Walter “Watty” Vause

Walter “Watty” Vause was born 29 November 1880 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England to Frederick Vause and Bertha Wilkinson.

Watty was the postmaster of the post office branch at the Nettleton settlement located on what is now the Three Mile Flat. 

Prior to his appointment as postmaster, Watty Vause was treasurer of the Nettleton school and provided other support to the small community. 

Watty Vause was married to Bertha Hogbin in 1911 at the Gooraway Hotel. They had a son a year later in Ryde, New South Wales. 

Vause became Nettleton settlement’s postmaster in 1912, during a protracted negotiation with the Postmaster General about compensation. 

In 1914, after the Nettleton settlement was disbanded and businesses moved in to the new surveyed town, Vause opened a general store in Morilla Street. 

Watty Vause was an occasional miner, being injured in 1913 with a broken back. Later he would mine again, earning enough from his endeavours to purchase the lease for the Imperial Hotel, which he operated from 1917.

In the 1930s, the Vause family moved from Lightning Ridge to Kiama, New South Wales.

Watty Vause passed away 27 April 1956, in Petersham, Sydney. Bertha Vause passed away 27 February 1964 in Liverpool, Sydney.

Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Lightning Ridge: The Land of Black Opals, Ion L. Idriess, 1940, chapter XXIX; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 108-109, 154; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, pp. 60, 108; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 16 May 1974; Walgett Spectator, 24 April 1909, 30 May 1909, 3 September 1909, 18 June 1909, 25 June 1909, 30 September 1910, 24 February 1911, 11 January 1912, 18 January 1912, 26 August 1913, 4 September 1913, 24 September 1914, 12 July 1917, 7 November 1918, 24 November 1921.