Hunter Living Histories

Tahlee Historic Site Visit

By Robert and Coralie Watson

 

Visit to Tahlee

 

Two weeks ago, Coralie and I visited Tahlee, the ‘home’ of the Australian Agricultural Company (a.k.a. A.A.Co) when they were granted 1 million acres to farm sheep.

This visit was organised by Dr Les Kilmartin, to coincide with the 200 year anniversary of the arrival of Capt William Cromarty into Port Stephens.

Chris Peters (President, Tomaree Museum Association) also helped organise the Tahlee visit, and provided an oral history of the Tahlee site.

We also met Jan Winn (author of four history books on the Karuah district) and Pauline Ibbetson (Stroud Historical Society).

Both have also presented at previous showcase of the Hunter Living Histories in February 2022.

 

The site manager is Julianne. Very helpful, and a descendant of one of the earliest employees at Tahlee.

The drive is an hour, the site is used for a Bible organisation ‘Youth with a Mission‘ and the onsite manager was quite open to group visits, and they provided tea/coffee and cake. Youth with a Mission has a manager (David) who resides in Newcastle.

 

 

 

 

 

Digitised Resources on Tahlee

Tahlee and Carrington Digitised Resources at University of Newcastle

There are a number of posts on the Hunter Living Histories site relating to historic Tahlee: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/?s=tahlee

The Living Histories Digital Platform contains digitised material relating to Tahlee and is available at this link

Also try our site search here: https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/ccservices/search

A place called Tahlee : a short historical narrative covering 150 years of the fascinating history of Tahlee, Port Stephens. [Compiled by Carolyn R. Theobald] [Karuah, N.S.W.] : [C.R. Theobald], [1977]

A link to research done by David Benson about the AA Coy road between Karuah and Tahlee. is here: https://aacoroad.com/

“Cromarty 200 – google drive” Family History

Robert and Coralie Watson
September 2022

Compiled by Gionni Di Gravio