Wagga’s ‘time gun’ was delivered to the town in 1880 to help residents to sync their watches. Photo: Chris Roe.
If you’ve taken a stroll through the picturesque Collins Park in the middle of Wagga Wagga, you’ll have likely noticed the old bronze cannon near the Boer War memorial standing guard over the eastern path.
Retired artillery pieces are a common feature of many public spaces in Aussie towns, but it might surprise you to learn that this particular bit of ordinance was installed to help Wagga’s residents to know the correct time.
Imagine you were living in a regional Australian town back in the early 19th century; how would you know what time it was?
In 2025, synchronising our clocks is something we don’t even think about as our smartphones, alarm clocks and many cars automatically update. Those of us who were around in the 20th century have fond memories of dialing 1194 on the landline to hear the iconic talking clock say, “at the third stroke, it will be …”
But back in the days before telephones, the telegraph or even clock towers, agreeing on the time was much less certain.
As Wagga’s esteemed local historian Sherry Morris explained, “every town in NSW (and the other colonies) followed its own time, according to the exact minute when the sun was directly overhead. There was no ‘national time’”.
Farmers worked from dawn till dusk, townsfolk made educated guesses according to the sun and some larger coastal centers would fire a cannon or blow a ship’s whistle at 1 pm every afternoon to keep locals in sync.
As the 19th century rolled on, timepieces became a more common accessory, bankers hours were maintained by clerks and shopkeepers and the railway rolled through the Riverina with its aspirational timetable.
‘Standard time’ had become fundamental to a functioning colonial town and the burghers of Wagga finally installed a public timepiece in the Wagga Wagga Post and Telegraph Office in July 1878.
Unfortunately, the new clock proved temperamental as a letter from an “old resident” recalled in the Wagga Wagga Express in November 1900.
“Those who can remember the ‘Day of long ago’, before the advent of the electric telegraph and the heated discussions as to the right time as indicated by watches varying as much as three-quarters of an hour from each other, can best appreciate the advantage of easily obtaining the correct time,” the old-timer wrote.
Wagga’s third courthouse included a notoriously unreliable clock. Photo: CSURA.
As Ms Morris details in her article for the Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society, Archdeacon William Pownall led the advocacy for the town to secure a ‘time gun’ that could be fired each day at 1 pm.
In 1880, the government agreed to give Wagga an old, but functional cannon from its stores in Circular Quay and it was presented to the council in December along with the promise of ammunition.
The bronze, smooth bore, muzzle loading ‘six-pounder’ was cast in 1795 by F S Kinsman of England for use by the Navy on its warships or as a field piece by the Army.
A number of articles published in 1941 suggested that the gun was used at the Lambing Flat riots in the 1850s, however there is no other evidence to support this claim.
Wagga’s antique gun is unlikely to have ever been used to signal the time. Photo: Chris Roe.
Whatever its provenance, the gun was initially delivered to the telegraph office where the town’s ‘master clock’ resided. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have informed the telegraph team who refused to accept delivery and no-one seemed to know quite what to do with it.
There were concerns that a daily blast could scare the horses, securing the correct powder charges was problematic and there were also safety fears after it was revealed that a smaller time gun in Gundagai had blown up and killed the poor veteran assigned to fire it.
Dubbed “nobody’s child” by the Australian Town and Country Journal, Wagga’s “disowned piece of ordnance” was shifted back and forward before being relegated to storage and dusted off occasionally to mark New Year’s Day and Empire Day (24th May).
In 1897 the cannon was described as “now lying rusting on the Wagga racecourse” and the mayor made a tongue-in-cheek request for ammunition for the “record reign celebrations” on Tuesday 22 June to mark Queen Victoria’s 60 years on the throne.
The Freeman’s Journal recorded the telegram sent by mayor Joseph Hayes: “Loyalty of Wagga imperilled; forward tubes of ammunition immediately. Captain Shepperd will take charge of gun, and the mayor will fire first salute.”
Finally, the gun was given a permanent home in Newtown Park (AKA Bird Park) near the Palazzi Anglo-Boer War monument where it remains today in the renamed Collins Park.
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