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The Adamthwaite Family at Quambatook
1878 - 1978
page 2 of 12
Joseph married Emma Smith in
1864 at Langi Gheran. Her parents were Joseph Smith and Mary Ann Hickling.
This Joseph was a surveyor, and had done extensive work all over the United
Kingdom. His and Mary Ann's eldest daughter, Emma, was born at Preston,
Lancashire, in 1845.
They made their first home at
Moyston, near Ararat, and Joseph continued his mining operations until
1878. It is recorded that he made a "rise" at the Kangaroo Mine, Moyston,
but that he lost it all through the hard times which followed.
The country in North West
Victoria, which until then had been held by station owners (sheep
squatters), was then thrown open for selection, so as the gold was petering
out and he hadn't made his fortune, Joseph was forced to turn his attentions
to pastures new. Moreover, by this time, he and Emma had six children to
support. . Alone, Joseph journeyed up to Quambatook to select a block. He
chose 240 acres along the Avoca River and then returned to Moyston. As
Joseph was a carpenter, in all probability he would have built the hut to
provide some sort of shelter for the family when he made his first journey
in 1876. This hut, built of pine logs and mud with open fireplace and dirt
floor, became the kitchen of the original home.
In the year 1878, he and his
family with all their worldly possessions, made the long trip to Quambatook.
Joseph's first concern would have been to build a house to shelter his
family. Joseph built a neat weatherboard cottage made from some very hard
local timber. The cottage had four rooms — three bedrooms and a sitting
room. The log and mud hut was used as a kitchen, and when the weir was
constructed, some years later, the ends of the slabs were used for the
blocking of the floor. These blocks were used many years later to make a
floor in the garage and may be seen there today. A mud brick dairy was added
to the end of the kitchen, and there was a cellar. The building had an iron
roof, fastened on with screws and washers.
Aborigines were in the
district along the Avoca River, but between the years of 1866 and 1880 they
began to disappear. Their last great gathering, with its customary rituals,
was held about the year 1880, and after that time they could be seen just in
small wandering groups. Along the Avoca River can be found traces of their
ovens, etc. but very few, if any, burial grounds, which would indicate that
they did not live permanently in this area, but just moved here seasonally.
The original homestead, pictured during the 1909
flood
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