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Notes from Cabbage Tree Flat

Compiled by K. T. Javenlake

Following this last weekend’s early start to the men’s senior cricket season, the Middle Coast Cricket Association has called on the Afternoon Tea Committees of the Cabbage Tree Flat and Mowana Cricket Clubs to aid a quick and peaceful resolution to the matter of the missing serving platters.  Both Mrs Ethel Coolidge of Mowana, and Mrs Bea Prout of Cabbage Tree Flat are missing a kookaburra-jubilee pattern serving platter used at the afternoon tea provided for the players at the Steve Moon Oval.  Mr George Taylor, on behalf of the Middle Coast Cricket Association, told this correspondent, “No-one wants a repeat of the Tenterfield cake stand incident, and whoever has the plates can return them, no questions asked, to either Club house or the Association’s offices in Trulong.”  The plates remain missing as at the time of publication, and no-one this correspondent has spoken to has suggested who may have taken them.

Uncle Charlie Brent has issued a reminder on behalf of the Garrakool Lands Council that the bunyip breeding season in the Simpson and Trulong River valleys will begin with the storm season in mid-October.  Residents and business owners with buildings within 100 metres of waterways in these two networks, or within 150 metres of the Craic and Mowana wetlands, should check and maintain their security doors and gates before then.  Patrols of the Illawong Creek network will begin in mid-October to ensure that the species does not extend their range in the coming breeding season.  Anyone wishing to volunteer for patrol duty may contact Aunty Rhonda Burgess on Tuesdays or Thursdays at the Land Council’s offices in Trulong.

Mr Stanley and Mrs Wendy Crozier of “Dun Roaning” Horse Stud on Old Trulong Road, Cabbage Tree Flat, are delighted to announce the engagement of their second daughter, Miss Leslie Crozier, to Mr Anthony Beacon, only son of the late Mr Alastair Beacon and Mrs Lisa Goodall.  The happy couple intend to live at the farm in Culpepper Road, Cabbage Tree Flat, that the late Mr Beacon bequeathed to his son.  The groom’s stepfather, Mr Douglas Goodall, is expected to hand over management of the property to his stepson in the leadup to the wedding, which is planned for August next year.

The Middle Coast Group of the Country Women’s Association has announced that their Year Six Study of a Foreign Country Competition for this year will be on Crna Gora.  Projects are due to the administration office of the entrant’s primary school by 10:00am on 6 November 2017, and will be collected by the CWA judging committee’s representatives no later than 3:00pm that day.

The State Police Missing Persons Unit has asked that anyone who saw or spoke to Mr Gary Musgrave or Mr Martin Keen, of Creighton Vale, on or after 22 August of this year contact their local police.  Mr Musgrave and Mr Keen left Creighton Vale on 22 August to travel to Lomax, but neither arrived nor returned home.  Information to hand suggests that they planned the trip believing that the Handley’s Ridge Road through the Simpson State Forest was open to through traffic.  This makes it likely that they were in the vicinity of Cabbage Tree Flat, Lower Simpson, and Matersford on 22 or 23 August.  They were travelling in a green Bridge ute with the black and white number plate YHB-89U.  Neither man is considered dangerous, but fears are held for their safety.

Local citrus growers are warned that orange blossom prices at the Central Flower Markets remain high, and that reports of flower-rustling have been moving south since the blooming season began.  Growers should keep their eyes open for suspicious persons and vehicles, then report the same to Sgt Warwick James of the Rural Crime Division at the Trulong Police Station.  Sgt James has pointed out to this correspondent that various forms of personal retribution taken against flower rustlers and poachers in the past have destroyed or contaminated evidence that may have made court convictions obtainable.

Mr Craig Jobben has hired the Cabbage Tree Flat Public Hall for the evening of 30 September 2017 when he is holding a public meeting to discuss the reorganisation of Mortland Shire back into its pre-1948 components of Trulong and Winston Shires.  Doors open at 7:30pm.  Supper, tea and coffee will be available for a gold coin donation.

This week’s closing question comes from Miss Evelyn Bennett who asks, “Who used the cemetery at the western end of Cooranbong Road, and why was it abandoned before it was full?”  My inquiries have revealed that the Cooranbong Road Cemetery was attached to the Chapel of the Reformed Congregation of St Joseph.  No information was available on what they reformed from, but their leader from the time they arrived to take over the old Wyndotte property in western Cabbage Tree Flat in 1897, was the charismatic Reverend Alan Yates.  The community appears to have operated like a commune or a kibbutz with the property held communally, and it seems to have flourished until World War I.  Two of the Reverend Yates’ three sons died in the trenches, and many of the survivors from the community chose not to return.  Despite this setback, they continued on to Reverend Yates’ death in 1927 when his surviving son took over the leadership as Reverend Hubert Yates.  Matters seemed to be going well, but Reverend Hubert disappeared from the community on the night of 24 May 1931.  On investigation, he had emptied the community’s bank account the afternoon before he left.  The death blow, however, was that the community’s land had been secretly mortgaged to pay his personal gambling debts and foreclosure was imminent.  The community subsequently dispersed, the chapel was dismantled in 1936 and moved to Lower Simpson for use by the Methodist congregation, but the cemetery remains.