Can you help us identify this photograph?

The library needs assistance in identifying the people and location in the above photograph. The photograph was a recent donation to the local studies section and is not dated. The sign near the front door reads "South British Insurance Company". Do you know where the Campbelltown News Printing Works were located? Please let us know if you do!

Update

This building was located in Patrick Street. In the 1920s this was next to Brunero's Sawmill (now the Coogan Lane car park).

Written by Andrew Allen

The Flying Doctor comes to Campbelltown

The sprawling weatherboard homestead of "Glen Lorne" was built in the 1820s on the Appin Road, not far from Campbelltown. In 1936, the house was used to film the movie The Flying Doctor starring Charles Farrell and Mary Maguire and a special appearance by Don Bradman playing himself. Farrell, an American star of the day, and a British crew were imported. The plot revolves around a complicated love triangle, a doctor who falls in love with a married woman and then becomes a flying doctor in the outback. Box office receipts were poor but the film lead to a flood of donations to the flying doctor service. "Glen Lorne" homestead was destroyed by fire on 9 July 1981.

Another old Campbelltown homestead was the scene for filming in November 1969. St Helens Park was used as a film set for the ABC television series Delta. The series starred Frank Thring, John Gregg and Kirrily Nolan and was based on a fictitious scientific investigation unit. Frank Thring attracted the most interest, playing a "sinister anthropologist" who had returned to Australia after living in the wilds of New Guinea. The house and grounds were described as a "hive of activity" during those days of shooting back in 1969.

Written by Andrew Allen

The Shop Famous for its Snake!

Bursill's Produce Store was an institution in Campbelltown for many years. It supplied the local farmers with all their feed requirements. The building stood on the southern side of a shop run by Bussell Brothers on the corner of Queen and Lithgow Streets. The shop's most infamous occupant was a carpet snake that terrified and fascinated the locals. The snake was used to keep the rodent population down and so protect the produce. Long time former resident of Campbelltown Lily Hepher, now in her late nineties, remembered as a young woman looking at the reptile through the top floor window of the store. It was always a source of fascination for her and other passers by. Another local David Milliken when interviewed remembered that when moving a bag of feed in the shop one day he was startled to find the snake right in front of his eyes. The shopkeeper assured him with an "its alright mate it won't hurt you".

The colourful Dr Ivor Thomas of Campbelltown in the 1940s was one night returning from a call in the early hours of the morning when he saw an obstruction over the trellis in the driveway. The storeman at Bursill's had his sleep interrupted that morning by a phone call from the doctor. "Come down and pick up your bloody snake" was the call. When the man arrived he found Dr Thomas busy photographing the snake which habitually escaped from Bursill's Produce Store and roamed the town at night. So much for Occupational Health and Safety!

Update: Susan Chandler, daughter of local identity Bon Wrightson, also discussed Bursill's snake in an interview she gave the library in August 2011. She said one day as a child she found it in the strawberry patch at her home in Dumaresq Street. She yelled at her grandpa that she found a big lizard. A worker from Bursill's who also lived next door retrieved the snake, knocked it out, wound it around his arm and took it back to Bursill's store! Susan also explained that after it had escaped so many times Dr Thomas lost patience and had it killed.

             This shot was taken from the interior of Bursill's shop in 1950. (Col Clissold Collection)

Do you have memories of or have heard stories about the snake? Please share them with us.

Written by Andrew Allen

Tragedy of the Terry Sisters

Campbelltown has experienced many tragedies over the years but the drowning of the Terry sisters in 1900 was one of the most shocking and heart breaking for the community. Lillian aged 15 and Irene aged 12 both drowned in the Georges River in March, 1900.

The Campbelltown Herald reported that the two St Patrick's Convent pupils had a half day holiday due to the Campbelltown Show. Two of the nuns from the school and a Miss Cecily Hill took their classes for a walk to the river. The two Terry sisters went for a swim in the shallow area but wandered into deep water and got into difficulties.

At the inquest, Sister Cecily stated six girls went in to bathe. She succeeded in rescuing two girls and tried to save Lillian and Irene Terry. She told the inquest "I grasped Lily by the hair. But, getting in to deeper water myself, I lost hold." The police searched the river and recovered the bodies two hours later.

The girls came from the New South Wales town of Hay and their bodies were returned there by mail train for burial. A large number of sympathising friends followed the hearse to the station and the children of the convent joined in the procession.

The photograph below shows their headstone in the Roman Catholic section of the Hay Cemetery. It was reported as the largest funeral Hay had seen.

                            W.Carter Collection (Campbelltown City Library)

Source: Campbelltown Herald March 14, 1900

Written by Andrew Allen

Charles Tripp- Radio Pioneer

Imagine the scene: its a cold Saturday night in early September of 1928 and a large crowd of Campbelltown locals have gathered outside Charles Tripp's Silver Star Garage at the corner of Queen and Dumaresq Streets. They are all rugged up against the cold to listen to a broadcast of the fight at the Sydney Stadium between the Englishman Kid Socks and the Australian Archie Cowan. But why have they gathered outside a garage in Campbelltown?

Charles Tripp was Campbelltown's pioneer radio buff. He was a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia from 1914.  Radio was very much in it's infancy at the time Tripp became interested. Charles would have learned about radio from two magazines of the period catering for the home constructor- The Wireless Weekly of Sydney and The Listener In.

In 1925, Charles built a four valve wireless set that was reported as a box-like structure. He then fixed a loud speaker on the front door of his garage on the corner of Queen and Dumaresq streets. The speaker was described as a horn type variety. The sound from the speaker could be heard fifty yards (45 metres) away. This attracted crowds who would listen on Friday and Saturday nights to boxing matches from the old Sydney Stadium or to popular serials.

Charles Tripp lived in Campbelltown for the remainder of his life. He died on the 17th of March 1953 and is buried in St John's Catholic Cemetery in Campbelltown.

Charles Tripp's early radio experiments are featured as part of Campbelltown Library's "Creative Campbelltown" display for the 2012 National Trust Heritage Festival. The display will be available for viewing at the H.J. Daley Library from April 14 to 29.

Tripp's Garage on the corner of Queen and Dumaresq Streets in 1940. Ralph's Chemist now occupies this site. Haydon Collection (Local Studies Collection. Campbelltown City Library)

Do you remember Tripp's garage? Let us know your memories.

Sources:

Holm, Marie (Tess) et al
Campbelltown 1930-1940: Dumaresq Street and Environs
Campelltown NSW: Campbelltown City Council, 1985

Gracius Broinowski

Gracius Joseph Broinowski, artist and ornithologist, was born in Poland in 1837. He sailed to Australia in 1857 on a windjammer from London and first went ashore at Portland in Victoria. Broinowski soon began painting landscapes and scenes of various towns around Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. After settling in Sydney in 1880 and teaching painting to private pupils and at colleges, he then lectured on art and exhibited at various showings of the Royal Art Society.

Broinowski was commissioned by the Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales to draw pictures of Australian birds and mammals. These would be hung in classrooms in many schools. They later became bound and the Mitchell and National Libraries showed them as "Birds and Mammals of Australia". In 1888 he published "The cockatoos and nestors of Australia and New Zealand".

Broinowski had begun in 1887 to prepare a series of volumes entitled "The Birds of Australia". The works were accomplished while he was farming at Wedderburn and was completed in 1891. He took up a tract of land on today's Minerva Road, intending to divide it amongst his sons, and for some years endeavoured, with the help of his sons, to make farming pay. However, this was not a success and he lost money. Although he was able to build an attractive home with outstanding gardens, his financial difficulties meant he was unable to keep it going.

The house he built at Wedderburn with his wife Jane and children was called "Morning Glory". It was one of the earliest cottages built in Wedderburn. The building as it stands has a series of three pitched roofs (resembling a saw tooth roof). The building is an unusual design but it appears most of the original outside fabric has been removed. It is listed under the New South Wales Heritage Act. Today it is used as a church camp or retreat.

Gracius Broinowski died at Mosman on April 12, 1913. His reputation survives, not just as an artist, but as an advocate of fauna conservation.

                        

                       "Morning Glory" is now the Christian Campsite at Wedderburn. This shot was taken in 1984 by Verlie Fowler (Fowler Collection).

Sources:

Australian Dictionary of Biography: Melbourne University Press

"The Emu" Vol. 16, 1942

Written by Andrew Allen

The Woolwash

Whenever I ask the older generation of Campbelltown where they swam as children the answer is almost always at the Woolwash. The area known as the Woolwash is 4km east of Campbelltown and is a deep gorge along the Georges River around its junction with O'Hare's Creek. Although rumour has it that the Woolwash was at one time used for washing wool, there appears to be no evidence to support this story. In the early days people used the water for their own purposes, and also to water their cattle. But it was as a swimming hole in the searing summer heat of Campbelltown that the Woolwash gained its reputation.

It was during the 1930s that the Woolwash began to be the town's most popular swimming and picnic area. Many Campbelltown residents of that time remember crowds of about 100 people sitting and sunbaking on the sandy beach on the eastern side of the river. Unlike the muddy water hole at Bow Bowing Creek, the Woolwash water was normally very clear, unpolluted and nearly always flowing. It became so popular that in 1946 a kiosk was built and leased by Fred Lower. In 1955, council constructed a parking area near the top of the Woolwash road. Prior to its construction there were often up to about 50 cars parked along the road down to the turning area on a good weekend. A second car park was constructed in 1969 along with a kiosk and dressing sheds.

The area around the Woolwash was very popular for boy scout camps between the two world wars. Two camping areas were established in the 1930s about 200 metres up O'Hare's Creek, one on either side of the creek.

According to local resident Col Braithwaite, broken glass bottles were a major hazard in the area. People drank the contents of the glass soft drink bottles, threw the bottles into the water, then proceeded to throw stones at the bottles until they broke and sank. Many children often received bad cuts to their feet. Still, this was a small price to pay for a day at Campbelltown's charming piece of paradise.

Four unidentified children of the Denison family at the "The Woolwash" A. Denison Collection

Sources:

"Around the Woolwash in the 1930s and 1940s" by Col Braithwaite in "Grist Mills" vol 16 no 1 p26

Written by Andrew Allen