No.52 Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battery
During WWII, women who enlisted in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) might be assigned to duty on an anti-aircraft searchlight battery. Searchlight batteries operated at Ramsgate, Moorefield Racecourse and Oatley. The Oatley battery is thought to have been located in the vicinity of present-day nos 27-29 Baker Street; examination of a 1943 aerial photo of Sydney shows an area of bare ground to the rear of where those houses now stand which would have been suitable for the purpose. It was co-ordinated with another searchlight located where the Scout Hall now is in Gungah Bay Road. A lane at Oatley was informally signposted as ‘Searchlight Lane’ some years ago.In an interview for the Australians at War Film Archive, a former AWAS Gunner, Phyllis Smith, recalled: “Bankstown was quite rural in those days, and where Roselands is now, somewhere like that, we had a station, and Ramsgate and Maroubra… and Oatley. For each battery (you’d have about four or five different sites) you’d have about eighteen girls on each one. Ramsgate was very heavy, because all night you had to ‘take post’, as they called it. Jump out of bed, the bell would go - every plane that went over you had to jump out of bed, get out and put the beam up and identify it. Sometimes, it would be every hour of the night, sort of thing. And besides that, you did two hours guard. You had about eighteen girls, eighteen, twenty girls on a station. We did our own cooking. We did our own maintenance on the equipment, we did everything, we didn’t have any of the men. Our rations came out every day by truck and that was it. We had a bombardier in charge, that’s equal to a corporal, two stripes. It was all female at the stations.” [1]Phyllis was asked how the women recognised the types of aircraft, and she replied: “You picked them by sound. And you had to identify how high they were, like you went down into your command post or you’d scream out, “Target seen.” And the spotters would be in swivel chairs that laid back, and they’d swivel around that, they’d say, “Target seen, target seen right, or target seen left”, or wherever it was. And they’d keep saying, “Target seen right, target seen right, target seen right.” And then number five would put the beam up. You’d have to work to where it was on your instrument and get it up. And they’d sing out, “Exposed.” Then you press the thing and the light would go onto it. Hopefully, you’d be on target and you’d scream out then, “On target!” The full interview with Phyllis Smith is well worth exploring. It is at: http://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/246-phyllis-smithTo judge by the photograph she supplied of the battery at Ramsgate, the AWAS servicewomen of No 52 Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battery were proud to do their bit.
Edith Blake
Several local women who enlisted in WWI and served as nurses. Susan Arnold, Stella Black, Ida Carruthers (eldest daughter of local notable Sir Joseph Carruthers), Nellie Chapman, Helen Ford, Violet Harvey, Adelaide Lindschau, and Jean Miles-Walker all had Georges River connections. The last-named earned the rarely-awarded decoration, the Royal Red Cross 1st Class, but sadly succumbed to the 1918 influenza pandemic. Also among this group was Edith Blake. She was born at Redfern and brought up in Sans Souci, eldest daughter of Charles and Catherine Blake of 9 Vista Street.1 She trained at the Coast Hospital at Little Bay, where she was Sister for about four years. Following the outbreak of war, she was one of a group of 130 nurses who sailed to London to enlist with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. Her wartime service was spent in Egypt at No 1 Australian General Hospital in Alexandria, treating wounded men from Gallipoli, following which she served in France and spent a year nursing German prisoners of war at Belmont, Surrey, seen by many as an unpopular duty. On 26 February 1918, she sailed from Cardiff on the hospital ship Glenart Castle bound for Brest, France, to pick up patients bound for home. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and she drowned, along with 160 others.2 She was the only Australian nurse to die as a direct result of German action in WWI. She was 32. Sister Blake is commemorated at the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton, England. Her parents received a letter of sympathy from the King. Her diary and letters are deposited with the Australian War Memorial.3
The Nethery Family
The following piece has been provided by William Nethery, explaining the family’s long connection with the area. Accompanying photographs have also been supplied by the family."Edward Samuel Nethery our grandfather became a school teacher. He was posted to Mundawaddra school near Yerong Creek in the Riverina area of NSW. He was warmly received in the district and remarked on the kind hospitality of the local people. In those days young teachers were offered accommodation with various rural families in the district usually for a few months at a time. It is not known if he stayed with one of the Driscoll families but it would have been likely.The school pupils were both Protestant and Catholic and it was apparent that the old sectarian prejudices were irrelevant. He met Mary Driscoll from an Irish Catholic family. They fell in love and decided to marry but encountered strong opposition from his Protestant family. The sectarian divide that existed at the time was a hangover from England and Ireland, however Edward was ahead of his time by wanting to break down this prejudice and remained determined to marry Mary. His letters to Mary Driscoll are testament to his determination and regard for his fiancée. He agreed that the children be raised as Catholics but remained Protestant himself until he converted to Catholicism on his death bed.Edward and Mary’s wedding took place at the family property “Mossy Dell” Yerong Creek on the 27th September 1911, conducted by Father Timothy Cleary. Everyone was very happy with the wedding being conducted at the family home.They moved to Helensburgh south of Sydney when Ted, Frank and Jack were born. Edward was a teacher at the local school. On Anzac Day 25 April 1917 they moved to 27 Westbourne Street Carlton, later renamed Anglo Square. Edward had been transferred to Petersham Commercial School. The following year he was appointed to Hurstville Public School.Edward and Mary Ann’s youngest child Mary said “Her parents moved into the house at Carlton with three sons, aged between one and five, a dog and a cage with chooks. On the day they moved they came up from Helensburgh by train. They had hired horse-drawn removalists to bring up the furniture. Dad paid them in Helensburgh before they left. The removalists decided to spend their hard-earned cash at the pub at Sutherland and didn’t arrive until the next day. Dad, Mum and the boys had to spend their first night here curled up on the floor waiting for the furniture to arrive. Dad liked the home because it had the paddock outside and they had three little boys who would have somewhere to play.”Mary continued. “From the front gate growing up we could see the railway line in one direction and Botany Heads in the other. That’s how the house got its name. My mother came from Yerong Creek in the Riverina. My father was posted there as a teacher, met my mother and they married there. During the Great Depression, Dad was talking about having a name for the house when a salesman turned up at the front gate. The salesman saw the view and told us that the Aboriginal word for extensive view was ‘Yeronga’, so that’s what Dad named the house.”Edward and Mary raised a family of eight children who made an enormous contribution to the St George district and the Australian community. All the children thrived with three of them, Ted, Frank and Mary becoming teachers like their father. Mary met her husband, fellow teacher Paul Bridges when they were both teaching at Hurstville Primary School, where her father had also once taught.The home was an ideal location for a family with seven energetic boys. Opposite the home was a park where they kicked the football and played cricket with the neighbourhood kids, who included the Lindwall brothers, Ray and Jack, both of whom played first grade for the St George Dragons. Ray also became one of Australia’s greatest fast bowlers and a key member of Don Bradman’s 1948 Ashes team “The Invincibles”.From their early experiences in the park all the Nethery boys went on to significant sporting achievements. Ted excelled in playing rugby, and captained the first XV team during his last two years at Hurlstone and later captained the Armidale Teachers’ College 1st XV. Frank played 1st grade rugby league for Sydney University. Cyril played Ist grade rugby league and rugby union for St George and was a member of the Australian Combined Services Rugby Union Team during World War Two. John, Greg, Robert and Septimus played grade rugby union, including 1st grade, for St George.The Nethery family, like many others struggled through the years after World War 1 and the Spanish Flu epidemic. Then came the depression beginning in 1929 and becoming more severe by 1932. Unemployment peaked at 29% and there was a severe shortage of food and household goods. Australia’s dependence on agricultural and industrial exports meant it was one of the hardest-hit developed countries. After 1932, an increase in wool and meat prices led to a gradual recovery. Fortunately for the family, father Edward remained employed as a teacher and like many at the time they had a good vegetable garden and a good chook yard to keep up the supply of eggs. Both parents were from large rural families where they learnt resilience and self-sufficiency.Edward Nethery taught at Mundawaddera, Windsor, Helensburg, Petersham, Hurstville, Coffs Harbour, Kogarah, Taree, Abbotsford, Undercliffe, and the last three years was attached to the staff at Clemton Park.Disaster struck the family in July 1935 when Edward became quite ill and had to be taken to St George Hospital. He developed pneumonia and died on the 24 July 1935 aged only 51 years. He had never been particularly religious but during his illness he requested that he be converted to the Catholic faith to be closer to his beloved wife. It was a great comfort to her that Edward was attended by Rev. Father Sobb who administered the Last Sacraments.Upon the death of their father the older boys felt a responsibility to help with the family finances. Ted and Frank both had started teaching and Jack had left school. Fortunately, Edward’s teaching career provided his widow and family with a superannuation pension for a modest living. Ted received a scholarship to study teaching at Armidale and Frank was doing an Economics degree at night at Sydney University.When everyone was home the three-bedroom house slept ten people with the boys sleeping on the verandah front and back. Their home “Yeronga” became the centre of family life for over a century to the present day. Frank’s daughter, Frances said the family home was always a place of love and laughter, with their mother making visitors and those hard done by, welcome. “The house has had a lot of gatherings over the years including Mum’s 90th birthday and my wedding reception,”Ted’s sons Bill and Peter both had fond memories of their visits to “Yeronga”. Being country kids, they loved the sound of the city. They slept on the front verandah and listened to the trains rattling past, the planes flying overhead and the sound of spotted turtle doves in the park. There was always a warm welcome from Grandma and Aunt Mary and ‘Yeronga’ was the centre of the Nethery family life. At night the adults would sit around the meal table for hours talking, while the kids would play in the park over the road.
Kogarah - Sans Souci Steam Tramway
The Sans Souci Tramway League was a pressure group in the 1880s which campaigned for the construction of a tramway from Kogarah Railway Station to Sans Souci. The matter was debated in State Parliament, and construction began in 1886. It was arranged that the platforms for the Kogarah train and the steam tram were adjacent, which would have been convenient for commuters. The steam trams burned coal to produce the necessary steam power, and they are remembered for their noisy progress. Their drivers were known as motormen.The introduction of the tramway had a stimulating effect on the development of the business centre of Kogarah and on housing subdivision along its route.However, at one time the tramway had an unlucky reputation. This began when 69-year-old Walter Targett slipped and fell under a tram at Kogarah, on 7 September 1918. His left leg was severed, and he died the following day in St George Hospital. By coincidence, Mr Targett was the former MLA for Hartley, and would have been one of those who debated the construction of the tramway back in the 1880s.His death was followed in May 1921 by the death of a seven-year old boy, who slipped and fell under a tram in Railway Parade. Two conductors were badly injured in August 1922 by a tram heading in the opposite direction along Rocky Point Road. Then in March 1925, a William Dodds was fatally crushed at Sandringham terminus, and in May that year another man was killed when he tried to nip across the line in front of an oncoming tram. In April 1926, the motorman of the Sans Souci tram, a Mr Slater or Slatyer was killed, and two conductors were seriously injured when their engine left the rails and overturned, crashing into a power pole.
Isaac Peake's Farm
Those members of the Peake family who gave their name to the suburb of Peakhurst, can trace their ancestry back to John Robert Peake, who was born in 1815, the son of two transported convicts, John and Elizabeth (nee Alcock) Peake. John Robert Peake married Esther Parkes at Parramatta in 1833; Esther’s father had land at present-day Earlwood. John and Esther had a typically large Victorian family of thirteen children, who included James (born 1835), Isaac (born in 1838 at Cooks River) and Jacob (born in 1841). At some point in the 1850s, John Robert bought from Michael Gannon 137 acres of land in the Hurstville/Penshurst area. He was a devout Methodist, and gave a quarter-acre block of land on which the first Peakhurst Methodist Church was built. The Peakes provided the shingles for the roof of both this church and its larger replacement built in 1879 on the corner of Bonds Road and Forest Road.John R Peake took a strong interest in the development of the area. He was chairman at a public meeting called to consider the incorporation of Hurstville as a Municipality in 1884, and when the first council was elected in 1887 his son James Peake was one of the elected Aldermen. John R Peake was also on the committee which welcomed the first train to Hurstville in 1884.Isaac, like his father, was a sawyer, timber-getter and charcoal-burner, but he added to these abilities a talent as a farmer. On 14 January 1862, aged 24, he married Martha Margaret Hollay, five years his junior, at Newtown. They too went on to have a large family, of ten children. Like his parents Isaac had a life-long connection with the Methodist Church.In the 1880s, Isaac had a farm adjacent to his brother Jacob’s, in the vicinity of Stoney Creek Road and present-day Olds Park.[1] In 1887 they were invited by Hurstville Council to open up a road 66 feet (20 metres) wide through their properties from Broad Arrow Road at its intersection with the Penshurst Road to Forest Road close to its junction with Bauman’s Road, which they generously agreed to.[2] Council awarded Isaac the contract to fence the road, and in today’s terms, this allowed Stoney Creek Road to run through from Penshurst Street to Forest Road.Isaac Peake was a canny land-dealer, and in 1892 he bought from the developer E C V Broughton 18 lots of the second subdivision of Penshurst Township.[3] Isaac’s influence was felt throughout Peakhurst. In 1894 he was made a Trustee of Penshurst Park,[4] and in 1908, he was elected Patron of the Peakhurst Progress Association.[5]He died at St Elmo, Forest Road, Peakhurst on 26 November 1920, aged 82, and was buried at Moorefields Cemetery, Kingsgrove.Of Isaac and Martha’s children, one was Walter Leslie Peake (1879-1917), who was killed in action at Ypres in World War I.[6][1] Propeller 2 March 1939, p4.[2] Propeller 29 September 1887, p6; 22 November 1887, p4.[3] Australian Star 11 November 1892, p4.[4] Australian Star 14 August 1894, p6.[5] St George Call 27 June 1908.[6] Propeller 2 November 1917, p3.
Collaroy House, Peakhurst
Collaroy House was constructed in circa 1883 for a Newtown businessman, Robert Newell. It was on an eight-acre block, set back from Forest Road. Reputedly, it used timbers salvaged from the cargo of the SS Collaroy, which ran aground in 1884 at what late became known as Collaroy Beach. Newell was well-known in the Peakhurst area, and was an Alderman on Hurstville Council from 1893-1895. He sold his property in 1916, for £1,550, by which time the adjacent Collaroy Avenue had been named.Collaroy House was described in 1923 as ‘containing eight acres of land, together with a brick cottage of six rooms, kitchen, laundry, pantry, stables, outhouses etc erected thereon, the whole being enclosed by wire and paling fences.’ In 1947, the property was purchased by a Peakhurst chef, who developed it as a venue for wedding receptions and functions. From 1970 it was known as Roslyn Gardens Function Centre, and more recently as Gardens on Forest.What remained of the original house was described in the Hurstville Historical Society Heritage Register in 1986 as “a single-storey masonry cottage unsympathetically extended. The original cottage retains a steep gable roof form with half-hip ends.”
Paramount/Hoyts Cinema Mortdale
The cinema was built in late 1928 for Petersham cinema-owner Stan Kennedy. It had an unfortunate beginning – while still partially-built, it collapsed in a storm on 4 January 1929. By late August 1929, it was finally completed. The opening ceremony was performed by Mrs Florence Gosling, wife of the local MLA, Mark Gosling, and the building was described as ‘a triumph of workmanship and skill’.Mortdale resident Bryson Wild was a ‘lolly-boy’ at the Paramount, and recalled how cinema-going was a special occasion: “On Saturday nights the whole Kennedy family would be at the front of the house, Mrs Kennedy in a long white evening gown, Mr Kennedy in a dress suit complete with bow tie, son Stan and their daughter also dressed formally. Ushers on the door were Jock Giffen who lived across the road and Joe Bracegirdle, an Englishman from Lancashire. Next door was the lolly shop operated by Mr and Mrs Longhurst, assisted by Mr and Mrs Stafford. There were quite a few lolly boys. On a good week we could earn up to six shillings, but the best part was that we could see all the pictures for free… Each year on Empire Day the whole of Mortdale School would go to the theatre in the morning for a concert where we all sang songs and were treated to such things as bird callers and Mickey Downes strumming Waltzing Matilda with his nose.”The theatre was also used in the 1930s as a venue for Armistice Day and Anzac Day services.Kennedy Theatres Pty Ltd ran the Paramount until June 1950, then there was a change of ownership, and it operated as one of the Hoyt’s chain, along with the South Hurstville Paramount. In June 1953, it ran special screenings of the film of the Queen’s Coronation, Elizabeth is Queen. But by the late 1950s patronage had fallen off. The cinema changed hands again, and in 1963 was sold off, and subsequently demolished, replaced by the current unit blocks.
Robert Kyle
The land around Kyle Bay was originally granted by the Crown to Robert Kyle and James Merriman on 9 November 1853. They purchased portion 19, amounting to 135 acres, for £135. Merriman sold his half-share to Kyle the following year.Robert Kyle was a Geordie from Durham, England, born in 1813. When he was 24, in 1837, he married Maryanne Milne in Jarrow, Tyneside, whose father was a master mariner from Sunderland. Robert arrived in Port Phillip, Australia in 1842 with Maryanne and their son Alexander, aged 3, and Robert’s sister Carolyne Kyle, aged 21. They came out on the emigrant ship Himalaya, and the ship’s passenger list tells us that he was a carpenter. Robert and Maryanne had a daughter in 1855, also named Caroline.It has been supposed up to now that Robert and Alexander Kyle began ship-building at Kyle Bay by the 1870s, which is when they are shown in Sands’ Directories. However recently an advertisement in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner from 27 December 1864 has come to light, which reads as follows:Ketch Juno for sale. This little vessel of 100 tons register, faithfully built of colonial hardwood, by Robert Kyle at Georges River, New South Wales in the year 1860, and coppered [ie copper-hulled], since chiefly employed in the river trade, having besides made several coasting trips, with rigging, sails, two anchors and chain cables, kedge, dinghy etc, as she now lies at South Grafton, apply to J F Wilcox.This indicates that Robert Kyle was already producing boats from his property in 1860, and although it is described as a little vessel, a ketch fifteen or sixteen feet long is not something that would be knocked up in a weekend. He may well have been working on repairing and making boats from the late 1850s onwards. The Juno, we are told, transported cargoes of oyster shell, used in the building trade. It was wrecked in a storm at Newcastle in 1870, but was later salvaged for further coastal work.Robert Kyle died aged 85 at his home at Kyle Bay on 27 December 18981, and his son Alexander administered his estate. Alexander’s sister Caroline was married to a timber merchant, William Grimshaw Williams, who purchased the estate of 135 acres for £1,350. The land, excepting some five acres around The Retreat, was offered for sale to land speculators by Richardson and Wrench in 1899, and included an old two-roomed rubble-stone dwelling.2 Robert Kyle’s widow, Maryanne, died in 1902, aged 87.
The English Family, Kogarah
Irishman Edmond English (1818-1912) and his wife Elizabeth were early pioneers of Kogarah. Edmond, who had been a successful miner on the goldfields, purchased 87 acres in the area from Archibald McNab in 1854, and developed a market garden. The family’s stone house, The Homestead’, stood where Carlton South Public School is today. Edmond was active in local affairs, and was a Trustee of the Catholic school and of St Patrick’s Church, Kogarah. He was influential behind the scenes in the campaign to bring the Illawarra railway line through Kogarah. He worked for the incorporation of Kogarah as a municipality, and two of his sons, Patrick English and James English became Aldermen of Kogarah Council; a third son, John English, became Lord Mayor of Sydney but died soon after attaining office. Edmond English also helped to establish the Kogarah School of Arts.Members of the family built several grand houses within easy reach of one another – Karuah in English Street is still standing, as is The Laurels, diagonally opposite, which is now an aged care home. Edmond English built the Kogarah Hotel in the 1870s, which still stands on the corner of English Street and Princes Highway, now reborn as the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple.Perhaps most significantly of all, the paddock of The Homestead became Kogarah Park, and in 1935, to mark the Golden Jubilee of the incorporation of Kogarah as a municipality, Jubilee Oval was built on Kogarah Park. Of course, it is now the home ground of the St George-Illawarra Dragons NRL team.
Joe Anderson, 'King Burraga'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are warned that this collection may contain the names and images of deceased persons.
Ellesmere Camp
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are warned that this collection may contain the names and images of deceased persons.
Merv Lynch OAM
Merv Lynch served as a Councillor on Hurstville Council from 1980-2004. He was Mayor of Hurstville in 1991-92, and served several terms as Deputy Mayor.He was very well-known in the community, especially in Penshurst, and was chairman of Hurstville Council’s Senior Citizens Management Committee. He was patron of several organisations, including the 3Bridges Community, and gave his time to the Illawarra Catholic Club.In the 2007 Australia Day Honours, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to local government and the local community.
William Currey, VC MLA
William (Bill) Currey (1895-1948) was born at Wallsend, NSW. He served in WWI in the 4th Light Trench Mortar Battery, then the 53rd Battalion. He fought at Polygon Wood, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery at Pėronne on 1 September 1918, where, despite being gassed, he was able to help isolated comrades withdraw from no-man’s-land. Following the war, he resided at Bexley for many years, and worked for NSW Railways. He was active in the Australian Labor Party, and in 1941 he stood as Labor candidate for Kogarah in the Legislative Assembly, becoming the first VC winner to serve in the NSW Parliament. He successfully contested the seat twice more, in 1944 and 1947, and was respected by all sides as a hard worker for his constituency. He was a popular member of Kogarah RSL. He died in office, following his sudden collapse in Parliament House on 27 April 1948. He was previously commemorated in the naming of the William Currey Housing Estate at Kogarah, and there is a fine portrait of him by John Longstaff in the Australian War Memorial.
Sans Souci Hotel
The Sans Souci Hotel was previously known as Rocky Point House. Rocky Point House was built for the Cooper brewing family in the 1840s. Robert Cooper jr persuaded a convict road gang, who were supposed to be working on the clearing of what became Rocky Point Road, to work on the construction of the building. When the authorities found out, the convicts were sent back to Hyde Park Barracks.An 1854 painting of Rocky Point House, attributed to Charles Henry Woolcott, is held by the State Library of NSW.The house was purchased by Thomas Holt, who renamed it Sans Souci (meaning ‘carefree’), which later became the name of the suburb. Sans Souci was the summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, and Holt’s wife was German. The Holts moved on, and the house became the Sans Souci Hotel in the 1860s. The hotel became a popular venue for steamer excursions from Sydney on public holidays.Historian Beverley Earnshaw notes that the hotel “was leased by various proprietors including Louis Dettmann (1865), William Rust (1866), John Frank Baker (1870), John King Dobson (1872), John Emerson (1884) and John Frater who held the licence from 1865 to 1910. The building was demolished in the 1920s. The last tenant to occupy it was Mrs Emily Brown who ran a private laundry specialising in gentlemen’s attire, starched collars and lodge wear.”[1][1] Earnshaw, Beverley, The Land Between Two Rivers, p15.
Michael Gannon
Michael Gannon’s story was summarised by historian Alderman Ron W Rathbone, in a talk delivered in 1987 at St Michael’s Church, Hurstville.[1]“There is some doubt about when Michael Gannon was actually born. His marriage certificate and his convict records all indicate that he was born in 1798 but his death certificate would suggest it was the year 1800.[2] There is no dispute about the fact that he was born in the town of Mullingar in County Westmeath, Ireland, the son of John Gannon, a carpenter and joiner and his wife Alicia.The family were poor but God-fearing, and Michael was given what little education they could afford. He was apprenticed to his father’s trade and showed some promise as a wood-turner but he was also the wild one of the family surviving several scrapes with the law in his teenage years.Eventually he found lawbreaking more exciting and remunerative than carpentry and in December 1819 he was arrested and charged with highway robbery. At the Lenten Assizes in County Meath in April 1820, Michael Gannon was sentenced to transportation for life whilst his younger brother James received a sentence of 14 years’ transportation for being in possession of forged bank notes [when he went to visit his brothers in gaol]. They left old Ireland’s shores on 22 August 1820 aboard the convict transport Almorah, of 416 tons burthen and arrived in Sydney Cove exactly four months later.The Convict Records held in the State Archives describe Michael Gannon in the following terms: he was aged 22, was 5’6½” tall with fair pockmarked complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. In 1823 he was assigned to Joseph Broadbent, a carpenter and builder, in whose employ worked a 17-year old chambermaid named Mary Ann Parsonage. Michael Gannon and Mary Parsonage were married the following year.[1] Printed in St George Historical Society Bulletin, February 1990.[2] Australian Dictionary of Biography entry goes with 1800; family history sources go with 1798.
Webb's Market Garden
The place now known as H.V. Evatt Park was initially developed to produce food by the Webb family, who established a citrus orchard and built a dam on the site during the 1920s. Lee Wun, who had arrived in Australia to work as a market gardener in Botany, took over the lease in the 1950s. Along with family members, Lee turned it into a Chinese market garden, producing carrots, pumpkins, and tomatoes.This was one of the last operating market gardens in the Georges River area. As early as 1951 a section of Webbs Garden was reserved for recreational purposes, under the County of Cumberland Planning Scheme. In 1965 the area was made public land. The combined efforts of the Lugarno Progress Association and Hurstville Council resulted in a park of around 25 acres being established.
John O'Grady
O’Grady was the author of They’re a Weird Mob and numerous other works of comic fiction.John Patrick O’Grady (1907-1981) lived on Algernon Street, Oatley (Electoral Roll 1963, 1980), together with his second wife Mary. He died at that address on 14 January 1981.The house does not have a street frontage but is down close to the water, round from Neverfail Bay. Algernon Street is narrow at that point and does not lend itself to a plaque location.In the 1980s there used to be a plaque to John O’Grady, planted under a tree at the location nominated, across from the Oatley Hotel. The plaque was provided by the author’s widow. However, this plaque was stolen in 1988.[1] So although he lived in our area, he is not commemorated in any way locally.See Kogarah Historical Society Newsletter February 1981, p4.https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ogrady-john-patrick-15404 is biographical.Most of his numerous books were published while he was living at Oatley, other than They’re a Weird Mob (1957) and two of its three sequels.[1] St George Leader 17 July 1988.
Ruby Payne-Scott
Ruby Payne-Scott (1912-1981) was a scientist and pioneer in radio physics and radio astronomy. She is believed to be the first female radio astronomer. She taught at Danebank School in Hurstville from 1963-1974. She died at Oatley in 1981. Her key role in science and the development of equal rights for women is well recognised by the CSIRO, the National Archives and internationally.
Carss Park Football Club
Soccer has a long association with the vicinity of Kogarah Bay. The Carss Park Football Club (previously known as the Carss Park Soccer Club) has been associated with the area since 1953. The club has a proud history in football and a long association with supporting community recreation in the area, including the recent establishment of a special needs program in 2014.
Sir Jack Brabham AO OBE
There is an existing Jack Brabham Drive, leading off Hill Street in Hurstville, fronting Eprint and Scan Services Pty shop. It is a very short street, not even the length of a pit-lane.John Arthur Brabham enlisted in RAAF in 1944, giving home address as 38 Railway Parade, Penshurst. He was also listed there in 1949 Electoral Roll, with parents Cyril Thomas Brabham and May Doris Brabham. This was when he began making his name as a driver on the midget car circuit.He married Betty Evelyn Beresford at Katoomba in 1951[1], and presumably the newly-weds moved to Walter Street about then. In 1954 Electoral Roll they were listed at 36 Walter Street, Mortdale. He began competing in races in Europe from 1955.In the Electoral Rolls for 1931, 1933, 1935 and 1937, the Brabham family were listed at 12 Macquarie Place, Hurstville, so this was the address for the period of Brabham’s childhood.[1] Blue Mountains Echo 19 April 1951, p4.Jack Brabham, in full Sir John Arthur Brabham, byname Black Jack, (born April 2, 1926, Hurtsville, New South Wales, Australia—died May 19, 2014, Gold Coast, Queensland), Australian race-car driver, engineer, and team owner who won the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world drivers’ championship three times (1959, 1960, and 1966) and the automobile constructors’ championship twice (1966 and 1967). In 1966 he became the first man to win a world driving championship in his own namesake car.After serving as a mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, Brabham set up his own engineering business in 1946. He took up midget-car racing (1946–52) in Australia, and in 1955 he moved to England to drive for the Cooper team in F1 Grand Prix racing. Brabham captured his first F1 victory four years later in Monaco. After having secured the world driving championship twice for Cooper, he left the team in 1961 to build his own automobiles. That year he also drove in the first of his four Indianapolis 500 races and introduced the first rear-engine vehicle to Indy car racing. Over his 15-year F1 driving career, Brabham raced in 126 Grand Prix and racked up 14 victories, the last of which came in South Africa in 1970. He retired at the end of that season after having finished sixth in the drivers’ championship and fourth in the constructors’ championship.Brabham was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1967, a year after he was named Australian of the Year. He was knighted in 1979 and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.- BritannicaTriple Formula One Racing Champion Jack Brabham was one of Hurstville's most famous sons. Brabham was born on April, 2, 1926, and grew up in Laycock Road, Penshurst, the son of a greengrocer. Brabham went to Hurstville Boys High School and left school at 15 to work in a garage. He later lived in Sylvania for many years. Brabham first got behind the wheel of his father's delivery van when he was 12, and enjoyed driving. At the age of 15 he left school to work, combining a job at a local garage with an evening course in mechanical engineering. Brabham soon branched out into his own business selling motorbikes, which he bought and repaired for sale, using his parents' back verandah as his workshop.After two years in the RAAF as a wartime flight mechanic, Brabham began racing cars in 1947 aged 21 and rest is history. His career and life included 14 Grand Prix victories, 13 pole positions and he contested 126 Grand Prix from in 1955 to 1970. The world s oldest surviving Formula One race winner and world champion when he died in May 2014, age 88, he became the first man in history to be knighted for services to motorsport and, in 2012, was named one of Australia's National Living Treasures. Jack Brabham Drive, Hurstville, was named in his honour.- Visit Sydney
Oatley Amatuer Swimming Club
Oatley District Amateur Swimming Club was formed at a meeting convened at the home of Hurstville Council Alderman Hedley Mallard on 13 January 1927. The first swimming carnival staged by the club was on 26 January 1927. 'Oatley Amateur Swimming Club, 70th Anniversary, 1927-1997', Oatley Amateur Swimming Club Incorporated, Oatley NSW, 1997, pp.4-5. Georges River Libraries Local Studies Collection, Hurstville City Library.At the January 1927 carnival, the 'newly-formed' swimming club conducted a number of events for men, women and children at the Sandy Beach baths at Oatley Park, Oatley. 'Sydney Morning Herald', 27 January 1927, p.13.
Amy Bertha York 1894-1971
Amy York helped establish the first Council provided childcare centre in Hurstville. The Hurstville Child Care Kindergarten Centre (the Mary Alice Evatt Child Centre) was created by volunteer fund-raising which was led by Amy York. She later became president of the centre in 1947.Mrs Amy York was nee Amy Hirsch, born in 1894 at Hay to Jacob and Amy Hirsch. She married Albert York, a builder, in 1917 at Balmain. They were living at Oatley by 1930, and later moved to Peakhurst.Women were allowed to stand for municipal council from 1918 onwards. Amy Bertha York became only the second woman to stand for election to Hurstville Council, following the pioneering example of Jessie Saltwell. She contested the election of December 1944, and polled 889 votes, only 34 votes short of winning a seat. She then contested a by-election in August 1945, losing out to ex-Alderman Olds who had a majority of 306. She did not stand again for Hurstville Council.By 1963 she and her husband had moved to Port Macquarie.In October 1968, the Australian Women’s Weekly published an article about her. As a keen gardener she had transformed a patch of coastline at Port Macquarie which the local council had designated ‘Mrs York’s Garden’. She was by then aged 74. She had cleared the land of kikuyu and lantana and had planted shrubs and plants, attracting birds and native wildlife. [1]She died on 22 April 1971. [2] The garden fell into disrepair, but was again brought under control. It is now maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers. Mrs York’s Garden has its own Facebook page. It recently marked 50 years since its naming. [3]
St Clair Recording Studio 1965-1966
The St Clair Recording Studio was set up by Ossie Byrne and was located behind a butcher’s shop at 56 Queens Road Hurstville. The studio was keenly sought by bands as it operated with two mono recorders, the leading technology of the time. The Bee Gees, recorded their early work at the studio, including their breakthrough hit “Spicks and Specks” in 1966. This was also the location where popular Australian TV show “Bandstand” recorded backing tracks in 1966. Other artists to record at St Clair included The Twilights, MPD ltd and Ronnie Burns. The buildings were demolished in the 1970s.
Shipwrights Bay
This site holds two strands of Australian history.It was occupied by the traditional owners of the land, the Bidjigal people, and contains rock shelters, shell middens and carvings. These items are listed in the Shipwrights Bay Plan of Management and are heritage items listed in the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS). The site was later used for ship building activities by the colonists.
Silvester's Castle
This was a building constructed but never completed by the wealthy, eccentric businessman Henry Crawford Silvester, on land he owned at the corner of Southern Street and Yarran Road, Oatley.Silvester (1863-1935) was a co-founder of the Silvester Brothers smallgoods manufacturing enterprise at Redfern. He lived at Oatley from approximately 1907 to 1928. Mr Silvester became the listed owner of numerous blocks of land in the area, including the property at Yarran Road upon which he began construction of his castle. Reminiscences of older Oatley residents recall how the stonework for his castle was beautifully-cut sandstone, quarried on site, and in places two storeys high. There was a small tower, and a cellar, regarded by children as a ‘dungeon’. A metre-wide stone wall some 200 metres in length ran down towards the Georges River. A ‘moat’ lined with concrete surrounded the buildings, and could only be crossed by a couple of planks laid across it. Construction of the structure began in the 1900s, but had petered out by the early years of World War One. There was intermittent vandalism, and there are reports that the building was damaged by fire, possibly in 1917.In the 1920s it became a playground for adventurous children. By all accounts, the views from the property were superb, though you would have had to watch out for snakes sunning themselves on the warm sandstone. In due course people began salvaging whatever stone they could carry away; some of the stonework can still be seen today in garden walls around Oatley. Henry Silvester appears to have been a hoarder of junk, and there were piles of rusty metal and broken glass in the uncompleted rooms which all had to be taken away when the property was demolished. Mr Silvester died in 1935, leaving around £80,000 to his surviving relatives, a very large sum for the time. His Will was contested, and at the Equity Court hearing, a picture emerged of his eccentricity, his tendency to hoard, and his miserliness, all of which suggest he may have had undiagnosed psychological issues.
John Radecki
John Radecki is regarded as one of Australia’s finest stained glass exponents. He merits an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography by Louise Anemaat, which gives the following biographical detail:“John Radecki was born on 2 August 1865 at Lodz (Russia then, now Poland), son of Pavel Radecki, coalminer and his wife Victoria. Jan trained at a German art school at Poznan (Posen). With his parents and four siblings he migrated to Australia, reaching Sydney in January 1882. The family settled at Wollongong, where his father and he worked in the coalmines. His parents had two more children in Australia. Moving to Sydney in 1883, Jan attended art classes [at Sydney Mechanics’ Institute]. He boarded with the Saunders family from England at Oxford Street, Paddington, and on 17 May 1888 married their daughter Emma at the local district registrar’s office. Living at O’Brien’s Road, Hurstville, John (as he was now known) was naturalized in November 1904.From 1885 Radecki had been employed by Frederick Ashwin, who taught him to work with glass. In the 1890s the two men had crafted stained-glass windows entitled ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (St Paul’s Church, Cobbitty) and ‘Nativity’ (St Jude’s, Randwick). Other works included a window at Yanco Agricultural College, produced in 1902 by F Ashwin & Co, reputedly to Radecki’s design, and the chancel window in Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney in 1906. Ashwin and Radecki also collaborated on windows in St James’s, Forest Lodge; and St John’s, Campbelltown.Following Ashwin’s death in 1909, Radecki became chief designer for J Ashwin & Co, in partnership with Frederick’s brother John; he was proprietor of the company from John Ashwin’s death in 1920 until 1954. The largest glassmaking establishment in Sydney, with a high reputation, the firm created the chapel windows for St Scholastica’s Convent, Glebe, in the early 1930s. Radecki’s work included windows in such churches as St John the Evangelist’s Campbelltown; St Patrick’s, Kogarah; St Joseph’s, Rockdale; St Matthew’s, Manly; and Our Lady of Dolours, North Goulburn; Scots Kirk, Hamilton, Newcastle; and St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wollongong [where two windows memorialise William and Elizabeth James, who sponsored his early art studies.The east rose window at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney is Radecki’s work, as is one of the windows at the Garden Island Naval Chapel.Other examples of Radecki’s work in the Illawarra area include windows at St Michael’s, Wollongong; St Mary’s Star of the Sea, Wollongong; and St Michael’s, Thirroul.]A church committee-member during the building of St Declan’s Catholic Church, Penshurst, Radecki designed, produced and donated the stained-glass windows there, including a memorial window dedicated to his wife, who had died in 1919. On 8 January 1921 at the Church of Christ, Hurstville, Radecki married Sydney-born Jean Hughes (d1944).During the 1920s J Ashwin & Co produced the stained glass for the impressive vaulted ceiling of what became the Commonwealth Savings Bank in Martin Place to designs by Radecki. These had an Australia character, illustrating ‘the basic sources of wealth’: sheep and cattle grazing, agriculture, mining, shipping and building; stockmen, carpenters, gold panning, farming and wharf labourers were shown alongside a typical banking scene. A window for the reading room of the Mitchell Library, signed ‘John Radecki, Sydney, 1941’, depicted the printer William Caxton with the first book printed in English.Radecki’s strengths were a natural aptitude for figure drawing and composition, an eye for colour, which he used as a compositional device, an outstanding knowledge of the medium and facility with techniques in glass painting. His recreational passion was playing chess. He died on 10 May 1955 in his home at Hurstville, and was buried with Catholic rites in Woronora cemetery. The six daughters and three sons of his first marriage survived him. His daughter Winifred Siedlecky continued the company until the building’s owners demolished the premises in Dixon Street in 1961.”More examples of his fine craftsmanship can be viewed in the excellent article about him contributed by Bronwyn Hughes to the online Encyclopedia of Australian Glass in Architecture.RADECKI, John (1865-1955) | The Encyclopedia of Australian Glass in Architecture (teaga.org)
Federal Brick Company
The Federal Brick Company Ltd, capital £40,000 was formed in July 1906 “to acquire freehold property etc in Hurstville and to manufacture bricks.” The founder of the company was Henry (Harry) Woodley, owner of the Federal Brick Works at Alexandria, of which the Carlton works was a branch. From 1901-1919 he lived at St Elmo, Ormonde Parade, Hurstville. His ‘Carlton Brick and Pottery Works’ began on a paddock opposite the corner of Forest Road and Durham Street in 1906/1907; this was formerly Chappelow’s Paddock, which in earlier years had been the location for informal horse-racing meetings and cricket matches. The manager of the works from its beginning to 1950 was William Henry Squires; on his death, his son, William James Squires became manager until its demolition in 1957.
Jack Napier Davenport
World War Two, Jack Napier Davenport. He was born in 1920 at Rose Bay, Sydney, son of wool broker Roy Davenport and Grace (nee Hutton) Davenport. He grew up at Kyle Parade, in a house overlooking Kyle Bay. He attended Sydney High School, and before the war he was employed as a bank clerk.He enlisted in 1941, and became a Pilot Officer in September that year. At war’s end he had risen to the rank of Squadron-Leader, although for a time he had been Acting Wing-Commander. He flew Beaufighter aircraft, heavily-armed fighter aircraft used by RAF Coastal Command to attack and sink enemy ships. He served with No 455 Squadron RAAF in the UK and over Russia. His war service was remarkable, and by the middle of 1944 he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, and a bar to his DFC for his flying skill and bravery.In September 1944 he surpassed all these feats of courage by earning the George Medal. The citation to his award paints a vivid picture:“One evening in September 1944, a Beaufighter aircraft, returning from operations with damaged engines, crashed on a runway. The petrol tanks burst and the aircraft became a mass of flames, with bursting cannon shells and ammunition. Wing Commander Davenport having witnessed the crash, hastened to the scene in his car, leading the ambulance and the fire tender. While attempting to subdue the flames with their hoses, the fire crew were forced back by the heat and exploding ammunition. The observer in the aircraft was able to open his hatch and escape by jumping through the fire, but the pilot’s cockpit was completely surrounded by flames. His cockpit hatch was seen to open partially and fall shut again. Wing Commander Davenport immediately dashed forward, opened the pilot’s top hatch and struggled to free him. The pilot was severely burned and his feet were jammed. Wing Commander Davenport pulled him out of his flying boots and lifted him bodily through the blazing inferno to safety. Wing Commander Davenport sustained shock, with burns to his face, hair and hands. By his prompt and most courageous action, he saved the pilot’s life.”He was the first man serving with Coastal Command to win the George Medal. His actions even earned him his own strip cartoon in the Melbourne Argus:
Ruth Staples
This 2023 historical marker pays tribute to the community activist Ruth Staples (1930-2020). The beautiful Lime Kiln Bay wetland and the bush to the west were saved in the 1970s through her campaigning, along with David Koffel, and the Lime Kiln Bay Preservation Committee, which was formed of concerned local residents and their families. Ruth Staples (nee Haworth) worked tirelessly for many years to ensure the survival of the natural environment at Lime Kiln Bay.She was widowed after her husband Mick, a printer and author, died suddenly in 1970. She was then retraining to be a teacher and could see the obvious educational and social value of the bushland. Ruth and her children wanted to save the bushland to ensure that the community could continue to enjoy the area for bushwalks and for learning about their rich flora and fauna.But in 1973, there was a pressing threat to the existence of the wetland. Hurstville Council was having problems in disposing of the municipality’s rubbish. One solution it proposed was to grub up the wetland and bush, landfill it by dumping rubbish and ‘reclaim’ it, in the process extending the golf course and building playing-fields. The Lime Kiln Bay Preservation Committee immediately put forward alternatives, and brought out State politicians to visit the endangered wetlands to persuade them of their importance. Their campaigning paid off, and resulted in the preservation of much of the natural bushland around the upper reach of Lime Kiln Bay and Dairy Creek.Their crowning achievement was the artificial wetland that filters suburban runoff to protect the waters and bushland downstream. The area is now a vital green ‘lung’ for all to enjoy.
Elizabeth Corry
Elizabeth Corry was born near Dubbo, NSW. Her mother was an Aboriginal domestic worker and her father a station hand. She came to Sydney as a young woman where she co-managed Mockbell’s Coffee Shop at Circular Quay. Her husband, English migrant Cyril Victor Corry, was a country freight train guard.Their son, Lawrie Corry remembers his mother always being busy domestically. He was the tenth of Elizabeth’s eleven children, all of whom were born at 12 Souter Street, Kogarah Bay, where the family lived for sixty years.Elizabeth joined the Labor Party in 1912 and was involved in setting up the Kogarah Bay branch, attending meetings until she was 89. She was awarded Life membership of the Labor Party.Elizabeth was an active member of the Aboriginal Foundation in the 1950s, which called for equality for Aborigines and full citizenship rights. The Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs ‘sought to advance the Aboriginal cause by promoting cultural skills in music and dance as well as by political means.’ It launched the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign for the 1967 Referendum.Elizabeth was always busy with her charity work. She used to send Lawrie out to sell raffle tickets, put flyers in letterboxes, to buy the bags of sugar she’d use to make jams for hospital fundraising, and later to drive her to the Aboriginal Foundation.Elizabeth was an active member of the Kogarah Bay Progress Association, and helped establish the Barton Women’s Auxiliary of the St George Hospital for which she made jams and pickles. The Women’s Auxiliary would set up in wind, rain or storm on the corner near the Commonwealth Bank to sell their produce.With her friend Doris Hatton, she was a founding member of the Kogarah Historical Society. Elizabeth and Doris lobbied for the Carss Park Olympic Pool and convened the first meeting to establish it, wanting a pool in the area for year-round swimming. She was a member of the Metropolitan Parks and Reserve Committee and was instrumental in the acquisition of the Parkside Drive Reserve and the extension of Carss Park.Elizabeth Corry was very active in the Kogarah area in politics, civic affairs, and community work throughout her lifetime. In 1984, after her death, the small reserve at the end of Wyee Street, Kogarah Bay, which she held to save from development, was named Elizabeth Corry Reserve in her honour.
Rafe Kowron
Rafe Kowron (Rafael Skowronski) was born in 1930, and grew up in the bush at Dee Why. He became a radio technician and married Moyia Hughes in 1952. They lived at Oatley Park Avenue.In 1955, concerned with increasing threats to the bushland near their home in Oatley West, Rafe and his wife (Shirley) Moyia got together with four neighbours and formed the Oatley Flora and Fauna Society (now known as Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society or "OFF"). The group strongly and successfully lobbied the then Hurstville Municipal Council and the government to safeguard the local environment.OFF has since grown into a 300-strong member organisation which has helped defeat plans for a swimming pool, helicopter pad, mobile phone tower and cafe in Oatley Park, a garbage tip in Lime Kiln Bay, rezoning of the Oatley Bowling Club site for high-rise and changes to the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area. OFF now campaigns on both local and global environmental issues and works closely with Council a range of matters, including planting and regeneration projects. The credit for OFF's many victories which are evidenced by the extensive natural surrounds right across Peakhurst Ward, lies with Rafe, Moyia and fellow residents who had the commitment and foresight to launch this now widely respected organisation.Rafe and Moyia were also prominent members of Oatley Heritage Group (now Oatley Heritage and Historical Society). Rafe served as both president and vice president. They were both active in the Oatley Amateur Swimming Club, of which Moyia is a life member. Rafe was also a board member of Oatley RSL and helped run the RSL Youth Club which made him a life member for his work in the club and the RSL youth club. Rafe was also a talented bridge player and teacher, a singer at St Joseph’s, Oatley and president of the Hurstville Musical Society.He passed away on 11th April 2022, aged 91.
2NBC Radio
Radio 2NBC 90.1 FM radio station covers the St George region. It was Sydney’s first full-time suburban community radio station, broadcasting 24 hours a day. The station was launched on 6 May 1983, broadcasting from studios in Narwee, before relocating to new premises at Railway Parade, Kogarah in March 2018. It was begun by members of Narwee Baptist Church (hence NBC), but was always a separate company, not owned by the church.The founder of 2NBC was Don Jamieson, who had the goal of building a well-equipped station that would serve the local community. The station now relies on more than 100 volunteers, including long-time broadcasters Andrew Drylie and John Atkinson, who have been a part of the station since inception.An exhibition on the history of the station was held at Hurstville Museum and Gallery in August 2018.Paul McGrath, chief executive was awarded the OAM in the 2019 Australia Day Honours.Radio 2NBC marked 40 years of operation in 2023, and continues to go from strength to strength.
St George Cricket Club
St George Cricket Club was founded in 1911. In its early days, club members made a significant contribution to the development of Hurstville Oval, helping to fence and plant it. The Oval came to be regarded as one of Sydney’s finest suburban grounds.The club began playing first grade in 1921, and have used Hurstville Oval as their home ground ever since. In Sydney grade cricket, the club has won 18 first grade premierships up to 2024.At State level, forty-nine players from the club have represented NSW, and fourteen have represented Australia. Celebrated names to have played for St George include Bill O’Reilly, Norm O’Neill, Brian Booth and the greatest of them all, Sir Don Bradman. More recently, the likes of Moises Henriques, Josh Hazlewood and Kurtis Patterson have played Test cricket.The club marked its centenary in 2011 at a function where its team of the century was revealed.St George continues to lead the way, winning the 2023/24 premiership.
Sunnyside
No 186 Princes Highway, Carlton, known as Sunnyside, is a heritage-listed two-storey sandstone house. It was built in circa 1870 for Irish immigrant Matthew Carroll. The stone used in its construction probably came from quarries owned by William Blake, who gave his name to Blakehurst.The house passed to Matthew’s son John B Carroll, an early Mayor of Kogarah, who sold it in 1884 to Patrick Lacey, a land dealer, who also became Mayor of Kogarah in 1892.In 1906 the property was purchased by the McWilliam family. Frederick McWilliam was an accountant. A description of the house at this time stated: “The house was set back from the road in three acres of ground and surrounded by a picket fence. A semicircular carriage drive brought visitors to the door. There was a tennis court, a croquet lawn and plant nursery, and two full-time gardeners maintained the grounds. At the rear of the building was an equestrian field with all the fixtures necessary to allow the McWilliam girls to train for show jumping.”The house was converted into two flats in the 1930s.In March 1943, a Miss Elkington acquired the property and moved her private school ‘Sherwood’, into the building. It was a kindergarten and primary school. Miss Elkington sold the building in 1959, and it became a rooming house. Unsympathetic additions and alterations to the house enclosed the verandahs and new wings were built.The house was listed by the National Trust in 1986. Features worthy of preservation included its slate roof and stone chimneys, bull-nosed verandahs, leadlight glass panels and French doors.In 1993 a development application to partially demolish the house for the construction of a McDonald’s restaurant met strong and effective opposition from local residents. It was then purchased by Neil Brown, who spent 18 years restoring it.In September 2014, the house, still known as Sunnyside, sold for over $2 million. In 2017 it sold as part of a lot of five homes, including 2-6 Lacey Street and 190 Princes Highway.It still stands today as a stately reminder of the area’s early heritage.
Dr Sharyn Cullis
Dr Sharyn Cullis was a passionate environmental activist and educator, whose work extends beyond the boundaries of Georges River LGA, reaching across southern and southwest Sydney.Within the Georges River LGA, Dr Cullis volunteered with the Streamwatch and River Health Monitoring programs, and campaigned strongly on many other local issues, such as plans for a phone tower and café in Oatley Park, high rise on the Oatley Bowling Club site, and against increased densities within the Foreshore Scenic Protection Area. She was an inaugural community representative with the Georges River Combined Councils Committee (or Riverkeeper) and for that she earned a place on the organisation’s Honour Board, and the nickname ‘Mrs Georges River’. In addition to this she was an active member of Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society and the Friends of Oatley.Working with the Georges River Environmental Alliance, which she founded, Dr Cullis helped convince then Premier Barry O’Farrell and Mark Coure MP to create the Dharawal National Park. This preserved some 6,500 hectares of wilderness between the Georges River and the Illawarra escarpment, protecting it from being torn up for coal mining.Dr Cullis lobbied for the creation of Georges River Environmental Centre, a state school specialising in environmental and sustainability education. After she succeeded in the creation of this school she then served as its principal. Here she elevated voices of First Nations people and brought together traditional knowledge and modern environmental science.Dr Cullis also helped lead the charge against threats to endangered wildlife, particularly koalas, in the Campbelltown and Wollondilly LGA’s as a founding member and vice-president of Save Sydney’s Koalas.She posthumously received the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre Bill Ryan Award.
St. George Cycling Club
The St George Cycling Club has been part of the local sporting landscape for over a century. First described as a “newly formed” club in 1920, it quickly became a hub for competitive cycling in the district. By 1925, the St George Amateur Cycling Club was already petitioning for a velodrome at Hurstville Oval, which went on to host countless races and training sessions for local and international champions.¹The club’s reputation grew rapidly. Australia’s first Olympic cycling champion, Dunc Gray, used Hurstville Oval while preparing for the 1932 Los Angeles Games, and Oatley Park became another popular venue for road racing from 1950. Over the decades, St George athletes and administrators have made their mark. Long-time official Charlie Manins, who worked tirelessly with both state and Olympic teams, was remembered with great respect after his passing in 1975.³Perhaps the club’s proudest achievement is its record at the highest levels of competition. St George has produced representatives for every Olympic and Commonwealth Games since 1956—a feat thought to be unmatched by any other sporting club in Australia.² In Melbourne in 1956, the Australian 4000m pursuit team was made up entirely of St George riders—Cliff Burvill, Warren Scarfe, Roy Moore and Frank Brazier, who later won silver in the 1958 Empire and Commonwealth Games road race.⁴
White Gates Farm and Stud Piggery
Farms, market gardens and small industries such as piggeries were once a familiar sight on Sydney’s suburban fringe. As suburbs expanded in the mid-20th century, many of these semi-rural enterprises were gradually replaced by housing developments, leaving few traces today.White Gates Farm and Stud Piggery was established at Peakhurst by retired policeman John Lambert (1893–1973), who gave the property its distinctive white entrance gates. From 1929 onwards, John and his wife Christina lived on an extensive parcel of land bounded by what are now Isaac Street, Pindari Road, Whitegates Avenue and Lorraine Street. Their homestead once stood near today’s numbers 16–20 Whitegates Avenue.The Lamberts were active community members. John played a leading role in forming the St George District Police-Citizens’ Boys’ Club at Mortdale in 1937, which grew to more than 2,000 members. Both he and Christina also served as office-bearers in the South Peakhurst Progress Association and the Mortdale Parents and Citizens’ Association. In recognition of his service, Lambert Reserve was named in his honour.The piggery itself was a busy stud farm that ran around 35 to 40 sows. In addition to breeding its own stock, it purchased stall pigs which were grain-fed animals brought in from the country through the Homebush markets. These pigs were fattened on a diet of offal, restaurant scraps, vegetables from the markets and fresh greens. Local resident Dick Goodfellow, who worked there as a youth, remembered the daily routine of collecting food scraps, boiling offal in huge steam-heated vats, and feeding the pigs several times a day. “The stall pigs that we’d bought in suddenly became big, fat pigs,” he recalled.In the mid-1950s, half of the Lambert property was resumed by the Housing Commission, leading to the development of Whitegates Avenue. The piggery continued to operate for another decade before finally closing around 1967.
