Call for Caithness families to start afresh in Australia
Australia call for farming families
From the Groat of November 7, 1924
An advertisement and an accompanying news story set out to encourage Caithness and Sutherland farmers to consider making a new life in Australia.
Farms to let on share leases on the Curracabah Estate, Boggabri, New South Wales, were on offer to “married men with families and having farming experience”.
The Groat reported that it was “an opportunity to own a fertile farm from 250 to 600 acres in sunny Australia”.
Charles Binnie, owner of the estate, said that his motive was to “secure farming families who may only have small means and who want a chance to secure farms by means of their labour”.
He added that there was no other country “that offers a man whose only capital is his energy such opportunities to become independent”.
The advertisement stated that the land on offer was on a well-settled farming area close to the town of Boggabri, which boasted a flour mill, a sawmill, three hotels, three banks, three stores, a hospital, churches and schools, including public schools “close to each end of the estate”.
The proposed leases offered “the exceptionally fine chance of becoming independent in a young country, where the constant call is for a rural population to develop the riches of the virgin lands”.
Structural faults in high schools
From the Groat of November 8, 1974
High school pupils in Caithness faced at least six months of interrupted and part-time education following the discovery of structural faults in school buildings.
A study had been carried out on local schools by consultant engineers to determine whether or not they contained high alumina cement concrete which, over time, could become subject to deterioration which in turn would render the building structurally unsafe.
The material had been found in both the county’s high schools and Pennyland Primary School in Thurso, but it was Wick that was most affected.
Caithness Education Committee heard from rector John Ross that “the sudden closure of the extension, which had been built in 1962/63, meant the loss of 26 rooms, including the gymnasium and swimming pool. It also meant the loss of all physics and chemistry labs, art rooms, the language lab, the commercial section, geography rooms and six out of seven of the maths rooms.”
Mr Ross pointed out that chemistry and physics couldn’t be taught effectively in ordinary classrooms, nor was it possible to “carry out a proper programme of secondary school education in outside accommodation – church halls and the like”.
As a result, first and second-year pupils would only attend school on alternative days.
Mr Ross said that if building work could be speeded up on the new games hall it could house extra classrooms.
Title bid for Thurso store
From the Groat of November 12, 1999
A Thurso store had won through to the finals of a competition aimed at finding the best neighbourhood shop in Scotland.
Fraser’s supermarket in Castlegreen Road beat off challenges from a number of other businesses to make it through to the event being held in Glasgow.
The Robert Wiseman Dairies Neighbourhood Shop of the Year competition encouraged customers to nominate their favourite corner shop and judges then sent in mystery shoppers to decide who would progress to the regional final.
Store manager Scott MacDonald said that owner Douglas Fraser and his staff were delighted to get so far in the contest and that it was an indication of the high standard of service they offered their customers.
Pipped at the post by Fraser’s supermarket was another Thurso shop, Alldays in Mount Pleasant Road, which had also made it through the tough mystery shopper section to get to the regional finals.
Elsewhere, a Wick man was officially honoured for his charity work when he received his MBE from the Queen. Alistair Taylor, of Brown Place, had attended the ceremony in Buckingham Palace with his wife Ruby to receive the award which marked his long association with and work for the multiple sclerosis charity ARMS.
Mr Taylor was responsible for running the charity’s premises at the Braehead.