Brown Mountain

The following information and photos were supplied by Margaret Parker [yyandamurra-at-bigpond.com] 13.02.10

Following on from a family reunion of the Green/Alcock families held in Nimmitabel & Bemboka in March 2008 it was decided to recognise the achievements of four pioneers of the Monaro (Kybeyan NSW).

With funds raised during the reunion it was agreed  to erect a bronze plaque in their memory. With the assistance of NPWS who generously donated their time, they placed the plaque last week (22/01/2010) at Fred Piper’s Lookout on the Brown Mountain. The plaque is in recognition of the efforts of these four pioneers of the Monaro who paved the way for what is now the Snowy Mountains Highway from Nimmitabel to the foot of the Brown Mountain.

The spelling of Nimitybelle was correct in those days & further research revealed the J Trigell to be John Trigell.

This is an extract of the event taken from an article reported in a Bega newspaper in 1857.

‘the Nimitybelle folk subscribed a sum of 100 pounds as a reward to the man who could find and mark a track on which a horse might be safely led from the tablelands to the foot of the Brown mountain. Four venturesome young men took up the challenge; J Trigell, Arthur Alcock, James Green and Joseph Hammond….. The party succeeded in marking a line, nine miles down from Nimitybelle, or from Pole Flat to Stoney Pinch, near the lake where Irwin’s Mill now stands and for about thirteen miles upwards… at this stage they ran out of water and provisions.

They eventually struck the river at the foot of the mountain near Nelson’s Flat. They were in an exhausted condition and their clothes were torn to shreds.’

James Green was my great grandfather.