Swimming in the Cattle Tank and Reservoir

Located in Allman Street, Campbelltown are the historic Cattle Tank and Reservoir. Both were constructed and completed by convict labour in the 1830s. They were regarded as necessary as water supply was a constant problem for both farmers and townspeople living in Campbelltown.

Both the Cattle Tank and Reservoir appear mostly to have had an ample supply of water, even during droughts. So of course one can imagine how alluring they were to the locals on a sweltering Campbelltown day. An interesting photograph in our collection is of "Jack's Day"- a regatta held at the site in 1917. It shows a crowd of people gathered around the Reservoir and a couple of local lads cooling off in the water. The newspaper reported "A band of 20 performers headed a procession from the railway station to Hurley Park, where juvenile sports and aquatic displays in the once tabooed reservoir exhilarated spectators".

The Cattle Tank has also been the scene of drowning tragedies over the years. In 1925 seven year old Leniel Johnson drowned after she accidently fell in while playing with her sister. She had been in the water for 20 minutes before she was found but couldn't be revived. Ten years later sixteen year old Betty Humphreys drowned. She had been suffering a nervous breakdown according to the 'Campbelltown News' and ran from her home in Allman Street and jumped in the Cattle Tank. Despite attempts from a young boy named Jack Hadden, she was unable to be revived. The newspaper mentions a mass of tangled wire and rubbish under the water so the days of a clean place to swim appear to be gone by then.

I interviewed both Jim Summers and David Milliken and they described their experiences of swimming in the Cattle Tank when they were boys. Jim, who was born in 1929, recalls his days of swimming there: "we used to swim in those and when I was a kid they were always full of water. We used to catch fish and eels in the smaller one on the bottom side. The tanks would dry up and you could walk in them. Then they would fill up and the fish and eels would be back, they must stay under the mud." He also went on to explain how there used to be a creek that ran down from the tanks in Allman Street. It ran down to Oxley Street and came out in Dumaresq Street. In the late 1930s council, worried about flooding from the Reservoir and tank, decided to drain water from them. Only a year earlier however, there were plans to convert the Cattle Tank into a 'glorified swimming hole', with preliminary estimates of the cost put at 400 pounds for cleaning out and concreting the tank, plus 5 pounds per refill. The proposal was eventually dropped in the late 1930's after another expert calculated a more realistic cost of 2500 pounds for the conversion.

David Milliken described swimming in there as a kid with whatever was underneath! "Every now and again you would get a bite on your foot from a yabby."

The Cattle Tank continued to be used to water stock as late as 1960. By the early 1960s, both the Reservoir and Cattle Tank were all but dry. Subsequent earthworks for a playing field at the top of Hurley Park radically changed the topography of the site. Although dried out today, both catchments continue to provide recreational facilities for nearby residents- albeit in the form of a cricket pitch or sunken volleyball arena.

 

The photograph above shows the regatta held on the cattle tank in 1917. Note the young boy in the water.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

PEDDELL, Wendy
Conservation Plan Stage 1: Campbelltown Reservoir and Cattle Tank

Campbelltown Water Supply and Cattle Tank: A Conservation Plan

Interviews with Jim Summers and David Milliken held at Campbelltown Library

Reeve's Emporium

This photograph shows Reeve's Emporium on the corner of Queen and Patrick Streets around 1900. (Judith Roberts Collection)

Reeve's Emporium was located on the north-west corner of Queen and Patrick Streets in Campbelltown or at 135 Queen Street. The site today is occupied by Richardson and Wrench Real Estate.

Built in 1897, it was of rendered brick, of two storeys, and with a corrugated iron roof. It also had a balcony up until 1951 when a motorcycle crashed into it and it had to be demolished. The shop windows had roller shutters which were lowered after business hours. For late shopping on Friday nights, three lanterns were suspended under the awnings. These operated on petrol, and had to be pumped and fitted by a mantle.

It was founded and erected by Thomas Henry Reeve. A relative named Will Craft helped Reeve build it. Thomas Reeve moved to Campbelltown from the city where he had an ironmongery business in George Street, Haymarket.

The store sold drapery, ladies' and gentlemen's wear, boots and shoes, axes and pruning knives, buggy whips, double breech loading guns and gunpowder, and toys. Millinery, drapery and haberdashery were also popular items sold. It sold heaps of sheet music, musical manuscript books and song albums.The emporium also dealt in Kynock brand ammunition, at least to the mid-1920s.

The business was sold in 1954 to A.J. Daniel. It later became Lombard Discounts Pty. Ltd. and the CBC bank, although it had been greatly modified.

Written by Andrew Allen

Campbelltown Hospital Opening

Campbelltown Library was recently sent the above photograph from a previous employee who believed it might be the Campbelltown Hospital. The photograph shows a parachutist about to land on a nearby field. We were able to confirm that it is the hospital and determine that it was taken on the opening day.

 

The first stage of Campbelltown Hospital was officially opened by Premiere Neville Wran on the 1^st of October 1977. In attendance , according to the local newspaper, were a crowd of ‘1500 deeply interested people.’

Mr Wran paid tribute to Gough Whitlam who had in 1974, shamed the State government into keeping an election promise to build the hospital. Earlier Mr Whitlam said ‘although the areas to the south and west were referred to as suburbs, people did not realise how much they were entitled to have the facilities that any capital city would have.’

The Mayor Gordon Fetterplace said ‘no less than four governments had been involved in the project’ and Cliff Mallam paid tribute to the Campbelltown Auxiliary for the sum of $30,000 it had fund raised over 24 years.

Using a ‘fast tracking system’ of construction the hospital came in under budget at $9.8 million instead of 11. Fast tracking it was explained, ‘allows the construction of the outer shell first’ while detailed interior planning continues.

Mr Mallam’s speech also made a plea to consider incorporating a helipad as recently it took five hours for an ambulance to reach one of the area’s coal mines.

Our hospital began with 120 beds, staffed by 126 nursing personnel,  seven doctors and 21 paramedical officers greatly reducing the strain on Camden and Liverpool hospitals.

References: Campbelltown – A modern History Jeff McGill

The Macarthur Advertiser Oct 5 1977 p1,13/ Sep 28 p3

Our First Mayor- A Tragic Ending

Not a lot is known about Campbelltown's first mayor John Ahearn. Local author and journalist Jeff McGill published a book on mayors of Campbelltown in 1996 and outlined what little information there is about him. Jeff wrote that "as mysteriously as Alderman Ahearn appeared on the pages of our history, he departed". Now, after a recent telephone call by a relative named Mrs Hobbs, I am able to explain what happened to our first mayor. It was a sad discovery.

John Ahearn was elected as Campbelltown's first mayor in February 1882, simply because he was a newcomer, who had less to do with the town than any other alderman. Most of the new council's members came from old local families with entrenched rivalries. John Ahearn was from nearby Appin and therefore no established faction could grab power.

Alderman Ahearn became frustrated by some of the parochial attitudes he encountered. When a tender for kerbing and guttering was offered he supported a new resident who had a cheaper quote. He was embarrassed however when his colleagues voted for a contract that was more expensive but from an old-town family.

It appeared that John Ahearn would have lost the Mayorship after his first term but the death of his sister forced him to leave the district. His sister Eliza died suddenly and left four children behind. Her husband was W.T. Airey who was also serving on council as an alderman.

John Ahearn was a contractor when he wasn't serving council. He was involved in a number of important constructions throughout Sydney, including construction of the Centennial Park reservoir.

After Campbelltown he completed terms as mayor for Burwood and Auburn councils. He also served as mayor of Mudgee council.

On the 18th of June, 1909 John Ahearn took his own life. He shot himself through the head at his office on the Arncliffe-Bexley tramline, for the construction of which he held the contract. A revolver was found in his hand by his son and another man. John had been depressed at the time. He was buried at St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery at Parramatta. A non-descript headstone marking the final resting place of Campbelltown's first mayor.

 

Written by Andrew Allen 

 

 

Sources:

McGill, Jeff 1996
First Citizen: Mayors of Campbelltown since 1882
Campbelltown: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society

Sydney Morning Herald, June 19, 1909, p16

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