Seeking tales of Inverleigh

Andrew Mathieson
INVERLEIGH, like any other country town, has a few stories to tell.
One of them involves a Scottish immigrant family, the McCallums, who were met at the docks to work on a sheep station.
Christina Garratt said her great-grandfather arrived more than a century ago with his wife, four young children and mother-in-law in tow.
They were “one of the early ones” in Inverleigh, she explained.
“My great grandfather would make his money carting goods by a bullock wagon to the Stawell goldfields back and forth. It took him three months but he got 100 pounds a ton.
“When he made a bit of money, he bought land here and the family farm is still there.”
Mr McCallum built a life at Inverleigh for his family – and another nine members born in the small town outside Geelong.
One of the children, Mrs Garratt’s grandfather, remembered counting 60 families in the town when he was a child.
Mrs Garrett thought about 20 of them still lived at Inverleigh.
A founding member of Inverleigh Historical Society, Mrs Garratt hoped descendants of past Inverleigh families were willing to donate old artefacts and memorabilia stuffed in hidden boxes.
“Old photos of landmarks, weddings, sporting groups – as long as they have names and dates on them – will be the sort of thing we’d love to have,” Mrs Garratt said.
“At the moment, we haven’t got much storage space, so we can’t take old tractors or windmills.”
Inverleigh Historical Society had been given a grant to research life in the town during the two world wars.
Mrs Garratt said the society had been operating for nearly five years after Inverleigh’s progress association identified a need to preserve the town’s history.
Records indicate the town’s first buildings, erected during the 19th Century, were a hotel and a blacksmith.
She said introduction of a railway line in 1912 so farmers could send their produce to the cities was a turning point for the town.
“Inverleigh started off as being a stopping place for people going off to the goldfields,” Mrs Garratt said.
Tasmania surveyor, JH Wedge, founded the town around 1835.
However, Mrs Garrett said popular belief held that famous escaped convict William Buckley was the first European to arrive in the Inverleigh district.