Cessnock History
Birth of Cessnock City
By 1852 David Campbell of North Britain, to which he had returned in 1831 from New South Wales, had decided on a sale by auction of his 2560-acre Cessnock estate on Black Creek. Perhaps he had grown weary of doubts and disappointments of long-distance absentee landlordism; perhaps he had need of ready money.
In any event, he must have felt a measure of pride in the conception which he and his agent had agreed upon for the subdivision of the estate and the promotion of the sale. This conception had grown over the years out of the convenience for travelers on the Great Northern Road of the grass and water on Cessnock estate at the Black Creek crossing: here, the so-called camp or camping place had long assumed between late afternoon and sunrise the populousness of a small village, with beasts put out to grass and water and travelers gathered about their campfires before bedding down for the night beneath bullock carts and wagons, which surely suggested the need for an inn, a smithy, and the growth of a village; and such a village must thrive if only the remainder of Cessnock were cut up into farming blocks and sold to such as craved an independence (especially fortunate gold-diggers).
To further this conception David Campbell required first of all the services of a competent surveyor, whom his agent must engage: one, Mr Goodall, as it turned out, who, in 1852, having had his orders, must in his turn engage as assistant a likely young lad, whom he found at a lodging house in West Maitland: one, George Theodore Blakers, twenty-three years old, a native of Baden, Germany, who had arrived in Australia in 1849 and had already spent some time at the diggings near Mudgee.
David Campbell might well have been amazed by the ease of the young German’s way with written English, though at first horrified by his account of the subdivision of Cessnock estate:
It was towards the end of August, or beginning of September, that a Surveyor called at the house where I lodged, and enquired whether there was any young man there whom he might engage to assist him in surveying four square miles of land. I at once engaged with him at £1 per week and food and lodging. The land was 19 miles south from Maitland. Of course at the time he engaged me, he supposed that I was only fit to drag the surveyor’s chain, and drive stakes into the ground where he would point out to me. Ere long he knew better. By his direction I at once proceeded out to the land, and, for a few days, was occupied in preparing a large number of stakes. Within a quarter of a mile of the land to be surveyed was a public house, at which the surveyor had engaged board and lodging for himself and me. The land itself was all wild bush. The road from Maitland, through a little town called Wollombi, and towards Sydney, went through the land and past the public house. We had been at work only a few days when he surveyor (Mr. Goodall) received a letter from Maitland, and, as a result, appeared greatly agitated. At last I asked him whether anything serious had happened; and wehther I might not perhaps be able to help him in his trouble. He then explained to me that he must immediately return to Maitland. I at once told him to go to Maitland, and leave me to carry out the survey. At first he would not credit my ability to do what I said. However, after some conversation, he consented to leave the business in my hands. The only conditions I made were: that he should leave me his instruments, drawing-material, and everything else necessary,that I should occupy his room for the purpose of drawing, and that he should engage another young man, to be subject to my authority. All this he agreed to. he left me, and soon sent me a young Scotch lad, just arrived in the Colony. From time to time I forwarded a sketch of the land, showing the work done; and, finding that the work was satisfactory, he remained in Maitland, and took very little further trouble about it. I finished the work in 4 months.
In the Maitland Mercury of 15 January 1853, Mr A. Dodds, acting on the instructions of the proprietor, David Campbell Esq., gave preliminary notice of sale of the Cessnock estate ‘on the Wollombi’. The estate had been divided into farms and allotments, which Mr Dodds would sell by auction on the ground on Tuesday, 15 February, at eleven o’clock precisely.
The sale offers to the newly-married immigrants, small capitalists, fortunate gold-diggers and others an opportunity to secure a comfortable independence rarely met with upon such easy terms. (Terms 25 per cent - balance by bills of 6, 9 or 12 months)
David Campbell and his agent must have been gratified by the enthusiasm at the sale, which resulted in the disposal of the whole of the estate, with the exception of farm block 18, reserved until 1855.
Among buyers from the Wollombi and black Creek whose surnames David may have recalled were the Scot, Thomas Crawford of Eglington and Brown Muir on the Congewai; colonial-born John Thomas Baker, brother of William Baker of David’s time, who occupied Meander Dale at the Rising Sun (or Millfield), and the Scot, John McDonald of Glenmore, his co-pioneer on Black Creek. Among hose who had come to the region later than himself were Irish emancipist, Bernard McGrane, presently the licensee of the Rising Sun, now elevated to the position of landowner; George Bridge, colonial-born, presently the licensee of an inn at Wollombi; Stephenson Moore, son of a Donegal Irish emancipist, David Henry, John Smith, and John Day, all of the Wollombi, and Charles Woodward, a local farmer. Then there were the West Maitland men, William Wade, storekeeper, and James Brackenreg.
Of the buyers of Cessnock farm blocks, none exceeded in boldness and vision the Irish emancipist, Bernard McGrane, who bought farm blocks 4, 5, 6 and 7 and 17, comprising most of the north-eastern quarter of Cessnock, inter-sected by the road down Black Creek to the Hunter and with a frontage on the Great Northern Road, and watered by China of Ponds Creek and Black Creek itself; and, further to demonstrate his foresight, bought village allotments 3 and 4, which allowed him direct egress from his farms into the village.
Of the buyers of village allotments, George Bridge showed wisdom in selecting number 27 of about two acres, part of the old camping place, which, being at the Black Creek crossing, had much to recommend it as the site of an inn. Of all the farm blocks, none fascinates more than number 18, reserved from sale until 23 April 1855:
… this block of just over 83 acres was advertised for sale in the Mercury of April 23rd, 1855, being described as a “first rate situation for an Inn”. Improvements mentioned were a brick cottage consisting of drawing room, dining room, bedroom, two bedrooms, two end rooms. The rooms were 8ft high, plastered and floored. There was an “Attick” with two rooms and a ceiled verandah at the front measuring 50 feet by 7. The buildings were enclosed by a paling fence 6ft high.
On August 13th 1855, Block 18 was transferred by David Campbell to Alexander Dodds, of the District of Maitland, gentleman for £500, bringing the total receipts for the sale of “Cessnock” to £2,807/8/3.
Block 18 was situated on the high-ground extending east from Desmond Street to Alexander Street on the northern side of Wollombi Road. The “Water Reserve Road”, opposite Block 18 is our Campbell Street, which is the south-western boundary of West Cessnock Public School. The brick cottage was built somewhere between Desmond and Hickey Streets, and about a hundred yards from Wollombi Road, just beyond Edith Street.
In the late fifties it was occupied by a retired squatter. Then Laurence Kenny conducted a school for a time, until John Picton erected a slab building behind the Cessnock Inn. After Kenny, Joseph Daniels, a cattle dealer, was the owner until John Picton, on retiring from the hotel, took it over and conducted his own butchering business there.
With the disposal of farm block 18, David Campbell realized from the sale of his 2560-acre Cessnock estate the sum of £2807 8s 3d, an average of £1 1s 11d per acre: perhaps a matter for jubilation in his household in North Britain, perhaps not.
David Campbell’s importance in the history of the region is clear: having first alienated 2560 acres of land ideally placed on the Great Northern Road, he subdivided it in such a manner that his village allotments became a service center for the more or less independent farmers who occupied the remainder of the estate, an imaginative conception for which David, his agent, and his surveyor, should share the credit.
Out of David Campbell’s village allotments on Cessnock grew the private village of Cessnock, that nucleus of a service centre for a substantial part of the town of Cessnock, which grew apace from the turn of the century.
Out of the town grew the city of Cessnock, which in time became the administrative centre of the City of greater Cessnock.