BUCKENBOWRA

Buckenbowra once supported a large wattle bark processing works, described in this report in the Moruya Examiner on 16th August 1913: Buckenbowra is situated about seven miles nor’-west of Mogo and 17 miles from Moruya by vehicular road. Buckenbowra was originally cleared by convict labor and was noted in the early days for the excellent quality of its fat cattle and its attraction for horses that had once tasted the sweetness of its pastures. Since the days of the late Donald McLeod and G.D. DuRoss the whole of the once lovely estate has been swept at various times by bush fires, with the result that the major portion of its once grassy hills and dales, estimated at over 4,000 acres, are now covered with the very best quality of tannin wattle in the State. It was owing to the quality and vast quantity of its wattle that the present Company purchased, and if the tannin extraction comes near to what is estimated by the new process, well, then, the Company will not only make two fortunes but a great boom will take place in the district. The mill was erected in a great forest of young wattle about 1½ miles north-west from the homestead and close to a never-failing stream of pure running water. The mill boiler is 25 h.p. of colonial type, and the engine a Tangye of 12 h.p. The bark plant consists of chopper and mill capable of putting through six tons daily. When ground the bark is ready for tanners’ use without any further trouble. Fifty tons have already been treated and bagged.