The final instalment of Ray Lee's notes about Torrington at the turn of the 20th century.
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Police Station and Mining Wardens office - the one police constable did both jobs.
If you held a Miners Right you could select any piece of land up to 2 acres, put in four corner pegs to mark the area, register with the Mining Warden, and build any kind of house, chook yard, cow bail, pig stye, horse stables and it was your private property while ever you lived on it and kept it registered.
Houses were built mainly with round string bark timbers cut from the forest, outside walls and rooves covered with galvanised iron.
The houses were lined inside with hessian, papered with newspaper using flour and water as a paste. [NB see the Cherry Tree Slab Cottage in Museum for an example of this]
Some huts were built with just the bark from trees. Bark has great insulating qualities - cool in summer and warm in winter.
Shire rates were nil, except for those who converted their blocks to private property. Very few people did this.
There was one dance hall lighted with carbide gas lights, football and cricket ground, tennis courts, rifle range, racecourse (all heights not registered.) Later photo of the Hall in the1930s.
Comedy races were held such as - nominated horses with owners up as jockeys. The short, the wide and the fat entered this race and the same applied to the horses...
Water in round and square tanks and lovely granite spring water, Sanitation - Pits dug in the ground.
School. There were two teachers up to sixth class, qualifying certificate, leaving age was fourteen years.
Granny Trewella apart from giving her service as a midwife, she had eleven children of her own and very seldom went to bed before midnight as she used the time after the children had gone to bed to do her ironing, mending, and making clothes for the children out of calico bags eg underclothing ad aprons etc.,
Her day was taken up with cooking, jam and pickle making for the family she lived to the age of 86 years.
Bedding blade grass used to fill mattresses for the children to sleep on - very plentiful and grew to the height of c 18 feet and was tough and lasted many years as a mattress. Blade like shape and ability to cut fingers like a knife