Bright’s family house beneath Bright’s Hill, Wattle Flat
This story is centred on the Bright & Kneale families who settled early in the development of Wattle Flat, stayed for over 75 years, and became important players in the early evolution of this community.
Prior to the Bright’s arrival in the earliest years of the 1850’s gold rush, characters like Joseph Walford and Michael Hackett played important parts in the foundations of Wattle Flat village. Just before the goldrush, Hackett applied for 32 acres of farm land in central Wattle Flat. With the onset of the early gold rush, powerful & rich developer Walford acquired several early hotels & stores in Wattle Flat, some of which had been developed on Hackett’s land. An 1857 court case seems to have favoured Hackett, and Walford then concentrated his further developments in Sofala.
Late in the 1850’s two young Irish brothers, David & John Bright, arrive in Wattle Flat. John came with his wife, formerly Catherine Kneale (a native of the Isle of Man) whom he had married in 1850 in the Isle of Man. David was single and married in Wattle Flat in 1860, Maria Lewis from Parramatta.
Tragedy strikes early in David’s family. Their first child John dies in 1861, and then while mining at Surface Hill north of Wattle Flat, David is killed in a rock fall. Widowed Maria quickly remarries in Wattle Flat & this couple departs for other emerging goldfields. Another boy is born to the Bright’s although it is unclear if he is the son of David or John Bright. This boy is named David John Bright. He lives in the family home in Wattle Flat raising a family of his own, until his death in 1915 (aged 55).
John Bright has obviously established himself as a community oriented person and is billed as a steward for the annual Wattle Flat horse races in 1861. Horses are clearly fundamental to early life in Wattle Flat. John’s treasured saddle is stolen in 1864 for which he offers a £5 recovery reward. His description of this saddle is interesting “..a Somersetshire saddle, worked all over with yellow waxed thread, and is stuffed all around the cantle and under the thighs, the near side flap is separating from the seat, both knee-pads are worn so as to shew the stuffing, it is deficient of the crupper staple, stirrup iron flat & scalloped.”
At about this time back in the Isle of Man, John Bright’s brother-in-law, Thomas Craine (married with 3 young children) is convicted of sheep stealing and is transported to a Western Australian penal settlement, leaving this family without support. John Bright generously offers to fund the emigration of Thomas Craine’s wife & children to Australia but it seems that none actually make the journey to Australia.
In 1865 the Bright family purchase 3 blocks of land in central Wattle Flat, the core of a larger land holding acquired over the following years (see map). On parts of these three initial blocks were most likely buildings developed by Joseph Walford. Early maps from this period show buildings at the site of the brick house that John Bright built as the family home, which still stands proudly today (photo at top). The family also ran a store adjacent to the house most likely selling fresh farm produce.
Within the Wattle Flat village area, small scale gold mining activity was widespread. The gold was found as grains & nuggets embedded in heavy red clay soil. Numerous doughnut shaped puddling mills (some shown on map) were established to separate the gold from the clay.
Map of part of Wattle Flat village area, showing historic property holdings, & historic buildings & fence lines.
In 1865, James Storey & Ellen Balfe recently emigrated from Ireland, settle in a house (still existing) immediately north of the Bright’s house.
In 1867 John Bright developing his civic standing, is appointed as one of 3 Wattle Flat gentlemen to form a local school’s board in connection with the local public school.
In an effort to maintain social order within transient cosmopolitan settlements with numerous pubs, the international temperance movement was then emerging. It gained traction in places like Wattle Flat. The Bright family took some leadership in the local Temperance movement, and founded the local “Sons of Temperance” group, which attracted large numbers of local people to festivities & street parades etc.
With the onset of the 1872 gold rush, Wattle Flat is transformed with numerous new buildings & businesses. Numerous Sydney based companies are formed to develop the real & speculative quartz reef resources at Wattle Flat. John Bright gets involved & takes up several gold leases in Wattle Flat with Francis Reilly & John Brett.
In the midst of this crazy 1872 gold rush, the Bright’s build the Wattle Flat Temperance Hall on their land in a location most likely directly across the road from the Bright’s house (see map). No photographs of this building have been found, and today the site is just an open grassy paddock. It is recorded to be built of brick & timber; was large enough to accommodate 200 to 300 people; stood for 23 years until 1895, and was the main community hall for numerous important meetings & functions. It is represented on the time chart (on left) as a red bar.
In the early 1880’s, Catherine Bright’s brother, David Kneale emigrates from Isle of Man with his wife Esther. They then settle in Wattle Flat & start a family. They lived in a house a short distance north of Bright’s which still stands today. Later, in 1906 a daughter of this Kneale family marries a son of the Storey family living next door.
David John Bright grows up in Wattle Flat through the 1860s, 70s, 80’s & in 1893 marries Catherine Kelly from the Isle of Man. They have 3 children. Tragedy strikes this family with the death of Catherine in 1899 aged only 27. David John Bright is then left to bring-up his 3 young children with his own mother now aged in her late 60’s. However the close knit group of Irish (& Isle of Man) families then living in central Wattle Flat no doubt assisted each other, with the trials of their lives.
The low hill behind Bright’s house to the west of Wattle Flat village was in the early part of the twentieth century known as Bright’s Hill as recorded in the records of the new (1898) Wattle Flat Court house.
Chronological chart showing the names & ages of key family members during their time within Wattle Flat, together with key Wattle Flat events between 1850 & 1918.