...a place in the KellyGang story
located on the Murray
River north of Wangaratta and west of Wodonga
The run was first taken up in 1837
by Joseph Slack but later abandoned.
In 1839 it was taken up by George
Hume Barber, a nephew of Hamilton Hume. He called it 'Barneywatha'.
It was 38400 acres.
It was sold to David Reid in
1856 but much of the property was resumed for smallholdings. He then built
a stone house that he called 'the Hermitage'.
Most of the property was sold in 1865 to John
Whitehead. George Henderson
bought the house and the leased rights to some of the land and in 1871 he
had sold the lease to Henry Richardson.
G Henderson and J B Barlow attended a major meeting to plan for the coming of the railways (Argus15/7/67)
Barnawatha House was built in 1870 of clay bricks formed and fired on the
property. It has a three-storey belltower
In 1876 the license was held by Henry Richardson and the half yearly license fee was £10
Where did the name Banawatha
come from
Could be either aboriginal for a deaf and dumb person, or from barne-waitha
- tall rushes. Name can aslo be spelt Barnawoodtha
Nanny 1843-1882, member of Toolinyagan clan, Pangerang tribe. While living at Barnawatha complained to commissioner of crown lands after husband murdered.
The original aboriginal owners
The first selectors
The
town of Banawatha had been formed
There was a postal route from Banawatha to Yackandandah via South Barnawatha, and North Wooragee
There were deposits used for ballast on the railway line at Banawatha (Argus11/3/73)
Sup Sadleir sent a report on the hunt for the KellyGang from Barnawatha on 1/11/1878.
The KellyGang had made it to the River Murray. (RC1756)(JJK)
While hunt for KellyGang continued Banawatha was surrounded by water (Argus7/11/78)
There are some indications that Joe Byrne had a place that he sometimes used to hide stolen stock in this area
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