Cornish Association of New South Wales
Cobar Cornish History Project
Cornish Association of New South Wales
Cobar Cornish History Project
In 1870, three well and bore sinkers had stopped at a waterhole in the midwest of NSW. They had admired the beautiful blue and green colours on the sides of the Kubbur rock-hole, well known to the aboriginal people of the area not only as a valuable source of water but as a place where material could be gathered for painting themselves for corroborees. On their way south from Bourke on the River Darling, the three met up with two friends who ran a general store and wayside inn at Gilgunnia and provided services
such as blacksmithing and carpentry.
Henry Kruge had married Sidwell Woolcock (or Wilcocks depending on who wrote their name!) at Clare in South Australia in 1858. They became hawkers, travelling cross country through South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. They fell in love with the country round Gilgunnia in NSW and had decided to stop there.
After a very successful operation involving the stabilisation of a Cornish Engine House and its Chimney at Cadia not far from Orange in NSW, the CANSW decided to undertake another project where Cornish folk had had a marked involvement. The first suggestion was Gilgunnia in the midwest of NSW but this was widened to take in the whole of the midwest mining area around what is now Cobar. As co-ordinator of this new project, the area involved seemed enormous; I suspect that the decision was taken without realising that the area of interest would be something like 200 km in a N-S direction and about 100 km E-W. The immediate investigation could be narrowed down to Cobar itself with a further interest in the earlier mining village of Gilgunnia about 60 km south of Cobar.
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and henry kruge |
Sidwell had been a 'bal-gal', probably aged 14 or 15, before travelling to South Australia in about 1850. In case you do not know what "bal-gal" means in this context, many girls and young ladies worked above ground at the Cornwall copper mines doing many types of work. "Bal" means mine in the Cornish language. One of the tasks they perhormed was sorting good ore from dross, having been taught well how to distinguish the various copper ores, especially by colour and texture.
Sidwell took one look at the rock samples which the three well-sinkers were carrying and immediately recognised the samples as rich copper carbonate. She is said to have remarked, "Thart be copper!". Henry took some of the ore and heated it in a crucible in his forge, finally pouring molten copper metal into a groove in the ground. The three men hurried back north to Bourke and lodged a claim which was granted.
This marked the beginning of copper mining in Cobar. In the photograph above, Sidwell is wearing a pendant which was made specially for her by the three well-sinkers in recognition of her advice.
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Thomas Lean |
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Soon Captain Thomas Lean was asked to operate the mine. He came from copper mines in South Australia, bringing with him with six Cornish miners from Moonta. So began another Cornish copper mining involvement in New South Wales. Many other Cornish folk came with their families from SA, Vic, Qld and other parts of NSW, to what was a rather dry, desolate place except when the skies opened every five to ten years and the country was flooded!
The CANSW is collecting the fascinating background history of the involvement of these Cornish folk in what is now a large centre of copper, gold, lead and zinc production. They came from Redruth, St Blazey, Illogan, Hayle, Helston, Luggan, Linkinhorne, Lelant, Breage, Stithians, St Columb, St Cleer, Tremaine, and other places in Cornwall, unlisted in the NSW birth, marriage and death records, except as CON.
Some of the surnames from around Cobar read like a Cornish family history - Buckley, Bunn, Coombe, Davey, Dunstan, Freeman, Gill, Gluyas, Gummow, Jones, Nicholls, Opie, Pearce, Prisk, Richards, Rickard, Rogers, Skewes, Thomas, Trathew, Trevena, Trewella, Uren, Williams, Wills.
My task was to act as the co-ordinator of the project. Although we have been given exceptional help by the Cobar Historical Society, the Cobar Genealogical Group and the Cobar Mining Museum, we would be delighted to get help from Cornish cousins who had relations in Cobar and its neighbourhood.
There is no doubt that there were letters written and gifts sent back to Cornwall as we have found indications of such activities in our searches.
PLEASE contact us (letter or email) with even the smallest note or piece of information about Cornish cousins if it relates to the midwest of NSW and Cobar in particular.
Thomas Lean was born about 1818 at Bere Alston in Devon but was of pure Cornish stock. His father Joseph was born in the Cornish mining heartland of Gwennap and his mother Grace nee Goldsworthy was baptised at Redruth. Their families moved to the silver mines around the Cornwall-Devon border and Joseph married Grace at Bere Ferres in Devon in 1813. They were living at Stoke Climsland, Devon, at the time of emigration to South Australia, arriving on the night of 12 December 1840.
Certainly a real Cornish mining family! And there was more about the family in South Australia as you will be able to read further on. If you have such information, we would be very grateful to have it.
Meanwhile, we continued to expand the pages about other aspects of mining in the Cobar area as the story grew, especially those about Cornish folk who helped set it all going. As a start, the story of the Lean Family is available as your next stop. We are delighted to say that we have found some more descendants of Joseph Lean who emigrated to South Australia. When? We hope you will find out at the Captain Lean pages listed in the Menu.