Re: Mr Sinclair entertains Bush Rangers

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 07:08 30/11/99 +0000, you wrote:
> Dea Annie
> Where is Cowabee?
>  
> Sinclair
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: Annie 
> > To: sinclair@mids.org 
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 6:24 AM
> > Subject: Mr Sinclair entertains Bush Rangers
> >
> > Connecting with the Gold mining era in Australia, were the notorious Bush Rangers, who terrorised the country side. While reading some of the stories, I came across the mentioning of a Mr Sinclair's encounter with the bush rangers. Blue cap and his gang travelled a vast distance, robbing, murdering and made themselves at home on station properties along the way.Here's a little snippet from the story.
> >  
> > ' The gang bailed up the Narrandera mail on Aug 16th and Mr Sinclair's Station, Cowabee, that night. They did not take anything away with them in the morning, and conducted themselves rather quietly. One of the gang playing draughts with Mr Sinclair all evening.'
> >  
> > Some fine Sinclair hospitality must have been shown on this night, seeing how they had murdered or robbed many of their last host's before arriving at Sinclair's station. I wonder if he was brave enough to win the odd game?
> >  
> > Annie


There is another interesting story about a Sinclair gold prospecting in Australia (as elsewhere).  It concerns the town of "Norseman".

During the year of 1894, a Laurence Sinclair returned to Dundas from Coolgardie and
was soon to learn that his brother, George, together with John Allsop were prospecting
in an area 14 miles to the North.  With this in mind, Laurie (as he was called) left Dundas
to visit his brother George and John Allsop.

Upon reaching George's camp, Laurie tethered his horse to a tree for a well deserved rest.
During the night the horse became restless and pawed the ground.  The next morning,
when Laurie was attending to his horse's needs, he noticed that the animal appeared to
be lame and he immediately began to inspect the horse's hooves to find the cause.

It was soon apparent that a rich specimen of gold bearing quartz was stuck in the animal's
hoof.  Full of excitement, Laurie told his brother of the find and they both agreed that a rich
gold bearing reef of quarrtz existed in close proximity to the area the horse had pawed.

After much labour of picking and shovelling the ground around the pawed area, a rich quartz
reef was located by the brothers Sinclair and John Allsop.

Laurie Sinclair originally came from Shetland and he was proud to call himself a "Norse-man" - having named his horse after the origins of the Clan Sinclair.  Laurie named the new
goldfield "Norseman" which is still the name of the town which sprang up around the find.

Laurie filed the First Reward Claim of the new filed at 3 p.m. on the 13th day of August,
1894

There is a photograph of Laurie Sinclair and his horse, "Norseman" in a small publication
which was produced to commemorate the centenary of the town of Norseman in 1994.
Needless to say, the emblem of the town is a horse in an acknowledgement of the part
"Norseman" played in the founding of the town but also in appreciation of all the other
magnificent 'beasts of burden' which allowed those early pioneers to tame the wilderness
and to bring prosperity to Australia.  

Man (in his arrogance) should never forget his debt to the horse.

Niven Sinclair.