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Larras Lee



We passed through Bakers Swamp without noticing anything.  Then reached our last dot on the map for this trip - Larras Lee and saw this.  The roadside monument says:

In Memory of 
WILLIAM LEE 
(1794 - 1870) 
of "Larras Lake" 
a pioneer of the sheep 
and cattle industry 
and first member for 
Roxburgh under responsible 
government (1856 - 1859). 
This stone was erected 
by his descendants. 
--- 1938 ---

This is a repost from a few days ago. Thinking I would use this for this week’s Taphophile Tragics post I dug a little further into William Lee’s story, it’s a very colonial Australian one.

William was born of convict parents, living his childhood years around the Sydney region. In his early 20s he was issued with some government cattle, recommended as a suitable settler and granted 134 acres at Kelso near Bathurst. He was one of the first in the area and did well. A few years later he was granted a ram and an increase in his land to 300 acres.

William developed a reputation as a discoverer of good pastoral land and introducing fine cattle into the district. He kept on acquiring land. He was granted 2,430 acres at Larras Lake in 1830 and by the time of his death had amassed over 18,000 acres around Wellington, Lane Cove, Bathurst, Emu Plains and O’Connell plains.

He became a prominent figure in Bathurst, sitting in the first legislative assembly as the Member for Roxburgh. He died aged 76 and is buried at Kelso. His wife and four daughters and six sons survived him.



There is not much else at Larras Lee other than a rather interesting neighbour over the road which I will show you tomorrow.

I've added Bakers Swamp and  Larras Lee as localities at 100 Towns.  

Comments

  1. Hah, this could be your TT for NEXT week. Those dates are quite old, even the plaque from his descendents!

    That sky is particularly heavy ... I was going away before the weekend, but have reconsidered. Not worth the drenching ...

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    Replies
    1. Yep that's the plan. I've found a bit of his bio and will be updating the post with that for next Tuesday.

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  2. This would be so unusual here. Lovely shot.

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  3. Oo goodo. I looked him up and his appearance is most MOST substantial. A bit like a young Henry Parkes before he went to seed. His grandson handtyped a family history so that it was not lost in the mists of time. There is bundles there about him. Well there would be, with that many sprogs!@

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  4. Wow, interesting.

    Herding Cats

    http://seathreepeeo.blogspot.com

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  5. What a wonderful success story from such humble beginnings.

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  6. He certainly made good use of all he owned! Amazing how much land he finally amassed! I am especially surprised that his holdings included both the Lane Cove area and west of the Blue Mountains!

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  7. What a wonderful discovery for you. So nice to see that his descendants were proud of him and his history.

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  8. HE had a huge amount of land...and it sounds as if he did his best to pass along what he learned in the ways of keeping stock....does the family still own that land I wonder.

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