Uralgurra - once a thriving town near Bellbrook

She was working for the Ducat family at Moonebah when she met and married Henry Davis in 1866. Henry Davis had been born in Sydney in 1844 to Henry and Mary Ann Davis of Clarence St.

They settled initially at Moonebah where the first seven of their 14 children were born.

Henry then selected more land on the Upper Macleay and they then moved there.

The land Henry had selected by conditional purchase was on a river bend and was the terminus of the road north along the Macleay River. Beyond that point was a steep track suitable only for bullock teams.

Henry was both a teamster and contractor, and worked on building cuttings and improvements for the proposed road to Bellbrook.

He saw the potential in providing supplies and necessities for teamsters and navvies building the road and a small village he named Merriwa evolved with a saddlery, blacksmith and store.

The Merriwa Hotel, built in 1888, was an imposing two-storey structure with 14 rooms and was advertised as "the last point of the road before reaching New England where alcoholic refreshment can be obtained".

In 1892, a police constable and his family were stationed there while the village of Bellbrook was being laid out.

When a post office was established there, the name was changed from Merriwa to Uralgurra in 1894 to avoid confusion with the Upper Hunter town of the same name.

Uralgurra, also the name of the Parish, was an Aboriginal name (Ooral Gulla) meaning "big ironbarks".

Uralgurra became a popular stopping place for travellers and the stores were convenient for the residents of the Upper Macleay. It also became the sporting centre of the district.

An excellent racecourse was built with regular races being held which were widely advertised. Spectators could take their positions on the rising ground near the post and see the whole race from start to finish.

There was also a rifle range, cricket pitch and tennis courts.

In 1895, Henry Davis wrote to the Department of Public Instruction requesting a school be established there and offered two acres of land rent free for the school.

In 1898 there had been no apparent action so he wrote again, complaining the children were running wild.

This time the application was successful and Uralgurra Provisional School was established in December 1898.

Unusual for the times, eight Aboriginal children were included in the list of 22 children of school age put forward to the Department.

With the completion of the through-road to Bellbrook in 1902, Uralgurra began to slowly die as travellers bypassed it to go the extra few miles to Bellbrook.

Henry Davis, whose wife Hannah had died in 1899, moved to Sydney where he remarried.

His eldest son George, who took over the licence of the Merriwa Hotel in 1907, was the only one of Henry's children to remain at Uralgurra. The licence for the Hotel was transferred to Bellbrook in 1913 and other buildings were pulled down and reassembled elsewhere.

The place name of Uralgurra still exists - however many people now prefer to call the locality Bellbrook.

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