Minto School of Arts

Journey to any town in Australia and there is a good chance you will find a school of arts. They became popular in Sydney in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with about 140 established. They were also known as Mechanics Institutes. The School of Arts were originally established by volunteers as independent community organisations, assisted by a small government subsidy.

On Saturday 21 December 1901, Minto celebrated the opening of their School of Arts building. It was completed the previous September and an excited community celebrated with a concert and social. The build-up to the opening was enormous and the Hon. John Kidd was chosen to officially open the building. The program for the night included Miss Cookson's version of singing "The One-Legged Goose", and a rendition of the comic song "The Chinaman", by Mr Craft. One can only wonder about the lyrics of this version! The Chairman Mr Skerritt officially opened the building in the undisclosed absence of Mr Kidd.

The Minto School of Arts became an important social and cultural institution for much of the twentieth century. Over the years it was home to dances, bazaars, and meetings, and would serve the community as a library for a time.

Photographs in the library's collection show it still standing in 1993. Today the site at 6 Surrey Street is occupied by the Minto Community Hall.

The School of Arts in 1993 (Norm Campbell Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Members of Minto Show Community dressed as chorus girls at Minto School of Arts (l to r. Joe Hawkes; Jack Hadden; Bob Saunders; Allan Mitcherson; unidentified; John Rays and Roy Thomas) c.1953-54

The School of Arts in 1990 (Norm Campbell Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Campbelltown Herald, 8 January 1902

Freyne, Catherine 2010

The School of Arts Movement

In Dictionary of Sydney

The 1961 Flood

The Macarthur region experienced severe flooding this week and we are all looking forward to overdue sunshine. Floods are nothing new to Campbelltown. One of the worst was in 1961. Newspaper coverage was extensive and fortunately a number of photographs were taken to capture the extent of the inundation.

Locals Share The "Big Wet" was the headline from the Campbelltown-Ingleburn News that week, indicating that nowhere in the area escaped. The deluge started on the Saturday afternoon of November 18 and continued relentlessly through to the Sunday morning. The paper reported that "Residents awoke at dawn on Sunday morning to look out upon a sea of water". Traffic was driven to chaos as most of the roads around Campbelltown were closed. Residents in the low lying areas prepared to leave as the flood waters rose. The peak of the flood at Campbelltown was at 7.30am on that Sunday morning and downstream at Glenfield at 9am. Even Queen Street was under water and not trafficable until about 8am.

The severest flooding of homes in the municipality occurred at Macquarie Fields where Bunbury Curran Creek flooded adjacent areas. Police and rescuers there used rowing boats to visit the affected homes to ensure the occupants had left. This proved difficult however with the strong current.

The rain cleared up a little after Sunday and through to Monday. Then on the Tuesday morning just before 9am, a flash storm resulted in 160 points (40 millimetres) of rain in 20 minutes, and within 30 minutes caused flooding worse than on Sunday morning. The drainage from Sewer Lane (today's Dumaresq Street) blocked from excessive floodwater. Some of the places affected were Tripp's Garage and the Balalaika Cafe Library!

One of the areas heavily affected was Minto. Residents who has lived most or all of their life there thought it was the worst flooding in memory. The floor of the studio of well known sculptor Tom Bass was flooded and some models were affected.

The following photographs were taken at Minto from the Number 2 Railway Cottage.

Written by Andrew Allen

Source: 

Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, 21 November 1961 p1

Minto in the War Years

I came across an interesting interview in our collection last week. A Mr Dewar of Minto was interviewed in 1985 and he spoke about moving to Minto in 1942 and what the village was like during the war years. When the Dewar family first arrived in 1942, they lived on the corner of Pembroke and Stafford Streets for the first 18 months, before moving to Eagleview Road.

I would like to share some of the interview and display some of the photographs from the Dewar family that were donated to Campbelltown Library Service.

The following points are highlights from the interview:

• There were no street lights, very few houses, one shop and the houses were far apart.
• No houses were allowed to be built in the war years as material was needed for war purposes.
• There was only one school with one teacher in one classroom who taught from Kindergarten to Year 6.
• The roads were terrible. Redfern Road was the only street sealed. Most people walked.
• The Dewar's had a horse and sulky but mainly walked to the Railway Station. 
• Minto people had to go to Campbelltown to watch picture shows. Picnics were popular because that was one way that people got together for enjoyment.
• The swimming hole at Casula station was a popular place to swim.
• The Dewar's lived on Eagleview Road. It was named this because it lead up to a very high point at Leumeah Road, where you could see down to Bowral and across to Camden and then right around to the lights of Katoomba and Blackheath at night and then to Sydney. At some points you could see the Harbour Bridge.
• There was a dance every Friday night at the School of Arts.
• Telephone calls were handled by the switchboard operator Mr Williams at the Post Office. People only had a telephone between 9am and 6pm and none after midday on Sunday.
• There was only one shop where Minto Mall is now.
• Soldiers from the Ingleburn Army Camp would come to Minto to train and you would be walking along the street and would see a soldier behind the fence with a gun. They were training to go overseas.
• A local dairy would supply the Dewar's with milk. They would take their jars up to the dairy and get them filled up with cream and it only cost one shilling.

The Dewar home on the corner of Pembroke and Stafford Street in 1942

The Dewar family home in Eagleview Road, Minto

Mrs Helen Douglas Dewar with her sister Miss Jessie Abbott and granddaughter Anne outside the family home on Eagleview Road

Dave Dewar with daughter Anne outside his car

Presbyterian Sunday School picnic on the Dewar's property at Minto

All of the photographs above are from the Dewar Collection, Campbelltown City Library, Local Studies Collection.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

"Why Campbelltown?" Interviews

The Awakening of Art in Australia - Dora Ohlfsen

Dora Ohlfsen was a multi-talented sculptor, musician, and writer who lived and worked in Australia, Italy, Russia and England.  She was born Adela Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge in 1869 in Ballarat to parents Christian Hermann and Kate. The Ohlfsen-Bagges had 11 children, of whom four died before Dora’s birth. Her father was an engineer, and the family moved to NSW in about 1883 after he obtained a government position as a Civil Engineer.
In Sydney, Dora attended Sydney Girls High, and showed an aptitude for music and languages. She studied piano for five years under M. Henri Kowalski, and newspaper articles of the day gave glowing reports of her concerts and recitals. Dora then travelled to Europe in 1892 to continue her piano studies at the Berlin Conservatorium, but she was considered too good, and instead taken under the wing of the composer and pianist Moritz Moszkowski and given free lessons! Sadly, in about 1896 Dora developed neuritis in her wrist, and was forced to take leave from her music studies.
During this period Dora travelled extensively, visiting Norway, Finland, France, Germany and Russia. Whilst in Rome she took up painting and sculpture, and was exhibited at the Rome Exhibition in 1903. In St Petersburg she worked for the US Consul General, (possibly as a spy!), taught music, wrote articles, painted, and met her lifelong partner Elena von Kugelken. A return to Rome saw her studying sculpting and bronze medal portraiture at the Villa Medici. She began to gain fame for her work in medal art, and received many commissions, exhibiting regularly. Her medal “The awakening of art in Australia” gained her international recognition. It received an award at the Franco-British exhibition in London, and was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1909.

An image of Dora Ohlfsen from the Sydney Mail.

Meanwhile in Australia, Christian retired to a property “Wyangah” in Minto, with his wife, and daughters Kate and Emily and Margarita. Kate and Margarita both taught music at Campbelltown Girls School. In 1908 Christian died at the family home in Minto. Ohlfsen Road Minto is named for the Ohlfsen family. Dora returned to her family in 1912 after 20 years abroad. Tragically her sister Margarita, also a talented pianist and well known in musical circles, died a few days after Dora’s return. Dora remained in Sydney for several years, setting up a studio salon, receiving many commissions and appearing frequently in the social columns.  In 1913 she obtained a commission for a bronze panel to be placed above the Art Gallery of NSW entrance door. Returning to Rome in October of 1913, she worked on the panel over the next several years but the trustees cancelled the work after the war, to Dora’s great disappointment.
During the war years Dora became a nurse with the Red Cross, inspiring her to work, at her own expense, on the creation of an ANZAC medal, to be sold for the benefit of permanently disabled Australian and New Zealand veterans. After the war Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy and Dora received a commission to make a portrait medallion of him, visiting him five times to make studies of him as he worked. She was also entrusted with the design of a war memorial at the naval base of Formia – the first woman, and the first non-Italian to be given such a commission. She began the work in 1923, and it was dedicated in 1926. As fascism tightened its grip on Italy Dora moved away from the patronage of the state and began making work for the church, and took up fresco painting, and making icons and sculptures. Her movements in Italy were restricted during the years of the Second World War, and after the war she found it difficult to obtain work.
On the 9th February 1949, Dora Ohlfsen and her long-time partner the Countess Elena von Kugelken were found dead in their gas-filled Rome studio. A police inquest found the deaths to be accidental and they were buried together in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Although her tombstone reads “Australian by birth, Italian at heart”, Dora herself said  “The scent and sight of a piece of wattle,  the scent of  gum leaves, even the trying hot winds of Rome affect me indescribably and bring with them a nostalgia which shows me that my heart is entirely Australian”.

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
Trove
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/ohlfsen-dora/
Tout-Smith, D. (2003) Dora Ohlfsen, Artist & Medallist in Museums Victoria Collections

Merryvale

Merryvale (formerly known as Oakleigh) taken in September 1979

Built in the 1870s, Merryvale was a lovely old Victorian house at Minto. It stood adjacent to the old Saggart Fields School that was built in 1870. The house was originally known as Oakleigh.

Merryvale had stuccoed brick walls, open work cast-iron columns on the front verandah and symmetrically placed French windows. The verandah was on three sides of the house, and a timber portion right across the back of the house which included kitchen, bathroom, laundry, pantry, and a bedroom at each end of the verandah running around the brick part. For years it was surrounded by a magnificent garden with many mature trees.

Charles Rudder owned the farm and lived in the house from 1914 to 1920. Jack Westbury purchased it in 1920 and lived there with his wife and two daughters until 1939. He was mayor of Campbelltown from 1936 to 1938. Westbury ran dairy cattle and poultry on the farm before he was forced to sell his farm due to mounting debts.

Mayor Westbury

By the early 1980s the house was still in good condition as it had been occupied until then. Unfortunately, after it became unoccupied during the rest of the decade, vandals destroyed much of the house. At the beginning of 1990 a few Campbelltown councillors pushed for the planning department to ask the NSW Heritage Council to place an Interim Conservation Order on the site. The order never eventuated, despite an inspection later that year. In April 1992 Council approved demolition of the house.

Merryvale stood 200 yards (182 meters) from the intersection of Campbelltown and Redfern Roads, Minto. The site today is 4 Merryvale Road.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Grist Mills, Vol. 4, No. 4

Macarthur Advertiser, 21 February 1990 p12

Letter written by Joan Murphy (nee Westbury) to Campbelltown Council, 2 June 1980

In Memory of Violet

Occasionally in my research I stumble upon a story that tugs at the heartstrings. One such story was an accident that occurred at the St Andrews farm at Minto almost one hundred years ago.

On the afternoon of 10 May 1923, Phillip Gray was cutting chaff on the farm at St Andrews, assisted by his two sons. The chaff cutter was a horse-driven machine, and whilst engaged in the work five-year old Violet Gray walked into the shed without being seen by her father. Phillip was busy working the chaff cutter at the time. Violet reached across for a bag near the chaff cutter. Her frock was caught in the driving-wheel of the machine, and she was hurled around several times before her father was able to stop the machine. Poor Violet's head was injured too severely to be saved by the doctor and she died a few minutes after his arrival.

The Gray's had recently moved from near Robertson in the Southern Highlands. Violet was born at Kangaloon near Robertson in 1917. She was the second youngest of nine children born to Phillip and Ellie (nee Papworth). Phillip died in Iolanthe Street, Campbelltown in 1932 and Ellie died in 1964. All three are buried in St Peter's Cemetery in Campbelltown.

Violet's grave in St Peter's Anglican Cemetery. The dates for Violet are incorrect. She was born in 1917 and died in 1923. Her father Phillip died in 1932 and not 1930 and he was born in 1878 and not 1874.

 St Andrews Farm in the 1960s- scene of Violet Gray's accident in 1923. (Thomson Collection)

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1923, p12

Campbelltown Federation Register 1900-1920, 2008
Campbelltown District Family History Society Inc.

Tom Bass AM -sculptor

Whether you know it or not you have probably seen a sculpture by the artist Tom Bass. His works are not hidden away in art galleries but forever on public display outside company buildings, universities, hospitals, churches, wineries, parks and other open spaces across Australia and overseas. John Macdonald called his sculptures “part of the fabric of the city.” Much of that cloth was cut from the very earth of Minto.

Born in Lithgow in 1916 Tom’s father was an unsettled man. Constantly moving, the family ended up in the then slum of Erskineville. During the depression, Tom remembers they would shell almonds around the dinner table to earn money. Later employment included "shop boy" at the Mick Simmons store alongside fellow shop assistants Don Bradman and Stan McCabe who signed cricket bats to sell. He became a rouseabout, sandblaster, swaggie, golf course rubbish collector, pottery designer, mannequin maker and model to Norman Lindesay.

His local story, though, begins in 1937 when he met fashion artist Lenore Rays whose parents lived on a farm in Minto. During their romance, Tom would cycle from the Rocks at 5:00 a.m to arrive at Minto at 7:30, just after milking, for breakfast.
Tom found the sweeping countryside of Minto idyllic and the food heartening after experiencing a “hunger backlog” for much of his life.

After national service he married Lenore and they spent their honeymoon at the “Good Intent’ hotel which he always felt “seemed right”. With just five pounds, no job and living at Lenore’s parents’ the couple took a stroll one morning into the village of Minto where they met a man by his broken down car. Hearing that Tom was a painter, the stranger gave Tom a job. Walking a little further along Ben Lomond Road they discovered a vacant house for rent and so their two major problems were solved with one leisurely walk - though house painting wasn’t what Tom had had in mind! In 1948, with three children to look after, he graduated art school.

Tom’s life would, in so many ways, be shaped by pure happenstance. Needing a new chimney the Bass’ hired bricklayer  Jack Porter. Now ‘Old’ Jack was also a brick maker and knew the couple were artists. He asked if they’d ever worked with the local clay. They went outside and Jack pointed some out in the soil.

Tom’s passion for creation ignited and with a bucket of clay from a nearby hillside he fashioned a bowl which, though never fired, he kept the rest of his life.

During the 40’s through to the 60’s Bass won a myriad of commissions and worked to evolve a number of sculptural techniques at his Minto studio, first creating clay maquettes and then using “grass roots engineering” to deposit copper electrolytically for large scale sculptures when bronze casting was simply not available. Tom’s projects grew ever larger and when in 1953 he needed to cast a forty-foot high falconer for the Uni of NSW he rented half a barn from a neighbouring farmer.

The neighbour needed a dam and so Tom struck a deal – he used the farmer’s plough, scoop and horse and dug the dam for him in exchange for the clay he found there. Tom would use and re-use this clay for the rest of his working life.

In 1963 one sculpture, for shipping company P&O, courted controversy over its form. Recently opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies it soon featured on the cover of Oz magazine. Tom Bass’ P&O wall fountain was described as an attractive urinal with a continual flushing system with basins set conveniently at different heights. Nor did you immediately have to spend a penny to use it, you could P & O!

Cover of Oz magazine from February 1964 

From the University of Wollongong's online collection

Editor Richard Neville and his colleagues were charged with obscenity and put on trial. Tom Bass was called – for the defence and had pleasure in commenting that he thought it witty and a “fair comment.”

In 1967 Tom embarked on a major work over two metres high, twenty-one metres long and comprising three tonnes of copper the giant lintel would hang over the doors of the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

Tom works to complete the fittings on the underside of a lintel sculpture. c1967.
Jones Collection (Campbelltown City Library)

Tom talks to Minto Public School students about his sculpture in 1968 before it begins it's journey to Canberra.
Jones Collection (Campbelltown City Library)

Minto Public School pupils on excursion to the nation's capital view the Tom Bass sculpture in situ above the entrance to our National Library. 

Jones collection (Campbelltown City Library)

 After being unable to teach the way he wanted at the National Art School Tom spent a year cleaning up a warehouse in Sydney and in 1974 began the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School where he taught very late into his life. It still holds classes and the students still use the clay he dug from Minto all those years ago.

Tom wrote that the hard times of his life were “parts of my process of learning” and seemed even grateful for them on reflection. Tom died in 2010 aged 93 having said, ‘we will sleep well knowing we are all used up’

Elizabeth Macquarie Memorial, Mawson Park, his last major work inspired by his keen love of history.

Officially unveiled in August 2006 when Tom  was 90 years of age.

Written by
Michael Sullivan


References

- Tom Bass retrospective -Sydney celebrates the sculpture of Tom Bass", December 2006
- Tom Bass Totem Maker by Tom Bass and Harris Smart 1996
- Search for meaning Caroline Jones ABC radio.
- University of Wollongong

The Minto Monster

Minto has a long history of strange sightings and weird noises that have defied explanation. Many locals believe they all relate to the Minto Monster- a creature that has been terrorising residents since 1932.

In that year farmers were looking for a cow in the moonlight and were shocked to see a 'bellowing' unknown creature which seemed to glide above the ground. Other reports described it as a "dark object gliding through space, 18 inches off the ground." Locals believe this apparition relates to a drowning of a convict that occurred on a dam built by Thomas Rose. This dam was on the corner of Pembroke and Ben Lomond Road. A plaque outlining the origins of the dam and the story of the drowned convict can be found on this corner.

A handwritten letter was unearthed in 1984 from the files of the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society by historian and former resident Verlie Fowler. It describes the story of what happened that night in 1932. I won't give the full version here as it's too long, but this is part of it:

"It was full moon and my brother Jack, who was staying with us, was standing on the verandah scanning the paddock by the aid of the moon, watching for the return of our family cow which had strayed away early that morning.

Suddenly from the far distance, came the sound of a bellowing cow, and presently down the valley came the vision of an object which Jack at once thought to be the cow returning home.

He stepped off the verandah and walked toward our side fence which was only approx. 100ft. away from the line in which the "cow" was travelling.

As he approached the object, he realised it was neither walking nor running but just gliding through space, approx. 18 inches off the ground.

Unable to distinguish this dark object approaching, he called our small dog and sent him towards the object which, by then, was almost opposite him.

The dog made a rush, and instantly stopped, arched his back and retreated to my brother with his bristles standing straight up and stiff as though terrified."

The letter went on to say how "nothing more was seen of our 'Ghost' for about three years. Then my wife and I witnessed a similar experience to the one Jack had had. It is now over twenty years since this happening and we often wonder if this spirit has found rest."

The convict dam site in 1975 at corner of Pembroke Road and Ben Lomond Road, Minto with Minto Public School in left background
The Minto Monster was back in the news again in 1973 when claims that a mysterious creature had been 'terrorising' East Minto residents with its blood curdling screams. The monster's screams, according to one local resident, were like "a woeful cough that goes on and on, like a human being on their death bed". One bounty hunter suggested it was a lost species of extinct Tasmanian Tiger. The Campbelltown-Ingleburn News of the day quoted the hunter about his warnings about approaching the tiger "otherwise someone is going to finish up inside the animal's stomach." A group of residents conducted an armed search of Myrtle Creek but found nothing. (surprise surprise)

As recently as 1987, a Derby Street resident reported seeing a strange creature moving through the trees, making a terrible screeching noise. He described it as having "pointed ears and was a rust colour with three dark brown stripes." The resident told the local paper "If I saw him again, I'd start a discussion with him and entice him to wait for a photographer to come."

No reported sightings have been made since this last one in 1987. The mystery lives on.

Written by Andrew Allen

East Minto Public School

Unidentified people beside East Minto Public School in 1920 (Jessie Newham Collection)


East Minto Public School was opened in September 1898 in Hansens Road, East Minto. The School, like other surrounding schools, served children who lived within a 3 mile (5 kilometre) radius.

East Minto was a one-teacher school. The school's first teacher was Cecil George Browning Sutton. He remained at East Minto Public until he retired in 1921 and remained in the district as an active community member until his death in 1951. The altar at St James Minto is dedicated to him.

The next teacher was Percy Kable who also taught at Campbelltown Public School. He was followed by Mr Haines or Pop Haines as he was known. A former pupil by the name of Keith Longhurst remembered him playing cricket and rounders with the children at lunch time. He was regarded fondly by his pupils. A Miss Henderson taught years 1-2 while Mr Haines took 3-6.

Keith Longhurst described his days at East Minto further: "We were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. And I don't mean maybe- we WERE taught. The only thing that spoilt my school life, if any, was that I was shifted from 2nd class to 4th class in one jump and it was a long hop and of course I missed my tables that you had to learn in 3rd class".

In the 1930s the teachers were Mr Edwards and Miss Frost. The school's numbers remained high during this time. Names such as Etchells, Denison, Longhurst, Porter, Johnson and Hansen being prominent.

On October 2, 1947 the school was destroyed by fire. It started in the early morning and destroyed everything except a store-room. As farms had closed down and the population of East Minto had decreased after World War 2, it was decided not to rebuild. Students were being bused to nearby schools after the fire and eventually they would attend a new school at Minto.

East Minto Public School was located on the corner of Hansen's Road and Hereford Place.

East Minto Public School after the fire that destroyed it in 1947 (A.Denison Collection)


Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

FOWLER, Verlie
"Keith Longhurst- his life and times"
In Grist Mills
Vol. 17, No. 3, pp 2-37, November 2004

LISTON, Carol 1988
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History

Farmland Before The Urban Sprawl

Last week Campbelltown Library was generously given access to a large number of photographs from the collection of Peter and Marie Thomson. The Thomsons lived on the St Andrews property in the suburb of the same name. The homestead and its outbuildings located in Shiel Place are likely to be the oldest constructions in the Campbelltown Local Government Area. They possibly date from as early as 1810.

Most of the photographs from the collection are aerial shots taken by Marie as Peter flew his aircraft. They are of the land surrounding St Andrews farm and show Campbelltown, Raby and St Andrews Roads in the early 1960s. There are also aerial shots of Minto and Campbelltown from the same period. It's amazing to see how much has changed in the photographs in such a short time and compared with today's same scene.

I have chosen two photographs from the collection to show. Both scenes are virtually unrecognisable today.

This aerial photograph taken in the early 1960s is of Eschol Park House and its surrounding buildings. The road that runs behind the buildings and across the photo is Raby Road. Where the road changes to run in a straight direction is about where the large roundabout that leads to Eagle Vale Drive is today. The dams and creek have disappeared and are now where the Eschol Park Sports Complex is. The Eagle Vale Shopping Centre would be behind the last dam on the right of the photograph in the middle. (click on the image for a larger version)

This aerial photograph above is of Hannaford's Farm on Campbelltown Road. To get an idea of where this is, you can just make out the turnoff to the left that is Raby Road just after the house. The sight of Hannaford's Farm and house is now developed with housing in the suburb of St Andrews. In the background is Minto. The photograph was taken in 1960. (click on the image for a larger version)

Written by Andrew Allen

Who are they?

Can you help us identify these boys? The photograph shows two unidentified cyclists taken at the Minto railway level crossing gates in 1940.

The level crossing at Minto no longer exists. It was located at the southern end of Minto Railway Station platform. The level crossing was originally on the northern side of the station and there is still evidence of this crossing.

In the photograph there can be seen a house behind a paling fence. This was the gatekeeper's cottage. It was a large weatherboard house with three bedrooms, a large loungeroom, big dining room and a large laundry out the back. As you can see from the photo, it was right up against the railway line and would therefore prove extremely noisy for the people living there.

It was once customary for widows and families of railway men to be in charge of opening and closing railway gates at crossings. This was still the case by the time World War Two came around, although railway staff were then available to perform this task between 5am and 11pm. The hours after this were still the responsibility of the family at the gatekeeper's house. My source for this information is Bryan Chrystal whose family lived in the cottage in the years immediately after the war.

According to Bryan the cars would arrive at all hours of the night. "They would arrive at the gates, blow their horn and mum would get dad or myself or John up and we would open the gates winter and summer." He remembers when the big express trains left Ingleburn Station that "we could tell and it would be something like three or so minutes before they came past our place, because one of the lattices on the side verandah just used to rattle and you could hear it rattling".

Bryan went on to explain why the crossing was particularly busy "In those days, all the back roads were dirt and gravel. The only main road was the Campbelltown Highway, the Old Campbelltown Road and there was a tar sealed section from Campbelltown Road down Redfern Road through the railway gates and up to Pembroke Road. So a lot of people if they were in Campbelltown would travel by the tarred road and then down through Redfern Road through the railway gates at Minto and up to Pembroke Road which would save them from travelling all the way on the gravelled road which was Pembroke Road. Of course the cars didn't last as long because of the rutted roads, so to save their cars and the noise they came through the railway gates."

If anyone can identify these boys or provide more information on the level crossing, we would be grateful.

Bryan's interview can be accessed here at http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/CampbelltownRecollectionsstoriesfromourpast

The introduction to the interview was filmed on the site of the gatekeeper's cottage.

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

MURPHY, Joan
Minto: Approximately 1925-1935
In Grist Mills, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp50-59

A Skilled Craftsman

The name John Charles Rider would not be familiar to most Campbelltown people, yet his skills in glass decorating in the late 1800s and early 1900s won him the admiration from people around the country. Examples of his delicate crystal engravings are now highly sought after by collectors.

Born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England in 1850, Rider was apprenticed to glass manufacturers Thomas Webb and Sons at the age of 14. Rider settled in Sydney when the firm decided to open branches in Australia. After occupying various premises in the city, Rider moved with his wife and son Fred to Minto in 1896. However, he continued to work in the city and was assisted by his son. It is assumed that Rider commuted by train daily to the city since it would have incurred too great a risk transporting glass engraved at home to clients in the city.

Rider's method of glass decorating was carried out with a mixture of oil and fine abrasive powder. He was known to have used etching as a support for his engraving. His subjects were said to have displayed movement and strength and were more scenic than the works of his original masters- Thomas Webb and Sons. Often the tumblers he worked on were of thin and delicate metal and light in weight. His touch was equally as light and delicate.

Some examples of his creations that won him much praise were an engraved glass with arms of the colony of NSW and an engraved bucket-shaped tumbler featuring a group of 3 aborigines spearing a possum in a gum tree.

                            An example of Rider's engraving on a glass.

 
John moved with his wife and son to Condamine Street in Campbelltown just before he died aged 82 on 18 July 1934. He was buried at St Peter's Cemetery. Interestingly, the Campbelltown News carried no obituary notice. Fred did not follow his father's trade and took up farming in Minto before his move to Condamine Street. He died in 1951.

Are you fortunate enough to possess a Rider engraving? Please let us know.

The Rider home "Kiera-Ville" in Hansen's Road, East Minto. (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Written by Andrew Allen