Some old Photos from the Moonbah Area

Ossie Wellsmore holding a Brumbie Trap. This is actually a dingo trap that has been modified so as not to hurt the Brumbies leg

Ossie's sons John and Don. John now owns the property that Henry mined the rock for his home

Don owns a property with a beautiful view of the Snowy Mountains, he still rides up the mountain for the high country grazing. I have stayed with Don and his lovely wife Mil when in the area

An old mountain hut, many of these are still used today by mountain travellers

The old Punt at Jindabyne the only way to cross the Snowy River, used until the bridge was built

Gathering for a rabbit drive

The results of a rabbit drive, there would be a thousand rabbits here

This is the collection of one morning trap run. Traps were checked every morning and night, the result of less than 100% at each check was considered very poor

A couple of girl shooters with their results, the size of the Ammo looks like a bit of over kill!

The wooden body of the tuck is interesting I would guess this photo was taken about 1940

Everyone joined in a rabbit hunt, dogs and women as well. The lady holding the shotgun which appears to be a .410 so its most likely her own gun as the .410  was considered a ladies gun

A stockman and his dogs and pack horse

Straighty Pender (Pendergast) Straighty was a bit of a boy and his lifestyle bordered on the edge of lawbreaker. One day while trying to remove a jammed .44 cal round from his Winchester rifle he managed to shoot himself in the knee. He spent the rest of the night digging the bullet out with his pen knife. It took all night as he kept fainting from the pain. He would never have made a doctor as his leg ended up straight, hence his nick name. You could always recognize him when he was on a horse as his leg stuck out to the side, but I believe he was a great rider. 

A doctor that had a holiday house near Straighty's home upset him some way so Straighty shot a Kangaroo, climbed up on the roof and dropped the dead roo down the chimney. When the doctor arrived at his holiday home at some later date the smell was very bad. Straighty was suspected but nothing could be proved

The old homestead at Coolamine

An old slab hut with a Clay oven outside, a lot of cooking was done outdoors due to fire risk

Bath day mostly cold and not done very often, everyone used the same water

Charlie Finn -Transporter

Here Charlie has a prize bull loaded onto an A model Ford Ute. The frame work is made of two farm gates and ropes, how he got the bull into the rear section, kept him there for a drive to the Cooma Show about 40 miles and then unloaded him I cannot hope to guess. He then brought him back to the property. There was nothing these people could not do!

Old flour bags. The flour mostly came in 150 lb bags, like wheat bags, but they also used these smaller bags

I can remember one that had the shape of a Golliwog and also another none with a Teddy Bear drawn on the bag. When emptied they were turned inside out and sewn around the edge of the drawing about 90%, them cut out with scissors. They were then turned right side out, stuffed with cotton wool and the last section sewn up by hand. You then had some free toys and they were loved by every child that obtained one

Mrs Potts Irons

These irons were placed on the top of the stove to head. The handle unclipped by pressing down the button in the center and a new one was picked up the same way, four inserts would keep a lady with hot irons all the time

Kero was used in large amounts in the early days and there were heaps of kero tins around the properties

They were used for may items, the main one as buckets, but also flour bins and even as draws or cupboards. They were transported in lots of four in wooden cases which were also used as small storage areas as seen on the right of the picture

Most cooking items were cast iron, kettles came in sets of four different sizes and the cast iron boilers also came in different sizes

The Cast Iron Stove with items on the top. the big one on the left is a hot water container with tap that either sat on the stove or hung over the open fire. Above are some skillets and frypan and o the right are cast iron saucepans

The fire was mostly kept alight all the time, year in and year out

A hand operated washing machine - the handle was lifted up and down to work, lifting a bottom plate up and down