Local Plants: Australia's largest mushroom

Both exotic and native fungi are plentiful in the Capertee district especially in woodland and forest areas. While most mushrooms are moderate in size there is one species that is rarely missed due to its massive proportions.

Phlebopus marginatus

This giant mushroom is a native species called Phlebopus marginatus and can be found growing in the area during spring, summer and autumn after rain. The locally found specimen shown above is of typical size, but larger specimens are often found. According to Bruce Fuhrer, in his Field Guide to Australian Fungi, the caps of this mushroom can grow to 1 metre across, and a staggering weight of 29 kg was recorded for one specimen in Victoria.

This mainly solitary mushroom is commonly found growing close to Eucalyptus trees and can sometime be seen on local road verges. The soft, fleshy tissue is a favourite breeding ground for fungus flies and the cap is eaten by their maggots.

This mushroom evolved at the time of the Gondwanan super-continent and is still found growing in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. While not recorded in South America a closely related species exists there. We are unsure whether this plant is edible or not. Wikipedia references two publications that claim the mushroom is edible and mild tasting, while the ever-cautious Bruce Fuhrer records it as poisonous. Best to act on the side of caution and leave the flesh to the maggots.

James A C Willis, surveyor and landscape painter

In earlier posts we looked at the pioneer landscape views of Blackmans Crown and the Capertee Valley painted by Eliza Thurston in the 1860s and Conrad Martens in the 1870s. One of the last known Capertee themed works from the 19th century is James A C Willis' 1892 watercolour, Capertee Valley, New South Wales, a work in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of NSW. Unlike Thurston and Martens, Willis seems to have painted this image down in the valley itself rather than from the more easily accessible elevated position of the Mudgee Road lookout near the Crown. This therefore may be the first known work painted in the Capertee Valley.

Capertee Valley, New South Wales
1892 watercolour by James A C Willis
Art Gallery of New South Wales collection

This work followers in the landscape tradition of the middle years of the 19th century when picturesque views of awe-inspiring landscape were all the rage. Unlike many similar works of the time, Willis does not include any figures in the foreground, a compositional device to give the viewer a sense of scale and a feeling of insignificance within Gods mighty world.

One anonymous critic writing in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette of 25 September 1897 mentions this work in his account of a recent visit to the National Art Gallery (now Art Gallery of NSW) in Sydney:

J C Willis has certainly given us a most realistic picture of the wild and romantic region. "Capertee Valley," - with its high beetling walls of rock, its tree clad mountains, and the deep an inaccessible ravines which score their precipitous sides at close intervals.

Map of New South Wales (1871), compiled by James A C Willis
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-f10

Willis was born in Devon, England and arrived in Sydney in c.1845. His principal occupation was surveying and during his career he produced many maps for the NSW Government. In c.1848 he took art lessons with Conrad Martens, then the most talented artist active in the colony. Over the following years he painted many landscapes, often of remote areas of the State as in this Capertee painting. As well as his surveying duties, Willis was involved in the establishment of the Art Gallery of NSW in the 1870s. In 1892 he donated this work to the galleries permanent collection. Although rarely on show, this work can be privately viewed with a prearranged appointment with gallery staff.

Does anyone know where in the Capertee Valley this work was painted?

Wallerawang to Mudgee - 1870s style

In June 1874 the Australian Town and Country Journal published an account of a journey between Wallerawang and Mudgee. The article was written by the paper's 'Special Correspondent' who undertook the leisurely-paced horseback tour long before the construction of the Wallerawang to Mudgee section of the Gwabegar railway line. While the article offers little description of the landscape, apart from gushy comment on the awe-inspiring beauty of the vista over the Capertee Valley, the writer certainly does mentions the many small settlements along the Mudgee Road, including the multitude of pubs.

Crown Ridge Inn, 1874 pencil sketch by Conrad Martens
(Mitchell Library collection)
Coincidently, both the anonymous writer of this article and 
Martens stayed at the Crown Ridge Inn around the same time 

A Tour to the North-Western Interior

(BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT)

WALLERAWANG TO MUDGEE

TRAVELLERS by rail to the West are tolerably well acquainted with Wallerawang. If one happens to be there when the children are trooping out of school, he will see some of the fattest and ruddiest-cheeked urchins in the colony. As a recruiting station, Wallerawang should be well patronised by invalids and families, if it were understood that good accommodation might be obtained there. With good horses, one might then take drives or rides along capital roads for 18 or 20 miles, and see some of the finest scenery in the world, including Capertee, and its magnificent valley, which I shall shortly describe.

Though the buildings in Wallerawang are not numerous, they have a substantial appearance, thanks, in a measure, to the Government, who built an excellent railway station of freestone, and have added thereto a number of workshops, &c. The inhabitants then did their share by erecting three hotels, two stores, two churches, and many other places - for business and residence.  The main street faces  the railway station, opposite which there is the principal hotel, called, of course, “The Royal." A little further down, the visitor will come to the post-office, which is in a portion of a good general store called the Commercial, by J. Wilson and Co. A few hundred yards beyond, may be seen the Roman Catholic Church, a weather-boarded building, zinc-roofed. Father Phelan is the clergyman. The Church of England is seen in the midst of trees on the boundary of the town. It is a nicely designed building, constructed of freestone. I should mention that this fine church was built at the sole expense of Mr. James Walker, of Wallerawang, for the use of members of the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches. The Rev. W. McKenzie attends to the latter, and the Rev. R.H. Mayne to the former congregation. A school is also held in the church. The teacher is Mr. C. H. Thompson, and he has 70 children in attendance. There is also an infant school in the town well conducted by Mrs. Driver.

Leaving Wallerawang for Mudgee I rode along a well macadamised road for many miles. "Evidences of civilization" were abundant, in the shape of inns and blacksmith's shops, to say nothing of the many horse waggons and bullock teams driven by unquestionable Australians. Then there were passed many comfortable farms and homesteads, some of them embosomed in orchards.  Five and a half miles from Wallerawang I arrived at the Dividing Range toll-bar. From thence, continuing along over somewhat mountainous and well diversified country for four and a-half miles I reached Cullen Bullen. This was many years ago a crown grant to Mr. R. Dulhunty. There is a very old cottage and stable, and a little further, higher up, on the road-side, a stone house; the post-office is at one end of this building, and there is also an accommodation house. The then resident, Wm. Hart, aged 83, died a few days after I called. Nearly half a century ago Hart first came up to Capertee. The next stage of four miles brought me to Ben Bullen, called, I believe, after some bold mountains near. Here there are two public houses; the mail coach changes horses at Walsh's - one stage from Wallerawang. Another four miles and I arrived at the Crown Ridge Hotel; at this excellent road-side hostelrie I rested for the evening.

I enjoyed tho fresh bracing air at the Crown, and then next morning was up at sunrise. A little over a mile from the hotel the road winds round the Crown Ridge, and as I ascended there opened to view a truly marvellous picture. To those who love the glories of light and shade, of boundless extent, magnificence of scenery, beauty and sublimity, I would recommend a view at sunrise or sunset over the valley of Capertee. Along the lowest range or tiers of hills, a thousand feet below there is a sombre shade; higher up a lighter tinge almost approaching green; and then above the great peaks the natural towers of rocks and battlement stretching miles away are gloriously bathed in golden sheen." See Capertee and die" might well be the motto of the enthusiastic woer of magnificent scenery.

The view of the Capertee Valley from the Crown is
as awe-inspiring today as it was in 1874

Leaving this awe-inspiring scene, with some regret I proceeded on my journey and passed in due course Capertee Camp Inn, by James Shervey, 3 1/2 miles; Kangaroo Flat, Cobb's Hotel, by D. Freestone, 4 miles; Round Swamp, a nice valley in which there are cultivated paddocks and the Coach and Horses Inn, 1 3/4miles. The Running Stream is four miles beyond; the hotel on the hill top is well-known as bearing the sign “Rest and be Thankful.” Another four miles ride you get to Cherry Tree Hill where there is a toll-bar; and three-quarters of a mile beyond is the "Golden Fleece." From all these it will be seen that the weary and parched traveller need not want long for "refreshment for man and horse" on the Mudgee road. I have already noticed thirteen public-houses since leaving Wallerawang. Some of these are very old stands, and the inhabitants recall incidents of over 30 years past. At the Round Swamp for instance there is Mrs. Mansfield's "Coach and Horses." Thirty years ago she came here, and for the past 22 1/2 years has lived in the present hotel.

The town of Ilford, long known as Kean's Swamp, is two and a half miles from Cherry Tree Hill. Ilford is a very old place, situated in a most picturesque situation, at the foot of a mountain. The rocks are curiously and fantastically shaped. They rise to the height of 500 or 600 feet. There are a few nice stone buildings in the village, including a Wesleyan Church. Ilford is likely to become a more pleasing-looking place when some of the old huts and habitations are burnt to the ground, and a number of nice stone buildings now in course of completion amidst light forest scenery are opened to view. The town contains four stores : Mrs. Phelps, (post office), Messrs. G. Harris, Cordoroy's, and E. Turley's, and the inn is called "The Plough." There is a miserable slab building used as a public school: no other place of worship but the Wesleyan, and no court-house, though there is a police station. The branch roads turn off here for Sofala and Rylstone, 16 miles distant either way.

From Ilford I rode to Cunningham's Creek, a few miles beyond the town, and put up at Sid. Brown's hotel, where the accommodation is good. The following morning I had an early start. The distance to Mudgee is 33 miles. The road winds over hilly country the greater part of the way. Shortly after leaving Cunningham's Creek I ascended a hill tolerably steep, bearing the strange name of Aaron's Pass, a place which has since become very familiar to your readers, as the spot where the Mudgee mail was robbed on the 29th of May. It is just such a place as would be chosen by bushrangers, being in a wild uninhabited part of the country. Twelve miles from Cunningham's Creek, Cudgegong was reached. Cudgegong is a small township, possessing a few good buildings in freestone, two good hotels and stores, a church, and a court house. The oldest inhabitant, Mr. William Wilkins, is the host of the principal hotel. He informed me that he built the first public-house, did the first bit of blacksmithing, and killed the first bullock in the town. He is a jovial sort of fellow, one's idea of mine host; but I understand that he is about to retire to a nice free-stone private house that he has built for himself nearer the creek.

Two miles from Cudgegong I passed a place called Tarnabutta, Masters's comfortable homestead and farm. Four miles beyond, I arrived at Stony Pinch, where Baylis's farms are situated in a romantic position, and nearly surrounded by high mountains. |  

Half-a-mile beyond Baylis's, is the Stony Pinch toll-bar, kept by Masters. This is the third toll-bar that I passed through since I left Wallerawang. A few other farms were passed, and I reached Pauling's Apple Tree Flat Inn, 10 miles from Mudgee. After resting here a short time, I pushed on and reached Mudgee at sun-set, and put up at the Belmore, where I remained for a few days.

The distance from Wallerawang is variously estimated at from 70 to 75 miles. There are 21 public-houses on the way-side, but as the road is now far different to what it was in the good old days, when, for the whole distance it was boggy, and next to unpassable. I suppose that the publicans find their profits somewhat diminished.

It is not my intention to say much about Mudgee this time, as it has been so often and well-described pictorially and otherwise in these columns. I might state, however, that the town has not gone back of late years, and that there seems to be more substantial prosperity in it than ever. Notwithstanding private jealousies, party feelings, &c., the Municipal Council has done much to improve the streets, and make the town attractive. What I should regard as a drawback is the want of concentration. Mudgee is too much scattered to be comfortable for business men; and there are numerous gaps that might be well filled up with respectable buildings, or else fenced and planted with trees. And a good fire is wanted to clear off some unsightly buildings standing insultingly close to other buildings that would do credit to any city in the world. Mudgee from her position will always be enabled to hold her own. In the district there is as wealthy and enterprising a class of pastoral princes as any in the Australian colonies; and in the town there are good colonists, men whose progressive views, and belief in the destinies of Mudgee, will cause them never to allow the interests of the place to suffer for want of attention.

This article was first printed on page 28 of the 27th June 1874 issue of the Australian Town and Country Journal, a paper published in Sydney between 1870-1907.

Old Buildings: Station Master's House, Capertee

The Station Master's House in Capertee is the oldest surviving residence in the village and has historic significance, not only to the establishment of Capertee, but also to the history of the NSW railway system. 

The 1882 Station Master's House in Capertee

With the construction of the Gwabegar branch line it was decided to build a railway station at Capertee Camp (as the settlement was first known). On 17 February 1882 John Whitton (Chief Engineer of the NSW Government Railway) signed an illustration detailing the construction of the current Station Master’s House. Plans were drawn for the building in March 1882 and the house was built later that year.

This brick building is a fine example of a ‘Type 5’ Station Master’s residence built by the New South Wales Government Railway in the second half of the nineteenth century. Similar designs can be found at Lue, Rylstone, Kelso and Blackheath. This type of design features a full width verandah across the front of the house and an 'L' shaped floor plan. It was mostly used at larger way-side locations, being widely used in the 1880s. It is an attractive local landmark close to the Capertee railway station which was also built in 1882.

                 

As you would expect the Station Master's House
is close to Capertee Railway Station

The Station Master’s House was sold by State Rail in 1990 by which time it was very run down. Most of the interior was gutted and the grounds were full of scrap metal and weeds. Despite this the original 1880s iron roof has survived. The house was restored and the attractive picket fence constructed. It was then sold in 2002 to the current owner who has continued to restore the property and has extensively researched the history of the property and its many former occupants. The Station Master's House is  now used for short term holiday rentals. It's a popular choice with bird watchers, being on the edge of the Capertee Valley.

Link to owners Stayz accommodation website for this property: http://www.stayz.com.au/14862

Eliza Thurston

While Conrad Martens is the best known artist to paint in the Capertee area during the nineteenth century he wasn't the first, that honour seems to go to Eliza Thurston (1807-1873). Thurston painted a number of landscape views in the area during the 1860s. Her best known work in a public collection shows a panorama of the Capertee Valley taken from the Mudgee Road from the Crown Ridge (now known as Blackmans Crown). 

The inclusion of human figures on the lower left corner of the picture was a compositional device popular with artists at the time. These sightseers give the viewer foreground interest as well as a sense of scale which helped emphasize the monumental power of the picturesque subject matter in the background. While not a highly realistic rendering of the scene, Thurston's Mitchell Library work has great charm and shows that the panorama seen from the Crown was as popular then as it is today.

Capertee Valley taken from Crown Ridge, Sydney Road
1868 watercolour by Eliza Thurston
Mitchell Library collection

Eliza came from an established family of artists from Bath in western England. Eliza became an art teacher after she came to Australia in 1853. She lived for a few years during the mid to late 1860s with her (Mudgee based) photographer son Horatio Thurston (1838-1881). While resident there she produced her Capertee Valley works. She died in Sydney a few years later. Her daughter, Eliza West Thurston, was an amateur artist who painted mostly floral subjects. She worked as a teacher in Rylstone and spent her later years living in Mudgee.

For more information about Eliza Thurston please refer to her biographical entry in the Design and Art Australia Online (DAAO) website: http://www.daao.org.au/bio/eliza-thurston/biography/

Song of the old bullock driver by Henry Lawson

Author, poet and balladist, Henry Lawson (1867-1922) would have known Capertee well as he would have passed through the village often, either by road or rail. Around the turn of the last century Lawson wrote a poem about the old bullock drivers that travelled the Mudgee Road with their loads of wool. One of the many high climbs for the bullockies was around the base of Blackmans Crown, a peak located just to the south of Capertee, and Lawson touchingly mentions the assent and its reward of a picturesque outlook over the Capertee Valley.

Henry Lawson. drawing by Lionel Lindsay
Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, ACT

SONG OF THE OLD BULLOCK DRIVER by Henry Lawson 

Far back in the days when the blacks used to ramble

In long single file 'neath the evergreen tree,

The wool-teams in season came down from Coonamble,

And journeyed for weeks on their way to the sea.

'Twas then that our hearts and our sinews were stronger,

For those were the days when the bushmen was bred.

We journeyed on roads that were rougher and longer

Than roads where the feet of our grandchildren tread.

With mates who have gone to the great Never-Never,

And mates whom I've not seen for many a day,

I camped on the banks of the Cudgegong River

And yarned at the fire by the old bullock-dray.

I would summon them back from the far Riverina,

From days that shall be from all others distinct.

And sing to the sound of an old concertina

Their rugged old songs where strange fancies were linked.

We never were lonely, for, camping together,

We yarned and we smoked the long evenings away,

And little I cared for the signs of the weather

When snug in my hammock slung under the dray.

We rose with the dawn, were it ever so chilly,

When yokes and tarpaulins were covered with frost,

And toasted the bacon and boiled the black billy,

Where high on the camp-fire the branches were tossed.

On flats where the air was suggestive of 'possums,

And homesteads and fences were hinting of change,

We saw the faint glimmer of appletree blossoms,

And far in the dstance the blue of the range;

And here in the rain, there was small use in flogging

The poor, tortured bullocks that tugged at the load,

When down to the axles the waggons were bogging

And traffic was making a marsh of the road.

'Twas hard on the beasts on the terrible pinches,

Where two teams of bullocks were yoked to a load,

And tugging and slipping, and moving by inches,

Half-way to the summit they clung to the road.

And then, when the last of the pinches was bested,

(You'll surely not say that a glass was a sin?)

The bullocks lay down 'neath the gum trees and rested -

The bullockies steered for the bar of the inn.

Then slowly we crawled by the trees that kept tally

Of miles that were passed on the long journey down.

We saw the wild beauty of Capertee Valley,

As slowly we rounded the base of the Crown.

But, ah! the poor bullocks were cruelly goaded

While climbing the hills from the flats and the vales;

'Twas here that the teams were so often unloaded

That all knew the meaning of "counting your bales".

And, oh! but the best-paying load that I carried

Was one to the run where my sweetheart was nurse.

We courted awhile, and agreed to get married,

And couple our futures for better or worse.

And as my old feet grew too weary to drag on

The miles of rough metal they met by the way,

My eldest grew up and I gave him the waggon -

He's plodding along by the bullocks to-day.

from Verses Popular and Humorous, first published by Angus and Robertson in 1900

Conrad Martens' artistic Crown

Some of the first artists to visit the infant colony of New South Wales were landscape painters. By the time European explorers and settlers had moved over the Blue Mountains in the 1820s, watercolour had firmly established itself around the British Empire as the preferred painting medium for landscape artists as it was both inexpensive and portable.

One of a series of three large watercolour views 
of Crown Ridge by Conrad Martens (Private Collection)

The London-born artist Conrad Martens (1801-1878) first came to Australia in 1835. Like fellow painter Augustus Earle, Martens had been employed by the pioneer naturalist, Charles Darwin  as ship artist on the voyage of the HMS Beagle. Martens was a great admirer of the pioneering English landscape painter, J M W Turner and throughout his painting career tried to emulate some of the painting techniques pioneered by his artistic hero.

Although he had travelled to other areas of the Lithgow district it was not until late in life that Martens visited the Crown Ridge on the western edge of Capertee Valley. The Crown Ridge peak is now officially known as Blackman’s Crown after an early explorer of the region, John Blackman (c.1792-1868). The Mudgee Road from Wallerawang to Capertee still passes around the eastern side of Blackman’s Crown on the edge of the Capertee Valley making it one of the most recognisable landmarks in the district.

Oil portrait of Conrad Martens
 by Pierre Nuyts (1853)

Unlike most artists, Martens kept detailed diary notes of his travels, painting projects and commissions. From these entries we know he spent a few days at Blackman’s Crown in December 1874. He stayed at the Crown Ridge Inn, a seemingly popular public house located on the southern side of the peak. One pencil study by Martens shows the Crown Ridge Inn with the Crpwn in the background. This inn no longer stands but some of its foundations can still be seen about 20 metres west of the present-day road alignment during winter when the grass is low.

Crown Ridge looking East, watercolour by Conrad Martens
View of Pantoney's Crown as seen from Pearsons Lookout c.1874
Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

Martens produced a series of detailed pencil drawings on site showing the Crown Ridge Inn, the Crown and the picturesque Capertee Valley below. He worked these studies up into three large watercolours some time after returning to Sydney. Two of these works are now in the Mitchell Library collection in Sydney while one remains in private ownership.

Martens was not the first artist to paint the Capertee Valley from the Crown. In a future post I will highlight the life and career of Mudgee artist Eliza Thurston (1807-1873) who painted the peak in the 1860s.

Old Buildings: St Jude's Church, Capertee

Dating from the 1930s Saint Jude's church in Capertee is located at the northern end of the village on the Mudgee Road (Castlereagh Highway). A Station church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bathurst this simple chapel is still consecrated but is rarely used for religious services.

St Jude's church in Capertee

The exterior is constructed of painted corrugated iron while the interior consists of a nave and porch. Light comes from coloured glass, Gothic style, windows. Despite its architectural simplicity this church appeals to many, especially Christians who like an unpretentious location for prayer and contemplation.

This church is named in honour of the Apostle Saint Jude Thaddeus, the Catholic saint of lost causes. Hopefully the long term survival of this building is not a lost cause.

St Jude's church as seen from the north

Located nearby to St Jude's is the Anglican Church of Saint Augustine's. These are the only two churches in Capertee.