b'4A Mountain ChildhoodT he Odd Fellows Hall at Hartley Vale was an unlikely placefor a confinement. But fire had engulfed her home in thelittle mountain town and so Elizabeth Nimmo was broughtto the Hall to give birth to her sixth child, William Muir Nimmo,on 29th April, 1886.The family had arrived in New South Wales only a few yearsearlier. Elizabeth Muir had married Joseph Nimmo, carpenter andjoiner and prominent Freemason, at Newart Hill in Lanarkshire,Scotland,onNewYearsDay,1877and,afterthebirthoftwo children, John (called Jack) and Jane, they set sail for Australiaaboard the Northampton in October, 1878.Upon their arrival early the following year, they went straight toLithgow, in the Blue Mountains. There, Joseph, who had handledsome big contracts, including the construction of an overhead bridgeon the Clyde, was appointed head carpenter to the ironworks. Hemay have been beckoned to the mountains by his brother, John,who was three years his senior. It seems that a John Nimmo hadmade a similar journey from Scotland to Hartley in the early 1870s, forthere is a small headstone in the old Mt. York cemetery which reads:Erected by John and Eliza Nimmo in memory of their beloved childJohn born Lanarkshire, Scotland on 5/12/1871, aged 1 year.Infant mortality was to visit Josephs household also. Two yearsafter their arrival, a croup wave was to claim Jane and her sisterMargaret, their first child to be born under the Southern Cross.The girls were buried on the same day in May, 1881.Josephremainedwiththeironworksforaboutsevenyears,before moving on to open a saw-mill, with two partners. He soondisposed of his interest in this however and, moving from Lithgowto Hartley Vale, he became a publican, buying the Comet Hotelas his first investment. Soon after, in 1887, the family moved to1 0'