This book is more than just a biography. Within its pages over 500 photos, news clips, documents, maps and transcripts will take you on a journey with the Padley family from 1801 Yorkshire, England, through the Victorian gold rush at Castlemaine, followed by the heady days of Melbourne boom years, then “home” to England. But the great Southern land of opportunity called the family back in the 1880s. For James there were shop ventures in Sydney, Windsor and northern NSW, followed by a ten-year yo-yo relationship with Windsor, finally settling in Lithgow in 1902. Here he put down roots and was soon the driving force in the Lithgow Progress Association and the chief instigator of the development of Hassan Walls. He left his mark on Lithgow in many ways, the Lithgow Mercury wrote of James –
 
“…. He was one of Lithgow’s best citizens, a man whose life was unselfish, and who was a model of civic patriotism. In every movement for the benefit of the town he was always to the fore, and though a man of retiring disposition, being one who relied on deeds rather than words, he was generally given the position which entailed the most responsibility.”
-Lithgow Mercury