Page 11 - rigneymaster

One Man’s Goldfield: the story of the Horseshoe Bend Diggings, William Rigney and Somebody’s Darling

William Donald Gunn Patrick McCan William Ridd
Cunine

Archibald John Hammond William McGee Robert Ridd
Curry

John Dabton Hugh Harrison James McKay William Rigney

Robert Patrick Kennelly Matthew Patrick Ryan
Doherty McKeown

James Dow Peter Keoof Allan Orr Aaron
Stevenson

Thomas Anthony Knowles William Orr James Sullivan
Evans

Charles Thomas Lamb Henry Parry
Galijar

John Gamble James Lunday John Patallo

Some stories of the early residents have remained, unwritten but recalled by the now
elderly children and grandchildren of early settlers and the second generation miners.
These stories are a part of the history of the Bend.

Lunday: James Lunday was one of the original discoverers of gold at Horseshoe
Bend in 1863, and remained at the Bend until his death, forty-four years later. Lunday
lived with his wife and two children in a thatched cob cottage on a rise above the road,
opposite the entrance to the farmhouse lane. The house is now gone but its site is
marked by a pile of large stones and a small depression. Each spring there are
daffodils in the area and other small terraces on the hill suggesting that Lunday may
have shared this site with others.

Link to site of Lunday house in Google maps

Lunday was blinded by being hit in the face with manuka when mustering. Mr Jim
McDonald of Roxburgh recalled his father telling of travelling down the road from
Millers Flat to Horseshoe Bend and seeing Mr Lunday walking from his home to that of
his friend William Rigney. Lunday was finding his way by tapping the cob wall on
either side of the road with his stick. Rigney lived a few hundred yards away in a cob
cottage which was described as being very neat and tidy and having a good vegetable
garden. The exact site of Rigney's home is not clear. The only other reference to
where Rigney lived is from the late Mr Leopold Faigan of Millers Flat, who referred to
his hut as being under the hill below the grave.

© Jeff Robertson 11