Class of 1902

Campbelltown Library was thrilled to recently receive a donation of a photograph of Ingleburn Public School taken around 1902. This wonderful gem was found in a Lifeline store in a northern Sydney suburb. Unfortunately, almost all of the children are unidentified. However, a name can be put to two of the students. Malcolm McInnes is identified as the boy 2nd from right in the back row and Alan Buchanan McInnes is the boy with the white-collar 2nd from right in the second back row. The photo was taken by A.R. Brown.

Some interesting features of the photo include the hats worn by the teachers in the back row, which were typical of the time. Some of the students also have their hats by their side or on the ground in front of them. A few of the younger children have moved as the photo was taken, resulting in the usual blur. How disappointed their parents must have been. However, the detail that attracted my attention the most was the gun that the young boy 7th from the right in the front row appears to be holding! I have blown the image up and I am convinced it's a gun. No wonder the boy to his left appears nervous! I will stand corrected on this.

The McInnes brothers Alan and Malcolm lived all or most of their lives at Ingleburn. A year before the photo was taken, 8-year-old Alan had suffered painful injuries when he fell from his father's cart. The wheel ran over his head, but he made a full recovery. Alan married Mary Asher in 1925 and died at his home "Iona" in 1967 aged 75. Malcolm died in 1961 aged 71. He appears to have lived most of his life in Chester Road. Both brothers are buried in Denham Court Cemetery.

Thank you to Maria Richards for this generous donation.

Written by Andrew Allen 

Update

My colleague assures me that it's definitely a toy gun!

Update 2

I have just become aware that Malcolm McInnes senior was an alderman on Ingleburn Council and built and lived in the well-known stone cottage on Chester Road, Ingleburn.

The stone cottage with an unidentified boy at the front (possibly one of the McInnes brothers) c. 1904

Alderman Malcolm McInnes, father of the boys in the photo. He died in 1917.

 

Aero Estate

An early housing estate in the area was Aero Estate at Ingleburn. The estate, situated on the western side of the railway line, was also known as Blomfield Estate. The Blomfields were descendants of Captain Richard Brooks of nearby Denham Court. Richard's daughter Christiana married Thomas Blomfield. 

The vacant paddocks were subdivided in the 1920s and marketed as Aero Estate later in the decade. Information about the sales appeared in Sydney newspapers in early 1927. In the Daily Telegraph of 12 March 1927, the following notice appeared under the heading of Subdivisions: Six Estates Offering- Today's Sales and under Ingleburn "Today, at 3pm, Peach Bros. will offer at public auction, on the ground, 850 acres of choice residential and farm land, fronting the main Southern Road and the railway, at Ingleburn. The land for sale is known as the Aero Estate, and is subdivided into one, three, five and acre farmlets, in addition to a number of home sites". Advertisements the next month boasted it was "right at station" and buyers could choose between one, three and five acre lots from 30 pounds.

In 1939 Aero Road, which ran through the estate, became the first road in Ingleburn to be sealed. It was sealed for army purposes from the Military Camp to the railway station.

The estate continued to be developed into the late 1950s. In late 1969 Council announced plans to rezone the entire area light industry. All hell broke loose. Protests and petitions were the order of the day. Local residents who were living the dream on the estate were about to have their lives turned upside down. However, residents were eventually victorious, and the plan was dropped. Only a decade later Council overruled objections and approved light industry.

Aero Road was blocked off and became a minor road. In 1987 a new road bridge over the railway connected with Williamson Road. The level crossing closed, and Old Aero Road was renamed MacDonald Road, in honour of early landholders.

How Aero Estate and road got its name is confusing. According to locals Arthur and Jean Hounslow, around the First World War years when aviation was in its infancy, students from Sydney University used to travel there to use grass sledges. They then started using gliders and once they got used to it, they would sit in the glider and have it projected and come down over the flats over Ingleburn. However, according to Margaret Firth in her 1977 oral history interview, an early model aeroplane landed in a property named Moorland where the estate was later developed. A man and a woman had flown the plane and either a mechanical fault or lack of fuel forced them to land in the paddock. A huge crowd gathered, with "people coming from miles around".

An undated photo of Aero Road below the twin bridges from the freeway (Copyright NSW Main Roads 1929-1984)

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Margaret Firth oral history interview held at Campbelltown Library 23 November 1977

Arthur and Jean Hounslow oral history interview held at Campbelltown Library 23 May 2013

McGill, Jeff et al Campbelltown's Streets and Suburbs: How and why they got their names 1995

Daily Telegraph, 12 March 1927, p10

Kerr, David, Old Ingleburn in Grist Mills: Journal of the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society, Vol 21. No.1, March 2008