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

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

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