Pioneer Cottage

PIONEER COTTAGE Remembrance Park Murrurundi

On the 20th December 1888 Albert Ivin selected 200 acres at Timor, some 30 miles east of Murrurundi, naming the property Alston, after Alstone, Cheltenham, Glouceshire, England, where he was born in 1863.

In 1884 he married Elizabeth Lawrence in Newcastle, NSW and they built the cottage on the property in 1889. Constructed of hardwood timber obtained at the site, the slabs were cut from huge slabs of trees by means of axes, crosscut and pit saws.

Albert and Elizabeth raised six children in the cottage as it now stands, but supplemented more space by later constructing a separate building containing a stove and additional living space. These children were Goerge, Clarence, Harley, Ella, Verna and Jim.

George later to became a very successful owner of Alston to which he added many more acquired acres. Clarence became a first-rate mechanic and established the business of Ivin Bros. in Murrurundi. He also became a prominent amateur geologist accumulating a splendid collection that he subsequently donated to Sydney University.

George later established a subsidised school at the Cottage where Miss Evelyn James was the teacher and Galvin Martin was a pupil alongside the third generation Ivin children.

In 1996 Bob Musgrave, son of George Ivin's daughter Margaret and then current resident of Alston donated the cottage to Murrurundi to be set in the Remembrance Park and restored.

The cottage is visited by the local school children as part of their appreciation of local history. Visited by many, it serves to show the young something of the conditions endured by our pioneers during the development of this district and to the old hands, recalls memories of the times and personalities who became our History.