In my most recent contribution on the history of North Dunoon I began by quoting from the declaration of reserve 308 on 9 December 1878 before the parish of Dunoon even had a name. That original reserve included 400 acres at the top of the rise where the Uniting Church stands and where the district water tanks are now located. I quoted the additional comment “that the land described lies partly within Forest Reserve 249 notified 15 Sep 1871”
Now it is that reserve 249 that I feel compelled to discuss here. The land office in Lismore was not established till September 1880 and certainly the copies of the Government Gazette kept in the museum in Lismore do not go back as far as 1871. I was glad that the office of the local member could get me a copy of the relevant notice from the parliamentary library. When I first saw the faxed copy I felt it could not be what I wanted.
There was the usual preamble with the correct date and headed CLARENCE FOREST RESERVES. On the same page were described 14 reserves. The eighth was headed Terania Creek. There was no mention of 249. That number was later assigned by the Lismore office. As usual the description begins with a commencement point. If you drive past the Numulgi Hall along Cross road going west you are passing through what was designated as portion 17 Parish of North Lismore and selected by Howell and Wright. The SW “corner” of that portion is on Numulgi Creek. That point is the commencement in describing the reserve in question. In effect Grafton Forest Reserve (RF) 8 is north of a line from that point due west as far as Terania Creek. The reserve was bounded on the west by Terania Creek and stretched to the ridge of the Night Cap Range. Remember that directions involve magnetic compass bearings. If you are using Topo map 9540-1-S, follow the direction of the property boundaries not the grid lines. (You might also note that Cross Road is labelled as Ross Road on some editions.) That southern boundary of RF8 crosses the main Dunoon road just north of the Tullera Hall, so there was a tremendous area in that original forest reserve. But six months before the declaration of that reserve, Duncan Currie had already selected portion 56 in the Parish of North Lismore where the Modanville Store now stands. I guess that this situation was covered by the provisions of the 4th section of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1861 mentioned in the Gazette. Before the turn of the century there were at least five revocations of part of that reserve usually called 249 but also referred to as Grafton FR8.
Now Ian Murray has brought me extracts from the Northern Star of Saturday 4 July 1903 and Wednesday 8 July 1903. These report in great detail on a meeting of the Land Board to consider an application to have yet another part of reserve 249 made available for selection. The editor Hewitt is very involved in the hearings and his editorial on the Wednesday decries the waste of money in abortive attempts to establish plantations of Cedar in Dorrigo and includes a discussion of the question of land for settlement.
The Land Board sat on Friday 26 June and in the afternoon began to deal with the application. It was agreed that the applicants should be heard first. The meeting was finally adjourned till 9am on the Saturday. Hewitt printed his report on each of the two days of hearing in separate editions of his paper. The members of the board were E. Freeman Chairman, J .Barrie and S. Garrard. Representing the Dunoon Progress Association was W.T. Missingham, and the Lismore Chamber of commerce was represented by none other than T.G. Hewitt the editor of the Star. The Mayor of Lismore (W. Lockett) attended on behalf of the municipality. The application was opposed by W.H. Nalder, Acting District Surveyor, Grafton and W.P. Pope of the Forestry Department.
The applicants included William James Wheeldon, farmer, and Robert W. Simes, farmer of Durroughby. (You might recall that Wheeldon ‘s selection had been part of reserve 308.) These appeared before the hearing on the Friday afternoon and were apparently being cross examined because the report details the person to whom they addressed various remarks. Other deponents were Alfred Buckland, dairy farmer of Whyrallah, and William G. Collings, Mining Engineer living in Dunoon . Also appearing as witnesses were Missingham and Hewitt who in addition participated in the cross examination of other witnesses. Duncan Currie of Dunoon, a farmer, also took the stand but he seemed to be in favour of maintaining the reserve intact.
When the hearing resumed on the Saturday, Missingham was not present but Hewitt represented the Dunoon Progress Association, although Wheeldon had identified himself as president of that association. The first witness on the Saturday was Thomas Ranken , Government Surveyor in charge of the Lismore office. He proposed to read a report which is summarised in 10 points. The cross examination raised questions as to what area would support a family on a dairy farm.
Alfred Poolman Water Engineer, Lismore, then took the stand. He reported that he had visited the site the previous year and had estimated the water flow at Bat Cave and six miles higher up at Bat Creek. He still maintained that the reserve should remain to protect the water quality.
Next was W.H. Pope District Forester. The lengthy cross examination involved not only the question of forestry, but water supply and Ranken’s estimate of the area involved, as well as the expected value of the land if it were to be opened for selection. It was obvious that various maps were available which would clarify many matters if they were available now.
The board withdrew to consider and returned with a majority decision, Barrie dissenting. Their recommendation was that no part of the reserve suited for the reproduction of cedar and other valuable wood timbers and no part of the areas within the watersheds of Little Rocky Creek and Rocky Creek be made open to settlement. They went on to recommend that an expert committee be set up to consider how much of the reserve was still needed for forestry. On the question of protecting the proposed water supply, they were unanimous. On 15 August the Star published a letter sent to Hewitt by H. Curry Under-secretary for land , to the effect that the minister W.L. Coleman MLA had confirmed the decision of the board.
The odd thing is that Little Rocky Creek lies south of Fraser Road. It rises near the Uniting church and enters Rocky Creek not far from The Channon at a point below the new dam that is currently being proposed. By the time of this hearing all of the land accessed by Fraser Road had already been selected. Perhaps they are referring to a different Creek. Both Wheeldon and Simes seem to be referring to water flowing into Tirrania (sic) Creek. I trust that some our readers will tell us more about Bat Cave. I presume it was inundated when the Rocky Creek Dam was completed in 1953.
It might be recalled that the name Dunoon still referred to the area we know as Modanville. It was only in 1904 that Friedman acquired part of Donoghue’s selection and built his Post Office Store. It was 1905 that surveyor Kelly lodged DP 4890 providing an additional 13 lots for sale by auction.
It would appear that the application in question referred to the land which was used half a century later to build the Rocky Creek dam. The only part I can clearly identify from the evidence was Portion 84 Parish of Dunoon belonging to R.L. Arthur. I can identify that on an old edition of the Dunoon topo map. In more recent maps the land has been subject of various DPs. The rest belongs to the parish of Whian Whian . Ironically there is a quirk in the parish border and the road into Rocky Creek Dam lies entirely in the parish of Whian Whian but land to the east of that road belongs to the parish of Dunoon. The eastern section of that selection drains into the main reservoir.

Denis Matthews