After a chance meeting at the Dargo cemetery four years ago, six of Michael and Margaret Hurley descendants decided it was time to have a family reunion.
All six were the fifth generation of descendants of Michael Hurley and Margaret Ryan who arrived in Australia in October 1856. They came from Ireland on a ship called the Startled Fawn which sailed from the Port of London on July 31, 1856.
They married in Wangaratta on June 9, 1858, and started a family, while working on the goldfields around Eldorado Flat, Indigo and Growlers Creek.
In mid-1860 they followed the gold to Grant where Michael acquired a team of pack horses and a bullock team and changed from miner to supplying the miners.
With a growing family of eight, he selected land on the Dargo Flat and built a five-room log home.
Michael died tragically at the age of 47 after falling from a horse on May 9, 1877. At the time of his death the children – two boys and five girls – were aged five to 19.
IMAGE: Hurleys overflow Dargo Hall. More than 300 descendants of Dargo pioneers, Michael and Margaret Hurley, who came from Ireland in 1856, attended a reunion at Dargo Hall on January 20-21. Many live within a short drive, some travelled from Perth, NSW mid-coast, Bombala, Buchan, Yarram and Melbourne. Apologies were received from New Zealand, USA, Tasmania and Ireland. (PS)
