Stories from Meroogal

In a year when COVID-19 devastates the world, it’s timely to reflect on an earlier pandemic that affected every aspect of life, including at our properties. 

For soldiers in the trenches of wartime Europe, a pair of hand-knitted socks was more than just a comfort from home.

This framed photograph of Dr Robert Norman Scott Good (1885–1962), taken by one of Melbourne’s most fashionable portrait photographers, sits on the mantelpiece in the drawing room of the former Thorburn family home Meroogal in Nowra, on the south coast of NSW.

In early November 1918, Australians knew that the end of World War I was imminent and that an armistice was about to be signed between Germany and the Allies. After some false reports and premature peace rejoicings, the armistice was finally signed in France at 5am on Monday 11 November and came into effect at 11am Paris time.

‘The Mill’, an old Throsby family property at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW, opened as a Red Cross convalescent home in late January 1916.