 of Condong Parish.

It was not long after this move though that, at the age of 53, Thomas Cartner Graham died at Coolangata on 28/01/1921 (Qld death reg. 1921/C/553). He was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. We have a copy of Thomas's death certificate. Apparently, he died in hospital during a trephining operation, which was done, we think, to cure his epilepsy. We understand that Thomas had suffered epilepsy since receiving a major blow to the head from falling timber while fire-fighting during the great fire of 1907 in Murwillumbah.

Alice and the children remained in Dunbible after Thomas's death. The two youngest, Vincent and Jean, were still attending school at Dunbible during the 1920s. Alice, and presumably some of the older children, kept the Dunbible farm in operation until about 1930, when the lease on Goodwater expired. Several years prior, in 1926, Alice began leasing another dairy farm in Dungay from Henry Gill. This was Henry Gill's 150-acre property on Campbells Road (Portion 24 of Kynnumboon Parish). We think that son Thomas Joseph Graham worked on this farm, although Alice and most of her children still lived at Goodwater in the late 1920s, so that was still the main home for the Grahams. George Graham was then an established dairy farmer with his own property in Dungay - adjacent to Alice's leased farm - so he would have also been on hand to work with Thomas.

The lease on the Dungay farm ended in 1933, but sometime in the early 1930s, Alice and son Robert acquired a 220-acre property on Eviron Road, Duranbah, which we think was called "Alrovin" (apparently a shortening of the names Alice, Robert, and Vincent). This was Portions 260 and 261 of Cudgen Parish. It appears that primarily Robert and Vincent worked the farm, though Alice also lived there. Daughter Pearl also lived there during years 1933-34, having previously lived in Kyogle. An article in the Queensland Times from January 1933, says that Alice's nephew Walter John (Watty) Bird of Ipswich, Queensland, was then visiting the Grahams at Alrovin. We think the Grahams initially leased this property. The title deed for it says the Grahams purchased it (shared between Robert, Pearl and Vincent) in 1940. The location of this farm is, roughly, on the northern side of Eviron Road and on the western side of the M1 motorway.

How long Alice Graham remained living at Duranbah is uncertain, though we suspect she lived there a long time. Meanwhile, her daughter Margaret Ann Nicholls (nee Graham) had been married and moved to a house at 52 Shire Street, Coorparoo, in Brisbane. Her husband, Frederick Harold Nicholls, died in 1955, and around that time Alice moved to live with Margaret in her Shire Street home. One of Margaret's brothers, Thomas Joseph Graham had already moved in with her in the mid-1940s, working as a labourer there.

Outliving her husband by many years, Alice Graham (nee Cregan) died on 16/04/1956, aged 85. We think that Alice was probably still living with Margaret then, although she was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery in Murwillumbah.

Of all the Graham children, only George remained in the Tweed district throughout their adult lives, most of the others moving, after some years, to various parts of Queensland. George Graham became quite a successful farmer in Dungay.

We have more detail on the lives of the Graham children here (a separate web page).

Ellen (Nellie) Cregan and the Birds

As with her sister Alice, Nellie Cregan attended school in Mackay upon arriving there in 1883. Elder sister Bridget was married to William Boland that year, and Nellie lived with Bridget and William for some time, presumably after her mother died on 13/05/1884. She thereby, at the age of 11, became known as Nellie Boland.

Nellie stayed with the Bolands in Mackay for the first two years of life of Paul Askin Boland, Bridget and William's second child. Paul was born on 25/06/1886, so Nellie left Mackay around 1888. We don't know where Nellie went upon leaving Mackay. We think she stayed with either the Bolands when they moved to Oxenford or went with Henry and Catherine Gill as they moved through Queensland and into New South Wales. It seems, at least, that Alice and Nellie were with the Gills in the early 1890s, as we know the two girls attended a ball together in Mullumbimby when the Gills were living in that area.

Pictured opposite are five of the Cregan sisters (left to right): Annie, Alice, Elizabeth, Ellen (Nellie), Catherine. This possibly was taken at the funeral of sister Bridget, who died in January 1909.

Ellen (Nellie) Cregan married Walter John Bird on 24/11/1895 in Murwillumbah (NSW marriage reg. 7342/1895). Walter John Bird was born on 12/01/1866 in London, England. These and other details on Walter are in his death certificate.

Ellen (Nellie) and Walter John Bird had five children (two boys and three girls):

• (Peter) Percy Norman, born 11/08/1896 (NSW birth reg. 26769/1896)
• Ethel Annie, born 18/10/1897 (NSW birth reg. 35835/1897)
• Ida May, born 27/05/1899 (NSW birth reg. 16355/1899)
• Ellen Kathleen (Nellie), born 31/08/1901 (NSW birth reg. 26924/1901)
• Walter John (Watty), born 15/07/1912 (Qld birth reg. 1912/C/6510)

(Peter) Percy Norman was born in the Sydney suburb of Botany. We have a copy of Percy's birth certificate. The next three children, Ethel Annie, Ida May, and Ellen Kathleen (Nellie), were all born in the Taree district. The last child, Walter John, was born in Queensland (presumably in the Ipswich area), eleven years after Ellen. That gives our best indication of the movements of the Bird family through the years after their marriage in Murwillumbah.

Around the period 1895-1904, Nellie's older sister Elizabeth O'Rourke was living in Pople's Terrace, Botany, where she was raising her own family with husband James. The Birds lived in the same street, so perhaps both families lived in the same house. The Birds moved from Pople's Terrace to Harrington very soon after the birth or Percy, as evidenced by Percy's birth certificate.

Walter Bird reportedly suffered a work accident at the Harrington Harbor Works in December 1898.

According to an obituary of son Percy Bird from the Queensland Times, the Bird family moved to Ipswich in 1902 or 1903. There, Walter Bird was employed in the Blackheath Colliery. We think this move to Ipswich was triggered by events with Walter's parents. They had been living in Ipswich for many years, but in 27/08/1902, Walter's mother, Annie Bird, died, leaving her husband, Philip Bird, living alone. We suspect that Nellie and Walter moved to Ipswich to care for Walter's father, who was then aged in his early 60s.

On 18/08/1907, Walter's father, Philip Bird, who was then living with Walter and Nellie, died.

Electoral rolls from the early 1900s also indicate that the Birds moved to Ipswich around 1902, initially living in Lawrence Street, with Walter working as a carpenter. Around 1910, they moved to 12 McGill Street in the Basin Pocket district of Ipswich. Walter worked in the Ipswich Railway Workshop as a striker, which was a type of metalworker. Ellen and Walter remained in McGill Street for the rest of their lives.

On 28/04/1936, at the age of 70, Walter John Bird died at his home in McGill Street (Qld death reg. 1936/C/1677). Walter was buried in Ipswich Cemetery.

Ellen (Nellie) Bird (nee Cregan) lived on for several more decades. She died on 02/05/1967 (Qld death reg. 1967/C/2300). Nellie outlived all of her siblings that immigrated from County Leitrim all those years before.

We have more detail on the lives of the Bird children here (a separate web page).

Next, we look, in turn, at each of the older siblings of Henrietta Gill, that is, the four children of Edward and Catherine Stevens (nee Cregan): Mary Ann, Louisa Agnes, Elizabeth, and Robert Edward Stevens.

Mary Ann Stevens and the Smiths

Mary Ann Stevens was the eldest of the nine children of Catherine and Henry Gill (though her father was, of course, Edward Stevens). She was born in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, on 10/07/1881. She was sometimes called Annie rather than Mary Ann. Opposite is a photo of her in later years. We have Mary Ann's birth certificate.

In 1903, Henry and Catherine Gill were running the Royal Hotel in Murwillumbah. Late that year, Mary Ann, at the age of 22, branched out on her own as a hotelier, obtaining the license for the Federal Hotel in Tweed Heads. The license was transferred to her from Andrew Armstrong Graham, brother of Mary Ann's uncle Thomas Cartner Graham.

Mary Ann had grown up in hotels that her parents had been running, in particular, for the previous eight years in the Condong Hotel and then in the Royal Hotel. Presumably, she would have had a good apprenticeship during that time.

Mary Ann Stevens married Francis Patrick Smith on 27/07/1904 in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah. We have a copy of their marriage certificate.

Francis Patrick Smith was an auctioneer in Murwillumbah, and the Smiths, since 1876, have been in auctioneering and real estate. Their real estate business P. Smith and Son still exists in Main Street, Murwillumbah, in year 2022. Until recent times, it was owned by descendants of Mary Ann and Francis Patrick. Opposite is how it appeared in 1910.

Francis Patrick Smith was born on 17/06/1880 (NSW birth reg. 25542/1880) and was descended from two of the pioneering families of the Tweed area. His father, Patrick Smith, was reportedly the first white child born on the Tweed and the son of one of the first timber-getters in the district. It was Patrick who founded the family auctioneering business in Murwillumbah, selling all manner of goods and property. An article from the Tweed Valley Weekly, 03/11/2016, pp.39-42, tells the history of P. Smith and Son and the generations of its ownership.

Francis Patrick's mother was Elizabeth Skinner, of the locally well-known Skinner family. The Skinners were timber-getters, and hoteliers, and they also ran steam boats along the Tweed River as passenger transport. In February 1901, George Skinner, nephew of Elizabeth Skinner, built the original Court House Hotel in Murwillumbah, which Arthur and Henrietta Anderson would run about 20 years later.

Soon after her marriage to Francis Patrick Smith, Mary Ann relinquished her running of the Federal Hotel, the transfer of license to a James Purcell being gazetted in September 1904. Mary Ann had been the hotelier there for almost a year. According to a report from the Tweed and Brunswick Advocate, 28/10/1903, p. 1, she had done so very capably.

Around this same time, in September 1904, Francis Patrick Smith became a partner in his father's auctioneering business, its name then changing from P. Smith to P. Smith and Son.

Mary Ann returned from Tweed Heads to live with husband Francis Patrick Smith in South Murwillumbah. They lived together initially in Bray Street. Francis bought Lot 5 there, about the time of their marriage. Over the next several years, Francis also bought Lots 6, 7, and 8. He and Mary Ann thereby came to own a large corner block on the intersection of Bray and Stafford Streets. This is equivalent to, in today's terms, the address 303 Tweed Valley Way, South Murwillumbah, which is now occupied by a service station. The title deeds for these lots shows Francis's purchases and sales.

Mary Ann and Francis Patrick Smith had eleven children (five boys and six girls), all of whom were born in Murwillumbah:

• Catherine Elizabeth (Cassie), born 06/08/1905 (NSW birth reg. 25628/1905)
• Esme Mary, born 19/08/1906 (NSW birth reg. 26479/1906)
• Francis Patrick (Jnr), born 26/02/1908 (NSW birth reg. 16444/1908)
• Edna Ann, born 17/08/1909 (NSW birth reg. 39165/1909)
• Phyllis Grace, born 07/04/1911 (NSW birth reg. 18475/1911)
• Joyce Magdalene, born 14/01/1913 (NSW birth reg. 7553/1913)
• Robert Stevens (Bob), born 09/03/1915 (NSW birth reg. 24657/1915)
• Henry William Joseph (Harry), born 04/03/1917 (NSW birth reg. 26081/1917)
• Peter Cregan (Creg), born 18/06/1918 (NSW birth reg. 37314/1918)
• Marie Joan Therese, born 01/12/1919 (NSW birth reg. 11414/1920)
• John Stevens, born 14/03/1921 (NSW birth reg. 22462/1921)

Opposite are photos of the six Smith girls and of the five Smith boys, taken around 1926.

The Smiths left their Bray Street home sometime before January 1923, which is when they sold it. They moved to a house at 8 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah. They purchased this property in September 1919, so they may have been living there as early as then. This was a property that they would keep within their family for several generations.

After many years, in late 1931, Francis Patrick Smith sold his interests in P. Smith and Son, the new partners being his son Francis Patrick Smith Jnr and also a Frederick Ernest Nicholl. Francis Patrick Smith became licensee of the Royal Hotel in Murwillumbah soon afterwards, in February 1932. This was the hotel previously run (1897 - 1904) by Mary Ann's parents, Catherine and Henry Gill. In fact, Catherine and Henry owned the Royal Hotel premises when the Smiths were its licensees in the mid-1930s. The hotel is pictured opposite (June 1934).

Just one year later, on 23/02/1933, Francis Patrick Smith died in Murwillumbah. His obituary appeared in the Tweed Daily, 25/02/1933, p. 4. Francis Patrick was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. Arthur Anderson was one of the pallbearers. We have a copy of Francis Patrick's death certificate.

After her husband's death, Mary Ann continued running the Royal Hotel, officially becoming its licensee in May 1933.

Mary Ann Smith sold the license of the Royal Hotel in February 1935. At this time, she, and at least some of her children, moved back to 8 Byangum Road.

The Royal Hotel, South Murwillumbah, no longer exists. According to its Tooth and Co. "yellow card", it was destroyed by fire many years later on 15/04/1962. It was never rebuilt. Its license was transferred to another hotel, in roughly the same location, called the Tweed Tavern. It no longer exists either. These hotels were both located (in today's terms) on the north-western side of the Tweed Valley Way between Alma and Prospero Streets.

Three years later, in February 1938, soon after the wedding of her daughter Joyce, Mary Ann Smith left Murwillumbah to live in Brisbane, along with two of her daughters, Cassie and Marie. Two of Mary Ann's sons also moved with them: Harry, who worked there as a salesman, and the youngest boy, John, who worked there as a vulcanizer (i.e. worked on tyres for motor vehicles). Both boys later enlisted to fight in WWII.

Mary Ann lived at a few different addresses during her years in Brisbane. Firstly, she was at 1 Lambton Street, Annerley, in Brisbane's southern suburbs.

The reason for Mary Ann's move to Brisbane in 1938 seems to relate to the changed circumstances of some of her children, particularly her daughters. Esme was married with two small children by then and was living in Clifton Hill (now Moorooka), quite close to Annerley. The next daughter, Edna, had become a nun with the Sisters of Mercy and had just begun nursing at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in South Brisbane. Daughter Phyllis had already joined that hospital as a lay nurse. We think that the youngest daughter, Marie, also began nursing at the Mater Hospital at that time. Certainly, she was doing so in 1941, at age 21, when her name first appears on electoral rolls. The remaining daughter, Joyce, recently married, moved to Parkes with her husband. So none of the Smith girls were living in the Tweed from 1938 on, for some years, and most were living and working in the South Brisbane area.

We think that Bob Smith, still single at the time, might have been the only one of the family left living at 8 Byangum Road after Mary Ann had left.

Around 1940, Mary Ann, Cassie, and John moved from Annerley to a house in River Terrace, West End. Phyllis, still nursing then at the Mater Hospital, moved in with them. Henry might possibly have moved there too. Marie was still living at the Mater Hospital then, presumably still in her training phase. That River Terrace address, after some renaming of streets, has changed. It is now Glenfield Street, West End, between Miller and Boundary Streets, very close to the Brisbane River.

It was at this home in River Terrace that Mary Ann hosted the wedding reception for the marriage of her niece Patsy Anderson to John Greeves on 03/08/1940.

Mary Ann and Cassie moved again soon afterwards, around 1942, to a property called Charlton Villa at 299 Vulture Street, South Brisbane. Also living at that address then were Esme Davis (nee Smith) and her husband Reginald; Marie Smith; and Marie Small. Marie Small was no relation but she was a Tweed girl and the bridesmaid at Patsy Anderson's wedding. During this time both Marie Small and Cassie Smith were working as telephonists for the American Army in Brisbane.

In about 1947, Mary Ann Smith left Brisbane and returned to her previous home at 8 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah. Cassie returned with her. Marie left her job in the Mater Hospital and got another posting in the Delta Private Hospital in Ayr, north Queensland. Marie Small, who had been living with them in Vulture Street, also returned to the Tweed, moving to Cudgen, where she had previously lived. Reginald and Esme Davis (nee Smith) also left Vulture Street, but remained in Brisbane, moving to a new home at 49 Ferndale Street, Annerley. Phyllis Smith had been called up in 1942 to work with the Australian Army Nursing Service and was nursing at the Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney in the late 1940s. Edna Ann Smith - Sister Mary Consolata - remained at the Mater Hospital, South Brisbane.

Also living with Mary Ann and her children at her Byangum Road home was Mary Bridget (Tottie) Smith, who was Mary Ann's sister-in-law: Francis Patrick Smith's younger sister. Tottie had also lived with them there in 1937, prior to their departure, and had lived at the Royal Hotel, South Murwillumbah, during the mid-1930s when Mary Ann ran it. Tottie continued to live with the Smiths at 8 Byangum Road until at least 1963, so they were obviously very close. Tottie had also been a bridesmaid at Mary Ann's wedding many years earlier.

In 1920, just one year after they had bought the 8 Byangum Road house, the Smiths purchased the house next door at 10 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah. We have no record of any of them living there until about 1947, when it appears that son Bob Smith and his wife Jean moved there. Bob and Jean had been previously been living at Number 8, but presumably needed to make way for the return from Brisbane of Mary Ann, Cassie and Tottie Smith. Francis Patrick Junior and wife Doreen also had moved out of Number 8 to a riverside property at 27 Tumbulgum Road, sometime between 1935 and 1939. Around 1951, Marie returned from Ayr and she then lived at 8 Byangum Road.

Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens) died on 27/03/1962 in Murwillumbah (NSW death reg. 3993/1962). She was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery. Her tombstone is pictured opposite - listed there are the names of three of Mary Ann's children. Daughter Edna Ann became nun Sister Consolata; and son Harry is Henry William Joseph; "P.O." = "Pilot Officer" and "D.F.M." = "Distinguished Flying Medal". Mary Ann's obituary, from The Daily News, is also shown opposite.

We have details on each of the eleven Smith children and their families here (a separate web page).

Louisa Agnes Stevens and the Walshes

Louisa Agnes Stevens was the second child of Edward and Catherine Stevens. She was born on 25/03/1883 at Nudgee Crossing. We have a copy of Louisa's birth certificate. This was just one month before Catherine's mother and three of her sisters arrived in Mackay from Leitrim, so it is likely that the Stevens family moved to Mackay soon after Louisa was born.

Louisa married Francis Allan (Frank) Walsh on 12/07/1905 in Murwillumbah (NSW marriage reg. 7329/1905). Louisa's younger sister Henrietta (Ettie) Gill, just turned 17 years old, was bridesmaid.

Frank Walsh was a saddler and, for a short time, a hotelkeeper. He was originally from Casino, NSW.

The previous linked article refers to Louisa as "Louie", as do other articles from around that time in the local newspapers. Apparently, Louie was her nickname.

Louisa and Frank Walsh had thirteen children (nine boys and four girls):

• Edward James, born 07/03/1906 (NSW birth reg. 5806/1906)
• Francis Allan, born 12/10/1907 (NSW birth reg. 5966/1908)
• Henry William Stephen, born 21/09/1908 (NSW birth reg. 6029/1909)
• Catherine Mary, born 05/05/1910 (NSW birth reg. 17390/1910)
• James Alexander, born 02/09/1911 (NSW birth reg. 26550/1911)
• Bridget (Biddy), born 13/01/1913 (NSW birth reg. 7531/1913)
• Mary Ann, born 23/08/1914 (NSW birth reg. 37158/1914)
• Peter John, born 24/10/1915 (NSW birth reg. 52079/1915)
• Henrietta (Ettie) Magdalene (presumably named after Ettie Gill), born 06/01/1917 (NSW birth reg. 12821/1917)
• Robert Cregan, born 10/11/1918 (NSW birth reg. 51032/1918)
• Ernest Patrick (Pat), born 21/05/1920 (NSW birth reg. 23537/1920)
• John Noel, born 19/12/1923
• Kevin Joseph, born 1925

The first picture opposite is from Ancestry.com and is reportedly of Louisa Agnes Walsh. The location could be their home in either Murwillumbah or Casino; the flat, open land suggests Casino. Using what we know of the children's birth dates, the three children in the foreground might be (left to right): Francis Allan, James Alexander, and Edward James; and the two in the background: Henry William pushing Catherine. This dates the photo c.1912, which is compatible with a Casino location (the baby, James Alexander, was born in Casino).

Louisa and Frank Walsh purchased from Louisa'a parents the license for the Federal Hotel in Tweed Heads in August 1905, shortly after their marriage. This is the hotel that Thomas Cartner Graham, and, later, Mary Ann Stevens, had previously run. The Federal Hotel is pictured opposite c.1908, when it was run by Frederick William Berg.

Less than a year later, in May 1906, Catherine and Henry Gill took over the Federal Hotel from the Walshes, the latter family moving to Frank's home town of Casino.

The movements of the Walshes are unclear from that time until about 1913, when it seems that they were living in the Murwillumbah area, where they would then remain. In fact, electoral rolls from 1913 to 1930 list the Walshes as living in Dungay, with Frank working as a farmer or labourer. Prior to 1913, electoral rolls show them residing in: Casino (1906) with Frank a saddler, Dungay (1908) with Frank a farmer, and Lismore (1909) with Frank a saddler once again.

We also know the towns where the births of the Walsh children were registered. These were all in Murwillumbah except for that of James Alexander Walsh in Casino in September 1911. So perhaps Louisa and Frank were living in Casino at that time as well.

Frank Walsh was frequently in trouble with local police and magistrates during the 1910s and 1920s. At different times, he was found guilty of the following: drunkenness, obscene language, unpaid debts, and failing to send his children to school. He was fined in each case, and in one instance in 1916 a prohibition order (for alcohol) was issued against him.

The addresses of the Walshes in the Murwillumbah area are uncertain. A newspaper article from 1922 reports them as living in Dungay. Another article four years later in 1926 says they then lived in Wardrop Street, South Murwillumbah. This despite electoral rolls then listing their address as Dungay.

In the early 1930s, the Walshes moved to a house at 16 Railway Street, Murwillumbah. Around 1942, they moved from there to the nearby 32 Railway Street. However, the house at Number 16 was seemingly retained and was a residence for some of the older Walsh children.

Frank Walsh died on 11/11/1945. His obituary appeared in the Tweed Daily the next day.

Louisa Agnes Walsh died on 23/06/1951. Her obituary appeared in the Tweed and South Coast Daily two days later. Frank and Louisa are buried together in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery in Murwillumbah. Their tombstone is shown opposite.

There are details on the Walsh children and their families here (a separate web page).

Elizabeth (Cis) Stevens and the Colliers

Elizabeth (Cis) Stevens was the third child of Catherine (nee Cregan) and Edward Stevens. She was born on 16/08/1884 in Mackay. We have a copy of Cis's birth certificate.

Elizabeth married George Frederick Collier on 26/04/1903 in Murwillumbah (NSW marriage reg. 4024/1903). George Frederick Collier, like Mary Ann's husband, Francis Patrick Smith, belonged to one of the early families of the Tweed. In fact, George Frederick's mother, Mary Collier (nee Smith), was the younger sister of Francis Patrick Smith's father, Patrick Smith. In other words, the husbands of Mary Ann Stevens and Elizabeth Stevens were cousins.

George Frederick's father, William George Collier, also was an early settler on the Tweed. In about 1882, he began running the Australian Hotel in Murwillumbah, in its original location on the western side of Broadway (i.e. lower Queen Street). This was the first hotel in Murwillumbah, and William Collier was its first licensee.

In April 1887, William Collier sold the Australian Hotel license and moved to Brisbane to run the Kedron Park Hotel, which included the Kedron Park racecourse. The Colliers, around November 1888, moved back to the Tweed district, to Cudgen, to take over the Commercial Hotel and a store. They also opened a sugar mill there. Though the obituary opposite, of son George Frederick Collier, mentions the Cudgen Hotel rather than the Commercial Hotel, there is evidence only of the Colliers running the Commercial Hotel in Cudgen - at least from August 1889 until August 1895.

William Collier went bankrupt in 1897, due, it seems, to the failure of his hotel business in Cudgen. William claimed in Bankruptcy Court that the fault was with his brewer.

Around 1899, the Colliers moved back to Murwillumbah, where they were able to take over their old Australian Hotel. William George Collier died on 16/01/1900 (NSW death reg. 2478/1900). An obituary appeared in the Brisbane Courier.

George Frederick's mother Mary Collier continued to run the Australian Hotel for some years after her husband's passing. Mary rebuilt the hotel in a new location, on the corner of Wharf Street and Commercial Road in Murwillumbah. (There is disagreement in those linked articles as to the reason for the move.) She sold her license for the Australian Hotel in June 1913 to a Thomas O'Brien, and sold the premises of the original hotel the following year.

George Frederick Collier regained the license for the Australian Hotel in May 1924 and would run it for the next ten years.

Mary Collier (nee Smith) died in Murwillumbah on 08/10/1929 (NSW death reg. 23808/1929). Her obituary appeared in the Tweed Daily, 09/10/1929, p. 2.

George Frederick Collier and his wife Elizabeth (nee Stevens) sold their license of the Australian Hotel in February 1934.

The picture opposite is of the original Australian Hotel taken sometime between 1882 and 1900. This was when it was located in Broadway and run by William George Collier.

The second picture of the Australian Hotel is from 1924, around the time that George Frederick Collier regained its license.

The third picture of the Australian Hotel is from 1934, around the time that George Frederick Collier sold its license.

The Australian Hotel no longer exists. It was destroyed by fire on 28/06/1981. It was replaced by another hotel in the same location called the "Australian Tavern". This hotel closed down in 2013. In year 2022, a retail store is in that location on the corner of Wharf Street and Commercial Road.

George Frederick Collier died on 03/09/1934 (NSW death reg. 14094/1934). His obituary shown opposite, from the Tweed Daily, 04/09/1934, p. 4, summarises the life in the Tweed of him and his parents.

Another obituary mentions that George Frederick also ran a hairdressing and tobacconist business for some years. This was called "Collier Bros" and was located in Wharf Street, Murwillumbah, next to the Club House Hotel.

George Frederick Collier was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah, as are his parents and his brother William Aubrey Collier.

Unfortunately, George Frederick and Elizabeth Collier did not have any children.

Around February 1936, Elizabeth Collier purchased a boarding house business called "The Cottage", re-naming it as "Tara House". The advertisement for it, shown opposite, ran in the Tweed Daily, 17/02/1936, p. 8. Tara House was located at 12 Queen Street, Murwillumbah, and its premises were owned by Elizabeth's mother, Catherine Gill. Tara House no longer exists. In its place in year 2022 are professional offices.

We do not know exactly for how long Elizabeth ran Tara House. It appears that she sold the business to her younger sister Kate White (nee Gill) and her husband, Les White, in 1940, judging by an advertisement in May that year, and the fact that Elizabeth's lease on Tara House ended in April 1940.

Elizabeth Collier left the Tweed district to live in Brisbane c.1941. She was reported to be living in Brisbane both when her niece Joyce White wedded in April 1942, and when her brother Robert Edward Stevens died in January 1947. In the 1943 electoral roll, she is listed at Hollington Flats, 26 Stephen Street, South Brisbane. Living at the same address at that time was Elizabeth's niece Catherine Mary Schofield (nee White). Furthermore, that address was close to the Mater Hospital and where Mary Ann Smith and some of her daughters were living in 1943, at Charlton Villa, 299 Vulture Street.

It is unclear, however, where Elizabeth Collier lived in the late 1940s. Electoral rolls indicate that she had left Hollington Flats by 1949, but, unlike for her Smith relatives, there is no evidence that she had returned to Murwillumbah by then. (We cannot find her on any 1949 electoral roll.)

Elizabeth Collier did, in time, return to Murwillumbah. In 1951, she was living at 8 Byangum Road, the home of Mary Ann Smith. It appears that up until 1958, Elizabeth Collier was living with her there, along with daughters Cassie and Marie Smith, and also Mary Bridget (Tottie) Smith, Mary Ann's sister-in-law.

Around 1958, Elizabeth Collier moved next door to 10 Byangum Road. This home also was owned by the Smiths, and we think that Elizabeth was probably renting it from them. From about 1965, Bridget Winifred Eileen Smith (Biddy) Smith lived with Elizabeth at 10 Byangum Road. Biddy was previously the long-term nanny for the Anderson family during the 1920s and 1930s. She was also a first cousin of Francis Patrick Smith, Mary Ann Smith's husband.

Elizabeth Collier died on 22/09/1968 (NSW death reg. 44813/1968). She was buried in Bray Park Catholic Cemetery, Murwillumbah, beside her younger sister Henrietta Anderson (nee Gill).

Pictured opposite are Elizabeth Collier (second from left), along with her niece Patricia (Patsy) Greeves (nee Anderson) (far left), and Patsy's cousin Estella Anderson (far right). The fourth lady is Mary Anderson (nee Browne), who is Estella's mother and Patsy's aunty. We believe this photo was taken at Manly in Sydney.

Elizabeth outlived all of her siblings. She was known by some of her great nieces and nephews who are alive in year 2022. They knew her as Aunty Cis.

Robert Edward Stevens

Robert Edward Stevens was the fourth and last child of Catherine and Edward Stevens. Robert Edward Stevens was born in Stanthorpe, Qld, on 08/03/1886 (Qld birth reg. 1886/C/9063). Robert and the other three Stevens children were also known by the surname Gill, owing to the fact that, from young ages, their parents were Henry and Catherine Gill.

Robert Edward Stevens married Ellen (Nell) Sweetnam at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah on 03/07/1915 (NSW marriage reg. 12996/1915). The Sweetnams were another pioneering family of the Tweed district. Ellen's father, John Edward Sweetnam, arrived in Murwillumbah in 1878, after emigrating from County Cork, Ireland, and was variously involved in road building, timber getting, and farming.

Robert and Ellen Stevens had two children, both boys and both born in Murwillumbah:

• John Edward, born 06/05/1916 (NSW birth reg. 32393/1916)
• Reginald Joseph, born 21/08/1917 (NSW birth reg. 40158/1917)

In early 1916, Robert Edward Stevens became co-proprietor with Arthur Edward Anderson, the husband of Henrietta Gill, of the Club House Hotel in Murwillumbah. This appears to be the first time either man had run a hotel, though Robert would have picked up knowledge from his parents over the years that he was growing up in their hotels.

Soon after the birth of his second child, in October 1917, Robert Edward Stevens, at the age of 32, joined the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) to fight in WWI. He is pictured opposite in uniform. Robert returned home two years later, in October 1919.

Following Robert's return from the war, he and Ellen became dairy farmers at Dungay. This was a familiar existence for Robert, for he was farming at Dungay in 1913 prior to his marriage, according to his entry in the electoral roll of that year. Robert leased his parents' 171-acre dairy farm in Dungay on the northern side of Dungay Creek Road from 1920 to 1926. (This was most of Portion 86 of Berwick Parish.) While farming that property, the Stevens family were living in the Club House Hotel. We don't know if they stayed there after the Gills sold the hotel in November 1925.

We think that Robert and Ellen moved to 39 Tumbulgum Road, East Murwillumbah, in the late 1920s and stayed there for five or so years. This was a property that Robert had bought from his mother, Catherine Gill, in 1924. They were certainly living in East Murwillumbah in 1929, when Robert appeared in a local court defending charges of being on licensed premises unlawfully and assaulting police. (He was found guilty on both counts and fined several pounds.) Robert and Ellen never sold their Tumbulgum Road home, but they returned to live in Dungay around the mid-1930s. They remained in Dungay for the rest of their lives.

Ellen Stevens (nee Sweetnam) died in Murwillumbah on 21/01/1943 at the age of 51. She was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery. Her grave is pictured opposite, with a close-up here.

Robert Edward Stevens died in Murwillumbah on 03/01/1947 at the age of 60. He, too, was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery. His obituary is shown above, and his grave is pictured opposite, with a close-up here.

Some details on the two Stevens children:

• John Edward Stevens married Barbara Ellie Higgins of North Tumbulgum (in the Tweed Valley) in St Peters Church of England, Coolangatta, on 01/01/1938 (Qld marriage reg. 1938/B/30389). In 1943, John and Barbara were living in Barton Street, Cobar, in western NSW. John was working as a labourer there. In fact, he was there when his mother died in January of that year, as confirmed in her obituary. By 1946, John and Barbara had returned to the Tweed area, farming in Dungay. However, on 28/04/1947, at the age of just 30, John Stevens died of a bite from a death adder on his Dungay property. He was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery. His grave is pictured here.

  John's probate documents say that he and Barbara were leasing six acres from John's maternal grandparents (the Sweetnams) in Portion 21 of Berwick Parish and using it for banana growing. This land is along the southern side of Dulguigan Road, but north of Dulguigan Creek.

  John and Barbara Stevens had four children, two boys and two girls:

  • John Edward Jnr, born c.1939
  • Rodney Cecil, born 01/12/1941
  • Barbara Ellie, born c.1945
  • Jacqueline Joan, born c.1946

  Barbara Stevens (nee Higgins) re-married after John's death, to a Robert Joseph Boyd on 17/11/1948 in Murwillumbah. Barbara and Robert lived their lives together in the Tweed district. Barbara died on 29/07/1978 and was buried in the Tweed Heads Lawn Cemetery.

• Reginald Joseph Stevens married Margaret Elizabeth Tully in Murwillumbah on 14/06/1940 (NSW marriage reg. 10068/1940). Reginald and Margaret were farmers in Dungay throughout their lives. From the 1950s onwards they owned part of Portion 20 in Kynnumboon Parish. This was a 47-acre farm bordering the southern bank of Dungay Creek.

  Reginald died on 31/01/1981 and was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery in Murwillumbah (NSW death reg. 100955/1981). His grave is pictured here. Margaret Stevens died on 24/09/1997 and was also buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. Her tombstone is pictured here.

  Reginald and Margaret Stevens had six children, one boy and five girls:

  • Marie Ellen, born c.1941
  • Brian Joseph
  • Carolyn Margaret
  • Glenda Mary Anne, born c.1949
  • Robyn Elizabeth, born c.1951
  • Rhonda

  Robyn Elizabeth Stevens died on 24/02/1958, aged just 6 years. She was buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. Her tombstone is pictured here. The local newspaper carried an obituary for Robyn.

Henry and Catherine Gill Move to Tweed Heads

We now rejoin the story of Henry and Catherine Gill. Above, we left them in the early 1900s, when they were running the Royal Hotel in South Murwillumbah, living there with their nine children, with ages ranging roughly from 3 to 22.

In August 1904, just one month after the marriage of their eldest daughter, Mary Ann, the Gills sold their license at the Royal Hotel.

Reportedly, Henry and Catherine planned to go into retirement. This was celebrated with a picnic at a spot called "The Caves" at Fingal by a large group of family and friends. A group photo was taken at the event, which is seen opposite. Henry and Catherine Gill are seated in the centre, dressed in black. We think that their children are gathered around them. In particular, in front of Henry, moving left-to-right: little Peter Gill, Henry Gill Jnr (holding a fish), and Henrietta Gill. We cannot accurately identify the other Gill children.

However, those retirement plans changed a few months later, in November 1904, when they bought the license for the Federal Hotel and made the move from Murwillumbah to Tweed Heads.

We have already mentioned the Federal Hotel. In fact, it has been run at different times by Henry and Catherine Gill and several of their relatives over the course of 37 years, from 1901 to 1937.

The Gills remained at the Federal Hotel for only about nine months though. Their daughter Louisa, with newly-wed husband Frank Walsh, may have come to some arrangement with Henry and Catherine, because the license for the Federal Hotel was transferred from the Gills to the Walshes around August 1905.

The Federal Hotel changed hands yet again in April 1906, when Henry and Catherine Gill once more became its proprietors, while the Walshes moved to the town of Casino.

Two months later, the Gill's Federal Hotel caught fire. Fortunately, it was extinguished before major damage was done.

In fact, fire was a continual threat in that pre-electricity era, in which timber buildings predominated. While the Gills were still at the Federal Hotel in Tweed Heads, disaster struck the town of Murwillumbah on 15/09/1907 (from then on locally known as "Red Sunday") when fire destroyed a large part of the town centre along Main Street, also called Murwillumbah Street. Dozens of shops, businesses, and other town buildings were burnt to the ground. The only business directly impacted belonging to our Cregan-Gill family was the P. Smith and Son building. The Collier's Australian Hotel, in its original location in Broadway, was close by but not affected.

In the two months following the Murwillumbah fire of September 1907, Henry and Catherine Gill moved back to that town. There they bought a carrying/carting business. Henry's father, when living in Grafton, had owned a carting business, and Henry had worked in it for several years, so Henry had some knowledge of that trade. Also, Henry Gill Snr had died just two years earlier, in 1905, so that might have been in his son's mind when deciding to take on this new business venture. Henry's license at the Federal Hotel was sold to a Frederick William Berg.

In January 1909, Catherine's sister Bridget Boland died in Murwillumbah. That same year, another sister, Elizabeth O'Rourke, with husband James, moved to Murwillumbah from Mascot, in Sydney. Upon arriving, the O'Rourkes bought Henry Gill's carrying business.

Freed up from his carting work, Henry Gill returned to road-building in 1910. In January of that year, he secured a shire council contract (worth £2845) to build a road to Mt Mee, west of Caboolture, in Queensland. Later that year, he won another contract, also with Caboolture Shire Council, to build a section of road from Landsborough to Maleny.

In February 2014, Henry and Catherine got back into hotelkeeping, buying the license for the Club House Hotel in Murwillumbah from a Myles Alexander McDonald. The Club House Hotel is pictured opposite as it appeared ten years later, in 1924.

The previous month, Henry had been advertising all of the livestock and equipment he had on his farm at Dungay, which property he also advertised for lease. Presumably, Henry and Catherine Gill had been working this farm in the period before their taking the Club House Hotel. The 1913 Electoral Roll does, indeed, list Henry Gill as a farmer at Dungay.

This 115-acre farm comprised Portions 59 and 61 of Berwick Parish, roughly at 282 Dungay Creek Road. Henry had purchased these in 1901, and they were the first of several Dungay farming properties Henry bought over the years. He sometimes did some farming himself, but mostly he leased his farms out, sometimes to his sons or other relatives.

Once again, we leave the story of Henry and Catherine Gill. We will resume it later.

Arthur Anderson Joins Tweed Rugby

Arthur Christian Edward Anderson was Henrietta (Ettie) Gill's husband. He was born in Maryborough, Qld, on 24/06/1888, the last of the nine children of Johann Christian Andresen and Wilhelmina Toll (Qld birth reg. 1888/C/7504). He was widely known by his nickname "Buck", and he rarely used "Christian" in his full name, which thereby became "Arthur Edward Anderson".

Arthur Anderson moved from Maryborough to Murwillumbah in 1910, primarily, it seems, to play in the Tweed Rugby competition. Arthur had established himself as a fine rugby player in Maryborough, being chosen for the Wide Bay representative team. In the team photo opposite, Arthur Anderson appears on the far right, not in uniform. This is the "Junior Native" team, premiers of the local Maryborough competition in 1910.

In his first year in the Tweed, Arthur joined the Murwillumbah Blues rugby team. He made an impression in his first season, being selected in a 1910 combined Northern Rivers team to play the NSW state team. Arthur's team is pictured opposite: Arthur is second from the left in the second row.

Arthur played in the Tweed competition during the 1910s, with the exception of the years 1916-1917, when there was no competition due to the First World War. His career was winding down from 1915 onwards: Arthur was playing infrequently in 1915 and 1919, and seemingly, in 1918, refereeing rather than playing. The teams that Arthur played for in the Tweed competition are:

• 1910-1912 - Murwillumbah Blues
• 1913 - Half Holidays
• 1914 - Murwillumbah Buccaneers (player/coach)
• 1915 - Murwillumbah Pirates
• 1916-1917 - no competition held
• 1918 - refereeing in the Tweed competition
• 1919 - Murwillumbah Blues

In the Tweed district, rugby union was played up until the end of the 1913 season. Beginning in 1914, the Tweed teams played the relatively new sport of rugby league instead. The Tweed Daily, 28/08/1934, p.3 has a short history of football in the Tweed district during this era.

Arthur Anderson must have really been quite a footballer. Reports such as one from the Kyogle Examiner, 14/08/1912, p. 4 (in the right hand column) on a representative match between Murwillumbah and Kyogle, were not uncommon in their praise of his play.

Arthur Anderson was not just a player, coach, and referee in rugby league. He also worked on the administrative side. He was elected treasurer of the Tweed River District Rugby Football League in 1914 - the year that they were establishing league as the new code, replacing rugby union. The Gill brothers, Henry and James, also took lead roles in this new league organisation that year, with Henry as patron and James as president. These three men retained their roles the following year. Henry Gill would often host meetings of the league, or of individual football clubs, in his Club House Hotel.

In 1919, Arthur Anderson and Henry Gill were elected to be on the executive of the Murwillumbah Pirates football club, one of the teams for which Arthur had previously played.

Henrietta (Ettie) Gill and Arthur Anderson

Henrietta (Ettie) Gill married Arthur Edward Anderson on 04/11/1912 in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Murwillumbah. The attendees mentioned in the linked article are as follows.

Chief bridesmaids were Ettie's younger sister Veronica Eileen (Vera) Gill (age 14) and Ettie's cousin Elizabeth Ann (Cissy) O'Rourke (age 14), daughter of Ettie's aunty Elizabeth O'Rourke (nee Cregan). Assisting the bridesmaids was Arthur's niece Estella Anderson (age 9), daughter of Arthur's older brother Wilhelm Anderson. Also assisting was Esme Mary Smith (age 6), Ettie's niece and daughter of Ettie's sister Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens); and also "Cissie Smith", which might mean Catherine (Cassie) Smith (age 7), elder sister of Esme Mary Smith.

Best man, W. B. Allen, is no relation. Playing the Wedding March was Elizabeth (Bessie) Smith, sister-in-law of Ettie's aunty Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens). (There was another Bessie Smith in Murwillumbah - cousin of the one just mentioned - so it could have been either one playing at the wedding.) Singing Ave Maria was Lottie Smith, who is no relation.

Opposite is a wedding picture of the family. The names given are uncertain in some cases. We also have a close-up of Arthur and Henrietta.

Henrietta and Arthur Anderson had four children (one boy and three girls):

• Patricia Catherine (Patsy), born 16/08/1914 (NSW birth reg. 37156/1914).
• Greta Mary, born 07/06/1917 (NSW birth reg. 40043/1917).
• John Henry (Jack), born 30/08/1921 (NSW birth reg. 40961/1921).
• Nanette Therese (Nan), born 16/02/1927.

Pictured opposite is Ettie with daughters Patsy and Greta, presumably from about 1920.

The 1913 Electoral Roll has the Andersons living in South Murwillumbah, with Arthur working as a clerk, though we do not know for which business. We understand that Arthur was a partner in a butchery business during the year 1914, presumably in Murwillumbah, though we do not know its name nor the partner's name.

In January 1916, the license for the Club House Hotel in Murwillumbah was transferred from Henry Gill to Arthur Anderson, with Robert Stevens, Ettie's older brother, also taking part ownership. (Arthur was the official licensee.) While Arthur had not run a hotel before, Ettie and Robert had grown up in hotels and were no doubt familiar with the hotelkeeping business.

The Club House Hotel as it was in 1924 is pictured opposite. (This is the same picture as above in the section where the Henry and Catherine Gill ran it.)

Robert Stevens joined the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) in October 1917 to fight in WWI, so, from then on, Arthur and Henrietta were running the Club House Hotel by themselves.

Arthur and Ettie stayed at the Club House Hotel until around February 1920, when its license was transferred to a Vincent Sylvester Dowling. The Andersons had reportedly bought a hotel license in Ipswich, Qld, and planned to leave Murwillumbah for that town. For whatever reason, that move did not eventuate, and, in April 1920, Arthur and Ettie instead bought the license for the Court House Hotel, just up the street from the Club House Hotel.

The Court House Hotel from 1924 is pictured opposite. This is a time when the Andersons were its proprietors. The child crossing the street is about the same age as young Greta Anderson was in 1924 (6 or 7 years old).

Below that photo is another taken around 1923, apparently from the balcony of the Court House Hotel with a view along the main street of Murwillumbah (Main Street aka Murwillumbah Street). Across the road are the court house and police station. Past those are various shops, including the P. Smith and Son offices, up, where the road slopes, to the Church of the Sacred Heart and Mount St Patrick Catholic School, which the two eldest Anderson children would have attended at that time (and which Jack and Nanette would attend in subsequent years). A little beyond the crest of that hill, also on the right hand side, but out of view, is the Banner Street Catholic Cemetery.

Arthur Anderson didn't make a complete break from the game of rugby league when he finished playing. For the 1921 season, he was coach of the Murwillumbah Pirates team, and they duly won the premiership. He also continued to referee some games and to be involved on the administrative side: he was, for example, one of the elected officers of the Tweed District Rugby League in 1922.

Henrietta Anderson, meanwhile, was busy in the Murwillumbah community by way of charitable acts, such as fund-raising for the local hospital and for extensions to their local Church of the Sacred Heart.

The Andersons Move to Lismore

In early 1926, Arthur and Henrietta Anderson sold their Court House Hotel license to an Arthur Horsman. They left Murwillumbah soon thereafter, buying the license of the Royal Hotel in Lismore from a Thomas Cooney. The Royal Hotel is pictured opposite in September 1925, just months before the Andersons moved there. Another photo of the Royal Hotel is from 1911 - fifteen years before the Andersons ran it. A third photo from the time when the Andersons had the Royal Hotel, Lismore, is opposite: it shows Jack Anderson on the balcony of the hotel.

The Royal Hotel was located on the southern corner of Woodlark and Molesworth Streets in Lismore. Unfortunately, it no longer exists: in year 2021 there is a jeweller's store in that location. According to one website, the Royal Hotel closed down in April 1964.

Arthur and Ettie had made quite an impact during their years in Murwillumbah, and there were farewells held for them upon their leaving. The School of Arts held a function in honour of Ettie. Likewise, the bowling club in Murwillumbah, of which Arthur was a member, gave him a well-attended send-off.

That year, 1926, Patsy and Greta Anderson reportedly began boarding school at St Ursula's College, Armidale. We have a record of Patricia's attending in 1926, but nothing confirming Greta's.

It appears that Patsy attended St Ursula's, Armidale, also in the years 1927, 1928, and 1929.

Jack Anderson, being 4 years old in early 1926, probably began school in 1927. We have no record of which school he attended, though the local St Carthage's Catholic School in Lismore seems likely. If Greta was not at St Ursula's then she might have also attended St Carthage's in 1926-1927.

It seems that, in those times, the police were ever vigilant regarding breaches of the liquor licensing laws. Hoteliers could be caught for offences including serving alcohol outside the prescribed hours or serving drunk customers. Publicans would find themselves in the local court for any breach of this kind. Such was the case for the Andersons in Lismore when charged with serving a drunk customer at their Royal Hotel in July 1926. Ettie's and her barman's testimonies were not strong enough, apparently, to sway the judge in their favour, and Ettie was fined. The Andersons' subsequent appeal in court was unsuccessful.

Ettie and Arthur did not forget all their family and friends back in Murwillumbah. On one reported visit to their old town in November 1926, they stayed at the Australian Hotel, which was then being run by Ettie's sister Elizabeth Collier and her husband.

Ettie, while in Lismore, was also happy to help in fund-raising efforts for the Church of the Sacred Heart, as reported in the Murwillumbah newspaper.

In February 1927, Ettie made another trip back to Murwillumbah for the purpose, it seems, of giving birth to her last child, Nanette, in the Sunnyside private hospital. We believe that Nanette was named after the musical No, No, Nanette, which was performed in Lismore around that time.

The photo opposite, also taken on the balcony of the Royal Hotel, Lismore, shows Jack holding the new baby, Nanette. The boy on the left is unknown.

The Andersons left the Royal Hotel, Lismore, transferring their license to a Charles Langley in November 1927, about 18 months after arriving in that town. In that short time, they were able to make friends, and they received a nice farewell. The reported plan for the Andersons was for them to return to Murwillumbah.

The Andersons Move to Kyogle

Arthur and Henrietta Anderson made it back to Murwillumbah after leaving their home at the Royal Hotel in Lismore, the younger children, Jack and Nanette, having one or two dramas in a short time upon their return. It is not known whether the Andersons had clear plans for themselves when they left the Royal Hotel, but, in February 1928, they bought the license for the Exchange Hotel in Kyogle from a Francis Edward Jennings.

The picture opposite shows the Exchange Hotel as it appeared in June 1931 - just one month after the Andersons sold its license.

Taking on the Exchange Hotel in Kyogle was no straightforward task. A major fire on 06/07/1927 had destroyed the hotel and a number of other buildings in the town. A temporary bar was built in the weeks after the fire to enable the Exchange Hotel to operate. This was the situation when the Andersons began at the Exchange Hotel. Arthur and Ettie continued to work the temporary bar into 1929 - up until a new hotel was built.

There were plans to build the new Exchange Hotel in early 1928, but construction was delayed amid legal wranglings. The hotel was owned by a deceased estate that was administered by the NSW Public Trustee. That body eventually sold the property to the brewing company Tooth and Co.. Arthur worked through the courts to get the plans approved and the new hotel built. Approval was given and building commenced in late 1928. A fine hotel was the result, being completed and opened about May 1929. In the first picture opposite, 1928 is just visible near the top of the building.

The second photo opposite of the Exchange Hotel shows Ettie on the far left and Arthur in white clothes second from the right. The other gentlemen are unknown. This was taken sometime between 1929 and 1931.

The Exchange Hotel is located on the corner of Geneva Street and the main street of Kyogle, Summerland Way (known as Main Street or as Kyogle Road in the 1920s). It is still standing in year 2021, essentially the same building as in 1929.

On arriving in Kyogle around February 1928, the Andersons wasted no time getting involved in the local community. Among their other activities, Ettie became a member of the local C.W.A. branch, and Arthur was on the committee of the Kyogle Rugby Football League. Additionally, as he had done in Murwillumbah, Arthur joined the bowling club in Kyogle. In April 1930, he was pictured in the Northern Star as the runner-up in the men's pairs championship held at Mullumbimby.

As mentioned, Patsy was boarding at St Ursula's College in Armidale in 1929. After this, we have no record of her attending any school. So, at the age of 15, perhaps Patsy had obtained her Intermediate Certificate and finished her schooling.

Greta Anderson apparently attended St Brigid's Catholic School in Kyogle in 1928. Interestingly, Patsy is also listed in that linked article, opening the possibility that she was at St Ursula's for the first half of 1928, and at St Brigid's for the second half. The two girls were also having musical tuition in Ruth Dent's classes in Kyogle in 1928.

It appears that Greta attended St Brigid's again in 1929, and then boarded at St Ursula's College, Armidale, in the years 1930 and 1931.

The Andersons Return to the Tweed

In May 1931, Arthur and Henrietta Anderson left the Exchange Hotel, Kyogle, selling its license to a David Wishart Steedman. The financial fortunes of the Andersons took a downturn while at the Exchange Hotel, however.

Evidently, they were living in Bay Street, Tweed Heads in October 1931, when they underwent bankruptcy proceedings. As a consequence, two months later, their Nash motor vehicle had to be auctioned. We think that the photo opposite of Arthur and Henrietta is with this car, a Nash Tourer.

Rubbing salt into that wound, a fine was imposed on Arthur in the Tweed Heads Police Court on 23/02/1932 for non-renewal of his car license plate.

We have Arthur's written statement to the bankruptcy court on how he came into financial trouble in Kyogle. In that document, Arthur attributes his difficulties to several things: (a) his poor health at the time - though we do not know what those health problems were; (b) the completion of the railway works in the Kyogle area; (c) bad management by his employed manager and perhaps other staff.

We do not know what Arthur was doing business-wise or work-wise during their time back in the Tweed district in the early 1930s. In particular, there is no record of his running a hotel in those years.

We suspect that the Bay Street home of the Andersons was, in fact, on the upper floor of a building call "Gills Building", which was owned at that time by Ettie's mother, Catherine Gill. Henrietta's brother Peter Gill, with his wife Peggy, was also living in Bay Street at that time, and they were running the Mauve Cafe in the Gills Building in that street. It's possible that the Andersons were working in that cafe in some capacity.

Apparently, the Andersons moved from Tweed Heads to Murwillumbah during 1932. Late that year, Ettie and her niece Cassie Smith (eldest daughter of Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens)) opened a dressmaking shop in South Murwillumbah. The advertisement shown opposite appeared in the Tweed Daily, 09/12/1932, p. 6. The Dr Pritchard buildings were located on the corner of Alma and Prospero Streets. Based on an old map, we think this location in year 2021 would be on the river side of the T-intersection of Prospero and River Streets.

It seems that Greta Anderson completed only the first half of year 1931 at St Ursula's College, Armidale, and afterwards lived with her family in Tweed Heads. We have records of her at St Ursula's for only until July 1931. In August 1931, she was involved in a stage performance in Murwillumbah. She then attended the Ursuline Convent high school in Tweed Heads in year 1932, obtaining her Intermediate Certificate.

Here is a brief history of the two Ursuline schools in Armidale and Tweed Heads.

The Passing of Henrietta Anderson

Towards the mid-1930s, while still living in Murwillumbah, Henrietta was deteriorating in health. She died on 15/04/1935 in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane. Henrietta was just 46 years old. We understand that she suffered from some abdominal complaint and had been troubled by it for some time. Henrietta's obituary, shown opposite, appeared in the Tweed Daily, 16/04/1935, p. 4. We have a copy of Henrietta's death certificate. This certificate gives the Anderson address as Queen Street, Murwillumbah. We suspect that they were living Catherine Gill in her house there, next to Tara House.

The funeral notice was posted in the Tweed Daily on the morning of 16/04/1935. That day, the funeral for Henrietta was held in the Church of the Sacred Heart, and the burial took place in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery.

Many years later, in 1968, Ettie's older sister Elizabeth (Cissy) Collier died, and she was buried alongside Ettie. They share the tombstone shown opposite.

Life for the Anderson Children After Henrietta

Arthur Anderson and the four children, Patsy, Greta, Jack, and Nanette, continued to live in Murwillumbah after the death of Henrietta. Jack and Nanette went to Mount St Patrick's school, we think. Patsy and Greta had both finished school by then.

Arthur had help with looking after the kids. He and Ettie had hired a long-term nanny, Bridget Winifred Eileen Smith, in Murwillumbah sometime before moving to Lismore. Bridget stayed with the family as nanny after Ettie died. We understand that Bridget was made to feel very much a part of the Anderson family over those years.

Bridget Smith was a Murwillumbah local and was related to two families we have already mentioned: the Smiths and the Colliers. Bridget Smith's father was Matthew Smith, who was a brother of both Patrick Smith (father-in-law of Mary Ann Stevens) and Mary Collier (mother-in-law of Elizabeth Stevens). In other words, Bridget was a cousin of Francis Patrick Smith and George Frederick Collier.

Bridget's father, Matthew Smith, died in Murwillumbah while Bridget and the Andersons were living in Lismore; his obituary provides some additional information on him and his family.

Bridget Smith died at age 78 on 16/04/1979 and was buried in the Bray Park Catholic Cemetery in Murwillumbah. The funeral notice for Bridget suggests that, of the four Anderson children, Patsy at least kept contact with Bridget. Patsy was the only one to make a home once again in the Tweed district, living in Banora Point and Kingscliff for many years.

The above funeral notice for Bridget gives her last address as 10 Byangum Road, Murwillumbah. She lived there from the mid-1960s, and for the first several years, shared the home with Elizabeth Collier. It seems that she lived there alone after Elizabeth's passing in 1968.

Before her move to Byangum Road, Bridget had lived at 13 Prince Street, Murwillumbah, which was then owned by her sister Elizabeth Mary Smith, and previously owned by their parents. It was their family home, we believe. Elizabeth Smith sold the property in 1964, necessitating Bridget's leaving there.

The Andersons also had the support of their many relatives who were living in Murwillumbah in the 1930s. For instance, Patsy, Greta, and Nanette attended a party in Coolangatta with Bridget Smith and their two aunties Mary Ann Smith and Elizabeth Collier around Christmas 1937; and, in 1938, Elizabeth Collier hosted a 17th birthday party for her nephew Jack Anderson in her boarding house, Tara House. A few years earlier, in August 1935, Mary Ann Smith hosted a combined 21st birthday party for Patsy Anderson and her cousin Joyce White, who was only about three weeks older than Patsy.

The three Anderson girls would regularly appear in charity functions and musicals and other shows in Murwillumbah and in Lismore and Kyogle when they lived in those towns. Even when quite young, Nanette would take part, such as at the annual convent ball in May 1933 and the fancy costume ball for kids in September 1935, both in Murwillumbah.

Greta was particularly talented in acting and singing, earning praise for her lead role in a series of performances of "Brewster's Millions" in September 1934 at the Murwillumbah School of Arts and in nearby towns.

In 1938, at the age of 10, Nanette had her first year of boarding school, at the Star of the Sea Convent in Southport. There is a record of Nanette's attendance at the convent school in 1938 but not for any subsequent years. It appears that Nanette attended Mount St Patrick's High School in Murwillumbah in 1940, and we suspect that she completed her schooling there. Opposite is a picture of Nanette Anderson (right) with her cousin Dorothy Solberg (left), who was about two years older than Nanette - both girls in school uniform.

We have no record of Jack's schooling, but we understand that he attended Mount St Patrick's in Murwillumbah. After finishing his school years, Jack worked as a butcher. In 1940, at the age of 18, Jack was employed in the S. J. Bath butchery, located at 89 Main Street, Murwillumbah. This store is pictured opposite, fourteen years later, half underwater in the 1954 flood. In year 2021, the Premier Chicken Gourmet chicken shop is in that location.

The Anderson Children Marry

The year 1940 was big for the Anderson family: the two eldest daughters got married.

On Easter Saturday 23/03/1940, Greta Mary Anderson married John Henry (Jack) Butler of Armidale in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah (NSW marriage reg. 3180/1940). Patsy and Nanette were bridesmaids. The reception was held in Elizabeth Collier's Tara House. Opposite is a photo of the three Anderson girls on the wedding day: Patsy, Greta, and Nanette. We understand that Jack had been boarding in Tara House while employed in plumbing work at the Tweed District Hospital, and that is when he and Greta met.

On 03/08/1940, Patricia Catherine (Patsy) Anderson married John Robertson Greeves in St Joachim's Church in Holland Park, Brisbane (Qld marriage reg. 1940/B/40371). The bridesmaid, Marie Small, is no relation, but the best man, Robert Stevens (Bob) Smith, is Patsy's cousin (second eldest son of Mary Ann Smith). The reception was held at Mary Ann Smith's home in Hill End - part of West End in Brisbane. John Greeves, though born in Bathurst, had worked in the Murwillumbah branch of the Commercial Banking Company, and, like Jack Butler, was boarding in Tara House at the time. This is when he met Patsy. Sadly, we have no photos of Patsy's wedding.

Up until her marriage, Patsy worked in H. E. Smiths, a department/grocery store in Main Street, Murwillumbah. We understand that Greta was a hairdresser in Murwillumbah before her marriage, but we do not know for whom she worked.

Neither Patsy nor Greta lived in Murwillumbah after marriage. Initially, Jack and Greta Butler lived in Sydney. They first lived together at 5 Fischer Street, Kingsford, but in 1946 they moved to 140 Ramsgate Road, Ramsgate, where they ran a corner store. In 1955, they left the store, and Jack began working as a cement carter. They moved to a house at 138A Ramsgate Road, which was adjacent to the rear of the store. Jack had bought this property from his brother Francis Kenneth (Frank) Butler. In about 1970, Jack and Greta left Ramsgate for the shores of Lake Macquarie, at 11 Balcolyn Street, Balcolyn, a property they bought in 1965. While living there, Jack worked for some years as a cleaner / maintenance man at Morisset High School. The old Ramsgate Road home was sold in 1971 to their daughter and son-in-law Jan and Pat Mannix, who lived there until themselves selling it in 1980. In 1985, Jack and Greta sold their Balcolyn home and moved to 9/1 Adelaide Place, Sylvania, in Sydney's southern suburbs.

The first home of John and Patsy Greeves was in Epacris Street, Charleville, in Queensland. But John and Patsy moved many times over the years throughout Queensland, John working in a local bank branch in each town. After leaving Charleville around 1945, their movements were: 25 Auckland Street, Gladstone (1945 - 1954); Mount Larcom (1954 - 1957); Gayndah (1957 - 1961); then 12 Dalhousie Street, Maryborough (1961 - 1970). With John retiring from banking around 1970, he and Patsy moved back to the Tweed region: 25 Oyster Point Road, Banora Point (1970 - 1972); 25 Elsie Street, Banora Point (1972 - 1974); 32 Powell Street, Coolangatta (1974 - 1977); 13 Seaview Street, Kingscliff (1977 - 1983); 14/19 Ivory Crescent, Tweed Heads (1983 - 1991). Dates are approximate in each case. We have the title deeds for the Oyster Point Road and Seaview Street properties.

In Murwillumbah, Jack Anderson continued to work at the S. J. Bath butcher shop, but, in December 1941, he joined the armed forces to fight in WWII. Jack was apparently keen to go: he fudged his date of birth to give him the minimum age of 21 years allowing him to enlist without parental consent. On the Attestation Form, the home address for himself and father, Arthur Anderson, was Queen Street, Murwillumbah. Jack's enlistment photo is shown opposite.

Jack Anderson was discharged from the army on 05/07/1946. One of his discharge forms indicates that, at that time, Jack was living with Jack and Greta Butler at 140 Ramsgate Road, Ramsgate. On 28/12/1946, about six months after leaving the army, Jack Anderson married Enid Patricia (Pat) Chappell at St Thomas's Church, Lewisham. We have a copy of their marriage certificate. It says that Jack was then working as a moulder (a type of metalworker) and living at 11 Railway Terrace, Lewisham. This was a small boarding house, and it seems that he might have been living there only a matter of months. It was just a 5-10 minute walk from where Pat was living, at Flat 4, 27 Fisher Street, Petersham.

Jack and Pat Anderson, soon after marrying, moved to the back yard of the Butlers' home at 140 Ramsgate Road - to live in a tent! This was in 1947, and that same year they bought two adjacent blocks of land in Huntingdon Street, Merrylands. The title deed for them says that Jack was, at that time, a labourer living in Lewisham. Two lots next to these were purchased at the same time by Pat's sister and brother-in-law Dorothy and Herbert Hocking. We understand that both couples were planning to build homes there to live. However, that never eventuated, because in 1950 all four lots were purchased (forceably, we think) by the Lands Department for their use. The Andersons and Hockings had to then make other arrangements. Those four lots are now gone, along with Huntingdon Street itself. They are all in the middle of the Ted Burge Sports Ground in Merrylands.

The Lewisham address of Jack and Pat mentioned in the above title deed was 9 Railway Terrace, which was another small boarding house next to the one Jack had stayed in the previous year.

Around the end of 1948, Jack and Pat moved from Lewisham to 2 Fernbank Flats, 1 Loftus Street, Ashfield. Also living in these flats were Dorothy and Herbert Hocking as well as Pat's brother Eric Chappell. We do not know if Jack and Pat had their own unit there or if they were sharing with Eric or Dorothy.

In any case, Jack and Pat Anderson soon moved on from Ashfield to the housing settlement for ex-soldiers at Herne Bay (a suburb now called Riverwood). We have a photo of Jack with daughters Christine and Susan, and niece Kay Loats, from perhaps early 1951.

This, too, was temporary housing for Jack and Pat, and, by 1951, they had moved to a Housing Commission house at 39 Marco Avenue, Panania. In the photo opposite, from around 1955, Jack Anderson is in front of their Marco Avenue home, holding baby daughter Judith. The house numbering has changed drastically in Marco Avenue since the 1950s. The old Anderson house there is gone but we think it was situated at 115 Marco Avenue in today's numbering.

As their family grew, Jack and Pat moved to a larger home at 1 Heindrich Avenue, Padstow, at the start of 1957. It, too, was owned by the Housing Commission.

We understand that Jack and Pat obtained some legal aid from the RSL with regard to their two Holroyd lots being taken. As a result, in October 1959, they were compensated with two similar adjacent lots in Holroyd that had been owned by Holroyd Council. These were at 6-8 Fairmount Street, facing the southern boundary of the abovementioned Ted Burge Sports Ground. However, just one month later, Jack and Pat sold the two lots: they were quite settled at Padstow by that time and happy to stay there. We have the title deed for these lots.

Near the end of 1976, after living many years at Padstow, Jack and Pat moved to 19 Bay Street, Balcolyn, close to the home of the Butlers. Jack worked as a bricklayer through all those years, finally retiring in 1981 at the age of 60. We have the title deed for their Balcolyn property.

Life for Arthur Anderson After Henrietta

The life of Arthur Anderson becomes somewhat unclear from the mid-1930s onwards. After Henrietta's death, Arthur remained in Murwillumbah for some years: electoral rolls in that period list him as a clerk and living in Queen Street. We think the Andersons continued living in Catherine Gill's house.

Through these years, Arthur was running into trouble with local law enforcement for gambling. In October 1940, Arthur was fined £20 for gambling - a hefty fine, but it appears that Arthur was not just gambling but hosting a gambling ring in his house.

Five years earlier, in April 1935, Arthur was involved in another gambling raid by police. He was not charged this time, but six men, including Arthur's brother-in-law Abraham Solberg, were found guilty of gambling on horseracing (amongst themselves, it seems) underneath Arthur's house in Queen Street. The linked article indicates that Arthur's house was close to the back of the Club House Hotel in Wharf Street, and connected to it by a pathway. Arthur himself was not arrested and perhaps was not present at the time. Nevertheless, he seems lucky to have not been caught up in the incident.

Again, in November 1941, Arthur, while still living in Murwillumbah, was fined £15 for helping to conduct illegal gambling.

The latest record we have of Arthur Anderson living in Murwillumbah is the advertisement shown opposite, apparently to sell Arthur's household furniture. This appeared in the Tweed Daily, 11/12/1942, p. 4. While Arthur might have remained in Murwillumbah, the advertisement suggests that he had recently moved away.

We think that Arthur and Nanette Anderson moved from Murwillumbah to Townsville, sometime in late 1942: in the 1943 and 1946 Electoral Rolls, Arthur is listed as a clerk living at Caldwell's Cafe in Jetty Road, Townsville. Also, the army Service and Casualty Form for Jack Anderson gives an amended home address for Arthur Anderson of "c/o AUSN Coy., Townsville". While in Townsville, Arthur was, we understand, working as a clerk for the shipping company Australasian United Steam Navigation (A.U.S.N.) Company. Their Townsville offices were in the Burns Philp Building (now heritage listed) on the south-west corner of Flinders and Wickham Streets.

The timing of Arthur's move suggests he stayed in Murwillumbah until Nanette had finished school. Nanette finished First Year at Mount St Patrick's in 1940 and was therefore on course to obtain her Intermediate Certificate at the end of 1942. Unfortunately, we cannot find any record of her schooling for 1941 - 1942.

Nanette Anderson married James Henry Loats at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Townsville, on 16/02/1946. Jim Loats was in the RAAF and was living in Townsville then. We have a copy of the marriage certificate. We think that Arthur and Nanette had remained in Townsville until the wedding. In fact, the marriage certificate gives Nanette's address as 79 Walker Street, Townsville, (with her occupation as "domestic duties"), and we assume Arthur lived with her. Neither of the two witnesses to the wedding are known to be family members.

Neither Nanette nor Arthur stayed in Townsville for very long after Nanette's wedding. Around early 1946, Greta and Jack Butler moved from Kingsford to a corner shop in Ramsgate Road, Ramsgate. Arthur went there to live with them around that same time, as did Jack Anderson, whom the 1946 (supplementary) electoral roll lists as a greengrocer at that Ramsgate address. Electoral rolls also say that Arthur was a clerk throughout his years in Ramsgate. He might have done the bookkeeping for the Butlers' shop. Alternatively, he might have been retired then, being 58 years old in 1946. Arthur is pictured opposite at the back of the Butlers' house.

Arthur stayed with the Butlers in Ramsgate until around 1949, when he moved to Gladstone to live with Patsy and John Greeves at 25 Auckland Street. The 1950 Electoral Roll lists him there (without an occupation this time).

Around 1951, Arthur moved back to Sydney to live with Jack and Pat Anderson, who had recently obtained a house in Marco Avenue, Panania. That was to be Arthur's last residence.

Arthur Anderson died on 22/11/1951 in Lidcombe State Hospital. He was buried in the Woronora Memorial Park in Sutherland. Arthur's death notice appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24/11/1951. It is shown opposite. We also have a copy of Arthur's death certificate.

This brings to a close the Anderson part of this family history. We turn now to the lives of the younger siblings of Henrietta Anderson (nee Gill).

Catherine Margaret (Kate) Gill and Leslie White

Catherine Margaret (Kate) Gill was born on 25/02/1890 in Acrobat Creek, near Eudlo, Queensland. We have a copy of Kate's birth certificate.

Kate Gill married Leslie Searle White in Murwillumbah on 06/04/1912. At that time, Les White worked in the Commercial Bank at Murwillumbah.

Kate and Les White had seven children (three boys and four girls):

• Catherine Mary, born 19/11/1912 (Qld birth reg. 1912/C/11764)
• (Margaret) Joyce, born 26/07/1914 (Qld birth reg. 1914/C/12032)
• (Elsie) Joan Frances, born 24/02/1916 (Qld birth reg. 1916/C/3020)
• Elizabeth Alice (Betty), born 20/04/1918 (NSW birth reg. 20026/1918)
• Leslie Stephen, born 26/12/1920 (NSW birth reg. 12278/1921)
• James, born 14/02/1923
• John Searle, born 10/05/1929

As evidenced by the birth details of their first child, Kate and Les White moved to Queensland (not Brisbane) soon after their marriage. It appears that Kate was pregnant when she married Les, which is a probable reason for their low-key, out-of-church wedding and their move away from Murwillumbah.

The information we have indicates that Kate and Les White moved to Rockhampton. The electoral rolls 1913 - 1916 list them at 119 Campbell Street, Rockhampton, with Les working as a bank clerk. Furthermore, the Whites were reported as returning from Rockhampton to Dungay around July 1916. Kate White, while in Rockhampton, did receive at least one visit from her parents, Henry and Catherine Gill, that being around July 1915, by which time she had her first two daughters, Catherine and Joyce.

In Dungay, it seems that the White family could have been working the farm of Henry and Catherine Gill, judging by this advertisement by the Whites and the Gills on 19/03/1917 for a lost Jersey heifer.

Les and Catherine White moved from Dungay to Condong sometime between June 1920 and November 1921, these being the dates, respectively, of our last record of the Whites in Dungay and our first record of them in Condong. This advertisement on 07/01/1926 for cane chippers indicates that the Whites had the "Colchester" sugar cane farm on Tumbulgum Road, Condong.

The Whites remained on the cane farm for at least ten years. In February 1931, areas of Condong were flooded, including the Colchester farm, and the Whites had to be rescued from their home by boat.

According to electoral rolls, Les and Kate, around 1932, moved from Condong to Tweed Heads, where Les obtained work as a labourer. An advertisement from September 1932 indicates that the Whites took a partnership of some kind in the Mauve Cafe business in Bay Street, Tweed Heads, which was being run by Amy Gill (wife of Kate's brother Peter John Gill). We suspect that Kate worked with Amy in the cafe. Another advertisement indicates that Amy and Kate moved from the Mauve Cafe to the Tweed Cafe in late 1932 or early 1933.

The Whites left Tweed Heads around 1935 and moved to Stafford Street, South Murwillumbah - with think at Number 18. They then lived at 37 Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah around 1938-39. This was a house owned by Kate's parents, Catherine and Henry Gill. By May 1940, they had moved to the Tara House boarding house, taking over this business from Kate's sister Elizabeth Collier. It appears that Kate was running it, because Les was busy working for the Tweed Shire Council during the 1940s.

Police carried out an illegal-betting raid on the Tara House premises on 08/02/1947. The eldest son of Les and Kate White, Leslie Stephen White, was charged with conducting illegal gambling on horse races in the basement of Tara House, as well as theft of government property. He was fined £25 in total.

Around March 1949, the Whites sold Tara House to the RSL and auctioned off all of their boarding house furniture. Earlier, in 1945, the RSL were using (leasing, perhaps) part of Tara House as an office for their rehabilitation officer. The RSL shortly afterwards converted the building into a clubroom for its members.

Upon the sale of the Tara House business, the Whites decided to leave the Tweed district, moving to George Street North, East Maitland, in the Hunter region. In 1951, they moved from there to Kensington Road, Bolwarra, a few kilometres north of Maitland. Les was then working as a mill hand. Their daughter Elizabeth was living with them during their years in the Maitland area.

The Whites stayed in Bolwarra only a short time, however: around 1952, they moved to 4 Portview Road, Greenwich, in Sydney, where Les worked as a clerk. Their daughter and son-in-law Joan Frances and Arthur Ernest White were also living there then, and we think that they owned it.

Leslie Searle White died on 08/04/1957. He was buried in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville. His death notice and burial plaque appear opposite. The death notice says that Les was last residing at 2 Pemberton Street, Botany, which was the home of his son Leslie Stephen White. We also have a copy of Leslie's death certificate.

Kate White was still living with her daughter and son-in-law at Portview Road in 1958, according to electoral rolls, but by the following year had moved away. On 18/09/1961, she died in Brisbane, aged 71 (Qld death reg. 1961/B/47296). She was buried in Hemmant Cemetery in Hemmant, Brisbane. We are unsure of what took Kate up to Brisbane. Her eldest daughter Cathy Schofield (nee White) was living, with her husband, in Camp Hill at that time, so perhaps Kate lived with them in her final years.

There is more detail on the White children and their families here (a separate web page).

Harry Gill Jnr

Henry William Joseph (Harry) Gill was born on 22/09/1891 in South Lismore. This was soon after his parents, Henry and Catherine, had moved there from Queensland. We have a copy of Harry's birth certificate and also its transcript.

Harry Gill served with the AIF in World War I, enlisting in Brisbane on 02/09/1914. He served in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and is pictured opposite in uniform. In his Attestation Form, Harry entered his occupation as "farmer". Confirming this is the 1913 Electoral Roll, which lists Harry as a farmer from Dungay. We might assume from this that, in the period before the war, Harry was helping out with the work on his parents' Dungay acreage.

While over in Europe, Harry posted a series of letters back home to his parents, Henry and Catherine Gill, telling of his wartime experiences. Some, such as these two, were published in the Tweed Daily. Harry returned from the war to Murwillumbah in February 1919.

Harry Gill Jnr married Kathleen Mary Shields at St Stephen's Cathedral in Brisbane on 19/07/1920 (Qld marriage reg. 1920/B/25813). Kathleen Shields was living in Brisbane at that time but was originally from Murwillumbah. We have a copy of their marriage certificate. Opposite is a photo of Kathleen.

Harry and Kathleen Gill had ten children (seven boys and three girls):

• Edward Henry, born 18/05/1921
• Robert Joseph, born 06/01/1923
• Yvonne Mary, born 08/03/1924
• Henry Thomas (Harry), born 25/12/1925
• Brian Patrick, born 05/07/1927
• Noela Therese, born 28/07/1929
• Denise Ann, born 31/12/1930
• John Shields, born 06/04/1932
• (Francis) Patrick, born 28/07/1934
• (Rodney) Michael, born 23/11/1936

It appears that Harry and Kathleen Gill initially lived at Condong on a farm. This is based on an advertisement for a dairy worker by Harry Gill in the Tweed Daily, 01/09/1920, p. 1, and a report of a visit by Kathleen's mother in August 1922. We also know that they leased from Catherine Gill a 119-acre farm lying on both sides of Eviron Road, Condong. This lease ran from October 1924 to December 1931.

In 1925, Catherine and Henry Gill were running the Club House Hotel. The Tooth's Yellow Card for this hotel has an entry for March of that year listing Harry Gill Junior as licensee, succeeding his father. This agrees with a brief account of Harry Jnr's life from his youngest son, Michael, saying that Harry Jnr managed hotels for his family. This lasted only until November 1925, however, when the Club House Hotel license was sold by the Gills.

In 1927 and 1928, which was soon after the death of his father, Harry Gill advertised for auction much livestock and equipment, and then the farming property itself. It seems that Harry Gill was involved in both dairy and cane farming in Condong and was looking to move away from that to some extent, although he was also, at that time, advertising his services for contract farm work.

Harry Gill, in the 1930 Electoral Roll, was a contractor living at 31 Alma Street, Murwillumbah, which was located on the southern bank of the Tweed River, close to town. Even earlier, in July 1929, they were at that address, according to the birth certificate of daughter Noela. In about 1933, Harry and Kathleen lived in Ewing Street, Murwillumbah, with Harry working as an assistant stock inspector for the NSW state government.

Around 1936, Harry and Kathleen Gill returned to 31 Alma Street. It was at that home, on 12/01/1938, at the age of just 41, that Kathleen Mary Gill (nee Shields) died (NSW death reg. 3936/1938). She was buried in Bray Park Catholic Cemetery, Murwillumbah. We have Kathleen's death certificate. She died of a heart attack.

Harry and his children moved from Alma Street to 91 River Street, South Murwillumbah, around 1942. Harry still worked as a stock inspector. He lived at River Street until about 1950, when he moved to Crystal Creek in the upper Tweed valley.

In the mid-1950s, Harry moved to 100 Hall Street, Annerley, in Brisbane, where he worked as a cleaner. This move, we think, was brought on by son Brian Patrick Gill's becoming a soldier at the nearby Enoggera army barracks. Daughter Denise also moved there, as did, we suspect, the youngest three children. Harry soon moved across town, however, around 1958, to 14 Wahucumba Street, Dutton Park, still employed in cleaning.

Harry Gill stayed at Dutton Park for several years, but by 1962 he returned to the Tweed district, living in Fingal. He moved backed to Murwillumbah a few years later, living at 9 Peter Street, around 1964.

Henry William Joseph (Harry) Gill died on 21/11/1965 (NSW death reg. 40385/1965). Harry was buried beside his wife in Bray Park Catholic Cemetery. The tombstone of Harry; his wife, Kathleen; and sons Edward Henry Gill and John Shields Gill; is shown opposite. We have Harry's death certificate. He died of lung cancer. The certificate gives Harry's last residence as Fingal, so it's not sure if he was last living there or in Peter Street.

There is a photo opposite of Harry Gill in his later years.

There is more detail on the children of Henry William Joseph Gill and their families here (a separate web page).

Veronica Eileen (Vera) Gill and Abraham Solberg

Veronica Eileen (Vera) Gill was born on 29/09/1898 in Murwillumbah. This was when Henry and Catherine were in South Murwillumbah, running the Royal Hotel. Vera is pictured opposite and we have a second photo here.

In the late 1910s, when she was in her late teens, Vera Gill helped organise charity events, such as for local convent funding. She also performed in some charity stage shows in and around Murwillumbah.

Vera joined the local VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nursing unit in the Tweed District Hospital in Murwillumbah around April 1919, having begun there as a probationer in February 1918. Soon thereafter, Vera was deployed to the Mater Miseridordiae Hospital in South Brisbane, where she remained until at least March 1920. While at the Mater, Vera lived in the nurses' quarters.

Vera Gill married Abraham Solberg on 03/08/1921 in Murwillumbah.

A Murwillumbah local, Abraham Solberg worked as a jeweller, following his father, Edward Solberg, in that line of business. Around April 1923, Abraham bought the jewellery business of David Rose in Main Street, Murwillumbah, as shown in his advertisement opposite from the Tweed Daily, 25/04/1923, p. 5. The Solbergs knew David Rose well: Edward had worked as a jeweller in the Grafton store of David Rose's some years earlier, and Edward's brother Bernard Solberg had managed the Murwillumbah store for several years in the early 1910s.

From details we have of his leases, we know that Abraham Solberg had his jewellery store at 44 Murwillumbah Street up until 1947. We think he then moved it to 34 Murwillumbah Street. Solberg family connections remember the store being in that location.

Vera and Abraham Solberg had seven children (three boys and four girls):

• John and Joan Catherine, twins born 28/08/1922
• Odie Veronica, born 23/01/1924
• Dorothea Anne (Dorothy), born 21/04/1925
• Edward Gill, born 08/01/1927
• Geoffrey Joseph, born 01/03/1928
• Rhea Mary, born 24/02/1935

Abraham Solberg donated trophies, shields, and medals for numerous local sporting and other contests, such as the A. Solberg Cup for the Tweed ladies singles tennis tournament, and the Murwillumbah Cup in horse racing.

Around July 1933, Abraham and Vera Solberg opened another store in Main Street, Murwillumbah, selling crockery. Later, in 1937, Solberg's Jewellers began acting as a ticketing agent for various events, such as movies at the local Regent Theatre and shows at the Murwillumbah School of Arts.

The Solbergs lived at 35 Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah, from the mid-1920s until the early 1940s. Vera Solberg bought the property in 1924 from Arthur Anderson and eventually sold it in 1943. It was around then that Vera moved to 118 Brook Street, Coogee, reportedly to establish a home for her Sydney-based daughters. That linked article says that Vera returned in 1944 to live, for a time at least, in Murwillumbah. However, she soon moved back to Sydney's eastern suburbs: to 1 Howard Place, Randwick, which she bought in 1945. This was quite close to her earlier Brook Street home. During her time at Howard Place, Vera was in the news for having reported an incidence of electoral voting fraud.

Around early 1948, Vera's son Edward moved from Murwillumbah down to the Howard Place home, where he found a job as a carpet layer. The two daughters, Odie and Dorothy were also living there then. In fact, Odie married in January 1947, and she and her husband, Leo Maxwell Tscherne, lived in the Howard Place house for a year or so before finding their own home nearby at 10 Coogee Bay Road, Randwick, around 1949. Edward lived there with them for a short time too. Dorothy married around this time, as well, in May 1948, to Ronald Abernethy, and they subsequently moved into their own home at 70 Arthur Street, Randwick. In late 1948, Vera sold her Howard Place property, and she moved back to Murwillumbah.

Meanwhile, during the 1940s, Abraham Solberg was living in Riverview Street, Murwillumbah, and still running his jewellery store. In 1949, he and Vera bought a house at 32 Ewing Street, Murwillumbah. They then lived there through the 1950s. Their sons Edward and Geoffrey were also living in that house then, along with their wives.

Vera Eileen Solberg (nee Gill) died on 18/11/1961. She was buried in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville. Interestingly, the death was registered in the district of Orange, NSW - a place with no ties to Vera that we know of.

Abraham Solberg continued living at 32 Ewing Street and working as a jeweller until selling that house in 1963. He died in Sydney on 13/09/1964 at age 70. We have a copy of his death certificate. Abraham was last living at the home in Third Avenue, Blacktown, of his daughter Odie and her husband. Abraham was cremated and his ashes interred at his wife's grave in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville. The tombstone of Vera and Abraham is shown opposite.

There is more detail on the Solberg children and their families here (a separate web page).

Peter John Gill

Peter John Gill was born on 08/10/1899, while his parents, Henry and Catherine, were running the Royal Hotel in South Murwillumbah.

On 27/02/1906, Peter, at the age of just 6, had a lucky escape, almost drowning in the Tweed River but saved by the actions of an older boy.

In the early 1920s, Henry and Catherine Gill were running the Club House Hotel in Murwillumbah, and in October 1922 Peter was reportedly working there as a barman.

Peter Gill married Amy Gertrude Doyle on 30/05/1923 in St Kevin's Church, Bangalow (NSW marriage reg. 7955/1923). Amy was known as Peg or Peggy.

Peter and Amy Gill had four children (three boys and one girl):

• Lynn Catherine, born 23/11/1924
• Peter John Jnr, born 06/02/1926
• Harry, born 04/02/1927
• Barry Joseph, born 25/07/1929

For his first year after marriage, we think Peter continued his barman's work at the Club House Hotel. Then in April 1924, he began leasing his parents' 110-acre dairy farm on Dungay Creek Road. He immediately advertised for someone to work the farm for him, and we do not know if he found someone or ended up working the farm himself. Peter held the lease until 1930. It is not clear, however, exactly when Peter finished farming in Dungay. An advertisement from January 1932, for the sale of livestock and equipment, suggests that he was dairy farming in Dungay up until then.

Around April 1931, Amy Gill took over the Mauve Cafe business in Bay Street, Tweed Heads, from an Elsie Gill (no relation). Peter and Amy Gill moved to Tweed Heads soon afterwards, perhaps in 1932, and remained living there for many years. Their children attended the St Joseph's Convent School at Tweed Heads.

Judging by the Mauve Cafe advertisement shown opposite, the Whites partnered with Peter and Amy Gill in the business. Certainly, the Whites were living in Tweed Heads in the years 1932 - 1935, and, while Leslie White was working as a labourer then, Kate White (Peter Gill's sister) was perhaps working with Amy in the cafe.

The Gill-White partnership moved from the Mauve Cafe to the near-adjacent Tweed Cafe in late 1932 or early 1933. See advertisement opposite. Both cafes were close to the south-west corner of Wharf and Bay Streets. The Mauve Cafe was, we think, in the building on the corner, called Greenwoods, which housed several businesses. The Tweed Cafe was in the building next door on Bay Street, known as Gills Building. Both buildings were owned by Catherine Gill in the early 1930s (more accurately, owned partly by Catherine and partly by the deceased estate of her husband Henry Gill).

A fire in April 1933 destroyed the Greenwoods building, and badly damaged the adjacent Tweed Cafe, which was then run by Amy Gill and Kate White. We do not know if they continued in the Tweed Cafe after this. Amy Gill was, however, listed as a cafe proprietress in Tweed Heads in electoral rolls up until at least 1943.

Peter and Amy Gill were living in the Gills Building in Bay Street when they first moved to Tweed Heads. The Andersons were also, we think, living in that building in late 1931 to early 1932, so they were close neighbours then. By 1937, Peter and Amy had moved to live in Skinner House in Beryl Street, on the corner of Empire Lane.

Peter Gill became a taxi driver around 1933 while living in Tweed Heads. The electoral rolls 1934 - 1954 confirm this, listing Peter as a car driver. Opposite is a photo of Peter Gill loading up passenger luggage on his taxi in Coolangatta in 1936.

Amy Gertrude (Peg) Gill (nee Doyle) died on 02/09/1948 (NSW death reg. 22544/1948). Her obituary, shown opposite, and which appeared in the Tweed Daily the following day, gives some information about the life of Amy and the Gill family. She was buried in the Tweed Heads Central Cemetery. We have a photo of her tombstone.

Around the time of Amy's death, Peter Gill moved from Beryl Street to a house at 5 Angela Street, Tweed Heads, which he had just bought. He continued his taxi driving business until about the mid-1950s.

Peter John Gill died on 15/04/1963 in Mount Olivet Hospital, Brisbane (Qld death reg. 1963/B/57799). He was buried in the Tweed Heads Central Cemetery. His obituary is shown opposite. In particular, it indicates that, in April 1963, Peter John Gill was still living at 5 Angela Street, along with his son Peter (jnr), and that children Lynn Gill and Barry Gill were each living in Sydney. We also have a copy of Peter's death certificate.

An article about Peter Gill was published in the Gold Coaster / Daily News, 12/06/1991, and it tells of his life, particularly as a Tweed Heads taxi driver.

There is more detail on the children of Peter Gill and their families here (a separate web page).

James Gill

James Gill was the eldest child of Henry Snr and Elizabeth Gill (nee Hamilton). He was born in Sydney on 20/01/1855.

James Gill stayed longer in Grafton than did his younger brother Henry. Through the 1880s, James was a member of the Grafton Volunteer Fire Brigade (aka Grafton Water Brigade). He was a fireman, who, over the years, rose to leadership positions in that organisation. In December 1888, James was elected as secretary of the brigade.

On 05/01/1889, James Gill married Christina Clara Moran at the home of his parents, Henry and Elizabeth Gill, in Balmain (NSW marriage reg. 1855/1889). Christina was a nurse. She had worked at Sydney Hospital and then transferred to Grafton Hospital in October 1884. She was appointed acting matron of Grafton Hospital in April 1888.

James and Christina Gill lived in Victoria Street, Grafton. While there, they had two children (one boy and one girl):

• Eliza Hamilton (Lila), born 18/01/1890 (NSW birth reg. 14448/1890) (The date given in the linked birth notice must be in error)
• Harry, born 25/05/1892 (NSW birth reg. 14937/1892)

James Gill resigned his position as secretary of the Grafton Water Brigade around June 1892. He moved from Grafton to Coffs Harbour to take the position of wharfinger at the new jetty in that town. James Gill was, therefore, involved in the opening of the Coffs Harbour Jetty on 05/08/1892.

Around December 1902, after ten years as wharfinger of the Coffs Harbour jetty, James Gill resigned and moved to the small town of Burringbar in the Tweed valley, where he had bought the license for the Burringbar Hotel.

In May 1904 it was reported that James Gill was seriously ill and, to have easier access to medical help, lived for a short while with Henry and Catherine Gill in their Royal Hotel, Murwillumbah. It was reported elsewhere (Tweed and Brunswick Advocate, 11/05/1904, p. 2) that the illness was bronchitis. James did recover and return to Burringbar in due course.

James Gill became a community leader while living in Burringbar. Besides running the hotel, he was secretary of the Burringbar Progress Association, and he built the Burringbar Hall, around November 1904. (There is, in year 2021, a Burringbar Hall, but we think this a different building, and in a different location, to James Gill's original Burringbar Hall.) Additionally, James was involved in establishing the first post office in Burringbar in 1911.

James Gill made civic contributions, likewise, when he was in Coffs Harbour. Having been instrumental in founding the Coffs Harbour School of Arts, he was asked to be its ceremonial opener in August 1904, despite, by then, living in Burringbar. Opposite is a photo of the opening; we think that James Gill is the tall man in the centre back with white jacket.

In November 1911, James Gill sold the license for the Burringbar Hotel to a William Edward Balzer. The Burringbar Hotel no longer exists. It ran until July 1934, when its hotel license was transferred to the Hotel Victory in nearby Mooball. Opposite is a photo of the Burringbar Hotel c.1910. Another photo gives a better indication of the location of the Burringbar Hotel in the main street, Broadway. A brief history of the hotels in Burringbar appeared in the Tweed Daily, 09/12/1933, p. 2.

James Gill moved to Murwillumbah sometime after selling the Burringbar Hotel license. According to the electoral rolls, in 1913 James and Christina lived in Prospero Street. However, in January of that year they bought a riverfront property in Alma Street, South Murwillumbah, and they moved there at some point.

It did not take long for James to seek out leadership roles in his new local community. For instance, in August 1913, he was a member of the Murwillumbah Chamber of Commerce, and the following year was secretary of that organisation.

After selling its license, James Gill retained ownership of the Burringbar Hotel, submitting plans for its alterations in October 1914.

James Gill had also acquired many other properties at Burringbar during his time there. He also bought properties in South Murwillumbah and Ewingsdale. We list them all below. For each property, the Date Bought links to its title deed. The addresses given are in today's terms.

Notes: [1] We think this was the location of the Burringbar Hotel. [2] One of the lots was sold on 02/07/1908 (just a month after purchase). [3] The Quarry Lane farm was 48 acres, later expanded by son Harry Gill, for whom James purchased it.

As mentioned earlier, James Gill was president of the Tweed River District Rugby League in 1914, the year of its creation. (Before then, only rugby union was played in the Tweed district.) That year, James Gill was also president of one of the individual clubs, the Murwillumbah Buccaneers, who had Arthur Anderson as player/coach for that season.

Previously, in 1910, James Gill was manager of the Burringbar Football (rugby) team and was, reportedly, very effective in the role. That year he arranged a tour for his team to his old home town of Grafton, to play a combined Clarence River representative side. Opposite is a Burringbar team photo, with manager, James Gill, on the far right.

James Gill also ran for a seat on the Murwillumbah Municipal Council in January 1914, and was successfully voted in as one of the eight aldermen. Opposite is a photo of the members of Murwillumbah Council in September 1915. At this time, James Gill was an alderman, as was Francis Patrick Smith, husband of Mary Ann Smith (nee Stevens). Francis is on the far left of the middle row and James is beside him.

In November 1916, James Gill had the honour of being chosen by council alderman as the new mayor of Murwillumbah, after the resignation of the previous incumbent, Edmund Patrick Kirby. He was mayor until June 1917, at which time he lost his place on council in the municipal election. James was returned as an alderman in a by-election in July 1918. Then, in February 1919, James Gill resigned from council, and also from his presidency of the Tweed District Hospital, a position he had held for some years.

In January 1920, James Gill once again stood for council elections and was voted in as alderman for a third time.

Christina Clara Gill (nee Moran) died at her home in Alma Street on 08/10/1919. She was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. We have Christina's death certificate. She died of a diabetic coma.

James Gill died in Murwillumbah on 06/08/1921, at the age of 66. He was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. His obituary, shown opposite, appeared in the Tweed Daily, 08/08/1921, p. 2. We have James's death certificate. Like his wife, James died of a diabetic coma.

Some details on the children of James and Christina Gill:

• Eliza Hamilton (Lila) was born in Grafton, moved to Coffs Harbour at age 2, and then to Burringbar at age 12 in December 1902.

  Lila Gill had a daughter, Lilian Gill, born in Brisbane on 18/07/1909. No father was registered with the birth, and Lila was single then. We have Lilian's birth certificate. It says the birth occurred in Manning Street, South Brisbane. We think it was, in fact, in St Alban's Private Nursing Home.

  Sadly, baby Lilian died in Brisbane just four months later, on 19/11/1909. She was buried in Balmoral Cemetery, Morningside. We have Lilian's death certificate. It says the death occurred in Stafford Street, East Brisbane. We think it might have been Number 12 in that street. Lilian died of diarrhoea and convulsions.

  Less than a year later, on 16/08/1910, Lila Gill married Andrew Joseph Betzel in Brisbane.

  Lila Betzel (nee Gill) died on 20/11/1911, at age 21, in Burringbar from heart failure (NSW death reg. 15533/1911). She was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. It seems that Lila returned from Brisbane to Burringbar, where her parents were still living. We do not know if her husband, Andrew Betzel, returned with her. Lila and Andrew had no children together that we know of.

  Apparently, Lila was still widely known as "Miss Lila Gill" when she died. She is so called in the above linked article on her death. In her probate notice, she is called "Eliza Hamilton Betzell, or Lila Gill". Another probate notice refers to her as "Eliza Hamilton Gill (generally known as Lila Gill)", a spinster.

• Harry Gill was born in Grafton on 25/05/1892. He married Mabel Rose Harris of Mullumbimby on 09/02/1916 in St John's Church of England, Mullumbimby (NSW marriage reg. 4545/1916).

  After their marriage, Harry and Mabel Gill worked a dairy farm at Condong. However, suffering ill-health, Harry was advised to move away for a drier climate. So, in February 1918, he and Mabel sold up, and two months later moved to another dairying property in Ewingsdale, a farming district just north of Byron Bay. Occasional articles say the Gill property was in Tyagarah, as opposed to Ewingsdale, but, these being neighbouring districts, we believe it was just the one property. This farm was purchased by Harry's father, James Gill, presumably for Harry's benefit. It was about 48 acres in size and lay on both sides of Quarry Lane. Harry bought some adjacent land a few years later, in 1923, expanding the farm's size to about 94 acres.

  Harry and Mabel Gill lived there until 1950, when they bought a house at 51 Carlyle Street, Byron Bay. They lived there until at least 1972. While at this new address, Harry was still listed as a farmer in electoral rolls, however. In fact, the title deeds indicate that Harry and Mabel did not sell their Quarry Lane farm until 1965. Around the time of their leaving Ewingsdale, Harry and Mabel were the subject of tributes at a gathering of their local community. This was in honour of the good civic works they had engaged in over their many years living there. It seems that Harry followed the footsteps of his father, James Gill, in that regard.

  Mabel Rose Gill (nee Harris) died on 12/11/1975. She was buried in Lismore Memorial Gardens. Harry Gill died on 01/01/1977 in North Parramatta. We believe he was last residing at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Viola and Norman Higgins. Harry, too, was buried in Lismore Memorial Gardens. The burial plaques of Mabel and Harry are shown opposite.

  Harry and Mabel Gill had three children (three girls): Mavis Christina, born 30/04/1920; Heather Louisa, born 26/09/1921; and Viola Gladys, born 04/03/1926.

Henry and Catherine Gill Return to the Club House Hotel

We resume once again the story of Henry and Catherine Gill. Earlier, we left them when, in 1914, they were running the Club House Hotel in Murwillumbah. We also previously mentioned that, in January 1916, Henry Gill transferred the license of this hotel to Arthur Anderson.

It appears that, upon leaving the Club House Hotel, Henry and Catherine returned to previous farming pursuits on one of their Dungay properties, judging by their advertisement for lost and for wanted livestock during 1916. Also, in August 1919, Henry, in giving evidence in a court case in Murwillumbah, is said to be a farmer.

Around that same time was the death of the licensee of the Royal Hotel, John McLean. His wife soon left the hotel, and the Gills took it over around September 1919. However, they were not long at the Royal Hotel. The license was transferred to a George Suffolk around January 1920. But, even in that short time, Henry Gill found himself in court defending a charge of having allowed someone on licensed premises at the Royal Hotel outside legal hours. Despite his plea to the contrary, Henry was found guilty and consequently fined.

Also around that time, in January 1920, fire destroyed the second storey of a boarding house owned by Henry and Catherine Gill (but not run by them) called Erneville. This was located in South Murwillumbah, we think in Prospero Street. It seems that the Erneville boarding house, though insured, ceased to exist after that incident.

About one year later, in early 1921, the Gills bought the license of the Club House Hotel from Vincent Sylvester Dowling - the publican who had run that hotel since the Andersons left it around February 1920. The advertisement shown opposite ran in the Tweed Daily, 01/02/1921, p. 3.

Henry and Catherine Gill, having run the Club House Hotel for a further nearly five years, sold its license to Ruby Potter and Ernest John Harman around November 1925. As mentioned earlier, their son Harry Gill Jnr was, in fact, the official licensee of this hotel from March to November 1925.

Henry Gill died on 09/03/1927 at his home at 37 Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah. He was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. His obituary, shown opposite, appeared in the Tweed Daily, 10/03/1927, p. 2. We have Henry's death certificate. He died of a heart attack.

After Henry's death, Catherine Gill continued living in Murwillumbah. The Gills had accumulated many properties in the Tweed district during their time there, including farms, shops, various residential properties, and two hotels (Royal and Club House). These were leased out and accruing rental income for Catherine.

One particular property was the Gills Building in Bay Street, Tweed Heads, of which we have a picture (see opposite). The Gills Building was a two-storey structure, with shops at street level and office suites and residential rooms upstairs - all let individually. The Gills owned it from the early 1920s. The Gill's Building was originally called the Charles Buildings, having been built by a Samuel Richard Charles. Charles sold it to Henry and Catherine Gill in January 1920. The Gills Building was located near the south-west corner of Bay and Wharf Streets.

In year 2021, there is a similar type of building in that place. In fact, at its main entrance, the original door frame of Gills Building, with its "Erected A. D. 1916" inscription, is still intact. Though the rest of the facade is much changed, and none too attractive, the interior stairwell and upstairs section have charm from a bygone era. It became known long ago as Maranga House, and it still bears that name today.

The Gills also owned, at one time, the building beside Gills Building, sitting on the south-west corner of Bay and Wharf Streets. This was known as Greenwoods Building. It, too, was two-storey, housing a number of retailers, who were renting from the Gills. Unfortunately, Greenwoods Building was gutted by fire in April 1933. The photo opposite shows the aftermath. The blaze also damaged part of the adjacent Gills Building (far right of photo), but it was reparable. After this fire, the Gill family sold the Greenwoods corner property to George Sands, who partnered with Elsie Gill (no relation to Catherine Gill) to construct their well-known Sands and Gill Cafe and Banqueting Hall at that location.

These two buildings housed a number of Henry and Catherine Gill's relatives, in both a residential and retail sense. The Andersons lived, we think, in the Gills Building for a short time (late 1931 to early 1932) when they had returned to the Tweed from Kyogle and were under financial difficulty; Peter and Amy Gill lived there also in the early 1930s; Amy Gill and Kate White ran, in the early 1930s, the Mauve Cafe, located, we think, on the Bay Street frontage of Greenwoods Building, before moving to the Tweed Cafe located in the Wharf Street end of the Gills Building; Robert Stevens (Bob) Smith ran his real estate business from Gills Building many years later, beginning in the early 1950s, though the building was no longer in Gill family hands then, having been sold to a Mary Imelda Withey in 1940.

Catherine Gill (nee Cregan) died at her home in Queen Street, Murwillumbah, on 14/04/1938. She was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah. Arthur Anderson was one of the pall bearers.

The Banner Street Cemetery, where so many of the Cregan-Gill family were laid to rest, is now a memorial park, its gravestones all gone. Plaques now at the entrance to the park list the names of all those buried there.

Catherine's burial took place after this cemetery was closed in the early 1930s to all who had not reserved a burial plot. (This is evidently why her daughter Henrietta was buried in the "new cemetery" despite having died three years earlier.) Catherine was buried beside her husband Henry Gill. Opposite is a picture of her tombstone, with its Celtic cross and IHS religious symbol.

The conversion of the old cemetery to a memorial park occurred in the 1970s. We understand that, by council decision, the gravestones were bulldozed and buried in this park.

Opposite is the obituary for Catherine Gill that appeared in the Tweed Daily, 16/04/1938, p. 8. Below that is the death certificate for Catherine Gill. It states that her first marriage was in Ipswich, though it was, in fact, in Dalby, as given in the marriage certificate.

When Henry Gill died, he did not make Catherine one of his executors. The executors were his children Henrietta Anderson, Mary Ann Smith, and Robert Edward Stevens.

Catherine Gill, in her last will, named her executors as her daughters Mary Ann Smith and Henrietta Anderson, and her son-in-law Francis Patrick Smith. However, this will was dated 17/05/1930, and between then and Catherine's date of death, both Henrietta and Francis Patrick died. Consequently, on 02/05/1935, Catherine wrote a codicil to her will, naming her son Henry William Joseph Gill and her son-in-law Abraham Solberg as the replacement executors.

Properties of Henry and Catherine Gill

Henry and Catherine Gill, in their several decades spent living and working in the Tweed River district, accumulated a number of properties in the area: hotels, shops, houses, boarding houses, and farms. Some of these went in and out of their possession as they bought and sold. Others were kept and made up part of their deceased estates.

The majority of the properties that Henry and Catherine owned were being rented out, in some cases to family members. For instance, in 1927, when Henry Gill died, their son Peter John Gill was renting some of their farm land in Dungay, and Catherine's sister Alice Graham was renting another of their farms in Dungay.

The following table shows the properties owned by the Gills (that we know of). It is in order of Date Bought. For the large properties (i.e. farms) the address given is approximate, whereas their portion and parish are more definitive. We have title deeds for the properties in most cases and these are accessed by clicking the Date Bought links. The title deeds show all transactions on the property, the chain of ownership, and a small sketch of the lot. Sometimes they also show commercial leases on the properties. Most of the properties listed below are shown on the maps opposite.

Notes: [1] The Railway Street estate (not its official name) was sold by the Gills at various times in individual lots, apart from one bulk sale on 04/04/1936. Three of the lots were never sold by Catherine and they appeared in her deceased estate. [2] The 11 Wharf Street property was 1/3-owned by Catherine and 1/3-owned by each of her daughters Mary Ann Smith and Henrietta Anderson. [3] The property at 32-34 Bay Street, discussed in detail in the previous section, was part sold on 22/06/1934 (the Greenwoods Building), whereas the remainder (the Gills Building) was retained and appeared in the deceased estates of Henry and of Catherine (they each owned 50% of this property). [4] The two Kingscliff properties were 1/2-owned by Catherine and 1/2-owned by Francis Patrick Smith.

Some properties of particular interest are discussed now. In July 1901, Henry and Catherine bought the entirety of what we call here the Railway Street estate. This was a subdivision of 152 lots in the group of streets on the southern side of Murwillumbah Railway Station. The Gills began selling individual lots in February 1909, the first being to Catherine's sister Elizabeth O'Rourke. (Catherine and Henry certainly helped the O'Rourkes settle into their new Murwillumbah home in early 1909, selling them that land and also selling them their carrier business.) Though it seems likely that all lots were vacant land when the Gills bought them, it is not known who built on them and when. Only about 15% of the lots are now residential. These are the houses now in Railway Street. The rest of the original estate appears to now be farm land.

A group of riverfront lots in Tumbulgum Road, Murwillumbah, (an area sometimes called East Murwillumbah), were owned by the Gills and their relatives in the 1920s and 1930s. Numbers 25-31 were owned by Francis Patrick Smith. Number 35 was owned by Vera Solberg. Number 37 was owned by Henry and Catherine Gill. Number 39 was owned by Robert Stevens.

The property now numbered 12 Queen Street, Murwillumbah, and housing the Murwillumbah Professional Centre, was owned by Catherine and Henry from 1914 onwards. This comprised two adjacent lots: 5 and 6. Lot 5, the one closer to Murwillumbah Street, was the location of Tara House in the 1930s, while Lot 6 next door had a house in which we think Catherine and Henry lived for some of their years in Murwillumbah. We think the Andersons also lived there in the 1930s.

When Henry Gill died, his deceased estate did not fall to Catherine. There appears to have been a roughly fifty-fifty split of properties between Henry and Catherine, so that when Henry died in 1927, Catherine simply retained her half of the properties. Henry's estate fell to their nine children in equal share. When Catherine died, eleven years later, in 1938, her estate also was bequeathed to their nine children in equal share. All of the properties in these two estates were sold by the executors in due course. One advertisement for their sale appeared in the Tweed Daily in April 1939.