The Greatest Wonder of the World and American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium

About

The Greatest Wonder of the World and American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium are heritage-listed adjacent shops at 123-125 Mayne Street, Gulgong, Mid-Western Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. They were built from 1870 to 1878. They have been refurbished to house the Gulgong Holtermann Museum, with new galleries constructed at the back to house the UNESCO listed Holtermann collection. The original buildings were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 21 October 2016.

Tom Saunder, a local shepherd, located gold on the surface of Red Hill, now located in central Gulgong, on 14 April 1870 and reported his discovery to Sergeant O'Donnell at the police station at 2 Mile Flat. The news spread rapidly from there, and the first small rush began. By June 1870, 500 people had camped on the new diggings at Adam's Lead.

The SMH in its "Chronicles of Occurrence" in December 1870 encouraged the reader to 'now rush to Gulgong'! By January 1871 the population of the area had grown to 3,000. Other discoveries followed at other local leads such as Happy Valley, Caledonian and Canadian Leads and Home Rule, and by the end of 1872 there were 20,000 people on the Gulgong fields.

The alluvial leads in the district were among the richest in the State. Within the first four years of discovery, over 300 000 ounces of gold were recovered. The Gulgong Goldfield produced 275 000 pounds of gold, most of which was won from old stream gravels as much as 60m below the surface, several kilometres from Gulgong.

Due to its rapid development, Gulgong was initially a primitive community with quick timber construction predominating in the first years of the gold rush. The nationalities on the field like elsewhere in NSW were many and varied including Bulgarians, Greeks, Scottish, Americans, Canadians, Irish men and Chinese, as well as native-born Australians.

It was a long trip from Sydney, to Gulgong but the trip was worthwhile for hundreds of miners. They travelled by train from Sydney to Wallerawang, thence by mail coach to Mudgee, and from there by Tom Tarrant's coach or Cobb and Co or horseback."

By 1876 the boom had begun to wane and it was all but over by 1880. Consequently the once booming town was reduced to a village which went on to service local farmers and pastoralists.

The earliest building standing on the site today is the small timber and tin-lined American Tobacco Warehouse. The side wall of this structure is clad in such a way that indicates there was clear access from the side that now contains The Greatest Wonder. The original Greatest Wonder building was also standing in February 1871, as declared in an advertisement of that period and captured in a historic photograph by Henry Beaufoy Merlin in 1872. This building was originally a roughly built timber framed structure that only stood for a few years, and was rebuilt a few years later under the ownership of Robert Robinson.

The "Greatest Wonder of the World" was opened by Simeon Moses, an importer of men's clothing, including the Colonial Boot & Shoe Depot. Simeon was the proprietor.

When Simeon Moses planned to leave Gulgong at the end of 1873 he held a sale. Moses left Gulgong to take over the Royal Hotel in Mudgee, and the Greatest Wonder of the World was taken over by another brother, Abraham Moses. However, this was short-lived and notice was given that the furniture of the Greatest Wonder was to be sold up on 14 July 1874. A week later on 21 July a notice in the Gulgong Evening Argus noted that the business of Clothier, Boot and Shoe Manufacture, and the liquidation of liabilities and debts was to pass to Abraham.

The Greatest Wonder Of the World store was offered for sale on the 13 March 1875.

'The Splendid Freehold Property at the establishment of the GREATEST WONDER OF THE WORLD, Queen Street. The property contains sufficient rooms, double lined and papered, suitable for a nice snug hotel, with kitchen and servant's room, bathroom and pantry, well fitted up. For a business site it cannot be surpassed. The allotment is full depth, facing the Telegraph Office and Court House at the back. This central property will be sold a bargain. Apply to A. Moses Queen Street.' An auction notice appeared 3 months later on 5 June, to be sold on the 9 June by Plunkett & Co. The former Greatest Wonder was sold to Robert Robinson. When Robert Robinson bought this building from Moses it was said he renovated or rebuilt it, to create a new post office. However, before the building could take up the role as Post Office, the Government of New South Wales ordered the Post Office to be moved to the Telegraph Station in the Police Compound. It appears that the renovations were extensive. Full width windows were added across the main street facade, the parapeted rectangular gable was removed and rear and side walls were constructed of stone. Robinson sold the improved shop to Samuel Bishop in 1880.

The American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium building was sold to Paul Harford in 1879 then to Charles Zimmler in 1883.

Samuel Bishop was a prominent Gulgong resident, working as an auctioneer and land agent and later serving as Town Clerk and Inspector of Works and sextant of the local cemetery. Following his purchase of the Greatest Wonder building, he used the premises as a bookseller and stationer for the next two or more decades.

Behind the two shop-front timber buildings, the Greatest Wonder and the American Tobacco Warehouse, stood an old timber-framed house with various later additions. It appears that the first room of this house predated the present stone walls of the "Greatest Wonder " store, and possibly dates from c. 1876. Rates notices provide names of "occupiers" of this land from that date, and the initial small single roomed cottage, with an end wall fireplace was probably the home of Samuel Trevenen Bishop. The house was a family home and there is evidence that two Bishop daughters were born there.

Samuel Bishop died at Gulgong in 1915 while still the owner of the Mayne Street shop. His son-in-law, William Christian, became the new owner of the shop and ran a watchmaker and jewellery business there from 1934. Christian and his wife returned to Gulgong in 1933 after an sbence of many years.

American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium

Menser Moses, the brother of Simeon Moses, operated the American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium next door. The building was sold to Paul Harford in 1879 then to another Gulgong figure, Charles Zimmler, in 1883.

Bernhard Otto Holtermann came to Australia in 1858 from Hamburg. Initially employed as a waiter, Holtermann met Polish miner, Ludwig Beyers and the pair travelled to Hill End and began prospecting in 1861. Due to their lack of success Holtermann had to find work where he could and by 1868 he was the licensee of the All Nations Hotel but he and Beyers still had a claim worked by hired hands. In October the night-shift workers found the world's largest gold bearing reef material in goldfield. Holtermann was a rich man. He went on to live in St Leonards and became a member of the Legislative Assembly for St Leonards.

While he was in Hill End, Holtermann had met photographers, Henry Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss. After he found the "Holtermann Nugget", Holtermann assisted the pair in their work by funding their project of creating a photographic documentation of the settled areas of NSW.