Gracius Broinowski

Gracius Joseph Broinowski, artist and ornithologist, was born in Poland in 1837. He sailed to Australia in 1857 on a windjammer from London and first went ashore at Portland in Victoria. Broinowski soon began painting landscapes and scenes of various towns around Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. After settling in Sydney in 1880 and teaching painting to private pupils and at colleges, he then lectured on art and exhibited at various showings of the Royal Art Society.

Broinowski was commissioned by the Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales to draw pictures of Australian birds and mammals. These would be hung in classrooms in many schools. They later became bound and the Mitchell and National Libraries showed them as "Birds and Mammals of Australia". In 1888 he published "The cockatoos and nestors of Australia and New Zealand".

Broinowski had begun in 1887 to prepare a series of volumes entitled "The Birds of Australia". The works were accomplished while he was farming at Wedderburn and was completed in 1891. He took up a tract of land on today's Minerva Road, intending to divide it amongst his sons, and for some years endeavoured, with the help of his sons, to make farming pay. However, this was not a success and he lost money. Although he was able to build an attractive home with outstanding gardens, his financial difficulties meant he was unable to keep it going.

The house he built at Wedderburn with his wife Jane and children was called "Morning Glory". It was one of the earliest cottages built in Wedderburn. The building as it stands has a series of three pitched roofs (resembling a saw tooth roof). The building is an unusual design but it appears most of the original outside fabric has been removed. It is listed under the New South Wales Heritage Act. Today it is used as a church camp or retreat.

Gracius Broinowski died at Mosman on April 12, 1913. His reputation survives, not just as an artist, but as an advocate of fauna conservation.

                        

                       "Morning Glory" is now the Christian Campsite at Wedderburn. This shot was taken in 1984 by Verlie Fowler (Fowler Collection).

Sources:

Australian Dictionary of Biography: Melbourne University Press

"The Emu" Vol. 16, 1942

Written by Andrew Allen

The Woolwash

Whenever I ask the older generation of Campbelltown where they swam as children the answer is almost always at the Woolwash. The area known as the Woolwash is 4km east of Campbelltown and is a deep gorge along the Georges River around its junction with O'Hare's Creek. Although rumour has it that the Woolwash was at one time used for washing wool, there appears to be no evidence to support this story. In the early days people used the water for their own purposes, and also to water their cattle. But it was as a swimming hole in the searing summer heat of Campbelltown that the Woolwash gained its reputation.

It was during the 1930s that the Woolwash began to be the town's most popular swimming and picnic area. Many Campbelltown residents of that time remember crowds of about 100 people sitting and sunbaking on the sandy beach on the eastern side of the river. Unlike the muddy water hole at Bow Bowing Creek, the Woolwash water was normally very clear, unpolluted and nearly always flowing. It became so popular that in 1946 a kiosk was built and leased by Fred Lower. In 1955, council constructed a parking area near the top of the Woolwash road. Prior to its construction there were often up to about 50 cars parked along the road down to the turning area on a good weekend. A second car park was constructed in 1969 along with a kiosk and dressing sheds.

The area around the Woolwash was very popular for boy scout camps between the two world wars. Two camping areas were established in the 1930s about 200 metres up O'Hare's Creek, one on either side of the creek.

According to local resident Col Braithwaite, broken glass bottles were a major hazard in the area. People drank the contents of the glass soft drink bottles, threw the bottles into the water, then proceeded to throw stones at the bottles until they broke and sank. Many children often received bad cuts to their feet. Still, this was a small price to pay for a day at Campbelltown's charming piece of paradise.

Four unidentified children of the Denison family at the "The Woolwash" A. Denison Collection

Sources:

"Around the Woolwash in the 1930s and 1940s" by Col Braithwaite in "Grist Mills" vol 16 no 1 p26

Written by Andrew Allen