1888: Michael Cullinan (36 years old) and Betsy Wakefield (27 years old) moved to Kelleen Station (Pooncarie, NSW), one year after their marriage in Kapunda, South Australia.
Together with their first child, Michael, they arrived on a two horse driven cart. Michael had 1000 pounds to his name courtesy of his rabbiting period with Tom Wakefield who was Betsy’s brother.
Initially Michael and Betsy lived on the bank of the Darling River, in an area known as the Old Woodshed Billabong.
…a flood [in 1890] drove them out and they lived in tents on the bank of the deep creek near where the bridge over the creek is today. They lived there till the floods went down, then [Michael] built a 2 roomed house out of pine logs and a bark roof, where Kelleen is today…
… It had a iron roof just over the bark which made it cooler in summer.
There was 6 blocks shown on Para station at one time, 10 000 acres [each] and he got one. There was no improvements or fences so he had to put up a boundary fence.
Kelleen was 6 miles by 3 miles wide. He and his brother Jack put in 3000 acres cropping.”
(Phyllis Plant, letter)
According to Gordon Curran (Curran, D, The Family History of James Cullinan 1816-1990), Michael called his property Killeen named after his birth place but it was registered as Kelleen.
Gordon Curran describes their two roomed house as having:
pine slab walls and bark room with gum saplings for purlins, fastened with wire from an old fence. This was later extended and covered with an iron roof. The floor was probably dirt to start with but later was of pit sawn gum.
Gordon Curran
They have sheep but the wool clip doesn’t pay enough. Michael and other homesteaders try to sell back their leases for 50 pounds each but they are rejected. He then plants 600 acres of grain crops using river boats for transport. Chaff was transported by camel trains to Cuthero and Moorara.
Michael installs a production line system in his chaff shed with a double bagger chaff cutter and grain mill, driven by a Marshall steam engine, which is later used to drive the shearing machines
Source: Gordon Curran in Curran, D, The Family History of James Cullinan 1816-1990.
Michael and Betsy had seven children at Kelleen Station, Michael 1887, Florence 1889, Mary-Ann 1891, James 1893, Andrew 1896, Kelleen (my paternal grandmother) 1899, and Catherine 1901.
1900: Tom Wakefield (Betsy’s brother) comes to work for Michael as a station hand. He is granted a small piece of land called Corifin. It has no water available so Tom and his family live in a four room cottage at Kelleen. He works for Michael for four years (Source: Wakefield Family History).
On June 2, 1904 Betsy died. She was 43 years old. The previous year her seventh child, Catherine had drowned in the Darling River at Kelleen Station. She was 2 years old.
1905: Tom Wakefield sells Corifin to Michael Cullinan.
For further Information, see the Kelleen Station page.