"Welcome to TAREE" a Taree Travel Page by ASTIEL

1770
Captain Cook, sailing a fair distance from shore, observed three prominent mountains grouped together, which he called the Three Brothers. They also observed smoke from the fires of aborigines. (The district TV towers are now located on Middle Brother Mountain.)


1818
John Oxley and George Evans set out from Bathurst on an expedition of exploration. They went north-east along the Macquarie, Castlereagh and Peel Rivers. They eventually crossed the Great Dividing Range and headed east to the coast (near where Walcha is today). They climbed Mount Seaview and saw the Hastings River to the east and the Manning River in the distant south-east.

They travelled to the mouth of the Hastings and named it Port Macquarie. Then they proceeded south to Camden Haven and on to Harrington at the northern mouth of the Manning. They did not realize it was a large river and named it Harrington Inlet.

Using a boat they had found further up the coast, they crossed to the south side (Manning Point on Mitchell’s Island). They were able to cross Old Bar at low tide and found the wreck of the “Jane” from which the boat had come. The southern mouth of the Manning was named Farqhar Inlet.

They needed the boat to cross the river at Tuncurry, where they saw the wreck of the “Governor Hunter”. William Blake was speared by an aboriginal when he wandered away from the main group. They continued south, reaching Port Stephens on November 1, before travelling onto Sydney.

1837
First properties bought were:
'Braynbyn' (later known as 'Brimbin'), 960 acres, on the Dawson River by A. C. Innes.
'Mondrook', 980 acres, on the Manning opposite the 'Tarree' estate by C. Steele.
'Mt. George', 895 acres, by Isabella Mary Kelly.
An unnamed property of 726 acres further up river from Mt. George by T. Steele.
'Purfleet', 1280 acres, south of Tarree, by W. Caswell (1838).

1840
Henry Flett, a Scot, first took up land at Killawarra. He later married Mary Wynter, daughter of William Wynter, and bought her father's estate, 'Tarree'.

1841
The population on the Manning reached about 300 in 1841.
Below are figures taken from the 1841 census:
Brown's Creek - 7
Brymbyn - 9 and 2 servants
Bungy Bungy - 30 and 8 servants
Cateye - 6
Cedar Party - 12
Croki - 13 with 7 servants
Cundle Cundle - 35 and 3 servants
Duramba - 7 and 4 servants
Johnson's Station - 7 and 5 servants
Killawarra - 21 and 13 servants
Koory Island (Jones Island) - 15
Lewis' Station - 11 and 10 servants
Mitchell Island - 5 and 1 servant
Mondrook - 15
Mt. George - 13 and 8 servants
Pelican Island - 14
Tarree - 25 with 14 servants
Yakengat - 15

N.B. The "servants" were "assigned servants", who were convicts assigned to settlers.

1842
The 'Sovereign', 119 tons and under the command of Captain Cape, successfully entered the Manning River. It ran aground on shallow flats near the mouth but floated off several hours later before proceeding up river to Taree. There she loaded 94 bales of wool as well as a quantity of wheat. It was the largest ship up to this time to enter the Manning.


1844
The village of Wingham is proclaimed. It had been surveyed by John Gormon under instructions from the Surveyor-General. It was chosen for a number of reasons:
Boats of a reasonable size were not able to travel further up river.
It was central to existing farms.
It was on the high road between Maitland and Port Macquarie.
The river was fordable at low tide.
Although it was proclaimed there was not a great demand for village lots.

1854
In September, village lots at Wingham were sold at public auction..

Henry Flett, who now owned the Tarree estate, set aside about 100 acres for the establishment of the village of Taree. He laid out the streets and named them. In December, a total of 40 allotments were sold at a public auction.

The Taree War Memorial is in the form of a clock tower made from rock faced granite. A Latin Cross is recessed into the four stone faces of the memorial with a clock fixed to the center of these crosses. At the base of these crosses is an inset marble panel lead-inset with the names of the dead as well as those who had volunteered. The monument faces west and contains a list 36 dead on the main panel. Panels set on the eastern, western and northern face of the monument also contain a list of those who had volunteered.

In May 1922, a decision had been made by the Taree War Memorial Committee regarding the building of a memorial. For reasons that are not clear little was done until late 1923 when the Taree war memorial committee held a competition to determine the most appropriate form for a war memorial. A number of designs were submitted and locals were allowed to vote on their preferred design with the votes sold at 1/- for each ballot. First prize with the most votes went to a design comprising of Arch and Gates, second prize went to a monument designed for the intersection of Victoria and Manning Streets, third prize went to a design for a new children's ward at the local hospital, and fourth prize went to a design for a new clock tower. A decision was made in late May 1924 by the committee to select the clock tower and erect it at the main intersection in the town. The Architects were Purnell and Fizelle.

The foundation stone for the memorial was laid by the mayor (Alderman W.H. Muldoon) on about the 20th April 1925 and was unveiled two months later on Saturday 6 June 1925 by Major General Cox. At a later date the memorial was moved to Fotheringham Park. Behind the main memorial are a series of polished black granite stele recording later conflicts.