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| Lone Graves on "Fernside" |
Photo: Wal Pilz
Three Lone Graves on "Fernside"
Located about 200m to the right of the entrance road before the river crossing. The photo is looking south with the cottage (not homestead) in the background.
Notes on Tailby
“Captain Chauvel had just left Willow Glen, opposite Fernside, and gone to the Clarence River,
having sold Willow Glen to Mr. George Tailby, who then lived at Rockville, where Mr . George
McQuiggin now resides.”
Ref: Some Early Recollections of the Town and District of Rylstone, Etc by William Weild Armstrong - 1905 - p.2
“Willow Glen.
The original grant to Caption Chauvel was 1086 acres on the Rylstone side of the river.
Some assigned servants having absconded from about Sydney, and made their way to the upper
parts of the Cudgegong river, reported finding good land on their return. This induced Captain
Chauvel to take it up. The first residence was near the river bank. The depth of water in the river
now is to be measured in inches, but in the early days a boat was kept.
Mr. George Tailby purchased Willow Glen in ’49, and later the land on the opposite side of the
river , where he buit the present brick residence, and changed the name to Fernside. The native
name for the place was Narrangra, meaning "No Grass', having got this name from the fact that it
was a part of a cattle run of the Marsden family, and the black herdsmen used to keep the stock on
the part they knew, until it was eaten very bare.
Mr. Tailby had sheep and cattle stations at Coonamble, the latter being Gullagumbone, and the
former Merri Merri Station, now owned by Mr. Peacock. Fernside, then Willow Glen, was acquired
as a shearing depot, it being a common thing in those days to travel sheep to where there was more
convenience for carriers , and where the sheep could be washed, away from the cattle. The
Cudgegong river, which old hands say has much changed in character, was a very suitable place,
being a chain of very long ponds. The wool was washed on the sheep’s backs, and shorn, and the
sheep travelledd back to Coonamble.
About 7000 were brought down each year in this way, though the numbers reached as high as 9000.
Mr. Tailby was the first, white man to settle at Gullargumbone, but he considered the climate
unsuitable, to live in, so fixed his home at Rylstone. It is worth mentioning, that in those days, Mr.
Tailby was never interfered with by the lawless bushranging characters who were too common at
that time. This is attributed to the fact that Mr. Tailby would never have an assigned servant, that
system being productive of so much cruelty.”
Ref: Some Early Recollections of the Town and District of Rylstone, Etc by William Weild Armstrong - 1905 - p.58
