J. H. Armitage

James Hardy Armitage was born in Ireland on 9 September 1848. By the early 1890s he was manager of the Dunumbral section of Bundinbarrina Station, a position he held until his death.

In 1885 Armitage married Annie Robertson in Victoria, and together they raised seven children.

He served on the Walgett Show committee in 1904 and 1905.

In 1902, Armitage became one of the members of the first syndicate to grubstake Charlie Nettleton, contributing funds to sink the first mine shaft at Lightning Ridge. Alongside W. G. Ferris, Joe Beckett, Langloh Parker, Frank Doucutt, and a Collarenebri storekeeper, Armitage was part of the group that provided Nettleton with £2, 10s a week to sink a mineshaft by hand. Although no opal was found in that first shaft, the syndicate’s efforts marked the beginning of systematic prospecting on the field.

In the years to follow, Armitage’s relationship with the miners was not always an easy one. As manager of Dunumbral he was known to enforce station boundaries strictly, at one point impounding more than 170 of the miners’ horses for trespassing.

J. H. Armitage died on 17 August 1905 at the age of 56 from Bright’s disease.

• J. H. Armitage @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 86, 89, 138, 213; ‘Deaths’, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 23 August 1905, p. 509; ‘Family Notices’, The Australasian, 26 August 1905, p. 60; ‘Death of Mr. J. H. Armitage’, Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser, 18 August 1905, p. 2.