Kandos and District Memorial Olympic Swimming Pool is a hidden gem. Clean, private, and largely unpeopled, it sits above the main road, prepared to unlock its splendour only to those who visit.
Project Type: article
Jundah Singh, pioneer, migrant, businessman, litigant
Pioneers have an important place in our history. They confirm our beginnings and give us role models. Over the years, as a community retells its history, it sometimes relegates a pioneer to the basement or the margins.
The Atmosphere Was Electric
At the same time as Mrs J B Simpkins, wife of Councillor Simpkins, switched on the lights at the sub-station in McDonald Street Kandos, my grandfather’s four-year old daughter Josie, sitting on her uncle’s shoulders, reached over and switched on the lights in their home.
A Century Ago, a Town Began
What did it take, I ask myself, to create a town and industry at the beginning of last century?
When the Band Began to Play
Suddenly through the night air came the thrilling sounds of a brass band “marching in from the back blocks”. It drew crowds to the main street. It drew children with their own tin-can band.
The Group That Progressed Kandos
The Kandos Progress Association helped build much of Kandos. Yet there is no visible testimony. Thankfully there is plenty of evidence in newspapers of the time.
Kandos Town’s Centre
A hall built by visionaries to suit a town built by visionaries. A building that has shaped our community, provided a focal point and improved our quality of life.
Did You Forget to Ask Your Mother?
There will always be questions I forgot to ask my mother but there’s a good chance I’ll find some answers in the Mudgee Guardian. They say nothing is as dead as yesterday’s newspaper. But I say at least you can dig up your ancestors.
How Kandos Got Its Railway Station
The establishment of a railway station and sidings for the new town of ‘Candos’ was one of the first priorities of NSW Cement, Lime and Coal Company. After all they had to despatch goods in order to receive revenue. Luckily their chairman James Angus had knowledge and contacts.
A Building Reveals Our History
The new church certainly created a lot of interest outside the town, as well as inside. “A unique Methodist Church,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald, “...of Mexican mission style...flat-roofed...the only one of its kind in the State.” According to the Kandos Star it had been likened to “a picture show, town gaol, synagogue or vault.”
