Ferrets in the Vault

This wasn't the first time that Campbelltown folk had to deal with ghosts in their town. One night in early December 1929, unexplained lights were seen emanating from St Peters Anglican Cemetery. The newspapers reported that The light was first seen by a local baker, who informed his next-door neighbor. When they came out the front of the shop, however, the light had vanished, only to reappear a few minutes later, and to twinkle for a minute or two, and vanish again. It was thought that tramps had made their home in the cemetery, particularly as it was summer.


Observers could make out that the lights were coming from the vault of the Tyson family. The vault was well known to the population, as James Tyson was regarded as the country's first millionaire. The vault was on the southern side of the cemetery.


It didn't take too long before the mystery was solved. Two boys, one of them a Camden boy by the name of Jimmy Meredith, had come across to do some rabbit hunting, and had lost their ferrets. Some boys had told them they had seen them in the cemetery. This means it was probably a moonlit night, but how could they still know there were ferrets in the cemetery and what were these boys doing hanging around there anyway?

Showing great courage, the boys then braved the perils of the fallen-in vault and retrieved their ferrets. What I found remarkable was that this story was news for many newspapers around the country for this day.

The Tyson vault in St Peters Cemetery in the 1950s (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Written by Andrew Allen

Source:

Evening News (Rockhampton, QLD), Friday 13 December 1929, page 8

Australia's First Millionaire

The remains of Australia's first millionaire are buried in Campbelltown's St Peter's Cemetery. James Tyson was born at the Cowpastures in 1819 and was one of eleven children, many of whom married locally and lived in Campbelltown. When James died he did not leave a will and his estate of over 2.3 million pounds was divided among about 30 nephews and nieces, several of whom lived in Campbelltown.

James Tyson had a reputation of being extremely frugal. When he was a boy on the family farm at Appin, his mother once gave him a flute as a birthday present only to find a few days later that he had sold it. Asked the reason the young Tyson explained: "I needed the money to buy a heifer because heifers can breed and flutes can't." He used the same philosophy of money-making all his life. He always boasted that his personal expenditure never exceeded a pound a week.

Later when he was worth an estimated five million pounds, someone tried to upset him by pointing out that his heirs would blow the lot when they got their hands on it. His reply was "If they have as much pleasure spending it as I did in getting it then that money won't be wasted." He was given the nickname Hungry Tyson, which clung to him even after death.

How did Tyson make his money? It started in 1852 when James and his brother set up a butcher's shop at the gold diggings at Bendigo. Within three years they had sold out, having made 80,000 pounds and they invested in grazing stations near Deniliquin. He began to expand his pastoral interests across the eastern colonies, overlanding cattle from Queensland, fattening them on his Riverina stations and then droving or railing them to Melbourne. When he died in 1898 he held about 9.6 million acres.

He also had a reputation for disliking women. A Sydney barmaid is alleged to have won a wager of 20 pounds by kissing him. She achieved this by catching him when he was looking the other way. He regarded women as "wasteful extravagant creatures". Tyson could not understand men "spending their time giggling at girls and multiplying children".

For all the tales about his meanness, there are just as many about his quiet generosity and silent kindness. He made significant donations to the building fund of the Sydney University Women's College and various Church of England charities.

On the morning of December 4, 1898, James Tyson was found dead in his bed at his sparsley furnished room at Felton Station on the Darling Downs in Queensland. He was buried in Toowoomba, Queensland, but reinterred in St Peter's cemetery in 1901.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Fowler, Verlie 1983
A Stroll through St Peter's Churchyard
Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society: Campbelltown

Daily Mirror, October 19, 1977 p58

Sunday Telegraph, April 20, 1986, p142

Liston, Carol 1988
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History