Like many remote small communities, Markdale was a little town. It had it’s own school. But not its own post office. There was always a small chance that it might grow big enough to be a town. But the routing of the line of road around it ended any chance of it becoming a town. It gradually dwindled and these days it is just another farm.
MARKDALE.
(From a correspondent.)
AT a public and numerously-attended meeting, held
in the school-house here on the 11th instant, it was
unanimously carried that government he petitioned
to alter the line of road from Binda to Bigga; and a
committee, consisting of Messrs. H. Carr, Funny
Hill, J. Clements, Sylvia Creek, and W. Marks,
Markdale, formed for the putting forward of the
same.
On the motion of Mr. J. Read, seconded by Mr.
E. Quince, Mr. Newman took the chair, and briefly
stated the object for which they had assembled.
A few discussions on the subject took place, in
which Messrs. Read, J. Marks, W. Marks, E. Quince,
T. Mc Donald, S. Webster, J. Quince, and others
took part.
The following petition was then submitted to the
meeting by Mr. Newman, and adopted:
To the Honorable the Minister for Lands and Works.
At a public meeting held at Markdale on the 11th instant,
it was proposed, seconded, and carried. nem. con., that a peti-
tion be forwarded to it you, prying that you alter the line of
road from Binda to Bigga and that the old line be made the
government line, for the following reasons, viz. :-
1st By continuing the new line you Inconvenience a host of
bona fide settlers for the convenience of a solitary individual,
that is by running the mail that way, and thus leaving your
petitioners twelve miles from a post-office.
2nd. Your petitions selected and settled here believing that
this being the oldest and only road at the time would be the
government road ; but now, to their dismay, they find that
their land is almost valueless, unless they keep several miles of
road in repair themselves, or else not be able to get to a
market.
3rd. There are no settlers on the new line, and from the na-
ture of the soil not likely to be any.
hoping &c., we beg to be, &c.
(Here follow a number of signatures.)
Before concluding this letter, Mr. Editor, I would
wish to explain matters to you a little. We are liv-
ing here, fifteen miles from one post-office and twelve
from another. Until a short time ago the mailman
used to come and go this way, and oblige the resi-
dents by bringing and taking letters for them. A few
people take a freak in their head that they can save
two miles if they can get the line altered a little, and
they get a solitary individual in twelve miles to sign
with them because (of course he would not refuse)
he is about applying for a license; and leave fifty or
sixty settlers, within a few miles of each other, with
out post or market road. It is monstrous if the gov-
ernment put aside an old-established road and isolate
such a number of people, without, at least, hearing
the merits and demerits of both lines argued pro and
con.
I would have sent you a long history of floods
and losses, but it got stale before an opportunity pre-
sented itself.
May 12th.
(Looking at the modern map, I guess the road followed the new line…)
MARKDALE. (1870, May 21). The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW : 1864 – 1881), p. 3. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article101470438