OAKS, PALMERS OAKY
APPROXIMATELY 45 kilometres north-east of Bathurst is a locality known as Palmers Oaky. Located over two parishes, Roxburgh and Turon, it covers an area 15km long by seven kilometres wide. It is a hilly and mountainous terrain from 1150 metres elevation down to the Turon River.
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George Cox reached the Turon on November 30, 1821. He described “a well grassed and picturesque looking country, hilly and thinly timbered, one and a half miles through which brought us to a small handsome river, the banks low and green, with Swamp Oaks on either side, and the banks perfectly sound”.
Cox also reported his Aboriginal guide’s name for the river, Choorun, then two months later William Lawson called it the Tooran, which in time became the Turon.
Cox referred to the large number of Swamp Oaks (Casuarina Cunninghamiana) in the area, so perhaps this is where the terms Oakey Creek and Palmers Oakey came from. Since about 2009, Australia Post changed the spelling to Palmers Oaky.
It can only be assumed that Palmer was one of the first residents on the stream: this piece of information is lost in history. The countryside made for excellent gold diggings, and thus a small town eventuated to cater for the miners.
On August 20, 1859, the Reverend Colin Stewart of Bowenfels married Duncan Ferguson 2nd and Jane Peet at Warrie, a large grazing station near the town. Duncan was the son of Duncan 1st and Mary Ferguson, who had arrived in NSW in 1839 on the James Moran with their nine children and had settled at Warrie.
Duncan 2nd lost Warrie during a bet to repay debts, and moved to Oaks, closer to the town. He died there on August 15, 1895 and is buried at Palmers Oaky Cemetery.
The wattle and daub homestead known as Oaks, believed to have been built by a builder from Sofala in about 1852, has many original features, including six paned windows with much of the original glass. Duncan Ferguson 3rd was born at Warrie on March 31, 1863 and married the schoolteacher, Matilda Deasey.
They made their home at Kelvin, only 50 metres away from the Oaks homestead. The Anglican Church from Sunny Corner was dismantled in 1933 and rebuilt as an extension of Kelvin.
Duncan Ferguson 4th married Win Elbourn and had one child, Colin. They also made their home at Kelvin.
Following the death of Duncan 2nd, Oaks transferred to Ewan McColl Ferguson and he lived there until he died in the 1940s. Ewan purchased a set of gold scales, made by Avery in England, and used at Sunny Corner during the gold rush, from Dr McGill, a Sunny Corner doctor, and they remain in Oaks.
Oaks was left to a relative of Ewan’s, however, Colin Ferguson managed the property on behalf of the Estate for some years, and lived there following his marriage to Joy Silva in 1966.
A party telephone line was installed in April 1948, and electricity was connected in April 1957. Colin and Joy purchased the property in the 1970s and still reside there. They have added a new kitchen and study, however, the main part of the house remains intact and is a testament to the building process used over 160 years ago.
The Fergusons have also restored another cottage, named Nebo, close to Oaks. This was Samuel Taylor’s original Diggers Arms Inn, the first hotel licensed in the town - number 1148, issued on April 3, 1853. Taylor moved to The Rising Sun Inn at Limekilns in 1861.
Nebo became the post office around 1868 following a petition from the community for a postal service. The house has some original features, including the door belonging to the post office, and is still owned by the Ferguson family.
This is indeed an important part of the district’s early history and the National Trust acknowledges the Fergusons for their care and maintenance of two such early homes.