August 29, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of William Joseph Lynch, one of Narooma’s pioneers.
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Born in Mogo, the son of Irish immigrant parents, he and three of his brothers, Michael, Daniel and James, came to Narooma as loggers, eventually owning a mill on the shore of Forsters Bay.
William married Jane Mary Gallagher of Majors Creek. Michael and Daniel married two of Jane’s sisters, while James married Agnes Simpson of Punkalla.
In 1895, William bought land on the corner of Montague and Wagonga streets and built a family home for his wife and seven children and next door a general store, where Lynch’s Arcade now stands. That year his daughter Imelda was born followed by three more girls.
The store needed bread and meat, so he built a bakery in his backyard and brought in baker Koerber. He also bought land to the south of town, built a shed as an abattoir and in partnership with a butcher opened a butcher’s shop where Rapley’s butchery is today.
There was no transport south so he began a coach service from Narooma to Bega via Wagonga, Tilba, Bermagui and the coastal route. The trip took two days and the passengers stayed overnight in the hotel at Bermagui. He then opened a smithy so that horses could be shod and the coaches maintained.
For the entertainment of the townspeople, he built a hall. Perhaps this showed off the musical talent of his children, who all played an instrument and sang well.
As his various businesses grew, he invested in more land. At the time of his death, he owned 12.5 hectares south of Glasshouse Rocks Road, 6 hectares on the Princes Highway roughly opposite the site of the first primary school, five cottages that he presumably rented out and all the land bounded by the Princes Highway, Tilba Street, Koerber Lane, Angle Street and Noorooma Crescent, with the exception of one site, possibly the Commonwealth Bank site.
William Lynch also invested beyond Narooma as he had a branch store at Wagonga and owned land in Cobargo. He bought the Criterion Hotel in Moruya, where the Waterfront Hotel stands today, installed his son Leo as licensee and owned some cottages opposite the Criterion.
His 11 children were in order of birth; Dora, Michael, Edward, Leo, Timothy, Myles, Eileen, Imelda, Alice, Jane and Phyllis. Michael and Timothy died in 1898 in a typhoid epidemic that swept through Narooma.
Edward was an original Anzac, who was seriously wounded in the famous Lone Pine charge and lay in the field for three days before being rescued. He was so severely shell shocked, he was never able to work and lived out his life in the hotel.
William Lynch died on his 61st birthday. Despite a Narooma myth that he left the hotel to his daughters, his will shows that he left almost everything to his wife Jane Mary Lynch, who became the hotel licensee.