Homebush Reunion
Vincent Squires
Remembers
17/3/1985
I have
been asked to give a short run down on the History of Homebush and by request of a few
members of the Squires Clan to let them know a little about their Ancestors, but before I
do this let me thank all of you for your attendance here today. I would like to specially
thank those who put in such an effort in the cleaning up of the School and the School
grounds at our working bee held on the 3rd of March. Also I sincerely thank my Niece Elwyn
and my Nephew Norm for the effort that they put into the organizing of the Squires
Reunion, Norm has been responsible for all the advertising and the printing and
distributing of the notice paper, and l I am sure that Norm would be very pleased to see
the results of that effort.
Looking
around it is very hard to imagine that just over there stood a Town complete with a police
Station. 4 Hotels, Squires General Store with
Post Office and Savings Bank, a Drapery Shop which was run by Miss Welsh, a Butchers Shop
and 4 other Shops. Can you also imagine that in 1884 there were 300 Children going to this
very same School, I can vividly remember these things as a Child for I was born here and
started my School days in this old School in 1916.
The mining
here was both Alluvial and Deep Lead and some of the mines were very rich, one of
the best was the Working Miners No. 1 with an average of 7000 ozs of Gold being extracted
each week until a break through of sand and water stopped all working in that mine even
though every effort was made to pump the mine out. Other Mines at Homebush were the
Working Miners No. 2, The Phoenix, The North Homebush, The Golden Lake and the Excelsior
or Wilson and Shiels.
On either
side of the School we had a Church; The Wesleyan and the Union Church. The main Gold Rush
days took place from about 1858 to 1865 and at that time Homebush was really booming with
a population of some 20000 mainly English people from Cornwall and Chinese. After the rush
the population fell fairly rapidly even though the main Gold Mines were still being worked
up to the early 1900s. Information about the houses in the early days as passed
down to me by my Father were Log Huts, Tin Huts with bark thatching as roofs and some
wooden buildings with the same type of bark roofs. But as time went by better houses were
built with iron roofs.
My Great
Grandfather Thomas Squires arrived in. Tasmania in April 1830 on the ship Mary, he
married Sarah Francis who arrived at. Richmond Tasmania in 1833 they lived in Hobart until
my Great Grandmother Sarah passed away early in 1851 when Thomas with his Sons George and
John Thomas and Daughter Elizabeth Sarah decided to come across to Victoria having heard
that Gold had been found, he arrived at Upper Homebush in 1851 and with his Sons worked
claims along the Homehush Lead where they did quite well on the Gold. In later years they
moved to Homebush Lower where they built quite a large dwelling and general store they
also had the Post Office and Savings Bank. Before this time my Grandfather John Thomas had
married Eliza Rowland whose Parents had come from Cornwall to Adelaide on the Ship Warrior
early in 1839. John. Thomas and Eliza had a Family of ten children and my Father was the
6th Child in the Family. At 16 years of age
he started working the Mines and worked in most of the Mines at Homebush and also went to
West Australia and worked at Kalgoolie and at Gaffney’s Creek in Gippsland
then returned to Homebush and worked at the Excelsior Mine for the rest of his remaining
life. He married Mary Ellen Harris in the Wesleyan Church at Homebush on the l0th of March
1897. My Grandfather on my Mothers
side was George Henry Harris who with his Brother Roderick came to Australia from Cornwall
in 1862 and on arrival went to the Gold Fields at Taradale and obtained work in the Mines
there, after getting settled and building a house George sent word to Cornwall for his
Bride to be to come to Australia, in November 1865 Ellen Ann Stephens arrived and they
were married in the Holy Trinity Church at Taradale. The Harris Fam1ily moved to Lower
Homebush in. 1868. Looking around me I see that there is another point of interest on that
perhaps only a few of us know about and that is that these Gum trees in the School grounds
were planted in honour of the men who enlisted from Homebush and fought and died
during the first World War One. In conclusion I am sure that we can be proud that our
Ancestors were true Pioneers in every sense of the word and even it they were not able to
leave us riches in the way of Gold they left us something far more valuable our Heritage
and our birth place in this wonderful Country of ours.
Compiled by Vincent E. Squires.
Tennyson Ave.
Kilsyth. 3137 7258912