History

The Todd family were among the earliest settlers of the Wiseman’s Creek area.  William Todd arrived in Australia in 1849 with his wife and his children David, Luin and Mary Anne.  They moved onto Wiseman’s Creek , taking up 188 acres along Stoney and Kings Creeks and later leased other large areas in the district.  William Todd also acquired 115 acres (Portion 13, Parish of Jocelyn) from Samuel Hebblewhite on which he built his home (Hawthorne).  William was a sheep farmer who also ran a store at his home on Stoney Creek.  He had another son, Edwin, in 1850.  When his wife died he married Mrs Ellen Wilson, a widow, and had two more children Caleb and Hester.

William Todd’s sons acquired, by ownership or lease, a great deal of land in the district.  Luin stayed on in the family house (Hawthorne) and held most of the land around it.  David moved further up the Stoney Creek, taking up the leases that made up ‘Mountain View’.  Edwin, the youngest son, took up Portion 34, Parish of Baring.

David Smith Todd and the Development of Mountain View

David Smith Todd took up a series of leases along Stoney Creek of Mount Stromlo and named the property ‘Mountain View’. 

David Smith Todd married Letitia Connelly in 1865.  Their first house, on the Mountain View property was a timber slab hut, which was eventually demolished in 1907.  A rectangular mud building was constructed near the slab hut, facing the old coach road.  David ran a general store from this building, which is assumed to have operated as early as 1868.   The general store was later adapted for use as a shearing shed, with the addition of verandahs.  Although parts of the original walls have been modified, the former General Store building remains to this day with the words ”General Store – D.S. Todd”, still visible on the front wall. 

The store customers were the gold prospectors and miners, many of whom were Chinese, who had set up camps, huts and cabins along Stoney Creek.  There were some 400 Chinese living and prospecting for gold along Stoney Creek, between Todd’s general store and the junction of Stoney and Brisbane Valley Creeks.

The Chinese prospectors were probably responsible for the digging and building of the water race, which ran from their camping area to the Brisbane Valley Creek waterfall.  They used the race to convey water from the falls to sluice or pan for gold.  The water race is generally known as the Chinese Water Race.  It is believed that prospectors constructed and operated the race under a lease from Todd.   The property retains many relics from the gold era.

David grazed sheep over the surrounding hills, which were largely unfenced.  There are many amusing stories passed down about David’s unorthodox farming methods.  He was known to chase down missing sheep all over the hillside, shear them on the spot and tote the wool home in a sack.  As well as growing wheat, the property was planted with extensive orchards, remnants of which remain today.  David also grew vegetables, which he sold at the Glenburn Village and later at Oberon.  He wrote poetry, painted and apparently would take his writings to Bathurst, read them on the street and try to sell them.  

David had a temperance lodge, ‘The Good Templers Lodge’, built at the Glenburn village, where he would often give talks.  A number of newspaper clippings refer to his entertaining lectures on subjects including: ‘The Aborigines of Australia’ and ‘Chinese life in Australia’.  David also did his some of his campaigning at the lodge when he ran for parliament in 1898.

On Letitia’s request for a ‘mansion’, David Todd set about building the current Mountain View homestead adjacent to the General Store.  Construction of the homestead commenced in the 1880s.  The timber was milled on the property and the mud dug from the nearby Levy’s gully.   A photograph taken at the time of construction shows bullocks mixing the mud to the right consistency.

The house was built in a number of stages, with the verandahs and balconies being added in 1892-94. The house was never completed – no stair was ever built to the upper level, access having always been by means of a ladder.

Later History

Mountain View was inherited by Todd’s youngest daughter, Davina.  Davina and her husband William Gunning did not live on the property but travelled out there on weekends to work on it.  Mountain View was later inherited by Davina’s only son Cecil Gunning.  Cecil Gunning lived in Sydney and the property was managed by Otto Todd (David’s grandson). The property was sold in 1973 to Ross and Betty McKinney. 

The McKinneys moved into the house in 1974.  By this time the house was in very poor condition.  The family spent their first year there cleaning and making general repairs.  Works included the addition of a new shower room with a gas water heater and lining of the ground floor with new wallpaper.  The McKinney family had intended to run Mountain View as a farm but as the wool market declined in the 1980s, they made the land available for youth camps and introduced some tourist tours and horse riding.

Ross McKinney passed away in 1978.  Betty, who then married Edward Somerville and goes by the name of Betty Somerville. The Somervilles continued living at Mountain View and grazed sheep and cattle.  They maintained orchards in portions 45-50, that are remnants of those planted by David Todd.  They used portions 58-61 as wheat fields and portions 51 and 52 (in the bend of the river) as vegetable gardens.

The Somervilles have now sold the property in 2007 to Morris Lyda, who is the current property owner.