It was around the late 1860s that the two German families (Nebauers and Stairs) moved from the East Maitland area and took up land at Giants Creek near Gungal and Sandy Hollow. By then Eugene and Carolyn Nebauer had nine children, and Charles and Rosanna Stair had five.
Giants Creek rises near Bunnan (which is east of Merriwa) and flows south and then east to meet Halls Creek at Sandy Hollow. Halls Creek itself then flows into the Goulburn River just a few miles south-east of there. The area that our ancestors lived and farmed was on the lower reaches of Giants Creek, roughly that area between Gungal and Sandy Hollow.
Giants Creek derives its name from a geological feature at the eastern end of the waterway known as “Giants Leap”: two small hills with a gap in between. See photo above.
Some time after February 1866 and before November 1868 the first of the Hazell immigrants (Charles Hazell Snr) obtained work at or near Giants Creek and brought his family with him (from Piercefield near Denman). He was my 2nd great grandfather.
Whilst the family were here, his eldest son, also named Charles, met Rose Annie Stair (the eldest child of Charles Stair and Rosanna Nebauer). The couple were married in St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church in Denman on 5th December 1877.
By 1881, Charles and Annie (my great grandparents) had moved to work on a large property near Merriwa called “Brindley Park” where they lived and worked. On 5th January my grandfather, Albert John Hazell was born there. He was called “Father Hazell” by his grandchildren and is seen on the right in the picture below along with my father Bert Hazell (with the foxies).
See next post “The Hazell Family’s German Ancestors Pt 5”