Tuesday, May 2, 2017

George Sheppeard and Broughton’s Waterhole Toll Bar, Mt. Victoria


Present-day view of the Toll-bar cottage.
Photo John Merriman - flickr.
On 1862, on the morning of a late September day, two riders cantered through the township of Mount Victoria on their way to attend an auction in Hartley. As they approached the descent at Victoria Pass four men burst from the bush, their faces hidden beneath rough crepe masks. It was George Sheppheard the bushrangers were after. Their informants had led them to believe he would be passing with a large sum of money collected at the toll bar he leased on the Western Road.

As it turned out it was not George Sheppheard, they captured but his eighteen year old son who told them that his father was, in fact, absent from the district. With their purpose now somewhat confused, the bushrangers succumbed to a greater need than money, released their prisoners, and withdrew to the pubs of Little Hartley.

The toll bar cottage of George Sheppheard survives in Mount Victoria today. It is one of the few remaining links with that period before the railway when the road was the centre of all activity, legal and illegal, and life on the Mountains was often harsh and remote from the embellishments of civilization.

Map of One Tree Hill showing the Toll-bar cottage and
George Sheppeard's original holdings c.1920s 
Officially known as the Broughton's Waterhole Toll Bar, it was one of a number set up along the Western Road following a proclamation of Governor Fitzroy in November 1848. As the country opened up, tolls became increasingly important as a revenue source for the development and maintenance of the major road systems. Tolls levied varied with the category of traffic, while the cost of a lease depended upon the site and the volume of traffic anticipated. In 1848 the lease at Broughton's Waterhole cost £360. By 1867 it had risen to £800.

The toll charges in 1836 included:

Sheep, pig or goat                                 ¼ d - ½ d
Horned cattle                                        1 d
Horse                                                     2 d
Cart and one horse                                3 d
Carriage & pair                                 1/-
4 wheeled vehicle drawn by 4 horses   3/-
Double tolls on Sunday.

At that time a 2kg loaf of bread cost 10d, a cabbage cost 1d, eggs were 2/- a dozen and ten pounds weight (4.5 kg) of potatoes cost the same as the toll for a carriage and pair, see note on currency below.

George Sheppheard, it seems, held the lease at Broughton's Waterhole from 1852 until about 1866, while his friend, Thomas Ellison, did the same at 17 Mile Hollow, Linden, for roughly the same period. Both also built inns on land adjacent to their toll bars and tapped extra income from the passing traffic. The toll bar at Linden is long gone, demolished to make way for the railway in 1867, while the quiet, withdrawn position of the Broughton's Waterhole cottage today belies its active past. In those years when the gold fever drove thousands into the wilderness the small toll bar cottage played a central role in the bustling surge of life that moved along the Bathurst Road.

The Welcome Inn and Toll-bar cottage, early 1900s
Photo courtesy Macleay Museum 
In 1862 Sheppeard built and became first licensee of the Toll-bar Inn, also known as the Old Welcome Inn, and had other business interests in the township including a general store, butchery and bakery. He was a farm labourer from Suffolk, born around 1811 and had arrived as a convict in the Colony of NSW in 1836, one of 399 convicts transported on the ship Moffatt; having been tried at Woodbridge Quarter Sessions and sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing ten pigs and attempting to sell them at the local market where they were recognised by the owner.

According to the convict records, George was of ruddy complexion and a big man for the time being 5’10” in height, and showing the scars on his face and knuckles that marked him as a man who could use his fists, but been caught by a lucky left jab – he had a ‘missing front tooth right side of upper jaw, scar on right eyebrow and the left side of upper lip, sandy whiskers, two scars back of forefinger of right hand and one on back of forefingers of left hand.’

George worked out his sentence on the government farm at Parramatta, the first farm to produce sufficient food to feed the penal colony. It had been established beside the river in 1788, where the richer soils had produced enough grain, livestock and other crops to save the settlement from starvation. Following Governor Phillip's establishment of the Governor's Domain in 1790 the area contained agricultural land, stockyards, lumber yards, and most significantly, the governor's residence and vice-regal offices.

In December 1841 George Sheppeard married Caroline Victoria Whittle, daughter of Thomas and Victoria Whittle, she had arrived by the ship Queen Victoria in July 1841, and was described as a ‘native of London, domestic servant - plain cook and housemaid, age 28, very good health, Catholic, can read, under care of Surgeon Supt.’ This was a time when young women, usually servants or farm workers, were being actively recruited with low priced 'bounty' tickets to immigrate to NSW in an effort to supply labour and respectable servants, and to balance the ‘unhealthy’ male-female ratio. By 1833 male convicts accounted for 80 per cent of the recorded east Australian population. Among convicts the ratio of men to women was 8 to 1.

Many of the young 'bounty' girls who arrived in Sydney and Melbourne found themselves in a miserable situation, with little but prostitution and crime to sustain them. This was not to be Caroline’s fate, she arrived in July and was married to George within five months. Louisa Ann Meredith wrote of the female convicts, ‘All are certain of marrying, if they please; proposals are plentiful’.

After receiving his freedom in 1843 George was eager to take advantage of the many opportunities for a man with an eye to the main chance and the fists to back it up. George also leased the toll-bar at South Bowenfels. This was situated at what was called McGrath's Corner, near the junction of the main highway and the Lowther-Hampton-Oberon Road. This toll-bar was in existence from 1863 until 1872, when in response to falling income caused by the spread of the railways, many toll-bars were closed. John Delaney looked after this gate and in 1863 married George Sheppeard's eldest daughter Sarah Jane.

The toll-bar cottage in 1951 during the Blue Mountains Crossings celebration
Local Studies collection
George was a speculator and a lover of the turf, and at one time owned five race horses — Saunterer, Stella, Aristocrat, Partner and Doctor; the first named was a first-rater, and the mare Stella performed well in Sydney, while Aristocrat won a Sydney Cup.

In 1868 George was declared bankrupt and the Inn was put up for auction:

JAMES T. RYAN has received instructions from Mr. R. H. Sempill, the Official Assignee, to sell by auction, on Wednesday, 8th. day of January next, at noon, on the premises,— The " Old Welcome Inn," known as Shepherd's Toll­bar, situated on the Bathurst Road, near Mount Victoria, One tree Hill. The property consists of 40 acres, on which is erected some good substantial buildings. The present tenant pays £60 per year, the tenancy terminating 24th November, 1868.With the promises will be sold the right to receive over from the tenant a large quantity of household furniture contained in the tap-room, dining-room, 6 bed-rooms, kitchen, wash-house, &c., particularized in a catalogue to be seen at the Auction Room, which appears to contain every requisite for such an establishment.

On October 24, 1876 Sheppeard’s toll-bar was closed and the next year the Government abolished all road tolls throughout the State.


Early 20th century map showing the footprint
of the Toll-bar cottage and the Welcome Inn
Local Studies collection
Sheppeard’s toll-bar is mentioned in the recollections of Thomas Sutton, a well-known business man in Lithgow, who as a youth had worked as a collector at various toll-bars, the first being at Newtown, Sydney, in 1856, when he was 14 years old. From Newtown he went to the toll bat at Wentworth Falls, known as Weatherboard at the time, and then to Randwick. The loneliness at Randwick got to the young man and he returned to the Mountains by coach to work for Ryan and Dempsey, who had a store, butchery and bakery at the fettlers’ camp on the construction of the railway near Blackheath. After about 12 months there he got the job of collector at Sheppeard's toll-bar, he wrote in his memoirs in 1914:  

While looking after this bar, I was credited by the drivers as being the most attentive of all toll-keepers on the mountains. I would hear the coach coming over a bit of metalled road and would have my pants and slippers on, and out before they reached the gate.

In 1871 Thomas Sutton married Amelia a daughter of George Sheppeard, they had five sons and a daughter, their first son was named George.

Little is known about the building's functional life after 1868. It lay largely forgotten as changes in the road route left it stranded awkwardly beyond the main traffic flow, the dignity of its rich history withdrawing into gradual dilapidation.

In early 1928 it was near derelict and the Shire Council had received complaints regarding the ‘ruinous and insanitary condition of the old Toll Bar at Mount Victoria’. And later in the same year its ownership was included in a foreclosure, a letter from the solicitors H. F. McFie and Co., received by the Shire Council, stated that the liquidators had no objection to the demolition of the Toll Bar house by Council 'so that the unsightly excrescence may be wiped out of sight, and you are authorised to acquire the site upon which it is built.'

However at the same meeting there was also a letter tabled from the Mt. Victoria Urban Committee that shed some light on the continuing life of the building as a refuge for itinerant workers and travellers on the Western Road, whether this continued into the 1930s during the Great Depression we can only guess. The committee requested that Council procure for them the ‘Old Toll Bar’, and the land attached, at the lowest possible figure. Council was informed that ‘at a later period the committee intended to renovate the old historic structure and give the place the necessary supervision, so as to avoid nuisances from swagmen, and we consider this old landmark of great historical interest and well worthy of a visit from tourists’. 

The council report stated that the Trustees of the Mount Victoria Group reserves were joining up with the Urban Committee in the matter. It was decided to let the Urban Committee take possession, at the nominal rental of 1/- per annum.


The Toll-bar cottage with unknown gent in front, c. 1930,
photo by AA manning from the Local Studies collection
In May 1930 the toll-bar was again under threat as shown by a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald from the Royal Australian Historical Society, stating that the Main Roads Board planned to demolish the cottage for road widening, ‘the matter was receiving attention’, they were told.  In 1935 legislation was passed for its resumption and the Toll-Bar cottage passed into local government hands. In 1939 renovations were carried out by the Blue Mountains Shire Council at a cost of £180 funded by a State Government grant. Efforts were made by the Blue Mountains Historical Society to discover the date of building, without success. The renovations  disclosed the date 1849 in a keystone over the door. The Shire president (Cr. Mathews) informed council that already there was a tenant wishing to rent the property, as a tea room and gift store, with the intention of selling curios, booklets and other historical articles.

In 1950 a commemorative tablet was unveiled at a ceremony by the Mayor of the Blue Mountains City Council, Ald. Galway, attended by Mr. E. Sheppeard, descendant of George Sheppeard. In unveiling the tablet, Mr. E. J. McKenzie, hon. research secretary, Lithgow District Historical Society, said the ceremony was significant because of at least three things: Firstly, the tablet would inform the public, on the authority of the Blue Mountains Historical Society, that the quaint old building, which had stood on the roadside for more than 100 years, was built in 1849 to serve as a cottage for the toll-bar keeper at what was then, known as Broughton's Waterhole.

Second in significance was the fact that, with them that afternoon, was a descendant of George Sheppeard who so continuously leased the toll-bar that it became known as "Sheppeard's Toll-bar." The ceremony was also significant, Mr. McKenzie went on to say, because it was another instance of what historical societies were doing in the country. Instead of writing letters to the press bewailing the demolition or neglect of our historical relics, people who were conscious of our Australian tradition found it better to band together and by joint effort do the necessary things themselves.

In 1969 the toll-bar became a National Trust property and stories continued to circulate in the township of it being haunted by the ghost of a woman.

Despite some abortive attempts at further renovation, it was not until local architect Peter Buckwell took out a lease in the 1980s that renewed life and character were breathed back into the ageing stone cottage. Appropriately restored, it functioned as his firm’s business office until around 1990 and is currently vacant.


Today the locality of Broughton’s Waterhole has passed from living memory but George Sheppeard’s toll-bar cottage still stands among the road works, the holiday traffic and thundering trucks just off the busy highway in Mount Victoria. It is one of the few remaining links with that period before the railway when the road was the centre of all activity, legal and illegal, and life on the Mountains was often harsh and remote from the embellishments of civilization.


*****

John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian 


Note on pre-decimal currency: ‘d’ was the abbreviation for a penny, a quarter of a penny (¼d) was called a farthing, a half penny (½d) was called a ha’penny. There were 12 pence (12d) to a shilling (1/-) and 20 shillings (20/-) to the pound (£1/0/0). The ‘d’ coming for the Latin word denarii (sing. denarius, a common coin in Roman Britain). At time of decimalisation in 1966 £1 became $2. However £1 in the mid-19th century may be multiplied by 120 to roughly equate to the present value. http://www.thomblake.com.au/secondary/hisdata/calculate.php 


REFERENCES

'Broughton’s Waterhole toll Bar Cottage', in 'Historic Blue Mountains', John Low, 1987.  


TOLL BARS (1933, October 26). The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 - 1950), p. 3 ("Back=to=Parramatta" Week Supplement to The Cumberland Argus). Retrieved March 14, 2017.

TOLL BAR HISTORY (1950, December 29). Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), p. 4 (CITY EDITION). Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219753237

Toll Bars. (1913, May 14). The Bathurst Times (NSW : 1909 - 1925), p. 2. Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111214859

"OLD TOLL-BAR HOUSE" The Katoomba Daily (NSW : 1920 - 1939) 25 June 1938: 3. Web. 3 Apr 2017 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190115283

"OLD TOLL BAR" The Blue Mountain Echo (NSW : 1909 - 1928) 17 February 1928: 5. Web. 3 Apr 2017 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108955898 Tablet Unveiled At Mt. Victoria Toll Bar Home (1950, December 19). Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219751802

JAMES T. RYAN has received instructions from Mr. R. H. Sempill, the Official Assignee, to sell by auction, on (1868, December 18). New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), p. 4561. Retrieved April 3, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225581659

See also Gov. Macquarie's original proclamation in its glorious Georgian English and even do some text correcting -
"Proclamation, By His Excellency LACHLAN MACQUARIE, Esquire, Captain General, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over His Majesty's Territory of New South Wales and its Dependencies, &c. &c. &c." The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) 30 March 1811: 2. Web. 3 May 2017   

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

"Braemar" Springwood 1882-2016




BEGINNINGS
The story of "Braemar" begins in Scotland, on the southern edge of the Firth of Clyde where the industrial seaport town of Greenock lies in the shadow of the Ayreshire Hills. It was here, in the birthplace of the legendary pirate Captain William Kidd and the pioneer inventor of the steam engine James Watt, that the man who built Braemar, James Hunter Lawson, came into the world on 22 April, 1836.

While little is known of the childhood and youth of the young James Hunter Lawson, by the time he was nineteen and about to embark upon the long journey to Australia he had acquired the trade of a cabinet-maker. These skills were to benefit him in the years ahead but, on arrival in Sydney in 1855, he apparently decided to try his hand at other work. In the first five years of his residence in Australia the number of cabinet-makers operating in Sydney declined substantially and this restriction of employment opportunities may have influenced his decision to apply for a hotel licence in 1858. By this time, too, he was married with a wife and baby daughter to support.

Emma Glen, whom he married at St. Andrews Cathedral in Sydney on 27 November, was twenty years of age, the eldest daughter of Robert Glen a resident of Pyrmont and an engineer with the Hunter River Steamship Company. James and Emma's first child, also named Emma, was born in the year he became licensee of the Royal Oak Hotel on the corner of Union and Pyrmont Streets, Pyrmont.

Braemar plans, 1892
THE FURNITURE BUSINESS
In 1860, when the Lawson's second child James Robert was born, the family was still resident at the Royal Oak. Sometime in the next five years, however, James Hunter Lawson made a decisive career move that saw him return to the furniture business. By 1865 he was in partnership with George Cadell, running a furniture warehouse at 245 George Street, Sydney. His residential address had also changed to 49 Mill Street, Pyrmont.

Over the next fifteen years the business changed location several times (from George Street to Jamieson Street and back to George Street), a couple of partnerships came and went, and the family moved to Queen Street, Newtown. In 1882 James Hunter, well established now in the furniture trade in Sydney, returned to Britain where business and the investigation of overseas trends no doubt took an equal place in his preoccupations with renewal of family ties. On his return to Sydney his business entered upon a period of expansion.

In the Sand's Directory for 1884 the listing reads for the first time as - "Lawson, James and Sons, Cabinet-Makers, Art Furniture Manufacturers and Carpet Warehousemen". The business incorporated both a furniture warehouse on the corner of William Street and Hyde Park and a large modern factory in Newtown where, according to Men of Mark published in 1888, "a large percentage of the goods are manufactured" using "all the modern appliances of the trade".

Lawson's sons, when they reached maturity, were 'conscripted' and given training to fit them for specialised positions within the business. James Robert became a cabinet-maker; William drew designs; Alfred french polished; and Ernest kept the books. The eldest, James Robert, eventually decided that cabinet-making was not the career he wished to pursue and, with his father's blessing and assistance, set up in the auctioneering business in the mid-1880s. The firm he established eventually evolved into the highly respected company of James R. Lawson Pty., Ltd., Valuers, Fine Art, General and Industrial Auctioneers, probably the best known business of its type in Sydney.

James Hunter Lawson in 1922

SPRINGWOOD
With his increasing prosperity James Hunter Lawson, like many successful Sydney businessmen during the last half of the nineteenth century, cast his eyes westward to the Blue Mountains and thought seriously of investing in Mountain real estate and building a Mountain retreat. Sydney summers were hot and humid and the air often heavy with potent smells, thought to be disease carrying and unhygienic. The Mountains, on the other hand, stated The Railway Guide of New South Wales in 1886, were "the breezy highlands" where Sydney's citizens could seek "the re-invigoration of mountain air and the refined pleasure afforded by the contemplation of beautiful scenery." For James Hunter Lawson, Springwood in the lower Blue Mountains became the object of his interest.
Coo-ee March in Macquarie Rd springwood, 1915
Seventy-five years earlier, Springwood had been the site of Governor Macquarie's first camp on the Mountains during his tour to the west along the new road only recently completed by William Cox and his convict workmen. Macquarie’s Journal records that, at 3 o'clock on the 26 April, 1815, the party halted and pitched their tents "in a very pretty wooded plain near a spring of very good fresh water ... the place being very pretty I have named it Spring-Wood." The following year a military depot was established there to guard the road and supervise traffic and for almost thirty years the protection it offered attracted numerous travellers, making Springwood one of the popular resting spots on the journey over the Mountains.

In 1845, after the military had departed, Thomas Boland built the Springwood Inn and continued Springwood's role as a traveller's oasis. During the gold rush period thousands passed through Springwood on their way to the Turon fields and at night Boland's Inn would become the centre of a large and animated encampment.

Emma Lawson in 1922

When the railway was opened to the Weatherboard (Wentworth Falls) in 1867 the stimulus was provided for residential settlement. In the following decades the speed, comfort and reliability provided by trains encouraged many of the affluent members of Sydney's ruling class to purchase land and build country retreats in the Blue Mountains. The Springwood area, in particular, became a popular choice: Sir Henry Parkes established "Stonehurst" as his country home in 1877 and several years later built “Faulconbridge House”; the Hon. Charles Moore MLC MLA erected "Moorecourt", later used by the Springwood Ladies College, in 1876; the Hon. John Frazer MLA engaged Varney Parkes to design his residence "Silva Plana" in 1881; and the Hon. James Norton MLC built "Euchora" in 1884.

Not all new residents were wealthy, however. In the 1870s a large number of railway workers responsible for maintaining the western line boosted the area's total population and helped provide the stimulus toward the early introduction of postal, education, police and various business enterprises. Centered at Springwood, these made the town a focal point of the district.

The 1880s saw Springwood, with a population somewhere in the vicinity of two to three hundred, renowned for its rural charm and equable climate. Its scenic attractions - Sassafras or Flying Fox Gully, Madeline Glen, Fairy Dell - obtained regular promotion in the popular railway tourist guides of the day. A writer in The Illustrated Sydney News, 3 October 1889, contrasted "the illimitable grandeur of Katoomba" with "the smiling serenity of Springwood" and described the town in the following terms:

"One's first impressions of Springwood are exceedingly pleasant, and we can honestly state that subsequent explorations only serve to confirm them. Pausing at the station, which, by the way, is one of the prettiest upon the line, and quite in harmony with its surroundings, one's eye rests upon a road of a warm red colour and sidewalks shaded with the dense blue-grey foliage of turpentine trees, the scene flanked at each side with cosy buildings of wood and stone. Even the police station exhibits a display of taste, and everything seems in harmony. Up the road, on the left, is a substantial schoolhouse, from the windows of which issue the sweet sounds of many voices, fresh young tones, that speak of happy homes and healthy climate, a fact still better attested by the blooming cheeks of the youngsters who are romping in the playground.
To the right from the station runs a road faced by a few cottages; in the middle distance the pretty villa belonging to Mrs Hoare, set in the midst of garden and greensward, and, further still, a background of forest trees, between which one obtains glimpses of blue mountains."

Oriental Hotel
HOTEL BUSINESS
This, then, was Springwood at the time James Hunter Lawson purchased sixty acres of land there at the end of the 1880s. His property extended from Raymond Road to the vicinity of the present De Chair Avenue and included the Springwood Hotel built in 1877 by Frank Raymond.

Lawson was back in the hotel business and soon began major rebuilding and renovation work which saw the old hotel undergo a complete face-lift. In the Nepean Times, 22 March, 1890, we read that: "The Springwood Hotel improvements are getting pushed along -the enterprising owner is determined to have plenty of cellar room -twenty feet by twenty and about eight feet high."

Then, three weeks later: "The Springwood Hotel is progressing fast towards completion, and will be a feature in our village, and an attraction for the tourist or searcher for health. Mr Lawson, the proprietor, being in the trade, is going to show us how an hotel ought to be furnished for comfort and ease." The hotel was reopened at the end of January 1891 as the Oriental Hotel - "the most complete in the district."

BUILDING BEGINS
No sooner had Lawson transformed the Springwood Hotel into the Oriental than he continued to stamp his presence upon the township of Springwood by turning his attention to another project. "He is now carting bricks to the orchard adjoining the hotel", reported the Nepean Times, "where he intends erecting a fine cottage forthwith." This cottage was to be "Braemar" and was completed later that same year.

"Braemar" soon after construction. The Lawson family group includes: J.H. Lawson near fence; Alfred Lawson holding horse; Emma Lawson, her daughter Flora and grandchildren Ethel, Emma and Ernest in the buggy (Photograph courtesy of Blue Mountains City Library)

It is not certain how long James and Emma Lawson occupied "Braemar “but it does not appear to have been for more than a few years. Their grandson, W. G. Lawson, in a letter to the Blue Mountains City Library's Chief Librarian in 1975, remembered that it was "only for a very short period." The couple eventually built "Glen Lawson", next door to "Braemar", which became their home until their deaths in 1926. Just when "Glen Lawson" was erected is also uncertain, though by 1895 when a Presbyterian service attended by some seventy people was held on the verandah of "Braemar" the tenant of "Braemar" was reported to be "Mrs. Urquhart", James and Emma's daughter.

Glen Lawson, Braemar, the Oriental Hotel

EXPANSION
If "Glen Lawson" wasn't already in existence by this time the Lawsons may have lived for a time elsewhere in Springwood for, during the 1890s, the family was purchasing and building extensively in the town. In October, 1893, for example, James Hunter Lawson was reported as purchasing "the cottage near Brady's gatehouse, recently erected and occupied by Mr. Joseph Chapman". That same month his son, William, was living in a cottage at Faulconbridge and "has commenced the erection of a neat little cottage next to the railway crossing gate near "Chatsworth". William built again later in the decade: the arrival of building material at Springwood Railway Station and then the completion of a cottage was noted in the press. This was probably "The Knoll", several properties down the Bathurst Road from "Braemar", where William and his wife Isobel lived until they moved into "Glen Lawson" after his parent's death. On the eve of his departure for Europe in May 1900, James Hunter Lawson was praised for having contributed to the progress of Springwood "by erecting substantial buildings that would be a credit to any district".


James Hunter Lawson with Ernest and Ethel Urquhart at the entrance to "Braemar" (Photograph courtesy of Miss S. E. Lawson)

CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL
By 1897 "Braemar" was being occupied by Nurse Lonie Treble, a friend of the Lawson family, who conducted a convalescent hospital on the premises. This venture was short-lived, however, and when Nurse Treble's sister, who had come up to Springwood in late March 1897 suffering from consumption, died of the disease. Nurse Treble returned to Sydney to live. In May 1897 James' and Emma's son William and his wife occupied "Braemar" while on their honeymoon.

Nurse Louie Treble

THE GARRETTS
With the departure of Nurse Treble, the next tenants of "Braemar" appear to have been Thomas William Garrett and his family. Garrett was a solicitor who became Registrar of Probates in 1890 and Public Trustee in 1914. He was best known, however, as a cricketer who played with distinction for Australia and New South Wales.

Tom Garrett in 1936
Photo courtesy Wikimedia

T.W. Garrett was born on 26 July, 1858, in Wollongong, the son of politician and newspaper proprietor Thomas Garrett and his first wife Mary Creagan. At the age of eighteen years Garrett was chosen to play for Australia in Melbourne in 1877 against James Lillywhite's team of professionals, a match that has come to be considered the first Test against England. He toured England three times - in 1878, 1882 and 1886 - and represented Australia in seven Test series at home. On the 1882 tour he played in the famous match at The Oval when Australia defeated England for the first time on English soil, provoking The Sporting Times to report in its next issue the death of English cricket. "The body", it declared, "will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

Overall, Garrett appeared in nineteen Test matches, scoring 339 runs (highest score 51) and taking 36 wickets. Bearded, tall and lean, Garrett was primarily recognised as a right-arm, slightly more than medium pace bowler with an ability to swing the ball either way. Playing for New South Wales he proved a shrewd and successful captain who also achieved with the bat. In 1897, aged thirty-eight, he knocked up 131 runs against a South Australian team that included the champion fast bowler Ernest Jones.

T.W. Garrett, his wife Helen (they were married on 25 March, 1879) and their family of three girls and four boys probably arrived in Springwood in the first half of 1898. In August of that year the Nepean Times records that he was elected a Vice-President(he later served as President) of the Springwood Cricket Club, the first mention of the Garrett name in the local press.

With the exception of about twelve months, between May 1902 and April 1903, the family resided in Springwood for over ten years. It is, however, uncertain how much of this time was spent as tenants of "Braemar", though by 1908 they had clearly moved to the western end of the town. An advertisement in the Nepean Times concerning the new subdivision of Springwood Heights Estate notes that this land is located "between the residence of J.F. Hoare, Esq., and Thos. Garrett, Esq., and situate opposite Moore Court and the Church of England".

During their time in Springwood the Garrett's involved themselves in the community, the Garrett name appearing regularly in the Springwood news columns of the Nepean Times. Father and sons were active participants in the local cricket, football and golf clubs. In 1909-10 when Springwood Cricket Club won the Nepean District premiership three of the Garrett brothers were in the team, one of them holding the captaincy.

Mother and daughters, too, were reported in various capacities at fetes organised by such bodies as Christ Church of England and Springwood Ladies College. T. W. Garrett also acted as honorary auditor for a number of local organisations including the Church of England, the Progress Association and the School of Arts.

While it is unclear exactly when the family left Springwood it was possibly some time in 1912, for the Garrett name does not appear in the local electorate on the 1913 Commonwealth Electoral Roll. Thomas William Garrett died at Warrawee in Sydney, aged eighty-five, on 6 August, 1943. Tom Garrett's great-grandson is the Midnight Oil lead singer, former Australian federal politician and government minister, Peter Garrett. 

Who followed the Garrett's as tenants of "Braemar" is something of a mystery. In a letter to the Blue Mountains City Library's Chief Librarian in 1975 James Hunter Lawson's grandson, William, says it was "a Jewish family by name of Cohen" who "were there quite a time." Despite this, no reference to the Cohens can be found in either the local newspapers or the electoral rolls available for the first decade of the twentieth century.

In 1908, however, the NSW Government Tourist Bureau's Hotel and Boarding House Directory listed Braemar as a boarding house under the proprietorship of Mrs. Mulvey. Braemar, the directory recorded, could accommodate twelve guests at a charge per person of seven shillings a day or two guineas a week. Who Mrs. Mulvey was and how long she remained in Springwood is not known.

A canary in the front door panel
DR O'FLANAGAN
The next resident of whom we can be certain was Dr Andrew Joseph O'Flanagan who occupied "Braemar" between 1918 and 1923. This was during the period of the great influenza pandemic. As well as using the house as a residence for himself, his wife and two daughters it also became his surgery and dispensary. And, he employed a housekeeper, Mrs. Ruby Miller, who lived in with her own daughter and did all the cooking and housework. Mrs. Miller, now in her nineties, recalls Dr. O'Flanagan doing his rounds in a horse and sulky equipped with a hurricane lamp.

The doctor, apparently, was also wary of dogs. Alfred Sully of Faulconbridge, a schoolboy at the time, remembers a house call to his family. On arrival the doctor stood at the back fence and enquired: "Have you got any dogs?" When young Alfred replied from the doorway, "No, no dogs doctor", he entered with the comment, "Sensible boy, sensible boy". Mr. Sully also recalls him carrying a small pistol in his bag which, he thinks, was used to scare off any canine advances.


GUEST HOUSE
Following Dr. O'Flanagan's death, on 3 January, 1923, "Braemar" was converted once again to the role it had been introduced to by Mrs. Mulvey prior to World War 1. For the next four decades, with the possible exception of some brief periods, it functioned primarily as a boarding or guesthouse under a number of proprietors. The three we are aware of were:

1924 - 1926  Marjory and Bert Gillman.
1931 - 1938  Nancy and David Ireland.
1941 - c 1968 Alma and Lionel Platt.



"Braemar" c. 1924. Mrs Gillman is the lady in white standing at the extreme left. 

Bert Gillman was a builder who operated in the early 1920s from Valley Heights and then removed to Robertson, near Moss Vale, for a short period. It wasn't long, however, before he and his family returned to Springwood where they took over "Braemar" after Dr O'Flanagan's death and began running it as a guesthouse. It is interesting that Mrs. Gillman had known Dr O'Flanagan and, because of her experience as a bush nurse, had accompanied him at times on his rounds to assist with deliveries.

Mrs. Gillman's two daughters, Marjory and Bessie, now in their late seventies, remember the house being full of antique furniture, with velvet curtains in the hall and lounge room. A pedestal light in the hallway, known as the 'Pink Lady', and a beautiful painted ceiling in one of the rooms - pools of water with lilies, storks and ducks - particularly took their fancy. They were disappointed when they came back in later years and found the painted ceiling gone.

Staff consisted of Mrs Smith, the housekeeper, two girls, Ruby and Violet, who cleaned the rooms and waited on tables, and a yardman who cared for the animals and the grounds. Mr and Mrs Gillman did most of the cooking, Mr Gillman being a particularly dab hand at certain dishes. Some guests were known to return because of his cooking. Bessie, the eldest daughter, would also wait on tables if one of the regular girls was sick.

The guests were entertained with musical evenings and euchre parties and there was even a miniature golf course of nine holes, erected one year with the help of some of the guests on the paddock between the house and the Oriental Hotel. Bushwalking into Sassafras Gully was also a regular activity.

One guest, an elderly lady whose name was Miss Lewis, was a permanent resident the whole time the Gillmans were at "Braemar". When they moved on to Manly in 1926 she went with them. Miss Lewis was very superstitious and Marjory Gillman, the younger daughter, recalls how she was sometimes required to make up the numbers at dinner time if the official guests seated at the dining table ever totaled thirteen.


It was while the Gillmans were in residence that James Hunter Lawson and his wife Emma both died, within twenty-four hours of each other, in "Glen Lawson" next door. After a period of gradually declining health James Hunter passed away on Friday 23 April, 1926. It was his ninetieth year. "Mrs Lawson", reported the Daily Guardian, in Sydney, "seemed at first to bear the shock very well in the circumstances, and appeared to be in fair health when two of her sons left Springwood by the 7a.m. train on Saturday. Her other son intended leaving an hour later; but in the interim his mother died suddenly." The couple were buried together at Rookwood Cemetery.


THE IRELANDS
During the years of the Great Depression "Braemar" was operated as a guesthouse by Nancy and David Ireland. Mrs Ireland was born Nancy Gardener in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1901. In Springwood she was involved for many years with the Presbyterian Ladies Guild. Her husband David died in 1980 and his ashes are in the Columbarium at Springwood Cemetery. His father Charles, who died in 1931, is buried also in Springwood Cemetery.

Enjoying the sun on the verandah of "Braemar" 1930s (Photograph courtesy of Mrs Nancy Ireland)


THE PLATTS
By the time Lionel and Alma Platt and their two year old daughter Pam arrived from the Sydney suburb of Kirribilli in the early 1940s, a guesthouse tradition was well established at "Braemar". However, Mr Platt, who suffered from asthma, and his wife originally had no intention of carrying on this tradition. They wanted simply to lease the house as a private residence, at least until the war was over.

On their arrival though they were faced with an unforeseen circumstance that changed everything. The two men who had previously been proprietors of "Braemar" and had left at short notice had not left the house empty. The Platts, to their surprise, found about eight guests waiting for them on the verandah. After some intense negotiation and the intervention of the local policeman the abandoned boarders were allowed to stay, at least temporarily.

Mrs Platt takes up the story: "There two lovely old ladies. They came from the back parts, the Pilliga scrub. In those days there were only two trains ... anyway they couldn't get a train till the following Monday ... they asked could they stay and I said yes. ‘Look', said one of them, 'this place is a little gold mine. Why don't you open it up as a guesthouse?".

Despite Mrs Platt's protests that she had no experience, the lady continued: "All you do is get a housemaid, a waitress and a cook ... your husband can stay at home and help you ... you'll make a fortune if you do. I'll show you how." After a month helping the Platts organise themselves and find staff the two ladies returned to the Pilliga scrub, leaving Mr & Mrs Platt as proprietors of "Braemar Guesthouse" for almost the next thirty years. In the late 1940's they even purchased the property from William Lawson who had inherited it on his father's death in 1926.

The Platts found, like the Gillmans before them, they were never short of guests. "Running a guesthouse", recalls Mrs Platt, "was a seven day a week job!" Heavy advertising was unnecessary and during the school holidays "Braemar" was always booked out. "They were just like family, just like friends coming back for holidays."
Bushwalks into Sassafras Gully for afternoon tea, dances on the well-kept verandah, and children's concerts where the adults were charged two shillings and the money used to buy lollies for the children in the Salvation Army Home over the railway line, were among the popular activities that kept the guests entertained.
The Platts, too, attracted their own permanent, slightly eccentric, guest. Captain Howell, an old sea captain, resided at "Braemar" for some seven or eight years before his death. To the consternation of some, his favourite pastime was to 'liven up' any other elderly residents.

Children were specially catered for under the Platts. During the school holidays preference was always given to guests with children. It was not unusual for Mrs Platt to ask a regular guest to postpone their visit until school went back. When guests went bushwalking children under five, who were not permitted to go, were always given a special party instead. But not all the children who came to "Braemar" were well behaved. Mrs Platt relates a story about a lovely inlaid table she kept in the guest's lounge room: "One child, a doctor's daughter, oh she was a big child for her age and they used to call her 'Mony' for 'Monster'. A lady came out to me and she was almost in tears and she said, 'Mrs Platt, I can't stand it any longer.' I asked her, 'What is wrong, what has made you so upset?' She replied, 'That little girl in there, her mother and father are sitting there and they are reading the paper and this little hussy has got a pin, a bobby pin and she's picking all your inlay out of that table.' When I went in all the inlay was out of it and I couldn't find even the bits to stick it back. Oh, they were very upset. They wanted to take it down to Sydney and get it fixed up, but I thought no, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, I'd better keep it. So I kept it and there it is still."

Towards the end of their time at "Braemar" the Platts closed the guesthouse down for a couple of years, using it as a private residence. They then sold it (c.1971) to local real estate agent Charles H. Degotardi. For a time Mr Degotardi, operating as Tropic Gardens Pty. Ltd., considered some major guesthouse additions to "Braemar" but these plans were later shelved.

BLUE MOUNTAINS CITY LIBRARY
It was at this point that the history of "Braemar" changed dramatically. In 1974 the house was acquired by the Blue Mountains City Council with Federal Government funds provided through the Australian Assistance Program, an initiative of the Whitlam Government, designed to encourage and assist the preservation of the nation's heritage.

Almost immediately "Braemar" was used to house the newly established Blue Mountains City Library, the idea being that it would fulfill this role temporarily until the planned Library Headquarters building was constructed in the grounds behind it. The construction of the new library during the next two years necessitated the demolition of the detached weatherboard and iron section at the rear of the house that had housed the kitchen, scullery and servants’ quarters; and the original water well on the eastern side was covered over.

The new library building was completed in 1976 and, after the City Librarian had moved the growing collection of books into its new premises, the Council's Electricity Department took up residence in Braemar until 1980. In this year the supply of electricity to the Blue Mountains was taken over by Prospect County Council and this body continued to operate from Braemar, leasing the building from the City Council. In 1984 new premises in Springwood Avenue became available and Prospect County Council vacated "Braemar", leaving the way open for a reconsideration of the role the building might play in the community life of Springwood.

Ever since the Blue Mountains City Council acquired the property there had been strong argument in favour of "Braemar" being used for community rather than commercial purposes. Its initial use as the library headquarters reflected this opinion and it was again brought to the fore when the library re-occupied the building in 1984.

Throughout the 1970's, too, there was considerable interest shown in "Braemar" by the Springwood Historical Society who felt that a role as a local history centre would be appropriate. In 1975 Springwood Historical Society wrote to the first City Librarian requesting "that favourable consideration be given to providing space in 'Braemar for use by the Society for storing its collection of books, historic documents etc."

Though nothing came of this immediately, the idea that "Braemar" should house a local history collection was again raised in 1981, this time by the next City Librarian himself, when the employment of a specialist librarian was being considered. A Local Studies Librarian was appointed early in 1982 and, when the library moved into "Braemar" in 1984, two rooms were occupied by the new Local Studies Collection.

At the same time, a great deal of interest was being shown by local artists in the idea of establishing an art gallery as part of the new function of "Braemar" and much discussion ensued. Dual use of the old building by both the historical and artistic communities began to be seen as a feasible proposition.
Official Opening 1988: Library Manager - Drusilla Wendolowski, Mayor Jim Angel,
Member for Blue Mountains Bob Debus; Lindsay Paish - Braemar Management Committee 

Eventually community use of the building received official blessing when, after some debate at its meeting on 13 November, 1984, the Blue Mountains City Council adopted recommendations that Braemar be converted into an art gallery and local history resource centre. A successful application was made by the Council for a grant from the NSW Bicentennial Authority to assist with restoration of the building and conversion to its new function, this grant being supported later by another from the NSW Heritage Council.

A number of public meetings were subsequently held in response to the initiative of Council and a community based committee - The Friends of Braemar - was formed early in 1985, followed later in the year by a 530A Management Committee to supervise progress towards the fulfillment of the community's vision for "Braemar". Membership of both the "Friends" and the Management Committee reflected the interest of local artists, the historical society and the library and a good number of the office-bearers of those early committees shouldered the responsibility for the general functioning of "Braemar".

In 1985, also, the National Trust of Australia classified "Braemar" and included it in the Trust's Register as a place having "aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance or other special value for future generations, as well as for the present community."

In 1988 a successful application was made by Blue Mountains City Council for a grant from the NSW Bicentennial Authority to assist with restoration of the building and conversion to its new function, this grant being supported later by another from the NSW Heritage Council.

The restoration work was carried out by Blaxland builders John M. Coyle & Co. under the supervision of Buckwell & Partners Architects, of Mount Victoria.

The official opening of the Braemar Gallery and Local History Centre took place on Saturday 12 March, 1988, with the State Member for the Blue Mountains, Mr. Bob Debus, officiating. The following week the Blue Mountains Gazette, reporting on the occasion, commented that "Braemar now stands to serve the people of this city as a permanent source of cultural endeavour and a receptacle of heritage resources. This achievement is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication by many people...."

Four years later, on the occasion of the building's hundredth anniversary, the successful development of its dual roles was viewed as being well established. The Council's original decision to implement a cultural role for "Braemar" had been validated.

In 2015 the Braemar Management Committee was disbanded and Braemar Gallery came under the control of the City Art Gallery at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, while a team of volunteers continues to assist with daily operations.

Local Studies Librarian
Blue Mountains City Library
1992, revised 2016

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books, Pamphlets etc.

·         Australian Men of Mark, Volume 2, Series 1, C.F. Maxwell, Sydney, [1888]
·         Macquarie, Lachlan. Journals of His Tours in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land 1810-1822, Public Library of NSW, Sydney, 1956.
·         Nairn, B. & Serle, G. ed. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, 1891-1939, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1981. [Entry on T.W. Garrett by K.J. Cable.]
·         NSW Government Tourist Bureau. Hotel and Boarding-House Directory, NSW Government, Sydney, 1908.
·         Pollard, Jack. Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players, Hodder & Stoughton, 1982.
·         The Railway Guide of New South Wales, NSW Government, Sydney, 1886.
·         Ruhan, Carl. The Auctioneers: Lawson's - the First 100 Years, Ayers & James, Sydney, 1984.
·         Sand's Sydney and Post Office Directory, Sydney, various years.
·         Searle, A. & Morony, R. Springwood Notebook 1788 - 1989, Springwood Historical Society, Springwood, 1990.
·         Wise's New South Wales Post Office Directory, Sydney, various years.
2  Newspapers
·         Blue Mountains Gazette
·         Daily Guardian [Sydney]
·         Illustrated Sydney News
·         Nepean Times

3  Oral History Interviews

·         Alma Platt interviewed by Beryl Myers, 10 December 1985 for Blue Mountains City Library
·         Alfred Sully interviewed by Enid Schafer, 4 September 1989 for the Blue Mountains City Library
·         Marjory Stephens (nee Gillman) and Bessie Gillman interviewed by John Low and Helen Halliwell, 19 February 1992 for the Blue Mountains City Library

4 Miscellaneous
·         Blue Mountains City Council Records Department, Files on Braemar", Commonwealth Electoral Rolls.
·         "Friends of Braemar" and Management Committee Records, Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Library.

It is clear that there are some gaps in our knowledge of the "Braemar" story. The authors would therefore be very grateful for any corrections and additional information, photographs etc. If you can help please contact:

Local Studies Librarian,
Blue Mountains City Library,
104 Macquarie Road, Springwood. N.S.W. 2777
Telephone 47235044



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their sincere thanks to the following people: Gwen Alexander, Neil Billington, Stephen Gibbs, Bessie Gillman, Pat Hinchliffe, Nancy Ireland, Sheila Lawson, Alma Platt, Gwen Silvey, Colin Slade, Jim Smith, Marjory Stephens (nee Gillman), Mr & Mrs Graham Stephens.

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