"Digger" Black

My recent Denham Court cemetery tour covered a former Ingleburn identity Clive "Digger" Black. Unlike everyone else I covered on the tour, "Digger" has no headstone to mark his grave and therefore his final resting place in unknown. "Digger's" story is covered below, taken from notes I made for the cemetery tour.

Clive “Digger” Black is buried in this cemetery in an unmarked grave. About 15 years ago when I started in my current role as Local Studies Librarian, I was asked to locate the grave by his daughter Maureen. I was unable to do this based on what I had to search, including the burial register for the cemetery. His location is still unknown.

He was born in 1913 at Ingleburn. “Digger” lived in Glenham Road (no longer exists but did in ’39- now Williamson Rd) and worked as a milk vendor/ dairy farmer 1935. Brother Oswald was also a farmer. His mother was Agnes Matilda and his father, once a Mayor of Ingleburn, was named Oswald. “Digger” enlisted in the army- in the Citizen Military forces or Land Army in 1941 and was discharged in 1944. He married Teresa Shanahan in 1950.

With his brother Oswald they saved Vincent Butters from drowning in Bunbury Curran Creek in 1924 after Vincent had swung out on a rope into deep water. Vincent hadn’t meant to let go as he couldn’t swim and went straight down. Oswald dived in to drag him to the shore and Clive pulled the lifeless body out from the slippery shore and began resuscitation. First standing him on his head, then rubbing hard and working his arms and legs until one of the boys stood on his stomach and he spluttered back to life. The Black family still have the hand-written thank you letter in their possession.

Digger Black’s dairy was the first to have a tractor in Ingleburn- A Lanz Bulldog. It had to be started by applying a blowtorch to the manifold and cranked with the removable steering wheel. Interestingly, the Lanz agents came at the beginning the war and removed it’s made in Germany label.

He later lived in Oxford Road and then Ingleburn Road in 1964 and listed as dairy farmer. Oswald had moved to Bringelly. Digger was president of the Ingleburn Bowling Club and was a well-known footballer. He was from accounts a sociable man.  He has a park named after him in Ingleburn.

“Digger” Black died from heart complications at Liverpool in September 1966 at the family home at 71 Oxford Road. He left behind a wife and 6 children.

Thank you to Digger's son Clive who provided information and generously donated the above photograph of his father.

Written by Andrew Allen

A Bold Bid

The history of Campbelltown never fails to surprise me. I recently discovered that in 1974 Campbelltown put in a bid for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. Not having come from the area, this was quite a revelation. In fact, at one point, it looked like our town might beat Brisbane in the race to host the games.

There were a number of aspects of Campbelltown's bid that the delegation believed they had in their favour. Firstly, plans were confirmed by Gough Whitlam that a new university was to be built in the city. The university would be used as the Games village should Campbelltown's bid succeed. Adding to this was the investment in vast sums of money by the Federal and State Governments in freeways, fast transit commuter services, and health and recreation facilities. Campbelltown's population was also forecasted to explode with figures of as much as 300,000 predicted by 1980. 

A delegation was sent to Christchurch, New Zealand for the 1974 games to study the staging of the games. There they would promote the town's case. They claimed that the least of their worries would be finding people to fill the seats at any Games stadium.

Campbelltown's bid attracted strong criticism from the Brisbane delegation. Brisbane's Vice-Mayor at the time, Brian Walsh, commented on Campbelltown's efforts, "I think they're getting past a joke. As a general comment, I'd say the Campbelltown group are humorous people who have ceased being humorous". The Campbelltown delegation was not bothered by Brisbane's reaction and not the least bit daunted by the prospect of a David and Goliath struggle with Brisbane. They simply turned the other cheek when Walsh jibed in Christchurch that he did not know where Campbelltown was!

The two main men in the delegation were the Town Clerk Bruce McDonald and the Deputy Mayor Gordon Fetterplace. They were joined by president of the Chamber of Commerce Russell Hayes and chamber member Rod Lawrence. To help promote the bid, a games symbol of Fisher's Ghost was used.

The bid of course ultimately failed, and Brisbane was chosen as the host city. The Brisbane games would be remembered mostly for Matilda, the winking Kangaroo.

  

Above is a sketch of the plan for a sporting complex for the 1982 Commonwealth Games which Campbelltown City Council hoped would be established near the CBD.