DIAMOND JUBILEE DINNER 

To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of their parents wedding, the sons and daughters arranged a special banquet in Jindabyne in 1929, the old couple being the guests of honour. There were two sittings, the tables accommodating fifty persons at each sitting. 

Only one son, William, of Tambo, Queensland, who has been an invalid for ten years past was absent. Mesdames McIntyre and Bellchambers were delayed by a mishap to their car, and were not present at the first sitting, but arrived before dancing, which occupied the balance of the night and the early hours of the morning was commenced. 

Mr. E. J. Gelding, a friend of many years, was alloted the honour of presiding. Full justice having been done to the turkey, ham, tongue and vegetables, and the plum pudding, jellies etc., the loyal toast was honoured. After reading a telegram of congratulations from Sydney friends, the Chairman proposed the health of Mr. and Mrs. William Wallace Snr. 

He was proud to have been chosen to preside and hoped to voice the sentiments of the people of Jindabyne. It was a unique occasion, he had not heard of a similar celebration on Monaro. 

It must be a source of great joy to the couple to look around and see so many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren present. Not many children have the privilege of honouring their parents 60th wedding anniversary. It must be with a feeling of joy that they looked back on the difficulties and hard work and now knew the respect and love of the people of Jindabyne and particularly their own folk. They had had great struggles and made great friendships. Mr. Gelding congratulated them on having achieved 60 years of married life. 

The toast having been enthusiastically and musically honoured, Mr William Wallace replied, ‑Ladies and gentlemen ‑ 1 thank you very much for the hearty manner in which you have honoured this toast. On behalf of myself and the blushing bride 1 thank you." 

Mr. John Harvey proposed the "Family" of whom he said "there was a very fair crowd. It was very nice to see the young people taking such a pride in arranging this diamond wedding function. He was an old man and had attended a good many weddings, but there was none he had more pleasure in attending. There were about half a dozen left *who were at the wedding but they would be too young to remember it. There was only one old Wallace ‑ now there were Wallaces to burn."

 Mr. George Wallace as the eldest son briefly returned thanks and asked his brother Alex to speak more fully.

Mr. Alex Wallace expressed pleasure in replying, and thanked the speakers for the nice things said  the way they had spoken of Dad and Mum had touched him hard. Too much could not be said for them, though he supposed that was the feeling of every son. They were glad to have been able to give the function, which they would remember all their lives.

 Mr. Percy Wallace said they had promised their father and mother a good turn out when they were 50 years married. Ten years ago,  I the 'flu' that prevented that, and his father said he would not be there then to see it. He thanked them one and all for their good wishes.

The toast oft lie visitors, proposed by Mr. A. Wallace, concluded the first sitting.
At the second sitting Mr. W. R. Wallace proposed the health of his grandparents.
 The function was continued with dancing into the early hours, snow having, since the commencement of' the dinner.

 This was taken from a copy of Cooma Express Newspaper dated Monday July 8th 1929.

 STORIES RETOLD

 Not long before William was 11 years old his father was attending a customer in the shop when he heard the potatoes boiling over on the stove upstairs. He grabbed the handle in a hurry, it was hot and the contents spilled down his legs scalding them so badly that he was unable to get up and down the stairs and so had to lease the shop. Very good friends of his, the James Bros., had gone out to Australia sometime before and had been writing and urging him to come out where he would do well but his wife had refused to leave her home. But now he decided to go out to them as the nine months the ship would be at sea and the enforced rest would put him on his feet again (which it did). So, in 1856 he and his eldest son, William, boarded one of his mother's family's ships and landed in Australia in the Autumn of 1857. 

They worked with the James Bros. at first but did not have enough money to get a store of their own. In the late winter of 1857 they were working in a hand made nail factory at South Head. They were taken to The Gap in a horse drawn lorry on the 20th August, 1857, to meet fellow workers. There was no work that day because of a huge storm during the night, a ship had been wrecked and the factory had been almost washed away. The men went home, but William and a boy about his own age (12) slipped away, struggled up The Gap just in time to see a man named Jackson, one of the crew, being pulled up from a split in the rocks. He was the sole survivor and the ship was the Dunbar. The Captain had mistaken a gap in the cliffs for the entrance to the harbour and it was smashed to pieces on the rocks. (A few weeks later a ship belonging to his mother's people and called the Catherine Adamson after his cousin, was wrecked not far from the Dunbar. She left home loaded with "grog" Scotch Whisky probably. During the early 1960's divers found the cargo almost intact but the contents were spoiled by the infiltration of salt water and were undrinkable.) 

On the trip from Sydney to the gold fields they struggled through the heavy snow with their horse and cart until the horse gave out and then they commenced to walk until they were both too exhausted to carry on. His father scribbled his name and address and shoved it in his pocket and they resigned themselves to death when a mob of Chinese miners with baskets and marching two by two swung onto the road behind them. They picked the two exhausted and half frozen men up and half led and half carried them to Kiandra. 

He was about 18 or 19 when he had a fight with a big red headed miner called "Pepper", because Pepper kept picking on him as well as calling him "Wingie". Although handicapped with only one arm he was successful in knocking the big man out. 

He worked around Jindabyne for some time, fencing, working his team of bullocks and other jobs. His pay for one week's working from daylight to dark, bought him a pair of mole skin trousers and a pocket knife. He selected a piece of ground that runs from the Jindabyne Rocky Plain road (next to Phillip Wheatley's) down to the Eucumbene River, built a hut and lived there until after his first child was born. Then he built down near the Eucumbene and lived there till his family of thirteen were grown and married. William laboured on the Presbyterian Church Round Plain in and around 1869 and his eldest son was the first child baptised when the church was open in April 1870. His son George (eldest) was buried there in February 1955. Helen Wallace was also buried there about the middle of June 1886.

These stories have been retold as remembered by Mrs. Gladys Weston, eldest daughter of George, eldest son of William Wallace. 

*GEORGE Wallace, first child, had only two weeks at school, but taught himself to read and write. He helped his father on the farm and he married Emily Watling, when he was 22 years old. After their first child was born they moved two miles away to "Snowview" Hilltop. Like most of the men of this era he did a lot of jobs like shearing, ploughing, cutting crops, digging for gold and even shooting possums for their skins. Because of the price of wool he used to take thousands of sheep for their owners to Mountain leases and care for them all summer. He married Emily Watling and they had eight children, one twin girl died when she was 7 months old. He was taken to Penrith, where his eldest son lived, for medical treatment when he was 86. He died there when he was 87 and was buried at Round Plain, where he was the first child chirstened. 

*WILLIAM, second child, left home in his early teens and went to Sydney to his grand dad, George. About this time he was stricken with arthritis and moved to Queensland, hoping the climate would help him. He married Emily Kendall of Cunnamulla and worked a property. Because of prickly pear and his arthritis worsening, he went into business with a store and stock and station agency. His arthritis overtook him and he spent many years confined to a wheelchair. Both died and were buried in Queensland. 

*ALEXANDER, third child, married Christina Gammon and worked on "The Farm‑ later known as Hiawatha until his brother, Fred bought it from Sir Joseph Carruthers. Alexander then moved to Jindabyne where he had a store and they lived there till they moved to "Jindabyne West" before building The Big House" where they resided before the Snowy Mountains Authority bought it. They moved to Ryde in Sydney where they lived with their daughter Heather until their deaths. They are both buried in Jindabyne.

 *ROBERT (fourth child) worked as a farm hand and shearer in his early years. He then purchased a small selection joining "Springvale", later he purchased the property "Hillview", 3 miles north of Jindabyne. lie married Annie Robertson sister (it' George Roberson (Katherine's husband), and they had 3 sons and one daughter. They sold "Hillveiw" in 1929 and look over the Berridale Hotel in 1930 leaving in 1934 and purchased a hotel in Laurielon. After this lie went into is produce   fe Annie continued to live at1 Lakemba till her death 1 hey stir

ISABEL, fifth child, worked from the age of 12 as house help for Crisps at Jimenbuan till her marriage to Albert Girvan. They moved to Ironmongie and then to Cobbin while Albert built a house on the land they had purchased beside the Snowy River, which they called "Melrose". They lived and worked this property till Albert's death in 1949. Isabel's daughter Eileen then purchased Melrose and Isabel spent most of her remaining years at "Melrose" with her moving to the new Jindabyne when the waters of Lake Jindabyne flooded the old home. She lived to the grand old age of 96. Both died at Cooma Hospital and are buried at Boloco cemetery near Dalgety. 

*MARY, sixth child, married in 1899 and moved to Canberra where her husband, John McIntyre was a truck owner/d river. They had 3 boys and 3 girls. She died at and was buried it Queanbevan. 

*ELIZABETH, seventh child, married James Shooks from Round Plain and started their married life in the Cootamundra and Adelong areas. They returned to "Jindabyne West‑ where he worked at many jobs including butchering and hotelkeeping. In later life they returned to the Batlow area where Mr Shooks died. Mrs Shooks died at Cootamundra. 

*KATHERINE, eight child, married George Roberson, and they farmed a property called slapUp at Hilltop, later moving to settle in Jindabyne in Kate's parents home. They retired to Bathurst where their daughters lived and they both died and were buried there. 

*JOHN, ninth child, married‑‑‑Dolly‑Bale from Moonbah and worked at "Jindabyne West. He tended a bullock team and was involved in the construction of the road to Koscuisko. They retired to Sydney where they died and are buried in the Sutherland cemetery. 

*HELEN, tenth child, died at the age of 6 months. 

*SARAH, eleventh child, married George Bellchambers who came to Jindabyne to teach at "Springvale" School, which William had built for his children. After they were married he taught at Cranky's Flat and Rocky Plains travelling to school on horseback from Jindabyne. They were then shifted to Bredbo and later to Bibbenluke where he died and was buried there. Sarah spent the rest of her life in Canberra with her family where she died and is buried. 

*PERCY, twelfth child, owned land at Jindabyne but worked for Stewart Kelly at Collington where he drowned after his car went into a creek beside the track and was buried at Jindabyne. He married Sarah Bolton, who died at Bega after suffering a stroke. She is buried at Jindabyne. 

*FREDERICK, second youngest child, married Ivy MeGregor in 1916 and he procured a portion of his father's property, which he named Ellswood He also had a carrying business between Cooma and Jindabyne with a waggon and six horses. The journey to Cooma and return taking approximately three days. In 1920 he acquired a portion of "The Farm‑ later called "Hiawatha" which was cut up for closer settlement and they lived in the homestead. He also did odd jobs with his own machinery on other properties such as stripping, cutting oats and wheat crops for chaff and grain. Fred carried on farming with his eldest son, Gordon, helping him until Gordon* joined the Army in 1941. In late 1959 "Hiawatha" homestead was used by Warner Brothers in the filming of "The "Sundowners" Unfortunately Fred did not live to see the picture when it came to Australia as with failing health and the threat of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme resuming his property, he passed away in 1961 being the first to be buried in the New Jindabyne Cemetery. The property was later to be resumed by the S.M.H.E.A. and is now under the waters of Lake Jindabyne. 

*LESLIE, the youngest child, lived and worked at home till his family were grown up. Then he and his wife Sylvia went into the hotel business ill various towns including Cootamundra Merriwa, Lockhart, Cooma and Batlow where Sylvia died three weeks after taking over. Les then spent time with his son, Garth, at Sandy Hollow where he died. He was buried in Jindabyne.

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Descendants of George Wallace

Sylvia Aldred [Sylvistuff-at-gmail.com]
Jenny Kohlen  <jenny.kohlen-at-outlook.com>
David Smith <dvsmithau-atyahoo.com.au>  12.03.07