The old punt crossing on the Goulburn River. Photo contributed by the Seymour and District Historical Society.
Photo by
Contributed
Seymour, a town of rich, unique history, has a captivating past preserved by its dedicated local historians.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The European settlement of the land of the Taungurung Nation now known as Seymour occurred in late 1839, when English squatter John Clark Jnr travelled upstream from Mitchelton to what was then known as the New Crossing Place.
It was in the later part of the 1830s that John Jnr and his brothers William and Richard independently made their ways south-east from the southern Highlands of NSW, after having migrated from the Medway River valley of Kent in England several years prior.
John Jnr, who travelled the furthest, reached the Goulburn River and first settled at Mitchelton.
His brother William settled on the Ovens River of the Bpangerang Nation atwhat is now known as Wangaratta, while Richard settled on the Broken River of the Yorta Yorta Nation at the place now known as Benalla.
After building the Traveller’s Rest Inn, an accommodation house on the riverbank which is now the site of Mitchelton Winery’s Muse restaurant, John Jnr, with his wife and two daughters, relocated further upstream.
Seymour was originally popularised as a crossing point in 1837 by squatters William and Stewart Ryrie; however, it was John Jnr and his family who officially established it as a town.
John Jnr established a new punt and a new inn by the river. The inn was the first building constructed in Seymour and was located around 100 metres to the west of the current Royal Hotel.
The town was officially named Seymour, after the son of the 11th Duke of Somerset Lord Seymour, in December of 1843, after having been surveyed by assistant surveyor William Pickering earlier that year.
An early map of Seymour. Photo contributed by the Seymour and District Historical Society.
Photo by
Contributed
The history of John Clark Jnr and his brothers is kept alive by their ancestor, historian Garry Moore.
Mr Moore, who has a PhD in law, wrote a book on the Clark brothers post-retirement.
He said his detailed research stemmed from an interest in his family’s history.
“I suppose it starts with my research into my family, and, in this case, into my great-great-grandparents — my great-grandfather was William Clark, the younger brother of John Jnr,” he said.
“I think it was a little bit easy for me because they were quite large frogs in a small pond, so there was a lot written about them in the local newspapers at the time.
“I think (each of the three brothers) had very interesting lives and there are many parallels with what they were each doing.”
Mr Moore delivered a speech on the Clark family at the Seymour and District Historical Society, and left a copy of his book, The Clark Brothers, there.
The material in this article was gathered with the help of the Seymour and District Historical Society and Garry Moore.
If you find a particular piece of Seymour’s history interesting and wish to see it in a coming edition of The Telegraph, email editor@seymourtelegraph.com.au
10°C