Kandos a Rare 20th Century Town
Numerous newspaper articles praised Rylstone’s solid public buildings and the excellent quality and colour of the sandstone. Enough reason to enter Rylstone stone in the Sydney International Exhibition at the Garden Palace in 1879. And win first prize.
On 11 October of that year, 1862, 300 inhabitants of the ‘usually quiet little township’ (almost the population) celebrated the opening of their ‘beautiful new bridge’ on a ‘gloriously fine day' when ‘the heavens looked blue and the earth smiled green’.
Their generation and their parents’ were referred to as currency lads and lasses. These free young colonials were thriving in the climate and landscape of Sydney, judged to be fitter, healthier and happier than their forbears.
One day in late January 1947 Flora opened a typed two-page letter that began, ‘Dear Mrs Clarke…I was a friend of your daughter Mary...was with her when she was last seen.’
Light of the World, the largest window, the oldest, set in the most prominent place behind the altar and, at that time, probably the most recognised...It was the subject of sermons, speeches, letters to the editor and news articles. Over 300,000 people saw it at Sydney Art Gallery.
"A book rather gets its hands around your throat and shakes you until your fillings fall out."
It is human nature to want to leave your mark on the world and there are plenty of opportunities in a new town. Street names and foundation stones for two.
As I explored the topic of the Wallerawang to Mudgee railway, I kept searching for James Angus, first chairman of the Kandos cement company. We in Kandos have always believed James Angus built the railway. And that he chose the site for the cement works based on his knowledge of resources in the area.
For some commentators things didn't seem quite right. The critics became more vocal: the country was barren, the terrain difficult and costly, the returns would be minimal, it was a white elephant, it favoured the pastoralists at the expense of the taxpayer, it was a Mudgee swindle.
Henbury has survived for ninety years on the sweat of its volunteers.
I hear the arguments against trees. They drop leaves and branches and sap. They attract noisy birds. They break pavements and pipes. Some of them are weeds. That is the song of the tree-cutter. As you probably guessed, I am a tree-hugger.
Kandos History 