The development of Cobbadah village

History Notes

A small but enjoyable market on Saturday held around the mud. The visitors attended the stalls and several viewed the Museum as well. We were also very happy to welcome Kevin Anderson who looked over all the Museum.

Congratulations to the musicians who provided great entertainment and also well done to Maggie who took home the box of fruit.

The old Barraba Shire has remnants of several small towns which are gradually disappearing as transport and communication change. One of these villages is Cobbadah which was an early stopping place for stage coaches on their way to Bingara and Warialda.

Archibald Bell was probably the first visitor interested in taking up land in the 1830s - it seems that he owned land extending from Piedmont and Cobbadah to Ulumbarella in the west although he is not on the 1837 list of licences but John Hoskisson (Barraba Creek) was. I suspect that Bell's Mountain was named after Archibald.

As the years passed more people travelled north looking to take up land and properties such as Cobbadah and Piedmont were taken up and there was more traffic heading north. One of the first to settle on the track near the intersection of Cobbadah Creek with Sheep Station Creek was James Lockhart and his family. They had a public house near the present-day stock yards and were planning to expand when their little daughter died and then less than a year later James died aged 40 years. His widow remarried but died in 1855 aged forty years leaving three sons to try and keep the public house going. They are all buried on the bank of Cobbadah Creek but the headstone marking the spot has disappeared.

The Lockharts attempt to found a village did not fail as an area of 9 square miles was reserved from sale until the land could be surveyed. The survey began with a preliminary survey in 1863 and appeared in a November, 1865 Government Gazette. The first block of land to be sold went to John Bridger, blacksmith, but it was eight more years before Henry Aumuller and John Thomas Bridger made a purchase.

When the twentieth century arrived and the government realized that no one wanted to buy north of Cobbadah Creek the size of the town of Cobbadah was reduced to the smaller size of today. The Post Office was beside the Hotel for years and then moved north into the paddock and then further north to the home built in the 1950s facing the main road.

The smaller home further north along the road was built as a shop and then a home. In a row behind this shop were several houses where families resided. One of these homes is now in Gotha Street, Barraba. There are stories of children picking fruit in a private orchard many years ago - families such as Johnson, Clark, Jeffree, Akers and Beynon lived in the street behind the old store.

There were of course some personalities in the village including Harry Bushell, Dick Smith, Joe Johnson, Charlie Robinson - the dam sinker, and Charlie White -the hotel keeper.

Todav, there are three or four houses, an unused church, and the fire station making up the village.