Jane Bailey and George Bailey were married in 1829 at The English Church in Ireland and immigrated to Australia on board the ship "Trinidad" in November 1841. They settled at Oberon, New South Wales.
Frances Smith (nee Green) b 1797 and John Smith b 1793 were married at Sydney in 1818. Their Son, William Richard Smith, b 1818, and his wife Mary Ann Smith (nee Barsden) b 1824 lived at Oberon.
Their Son, William Henry Smith, b 1840 at Bathurst and his wife Emma Smith (nee Humphries) b 1843 at Oberon, lived on the family farm at Oberon.
Jane Bailey (nee Armstrong) b 1808 and George Bailey b 1805 were married on 19 May 1829 at The English Church in Ireland and immigrated to Australia on board the ship "Trinidad" in November 1841. They settled at Oberon, New South Wales.
Their Son, George Thomas Bailey, born at Oberon 1852 and a Daughter of Francis Green, Sarah Rose Mary Smith, born at Bathurst 1865, were married at Macquarie, New South Wales in 1886.
The Bailey's lived on the family farm named Melrose Park, Edith (near Oberon, and shown in the picture)
The couple had nine children including Victor Bailey.
Victor Ernest Bailey, born at Oberon in 1898 and Sylvia Mary Bailey (nee Olds), born in Sydney in 1902 were married at Auburn in 1926.
Their eldest child is Mrs Merle Sharpe the Mother of Ron Sharpe OAM.
Many of the early settlers were from Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant, a fair number of emancipated convicts.
Two of the first European land owners on the Oberon Plateau were emancipated Irish rebels William Davis and Edward (sometimes called Edmund) Redmond. Both received grants of 1000 acres in the west of the shire in May 1825. Davis called his Swatchfield, and Redmond called his Bingham – it is at Arkstone, west of Porters Retreat. (He did not secure legal possession of it until 1838). These two men were transported in 1800 for their parts in the Irish Rebellion against the abolition the Irish parliament and incorporation of Ireland into Great Britain, as well as the economic and religious oppression of the Irish by the English. Both of them were successful businessmen in Sydney, both original shareholders in the Bank of NSW, and never lived on their grants.
Another Irish Rebel connected with the district James Meehan, assistant surveyor general, who marked the track between Goulburn and Bathurst and was an associate of Charles Throsby.
Many of the rebels had been landed men in Ireland, unlike a lot of the other Irish convicts who had rented land and been driven off it if they could not pay the tithe. Most Irish convicts were not given large grants of land or in the position to buy large areas. They tended to live between Campbelltown and Windsor or along the Hawkesbury River.
Citation: Thematic History of Oberon Shire - Philippa Gemmell-Smith 16 March 2004
A remarkable number of the Protestant families who settled in the shire, around Bullock Flat, Titania, Edith and Gingkin were related families who came as free settlers from northern Ireland, especially County Tyrone.
In 1841 George Bailey and his wife Jane Armstrong (See photo) arrived from County Tyrone and in 1844 George was a farmer living at Charles Whalan’s Glyndwr estate.
Ross Beattie, who has researched many of the early Protestant families in the shire, has found that a number of them were originally Borderers from the border district between England and Scotland.
They had been caught in the middle of the centuries of war between those two countries and had been harassed, oppressed, fought over and against for centuries by both the English and the Scots. The Borderers had responded with violence: looting and burning, cattle stealing and blackmailing, being hated and feared; not unlike the behaviour of some of the Irish secret rural societies, like the Whiteboys.
The English had harnessed their ferocity by using them as colonists in the estates of English Plantation holders, to subjugate and settle Northern Ireland. So they perpetuated the cycle of dispossession, on the Irish.
Among these families were Beatties and Armstrongs. They had emigrated from the Scottish border district to the Tyrone-Fermanagh district in Ireland in the seventeenth century. They left there, doubtless hoping for more stable, peaceful and affluent lives, and came to what became Oberon.
Citation: Thematic History of Oberon Shire - Philippa Gemmell-Smith 16 March 2004
George Bailey was born at Clogher, County Tyrone in Ireland, c1805, the son of farmer JOHN BAILEY and his wife JANE or AGNES KERNES. Vickie Bailey (5 January 2004) notes John as being born in 1773. Obscure references connect John Bailey to the Battle of Waterloo; others suggest that he was killed in the Phoenix Park massacre [or similar].
In 1984, Alice Morrow of Thornton NSW received from Mrs Muriel Auld in Ireland the following:
“The Bailey family have been in the (Clogher, Co Tyrone) area for at least 200 years. The church records at Clogher list a James Bailey baptised in 1794 (son of Archibald of Shane). They have been in the town of Clogher for almost 200 years as tenants of Dr Story. Most of them were blacksmiths and for many years they had a forge in town…”
George Bailey married Jane Armstrong (See photo) at the English Church, Aughnacloy TYR Ireland on 19 May 1829. Jane was a native of Belfast ANT (according to Immigration details), the daughter born in 1808 to farmer WILLIAM ARMSTRONG ("Win") and his wife ELIZABETH.
George, 36, and Jane, 33, left home in Ireland for Australia on 12 July 1841, departing Grennoch on 22 July aboard the 344 ton barque "Trinidad" they arrived as Free Immigrants in Sydney on 6 November 1841. With them were their children Margaret Bailey (aged 10 years), William Bailey (age 9 years), Eliza Jane Bailey (5 years) and Aiken Bailey (3½ years; also known as Erskine). George and Jane described themselves as literate Protestants, he a farm servant and she a house servant. As well as their own family, George and Jane also had 20-year old Roman Catholic Bridget O’Neill (Biddy) in their care.
Immigration records show that George, before disembarking the Trinidad was engaged by Mr D L Irving of the Shoalhaven for three months employment.
Jane bore George a total of ten children:
Mary Ann Bailey was apparently born in the Shoalhaven area six or eight weeks after George and Jane’s arrival, and was baptised in S Philip's Church of England, Sydney in July 1842; her father was stated to be a labourer residing in Kent Street, Sydney.
When Charles was baptised in 3 September 1844, George was a farmer residing at Mr Charles Whalan's “Glyndwr” estate immediately east of the present Oberon township and overlooking Fish River Creek; by George Thomas' baptism in December 1852 the family had moved to the nearby Fish (alias Duckmaloi) River.
A story is told that about six weeks after Charles was born, Jane's friend (?sister ) Mrs Pierce became seriously ill in Redfern. George was away somewhere with the bullocks and bullockies so Jane carried infant Charles and luggage to Sydney, 130 miles east across the Blue Mountains, to see her friend. The child was then about 6 weeks old, and Jane stayed at gatehouses along the road, and with Mrs Pierce in Redfern when in Sydney. There is general support for this story, though Charles' birth and baptismal dates indicate that some details may be inaccurate.
George had two blocks of land in what is now Oberon (a pisé house still stands behind a more recent frontage) and in 1851 and 1853 purchased land on the Duckmaloi, to be named “Bloomfield”.
Jane Bailey née Armstrong died at Duckmaloi near Oberon NSW on 8 December 1879, aged 71 years. The informant on her death certificate named her father as William Armstrong, farmer, and her mother's maiden name to be ERSKINE, and that she had been born in County Armagh Ireland. She was apparently unrelated to other Armstrong families from Tyrone and Fermanagh which settled about Oberon and were neighbours.
George Bailey, farmer and grazier, died at Duckmaloi on 27 April 1882.
Their son was George Thomas Bailey, the Father of Victor Bailey.
Citation: Ross Beattie References
Victor Ernest Bailey, born at Oberon in 1898 and Sylvia Mary Bailey (nee Olds), born in Sydney in 1902 were married at Auburn in 1926.
Their eldest child is Mrs Merle Sharpe the Mother of Ron Sharpe OAM.
Victor was a Carpenter and had worked on the development of Jenolan Caves House.
At Jenolan, in 1905, a new cave was discovered, deep in the furthest reaches of the Lucas Cave.
Back then, when people imagined the far away lands of the ‘Orientals’ (anywhere from the Middle East to the Far East) they conjured up images of exotic places of legendary beauty, mystery, colour and enchantment. That certainly described the newly discovered cave, so it was called the ‘Orient’. Its huge chambers were so heavily draped with calcite crystal decoration that the cave explorers called its 3 main chambers the Persian Chamber, the Egyptian Chamber and the Indian Chamber – after the most magical places they could imagine. Following the discovery, one journalist wrote that the Orient cave “possesses the purest and best snow-white formations of the whole series” of caves at Jenolan. Jenolan’s caretaker, James Wiburd, said “it seems almost sacrilege to intrude upon their domain of purity”.
NSW Superintendent of Caves, Oliver Tricket, wrote that the chambers: "are so surpassingly beautiful, they are decorated from end to end. There are 'shawls' 8 feet in diameter, massive fluted columns 30 feet high, clear pools with crystal floors 15 feet in diameter, and 'shawls' with translucent white bands alternating with very dark bands. The variety of tints exhibited by the formations is not equalled in any other cave at Jenolan. For beauty, variety, and grandeur it is difficult to imagine anything to surpass the caverns.”
In spite of the breath-taking beauty of the Orient Cave, several more years went by before it was opened to the public.
1916 to 1918 were years of massive growth at Jenolan. In 1916, electric lighting was installed in Caves House, Jenolan’s hotel, and work also began on a massive accommodation extension.
The following year, Jenolan’s ground-breaking hydro-electric power station was expanded, to power the lights in the caves and to prepare to light the new Caves House extension.
Then, in December 1917, the Orient Cave finally opened to the public, with great fanfare. Many dignitaries attending the grand opening, including the Colonial Secretary, George Fuller. His daughter, Miss Gwen Fuller, in her speech, expressed the wish, “that the un-veiling of the Orient Cave’s unparalleled wealth of splendour will be the means of inducing many thousands of lovers of Nature's handiwork to visit this romantically situated tourist resort.
Then by 1918, Caves House had been transformed with the addition of an ambitious 4 story extension. The Sydney Morning Herald provided some fascinating details. The grand staircase was built and a lift installed. For gentlemen, a smoking room was added, and the billiard room was doubled in size. There were 2 floors of guestrooms (a few even had toilets) bringing the total number of guestrooms to 100. The dining room was moved upstairs to a considerably larger space, where it could be “second to none outside Sydney”, and its kitchen featured the latest “ice plant and cold storage." (We take refrigeration for granted, but the first self-contained fridges were not sold in Australia until 1918, and only the very wealthy could afford them.)
All this expansion was necessary because transportation had completely changed. Travel by horse and carriage was a thing of the past, and visitors were coming to Jenolan in motorcars, by the thousands, for example, in 1914 Jenolan welcomed 10,467 visitors.
In 1918, your grandparents (or great grandparents) may have booked a Jenolan holiday or honeymoon through the Government Tourist Bureau in Sydney. A first-class train carriage would have transported them in comfort to Mt Victoria, where they would have spent the night. The next morning, they would have sped off to Jenolan by motorcar, in “maximum of comfort and convenience," for 2 nights in “the commodious New Caves House. They would have inspected 3 caves, including the spectacular, newly opened Orient Cave. The round trip, all expenses included, would have set them back only £4, 10 shillings! What a magical time they would have had!
The story does not end here. In the 1920s yet another immense extension was added to Caves House, creating even more guestrooms and a Grand Dining Room, now the magnificent Chisolm’s Restaurant. As for the Orient Cave, it’s fame became such that it is now considered one of the most beautiful caves in the world, but it would not be so without the next part of this story.
These days, behind the scenes at Jenolan, the caves are frequently water-washed, to remove all traces of pollution and people. But in the past, it was not so. Early in 1961, the cave formations were becoming noticeably dirty. This was especially apparent in the Orient Cave. To facilitate easier access to the Orient Cave in 1954, a long tunnel had been cut, and the entrance was directly opposite the hotel’s coal-fired boilers. Ash from the furnace was used to make paths through the cave So unfortunately, as well as the dust, lint, crumbs, mud and hair that visitors inadvertently brought into the cave, coal ash and air-borne soot also came in.
From 1961 to 1968, a range of cave cleaning methods were trialled. A fuel operated steam unit was tried and rejected, as it produced more pollution than it removed. They tried concentrated detergents and scrubbing brushes, which were quickly rejected. Two steam cleaning systems were trialled – a Clayton portable steam generator and a Fradic steam cleaner – both unsatisfactory. Finally, a specially modified steam boiler unit was obtained, along with bespoke electrical equipment. The new steam-cleaning process was trialled in one section of the Imperial Cave to make sure it was safe, before using it on the delicate formations of the Orient Cave. The test went well.
The Orient Cave was closed to the public in March 1968. All the steam-cleaning equipment was carried in and assembled. The steam cleaning created a heavy fog inside the cave. So, two 1000 watt quartz-iodine lamps were brought in to penetrate the heavy fog. One climbing pole and special wire rope ladders were used to gain access to the awkward and precariously high sections of the Orient Cave. The programme of steam-cleaning continued for 4 and a half years. Most of this colossal task was accomplished by 2 cave guides, Ron Newbould, and John Culley. Also, during this time, extensive redevelopment took place. Netting to protect the crystal features, electric wiring for lighting, and clean concrete paths were all put in place. Finally on September 30, 1972, the glorious Orient Cave was reopened to the public.
The Orient Cave is the only cave in Australia to be steam cleaned. Jenolan’s guiding staff are very proud of the great achievement in this field of cave conservation. A commitment to regular, environmentally friendly cleaning has kept the Orient Cave and Jenolan’s other spectacular caves, as stunning as they were when they were first discovered.
His obituary described him as “quiet and unassuming”. Although he seems to have shied away from attention, nearly a century after his death, his name is spoken with respect at Jenolan.
The son of Erskine Bailey, Robert Bailey was a cousin of Victor, both growing up in Oberon.
Robert Irvin Bailey was born in 1867 at Racehorse Creek, near Oberon, NSW. He obtained a job as a labourer at Jenolan in 1892, but his main interest was caves. One of his descendants wrote that, “He explored the valley caves and was in Hennings Cave with H. Simmons in August 1888. He was co-discoverer with Jeremiah Wilson of the Jubilee Cave.”
In 1898, in Bathurst, he married Catherine Cecilia Barker, from Hartley, who was working as a maid at Jenolan. They named their son, born in the same year, Leonard. As soon as “The Nest” was built, on the hill behind Caves House hotel, they moved in. Their home, “The Nest”, was built from recycled timbers, and as Bailey was a labourer, it’s not too big a stretch to imagine that he built it or helped to build it.
In January 1900, their daughter, Minnie was born.
By 1902 newspapers reported that the Bailey home was nearly destroyed by a raging bushfire, from which they were very lucky to escape. The Australian Star said, “Terrific bush fires have been raging around the Jenolan Caves for the past few days partly surrounding the Caves Hotel and Government buildings…Mr. Bailey, who had been assisting to quench the fire, found that it had got dangerously close to his residence, and just got there in time to prevent – with help – its destruction. Mrs. Bailey in the meantime had taken her two young children and hurried to a neighbour’s place…”
One-hundred and seventeen years ago, on 17 December 1903, Bailey was appointed as a cave guide, with a salary of £100 per year. As a cave tour guide, Bailey was popular. A Lithgow Mercury article mentioned that, “As usual, the caretaker and guides, assisted by Mr. R. Bailey as a special guide, did remarkably well in handling the various large parties.”
After-hours, along with colleagues, James Wiburd and Jack Edwards, Bailey was in the habit of exploring the caves, looking for new passageways and caverns. It was an incredibly risky pastime, but it is where, in the history of Jenolan, the “quiet and unassuming” Robert Bailey left his mark, because the trio discovered 2 of Jenolan’s most spectacular caves.
In June 1903, by climbing and squeezing down from the Lucas Cave, they discovered an enormous new branch - the astonishing River Cave. The Australian Star reported, “It contains several chambers of very attractive appearance, in which very fine groups of stalactites and pillars occur, and two massive and superb stalagmites.” The Lithgow Mercury said, “Mr Trickett, accompanied by Messrs. Wiburd and Bailey, made a survey of a portion of the recently discovered cave off the Lucas Cave, but have not yet managed to reach the river. It is now thought that the cave extends much further than was at first anticipated.”
The River Cave turned out to be one of Jenolan’s longest caves, and the favourite of many, with huge richly decorated caverns and pure underground river.
Then, in July 1904, going even deeper beyond the Lucas Cave, and beyond the River Cave, the 3 men discovered the stunning Orient Cave, today considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful caves. The Daily Telegraph reported that the caverns “are surpassingly beautiful. They are decorated from end to end. There are ‘shawls’ 8ft in diameter, massive fluted columns 30ft high, clear pools with crystal floors 15ft in diameter, and ‘shawls’ with translucent white bands alternating with very dark bands. The variety of tints exhibited by the formations is not equalled in any other cave at Jenolan. For beauty, variety, and grandeur it is difficult to imagine anything to surpass the caverns of the new branches of the Lucas Cave.”
Without the discovery of these spectacular caves, Jenolan would not be what is it today. And although for two years, the names of Wiburd, Edwards and Bailey made it into newspapers all over Australia, for Robert Bailey, these discoveries were just another day on the job. Then it was back to everyday tasks.
In those days of only 3 cave guides, they had to be ‘jacks of all trades’. A newspaper item from 1905 reported that “During their spare time, Caretaker Wiburd and Guides Edwards and Bailey have for now over a week, been engaged in planting ornamental trees of various kinds recently supplied by the Forestry Department.”
Also, every six months, they had to retrieve coins from the bottom of the frigid river in the Imperial cave. They devised a way of enticing visitors to toss money in, by appealing to their competitive streak. The Lithgow Mercury reported, “visitors have cast the coins into the river endeavouring to place them on a short stalagmite under the water, which…is very rarely done, as the current is so great that coins are carried down-stream, and finally settle on the mud-bottom. Every six months this money has been collected by the guides, and sent to the Lithgow hospital.”
This practice started around 1905, with substantial donations from the ‘Jenolan Wishing Pool’ going to either Lithgow or Bathurst hospitals, all the way up to at least 1954. The Evening News reported, “The recovery of the coins is a task of some difficulty. When it has been decided to clear the ‘collection box’, the guides dive for the coins. As the water in the pool is very cold, and as the work necessarily occupies some time, those who undertake it do not have the pleasantest of baths. On this occasion the money was gathered from the pool by the curator Mr J.C. Wiburd, and Guide Bailey.”
And of course Robert Bailey was well-loved as a cave guide. When 32 children from Oberon Public School visited Jenolan in 1907, the Lithgow Mercury reported, “Mr Bailey, guide in charge of the party, took a great interest in the young folk, and was soon engaged pointing out the various places of note and instructing the children in the various formations found in the caves.” Afterwards, “All were tired out with the long day, but unanimous in declaring it to be one of the most enjoyable ‘red letter days’ in their lives.”
In 1909, Bailey and family moved from Jenolan to Mt Victoria, where they felt their children could receive better schooling. It is said that he commuted 56km, to work at Jenolan, on a heavy-framed bicycle. We can only imagine how fit he must have been at that time.
But perhaps it become too much for him, as he resigned in 1910, and the family moved to Clarendon, near Windsor, where they ran a post office and a poultry farm.
In 1917, tragically, their son, Leonard, was killed in action at Passchendaele, Belgium. Their daughter, Minnie, became a teacher, married and moved to Gilgandra.
In October, 1923, Robert Bailey died of a heart attack, at his home, Leonardville, at Clarendon. He was only 56. His death notice simply said that he “was an industrious man, and by his quiet and unassuming disposition, made many friends”
Citation: Jenolan Caves - His Name is Spoken With Respect
See the Sharpe Family Tree here
London - James Blackman b 1759 married Elizabeth Harley and they sailed to Sydney.
Sydney - Their daughter Mary Ann Blackman b 1803 married Josephus Henry Barsden
Bathurst - Their daughter Mary Ann Barsden b 1824 married William Richard Smith
Essington - Their son William Henry Smith b 1840 married Emma Humphries
Oberon - Their daughter Sara Rose Mary Smith b 1865 married George Bailey
Sydney - Their son Victor Ernest Bailey b 1898 married Sylvia Olds
Sydney - Their daughter Merle Winifred Bailey married Douglas Woodhouse Sharpe.
Gosford - Their son Ronald Douglas Sharpe b 1950 married Caroline Curby
Gosford - Their son Michael Douglas Sharpe married Elizabeth French and they have three children and two grandchildren.
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