Crossing Boundaries.
While looking for information on the 1841 NSW Census for Yass, in the Lachlan Land District, I came across a rather tantalizing map at the National Library of Australia. Closer examination of the fine print revealed that the map was dated 1841 but was not from the census but for a report to the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1840 regarding proposed boundaries within NSW. Although the map has statistics for each of the eight grazing districts in New South Wales some of the numbers unfortunately, are rather hard to read. Frustratingly, the State Records of New South Wales has an index for the 1841 Census but details for individuals are not listed for the Lachlan and Macquarie Districts. Henry O’Brien, of Douro and Hamilton Hume, of Cooma in nearby County Murray are both listed with references to the microfilm reel which would hopefully provide more information from the 1841 Census.
While in Sydney recently I visited the Mitchell Library section of the State Library of New South Wales to check their aperture card version of the map to see if their numbers would be clearer, part of which is shown below.
So far we have the following statistics including those for the Lachlan, Maneroo & Murrumbidgee Districts. However, the 1840 Report would need to be checked to ascertain their accuracy. Fortunately, Trove has the 1840 Report at 5 libraries but not at Sydney so we will have to wait and see for the time being.
District Stations Acres Cultivated Population Horses Cattle Sheep
Bligh 44 218 402 241? 24,064 118,341
Lachlan 84 1,945 792 1,027 37,920 114,134
Liverpool Plains 121 292 1,042 1,045 102,758 230,102
Maneroo 132 1,031 1,651 2,133 78,473 230,150
Murrumbidgee 147 1,795 1,139 1,517 62,348? 183,654?
New England 56 361 702 262 13,850 201,926
Port Macquarie 22 590 287 169 5,833? 14,642?
Wellington 56 433 656 436 26,370 119,441
Now why are there Twenty Counties and not Nineteen? Simply another part of the report’s proposal, or not? Mmmmm…
Explorers Tree 