Down memory lane with the Fenwick family

DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH THE FENWICK FAMILY Written by Hazel Fenwick

1990

Dedicated to my nieces and nephews and their families.

TYPESET AND PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA BY FLASH PRINT PTY. LTD., 8 Barry Avenue, Mortdale NSW 2223. (02) 579 6186

DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH THE FENWICK FAMILY Written by Hazel Fenwick 2nd May 1990

This is a story of my family, my childhood and the local districts where I grew up.

According to the Books of Heraldry, the name De Fenwycke originated in the year 1220 A.D. in the north of England at a town called Kelso, now on the Tweed River in the County of Roxburgh on the Scottish Border. The reason for the spelling is at that time the language spoken was French, when the Normans ruled England.

De Fenwycke, Lord of the Castle and Tower of Fenwyke, lived in the reign of Henry the 1st. The celebrated Sir John Fenwick was executed for high treason in the year 1697. It is quoted that many of the population crossed over the border into Scotland around the year 1431, so we can assume that is how our ancestors came to be Scottish.

Andrew Fenwick, my paternal great-grandfather, was born to James and Johanna (nee Young) on the 21st May, 1812 at Miekle, Tullybelton, in the Parish of Auchtergaven in the County of Perth, Scotland of Presbyterian religion. Andrew was the second son of James and Johanna, the others being:— Thomas born 1810 James born 1814 Peter born 1816 Robert born 1817 James Fenwick had two previous marriages before he married Johanna Young. Andrew, my paternal great-grandfather, a shoemaker, married Ann Bissett on 15.3.1834 and they had five children to the union, namely:— James born 22. 8.1834 John born 5. 5.1836 (My grandfather) Johanna born 12.10.1838 Peter born 29.10.1840 Thomas born 22.11.1842

They were all born at Newburgh, Fife, Scotland of Presbyterian religion. Ann Fenwick, nee Bissett, died 25.8.1843 after Thomas was born. Records show that Andrew remarried on the 12.1.1846 to Elizabeth Bain, a needlewoman. They migrated to Australia, arriving on 23.9.1849 on the ship Kate from Plymouth, England.

Those on board were Andrew, 36 years, listed in the ship’s log as a farmer, but whether that was his real occupation is not known, as in those days the colony needed farmers and that was the only way they could secure a passage on the ship, listing themselves as labourers.

Also on board were:— Elizabeth, his wife aged 22, a needlewoman James 15 years John 13 years (My paternal grandfather) Johanna 11 years Peter 9 years Thomas 7 years The cost of the voyage was £7.0.0 assuming that it was assisted passage fee and the family settled in Sydney at Millers Point where the Harbour Bridge now stands.

Perhaps Andrew was a seaman or the likes as later records show that he is listed as a ballastman and a lighterman, hence the future of his sons which I will relate further on.

What happened in those early years of their life is unknown, but on the 6th April, 1862, Andrew’s two sons, James aged 29 and Peter aged 22, were drowned at sea—where and how I am unable to prove, but on that date at Nobby’s, Newcastle, the Collier S.S. Cumberland, was wrecked in a fierce gale and all hands were drowned. Part of the wreckage was found later but no trace of any bodies—it is said the ship was overloaded and no names of the crew were given. Also the ship was carrying an illegal passenger so the captain was at fault and it does seem a strange coincidence that the Cumberland founded on the same day that the Fenwick boys were drowned. I was even unable to find a Coroner’s report.

Then on April 8th, 1866, Andrew Fenwick aged 54 years, died on board ship of tuberculosis or consumption as it was called in those days.

He boarded the ship at Leith, Scotland and was buried at sea, Lat.38 Deg.8 Min. Sth.; Longitude 26 Deg. 22 Mins. East. I believe this position is off the Cape of Goodhope, Africa. His Death Certificate gives few particulars, only that he died without a struggle at 8 a.m. There was no name of the ship nor of the captain.

Why he died so far from home is not known—was he a crewman or a passenger? Who knows. Records show that Andrew and Elizabeth had 2

a further eight children after they arrived in Australia, namely: — George born 1850 Walter born 1851 Elizabeth born 1854 Thomas born 1856 Robert born 1860 Jane born 1861 Peter James born 1863 Georgina date of birth unknown.

The only child I have been able to trace is Elizabeth, who married Charles Arnold, a quarryman, on 25.9.1878 at 10 Union Street, Pyrmont. Charles and Elizabeth had five children: — Stanley date of birth unknown.

Ruby born 30.10.1883 died 7. 8.1965 Amy born 16. 4.1886 died 29.12.1950 Laurel born 25.11.1888 died 21.11.1950 One son deceased.

I remember these ladies, my father’s cousins, as they lived in the house where we had lived at Balmain after our family left to live in Manly in 1914 and our family visited often.

Of the first of Andrew Fenwick’s family who came from Scotland in 1849, my paternal grandfather John, married Charlotte Woodward, born 10.3.1838, the daughter of Francis and Charlotte Woodward, natives of Lambeth, England. They lived in a two-storied stone house in St. Mary’s Street, Balmain. In the 1860’s, houses numbered 2 to 6 in this street were sea captains’ houses, being of basic timber construction, but the engineers’ houses, numbers 10 and 12 were of more permanent brick. Two of the houses stood out amongst their neighbours, John Fenwick squeezing two tiny two-storied attached houses on his 23 foot lot in 1867. The two charming, but unadorned little houses at 14 and 16 St. Mary’s Street are easily identified by his initials J.F. in the fanlight above the entry door of number 14.

John and Charlotte had four children to the marriage:— Andrew born 13.5.1860 died 7.6.1936 James born 1864 died 1940 Charlotte born 4.4.1868 died 14.9.1958 1 male deceased.

Andrew married Matilda Anne Yuile on 13.4.1884, James married Agnes Jarvie Hood, date unknown and Charlotte married the Rev. George Dunkley. Andrew and Matilda had six children: — Charles John born 1885 Gertrude born 1887 3

Amy Matilda born 1890 Dorothy Charlotte born 1896 Ronald Andrew born 1899 Marjorie Yuile born 1902 The family lived in number 16 St. Mary’s Street, Balmain from 1886 to 1892 then in number 1 Weston Street from 1893 to 1899 when Andrew bought a “Carpenter’s Gothic Style” house built by George Octavius Etherridge between 1870 and 1872 at 24 Pearson Street and Johnson Street, Balmain, named Rothesay. It was previously named Eric Villa but Andrew changed the name back to Rothesay in 1909.

James and Agnes had one son and two daughters to their marriage:— John Fenwick Fenwick born Edinburgh 11.7.1892 (never married) Mary Hood Fenwick born 5.10.1894 (never married) Agnes Hood Fenwick born 14. 7.1897.

Agnes married Dr. Marshall Andrew and they had two sons, John born 16.4.1933 and Marshall (Tony) born 30.12.1937 who is also a doctor.

Charlotte married the Rev. George Dunkley and there were no children as Charlotte married late in life at the age of 40 years. They lived in a nice brick bungalow at 188 Chapel Street, Bankstown and it is still standing today. Auntie Cissie, as she was known, was a very good woman and a very religious lady, kind and generous. I used to visit her regularly at her home and she was always very attached to me. She passed away on September 14th, 1958 aged 90 years. He husband died in 1919 and his daughter Georgina, from his previous marriage became Auntie Cissie’s devoted companion for many years. She passed away at the age of 98, a loveable and devout Christian lady.

On the 16th January, 1870, Charlotte Fenwick, John’s wife, passed away leaving three children. She died of consumption and is buried with her parents at St. Jude’s Cemetery, Randwick. John Fenwick, being a widower after Charlotte’s death, remarried on the 6.6.1871 at Balmain to Pauline Kaufman, daughter of Francis Xavier and Beatrice (maiden name unknown) of Lochinvar, N.S.W. Pauline was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1847 and she had three brothers, William, Benjamin and James, all very dear old men. When they came to Australia is not known, but it is believed they first settled in Queensland at Roma then later came to Lochinvar and worked as farmers. Francis, their father was a carrier.

John and Pauline had nine children: — Jack born 1872 died 1898 4

Peter born 1874 died 1941 (My father) Beatrice born 1875 died 1877 Adolf born 1877 died 1906 Thomas born 1880 died 1954 Evelyn born 1882 died 1889 Bissett born 1884 died 1954 Janet born 1886 died 1887 Robert born 1891 died 1946 All were born at St. Mary’s Street, Balmain with the exception of the last three children who were born at Belmore.

In 1870, John and his brother Thomas established a steam ship towage service on Sydney Harbour and this was known to be the first such service in Port Jackson and was known as J. & T. Fenwick, located at Darling Street, Balmain. The first tugs were the Sarah L. Hickson and the J. & T. Fenwick, 1870-1878.

Spec 1876 A Water Lighter Gleaner 1881 A Water Lighter William Langford 1881 Charlotte Fenwick 1884 Victoria 1884 Garnett 1884 Advance 1884 Lost off Newcastle Dayspring 1889 Leverette 1892 Newburgh 1892 Hero 1892 Sunk at Port Kembla Vigilant 1899 Lena ---Kailoa 1902 Heroine 1906 Heroic 1909 Her os 1919 Lindfield 1919 Now in service:— M. T. Himma 1942 M. T. Sirius 1958 M. T. Manly Cove 1958 M. T. Farm Cove 1958 M. T. Iron Cove 1965 M. T. Camp Cove 1967 M. T. Spring Cove 1968 This was the fleet up to the takeover in 1970 by Brambles Industries.

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In 1870, Thomas Fenwick sailed to Richmond River on the North Coast of N.S.W. in command of his schooner Atlantic and established a towing service on the Bar of the river for the timber laden sailing ships.

Waiting for suitable tides and winds to cross the Bar, ships were often held up for days or weeks. The shortage of sailing ships to transport the timber being cut up the river also required the introduction of a steam tug to alleviate the position.

The J.&T. Fenwick partnership existed from 16.7.1870 until 1883 when Captain Tom formed his own company adding many more tugs to the service which included many unregistered vessels, such as the Albion, Lady Franklin, Sir George and the Union. Other ships in the list were:— Sarah Hickson 1878-1883 Victoria 1875-1883 William Langford 1881 Comet 1883 Protector 1884 Emma Pryers 1892 Sarah Fenwick 1891 ----Marion Fenwick Towage charges varied, but the standard price was £26.0.0 to take a vessel up to Lismore and down the river again. The tow from the Bar to Wardell and out to sea cost £8.0.0.

Captain Thomas Fenwick married Mary Cummings in Sydney, date unknown, and they had three children: — Andrew born 1873 died 9.1.1943 Thomas born 1875 died 25.6.1960 John born 1878 died 11.5.1899 Mary Cummings died in Sydney on the 4.4.1882 aged 30 years and in 1882 Captain Tom Fenwick married Sarah Halpin (nee Shaw) who had an 11 year old daughter, Jessie. Sarah was the daughter of Ephram and Elizabeth Shaw of Ballina. E.J. Shaw was later at the Pilot Station at East Ballina. It is said that Captain Tom indulged Jessie, Sarah’s daughter, in every way, treating her as his natural daughter and sent her to Sydney to be educated. Captain Tom and Sarah had eight children: — Charles born 1883 died 4. 4.1918 Ann Elizabeth born 1884 died 29. 7.1884 Ethan Bissett born 1886 William Wallace born 1887 Sarah born 1888 died 27. 4.1888 Marian Helena born 1889 died 29.10.1923 6

Walter Joseph born 1890 died 1933 Reuben born 1893 In 1886 Captain Tom built a a beautiful two-storied home at the mouth of the Richmond River overlooking Shaw Bay to enable shipping movements to be easily viewed from the upstairs verandah. The house cost approximately £9,000, £800 being spent on a beautiful cedar staircase and a beautiful black and white Italian tile entrance hall.

Above the staircase are portraits of two women, but who they are is unknown. At the front entrance is the family coat of arms with the motto Perit ut Vivat which translated means “He perishes that others may live”. It is said the house was designed by James Fenwick, Captain Tom’s nephew.

After the death of Tom Fenwick, his wife and family lived on for some years in the home, then Sarah moved to Beecroft in Sydney. The house has at this time been fully restored to its original state after being a boys’ school and a hotel. Now its future has been assured by the National Trust.

For all the previous information, I am indebted to Boyd Trevithick, great-great-grandson of Sarah Fenwick (Shaw) who has researched the family history and supplied me with much information about the epics and working life of Captain Tom Fenwick, also the book written by Louisa Daily Men and a River telling the story of the Richmond River and of the exploits of Captain Tom and all those brave men who plied the river in those early days.

Captain Tom was known to be an outstanding sea captain and master mariner and apparently a very brave man, also an astute businessman as the following story relates.

“The most publicised event occured in the early 1890’s when the steamer Chingtu bound for Sydney from China, broke her tail shaft in an easterly gale off Ballina. The anchors were dropped but failed to hold and she moved towards the North Head rocks helplessly, with total destruction of the vessel and subsequent loss of life threatened. Such was the force of the gale the Bar could not possibly be negotiated.

“Captain Tom decided to attempt a rescue with the tug Protector and such was the crew’s confidence in his judgement and ability that they readily volunteered to go with him. The necessary preparations were completed in three hours and casting off, they faced the gale.

“As they moved to the strickened vessel, Captain Tom stripped off his clothes and swam out with a line and when it was secured, they towed the vessel into a safe harbour at Byron Bay.” The following poem to honour him was written by Archibold Hunter of the Telegraph Station though there seems to be some 7

confusion about the name of the rescuing tug’s name: — TOM FENWICK AT THE WHEEL The storm clouds stream athwart the sky From seaward to the land; The ocean leaps with madd’nin din High on the yellow strand.

And battling with the shrieking gale A noble ship drives fast; The white sails from her mast are shred Like sea-foam by the blast.

And must that wild and ruthless sea Those gallent men entomb?

Is there no help can reach, and save Them from so sad a doom?

With pitying glance we stood, and watched The seamen have the lead; While nearer draws the labouring barque To wave-worn “Lennox Head”.

Out spoke an aged mariner,— “God help them now,” I say; The bravest heart in Ballina Could scare give help today.

With anxious eye he cast his gaze Across the wind-strewn strand; “Hurrah!” he cried, “The Francis comes, Tom Fenwick in command.”

No flinching there, though breakers roar, He stands as true as steel; The Francis bounds like living thing, When Fenwick’s at the wheel.

High o’er the gale a gladdening cheer, Rings out with royal peal; .

“They’re saved, they’re saved, the Francis comes, Tom Fenwick’s at the wheel.

And now she breasts the inner break, Her crew so true and leal; They have no fear for well they know Tom Fenwick’s at the wheel.

The sea-wall strikes the struggling boat, She quivers, stem to heel; Then dashes on with dauntless front, Tom Fenwick at the wheel.

Now, now her decks are hid in foam, The mad sea makes her reel Yet seaward still she cleaves her way Tom Fenwick at the wheel.

And now she’s gained the open sea, She nears the storm-tossed ship; Cheer up, brave men, (with Heaven’s help) And they will save you yet.

Heave, heave the line with trusty aim, Men’s lives are in the cast; “Well done, bold hearts! we have it now,” Comes hoarsely o’er the blast.

The little barque is safe in port, All snug from truck to keel; Thank Him who watches up aloft, And Fenwick at the wheel.

Captain Tom Fenwick died on 14.12.1896 on board the Lady Franklin at McCreadie’s Wharf aged 54 years as a result of injuries and pulmonary disease caused by the capsize of the vessel Billy Langford at Ballina, when he and a deckhand were found struggling in the water and were rescued. He never recovered from this accident and he was also found to have sand in his lungs.

He was buried in a little cemetery overlooking the scene and his family’s headstone is at present in the Memorial Pioneer Park at East Ballina, N.S.W. Sarah, his wife, died in Sydney on 29.9.1917 and is buried at Waverley Cemetery. Jessie, his step-daughter, married Thomas Davis, M.L.A. in 1892; she died on 25.5.1947 at Auburn and is buried at Waverley Cemetery, she being Boyd Trevithick’s great-grandmother.

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To return to my grandfather John Fenwick, after he died in 1901, the Company was managed by his two older sons, Andrew and James.

After James married, he lived in the house in St. Mary’s Street Balmain from 1886 to 1888. His father sent him to Scotland to study engineering and further his education at Glasgow University and he achieved his B.E. The Firm was run as a private company for some years but later became a public company and traded as J. Fenwick & Co. Pty. Ltd. After Andrew and James retired, the Firm was managed by Andrew’s son Charles and James’ son John. Charles later took over the management of the Newcastle Branch and Ronald came into the Firm, he being Andrew’s son. The Company is now being managed by Ian Fenwick, son of Ronald, for Brambles Industries, so now after 100 years in the Fenwick family the record is broken, although the tugs still trade under the name of J. Fenwick & Co. Pty. Ltd. in many ports of Australia and Tasmania.

At the early age of 12 years, my father Peter was taken to work on the tugs, there being little time for education in those days and boys had to be put to work. He eventually became an engineer and Captain on the tugs until he was retired through ill health in 1915.

He often spoke of going out to bring in ships at early mornings and stormy and wet nights. There were no ordering a tug in those days, the first tug out to the Heads got the towing jobs. He paid for this hard early life in later life with gout and rheumatism.

To go back to Andrew Snr’s family, John married Charlotte Woodward, James and Peter were drowned, Johanna married Captain James Firth as far as I can trace and had four children who were known to me as Jessie, William, Anne Jane and Robert, the latter being a constant companion to my father and we thought a great deal of him.

Thomas went to Ballina as I have related previously and of his second marriage to Sarah Shaw, they produced eight children. My father Peter, who was John’s second son to his marriage to Pauline Kaufman, married Mary Jane Turner, daughter of William and Margaret (nee Elliott) at Hurstville Presbyterian Church on 1.8.1898.

They had nine children of the union, namely:— Reginald born 1.12.1899 died 13.12.1899 Margaret Elliott born 27. 2.1901 died 26. 8.1983 Pauline Mary born 11. 6.1902 died 29. 3.1970 Thelma Irene born 29. 4.1904 died 1. 1.1979 Charlotte Turner born 15. 2.1906 died 21. 5.1979 William Turner born 20. 3.1909 died 22. 9.1985 Peter Allan born 4. 3.1911 died 24. 6.1969 10

Hazel Merle born 29.10.1913 Jack Miller born 19. 8.1916 died 31.7.1986 Thomas Fenwick married Annie Lovell and had one daughter, Verona born 27.2.1918. Auntie Annie was very loveable, kind and generous and she had a sister Ivy and a brother Fred who were both lovely people. I used to like going to Verona’s birthday parties. Uncle Tom built a nice home on the corner of Redman Parade and Sudbury Street, Belmore which still stands today and is used as a doctor’s residence. Verona had lots of toys, so, as children we enjoyed going there. She had a big rocking horse which we enjoyed very much, she also had lots of nice friends and Auntie Annie always cooked goodies for her birthday parties.

They also had special neighbours, Mr. & Mrs. Goswell and daughter Irene and Mr. & Mrs. Williamson and son Tommy. Old Mrs. Williamson was a Scottish lady and very nice. She is in a nursing home now and I visit her often—she will be 99 years old in this year of 1990 and is very alert and contented.

Verona married Griffith Duncan of Kurri Kurri and they had two children Anne and Ian. Verona is now a widow and lives at Newcastle in a lovely home at New Lambton, her son Ian being a Doctor of Veterinary Science in Victoria.

Bissett (Uncle Gov) never married and he lived with Uncle Tom and Auntie Annie at Belmore. He also was a kind and generous man and always gave us kids five shillings when he saw us, to buy an ice­ cream, as he would say. He passed away on 30.11.1954.

Robert married Elsie Noble and they had two sons, Ross and Colin. They were very spoilt children and spiteful to Jack and me. As far as I know Auntie Elsie is still alive and is in her 90’s. Uncle Bob pre­ deceased her.

In 1883 John Fenwick built a two-storied house at what was then called Belmore, in the Municipality of Canterbury and what is now known as Roselands. He bought approximately 100 acres of land which was first granted to Mr. H.B. Morgan in 1842, adjoining a grant of land to A.W. Wilson in 1823, this being later divided into other blocks.

The house of brick with slate roof was painted red and was built in the centre of 89 acres and surrounded by many trees, mainly ironbark and box which were used when needed for fuel, the ironbark being particularly good and easy to split.

The house itself had ten rooms consisting of a guest room, two drawing rooms or music room, a dining room divided by folding doors, a kitchen leading off onto a flagstone verandah and a small room on the verandah where the milk separating was done.

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This meant separating the cream from the milk by a small machine which had to be turned at an even speed so as to keep up the constant flow of cream and milk. The cream was collected in a large earthenware jar and every two or three days churned into butter in a wooden churn.

The separated milk would be used to feed poddy calves, also pigs and fowls—there was also a front verandah of sandstone and iron collonades supporting an upper verandah.

Upstairs consisted of five bedrooms and all the woodwork, such as doors and skirting boards, were of cedarwood, the doors being panelled and very tall, about 9ft. I estimate the skirting boards were 12 inches in depth. The staircase was in two parts with a landing after the first flight.

The drawing room was furnished with a red covered suite of six chairs (late Victorian), a chaise lounge, one grandfather and one grandmother chair, a very large dining table to seat about twelve people when extended, a large sideboard consisting of cupboards and large mirror, and a piano. The wallpaper was red with silver motifs and the silver fish particularly enjoyed this paper I remember. The two large windows were enclosed by shutters, in fact all the windows had timber louvre shutters. The dining room also had another sideboard and large table and couch.

The kitchen had a huge fuel stove range which burned split wood about 18” long and a big oven, the stove of course, was cast iron. We kept a cast iron water fountain on top of the stove, also a copper water container. All the saucepans were black cast iron also. There was no sink in those early days, so the washing up was done in a dish, and there was a large tin tray to hold the crockery. This was done on a table.

Against the wall in the kitchen was a meat and grocery “safe” and a long built-in box which we called the “pot box” with a lid where we kept all the saucepans and cooking utensils. My old great-uncle Jim, who lived with us, would sit on this box every night with a tea towel in his hand waiting for me to wash the dishes.

Outside on the verandah was another hanging gauze meat safe and another safe where we kept the milk and cream, also a wood heap beside that so the fuel was undercover.

A bathroom was added later, but hot water had to be carried upstairs as there was not a water heater—this was added in later years.

Previous to this, we children were bathed in a big round galvanized tub in the kitchen by the kitchen stove. All water came from tanks catching rain water and a well which was in the backyard. We also used this to keep the butter and milk cool during the summer. My brother Bill brought town water to the house many years after by laying water pipes from Canarys Road.

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There was carpet on the stairs and a hall runner. This was, of course as I remember it, but when my grandparents were there, there were only bare boards and my Aunt Charlotte told me she had to kneel and scrub the wood white, there being no vacuum cleaners in those days.

The lighting for the house was kerosene lamps for downstairs and candles upstairs. Many a book I have read by candlelight and when one had to use face make-up you always looked quite good. The hanging light in the drawingroom had five lovely lights with a design sandblasted on the shades and looked very elegant when all were lit.

The breakfast room had a dual light which one could raise and lower and this showed quite a good light. There was also one like this in the hall. All these gave a soft light and the house looked very elegant when they were all lit.

Outside the house a large flagstaff was erected and on special occasions such as Empire Day, the pole would be dressed with flags such as the Union Jack, Australian, Scottish and a large American flag.

There were also many ship’s flags on the yardarms and it was a very impressive sight.

There were many gardens and the front gate opened onto a gravel path in the centre of which was a large ring of hedge with a camellia tree in the centre.

We called this the “round ring” and along the front fence was a row of camphor laurel trees and there were also buffalo grass lawns.

Around the back yard were stables for the horses, a buggy house in which the sulkies were housed, and on top of this was a loft where the corn was stored, and also a room where we kept the chaff and grain for the poultry. Also nearby was a huge hayshed and cow bails where the milking was done, and near this was the toilet, a brick structure to accommodate two, one large seat and one for a child. The toilet was a respectable distance from the house, but of course it had many other names in those days. As the house was a long way from the road there was no service until many years later, so the cans had to be disposed of by my father.

There was also a bush house off the back verandah with a grape vine growing along the side and in the fernery there were ferns and other tropical plants. In this fernery a deep hole was dug which was also used as a cooler as it was cool inside the fernery. There was no refrigeration in those days, although when we came to live there we had an ice chest.

Adjoining the house was a stone building which was called the dairy, where we kept preserves and such, as this also was a cool building.

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The laundry was a slab two room building where there was a fuel copper, tin tubs and a scrubbing table, the extra room had a bed where grandma’s brother Jim Kaufman slept. It was lined with hessian bags which were white-washed to keep the draught out. The clothes lines in the yard were held up with props, a small tree sapling with a ‘V’ on the end.

The house was surrounded by a white picket fence with several opening gates. Grandfather called the house Belmore House and above the front door the name was printed in a glass fanlight, so the house was always known as Belmore House until it was demolished in 1966 and was the showpiece of the district even though it was not very modern by today’s standards.

The property was really a farm where all the produce was grown, there being pigs, cows, horses, poultry etc., the land was cultivated and produced well. The orchard had every kind of fruit, much of which was made into preserves. My mother used to do this and I can never forget the beautiful flavour of everything, especially the preserved tomatoes she used to put down with the herb marjoram.

We used to grow our own corn for the stock, the cobs were picked and allowed to dry out and stored in the loft. As children we had great fun husking the corn, although it used to take all the skin off one’s thumb. The corn stalks were cut up in a chaff cutter for fooder for the cattle and horses and I can still remember the sweet smell of corn stalks.

We also grew lucerne and stored this for the cattle and horses.

In the early days, my Uncle Gov. bred chickens by incubation and my father also did this for a while. The incubators were housed in a tin shed which was called the incubator house and it was always lovely and warm in this shed as the incubators were kept at an even temperature for the chickens. How thrilled we used to be when the eggs hatched and those masses of fluffy golden chicks chirped away. It was a lovely feeling putting one’s hands in the middle of the mass of chickens, they were so warm. The heating was done by kerosene lamps.

The horses we had were quite docile and we had much pleasure driving in the sulky with my father. Every week my father would go to my grandmother’s at Burwood (that was where she moved to before my parents moved to Belmore House in 1917). One Saturday my brothers Bill and Jack would go to see her and the next week brother Allan and I would go. There were two sulkies, one a larger rubber tyred one and one a small one which we used with a small pony a friend of Dad’s from Penrith gave to Jack and me. She was a nice little grey mare named Daisy, but Jack and I didn’t like that name so we called her “Prince” —how stupid after all. We would harness up and drive around the 14

paddocks which was great fun.

I have written ahead of myself here and related when I lived in Belmore House.

John Fenwick passed away on 29.1.1901 aged 65 years and was buried at St. Saviour’s Cemetery, Punchbowl beside his children in a family grave which is still there today and I attend to it. Although he was of Presbyterian religion, he attended this church as I don’t think the Presbyterian Church was in the district then, and he is remembered by a stained glass window he put in the church for the Fenwick family. He was a strictly religious man and kept very much to his Faith and kept the Sabbath by reading the Bible all day I was told.

My maternal grandparents were William and Margaret Turner of Shorter’s Avenue, Belmore (Lakemba). William Turner was the son of William Turner, a bootmaker, and Alice White and was born in Wickham, Durham, Northern England in 1835 and came to Australia in 1851, disembarking in Victoria. It is said he came to Australia for the gold rush days. He married Margaret Elliott, (daughter of George an engineer and Jane Shipels), she being born in 1834 at Elswick, Northumberland, Northern England. She and William Turner were married at Fitzroy, Melbourne at the age of 26 years. How they came to know each other is not known, maybe they knew each other in England.

After living in Melbourne for 11 years, they came to N.S.W. and lived in Wallsend in the Newcastle area for several years, my mother being born there. The children of their marriage were: — Francis William born 1864 James M. born 1867 Margaret born 1869 Mather White born 1871 Mary Jane born 1875 (My mother) 1 male deceased not known.

My maternal grandfather William Turner, whilst living at Wallsend, once again became a miner and became interested in the conditions of the miners, representing them in Parliament for the Hunter District of N.S.W. and was the first Labor member to be elected to the Legislative Council in N.S.W. and was financed voluntarily by the miners. The Reform League selected him in 1877 as it was considered the only way to secure proper representation of industrial workers was by having paid members of Parliament. He defeated his opponent by almost 700 votes.

When he was elected, his fellow workers in the coal mines supported him financially by a voluntary levy. His first term was short lived, but he was returned again in 1880 by a substantial majority, 15

resigning in 1881, as the miners failed to pay the levy to support him.

Such was Parliament in those days, not like the present day when members are paid enormous wages and receive pensions. I feel that if he were alive today, his political ideals would have been different from those early days.

After the family left the Hunter District, my grandparents took up land in Shorter’s Avenue, Belmore where he started a plant nursery and florist business with his family, but a couple of his sons worked in the rail and tramways.

They lived in a little weatherboard cottage with lots of shrubs and vines growing over it. My mother and her brother Mather used to take flowers into the city markets by horse and cart, leaving home very early in the morning to arrive with fresh flowers. Can you imagine driving a horse along those dark streets in those days?

The gardens must have been beautiful, as many years after the house was gone and my grandparents dead, we, as children, used to visit the land and pick daffodils that grew wild there. I never knew my grandparents as I was too young to remember them being only three years old, but my older sisters told me they were both very gentle people.

Grandfather was a temperance member and believed in homeopathic medicine.

They were both buried at Sutherland Cemetery, grandfather passing away on 24.4.1916 and grandma on 19.10.1917. I used to visit the graves with my mother when the old steam trains ran out to Sutherland. The land where the old house was is all built on now, one of the people who bought the land being Harry Fulcher who ran a carrying company and worked for Canterbury Council.

When my parents Peter and Mary married they first went to live at Summer Hill in a house which was purchased by father’s brother Jack, as he had planned to marry Molly Walder, who was the daughter of Sir Samual Walder, the canvas tent maker, but owing to the sudden death of Jack Fenwick in 1898, it was decided that my parents marry and live in the house.

Molly Walder was later to marry Mr. McMahon, father of Sir William McMahon, at one time Prime Minister of Austalia. Molly passed away not long after, leaving two sons orphans.

My parents later moved to No. 4 Weston Street, Balmain to live, being near to Dad’s work on the tugs which were moored at Darling Street Wharf. It was a three-storied house on the waterfront and the yard at the back went down to the water. The house fronted on to the footpath and also down the back yard was a stone building which was 16

used for a store room for the tug’s equipment and the building remains there to this day.

There was also a coal heap which my brother Bill used to use as a slippery dip, so my sisters told me. All the family were born in this house except brother Jack who was born at Manly when we moved there in 1915.

My older sisters all went to Nicholson Street School and used to speak of the fun they had riding on the tram “dummy”, a heavy machine used to steady the tram as it came down the steep Darling Street hill to the wharf. The family attended Balmain Sunday School, my mother sending them off in cotton dresses and petticoats all frilled and starched and were much admired by many I have been told.

There was a hotel, the Shipwright’s Arms, next to our house in Balmain, which was managed by a lady called Grannie Moran and all the tug crews used to drink there, including my father. She had two grand-daughters, Ruby and Rita Pierce whom I remember quite well from latter years. Ruby had a beautiful singing voice and married Frank Wilson another singer. They later conducted a guest house at Katoomba where my mother took Jack and me for holidays. They were a wonderful couple and entertained the guests each night with their singing. Rita married Stan Moses who had a bakery at Windsor and we also visited them and enjoyed their lovely fresh bread.

I can’t remember our home in Manly as I was only one year old, but I can just remember our moving to Belmore House in Canarys Road, Lakemba. I was just three years old in 1917 and as I have described earlier, the house had ten rooms and we filled it well, ten people in all.

We also had our great-uncle Bill Kaufman living with us and after he passed away, Uncle Jim Kaufman—they were grandma’s bothers.

They were both lovely old men and I was very attached to both of them.

We came to live at Belmore House to caretake because grannie bought a lovely two-storied house at Railway Parade, Burwood called Rosalie and her two sons lived with her, Bissett (Gov) and Robert, also her brother Jim Kaufman. She also had a housemaid called Grace Russell. The grounds had beautiful gardens and a lovely lawn tennis court, the men tending the gardens.

My first recollections of Belmore House was following my father and Uncle Bill about everywhere. I was a real daddy’s girl from the start, although I adored my mother, she was so gentle and kind, but my father was always doing interesting things around the place like ploughing, milking and all farm duties and I was a real tom-boy.

Jack was only a baby and it wasn’t until he was older that we became constant companions. We did everything together, especially 17

with our father. We used to love following him behind the plough and picking up worms to give to the chooks and pet magpie. I can still see that lovely fresh, damp soil, rich and brown as the plough blade turned it over and we would be in the cow bails watching Dad milk the cows.

Jack and I would have four pieces of rope which we tied to the axle of the upturned cart in the shed and with a billycan of water would pretend to milk also and we learnt to milk that way. We were great “pretenders”. Belmore House was a real farm and we had animals to play with, especially our pet cats and dogs.

I remember going down to the St. George Hotel, Belmore, which is still situated on the corner of Canterbury Road and Kingsgrove Road, with my Uncle Bill in the horse and sulky to get his one gallon keg of beer, then we would drive back home and he and Dad would sit on a log in the backyard and drink under the peppercorn tree, and there they would sit all afternoon smoking their pipes and having a talking and drinking session.

One day, Uncle Bill saw a black snake gliding past and said to Dad, “Look, there’s a snake, Peter”, but Dad thought he was seeing things after the beer—however, sure enough, there was a snake slithering along the thick grass. It was not unusual to see snakes on the property looking for the chook’s eggs.

My sister Thelma was often sent over to help Grannie with the housework; she was always sent to relatives to help out. She was a real little slave and grew up to have a complex about herself. She always felt inferior to anyone else. She also stayed with Mum’s sister, Margaret Klause, she and her husband George having two children, Eva and Frank who were both good friends of my sisters.

I was always close to my brothers Bill and Allan, but as they were older than me they had different friends but in later life they were very close companions to me and we had some good times in my teenage years and they were both kind to me. Jack being younger was my playmate and as I said before, we were alway copying our elders. Each day we would be somebody different, one day we imagined we were electricians and nailed wire all around the stable, then we would dig trenches and lay sticks for water pipes. Then there was the game of playing ice-cream man, when we had a billy can of mud, filling gumnut cones.

We always had a billy cart in which one of us would be a horse and pull each other around the paddocks. We didn’t need entertaining, no T.V. in those days—we made our own fun. I hardly ever played with dolls, that came later when I had girl friends like Anne Vandyke and Jean Miller.

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The back paddock was covered in a grass we called nut grass and it grew a little pink flower which seeded into little pods which we called pudding, and when they were small we used to eat them as they were sweet and juicy. The grass was long and slippery so we would sit on a piece of tin and slide down the hills on it. When our nieces and nephews were old enough we introduced them to the game.

There were three water holes down the back paddock for the cattle to drink from and there were always lots of frogs and tadpoles to catch.

Sometimes, in hot weather we would swim in them but the water was all muddy and murky but we didn’t seem to mind. We would always have a bath after these escapades even though the water was cold.

Bathing was a weekly event when we were little and this took place in a round galvanised tub in front of the kitchen stove as the bathroom upstairs only had cold water laid on so the boys used to carry hot water upstairs in kerosene tins for their baths. Sometimes by mother would bath Jack and me in the washing tubs when she finished the washing.

Washing day must have been hard for my mother as the laundry was done in the old kitchen which was the slab hut up the backyard.

Dad would stoke up the copper to keep the copper boiling for the huge wash for ten of us, plus tablecloths and shirt collars had to be starched.

The wash tubs were tin and one had to be careful of rust on the clothes.

My poor mother would be worn out on wash days and Dad used to give her a glass of lager with Sao biscuits.

As my sisters grew older, they all had their jobs to do in the house, although Thelma did most of the housework as Maggie, Lena and Chatty went to work. Maggie had a position with William Ingliss in the city, Lena and Chatty worked in the local grocery shop for a Mr. B.K. Williams and a Mr. Orr on Canterbury Road, Punchbowl.

Sundays were always a cooking day, when Mum and the girls cooked a variety of cakes as there was always plenty of butter and cream. Thelma’s specialty was cream puffs and sponges, Chatty made lovely apple scones, Lena made all kinds and my mother used to cook lovely coconut cakes and they were my favourite.

Sunday dinner was always a baked one with our own vegies and often our own poultry or pork, also ducks. Christmas Day was a special day with all our own meat and produce. There would be a pig killed and some would be sent to Hutton’s bacon factory at Canterbury where it would be “cured” for ham and bacon. We also shared the pig with our neighbour Mrs. George Hilton.

We kids used to love sitting by the pigsty watching the big pigs, but of course we were never allowed to watch the slaughtering though all the local kids would be there for scalding and help rub the hair off 19

the carcass.

Then we would be sent away while Dad and Uncle Jim would clean and draw the entrails.

Uncle Jim would always save the bladder, blow it up with a quill from a feather, dry it in the sun, then we would use it as a football. When the carcass was cleaned and washed, it would be well covered in pepper then covered with a sheet and left to cool for 24 hours then it would be cut up.

Mum would bake the back bones and we would have a great old pick of them.

Near the coach house was a shaddock tree, this being a large fruit, a cross between a lemon and grapefruit. It was a bitter fruit and used mainly for jam. My mother used to make the jam and it was like marmalade. Whenever strangers came to see us we would offer them to eat, then give them a glass of water as they were so bitter, one’s mouth would have a dry feeling and we would have a great laugh at this trick.

We had a weed growing, a herb called horehound and this was also a bitter plant. My father used to boil it and add Epsom Salts believing it was good for the blood, as well as for rheumatism. We would have fun with this, giving it to our friends to drink as this also had a bitter taste.

Our near neighbours were the Vandyke family and the children were our playmates. They were a Dutch family who had come to Australia in 1913 on the German ship Scharnhorst and settled in Punchbowl in 1917. Mr. & Mrs. Vandyke had 15 children, rearing 12 and they were all born in the Hague, Holland with the exception of Bobby, Dick and Stan who were born in Australia. “Ma” as she was called was a lovely kind lady, also a wonderful mother. Chris, the eldest son has told his story of their first home, which I will relate as follows: —

EMOH RUO (OUR HOME) Our Punchbowl adventure began when one of our Dad’s cronies advised him to settle his family on a big block of land with the object of starting a poultry farm. Never before in all the history of poultry farming in Australia or anywhere else in the whole wide world had there been a similar case of the blind leading the blind. And never before had even the most modest venture been started with greater handicaps.

We didn’t have the faintest idea of what was ahead of us. To say that we hardly knew the difference between the hen and the rooster would be only a slight exaggeration. There was however an even greater obstacle to hurdle. We had no capital! A more simple and more direct way of putting it is that we had no money, no money at all!

On the score that enthusiasm overcomes all difficulties Dad 20

announced one evening that he had bought a “big” block of land in a suburb called Punchbowl. In those days few people knew that there was such a place let alone knew in what direction one would have to travel to find it.

Dad had obviously met a smart salesman that day for he had not discussed the buying of land with any of us. It was of course bought on terms and the down payment he had borrowed from one of this mates.

You might call this a poor start to a poultry farm. He took me to see this land first opportunity and I fell in love with it. It was covered with close grown gum tree saplings and a good sprinkling of larger trees. It was almost level and measured a little under one and a half acres. Ideal for a poultry farm!

As we walked back to the railway station we were full of enthusiasm. We agreed that a house would have to be built. That was the first thing. I knew that my father was not a handy man, in fact he had the reputation of not being able to drive a nail. But, he could rely on me!

Wasn’t I an apprentice carpenter? And even though I only worked in a door factory, I was always “making things” in my spare time. I already had a clientele for baby cots, small tables, stools, toys. But when it came to building a house that was another matter. I had had no experience at all in that important branch of the building trade, but I was full of confidence. As Pop said,— “a house had to be built.”

The family had been living from day to day with Dad being the main breadwinner. His income was earned by casual labour on Sydney’s wharves. It was a precarious existence. He had what were known as good weeks and bad weeks. He might be away from home a whole day without having earned a penny and sometimes he might not come home until the following morning. He had then worked during the night. This was known as an “all nighter” or a “darkie”. It was wellpaid and when this happened, it would be a “good week”.

The three elder boys as apprentices were unable to swell the combined family income to any great extent. In fact one of them had already departed to the bush and from there had offered his services to the army to keep the world safe for democracy.

Dad had a number of friends who offered to lend a hand to help build the house. They also volunteered to lend him some money. So, one Sunday, we went to the land and cleared an area well back and out of sight from the road. The house was to cover an area of 36 feet by 16 or 17 feet and this was divided into three rooms. We dug deep holes about 2 feet apart, they were to take long thick straight saplings.

A top plate was bolted to these posts which was to be the high side of the house. A similar plate on the opposite side fixed at a lower level 21

revealed at a glance that this was going to be a skillion roof. It was to be covered with corrugated galvanised iron with a gutter to flow the rainwater into a tank. It was to be some years before the Water Board put mains into our street, Violet Street.

So much for the roof, but what about the walls? We found nothing cheaper than ordinary hessian and this we nailed on to the uprights with flat headed nails. There was only one door in this building and as yet no windows. The hessian divided the place into three rooms and as it was of a rather open weave it let in enough daylight for everyday purposes.

So there we were! The roof and the walls fixed and as for the floor, well, let’s be specific, there simply wasn’t any. We proposed to keep our feet firmly on the ground. This is the reason perhaps why our house became affectionately known as “the tent”. It was little better. The family would soon be moving in and there was still a great deal to be done.

It was at this stage that we spent some time in the planning of that well-known blot on the Australian landscape, the outhouse, without which no dwelling “at that point of time” was complete. As “The Specialist” said, “There’s a lot of fine points to putting up a first-class privy that the average man don’t think about”. But this was not going to be an American privy. This was going to be a fair finkum Australian dunny!

The building of this so necessary adjunct would no longer be delayed. The design was simplicity itself. Four posts were put into the ground at each corner of a 3 ft. square plan. Both sides and the back were then covered with a double thickness of hessian for the sake of privacy. The front, that is to say the entrance, had a hessian curtain.

This curtain, fixed as it was to the top only, used to blow up in the slightest breeze. There is no need to record here that this became most embarrassing. To improve matters we nailed the curtain to one of the posts and the other side was held to the other post with a buttonhole fitting, a flat head nail. The interior was in keeping with the whole design. Simple. It was a box the top of which had a comfortable hole cut in it and this contraption was placed over a kerosene tin. There was of course no Council service for the emptying of this receptacle.

At last everything was ready and the day was set for the moving.

This was no small job in itself. Even though we had little furniture, there seemed to be a great number of boxes, trunks, etc., all full! There was a big table and a great number of chairs, a heavy second-hand fuel stove and lots of beds and blankets. There were baths and buckets and the usual household gadgetry. There was a kitchen dresser and a variety of small tables. There was also a heavy, rather square, carpenter’s bench.

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In the living room went the stove, the dresser, the large table and the chairs and also—hold on to yourself—the carpenter’s bench! In the other two rooms, the beds and some open shelves. Taking it all in all, a hillbillies’ delight.

Suspended from a rafter and in the centre of the table hung a simple but effective kerosene lamp. It was the only new piece of equipment we possessed. As the house was far from being flyproof thousands of unidentifiable flying objects would hover around this lamp at night.

Among them was a kind of flying ant which when they got too close to the heat would lose their flimsy wings and fall down on the table. These were the greatest pest at mealtime. There was no ceiling and we lived straight under the iron roof. This material, useful as it is, has also been called the curse of Australia. It is very cold in winter and the very opposite in summer.

It soon became known that this strange looking rectangular structure with only a single door and windowless walls was the home of a big family. There was Mum and Dad and ten kids in various sizes and we became good customers to butchers and bakers. It was a very busy life and we all had our job to do.

By far the most important of these was “getting water”. Our tank as yet held little and in any case it would never hold sufficient for our need. So I made a strong billy cart which held two kerosene tins. The older schoolboys’ first job after school was to drag and push this contraction to a nearby street where some cottages were under construction. But water remained a serious problem, it was always in short supply and hard work for the boys getting it. It was to be many years before the Water Board put mains in our street.

Then there was “the stove”. It was “on” from early morning till often late at night and it seemed insatiable. The kids were soon taught the art of getting sticks. These were needed to light or rekindle a dying fire. The sawing and chopping of heavier wood was left to the older members of the family or.....had Mum on occasions been compelled to wield the axe?

We also had a fuel copper that needed to be fed with firewood. The laundry was outside under a gum treee. There was this copper, a crude affair and a set of twin tubs made of timber. It was the first set I ever made and I was very proud of it. In later years they were made, in concrete. To complete this picture there was a washboard.

Clothing was rubbed up and down on the corrugated surface of this contraption. It was all hard work and the setup here was even more primitive than the house itself. No woman should have been expected to keep a family clean under such difficulties. To this day I have a sense 23

Mountview “Cubs” Baseball Team 1931 L to R from back: Mervyn Lowder, Jack McFarland, Dave Mills, Dick Vandyke, ? 0 ’Sullivan, ?, Charlie Jones, Jack Fenwick, Robert Jones.

Top: New Year’s Eve Party 1922-23 taken in “Belmore House.

Above: St. Davids Presbyterian Church Picnic, Fenwick’s Paddock about 1920.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Top: Mountview ‘A’ Grade Premiers 1932 from back L to R: C. Rocks, A. McCrea, R. Field, P. Rocks, G. Hitchon, H. Eden, N. Barber, L. Harding, G. Miller, T. Clare, A. Page, A. Fenwick, K. Gamble, W. Fenwick.

Centre: The Vandyke Family Bottom Left: Bill & Gang Bottom Right: Our Gang

Top: The five Fenwick sisters: Left to Right — Hazel, Charlotte, Thelma, Pauline and Margaret Above: The last gathering of the family taken at Kevin and Maureen’s.

Wedding, 1968.

Left: Hazel Fenwick — August 1944

sons and was a generous old man, always willing to help Dad in any way. I remember him as an old man, with a large beard and dressed only in a flannel shirt and trousers—I never saw him dressed up. He always used to be there to help Dad when they felled a tree and Jack and I would glory at this event, walking up and down the felled tree and collecting little knobs off the branches and pretending they were “Pipes”, so when the men had a “smoko” we would pretend to have one too and take a drink of water out of the billy can.

It was great to hear the ping of the crosscut saw as it sliced through the wood and smell the sap as the bark was taken off. This would be cut up into small pieces and would be used in the stove making a lovely fire for making toast. When the timber was cut up, Jack and I loved to ride on the loaded cart bringing in the wood to the house.

The garden around the house was always lovely during my childhood, my mother always tended the garden as she had spent her youth in a nursery. There were several rose gardens and many other flowers, particularly violets, Prince Albert I think they were called, and we used to pick huge bunches of these and put mignonette with them.

Always in September there would be rununculus, which I always associated with my Mother as her birthday was in September and in February there were asters and since her death was in February, I always associate them with her.

There were also jonquils and masses of freesias which grew under the camphor-laurel trees.

Now to tell of the shopping arrangements. The nearest shopping area was on Canterbury Road, Punchbowl which was nearest to our home. There was Norman Cornwall who had the butcher’s shop and as my mother used to grow a lot of herbs, we would take a sugar bag to Norman for him to put in his home made sausages. After Norman retired, George Miller bought the shop, but now it is a motor spare parts shop.

Then there was McCall’s Bakery where Anne Vandyke used to work as a bookkeeper. The smell of fresh bread was always inviting. My nephew Norman, as a child, worked on the cart delivering bread of an afternoon for which he was paid 2/6d. He saved and banked this each week and that job taught him economics which was a good foundation for his future years as he became an accountant. After doing his war service he bought his own accountancy business in Bankstown but is now enjoying his retirement and the fruits of his labours.

The next shop was a fruit, vegetable and sweet shop run by the Vandyke family, there being a manual petrol pump also installed on the footpath. The petrol had to be hand pumped up into a measured bowl 31

and released into the vehicle by a lever, then the hose had to be drained.

Later, Mr. Cec Smith bought the business, making it into a service station, then he sold out and built a very modern service station, where the Frisco furniture shop is today.

Miss Crocker managed a lolly shop in the old service station. She was a fussy old maid and the local kids used to tease her by opening her flyscreen door which had a warning bell on it to announce a customer.

She would come out at the alarm to find nobody there so she would get very annoyed with the kids.

On the corner of Dudley Street and Canterbury Road, Dudley’s had a furniture shop and I remember their son Jack. On the opposite corner was Mr. & Mrs. Frank Graham’s produce store which sold wood, coal, coke, corn, wheat, bran, pollard, potatoes, lucerne, hay, chaff and other farm produce. Mrs. Graham was a lovely woman and worked as good as a man, humping bags of chaff and other goods. She and Mr. Graham had three daughters, Ruby, Nell and Grace. Grace was an invalid whom Mrs. Graham would leave in the shop all day sitting in a wheel chair — they were a nice family.

Grace passed away in later years, but Ruby and Nell are still living.

Jean Miller and I used to love going to the store to help Mrs. Graham weigh up the produce and we also delighted in climbing to the top of the bags of chaff to the roof. It was great fun and there was always a few cats to play with. Next to Graham’s, Mrs. Alexander lived with her two sons, Eric and Robert, their house adjoining a barber’s shop.

The next shops were Mrs. Sanderson, a haberdashery, then Mr. Sharpe, a grocery shop which was later sold to Mr. B.K. Williams, where my sister Chatty worked for a while.

On the south side of Canterbury Road was a ham and beef shop owned by Mr. Sawkins which was later sold to Howard Mitchell. He was married to Thelma Dailey of Punchbowl. The next shop was Mr. Lane’s, who had a laundry where my father used to have his shirt collars “done up” there. After this shop was Charlie (Gerry) Hudson and Mrs. Mary Hudson. They had three sons, Tom, Mervyn and Sid and their shop carried fruit, vegetables, soft drinks and sweets. The Hudsons were nice friendly people.

The next shop was a barber’s shop then Mr. Orr’s grocery shop which was quite large with sister Lena working there in her teenage years. This was later sold to a Mr. Goldberg, Owen Lawder working for him. They used to put sawdust on the floor behind the counter and I remember Owen sliding up and down getting the orders ready.

After Goldbergs sold out Hedgecock Bros, took over and they later built a large shop opposite and it became a hardware store which is still there today.

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Lakemba was the main shopping area in the 1920’s-30’s and as the shops were varied, we shopped there for essential items. I remember Mr. Marr had a little shop on Canterbury Road called “Bon Accord” where he sold sweets and drinks and we often walked there at night to buy them. It is still there opposite Canarys Road.

Ernie Rock had a joinery factory next door and he was a good friend of mine, his mother and father being lovely English people.

Further along Canterbury Road stood St. David’s Presbyterian Church which our family attended. Other members were the Nixons, Cottiers’ and Condies who were all good friends of my sisters and visited us often.

Also on Canterbury Road was Fewkes butcher shop, Gill’s Bakery, Tester’s butcher shop, a chemist shop then Ryan’s general store on the corner of Haldon Street. It was a wonderful store as they sold everything one needed and was always known as “Ryan’s Corner”. At the present day it is Davis Homes office. There was also Parker’s Produce Store.

In Haldon Street there was Harrison’s timber yard, Ezzy’s produce store and further along lived the Joass’s, then Franklins, with old Granny Franklin living in a little cottage behind her son’s chocolate factory. My father often visited her and we as children would go to the chocolate factory for sixpenneth of pieces. There we would get a big brown paper bag of honeycomb, toffee and chocolate which was a great treat.

Then came Mr. George Brockway’s service station with he and his wife living on the premises at the back. They were also lovely people and they had a daughter Dorothy. She was only a child when I first met her, a pretty little brown-eyed girl and later on in years we became good friends and still are. My brothers Bill and Jack were employed by Mr. Brockway as motor mechanics and I also had a part time job there after my father died.

I had a few holidays with the family and Mr. Brockway was good company. One day Mr. Brockway bought an old little four cylinder Austin sports car for Dorothy and we christened it the "Bug". It was the shape of a bullet, a two seater. It was the hardest car I have ever driven, the clutch clearance having only about 1’’ play and if you let the clutch out suddenly, it would jump and stall. Dot and I would go off to tennis sitting up in it like Jackie and looked a couple of “flappers”. We had some laughs in that car.

Mr. Brockway sold the garage some years later to Jim Broadley and it is still a mechanical workshop. Mr. Brockway moved to Quigg Street, Lakemba and passed away there on 18.3.1967. Mrs. Brockway lived on to the grand old age of 93 years when she died on 5.8.1985. I was very fond of her and always called her ‘"Mum". Dorothy tended her 33

in her last years.

Next to the service station was the Lakemba Fire Station and I remember Mr. Holt as Fire Chief, also a Mr. Justice and his family.

Opposite there lived the Brears, Arnolds and the Hampsons. Mrs. Hampson had a large family. Mrs. Hampson always told me she wanted every one of her children and they were all brought up to be good Christian children and were a great credit to her. Mr. Hampson was a volunteer fireman. Mrs. Hampson passed away on the 2.11.1978 and she was a wonderful mother and person. Since her passing, many of the family have passed away, with her daughter Alma mothering the family after she died, being especially good to her three bachelor brothers who she nursed through their afflictions, all passing away within one year. Alma and sister Gwen were good friends of mine also and I still see Alma but sister Gwen passed away in 1979.

Also in Haldon Street, I remember Noakes shoe repair shop and the “Magnet” Picture Theatre which was managed by a Mr. Britz. In the early days it was an open air theatre and the seating was deck chairs.

Opposite the picture show was Harcourt’s milk bar confectionery shop which did a good trade during interval. Further down the street was Marshall Root, a mens’ hairdressing shop where my brother Allan worked and learnt his trade.

Other shops were Mick Gooda who also had a confectionery shop and milk bar and he made most of the sweets. There was also McRea’s fruit shop, Cranny’s grocery shop, McClosky’s bakery who sold the old fashioned puff pastries like jam tarts. My dad always bought one dozen of these when he went shopping.

Opposite was Foster’s Newsagency, M.S. Clarke the chemist and Ginn’s cake shop and further down was a bank, May’s butcher shop, Arthur Padrotta, a tailor shop then Shanahan’s Drug Store. This was a chemist shop that had an ice-cream soda bar and was a typical American drug store (no drugs like today, though). The ice-cream soda’s were beautiful and many a one I had.

On the corner of Lakemba Street and Haldon Street was a large home called Lakemba Cottage owned by Mr. Taylor, which was later demolished to build shops and after the house was Lakemba Railway Station. Also in Haldon Street was Crick’s service station and the Methodist Church.

Friday nights were late shopping nights and the district band would play up and down the street, under the “white way” a chain of lights in the middle of the main street. They were bright happy nights listening to the music with people just strolling along looking at the shops until 9 p.m., then they would go home.

Other big estates like Fenwicks, were Forsyth’s of Belmore. Mr. Forsyth was a rope manufacturer who built a two-storied white house called the Towers in Forsyth Street, near Moorefields Road and it is still there to this day, never having been demolished.

Mr. Judd had a large estate on the boundary of Moorefields Road and Canarys Road. In later years it was sold and sub divided and houses built as well as two churches—this district being called Beverley Hills.

Another portion of the property was bought by Canterbury Council and in 1967 was made into a nine-hole golf course.

In 1967, Linday Sharpe, the professional golfer and local boy, was selected to open the course and later in 1968 he formed the “MooreKemba Ladies Social Golf” Club. I, along with Jean Ellery and Irene Ellis became foundation members and I was made a Life Member some years later. It still has some of the original members playing today, such as Betty Lanyan, Joyce Oldfield and Pearl Perry—and of course, myself. It has always been a happy club, all the ladies being very nice social people. The Club was renamed Canterbury Ladies Social Golf Club in recei t years and we have Mrs. Sharpe Senior as one of our members.

The estate always attracted all us local children in the old days and we revelled in walking through the bush as it was then. After wet weather we splashed barefooted through the puddles and it was great fun and after the rain, I still do this now while playing golf, although not barefooted of course.

The mode of transport in the early century was by steam train, electric trams, motor omnibus and the horse-drawn hansom cab.

The tram ran from Canterbury Station to Balmain via Leichhardt and Rozelle. The train terminated at Belmore in 1906. In later years the rail line was extended to Lakemba and Bankstown and then in the ’30’s a new station was built at Wiley Park. Lakemba was our nearest station, the distance from Lakemba to Central Station being 10 miles with the trip to Sydney taking 30 minutes.

When Mum took Jack and me to the city we always looked forward to the return trip by train as when we finished the shopping we went to Central Station and Mum would buy us a Sargeant’s pie each and while sitting in the box carriage waiting for the train to leave the station we would eat our pie with great relish. We would also be given a box of fairy floss to take home.

We loved to go to Sydney with our mother, looking at the shops, particularly Anthony Horderns. There we would wander around and I remember how I loved looking at a life sized model black horse displaying harness, all shiney with brass buckles on it. I would gaze at it 35

for ever so long and I always found the Livery Department so interesting with its sulkies, etc.

Mum would then take us to lunch at Sargeants where we enjoyed their lovely coffee cake—it was like madiera cake with little rolls of a coffee topping on it. Mark Foy’s was also an interesting shop, but that has all gone now.

How simple those days were—we didn’t ask for or expect much, but it was a big thrill to go to town.

The next big event in the family was my sister Margaret’s wedding on the 13.2.1926 with the service being held at our home Belmore House.

She married George Allman Griffin of Mosman and when the day of the wedding arrived, Margaret (Maggie) came down the stairs in all her finery, with plain, shy little me as flower girl.

I was just 12 years old and wore a floral dress with a satin sash around my waist and thought I was wonderful, but very nervous.

Maggie was dressed in a bridal gown. The Minister performed the ceremony in the billiard room which was suitably decorated and after the ceremony was completed, the dividing doors were opened and supper was served in the drawing room. There were long tables of tasty fare, all having been prepared by my sisters and friends. When the celebrations were over, the room was cleared and then there was dancing and vocal items and piano items, so it was quite a swell affair.

Maggie and George stayed in the house for their first night, occupying the guest room downstairs. The next morning brother Jack looked through the window and seeing them in bed together, promptly told Mum that George was in bed with Maggie. At nine years old he was horrified.

The married couple made their home in Willoughby and eventually had four children: — Stafford Ross born 3.10.1927 Maurice George born 30. 5.1929 died 30.1.1988 Richard Ware born 4. 5.1931 Margaret Jeannette born 13.10.1935 George was very thrilled to have a daughter after three sons. Ross, his preferred name, married Jean Pember and they had two children, Peter born 8.5.1956 and an infant daughter Sandra Lee, born 26.7.1959 who passed away at the age of five weeks. Ross and Jean later divorced and he married again to Elizabeth Skerette.

Tom (Maurice) married Anne Kevan and they had two children Robert and Kay. Tom divorced and later married Anne Cleary.

Mick (Richard) married Marie Collins and they had two children, Debra born 22.9.1953 and Richard born 16.3.1955.

36

Margaret married Wallace Terry and they had two children, Marc born 25.3.1959 and Dianne born 1.10.1961.

The birth of Maggie’s first child was my first knowledge of the birth of babies and as I didn’t know the facts of life at 13 years of age, it came as a shock to me—innocence was bliss on those days. I was so afraid for my sister, but when I saw the baby I suddenly grew up. Of course, after having fifteen nephews and nieces, birth became common knowledge to me.

Life went on for me in a carefree world, still having a trouble free time with all the local boys and girls with no responsibility and no house work to do. Then suddenly my mother took ill and I did not know at the time that she was going through a difficult time of her life. She lost weight, couldn’t eat and was very ill. Jack and I would sit with her and comb her hair and long for her recovery. She used to tell us she would be well again in two years, but she became increasingly worse instead of better.

Dad and sister Chatty would carry her from her bed like a baby.

She was so frail and Dad bought a car for Bill to take her for drives but she was too weak and tired to enjoy it. Dad had her to many doctors and specialists but to no avail. Her illness was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis of the nervous system. Then at 1.30 p.m. on the 19th February, 1927 she passed away and we had our first sad loss. She was 52 years old, having reared eight children. Having had such a large family and busy life I guess took its toll on her.

Her death was a great blow to me as I was ill myself with scarlet fever and had not seen her for two weeks as I was in quarantine. The memory of Chatty coming upstairs to tell me of her death will forever live in my mind. I just dropped to my knees and thanked God for his mercy giving her Peace from suffering.

Peacefully sleeping, resting at last, All life’s pain and suffering passed, In silence she suffered in patience she bore Until God called her home, to suffer no more.

For months I mourned her, not understanding why my mother should be taken from me at the age of 13 years, while all my friends still had theirs. However, as one grows older the realization comes, that to keep a loved one so ill in this world of suffering is not God’s will, so I gave her up to Peace. Chatty was a wonderful daughter to my mother and nursed her with loving care, as did my father—not that my other sisters didn’t help, but they were married with young families.

Mum was buried at St. Saviour’s Cemetery in our family grave at Punchbowl. Life took a sudden change for me after the death of my 37

mother, I suddenly grew up and became responsible. Chatty married soon after and I became mistress of Belmore House taking care of my father and three brothers and Uncle Jim in my 14th year. I had never washed a dish, let alone cook. What a rude awakening I had!

I left school and with the help of my father to guide me, I set off to domesticity.

Old Uncle Jim would help washing the dishes and Dad would always set the fire in the stove and prepare the vegetables for our meal.

As Chatty lived nearby in Hilton Avenue, she would help do the household washing and ironing, so I progressed.

Chatty married William Wood at Lakemba and they had one daughter, Elaine Marcia who was born on 5.9.1929. Marcia as she is known, married John Hall on the 17.12.1949. They have three children: — Julie born 25.11.1951 Karen born 20. 6.1956 Brett born 26. 3.1961 I was still a kid at heart and looked forward to the school holidays when all the local girls and boys were home. I would join them in their games in the front paddock, playing cricket and baseball then when it was time to go inside to cook the dinner, I would leave to do my chores.

Just after I lost my mother, a new friend came into my life. She was Lena Admiral, who was really a friend of my sister Chatty, but when my mother died she came into our family. She was a blue-eyed blonde with a sparkling personality and very vivacious. Although she was five years my senior she took me under her wing, treating me as a young sister and teaching me the finer things of life. Her parents were Dutch people who lived in Croydon Street, Lakemba and she had three sisters, Connie, Hilda and Kay, the latter two being her stepsisters. I was very fond of Mr. & Mrs. Admiral and in later life visited them often.

Lena and I had a few little holdiays together and she became a special friend. When she was 21 years old she married an American gentleman and went to America to live for a few years and we corresponded regularly. She eventually came back to Australia remarrying Ken Deasy of Randwick on the 1.11.1941 and I was their Witness at the wedding. They had one son Kenneth James, born in 1942. I was a constant visitor to their home when Kenneth was a baby, so much so that as he grew, older he would call me his second mother.

Lena passed away on the 21.9.1965 after a short illness and her untimely death was a great shock to me. I miss her very much as we were always very close friends.

Kenneth married Margaret Hammersmith and they have three 38

lovely young daughters. Lena would have loved them but unfortunately she was denied that privilege.

My teenage years were very happy and I interested myself in music. We had a gramaphone and I would buy all the latest modern records which were all 78 r.p.m. speed in those days, not like today’s long play records and stereo. The trouble with the 78’s was that they didn’t take long to play and they would be no sooner on than they had to be changed, but they were all good and we soon learnt all the songs of the period.

I attended the Sydney Town Hall for the symphony concerts and heard many great artists, also the threatre producing musical comedies, such as Gladys Moncreiff, Madge and Cyril Richards, all the Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas, Grand Operas and the Ballet. I was privileged to see many great dancers in the Russian Ballet—De Bail, Kirov, Ballets and our own Australian Borovansky Company. It was all beautiful classical art and I mostly attended the matinees when I could, but also attended evening performances. After the show I would wait at the stage door to see the artist, so keen was I. I can’t attend the theatre today, owing to the changed life-style which does not encourage going out at night, so I’m content to reflect all that I have seen in the past and be grateful I was privileged to attend such wonderful entertainment.

By the time I was 18 years old I had settled into housekeeping, doing my work to routine with certain days for certain jobs. The five bedrooms upstairs had lino on the floor and had to be scrubbed and polished weekly and it was a big job as the rooms were large—I think 15'xl2'. The beds had to be stripped and the mattresses turned each day as they were kapok mattresses and dropped fluff under them on to the floor so the floor had to be swept daily of course. There was always another thing under the bed in each room which we called a “gosunder” being a chamber pot, which was necessary as one couldn’t take a long walk across the yard in the middle of the night.

The front bedroom downstairs was never used after Mum died, so we just swept and dusted now and then.

The drawing room had horrible dark red lino on the floor so I would just scrub it now and then and paint it with shellac and metho which gave a good shine. It was too big and hard to hand polish. The billiard room had a carpet square on it, so it just had to be swept with a straw broom. There was carpet on the stairs and carpet hall runners upstairs and down and these were always swept with a straw broom. I dusted the stairs and other woodwork with a cloth dampened with a drop of kero to collect the dust. The dining room had to be scrubbed and 39

dusted once a week as well as the kitchen—so I was kept busy!

On my 18th birthday, brother Bill gave me a surprise party. It certainly was a surprise—I had washed my hair that day and had set it up with pins. It was great having all my friends around me and it was the first party I had ever had.

On the 22nd June, 1930 my old great uncle Jim Kaufman passed away. He was scything the front lawn and just lay down and died. He was a dear old man and a true Christian gentleman. Being a devoted Catholic he was buried at the Field of Mars Cemetery.

Also in 1930 Fred (Pop) Lawler got the local boys together forming the “Mountview Baseball Club” there being three teams, A, B and cubs under 16 years. Allan played in A Grade as catcher, Bill played in B Grade, Jack played for the cubs. Jean Miller was scorer for A Grade and I scored for B Grade, the teams playing for Canterbury-Bankstown districts. Then on Sundays there would be exhibition matches and if there happened to be an international ship in port, we would play a team from the ship, such as the Americans.

One time there was a Japanese war ship in port, so we played a team from the ship little knowing that years later, Australia would be fighting a war against the Japs with our boys. We also had City House girls teams visiting, so Jean Miller and I often filled in and played.

The baseball diamond was marked out in the front paddock under a huge old boxtree and there was a little tuck shop which Allan managed for the Club, selling sweets and drinks. Allan also formed a “social” club for all the baseballers and friends in which we had lots of outings, such as motor lorry picnics, parties and dances, holding many of these in Belmore House. The lorry picnics were popular and much pairing-off was done with the local boys, but no “hanky-panky”. Of course this was in the depression days and nobody had any money. When there was a dance on, the girls would pay for themselves much to the embarrassment of the boys and l/6d. was a lot of money in those days.

Most of the dances were held in the Bush Hall in Welfare Avenue, South Lakemba which was built by the local residents. Mr. George Hilton was the main instigator, he forming the South Lakemba M.U.I.O.O.F. Friendly Society Lodge. When it was built, my father supplied all the timber for the fence which was delivered by our horse Dolly in the cart, Jack and I doing the driving of the posts to the site.

It was at one of these Lodge meetings that brother Bill met his future wife Muriel Nicholls, as my brothers and I were all members and held office. We would make visitations to other lodges, Muriel’s father being very much involved in the Carlton M.U.I.O.O.F. We spent many happy occasions in the Lodge, especially the grand 40

balls at Sydney Town Hall. The presentations of the “Debs” was always a spectacular event with all the ladies dressed up and officers in their regalia. I was always impressed, and Muriel was presented at one time. It was lovely dancing with the older men in the Old Time Waltz. I always loved to dance.

As I have mentioned before, in 1930 the world’s great depression affected Australia and there was much unemployment with business’s going broke—Vandyke Bros, builders included. People lost their homes as they could not keep up bank payments. My sister Thelma lost her home and went to live with the Hilton in-laws at Penshurst Road, Lakemba. The Government brought in relief vouchers for food.

Some of the young men were given relief work such as going to the country planting pine forests. My brothers were on part time work. Jack was still at school. Bill and his mate Bill Scott went bush on a motor bike and side-car with an oxy-welding plant and tools looking for work. Bill Scott was a blacksmith and Bill and motor mechanic. But it was winter, they got as far as Oberon and it snowed and as they were only living in a tent they almost froze it was so cold.

Allan took up growing vegetables at home to fill in time and ke kept the house in produce. He worked only in shorts and got so suntanned in summer we christened him Ghandi, a name that stuck to him all his life.

Men would take on any work they could find and ventured into ways to make a few shillings. There was a man who would walk around the district with a suitcase of home-made sweets selling them at 3d. per bag. He used to call on me, walking all the way from Canterbury Road across the paddock to sell me perhaps two or three bags—he must have walked for miles.

There was another man with a book lending library calling. Poor fellows, they must have worn their shoes out with all the walking.

Lots of people who lost their homes, built shacks of tin and bags out Brighton way and it was called Depression Bay and it must have been a hard life.

My sister Lena lived in Leichhardt in those days. John was out of work owing to the building trade failing and we helped her with food and a little cash when we could. Chatty and I would take them out groceries and vegetables.

Bill Woods didn’t lose his job as he was a tanner, which was a protected industry. I was alright as I had Dad and we had our own cows and poultry, eggs, etc., although the banks froze all people’s savings and would only allow Dad to withdraw £3.0.0. per week. He would have helped my sisters but they were too proud to ask and when he did know they were so badly off, he was very upset about their plight. Please 41

goodness, we never see those days again as I don’t know how the young people would cope after living in such an affluent society.

After the Depression, Bill bought an old 1928 Dodge truck and took a job with James Hardie carting fibro. He later progressed to a 1939 Chevrolet truck and employed Albie Cumberland, a local boy. Bill had many breakdowns in the old Dodge and many a night I would help him do the repairs by holding a torch or candle while he replaced an axle or crown wheel and pinion. He would work into the early hours of the morning and I with him. Dad would call out for me to go to bed, but I would stay with Bill until the job was done. Bill was a hard worker, also a persistent one.

When he left school his first job was as a bus conductor at 14 years old. He then took up an apprenticeship as an automotive engineer. Dad bought him £10.0.0 worth of tools and he served his time with Lotze’s garage at Belmore also McIlveen & Kemply of Belmore. When he finished his apprenticeship, we went to work for Mr. George Brockway at Lakemba and progressed later to buy a small service station at Undercliffe and worked seven days a week from 7.30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

His hours were long and hard and on Sundays we would take his hot baked dinner to him and often it was cold before he had time to eat it.

In 1938 he sold the service station, buying a larger workshop and service station at 281 Homer Street, Earlwood and he managed that until 1970 when he retired. In between times he bought a second service station at South Hurstville and put Jack in as manager. When he retired from Earlwood, he had previously sold out to H.C. Sleigh, Golden Fleece brand, leasing the station for ten years under his own conditions, but when the lease expired and he retired he had to walk out with no goodwill, so we just closed the doors and retired.

He wouldn’t renew the lease as the new conditions were unacceptable. He missed the daily routine as most men do, but busied himself with other little part-time work and bowls—but he wasn’t happy.

As for me, after working for 25 years with long hours and primitive conditions, I enjoyed my retirement. You see, he had asked me to work for him after the war in 1945 as I will relate further on.

To go back to my other brothers, Allan was apprenticed to Marshall Root, a mens’ haidresser and he later bought a small barber’s shop at Croydon Park. He had no motor transport at that time and used to ride a push bike to and from work in all kinds of weather. He would strap a kit bag on the back of the bike with his stock and towels in it.

Many a night he would come home wet and cold in winter and I would get him to soak his feet in a dish of hot water with mustard under the 42

table while he had his evening meal, to prevent a cold. Later, when he became established, he bought a single seater 1926 Chev car.

As my father believed in the boys having a trade, when Jack left school, (which he hated and longed to go to the country and buy a poultry farm), Dad sent him to work at Mr. George Brockway’s service station as a motor mechanic. He was never really happy at his work, not like Bill who was a very good engineer and could do anything with motors and loved his work, but Dad’s word was law so the boys did as they were asked. Jack also rode a push bike to and from work.

Dad bought a car for Bill to drive the family around in and it was a 1927 6 cylinder Cleveland tourer. It was a maroon colour and looked very swish. We had some great trips in this car and as Dad never took up driving, Bill drove all the time. Some Sundays we would drive up to Penrith, put the hood down and off we would go. Dad would say “let her go” and there we would fly at 60 m.p.h., our hair flying in the wind.

As I said before, Dad bought the car for Mum’s sake, but she never lived to enjoy it.

When Allan and I were old enough to drive we got a license, getting mine on the 11th September, 1935 as one had to be 21 years old in those days. After we sold the Cleveland, Dad bought a 6 cylinder Dodge sedan and it was a lovely car. I owned it after Dad died but eventually sold it during the war as petrol was scarce, so we put the car on blocks for some time, then I sold it to Ken Deasy for a taxi. He did over 400,000 miles in it with only one engine change.

One big event in my life was when I turned 21 years old in 1934.

My father gave me £10.0.0 for my birthday with which I bought a gold Cyma wrist watch for £3.0.0. I had a white satin dress made for my party which was a swell affair at Belmore House with all my family and friends. We had a beautiful supper and my Aunt Annie made me a beautiful birthday cake. My father got some ship’s sky rockets from the store in Balmain off the tugs and six rockets went soaring into the sky to celebrate my coming of age. It was just as well we didn’t live by Sydney Harbour as there may have been a rescue team out. It was certainly a memorable night and I really felt I was grown up and mistress of Belmore House, the local boys thought so anyway.

My father used to give me a wage of £10.0.0 every three months and when his cheque came in, I would proudly bank it for my personal use. The 1930’s were good years and even though we were in a depression, everyone seemed to be happy and close to each other and helping each other in a close community.

But alas, in 1939 the war clouds gathered and on the 3rd September, World War II broke out and we were at war again with 43

Germany. I will always remember that night the Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, announced it on the wireless and we all went cold with the shocking news and all realized what it meant to all our local boys and brothers. We were playing cards at home. Jack Holliday and Charlie Jones were there and I remember how upset Charlie was, but thank God all the lads who did war service returned safely.

Brother Jack was called up for military training in the C.M.F. but later joined the A.I.F. serving time in Greta, N.S.W., West Australia and Cairns before sailing to New Guinea where he was attached to the 133rd Brigade Workshops doing mechanical work as a Staff Sgt. His regimental number was NX156583 and he spent 1673 days in service.

As the war came nearer to Australia, we experienced rationing on butter, meat, sugar, petrol and clothing. All these items were restricted, the government issuing food, petrol and clothing coupons. Every person carried an Identity Card. We experienced blackouts and even car headlights were fitted with blackout apparatus and all precautions were taken.

Allan being a one-man business had to close his shop and join up.

He joined the R.A.A.F. as an L.A.C. though he had wanted to join the navy but was too old at 30 years. Bill being an engineer was considered an essential business so couldn’t join up, also he was only 5’3” tall and would have been considered too small.

Bill and Muriel Nicholls became engaged to be married,.setting the date for 8th March, 1941 and the local boys held a “Buck’s” party for Bill a week before the wedding on the Saturday. They held it in the paddock with a keg and they all had a happy time and I made myself scarce as usual.

However, on Saturday night, my father called me in the early hours and I found he had been strickened by cerebral hemorrhage, otherwise a “stroke”.

He was paralysed down his left side and could not swallow so he could not take food and Bill, Allan and I sat by his bedside. When the doctor arrived he didn’t give him much hope of living. I made custard and tried to give him food, but he would choke. He lived for four days.

Bill sat by his bedside on the last day stroking his head and the last words he uttered were “God have Mercy on me” and at 11 p.m. on the 6th March, 1941 he passed peacefully away. I was standing by his bed when the heavy breathing suddenly stopped and I realized he had left us.

He had been a kind and generous man and father. He was strict but always good to us and there were times when we had few anxious moments but one only remembers the good times.

By some miracle, Jack came home on leave the next day so my wish 44

for all the family to be together was granted. He was buried at St. Saviour’s Church of England Cemetery, Punchbowl beside my Mother and his grandson Allan on the 8.3.1941. All his grandchildren remembered him with affection as he was always kind and generous to them even though he teased them, especially Joan, Nancy and Marcia.

When they were little, he would hold them on his knee and rub their face with his whiskers and they would get very annoyed, especially Nancy. She would say to her mother, “I’m not going up to grandpop’s, he is naughty”. Our oldest newphew, Norman, came in for lots of jobs around the place and he would follow Dad around the paddock with a hammer and nails mending the fences and chasing the cattle. He felt Dad’s death quite a lot.

When Dad died, my sister Chatty, her husband Bill and daughter Marcie, moved from their house in Hilton Avenue as they decided Allan and I couldn’t be left alone in such a big house and moved in with us.

Bill of course, was about to be married but unfortunately Dad had died two days before their wedding day. However, there was no sense in delaying the wedding so the date was set for 5th April, 1941.

Bill and Muriel were married at the Methodist Church, Rockdale with Muriel’s sister Ina as bridesmaid and Vilma her young sister as flowergirl, our brother Jack being best man. They made their home at 856 Canterbury Road, Lakemba and had two sons, Kevin William born 6.10.1943 and Graham John born 31.3.1945.

Kevin married Maureen Wright and they have four sons: — Stuart Kevin born 8. 1.1971 Matthew Trevor born 23.11.1972 Peter Andrew born 30. 9.1977 David James born 4.12.1981 Graham married Julie McCamley and they had two sons: — Mark Peter born 4. 4.1973 Justin Trent born 20.12.1974 With all those grandsons the name of Fenwick is assured of being carried on.

Bill and Muriel built a new home in later years at 409 Willarong Road, Caringbah and it is a lovely home overlooking Port Hacking and Muriel still lives there.

After Dad died, Allan 11 lived on at Belmore House and as I needed to take a job I went to work for Mr. Brockway part-time each afternoon on a weekly basis, doing the accounts and serving petrol. My wages were £2.0.0 per week and how I lived financially, I can’t remember.

Allan must have assisted in the running of the house as he was still in his hairdressing business.

45

As the Belmore House property was too expensive to maintain, what with council rates, etc., the yearly amount being £365.0.0, the firm of J. Fenwick & Co. decided to auction the estate. So on the 17th October, 1941 the property of eighty seven and a half acres went to auction by Richardson & Wrench, the reserve price being £10,000.0.0 which was thought realistic in those days. Rather ironically, just after the Depression, the Firm was offered £45,000.0.0 by T.M. Bourke for a housing estate, this offer being refused in the hope of getting a better price, but the war came and land values fell. However, the reserve price wasn’t reached so the land was passed in. Chatty and Bill had bought a house in Greenacre, so Allan and I continued to live on in that big house alone, which was full of memories and very lonely.

In 1942, as the house and land were useful to the war effort, the Australian Army took the place over to train the troops, so after 27 years of residence there, we had to move out on the 23.3.1942 and one can imagine what moving meant for us.

All hands were on deck, things were sorted out, furniture given away, papers and pictures burnt, our beds and personal items stored.

We kept the chaise lounge and six dining chairs etc., which I still have in my home today. The long sideboards and tables were left in the house and what became of it all is unknown. Little did we realize how valuable it would become. “Tibby”, my cat and dog “Bing” were confused and unhappy but they found a home with our families. So the 1st Infantry Battalion moved in and we moved out, but it was our fate as Allan and I couldn’t go on living there alone.

The Infantry Ambulance Corp used the house as a hospital for about one year. The house was vandalized with graffiti, fences pulled down for firewood and the place was a wreck. Tents were erected in the paddock, but on Sundays when church parade was held, it was all a spectacular sight with the brass band and all the soldiers on parade. All the local people would gather around to watch the service.

After the army left, the property was in a shambles and the land was again left unoccupied.

In 1943, my uncles approached Mr. Stan Parry, an ex-Mayor of Canterbury Council, suggesting the land would make an ideal golf course. This suggestion was again ironical as brother Allan had asked them to build a golf course, but they would not agree. So Mr. Parry bought the property for £10,000:0.0 and thus became the owner of the prime land of Lakemba, telling the government he would plant a victory garden to grow vegetables for a war effort to feed the troops.

He cultivated the land with the idea of planning the golf course. He grew turnips but claimed the soil was unproductive—“unproductive!”

when the Fenwick family had lived off the land for over 60 years! So after the war was over, the golf course was laid out and Mr. Parry called it Roselands, saying he would plant 5,000 rose bushes, hence,the name Roselands.

The nine-hole course was laid out in the front paddock, Belmore House was renovated and used as a club house and Allan became a foundation member. It remained a golf course for several years but gradually the adjoining land was sold and houses were built. This was a disappointment to some of the local people as they had built lovely homes, expecting to have a view over the “course” and now their view would be blocked out.

The next move was to demolish the old home and build a twostoried modern home. The cedar woodwork of the old home, including the staircase, was used in Mr. Parry’s son’s home in Strathfield I was told.

The scene changed and later a bowling green was added, then the developers moved in again and the land was sold to Grace Bros.

Department Store and they in turn built the now called Roselands Shopping Centre. In 1964 on the 9th June, construction started with the golf course being turned into parking areas. The big new house was demolished, also the big tree where we used to play baseball was removed. It was a sad sight seeing this lovely old boxtree pulled up by the roots. It was certainly the death of a tree, so that was the end of an era.

Roselands Shopping Centre thrives today and is a land mark in the district. I shop there and reminisce, but as a memento I still have a small tin of soil from the land.

After I left the old home, I went to live with Muriel and Bill at Lakemba until 1943 and Allan went to live with sister Chatty at Pelman Avenue, Greenacre, then soon after joined to R.A.A.F. When Jack was on leave from the Army he stayed with Thelma and Ray at Duncan Street, Punchbowl and so after 27 years as a family we were split up.

Jack, soon after Dad’s death went to Western Australia training, then to New Guinea and the war zone. After a few months living with Muriel and Bill, and as Muriel was going to have a baby and also I wanted to do my share of war work, I decided to join the Australian Women’s Land Army. I knew I would like the work as I was a lover of the land, also the farmers needed help to keep producing food for the troops.

On the 22nd November, 1943 I offered my services and Nancy Miller joined with me. I will never forget the night of the 6th December, 47

1943 when we boarded the train at Central on our way to Griffith in the Mirrool Irrigation Area. I had never been far away from home before, apart from a few short holidays and had always had the protection of my father and brothers. However, it was my choice.

Friends told me that “birds of a feather flock together” and this I found to be true as I made some very good friends, namely Elsie Ford who is my companion today and we share a home together.

Travelling on the train were two other girls, Bonnie Hope and Joan Murphy and as I was the oldest of the group, she christened me “Mother”, a name that stuck to me all through my camp life.

We arrived in Griffith after many hours on the train and went to our barracks which had once been a guest house, called Mirrool House.

We were allocated a room for the four of us, there being about 300 girls there of all shapes and sizes. When they arrived home from work covered in dust, red mud and generally dirty, we wondered what was in store for us. They made a dash for the bathrooms, first in was lucky and the others had to queue up and wait. Mostly to save time two girls would bathe together.

When we first arrived at the camp we were welcomed by the Matron, Miss Blackburn who had been a school headmistress and she was strict but very efficient as she would have to be with such a large group of young girls, some only 16 years old. She proved to be a lovely homely Matron.

Our first chore was to fill a palliasse (a calico mattress cover) with straw for our bed, so we stuffed it with as much straw as we thought necessary, thistles and all, and made up our bed, having to supply our own linen and pillow and proceeded to settle iin. As I opened my suitcase I found a bug in my clothes and on reporting this to Matron was politely told I must have brought it with me. She made me feel unclean, but suggested I must have got it on the train.

Dinner time came and we all lined up with plate, knife and fork for our meal and after we had eaten, each girl had to wash her own dishes, etc. in a large dish of water and take them to her room, they being her responsibility. After the last dish was washed, one can imagine how soupy the washing-up water was and so to bed with lights out at 9 p.m.

Well, I was only seven stone in those days but my mattress soon flattened out and I could feel the spring mattress of my bed—what a night! Next day I was down to the straw bails refilling my mattress to its capacity and I reckon I had the highest mattress in camp. It was also painfull filling the palliase with straw as often you would grab a scotch thistle in your hand.

We soon fitted into camp life and discipline, rising in the morning 48

at 6 a.m. with two late nights per week allowed, namely Wednesday and Saturday. The food was good and we were supplied with 2 oz. of butter per week, having surrendered all our food coupons. We kept our butter in a jam jar covered with a straw and hessian bag and this kept the butter reasonably cool in the hot climate. We kep this in our possession all the time as the butter was used to make sandwiches for our lunches, etc.

Mirrool House was situated in the main town of Griffith so we were near shops and the two theatres. In our spare time we could shop for little extras. Those girls who smoked were allotted one packet of “fags” per week and would have to queue at the local shop for their issue, those who were non-smokers still got the ration and sold them to others who did.

Another pleasure we used to have was to go to the milk bar on Saturday afternoon for a “spider”. This was a large glass of lemonade and ice-cream and it was beautiful on hot days and Griffith was a hot place so we very much appreciated the drink.

The hotels were out of bounds and if any girl was found in one she was punished and lectured.

My first job of work was planting tomatoes for a Mr. Gibson and there were 4,000 of them with six girls doing the work. Firstly we went to the nursery where we collected the plants then washed the soil off them in the channel water and while standing barefooted in the channel, leeches used to suck onto our legs. They were like black worms and would cling tight—they were awful things.

After washing the plants, we went off to another field which had been furrowed and irrigated. Then one girl would make a hole and slap a plant in and another girl would follow on covering the soil in—how they grew I’ll never know, but they did. This job lasted three weeks and it was dirty but we had lots of laughs and fun planting them.

Nancy was sent out to Hanwood, five miles from town to work for a Mr. Lenehan’s orchard which had grapes, peaches, apricots and prunes. Mr. Lenehan was a fruit inspector and expected good workers.

The farmers paid us £3.5.0 per week, out of which we paid £1.5.0 board and 4/6d. tax and the rest we kept for our personal use such as toiletries etc.

By the time we finished on the tomato planting job it was Christmas and I had my first Christmas dinner away from home. However, we all had a happy time. As the apricots were ripening quickly, we were asked to work Christmas day, pitting them and preparing them for dehydrating. I afterwards went to work for Mr. Lenehan.

On January 5th, 1944 a new camp was opened at Hanwood, five miles south of Griffith so all the people who worked out that way had to 49

shift camp to Hanwood. Mrs. Mary Bethel was our Matron—she was a good Matron and managed the hostel well, there being two field officers and 90 girls. The camp consisted of three army type huts with tin roofs which were hot in summer and freezing in winter and when the dust storms blew up, the beds would be covered in red dust. There was a mess hut with kitchen, dining and recreation area with the conditions regarding meals the same as Mirrool House.

There were 30 girls to each hut all in together in one long line of beds and a room for the Matron in Charge, but later partitions were fitted which made rooms taking 4 girls and some 2 rooms. I had a 2-room accommodation and my room mate was Betty Blanch. We called our room “midget’s nook” as we were both tiny tots—4'10".

Other girls called theirs “Nic In” and “Stray’s Paradise” as somehow everyone went in this room for talks.

The showers were the bucket style with the plug attached to a chain. When the bucket was filled, one pulled the chain, thus we had a shower. They were up one end of the hut with no curtains. How we managed on one bucket of water was a wonder, but you soon learnt how to succeed. There were two long tubs also for washing faces, etc.

The laundry facilities were outside in the yard and this consisted of three fuel coppers which had to be stoked up by the staff on wood, then we would carry buckets of hot water into the huts for the showers.

Sometimes we would have trouble pulling the plug out and have to get someone to assist. Although camp life was rough we were all happy together and the local people were kind to us and we made lots of friends.

My next job was at Hanwood on farm 134 for Mr. Joe Lenehan and as Nancy was working there she asked if I could be sent there too.

Nancy had only been allotted three months from her job in Sydney as she was in a protected industry. On Farm 1341 did all kinds of work and it was a well kept, tidy orchard. Mr. Lenehan was away from the farm all day doing his fruit inspector’s job and allotted us our work each day and there was plenty of it. The first time we had to do the irrigating put us in a panic. With irrigating, the farmer had to order a certain amount of water from the Commission and the Water Bailiff would come to the farm setting the water wheel to the required time at the main channel.

The farmer would then open his channel to let the water in on the particular block that had to be watered.

Well, Nance and I were instructed to open the channel at the specified time and the water came flowing into the cultivated furrowed land and the time chosen was late in the afternoon, so this being done we knocked off and went back to camp. Next morning when we arrived at 50

work, we found the whole block of peaches flooded and even in Mr. Taylor’s farm next door. That’s when we panicked and thought we had done something wrong, going sheepishly to see the boss, but he only smiled at our ignorance. He then told us to go and direct water to any dry furrows, so off we paddled in our gum boots in the mud to check, carrying a shovel on our shoulders. This I did many times afterwards while I worked there for five months of the year.

I think the hardest job was gathering prunes as these had to be picked up off the ground after shaking the tree, put in kerosene tins then transported by a horse drawn trolly up to the shed where they would be dipped in a solution of caustic soda in boiling water to sterilize them, then re-dipped in cold water and spread on large wooden trays to be sundried. Each night the trays had to be picked up and carried into the shed to keep them dry of moisture then put out again the next day. This process went on until they were dehydrated.

I also learnt to drive the tractor and did the cultivating on the farm and for this job I was given a raise to £4.0.0 per week. However, I liked this job as it was just lovely hearing the purr of the engine, driving up and down the rows of trees, dreaming in the hot sun.

One day while I was learning to drive the tractor, I gave Mr. Lenehan a scare. He was telling me how to drive and work the cultivator when suddenly I was driving straight towards a fruit tree. He panicked and was telling me to stop very excitedly, you see the tractor, a “Case” had a hand levered clutch and it was very hard to release. However, I stopped just in time, much to his relief as he thought I would destroy one of his trees, then he congratulated me for not panicking.

There were four aborigines working on the farm with me—Jack Charles an ex show boxer, Digger an ex soldier, Fred a single man and Ivy. Ivy had two children, Danny and Gloria. Danny was a good little boy and very talkative. One day he said to me “You know dat Gloria ’Azle, she ain’t my sister.” I guess he knew the difference as Gloria was a little fair haired girl, also quite fair skinned, so perhaps Ivy had been playing around.

The aborigines were quite acceptable to work with, they respected me and I them, but many times they needed to be encouraged to work.

One day I went down to the vineyard and Digger had a fire going to warm themselves on a frosty morning and he told me “that it was hard luck when a black man got cold in his own country”.

They always looked forward to Saturday morning to get their wages, then go down to Darlington Point by taxi to have a drinking session then come to work on Monday morning “broke”.

I certainly earned my money on this farm, the boss giving me many 51

hard jobs—even changing a tyre on his car as he had a bad heart. I found it difficult at times fitting the draw bars of the implements onto the tractor, but with patience and using my brain, managed. I did fruit picking and pruning of apricots and grapes on this farm, along with other chores.

After six months with Mr. Lenehan I left, (as we had a difference of opinion over work and wages) and went to work for Mr. Paul Delves and son Harry at Farm 140. Here again I did general land work and was very happy there as they were very nice people and very considerate.

Mrs. Harry Delves was a lovely lady—her name was Maisie and she was an English lady. They had three children, Alan, Barbara and Paul. Maisie used to give us lovely morning and afternoon teas, so dainty and clean.

My working companions there were Vera Pearson and Eve Denning (now Witmore). They were great workers and we all worked well together and are still good friends today.

I did quite a lot of tractor work on Farm 140 as they grew rice and I had to cultivate the “bays”. I drove a big McDonald tractor here and it was quite large and had to be started by a big fly wheel. Harry would heat the fly wheel with a blow lamp then start the motor by compression.

The machine would run all day and I would be relieved at lunch time by Harry as the machine was too hard to start again. The smaller tractors I drove had to be started by crank handle and had all steel “spud wheels”. These days they are all rubber tyred and have starter motors.

We also husked and collected almonds, extracted honey after the hives had been robbed, pruning, sheep earmarking and tailing which was a dirty job. I held the lambs while Harry did the operating and I would get blood all over my overalls in those days.

One amusing job was cutting hay into chaff. “Father”, as we called Mr. Delves Snr., would start the old steam engine, fit a drive belt onto the chaff cutter and off we would go. “Father” and Eve would feed the hay into the chaff cutter while Vera and I would fill the bags, but as fast as the bags filled, it would come out through the holes at the bottom of the bags and this created many a laugh. Or the belt would come off, then we would start all over again, with chaff everywhere—so frustrating, but we had a laugh.

The farm was a real hick farm but we loved working there and at times if a wheel came off a tractor, Harry would go searching through the old machinery heap, looking for a nut, but if none was found he would take one off another tractor. The Delves family were great inventors and in later years invented machinery.

If I had a long day cultivating, Harry would give me a job next day 52

in the shed rewiring frames for the bee hives—he was very thoughtful. I enjoyed work on the farm and was sorry when I left the Delves family.

In June, 1944 the A.W.L.A. headquarters organized a “Queen” competition to raise money for a welfare fund to buy some necessary comforts for the camps such as electric irons, radios, sewing machines, etc. I was nominated to represent Hanwood Camp and we ran dances, socials, etc. to raise the money.

We were only a small camp but managed to come fourth in the competition, collecting 51,780 votes. Mirrool House in Griffith won the competition, raising 91,623 votes, so Merle Hodgson was elected as “Queen”. In all the camps raised oved £2,000.0.0 for the Fund.

Our camp received an iron, radio and sewing machine. The crowning was held in Hyde Park, Sydney on 30th September, 1944 at a market day and was a spectacular event.

As my time was up in the Land Army, I decided to leave the service, as you see we were only under Man Power and I had only signed up for one year, and it ended all too soon. I would have liked to have stayed in the service longer, but had an idea of buying a small property to continue work on the land but of course it was only a dream and never did eventuate. So on the 5th January, 1945 I left Griffith for home.

The night before I left, we had a farewell party at Camp for all my friends, the local people came also and the local farmers. We had a grand send-off even though I was sad at leaving—they were all great people. I was discharged from the Australian Womens’ Land Army on the 26th January, 1945.

As I had no home to go to, I lived with my sister Lena and her husband John at the Belmore Hotel and after a few weeks I went to work for Frank and Lil Talenta on their tomato farm at Austral near Liverpool. I took no wages, just worked for accommodation and meals.

They grew tomatoes for the American Army whose troops were stationed in N.S.W. Here I pruned plants, cut stakes for the tomatoes, sewed bags used for covering plants during winter, also picking and packing. I would work during the week and go back to Belmore at weekends. I worked at this for about eight months until Bill asked me if I would help him at the service station for a few weeks commencing on the 23.9.1945, which eventually extended into 25 years.

Here I did driveway service as well as the bookkeeping and le&rnt a lot about cars. The work was constant and as I worked outdoors in all kinds of weather, it was a tough life but the customers were all very nice, friendly people.

By this time the War had ended and Peace in Europe was declared 53

on 5.8.1945, V.E. Day, then V.J. Day on 15.8.1945. In January, 1946 I bought a weatherboard cottage at 51 Brandan Avenue, Bankstown to make a home again for Allan and Jack, so started domesticity again.

Allan returned from the R.A.A.F. in 1945 and Jack finally returned from New Guinea on board the S. S. Canberra on the 6.1.1946.

When he arrived in Sydney we hardly knew him. He was so thin and gaunt, the war had changed him so much.

Muriel and Bill arranged a home-coming for him at their home and all the family were there to celebrate, all being happy to see our brother.

However, the day was rather too much for Jack and he flaked out in the afternoon. When he woke up all he wanted was to spend some time with his fiancee Belle, whom he had courted before he went away and they had become engaged whilst he was in New Guinea.

After some leave he took a job with Jack Wright working on reconditioning army trucks as a mechanic. On 2.3.1946 he married Isabelle De Mamiel of Queanbeyan at St. John’s Church, Canberra and after a few months Jack built a small three bedroom fibro home at 7 Farnham Avenue, Punchbowl as building materials were scarce, it was the best he could do.

Allan had owned the block of land, so let Jack have it at a reduced price. Belle and Jack had two children to their marriage, Rhonda Margaret born 2.1.1947 and Peter Leslie born 5.6.1950. Rhonda married Kenneth Moffatt on 9.6.1973 and they have two children, Brett Kenneth born 18.12.1978 and Belinda Ann born 21.6.1984.

Peter married Judy Bloomfield of Culcairn on 6.3.1976 and they also have two children, Scott Leslie born 15.11.1978 and Laini Marie born 4.8.1981.

After Jack married, Allan and I lived on at Bankstown together until Allan married Marjorie Allen of Haberfield on the 11.10.1950 at St. David’s Presbyterian Church, Haberfield. They bought a nice home at Oatley as that was were Allan had his hairdressing business. They had no children.

In 1958 I sold the home at Bankstown as it was too large for me on my own, especially the garden, so I bought a two bedroom semi­ detached cottage at 38A Bexley Road, Campsie. My Aunt Cissie wasn’t very happy about the move as I lived near her in Bankstown and was a constant companion to her. She was always kind to me and would have liked me to go and live with her, however, she was a very old lady and with our age difference may have been difficult. Anyway, I had my sisters living close to Campsie and I spent a lot of time with them visiting and shopping. I was also closer to my work at the service station at Earlwood.

54

Life went on for me in the usual way for a few more years and I interested myself in golf with my friends, so was well occupied. Then on the 24th June, 1969 the next break in our family came when brother Allan suffered a massive stroke. Marjorie phone for me to come, but unfortunately I was too late and he had passed away when I reached their home. He was completely paralyzed and the doctor said he had no hope of recovery. He never regained consciousness and was 58 years old.

His passing was a great shock to us all as he was a bright, happy fellow and was very close to me as were my other brothers having mothered them since we lost our mother. I could only feel that God was merciful taking him without suffering.

With Allan’s passing, the family chain was broken and in the following August, Chatty’s husband Bill passed away on 27.8.1969 aged 63 years. Our next loss was sister Pauline (Lena) who passed away suddenly with a heart attack on 29.3.1970. We mourned our dear sister as she was a gentle, loving and kind woman who had had a hard life and deserved a few more years of living. She was 68 years old, her husband having predeceased her on 11.8.1955.

Then on the 19.8.1970, George Allman Griffin, Margaret’s husband passed away at Port Macquarie Hospital, having had a stroke.

The years passed by for a while and there were six of our family left, but fate had more sadness for us. Our sister Thelma suddenly fell ill and after four days in Canterbury Hospital passed peacefully away at 11 a.m. on 1.1.1979. What a beginning to a New Year! Her passing was a great shock to us all, especially as we were waiting to visit her and didn’t know she had died while we were waiting outside. She was so gentle and unassuming, a good wife and a wonderful mother. I missed her very much. Ray her husband, had predeceased her on the 30.8.1975 and she never really recovered from his death.

But that was not the end of our sadness and sorrow, for on the 21.5.1979 my sister Charlotte (Chatty) passed away of a heart attack.

She had suffered for years with diabetes and was in a nursing home and died in Mona Vale Hospital. I was on a holiday at Magnetic Island during this time so never saw her again.

It was a sad time for me as we had always been good companions.

She had been kind to our mother during her illness and I’m sure she earned her place in Heaven, but in turn, her daughter Marcie was good and thoughtful to her mother.

Also in 1970, the firm of J. Fenwick & Co., Tug Company, was taken over by Brambles Industries and so ended an era of 100 years. The tug boats held many memories for me and our family, as when there

were special events held on Sydney Harbour in the early years, our family would attend the celebrations on the tugs.

I remember well when the Duke and Duchess of York came to Australia on the H.M.S. Renown for the opening of Parliament House at Canberra in 1927. My father took Jack and me on board the tug to witness the event, then brought us all the way home in a horse driven hansom cab—it was quite a thrill. Imagine that journey these days.

Then I remember going out on the tug to welcome the American Fleet, but the most exciting event of all was in 1954 when H.M. The Queen and Prince Phillip came to Australia on board the Gothic. That was a most spectacular event—the day dawned in perfect sunshine and the Harbour was a wonderful sight with many boats forming a passage way for the Royal barge to sail through to the Man-o-war steps. It was an unforgettable day, also the fireworks at night.

Of course the Bi-centennial was wonderful also, but I didn’t attend that.

To get back to my family story, with the previous losses in the family, our numbers had dwindled to four. What does fate have in store for us? We soon found out for on the 26th January, 1980, brother Bill was stricken with a severe stroke from which he lost the power of speech and was paralyzed down his right side. It was terrible to see him in this condition and so sad. He didn’t deserve such an affliction as he was always a hard worker and industrious. His wife Muriel was kind and patient with him and tried all kinds of therapy for him. He became very frustrated and impatient and tried so hard to recover, doing what he could for himself as he was a proud man. He would go to his workshop and try to do little things, he even pulled himself around the garden, weeding, just to keep occupied.

His speech was the worst frustration and he tried so hard to make himself understood and it was also hard for us to understand him.

However, all our effort and hopes for his recovery were of no avail. I visited him weekly and as always did all his bidding—he was stricken in this way for five years and eight months.

And so on the 22.9.1985 he passed peacefully away at Caringbah Hospital. Regrettably, I had not gone to see him that week, owing to my moving house which made me very sorry as he was expecting me and asking for me. Unfortunately, we never know these things until it’s too late, so we should always do our best while we are able.

Muriel still lives on in the big house and naturally she misses him as we all do, but keeps herself busy with her grandchildren. She has many interests and leads a busy social life.

However, on a happier note, in July, 1981 I had the good fortune to 56

have a tour to Great Britain for the celebration of the wedding of H.R.H. Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. It was a memorable trip although I didn’t see the actual wedding. We went to the Cafe Royale for a luncheon and viewed the wedding on T.V. However, the atmosphere in London was exciting and we spent one week in London visiting all the historic places as well as other parts of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The holiday was an interesting trip for me as it was my first trip of any importance, although I had been to Fiji in previous years, also to New Zealand and Tasmania. I did this trip to the U.K. with my exLand Army friend Vera Pearson and her niece, so I was fortunate to have such a lovely holiday.

However, we yet had more sadness to come as I suppose one must expect in a large family. On the 26.8.1983, sister Margaret passed away at the age of 82 years. In latter years she had become very vague, not like her usual self as she was always bright and talkative and very interested in politics about which we often teased her. She was very active in many organizations but she eventually had to be put into a nursing home and went into a decline and didn’t know any of us.

A special credit to her family, especially her son Mick and daughter-in-law Marie who gave her untiring love and attention. Her end was peaceful and we thank God for a long and happy life.

So with her passing, this only left two in the family, but not for long as fate again ruled a change, for in July 1986, Jack my baby brother was stricken down with a stroke. He was admitted to Bankstown Hospital paralyzed down his left side and his speech was affected and only lived ten days. However, he knew his family and myself and we were with him constantly and remained so until almost the end, so we were able to say goodbye to him. Whether he knew we will never know, but he passed away peacefully at 11 p.m. on 31st July, 1986.

He was always very dear to me and I always treated him as my baby brother and he looked on me in a motherly way. He was 69 years old.

His wife Belle naturally still mourns him, but in spite of her disabilities keeps her home and garden in such a way that it is a credit to her. She has good kind neighbours and Denley Endicott is especially good and kind to her, helping her in many ways around the house and I also assist her in any way I can. She has her son and daughter and grandchildren to give her happiness and loving care.

And so that means I am the only one left of the Fenwick family of nine children.

In 1988 I was fortunate to have another tour overseas to Canada

and on the 21.8.1988 along with my friend of long standing Betty Bath (Blanch) from our Land Army days, we flew to Toronto via Honolulu and went on an 18 days tour from east to Vancouver in the west, visiting many interesting places on the way, such as many lakes, the prairies and the Rocky Mountains. We had a most enjoyable tour, Betty being a most agreeable companion. Leaving Vancouver, we stopped off at New Zealand and spent ten days with Betty’s daughter on a dairy farm. We enjoyed the rest after a long flight and I enjoyed life on the dairy farm.

All I can say now in my 77th year and as the final curtain is coming down on my life, although I have done nothing outstanding, I have had a secure and fortunate life, never really wanting for anything, and even now lacking nothing. I am contented and happy. I have been blessed with the best of health and a devoted and loving family, a loyal and thoughtful companion and friend, also many other kind friends. I never married but I suppose that was my fate, suffice to say “perhaps it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all�. I have devoted my life to my family all these years, but regret nothing.

I suppose my life would have been different had I married and had children, but I have had the love and affection of all my nephews and nieces (15 of them), particularly my nieces Joan, Marcia and Nancy who attend my every need.

I also thank Marie Griffin for typing this story, so I will close with this little motto which I have always tried to live by: I shall pass through this world but once, therefore any good thing that I can do, or any kindness I can show any Human Being Let me do it now, for I shall never pass this way again.

I thank God for my life and pray that He will be Merciful to me in my declining years.

2nd July, 1990.

58

CONVERSIONS On 14th February, 1966, Australia converted its monetary units from pounds (£) shillings (/) and pence (d.) to dollars ($) and cents (c).

For those readers who are unfamiliar with these conversions: Twelve pence (12d.) = One shilling (1/-) = Ten cents (10$) Twenty shillings (20/-) = One pound (£1.0.0) = Two dollars ($2.00) so, l/6d = 15<t and £2.10.0 = $5.00 We also converted weights and measurements Sixteen ounces (16 oz.) = One pound (1lb.)

Fourteen pounds (141b.) = One stone

to metric — = .4536 kg. = 6.35 kilograms

so, 7 stone = approx. 44.5 kg.

One inch (1') = 2.54 centimetres Twelve inches (12”) = One foot (1') so, 5’4” = 162.56 cm and 30' = 9.144 metres

OTHER NOTES

= 30.48 centimetres