Kandos a Rare 20th Century Town
How do I know Kandos was never Chandos? Because there is no evidence. However there is plenty of evidence that Candos, later Kandos, began at Coomber.
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 9 December 2013.
The featured image shows Cumber Melon Mountain Range overlooking an area that was originally Coomber. Photo taken by the author.
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This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 16 March 2015.
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How Kandos Got Its Olympic Swimming Pool-Kandos-History
The featured image is of Kandos and District Memorial Olympic Swimming Pool, taken by the author in 2015.
…I haven’t discovered why or exactly when Jundah came to Australia. He arrived as an adolescent at the turn of the twentieth century, seeking, I am sure, what all immigrants want: security, contentment and a good productive life…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian 4 March 2013.
The featured image is a docket from Jundah Singh to Mr Lee, showing items purchased. The original can be seen at Kandos Museum.
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Jundah-Singh-pioneer-kandos-history
People in the old days had a connection with darkness. I think of my grandfather rising at 4am, dressing in the dark, stumbling out to the kitchen to light a lamp, walking out into the dimness to collect water from the tank, and then perhaps down to the woodheap for more wood, and back to make the fire, to boil the kettle. His world was the soft dim light of lamps and candles, the grey light of dusk, the pinkish light of morning, the bluish-black of midnight. No street lights or headlights or light switches or sensor lights. Power came from the flame…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian, 15 October 2012.
The featured image shows electric poles and lights in Angus Avenue Kandos.
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…It was in January 1914 that the Mudgee Guardian advised its readers that a plan to survey a town had been presented to council and that for better or worse the new mining township had been christened Candos (formed, it is said, from the initials of some of the company officials)…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 13 January 2014.
The featured image is of Kandos cement silos, taken before 1921 (from NSW State Library, Cement silos PXA1000_p05.jpg).
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…A town band needs a bandstand and White Crescent reserve was the obvious place for one. It belonged to the company and the question was asked: Would they dedicate it to the people of Kandos?…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian, 30 June 2014.
Information about Kandos Town Bands came from early editions of the Mudgee Guardian and Lithgow Mercury, Bev Robbins, and Glen and Rose Evans.
The featured image of the Kandos Band was taken in 1966 for the Kandos half-centenary. sourced from Rose and Glen Evans.
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…In the early twentieth century “Progress” was an exciting word. Today, I think, western societies are a little afraid of that word. It seems to have climate change attached to it and population growth and the loss of old-growth forests and the rise of China and the rapid development of technology. We are not very keen on progress anymore…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian, 2 June 2014.
The featured image is an early photo of Angus Avenue, when the Kandos Progress Association was at its most active (NSW State Library collection).
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The Group that Progressed Kandos
The stars were twinkling the night the Governor attended the ball. And the man in the moon was winking. Kandos Community Centre, outfitted in its best regalia, knew it was the star of the evening. Glamorous guests mingled on the Town Square sipping champagne, choosing canapés, watching the vice-regal party arrive, and admiring the Lantern Parade as it wended around the perimeter of the Town Square…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian, 15 December 2014.
The featured image is a group photo taken in the Kandos Community Centre probably in the 1960s. If you can identify any of the group, other than Miss Solomon and Councillor Williamson, please provide a comment.
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Featured Photo
Third from left Mrs Lynch
Miss Solomon far right
Man in bowtie is Councillor Jack Williamson
Bishop is probably Albert Reuben Edward Thomas, Bishop of Bathurst 1963-1983
The priest is Father McMahon
My mother was 91 when she died and there are still things I forgot to ask her – about her early life; about those years before I developed my own consciousness; about my father. It is a relief therefore, as I research the Mudgee Guardian, to see her flitting across the pages with her golf sticks, or laughing shyly at her 21stbirthday, or dancing at St Dominic’s annual ball in her red matelasse and black velvet ball gown…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian, 13 October 2014.
The featured image is a screenshot of the Trove homepage, an on-line resource provided by the National Library of Australia.
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Did You Forget to Ask Your Mother
I have never been impressed by the Railway Station at Kandos. It has always seemed small and unassuming, lacking the flamboyance of Mudgee, the charm of Clandulla and Rylstone, and the stability of Lue. Unlike those stations, which were built on the Mudgee-line in the 1880s, Kandos was established three decades later; and there-in lies its difference…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 22 July 2013.
The featured image of Kandos Railway Station, consisting of only a waiting shed, platform and sign, appeared on the 1915 Company Land Sale Prospectus.
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Every building in Kandos captures something of who we were and who we are. None more so, I think, than the former Methodist Church…
My mother called it a “white elephant.” Perhaps that says as much about her Catholic bias as about its physical quality. It was whitewashed in her day and much more visible, standing on almost the highest prominence in town, unobstructed by tall trees, a landmark from every viewpoint, a huge, solid building looking down over the town…
This article by Colleen O’Sullivan appeared in the Mudgee Guardian,10 March 2014.
The featured image of Kandos Museum, formerly the Methodist Church, was taken by the author in 2010.
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A Building Reveals Our History
Kandos History 