Nineteen descendants of Sydney and Adelaide (nee Newman) Wood visited our community over the weekend 18-21 July 2014, enjoying a full itinerary developed in close consultation with locals Phillip and Jan Diprose at Ochre Arch Farm Tours.
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Sydney Wood was a grandson of the Weddin Shire’s first European settler, John Wood, who chose the land around what’s now known as Brundah Springs (just to the south of the Mid Western Highway where it intersects Yambira Road) as the place to settle with his sons John Butler Wood and Joseph George Wood in 1834. Accounts of the total land area initially under Wood family management range from 140,000-160,000 acres.
Our visitors chose the Grenfell Motel as their base and cannot speak highly enough of Carol Jones who went out of her way to make them comfortable, allowing them to use the dining room for group gatherings. The substantive activities they availed of included a visit to the Grenfell Museum (hosted by Mary Hunter with assistance from Dot Lamkin and several others), a farm tour of Ochre Arch, private visits to local farms Keewong Creek (hosted by David Bloomfield) and Brundah Falls (hosted by Rick and Margot Gora), a drive-by Iandra Castle and a trip to the Grenfell Cemetery with Mary Hunter to see some of their ancestors’ grave sites.
We now know that in 1889 Sydney and his brother-in-law JSP Newman purchased a 308 acre block of land in the Shire now owned by the Starr family. Sam Starr bought the block from the Bembricks early last century. The Starrs today refer to it as Hodges Paddock courtesy Sam engaging the Hodges as share farmers there shortly after purchase. Whilst there is no evidence of a home being on the block it did have a ‘Wash-pan’ where locals washed sheep prior to shearing.
The Wood family descendants all pronounce the word Brundah as ‘broondah’. Some local records show that the full/original name of the springs and surrounds was Booroodina and that the name was shortened over time. Wood family early history also suggests that the ‘Weddin Mountains’ landmark was known to the Wiradjuri people as ‘Weedong’ and meant ‘big lookout’.
The visitors’ elder statesman on this trip, John Mitchell, has a curious direct connection with the region. He was doing military training at Cowra at the time of the Japanese POW breakout and was part of the large group engaged to find escapees. John recalls the tragedy of finding some of the escapees who had committed suicide by hanging themselves from trees.