Seymour - Culture and History

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 15 years ago

Seymour - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Natrakboolok people who continued to camp and hold corroborees on the townsite into the 1860s.

The first white men in the area were explorers Hume and Hovell in 1824. More critically, Thomas Mitchell's party passed by to the north of the townsite in 1836. Overlanders followed in his wake, arriving in 1837 with their cattle. By 1839 much of the land in what would become Seymour shire was taken up.

The overland mail route from Melbourne to Sydney was established in 1838. It followed Mitchell's route and so crossed the river at a point to the north (see entry on Nagambie). However, in 1839 it was found that 16 km could be saved by fording the river at a site to the south which became known as the 'New Crossing Place' (the future townsite of Seymour). Thus hotelier John Clark moved his business from the 'Old Crossing Place' at Mitchellstown and set up a punt service and a crude inn at the new ford. A blacksmith set up shop later that same year.

The government regarded the new location as a more promising townsite than Mitchellstown and so carried out a survey in 1841. A police paddock was established that year and in 1843 Thomas Mitchell named the hamlet after British parliamentarian Lord Seymour, of the house of Somerset which spawned Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII. Town allotments went on sale in 1844.

As traffic on the Sydney Road increased a second hotel emerged. It was located on the western bank of the river but this side of the village never really developed. It initially housed the first post office and was besieged by bushrangers in the late 1840s (they again harried the town in the 1860s). Faced with competition, John Clarke built a two-storey stone hotel in 1848, known as the Royal and it now forms the rear (and larger) portion of today's Royal Hotel.

Seymour's first schoolhouse was built in 1846. By the following year there was a flour mill, along with stores and tradesmen's shops. When the goldrush era began in 1851 traffic on the Sydney Road greatly increased to the town's benefit and the population began to increase. Small farms emerged around the settlement, adding to the prosperity of Seymour which had a population of 138 in 1854.

A national school and the first church (Methodist) were built in 1860. In 1863 Seymour was declared a town. That year witnessed the construction of an Anglican church, the first bank and the first bridge over the Goulburn. By 1865 the population had increased to 450 and Seymour continued to grow in the era of free selection which began in the 1860s.

The arrival of the railway in 1872 had a profound impact on the town. It made Seymour the goods receival centre for the district and, being at an important rail junction, it became a railway town with workshops and an administration centre providing employment and economic activity. Consequently the town started to expand demographically, commercially and geographically with the 'new town' developing around Station St.

The association of the area with army training camps really began in 1904 with the establishment of a troop of Light Horse at Seymour. The rail connection, local terrain, good water supply and agreeable property owners made the area a convenient assembly point for military trainees who met annually for field exercises and official inspection. Thus when Lord Kitchener came to Australia in 1910 to advise the government on military matters he inspected a major encampment at the racecourse and recommended it as a permanent military training area. When World War I arrived a few years later that permanent camp was set up and, in 1920, Seymour shire became the chief military area in the state. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Puckapunyal camp in World War II.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading