People & Stories from the past

Arthur Henry Wright and his fiancée, Miss Ada Augustus Heritage, applied for land selections at Tombong in 1879 and built their home here in 1883.  It was said that “the dwelling” was built on the line dividing their two selections taken up before their marriage, to comply with the residential clause of the Act that required the claiments to live on their chosen blocks of land. My father would say “the boundary ran right through the middle of their doubble bed”.

Ten children later; my grandfather, Edgar Percy Wright being one of them, and a new homestead had been built furthur up the valley. My grandfather managed the family property before buying up land, now known as Knockalong.  He enlisted in the the first world war on 19th January 1916 at the age of 24. He trained in Egypt and then fought in France and was badly wounded in action in Belgium 25th September 1917. He returned from Europe to manage both Knockalong & Tombong properties. Read more Stories Of EPW.

I will continue by introducing you to my Grandmother, Hilda Rix Nicholas. She was an renowned artist who worked and exhibited in Australia and in Europe. She married Major George Matson NICHOLAS in 1916. Tragically, Major Nicholas was killed in action six weeks after their wedding. as ‘Hilda Rix Nicholas’. She married my Grandfather and lived here on the property from 1928 until her death in 1961. She was buried on the property overlooking the Tombong valley she loved so much.  You can read more about her, including a short biography here.

My father, Rix Wright, was born in 1930 on Knockalong, the only child of Edgar and Hilda Wright. Here you can read a short biography of him.