Moree Plains Shire Council - Past, present and future of the Shire

Moree becomes a town

Moree was gazetted as a town in 1862 with the town boundaries set at 530 acres and suburban boundaries at 1500 acres – the population 43 persons. On 4 June 1889, a meeting held at Mr A Thompson’s office advocated for the incorporation of the town which eventuated on 3 December 1890.

By the start of the first World War, the population had exceeded 3300. The population continued to increase to 5124 by 1937, however prior to the second World War calls to do something about the declining population of 5106 heralded ideas for a flying school and other initiatives. By 1954 the population was 5509 and had grown by 1971 with 9139 people. The highest population Moree achieved was in 1991 with 10,062 and the Shire population being 17,018.

At the last census in 2011, Moree’s population was 9346 with the Shire population being 13,429.

Moree Municipal Council

Moree Municipal Council was incorporated on 5 December 1890. The first elections held 28 February 1897 saw John Cameron elected Shire President (Mayor), AH Grace as Council Clerk. Initially there were six elected representatives, known as Alderman with another three added to the local government ranks.

The principal activities were to appoint staff, alignment of streets, construction of gravel footpaths, establishment of recreation reserves, control of the Moree common, establishment of a rubbish tip, installation of a sanitary service and improvements to bridges. Over the next decade, works began on the reticulated water supply, electricity supply, concrete kerb and guttering, loans for public works and the construction of the baths.

In 1902, construction of the first Council Chambers began on the north east corner of Frome and Heber Streets, and opened in 1903.

In the fire of 1917, the Mechanic’s School of Arts (an institute for working men to pursue further education through public lectures and classes) and the library burnt down (1879-1917). On the site, the foundation stone for the Moree Memorial Hall was laid in 1921 and the Hall opened in 1923 fully equipped with electric lighting. A new School of Arts and library was built on the north side of the Hall and formed part of what is now the Banquet Hall. The Hall, School of Arts and library were built by funds raised by the towns-folk and administered by the School of Arts.

A referendum was held in 1935 to allow Council to purchase the Memorial Hall, School of Arts and library buildings. In 1938, Moree Municipal Council borrowed £7000 to acquire the buildings and by 1939, the Council had moved to its new Chambers, alongside the Hall (to the north).

The Quota Club of Moree presented the Mayoral Memorial Chain in 1969 to the then Shire President (Mayor) WA Lloyd and he was the first to wear the Ceremonial Robes (purchased by Council) made of regal red wool, trimmed with black velvet and fur pelt. In 1981, a new chain was purchased in celebration of amalgamation.

In 1971, the open area adjacent the Memorial Hall to the south underwent major renovations to incorporate a new Council Chamber (36 Balo Street) and the former Chamber returned as the Banquet Hall. This new complex comprising of the Banquet Hall, Moree Memorial Hall and Council Chambers became known as the Moree Civic Centre.

Library

The original Council Chambers (1903) on the north east corner of Frome and Heber Street has been used as the School of Arts and Library (1939), Moree RSL Club (1947) and Moree TAFE college (1969).

During the 1940s, the Moree and District Library emerged and moved to the rear of the Supper Room behind the Council Chambers (on the north side of the Moree Memorial Hall).

By 1963, the War Memorial Education Centre (south east corner of Albert and Balo Streets) was built and the Library – known as the Moree Regional Public Library - occupied the northern side of the building, while the Moree High School used the southern end as an Assembly Hall. Once the school’s multipurpose hall was built, the library occupied the whole of the space and was renamed as the Northern Regional Library and then the North West Slopes and Plains Cooperative Library. The library serviced all residents of the Brewarrina, Moree Plains and Walgett local government areas.

The 2003 Council Chambers and the consolidation of staff at the 21 Auburn Street location left the building south of the Moree Memorial Hall (previously the Council Chamber from 1971-2003) vacant.

Renovations began for its transformation into the Moree Community Library, which was opened in 2011. The new facility boosts public internet and computers, genealogy and local history sections, a large adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction books, and online access to eLibrary products including eBooks, eMagazines and eAudiobooks.

The Moree Community Library is a branch of the Big Sky Libraries which covers the libraries of Moree, Mungindi, Walgett, Lighting Ridge and Brewarrina.

Water Supply

The Moree Water Supply marble foundation stone was laid on 15 October 1900 by the Shire President’s (Mayor) wife Alice Cohen (Mayoress Mrs SL Cohen). A well, which was lined with concrete blocks (the stone halfway down the well), was sunk to a depth of 70 foot (21 metres) from which a permanent supply of water was obtained. It had a steel ladder that zig-zagged around the concrete lining. The water was raised by pump worked by an old steam engine. By 1966, the well was filled in. It was located on the north east corner of Frome and Heber Streets behind the Council Chamber (1903-1938).

In 1908 a reticulated water supply was introduced. It was an elevated iron tank standing 54 feet (16.4 metres) with a capacity of 34,000 gallon (128704 litres). It was relocated to Collarenebri in 1958.

During the first World War, Council sunk a well at the north west corner of the Moree Showground, then later a bore. Bores were also drilled in 1938 in Boston Street and Oak Street.

By 1950, Council had five bores equipped with a ‘pomona’ turbine pumps capable of raising one million gallons (3785411 litres) per day. Water restrictions each summer were imposed as there were only two reservoirs at Jellicoe Park and Moree common to service the town.

By 1980, the Moree water augmentation was completed, the town now supplied with 15 bores and a capacity of 15 megalitres per day.

Electricity

The town electricity supply was switched on in 1911 and controlled by Moree Electric Light Company. The company serviced the equipment for pumping the town’s water supply and conducted an Iceworks on Bank Street.

At a gala event in November 1933 the Shire President’s wife (Mayoress Mrs AP Mellor) officially switched on Moree’s “White Way” - 60 electric lights placed under awnings of buildings, flooding Balo Street (between Heber and Albert Streets) with light and allowing business houses to display their wares – an innovation of the time!

In 1941, electric charges were eight pence per unit of lighting and three pence for power. In 1944, Moree Municipal Council took over the Moree Power House and leased out the Iceworks – equipment was in poor condition and aged. By 1949, power generation was handed over to North West County Council at its new facility in Balo Street (opposite Kirkby Park).

Roads and Footpaths

Prior to the establishment of Moree Municipal Council (1890), the streets were set out by the Surveyor General’s Department and the Government at Warialda was responsible for maintaining the streets.

Mr Kirkby, owner of Kirkby’s Criterion Hotel (1878 – 1934), Balo Street found when it rained, footpath and road was soft boggy mud damaged by wagon wheels, drays and sulkies, and patrons brought so much of the black soil mud into his Hotel that it had to be shovelled out.

Mr Kirkby requested Balo Street be gravelled (around 1879) but this was denied by the Government. He organised a competition amongst the itinerate workers of the town – the group who could cart and lay the most gravel in the least amount of time would get an 18 gallon (81 litres) keg of beer, the loser’s getting 9 gallon (40 litres) keg. They sourced gravel from the dry river bed of the Mehi River (which only flowed when there was a good amount of water in the Gwydir River) near Mary Brand Park. Mr Kirkby organised a similar competition to improve the cutting road between the railway and Balo Street.

In early 1902, Moree Municipal Council called for tenders to supply gravel for the purpose of laying town streets and footpaths. By 1914, there were 16 miles and 72 chains of streets over 66 feet in width and 2 miles 20 chains under 66 feet in width. There were 7 miles of gravelled footpaths, kerb and guttering and 1 mile 10 chains yet to be completed.

Moree Plains Shire Heritage

Beginnings

The first inhabitants of Moree Plains Shire were the people of the Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi nation which extended from the Hunter Valley through to the Warrumbungle Mountains in the west and up through the present-day centres of Quirindi, Tamworth, Narrabri, Walgett, Moree and Mungindi in New South Wales to Nindigully in southwest Queensland.

An escaped convict, George ‘The Barber’ Clarke, is reported to have been the first European ‘settler’ of the area. He lived with several tribes of Aboriginal people, including the Kamilaroi, from 1826 until he was recaptured in 1831. Back in captivity, Clarke told of a vast inland river called the Kindur. His descriptions aroused the curiosity of the then acting governor of New South Wales, Colonel Patrick Lindesay, who was prompted to send Major Thomas Mitchell on an expedition into the region to investigate the claims. Mitchell gave a favourable report on the pastoral prospects of the area and squatters soon followed in Mitchell’s wake establishing pastoral runs, one of which was a station called ‘Moree’.

The movement of drovers and the coming of settlers soon attracted others to provide them with goods and services. Moree grew from a station to a village in 1852 and to a town in 1862. James and Mary Brand were the first to build in the settlement, constructing a general store in 1852 and adding a post office the following year. Moree continued to grow and the settlement’s first inn was opened in 1861. A Court of Petty Sessions was established in 1863 and a police station added in 1865. The first church (Wesleyan) was built in 1867, banking was established in 1876 and the first local newspaper was published in 1881, by which time the population of Moree had grown to 295.

The railway arrived in 1897. As closer settlement proceeded in the region, other villages also evolved. Mungindi, for instance, grew at the site of one of the main crossing points across the Barwon River. Taking advantage of the fact that the crossing point was also a popular camping site for drovers, Alexander Grant Walker began construction of the present day Mungindi by building a hotel, or inn, in 1863.

Aboriginal Heritage

The first inhabitants of Moree Plains Shire were the Kamilaroi, also known as the Gamilaroi or Gamilaraay.

The Kamilaroi were hunters and gatherers who lived off the bounty of the plains and waterways. They hunted animals such as kangaroos, emus, possums and echidnas; and gathered frogs, insect larvae and the eggs of several different animals. These foods were important sources of protein for the Kamilaroi, as were the fish, crayfish and mussels they caught in the rivers and streams. Yams and other roots were important vegetable foods. Men generally hunted, cleaned and prepared game for cooking, while women fished, gathered, and cooked.

Although the need for fresh water meant that the Kamilaroi followed a basically nomadic lifestyle, their practices indicate a more sophisticated level of development. They operated under a complex kinship and marriage system; they carried out mosaic burning to encourage fresh herbage for animals; they stacked grass seed for future winnowing and harvesting; they ground grain to be made into bread; and their rope making and weaving skills were very advanced. They had digging sticks, at least five types of spear, several varieties of boomerang for hunting and warfare, and a variety of stone axes. They also traded extensively with their neighbours.

Pioneering Heritage

By 1832 the black soil plains in the Moree district and the approaches to them had been explored by Europeans and sufficient was known for settlers to risk a new area of unsettled land. The first wave of European settlers were squatters who selected the most fertile land close to streams and rivers on which to establish grazing runs for flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. Although they had no legal rights to the land they occupied, they were able to make use of the land because they were the first – and often the only – Europeans in the area. The squatters’ use of the land did not go wholly uncontested, however. The Aboriginal people did not give up their land without a fight. In the years between 1836 and 1855, there were often violent clashes between the original inhabitants of the land and the European pioneers. Twelve spearing deaths of Europeans were recorded in the first eleven years of European settlement. The Aboriginal people also wounded a number of white settlers and caused considerable damage to their stock and buildings. The Aboriginal death toll during this period was not officially recorded but the Europeans’ weapons were much more deadly and it is certain that many Aboriginal people were killed.

Despite their differences, the Kamilaroi people and settlers gradually began to negotiate with each other and by 1855 Aboriginal men were being employed on properties as stock workers, shearers and shepherds while Aboriginal women were employed as domestic servants. This was of great benefit to the settlers, given that work was plentiful and labour was usually in short supply.

In 1861 the land in the Moree district was thrown open for free selection and the second wave of European settlers, the free selectors, moved into the area. The land which had previously been used by squatters was now to be divided and sold to selectors who wanted to buy a block of land. Since the squatters had put considerable effort into clearing and working the land, many were not keen to give up land to the newcomers. Those who could afford it, bought as much of the land they had claimed as possible.

Life for the settlers, both squatters and free selectors, was hard. Not only did they have to endure droughts, fires and floods, they had to start developing their land from scratch using nothing but hand tools. Land had to be cleared of native forest and scrub. Timber had to be cut and hauled to homestead sites and shaped into rafters and slabs. Bark for roofs had to be obtained or shingles had to be split from chunks of wood, or billets, that had also been split by hand. In addition, all the buildings and yards essential for farming and the keeping of stock had to be constructed before the land could start to become productive.

Settlers’ wives did not have an easy time of it either. As well as bearing and raising children, the wives were responsible for carrying out all the household duties by hand: cooking, washing, cleaning and making the family’s clothes. In addition, they usually took charge of keeping the poultry and running the dairy. Even selling produce was difficult because the settlers’ markets depended upon the durability of their goods. Wool was a safe commodity because it could be transported relatively easily by dray. Stock could be driven to distant markets. Dairy farmers, however, had to rely on local demand for milk, butter and cheese, although large consignments of cheese, which kept fairly well, could be marketed further away.

Past, present and future of the Shire