MyHeritage Family TreesRankin Web Site,
managed by Tracey Rankin
Birth1895 - Singleton, New South Wales, Australia
DeathJune 29 1924 - West Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
ParentsJoseph John/john Joseph Deahm, Mary Ann Deahm (born Bendeich
(Benduch On Marriage Record))
SiblingsWilliam Alexander (Alex) Deahm, Jessie Elizabeth Reason (born
Deahm), Florence May Neilen (born Deahm), Linda Agnes Solman (born Deahm),
<Private> Groves (born Deahm)
BirthMay 12 1924 - Rothbury, New South Wales, Australia
ResidencePortland, New South Wales, Australia
EnlistmentMay 4 1944 - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Discharge
dateOct 1 1946
Name
Phyllis Mary Neilen
Birth
May 12 1924
Rothbury, New South Wales,
Australia
Residence
Portland, New South Wales,
Australia
Enlistment
May 4 1944
Sydney, New South Wales,
Australia
Discharge date
Oct 1 1946
Next of kin
David Neilen
Service
Royal Australian Air Force
Service #
176929
Rank
Aircraftwoman
Posting at Discharge
RAAF HEADQUARTERS
Honours or Gallantry
None for display
Branxton
Branxton,
located 18 km north-west of Maitland, 167 km north of Sydney via
Cessnock and 43 m above sea-level, is a small township in the Cessnock
shire situated on the New England Highway between Maitland and
Singleton. It has several older buildings which reflect the fact that it
emerged (albeit slowly and undramatically) in the early to mid-19th
century as the Hunter Valley was opened up beyond Maitland.
The
district is thought to have been occupied by the Wanaruah people prior
to white settlement. Branxton was part of William Bowen's Farmborough
estate. The small settlement known as Black Creek (the name of the
stream that passed through the village) was renamed Branxton in 1848
(after a town in Northumberland, England) when the land was subdivided
and sales held. A village was in existence by 1860 when there were about
500 residents, a steam mill, a post office, a mechanics institute and
four hotels.
About 5 km from Branxton is a road on the right
leading to Kirkton (6 km over mostly gravel roads). Kirkton was granted
to John Busby in 1835 (though he must have been in possession of it some
years earlier) and the homestead was built at that time. While he was
engaged in the engineering of the water supply in Sydney his family
farmed the estate.
One
son, James, studied oenology and, in the 1820s, he wrote a treatise and
guidance manual on the subject and briefly taught viticulture at a
Liverpool farm school. In 1831 he undertook a tour of French and Spanish
vineyards which resulted in two published journals of the trip. He
returned with 700 carefully wrapped cuttings of European vines, sending
half to the newly established Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney. The
rest he took with him to Kirkton. He is thus considered the father of
viniculture in the Hunter Valley, though he later left for New Zealand
where, as Government Resident of New Zealand, he established the Treaty
of Waitangi. The family graves are on the property.
Corinda is
about one kilometre west of Kirkton Public School. This property, one of
the earliest in the district, was granted in 1824 to Archibald Bell Jr,
the son of a soldier and magistrate of some note in the colony's early
history. In 1823 Bell Jr, at the age of nineteen, had forged an
alternative route over the Blue Mountains from Richmond into the Hunter
Valley. A road was constructed in his wake. He was awarded the property
after a subsequent expedition into the valley. One of the first settlers
in the area Bell was also one of the first to introduce cattle and
horse teams. A horse breeder of some renown he built a two-storey house
of locally-quarried sandstone and explored the tributaries of the
Hunter. His homestead was later demolished and the stone was used to
erect The Church of the Good Shepherd at Belford.
Things to see:
Historic Places of Interest
Just beyond the Dalwood Rd turnoff is a cemetery to the right then
Elderslie Rd to Elderslie. Just past it is Branxton Inn Licensed
Restaurant and Gallery, situated in a building which dates back to 1862.
Take
the next left into Cessnock Rd (also known as Church St). On the left,
as you go up the hill, is St John's Anglican Church, a brick building
with a tower designed by J. Horbury Hunt and built 1871-79. Over the
road is the courthouse, made of brick with a gabled roof, front verandah
and symmetrical ancillary offices, also with verandahs. Adjacent is the
police station (1880, designed by James Barnet), a symmetrical,
single-storey brick building with a front verandah topped by a stepped
gabled roof and pediment over the doorway.
Take the first right
into Drinan St. The left turn into Bridge St will take you southwards
through Rothbury and the Lower Hunter Vineyards to Cessnock.
At
the end of Drinan St turn right into Clift St which will lead back to
the highway. On the corner of Drinan and Clift Sts is the old Branxton
Methodist (now Uniting) Church (1865). On the corner of Clift St and the
highway is the Victoria Building (c.1860). Originally a general store
it is now a coffee shop. Opposite Clift St, at the corner of the highway
and John Rose Ave are some attractive old residences and Branxton
Hardware. Brown's Garage is said to date from c.1875. There are also
some older buildings on the highway between Church and Clift Sts. The
Royal Federal Hotel serves good counter lunches.
Belford
8 km west of Branxton along the highway is Belford. Surveyed in 1833
and again in 1854 the village was originally known as Jump-Up Creek.
Hermitage Rd heads down to the vineyards of the Lower Hunter (see entry
on Pokolbin).