Widden Valley

Widden Valley

A valley that has sometimes known flood and fire, but seldom famine. For it is a valley of lush, green springs and golden summers. Its sweet waters, its abundant pastures and sheltered timber are ringed about by steep ramparts. Winter cannot disturb its calm. One could search the world for such a place.

Long before the white man came, the black tribesmen had given it a name that none would change – "Widden" – "stay here"! Here the Thompsons came a century ago and here they stayed.

John Lee, one of Australia's greatest early stud masters, first bred thoroughbreds at Widden. Now in 1967 the Thompsons of Widden have reached their century of thoroughbred breeding. Widden has always held a leading place among the bloodhorse studs of Australasia. It has the longest unbroken "father-to-son" history of any stud in the world today.

The stream was a main tributary of the river it joined just below Mount Kerrabee, running strongly along its clean sands below the casuarina's shade. The timber grew straight and tall - blue gum and myrtle, apple gum and white box, stringybark and fine stands of red cedar. About ten miles above the river junction the valley floor widened, where Myrtle and Emu Creeks ran in from the Nullo Mountain Spur. On this big flat, and in the many grasslands of the side gullies, kangaroo, emu and wallaby were plentiful. The herbage and native grasses made it a valley of plenty. The sandstone cliffs that rose so steeply from the valley floor were honeycombed with caves that provided shelter for many native families.

Southwards stood the peaks of Nullo Mountain, of Wilworri, Kilgoola and Midderlila, with Coricudgy lifting his head four thousand feet into the clouds. The main range here divided Kamilaroi territory from that of the Wiradjuri to the south and west. To the south-east the Kekeelbon spurs marked their border with the Kuring-gai people.

Until 1813 the infant colony of Australia was still confined to the Eastern seaboard near Sydney. In that year three young pioneers, William Charles Wentworth, Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson made the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains, reaching a mountain peak west of Hartley Vale. In their wake came Surveyor Evans, who marked the track further on and discovered the Macquarie River and the Bathurst Plains. William Cox in the six months from July 1814 to January 1815, with a work force of 30 convicts made a road from the Nepean River to the Macquarie.

The gate was opened! By early 1818, Governor Macquarie had settled the first free settlers on giants of land west of the range. Two of these were Australian-born, William Lee and John Nevell; and both of these were later to have strong ties with the Thompson Family.

The new settlement at Bathurst became the jumping-off place for inland exploration. Evans in 1815, and again in 1817 in company with Oxley, opened up the Lachlan Valley. In 1818 Oxley, with Evans as second-in-command opened the way to the Liverpool Plains and the New England. In 1821 James Blackman, Police Superintendent at Bathurst, explored the Cudgegong River districts in the vicinity of the present town of Mudgee. He was followed shortly afterwards by Alan Cunningham and William Lawson in two separate trips.

The first record of the Goulburn River (of which the Widden Brook is a major tributary) is in the Journal of Lieutenant William Lamson. Setting out from Bathurst, he proceeded northwards over the Winburndale and Clear Creeks, crossed the Turon River and explored the mountain country to the north-east of Mudgee. His Journal entry of November 30th, 1822. records:

We crossed a steep chasm of sandstone and came to a river running South East through a fine country. We named this the Goulburn.

Lawson named the river after Henry Goulburn, the then Colonial Secretary. The Journal records his native guide as "Ering". No doubt this is the same native often called "Aaron", who guided other parties out of Bathurst. His name is still recorded in "Aaron's Pass" - a steep descent on the present highway between Ilford and Cudgegong. Lawson enquired of Ering regarding the mouth of the river and the native told him "where the white man sits down”, meaning Newcastle. Lawson noted that undoubtedly the river ran eastwards to the sea and that it did not produce the fine sand to be found in western rivers.

For the first eleven days of December, 1822, Lawson explored the upper valleys of the Goulbum, which impressed him greatly. He described this mountain country as being "interspersed with plains here and there of the be the grass excellent, very thick with herbs and vines intermixed, watered by numerable fine runs of water. This is a beautiful country for sheep." He noted also the high dividing ranges which in some places "were here higher than Mount York. His Journal makes no mention of Widden, but records that he explored the Bylong and Merriwa districts of the Goulburn watershed.

By 1824 George and Henry Cox, sons of William the roadmaker, on the Burrundulla flats near Mudgee on the South bank of the Cudgegong River. William Lawson claimed the country on the northern side, where Lawson Creek bears his name.
The settlers who pioneered Bathurst in Macquarie's time had each been given 50 acres of farmland, a town lot of two acres, a convict servant and a gift of one cow and four bushels of seed wheat. From this humble beginning grew the fortunes of William Lee and his family. Within a few short years the Lees occupied the Capertee Valley. Shortly their title to that holding was upset by Sir John Jamison. William Lee and his sons, led by the same native who had guided Lawson, took their stock north to occupy the Bylong Valley, the same "fine country" which had so impressed Lawson. The way from Capertee into the Bylong was a precipitous track down Growee Gulph, at one stage a fall 1500 feet in two miles. The Lee family occupied the choicest of this valley and spread their herds over the valley floor from the Growee Gulph 15 miles north to Bylong Creek.


Here they prospered, while Sir John Jamison struggled with the less friendly environment of the Capertee Valley. The Bylong grants were originally in the name of William Lee, but it was his son John who became the notable Bylong pioneer.


John Tindale, a close associate of the Lees, was the first to take up land in the neighbouring Widden Valley. On May 2nd, 1836, a block of 1110 acres was advertised by Crown authorities, and by December 10th John Tindale's 1110 acres were some of the richest in the whole valley. Nearby blocks were soon afterwards acquired by John Lee and very soon he was the most active land-user in the valley.

About 1840 John Lee took over Bylong from his father. Three years later he leased Tindale's holdings in the Widden and added them to his own. The Lees had first brought sheep to Bylong but by the forties were replacing these with cattle and horses for which they became famous. The Widden was used by Lee for grazing his heifers and weaners. His overseer was George Simpson, a young single man from the Hawkesbury. In 1847 Simpson made a trip to the Hawkesbury districts and married Miss Sarah Russell. Next year their son George became the first white child to be born in the Widden valley. The Simpsons settled on Emu Creek and this property was held by them until 1954.


Ref: D. M. Barrie, Valley of Champions (Melb, 1967);