‘The Chronicles of Carrington, Tahlee and the Legacy of the Australian Agricultural Company 200 Years’ will be Janis’ fifth published historical work.

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“The AACo has featured in my previous books, and I finally got to focus on it especially,” Janis told NOTA.

“There has been a lot written about the Co, but not to the details on the people – commissioners, what they did and where they ended up.”

“The AACo was formed in England in 1824, making this year the official 200th anniversary, and they paid roughly $1,000,000 for 1,000,000 acres, from Karuah to the Manning,” Janis explained the historical genesis.

Janis has performed extensive research, on this latest book specifically, for more than three years, delving into a mountain of primary sources and contacting many families of people who came out with Robert Dawson.

She has even lived through some of it herself, including past personal connections to identities such as Inez Smith (a personal friend of her mother’s), who married ABS White, the inheritor of Tahlee House in 1900 from his father Robert Cottle White.

“Their first attempts at raising sheep were stymied by cases of footrot along the coast, so much of the AACo’s operations were eventually moved inland to Stroud in 1847, while they negotiated to swap the area in return for the Liverpool Plains west of Tamworth.”

“It was very satisfying to do this, finishing a job that I wanted to do, writing all the early history of the whole town, all covered in the five books.”

The new book’s launch gala will take place at Tea Gardens Baptist Church at 2pm, 9 March, and will include special guests from the modern AACo, coming all the way from Brisbane to participate.

By Thomas O’KEEFE