Early Photos

In the 1990's The Liston Hall Committee collected copies of photos of the Liston area and wider district. If any interested people would like to purchase a CD with approximately 85 of these photos, please contact the Committee President Sharyn Inch. 

Below is the Hall Committee from 1935: 

On the back row are: Arthur Beddow, Alf Beddow, Charlie Crome, A Harriman, W Goodyear.

Front row: Horace Beddow, F Marsden (president), F Stonebridge (Secretary), N Gallagher.

Some of the past history of the Liston area can be seen in the following photos, many of which are held by the State Library of NSW.  Click links to go to the site then follow the links for larger images.

Past members of the Bonner family and friends outside 'Milford' homestead (c.1895),  in front of 'Milford' homestead (c.1910) and in their 'overland' car. 

Buggy in front of Wylie Creek school at Willson's Downfall (undated).

Family gathering after Evelyn May Bottrell's wedding (6 May 1908) at 'Broadmeadows' the Bottrell family home, Amosfield.

Fishing camp (c.1920) on 'Boston Cliffs', Maryland Drive.

Mr Joe Johnston's horse team hauling a boiler (c.1925) for Rivertree silver mine on Rivertree Road at Uncle Harry's gully, Undercliff.

Horse riders at rabbit trappers camp (c.1926) at Undercliff.

Children with flying foxes (c.1928) on 'Lincoln Hills', Maryland River.

Tin mining occurred over a wide area for a long period of time. Some mines were quite complex as shown by the tin dredge at Herding Yard Creek (c.1935).

Early burials and cemeteries

A transcript of records detailing burials from 1856-1918 in the Tenterfield district but outside the Tenterfield Cemetery includes records of many burials in private and small cemetaries around the area.

 

A listing of the remaining headstones at the Willson's Downfall cemetery contains links to photographs of the headstones. The cemetary itself is quite overgrown with only a few headstones remaining visible.

 

Interesting reading

Indigenous History. People of the Kambu Wal, Keinjan and Githabul (Bundjalung) tribal groups inhabited  the local and surrounding areas. Their presence is indicated by artifacts, paintings and culturally significant sites such as bora rings and camp sites. More information can be found on Granite Net on the Indigenous History page.

They Came to a Plateau (Jean Harslett & Mervyn Royle) chronicles the progress of white settlement on the Granite Belt from the time of the arrival of explorers in the early 1800s, through the era of the squatters and pastoralists, then tin miners and later orchardists etc. Included are some details about the establishment of schools and churches in the Herding Yard Creek and Amosfield area.

Rivertree Chimney The rugged hills and gullies of Rivertree have been the site of various mines including a silver mine which surrounded the still standing historic smelter chimney.  See this article in the Tenterfield Star for more information on efforts to restore the chimney.

The Road to the River (Glen Hall)  Although predominantly written about areas further to the south and east, in this book Hall states:  'By 1876... the Tenterfield road was also alive with the slow-moving traffic as tin was won from places like Boonoo Boonoo (call it Bunna-bunoo, like all the natives do!), Amosfield and Willson's Downfall. It was rough country up there, and there were some rough characters still around in it. Bushrangers, they said, and for years afterwards the coaches avoided it.'

Hall also includes some statistics: 'On the tin mines at Willson's Downfall, 1878, official figure: Tin ore raised; 11,107tons (Wlm. Hick's report).  Men employed: Europeans 65, Chinese 457.'

Flying Fox And Drifting Sand (Francis Ratcliffe) is about Ratcliffe's travels during 1929-31 as he investigated the habits of flying foxes.  He devotes a chapter to a trip into Rivertree where he stayed with timber getters such as Jack Diamond, Dan Maclean, Frank Diamond, Jim Cameron and others as they worked felling hoop pine and red cedar. Ratcliffe describes how the men lived and worked and also describes the bush and its animal and bird life.