C & G Harding Pty Ltd opened a $350,000 crumpet-making factory in Wigg Street, Wodonga on 18th March 1977. The company director and plant manager was John Harding. They initially employed 20 local employees. At its peak the business baked hundreds of thousands of crumpets every week, producing 7,200 crumpets per hour. As well as being exceptionally popular in Wodonga, they shipped their products as far away as Sydney, The business closed in the 1990s. The Sarah Harding Baking Company originated in Richmond, Victoria. William Harding was convicted of sheep stealing in 1846 and sentence to 10 years transportation. Harding was lucky he was not sentenced a decade earlier - he trained in carpentry and arrived a free man. In 1852, he was working on the foundations of a new home when his neighbour - the wealthy politician William Highett - gave him a loan to build the Kingston Hotel in Richmond where he was the licensee in 1854. It was successful, but Harding drank and gambled much of the profits and when he slighted Highett in a card game the loan was foreclosed. The Hardings were saved by wife Margaret and daughter Sarah, the eldest of their 17 children, who started a successful crumpet business - the Sarah Harding Baking Company. The company operated for over 100 years, carried on in several locations by descendants and relatives of the original William Harding who died in Hawthorn, Victoria in 1904 after a long and colourful life. The Wodonga business was the first C & G Harding bakery to be established outside of Melbourne.This item is significant because it represents a successful Wodonga business.An advertisement for a Wodonga business. It includes a business logo and an image of the premises.Sarah Harding's Crumpets THE PERFECT PARTNERS FOR MURRAY VALLEY DAIRY PRODUCE C. & G. Harding Pty. Ltd. WIGG STREET, WODONGA, 3690 Telephone: STD 060 24 4205wodonga businesses, c & g harding, sarah harding's crumpets

In the early 1880s a small circus travelled between Millicent and Mt Gambier, South Australia. After camping overnight they discovered their Bengal Tiger at escaped and disappeared into dense scrub. After searching for hours they continued to Mt Gambier and reported the loss of the tiger to police. Police and local volunteers continued the search for the escaped tiger, but no sighting were made. In the early 1890s sheep in the Tantanoola area started to disappear with the still unsighted tiger being blamed. In 1893 reports of an unusual animal in the Tantanoola area started, with many describing the animal as the missing tiger, or a large dog. One eye witness claimed to have seen the animal carrying a full grown sheep in its mouth. The reports grew in number and exaggeration with sightings from Robe to Bendigo. In the Tantanoola district children were escorted with shotgun guards to and from school, with many homes keeping guns at the ready in case the tiger suddenly appeared. In August 1895 Tom Donovan shot the "Tantanoola Tiger" on Mt Salt Station, around 20 kms south of Tantanoola. The corpse was taken to Marks, a Mount Gambier taxidermist, at which time the animal was identified as an Assyrian or Northern Russian Wolf. Donovan displayed the animal far and wide. Despite the animal's death sheep continued to disappear from properties in the district over many years. It was of particular concern between 1909 and 1910. At that time Herbert Allchurch, an Adelaide detective, was sent to solve the mystery. A few days after his arrival Allchruch went to the front bar of the Tiger Hotel and arrested local rabbit shooter and trapper, Charlie Edmunson, with sheep stealing. After his 1911 trial Edmunson admitted to stealing over 4,000 sheep during the previous 20 years. He was gaoled for six years with hard-labour in January 1911. Edmunson had been selling the skins of the stolen sheep, leaving the carcusses to rot. He earned around five pounds per week during the 1990s and early 1900s, a time when the economy was depressed. It is not known had the animal known as the Tantanoola Tiger came to Australia, but it is believed it survived one of three ships wrecked of the coast between 1890 and 1893, making it to shore along with some of the shipwrecked passengers. (From a card produced by the Tantanoola Tiger Hotel, where the 'tiger' is on display.)A collection of Newsclippings from 1892 - 1895 photocopied onto A4 white paper. The clippings relate to the Tantanoola Tiger. Clippings include: * Border Watch 1892 - Tantanoola Tiger Reward * Sydney Morning Herald, 04/07/1857 - Animals in Zoological Gardens, including a number of large cats. * Claims the Tantanoola Tiger was an escaped circus animal (ie The Advertiser [Adelaide], 31 October 1893) * Search parties for the Tantanoola Tiger (ie Barrier Miner 19/05/1893; Barrier Miner 03/1081893) * Thylacine claim (ie Morning Bulletin [Rockhampton] 11/03/1895 * Afghan and Indian Hunters (ie Barrier Miner 07/02/1895) * Sighting by John Bird of Scarsdale - Wanganui Herald 15/12/1900. " ... Mr Bird was travelling on foot along a lonely track through very dense scrub, when he was stricken with amazement to see a full-grown tiger standing in a small dam about 30ft away, and holding in its jaws the carcass of a newly-killed lamb. He remained long enough to thoroughly take in the animals appearance, and then beat a hasty retreat unmolested. His description of the animal is as follows: A tawny-coloured creature, with a dirty mottled skin; in general appearance like an immense cat; body 4ft long, and of a uniform thickness from shoulder to hindquarters; in bulk equal to a very large pig. The legs were hidden in the water. A similar animal is reported to gave been seen near Canico, some miles away. ..." * Victorian country sightings # Bullarto - Argus 06/05/1905 # Dean - Launceston Examiner 28/01/1895 # Bendigo - Hobart Mercury 15/03/1895 # Ballan - Launceston Examiner 03/08/1895 * South Australian register 17/06/1885 " There is a tiger or panther wandering at large in Victoria, according to a rumour. It has taken the place of the Bunyip, whom hundreds have seen but none captured. This tiger is supposed to have broken loose from a travelling menagerie in the North-eastern district. At the beginning we should like it roved that such an escape ever took place. Perhaps the showmen were afraid to report the fact to the police; at any rate they did not do so. The first story about the tiger being seen came from the neighborhood of Wangaratta, 60 miles from the place where it is said to have commenced business on its own account. He was followed, but vanished among trees. Next we hear of a strange animal, bigger than a St Bernard's dog, but shorter legged, having appeared at least 150 miles from Wangaratta. Between Lilydale and Wangaratta there is a dividing range 2,000 feet high in the lowest past, besides several large rivers. An finally, the tiger - changed from a panther - is reported as having been seen within the suburban circle, about 8 miles from the general Post Office. They show you footprints, and point to the carcasses of mangled cows and calves. Casts have been taken of the footprints for examination by scientific men, who pronounce them doglike, and yet not doglike, but panther-like, which gives a nervous turn, for the panther may take up killing children and grown-up people. One tiger will not account for so many apparitions. There must have been a general strike among the menageries, and a breaking-up companies. ... * Research article by Philip A. Clarke "Indigenous Spirit and Ghost Folklore of 'Settled' Australia. australian animal folklore collection, tantanoola tiger, tom donovan, herbert allchurch, charles edmunson, sheep, charlie edmunson, mythical, myth, folklore

Catherine Waite married Hugh Hyndman in Albury in 1929 at the age of 23 years. She was a great granddaughter of John Waite and Mary Ann Robinson who settled in “Bungil” and became pioneers of the Upper Murray region of Victoria. John Waite was born in 1771 at Gravesend, Kent, England. He arrived in Sydney on 7th May 1804 from Sevenoaks, Kent, England on the convict ship "Coromandel" having been convicted of stealing two sheep. He was assigned to Dr Charles Throsby, surgeon, land holder and inland explorer. John Waite was granted an absolute pardon in 1818. John married Mary Robinson on 14th April 1812 at Windsor, NSW. Mary was the daughter of a member of the NSW Corps and an emancipated convict. John and Mary went on to have 14 children. The family of John Waite formed strong connections with the Hore family which also became prominent in the Upper Murray, Albury and Wodonga. John Hore (Hoare) Snr. of Wexford County, Ireland, was a volunteer in the English Navy for four years before being sentenced to death for mutiny. On appeal this was commuted to seven years’ transportation to Australia. In Australia several marriages occurred between the two families. After the journey of Hume and Hovell to Victoria, John Waite and the Hore family sought pastoral land further south. John Hore Jnr and his brothers Andrew, William, Thomas and Charles all settled in the Upper Murray. John and Elizabeth's son John Hore Jnr married Elizabeth Waite, a daughter of John and Mary Waite. This forged a family connection that would have an influence on the Upper Murray for generations to come. John Waite formed the Bungil run for his son-in-law John Hore, acquiring land through the Robertson Land Act of 1861 which enabled land owners to use relatives as "dummies" to help acquire land. When the “dummy” defaulted on the rent John Hore and other landowners were able to buy the land at reduced prices at auction. In this way the Hore family and their relatives established a large pastoral empire in the Upper Murray, including Bungil, Wagra and Cumberoona. Catherine Waite was born in Albury, NSW in 1905, great granddaughter of John Waite Snr and Mary Robinson. In 1929 she married Hugh Hyndman who before migrating to Australia from Northern Ireland had worked on the construction of the Titanic at the dockyards in Belfast. This dress is significant because it was worn by a descendant of two important pioneer families of the Upper Murray Region of Victoria.A wedding dress from the late 1920s made from peach coloured silk and lace. The bodice and sleeves feature a lace overlay which is repeated from hip length. It is matched with cloche style hat made from matching lace and decorated with ribbon, flowers and a bow.1920s wedding dress, waite family, hore family