Orroral Homestead
Known as Orroral Homestead and Orroral Sheep Shed.
GPS:
Location Orroral Homestead is readily accessible to the public being 200m off the road in the north of the NNP. A heritage walkway has also been added in the valley. Grid Reference 775 540.
Brief History
Orroral has a long indigenous history and was called variously Urongal, Ararel, Orrarall, Orrooral and Oralla.
The building at Orroral is a magnificent homestead, typical of the period and easily accessible. It has been well restored by the NPA (National Parks Association), and features a central slab homestead with veranda, plus outbuildings which include the separate kitchen chimney and a spectacular woolshed.
Europeans were drawn to this valley early in the 1800’s due to the open grassland (caused by the frost sinking into the hollow, which stunted tree growth), there being good grazing and water, and not a need to remove too many trees. However, good timber existed on the hillsides. There is now good trout in the stream as well.
William Herbert was the first pastoralist, obtaining a grazing license in 1837. The Commissioner visited in October 1839 and was surprised to find 10 people residing there already, mostly living in slab timber huts. In addition, he noted over 700 head of cattle, 37 horses and 9 acres under cultivation. The full Orroral run was more than 12,800 acres. This was more than 25 years before the current homestead was built!
In 1864 the Orroral Run was transfered to Charles McKeahnie, after he arrived from Scotland in 1838. He became a wealthy man, as the original owner of Booroomba Station a large spread near to Tidbinbilla, then added Orroral.
Charles’ son was Archibald and was the man who progressively established the home as we see it today. He married Mary McMillan on 24 Novemberr 1864, then travelled the 23 kilometres from Booroomba to Orroral with her. The homestead was built by others, for Archibald and Mary McKeahnie for grazing in 1865, but was continually re-developed over the next ten years. It has three rooms and a chimney at each end, plus a full length verandah at the front.
The orgininal kitchen and staff quarters were built behind, and were as large as the house. The main chimney for the kitchen remains. Materials all came materials found in the valley and required true resourcefullness to utilise. Originally the roof was made of hand-split timber shingles, made using a unique tool called a “shingle splitter” readily identifiable by the straight blade and side-angled handle. Now the roofs have been replaced with corrugated iron.
Archibald obrained formal title to the land in 1978. The buildings became a substantial permanent home, and in 1893 the house was valued at 100 pounds and kitchen block at 30 pounds, a small fortune in those days. Archibald and Mary had four children, Charles, Elizabeth, Mary and Jane, all born at the homested between 1866 and 1877.
Archibald moved onto Wells Station and his brother Charles Henry McKeahnie took over the additional holdings in the valley.
In 1911 the Orroral Station was sold to the Bootes Family, who had come from Gundagai and the Riverina. For them, it was summer grazing when the heat was too much in the Riverina and they bought their Hereford cattle here. They added more buildings including a school and an overseers cottage.
In 1926 the property was sold to a colourful character, Andy Cunningham. Among other things, Andrew built an airstrip between the house and the river, and regularly flew his De Havilland Tiger Moth, “Orroral Dingo” into the site, which must have been quite a sight at the time. He became a wealthy man, after the stockyard and woolshed were built for Andy in around 1930. However, he died in an aircrash at Cronulla, while practising to compete in the East-West air race in 1932.
The woolshed changed the whole scene in the valley after 1930, with a shift to sheep grazing, but also as the social centre for the local community. For many years, the shearing gear remained in place, along with some axles and engines from Model A and Model T Fords.
In 1940 Ted Gregory (Edward George) leased the property and purchased it in December 1947. But in 1964, the Commonwealth Government purchased the entire property by acquisition, to make way for the NASA Tracking Station, famous for its (partly clandestine) role assisting NASA with tracking for the moon missions. The Gregory family was given tenancy formally beside the tracking station in May 1964 and Ted’s son, Gordon continued to run stock for many years afterwards.
The Gudgenby Reserve was dedicated in 1979 and Namadgi National Park in 1984, then expanded in 1991, resulting in deterioration of the house and grounds. In July 1982, the NPA obtained a grant of $2,800 resulting in careful studies and documentation of the site. They continued work repairing the roof, securing windows, fixing guttering, stabilising the chimneys, repairing the draining and repairing the timber structure. Archaeological excavation commenced in June 1983 but heavy snowfalls that year, resulted in it being abandoned! Further extensive conservation occured in 1992, to the state you see it in today.
Orroral is not just an old house. It forms a continuous record of history in the ACT and outlines in some detail, the early European pastoral settlement. In other words, when you visit, you are seeing the surviving core of a ninteenth-century rural community as a whole. It’s isolation has served to protect, what is now an ACT Heritage site. The NPA has a very detailed record and photographs from 1931 if you wish to delve deeper into a fascinating corner of Australian history.
Caretakers - National Parks Association of ACT (NPA)
References
National Parks Association
Photo Courtesy of Sheryle Moon © 2006, taken during the Great Australian Bushwalk in September 2006, where 60 people visited the hut (and associated chimney).