McAlary Family History

Christmas 1900 and New Year 1901 in Australia were expected to be bigger festivities than any year previous. Australia was about to be proclaimed a Commonwealth on 1 January, 1901 and many people from the bush had plans to be 'on holiday' in the city for the summer, in readiness for the 'Federation celebrations' at New Year. However, as in our more recent experiences, the Christmas celebrations of 1900 were put on hold for many of our ancestors in New South Wales, as once again, people faced the perils of the bushfire season. 1900 did not bring the misery of drought and famine, nor the horror of floods devastating homes, livestock and crops. This particular year it was the extremes of high temperatures which led to catastrophic bushfires across many towns in New South Wales that brought a standstill to Christmas festivities. J Hutchings (1907). The Bush Fire, by J Hutchings, 3 June 1907. Held in National Museum of Australia. Many newspapers across the country tried to c...

  Mary Gertrude O’Donnell was my paternal great grandmother- mother of my father's mother. She was born in Coolac, near Gundagai at the family property 'Mingay', in 1869 to Patrick James 'P. J' O’Donnell and his wife Margaret Mary Hanley. Mary Gertrude was the first daughter in what was to become a large family of ten children-five boys and five girls. ‘Mingay’ where they lived, was a large, productive property of magnificent fertile farming land on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Coolac near Gundagai. It was used for grazing cattle, breeding sheep for wool and for producing many fine grain crops including lucerne. The O'Donnell children were very fortunate to be living in such a beautiful, magical place with verdant green fields and azure blue skies.  Mingay Homestead, Part of Family Collection, circa 1999. The river, fields and pasturelands at Mingay, NSW. From McAlary Family collection. PJ O’Donnell took his children’s education very seriously and bo...