The family mythology says that there were originally two McClymont brothers who came firstly to Australia. In Ian McClymont's record of his family he stated that "Alexander and his brother James came together to Australia to mine for gold at either Ballarat or Bendigo. They operated a mine and finally sold it without making a fortune, just breaking even it was thought. Apparently, James then returned to Scotland and stayed there." Does this answer our questions about that other brother?

Alexander then left to settle in New Zealand. He is said to have had a sheep farm at Invercargill in the South island.We know that Alexander's first four children were born in Riverton New Zealand. It is thought that the family moved back to Australia some time after 1873. Alexander and his family selected land at Mt Russell near Inverel,l N.S.W.

Ian's recollection was "Grandfather grew the first wheat in the district on the property they called Manuka after the dense scrub they knew so well from Invercargill."

In 1896 " the largest (wheat) crop grower was A. C. Mc Clymont of Manuka, Little Plain with 215 hectares. Forty hectares were usually regarded as all that one man and team could cultivate. So larger areas could only be worked by using several teams of horses." What an effort!

Also stated in Ian's memoirs "Grandfather died when My dad (Robert) was sixteen. Apparently Grandfather went down to the farm to watch stools of hay being loaded onto a wagon. He picked up a fork and threw a few up himself, had a heart attack and died there and then. No doubt a lesson to all us old men."

**Some records show that there were two other McClymonts who owned land in the vicinity of Riverton - Gilbert and James. One of these could have been his brother. There is some talk in the family that the other brother settled further to the south in New South Wales and possibly in Lismore. Are Professor McClymont who was at the University of New England in Armidale, the country and western singers " the McClymonts," and the poultry farmers from Toowoomba from this other branch of the family? If you have any information about this please post it on the email site so that we can share it with other members of the family.

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