Why, if John Little owned both "Curraweena" and "Glen Arif", was his occupation shown as Station Manager on his death certificate? AND, if as stated in "A Lot About A Little", John had been at the Goulburn Show, how did he come to be at Gundagai, to suffer a fatal heart attack and to be buried there?

I had obtained John Little's death certificate prior to my coming in contact with the roots in Victoria, and from that time on I had puzzled over his occupation and place of death; and the additional knowledge from "A Lot About A Little" in respect to Curraweena and Glen Arif did nothing to solve the puzzle.
Part of my research led me through electoral rolls, and I had established without question, John Little was shown as being "Freehold" owner at Curraweena Station from 1880 through to 1890, when his name disappeared from the list. However, when I "travelled" 60 k's to the east I found him once again at Glen Arif from 1890 till the time of his death in 1894, which in itself is paradoxial with him dying at Gundagai. After all, the information on the death certificate was supplied by his widow Susie, the electoral rolls show John as being the freehold owner of Glen Arif, a property at that time of over 300,000 acres, why would she state he was a Station Manager, surely he would have been a grazier at least? Additionally, why should Susie give her address as Wood St., Randwick, a suburb of Sydney?

The next most puzzling aspect is the place of death, Fry's Hotel, Gundagai. We read in "the book" John had attended the Goulburn Show parading and competing with the four-in-hand carriage of which his expertise was renowned.

Through the facilities at the State Library, namely microfilmed copies of newspapers of the time, I was able to establish the date of the Goulburn Show. I now knew the Show commenced on Thursday, March 15th in 1894, and carried over three days. From the "Easter Date" website I also established that Easter fell on Friday 23rd, March through to Monday 26th in that year.

So where do we go from here, - none of these dates coincide with when John unfortunately passed away on the 14th April, the best part of 650 kilometres away from, supposedly, home. Once again I was in limbo, going nowhere, then, a month or so later another searching soul in the library suggested I try the old newspapers. This time for death notices. Why didn't I think of it before? Sure enough there was an entry, unfortunately the print size in those early papers was extremely small, and I was well overdue to having my reading glasses upgraded, so I asked a young lady in the next reading cubicle if she would mind reading the notice for me. This is what she read to me:

Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 17th, 1894. Deaths.

LITTLE - April 13 at Gundagai, John Little, manager of Tabtree Station, Late of Glenarif, Bourke, aged 52.

"Late of Glenarif", a step forward, but not too far, I could find no reference to a Tabtree Station through any process, until in desperation and armed with a magnifying glass, I returned to the library and once again inspected the Death Notices. It was then I realised the T should have been a Y, "Yabtree Station". It was a short walk to the Mapping Authority and found Yabtree Station to be some fourty kilometres south west of Gundagai.

So John Little was Station Manager at Yabtree Station at the time of his death!