Pioneers of HowlongPrint Page

The stone commemorates the pioneers of Howlong and celebrate the centenary of the Howling Public School and Howlong Public Hall. 

Prior to the founding of the township the Surveyor-General of New South Wales at that time Major Thomas Mitchell crossed the Murray River during his exploration of the area. There is a monument to Mitchell on the Victorian side of the river which states that Mitchell and his party camped at the location on 17 October 1836 and then crossed the river slightly downstream of their camping point on the following day.

In 1837 the brothers John and Joseph Hawdon settled 64,000 acres (25,900 ha) which they named Howlong Station. In 1838 Charles Bonney and Joseph Hawdon set off with 340 cattle area set off on the second longest cattle drive of its kind attempted in Australia at that time driving 340 head to South Australia. Also in 1838 the site of the Mitchell river crossing became the location of the first postage mail delivery by a mail carrier, John Conway Bourke when he undertook to deliver the overland mail from Sydney to what would later be called Melbourne. 

The township appears to have taken its title from a property named Hoolong in the area which was owned by Isaac Rudd and was named after an Aboriginal place name meaning 'beginning of the plains'. Howlong as a township was laid out in 1854. The Post Office opened on 1 January 1861. 

The school was established as a National School in 1861. The first teacher’s name was Ms Emma Hegarty and she had 22 pupils. The next school cost 547 pounds and was built in 1872. Another room was added in 1922. The existing school, incorporating the 1872 buildings was completed in 1990.

The date on the Mechanics Institute is 1895. Earlier records however state that the Howlong School of Arts was built by Mr W. Squires and opened on the 21st October 1887. It can only be concluded that the façade of the building was added in 1895 by contractor Mr William Murdock and the supper room built in 1936. The building is now the Howlong Opportunity Shop.

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