William Rixon – the South Coast’s Leading Businessman

William Rixon – the District’s Leading Businessman

When William Rixon died in late 1916, his funeral procession extended for more a mile and included over 100 motor cars, plus horsemen and pedestrians. ‘Friends had come from Bombala, Nimetybelle, Bimbooka, Cobargo, Pambula, Moruya, and other distant centres, to testify to the respect in which the deceased was held.’ As the South Coast’s leading businessman and a noted sportsman, he was well-known and highly-respected throughout the area south from Milton to the Victorian border...and even well beyond:
The Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder noted his death by observing (on 3.1.1917) ‘He was a man of iron will, yet with a heart of the kindest nature. His portly personage has gone for ever, but his memory will live on green in the hearts of his many, many friends.’

William Rixon was born in 1844 at Taylors Flat (now Cathcart) before he and his parents moved to Eden where he grew up. At age 15 he was ‘swinging a pick and shovel’ on the Nerrigundah goldfields.

He then established a horse-drawn coach service linking Bega, Tathra and Merimbula, before establishing himself as a Bega-based auctioneer. From 1872 to 1895 his business operated as a partnership with Charles Macleod (Rixon was the salesman, Macleod looked after the office), and thereafter as William Rixon Pty Ltd. In the late 1870s Rixon and Macleod erected cattle yards on the corner of Carp and Gipps Sts in Bega where they auctioned livestock and started to sell land.

Later, his office was relocated to 162 Carp Street – right in the centre of Bega – and it (or, more accurately, its verandah) became the gathering place for locals (or, more accurately, local men) to share news and gossip. These men collectively became known as the Bags Mob – the bags of produce on the verandah providing them with convenient seats. During World War I, for example, soldiers fighting on the Western Front would send letters that were simply addressed to ‘The Bags Mob, Carp St, Bega’ and these would be read out to those in attendance.

Many land subdivisions in Bega, Cobargo, Bemboka, Candelo, Quaama, Eden, Wolumla and Pambula were marketed through Rixon and Macleod or William Rixon Pty Ltd.

Rixon himself developed a reputation for straight dealing, uprightness and strict integrity. But he was also generous – providing financial assistance to many struggling settlers, to the extent that it was often said of him that ‘he carried the district on his back.’ He was also renowned for his punctuality. If he made an appointment, no matter the time or place, he was there to the minute; and he held any man who failed to be similarly punctual as worthless.

He was a stalwart of St. John’s Church of England in Bega (he made a point of always being back in Bega so he could attend Sunday services) and gave generously to the Church.

Rixon, though, was just as well known for his love of horse racing. He was widely known as a breeder and trainer (one of his mares won the first Federal City Cup – now presumably the Canberra Cup), and for his skill in handling horses.

Although he was a racing man, William Rixon was not a betting man. Ironically, though, it was a bet that probably made him more widely-known than did any other act in his life: One evening in 1882 he was praising his two buggy horses — Jack and Donovan — for some journey they had recently undertaken when Ben Lipscombe, a well-known Monaro solicitor, scoffed at his story and, in the presence of many witnesses, bet Rixon £50 to drive the horses from Bega to Bombala in under five hours. Rixon duly accepted the challenge.

Rixon carefully prepared for the event with the horses being driven up Tanja Mountain (Dr George Mountain) daily for some weeks. The Bega-Bombala route was actually 52 miles in length (including a rise of 1,700ft in 3 miles up Tantawanglo Mountain, then a drop of 1,200ft, followed by another rise to 2,300ft over the next five miles). Rixon stationed men at various points with along the route with buckets of water to splash over the horses as they passed. And, it was reported, Rixon never removed his whip from its socket from the start to the finish of the journey because he would sooner lose the bet than flog his horses.

The police at Bombala evidently got wind of his drive, and ‘rode out nearly as far as the mountain top to meet him, expecting to encounter a man beating a pair of jaded beasts in a cruel effort to accomplish the impossible. About six miles out they met a gentleman sitting easily in his Abbott and keeping a tight rein on a pair of dark bays, who were swinging along at spanking pace, quite fresh apparently. Never dreaming it was Rixon, they shouted as he passed — ‘Have you seen a man galloping a pair of horses up the mountain?’ “Yes,” he yelled; “keep on as you are going and you may meet him.” They kept on for some miles and met Rixon – but that was after they returned to Bombala the same evening having ridden about 20 miles altogether in an attempt to get evidence for a prosecution on a charge of cruelty to animals.’

Rixon completed the journey in 4½ hours, easily winning the bet...then drove the horses home the next day.

Rixon married when he was 24 years old. His wife, Agnes, was 17 (she was the step-daughter of John Malcolm, one of Bega’s most renowned builders). They were to have 14 children, two of whom died when just one year old.

Sources: “A Family Began with ‘Love’ by Margaret Cooper; Southern Star, 26.12.1916, The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express,19.1.1917.