The inside story on Uralla’s Thunderbolt statue

Back in the 1980’s debate raged about erecting a statue of the bushranger Thunderbolt in Uralla’s main street to commemorate Australia’s bi-centenary.
A lot of ink, television footage and airplay followed the controversy where those vigorously against spending $70,000 on “glorifying a criminal” lost the battle with the majority who argued it was historically valid.
This week Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay and former Deputy Chair of the Bi-Centennial Committee Thelma McCarthy launched a detailed account of the affair The Story of the Thunderbolt Statue at the Uralla Community Centre.
It was written by Bev Niland, who as secretary of Uralla’s Bi-Centenary Committee kept records of meetings and collected newspaper clippings and photographs throughout the planning stages.
Mr Torbay obtained a grant of $3,666 from the State Ministry for the Arts to assist with its publication.
“It is a tremendous record of a significant event in Uralla’s history with all the details that future historians will appreciate,” he said. “Bev has been meticulous in collecting all the relevant information and has really brought alive the story of how Uralla came to acquire the statue which is such a big tourist attraction today.”
Ms Niland told guests at the launch that when she retired in 1994 after 30 years with the Council she had several boxes of records covering the bi-centennial celebrations. She decided to put them together in a book as a hobby and was overwhelmed by the support from the community for the project.
One guest at this week’s launch was Deborah O’Brien, who as an eight year old Brownie suggested the idea of the statue and also contributed to the book. Her parents Margaret and Bob, Bob Fulcher, Robert Bell, historian Arnold Goode, the Uralla Council and many other community members worked with the committee to see the statue commissioned and erected.
The bronze work depicting the bushranger mounted on a rearing horse was finally unveiled at a ceremony on September 4, 1988. This week guests at the book launch relived the occasion with a screening of archival footage of Uralla’s bi-centennial celebrations with virtually the whole population dressed in period costume to see a street parade and a re-enactment of a Thunderbolt hold up of a Cobb & Co coach.