Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Murder in the Megalong Valley, Patrick McAveney


Patrick McAveney's grave in Hartley Cemetery, centre
photo: John Merriman


Inscription reads :
Patrick McAveney
Died 28th February 1873
Age 69 Years



Patrick was murdered by his wife Ann, as described below. The deposition was indeed taken by Edmund Barton, the man who would become our first Prime Minister, who at this time, as a lowly circuit judge, was just starting out in his legal career.




THE McAVENEYS OF MEGALONG 

Patrick and Ann McAveney migrated to Australia on the ‘Forth’ in 1841. Sailing from Plymouth on 23rd May and arriving in Sydney on 28th August, having touched no ports on the journey. The ‘Forth’, of 528 tons carried 262 passengers on arrival, four having died on the voyage. There was a school on board which had an attendance of about 30, presumably both children and adults. 

Patrick was born in Dromanay, County Fermanagh, Ireland, son of Owen McAveney and his wife Mary, and was 35 on his arrival in Sydney. His occupation was listed as ‘farm labourer’ and his religion Roman Catholic. He could both read and write and his ‘bodily health and strength’ were noted as very good. 

Ann, daughter of Hugh and Mary Flanagan, aged 33, also a Roman Catholic could read but not write. Her occupation is listed as ‘farm servant - dairy maid’. They brought with them their three sons, Thomas aged 14 (who could read), John 12 and Michael 10. Patrick, on 1st October 1851, purchased 50 acres of land on Pulpit Hill Swamp for £50. 

It is likely that the McAveneys settled in Megalong before buying this land and were probably the only residents in the northern part of the valley. They ran cattle, and if tradition is correct, Patrick was a teamster at some time. Although well liked by his neighbours, he had the reputation of being tight-fisted, and was reputed to have insisted on payment in gold coin which he then carefully stashed out of the reach of his wife Ann. Two such caches have been unearthed, one by Donald Boyd whilst setting a rabbit trap in a hollow log, reputedly 25 sovereigns - and another of 100 sovereigns in a treacle tin hidden in a stump which was discovered by a man from Katoomba, visiting friends who were camped there rabbiting during the depression. 

CONFESSION OF ANN McAVENEY

"I, Ann McAveney voluntarily of my own free will and without promise or threat make the following statement. 
8th March. 1873 
I got disgusted with my husband for the cool way in which he treated me. I thought I would show him the way in which he ought to treat a wife. He used always to treat me coolly. I commenced to arrange matters with him on last Friday night week the 28th February. I killed Patrick McAveney with a tomahawk. I struck him with a tomahawk across the head in bed whilst he was sleeping. I struck him two blows whilst in bed. The blankets were round his head. After striking him with the tomahawk I went out of the house. 

When I returned I found him sitting in a chair by the fire. I struck him again and again, five or six blows. I put all the cuts on his head with the tomahawk. I struck him with a stick on the head. After killing my husband I sat by the fire until I was sure he was dead. I then went to the little room and sat on the sofa. I came out again and looked at him and found he was dead. I got a blanket and some calico and covered him over. I went round the table and laid my hand on his foot. I then knew he was dead. I washed the tomahawk with which I killed him and threw it down in the weeds. 

I was very cautious that the blood should not spurt on to me. I have got no cloths (sic) with the blood on them. My brown dress and apron I had on me when I killed my husband. I took no money from him. I then began to think what could I do to make it appear that robbers had been at the house. Then I concocted the story which I reported to the police that two men with blackened faces robbed and murdered my husband. 
I went to the box and threw the clothes about the house, also the matches and lollies. 
The reason that I killed my husband was on account of his general unkindness and ill treatment of me whilst in a sickly state of health and never treating me as a wife. I told him about three weeks before the murder that I would not treat a dog as he treated me. 

Fourth day of March, 1873. 
Anne X  her (McAveney) mark 
Ann McAveney further states that there was a bank deposit receipt for £50, fifty pounds, which my husband had lodged in the bank, but I cannot say which bank, which receipt I since burnt in fear that should lead to conviction of having committed the murder. 
Tenth day of March, 1873. 

Deposition witnessed at Hartley by Edmund Barton JP "

Ann was tried at the Bathurst Circuit Court on 25th April 1873, found guilty of willful murder and sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and she died on 28th September 1883, of natural causes, in the infirmary of Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney.

Ref. Historic Megalong Valley, Mary Shaw 2008 

John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian
2014 Blue Mountains City Library

Monday, March 31, 2014

Murder on Victoria Pass, Caroline Collits


A man and woman with a sulky and driver pose in the afternoon light on Mitchell's viaduct,
also known as the second bridge, on Victoria Pass.
Note the massive convict-built masonry walls and buttresses of the causeway across the gully.
Image by Katoomba photographer Harry Phillips, from about 1910.
Blue Mountains City Library Local Studies Collection. 
The improved line of road to bypass the steep tracks at Mt York was surveyed by Thomas Livingston Mitchell in 1830 and named by him Victoria Pass. In February 1832 there were nearly 400 convicts working on the Pass and its spectacular stone causeways. It was opened on 23rd October 1832 by Gov. Bourke.

In 1836 Charles Darwin travelled to Bathurst and called it 'worthy of any line of road in England'.

Except for a brief period between 1912 to 1920, when early automobiles preferred the easier grade of Berghofer's Pass, Victoria Pass has remained the principal route of access to the west.

This section of road is the setting for the 1891 Henry Lawson poem,

 The Ghost at the Second Bridge
YOU’D call the man a senseless fool,—
    A blockhead or an ass,
Who’d dare to say he saw the ghost
    Of Mount Victoria Pass;

But I believe the ghost is there,
    For, if my eyes are right,
I saw it once upon a ne’er-
    To-be-forgotten night...

See the link below for the whole poem. 
 
The Ghost of Victoria Pass 
"It was not until 1813, twenty-five years after the colony was founded, that a primitive road was hacked through the dense bush and rugged sandstone ridges, opening the western plains to settlement.
  
Convicts laboured and lost their lives building that road, moving thousands of tonnes of rock with picks and shovels and constructing stone bridges as strong and dependable today as they were nearly 200 years ago. The steepest section of the road wound up and over Mount York, but the danger of accident was so great that an alternate route (only slightly less precipitous) was opened and Victoria Pass came into being in 1832. Modern travellers speeding along the smooth black ribbon that is the Great Western Highway give little thought to the perils, physical and otherwise, that lurked at Victoria Pass. In earlier times it was quite a feat to climb to the top and ascend the other side without mishap or delay and, if travelling at night, there was the added risk of encountering the Ghost of Victoria Pass, which haunted the second bridge on the eastern side.
  
Travellers reported that their horses would become restless as they approached the bridge, then the figure of a young woman dressed entirely in black would suddenly appear in front of them. Some reported that her long, dark hair streamed out in the wind and that her arms were raised in a suppliant gesture. Some said that her eyes shone in the dark like a tiger's and a few said that she was headless. As suddenly as she appeared the spectre would disappear, leaving travellers anxious to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the scene of their harrowing experience. 
  
History can put a name to this ghost. She was born Caroline James, and at the time of her death she was Mrs William Collits. Caroline came from a shady and unstable family; her father ran a sly grog shop and her drunken mother had hanged herself. Despite this unsavoury background Caroline married into a respectable family: the Collits, proprietors of the inn at Hartley Vale. Unfortunately for Caroline, the Collits who took a fancy to her was the black sheep of the family, William, described by his father as a 'spendthrift idiot'. William Collits and Caroline James were married in 1840, but their marriage was anything but blissful. Caroline's younger sister was married to a thug named John Walsh, who was Caroline's as well as her sister's lover before and after their marriages. When her new husband turned out to be a poor substitute for Walsh, Caroline left him and moved in with her accommodating sister and brother-in-law in a menage-a-trois. 
  
There was talk of reconciliation between Caroline and William in the New Year of 1842. They met, along with Walsh, for a drink in Joseph Jagger's tavern near Hartley, but soon after leaving the tavern Walsh attacked William. Caroline came to her husband's aid by holding Walsh's arms and screaming to William to run for his life - which he unhesitatingly did. 
  
At about 6 am the next morning the postman delivering mail to Hartley came upon the battered body of Caroline Collits beside the road on Victoria Pass, about five kilometres from Jagger's tavern. Her skull had been smashed with a large stone which lay, stained with her blood, nearby. John Walsh was arrested for her murder but pleaded innocence, accusing not William Collits as you might imagine but Joseph Jagger, the tavern keeper, of committing the heinous crime. The jury at Walsh's trial did not believe him. He was convicted and hanged at Bathurst on 3 May 1842. 
  
William Collits remarried seven months after Caroline's murder and lived a long and happy life. His family achieved posthumous fame in the 1930s when they and their inn became the subject (with much alteration of fact) of the first successful musical comedy entirely written and produced in Australia on an Australian subject - 'Collits Inn', starring Gladys Moncrieff and George Wallace. Needless to say, the black sheep's branch of the family and this gruesome episode do not figure in the plot. 
Poor Caroline achieved fame of an entirely different kind - destined to spend an eternity of cold and windy nights haunting the bridge at Victoria Pass, spooking horses and terrifying innocent travellers. Some comfort may have come to her in the 1880s when Henry Lawson and his father came to live in the nearby village of Mount Victoria and the young poet wrote a sixteen verse poem about her entitled The Ghost at the Second Bridge'. Some say that Caroline Collits put a curse on the village of Mount Victoria, but its current prosperity belies that. No one has seen the Ghost of Victoria Pass for many years, which is hardly surprising. The road has been upgraded and widened so many times that the old bridges are barely visible, and if Caroline was still inclined to put in an appearance on the roadside at night, dressed from head to toe in black, it's doubtful if the occupants of the cars hurtling by would even notice her." 
  
From: The Ghost Guide to Australia by Richard Davis. Bantam, 1988.
*****
Below is a contemporary newspaper account from 1842, the original spellings have been retained. 

THE MOUNT VICTORIA MURDER. 
"MOST of our readers are aware that there is a man named John Walsh, a freed man, at present lying under sentence of death, in Bathurst Gaol, for the murder of Caroline Collitt, on Mount Victoria, on the 3rd of January last. 
The case was tried before Mr. Justice Stephen, at the last Bathurst Assizes, when, after a lengthened trial, the Jury retired for about twenty minutes, and returned a verdict of guilty against the prisoner, when his Honor passed sentence of death on him, which is to be carried into effect at Bathurst, on Tuesday, the 3rd of May. The perpetration of this crime appears to have been marked with circumstances of peculiar atrocity, such as we believe have seldom been met with in the annals of crime ; and as the history of the case is fraught with unanswerable arguments in favour of the cause of temperance, we have collected the most material of them in the following brief sketch.
  
Caroline Collitt, the person who was murdered, was, at the time of her death, about seventeen years of age ; she had been married about eighteen months to a man named Collitt, who was possessed at the time of their marriage of a considerable number of cattle, but is generally regarded as a person of weak  mind. About twelve months after her marriage, her mother, who was a notorious drunkard, hanged herself in her own house, her husband being in the house at the same time, but so much in liquor, that he could not prevent her from destroying herself. He was taken up on suspicion of being a party to her death ; but after lying about six months in gaol, was discharged.
  
About six months before the mother's untimely end, a younger sister of Caroline Collitt  married John Walsh, the convict at present under sentence of death in Bathurst Gaol, and, it appears, continued to live with him up till the time of her sister's murder; but she, as well as her sister Caroline, since the trial, have been ascertained to have been very loose characters, which is fully established by the fact, that both before and after Walsh had married the younger sister, Caroline cohabited with him, and had in fact been for a considerable time living with him, under the same roof with her sister, and in a state of separation from her own husband (Collitt). It has also been ascertained, that just before she lost her life, she was on terms of intimacy with her husband, and intended to go and live with him again.
  
John Walsh appears to be a native of Ireland, from which he was transported to this Colony in 1833, for seven years; he is about thirty years of age. Since his arrival he has been twice tried for murder, once before Sir James Dowling, in the year 1830, for the murder of a person named Crate, but was acquitted. He was again tried, before Mr. Justice Stephen, in 1839, on a charge of having murdered a woman and her son—a little boy. In this case he was also acquitted, on account of the character of the principal witness against him, coupled with the ingenious line of defence which he set up, and which bore a great similarity to that adopted by him on the late trial at Bathurst for the murder of his sister-in-law (Caroline Collitt). In the former case, it was established, by evidence, that the residence of the woman had been robbed of a keg of rum and some tobacco, and that she and her son had been beaten to death with a stick, which was found near their bodies, at a short distance from their hut. 

Soon after the murder, the prisoner took a native black with him to help him to remove the plunder from the place where they found it concealed in the neighbourhood, at the same time telling him that he had been told by some bushrangers where the property was concealed,—that they had done the robbery and committed the murder, but were afraid of being taken if they went to remove it. Some clothing was subsequently found concealed, which had marks of blood on it; and he accounted for the clothing which he had on when taken, by alleging that the bush- rangers had given it to him, in order that he might enable them to disguise themselves so as to affect their escape out of the district.   So, in the case of Caroline Collitt, he pre- tended that four or five men had set upon him and the deceased, and after compelling him to quit her, and taking his clothes, they had murdered her.
  
In the case of Collitt's murder, it was proved, that she, her husband, and Walsh, were all in company on the evening of the murder, and had been drinking in a public house kept by one Jaggars, at the foot of Mount Victoria ; that although they were sober when they went there, he had been drinking previously, and while there, he took two glasses of randy, which intoxicated him, while the man Collitt drank one, but his wife had only some lemon syrup.  
  
After leaving Jaggars' house, without any provocation he knocked Collitt down, whose life was saved by his wife seizing hold of Walsh, and allowing her husband to escape.   This was the last time she was seen alive, and the last words she was heard to utter were addressed to her husband, “Run, he has got a stone, and will murder you.”  
  
About a mile from the place where the husband fled for his life, her body was found early on the following morning, the face and head covered with blood and bruises, and a frightful wound in the temple, which had penetrated to the brain. This had evidently been inflicted by a large sharp jugged stone, one corner of which fitted into the wound, and was clotted with blood and hair. 
  
We have heard, that, after Walsh was condemned, when Mr. Justice Stephen was inspecting the gaol in which he is confined, he recalled to his Honor's memory the circumstances of his trial before him in 1839. "
THE MOUNT VICTORIA MURDER. (1842, April 27). The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28652525 

Links: www.telelib.com/authors/L/LawsonHenry/verse/freemansjourn...

John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian
2014 Blue Mountains City Library



Monday, May 20, 2013

Private Francis Smith (1793-1836)







Head and foot stones from the grave of Francis Smith

Springwood Cemetery (Blue Mountains City Library)

Francis Smith was born at Bromashall, Middlesex, in 1793. On 6 December, 1813, he enlisted in the 4th Foot of the King's Own Regiment, which was engaged in the fighting against the armies of the Emperor Napoleon in Spain. The following year he proceeded with the regiment to North America and participated in the Battle of Bladensburg and the capture of Washington; then accompanied the regiment south to New Orleans. The 4th sustained heavy losses against Andrew Jackson and half their number perished in the disease-ridden Louisiana everglades. Francis was one of the yellow fever causalities and he remained sick in hospital in North America while his regiment proceeded to Waterloo. He rejoined them in France early in 1816 as part of the British army of occupation. In 1819 he went with the army to the West Indies for eight years, then returned to England.

In February 1832, as a guard on board the convict ship Catherine Stewart Forbes, which was recorded as the worst cholera-affected vessel among the convict ships at the time, Corporal Francis Smith sailed from London for NSW. The voyage took 170 days during which he was subject to a court martial for a military offence that brought him one month's hard labour and reduction to Private. He stepped ashore at Port Jackson on 15 August 1832.



Private Henry Watts, of the Light Company 4th Foot, painted in spring 1831 before his departure for Australia. The inscription reads:

“Henry Watts, 4th King’s Own, Lions of England, Dear Parents

when you see this remember me

And bear me in your mind When i am far in a Foreign Clime.”

Private Smith would have worn a similar uniform.

Image courtesy of Kings Own Museum

Following short terms of duty at Sydney, Parramatta, Windsor and Liverpool, Francis was detached as a guard of iron-gangs at Mount Victoria. He then went to Cox's River for two years, followed by Emu Plains, Seventeen Mile Hollow and Springwood. At one stage he camped with a detachment of 50 men of the King's Own, in what is known as the King's Cave near Linden. By now he was a Lance Corporal. His daughter Isabella was born at Parramatta in January 1833 while Francis was at Cox's River, and he had to wait six months for leave to attend her baptism.

Francis Smith arrived in Springwood in January 1836 to take up duties at the Military Stockade on the Western Road. The Springwood Stockade maintained a line of communication to Bathurst, provided protection from escaped convicts for travellers and was a supply point for iron-gangs working in the district. With a compliment of six soldiers, it had been in continuous use since its establishment after Governor Macquarie camped near the site in 1815. The comfortable barrack comprised a substantial slab hut with a shingled roof, stone chimneys and board floors. There were three bedrooms, a sitting room, pantry, store room, a detached kitchen with an immense fireplace, and a stable. It also had an enclosed garden and a good supply of water.
In this setting, many years before lawful settlement was permitted in the district, Francis Smith completed a most adventurous life. There is no record of a cause of his death, but he died at the Springwood Stockade and was buried in the bush close by.


The inscription on the Georgian style headstone reads:

Sacred to the
Memory
of
Francis Smith
who died May 5th, A.D.
1836
aged 43 years
having served for 25 years
as a soldier in
H.M. 4th The King’s Own
Regt.

At the time of his death, Private Smith was survived by his wife, Isabella, and his daughter, also named Isabella, who was born in Sydney and was three when her father died. Following her husband’s death, Isabella received a gratuity of ₤4/8/2 ½ and settled in Parramatta with their daughter, where in 1840 she married labourer George Ross. She died a grandmother, aged 68 at Sydney in 1865.

In 1848 aged just 15, the young Isabella married Joseph Lapworth, a ticket-of-leave convict. There was one child, Sarah Jane. Isabella died aged 39, also a grandmother, at Sydney in 1872.

In 1869 Sarah Jane Lapworth married Theodore Dubber, an immigrant from Wiltshire. They produced five sons and a daughter, whose descendants live throughout Australia to-day.

Private Smith’s grave was relocated from the Stockade site after the Springwood Cemetery was opened in 1886. His headstone gives the misleading impression that Springwood Cemetery is much older than it actually is. Unfortunately the headstone has been vandalised and parts of it are no longer legible.



This image is of the regimental badge for the Kings Own Regiment,

taken from an officer’s belt plate issued during the time

the regiment had units garrisoned in the colony of NSW.

Image courtesy if Kings Own Museum


On Saturday 5th May, 1990, in a small park at the front of the Springwood Civic Centre, a plaque was unveiled by Brigadier D. J. McLachlan, Commander of the 2nd Military District, Australian Army. He was assisted by 15 month old Nathan Dubber of Tweed Heads, Francis Smith's youngest direct descendent.

Note: Francis Smith’s grave is not the earliest known European burial in the Blue Mountains. That honour belongs to the convict Edgar Church who was buried on Pulpit Hill at Katoomba in June 1822, aged 27 years.

One year later than the grave of Francis Smith is that of the Irish convict John Donohoe who worked in an iron gang under the supervision of the 4th Kings Own Regt. and was buried in June 1837, aged 58, near to King’s Cave at Linden; it is therefore almost certain that the two men were known to each other.

Images
1. Blue Mountains City Library, Local Studies Collection PF258, undated photo from Stan Bentley, Springwood Historical Society Research Officer 1981-1987.
2., 3.  Images courtesy of: www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com.


References
* The Making of a Mountain Community, Springwood Historians 2003
* Smith, Francis. Vertical file, Blue Mountains City Library, Local Studies collection.
* Springwood's Solitary Soldier. Bob Grady, 1988

Note: This article is now linked from a QR code at the grave site at Springwod Cemetery.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Aviators and the Blue Mountains



In the age of pioneer aviation between the two world wars, flyers were the superstars of their time; and among them were a number of Australian and British flyers who became international as well as local heroes. Three local parks in Katoomba were named after aviators, some toured the Blue Mountains to rapturous acclaim and other place names serve as memorials.

*****

Bert Hinkler outside Springwood School of Arts 1928

Hinkler Park, Katoomba

Hon. Squadron Leader Herbert John Louis Hinkler AFC DSM (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933) - better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "the Australian Lone Eagle"), inventor, first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

Hinkler was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, the son of a Prussian-born stockman. In his early life, Hinkler constructed and flew two gliders on beaches near his hometown. He became mechanic to Arthur Burr Stone, whom Bert met at a travelling show in Bundaberg and again at the Brisbane Ekka where Hinkler solved another problem with Stone's infamous "Bleriot" monoplane. In 1913, Hinkler went to England where he worked for the Sopwith Aviation Company, the beginning of Hinkler's career in aviation.

During the First World War, Hinkler served with the Royal Naval Air Service as a gunner/observer in Belgium and France, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1918 Hinkler was posted to No. 28 Squadron RAF with which he served as a pilot in Italy.

Hinkler was an "exceptional mathematician and inventor" and "made a lot of aviation instruments which were in use up until the Second World War." For example, "one was a gadget to correct drift as airplanes fly a little bit on their side, not straight ahead." Furthermore, "In WWI, Hinkler invented a machine gun adaptor for air gunners. Back then, when the biplanes were flying upside down in combat, the hot, ejected shells would fall and burn the chest of the gunners as they fired. Hinkler's invention had the ejected shells all flying off to one side instead."



Hinkler flew the first solo flight between England and Australia, departing England on 7 February 1928 and arriving in Darwin on 22 February 1928 and back in his home town of Bundaberg on 27 February 1928. This reduced the England-Australia record from 28 days to just under 15½ days. The aircraft used was an Avro Avian, registration G-EBOV. The flight was little noticed before Hinkler reached India but then media interest intensified. One paper nicknamed the flyer "Hustling Hinkler" and he was the subject of the Tin Pan Alley song ‘Hustling Hinkler Up in the Sky’. For the flights in 1920 and 1928 Hinkler had already won two Britannia trophies and the gold medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Hinkler is quoted as telling the Australian Prime Minister Stanley Bruce at this time: “You know, one day, people will fly by night and use the daylight for sightseeing.” (In 1998 Australian Lang Kidby recreated this flight in a similar 1927 Avro Avian). He was invited by the Speaker of the House of Representatives to be seated on the floor of the House in recognition of his achievement. The next time such an invitation was extended was in 1973, to Patrick White, who declined.[6] After visiting the principal cities of Australia and returning to England, he was awarded the Air Cross for the finest aerial exploit of the year.

The Federal electorate of Hinkler, in Queensland, is named after him. In 1978 he was honoured on a postage stamp depicting his portrait issued by Australia Post. In 1983, "Mon Repos", Bert Hinkler's English home, was saved from demolition and relocated to the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, serving as a historical museum in his honour until 2008.

On 8 December 2008, the $7.5M Hinkler Hall of Aviation was opened to the public in Hinkler's home town of Bundaberg. Adjacent to "Mon Repos", the hall continues in the role the house played as a historic museum dedicated to the memory of Hinkler; this has allowed the house to be refurbished to a more domestic state and now serves as a joint attraction with the Hall of Aviation.




Originally called Lurline St Park, it was renamed about 1935 after a suggestion by Katoomba alderman William Soper. Blackberries were removed, playground equipment installed and it was opened by Burt’s mother in 1934.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Hinkler

*****



Melrose Park, Katoomba

Charles James (Jimmy) Melrose (1913-36) was born on 13 September 1913 at Burnside, Adelaide. Jimmy purchased a DH Puss Moth fitted with a powerful 120 horsepower (89 kW) Gipsy Major engine. He named the plane 'My Hildergarde' and in August 1934 flew 8000 miles (12,875 km) solo around Australia, reducing the previous record by almost two days, to 5 days, 10 hours, 57 minutes. A skilful and courageous natural flyer, Melrose was tall, flaxen haired and blue eyed; while conforming to the popular ideal of a hero, he avoided lionization. He exercised seriously, swimming at Glenelg where he and his mother lived; he kept early hours, neither smoked nor drank alcohol and ate 'Oslo' lunches.

On his twenty-first birthday he left Parafield, Adelaide in the Puss Moth for England, reaching Croydon in a record 8 days, 9 hours. At Mildenhall he joined the Melbourne Centenary Air Race as the youngest entrant and, in spite of an emergency landing at Darwin, came second in the handicap and was the only solo flyer to finish. Awarded second prize of £500, he established a monoplane fund for the Aero Club of South Australia. In October 1934 he set a South Australian altitude record over Gulf St Vincent; two months later he made the first non-stop Adelaide-Tasmania flight, followed by a record time from Launceston to Sydney.

In January 1935 Melrose studied navigation and blind flying in England at the Air Service Training Centre, Hambling; returning to Australia in a new Percival Gull, he joined in the unsuccessful search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. His first accident involved a forced landing at Penrose, New South Wales. On recovering from injuries he went to England, bought a five-seater Heston Phoenix monoplane, and in April 1936 used it on a goodwill flight home to publicize South Australia's centenary; a crowd of 8000 greeted him at Parafield. Later he started air taxi work, once flying the premier to a country meeting.

On 5 July 1936 Jimmy began a charter flight from Melbourne to Darwin. Over South Melton, Victoria, in turbulent conditions with low visibility his Heston Phoenix broke up, killing both pilot and passenger, A. G. Campbell, DSO. The cause of the accident was established as structural failure. Australians joined Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, in mourning their 'chivalrous young knight of the air'. Funeral services were held simultaneously in Melbourne's and Adelaide's Anglican cathedrals. Schoolchildren lined the route from St Paul's to Springvale necropolis, as planes circled overhead. In Adelaide both Houses of parliament suspended their sittings and St Peter's Cathedral was packed, mainly with women, who had idolized Jimmy. Three Royal Aero Club Moths flew over as the service ended. Jimmy was 22 years old.

http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100467b.htm

Melrose Park between Camp and Fitzgerald streets in North Katoomba was reserved in 1883 and named after the aviator in 1936.





*****



Kingsford Smith Park, Katoomba 

Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith MC, AFC (9 February 1897 – 8 November 1935), called Charles Kingsford Smith, or by his nickname Smithy, was a well-known Australian aviator. In 1928, he made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia. He also made the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flights between Australia and New Zealand, and the first eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the United States. He also made a flight from Australia to London, and set a new record of 10.5 days.

This area was originally known as Hudson’s Gully when Katoomba Council resumed the land in 1935. After removal of the blackberries and rubbish, it was landscaped, according to a plan drawn up a Mr Kerr of the Sydney Botanical Gardens. The labour force was composed of men on unemployment relief and the stone for the many retaining walls was carted in from the surrounding bushland.

The first name given to the park in 1935 was Jubilee Park, for the Silver Jubilee of King George V. This however was changed only a year later to Kingsford Smith Memorial Park and Playground, in honour of the pioneer Australian aviator.

In 1928, Kingsford Smith, in the aircraft Southern Cross, with co-pilot Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon and James Warner, had made the first trans-pacific flight from San Francisco to Brisbane, with refuelling stops at Hawaii and Fiji. Leaving Oakland Field on 31 May, they crossed the coast over Ballina at dawn on 8 June and turned north along the coast for Brisbane to refuel.

They then flew south to Sydney on the same day, where they were welcomed by a crowd of 300,000 people. Smith and Ulm had spent over 83 hours in the air in an open cockpit, lashed by storms, without sleep and deafened by the engine noise. On 8 November 1935, Smithy, at the age of only 38, crashed and died in the Bay of Bengal while making an attempt on the England-Australia speed record, only the nose wheel of his plane was ever recovered.

On 7 March 1938, Lord Wakehurst, Governor of NSW, dedicated the entrance pavilion with a slate plaque, the lintel bearing the words ‘Kingsford Smith Memorial Park’. This was topped with a hemispherical metal dome showing a relief map of Australia, with a two foot scale model of Southern Cross, constructed by Mr Evan Cork of Randwick, mounted above it. In 1939 Katoomba Council constructed the band rotunda and public lavatories at a cost of ₤329 in time for the official opening on 1 January 1940, by the Hon. L. O. Martin, KCMG, Minister for Works and Local Government, a brass plaque on the pavilion commemorates this.






The park is one of many memorials to this courageous pioneer aviator, an unparalleled breaker of long-distance records, a trailblazer and remarkable visionary, and a man who could drink a glass of beer while standing on his head.

The inaugural Carols by Candlelight were held 8.00 pm to midnight on Christmas Eve 1947, under the auspices of radio station 2GB with proceeds going to Blue Mountains Hospital. By then the park had an ornamental pond and a children’s playground.

Over the next 40 years, the park gradually fell into disuse and disrepair until local residents began to lobby Council to fund improvements and maintenance. In July 1987 high winds tore the dome from its base on the entry pavilion; it was repaired and replaced in December. At the same time an aluminium sheet profile of Southern Cross replaced the scale model, which had been vandalised and removed some years before.

In 1991 a Friends of KSP group was formed and a Carnivale and parade were staged. Restoration of the gardens and rotunda was commenced in 1993, and since the inception of the Winter Magic Festival in 1994 and the Blue Mountains Music Festival in 1996, it has regained much of its earlier popularity as a music venue and picnic spot, weather permitting.

In 1998, a landslip caused by a leaking water main resulted in extensive damage, and a $300,000 repair bill. Around this time, there were also numerous complaints from nearby residents, of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in the park, which were addressed with tree and foliage thinning, security lighting and police patrols.

In 2001 the entry pavilion became unstable and was dismantled and re-erected on new foundations and reinforced pillars with a rebuilt retaining wall.

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Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson CBE, (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. Johnson flew in the Second World War as a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary where she died during a ferry flight.

Also flew in the 1934 MacRobertson Trophy Air Race accompanied by her husband Jim Mollison in a DH.88 Comet ‘Black Magic’. From Karachi, Mollison lost his way, and landed at Jubulpur. No high-octane fuel available, filled up with petrol. Engines "burned out" on flight to Allahabad.

Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. Flying her ‘Jason’ Gipsy Moth, she left Croydon, south of London, on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles (18,000 km). Her aircraft for this flight can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in recognition of this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations On 31 May 1930 the Blue Mountains Star newspaper reported the Katoomba Municipal Council discussion regarding a suitable response:


Katoomba’s Tribute
To Amy Johnson
Special Mayoral Minute

“In a special minute presented at Tuesday night’s Council meeting, Mayor A.E. Packer referred to the thrilling flight of the heroic English girl – Amy Johnson.

He also stated that Miss Johnson would pass through Katoomba on her way to Jenolan Caves.

Needless to say Mayor Packer is taking every step to get Miss Johnson to break her trip at Katoomba, for a civic welcome.

When the minute was being dealt with Ald. Bailey contended that Katoomba should ask Blackheath and B.M. Shire to join forces and give ‘our famous Johnny’ a rousing, united welcome.”

However it was decided to leave the matter in the hands of the Mayor. The minute was as follows:

“England – Australia Air Flight

On behalf of the citizens of this municipality, I forwarded to Miss Amy Johnson, a telegram of welcome to Australia and congratulating her on her great feat.

This unique performance, which might easily have eclipsed Hinkler’s wonderful record, has won for Miss Johnson the unstinted admiration of us all.”

The civic welcome did not eventuate but press articles continued:

Amy Johnson
Photographers Have Hard Time

“Photographers have had a hard time at Mascot, trying to keep their cameras still whilst photographing our Johnnie amidst the surging crowds of 50 to 60 thousand.

One in particular was very unlucky, his ladder broke and he had a forced landing.

How many private photographers will have the same trouble when the ‘Lone Flyer’ comes through Katoomba?

Let us live in the hope that she will prolong her stay in Katoomba.”

Blue Mountains Star, 14 June, 1930 

Death of a Flyer

On 5 January 1941, while flying an Airspeed Oxford for the Air Transport Auxiliary from Blackpool to RAF Kidlington near Oxford, Johnson went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she drowned after bailing out into the Thames Estuary. Although she was seen alive in the water, a rescue attempt failed and her body was never recovered. The incident also led to the death of her would-be rescuer, Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher of HMS Haslemere.

In 1999 it was reported that Tom Mitchell, from Crowborough, Sussex, claimed to have shot the heroine down when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight. He said: "The reason Amy was shot down was because she gave the wrong colour of the day [a signal to identify aircraft known by all British forces] over radio." Mr. Mitchell explained how the aircraft was sighted and contacted by radio. A request was made for the signal. She gave the wrong one twice. "Sixteen rounds of shells were fired and the plane dived into the Thames Estuary. We all thought it was an enemy plane until the next day when we read the papers and discovered it was Amy. The officers told us never to tell anyone what happened."

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacRobertson_Air_Race

*****



Ross Smith

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE, MC & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (4 December 1892 – 13 April 1922) was an Australian aviator, who, along with his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, became the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, in 1919.

His father migrated to Western Australia from Scotland and became a pastoralist in South Australia. His mother was born in Western Australia, the daughter of a pioneer from Scotland. The boys boarded in Adelaide, at Queen's School and for two years, in Scotland.

He enlisted in 1914 in the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, landing at Gallipoli 13 May 1915. In 1917, he volunteered for the Australian Flying Corps. He was later twice awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, becoming and air ace with 11 confirmed aerial victories.

In 1919, with his brother Keith, Sergeant Jim Bennett and Sergeant Wally Shiers, flew from Hounslow, England, on 12 November 1919 in a Vickers Vimy, eventually landing in Darwin Australia on 10 December, taking less than 28 days, with actual flying time of 135 hours. The four men shared the £10,000 prize money put forward by the Australian government.

Ross Smith was killed, along with recently commissioned Lieutenant Bennett, while testing a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft which crashed in Byfleet soon after taking off from Brooklands on 13 April 1922. The bodies were transported to Australia and Smith was given a state funeral and later buried on 15th June at the North Road Cemetery, Adelaide.

The great Australian cricketer Keith Ross Miller was named after Smith and his brother.

Ross Smith visited Katoomba in 1920 and was afforded a civic welcome in front of a large crowd at the top of Katoomba Street, near the site of the present roundabout and former railway crossing.





*****

Wirraway Ridge, Wirraway Hill, Aeroplane Hills

Two small hills and a ridgeline located 3.2 km southwest of Hazelbrook, accessed via Kings Tableland and Ingar Picnic area. It was named after the Wirraway trainer which crashed on this ridge line in heavy fog on 1st August 1940, killing Pilot Officer Harry Thomas Hopgood and Sergeant Vincent Charles Monterola. The wing struts and fuselage still remain at the crash site.

Links: http://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/nsw74.htm 




The Avro Anson crash at Glenbrook

At approximately 4.30pm on 28 January 1941 an Avro Anson aircraft number N4-5 from RAAF No. 1 Air Navigation School, Parkes, crashed on the corner of Lucasville Road and Clifton Avenue, Glenbrook. The aircraft was on a medical evacuation mission from Parkes to Mascot, transporting a patient.

All persons on board were killed. They were:

 •Pilot Officer John Ignatious Newman (Pilot)
 •Flying Officer Henry Theodore Skillman (Navigator)
 •Aircraftman Charles Richard Tysoe (Wireless Operator)
 •Squadron Leader James N. Rainbow (Medical Officer)
 •Pilot Officer Bailey Middlebrook Sawyer (Patient)
There is a memorial plaque in Clifton Ave. Glenbrook.


John Harper of Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA, recently contacted me regarding the Avro Anson crash and supplied the following information, thanks John:
Bailey Sawyer was an American (born in 1905) who enlisted in the Australian RAF. He had taken his schooner Henrietta to Australia in 1938 and it got wrecked off Point Cook, Port Phillip on September 28, 1940 . Then he enlisted in the Australian RAF. His ashes were scattered over the wreck site. 
*****
Images from top:
1. Hinkler Park, the Children's Paradise, photo by Hary Phillips c.1930, Blue Mountains City Library
2. Hinkler Park, Katoomba, photo by Wal Green 1938, Blue Mountains City Library
3. Bert Hinkler outside Springwood School of Arts 1928, Blue Mountains City Library SHS79
4. Jimmy Melrose, State Library of South Australia: B12725
5. Kingsford Smith Park, entrance pavillion, photo by 'Wal Green 1938, Blue Mountains City Library
6. Kingsford Smith Park, rotunda, photo by Wal Green 1939, Blue Mountains City Library
7. Amy Johnson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson 
8. Sir Ross Smith at Katoomba, Blue Mountains City Library
9. Ross Smith over the Three Sisters, 14/2/1920, postcard photo by E. Gordon Garrett, Katoomba, Blue Mountains City Library - this may be a photo montage.

John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian,
2013 Blue Mountains City Library

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