WILLIAM MILHAM
Milhams Farm
Milham Road, Ash Island N.S.W. 2322
Ash Island was subdivided in the 1860s and cleared and drained for further agriculture; 17 dairies, 55 families and a school were here until mid-1900s.
England to Ash Island:
In 1838, at the age of 18, William Milham, his father, Uriah, and 9 siblings migrated to Sydney from Sussex. The Milham family took up a farming lease first at ‘Leigh Farm’ north of Raymond Terrace, then at ‘Burrowl’ near Seaham. By 1849 William Milham had married Ann Robinson Miller and become a tenant farmer of A W Scott on Ash Island, then a lush and beautiful place. He built a two roomed wood slab hut with a separate kitchen near a well and two pear trees.
Farming Freehold:
By 1864 Scott was in financial trouble and William Milham purchased 26 acres with money he is said to have made at the gold diggings. William was one of the first freehold farmers on Ash Island. Milham’s Farmhouse: By 1866 the Milham’s had six living children and had outgrown the slab hut. William then built a two storey house of sandstone and seashell mortar (seen here as it was in the 1920s). The ground floor had a sitting room, dining room & two bedrooms. A verandah faced the river. An iron kitchen, bathroom and laundry were attached to the back of the house (to avoid risk of fire). Upstairs there was a small bedroom and a very large dormitory style bedroom. All the wood in the house was cedar with some rosewood, both felled on the island.
Switch to Dairy Farming:
William jnr, the eldest son gradually took over the running of the farm. In 1864, he imported from Sweden the first cream separator to be used in the Northern District. By 1890 the farm totalled 103 acres following purchases of two nearby farms. By 1893 the dairy herd contained over 100 Alderney cows and supplied dairy products to Newcastle, Plattsburg and Wallsend were supplied by boat via Ironbark Creek.
Disaster Strikes:
In 1893 flood waters covered Ash Island to a depth of six feet and all but 14 of Milham’s cows were drowned. Many Ash Island farmers were ruined but William Milham jnr, his wife Ruby and children, Ethel and Walter stayed on.
Farm continues under Murison name:
William Milham snr (see picture) died in 1907, aged 87. William jnr died in 1913, aged 57 and Walter took over the farm. When he died childless in a horse accident in 1919, his sister Ethel and her husband, Alexander Murison took over the farm then known as ‘Errington’. They tried to keep the farm going, but as floods became more frequent, the land became more degraded.
1955 Flood – The last straw:
The farm was completely ruined in the 1955 flood and the Murison’s sold it to the NSW Government for industrial purposes. The house was partially demolished by Public Works in the 1970s to deter squatters.