TIMES PAST: Dungog Shire’s Vacy village approaches rare milestone

DUNGOG Shire is one of the few places in Australia to have had a private village.

The Lower Hunter Valley town of Vacy is one of them.

Next year marks the centenary of the sale of the Vacy Estate.

The unusual story of the estate began with the arrival of John Cory in 1824.

The Englishman was granted land north of the Paterson River. He named his property Cory Vale.

In 1825, Cory purchased 400 acres south of the river. He named his new property Vacy, the name of the house he lived in as a child in the English coastal town of Cornwall.

When he passed away, Cory bequeathed his land to his son Gilbert, who married and lived at Vacy.

Gilbert’s first wife died in 1854, and he later married a much younger woman.

The couple saw their community thrive.

Because the property was next to a crossing on the road north to Gresford and beyond, a thriving private village developed on the estate during decades of settlement and population growth in the village and the wider region.

The Cory family enabled various people to set up businesses in the village – a hotel, butcher shop, bakery, a blacksmith, and a general store.

As the population increased, a school, a church, and a school of arts hall eventually followed.

Records reveal that the Cory family were responsible landlords and a growing, stable population lived in their private village.

The hotel had the sports field as part of its land, an arrangement which changed only in the late twentieth century.

Gilbert died in 1896, but his second wife lived until 1924.

In 1927, just a few years after her death, the estate was sold.

The centenary of the sale of Vacy Estate next year will mark a rare event in Australian history.

TIMES PAST

With Dr Cameron ARCHER