Oberon Shire is defined by water. The Fish, Duckmaloi, Cox’s, Kowmung, Abercrombie,
Isabella and Campbell’s Rivers, along with Sewell’s and Lannigan’s Creeks, almost
completely encircle it. Much of this abundant water is diverted over a wide radius to the
north, east and west: Lake Oberon, formed by the damming of the Fish River, waters not
only Oberon town but also Lithgow, Glen Davis, and the upper Blue Mountains. So, much
of Oberon’s western flowing water is diverted away from the western river system to the
eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. Chifley Dam, on the western border, supplies
Bathurst. While countless springs and over seventy other named creeks and rivers water the
shire, feeding from the abundant aquifers of the Great Dividing Range.
A remarkable number of the Protestant families who settled in the shire, around Bullock Flat,
Titania, Edith and Gingkin were related families who came as free settlers from northern
Ireland, especially County Tyrone: Armstrongs, Beatties, Edgars, Eatons, Flemings and
Wilsons.
William Fleming and his wife Lucinda Wilson arrived in Australia in 1836 and soon after
came to Oberon. In March 1839 they were joined by John Fleming and his wife Susannah
Brien; Mary Ann Wilson and William Armstrong and her sister, Elizabeth Wilson with
husband, Alexander Graham; and Henry Brien, who all arrived on the Argyle.
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They took
up land east of Oberon on the Fish and Duckmaloi Rivers, in the Titania district.
On the same ship was Joseph Sloggett, with his niece and nephew Jane and William
Sloggett, and Jane's husband John Westaway.
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The Sloggetts camee from Altarnun in
Cornwall, as did William and Caroline Wilcox, who arrived a couple of months later on the Roxburgh Castle and came straight to Oberon arriving in three feet of snow
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. The
Sloggetts and Wilcoxes took up land south of the Bullock Flat, at Mulberry Hill, Sloggett's
Lane, and Fish River Creek (Nestle Brae) respectively.
