THE Aldine Centennial History of New South Wales, by Frederick Morrison, MA, MD, lists Bega as one of the chief towns in 1888. The entry reads:
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BEGA is a town of over 2000 persons, 253 miles south of Sydney. Though not exactly on the coast it is reckoned among the coast towns, being only eleven miles from Tathra, its nearest shipping port.
It is a lively place, carrying on with Sydney a brisk trade in butter, cheese and bacon. It is a business centre for a large portion of the eastern part of the rich Monaro pastoral district.
There are many fine public buildings in the place that gives an air of culture and refinement to the town. All the leading religious denominations have fine churches and wealthy congregations.
Manufactories of importance are here established in tanning and milling, and give employment to a goodly number of hands. The rural region surrounding it is much utilised in farming, more especially in the production of maize, barley and potatoes.
When the people of this town shall have succeeded in obtaining the proposed railway to Cooma they will then have connection with the metropolis by rail, and will greatly contribute to their prosperity.
Although Bega was the only town now in the Bega Valley Shire to be listed in Centennial History, the Reverend Frederick Morrison also included “embracing sketches and portraits of noted people” and district residents featured were from Wolumla, Bega, Angledale, Stony Creek, Candelo, Bemboka, Ayrdale, Cobago, Yarranung, Brogo and Pambula.
WOLUMLA:
John Edward Bennett, JP, was born in England in 1821, and arrived in Sydney in 1834. He attended St Phillips’ School, Wyndham, which was under the management of Dean Cowper, and studied for a period of between five and six years. In 1837 he left Sydney for Gundaroo, near Lake George, where, for about 20 years, he followed the occupation of farming, during the first six years of which he was apprenticed to Mr Packer, afterwards becoming manager of that gentleman’s station on Monaro. This property was subsequently disposed of to Mr Galloway, from whom Mr Bennett purchased the whole for a few hundred pounds.
More on Mr Bennett and other Woluma residents in 1888 in the next issue.
