Pinnacle Run and Maudry (Mortray?) Run

Local historian Lloyd Mitton wrote an article titled Pinnacle Station - A Short History which was published on pages 305 and 306 in the book "People of the Weddin Shire" published in 2001 by the Weddin Shire Council (edited by Gaynor England and Bruce Robinson). Here are some extracts from what Lloyd wrote.

"In 1839 the "Pinnacle Run" (10,720 ha) was taken up by James Graham and Thomas Croker. Subsequent recorded owners included:

• 1848 Thomas Hull
• 1852 William Atkins and William Jamison
• 1854 Roger Feehilly
• April 1877 property was finally forfeited for non-payment of rates

During the 1870's the adjoining property "Mortray Station" belonged to Frederick Trollope (son of author Anthony Trollope) and then JL Waugh and Little. In 1877 the two properties came under the one ownership making a total area of 23,040 ha. The holding was all from then on known as Pinnacle Run. In 1878 the owners advertised the whole property for sale and the new owner was New Zealand Land and Finance Company. Ernest Henry Crawford was appointed manager and immediately set about fencing, ring-barking and clearing the property. By December 1882 a new homestead had been erected. This to this day is the oldest continually occupied dwelling in the Grenfell district."

Earlier today I contacted the Land and Property Information Department to see if I could source early maps of the district. As luck would have it all of the old Parish, Pastoral and various other maps are now accessible via the internet. Here is a link to the Parish and Historical Maps page: http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/mapping_and_imagery/parish_maps. And from this page here is a link to  Historical Land Records Viewer page: http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/mapping_and_imagery/parish_maps

I was successful in locating an outline sketch of the Pinnacle Run and (as it turns out) the Maudry (Mortray?) Run. What's a bit confusing is that there is no mention of "Mortray" - so my assumption is that due to phonetics the two may have been interchangeable. There is, however, a Parish of Maudry, but it covers a smaller area than what appears to be the original Maudry Run. Below is a copy of the sketch of Pinnacle Run and Maudry Run:

From the above map that it looks like:

• The exterior outline was the original combined holding
• 3 sections were planned to be transferred (or were at least being contested by) to adjacent holdings - Sandy Creek, Ooma and Boyd
• Maudry Run was in fact to the south of the original Pinnacle Run (local widely held belief was that it was to the east)

The land area was as follows:

• Pinnacle Run 25,400 acres or 10,279 hectares
• Maudry Run 29,900 acres or 12,100 hectares
• Total area was 55,300 acres or 22,379 hectares

It is important to remember that when most of the early 'Runs' were taken up no surveys had been conducted. Thus boundaries and total land areas were very approximate.

I was also able to locate a much more detailed map of the combined Pinnacle Run. It is in two sections below:

Top Section of Pinnacle Run

Based on my rough calculations and viewing of various Parish maps I have formed the view that the northern tip of the original Pinnacle Run was located on the Pinnacle Garema Road about 10 km south of the present day village of Garema.

Bottom Section of Pinnacle Run

Here is the map of the bottom section of the Pinnacle Run:

Again based on what I can figure out (but I'm hesitant to be quoted):

• The eastern boundary particularly of the Maudry Run section runs along present day Ooma Creek
• The southern boundary runs along the straight section (adjoining Henry Lawson Way) and partly further west of the present day Pinnacle Road
• The above means that the southeast corner of the combined Pinnacle Run was located around the intersection of Pinnacle Road and the Henry Lawson Way. Locals refer to this spot in general terms as Nags Head Bridge. The Nags Head Hotel was in this area at one point.
• The western edge of the original Maudry Run is just to the south of the Wheoga Range
• The east-west junction between Pinnacle and Maudry Runs is a bit to the south of where the present day 'Gap Road' to Wirrinya runs.

What the above if accurate means, in the context of the formally approved locality of Pinnacle, is that most of the area to the west of the Wheoga Range that is currently / now within the locality of Pinnacle was never part of the original or combined Pinnacle Run.