Trundle Central School students who are a part of the metal detecting interest group, went on a trip to Bagman’s Rest Reserve (aka Swaggie’s Rest) to go looking for some lost treasures.
The students found some random pieces of metal along with a metal spatula, old tobacco tin lid and a plaque for a tree.
Bagman’s Rest Reserve’s sign reads:
A Bagman (also known as a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag (bedroll).
Swaggies were a feature of the rural landscape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their numbers peaked in the Great Depression (1930-1939) when unemployed men were forced to move from town to town in search of work because they could not pick up their food coupons in any one town on consecutive days.
The ruins of humpies built from kerosene tins are evident in the stock route behind the show ground where unemployed men and women squatted and lived on rabbits during the Great Depression.
As swaggies were banned from the showground due to risk of fire a public appeal was launched in 1935 by the RSL subbranch and this shelter was built and occupied within 2 months. The caretaker reported an average of 30 men a month used this shelter.
Source and Image Credits: Trundle Central School’s Facebook Page

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