Fred & Herbert Watkins
Two brothers Down Under
William and Ann Watkins were the parents of our great-grandmother Rosa Kate Watkins. After growing up in Llandegveth with his family, and moving to Whitson, 30-year-old William Watkins married Ann Baker on the 25th April 1854. Ann was the daughter of a farmer from Goldcliff and had lost her parents at a young age. They settled at Pye Corner Farm in Nash, where William owned and farmed the 111-acre property.
They had nine children between 1855 and 1873, all of the children attended the local school and were well educated. They had four sons, two of them William and George followed family tradition and became farmers in the local area. In this story we are going to look at the other two boys, Fred and Herbert, who left home for Australia. Both boys were sporting in nature and competed against each other in local sporting events, and clearly had a sense of adventure.
Fred Watkins
Frederick ‘Fred’ Thomas Watkins was born in 1863. He grew up at Pye Corner Farm and helped his father from a young age. When Fred was 19 he saw an advert placed by the Australian government. It offered subsided travel for farmers to emigrate. Fred took the chance and left to start a new life down under. He sailed 11th January 1883 on the SS Bulimba. The ship was built in Glasgow and operated by the Associated Steamers for the Queensland route from London to Brisbane. It was launched on 1st September 1882, so was almost new when Fred sailed.
Fred landed in Cooktown on 5th March 1883, records show he had travelled as a farm labourer and was attached to land at Bowen in Queensland. Despite traveling with an intention to follow his father and farm, his head was turned by the lure of the gold rush taking place in Queensland.
On 9th September 1898 he married Esther Mulligan. Esther had been born in the village of Multyfarnham, Ireland in 1874 before emigrating with her parents. Esther arrived in Australia from Belfast 17th November 1875, she landed at Townsville, aged just 2 years old. Townsville, on the coast, was establishing itself as the dominant town in the North, due to its proximity to a gold rush.
The newlyweds settled in Charters Towers. A town founded in 1871 after the discovery of a gold nugget. The town was soon established as a place for prospectors to find their fortune in the gold fields and the town boomed, even adding a stock exchange for the trading of gold. Over the next 36 years, they turned up over 200 tonnes of gold, although how much Fred found is not recorded!
Their daughter Violet May Mulligan was born 23rd May 1898. She was born a few months before her parents married, so had the surname Mulligan, but was later known as Violet Watkins. Godfrey Charles Watkins was born 30th March 1900, and finally a third child, William Leonard Watkins, was born 22nd March 1902.
A local phone directory showed the family living on Felix Street in Charters Towers, where for a few years they were neighbours with Herbert Watkins, who had also emigrated. For the final part of his life the family lived in Townsville City, Fred died in November 1919 aged 55. His grave can be found in in Belgian Gardens Cemetery.
Following Fred’s death Esther moved the family to Newtown, a suburb of Sydney’s inner west, 1000 miles away from Townsville. Her son William died 11th February 1923 and was buried at Rookwood General Cemetery. Esther died 19th December 1930 aged 54 and joined her son at Rookwood.
Their daughter Violet Watkins married grocer Charles Holt in 1928 and lived in West Kogarah until her death in 1938 aged 40, they had one daughter named Gwen. Youngest son Godfrey married Alice Dorothy Bill in 1940, they had three children including Neville and Michael. Godfrey died 16th June 1968 in Ryde a suburb of Sydney, followed by Alice in 1989.
Herbert Watkins
Herbert Stephen Watkins was born at Pye Corner Farm in 1861 where he grew up farming alongside his father and elder brother. He then moved to Cwm Farm in Christchurch where on the 1891 census he was listed as living alone at the farm with two workers. Cwm Farm was situated off what is now Royal Oak Hill, but has long since disappeared. The M4 motorway runs through the land and a private housing development, called Coldra Mill, occupies the site of the farmhouse.
In the 1890s Herbert took the decision to join his brother in Australia and set sail for Queensland. He initially settled in Charters Towers where he lived near Fred and worked with him as a gold miner. He married Adela Bertha Cameron on 23rd September 1905 and they set up up home in the town. Adela was born in Queensland 23rd March 1869.
Using electoral records, we find the couple in 1917 living in Cloncurry, Queensland, where Stephen is working as a labourer. Cloncurry is a rural town informally known by local people as The Curry.
Cloncurry was added to the railway network in 1914 which was creating opportunities in the town, and also made it accessible to settlers like Stephen and Adela, who were living some 650km away in Charters Towers. The first-ever flight of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia took place from Cloncurry in 1928.
By 1922 they had left Cloncurry and settled in Ayr near Home Hill, Queensland. The town was in a rural location and famed for cattle rearing and for growing sugarcane. When Herbert and Adela arrived, the town was expanding its farming operations and there would have been numerous work opportunities for labourers.
The couple made a home in the area and stayed. Herbert died in June 1941 at the age of 80, and Adela in August 1955. They are both remembered at Home Hill Cemetery.
