Peter Benson: Memories of a Long and Wonderful Life- Part 2

Not long after Peter Benson graduated from dentistry he set up a business in Liverpool. While he was there Peter set up a small branch practice in Ingleburn, renting a premises in Ingleburn Council Chambers. That was next to the Ingleburn Hotel where Woolworths in now. There was a baby health centre on one side of the hall and Peter's dental surgery on the other.

       Ingleburn Council Chambers in Ingleburn Road 1917-1936

Peter became interested in hypnosis after trying it on a patient and finding it worked. One day he demonstrated this to a group of sceptical dentists at a meeting at the Western Suburbs Dental Society in Strathfield. Peter explains: "I said to some of my dental colleagues I don’t need to use any anaesthetic these days I just wave my hand. They said I was having them on. I said that I would give a demonstration. I took a patient down from Liverpool who was a very good hypnotic patient who needed an abscessed tooth out. I took my nurse, a lass named Shirley who was also a very good hypnotic subject. This was an all-male thing in those days and if they would go to tell a ribald joke, they would say we can’t tell that Shirley is present. I would say “go to sleep Shirley” and Shirley would go to sleep and they could tell their joke. Anyway, I said here is a man who needs a tooth out, it is an abscessed lower molar. I will hypnotise him, so can I have a volunteer who will extract this tooth. They hummed and hawed and in the end, a fellow said that he would do it. We had facilities there to wash up. He came and swung on this tooth which was quite difficult to take out. The patient Keith Coppin was his name looked up and said 200 dentists here and no bugger can take my tooth out. By that time the tooth was out and over with. That was my introduction to hypnosis." 

For Peter the principle of hypnosis is that you don't have to be in a deep trance to not feel pain so much. If you hypnotised everyone though, it would be very time consuming. He said that it would make the whole business a lot more comfortable.

One of Peter 's patients was former long serving Campbelltown Mayor Clive Tregear. Once he suggested to Clive that he was Captain Scott down in the Antarctic. He immediately went blue with the cold and shiver and his dog would come past and he would say get that husky out of here.

Another famous patient of Peter's was former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. "On one occasion he had bent down to tie his shoelace and broke one of his front teeth,’’ Peter said. "I asked him how urgent it was and he said ‘well I’ve got to speak in Parliament tomorrow and it wouldn’t look very good if I did it like this’, so I made him a quick crown." He said Mr Whitlam was a "clever fellow" who always remembered the names of his children and inquired after them. "He would make an appointment for 10am and at exactly 10am he would walk through the door". "I’d have local hairdressers who would show up 20 minutes late, but here’s the Prime Minister of Australia, never late once."

He also was required to treat victims of the Milperra Massacre in 1984. "One particular fellow had some of his front tooth shot off and the roots were still there, so I had to extract them. I had to go to court later on to give evidence about the extent of the damage."

Peter retired from dentistry at the age of 75. He had worked in Liverpool for 53 years. Besides dentistry he is also interested in horticulture, swimming and has been an active member of the scouts and the Lodge. He was made Pioneer Citizen of the Year in Liverpool and a Companion of the Order of Liverpool.

Peter's interview in full is available on Campbelltown Library's Local Information website.

Written by Andrew Allen

Peter Benson: Memories of a Long and Wonderful Life- Part 1

Photograph taken in December 2013 of Peter Benson outside his home in Sackville Street Ingleburn


The 29th of December last year marked the 90th birthday of one of Ingleburn's finest men. Peter Benson was born in Sackville Street, Ingleburn in 1924 and continues to live in the same street 90 years later. He has contributed so much to the community of Ingleburn and surrounding areas and is well known as a dentist ahead of his time, mainly through his use of hypnotherapy.

I interviewed Peter at his home last year and I thought I would share some of his fascinating stories with you. The first of this 2 part blog will look at some of his stories associated with growing up at Ingleburn. The next part will focus on his experiences as a dentist.

Peter's earliest memories are of grape vines growing all around his father's property at Ingleburn. His father grew table grapes for the table grapes market. He originally had a poultry farm there.

Peter remembered his school days with fondness. The young Benson boy walked 25 minutes through the bush to Ingleburn Primary School every day. It had 3 teachers for 100 pupils, all Anglo-Saxons until 3 Italian students arrived. This caused great interest for the students. One of them was Jimmy Simone who became a notable citizen and whom Peter became good friends with.

One of Peter's earliest memories was when he was 8 years old and he was visiting a neighbour who lived on a hill overlooking his house in Sackville Street. In the evening one of the ladies went outside to shake a tablecloth and said there was a huge fire. Everyone went out on the veranda to have a look and, to their horror, realised it was Peter's family's home "Bonny Brae" in flames. The family raced back in their 1924 Buick only to find nothing left. This was the place right next door to his present house where our interview was conducted. The Bensons had to rely on neighbours while their new house was being built. Their temporary home was a shed which caused much embarassment to young Peter.

He recalled how there wasn't one refrigerator in the district, not even in the shops. They had dry ice in canvas bags. The ice man used to come if you were wealthy enough to own an ice chest and you could buy ice. The children used to hang around his truck and get chips as they broke off. It was a big deal in those days.

Peter left Ingleburn Primary to go to Hurlstone Agricultural College. He would take the steam train. To supplement the steam trains they had a diesel or electric train called "Farting Fanny". It was a very small train that would service between the steam trains. Later, when he attended university in the city, he would take a train called the "Big 6". It would leave Central at 5.22pm and its first stop would be Ingleburn arriving at 1 minute to 6. According to Peter if you missed this one you were in big trouble!

Another early memory from his childhood was watching the Sydney Harbour Bridge being built. From the top of Eagleview Road he was able to watch the 2 spans of the bridge come together. As a young boy he found this interesting and fascinating. He described how unpopular Jack Lang, the Premier of the day, was and the uproar when Francis De Groot cut the ribbon before Lang could officially open the bridge.

Check out my next post on Peter's adulthood and in particular his time as a dentist using the breakthrough method of hypnotherapy. The story of him hypnotising a former Campbelltown mayor is a must read!

Written by Andrew Allen

Hurley's "Smash" Hit

As we are in the middle of the cricket season, I thought I would dig up a local news article that I came across a while ago. In 1926 A Mr Bland Clayton of Minto spoke to a reporter from the Campbelltown News about a cricket match that he remembered in Mawson Park around 1865. He explained that he was the person responsible for introducing round arm bowling to Campbelltown that year. This new method of bowling was met with much resistance from the locals however. He went on to say "the batsmen contributed no small share in disapproving of the new bowling, claiming that the ball was literally thrown at the batsmen and wicket." In this particular match between the locals and a Sydney team, one Sydney player refused to bowl round arm to the batsman John Hurley, a local business identity and ex-convict. He said he would demonstrate the way it should be bowled. This brought a smile to Hurley. His reply was to lift the ball with an almighty swing over Howe Street (this was a street that used to run between the park and St Peters Church) and it crashed through the window of the church. One wonders if the bowler considered giving round arm a try after this!

       Cricketer Alfred Mynn in 1853 bowling with the controversial round arm action

I noticed in an article from the same paper two weeks later there was a petition to have cricket played in Mawson Park again. Alderman Gamble was behind the push. Apparently the wicket had been destroyed in favour of a garden. However Gamble argued that "The reserve in its present state was nothing but a bird's nest, full of swallows and sparrows, it is an eyesore to the town and a disgrace to the Municipality, and the pitch was ruined for nothing but petty spite." Gamble's motion was lost in council and a cricket pitch was never made in the park again.

                     An undated photograph of Mawson Park (Clissold Collection)

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Campbelltown Ingleburn News, 22 January and 5 February 1926

McBarron, E.J.
Mawson Park, Campbelltown NSW: Notes on History and Trees

John Madden

The life of convict John Madden is a fascinating story. Let me briefly describe it to you.

John Madden was born in 1792 in County Galway, Ireland. Records disclose that at the Galway Assizes on 31 March, 1820 he, together with three other prisoners, were indicted for appearing in arms as Ribbonmen, and for administering unlawful oaths. Ribbonmen were a 19th-century popular movement of Catholics in Ireland. They were active against landlords and their agents, and were ideologically and sometimes violently opposed to the Orange Order. The name is derived from a green ribbon worn as a badge in a button-hole by the members.

In Madden's defence, one of the jury is reported to have said, "... that Madden was in his company as a soldier, in the Galway Militia, and that he was a well-conducted man." Yet another, who gave evidence, swore on oath that he knew "... all the prisoners, and never heard anything against them until this business." Nonetheless, Madden and two other prisoners were found guilty and the fourth was acquitted. Madden and another was sentenced to be transported for life.

He arrived as a convict in the colony on the Dorothy on September 19, 1820. John's description in the convict register describe him as 5 feet 4 inches tall, of sallow complexion, having dark to greying hair, hazel coloured eyes and a scar over his left eyebrow. He was a shoemaker and labourer.

John was assigned to Thomas Reddall in 1823 on his Smeaton property and later on his Glen Alpine property. His good behaviour earned him the privilege of a Ticket-of-Leave which, on the recommendation of the Airds Bench, was granted on 22 June 1831.

In 1834 John purchased three-quarters of an acre of land on Menangle Road, part of Paul Huon’s grant. A year later, on 16 November, 1835, John petitioned His Excellency, Major General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB, Governor and Commander in Chief, to be "re-united to the Family from which he was separated at the Time of Transportation". Subsequently, sons Patrick and John embarked on the Elphinstone, a convict ship which left Kingstown Harbour, Dublin on 8 September 1838 bound for New South Wales. Bridget, his wife, sailed from Dublin one week earlier aboard the Margaret but, according to shipping records, daughter, Mary, by this time, had already died. They were all lated re-united with John in Campbelltown. Imagine how exciting this wouldv'e been for them all after so long apart!

John and his wife Bridget lived at Madden's Hill on Menangle Road on land which, today, is in the vicinity of the Sydney Water Supply Channel, north of the Sugarloaf Tunnel, Campbelltown.

John Madden died in 1851 aged 58 years and is buried in St John's Catholic Cemetery. Unfortunately his headstone has recently fallen over.

 

John Madden's headstone in St John's Cemetery in Campbelltown before it tumbled over (Verlie Fowler Collection).

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

https://sites.google.com/site/ourfamilysitegroup/Home/madden/madden-john

Campbelltown Pioneer Register 1800-1900

 

 

Rain, Wind and Fire

The month of January has a history of inflicting natural disasters on Campbelltown.  Arguably the three worst natural disasters to strike the town have all occured in January. The first disaster was in 1901 when a fierce storm struck bringing "phenomenal rainfall". The second occured in 1929 when a devastating fire destroyed property in the area and the third in 1944 when a violent tornado hit Campbelltown. I thought I would give a summary of all three, mostly sourced from newspapers of the day.

The Storm

The district had never seen anything like it before. It was Monday January 21, 1901. Campbelltown residents felt a storm brewing for most of that afternoon but none of them could imagine the ferocity it would bring. At 6pm the rain began to fall and it lasted for around 4 hours. The Campbelltown Herald reported that it "raged with exceptional severity and did incalculable damage". The worst part of it was between 7 and 8pm with the streets in the low lying portions of the town converted into river-like watercourses. Many businesses suffered severe damage but it seems that a Mr E.J. Whyte, chemist, was the most affected. He lost furniture and clothing to the value of 30 pounds and his house became a "mass of mud and filth". George Chinnocks, a butcher, also lost large amounts of stock from his slaughteryard. Roads were badly affected and cost an immense amount of money to repair.

The storm finally abated around 11pm and 6 and a half inches were recorded in the gauge. The Herald described it as "something to remember".

The Fire

"Fire- Damnable Enemy" screamed the headlines on the front of the Campbelltown News for January 11, 1929. It went on to describe it with further dramatic sub-headings of: Devastating Sights, Homeless Families, Ruination to Several Settlers and Miraculous Escape of Human Lives.

Early on Wednesday afternoon January 9, 1929 a spark from a passing train at Leumeah commenced the most devastating fire in Campbelltown's history. The flames soon reached the bush country of East Minto and swept through thousands of acres, devouring everything before it. The rural bushland now known as the suburbs of Wedderburn, St Helens Park, Airds, Ruse, Kentlyn and Leumeah was devastated. The area of East Minto, now known as Minto Heights, was the worst affected.

An account of the fire was provided by East Minto resident George Mardell.  He told the Campbelltown News "All at once I saw the flames lash out through a narrow strip right at my home and my wife only had time to pick up the baby and run". "I tried to beat off the flames, but could not...(and) we stayed in the cultivation paddock for some time, and saw we were likely to be hemmed in, so we made a dash for Bendorp's".

The houses of three settlers were destroyed and five others were severely damaged. The buildings were not insured. One of the homes destroyed belonged to a Mrs Gracey in Junction Road. When the blaze was approaching, Mrs Gracey locked herself inside. The door had to be chopped down with an axe to rescue her.

The fire caused many people to suffer very serious loss and hardship, which few could afford as the Great Depression approached. The fire was never extinguished and eventually burnt itself out with a loss of many thousands of pounds worth of property.

The Tornado

Probably the most spectacular of the three natural disasters was the tornado of January 1944. The Camden News reported: "The most violent storm in the history of Campbelltown, accompanied by rain and hail lashed through the whole width of the township. Dark clouds thickened over the town and a strong wind rose, followed by rain. A heavy gale sprung up which brought heavy rain and hail. This momentarily developed into a cyclonic tornado with power reaching a velocity at its peak of 150 miles per hour.''

No lives were lost although some of the inhabitants suffered injuries and were very shocked. However, more than 30 buildings were severely damaged and there was a blackout. Smaller buildings such as stables and sheds were demolished and there were many residents who suffered great inconvenience when their outhouses were blown away. Many trees were uprooted. The town was strewn with sheets of iron and rafters from the buildings that were damaged. The town received about 13mm in 10 minutes.

Let's hope this January passes quietly with no dramatic weather event!

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 17 January 1944, page 4
Campbelltown News, Friday 11 January 1929, page 1
The Campbelltown Herald, Wednesday 23 January 1901, page 2

McGill, Jeff 1995
Campbelltown's Streets and Suburbs

Fire Fighters of Kentlyn: History of the Kentlyn Bush Fire Brigade 1946-1996