In 1900 young dentist Victor Ratten was establishing himself at West Wyalong, in the Central West of NSW. At the time there was fierce competition about where the new railway station should be located. In August 1900, the Minister of Works was due to visit the rival
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ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD The years 1890 to 1893 had been a period of world-wide, economic depression. In Australia the situation reached crisis point when the Commercial Bank of Australia suspended trading in April 1893. A dozen other banks failed soon afterwards. Amid this widespread
Read more →AN ENTREPRENEUR Early in 1894, schoolmaster George Ratten arrived in Parkes, New South Wales, from the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy. He was accompanied by his wife Eliza and the couple’s six children. Mr Ratten set about building a private, co-educational college in Mitchell Street, opposite
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