Dalmorton
New South Wales
Dalmorton is located in New South Wales
Dalmorton
Dalmorton
Coordinates29°51′52.16″S 152°27′24.12″E / 29.8644889°S 152.4567000°E / -29.8644889; 152.4567000
Population6 (SAL 2021)[1]
Postcode(s)2460
Elevation213 m (699 ft)
Location66 km (41 mi) from Grafton
LGA(s)Clarence Valley
CountyGresham
State electorate(s)Clarence
Federal division(s)Page

Dalmorton is a locality in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. There once was a village of the same name, which was associated with gold mining. Much of the area of the locality is now reserved as National Parks or State Forests. At the 2016 census, the population of Dalmorton was four.[2]

Location

Dalmorton lies on both sides of the Boyd River and the Old Glen Innes Road.[3] The old village site lies on the left bank of the Boyd River, around the junction of Chaelundi Road and Old Glenn Innes Road, close to where Chaelundi Road crosses the Boyd River.[4]

The area now known as Dalmorton lies on the traditional lands of Baanbay people,[5] a group of Gumbainggir.[6]

History

Mining

Gold was found in the valley of the Boyd River (then also known as the Little River), around the future site of Dalmorton in 1871.[7] The gold was found in quartz reefs and reef mining dominated the field. Initially, several gold reefs were worked, providing work for 600 men.[8][9] By 1877 there was only one rich gold reef—twelve inches thick and with gold visible in the quartz—being worked at Dalmorton and the number of men working had fallen to around 20.[10] However, gold mining continued in the wider area around the village well into the 1890s[11] and on a smaller scale after that.[12] The last mine in the area closed in 1942.[7] There were over one hundred mines—mainly gold but also silver—in the area around Dalmorton.[11][13] There was exploration for gold in the Dalmorton area as late as 1984.[14]

Mining village

A site for the Village of Dalmorton was declared in February 1874,[15] although there was already a settlement there by then. The origin of the name Dalmorton is uncertain, but probably it is taken from the name a nearby quartz reef mining lease.[16] Its earlier unofficial names were 'Dalmorton Reefs' or just 'Dalmorton',[9] and it was said to be known locally as 'The Reef'.[10]

At the peak of early gold mining in the early 1870s, had at least seven public houses. A post office, using the name Dalmorton, opened in 1872.[17][18] By 1877, Dalmorton had only one street, one hotel (Rudd's), three stores, and many empty houses, without a church or school.[10] Dependent upon mining activity, the village seems to have had revived somewhat in the early 1890s[19] but was in decline again by 1895.[20]

In 1891, the population of Dalmorton was around 200.[21] In 1894, there were three Aboriginal people counted as living at Dalmorton, and in 1906 there were eight.[22][23]

In 1912, the licence of the last of the village's hotels, Dalmorton Hotel, was sold and applied to a new hotel at South Grafton.[24][25] In 1918, Dalmorton was described as "a few scattered dwellings, occupied for the most part by tenacious fossickers, who will not give up the search for, the elusive streak".[26] The few remaining inhabitants were badly affected by the Spanish influenza pandemic in 1919.[27]

The village had a school from 1879 to 1914 and again from 1926 to 1931.[28] There was a police station at Dalmorton, by 1881, and the village was also the site of a Police Court.[7]

Post-mining decline

Without gold mining and with limited agricultural potential, the village came to depend for a time on timber milling. Hoop pine grew in the valley. There were sawmills near Dalmorton. One sawmill was badly damaged by bushfire in 1936, but Dalmorton continued as a timber village well into the 1940s.[29][30]

At the 1921 census, the population of Dalmorton was around 22 people.[31]

The building that housed the village's combined general store and post office was destroyed by fire, on 4 January 1950, after which a small telephone exchange was temporarily reinstated at a nearby dairy.[32][33] The store and post office were in business again, in November 1953, when a 78-year old prospector died at Dalmorton, while still seeking gold.[34] The police presence at Dalmorton lasted, until at least around 1954. A newer road from Grafton to Glen Innes became the main highway, and, as it bypassed Dalmorton, the police station was no longer needed.[35][36] The newer road—now part of the Gwydir Highway—also reduced the amount of traffic passing through the village. The post office closed on 23 December 1966.

Present day

All that remains of the village of Dalmorton today are the remains of a few buildings and the village's cemetery.[37] Slightly upstream of the old village site, on the right bank of the river is the Dalmorton Campground.[4] On the Old Glen Innes Road, a few kilometres to the west of the old village site, there is a short road tunnel, known as the Dalmorton Tunnel, which was hewn from solid rock and dates from the 1860s.[38][39][10]

References

  1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Dalmorton (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  2. ↑ "2016 Census QuickStats: Dalmorton". quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "Dalmorton". Google Maps. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Dalmorton - Satellite view". Google Maps. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "Map showing the distribution of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia [cartographic material]". Trove. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Norton, David R., The AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (1996)
  7. 1 2 3 Tuck, Dan (April 2018). "From the Tablelands to the Sea". Cosmos Archaeology Pty Ltd. pp. 52–58.
  8. ↑ "MINING NEWS". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 16 September 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  9. 1 2 "THE LITTLE RIVER REEFS". Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912). 13 July 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "A TRIP TO DALMORTON". Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton, NSW : 1859 - 1889). 18 August 1877. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Dalmorton, Gresham Co., New South Wales, Australia". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "NOTES". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 1 August 1927. p. 13. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "Mining at Dalmorton". Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1889 - 1915). 4 February 1893. p. 3. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "Ashton Mining takes option on Little River gold leases". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 25 April 1984. p. 10. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  15. ↑ "SITE FOR A VILLAGE". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 17 February 1874. p. 476. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  16. ↑ "MINING NEWS". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 16 September 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  17. ↑ "NEW POST OFFICES". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 25 April 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "GOVERNMENT GAZETTE". Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875). 24 April 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  19. ↑ "DALMORTON". Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser (NSW : 1874 - 1908). 2 September 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "Dalmorton". Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1889 - 1915). 2 March 1895. p. 4. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  21. ↑ "DALMORTON". Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser (NSW : 1874 - 1908). 10 November 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  22. ↑ "Protection of the Aborigines (Report of the Board, 1894)". Trove. Aborigines Protection Board of NSW, for NSW Parliament. 1895. p. 4. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  23. ↑ "Aborigines (Report of the Board for Protection of, for the year 1906)". Trove. Aborigines Protection Board of NSW, for NSW Parliament. 1907. p. 14. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  24. ↑ "OBITUARY". Daily Examiner. 17 January 1936. p. 4. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  25. ↑ "THE DALMORTON HOTEL". Grafton Argus and Clarence River General Advertiser. 26 July 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  26. ↑ "DESERTED DALMORTON". Kyogle Examiner (NSW : 1912; 1914 - 1915; 1917 - 1954). 28 May 1919. p. 1. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  27. ↑ "DALMORTON STRICKEN". Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 - 1954). 21 July 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  28. ↑ "Dalmorton". nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  29. ↑ "Bush Fires". Inverell Times (NSW : 1899 - 1907, 1909 - 1954). 30 October 1936. p. 1. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  30. ↑ "Death Of Prominent Grafton Businessman". Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 - 1954). 19 January 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  31. ↑ "THE LATE MR. W. J. PINKERTON". Glen Innes Examiner. 25 October 1932. p. 2. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  32. ↑ "Cat saves life of sleeping man". Argus. 6 January 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  33. ↑ "Fire Escapee Twice Lucky". Daily Examiner. 7 January 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  34. ↑ "OLD PROSPECTOR FOUND DEAD". Daily Examiner. 14 November 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  35. ↑ "DALMORTON POLICE NOT TO GO YET". Glen Innes Examiner. 2 December 1953. p. 1. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  36. ↑ "HISTORY OF OLD AND NEW GRAFTON ROADS RECALLED". Glen Innes Examiner. 28 April 1954. pp. 3, 6. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  37. ↑ "Australian Cemeteries Index - Cemetery 1354 - Dalmorton". austcemindex.com. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  38. ↑ "Thematic Forest History UNE/LNE CRA Regions - APPENDIX 2: CRA HERITAGE INVENTORY (UNE)" (PDF). p. 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 January 2021.
  39. ↑ "Old Glen Innes Road and the Historic Tunnel Grafton - Grafton Travel Guide". www.travelguide.net.au. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
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