"Take Care"

I've been enjoying doing some family history lately. It's partly because I want to explore how to encourage decolonisation in Australia and partly because I like looking for stories amongst my family's history.

I came across a poignant story last night as I was filling in details on my mother's side of the family - one of the McLeans who migrated from the Isle of Skye to Australia.

Donald McLean, my great, great, great grandfather arrived in Sydney on the 13th December, 1837 on the 'Mid Lothian'. His arrival documents described him as a 'shepherd' and that he was 'fit', 'in excellent health','can read and write', and the Captain attested to his 'excellent character'. Here he is as an older man.

Now soon after arriving, Donald and his wife Mary, (nee Carter) also from the Isle of Skye, and their first son David moved to Muswellbrook where Donald found employment as a farm labourer.

There is an interesting story about David's baptism and a tragic one about his end but they're not the ones I want to tell you about just now, interesting though they are.

You see Donald and Mary eventually had 10 children and one daughter was also called Mary. She was born on Sandilands Station in Bonalbo and eventually, on the 16th November, 1874, at age 23, she married John Mulcahy at Tooloom.

Now this is where the 'Take Care' comes in. Have a look at his photo. I think he's a pretty handsome young man and it's not surprising that Mary McLean fell for him although I can't really say why their first son was born three months before they were married except to say that it was pretty common in those days.


By 1879, they had had four sons and John joined the silver rush on the Boorook silver field at Tenterfield. On Friday the 25th July, he and his work mate, William King, were working a silver reef at Addison No 1 north claim and it was Johns turn to go down the shaft with his pick to do some more digging. William King didn't say what he said to John as he started to wind him down the shaft but he said that John called out for him to stop that there was a loose stone in the pit wall that he wanted to take care of.

King asked him if he needed a stick or something to knock it out and John pointed a suitable one out, grabbed hold of it, balanced on part of the wooden frame and began to poke the stone out.

You see he was taking care that the stone wouldn't at some time fall out of the wall of the pit and strike he or his mate Bill as they were digging below.

What happened?

Ah, he over balanced and fell and landed on a ledge halfway down, struggled for a while and then, before King could get down to help, rolled and fell the rest of the way down the pit.

The Coroners Inquiry brought in a finding of 'accidental death'.

Mary and John's 4th son was just 7 months old. Must have been a shock. It took Mary 6 years to re-marry. This time to Jasper Iverson who, gossip says, jumped ship to join the Tooloom gold rush.

Did anyone say 'Take care'?