"The Campbelltown Sensation" Update (Link now fixed!)

Check out an update to one of my posts from a few years ago.


https://campbelltown-library.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Kershler%20Thomas%20Oxley

Catastrophic Lightning Strike

As I sit at my desk this afternoon anticipating a much welcome storm brewing from the south, I remember recently reading about a devastating storm that struck Campbelltown a time long ago. The day was the 9th of February 1856 and the Sydney Morning Herald described it as "the most terrific storm opened that has occurred within the memory of the oldest resident".  I'm amused at the language that was used then to describe such events, like the apocalypse had arrived and the earth would be destroyed "...lightning shot down in vivid streams, awfully grand, quivering like blades of fire in deviling streaks; filtering like radiant streamers till lost among the clouds, which looked like giant batteries erected in the heavens; when on a sudden, a flash of lightning with startling thunder, that was sufficient to appal the stoutest heart and shake the strongest nerve, induced each one to conceive his own doom at hand".

A bolt of lightening had struck the road near Fieldhouse's Store. It appeared to bounce off the road and struck the shop with an almighty force. It smashed the doors, windows and shelves into "atoms" as the report described, and set fire to various articles. Inside the shop were the Fieldhouse brothers, a Mr Whiteman and a little girl named Byrne. Edwin Fieldhouse was knocked down senseless and lost his sight for around five minutes. The others were all injured but survived the experience. The Fieldhouse's suffered severe financial losses and it was feared that the shop would be re-built. It wasn't and in fact still stands today at the southern end of Queen Street.

An early but undated photograph of Fieldhouse's Store.

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 12 February 1856, p5

Arnold St Claire

During the 1960s, Arnold St Claire lived in Campbelltown with his wife Claire. A talented artist, he was a finalist in the 1965 Sulman Prize, and a finalist in the 1966 Archibald Prize. It was during this period that Arnold was also a regular cartoonist for the Campbelltown Ingleburn News.
A real character, Arnold held an art exhibition in a butchers shop in 1966, with 35 paintings on show. He also painted murals on the walls of the Railway Hotel in Queen Street.
Gordon Fetterplace remembered Arnold pulling off the "most successful hoax in Campbelltown history". The artist had negotiated with Fontainebleux (the former sister city of Campbelltown), for a prestigious local exhibition of French art. Gordon recalled dropping in to see Arnold a few nights before the exhibition to find him hard at work painting a number of boat and wharf scenes. Unfortunately the art had failed to arrive from France, so Arnold was improvising. The big night was a huge turnout, with art critics and official visitors, all looking at Arnold's paintings!
During the early seventies, Arnold completed a 3 tonne, 7 metre high statue of a rearing horse for  his friend Tommy Sewell, Hawkesbury businessman and horse trainer. The statue stood in the forecourt of Tommy's Tourmaline Hotel, named after Tommy's sprinter King Tourmaline. Tommy Sewell said of Arnold "he was a wonderful man - never before or since have i ever met a character like him".
Sadly, Arnold suffered from mental illness and alcoholism, and during one of his stints in hospital, he painted murals on the walls of the Male Admission Ward building, part of the Parramatta Psychiatric Centre Complex.

Mural at Parramatta, Photo Dr Terry Smith 1985

Mural at Parramatta, Photo Dr Terry Smith 1985

Arnold died on the 24th May 1974 in Hornsby Hospital of pneumonia following 8 days of the now infamous and discredited "Deep Sleep Therapy" administered at the Chelmsford Private Hospital.
A recent interviewee said of Arnold "He was one of our first known resident artists. A fantastic gifted man".

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources
Campbelltown Clippings - Jeff McGill
http://picbear.com/fleet_street_heritage_precinct
http://hdinews.com.au/hawkesburys-finest-tommy-sewell/
Local Studies Pamphlet Files
Robyn Watson Oral History
Trove

Big Industry Moves In

Campbelltown had to wait until 1956 before it got its first major industrial factory. Crompton Parkinson, an electrical equipment manufacturer, purchased the Blair Athol estate in July 1945, but postwar credit restrictions delayed its move to Campbelltown. This was much longer than the two years they were expecting to be in operation by. Already a major enterprise in Five Dock, the original factory had little room to expand. Campbelltown had been chosen because of its proximity by road to the raw material supplies at Port Kembla and the Sydney market. It was also cheaper land that wasn't hemmed in by an urban area. Despite an inadequate water supply or road access, the western side of the railway was eventually chosen to expand its production facilities. The company soon became the biggest employer in Campbelltown.

Crompton Parkinson's new factory can be seen in the foreground of this 1957 aerial shot of Campbelltown (Lennie Hayes Collection)

Crompton Parkinson's main production line consisted of hand-wound electric motors and electric pumps of very good reputation. The products were used in many places, ranging from the Blue Mountains' sky-way service to many backyard pools and ponds. Virtually every petrol bowser had the work of Crompton Parkinson employees within.

Two workers on the assembly line

An addition to the plant was built in 1978, which gave the facility an area of 155,000 square feet. By 1980, when it was at its peak, Crompton Parkinson employed 120 at its Campbelltown facility. In 1989 the company became Brook Crompton Betts as a result of a merger with Betts Electrical Motors. In the early 1990's new management saw the decision to close down the Campbelltown operation and move it to Revesby. After only six months this plant closed down too and the company moved overseas.

Staff Christmas Party in 1991

Crompton Parkinson started a move by a number of major industries to move to Campbelltown. These included clothing and table linen manufacturer Nile Industries who opened in 1960. It was followed by Harco Steel in 1968, Blue Strand Industries in 1969 and Bullmer's Strongbow Cider in 1970.

A Hazardous Journey

The Campbelltown to Camden train, affectionately known as 'Pansy', is remembered fondly by those who remember her. The train or tram service as it was known, played an important role in transporting people from both towns to their required destination. Its stations between Campbelltown and Camden included: Maryfields, Kenny Hill, Curran's Hill, Graham's Hill, Narellan and Elderslie. How valuable would it be today and in the future if the line was still functioning. From most accounts the service ran efficiently with the only occasional hiccup of the steep slope up Kenny Hill. Look a little further into the earlier history of the line however and a more troubled picture is revealed.

Incredibly, only week after its opening in March 1882 the train experienced its first accident. At about 5pm a train laden with people who had attended a land sale at Camden was approaching the main line at Campbelltown. The train on descending an incline smashed into a number of ballast wagons. Many were injured, including a Mrs Evans of Glebe who suffered the worst injuries.

Only a couple of months later on a dark night, the train was badly damaged after it ploughed into a large pile of logs, deliberately stacked against the line. The culprits or 'cowardly wretches' as the local paper described them, have always remained a mystery. Whether it was an angry farmer or drunken louts is unclear. The driver and passengers thought an animal had been runover. After the logs had been cleared and the train moved on a second obstruction was encountered. Another larger log was left on the tracks. Several passengers then chose to walk into Campbelltown rather than risk their lives further.

Tramcar used on the Campbelltown-Camden line at Moore Park in the 1880s (photo courtesy of Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Accidents continued on the line in the ensuing years. In 1889 a valuable horse was killed on the line near Narellan and forced the engine to be thrown off the rails. A cow was killed by a tram a few evenings before that. In 1903 a gang of men employed on the line were returning one night from Narellan to Campbelltown on a trolly when it collided with a cow on the rails. The men were all thrown violently on to the metal and suffered serious injuries. The fate of the cow couldn't be ascertained!

In 1905 a man's foot had to be amputated after a serious accident. Mr Alfred Clissold was riding on the rear platform on the last carriage. The guard failed to pull the points and the carriage crashed into the buffer stop causing Alfred to lose the fore part of one foot. He was awarded 1000 pounds damages.Two years later the tram collided with a horse. A boy was riding his horse after a cow that had walked onto the line. He didn't hear the approaching train, which struck the horse and threw him on the roadway. The boy escaped with severe bruising however the horse had to be destroyed and a dog following the boy was unfortunately run over by the tram and decapitated.

 

Camden tram stranded by flooded Nepean River at Elderslie in July 1899 (Photo courtesy of Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Further carnage occurred in 1914 when an engine collided with a number of carriages near Campbelltown station, causing injuries to two people. In 1919 the train crashed through a flock of sheep on the line. In 1956 a fatality occurred where the Hume Highway crossed the line at Narellan. A 20 Class engine was struck by a brand new truck. Tragically, the owners had invited two of their friends to accompany them when they picked up their new truck from Sydney. All four occupants of the truck lost their lives. No further dramas appear to have struck after this.

The line closed down in December 1962, with a special journey held on January 1, 1963- the last journey 'Pansy' would make.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

McGill, Jeff 1993
Campbelltown Clippings

Pearson, Malcolm 2013
Recollections of Pansy (The Camden Train)

Various newspaper articles provided by Trove

The Way We Were - Part 6

Here is the next part of our "Way We Were" series.

Steve Roach Collection, c1960.

Above is the former Fieldhouse Store, later home to the Campbelltown News. Next door is the Jolly Miller Hotel built in the late 1840s, and later known as the Commonwealth Hotel, converted to residential flats in 1939.

Shown in 2017, now home to the Macarthur Legal Centre. The building next door was demolished in the early 1960s.

Oliver Collection, 1950

1 Minto Road, (corner Redfern and Minto Rds), William Harris' store, with Post Office and residence attached, built c1925 on land previously owned by the Porter family.

The shop now houses Minto Newsagents, and no longer sits alone on the corner!

Soiland Collection, c1945

Front view of the Minto store.

The same view 72 years on. A much busier corner than it used to be, with the railway station and a number of shops adjoining on either side.

Local Studies Collection c1983

Roadworks outside St Patrick's College. This site was originally a prep school for boys named St John's or "Westview". St Patrick's moved to this site in 1970. The original location of St Patrick's was in Quondong.

The same view in 2017, with a sealed road, much bigger trees and a new wall.




Written by Samantha Stevenson and Claire Lynch
Sources
Our Past in Pictures database




"The Legend of Fisher's Ghost" - musically speaking.

The legend of Fisher's Ghost has been celebrated in popular culture in many ways over the years. Related in countless newspaper articles, as well as poems, songs, books, plays, an opera, and film, it once attracted the attention of notables such as Charles Dickens, who published a version of the story in his magazine "Household Words", and entertainer John Pepper, who used it as the subject of one of his stage illusions in Sydney in 1879.
Campbelltown City Library is fortunate to hold a copy of one of these tributes - "The Legend of Fisher's Ghost", written by Catherine Fields musician Jimmie McFarlane, and produced by Don Watt at Earth Media Studios, Milsons Point. With Jimmie's band "Country Road" playing the backing, the single was released with another of Jimmie's compositions on the flip side - "The Camden Train".

The cover of "The Legend of Fisher's Ghost" 

The record was completely financed by the licensees of The Good Intent, Jim and Evonne Rook. On Thursday March 19th, 1981, they launched the record at a special event at the hotel.


Jimmie McFarlane sitting on Fisher's Ghost Bridge

Jimmie was born in Bulli, and spent some years of his life at Glenmore House, in the foothills of the Razorback near Camden. Writing "The Legend of Fisher's Ghost" was prompted by a strong interest in the local area and it's history. Sadly Jimmie died at the age of 46, but we are able to remember him though his work. We have very kindly been given permission to upload "The Legend of Fisher's Ghost" via the following link.



Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
Campbelltown Ingleburn News 1981
Macarthur Advertiser 1981
Special thanks to the McFarlane Family (Casey McFarlane, Glenda Wenban, Sandie McFarlane)

"The Gut Factory"

William (Wilhelm) Klages and his family arrived in Ingleburn as immigrants from Switzerland in 1928. Ingleburn was a small village at the time with a few shops, poultry farms and dirt roads. William established a factory with a compatriot, Adolph Bolliger, which used sheep intestines for the manufacture of medical sutures. This was known as the Olympic Gut Manufacturing Company and was situated on the corner of Kings and Fields Roads, Ingleburn.


William (Wilhelm) Klages (Truth, 27.11.1932)

Two years on, the partnership between Bolliger and Klages was dissolved and a new one formed between William and Paul Witzig. The business must have proved successful as permission was obtained to build a new factory and offices in Kings Road. In 1939 the company was renamed the Australian Suture Company - trading as ASCO. Johnson and Johnson later took over the company.


ASCO - the "gut factory" (Campbelltown Library Local Studies collection)

Margaret Firth of Ingleburn remembers her time working at the factory -
"Oh well, he used to make the surgical gut it was, he used to get the special intestine things from the abbatoirs, and they used to prepare them, sterilise them and all that sort of business, cut them up, and then we girls used to have to roll them, when it was dry, roll them and smooth them down, and they'd get it fine enough to sew eyes with, you know, and then the coarser stuff".
William's son Eric learned the trade after attending the local school, Granville Technical College, and then studying chemistry at Sydney Tech. He worked for the family business before building his own factory, designing machines for treating, stretching, polishing and manufacturing what was commonly known then as "catgut" - nothing to do with cats! He also branched out into the manufacture of tennis racquet strings and violin strings.


A 1946 advertisement for Spiroflex tennis gut strings.

Eric's business was known as "Spiroflex, and was on the corner of Carlisle and Cambridge Streets, Ingleburn. At one stage the factory was turning out 3 million feet of gut a year for surgical sutures alone, with more than 90% of the product for export.
Eric died in 1982, and the factory ultimately closed in 1986.

Eric Klages checking the quality of the material under manufacture.
(Macarthur Leader, 5.12.1972)

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources:
Local Studies Pamphlet files
Grist Mills Vol.21 No.1
Trove
Margaret Firth oral history - Local Studies collection
"From many lands we come" by Hugo Bonomini et al.

A Bird's Eye View

 

Local identity Lennie Hayes recently donated this wonderful aerial photograph of Campbelltown taken about 1959. The scene is dominated by Crompton Parkinson's factory in the foreground built in the 1940s. It was the first major company to build in Campbelltown. Many of the buildings have sadly been demolished. Some streets such as Milgate Lane (first street to the left of Crompton Parkinson) and Railway Street (extreme left) have lost all their buildings. How many buildings do you recognize?

Thanks for your donation Lennie and saving the photo from the scrapheap!

Written by Andrew Allen

"Enough and to spare" - Mrs McMullen of Moreton Park.

As mentioned in the earlier post "The Old Swagman of Wedderburn", swagmen, or 'swaggies' were not an unusual sight in rural areas of Australia during the 1800s and the early 1900s. Itinerant workers who carried their whole lives in their swags, they travelled between pastoral stations throughout the countryside looking for work, a meal, and somewhere to sleep for the night.

Two swagmen resting beneath a tree, Australia,
c1887. J.W.Lindt, NLA

One person who was known to look after swaggies was Mrs McMullen of Moreton Park. Ellen Rosetta McMullen was known to be a most generous and kind hearted soul. She came into possession of Moreton Park in 1858, and for the next fifty years would provide wayfarers with food and shelter. Her generosity was known thoughout the state.
Her family history is by turns complicated and fascinating. Born in 1828, Ellen Rosetta Hughes was the daughter of John Terry Hughes and Esther Hughes, and the granddaughter of Samuel Terry, a convict transported for theft who had arrived in the colony in 1801. By 1807 a freed Samuel Terry was well on his way to making a great fortune. He arranged for John Terry Hughes, his nephew, to come to the colony to join him in his business endeavours. John married Samuel Terry's step daughter Esther.
Ellen was brought up in one of the family properties "Albion House" in Surrey Hills. She married a cousin, Samuel Hughes in 1847 and they had four children. Through her various inheritances, which included the ownership of Moreton Park, Mrs Hughes became a very wealthy woman. She and her husband built the house at Moreton Park which still stands today.
The kitchen was described as "...a beautiful old kitchen and beside it, it had the storerooms, and the places where all the hams and bacon hung and all that, and the great big spit and the old ovens, 'cause they'd be cooking an immense lot at night time, there'd be thirty or forty swagmen there some nights. But over the top of this big fireplace she had written into the stone "Enough and to spare". It's still there. " The swaggies "....were supposed to come to this enormous table, and they could have their night meal and their breakfast, and then go down the sheds, and then they were to move on, but some of them were there for weeks!"

Moreton Park

Ellen's husband Samuel died in 1868, and her second marriage in 1874 was to Franklin McMullen with whom she had one child. Sadly, Ellen would outlive all her children, although she did have a number of grandchildren.
Moreton Park was run with tenant farmers, and other examples of Ellen's generosity included Christmas gifts and a Christmas party every year for all the children of the tenants. In 1896, during serious drought conditions, Ellen, now Mrs McMullen, suspended rent from her tenants for six months owing to the losses they had sustained.
Ellen Rosetta McMullen died in 1914, and was buried in St John's Cemetery, Camden. Such was her reputation that even years after she was gone swaggies would continue to show up at Moreton Park hoping for some of her famous hospitality.


Written by Claire Lynch
Sources:
Oral History with Mrs Cora Wrightson, Campbelltown City Library
Mountbatten Group at Moreton Park Conservation Management PLan 2013
Trove

Did a Campbelltown Man Shoot Down the Red Baron?

Photo courtesy Australian War Memorial

There is still argument over who shot down the Red Baron- Captain Baron Manfred von Richthofen in a fierce World War I battle over France on April 21, 1918. Some believe that a Canadian pilot in the Royal Air Force, Captain Roy Brown had the distinction. However two US aviation historians claim that it was Australian gunners that were responsible for the shooting down of the Red Baron's plane. One of those gunners, Rupert Weston, claimed that it was him that shot down the Red Baron. Rupert lived the last 41 years of his life in Campbelltown.

The two American authors published a book in 1969 called "Who Killed the Red Baron" in which they firmly argue that Gunner Weston and G.B. Popkin ended the life of the Red Baron. The battle took place over the Australian artillery lines near Vaux-sur-Somme in April 1918. The authors corresponded with Rupert Weston for seven years before the book was published and a photograph of him appeared in the book. The official war historian CW Bean backed the author's claim by writing that ground fire from the Australian lines brought the Red Baron down.

Rupert Weston was born in Victoria in 1888 and married and moved to Sydney after his return from the war. The couple eventually moved to Campbelltown in 1937 before Rupert tried unsuccessfully to enlist in World War II. His heart condition and World War I injuries ruled him unfit. At the time doctors only expected him to live for three months. He lived, however, until he was 90!

After World War II he became part owner of Weston Son and Curnow, a mixed business and hardware store in Queen Street. He was a keen bowler and had a strong link with the Campbelltown Bowling Club. Rupert died in 1978 still adamant it was him that shot down the most famous war pilot in history.

Members of the Campbelltown City Bowling Club. Rupert Weston is standing in the middle row on the extreme right. (W. Wilkinson Collection).

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, July 11, 1978

The Old Swaggie of Wedderburn

When I think of old swagmen from our country's distant past, the photo above is the sort of image that my mind conjures up. There was always something mysterious about them. Like they had no name and didn't come from anywhere in particular and weren't planning on going anywhere special. I remember my grandmother relaying stories of swaggies who visited her shack in the bush during the Great Depression and how they would often 'scare the blazes' out of her and her siblings. They're such a fascinating component of that time when life was so difficult and every day proved a challenge just to survive.

I recently discovered an interesting account of such a swagman in one of the library's resources. Hollie Rees (nee Knight) was born in Warby Street Campbelltown around 1924, but spent her childhood at Wedderburn. She describes her memories as a small child and that of a swaggie well-known at Wedderburn during the height of the Depression. It's compelling reading. Rather than me summarizing it, I thought I would provide her full description in this post. I've no doubt you'll find it enjoyable.

Once a year there used to be an old swaggie. I used to love that old swaggie. He used to come up opposite where the church is, there used to be an old building called the dump. It was a big square place where people that didn't have a lot of fruit used to put it there and the man in the truck used to call there first and he knew if it was Rice's fruit he didn't have go to Rice's, if it was Thompson's fruit he didn't have to go to Thompson's or wherever, and the swaggie used to camp in there.

He had this beautiful cattledog. He came there every year for about four or five years and we all used to race up after school and we'd see the smoke from his fire and we'd say oh, he's back. We never ever found out his name. His dog was blue, and he would disappear the same as he arrived. He'd have a rest and about three or four days later he would just disappear. We never knew where he went or where he came from, but he was a nice old bloke.

He carried his bedroll rolled up, it was a grey blanket with a red stripe, and everything rolled up in it with his billy hanging off the side. It was over his back with two leather straps and practically everything he owned was in that. He just slept on the ground with his dog to keep him warm and he had a bigger billy as well, that was all he had. To us he was ancient, but I would say he may have been maybe his mid-fifties , early sixties, with a beard. He was ruggedly built with vivid blue eyes, I'll always remember those eyes. They would look right at you, he was real happy, he was always laughing. Just happy. He always used to greet us with "Hello kids, been to school again. He'd say "Good, learn what you can".

The old billy was used as a cookpot, I think it used to be stew cooking in there, but what he ate the dog ate. I have never ever seen him go to a shop or anything, he carried it all with him in that bedroll.


Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

"Why Campbelltown?" Interviews




  

The Way We Were- Part 5

The next series of then and now photographs were taken around Campbelltown and Bradbury on September 11 2017.

The top photo is of an unknown street parade moving down Lindesay Street in Campbelltown.

The same spot today near the corner of Dumaresq and Lindesay Streets.

 

 

 

 Garnet Jennings and Frank Monaghan at St. John's Prepatory College for Boys. Photo taken in 1926.

 

91 years later and little has changed here. It's now St. Patrick's College for Girls.

 

 

Newly built houses in the 1960s in the new suburb of Sherwood Hills.

The same scene in 2017. Sherwood Hills later changed its name to Bradbury. The street is Lawn Avenue.

 

Quondong taken in 1960

 

 

Today Qoundong is the Tourist Information Centre. The environment around it has changed dramatically since the 1960 photograph was taken.

 

Written by Andrew Allen 

Building Our First High Rise

High rise development in our city is a topic that is currently dividing opinion. The latest controversial proposal is the construction of high rise next to the old CBC Bank and later Macarthur Advertiser building in Queen Street. However the arrival of high rise to Campbelltown dates back to the early 1960s with the building of Campbelltown Council's brash new administration centre. The library has in its collection a number of fascinating photographs of the construction of this building that I wanted to share with you.

The administration centre opened on Saturday, 28th November, 1964. It was easily the highest building in the town and was seen for kilometres around Campbelltown. The design was seen as "providing a strong vertical emphasis to the Civic Centre". Mayor Fraser at the time called it "a symbol of our faith in the future". The first stage of the Master Plan was prepared in early 1961. The first sod for construction was turned in June 1963 and by November the steel frame had begun to take shape. Work continued on through 1964 and by July the building was near completion.

The following photographs show the various stages of construction. They were taken by Jim Waugh. It's interesting to also look at the built environment around the administration building, most of which has disappeared.

This is the earliest construction photo we have in our collection and would've been taken in late 1963. The photo is looking towards Broughton Street. In the background to the right are the old ambulance station and to the left of the construction is the old milk depot. Both buildings no longer exist.

The next photograph above shows workman pouring concrete. These are the days before WHS became an issue! This would be in early 1964. In the background is the milk depot which stood on the adjacent to the railway line in Broughton Street. It was burnt down in 1969.

The above image is looking south west with the railway station in the background.

This one shows a lone worker perched precariously on a steel girder. The view is looking east and shows the old Macquarie Cinema in the background that was demolished in 1979.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

McGill, Jeff 1999
Campbelltown: A modern history 1960-1999
Campbelltown: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society

Campbelltown Ingleburn News Tuesday, December 1, 1964

Campbelltown - Remembering our Pop Culture

Campbelltown City Library is celebrating History Week from the 2nd - 10th September. This year the theme is "Pop Culture", and we remember some of the trends that have helped to shape Campbelltown over the years. From the advent of live entertainment at the Catholic Club, the transition from balls and debuts to discos and nightclubs, leisure activities including roller skating and swimming, and the changes from humble milk bars to more sophisticated dining, we take you on a trip down memory lane. Please drop in to the H.J.Daley Library to take a look at our display celebrating Campbelltown's Pop Culture this week.

Our Own Pool

It was a long time coming but the people of Campbelltown finally got their own pool in 1967. There was now no need for a hike out to the Woolwash or a drive to the river at Menangle or having to be satisfied with a cool down from the garden hose.

A pool had been planned by council as early as 1960. The following year a swimming pool committee was formed and there were expectations that building of the pool would be started by 1963. When the then Town Clerk Harley Daley was asked by Alderman John Marsden when he thought work would start he replied: "The Summer of 1963". However for a number of years continuous arguments raged over where, when and how it should be built. Finally in 1965, with the help of the Campbelltown Apex Club, council set up a pool construction fund, and six months later a pool was announced as the next fundraising project of the Fisher's Ghost Festival.

Bradbury Pool in 1970 (Geoff Eves Collection)

Deciding on a location then proved to be a problem with the north and south of the LGA staking their claims. It was eventually decided to build in the new suburb of Sherwood Hills which is today's Bradbury. Anticipation in the town was high during the lead up to the opening. Cars would continuously drive around the site checking the construction progress. It was hoped and planned that the pool would be opened in December so the population could cool off during that summer. However they had to wait until March and then suffer the disappointment of a cold weekend for the opening. On Saturday March 11 1967 the Campbelltown Swimming Centre was opened. It was an Olympic-size swimming pool and, at the time, the only nine-lane pool in NSW. It cost $304,000. Despite the freezing wind and cloud for the day after the opening, 1152 people poured through the gates for a dip in the new pool.

Taken in the Summer of 1971-72 (Clarice Stretch Collection)

On the 12th September 1987 a new heated indoor swimming pool was opened at the Centre by Mayor Bryce Regan. The official opening was originally set down for August 15, however for several days prior to the opening  there was a malfunction in the sand filter, causing a major constructional fault.

The official opening of the indoor swimming pool in 1987

In 2011 the pool was re-opened and re-named after an extensive $1.2 million upgrade. It was named after former Campbelltown Mayor Gordon Fetterplace who died in 2008 after a battle with cancer.

Written by Andrew Allen

Minto Public School - then and now

This year marks a very special year in the history of Minto Public School. Turning 150 years old, the school is the oldest public school in the district of Campbelltown.
The school had had three locations. The first was on a small portion of land donated to the Catholic Church by Mr J. Pendergast, (who owned a rendering works on his 50 acres at Saggart Field, Minto) for the purpose of building a school. In June 1866 the small Roman Catholic School opened, called "Saggart Field School". The one acre block was on the western side of the railway line, on the south-east corner of Campbelltown Road and Redfern Road (now Ben Lomond Road). The first teacher, Mrs Clarke was unpaid, received free lodging at the school, and was supported in whatever way the families of the pupils could manage. Mrs Clarke wrote to the Council of Education to enquire about receiving a salary, but because the Council of Education could not give government funds to denominational schools, arrangements were made in 1867 to transfer the school from the Catholic Church to the government. The school was known as Saggart Field Provisional School for it's first eighteen years.
Due to severe overcrowding, and the inadequacies of the building, a new, single classroom school building with an adjoining teacher's residence was completed in 1882 on the corner directly opposite the old school building. In 1884 the school was renamed Minto Public School. At his second location the school grew over the years, with the numbers of students increasing and the addition of a garden, cricket pitch and tennis court.
In 1898, due to the number of children living in East Minto, many of whom did not attend at all, East Minto Public School was opened in Hansen's Road, East Minto, on the corner of Hereford Place. Unfortunately in 1947 the East Minto Public School burnt down. The Department of Education decided to resume a two and a half acre block on the edge of Minto village to build a new, larger Minto Public School to take pupils from both Minto and East Minto. This new Minto Public School on the corner of Pembroke Road and Redfern Road opened in 1954, where it still stands today.
The centenary of the school was celebrated in 1967 during the headmastership of Mr Arthur Jones. Mr Jones, a keen historian and photographer took the photo below during the centenary year.

(Jones Collection. (Campbelltown City Library, Local Studies Collection)

Minto PS students, staff, and Campbelltown Library staff recreated the photo in 2017

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources

"Truth and Courage : commemorating the first 125 years of Minto Public School 1867-1992" by Laurie Porter
Campbelltown City Library "Our past in pictures" photo database

50 years ago today - raining cats, dogs and shoes

Tuesday August 8 1967. The Campbelltown district had just experienced an astounding 17cm of rain. Heavy winds blew down trees and a number of narrow escapes were reported. Electricity and telephone services had also gone down. Minto residents in Lincoln Street took to placing household items on tables as a precaution. A large bulldozer which had been working the previous day nearby was found completely submerged.

At Glenfield, water inundated Railway Parade and although cars could get through many stalled. Work ceased too on the electrification of the railway line as the deluge prevented both the "wire" train and "work" train from continuing.

Against this watery backdrop, Campbelltown police reported a number of car accidents during the flood but "most thankfully were not serious". An accident that occurred just prior to the storms involved a car crashing into Bunbury-Curran Creek, Macquarie Fields. The occupants were nowhere to be seen but the vehicle had previously been noticed at the scene of a burglary at White’s Shoe Store in Ingleburn. When towed from the creek a large quantity of shoes and boots washed into the water from within. News soon spread and the spot became hugely popular with swimmers, many of whom were soon sporting brand new, if sodden, footwear or as the newspaper put it "booty."

Bunbury Curran creek in flood in 1975. Photographer: A. Gleave.

written by Michael Sullivan
　

Source: Campbelltown Ingleburn News 8 August 1967 p 1,4, 9

　

Bayley's.

During the early 1960s, it became apparent that there was a need for a history of Campbelltown to be put together in one volume. Both visitors and residents felt the need for such a history to be written. In 1963 Alderman F. Ward requested council have such a publication prepared. Other aldermen were also enthused by the proposal and an author was commissioned. He was William Alan Bayley, resident of Bulli, collector of local history, a teacher with the New South Wales Education Department and fellow of the Royal Australian Historical Society. He had previously written similar histories for other areas including Albury, Bega, Bulli, Crookwell, Goulburn, Grenfell, Kiama, Nundle, Shellharbour and Young.
In 1966 the finished work "History of Campbelltown" was launched in the Council Chambers. Mayor Tregear and other dignitaries were present. Both William Bayley and Mr Stephen Roach, local artist and designer of the book jacket were also in attendance.
After the launch everyone moved to the library where a display of historical items had been prepared in association with the Campbelltown Historical Society. The book went on sale for $2.70!
Not everyone was happy with the final product. A letter to the newspaper, although generally complimentary, noted the omission of references to cultural activities in Campbelltown and the importance of the St Elmo Estates to the growth of Campbelltown. These points must have been noted as they were addressed in the revised and expanded edition published in 1974.
The book remains an important reference tool for the history of Campbelltown and is commonly and affectionately referred to as "Bayley's". We hold both editions at H.J.Daley Library in the Local Information collection.

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
Campbelltown Ingleburn News
National Library of Australia website

Country track or city track?

Menangle Park Racecourse was officially opened in 1914, although racing had taken place there as early as the 1870s. By the 1920s, sixteen registered race meetings were being held annually as well as six pony racing meetings and six trotting meetings, however a great threat to the Menangle Racing Club's status as a provincial track was about to occur. This came by way of the deviation of the railway line between Regents Park and Cabramatta.
When the racecourse was originally opened it fell outside the 40 mile limit by railway set by the Gaming and Betting Act of 1912. This entitled it to certain rights and privileges, i.e. the number of race meetings which could legally be held. However, the deviation of the railway meant that the course was now only 38 miles from Sydney.
In November 1925 a special bill was approved by the State Labor Caucus to place the Menangle Park Racecourse in the same class as those courses that were situated more than 40 miles distant from the metropolis. Unfortunately Mr Lang, the premier of NSW dropped the bill in December, leaving the directors of the Menangle Racing Club in a dilemma. As a temporary solution, Menangle's race meetings were transferred to Kembla Grange which had been out of use for some years.

 The bill was presented again in 1927, and finally Menangle Park was restored to it's provincial status. After a two year hiatus, racing returned to Menangle Park in April 1927.

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources
Trove
Early Menangle by J.J. Moloney
Campbelltown Library pamphlet files