Living it Rough

Former Campbelltown resident Ron Foster sure did it tough in his early days living in Campbelltown. In an interview he did with Campbelltown Library in 1983, Ron described some of the places he lived in. Survived is probably a more appropriate word than lived.

Ron moved to Campbelltown with his family in 1931 aged 12. They came from Sutherland where work was difficult to find during the Great Depression and where Ron's father was on the dole and was unable to pay the rent. The Foster's took up a 12-acre block at South Campbelltown. Ron's father got work with Campbelltown Council in an arrangement where they worked so many weeks in a month, in replace of receiving dole payments. The family lived below where the rubbish tip was located at South Campbelltown. It was described by Ron as "very very rough" and a place where you 'existed' and lived the best way you could. The first place the Foster's lived in was nothing more than a tin shed. Ron further described it this way: "The fireplace consisted of one of those square galvanised iron tanks you know what they call ship tanks." The photograph below gives you some idea of what it was like. The water tank at the side of the 'house' was used as a bedroom!

Campbelltown City Library. Local Studies Collection (Keith Longhurst Collection). The boy in the photo is unidentified.

After a while the family built a slab hut on the 12-acre block. It was so small that Ron had to sleep in a tent. It had a kitchen at one end and a bedroom at the other where Ron's father slept while Ron slept in the tent! The two rooms were partitioned off with bags and nothing else. They had a stove and a stone fireplace. The hut had a corrugated iron roof and a floor made from stone from the bush with a skin of cement over it. Imagine living like this through a cold Campbelltown winter.

Ron was 12 when he moved to Campbelltown and 13 when he left the tiny Campbelltown South school (this building is now Kentlyn Public School). After working in different jobs around the town, including Tom Frost's dairy which included land where the current HJ Daley Library is, Ron got work on a farm at Eschol Park. Living conditions here were not much better. For ten bob ($1) a week, Ron was given a wooden stretcher to sleep on with no mattress or blankets! He eventually acquired a horse rug with another horse rug over him. All he had to eat was a plate of porridge for breakfast every morning and plum jam with bread for dinner. Work was seven days a week. How difficult it must have been living in those times.

Ron Foster died in August 1984, only one year after his interview.

Written by Andrew Allen

Life Savers in Campbelltown

 

It's fascinating to read what was considered newsworthy exactly one hundred years ago and compare how it would rate in today's world.  According to the Campbelltown News from the day, this unique advertising promotion attracted "great interest on the part of all who saw it". The visit was from an advertising automobile described as having a unique "stunt" body. The automobile was actually a truck with an extensive frame that fitted a large tubular body. On the body was a reproduction of a roll of Pep-o-mint life savers, described as the candy mint with the hole. The reproduction covered the shape, colouring and lettering of a life saver packet. The car stopped at Campbelltown on its way to Melbourne. Our town was one of a number along the principal highways of the country that the trucks would stop at. A million samples of life savers were given away by a few other trucks that travelled all over Australia at the time. The sketch above shows what the truck would have looked like. Kind of hilarious but way ahead of its time!

Life Savers Sweets Co. Ltd launched Life Savers in 1922 with a series of display advertisements in major papers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with a professionally executed campaign. The special promotional vehicle like the one that visited Campbelltown and constructed by the distributors, continued the promotion in 1924.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Campbelltown News, Friday 6 June 1924, page 7

https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au

If I were a rich man

If I were a rich man...I'd buy Macquarie Field House! This brilliant old house and property recently went on the market and is expected to fetch a price of $10-12 million dollars. Still a while to wait for the inheritance, so better make sure I get myself a ticket for the next lotto draw! 

There is so much history in this 65-acre property. Macquarie Field House was built in 1840 and has an interesting history. It was built by Samuel Terry for Sydney's first mayor John Hosking and is acknowledged as one of the finest examples of early Australian domestic architecture. It is built in the regency style. In 1858, George Fairfowl Macarthur leased the property to St Marks Collegiate School for boys. In 1868 the school amalgamated with the Kings School at Parramatta with most of Macarthur's pupils moving to this prestigious school. It was later owned by J. Ashcroft and then the Ross brothers, then by a syndicate of Kershaw and Hipsley. In 1944 the Department of Agriculture acquired the property. The house had come to the attention of the National Trust after it became severely dilapidated- a melancholy ruin that seemed destined for demolition. David Jamieson purchased the property in 1963 and thankfully restored it to its former splendour.

The house around 1960 before restoration

The house was later classified by the National Trust and a Conservation Order was placed on it in the early 1980s. After David Jamieson, the house was owned by the Department of Public Works and then a number of private owners.

Built before Macquarie Field House and located to the west of the house was the building known as Meehan's Castle. Named by Governor Macquarie, it was built by James Meehan on his Macquarie Field grant. It was a large two storey brick building with a barn-like appearance that Meehan built before 1820. It was demolished and gone by the 1950s and sadly hardly any trace remains.

Another early brick building of eleven rooms also once existed on the property. This was probably the cottage for Meehan to live in. An eight-stall stable and out houses could also be found.

Although still privately owned, the house has not been lived in since it was last sold in 2015. Today the site is on the State Heritage Register, meaning any proposed development is subject to strict controls designed to maintain the strict heritage significance of not only the house itself, but also its "intact 19th century rural cultural landscape". Given this heritage protection, it is likely to appeal to private buyers rather than developers. Better start getting friendly with that rich great aunt.

Macquarie Field House in the 1980s

The property today surrounded by modern suburbia (Realestate.com.au)

Written by Andrew Allen

Cordeaux Street- A travel back in time

Cordeaux Street, like Railway Street, Browne Street and many other Campbelltown streets, has changed enormously since the early days of the town. The southern side of the street in particular has completely changed from what it looked like even 50-60 years ago. Not one building between Queen Street and Moore-Oxley Bypass from before 1970 remains on that side of the street. Fortunately, we have photographs, newspaper articles and personal memories that help keep the memory of what it once looked like. 

The street was named after William Cordeaux, a government commissioner and wealthy owner of Leppington Estate. He built Leppington House on this property. 

I thought I would recreate what Cordeaux Street between Queen Street and Moore-Oxley Bypass would have looked like from the period of 1920 to around 1970. On the southern side, beautiful houses once dominated the street. The exception to housing was the Club Hotel on the corner of Queen Street. The Venture store building completed and opened in 1974 started the move from residential to commercial occupation. However, the northern side of this part of Cordeaux Street has changed little over the years. Mawson Park, St Peter's Anglican Church and St Peter's Rectory have dominated the northern side for either most or all of Campbelltown's existence.

Let's travel back in time and explore Cordeaux Street. We will start with the Club Hotel on the south-east corner of Queen and Cordeaux Streets. A hotel was built on this site as early as 1830 by Thomas Hammond. He named it the King's Arms. From 1832 the licence was held by John Hurley. It was then called the Sportsman's Arms and rebuilt in 1893. In 1865 it was supposed to have displayed the body of bushranger Harry Mann's before it was buried in St John's Catholic Cemetery. The hotel was later called the Club Hotel, until its demolition in 1986.

Club Hotel in 1926.

Moving up the hill on the southern side of the street at number 3 was a house referred to as Byrne's House or 'Roselle'. There is a photograph of this house taken in 1871, but I am unable to identify who lived there then. From the 1920s to 1943 it was lived in by Mr and Mrs William Joseph Byrne. They called it 'Roselle'. Byrne was a retired farmer from Appin, and he had moved from Dumaresque Street. William died in 1942 and his wife the following year. I am unable to determine when this ancient house was demolished. The site later became the Nepean River County Council Office until the change to the Prospect County Council Office. This building was demolished in 2016 and is now a vacant block.

Byrne's House. Photo not dated.

Adjacent to Byrne's house was another building with an interesting history. This house at number 5 was once part of a private school run by Miss Clarke. The school was a very large room at the back and attached to the house. Miss Clarke ran the school and lived in the house. Her sister, Mrs Tallentire, owned the home and lived with them. The house and attached school were photographed in 1885. By the 1930s, William Loftus and his wife were living here. William was a sergeant of police. After the Loftus', the Langdon family moved in. The house became a guest house for bank workers and teachers and the Langdon's named it 'Rema'. Muriel and Everett Langdon were known in town for their kindness and generosity to those less fortunate. The front of the house was later used as a doctor's surgery before it was demolished around 1975-76.

"Rema" at number 5 Cordeaux Street. (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

This view is of the back of number 5 (left) and number 7 (right). This is an interesting view as it shows Miss Clarke's school at the rear of number 5. (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

At number 7 was the residence of the Marlow family. They were living there as early as the 1930s. A staunch conservative, Percy Marlow was a dedicated Mayor of Campbelltown, serving three terms for a total of 13 years. He was a prolific photographer and also excelled at carpentry. Percy and his wife Annie owned a general store at the corner of Queen and Lithgow Streets in the early part of the 1900s. In later years Percy loved visitors and would encourage people he knew to sit on the bench on the verandah of number 7 and chat about what was happening in the world. He died in 1971 aged 93 and he was still living at number 7 Cordeaux Street.

7 Cordeaux Street. (Bagley Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

The Marlow family in the garden of their home at number 7. Percy Marlow is on the left. (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Number 9 Cordeaux Street was a building familiar to most Campbelltown residents. This was the residence and surgery of Dr William Mawson and his assistant Dr Karl Owen Jones. The building was known as 'Mulwaree' and was built by Mawson in 1913. William Mawson was the brother of Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. Dr Mawson possessed a great singing voice and had a lifelong love of music. The house and surgery were later used by that wonderful character Dr Ivor Thomas. Dr Thomas was remembered for his love of fast cars and fast driving, his stutter, and smoking whilst performing medical procedures, with the ash from his cigarette always threatening to fall somewhere on the patient's anatomy! Dr Parnell later practiced here in the 1970s.

"Mulwaree" at 9 Cordeaux. (Bagley Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

The next house up the street belonged to Fred Walter Wilkinson. He was a plumber and had served his country in the First World War. His plumbing workshop was nearby in Queen Street. Built in the early 1930s, the house at number 11 had a dark sandstone frontage. Fred Wilkinson died in 1970.

Fred Wilkinson's house at number 11. (Bagley Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Number 13 was occupied during the 1920s and 30s by the Baldock family. Alfred Ernest Baldock was an auctioneer and stock and station agent and appears to have moved to Cordeaux Street around 1920. The house was named 'Kia-ora'. Alf Baldock died in 1936.

"Kia-ora" is on the right and "Hyman's Cottage" on the left. Photo is not dated. (Bagley Collection, Campbelltown and Airds Collection)

The Baldock's neighbours at number 15 were the Hyman family. Albert Augustine (Bert) Hyman was a clerk who worked in Sydney and whose wife Mary ran a shop in Queen Street. Bert was of slender build and an accomplished singer. The Hymans were in this house as early as 1928 and they continued living there after Bert's death in 1954.

"Hyman's Cottage" with Mrs Hyman (left) and Mrs Briedale (right). Photo is not dated. (W.Wilkinson Collection)

The last house on that side of the street before what was then Oxley Street was a house known as 'Roseangeles'. It was built in 1923 and owned and occupied by Andrew Lysaght and his family. Lysaght was Attorney-General in Jack Lang's NSW Government from 1927-1931. The huge weatherboard house was surrounded by a fine garden and a number of tall palm trees. Sadly, the house was demolished in 1970.

Roseangeles (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Another view of Roseangeles (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

As previously explained, the northern side of the street was very different. It was dominated by Mawson Park and St Peter's Church. The park has been an open space since Campbelltown was settled in 1820. The church was completed in 1823 and once stood adjacent to Howe Street that ran all the way to Cordeaux Street until the late 1960s. The first St Peter's Rectory was built in 1840 and it stood close to the church. It stood slightly to the south of the present rectory. In 1887, the old rectory was sold on the condition that it be demolished and removed. A new rectory was built soon after.

A view of Cordeaux Street from St Peter's tower in 1928 showing numbers 1-7 Cordeaux Street (Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society)

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

McGill, Jeff et al 1995

Campbelltown's Streets and Suburbs

Allen, Andrew 2018

More than Bricks and Mortar: Remembering Campbelltown's Lost Buildings

McBarron, Ed

Campbelltown 1930-40. Patrick Street and Environs.

In Grist Mills Vol.4, No. 1, pp3-9

Keeping in time

While preparing our files for digitization we recently came across an interview from 1987 with Mr. John Cheeseman on the occasion of him and his sisters donating a beautiful ebony and silver baton of his father's to the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society.

Arthur & Louisa Cheeseman

The interview, conducted by an earlier Local History librarian, Joan Warton paints a fantastic picture of our area, of a tyrant school teacher and a kind baker. We'd like to share some of his recollections with you.

John's father, Arthur, had worked for the railways in Junee. In 1911 he was transferred to Campbelltown to maintain the automatic signals between the Picton and Liverpool lines.

Upon arrival, he and his wife, Louisa were presented with a little freshly painted cottage between Hannaford's Pub and the Coach house. John recalls his mother saying to the estate agent, "I'm not going in there!"

Taken aback the agent asked, "Why not?"

"There's bugs in there - I can smell them!" Louisa grabbed a stick, ran it along the window sill and held it up. Sure enough there WERE bugs. "They'd painted over them. That was our introduction to Campbelltown," 

"But," John said, "it all turned out for the best in the long run."

After living at Hannaford's pub for a while the family moved into a house in Stewart Street paying rent to Mrs. Munro. They had a huge vegetable patch next to the lane and a hedge of geraniums in which ducks would hide. John recalls every Sunday they would gather the ducks and take them through the gate for a swim in a hollow in (what is now) Innes Street. 

At Christmas, when the bake was done, Crowes Bakery allowed people from the town to put their Christmas roast into the large oven to cook.

One character he remembers well was Mrs. Seymour who lived behind St Elmo's and would get around in an old skirt, black apron, old felt hat and hardly ever with teeth in. But on Sunday's heading to confession she'd be dressed elegantly in Black Taffeta adorned with a beautiful bonnet with a single black Ostrich feather. She still had men's boots on but would also have her teeth in. 

At 5, John started school at Campbelltown Primary School where he had the notorious Miss McGuanne for a teacher. He remembers her, "She wore 4 different frocks that all swept the ground.  You never refused her bidding." 

She'd often get him to carry her shopping which made his mother wonder where he was. She also set aside a time in the school day for "conversation piece" where the children would have to say what had happened at home. "She'd find out all the gossip and scandal in the town." She also made her mark on John when he was fiddling with a pencil in the groove of the desk. Miss McGuanne brought a cane down upon his knuckles breaking a finger.

John's father, Arthur, leader of the Campbelltown band met for band practice every Thursday night at the Town Hall in Queen Street. Apparently, John's mother sent John along to make sure Arthur didn't come home via the hotel!

Arthur and his band played in many processions. One parade John remembers distinctly was the day of the Kangaroo march. In an effort to enlist army recruits for the first World War, a group marched from Wagga through many towns gaining men along the way. The band accompanied them from Kenny Hill playing them into Campbelltown where a further five recruits joined the recruitment drive.

Band Leader Arthur Cheeseman's baton. 

Photo courtesy of the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society

More Colourful Characters!

 I recently gave a talk to the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society on the second part of my Colourful Characters of Campbelltown presentation. I have chosen three characters for this post who you can read about below.

Characters. Campbelltown sure has had its fair share over the years. Enough for me to give a two- part presentation on them and I probably could have given at least one more. Every town has had them, but Campbelltown seemed to attract them more than most. They all live fondly in our hearts and memories and often bring a smile to our face when remembering them. Some made significant contributions to the town and some lead quieter lives.

Some had only bits that I can mention so I haven’t included them in the list. Like Arthur Luff of Allman Street that Eddie McBarron so wonderfully described in his valuable and entertaining Dumaresq Street book. Arthur, he described, walked with a limp and a stick, and characteristically sat on the verandah smoking incessantly his bent-stemmed pipe. The puffs were interspersed with mighty spits which carried from verandah to road. Another local told me about James Brooker who would drive his milk cart down steep Broughton Street to the Milk Depot near the railway line. He had no brakes so would attempt to slow it down by using the gutter at the side of the road. However, one day he was going too fast and rolled his cart over milk and all.

I have included 14 in my presentation today. Some I can talk a lot about…others not very much.

For some of those it is probably a stretch to call them characters- maybe they were more icons or in one case more of a curiosity- but their stories were worth telling so I have left them in there under the subject of characters. Frustratingly, I could not locate photographs of them all, so I have tried to include something associated with them. If anyone has photos of these characters or know who would have them, please let me know. Again, the characters will be presented alphabetically.

I have contemplated producing a short publication of some sort on todays and last year’s characters presentation. So, stay tuned for that.

Alf Cooper

Alf Cooper was born in 1916. He spent his boyhood years at Tamworth before coming to St Peters in 1926. The following year he came to work for George Chinnocks, who owned a store in the main street of Campbelltown- now one of the Georgian terraces. His mother said to him when he was 10 years old “How’d you like to go to Campbelltown? There’ll be horses and there is a shop, you’ll have lollies, you’ll have this, and you’ll have that”.

Alf sold newspapers for Chinnocks, rising very early in the morning to collect the newspapers for his billy cart from Campbelltown station at 3.30am. He then delivered them to the shop before delivering them on horseback to homes. This happened as Alf put it in “rain, hail or snow”.

When he was about 12 in 1929, Alf participated in a children’s party at the Town Hall. He stole the show dressed as Huckleberry Finn and sang a solo on stage that brought the house down. However, it was his attempt in the “boy who could laugh the heartiest” competition that he excelled. His “response excelled the greatest noise ever heard in Campbelltown, and so he won the prize” according to The Campbelltown News.

Alf Cooper used to do trackwork on the old racecourse at Leumeah in the 1930s. He would train racehorses that belonged to George Chinnocks. This course was known as Rudd’s Racecourse. Horses were Alf’s great passion.

I love the words that Alf used to describe people. He once said in an interview in his later years: “My old grandma- she was an old battleaxe. Old grandma would be in the kitchen and if they didn’t do something she would pick up anything and hit you. Another time he once said, “I was a bit of a wildie”. I love it when he described swimming as a child “When we came out of school we’d shout “Last to the Wattles is lousy. Across the public school we’d start undressing and by the time we ran down Sewer Lane we’d be naked (imagine kids doing that now). The Wattles was a bonzer spot, and I was a coot for diving.” Another time he said “Henderson the baker had two boys. One was named Glen. I used to knock around with Glen. We were good cobbers.”

Alf would ride bicycles, sometimes organising races. His mates were amazed that he only ever rode in bare feet- sometimes winning races this way.

Alf was a strong as an ox. He was employed to build the new Good Intent Hotel and a balcony was being built and concrete was needed for the upstairs balcony floor. Alf was used as the “horse”. He pulled the wheelbarrow filled with concrete up the plank while another bloke pushed. He demonstrated amazing strength.

Alf used to host casino nights in his barn on his farm.

Alf and his wife Eileen came to Leumeah in 1943. They remembered Leumeah when there were only dirt roads that turned to mud every time it rained.

I was lucky enough to meet Alf at Pembroke Lodge about 2 weeks before he died in 2010. Unfortunately, he was too sick to tell me much about his life but just meeting him was a wonderful experience.

Alf died in August 2010. He is missed by so many, especially the horses.

“Red Mick” Rixon

 

Frederick William Algernon was better known as Mick or Red Mick Rixon. He was born in 1897 at Campbelltown. He is pictured here with his wife Mary Selby at their wedding in 1920.

“Red Mick” was well known for his tracking abilities. He once tracked and located some lost girls in the Wedderburn area in 1926. They became lost while picking wildflowers.

He was quite a character. On one visit to the barber for a haircut Mick decided he didn’t want to wait. He untied the bag he was carrying and let out a snake. He quickly got rid of the queue!

At Wedderburn, Red Mick had quite a few acres, lots of dogs and native birds, including a lyre bird, and a very old bush timber style hut. Mick bred bloodhounds and harriers very successfully, he gained many prizes for his dogs at Bankstown and other shows, and he was very well known for the tracker dogs that he bred for the police. One of these champion dogs was named Heedless and the other Blutcher.

Mick won first prize in the Royal Easter Show around 1930 for top rooster. This prompted his brother John to ask Mick for a loan of the rooster for breeding purposes. After being asked by John, Mick’s reply was that it was too late as he had just eaten him!

Mick’s brother remembers one of his daughters being the subject of an article in the Truth newspaper in about 1958 entitled ‘This Miss Never Misses’. ‘Dutchie’ Rixon was charged with attempted murder in shooting some male. Apparently, Mick was interviewed and stated that it couldn’t have been attempted murder because if his daughter had meant the shot to kill then she would certainly have done so. Mick died at Liverpool in 1964 and is buried at St Peter’s Cemetery, Campbelltown.

 

Ernie Selems 

Cecil Ernest Selems, known as Ernie, was born in 1904, the son of Joseph Henry and Ellen Butchers. He married Lorna Smith in 1918. 

He enlisted in February 1916, serving as a WW1 soldier in France with the 45th Battalion. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in March 1917 and briefly was acting Corporal just prior to being seriously wounded in action in June 1917. He suffered a fractured skull and thigh injury and was hospitalised in England for several months. He returned to Australia at the end of 1917 and was discharged in Australia in February 1918

Ernie Selems had a hard life as a small dairy farmer on the Mount Annan ridge. The Selems family leased a dairy from Ted Sedgewick’s aunty on the edge of town on the Menangle Road. The farm was part of the remaining Church of England Glebe granted in 1823 and still owned by the church in the 1850s.

Ernie had to take his milk cans down a steep track then through the Claremont property to the Menangle Road (at the Glen Alpine roundabout). Twice a day he would take the milk into town at the Milk Depot and he would be at Lack’s Hotel at 10 in the morning. There are also references to it being parked most days opposite the Good Intent Hotel awaiting Ernie to drive it back home. After staggering out of the pub drunk, he would get back in the cart and the horse would lead him home. You would see the horse sauntering along. He is believed to have been the last local farmer to use a horse and cart to bring his milk to the Campbelltown Milk depot (to mid 1960s). It was a distinctive old white horse and cart. The milk depot building was burnt down in 1969.

In fact, Ernie never did the actual milking- this was done by his sister. All Ernie did was transport the milk in cans to the depot.

I couldn’t find a great lot else about Ernie, apart from that in 1954 he was charged and found guilty of failing to destroy rabbits on his property. I know he was also involved with the Campbelltown Show.

After Ernie died his house was cleaned out and a huge number of cheques were found- all not cashed! They went back many years.

Ernie died on 4 December 1987.

 

Written by Andrew Allen

 

 

Remembering a Policeman and a Brave Engineer

Tomorrow will mark the 100th anniversary of a sad event in our area's history. On 9 March 1924, an arrested man shot and killed two men in a car that was transporting him from Cordeaux Dam to Campbelltown Police Station. Both brave men's lives were cut tragically short, and the perpetrator was ultimately hanged that same year.

The incident that lead to the double murder was a break and enter at the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board at the settlement at Cordeaux Dam by William George Gordon Simpson. Work on the now heritage-listed Cordeaux Dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1926. Simpson had stolen two revolvers. After his arrest, Simpson was conveyed to Campbelltown by Constable James Flynn and dam engineer Guy Chalmers Clift. Clift's car was used for the operation, and he was the driver. As the car was one mile (1.6kms) from Appin, Simpson drew his revolver, and shots were fired. Constable Flynn was shot through the stomach. Following the fatal shot, Clift immediately pulled the car up and sprang at Simpson. After a struggle, Clift was then shot in the groin. Despite this, he was able to wrench Simpson's revolver from his grasp. He then punched Simpson in the jaw, got him out of the car, and drove towards Appin for help, despite heavy bleeding. A man named Gibson who was on his way to work at the dam, came across the scene just after the shooting. Clift told him to ride back to Appin as fast as he could and tell the police and that he would attempt to follow him in the car. Clift got there first and pulled up at the Appin Police Station where the brave hero struggled up on the police veranda on hands and knees to get help, where he was eventually found by a Constable Porter. On hearing Clift's account, the constable then set out to reach the prisoner Simpson. Flynn and Clift were soon transported to hospital, where the Constable died soon after. Simpson had boarded a car from the scene of the shooting and was later located at the Appin Hotel by Constable Porter. He found him in the backyard and then overpowered him with the help of another man. He was then arrested and taken to Campbelltown where he was charged with murder and other charges the following Monday. Clift was conveyed to Camden Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries the following morning. He was buried in Camden General Cemetery.

The opening of Cordeaux Dam in 1926 (Wollongong City Library)

Constable James Flynn was unmarried. He was known as 'Porky', aged 23 and had been a policeman for two and a half years. He was from Lithgow and his body was transported back there for burial. He joined a long list of policemen that have died in the line of duty in Australia.

Guy Chalmers Clift's hometown was Maitland in the Hunter Valley. Aged 37 at the time of his death, he was described as having some grey hairs that made him look older. In his boyhood while at Maitland Public, he was remembered for creating some amazing inventions. This creativity passed on to his adult years and he became proficient and later qualified in engineering. He obtained his degree from the University of Sydney. He used this qualification soon after when he became employed at Cordeaux Dam. He lived in a cottage at the site with his wife Muriel and his four children. Guy was described as quiet, retiring and competent. He would later have bravery added to these qualities.

Guy Clift's grave in Camden General Cemetery

William George Gordon Simpson was a motor mechanic and aged 37. When younger he was noted as a good footballer and first-class boxer. But it appears that there were deep underlying issues with William Simpson. He was reported as being kicked in the head by a horse as a child and thrown off a tram and fell on his head. These injuries were thought to have contributed to his personality. This claim was provided by his family to the Executive Council in an attempt to save his life.

It was claimed by Simpson's defence that he was drunk on the day of the murders. One witness described him as drunk from whiskey. It therefore appears as though alcohol was a contributing factor however, comments made by Simpson after the murders provide an insight into his mental state and probably therefore make a stronger argument for poor mental health as the cause of his actions. On hearing of Clift's death, Simpson said "This is terrible. I must have gone mad. I don't know what made me do it." He claimed that Clift and Flynn were his best friends and the last men in the world he would injure. He also stated that they were killed because they were preventing him from committing suicide. His father had committed suicide 16 years previously and he had tried twice. At his trial Simpson claimed that he took his revolver out to shoot himself.

William Simpson's 1924 Long Bay Gaol photograph

It was thought by a number of people that the real reason Simpson had acquired a revolver was to rob the Cordeaux Dam pay car. The car was supposed to have carried an enormous amount of money and would have been an easy target on the area's quiet roads. Simpson had previously driven the car. Cars were an unusual site around Appin and the dam. A 14-year-old Syd Percival wrote later in life that he remembered seeing Clift's car pass while picking pears at Cordeaux on his brother-in-law's farm. 

William Simpson's trial was on 6 June 1924 at the Criminal Court. He pleaded not guilty. Simpson was found guilty by the jury and Justice Ferguson passed a sentence of death. An appeal was lodged on the ground that the murdered man's dying depositions were wrongly admitted in evidence. The appeal was upheld, and a new trial ordered on September 2. The jury had to consider whether there had been deliberate murder. After only 45 minutes, the jury again found Simpson guilty. The media reported that Simpson had made an outburst of obscene language against the judges while he was being removed to the cells. He later made an appeal to the High Court that was refused. A letter written to the Minister for Justice by Simpson was never made public. 

On the morning of December 10, after he slept well through the night, William George Gordon Simpson ate a hearty breakfast and smoked a last cigarette. At 9am he was led to the scaffold. When asked if he has any last words, he did not reply. Death was instantaneous. 

I was initially intrigued over why Simpson was allowed to carry a revolver with him in the car. After further reading it was revealed that Constable Flynn did not regard him as dangerous but also that Flynn had searched Simpson, but the revolver was hidden in his sock and on the side of the boot.

A plaque dedicated to the memory of Guy Chalmers Clift on the Cordeaux Dam wall.

Update

I have received feedback from Deidre D'arcy about this story. Deidre wrote that her father Norman Percival heard the shots and that it all played out on Wilton Road, across the paddock from Northampton Dale (outside the entrance to what is now the turkey farm). She explained that Ellen D'arcy was driving her sulky into town from her family farm when Simpson tried to jump into the sulky. She "took off at the gallop towards the police station in Appin".

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Whitaker, Anne-Maree 2005

Appin: The Story of a Macquarie Town

Adelaide Chronicle 15 March 1924, The Sun 11 March 1924, The Herald (Melbourne) 27 November 1924, Evening News (Sydney) 11 March 1924