In the spring of 1855, two years after arriving in the colony, Joachim married Frances Emily Caulfield originally from Westminster in England. This event is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24 September 1855, taking place at Woolloomooloo Sydney, New South Wales, under special licence. ⁵

With a growing family, Joachim August Tronier started looking for investment opportunities in New South Wales. In December 1855, he applied for a Publicans Licence for The Travellers Home Hotel Ulladulla, where Joachim, his wife Frances and a baby son settled into the south coast area of New South Wales until his brother Carl arrived to also join them on the south coast.

Life appeared to have been going well for Carl’s brother and his family, as records in NSW State Archives show that by September of 1858, Joachim August had applied for a Naturalisation Certificate. The reasons quoted in his application was to purchase holdings, to dispose of freehold and other property. The elder brother of our great, great grandfather was moving to Sydney for the next phase of his life. Everything seemed to be on track for further riches.

In Denmark in 1859 the king had died and by 1864 the country was at war again. This time the kingdom lost significant areas in the Schleswig Holstein Duchies to neighbouring Germany. Probably Carl and Joachim were worried for their families but pleased they themselves were a long way away from the war.

Our ancestor, Carl probably by now was pursuing gold, with his first mention in the Police Gazettes of 1867. In less than ten years since his arrival in Australia, Carl Christian Andreas Haaber Tronier was working the gold fields in Windeyer on the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. In this period Windeyer comprised of six tented communities and was the site of unrest with the Chinese miners who all worked hard and worked together. At one time it was reputed to be the largest goldmining community in New South Wales.  

Nothing much is left of those times in the Windeyer district today -when the prospectors moved on, they took their tents with them. The remains of the stone aqueducts built by the Chinese prospectors, is all that is left of that time. 

It is always amazing how far our pioneers travelled in the 1860s. In the Police Gazettes 1867 is recorded that Carl had his horse stolen. It must have been concerning, but fortunately, it was recovered, but John Bentley was arrested and charged with stealing a horse the property of Carl Tronier. Looking through the Gold Leases Registers for Windeyer, no record could be found; for Carl Tronier, as they only started being recorded after 1873.  It cannot be determined whether Carl was there for mining or whether he was attempting to make his fortune by other enterprises in the Mudgee area.

After selling up in Ulladulla the older brother Joachim and his family are recorded as residing at St Peters Hotel, Cooks River Road, St Peters. No record of a hotel licence request can be found on state records however on Trove on 25 January 1868 the birth of a daughter, Edwie Dagmar Tronier to Joachim August and Frances Emily Tronier is recorded at their residence, St Peters Hotel, St Peters.

Empire (Sydney, NSW:1850-1875), Saturday25 January 1868, page1

And a few days later on 7 February 1868 in a letter to the Editor of the Herald (Sydney Morning Herald) August presented the case for his establishment regarding Sunday trading at the hotel. In this letter he stated he is the proprietor of St Peters Hotel.

Map of St Peters Hotel Location

So at least Joachim and his family seemed settled. Or was he?