The History and The Name

The Property OAKWOOD

The property “Oakwood” was purchased in 1913 by the late Thomas Frederick Kidman, 1886 – 1954. Thomas “Tom” Kidman spent his early years working in and around central and northern Australia as a stockman, drover, shearer and general worker.

Tom’s mother, Elisabeth, passed away when he was an infant, so he was given to the Banks family, apple growers from Joanna, to raise, as they could not have their own children.

At the age of 13 in 1889 Tom left school (at Joanna) and home and headed for Broken Hill, to work initially in Kidman’s butchers shop, and then his adventures took him throughout much of central Australia.

He spent 14 years working in Back country, before returning to Penola to develop the land his family had purchased for him on the 21st of July 1919 from the Riley family.

At 44 years of age Thomas married Bessie Jane Pricilla Bray from Naracoorte and went on to have 3 children,

Thurloo May Kidman, Thomas Bray Kidman and Banks Thargomindah Kidman.

Thomas was also known as “Snake Kidman” not due to toughness, but because of his choice of transport - Tom chose a Bicycle or a “Snake” to travel while he was working in central Australia. In the 1890’s there were a lot of bicycles used to travel vast distances in outback Australia, and they left tracks in the sand similar to a snake, for those who had never seen a bicycle.

Tom, “Snake” Kidman also had a Nom De Plume, “The Paroo Bagman”.

Once he returned from the “Outback” to run his property he was a regular contributor to the “North Queensland Register”

One such article From “ North Queensland Register”;

The “Paroo Bagman” Writes:

Out Six weeks

"Fourteen years of my life were spent in Western Queensland and the corner of New South Wales, and most of that time I was on my own. I was flood bound eight times. In fact at one period, I had to shear 1260 sheep for Kopi Scott, at Birdsville, while flood bound.

The men who drove cattle over those floodwaters are dying out. Sam Gibson went out with his plant in 1906, right through the Cooper, Diamantina and Georgina country. In fact, in one stretch he had gone six weeks before anyone was game enough to go after him. We did not see his tracks until we had travelled 140 miles North of Thargomindah.

We picked them up on Kyabarra Creek crossing the Cooper.”

The Name or the Names

Quite often we are asked:
The name; Banks Thargo? Where does it come from?
The answer is, it is simply the first and second name of the founder of Banks Thargo Wines:
Banks Thargomindah Kidman 1928 - 2007

Tom Kidman had given all of his children interesting names to live with; they were names of people and places which significantly affected his life.

Banks; apple growers from Joanna, who raised Tom as a surrogate child.
Thargo; Shortened version of Thargomindah, a town in South Western Queensland.
So indirectly Tom Kidman has given us the name, Banks Thargo.

Some other names explained:
Paroo Bagman; The Paroo River, a bagman is what we now call a swagman.
Thurloo; first name of Tom’s eldest child, daughter, which comes from Thurloo downs, a station.
Snake; a bicycle, an Australian bushman’s term “all the same long snake track”
Bray; Tom’s second child, son, is the maiden name of Tom’s wife “Bessie Bray”

That is a very brief summary of some of the history of our family.

There are a few constants that have remained over the past century; the four main constants that come to mind are:

Beef, Bicycles, Bagpipes and Booze!