Lyndale Farm consists of circa 100 hectares and is positioned at the upper reaches of the floodplain with 2.3km of river providing a vista of forest and floodplain pastures.

These reaches of the Crawford River provided some of the famous timber ‘brushes’ of the district; dense stands of moist hardwood eucalypts such as tallowood, turpentine, red and white mahogany, grey and blue gum and the prized red cedar.

So thick and impenetrable were those brushes that the west side of the Crawford River area earned the name of ‘Purgatory’ in the early days.

A Majestic Red Cedar Providing Shade In A Kikuyu Pasture

Lyndale Farm must have had strategic relevance as Allen Taylor & Co Ltd, a large timber Sydney based company, acquired the land by Conditional Purchase (pre-survey) back in 1885 and 1891.

In 1903 local timber companies won a large contract to supply the Sydney City Council with hardwood blocks to pave the City streets. The contract called for the supply of 1,500,000 of 125mm and 150mm square blocks which was quickly increased to 2,000,000 blocks.

A Cheese Tree Growing Inside A Eucalypt That Was Harvested In Circa 1900. The Plank Holes Are Still Visible

There is still evidence on Lyndale farm of the light railway excavations, mounds and bridge spikes. The ‘purgatory’ factor must have made it difficult to access the timber and it wasn’t until State Forestry built roadways with bulldozers that the Crawford was systematically logged.

By the 1920′s the timbergetters and teamsteers were replaced with small family owned dairy’s that produced cream for the butter factory initially in Bulahdelah and subsequently at Hexham NSW. Lyndale is understood to have supported two Jersey milking herds in the 1950′s

The earliest history of the property appears to go back to a Conditional Purchase by John McGilray in 1862.