Dreamtime<\/a>, the land was sung into existence: trees, rocks, paths and animals becoming one, along with the singers who sang them into being.<\/p>\nPaterson and Vacy in the Lower Hunter Valley are further points of connection between us. Her Dixon ancestors first settled there from 1861-1867 and established a home for their expanding family. The small remote community of Vacy, is even less known than Paterson. And it is precisely where my son Joel settled with his wife and five children in 2005.<\/p>\n
It’s also where four of the nine Dixon children were born between 1861 and 1867. “Vacy” was misspelt as “Nessif” in historical records of the time.<\/p>\n
My cousin Esther writes: And what I’ve deduced is that, despite the rather primitive lifestyle of people in those times, they had a great sense of what is needed to live in a community. Bit by bit they built up the facilities for a township, no matter how rough. Paterson was developed further than Vacy was, and remains a rather unique Historical Town. Vacy was not developed in the same way, but played an important part in the growth of the whole area. And our ancestors contributed to that. I wonder what would have happened if Michael Dixon had stayed there and not gone to Grafton, to be killed falling from his horse, leaving his wife and nine children, behind. And if Catherine Dixon had stayed too, and not had her daughter Alice (21) die of typhoid fever in Grafton, then die broken hearted herself. What if …?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many thanks to Esther and to William for their exhaustive genealogical research.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHERE IS VACY? Vacy is in the Dungog Shire, not far from Paterson in the Lower Hunter Valley. It’s a 197 km drive north and then north-west from Sydney. Or you can catch the train to Maitland and be picked up by a family member from there. Country living is much cheaper than renting or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1752],"tags":[3440,3441,3456,3455,3439,3454],"class_list":["post-13340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","tag-a-kit-home-goes-up-on-a-2-acre-block","tag-country-living-is-cheaper","tag-dixonokeefe-family-history","tag-the-dungog-shire-in-the-lower-hunter-valley","tag-vacy-near-paterson-north-of-maitland","tag-where-is-vacy"],"yoast_head":"\n
A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy - The Art of Creative Writing<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n