"Early days on the Macleay River" It was lent by a K. Kennedy to the Public Library New South Wales in 1968.
From the local history books in the Kempsey Shire Library . The six children of William and Ann Chapman (nee Chevans) were Frederick, (married ? Dornan), William Edward, (married Ann Wilson), George, Elizabeth, (married James Cheers) and two other daughters. W.H.Chapman took up a squatting station at Yarrabandinni in 1841. He lost two of his ships in 1852, the schooners "Glenduart" and "Pompoy". Two other ships That William H . owned wer the Schooners " The Flower Of Yarrow "& the " Rose of Eden . . & "The Lady Bannister " . W.H.C. died in 1857 the same year Frederick set up the village of Frederickton. In 1861 the first school was opened in Frederickton. In 1862 Frederick donated the land for the Wesleyan Chapel in Frederickton.
Extract from "Macleay Valley
Heritage" Introduced and illustrated by
Les Graham and Text by Marie H. Neil
Tonatiuh Press 1978 Pages 85 to 88
Frederickton was once part of the vast
Yarrabandinni run which had Christmas Creek as its southern
boundary, and which extended north into the
swampy plains and west to the
hilly country.Yarrabandinni was acquired by William Henry
Chapman in 1837, when its riverside land was covered with thick
brush forest.
It was the cedar in this forest which was responsible for the
establishment of Yarrabandinni, just as it had been for the
establishment of Euroka further up the river.
Before settling in the Macleay valley, William Henry Chapman had
been a prosperous shipbuilder at Millers Point, Sydney. His
ships were engaged in the whaling and cedar trade. Chapman had a
manager in the Macleay district to supervise his cedar interests
there. In 1836 the manager's position was taken over by Henry St.
John Cahuac, who was a close friend
of Chapman.
Cahuac became interested in the establishment of cattle stations
in thevalley, and advised Chapman or their advantages. As a
result, grazing licences were taken out for Euroka in 1836 and
for Yarrabandinni in
1837. James Cheers was given the position of superintendent
at Yarrabandinni. Henry Cahuac lived at Euroka with his
family, but proved to be a less successful manager for Chapman's
interests than his predecessor.
In 1839 William Chapman decided to take over his Macleay River
interests himself. He wound up his Sydney affairs, selling his
wharf, stores and shipbuilding site for over £6,000 ($12,000).
Mrs. Chapman and their six children went ahead to the Macleay
River, travelling by steamer to Port Macquarie. A boating crew
was hired to row them and their luggage up the
Maria River to the head of navigation at Boat Harbour.
It was sunset when they arrived at Boat Harbour, and there were
still fourteen kilometres of rough country to he crossed before
they could reach Euroka, where they were to stay with the
Cahuacs. They set off in the dark in a bullock dray, but kept
running into trees along the unmade road. The boys searched the
forest for bark to make torches to light the
way. It took them six hours to reach the Cahuac home in its
forest setting beside the Macleay River.
William Chapman arrived soon after,
and went ahead to cedar-cutting for house
building. A large barn stood on the station, so he filled in the
gaps m the walls, had slab partitions erected inside, smoothed
the slab floor with an adze and brought his family home. When the
furniture arrived, in one of the Chapman ships which had been
retained for the Macleay trade, Mrs. Chapman took her carpets and
oil-cloth floor coverings and fastened them over the rough walls.
With a
huge open fireplace at one end of the barn and a kitchen outside,
the family settled happily into their new way of life
Under the competent management of William Chapman Yarrabandinni
prospered. The surplus cattle were slaughtered and the beef
salted down in casks to be sold. A dairy was established from
which cheese and butter were sent to the stores at Port
Macquarie. Skilled ploughmen from England were engaged to plough
the cultivation paddocks with horses, replacing the unskilled men
who had used bullock teams Within two years a large
weatherboarded and shingle-roofed home had been erected, and
Yarrabandinni had become well-known for its efficiency and
hospitality.
When James Cheers married the eldest Chapman daughter in 1841,
Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and the rest of the family returned to
Sydney so that the boys could he educated. The young Cheers were
left in charge at Yarrabandinni.
In Sydney, Chapman became the City Auctioneer, living on the
corner of George and Hunter Streets with an Auction Mart on the
premises. All went well until the economic depression deepened,
and the auction business and the Macleay River stations were
threatened. The Sydney business was sold for £15,000 ($30,000).
William and Ann Chapman and their family
returned again to the Macleay valley.
By then the cedar business on the river had ended. Station cattle
could not be sold. The wheat crops, which had given promise of
success, had developed rust and blight and had to be abandoned. A
boiling down works was established on the station. The hides of
the cattle were sold andtallow shipped away in casks.
The growing sons worked hard to run Yarrabandinni, the two
adjacent Chapman stations, Bellimbopinni and Tanban, and the
heifer outstation near the Bellinger River.
William Chapman returned to shipbuilding once more. His ship
launchings on the Macleay River were occasions of festivity, with
friends coming from near and far to join in the gaiety. The
well-bred Chapman horsesalso sold well,~and once or twice a year
the sons took mobs of them overland to Maitland to ship them to
Sydney. From there they were sent to India Later, fine draught
horses were bred on the station.
Through all the troubled years William Chapman remained a
resourceful, efficient manager of his affairs. Complete
prosperity did not return until the Australian gold rushes began
in the early 1850s.
In 1853, when Frederick Chapman, the eldest son, married Jane
Scott of Port Macquarie, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman once more returned
to Sydney. Yarrabandinni was left in the capable hands of
Frederick Chapman, who purchased some of the station land under
pre-emptive right. In 1857 this land was subdivided to form the
private town which he named Frederickton.
His father also made several large purchases of portions of
Yarrabandinni and Euroka stations before he died in Sydney in
1857, aged fifty-six. He was buried in the cemetery attached to
St. Stephen's Church at Camperdown.
Mrs. Ann Chapman lived in the Macleay valley until her death in
1889, but, without the guiding hand of her astute and capable
husband, her land, and that of her family, soon passed to other
hands.
William, Henry Chapman of Yarrabandinni was not only a
businessman of exceptional ability, but was public-spirited and
possessed of truly humane qualities. His convict servants
and the local Aborigines held
him in high regard.
Among his descendants were many who became highly successful in
civic and cultural spheres, not only in Australia, but overseas.