Tooma Valley Essay

The Tooma Valley is in south-eastern NSW, east of Tumbarumba and in the foothills of the Australian Alps. It is a fertile willow-lined valley today but was once covered with stringy bark, apple and yellow box and red gum, along with grass trees, Xanthorrhoea australis.

Aboriginal inhabitants
The valley was originally home to the Wolgal tribe, who lived on the tablelands of the Australian Alps and the lower country to the north. In summer, they feasted on bogong moths, which they attracted to their camps with fires. Axes and perfectly formed mounds, where initiation ceremonies took place, have been found in the valley. By 1870, the Wolgal tribe had mostly disappeared as Europeans took their land and brought diseases.
European settlement

Hume and Hovell were probably the first to see the Tooma Valley in 1924 and European settlement followed soon after as graziers from the Monaro came looking for pastures.

In 1839, Dr Thomas Bell took up Maragle Station and Sir James Garland took up Tooma Station. In 1866, the owner of Tooma Station paid a rent of £80 a year on 15,560 acres, which was supposed to carry 7,000 sheep, and Arthur Dight paid £39 rent on 49,640 acres for Maragle Station, which was supposed to carry 640 cattle. The first selector, Mrs Mary Maginnity, took up land after the Robinson Land Act of 1861 ended the squatters’ monopoly of the land, though some selections were absorbed back into the Tooma-Maragle Station as the selectors struggled to survive on the rough land. In 1877, the Tooma homestead was built by Morton Rolfe. Everything needed for the station had to be brought into the valley by horse and dray or bullock wagon. These drays and wagons returned to Albury with wool from

the
station in a three-four week round trip. It was even more challenging to get stock and goods out of Maragle Station. In 1891, 70,000 sheep were on Maragle.
A store, postal and telephone services, a small school and the historic Tooma Hotel were established in the district in this period. The first bridge across Tumbarumba Creek was built in 1886 to help alleviate the problem of isolation and travel.
Soldier settlement
In 1948, 2410 acres of Tooma Station and all of Maragle Station, 14,570 acres, were acquired by the government for soldiers returning from World War II. In September 1948, blocks on Tooma/Maragle Stations averaging 1040 acres were allotted by ballot to the following ex-servicemen: Bill Latham, Gordon Bell, Reg Bennett, Bill Joyce, Bob Jessup, Arthur Fredericks, John Harding, Alan Webb, Vern Lyons, Pat Daly, Dave Hulm, Ted Hinvest, Peter Jackson and Arthur Utting.
In November 1948, blocks averaging 344 acres were allotted to the following ex-servicemen: Jack McCallum, Bert Barton, Archie Baker, Doug McKinnon, Hop Perrott, Lloyd Ryan, Bob Hartnett.

The arrival of these 21 families brought renewal to the Tooma district. The school reopened and new amenities, such as the Tooma Services Memorial Hall, were built. The social club and the CWA were major forces in these developments, many of which were supported by the soldier settlers and their wives. In 1960, electricity came to the district and in 1964 three new bridges replaced the old wooden structure that had served the district since the early 1900s.
However, life was not easy for the settlers, who often lived in pioneering conditions as they struggled to establish their farms on what had really been almost virgin grazing land, part of the enormous Tooma and Maragle stations. Natural disasters also challenged them. In 1949, soon after the settlers’ arrival when most were living in makeshift huts or sheds, six inches of snow fell, so stock had to be

hand-fed.
On 25th January 1952, a fire which had started 10 days earlier in Mangoplah swept into the Tooma and Maragle valleys, destroying the Presbyterian Church, stables, cow sheds and grass. Miraculously, no one suffered burns. On October 20th 1955, four inches of rain fell in three hours, the flats were inundated and five bridges were swept away. Rabbits and drought were also a major problem for the new settlers. However, with more scientific and intensive farming techniques, the land has become more drought-proof and is today a thriving cattle and sheep-producing area and some of the settlers’ children are diversifying successfully into growing grapes for wine.
The following stories of the wives of three of those soldier settlers, Elsie Baker, Audrey Lyons and Gwen Bell, are testament to the contribution that soldier settlers and particularly their wives made to the development of the Tooma/Maragle district.