Herbert and Mary Hunt nee Fordham
Tuckurimba Tales
Front: George, Walter, Elsie
Members of the Hunt family have resided on the Mid Richmond since 1906, and at Tuckurimba since 1911. Herbert Hunt aged 27 arrived in Sydney on the SS Aberdeen on the 13th of April 1886 to work as a gardener for Lord Carrington who had been appointed Governor of NSW. In December 1887 his fiancé Mary Fordham followed. She was met by Herbert, and they were married at the Primitive Methodist Parsonage in Surry Hills, Sydney. They lived and worked in Moss Vale. Their children Walter, George, Elsie, Gladys, Percy, Mabel and Bert were born before the family moved to the Richmond River.
In 1906 Herbert applied for a job in Coraki. He and his eldest son, Walter went north but by the time they arrived, the promised job had been taken. Herbert got a job as a gardener for Edgar Osmond (Ted) Yeager planting trees and daffodils along the bank of the Richmond River in front of the new Yaeger homestead. Walter got work with Duffy Sands, a milkman. The rest of the family sailed north on the SS Brundah on its first voyage with passengers. Bert was only a baby.
Their first home was an old house just outside Coraki on the property of Mr Pockley of ‘Clover Hill’. After about a year Herbert got the promise of a dairy farm on shares for Mark Yabsley, but they had to wait until a new house was built at Box Ridge.
The family’s introduction to dairying was rough. Mark Yabsley bought in wild untamed cattle, which had to be broken in. A rope was tethered around their horns and then they were dragged into a bail. They quietened down after a couple of weeks.
Herbert planted a successful orchard and grew vegetables, and Mary planted a large flower garden. The soil was new, sandy, and easy to work. The Hunts did well at Box Ridge. They made improvements to the house. The youngest son, Arthur was born at Box Ridge and Gladys and Percy finished their schooling in Coraki.
At Box Ridge they established community interests. They were devout Methodists who worshipped at the Coraki Church all their lives, supplementing the formal services with their own in the Tuckurimba Hall and monthly in their home once they moved to Delelvin Lane, Tuckurimba. The younger members of the family were active in the Good Templars, an abstinence group run through the Free Presbyterian Church. Many of the social activities, musical evenings, picnics, and sporting competitions that they attended were organised under this banner.
At the same time as the Hunts moved to Box Ridge the local aboriginal community was being moved into homes built for them close to the Hunt farm. Herbert and Mary were very interested in the work undertaken for the aborigines. Their involvement with the Christian mission on the reserve continued after the family moved to Tuckurimba, well into the 1920s. Herbert was at times the President (1914 – 1918), Secretary and Treasurer of the Coraki Local Council and deputised for the missionary teacher at services and events. Mary taught the women to sew and was paid half a crown a week. She used the money to buy calico in summer and flannelette in winter. She would prepare garments ready to sew. The women would hold up their sewing and sometimes roll around laughing.
About 1908 George Hunt, the second son, acquired a camera, a half plate Thornton Pickard and a lifelong passion for photography began. His photos provide a pictorial record of the Hunt family and life on the North Arm of the Richmond River (now known as the Wilson River).
About 1911 Herbert got the opportunity to rent McPhee’s farm at Tuckurimba with a fine big house called Lochaber on the riverbank of the North Arm. The Hunts did well at Lochaber and Tuckurimba.
The whole family joined in the farming activities. They milked cows and sent the cream to the Coraki Butter Factory, and the skim milk was fed to fatten pigs. Cream in cans was delivered to the riverside for collection and transported to the butter factory by boat and returned empty at the end of the day. Herbert participated in the agricultural activities in the district. He was a member of the Coraki Agricultural Bureau and later took on the role of organiser of the Tuckurimba Exhibit for the annual Coraki Show. He was generous in his support of the Central Richmond River Agricultural Society and was active in 1916 in establishing a Coraki branch of the Primary Producers Union (PPU).
They grew sugar cane at first then they grew millet. They loved gardening and grew vegetables and flowers.
Gladys at the fence, Arthur, Bert, Mabel and Herbert in the rowboat
The Hunts loved the boats, both the ocean-going ones and the river boats. Everything came by boat. The Sheridan store boat called every Wednesday, and groceries were delivered that way. There were droghers which delivered the goods which came from Sydney and there were passenger boats. A trip to Lismore on the Britannia was a highlight.
Visitors arriving or leaving on the Ballina.
Gladys, Mabel, Arthur, and Bert Hunt.
Things changed with World War 1. Gladys said, ‘Then the war came and that ruined everything. There was a wave of patriotism and young men felt they needed to enlist whether they wanted to or not.’
Firstly, the eldest Hunt daughter Elsie and Les Cameron were married on the 1st of January 1916. Les was the eldest son of Alexander (Sandy) and Mary Cameron who were sugar cane farmers at Codrington, close to Tuckurimba and Coraki. After their marriage, Elsie and Les left to live and farm at Glenella, near Mackay, on land owned by Les’ cousin Duncan.
Early in 1916, the Hunt brothers, Walter and Percy went to Lismore to enlist. Percy left for Europe on the 17th of September 1916. Towards the end of 1916, Walter was accepted and left for Europe in January 1917.
Walter was injured seriously in 1918 and returned to Australia as a paraplegic and very unwell. He was unable to return to Lochaber. He was in rehabilitation in Brisbane for several years. When he wanted to return home Herbert bought Maher’s farm, next door to Lochaber, had a bungalow built, and the family moved there. Walter was cared for by his mother and the family and died in 1927.
Percy returned from the war unscathed. He had met his future wife Christina Baxter in London, and she followed him to New South Wales in 1921 and they married in Sydney and moved to Tuckurimba.
Percy and George rented Mount Gilead, next door to the Hunt farm and began dairying together. Later Percy drew a block of land on a soldier settlement area at Doubtful Creek, near Dyraaba. Doubtful Creek proved to be poor country and a struggle for the family. They eventually moved away and went to Brisbane.
George married Ciss (Christina) Cameron, younger sister of Elsie’s husband Les in 1926. George built a house on Mt Gilead and they continued to farm this land on Baxter’s Lane, Tuckurimba for the rest of their lives.
In the late 1920s when the farm wasn’t doing very well. Both younger sons Arthur and Bert got jobs as herd recorders and set out on their own. Gladys and Mabel stayed at home. Mabel took on more farming roles, rounding up the cows and participating in the milking. Gladys was mostly the home maker with her mother. There were always men employed on the farm.
In the thirties Herbert rented a back paddock and started dairying in earnest, increasing the herd. The bails were altered to accommodate milking machines, so the work became easier. During World War 2, the back paddock was given up, and Mabel and Gladys managed the home property. Mabel turned out to be a very successful farmer. She was proud of the returns – one year they averaged 1000lbs of butter fat per month. Gladys and Mabel lived at home, looked after their parents for the rest of their lives and ran the farm. George Hunt and his family were living and farming next door of course.
Gladys said of her father that, ‘he was a remarkable man who held remarkable views, which he gave expression to frequently. He had many quotations at his fingertips and was a great student of the bible’. Bible study and prayer were daily activities.
Herbert involved himself and his family in Tuckurimba and Coraki community activities and set a pattern which would be emulated by his children into their adult lives. Herbert’s service to the Tuckurimba Parents and Citizens lasted well after his children had finished school. Herbert was a regular participant at Empire Day celebrations, which were highly anticipated functions.
Herbert was a member of the Tuckurimba Progress Association and was often in the role of Chair. He agitated for improvements to roads in the area, for council services and raised money to support the local community and the Campbell Hospital in Coraki.
Herbert often wrote to the Gundurimba Council on topics of interest to the groups he represented and on issues in which he was interested: religion and militarism. He was a regular letter writer to The Richmond River Herald and Northern Rivers Advocate, referred to affectionately as The Pinkie (it was printed on pink paper).
Herbert was instrumental in the Tuckurimba Patriotic League. It was linked to the Red Cross which regularly organised parcels and support for serving soldiers and their families during World War 1. He was also president of the Repatriation Committee which held events to farewell and to welcome home the young men serving abroad. In 1937 the younger family members, George, Ciss and Gladys Hunt established a Red Cross Tuckurimba Sub-branch, and Ciss was the first president.
The Tuckurimba Hall was the centre of community activities. In 1918 Herbert was elected as one of four trustees to manage it. He organised numerous activities held at the Hall. In 1926 it burnt down (under suspicious circumstances) and there was furore about the location of its rebuilding. There were many hold ups until 1937 when it was reopened. By then George Hunt had taken on his father’s role in the management of the Hall.
Mary was a gifted knitter and needle worker. She made countless articles and garments for church functions and patriotic organisations, friends and family. In World War 1 she worked tirelessly for the Red Cross and in World War 2 she made over 50 camouflage nets. All her life she was a devout Methodist and gave much labour and service to the church.
Herbert died on the 31st of March 1946, aged 87 and Mary died on the 13th of June 1951, also aged 87. They were buried in Coraki.
This was not the end of the Hunt family history in Tuckurimba. Four of their children continued to live locally. George remained at Tuckurimba, as did Gladys and Mabel and Arthur lived at Broadwater.
Gladys and Mabel eventually sold the farm and moved to Lismore. They too were active in the community. Gladys was a poet and historian and recorded her memories of life at Tuckurimba and wrote many poems.
George Hunt farmed at Baxter’s Lane. He was renowned for his gardening especially gladiolus and orchids and for his photography. George was heavily involved in community affairs. He was a long-term member of the Tuckurimba Parents and Citizens and was for a time the President. During World War 2 he was President of the Patriotic League. He was a member of several horticultural societies and was a member of the Richmond River Historical Society. He and Ciss brought up 3 children in Tuckurimba: Jim, Nita and Ray. Ciss passed away in 1962. George continued working on his dairy farm until a few years before his death in 1974 aged 84.
George’s youngest son, Ray born in 1932 is the last remaining member of the Hunt family residing at Tuckurimba. He worked with his father on the farm firstly using draught horses, then an iron wheel tractor and eventually a little grey Ferguson tractor. He married and built a home on the land. From 1957 Ray mixed dairying with working at the Broadwater mill. He married and had a daughter, and he still lives on Baxter Lane today. Ray has continued his family’s service to voluntary work. Ray was awarded The Lismore City Council Services Award in 2012 and The Medal of the Order of Australia in 2013.
The Hunt family has lived in Tuckurimba continuously for 115 years. George Hunt’s photographs and Gladys Hunt’s poems provide a rare insight into life on the Richmond River.
written by Jenny Morgan – a Hunt descendant
Family History book
One of the Hunt descendants, Jenny Morgan, has produced a stunning 150 page family history book Tales of Tuckurimba. Jenny has thoroughly researched the Hunt/ Fordham families though their migration to Australia, their settlement in the Southern Highlands and their move to the Richmond River. It covers the lives of the eight Hunt children and all their descendants and is a comprehensive and detailed narrative of life in Australia for the early settlers.
Jenny’s book can be ordered through Lulu using this link
Gladys Hunt’s poems
George’s sister Gladys wrote many books of poems and short stories during her life. Several were published and the four that appear below were made into short videos using George’s photographs. The poems are read by Anna Kidd, one of the Hunt descendants.
Please be patient and wait for videos to load – it all depends on your internet connection. You can also find them on Youtube
