More Rare Photographs

The library has purchased the remaining rare historical photographs of Campbelltown places from the State Library of Victoria (see http://campbelltown-library.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/historic-photographs-unearthed.html). It's exciting to be able to show these wonderful old images to you at a high resolution. So here they are! Remember to click on the image for a larger one.

This photograph has the title of "One of the 1st Mills in the Colony Erected about 1817". The mill was actually erected in 1845 by Laurence Kendall and William Orr. It operated as a steam-driven flour mill. In 1861 Sims, Barker and Bocking leased the mill. James Bocking later purchased the property and it became Commerce House. Bocking and his sons used it as a grocer, baker, draper and general store.

Dr William Mawson demolished the mill in the 1920s and converted the adjoining mill house into Milby Private Hospital.

This scene has changed dramatically. The only structure remaining is the now dilapidated old Fisher's Ghost Restaurant, the former mill house. The waterway now runs underground close to where McDonald's drive through is now located. It once ran under a bridge that spanned Queen Street in front of today's entrance to Campbelltown Mall's underground car park. The photo is dated 1924.

This image has the title of "Old Mill at Mt Gilead, Campbelltown". Note the man sitting in the window at the bottom. The wooden sails have almost gone. This shot was taken in 1924, almost a hundred years after it was constructed. The windmill still stands today on the property and can be seen from Appin Road.

This one is of St Peter's Church of England taken on April 4, 1940. On the western side of the church is Howe Street which used to run from Browne Street to Cordeaux Street. It was removed in late 1969 and grass laid on it for an extension of Mawson Park.

The title of this photo really intrigued me when I first read it. It's titled "Convict Gaol at Mt Gilead Near Campbelltown" and taken in 1925. I had never heard of a gaol at Mt Gilead and wondered why it was there. After doing some research I believe the photograph could be the old servant's barracks. In the July 1994 issue of Grist Mills, Verlie Fowler refers to a photograph taken by Frank Walker entitled "the old barracks, used for accommodation of the assigned servants in the early days". It showed the building without a roof like this one. Is this Walker's actual photograph? She did, however, state that evidence had yet to be found to support this being a barracks.

Written by Andrew Allen

Mt Gilead Windmill

 

 

 

An article in the local newspaper last week on the historic windmill at Mt Gilead prompted me to recall an interesting fact concerning its history. The article in the Macarthur Advertiser discussed the latest attempts to have the windmill listed on the State Register. The construction built from convict labour is rapidly falling into disrepair.

The windmill at the Mt Gilead property on Appin Road was built by Thomas Rose in 1836. The mill tower, which is built from sandstone quarried on the property, is 60 feet in height, comprises four stories, and is reputed to have contained the finest millstones in the colony. No metal was used in its construction and all the moving parts were fashioned from ironbark grown on the property. The tapering stone tower was topped by a moveable cap made of wood (as the sails had to be always facing into the wind, the moveable cap carried the sails and driving shaft). A stone wall surrounded the windmill, to protect animals from touching the rotating sails.

The interesting fact I thought I would raise was that on the night of August 20, 1857 the mill was struck by lightning and received minimal damage. Coincidentally this was the same storm that caused the Dunbar to be famously wrecked at South Head killing 121 souls.

Mount Gilead is the last remaining tower mill in New South Wales. It has been and still is a favourite study for artists and photographers. Lets hope it can be listed on the State Register and survive for centuries to come.

Written by Andrew Allen

Update: I recently finished reading Larry Writer's excellent book "The Shipwreck" which tells the story of the Dunbar. In it he describes the storm that night. The winds were from the south east and there is no mention of lightning in Larry's book or the original newspaper reports. Lightning to my knowledge is not usually associated with an east coast low such as the one that struck that night. 

Sources:

Morris, John F.
Mount Gilead Estate and Windmill, Campbelltown
In Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings
Vol. 27 (5), pp 359-66, 1941

Fowler, Verlie
Mount Gilead
In Grist Mills
Vol. 7 (4), 66-87, July 1994