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The Hon. RICK COLLESS [7.46 p.m.]: Honourable members may have seen an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today about the Melbourne Cup on tour through Australia. The story by Peter Trute outlined how the cup that stops a nation has stopped the state's smallest town, with a population of just five people. Peter Trute referred to the town of Come By Chance as a remote northern New South Wales outpost, but I am not sure I agree with that description. Come by Chance sits at the junction of two creeks, Gidginbilla Creek and Bungle Gully Creek. When my ancestor William Colless arrived there in 1862 there was little chance of happening across any unsettled land as there were already a number of cattle runs in the district around what is now the village of Come By Chance. William Colless finally acquired the last remaining unselected plot of land and he named his new station Come by Chance.
There are many family folklore stories about how the name was selected, and the one that filtered through my side of the Colless family says that they were moving a large mob of cattle through the open sandy woodlands, now known as the Pilliga Scrub, during very droughty conditions when by chance they came upon a large plain with abundant grass, and the name stuck. William Colless set up his headquarters on the site, and eventually it was developed into a post office, hotel, police station, blacksmith's shop and cemetery, and many of the early homes were on land owned by William Colless. At that stage it was considered to be the only privately owned town in the southern hemisphere. There have been many other stories about Come By Chance that have filtered through the family folklore over the years.
One such story relates to a cricket team my great, great, grandfather played in for Come By Chance. There were seven members named Colless and five members named Evans in that team—or was it five members named Colless and seven members named Evans'? The Come By Chance picnic races have been held for at least 55 years, and at the end of September every year thousands of people converge on this historic village to cheer home the winner of the Come By Chance Picnic Cup. The Cumby Picnics, as they are colloquially known, were started by a number of locals including another well-known name in the northwest, Albie Slack-Smith, who owned Golden Slipper favourite Brooklyn Maid. Come By Chance has a proud tradition with the Melbourne Cup. Two winners being bred on nearby stations, Poseidon in 1906 and Evening Peal in 1956.
The Melbourne Cup, the real 18-carat-gold cup, arrived at Come By Chance two days ago on 24 October as part of a nationwide tour, following an unbeatable "Cumby" argument put to the Victorian Racing Club as part of a nationwide tour in the lead up to this year's Melbourne Cup carnival. The Come By Chance Picnic Race Club President, Ken Waterford, is to be congratulated on coordinating a magnificent effort in securing the cup to visit a small, but vitally important village such as Come By Chance. I am sure all honourable members of this House will join with me in congratulating Ken and his committee and the community of Come By Chance on securing such a monumental event as a visit to Come By Chance by the real, 18-carat-gold Melbourne Cup. Banjo Patterson wrote a poem about "Cumby", although there is some conjecture about whether he ever actually visited there. I will finish my contribution with the last two verses:
Though we work and toil and hustle in our life of haste and bustle,
All that makes our life worth living comes unstriven for and free;
Man may weary and importune, but the fickle goddess
Fortune Deals him out his pain or pleasure, careless what his worth may be.
All the happy times entrancing, days of sport and nights of dancing,
Moonlit rides and stolen kisses, pouting lips and loving glance:
When you think of these be certain you have looked behind the curtain,
You have had the luck to linger just a while in "Come-by-chance".