# Canonba

Canonba is a locality in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. There was also a village of the same name (sometimes spelt Canonbar or Cannonbar), which is now a ghost town. It lay on Duck Creek, a tributary of the Bogan River, approximately 30 km north-east of Nyngan. Since 1983, the old village site has been known officially as Old Canonba.

## History
### Aboriginal history

The area upon which Canonba lay is on the traditional lands of Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of Ngiyampaa people. After colonisation, although dispossessed, the local people remained on their lands; as late as 1889, a corroboree took place near Canonba. In the year 1907, there were 35 Aborigines recorded as living at 'Canonbar'.
The name Canonba may be derived from a local language word for the shingle-back lizard (Tiliqua rugosa). Early settlers recalled the word as Carringbung.

### Settler colonisation, conflict and killings

The association of colonial settlers with the area dates from the time of the second expedition of the explorer and surveyor-general Sir Thomas Mitchell, in 1835. Duck Creek was surveyed by James Larmer, an assistant-surveyor and second-in-command of the expedition. Mitchell returned to the area, in January 1847, when his third expedition camped for two weeks at the 'ponds of Canonba', which would later become the site of the village.
The area between the Macquarie and the Bogan Rivers contains other watercourses, including Duck Creek, Gunningbar Creek, Crooked Creek and Marra Creek. Although the area was a semi-arid saltbush plain, the watercourses, waterholes, and billabongs improved the potential of the area for grazing, encouraging some settlers to move into the area, even though the same water sources were precious to the traditional owners. The area was outside the boundary of the Nineteen Counties—within which the colonial government of New South Wales allowed settlers to purchase land—but, from 1836, specific sections of land could be leased there for an annual payment, under the Squatting Act, 1836.
The area was the site of frontier violence in late 1841. Seeking water for their stock during a dry period, seven stockmen—working for William Lee and Joseph Moulder—drove 600 head of cattle off a legal grazing lease and into the area near the Canonba waterhole. It seems the cattle muddied and polluted the waterhole angering the traditional owners, who attacked the stockmen, killing three, and wounding three others. A stockman who was away from the main group, used his pistol to cover the wounded survivors as they escaped. Mounted Police from Bathurst, augmented by some stockmen, made a reprisal attack, at Duck Creek, that became a massacre. A contemporary report stated—although it was not known for certain how many died—there were fifteen or as many as thirty Aborigines killed. Only three of the Aborigines who died were identified as being involved in the stockmen's deaths. The party captured three other Aboriginal men, supposed to be involved in the stockmen's deaths, one of whom later escaped.
Even at the time, the actions of the Mounted Police were highly controversial. They had set out, during the absence of their commander, to assist the stockmen—who themselves had been acting illegally—carried out a frontier policing role normally that of the Border Police—under the command of local Commissioner for Crown Lands, Allman—and had killed many Aborigines who, although of the same tribe, were innocent of the killing of the stockmen. For his part in causing the original trouble with the Aborigines, Governor Gipps revoked Lee's lease. The other effect of the violence was that further settlement in the area between the Bogan and the Darling was banned, in effect, until around 1860. Sadly, this was far from the only incident of horrific frontier violence and killing near the Bogan River during the 1840s.

### The village of Canonba
#### Growth and heyday

By the very early 1850s, squatters were taking up runs in the district officially. A prominent early settler was John Brown, who had a landholding called 'Canonba' on Duck Creek. A hotel and store were built on part of Brown's land and, in September 1853, the government reserved a piece of nearby Crown Land as the site of a village. This circumstance could have led to a settlement partially on the government village reserve—on the north-east side of Duck Creek—and partially on Brown's land, on the south-west, or left, bank. The privately-owned section was sometimes referred to as 'Brownstown'. However, a bridge crossing Duck Creek and connecting the two parts of the village site was not completed until 1874 and, probably for that reason, the village seems to have developed mainly on the south-west side of the creek.
Canonba's position between the Macquarie and Bogan Rivers, its water, and its good soil were advantages of its location. In 1858, a post office was opened there, with a police station following in 1864. The village was proclaimed in 1866 and a town plan published in the same year, making it one of the earliest official settlements of the region. During the next 15 years, the village grew to be the main settlement in the region west of Dubbo. It was the site of cattle and sheep sales, the point from which the mail service for Bourke started, and a stopping place on the Cobb & Co.'s stage coach route from Dubbo to Bourke.
The town was badly affected by a flood in July 1867. Brown erected the first levies in the area to protect his properties in the town, but two hotels, Canonba and Isaac's hotels, were flooded.
In 1870, Canonba was described as "rather a nice town, being built principally of brick, and is in the heart of one of the finest squatting districts in the colony." By 1870, the village had a court of petty sessions, three public houses with a fourth on the way, some stores, and the usual trades of a rural settlement—saddle and harness makers, blacksmiths, tailors, bootmakers, wheelwrights—orchards and a vineyard; John Brown had built himself a double storey house of brick, overlooking what was by then being called a town, and a public schoolhouse awaiting a teacher. A school opened—unofficially—in 1871 but closed in 1872, being without an officially appointed teacher. A new schoolhouse was built by the government and opened in 1878. By 1874, probably on the right bank of Duck Creek, there were two acres of vegetable gardens operated by ethnic-Chinese market gardeners.
In 1881, the population reached what was probably its peak of 472.

#### Decline

In 1883, the Main Western railway line bypassed Canonba and instead ran to what is now the site of Nyngan—where the line crossed the Bogan River—resulting in the establishment of a rival settlement there around 1882. Another settlement nearby, Girilambone, was established, in 1880 as a private town associated with a copper mine, and it was also on the railway line from 1884. These developments led to the almost total decline of Canonba, in only a few years.
Many residents left Canonba and moved to Nyngan. A number of Canonba's houses and other buildings were pulled down and relocated to Nyngan. Businesses and public institutions followed. By 1887, the town no longer had a bank, just one public house and one store, and its church was described as "roofless walls", its belfry having been dismantled. John Brown, the 'King of Canonbar' and the driving force behind the village, although immensely wealthy, was in decline himself; around 1881, he had retired to Emu Hall at Emu Plains, where he died in 1888. The school closed in 1890. By the 1891 census, there were only 58 inhabitants and 12 dwellings left.
The design of the village was altered to reduce the scale of the settlement and more realistically reflect its diminished future prospects. Canonba lingered on as a rural hamlet for a time, still significant enough to be a polling place into the early 1930s. The post office, named 'Cannonbar', closed in late 1924. Canonba gave its name to the surrounding area and its Pasture Protection Board, then faded away completely.
Canonba lost its status as a village, in 1983, and was officially renamed 'Old Canonba'.

#### Remnants

The old village site lies just on the upstream side of where the modern-day Canonba Road crosses Duck Creek. One of its streets, Duck Street, still appears on maps—although its alignment no longer follows the old town plan—as do building allotments of the old village. All that is left of Canonba is its neglected cemetery and a boulder marked with a plaque that commemorates the former village. There is no commemoration of the frontier violence and massacres of the 1840s.

## Present day

The locality of Canonba is now a quiet rural area, with grazing being the main occupation.

## Reference section

* ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Canonba". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* ↑ "Canonba". Google Maps. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* ↑ "INTERESTING CEREMONY AT CANONBA—CORONATION OF JACKEY". Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. 17 December 1889. p. 7. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "ABORIGINES.(REPORT OF BOARD FOR THE PROTECTION OF, FOR YEAR 1907)" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of New South Wales. 1908. p. 18.
* 1 2 "EARLIEST SQUATTERS". Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.). 7 June 1930. p. 4. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* 1 2 3 4 5 "A Tour to the North-Western Interior". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW). 3 October 1874. p. 21. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "Thomas Mitchell". gutenberg.net.au. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* 1 2 3 4 5 Kass, Terry (March 2012). "A Thematic History of Bogan Shire - Draft Report March_2012.pdf" (PDF). pp. 27–30.
* ↑ "SIR THOMAS MITCHELL'S LATE EXPEDITION". Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal. 6 March 1847. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* 1 2 3 4 "Plan of the village of Old Canonba and suburban lands [cartographic material]". Trove. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Documenting Democracy - Governor Bourke's Proclamation 1835". 7 February 2008. Archived from the original on 7 February 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* ↑ "Crown Lands Occupation Guide". www.records.nsw.gov.au. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* 1 2 3 "Hooves". The Broken Promise of Agricultural Progress. 9 May 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "BATHURST". Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842). 15 October 1841. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Untitled". Omnibus and Sydney Spectator (NSW : 1841 - 1843). 15 October 1841. p. 18. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "BATHURST". Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842). 18 October 1841. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "THE BOGAN BLACKS. - TO THE EDITORS OF THE COLONIAL OBSERVER. - The Colonial Observer (Sydney, NSW : 1841 - 1844) - 25 Nov 1841". Trove. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* 1 2 Gadsby, Kate (2020). Convicts, capitalists and corruption : Nubrygyn and the Colony's settlement west of the Great Divide. Canberra, ACT. pp. 364–367. ISBN 978-0-646-81992-1. OCLC 1239335069.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
* ↑ "LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 24 August 1842. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. DEBATE ON THE CROWN LANDS OCCUPATION BILL". Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848). 26 August 1842. p. 4. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "NEWS FROM THE INTERIOR". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 22 September 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "CROWN LANDS BEYOND THE SETTLED DISTRICTS". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 19 June 1850. p. 929. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Advertising". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 14 June 1873. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* 1 2 "Cannonbar to Dubbo". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907). 1 July 1871. p. 14. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* 1 2 3 "CANONBAR". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 2 February 1870. p. 4. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "SITE FOR VILLAGE OF CANONBA AND SUBURBAN LANDS". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 2 November 1866. p. 2640. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "COLONIAL MARKETS". Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893). 14 November 1871. p. 4. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "FORT BOURKE". Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875). 20 May 1863. p. 5. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "FORT BOURKE". Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875). 20 May 1863. p. 5. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
* ↑ "Bourke and District Historical Society - A Coach Journey to Bourke in 1870". Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 - 1970). 13 October 1967. p. 8. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ Gadsby, Kate (2020). Convicts, capitalists and corruption : Nubrygyn and the Colony's settlement west of the Great Divide. Canberra, ACT. pp. 372, 373. ISBN 978-0-646-81992-1. OCLC 1239335069.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
* 1 2 "Cannonbar". nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* ↑ "CANNONBAR". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 8 July 1872. p. 4. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "CANNONBAR". Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893). 28 November 1876. p. 7. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "NEW PUBLIC SCHOOLS". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 15 February 1878. p. 711. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ Kass, Terry (March 2012). "A Thematic History of Bogan Shire - Draft Report March_2012.pdf" (PDF). pp. 37–40. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 December 2015.
* ↑ Girilambone station. NSWrail.net, accessed 8 September 2009.
* ↑ "CANNONBAR". Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW : 1851 - 1904). 21 June 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "The Halladay Standard Windmill". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907). 23 April 1881. p. 21. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
* ↑ "Family Notices". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 22 August 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
* ↑ "The Disputed Will Case". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 2 April 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
* ↑ "The Brown Will Suit". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907). 24 May 1890. p. 44. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
* ↑ "Cannonbar". nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* 1 2 "Our History - Bogan Shire Council". www.bogan.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "ALTERATION OF DESIGN OF THE VILLAGE OF CANONBA". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 20 April 1886. p. 2875. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "PROPOSED ALTERATION OF DESIGN OF THE VILLAGE OF CANONBA". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 16 January 1897. p. 331. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
* ↑ "Legislative Council Referendum - Cobar Electoral District". Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 - 1970). 21 April 1933. p. 3. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "View Post Office Details - Cannonbar". www.phoenixauctions.com.au. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
* ↑ "Pastures Protection Board News". Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 - 1970). 26 January 1968. p. 10. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ACT, 1966". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001). 25 March 1983. p. 1434. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Duck St, Canonba NSW 2825". Google Maps. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Duck St, Canonba NSW 2825 - Satellite view". Google Maps. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
* ↑ "Australian Cemeteries Index - Cemetery 1222 - Canonba". austcemindex.com. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
* ↑ "Canonba Township | Monument Australia". monumentaustralia.org.au. Retrieved 25 September 2022.