R is for Robert

R is for Robert George Nichols, my 2nd great grandfather. Unlike some other ancestors of mine, Robert had a life in quite a few different places, moving around from place to place throughout his life.

Robert was born 13 December 1871 in Towrang, near Goulburn, to parents Agenor Robert Nichols and Adeline Milne. Robert was the first child born to the couple, and was born just one month after they married. Robert spent his early years in the Towrang area where four of his siblings were born but by the time he was 11 years old the family had moved to Cootamundra in NSW. I’m not sure what prompted the move from Towrang to Cootamundra, but the family only lived there a few years before moving on to the Berrima area. Specifically, they relocated to the Joadja Creek shale oil mining site. Now a ghost town, Joadja Creek township was set up in 1870 and had a large population of Scottish miners.

It was in Joadja that Robert met and married his wife May Henderson and their first three children were born there. The Joadja facility officially closed in 1911, but Robert and his family had moved on before then. Robert’s fourth child and first son was born in 1901, at Jumbunna in Victoria. Jumbunna was yet another mining town and this trend was to continue, with Robert’s next move being to Charlestown.

Robert (centre) with some fellow miners

 

 

Robert (front row, second from right)

 

 

 

Charlestown is located near Lake Macquarie and like Joadja and Jumbunna, Charlestown was a mining town. Robert and his family lived in Charlestown for nearly a decade before moving to the Temi Mountain Mine Site, near Murrurundi in northern NSW. Robert’s final move was to New Lambton, which is a suburb of Newcastle. New Lambton was also where Robert died in 1929, and he was laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle.

Overall, in his travels Robert saw a whole chunk of Australia along the way as he travelled some pretty large distances to get from place to place and covered hundreds if not thousands of kilometres throughout his life.