'MACQUARIE'
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Property: 'Macquarie'
Address: 3397 O'Connell Road
City: Bathurst
State: NSW
Postcode: 2795
Country: Australia
Property Size: 960 Hectare 2370 acres
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 2
Year Built: 1824
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Rural Category: Livestock
Inspection: By Appointment
Status of Sale: For Sale
Status: Active
Price: Call For Price
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Full Description: Historic Bathurst Property 'Macquarie'
Two Family Ownership Since Settlement of Bathurst.
Originally settled by William Lawson. 1815.
This historic 960 hectare Bathurst property has been in the ownership of only two families since 1815. Members of these two families who have run the farm include a famous Australian explorer, a colourful Australian Test cricketer and a man who lived on and farmed the land continuously for 71 years.
History
The Lawson family
The first owner was William Lawson, the explorer, who was promised 1000 acres of land by Governor Macquarie in 1814 as a reward for being one of three men who discovered the way across the Blue Mountains in 1813. He selected his reward grant at Macquarie Plains on the Fish River and occupied it under valid tenure until it was officially measured by the government surveyor in 1821. The grant was registered along with many others in the Bathurst district in 1823.
It is recorded that he had cattle on the land in 1815, near the corner of the Fish and Campbell Rivers. Lawson wrote letters to Government officials about his farm at Macquarie Plains. In an 1823 letter to Major Goulburn, the Colonial Secretary, he wrote:
my own farm, at Macquarie Plains on the banks of the Fish River which was granted and measured to me by Major Genl. Macquarie in consideration, being one of three persons who first accomplished the passage over the Blue Mountains in 1813.
Lawson was made Commandant of the new town of Bathurst in 1819 and held that post until his resignation in 1823. During this time his main residence was in Prospect and when he was in Bathurst he stayed at the Commandants House.
After his resignation he needed a headquarters in the district and built the house on his farm at Macquarie Plains, the present day Macquarie. Prior to this there were only huts on the farm. The house was built over the period of late 1823 to mid 1824. Lawsons son John wrote in May 1824, saying, our house at Macquarie Plains is almost finished and William Lawson wrote in June1824, I am getting up a very pretty brick cottage at my farm at Macquarie Plains The house was built out of bricks made on the property and said to have been built by convict labour.
Lawson enlarged the farm at Macquarie Plains by buying land from neighbouring settlers and from the Crown, and having his sons John and William apply for grants for land adjoining his reward grant. He employed a large number of convict labourers.
His son, William Lawson Junior brought up his family at Macquarie after his marriage to Caroline Icely in 1832. A particular event that has been recorded in some detail is the visit of Governor Fitzroy and his wife to the Macquarie Plains house in 1846. The Governors party stayed at the house for a few days and after one dinner party a ball was held. The guests danced furiously on the bricks on the front verandah and it was noted that patent leather boots and white satin shoes were stained red from the dust. The dancing continued until 4 a.m. Although worn in places, the bricks are the ones on the verandah at Macquarie today.
After his father's death in 1850 William Lawson junior moved his family to Prospect. One of his daughters married her cousin, Charles Icely, and lived on Macquarie for a few years. The West family who lived at The Grange across the Fish River said that Charles Icely used to train his horses on the flats below the house on Sunday mornings while his wife was coming home from church in her carriage.
The farm was then leased in 1868 to Caleb Nash who lived in the house with his large family until 1878. Thomas Lee from nearby Woodlands (the present day Bundilla) then leased the farm from the Lawson Estate and, according to Caleb Nash's memoirs, Lee wanted the extra land as a sheep run. Nash was very upset at having to leave with short notice.
The McKibbin family
In 1885 Thomas McKibbin senior subleased the farm from Thomas Lee and moved his family into the house. In 1889 he bought the homestead block of 204 acres and continued leasing and farming the rest of the property. In one year he was said to have sown 300 acres of wheat by hand.
A 1903 deed shows that he sold the homestead block back to members of the Lawson family. He continued to live in the homestead and lease the rest of the land. In 1917 Thomas sons, Sam and Tom, signed an agreement to buy the whole property. Although the official contract was signed in 1922 the transfer was not completed until 1926/27 because of the legal complexity of sorting out the land titles of the Lawson estate.
The land which is now the present day property Wanera was part of the purchase and Sam and Tom immediately sold it to their brother in law, Sam Beddie. They ran 'Macquarie'as a partnership McKibbin Bros. Sam McKibbin also owned and farmed Stratford at O'Connell.
Tom McKibbin lived at Macquarie with his wife, Edith. A colourful character, he was an Australian Test cricketer in the 1890's, was in the Test tour in England in 1896 and the subject of considerable controversy concerning his bowling action.
Watson McKibbin, Sam's eldest son, went to live and work at Macquarie in 1928 at the age of 18 after a year spent on a cattle station in Queensland. He was to remain on Macquarie for the next 71 years!
Farming was very labour intensive in the 1930's and from the station diaries of the period it can be seen that a great deal of time was spent in activities such as carting hay, making haystacks, mustering by horseback, sowing crops and fencing, all without the benefit of modern machinery..
Tom McKibbin died in 1939. Watson married Joan Gauld from Sydney in 1940 and by the early 1950's he owned Macquarie. Ownership of part of the farm, the 960 hectares currently on the market, was transferred to a family company, Watson McKibbin Pty Ltd in the 1970s.
In partnership with Joan and later his son, Tom, Watson successfully ran a diversified farm until the mid 1990s. He not only ran sheep and Shorthorn cattle but utilized the river flats for crops as well.
From 1945 to 1989 he was the only grower to continuously supply Edgells with asparagus. He had 36 hectares under production just before he cut his last crop. Watson also grew cauliflowers and leased out the river flats for vegetable growing. Other crops grown were wheat, oats and lucerne.
Both Watson and Joan McKibbin were prominent in Bathurst sports - Watson in football, cricket and golf and Joan in tennis and golf.
In the mid to late 1990s he sold the back land, retaining the company land of 960 hectares and moved to Bathurst in 1999 with Joan and Tom. Since that date Macquarie has been leased. Watson died in 2004 at the age of 94, obtaining his wish that Macquarie was not sold in his lifetime.
Improvements: 960 HA (2370 acres)
freehold, magnificent
views.
12 kms Bathurst, 2 1/2
hours Sydney.
6 bedroom brick
homestead (Circa 1824).
2 storey former convict
barracks, 4 stand brick
shearing shed. Rare opportunity to
acquire position and
productive land close to
Bathurst.
Country Description: 440 acres alluvial river
flats (180 Mg Irrigation
Licence), balance mostly
arable.
Water: 5 kms frontage Fish
River.
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Features
River Views
Rural Views
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Home Features
Fireplace
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| AGENT
CONTACT DETAILS |
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Listed by:
Ray Mullen
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| Phone: 02 6331 2366 |
| Mobile: 0418635773 |
| Fax: 02 6331 2948 |
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