ONE of Bombala’s historic properties has marked 100 years since the Maslin family purchased it, with a lunch celebration being enjoyed at “Gunnigrah” over the Easter weekend.
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More than 100 people attended the lunchtime event in the historic Gunningrah woolshed, which dates back more than 150 years.
Among those who attended were extended family, shearers, contractors, trades people, Gunningrah employees both present and past, and people who have lived on the property at various times through the decades.
On display were many old maps showing the original extent of the property from first settlement in the 1860s, when it was marked as a “squatting run” of the Maneroo district, as the Monaro was known at that time.
There were also lists of past employees, and photos showing farm buildings, work on the farm, and the evolution of the Gunningrah garden.
Gunningrah was purchased by Charlie Maslin’s great grandfather Fred Maslin in late 1911, when he moved to NSW from South Australia.
The children of the current residents of Gunningrah represent the fifth generation of the family living on the farm.
Charlie Maslin spoke about the important role that the wider community has played in keeping farms like Gunningrah going, and gave special thanks to people who have worked there for several decades.
“Shearing contractor Peter Kimber started shearing in the Gunningrah woolshed in 1952, under the leadership of his uncle Charlie Kimber,” he said.
“Sixty years later, Peter is here to mark this milestone, and his son Warren is now carrying on the tradition as the third generation of Kimber shearing contractors in 2012.”
Among many other local identities with a long history of association with Gunningrah is John Ratcliffe, who started working there as a shed hand 46 years ago, back in 1966, before his career as electrical contractor began. John is currently Bombala Citizen of the Year.
Jim Manning of Cathcart carried out building and maintenance on many buildings at Gunningrah over more than forty years.
“No doubt Jim did a fair bit of rejoicing when he finally completed a job here which I told him would only take a week and actually took a year!” Charlie Maslin said.
Charlie described Mr Manning as “the glue that has held the place together.”
The Stewarts are another family with three generations of involvement at Gunningrah. Mr Al Stewart worked there in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, followed by his son Jim Stewart who started in the 40s and worked mainly doing fence maintenance right up to the 1970s.
Jim’s son Dawson worked as a casual in the 70s and has continued to carry out work at Gunningrah to the present day, as an earthmoving contractor.
This family association spans nearly 90 years.
The guest with the longest history at Gunningrah, was Mrs Sophie Remington, who spent her childhood there in the 1930s. Her father Mr Abe Elton worked on the farm, and her brother Joe Elton was stock overseer from 1949 to 1970.
Now aged over 90, Mrs Remington attended the lunch celebration with her daughter Mrs Helen Hines.
Charlie Maslin paid tribute to the strong sense of community in the Bombala district.
“We are so lucky here to live in a place where the true sense of community still exists, something generally lost in our metropolis based societies of today,” he said.
He thanked St Joseph’s School P&F volunteers for assisting with the catering, which he said is another testament to Bombala’s strong community spirit.
