At home with history

If you think your regular trip to the supermarket is a bit arduous, spare a thought for the Everett brothers of Ollera Station in the New England region of NSW. Their 19th-century shopping expedition involved a 600-mile (almost 1000-kilometre) round trip from their home north-west of Guyra to the river port of Morpeth in the Hunter Valley. It took an average of three months to complete the journey, which was fraught with hazards, both natural and man-made. If their bullock-drawn wagon laden with wool didn’t get bogged on the notoriously muddy Moonbi Hill, the brothers considered themselves lucky not to get held up by bushrangers, including the infamous Fred Ward (Captain Thunderbolt), who paid the Everetts a not-so-friendly visit on Christmas Eve 1867. On another occasion, a group of highwaymen known as Gentleman Dick’s mob took not only their valued possessions, but all their horses, so they were forced