A check of burial records for all cemeteries in the former Coolah Shire area disclosed that the highest number of one family yearly deaths from infectious diseases shows that in 1877 four children of the Hobbin family, of Leadville, passed away from deadly diphtheria, all within a period of a few weeks.
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The following information was supplied to me in 1987 by Mrs D. Lockley of Burradoo:
The story of the Hobbins family during the early days of Australia is one that most probably has been repeated many times over.
It is a story punctuated with tragedy and triumph of true and tall stories, but mainly by the courage displayed by these good pioneers ………
Our story begins in the heart of Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Legend has it that as a young man, Martin Hobbins was about to take Holy Vows binding him to the life of a Catholic Priest, but on the night before his ordination Martin renounced the vocation and left for Australia.
He sailed on November 24th, 1843, as an assistant migrant aboard the “William Medcalfe”.
Life on board the ship was not easy. The passengers lived in cramped quarters. The voyage took 110 days which neither passengers or crew were able to set foot on land. Martin had to pay about 20 pounds, a princely sum, for at the time his annual wage would be about 20 pounds.
The “William Medcalfe” berthed at Campbell’s Wharf in Sydney Harbour on March 13, 1844.
As Martin could both read and write, within a week, he was employed by a local solicitor, Augustus Hayward.
After five years in the Colony, Martin met and married Catherine Devoy. She had arrived in Sydney at the age of eight with her parents James and Mary. A native of Kildare County, Catherine grew up within a few miles of Martin’s birth place, Offaly. The Devoys settled in Leadville district in the 1840s.
Martin and Catherine were married in St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Sydney on Deptember 3, 1849. The Hobbins family lived a gypsy life for the first few years but finally settled on the property, “Old Castle” near Leadville.
Martin built his house from wattle and daub on a section of the property now known as ”Dhu Robin”. This house although unoccupied was still standing a few years back.
Life was very precious in the 1800s. In December 1878, just after Christmas, Martin went away droving.
He left his wife and children with his wife’s parents near Uarbry. Out of touch with his family for over eight months he returned home to a family tragedy.
During his absence four of his children had died from diphtheria. Further more his wife Catherine, aged 42 years, had also died giving birth to twins, only one, James surviving.
The four Hobbins children that died from diphtheria were Ambrose two years, Catherine 24 years, Mary 18 years and Teresa seven years. The nearest doctor to Leadville-Uarbry at the time would be at Gulgong and Mudgee.
Almost immediately, Martin with his own hands, hewed five sandstone slabs from the nearby bush and shaped these into headstones with inscriptions.
He carted the headstones by horse and dray, for 15 miles to the Uarbry Cemetery, for erection over the family graves. The inscription read, Thous art gone, but not forgotten, never shall thy memory fade, sweetest thoughts will ever linger, round the spot where thou art laid.
Martin himself died 14 years later in 1890 from cancer. All of Martin’s erected headstones stand today a little weathered after 140 years, with the inscriptions still readable.
Another Hobbins daughter Annie Marcell, aged ten years, died in Mudgee in August, 1881, from nephrites (kidney disease) and is buried in the Mudgee cemetery.
