Springfield House (Amaroo)

Campbelltown Library's recent Great Australian Dream Project resulted in many interesting photographs as entries for the competition. This post will cover a building named Springfield House and a subsequent post will describe another exciting entry of a house that has a "colourful" history.

The magnificent Springfield House was built in 1962 by Harry Springfield, who sold it a year later to Lend Lease Corporation. The house, which won an architectural award, was situated on 75 acres of land, somewhere near the end of Fitzgibbon Lane in today's Rosemeadow. Originally named "Amaroo" (purportedly indigenous for a 'beautiful place'), at the time of construction it was in an isolated paddock. The closest surrounding developed lands at the time were Bradbury and the original Campbelltown Golf Course. The Springfields ran beef cattle and grew various crops.

 After "Amaroo" was sold by Harry in 1963, Lend Lease was able to strike up a deal which allowed Harry and his family to live there for about 18 years until it was sold. The Springfields loved living there. Harry expressed to a local newspaper that "I have had the pleasure of bringing up most of my family in it".

The two-story house had 3 bedrooms and a study that could be converted into a fourth bedroom. It had a large 'rumpus' room downstairs, billiard room and an indoor lanai garden with a small in-ground fishpond room. There were spectacular views on the horizon of the Sydney CBD buildings and even of Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains.

After the Springfields moved to Menangle Park, the building was used as a community arts centre. It opened in 1983 with a spectacular bonfire. (not to burn the place down!) With the threat of resumption by the State Planning and Environment Department, the house was sold and owned by various entities including Lend Lease and the Department of Housing. It fell into dis-repair after severe vandalism and a fire caused by suspected arson in early 1990 led to its demolition.

The photographs of the house below were all entries in the Great Australian Dream Project and were supplied by Barry Springfield. The project aimed at recording various types of architecture from the period 1920-1979 in the Campbelltown area. Other houses entered for the project can be found on Campbelltown Library's website or by visiting Great Australian Dream Project - Campbelltown City Council

West wing of "Amaroo" AKA Springfield House while under construction. The view is looking at the upstairs kitchen and loungeroom and verandah. The lower ground double garage is alongside the indoor lanai room. The house is nearly completed with trees and lawns yest to be established. (Barry Springfield Collection)

 

Ring, ring why don't you give me a call?

We don't often get reminders of how stark progress is but an article from 1961 brought home how far telecommunications have come. 

J.D. Morgan of the Ingle Store, Stanley Road, Ingleburn organized a petition to request another public telephone in Ingleburn. The only phone box in town was on the eastern side of the railway line and often had a long queue. 50 signatories signed the document noting that with the railway gates closed at frequent intervals valuable time would be lost in emergencies by anyone on that side of the track. 

It was perhaps an opportune time for the request, as the Postmaster General's Department were active that year placing telephone repeater stations from Glenfield to Menangle. These were concrete bunkers, the size of a garden shed, amplifying signals through coaxial cables from Sydney to Melbourne and providing hundreds of telephone channels simultaneously! Described as bullet proof, the stations actually needed to be as "buildings like these in country districts are often targets for disappointed hunters and youths with rifles."  

The trial of a public telephone in a private house occurred in Campbelltown but was deemed to have ended unsatisfactorily. No further information was given but it might be guessed at.

Those with private phone lines didn't always have ease of access either. In 1923, during the very early days of telecommunication, Ald Graham wanted Ingleburn to have its own telephone exchange siting the fact Glenfield had one! The Post Master General wrote to say a continuous telephone service could not be granted for Ingleburn unless the public was prepared to pay a salary for an official. Alternatively, a "slot machine" connected with the Liverpool exchange could be arranged. The proposal was accepted by Graham and Luff and whatever a slot machine entailed was installed.

The situation was somewhat better in 1927, an exchange had been created at Ingleburn and customers even asked for the exchange to stay open later than six. The local postmaster proposed to remain open until 8 o'clock with the exception of weekends and holidays. He would do this for an annual sum of 52 pounds instead of the current 39. There was some kerfuffle in communications between all parties involved but subscribers offered to pay a pound extra each and the extra hours were added.

...until 1932 when the PMG stated the sum of 2/1 was due from council on the debit incurred for the extended hours and the service had been suspended. It was resumed when subscribers were debited half-yearly instead of the local postmaster himself collecting the fee individually.

The circumstances with the existing eastern telephone box was bright though in 1935 when Alderman Naylor successfully lobbied to get the telephone booth illuminated with electric light. 

From the forties on, the placing of public telephones seems to be a see-sawing of requests and approvals between the public, PMG and the council for small parcels of land on which to put the boxes. A variety of reasons were forwarded. A t-intersection sign was erected on Redfern Road after a number of car accidents were claimed to be unreported due to the lack of a telephone in the vicinity. 

But was J.D. Morgan of the Ingle Store and his supporters successful in a public phone west of the tracks?  

In the council minutes of 11/4/1962 a request by the PMG for a telephone at the corner of Stanley Road and Memorial Avenue was approved. And there's still one there today.

By Michael Sullivan

References

 

“Another public Phone wanted” 14 1961 IBN News p 12

“Ingleburn Council” Trove 12 Feb 1932 p8 

“Local Districts Play Part in Big intercity telephone Expansion” Macarthur Advertiser February 5 1960. p.1

“PMG said there are no funds to extend hours” C.I.N May 20 1932

Lighted phonebox -31 May 1935 

“Own telephone exchange in Ingleburn 2 Mar 1923

“Continuous service” 1 June 1923

Trove CIN -14 Jan 1927.

Menangle Park Silos

Chances are you have noticed that the silos at Menangle Park have sadly been demolished to make way for the new development. These silos stood undisturbed in the vacant paddocks on the Thomas Vardy Estate for many years. They were a testament to Campbelltown's farming days and the importance that agriculture once played in the area. It was hoped that they would be retained and perhaps integrated into parklands as part of the new suburb. Alas, this wasn't to be. A report published shortly before development started wrote of the significance: "The proposed removal of the silos in the southern portion will have a greater than minor heritage impact." "Although the silos are not listed on any statutory registers, they are important to the local area as evidence of dairying in the Campbelltown district, and dairying practices in the 1930s." "They are examples of a standard concrete silo design promoted by the NSW Government Department of Agriculture during the 1930s Depression as structures associated with the NSW Government unemployment relief scheme of that period." "Consideration should be given to partial retention of the silos for interpretational purposes."

One person who was sympathetic towards saving the silos was Cr Warren Morrison. In 2018 he said, "It would be perfect timing as we head towards the Campbelltown bicentennial in 2020 to try to preserve our history wherever possible". "The silos can be seen from the Hume Highway, and they are a visible reminder of our past as an agricultural region". Another proposed project that never eventuated was the establishment of a Military Memorial Precinct in the vicinity of the silos. It was envisaged that the silos could be restored and painted with WW1 graphics.

Unlike the iconic silos on Appin Road, I have been unable to find much information on the Menangle Park silos. There are references on Trove to silos in the Menangle area, but it is unclear if they are the silos on the Vardy Estate. The estate property was originally granted to Thomas Byrne in 1812. Thomas Vardy later became owner of the land about 1840. The property appears to have operated as a dairy farm in the twentieth century and, along with the information about the unemployment relief scheme of the 1930s, helps date the silos to that period.

I came across a photograph taken around the 1960s of the silos and an adjacent house. Also included below is one of a similar view taken in 2020 and three years before demolition.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Menangle Park Land Release Area Volume 1

South West Voice, 9 October 2018