…It wasn’t the children of Limestone Flat and Cudgegong School that piqued interest though they had assembled punctually, sung enthusiastically and enjoyed a nice tea party afterwards. Nor was it Miss Atkinson, daughter of contractor T Atkinson, although she looked quite fetching, I feel sure, as she delicately smashed the bottle of sherry against the bridge and named it Lambert Bridge. It wasn’t the bridge itself which was the subject of interest though it was described as an ornament to the town and a credit to the constructors. No, it was the special guest after whom the bridge was named, ‘the old king, Jim Lambert, of the Dabee tribe, decorated with all the insignia of his lofty position’, who was the centre of attention…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 14 March 2016.
The featured image Gibir-Yinaa (A Man – A Woman) is a mural on the north-facing external wall of the museum created by Djon Mundine with descendants of the last full-blood members of the local Dabee tribe of the Wiradjuri People, Jimmy and Peggy Lambert.
To download and read this article and the accompanying poem “The Dying Chief” by H H Lublin 1895, click below:
Kandos History 