A Colourful Surprise

Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting discoveries from Campbelltown Library's Great Australian Dream Project from earlier this year was this photograph above of Tom Cooper's famous colourful house at Menangle Park. Donated by Barbara Edney and taken by Max Keegan, this low quality but very significant image shows Tom Cooper's "Eye Stopper" in all its wonderful glory. Tom's house has been written about in two previous History Buff posts and covered in an episode of the library's Curious Campbelltown, so we were thrilled to at last to see what it looked like. 

Tom Cooper was an eccentric character that lived in a tin shanty on his property at Racecourse Avenue at Menangle Park. His neighbour Melva Thomas wrote an article about Tom in the Literary Review in the 1960s. She described how he was ordered to demolish the shanty by Council. He then built a new home at the same location. Tom loved bright colours, and this led to his new home being brightly painted in a variety of gawdy colours. The house became a kind of tourist attraction and people would gaze and take photographs from passing trains on the adjacent train line. 

Following his death in 1968, the new owners removed the colours to a more mundane single finish. This photo below taken by Barbara Edney shows the house in 1972. Taken from the same angle as the above photo that showed the house in bright colours, the house no longer attracts any attention.

The view in 2024 is very different. The house has since undergone major alterations and barely resembles the original structure (and colour)!

Thank you to Barbara Edney for sharing her photographs.

Written by Andrew Allen

Isaac's Bible

On 25 April 1809 Isaac Nichols, an emancipated convict, was appointed as Postmaster, a position that authorised him to board ships and receive letters and parcels addressed to people within the colony. This was a very important position that Isaac held. Letters were the only way for the convicts, settlers and officials of the new colony to maintain a connection with Britain. Ships were mobbed by people searching for letters and parcels. Compare this with today, where communication is instant and accessing news is only a quick mobile phone search away.

Isaac Nichols was born on 29 July 1770 at Calne, Wiltshire, England. At the age of 21 he was found guilty of stealing and sentenced to seven years transportation. Isaac arrived in Port Jackson on the notorious Second Fleet on 16 October 1791. It was his demonstration of sobriety and honesty that convinced Governor Hunter to employ him as Chief Overseer of convicts in Sydney. At the completion of his sentence, Isaac was granted land in the Concorde district and in the following years he was to acquire more land, leading to him becoming a wealthy businessman.

As postmaster, Isaac collected the incoming mail and published a list of people who had received mail in the Sydney Gazette. He hand-delivered mail to the wealthiest people in the colony. He did this until his death in November 1819.

It was through Isaac's son that the link to Campbelltown was established. His son Charles attended the school in the building known as Meehan's Castle. It was run by Rev. Thomas Reddall and was an exclusive boarding school for boys. Charles attended St Peter's Church and was their first musician, by playing the flute to lead the singing.

It was through a chance discovery in Trove that I learnt about how Isaac Nichols' bible came to be in the possession of St Peter's Church. In 1933, Isaac's great granddaughter and parishioner Violet Ida Nichols presented the bible to the church. Unmarried and wanting a safe home for the bible, Violet chose the church as the most appropriate place. It was presented on the church's 110th anniversary.

The bible dates to 1812 and is leather-bound with steel engravings. It is in remarkably good condition for its age, following restoration by the State Library in 1998 for the church's 175th anniversary. The bible was central to a re-enactment by Australia Post in 2009 of the first mail delivery to NSW. It was put on display in a glass case at Campbelltown Post Office. Isaac's bible and another bible used in St Peter's Church from its opening year, form an impressive collection in the church's archives.

Isaac Nichols' 1812 bible

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/first-post-office#:~:text=On 23 June 1810 Governor,that read 'Sydney NSW'.

Letter written by Violet Nichols to St Peter's Anglican Church 1933

Macarthur Chronicle, 1 September 2009, p4