Avoca

The Fingal Valley was a mining area, tin, coal and one large gold area. Now it’s just coal, that I’m aware of. There are a lot of mineral deposits through here, but nothing substantial enough to support a large scale mining operation. Despite the name, the river that runs through here is the South Esk.

The Esk Highway (A4) runs through here, connecting the Midlands to the East Coast. There are three towns along the highway, and the first of these is Avoca.

I really should know more about this town than I do and I have lost my local history book so you’ll have to make do with looking at the pictures and making up your own descriptions.

Avoca was first settled in the 1830s. The population now is about 200 or less.

The Union Hotel built 1842. You can see the typical Georgian hotel lines behind the additions.

That was the Parish Hall. Now it’s obviously the post office. I don’t know what that wall on the left of it is about. There were photos of it at different times on a display board in the post office, but I couldn’t see anything that said what it used to be.

A short detour to the place of most interest to us, out on the hill before the town.

Oops, that’s the Church of England cemetery.

That’s better. (“That must be the Catholic cemetery, it’s not as well looked after.”) I thought Avoca was supposed to have had a substantial Irish population in the early years, but most of the graves are the black/brown stone slabs from the 1930s and 1940s. The majority of early Irish “settlers” were Catholic, and vice versa.)

The Anglican church was the only church in the town for the first decades. A small, wooden Catholic church was towards the end of the century and then moved to Rossarden (a former mining town to the north) when a new church was built about 1956. As far I know, it’s still there or it might not be.

This is in the middle of the park. I think it’s the old school house, which the state government has decided to throw some money at.

More recent photos, as the Avoca Information Centre.

Also in that park, but of more recent origin, is a tribute to bush nurses.

I think Marlborough House was built to be a hotel but was never licensed.

Possibly the biggest police station I’ve ever seen.