People on Tocal
How people have adapted to and changed the natural environment of Tocal.
This story map outlines our current understanding of the people that have called Tocal home, drawn from official records and reports that have survived through time. In addition to this, there are personal stories and knowledge that are shared and passed from generation to generation. These add to the rich history of Tocal and the Hunter Valley and are recorded in various publications available from Tocal and other local outlets.
Tocal is on Wonnarua land. Evidence of thousands of years of Aboriginal habitation remains on the property and remind us of the connection the Wonnorua people have to this land.
We also see evidence of the changes wrought on the property with the arrival of Europeans; of the hard times of drought, fire, flood and devastating storms; and of the passing of generations and the need to sell up and move on.
Explore the sites marked on this map, they are places where evidence remains of past landuse and activities.
The first Australians in the Paterson Valley
There is tentative consensus that Aboriginal people populated the east coast of Australia around 50,000 years ago. Over the course of those 50,000 years Aboriginal people adjusted to changing climate, sea-levels, landscape, vegetation, fauna and populations. These changes, and the impact of Europeans outlined below, are detailed in the book 'Before and After 1822' by Brian Walsh.
This story of survival includes the impact of the arrival of Europeans in the Paterson Valley.
The Paterson Valley includes lands of the Worimi people (saltwater people), the Wonnarua (freshwater people) and the Gringai who were associated with the upper Paterson Valley. These groups interacted with each other and as people married into different clans the connection to land and responsibilities shifted and formed a complex web.
There is record of five escaped convicts from Sydney living with the Aboriginal people of Port Stephens - to the east of Tocal - for five years from 1790. There is no evidence that they, or John Shortland who entered the Hunter River estuary in 1797, reached the Paterson Valley.
It is quite likely that Aboriginal people in the valley glimpsed early surveyors in 1801 and by 1804 timber cutters from the newly established settlement of Newcastle were felling trees in the Paterson Valley. There is conflict recorded during this time as the sawyers came onto Country without permission and began cutting trees without regard for their significance in Aboriginal cultural life.
Brian Walsh describes the early cultural collision during this time and subsequent years as a 'mix of cooperation, understanding, misunderstanding, friendship, exchange of goods and knowledge, intimate relations, use and abuse of Aboriginal women, all interspersed with sporadic incidents of conflict'.
Soon the dispossession of Aboriginal people from their land began. By 1820 there were 12 small farms at Patersons Plains. There are reports of farmers on these small farms being on good terms with local Aboriginal people but also of conflict over the theft of produce, notably corn.
In 1822 land grants were made available in the Paterson Valley and dispossession became widespread. By 1831 56,000 acres had been allocated to farming along the Paterson and Allyn Rivers.
James Webber
One of the first land grants was to James Phillips Webber who took up a grant of 2020 acres (817 hectares) in 1822. This is the area to the right (or east) on this map. The two sections to the left (west) - added in 1825 - bring the property size to 3300 acres (1335 hectares).
This information is sourced from records and survey maps that were part of Webbers obligations as a recipient of a land grant.
Almost all of Webber's workforce were convicts - at one point 34 convicts lived and worked on Tocal. In all over 150 convict men and boys were assigned to Tocal between 1822 and 1840. They lived and worked here clearing Tocal's rainforest, planting the first crops, building fences and huts and tending the sheep and cattle. Webber was an early pioneer of tobacco and grape growing in the young colony.
Some of Tocal's convicts were habitual criminals, and some were rebels who had protested against conditions in England or Ireland. But most were simply working-class youths who had been caught stealing. The youngest was 13 and the average age was 25. For their crimes they were transported to New South Wales and spent time at Tocal. Most managed to rebuild their lives and gain their freedom, but many suffered the lash, the iron gang or other punishments along the way.
This map includes an overlay of our understanding of what the vegetation on Tocal may have been at the time of the arrival of Europeans (based on descriptions from colonial records), before the widespread clearing and fencing of land grants.
The Barracks (left) were built for convict workers accommodation around 1836. This photo was taken years later when they had fallen into disrepair however in 2016 renovations were completed and they are now boutique accommodation.
Impact of land grants on Aboriginal people
As the land grants, and later sale of land, in the Paterson Valley progressed Aboriginal people were increasingly dispossessed. As Brian Walsh describes 'Proximity to water was the first priority of Aboriginal people when choosing camp sites and it was where they spent much of their time. The same riverside contained rich alluvial soil for crops and ready access to water for livestock, so it became the prime target for Europeans seeking land.'
As the Europeans took the prime agricultural land for themselves they dispossessed Aboriginal people of their choice hunting areas and culturally significant sites.
The uptake of land along the Paterson and Allyn rivers created a need for the two cultures to coexist. This occurred for many decades with a mix of conflict - Walsh describes two massacres reported in the Paterson valley during the late 1820s - and cooperation with a number of colonists sharing land they had claimed or bought, and shared some of their produce in order to maintain friendly relations.
The European style agriculture that came to the Paterson valley with colonists like James Webber, also had an impact on the Australian environment. Walsh reports that the 1828 census returns for landholders in the Paterson valley indicate that only six percent of the farmland had been cleared. However environmental impacts further reduced access to the natural resources that Aboriginal people had used for thousands of years by:
- grazing and trampling of the land by introduced, hard-hooved sheep and cattle which compacted soils and altered the species composition of vegetation communities
- hunting kangaroos and other wildlife along the rivers where farms were being established reduced numbers drastically and forced remaining wildlife into hillier country away from the river
- draining of wetlands reducing access to these areas and again changing the natural community. The wetland at the back of the Homestead was drained during James Webber's time at Tocal, efforts have been made to re-establish this wetland as an important part of improving the sustainability of farming operations.
Along with the pressures described above, the European colonists brought with them disease including influenza, measles, whooping cough and venereal disease which reduce the population's ability to recover numbers. Between 1829 and 1831 a smallpox epidemic swept through the Aboriginal population in the Hunter Valley. Mortalities are estimated to have been greater than 30%. Although records rely on estimates it is clear that the Aboriginal population was in drastic decline during the 1820s and 30s and those remaining were increasingly forced to live on European terms (Walsh, 2022).
The Stone Barn
At Tocal, work continued on establishing the property. This stone barn is one of Tocal’s oldest buildings and was constructed in stages. The first stage was 1830, the year marked on the lintel above the door.
The barn reflects the changing focus of agriculture across successive owners. During James Webber’s time the barn was probably used for drying tobacco and making wine. The black and white photo dates from the 1920s.
In the Reynolds era it became a stock feed store and a row of stables was added along the back. When the Alexanders bought the property in 1926 it became a garage for their Rolls Royce and the car port at the front was added. The service history of the Rolls is recorded in pencil on the wall just inside the right-hand garage.
The room to the right of the garage was used as a butcher's shop. Beef killed in the slaughterhouse every few weeks was cured in brine here. Carcases of meat hung from hooks on the ceiling.
The Wilsons
In 1834, Webber sold Tocal to Caleb Wilson and his son, Felix, who became sole owner on his father’s death in 1838. A further two parcels of land were added to Tocal while the Wilsons owned the property.
Felix commissioned Scottish architect William Moir to design and build a country residence and the Homestead was completed in 1841. It is one of the classic houses of Australia and is the centrepiece of a set of buildings that is subject to a Permanent Conservation order and registered in the National Estate.
Business commitments kept Felix busy in Sydney and he had little time to enjoy his country estate and in 1844 the property was leased to Charles Reynolds. The lease continued for 63 years.
Tocal Homestead
The photo on the left was taken during the time the Reynolds lived at Tocal. At that time there was a tennis court on the front lawn and the side verandahs were enclosed for additional living space.
Today the Homestead displays items of everyday life that were used by past owners. Visitors are able to imagine what it was like to live in this grand old home during the 1900s.
The Reynolds
Charles Reynolds leased Tocal from the Wilson's in 1844. The Reynolds ran Tocal along with property they already owned including Glendarra. This map show the Tocal boundary in 1907 and the Reynolds owned land that was managed along with Tocal.
Over the next 82 years, Charles, and subsequently his widow Frances, his son Frank and grandson Darcie, ran Tocal as one of the most important Hereford, Devon and Thoroughbred studs in the country.
Tocal Hereford cattle consistently took out Champion Bull and Champion Cow awards at the Easter Show in Sydney. Charles and Frank Reynolds were masters at selecting the best stock for the improvement of the breed. The Tocal Hereford bloodlines continue to be bred by the Reynolds descendants to this day.
Hay stacked on the flat below the Homestead, the road from Maitland to Paterson now passes through this area.
Images such as this from the Reynolds collection show the busy Homestead complex in the middle distance.
Thoroughbred horses from Tocal made their mark on the track as well as in the stud books. Tocal stallions and mares produced many race winning progeny including four Melbourne Cup winners bred on the property. In fact in the 1886 Melbourne Cup, the winner, Arsenal and second place, Trenton were both progeny of champion Tocal sire Goldsbrough.
Along with their great success in stud stock breeding they trialed many new crops.
Frank Reynolds purchased Tocal from Felix Wilson's estate in 1907 it bringing the land area owned by the Reynolds to 4360 acres (1764 hectares).
Reynolds family portrait, more images from the Reynolds time at Tocal are available on Flickr - link below
The Kidds
The success of the Tocal studs was in no small way due to the Kidd family who for four generations worked for the Reynolds and lived at Tocal. From John Kidd, one of Tocal's convicts to his great grandson, Daly Kidd, they were knowledgeable grooms, stud-masters and farm hands. At the same time their wives and daughters filled housekeeping, washing and cooking positions at the Homestead for the Reynolds.
One of the oldest buildings at Tocal, known as Thunderbolt's cottage (named for one of its most infamous residents, bushranger Captain Thunderbolt who worked at Tocal before spending time at large around these parts) remains standing at Tocal. Its design is similar to English farmhouses where animals were housed under the same roof as the family for security. The cottage was used by various farm workers and their families including several generations of the Kidd family.
Daly Kidd was the only person to remain working on Tocal when it was sold to the Alexanders in 1926. He worked at Tocal for 20 years from 1916.
Aboriginal survival
Aboriginal people of the Paterson valley during this time responded to colonisation in a range of ways from maintaining a traditional lifestyle, joining the margins of European society by working for and living on farms and homes, providing goods and services to colonists notably selling honey collected from the bush, or a combination of these.
The consequences of dispossession include a fracturing of the complex family connections amongst Aboriginal groups in the valley. They now included the children of relations between Aboriginal and European couples who received mixed reactions from both Aboriginal and European society.
In 1894 the death of Scrammy Billy was reported by the Maitland Weekly Mercury as the passing of the 'last of his race in this district'. And in 1905 and elderly Gringai man known as Brandy died, his obituary records a life moving to and from traditional lifestyle and employment on various farms. Despite these reports members of the Paterson and Allyn Valley Aboriginal people live in the area today with ongoing connection to country and culture. The Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation represent the Wonnarua people - a link to their website is below.
The Alexanders
In 1926, Tocal was purchased from the Reynolds family by Jane Alexander. The Alexander family at Tocal consisted of Jane (known as Jean), Isabella, Robert, and Charles. By 1939 only Charles remained and he invited his two nieces, Myrtle and Marguerita Curtis to reside with him at Tocal. They were daughters of his late sister Margaret. Following Charles’ death in 1947, they lived at Tocal until their death just five days apart in 1985, at the ages of 95 and 97 respectively. The sale did not include the Glendarra property which remained in the ownership of the Reynolds.
This series includes: Charles Alexander; one of the Alexander's Hereford bulls; Myrtle and Rita Curtis; the Homestead in the 1980s; The Misses Curtis at the opening of Curtis House at Tocal College.
Alexander/Curtis Collection
CB Alexander Agricultural College
In 1963 ownership of Tocal passed to the Presbyterian Church who undertook to build a College that would fulfill the intent of the will of Charles Boyd Alexander. Charles Alexander had left his estate for an agricultural school for disadvantaged children.
At the time of his death Charles' nieces, Marguerita and Myrtle Curtis were living in the Homestead. They saw the construction and opening of the CB Alexander Agricultural College and remained in the Homestead until their deaths in 1985.
The Church managed the College until 1970 when it was transferred to the State as the CB Alexander Agricultural College, Tocal.
View from the Homestead before 1965, the College now site on the far rise.
Current property boundary
The Tocal property has increased through various land purchases since the College commenced - Athcourt Farm, Glendarra, Bona Vista, Dunnings Hill, Clements Farm and Numeralla. It is now 2,280 hectares.
Today the property is the fulltime home to around 20 people in various houses on the property, 100 staff who work at the College and during school terms up to 100 students live, work and study on Tocal.
Tocal staff and students gather for R U OK? day
Farming operations on the property include beef cattle, dairy, free range egg enterprises with horse breeding and a demonstration sheep flock.
Tocal is currently taking part in a research program that has a range of cattle breeds on the beef farm.
The property also includes Tocal College, provider of vocational and industry training in agriculture and primary industries as well as teacher professional development. The farm operations are an integral part of the full-time student course program.
Tocal offers courses for school leavers, new entrants to agriculture and established primary industries. https://www.tocal.nsw.edu.au/
The Tocal Homestead complex is a busy function venue including boutique accommodation in the convict barracks, an excursion site and hosts tour groups and casual visitors by arrangement.
The Barracks accommodation at Tocal Hometead. https://tocal.com.au/
More detail about the people and history of Tocal is available in the 'All about Tocal' series available to purchase from the CB Alexander Foundation, link below.
