During the past 150 years, many factors have influenced that progress.

The discovery of payable gold in Burrangong Creek, or Main Creek as it was also called, in late June 1860 was the reason Young developed.

Many towns and villages in the NSW such as Yass, Wagga and Albury, started out as crossing places over rivers.

Others such as Parkes, West Wyalong and Peak Hill owe their beginnings to the gold rushes from the 1850s.

The town developed as thousands of miners arrived in the area of Burrangong Creek and its tributaries called by James White of Burrangong Station the Lambing Flat.

Early in March 1861, a surveying team led by head surveyor P F Adams, later Deputy Surveyor General, commenced laying out the site for a village initially called Lambing Flat or Burrangong.

Sketches made by surveyors on their arrival show a collection of buildings scattered around the creek confines, mainly where Main Street now exists.

The layout, previously planned in the lands office in Sydney, was surveyed based on creek crossings at suitable sites to allow residents across to present-day Yass and Campbell Streets.

The streets were laid out forming sections which were numbered consecutively starting from number one which is the current town hall block.

Section two was the street, section three also faced Boorowa Street opposite the town hall and section four is the block containing Hamblin’s corner.

Generally blocks facing Boorowa Street were quarter sized in area with 66 foot frontages. Six of the first 12 sections were south of Burrangong Creek bounded by Campbell, Allanan, Binalong and Currawong (now Gordon) streets.

Hamblin’s corner is located on portion 12 of section four, which originally contained 21 portions and was the visual size of 66 feet (100 links) frontage by 165 feet (250 links) depth.

All sections initially surveyed had service lanes at the rear including the residential sections.

The first auction of 77 portions or allotments of Crown Land were put on sale on May 28, 1861 at an upset price of 20 pounds per acre.

Advertisements were headed ‘Sale of Town allotments at Lambing Flat’. The change from Lambing Flat to Young emerged in late April, 1861, however the proclamation of Governor John Young was not gazetted until May, 1861.

The first occupier of Hamblin’s Corner was Robert Leigh Wood Hatton. In the first newspaper printed in Young, The Miner, Hatton advertised in April 1861 that all licensed auctioneer and agency, horse and cattle salesman were opposite the Great Eastern Hotel in Burrowa (now Boorowa Street).

Hatton had built his store on Crown Land under a license to occupy from the Government.

In June, R L Hatton and Co had expanded into wine and spirit merchants and a general assortment of groceries and iron monger.

Again in August he operated saleyards for horses, sheep, cows, calves and drays.

Initially, most store keepers stayed or set up in Main Street, however from 1862 Boorowa Street developed.

Sale of land was slow initially and towards the end of 1861 many miners started to leave Young and head to the new rush at Forbes.

By December 1861, The Miner had moved to Forbes, leaving Young without a newspaper.

Hatton’s store continued to trade on the corner of Boorowa and Lynch Streets and, in December 1863, Hatton purchased portion 12 section four, without competition, at an agreed price of seven pounds.

By this time, gold production had halved from the peak in 1862.

Production continued to halve annually over the next three years by which time the population had dropped dramatically.

On May 17, 1871 James Roberts of Currawong was Power of Attorney for Hatton.

On September 2, the corner was sold by Hatton to Thomas Redfern Watt, Thomas Girvan Weir and Peter Robert Hill and Ralph Halls retaining the rear residue of 53 links or about 35’ from the Rosemary Lane.

On September 17, 1874, the front section was sold to Samuel Tout and his brother-in-law Thomas Kelly – meanwhile Watt and Weir sold their share of the rear residue to fellow owner Peter Cram – later the first mayor of Young – on March 5, 1875.

Five months later on August 3, 1875, Peter Cram sold to Tout and Kelly, thus re-unifying the whole of portion 12.

On February 26, 1880, Thomas Kelly died at Calabash aged 44 and Samuel Tout became sole owner.

On March 12, 1877, a fire broke out on the corner of Lynch and Cloete Streets, opposite the Court House, which destroyed every building on the Western side of Lynch Street to Boorowa Street, and down to the Commercial Bank of Sydney’s two storey brick building.

A recent photo in The Young Witness showed the remains of brick chimneys on the adjoining blocks amid the ruins.

The roof of the bank was severely damaged but the building was saved and later repaired.

Within a year Tout and Kelly had built a two storey brick building divided into three shops and each was occupied by separate tenants.

On June 24, 1881, Samuel Tout sold the rear portion to James Gordon, solicitor, who occupied the single story building for his legal practice.

On January 10, 1883, the front section was transformed to the City Bank of Sydney who operated their Young branch on the opposite corner, now occupied by Bargwanna and Gerrard.

Twenty-three years later on April 3, 1906, Baldo Cunich purchased the front section from the City Bank of Sydney and then on July 19, 1911 Baldo purchased the rear section from James Gordon – again re-unifying the original portion.

On June 18, 1957, Baldo died leaving section 12 in the hands of his two sons E F (Geg) and AL (Leo) as trustees.

On August 1, 1957 the office, previously occupied by James Gordon, was sold to solicitor Gordon Givsni.

On September 28, 1972, Garry Ronald Cunich, grandson of Baldo, inherited the balance of portion 12.

On November 15, 1971, Arthur and Monica Gilbert had purchased shop 3-100 Boorowa Street which his family had occupied since purchasing the business from A Sheedy on July 7, 1915.

The Hamblin family purchased the remainder of section 12 on December 2, 1974, and have upgraded the building on several occasions with the last being in 2007.

In 1912, shortly after purchasing most of the rear section of portion 12, Baldo Cunich erected the two storey brick John Hamblin building facing Lynch Street which still bears his name and the year of construction – exactly 100 years ago.

John Hamblin