Bonzer Words!: Ancestor's Name In A Cave?
Smithren was stunned to discover her Lancashire family name, Entwhistle, written in a cave in Abercrombie, New South Wales.
Smithren writes for the Australian Web magazine, Bonzer! For more good reading go to http://www.bonzer.org.au
My grandparents, on my mother's side, emigrated from Wigan in England. She was the first to be born here in Australia at Yarraville, Victoria in 1913. My grandmother's maiden name was Entwhistle.
This is not a common name out here, and I have never met anyone here with that name. There are about 19 in the phone directory. You can imagine my surprise when 15 years ago I found this name written in a cave in Abercrombie, New South Wales.
Abercrombie is about 120 kilometres from my home. It is a beautiful place nestled in the bush. It has a camping ground and the biggest open-ended limestone cave in the southern hemisphere. There is a stream that runs through it and you can pan for gold farther down from the cave just outside your camp. It's a very peaceful place and you can get back to nature and enjoy your surroundings. I have spent some marvellous times there with a group of friends. We used to head up there for a weekend to beat the rat race of inner-city life.
Guided tours are conducted in the caves and I have been on quite a few. I've even attended a concert in one of the caves, which has natural acoustics and a large stage in it, so that if you hit the stage you can hear the sound reverberating all around you. The music can be heard way down stream and the beauty of the surroundings of these concerts is a sight to behold.
Bushrangers used to hide there to escape the troopers who were after them. There is one cave called the Bushrangers' Cave. This is not open-ended: bushrangers used to hide in it with their horses and it's very dark. On one of the guided tours, a guide was showing us how bushrangers had written their names in the rock. He was explaining some of the history and mentioned the name Entwhistle.
They knew little about him. You can imagine how stunned I was. Was this some long-lost relative who had came to these shores years before my grandparents? The romantic in me likes to think so but I will never know. Maybe this is why I feel such an affinity with this place, or maybe it is because of my friends that went there with me. The fond times we had will live with me all my life.
Smithren (© Carol Smith) lives in Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.
