Old Wallinga - Steeped in History

Old Wallinga homestead was formerly the homestead for a larger property known as Wallinga. The name Wallinga was retained for adjoining land after a subdivision in the early 1980s.

Wallinga was established by two brothers, Frederick Savage Cox and Alexander Hassall Cox, sixth and seventh sons of George Cox of Burrundulla, Mudgee and Winbourne, Mulgoa. George Cox and his younger brother, Henry, were early pioneers of Mudgee, establishing a station at Munna in 1822, shortly after the explorations in the district of James Blackman and William Lawson. George Cox was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, in 1795, the fourth son of William Cox, later a lieutenant of the New South Wales Corps, and his first wife, Rebecca, nee Upjohn. William Cox had come to New South Wales in 1800 per "Minerva" and soon took up farming. He later settled in Windsor and became a magistrate. In 1814 he began the construction of a road over the Blue Mountains to the new settlement at Bathurst. He received a grant of land at Kelso, called Hereford, in appreciation of his efforts at completing the work in six months. George was placed in charge of Hereford and he and his brother were encouraged by a family friend, Lieutenant William Lawson, commandant of the settlement at Bathurst, to take up land at Mudgee. Ultimately, George and Henry Cox purchased extensive tracts of land on the southern banks of the Cudgegong river both upstream and downstream of the site of Mudgee.

In 1822 George Cox married Elizabeth Bell, daughter of Lieutenant Archibald Bell and Maria, nee Kitchen, of Belmont, North Richmond, by whom he had eight sons and five daughters. George Cox remained at his Mulgoa property, Winbourne, and his Mudgee holdings were administered by overseers until 1845, when his eldest son, George Henry, took charge. Burrundulla homestead, which is still occupied by George Henry Cox's descendants, is situated on the remains of a portion of 2,560 acres, the deeds for which were registered on 12 October 1838. Burundulla homestead, completed in 1864 by George Henry Cox (MLA and MLC), replaced an earlier homestead which was demolished in the late 1970s.

Frederick Savage Cox was born in 1836 and Alexander Hassall Cox was born in 1837. They and their five surviving brothers - George Henry, Archibald Bell, Charles Clarendon, James Dalrymple and Albert Tarleton - were all involved in grazing in the Mudgee district. Charles Clarendon and James Dalrymple established the noted Mudgee merino studs of Broombee (1862) and Cullenbone (1879) respectively. Both the Cullenbone and Wallinga studs were established on Broombee bloodlines (theCullenbone stud flock was formed after the dispersal of the Broombee flock due to Charles Clarendon's death the previous year. The Cullenbone stud flock was dispersed in 1905 due to the ill health of James Dalrymple. He died in 1910 after a long and painful struggle with cancer).

By 1860 the rate books for the newly-proclaimed rural municipality of Cudgegong list a partnership of Frederick Savage and Alexander Hassall as the owners and occupiers of two portions of grazing land in the parish of Mudgee in the county of Wellington: Portion 2 of 449 acres and Portion 179 of 640 acres, a total of 1,049 acres. These two adjoining portions were situated to the south of the southeastern corner of George Cox's 2,560 acres. To the immediate east were two smaller portions of land of which George Cox was the primary grantee. Over the years the Cudgegong rate books list these portions and numerous other nearby portions as being in the ownership and occupancy of assorted members and partnerships of the Cox family. Occasionally there is no reference to a house existing on the property, so it is difficult to ascertain when a house was built (in this regard the Cudgegong rate books are notoriously unreliable; often the real owner of a property was omitted). The first reference to 'Wallinga' as a locality appears in 1880.

Wallinga homestead appears to have been built on the eastern boundary of Portion 2, close to the Windeyer road. Of the two brothers Frederick Savage became more closely associated with the property, living in the homestead. His younger brother, Alexander Hassall, settled at Douglas Lodge on the (then) outskirts of Mudgee after his marriage in 1866 to Agnes Dickson, daughter of Mudgee merchant, John Dickson (John Dickson's home, Annan Lodge, was a substantial home close to Douglas Lodge. Later called Lochiel, it was demolished in the 1950s and the Mudgee Bowling Club was built on its site). Douglas Lodge was later purchased by merchant James Loneragan and renamed Heaton Lodge. From the early 1880s until his death in 1898 Alexander Hassall lived at Oakfield, Mudgee, an historic property established by the Lawson family. The partnership of F. & A. Cox endured until the early 1900s, with their estates owning Wallinga.

In 1861 Frederick Savage married Mary Hannah Miller, born in 1843, eldest daughter of Thomas Digby Miller and Elizabeth, nee Bidwill, of Mudgee (in 1867 Mary Hannah's youngest sister, Christina, married as his third wife Charles Clarendon Cox, older brother of Frederick Savage). They had ten children - six sons and four daughters, all of whom carried the middle name of Digby: Harley (1862), Percy (1864), Cecil (1865), Mabel (1868), lna (1869), Oswald (1871), Mary (1873), Muriel (1875), Walter (1877) and Frederick (1878). Frederick Savage died in May 1878, a few weeks before his brother, Charles Clarendon. His wife, Mary Hannah, maintained the Wallinga stud until it was dispersed at a major auction sale on 17 August 1910. She retained a portion of the original Wallinga property, including the homestead, until 1911 when it was purchased by John Edward (Ted) Loneragan.

Subsequently, the property changed hands constantly amongst Ted Loneragan and his brothers, Louis and Frank; ultimately Frank settled on Wallinga. Just prior to the First World War Wallinga was the site for one of Mudgee's earliest wheat crops under the management of James Pirie, a Scottish-born farmer imported from South Australia by the Loneragan family. James Pirie managed numerous properties in the district for members of the Loneragan family, living at Wallinga, and later at Enfield and Kaludabah (a large photograph of the Pirie family standing amongst a crop of wheat on Wallinga hangs in Mudgee's Colonial Inn Museum).

Ted, Louis and Frank Loneragan were the eldest, third and fourth sons respectively of merchant James Loneragan, who settled permanently in Mudgee in 1883, after having established a branch of his Lithgow-based business in 1870. Born in 1846, James married Brigid Heaton in 1871 and by her had seven children before her early death in 1884. He prospered during his time in Mudgee, becoming the town and district's dominant merchant. His sons extended the family business interests into the rural sector (although the Loneragan family store ceased operating in the late 1980s many members of the family are still actively involved in grazing in the district). Of the three brothers Frank Loneragan had the most enduring connection with Wallinga. Born in 1878 he saw active service in World War One and after his return from Europe he married Linda Barlow, by whom he had three children: Patricia (Mrs Charles Mort), David and John. After his marriage Frank managed the Dunedoo branch of Loneragan's store and then managed Kurrajong Park near Dunedoo for family interests. He later moved to Wallinga where the family lived until its sale to Grahame Todman in 1939. Later he purchased Woodlands at Pyramul (still owned by his eldest son, David) and died in 1942.

Grahame Todman, a grazier from Trangie, held Wallinga until 1950 when he sold to Edwin Leuson of Concord. He sold in 1953 to Jack Foster of Vaucluse who sold in turn to James and Judith Stanford in 1963. In the late 1980s Wallinga homestead and 65 acres were purchased by Richard and lnga Holmes. They restored and extended the homestead which is now operated as a "bed and breakfast".

Extract from "Old Wallinga Mudgee - An historical and architectural study" by John Broadley.