That's the region where his wifes other sisters were; my ancestor Elizabeth Bain & husband Thomas Appleby lived in the Canberra area and some of their children raised their families in the Braidwood & Golburn region. Similarly, other sister Mary, married John Ferguson then Samuel Headcroft and raised her family in the Milton & Ulladulla area.
For those not familiar with NSW, most of these places are within about 100kms of each other.
Strange though, I have info that suggests that some of the Clugston children (of which there were at least 11), married and died in Victoria, including Henrietta (Jnr.) who married William Lidner in 1861 (she as 16), and died in Williamstown in 1920.
Perhaps the family did go to NSW but then returned to VIC at some stage?
May I please again mention that the colony of Victoria was NOT formed until 1851 when it was hived off from the colony of New South Wales.
But "British, White" people moved into the Districts that became Victoria in the 1840s particularly after transportation of convicts to NSW effectively ceased in 1840. Then there was a labour shortage and there was a significant economic downturn, caused in part by adverse climate conditions, and in part by poor husbandry of a generation or so dating as early as the encroachment of settlers of the districts referred to by the various NSW Governors as "settled districts" and "outside the settled districts"....
Batman's purchase of what became Melbourne dates from June 1835. The Henty brothers earlier settlement at Portland dates from 1834. Of course there's Hume and Hovell's expedition to Corio Bay which was (from school days memory) about 1824 and Thomas Livingstone Mitchell's Australia Felix is from the 1830s.... (Fingers crossed I am remembering these names and years)....
So there's the spreading of British focused settlements radiating out from Sydney Town throughout the years before Gold Fever hit the news in 1851 in both colonies .... and then the rapid population growth brought shiploads and shiploads of people seeking their own immediate fortunes....
I think Canberra to Milton is about 200 Kms, and may I please also gently note that there were no motor cars, no macadamised roads, and there was and still is the Great Dividing Range of Mountains to be crossed from "Canberry" to Braidwood, from Goulburn to Milton, etc etc. Oxen wagons usually travelled at about 12 miles per day. Yass Plains to Milton is about 240 kms.
Cheers, JM
