Exeter

Vine Lodge and the beginnings of Exeter

Heritage NSW dates the development of Exeter village to 1889 and describes subdivision of part of the Vine Lodge estate in 1891. The record associates the area with the Badgery family and notes that land was sold for both town and farm lots. By the early 1890s cottages, a post office and houses for railway staff were part of the growing settlement.^[10]

Exeter Public School opened in May 1891 with John Cameron as its first teacher, according to the heritage record. The account also records a brick store in 1894, a bakery in 1895 and an Anglican church begun in 1895 and dedicated the following year. These dates offer starting points for researching the families, businesses and buildings behind village life.^[10]

An October 1895 newspaper advertisement offered about 44 acres at Exeter among a wider list of farms in the district, including properties on the Vine Lodge estate. The advertisement provides a dated lead for land and subdivision research; it does not record a completed sale.^[16]

St Aidan’s grew with the village. A Society history based on Linda Emery’s Exploring Exeter describes the first church, built of local basalt and Bundanoon sandstone and dedicated in January 1896. Seed merchant Arthur Yates, who had established a farm on the Vine Lodge subdivision, contributed to an enlargement fund in 1902; a new nave’s foundation stone was laid in 1903 and the enlarged church consecrated in 1911. Memorial windows and tablets connect the building with the Badgery and Yates families, while later alterations reflect continuing community use.^[14]

Railway and wartime

The village remembers the 1914 Exeter railway collision, when the Temora Mail and a goods locomotive collided near the station. The Society reported a centenary memorial gathering in 2014 and the involvement of local people and railway workers in the response.^[9]

The First World War Kangaroo recruitment march passed St Aidan’s Church in Exeter on 30 December 1915, according to a Society account. The marchers continued towards Hillview and Moss Vale. In 2015 a centenary re-enactment followed the route; the newsletter places photographs of the original march and the re-enactment side by side at the church entrance. The issue misprints the re-enactment’s year in its caption text, so that date should be checked against other records.^[12]

During the First World War, the Southern Home at Exeter was one of three district convalescent homes described by Society archivist Linda Emery. Volunteers trained as Red Cross voluntary aids cared for recovering servicemen. Emery records that the Society archive holds photographs of the homes, providing a lead for research into their staff and patients.^[13]

The State Library’s Camden County list includes the 19 February 1916 subdivision of part of Vine Lodge Estate (Z/CP/C1/143 and Z/CP/C1/175). These catalogue entries identify land offered for subdivision, not a confirmed record of completed sales.^[11]

Exeter also welcomed holidaymakers. Council’s history records Cooeeyana, a twenty-room guest house in Middle Road, serving visitors including Sydney business and professional people until around 1950. It was destroyed by fire in the early 1950s.^[19]

A community remembers and grows

Council heritage material records that Exeter’s Soldiers’ Memorial opened on 22 November 1922 as a brick hall in St Aidan’s grounds. The School of Arts hosted a library, annual flower show, concerts and films in the 1920s, reflecting the importance of horticulture and community institutions. Electricity reached Exeter in 1929; a CWA branch formed in 1946 and opened rooms in 1955. The same source records nearby commercial quarrying from the 1950s. Together these milestones show a village shaped by rail-era settlement, horticulture, civic life and extractive industry.^[8]

The School of Arts found a permanent home through local effort. Arthur Yates, Frank Nelson Yarwood and Frank Badgery bought a half-acre site in 1901; the hall opened with a concert in December 1902. During the Second World War the Australian Army briefly used it as a workshop and recovery depot. It later returned to community use as Exeter Village Hall.^[18]

Exeter Park also began as a community undertaking. Council’s heritage survey says the land was bought in 1911, with half the money raised by public subscription and the balance provided by government. The memorial gates unveiled in 1950 became part of a park the village had helped establish.^[19]

The school grounds also preserve a memorial landscape. Heritage NSW records a 1951 jubilee beautification scheme in which trees, shrubs and roses commemorated deceased pupils and residents; sweet gum trees honoured former pupils who died in the two world wars. Exeter Park has its own memorial gates, unveiled in 1950.^[10]

The Society’s 2009 archives report identifies a valuable research lead: the Badgery family of Exeter allowed the Society to copy approximately 450 photographs, including farm and station scenes from the 1870s and 1880s. Its conservation report also describes work on fragile Badgery family maps. These reports identify collection material rather than establishing that every image or map is available online; consult the Society about access and individual items.^[15]