Given my liking for anything to do with trains and railways, I have a particular liking for Young’s former Railway Station, but for many visitors the Town Hall on Boorowa Street is Young’s most striking building. Were it not for the fact that it incorporates the towns rather tasteful and distinctive World War I Memorial it might be less so. Continue reading “War Memorial and Town Hall”
Prior to the railway coming to Young this site was occupied by the town’s first public school which opened here in 1864 (rebuilt 1873). Continue reading “The Last Train Departed at ………..”
Without knowing a little of the history of country New South Wales towns such as Young, Cooma and Goulburn (and there are others) your initial encounter with court houses in these places will undoubtedly cause raised eyebrows. Like me, you will wonder why such grand court houses were built in what are today are rather modest towns in most other respects. Continue reading “Former District Court House”
The first white settler to arrive in Young was the aptly named James White an ex-convict who arrived in 1832. Having befriended Cobborn Jackie, a chief of the Waradjeri Aboriginal tribe, he secured a homestead site at Burrangong Creek, Young. White and his family lived here pretty much undisturbed until June 1860 when gold was found at one of his sheep camps – Lambing Flat. Continue reading “St John the Evangelist’s Anglican Church”
In 1860 around 2000 Chinese prospectors were drawn to Young, lured by the possibility of making their fortunes in the goldfields. Within months gold reserves were dwindling and European miners, resentful of the well organised and successful Chinese miners, banded together to drive Chinese prospectors out of town. See my Reading the Riot Act review for more detail on the shocking treatment meted out to the Chinese at this time. Continue reading “Lambing Flat Chinese Tribute Garden”
I am sure many readers will have heard of people “reading the riot act” or indeed have announced that they would do so themselves. Less, I imagine, would be aware that the phrase is some 300 years old dating from the public reading of the 1714 Riot Act – an Act of the British Parliament also applicable in Australia. Continue reading “Reading the Riot Act”
Young is a small town of around 7,000 in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales – less than two hours’ drive from Canberra and four hours from Sydney. It is, today, the self proclaimed ‘Cherry Capital of Australia’. Continue reading “Young – Cherry Capital Of Australia”
The Rambling Wombat 