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The inaugural general meeting of the current incarnation of the Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society took place at the Wagga Wagga Teachers' College on 17 September 1962.

The Albury Court of Petty Sessions was created on 21 December 1846 under the provisions of s.17 of the Offenders Punishment and Justices Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1832 (3 Wil.IV No.3). (1)

Matters relating to the licensing of premises for the sale of liquor were dealt with by the court until 1 March 1883 when a separate system of licensing courts was established. After 1924 the Court resumed responsibility for routine matters in relation to liquor licensing while Albury Licensing Court (1924 - 1983) and the Licensing Court of New South Wales after 1983 dealt with the more complex licensing issues. (2)

The Albury Court of Petty Sessions was abolished on 31 December 1984 when the Local Courts Act 1982 (Act No.164, 1982) abolished all Courts of Petty Sessions and replaced these with Local Courts. (3)

Endnotes

1. NSW Government Gazette No.106, 22 December 1846, p.1603.
2. Agencies 4001, 4002 and 3835.
3. Local Courts Act 1982 (Act No.164, 1982) s.9; NSW Government Gazette No.178, 21 December 1984, p.6296.

Keith J. Swan's contribution to our regional history has been by far the most significant to date. An Honours graduate (1950) with a Master of Arts from Sydney University (1958), Swan was awarded an honorary doctorate from Charles Sturt University in April 1995. Before his death in September 1996, Swan charted the region's history in thirteen books and monographs as well as many articles.
Commissioned by the Wagga Wagga City Council, Swan published perhaps his best known work, A History of Wagga Wagga, in 1970. The book was reviewed as an original and pioneering piece of local history, since it was one of the first studies to address Aboriginal history prior to white settlement. He also edited and contributed to a book entitled Historians at Work in which he highlighted the methodology involved in writing and researching regional histories.
Swan began his teaching career in this region in 1950 at the newly established Wagga Wagga Teachers' College. Following the formation of the Riverina College of Advanced Education, Swan was appointed senior lecturer in history in 1972, and became Acting Dean of the School of Business and Liberal Studies one year later.
His contribution to the tertiary education sector was recognised in the 1974 New Year Honours (BEM) and a lecture theatre dedicated in his name on Charles Sturt University's Riverina campus. Whilst working as a professional historian and academic, Swan re-established the Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society in 1962. He subsequently served as President and initiated the Society's archival collection.
Swan's collecting initiatives continued with the suggestion that the College form a Riverina Collection of archival material and printed sources to complement regional research and teaching. Following the suggestion by the College Principal Cliff Blake, Swan accepted a consultancy and oversaw the Collection's development. Accompanied by his wife, Vera Swan, who was also a librarian for the College and equally responsible for the Collection's germination, Swan visited a number of archive and library sites in the US, Canada and the UK during 1977 and 1978. Upon his return, he recommended to the College Council that the Collection be split and managed separately, with the printed material forming the basis of the Margaret Carnegie Collection of Australiana, and the archival material kept and housed in the College's new Riverina Archives.

Compiled by James Logan and Troy Whitford.

The Wagga Wagga Free City Library was officially opened on 24 May 1946 by the NSW Director-General of Education, Mr JG McKenzie. Miss Jean Hay was appointed the first librarian, with aproximately 5000 books in her care. The majority of the book collection was from the Wagga School of Arts Library. The remainder was purchased from the NSW State Library.

James Fiddes ran a furnituture store, with an attached photographic studio, on the western side of Fitzmaurice Street between Johnston Street and the Wollundry Lagoon (1873 - 1906).

The Quilter family owned properties called 'Claris Park' and Yaralla' in the Junee area from the late 1800s.

Tubbo Station, located near Whitton, still stands as one of the richest and largest grazing and sheep properties in the Riverina.

Tubbo was first established during the mid-1800's by a Scottish squatter, John Peter, who managed successfully almost twenty runs, or over 740 000 acres, throughout this region by 1866. John Peter's financial health was equally blessed by his fortunate marriage to the widow of the Gumly Gumly Station owner, Mrs Mary Bourke in 1837. His contribution to the growth of Wagga Wagga was also integral. He was particularly influential in lobbying for the establishment of a permanent Court of Petty Sessions in Wagga Wagga and he would often serve as magistrate for the Bench in the Wagga Wagga district. Moreover, John Peter's Tubbo rose from meagre beginnings to become almost a village within itself, comprising of 7 smaller stations, a school, blacksmith and general store for its employees and their families. All of John Peter's stations boasted a reputed annual income of £40 000.

An investment company later purchased the Tubbo run from John Peter's Estate in 1887 at a cost of over £361 000. The Tubbo Estate Company, which consisted of directors Archibald Fisken, John Archibald Campbell, William Peter McGregor and Andrew McGregor, bought the 200 000 acre run and continued to manage it as predominantly a sheep station. In its first year of operation as a company, Tubbo prided itself on its shearing output, clipping as many as 121 847 sheep, which was the third largest amount shorn in New South Wales. Much of the initial shearing was, however, carried out by non-union shearers.

Inevitably, Tubbo became the centre of unionist activity by the end of 1888, forcing the first manager, Neil McCallum, to hire the services of the police for protection. McCallum was not afraid to use the law to discipline workers. In one case of industrial sabotage, an engineer who had worked on a steam engine was dismissed because there was no employment for him. The engineer had tampered with the machinery with the intention of injuring the next operator. McCallum assembled a party of policemen and pursued the fleeing worker, catching him later at Narrandera. The engineer was charged and eventually released on bail at £400 and summoned to appear at Wagga Wagga Court House.

The historical significance of Tubbo Station cannot be underestimated, since it is one of the few remaining stations that managed to avoid losing much of its holdings to government subdivision and soldier settlement. Maps of Tubbo held in the collection illustrate the shrewd efforts of early management in retaining much of its river frontage, despite the existence of a reliable underground water source. Back blocks were cultivated eventually, or dressed up and sold off to the government for the purposes of closer settlement. The Tubbo collection is rather large and comprehensive, offering researchers of grazing and rural studies a fine reflection of the management practices that have taken place on bigger stations from the colonial days up until the 1970s.

History compiled by James Logan and Troy Whitford (1999).

References:
R. J. E. Gormly Card Indexes on Wagga; Morris, Mervyn J., Tubbo Station: a study in industrial relations 1888-1900. UNE Bachelor of Letters thesis, 1982; Swan, Keith J., A History of Wagga Wagga. City of Wagga Wagga, 1970; Whitford, Troy "An Historical Analysis of Cattle Grazing Practices on the Murrumbidgee River Flood Plain 1895-1996", Rural Society, vol.9 no. 2, 1999, pp. 457-471.

Ernest Henningham moved to Wagga Wagga from Sydney and joined James Fiddes in his photography business for about three years before branching out on his own in 1888. He built his photographic studio on the western side of Fitzmaurice Street, Wagga Wagga, very close to the Wollundry Lagoon Bridge. (1)
Henningham died in 1949, aged 49 years. His son, Geoffrey returned to Wagga in 1924 to take over his father's business. (2)

(1) Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 30 October 1888, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101950780.
(2) Daily Advertiser, 18 October 1924, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143347703

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency was first registered in April 1865. (1)
A branch office was opened in Wagga Wagga in September 1922 after absorbing the firm of Dill and Watson and was located in Gurwood Street.(2) The branch office closed in 1927 and a new firm under the title of Mackie, Docker and Co. became the agents of New Zealand Loan and also took over the offices in Gurwood Street. (3)
A new branch office was opened in Wagga Wagga on 26 December 1946 after the company acquired the business of Tapscott, Thorne and Co. (4)

Endnotes
(1) Australian National University Archives, New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited
(2) The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 29 Sep 1922, pg.13
(3) The Daily Advertiser, 4 Jun 1927, pg.4
(4) The Farmer and Settler, 20 Dec 1946, pg.15

In May 1925, Rod Hore purchased an interest in the real estate firm of Thomas Flanagan and Co. and the business began trading as Flanagan and Hore. Hore and CW Macintosh took over in October 1928. The offices of Hore and Macintosh were located in Fitzmaurice Street, opposite the Wagga Wagga Post Office, probably within the Australian Hotel Buildings.
Mr JB Docker purchased the interests of CW Macintosh from 1 July 1934, however the firm only changed its name to Hore and Docker from 1 January 1947.

Dr Egbert Florance, a well-known member of the Cootamundra community, spent 25 years looking after the health concerns of the residents of his adopted district. He arrived in Cootamundra about 1893 and ran his practice there until his death in 1928 at the age of 84 years.

Egbert was born in Chester, England, on March 19, 1845, the son of Dr William Florance, the Medical Officer for the Chester and Hollyhead Railway Company in England. William emigrated from London to Australia and arrived in Melbourne aboard the “California” in October 1853. Egbert and his seven siblings arrived in Geelong with their mother Eliza aboard the “Maria Hay” on 17 August 1855, two years after his father arrived in Victoria.

In 1861, at the age of sixteen years, Egbert stowed away on a small brig headed for Dunedin, New Zealand. He later claimed his medical career began when he billeted with Dr W Jackson. Prior to a 50-bed wooden hospital being built in 1863, Dr Jackson started a tent hospital, the first in Dunstan in the Otago Region of New Zealand. Egbert looked after patients and assisted in operations.

In 1863, Egbert volunteered during the Maori War and was appointed to the 3rd Regiment, Waikato Militia, Company No.8. In 1864, Cambridge on the Waikato River was founded and Egbert remained there seventeen months before he resigned from the Regiment having taken part in a number of confrontations with the Maori people.

Egbert returned to Australia at some point and married Leila Gertrude Paton in 1874 at Geelong, Victoria, and went to Avenal, then Mooroopna, to work as a doctor. In about 1881, Egbert and his family went to the United States where he enrolled in the School of Medicine at Pennsylvania University. He graduated as a Doctor of Medicine on 1 May 1884 with an Honourable Mention, having written a thesis on Snake Bite.

The Florance family returned to Australia and Egbert opened practices in Bungendore [1884], Cooma [1885-1887], Bungendore again [May 1888-1890], and Braidwood [1890-1893]. He went to practice in Cootamundra from 1893 until his death in 1928.

Compiled by June Dietrich.

References:
The Florance Family Collection, RW253 at CSU Regional Archives;
The Australian Medical Pioneers Index;
The Victorian Gazette Pharmaceutical List;
The University of Pennsylvania, catalogue and announcements, 1884-1885.

Mitchell Shire Council was subsumed by Wagga Wagga City Council in 1981.

The Kyeamba Shire Council was amalgamated with the Wagga Wagga City Council in 1981.

Following a 2015 review of boundaries by the NSW Government, the Urana Shire was merged with the Corowa Shire to form the Federation Council.