Ollie Leckbandt:
Convict Stockade Researcher

Ollie Leckbandt has spent decades researching the convict stockade sites in the Lithgow area of NSW. He has meticulously documented hundreds of historical artefacts found on these sites and thereby uncovered hidden glimpses of Australia's convict past.

Ollie's lifelong fascination with our forgotten convict stockade sites has made him a wealth of information on this little known subject. The convict stockades near Lithgow housed convict road gangs working on cuttings and bridges along Mitchell's Road, constructed between Mount Victoria and Bathurst, NSW, in the 1830s.

Ollie Leckbandt has written three books on these convict stockades, based on his own observations from hundreds of hours spent on the sites and the recovery of fascinating relics which would otherwise have been lost:
-- Convict Stockades from Mount Walker to Mount Victoria;
-- The Mount Walker Stockade; and
-- The Forgotten Stockade of Old Bathurst Road.

Ollie's books document the coins, buttons, insignia, name plates, tools, clay pipes, china, bottles and many other artefacts left behind by hundreds of convicts, soldiers and support staff at the convict stockades of Mt Victoria, Hassans Walls, Bowens Hollow, Mt Kirkley and Mt Walker in the 1830s.

Ollie says, "I have learned from experience that no matter where people have lived, they have usually left some tell-tale evidence behind. I found this to be especially true of the Mount Walker Stockade where relics clearly show that men lived, laboured and carried out their official duties in a daily routine for almost a decade."

Ollie's books can be purchased from the Lithgow and District Family History Society.


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