Dear Pattrick,
I'd be interested to hear of other people's recollections of the fire that burnt down all the shops from the corner of Clark Street through to the Tudor Hotel. I think it was a Saturday night late in January 1949. I would have been 8 years of age and remember the adults talking about how John Ingram and some other adults left the pictures ( movies ) and raced up the street to get the cars out of the garage. My mother had put our school tunics in to be drycleaned in readiness for the start of the school year. A lot of goods were saved from the Haberdashery store ( including our tunics ) but they were not found for a couple of weeks and we had to start school without the correct uniform. If anyone has a school photo - taken in the February of that year they will notice the three Buckley girls sitting in the front row with ordinary dresses on. Even though we were in different grades the nuns would not let us go in separate photos as they thought we would ruin all the school
photos!!

BUS PASSENGERS STAGGER ALONG LONELY ROAD IN RECORD BLIZZARD
(Taken from Sunday Telegraph June 23, 1946)

Worst ordeal during the snowstorms which swept the Monaro district last week was that suffered by 18 passengers in a motor bus caught on the Cooma Road .

Six men who struggled on to the township of Nimmitabel took four hours to cover four miles, through deep drifts.

Women and children, half-walking, half-carried through thick snow, reached a station homestead.

The bus, with the remainder of the party got back to Cooma taking 10 hours to travel 18 miles. The bus left Cooma for Bega on the Wednesday morning. After travelling 18 miles, it ran into thick snow. Six soldiers on the bus decided to risk pushing on to Nimmitabel. They were Alex Matthews (Sydney), Dudley Green, Alf Smith and Rennie Rood (Bega), J Johnston (Eden) and Joe Goward (Wolumla). Before they had gone far, they were knee deep in snow. Their progress was so slow that at times they seemed to be making no headway at all, they said later.

When they arrived, they were accommodated in the lounge of the hotel at Nimmitabel. There they were snowbound for three days. Matthews said yesterday that at times during the trip he was doubtful if they would be able to keep going.

When the party left for Nimmitabel six women and several children in the bus were taken to a station homestead owned by Mr J Baker. Though the homestead was not far away, the women and children had a bad time reaching it.

The driver Perce Piper, elected to return to Cooma. Several of the male passengers volunteered to go with him. Piper returned to Cooma safely with his passengers, but it took him 10 hours to do the 18 miles in the blizzard. Yesterday the bus resumed its journey and reached Bega safely.

Townships on the Southern Tablelands are still snowbound. Telephone services are still cut off, and some roads are still deep with snow, and impassable. Yesterday the weather reported to be clearing, but frosty conditions had sent temperatures well below freezing point.

Rail communication between Cooma and Bombala was restored on Friday night, and yesterday the train got through on time. Men sat on the front of the engine of the train, and got down every few hundred yards between Nimmitabel and Bombala to shovel the snow from the line, so that the train could proceed.

The bus service from Cooma to Hotel Kosciusko was halted about three miles from the hotel by snowdrifts on the road. A horse sleigh was used to take passengers and mails on to the hotel.

So far no loss of life has been reported in the blizzard. Police parties have been visiting snowbound homesteads and settlements with food and mails.

(This newspaper clipping sent in by Allen Lyons, Bungwahl NSW, grandson of Jack Ingram, formerly of ‘Rockleigh’, Nimmitabel)

Anyone who has been in Nimmitabel during the winter months will readily agree that it is the coldest spot in New South Wales, and possibly in Australia. With the snow-clad mountains for a background, the town has many unusual features and much of historic interest. Like so many country towns to which the railway has been extended long after the town was built, the Nimmitabel railway station is about a mile out. The coming of the railway changed the spelling of the name from “Nimitybelle”.

There is only one business street. Just behind the main hotel is a real relic of the pioneering days - one of the two oldest flour mills in NSW, the other being at Mount Gilead, between Appin and Campbelltown. It is many years since the mill worked. Originally it was fitted with large wooden wings, but these cast moving shadows on the main road, and this frightened horses to such an extent that a protest to the authorities led to the banning of the mill. Later, machinery was installed and the mill functioned without its wings.

Just out of town is a freezing-works, which was kept busy for many years treating rabbits and other carcases. Recently a move has been set on foot to establish a meatworks on the river a few miles out of town. Another feature of Nimmitabel is the Roman Catholic Church, which is built on land having a higher elevation than any other on which a sacred edifice is built in Australia. From the Church in winter one gets a fine view of the snowy mountains.

The Nimmitabel racecourse is also worthy of mention. It is unique in Australia. The track runs round a lake, and in wet weather the water reaches right up to the inside rail. Wild ducks are to be seen on this lake at any time, and it would be possible here to run a race horse against a speedboat.

Local residents declare that the crows on the Nimmitabel Golf Links are the most cunning in Australia. One local golfer told me that he lost a dozen balls in two days, and they were all taken by the crows. If you carry a gun to the links with you, the crows seem to be able to distinguish it from a club and keep well away.

Tourists pass through Nimmitabel to Bombala and onto Victoria while another route leads down the pretty Brown Mountain. In the mountains close to Nimmitabel gold has been discovered, but not in large quantities. However, it should be a headquarters for anglers, for the rivers in the district team with trout. You have only to find a running stream in the district to be sure of good sport - “Eureka”.

(This story was found in some papers belonging to a former older local identity and given to Nimity News. The golf course referred to was near the Railway Bridge on the old Bombala Road, just out of Nimmitabel. Maybe some of you remember this!! ‘Not in this Editor’s time’. Editor.)

C.M.E. 11 Jan 1898 Nimitybelle,
"The town is enveloped in blinding smoke from the bush fires raging in the direction of Coghill's Flat, Kydra and Mountain Top. A thunderstorm broke over the town this afternoon, out of which 25 points were recorded, and which improved the great volume of smoke,
and which no doubt, is something to quench the fires. The weather during the last few weeks has been very oppressive, the thermometer showing daily fro 90 to 100 in the shade, the latter figure being much in evidence. The McLachan River has ceased running and creeks and lakes are completely dry; the grass is plentiful, but dry; the water is the only drawback. Every appearance of rain setting in now 9/2/98
Regards Betty

BUS PASSENGERS STAGGER ALONG LONELY ROAD IN RECORD BLIZZARD (Taken from Sunday Telegraph June 23, 1946)

BUS PASSENGERS STAGGER ALONG LONELY ROAD IN RECORD BLIZZARD
(Taken from Sunday Telegraph June 23, 1946)