Signage installed last year at the Promised Land briefly affirms, in case anyone was in doubt, that Angel Gabriel Capararo Reserve is named after a real person.
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"Angel Gabriel Capararo was a well-known and respected resident of the Gleniffer Valley in the first half of the 20th century," it says, going on to reference a 1938 article in the Brisbane Courier Mail mentioning that his property was one of the first to be supplied with electricity.
'Angel Gabriel Modernises Promised Land' was the headline that no editor could possibly resist.
Gabe Capararo, as he was generally known to family and friends, was born at "Yellow Rock" Carrabolla, east of Muswellbrook, on April 26, 1895 to Italian immigrant Antonio Capararo and Eliza Joliffe.
He was the ninth of 13 children, all of whom were expected to work hard either on the farm, in the orchard or in the vineyard. There was also milking to do, as well as the chooks, vegetable garden, fencing and rabbit trapping, plus attending school until sixth class.
Aged 20, Gabe enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and served nearly four years in France before returning to Australia on July 19, 1919.
He subsequently moved to the Bellinger River area, where one of his older brothers Antonio Jnr lived with his family.
On May 30, 1921 at St. Margaret's Church in Bellingen he married Hilda May Rutherford from Gleniffer.
The young couple settled at Thora, where they engaged in dairy farming before moving to Gleniffer to share-farm for the Lavender family. They later purchased their first property "Timboon", where they lived until fire destroyed their homestead.
The family then purchased the property known as "The Seven Mile", where they farmed and raised a family of ten, five girls and five boys. That area was known as The Promised Land.
As you can imagine, Angel Gabriel Capararo's name caused many a comment over the years.
He even had a reporter from the Australian Women's Weekly remarking on it at a TB testing station in Bellingen in July 1952.
The reporter wrote, "Among those who came from surrounding districts was Angel Gabriel Capararo of Promised Land in the Parish of Never Never. Angel Gabriel, who answers happily to his name, 'because you never want to be ashamed of the name your parents gave you', has his farm beside the Never Never Creek in The Promised Land, nine miles out of Bellingen. He assured me that Promised Land was named before he settled there after WW1."
In 1980 Gabe's wife Hilda was described as being "justifiably indignant" because a neighbouring newspaper had cast doubt on the fact that her husband actually existed at all.
Gabe passed away at just 66 years of age on May 1,1960, a year after having had a severe stroke.
After his death Hilda carried on the family interests in cattle, living on the family property "Balaka" at Gleniffer until she had an accident and moved to town to live with her daughter Dawn when she was 84. Hilda died two years later in 1986.
After her estate had been settled, the family donated land to the Bellingen Shire Council for a reserve to be set up in memory of their father. They also donated a stained glass window to the little Gleniffer church.
Angel Gabriel and Hilda May are buried in the Church of England cemetery at Bellingen.