NOTICEBOARD Lane Cove Historical Society Inc - Carisbrook Historic House, Lane ...
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Lane Cove Historical Society Inc.
NOTICEBOARD
________________________________________________________________________
AUGUST 2020
INDEX
President's Annual Report ..............................................................................2
From our Archives ...........................................................................................8
LCHS History Prize news ...............................................................................10
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
ONE YEAR'S MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION IS SUSPENDED
UNTIL AUGUST NEXT YEAR
The year's closure and cancellations of events, including our LCHS monthly
meetings with the lineup of guest speakers 'At the Podium', has given members
little chance to get involved with the Society. In view of that, membership
subscriptions for 2020/2021 will be suspended and membership will continue
until August 2021. This is only fair, but in a year where we have lost most of our
fundraising opportunities, we certainly hope that members will renew their
subscriptions then and continue to support the Society with visits to Carisbrook.
__________________________________________________________________________
2
AGM POSTPONED UNTIL FEBRUARY 2021
The LCHS Annual General Meeting was due to be held on August 25, along with
the election of new office bearers for the next year, but COVID-19 has necessitated
we postpone this until next year.
Please email any objections to carisbrookhouse@hotmail.com, Attention LCHS
President.
__________________________________________________________________________
LANE COVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT AUGUST 2020
!"
I am pleased to present the annual report of the Lane Cove Historical Society Inc.
for the year 2019/2020. In this year—of all years—I am grateful for the support and
dedication of the LCHS Committee and the Friends of Carisbrook who continue to
do their best by the Society and Carisbrook Historic House during this world
pandemic. Like everywhere else, we have had to think on our feet and be flexible
in our approach to running the house and maintaining its interiors. It has brought
us disappointment, frustration and resolve. Just knowing that everyone
everywhere else is going through the same anxieties and restrictions somehow
keeps us together and renews our dedication to our community.
The Committee of the LCHS works as a team in the management of the LCHS and
Carisbrook Historic House. Thank you to the LCHS Committee: Margaret Bergomi;
Em.Prof. Frances Christie (Assistant Secretary); Phil Hull; Julie Lewis; Pat Madson
(Vice President & Secretary); Bill McLaughlin (Immediate Past President); the late
Elaine McLaughlin; Denis Smith OAM; and Clio Wallace (Vice President). Thank
you to Treasurer, Terry Liddicoat, who, as well as managing our financial and
accounting affairs, provided valuable visitor and sales forecasts so that we could
embark on the trial period of Carisbrook's monthly 'Open Weekend'. 2019/2020 is
the last year Terry will act as Treasurer and we sincerely thank him for all his
attention to our finances. Thank you Brian Scott, Honorary Auditor; Bill
Henningham, Honorary Legal Advice and Christopher Carr, Public Officer.
This year's Monthly meetings were successful until the coronavirus put a sudden
stop to them. We are hoping to reschedule the planned series of speakers when
things get back to normal at the Lane Cove Library and we can once again have
our meetings. 'At the Podium' from August until February were:
27 Aug: Frank Walker, The Scandalous Freddie McEvoy
24 Sep: Dr. Stephen Gaps, The Sydney Wars3 22 Oct: The 2019 LCHS Lane Cove History Prize is noted below 25 Feb: Andrew Tink, Honeysuckle Creek & the Apollo 11 Moon Landing 24 Mar: Meeting cancelled and so on until who knows?. The Catering group organised supper at our meetings: Nancy Michel, Margaret Miller, Clio Wallace and Robyn Ward. 'At the Podium' speakers were co-ordinated by Denis Smith and Frances Christie has continued to provide written reports which are printed in full in the LCHS Journal . The LCHS Lane Cove History Prize was presented at our 22 October 2019 General Meeting. The Mayor, Clr. Pam Palmer, performed the Acknowledgement of Country and presented the award and Adj. Prof. Paula Hamilton spoke briefly on how the awards were judged. Then winners then presented a summary of their work. There were joint winners, Jill Curtin and Sue Ingram, who both bear testimony to the values of recording local history. Jill Curtin’s entry, Charles Henry Rosman, Ferry Master, is an essay examining the life of the ferrymaster who was a much- loved figure to his many Lanecovian customers over the years. Rosman was badly affected by the 1938 sinking of his ferry, the 'Rodney', a tragedy costing many lives. Sue Ingram’s entry was Vision and Reality: the Evolution of a House 30 Mary Street Longueville. Built in the 1960s by the famous architect, Neville Gruzman, the charms and challenges of living in this NSW Heritage house are detailed as Sue traces the years of occupation by its various owners. The LCHS Journal was published this year (2020) containing these essays. Thank you to Julie Lewis for editing the LCHS Journal No. 4, Dec. 2019. Each member will have received a copy early in this year, however extra copies are available from Carisbrook or we can post you an extra issue for $10.00, plus postage. We thank Dr Frances Christie for her work overseeing the Prize and the schools programme. We were however most disappointed that the promise of generous support from Kaylar Michaelian and Hyecorp was not forthcoming and the LCHS itself provided the prize money of $1,000 each to the adult winners, plus the funds donated to the libraries of the primary schools. We have not found a sponsor for the 2020 Prize and so will again provide the prize money from LCHS funds. As COVID-19 restrictions presently prevent the Lane Cove Library from allowing large gatherings in their function rooms, we intend to award the Prize for 2020 at Carisbrook on November 15. The 2019 LCHS Primary Schools History Awards programme awarded prizes to two students each at Lane Cove West School and Mowbray Primary School. We were scheduled to host special children's tours from Lane Cove West over three
4 days in May 2020, but the pandemic put paid to that. Pat Madson's organisation and the guides who volunteered are hoping to reschedule the visits in October — barring further restrictions. Up until February 2020 we staged several successful events. The second Sunday in August, Crackers at Carisbrook with Delta Jazz gave us a lively session in the afternoon sun — very relaxing with a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers. Our Lane Cove Festival event open to the public was The Great Lane Cove Photo- scan during which we scanned in HD and documented photographs and albums of Lanecovians. They got a USB stick of their photographs and we got a digital archive of Lane Cove through family life. Julie Lewis and I worked the scanning equipment with Frances Christie and Toni Dickson creating the paperwork. Clio Wallace operated the kiosk, serving complimentary coffees and cakes. We planned another Delta Jazz day with Jingle Bell Jazz for November 3. No sun this time—the event was cancelled due to rain. Thanks for all the dedicated work done by the volunteers who have to plan and prepare for events, even when they are called off. In the New Year on 9 February, the Seniors Festival event for the LCHS was an afternoon tea From Bustles to Bias Brides with Cavalcade of History and Fashion. It was a presentation and discourse on vintage wedding gowns from the 1880s to the 1930s. Cavalcade put on a spectacular show and the LCHS volunteers put on a wonderful and delicious tea. Our thanks to Rachel King from Cavalcade and to LCHS members Clio Wallace, Robyn Ward, Nancy Michel, Julie Lewis and many others who put this event in place. It was held at the Lane Cove Golf Club and we also thank them very much for their support. It was the day the drought broke—at least in Lane Cove— and guests practically had to swim to the event. We were worried about the historic gowns, but Cavalcade had a clear plan to get them into the venue without water damage. We hope to stage another of their presentations in 2021. After that, the wheels fell off our perfectly working 'event machine'. The Friends of Carisbrook were on the eve of staging a Centenary of New Orleans Jazz, complete with a Creole buffet menu. Delta Jazz and an audience, who had paid their money on trybooking.com, were looking forward to the night. And then a coronavirus struck. The panic buying at Woolworths meant we were unable to secure the supplies, so we postponed the event from 8 March to 29 March. By that time, courtyard crowds at Carisbrook were not a very good idea at all. The only positive thing that can be said is that we personally phoned all who had booked to let them know they would be receiving a refund. Every one of them was sympathetic and supportive. We hope to see these lovely supporters at our next Delta Jazz jam.
5 COVID-19 has also played havoc with our newly structured opening times at Carisbrook. In September, we entered into a trial period of opening for one weekend each month. To increase the monthly average of visitor numbers, we began offering Devonshire teas and barista coffees and cakes in the courtyard, along with a tour of the house. Surprisingly, our age demographic is wide and many families as well as couples, came to sit in the sun and enjoy the day. This left other weekends free for special events and special group bookings. The figures looked very good and we had secured a few big groups for Devonshire tea and house tour on Saturdays in May and June. February 15 and 16 was the last Open Weekend we had. There were no events celebrating the Heritage Festival. Weekday group tours also took a hit. The Carisbrook Caretaker, Terry Eakin, has successfully co-ordinated guides and Clio Wallace has handled the catering for weekday group tours over the past few years, which have steadily been on the increase. Before calling a halt in early March, general factotum Eric Aubrey, guides Karen Aubrey, Tricia Darton, Anne Hanley, Julie Lewis, Pat Madson, and caterers Clio Wallace, Robyn Ward, Nancy Michel, and Jenny Harper did a fantastic job of putting smiles on the faces of many in the elderly community groups and church social organisations. Sometimes the groups had special requirements or interests, such as a group tour for the vision impaired, several garden clubs, historical groups and even Scout group tours. The year's closure and cancellations of events, including our LCHS monthly meetings with their lineup of guest speakers 'At the Podium', has given our members little chance to get involved with the Society. In view of that, we will be notifying all members that membership subscriptions for 2020/2021 will be suspended and membership will continue until August 2021. This is only fair, but in a year where we have lost most of our fundraising opportunities, we certainly hope that members will renew their subscriptions then. The Friends of Carisbrook, with Convenor, Jenny Harper and Minute Secretary, Julie Lewis, carry out the day-to-day running of Carisbrook. Keeping the structure of previous years, Care, Presentation, Exhibitions, and Acquisitions and Collection Management continue to work on the interiors of Carisbrook. Thanks go to Margaret Bergomi, Tricia Darton, Toni Dickson, Jennie Greenwell, Anne Hanley, Jenny Harper, Bronwyn Lewis, Julie Lewis, Margaret McGlinn, Nancy Michel, Sierra Penberthy, Jenny Quirke, Clio Wallace, and Robyn Ward. Work on the restoration of the Cistern is coming to an end. The NSW State Community Building Partnerships (CBP) grant of $40,000 that we secured a few years ago was added to the LCC grant funds of $80,000 and the work is scheduled to be completed by our planned re-opening on 19 and 20 September. After so many years, we will see the end of the safety pool fence enclosing the site.
6 State CBP ($30,000) and Federal Stronger Communities ($10,000) grants provided funding to carry out external lighting around Carisbrook. Bollard path lighting was coupled with spot-lighting of trees and RGB strip lighting for performance areas on the verandah and courtyard to enhance the visual impact of the building along with the necessity of safe path lighting. With $10,000 left over from the CBP grant, we were allowed to begin the work on re-interpreting the Scullery, which is next to the historic kitchen. Further grant applications are in for a further $50,000 to complete the project. Ironically, the 2018 $15,000 Federal Stronger Communities grant to purchase six iPad devices and to establish a video theatre in the Museum Room finally has been acquitted with the purchase of seven more iPads and a supply of single-use earphones. This is because the theatre cannot be used due to COVID-19 safe distancing. The devices now have a self-guided tour, complete with several introductory videos and a room-by-room audio story. We have a COVID-Safe plan in line with government rules for documenting visitors, safe distancing and the tables, eating accoutrements and digital devices will be sanitized between use. Kitted up for COVID-safe, Julie Lewis and her husband, David, and Sierra Penberthy and I will run the kiosk on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The guides (now 'hosts' in the courtyard and grounds ready to answer questions) will also be following COVID-safe rules. Working hard on both the websites — carisbrookhouse.com and lanecovehistoricalsociety.com.au — as well as on social media, Karen Aubrey does a fantastic job as Webmaster. We also appreciate the constant support of InTheCove media site and the free advertising that is given to us by The Village Observer and The Weekly Times. The pandemic has taken its toll here too, with TVO suspending its monthly issue from February to October. It is a pressing need for us to attract more volunteers and Press and social media are our main avenues. Our commitment to record local history and keep the archives of our time is as strong as it was when the Society was founded in 1962. So, when the Lockdown began Karen, Frances and myself organised a 'Local Life in Lockdown' page on our LCHS website. https://www.lanecovehistoricalsociety.com.au/local-life-in- lockdown posts pieces from those who wish to write or record something regarding our 'new normal'. The Hunters Hill and Ryde Historical Societies also came onboard and participated in the page. There's some interesting reading on it and Karen is still happy to put up anything that anyone has to say about our COVID-19 year. February 14, 2020 was the fiftieth anniversary of the LCHS's curatorship of Carisbrook Historic House. By way of commemoration, Frances Christie has
7
initiated a series of interviews with past-Presidents and other long-term officers
and colleagues of Carisbrook which are being completed this month. This history
project will be archived in audio form with some video material and kept by the
Carisbrook Collection Archive and the Lane Cove Local Studies Unit at the LCL. It
will be available to anyone who wishes to use it for research.
Co-ordinating Carisbrook management between the LCC and the LCHS was the
Advisory Committee, chaired by Jane Gornall, Executive Manager of Human
Services, LCC, with Clr. Frances Vissell, Carisbrook Caretaker, Terry Eakin, Local
Studies & Archives Manager, Naomi Bassford, LCHS members Pat Madson and
myself.
We thank the Mayor and Councillors, and the Administration, for their care of
Carisbrook. The gardens are a credit to Chris Ward, the gardener, who has now
left the LCC's employ and has been replaced by Tim, who is preparing for a fine
spring showing of flowers.
We appreciate and value each and every member who contributes to keeping our
Society functioning. The pandemic has caused us to examine the way we live and
how we interact with one another. We will need your support in the coming years.
Lastly, I wish to record that this year we lost a valuable member of the LCHS
Committee and a very dedicated member of the Friends of Carisbrook. Elaine
McLaughlin died on Thursday, January 9th of this year. If it needed to be
organised, Elaine would do it; if it needed labour, she would do that too. We all
miss her and send our sympathies to her husband Bill, to her daughter and son
and their partners and to her grandchildren.
DR KAY LEIPER
President
25 August 2020
__________________________________________________________________________8
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
Pat Madson gives us another piece from our archives which gives no indication
where it fits in LCHS history. This was not published in any newsletter, so the
reason it was written is not clear. Footnotes have been added for clarity.
And maybe you can help us add a little more to the archive. Does anyone
remember the author?
The day my Dad walked to work
As written by Norman Merchant of 67 Tambourine Bay Rd Riverview
My father was a fireman stationed at at Chatswood it was a common
Kings Cross when I was born in 1916. practice for me, and several other
He was subsequently transferred to boys from the vicinity. To “hook a
Beecroft, then Crows Nest and to ride” by hanging on to the back of
Lane Cove in 1921. Because of the any passing dray, if the horse was in a
occasional urgency of his attendance trotting mode, and keeping a lookout
at the Fire Station 1 it was necessary underneath for puddles if there had
that we lived reasonably close to the been any rain. Jumping puddles was
Station and we had a rented house in the best fun of the trip on rainy days.
Howarth Road, adjacent to the
present Shore Motel building 2 . The That triangular ‘park’ was used by all
station was two hundred yards away. the children in the street—about eight
The triangular area of land between or nine houses—as a common play-
Howarth Road and Lane Cove Road ground. It was normal and usual for
(as it was then called) was used for all to be either barefooted or in
storing many mounds of sand, blue sandshoes and on one occasion,
metal, gravel and great squares of during the course of some game we
steel re-inforcing mesh preparatory to were playing, I ran across a pile of
concreting the main road which blue metal and jumped onto a low
became the Pacific Highway. At that stack of reinforcing rod mesh made of
time this was a dirt road and most of about 3/8inch round steel rod welded
the vehicles using it were horse at all joints. The end of one rod was
drawn carts and drays of various bent upwards and it penetrated the
types. When I started going to school sole of my sandshoe and into my foot
for about half an inch. This resulted in
some commotion and my father, who
1
At that time the Fire Station was on the was home at the time, soon arrived to
corner of Longueville Rd and Pacific Highway.
help. I was stuck fast but he soon
The hoses were hung up to dry from a very
tall pole next to the Station
fixed that with one hand around my
2
Now the Shore Apartments ankle and the other under the toe of9
the shoe. Then he carried me home event we all survived but it could not
for the usual first-aid treatment of happen today.
washing the wound and applying a
pad soaked in iodine and then a I have forgotten the details of times of
bandage. working shifts of the Fire Brigade in
those times – they may be the same
About 1926 I transferred from today – but dad was always punctual
Chatswood to Artarmon Primary and would let nothing interfere with
School where a Mr Ridley was him getting to work on time. But one
headmaster and we continued living day he was cutting it fine and my
in Howarth Road for several more mother was upset because something
years. Being reasonably close to the had not cooked properly and
Station, dad used to ride a push bike, something had to be done so that
property of the Fire Brigade, between dad could have some dinner before
the Station and home. Then for he went to work and there was a mild
reasons I have forgotten, we moved pandemonium in process. My
from that house to one near the brother, who was then aged about
bottom of Cobden Avenue, a very ten or eleven and trying to help the
steep hill and more than twice as far situation, called out “I’ll get the bike
for dad to get to work. The hill was out dad” and he was out the back
impossible to ride up on a push bike door in a flash. No doubt he had
(no six-speed gears in those days) often watched dad start the bike with
and too dangerous to ride down so the kick starter and rev it up with the
dad bought himself a second-hand hand throttle and he knew the
Harley Davidson motor cycle which procedure. Nobody would have
solved the problem nicely. He kept it expected him to start it up. Dad was
in a shed at the bottom of the back trying to finish his dinner and it was
yard and used to ride it from the shed assumed, if it was thought about at
past the side of the house, across the all, that he would wheel it out of the
footpath and up the hill to the Pacific shed and along the level ground at
Highway then left to the Station. beside the house.
There were three other steep hills The sudden sound of the engine
adjacent to Cobden Avenue – Angus, starting up brought an instant
Allison and Gatacre Avenues and my reaction inside the house but it was
brother and I and several other local too late. My brother knew how to start
boys used to have some hair-raising the bike; he had seen it many times,
rides down there in billy carts but he had never seen the procedure
terminating in sharp ninety degree for stopping it. Also, not anticipating
turns at the bottom of Kimberley the need for the front gate to be open
Avenue. Traffic in those days was he had not opened it. The gate was
minimal and, if any, was slow. In any about eight feet wide, made of round
piping with cyclone wire filling in the10
centre, hinged at one end and stay for the usual washing and iodine
latched at the other. After my brother treatment – that was mum’s job. No
and the Harley had finished with it bones were broken but the Harley’s
there was a distinct ‘V’ shape in the handle bar was bent and the front
approximate centre. fork was buckled. So that was the day
dad walked to work.
Once again dad had to carry a
wounded warrior home but could not
__________________________________________________________________________
$2000 LCHS Lane Cove History Prize
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 31 AUGUST 2020
As the Lane Cove Library is not opening their meeting rooms, this year's prize will
be awarded at Carisbrook Historic House at a ceremony on Sunday 15 November.
Numbers attending may be restricted due to COVID regulations, but we will
advise the details by email at a later date.
© Lane Cove Historical Society Inc.
Carisbrook Historic House
334 Burns Bay Road Lane Cove
PO Box 112 Lane Cove 1595
www.lanecovehistoricalsociety.com.au
Editor: Kay Leiper
carisbrookhouse@hotmail.comYou can also read
