General News
5 January, 2025
Ken Arnold looking at the region’s lonlely graves
During the 1850s a shepherd by the name of Scott worked on the Cairn Curran station, living in a simple thatched roof hut, known then to the locals as Spring’s hut. It stood on the southern slope of Pigeon Hill, it being just a few stone throws...
During the 1850s a shepherd by the name of Scott worked on the Cairn Curran station, living in a simple thatched roof hut, known then to the locals as Spring’s hut.
It stood on the southern slope of Pigeon Hill, it being just a few stone throws from Mount Tarrengower.
In the very early days a teamster, unknown to all today, was travelling with his wife and child from Smeaton to the Loddon River area when his wife fell ill and died.
The teamster buried her on the spot, dressed as she was with neither coffin or shroud. The broken-hearted man and his daughter then went on their way.
As the woman’s name was Charlotte the area eventually became known as Charlotte Plains, it being part of the holding of Hector Norman Simpson.
It was not long before they both returned, accompanied by their old dog Nudle, to the Cairn Curran homestead where they unloaded their cargo before pushing on to Spring’s hut where they were going to camp with the old shepherd for a few days so as to rest the bullocks.
All was well on a balmy summer night, the two men exchanging stories and news they watching the dark storm clouds gathering over Mount Tarrengower.
Suddenly the wind began to play havoc with the old gum tree. The night became stifling, the bullocks and horses became restless, they sensing the approaching storm.
As the first rain drops fell the small group moved into the hut but by then the lightning lit up the dark night sky whilst the thunder rolled in with a deafening noise.
Suddenly it became quiet however the air was electric, nature seemed to waiting and waiting. Suddenly the wind rose to hurricane strength it ripping branches of the old trees as though they were just a piece of paper, the storm broke, the lightning became terrifying whilst the thunder crashed and rolled on it, the rain becoming torrential, the occupants being dazed by the light, they sat terrified, listening and waiting for the worst.
Suddenly, above the fury of the storm they could hear the neighing of the horses, the barking of dogs and the beating of hooves, the teamster knowing full well that his bullocks had broken loose and were stampeding. Scott and the teamster sprang to their the old shepherd grabbing his lantern whilst the teamster spoke to his daughter, who by that time was terrified, she clinging to her fathers arm.
He told her that the bullocks had broken loose hence he had to fetch em back so they could continue on.
He gave her instructions to remain in the hut with Nudle, you will be alright as we wont be long gone. Don’t go outside.
Before the girl had realised Scott and her father were lost in the darkness. She was too frightened to move, old Nudle not helping the situation as he continually growled at the noise.
Suddenly the wind rushed down the gully it thrusting the old door back and forth whilst the dim light that the lantern offered was extinguished.
“Daddy, Daddy,” the girl yelled but the only answer she got was the howling of the wind, the noise of the storm and the whimpering of old Nudle.
The dark night was occasionally lit up by the lightning. On seeing the cart outside the girl, now hysterical, thought her father had returned so she dashed out calling for her father, but the deafening peal of the thunder and the lightning only made the situation worse.
The girl was soon drenched, the deafness closed around her thus the night took her into its arms.
Some hours later the two men weary and drenched returned to the hut, lit the lantern and looked for child before going out into the night, his sinking heart dreading that he again had to make another search.
The two men stumbled through the grass, over branches whilst the wind whipped the leaves across their faces, the lantern swinging like will-o-the- wisp.
As dawn broke the two weary men found themselves standing by a huge red gum tree that grew between Mount Tarrengower and Pigeon Hill.
It was here that they stumbled upon the drenched unconscious child who was so traumatised that she soon died.
A grave was dug by old Scott in readiness for a sheet of bark to be stripped from the old white sentinel so the little girl could be buried, the first white girl to be buried in the area.
So on the southern slope of Pigeon Hill lies the lonely grave of a teamsters daughter, it being touched by the morning sun and soft rain, it being surrounded by the ever changing beauty of the changeless hills, and wrapped in the solitude of silence that is only broken by the voice of the wind, the morning song of the birds and a visitor every now and again.
Today the old hut is well gone, the only permanent reminder is a plaque near a large reg gum tree, just off Watersons Road
Thomas and Maria Ninnis and their four daughters set off from the copper mines at Burra for the Bendigo diggings, some kilometres distant, their waggon loaded with building materials.
On reaching Robin Hill, above Myers Creek, near the corner of the Calder Highway and Sparrowhawk road, Maria, who had not recovered from her confinement became ill. Ninnis unhitched his waggon and hurried into Sandhurst to try and find a doctor.
On returning to Myers Creek he found that his wife was gravely ill, she soon dying whilst daughters Grace and Jane died later that day - July 7, 1852. Ninnis, using some of the building material for coffins buried his family before building a freestone wall.
It would seem that Ninnis remained several months on the Bendigo goldfields before turning west and heading back to Clare.
Around 1905 a grey haired woman visited Bendigo, searching for the grave, she finally locating Peter Rohs who was able to show her the site, which he had fenced off, as it was on the rise in the corner of his paddock where once stood the bone and flock mill.
Rohs helped the woman rebuild the stone wall and place a plaque on the site. The grey haired woman being none other than Mary Pearce Roach, the young girl who accompanied her father and sister Martha Marion on their lonely trip back to South Australia.
Peter Rohs, born 1833, Denmark, arrived in Adelaide during 1852. Around 1856 Rohs set off for the Bendigo goldfield, thus he was present during the time that “Bendigo Mac” ruled the infant town of Sandhurst.
Peter Rohs, along with George and John Holmes, established the first bone mill in the Sandhurst area, near to the junction of the Sandhurst road with the Bullock Creek, Kangaroo Flat, Myers Flat, Inglewood and Marong roads, near the Halfway House (hotel) at Myers Flat, this area being renamed Maiden Gully in the late 1930s. In fact the road to Kangaroo Flat was known as Bonemills road up until the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne in 1956, it now being known as Olympic parade.
The grave can be visited by turning off the Calder Highway into Sparrowhawk Road before turning in and driving down Pioneer Drive to the traffic island. You can walk up the path between two houses to the trees where you can ponder what was once a lonely spot.
The plaque reads : In loving memory of Maria, beloved wife of Thomas Ninnis of Clare, mother of M. P. Roach of Moonta and M. M. Chapman of Hoyleton, died July 7, 1852, aged 34 years. Also Grace and Jane, children of the above