The Conways of the Wyalong Gold Rush

Vera Conway (1864-1924) is Margaret Robinson's connection to the glory days of the central western NSW town of Wyalong in the late 19th century when it was (briefly) the centre of a major gold field.  But there is also mystery surrounding if and how Vera might be related to the other Conway branch in Margaret's family tree.

1930

Robert Robinson split with Margaret’s grandmother, Nellie Connelly, about 1919  (see Robert, the real Robinson).  Some years later Robert became involved with another woman, Veronica Mary Conway.  Although unmarried Robert and Veronica lived as man and wife until Robert’s death in 1942.  Veronica died in 1972 as a “Robinson”, having changed her name by deed poll ten years earlier.

Veronica or “Vera” as she also called herself, was born in West Wyalong, NSW in 1897, the daughter of William Patrick Conway (1864-1924) and grand-daughter of Michael Joseph Conway (1832-1918).

It is through Vera that Margaret Robinson has a connection to the glory days of the central western New South Wales town of Wyalong.  In the late 19th century Wyalong was (briefly) an important gold mining town.  Gold was first discovered at Wyalong in 1893 and by 1899 its goldfield was declared the most productive in NSW.

Conways arrive in Wyalong

Brothers Anthony James (born 1835) and Michael Joseph Conway, both came from near Dublin, Ireland.   Anthony and wife Bridget Healy arrived first in Australia, in 1859.  They first lived in Victoria (probably on the Victorian goldfields), before moving on to Albury and later to Wagga Wagga.  The Anthony Conway family arrived in Wyalong in 1894, perhaps drawn by the discovery of gold there. 

Michael Joseph followed Anthony to Australia, arriving in Sydney aboard the Kapunda in February 1877.  He was accompanied by his wife Esther Lawler and their four children.  One of those children was William Patrick, Vera Conway’s father.

The brothers’ lives seemed to parallel each other.  Michael Joseph also first moved to Wagga Wagga, before arriving in Wyalong with his family in 1894, about the same time as Anthony.

Report from Australian Town & Country, 16 October 1897.  The Conway mines are specifically mentioned.  

The Wyalong Gold Rush

The Sydney Morning Herald on 30 March 1894 records the excitement and chaos in Wyalong as new gold discoveries were being made, almost daily and specifically mentions the gold claim of the Conway brothers:

“Hundreds of men are arriving and many returning.  A fresh find of a remarkably rich reef, 3 feet wide [1 metre], has been reported.  There are persistent reports of an alluvial find……..This morning a fresh find was reported , four miles north of Conway’s claim……The population [of Wyalong] now numbers nearly 8,000.  The road is in a very bad state, wrecked conveyances blocking it everywhere.   The water tanks are again beginning to get low….…”

Anthony, Michael Joseph and their sons named their claims the Shamrock and Thistle mines near the village of Barmedman.  From these they extracted almost 5,000 ounces of gold (worth close to $8 million at today’s gold price) in less than four years.

The Conways became a prominent local family.  The Wyalong Advocate reported in 1895 that Anthony purchased and donated the bell for St Mary's Catholic Church in the town, the bell being hauled in from Sydney.  There’s even a Conway St in Wyalong named after the family.

There are many Conway descendants still in the Wyalong district today.

St Mary's Church, Wyalong, 2013.  This updated church was built in 1929

The first St Mary's Church at Wyalong, presumably pre-dating Anthony Conway's gift of a bell

Ellen Patterson, wife of William Patrick Conway, and the mother of Veronica Conway (who died as Vera Robinson, the de facto partner of Robert Robinson)

Anthony James and Michael Joseph Conway died the same year, 1918.  Both are buried in Wyalong cemetery.   The Wyalong Advocate reported that the very church bell that Anthony had donated tolled for half an hour in his memory on the day of his burial.

Vera’s father, William Patrick Conway, was a miner, like his father and uncle.  He probably worked alongside them at their claim.  William Patrick Conway and his wife Ellen Patterson (sometimes spelt Pattison) both died in the same year, 1924.  They are also buried at Wyalong cemetery.

Robinson family folklore is that Robert Robinson lived his later years as a man of means.  If there is any truth to stories that he was well off it seems more likely that it was not his money, but rather Vera’s that had come down to her through her father’s and grandfather’s gold mining exploits in Wyalong.

Mysteries of the Wyalong Conways

There are several unanswered questions in the Robinson family history about Vera Conway and through her the Conway brothers of Wyalong:

1.   Possible Connections between two Conway families?

There are two lines of Conways in the forebears of the Robinson family.  But it is unclear whether there is a family connection between the Conway family of Wyalong and Michael Conway, the father of Martha Conway and grandfather of Arthur Sams (see The Journey of Arthur Conway to Fither Robinson)?  So far no connection has been established.

Arthur’s Sams grandfather, Michael Conway, was from county Limerick in Ireland.  It appears that he arrived in NSW accompanying his widowed father, a convict, (and also called Michael) in 1840 aboard the ship King William.  Michael junior settled in the Parramatta district, west of Sydney.

On the other hand Michael Joseph Conway and his brother Anthony hailed from Dublin and Waterford.  As we have seen above they arrived in Australia via Melbourne before settling as prosperous miners in Wyalong almost 500 km from Parramatta. 

Therefore it seems clear that these Michaels were two different people.  But, intriguingly, both "Parramatta" and "Wyalong" Michael seem to have been in the Wagga Wagga district around the 1870s.  Moreover Vera’s own parents, William Patrick Conway and Ellen Patterson, were married in that town in 1887.

Perhaps it is all coincidence as is the fact that Margaret Robinson's father was given the same Christian names -- William Patrick -- as Vera's father.  Or it may be that a direct connection between Arthur Conway and Veronica Conway is still to be found.

2.  How did Robert Robinson and Vera Conway meet?

There is the possibility that Wyalong holds the answer to how Robert Robinson and Vera Conway met -- it may have been through the Sam family who lived in the same town (see The Sams of Wyalong:  Where do they fit in?).

From their military files we know that at the turn of the 20th century several of sons of William Flood Sam of Wyalong were miners.  This places them on the same goldfields around Barmedman where the Conways mines were located.  Perhaps they even worked for the Conways.

During World War 1 one of the Sam family, George Loolong (a grandson of the Wyalong Sam family patriarch, William Flood Sam), served in the 56th Battalion, the same unit as Robert Robinson.  Indeed both men were injured with a day of each other at the Battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917.  It seems therefore entirely possible that Robert knew George.  After they both returned to Australia Robert may have stayed on contact with George and through him came to meet members of the Conway family, including Vera.  This chain of events is purely speculative but an intriguing idea nonetheless.

One fact remains:  After they split both Nellie Connelly and Richard Robinson ended up with a "Conway" as their de facto partners, whether or not these two individuals were related.