Lavington & District Family History Society Inc.

  If you look up the name "Lavington", you will find it listed as a suburb of Albury, NSW, Australia, located to the north of the city. Lavington's southern edge runs along a straight road from east to west, "Union Road" (was once known as Union Lane). This is a line where two communities are joined together. Albury didn't simply push further north as its population increased, Lavington was already there. Lavington was a town in its own right and only joined Albury in 1962. Many residents still remember the town as it was: a place with its own history, its own stories. Lavington still retains its own postcode.

 

  The place wasn't always known as Lavington. The Wiradjuri  have lived here for tens of thousands of years and called the region east of the Murray River, Bungambrawatha which is said to mean 'homeland.

 

  Early settlers were attracted by the possibility of gold and named the area Black Range because of the dark appearance of the surrounding hills. So why change a name? The Explanation lies with the delivery of mail. There were a number of other places using the name Black Range in the colonies and the lack of postcodes led to confusion.

 

  In November 1908, the newly re-established Black Range Progress Committee listed some possible new names, which did not include 'Lavington'. The name voted in was 'Linton' which was refused by the Post-Master General as it had already been appropriated. The next choice was 'Clinton' and was also rejected. On the third try they sent in two names, Lavington and Leith. The latter too, was rejected.

 

  On the 12th May 1909, confirmation was received; 'Lavington' could be celebrated. The Albury Daily News reported on an agreeable night at the School of Arts with Mr. Colquhoun's 'felicitous speech' and Mr. Frauenfelder's response 'in his usual reminiscent and jocular style.' The Celebrations went on until one in the morning.

 

  After the saga of renaming the town, the source of the name became lost. There has been much supposition through the years and some great detective work to try and track down the origins.

 

  The name appears attached to a number of historical documents. During the gold rush, there was a Lavington Gold Mining Company (gazetted in 1865) and a Lavington Hotel (opened in 1865 by Messrs Jennings and Davis). One of the original miners is said to have been called  'Old Lavington'.

 

  Also in 1865, a crushing mill was brought to the goldfields and baptised by Mrs. Blackmore, the mayoress, before a 300 strong crowd. She broke a bottle of champagne over it and called it the 'Lavington', Possibly, some sources say, this was named after the mill's inventor”.

 

 In 1952 a book published as part of the Lavington Water Celebrations implied that the name was taken because of the long associations with the gold diggings.

 

  But how did that association come about? Perhaps the origin is in the name of one of  the shareholders in Lavington Gold Mining Company, John Lavington Evans.

 

  Jessie Lavington Evans was a well-known artist, born in Albury in the 1860's and the daughter of William Bird Evans who managed T.H Mates Store. Jessie is reputed to have painted the portrait of Thomas and Charlotte Mitchell, early settlers in the area. She was also the niece of John Lavington Evans.

 

  However, Lavington is also the name of one of the early properties in the district. By the early 1880's, Joseph Box had purchased portions in the newly subdivided land around Black Range at the western end of Union Road at Black Springs. The family had also come out from Market Lavington in Wiltshire, England, in 1852, and he named his property 'The Lavington'. The Lavington Family Seat originated  in Wiltshire. There is also, to muddy waters, that the name of Lavington had been previously used in the 1870's by other landholders in the area.

 

 Whichever theory one accepts for the origin of the name, its history appears to go right back to the early days of white settlement in the district.

 

  In the 1960's a move by the residents to change the name to Black Range met with acrimonious resistance, while in 1993; the Albury Council floated the idea of changing it to Hamilton. It has however stayed, fittingly, as Lavington.

 

  Gradually, as the gold ran out, the community rallied and turned to successfully growing fruits and vines, renowned and exported worldwide. The influence of Dutch and German immigrants who settled in Lavington was reflected by the numerous orchards and vineyards in the area. Even silkworm production achieved a modicum of success. Subsequently, the commercial centre of Lavington continued to move closer to the Sydney Road, or what was then called North Lavington or Lavington Junction. Due to the unavailability of town water, the harshness of nature and fiercer competition nationwide, the orchardists were eventually reduced to none.

 

  The lives of the settlers are perpetuated in the names of the streets in Lavington, and their achievements are at the forefront of the unique history of progress through community strength.

 

  There have been many other interesting people associated with Lavington.

 

  Dr Allan Vickers was one of the first two doctors of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He attended Lavington Public School. Before he died in 1967, Qantas named one of its planes after him.

 

  Sgt George Bishop, enlisted at age 20, earned three of the highest decorations bestowed on Australian soldiers - the Military Medal, the Bar of the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In the three years at the front, he was wounded three times and finally evacuated in May 1918. He died, age 36, from a weakened resistance to infection attributed to the gassing in World War 1.

 

  Harold Frederick Neville Gye, an illustrator to C.J. Dennis, Henry Lawson, Will Ogilvie and A.B. 'Banjo' Patterson, attended Lavington Public School. He wrote "One advantage about flour porridge...after having my breakfast, I could then use my breakfast to gum together any leaves of my school books that had become torn." He produced hundreds of oils, delicate water colours, delicate pen drawings as in "Glugs of Glosh" and wrote short stories for the Bulletin under the name of 'James Hackston'.

 

  John Bennett was a finalist for the 1950 Archibald Prize for a painting of C,.E. Bunton, Esq., Former Mayor of Albury.

 

  George Schofield, born 1918, was inducted into the Victorian greyhound racing's Hall of fame and has been awarded the prestigious Greyhound Racing Control Board A canine chiropractor, able to perform manipulation on animals to release them from pain. In the Australia Day Honours list January, 26 2009, George was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.

 

"You Know even tonight I can hear the tramp of feet

Coming from the Black Range and the chatter and

laughter of children as they play along the lanes of

Lavington and the banks of the Bungambrawatha."

                                   Frank Higgins 1993