The Historical Society is anxious to collect the history of our second wave of pioneers, the Soldier Settlers – from subdivision maps, correspondence, documents, photos, reminiscences, ledgers…
We have some information about Soldier Settlement on Waterloo, Rangers Valley, Kings Plains and Deepwater.
Jean Cameron, in a presentation to the historical society said “The Closer Settlement Act of 1904 gave government the power to resume large estates in cases where agreement to sell could not be reached. At the end of 1918, 3,327 settlers had been established on 1,700,000 acres.
“In the fifty years of operation of the Closer Settlement Acts, including Soldier Settlement, 11,288 grants were settled.…”
The Glen Innes Examiner reported on 31/10/1947: “Four of the 13 blocks in the soldier settlement subdivision of Waterloo Station went to local men… [*marked]
“The ballot was conducted in the Glen Innes Court House this morning…for eight grazing blocks and five farming blocks.
“The CPS placed 600 marbles in the rotatory box and released them singly under the supervision of JR Windeyer and President of the sub-branch of the Legion of Ex-Servicemen, Mr EA Matley.
“The successful applicants were allotted the blocks of their own preference as given on the application form.
“Those successful in obtaining grazing blocks [of 1800 acres]: Walter Anderson, Clive Best, Cecil Betts, Sydney Easton, Jack Judd, Wilfred Schlunke, Charles Stewart, Keith Streeting; farming blocks [400 acres]: Norman Cameron, *Thomas Cameron, *Thomas Lynn, *Ernest Pettit and *Francis Robson. Reserves were Jack Bush and George Parry…”
Bill Schlunke wrote in our Bulletin Vol.15 No.1 in 1987 “…The early days of a soldier settlers’ life were far from easy.
“They were given a block of land, often what had been a paddock on a large station and had to face the task, single handed, of converting them to viable farms…the single men, by far the majority bought a tent and pitched them beside a stream and cooked their meals on an open fire…”
In June 1949 the Minister for Education was informed that by 1950 there would be thirty-two children on the Kings Plains Estate Soldier Settlement available for school enrolment [I think the number included some on Waterloo], but there was no school.
This undated photo is of some of the settlers at the school which opened September 1950 and closed 1962. The building was transferred from another area.
