VOLUME 6 NO. 12 January 2014 ISSN 1835-7628 Diary

VOLUME 6 NO. 12
January 2014
FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to the new year.
A slightly slimmer issue this month as the submission of
articles has tended to dry up somewhat over the
holiday season. I trust that you are all refreshed and
that a tsunami of items is about to hit me.
Submissions do not have to be overtly historical or
local.
For example, if you visit a museum or an
historical exhibition, perhaps give a brief report. Other
readers will be interested I am sure.
On a more mundane matter, have you renewed your
membership? If not, please see the back page.
Richard Michell
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Well, I closed the December Presidents Report with a
hope that we would start 2014 with gusto. The talk by
John Bungey regarding the creation of Bayview Gardens
lived up to that with a great afternoon at the Lakeview
Hall at Narrabeen. 2014 will be our 90th year and we
are endeavouring to make it special. Our talks program
is developing with a pleasing variety and we have a
number of events organised with the three councils
during the National Trust’s Heritage festival (12 April –
26 May). Three of the events will involve Walk/Talks at
the three major cemeteries, roughly coinciding with the
International Day of Monuments and Sites on 18 April.
As many of you might be aware, there are many events
recognising the start of WW1 ( 1914) and then Gallipoli
(1915 ). One might spare a thought for Newfoundland,
which was a British colony at that time, and note the
extraordinary price that island paid in its participation in
WW1. The Newfoundland memorial on the Western
Front and other references are available on the net.
ISSN 1835-7628
ment cycle being within the 25 year time frame that, at
a minimum, determines heritage status. It was therefore refreshing to receive communication from the
head office of the Aveo Group in Brisbane, wishing to
contact John Bungey as to details about the history of
Bayview Gardens. My contact at Aveo informed me that
they had heritage listed properties in Queensland and
South Australia.
My interest in commercial history has coincided with
my reading of a book by Gideon Haigh, “End of the
Road“, which focuses on the car industry in Australia, its
history and its future. While this relates more to the
national and international scene, there are inevitable
consequences for the smaller companies who either
retail cars or are involved in automotive maintenance
and repairs. While we concentrate on local history
there is a requirement for context in which these local
events occur. Commercial history on the Peninsula
tends to be a tad neglected and I am available to
discuss any projects that members may have in mind.
Jim Boyce
Diary
February
Saturday 8th, 2.00pm
Venue - Mona Vale Library
Speaker - Alan Yuille
Montgomery - Welsh History and Heritage and the Parallels for the Peninsula
March
Saturday 8th, 2.00pm
The talk by John Bungey drew interest from a positive
quarter. It is an unfortunate aspect of commercial
history that when businesses change hands their history
and archive is often lost. More often than not, this is a
smaller business being acquired by a larger national or
international company. There are many instances of
this across the Peninsula. It is also a fact that company
premises are not often heritage listed, their redevelop-
Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1
Venue - Tramshed Narrabeen
Speaker - Richard White
History of tourism on the Peninsula
January 2014
page 1
NEWS AND VIEWS
where he had been able to make savings, citing the
cavalier approach of the brickies in disposing of
imperfect bricks and how that had been corrected.
Another case was where the various soil horizons had
been established so that trees and shrubs could
flourish.
JANUARY MONTHLY MEETING
Report on talk by John Bungey on
Bayview Gardens – zoo to retirement complex
Lakeview Hall was the venue for the first talk of the
year and it was a delightful setting for a large audience.
On a hot and steamy summer day, the breeze from the
north east provided a pleasant atmosphere for what
was a very interesting talk by John Bungey, who has
spent a lifetime in the Landscape Design industry.
Bayview Gardens is set in one of the more scenic parts
of the Peninsula and it is surprising when one notes its
humble position, created after WW2, as a small zoo
and farm by Sir Edward Hallstrom.
John was intimately involved with the conversion of
this rural backwater, starting in 1975. John described
his initial engagement by Tony Baldwin, a real estate
developer on the North Shore, after the landscaper he
had originally employed had been overwhelmed by the
size of the project. The other important element in the
creation of Bayview Gardens was the architect, Geoffrey Twybill, who had become a specialist in the design
of retirement complexes.
As a support for the talk, John had arranged photos
and plans on exhibition panels, which illustrated the
initial stages of construction of the garden and some of
the challenges that had to be addressed. John elaborated on the way the gardens were developed moving
up the site and the creation of Annam Road which now
encircles Bayview Gardens. He described the manner
in which the native vegetation had been retained as
much as possible, including such trees as Scribbly Gum,
Swamp Mahogany and Angophora.
John acknowledged the support that he received from
Tony Baldwin, who unfortunately has passed away.
During the talk, John referred to a number of cases
The sheer scale of managing the various independent
contractors on site, was not only due to Tony Baldwin,
but also due to Noel Moss, the builder. The approximate time of development was 10 years and over time
there were a number of awards earned by John and
others involved in the development of the site.
One of the major challenges of the landscape was the
creation of a watercourse through the site with the use
of rock banks. The area around Pittwater often
experiences heavy downpours that come off the ridge
line in a torrent. Not only has that torrent to be
handled appropriately on the site but the resultant
waters have been safely let flow into the bay.
While the focus of the talk was on Bayview Gardens,
there were many questions from the audience as to
the activities of Sir Edward Hallstrom. The zoo had
been created as a forerunner to his involvement with
Taronga Park Zoo which had commenced in 1937.
Taronga Park itself opened in 1916 after the closing of
Sydney’s first zoo at Moore Park. Sir Edward acquired
the market garden and farmlet at Mona Vale/Bayview
in 1947 and this property functioned as a supplier of
fodder to Taronga Park till 1975. A number of the
audience were familiar with the pair of albino wallabies
that were at the small zoo as well as koalas and other
native animals that had been acquired.
The questions continued to flow over coffee and tea
and John was still explaining details of Bayview Gardens for some time. There were many residents of
Bayview Gardens present for the talk and the present
owners, the Aveo Group, have been in contact to
better develop their history of the site. In this day of
changes in property ownership, archival history is lost,
more often than not. It is a refreshing development
and we thank John for a very interesting afternoon.
Jim Boyce
SOME BACKGROUND ON SIR EDWARD HALLSTROM
(From Wikipedia)
Born at High Park station, near Coonamble, New South
Wales, Hallstrom was the eighth of a family of nine
children born to William Hallstrom, a saddler from
England, and his Australian wife Mary Ann (née
Colless). At the age of 4 his father's farm failed and the
family moved to Waterloo, an inner-city suburb of
Aveo Bayview Gardens Village
Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1
January 2014
page 2
Sir Edward and George (Keystone Press)
Sydney. Hallstrom's parents separated and, by the age
of 10, he was working, performing a variety of jobs to
help supplement the family's income. Largely selftaught (having left school at 13), he applied himself
well to both his studies and his work, and eventually
took charge of a furniture factory. He later founded a
business of his own, manufacturing bedsteads.[1]
Hallstrom met his wife, Margaret Elliott Jaffrey, on a
trip to Queensland. She was a talented artist and
shared his enthusiasm for birds and animals. They
were married at her parents' home in the Brisbane
suburb of New Farm, Queensland, on 6 April 1912.
tions, as well as refrigerators for the use of the United
States Army. By the mid-1940s, the factory was
producing around 1,200 refrigerators weekly, which
were exported as well as sold locally. The "Hallstrom
Silent Knight" was a fairly-priced, locally-produced
product at a time (post-war era) when imported
refrigerators were very expensive. Their resulting
popularity made Hallstrom a millionaire.[1]
Refs 1.Tate, Audrey (1996). "Hallstrom, Sir Edward
John Lees (1886 - 1970)". Melbourne University Press
2007
The Hallstroms moved to Dee Why, New South Wales,
by which time Hallstrom had become interested in the
young industry of refrigeration. He set about inventing
in his Dee Why backyard and in 1923 produced his first
product, the Icy Ball absorption refrigerator (another
kerosene-powered refrigerator, also called the Icy Ball,
was later manufactured in the United States in 1927 or
1928 by Powel Crosley Jr.). Hallstrom's Icy Ball was a
kerosene-powered chest model, which he designed for
use in the Australian outback where the low-tech
Coolgardie safe was in widespread use. He initially
went to the outback to sell these units himself.[1]
Hallstrom expanded his product line with the development of the popular Silent Knight upright refrigerator.
These were gas-powered and also electric models, and
were produced in a factory in Willoughby, New South
Wales under the business name of Hallstroms Pty Ltd.
During World War II the factory manufactured muni-
Peninsula Historian
Icy Ball Refrigerator built by Edward Hallstrom in
1923, kerosene powered, Ammonia refrigerant
Vol 7 #1 January 2014
page 3
POT POURRI
details of future refurbishment and use. These were
expressed to the Manly Daily but unfortunately ended
up on the cutting room floor.
THE NARRABEEN TRAM PURCHASE
Members may have seen a photo in the Manly Daily
(Wed 15 Jan) regarding the acquisition of a tram for
eventual location in proximity to the Narrabeen Tram
Shed at Berry Reserve. In general, I think our Society
should support efforts to promote history and physical
heritage such as this.
My concerns relate to the cost of the original purchase,
its future refurbishment and maintenance and its
future use. Too often the amount of money spent on
a heritage issue is not readily seen to be justified by
the public which then makes it harder for public
monies to be spent in future more-necessary heritage
projects. I say this in general terms rather than
specifically with regard to Warringah Council.
One of the major weaknesses of government at the
three levels pertaining to Australia, is the presence of
so called silos where individual departments make
decisions without consulting a range of departments
who have different skills which the originating department do not possess. In private industry, there has
been a tremendous change in management practices
as regards to the focus on issues and the downplaying
of silos. This has been reflected in internal office
design and the creation of spaces with appropriate
facilities to focus on given issues. Local government
has been slower to address these changes and the
Local History Unit is often the managerial section that
misses out.
In summary, my reservations are about the expenditure entered into relating to the tram and the sparse
Jim Boyce
WARRINGAH'S TRAMLINES
For more info see:
http://www.historypin.com/attach/uid41059/collecti
ons/view/id/2343/title/Warringah's%20tramlines
from which the following is taken.
"The North Shore, Manly and Pittwater Tramway and
Railway Act of 1888, received Royal Assent 10th
January 1889 and authorised construction of a tramway
from the northern terminus of the North Shore cable
tramway to The Spit and then to Manly Village with a
light railway to Pittwater, terminating near Newport
Beach.
The line was extended to Brookvale in 1910 and the
trams were steam traction. In January 1911 the line
between the Spit and Manly was electrified and by May
1911 the whole line to Brookvale was electrified. The
electrification saw the introduction of the O class cars.
The Spit remained a barrier between the North Sydney
lines and the Manly lines until 1912. A tramcar punt
was able to transfer rolling stock, not passengers,
between Manly Depot and the Randwick workshops.
The Brookvale line was extended to Collaroy Beach in
1912 and then on to Narrabeen in 1913. The ultimate
goal of creating a tram line to Pittwater was never
achieved. The final piece of the line was added in 1925
when the Harbord line was built
to what is now the suburb of
Freshwater. The system was replaced by buses at the end of
September 1939."
A POEM
A couple of issues ago I included
a direct copy of a poem from
1931 on French's Forest, sent in
by Shelagh and George Champion. The copy was not very
clear and so the poem is reproduced again on the following
page. Ed
Tram at the Harbord or Freshwater terminus in 1939, the last
year of operation of trams in Manly Warringah
Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1
January 2014
page 4
IN FRENCH’S FOREST
How far away all sordid troubles seem!
Here in the forest by this rocky steep,
Where age-old trees along the gullies dream,
And the long shadows on the hillside sleep.
No sounds; save when o’erhead the leaves are stirred
Some little vagrant zephyr to salute;
Or else the note of a far-distant bird,
That calls its mate but once and then is mute.
Above my head rise high the gum-trees tall,
Knee-deep in fern, their foreheads to the sky;
Through ages long they’ve stood and watched o’er all
The tardy changes as the years went by.
What do you whisper, as you bend and bow,
O lofty tree-tops! as the soft winds range?
What are you murmuring to each other now?
Is it of war or peace or coming change?
Can you foretell, deep in your timeless lore,
The days when all this forest land shall lie
Covered with homes and here shall be no more
Tall trees to whisper 'neath the changing sky?
Not yet the change. Here quiet thought hath birth.
Far from the city’s din this dear retreat,
Where world-worn hearts may feel the call of earth,
And find, as I am finding, solace sweet.
CONSTANCE M. LE PLASTRIER, 1931
Constance Mary Le Plastrier was a writer, author and
botanist. Born 23 January 1864 St Kilda Victoria. Died
7 February 1938 Sydney N.S.W.
MAPS EXHIBITION, NATIONAL LIBRARY
I recently visited Mapping our World: Terra Incognita
to Australia at the National Library in Canberra. There
were many interesting early maps but I was fascinated
to see that, in the 1500s, the land which was to emerge
as Australia was called Beach. How prescient from the
perspective of us living on the Northern Beaches.
On returning to Sydney I found that the background to
this is covered comprehensively in Wikipedia and I
have reproduced much of it below. On the following
page a "typical" world map from the 1500s is reproduced, along with a detail of the relevant portion. If
you are viewing an electronic version of this Newslet-
Peninsula Historian
ter, use your zoom control to expand it and you will
hopefully make out Bea ch in the area marked with a
blue elipse. The thick curved red line is the Tropic of
Capricorn.
The land mass involved is northern
Australia - not today's Cape Yorke, as it may appear, but
Arnhem Land and the top of Western Australia.
ex Wikipedia (slightly edited): "Beach appeared on
maps of the 16th Century, notably that of Abraham
Ortelius of 1570 and that of Jan Huygen van Linschoten
of 1596, as the northernmost part of the southern
continent, the Terra Australis.
According to Marco Polo, Locach was a kingdom where
gold was “so plentiful that no-one who did not see it
could believe it”. Locach was Marco Polo’s name for
the southern Thai kingdom of Lavo, or Lop Buri, the
“city of Lavo”, (after Lavo, the son of Rama in Hindu
mythology). In Chinese (Cantonese), Lavo was pronounced “Lo-huk”, from which Marco Polo took his
rendition of the name.
In the German cursive script, “Locach” and “Boeach”
look similar, and in the 1532 edition of Marco Polo’s
Travels his Locach was changed to Boëach, later
shortened to Beach. Book III of Marco Polo’s Il Milione
described his journey by sea from China to India by way
of Champa (= Southern Vietnam), Java (which he called
Java Major), Locach and Sumatra (called Java Minor).
After a chapter describing the kingdom of Champa
there follows a chapter describing Java (which he did
not visit himself). The narrative then resumes, describing the route southward from Champa toward Sumatra,
but by a slip of the pen the name “Java” was
substituted for “Champa” as the point of departure,
locating Sumatra 1,300 miles to the south of Java
instead of south of Champa.
Locach, located between Champa and Sumatra, was
likewise misplaced far to the south of Java by some
geographers, placing it on or near an extension of the
Terra Australis. As explained by Sir Henry Yule, the
editor of an English edition of Marco Polo’s Travels:
“Some geographers of the 16th century, following the
old editions which carried the travellers south-east of
Java to the land of “Boeach” (or Locac), introduced in
their maps a continent in that situation”.
Gerard Mercator did just that on his 1541 globe, placing
Beach provincia aurifera (“Beach the gold-bearing province”) in the northernmost part of the Terra Australis.
This is the description used on Petrus Plancius' 1594
world map that is reproduced on the next page.
Vol 7 #1 January 2014
Richard Michell
page 5
World map by Petrus Plancius 1594
(with detail below)
Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1
January 2014
page 6
A QUOTE
Dr John Dunmore Lang gave the following picture of
Sydney in 1800, when Captain King took command:"During Governor King's administration, the population
of NSW consisted chiefly of those who sold rum and
those who drank it, and as the greatest maxim of the
colony at that period was, make money, honestly if you
can, but by all means make money, it may naturally be
supposed that the sellers of this article of universal
requisition would include persons of all ranks and
professions."
ex The Colonist, 3 February, 1838 via George Champion
Alcohol problems in Sydney have a long history Ed.
Manly, Warringah and Pittwater
Historical Society Inc.
Established 1924
Patron
Alan Ventress BA DipLib
President
Jim Boyce
0402 096 080
[email protected]
WHAT'S ON
Manly Art Gallery and Museum
BILL LEAK
Until 9 February 2014
Bill Leak Portraits gathers together a definitive selection
of his incisive and frequently provocative portraits of
some of Australia's most famous and infamous personalities.
EXPRESS YOURSELF
Treasurer
Barbara Davies
9997 6505
[email protected]
Minutes Secretary
Clive Halnan
21 February- 16 March 2014
Express Yourself is a vibrant, fascinating and dynamic
exhibition showcasing the immense talent and creativity of the 2013 crop of HSC Visual Arts students from
Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Warringah Library
Is seeking historic photos and stories of holidays in
Warringah for an exhibition to coincide with the 2014
National Trust Heritage Festival.
0410 867 685
[email protected]
Archivist
Vacant
Editor
Richard Michell
9401 4525
[email protected]
Warringah has a history as a holiday destination, and
the Library is asking for the community's help to piece
together this history for its collection and forthcoming
exhibition
Postal Address
PO Box 695 Manly, NSW 1655
Please contact the Local Studies Librarian Tina Graham
on 99422610 or [email protected] if
you have photographs or stories to share.
Website
www.mwphs.co
Mona Vale Library
Author Talk by Susan Wyndham "My Mother, My
Father. On losing a parent", 13 February 2014 6.30pm
Author Talk by Clio Calodoukas "All Roads Led to
Shanghai", 25 February 2014 6.30pm
Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1 January 2014
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Peninsula Historian
Vol 7 #1
January 2014
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