Local history from Manly Library

The Willis family

2009-11-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

New to our reference collection is The Willis Family History, compiled by Shirley Doolan, a privately published monograph. It gives new information on two influential figures in the early development of Manly: Thomas Willis and his brother, Reverend Robert S Willis, who was minister of St Matthew’s Church. The family history goes back to Cumberland, England, where their father, Joseph Scaife Willis was born in 1808. Joseph was briefly the occupant of Fairlight House, circa 1875-6. Joseph’s wife, Janet Speir, was from Renfrewshire, Scotland. The book contains photos of each of them.
Robert Willis was a member of the first class to graduate from the BA course at Sydney University, in 1856. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1865, and ministered at Shoalhaven, where he met his future wife, Julia MacKenzie, who is commemorated by a memorial in St Matthew’s Church. He was minister there 1876-1894, and was a significant landowner in the Manly and Manly Vale area.
Thomas Willis was a shipping agent and insurance agent, with offices in Pitt Street, Sydney, and was one of the signatories to the 1876 petition which successfully lobbied for the establishment of Manly as a municipality.
It’s good to see such well researched family history being made available.

New Sydney website

2009-11-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

After several years of planning, the Dictionary of Sydney website is now live, at www.dictionaryofsydney.org
The website is well worth exploring. A simple browse of the entries gives an indication of the wealth of information contained in the Dictionary. You can search for artefacts, buildings, events, natural features, organisations, people, places (including short histories of a suburb) or structures. From what I have seen, the entries are clearly written, usually between 500-1000 words and have been tightly edited. So far, the content amounts to more than 600,000 words. There is a good selection of maps which can be browsed.
The Dictionary is bound to burgeon in time into something gigantic, so the structure has been kept fairly simple, allowing it to accommodate material indefinitely. It will be interesting to see what it becomes in the future, but it has made an encouraging beginning.

Bringing home the bacon

2009-10-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Terry Metherell for drawing my attention to an article which appeared in the Brisbane Courier, Tuesday 1 January 1878. Titled “A Queenslander in Sydney”, it is a long piece about the writer’s impressions of Sydney. It includes a description of Manly’s Fairy Bower, then still relatively unspoiled, and there is also this account of the entertainment on offer at Manly on Boxing Day, 1877:
“But, if Christmas Day was calm, Boxing Day was not. Once more the scene shifts to Manly Beach, and we are on the verandah of the Pier Hotel, and the steamers, and the barrel organs, and the German band, and the holiday folks, are coming in: Emu, and Breadalbane, Goolwa, Phantom, and Royal Alfred, ‘one down, 'tither come on,’ come looming round the Middle Head, disgorge cargo and are off again for more in a merry follow-my-leader style. Buckets of ‘prog’ [food], guns, fishing tackle, and babies form the chief impedimenta of the ‘camp followers,’ and a nervous invalid accustomed to the quietude of Cleveland or (say) of Bowen, would be startled out of seven years' growth by the bustling noise and scene... One melancholy death occurred on Boxing Day, at Manly Beach. There is rigged out from the pier, like the boom from the Wolverine, a spar, well-greased; and at the end of it is slung a four-dozen case containing a pig, to be the prize of him who first walks the pole and gets him. After about a couple of dozen spills off the greased spar and into the water, one daring cornstalk [youth] hugged the boom and got the pig out, and it fell into the water, in the clutches of the swimmers, who, in disputing the prize, six at each leg and two at each ear soon drowned it; and, this we believe was the only life lost at Manly Beach during Boxing Day.”

Not Brighton

2009-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

When the residents of Manly wanted to have the place recognised as a Municipality, they lodged a copy of their petition on 18 March 1876, but, as historians George and Shelagh Champion discovered “the document was lost by the Government!” A second petition was lodged, with more success, which was published in the New South Wales Government Gazette of 14 August 1876. There are two odd things about this second petition. It stated that it was signed by 63 persons, but as far as I can see only 60 names were appended. And it asked that the Municipality to be incorporated should be named ‘Brighton’, so how did it come about that the place was proclaimed as Manly? At a public meeting called on 27 November 1876 in Manly for the purpose of recommending a person to act as Returning Officer for the first election of aldermen of the soon-to-be-declared Municipality, a Mr Slattery took the opportunity of protesting against the change of name from ‘Manly’ to ‘Brighton’ and suggested that a deputation wait upon the Colonial Secretary, John Robertson, to ask him to retain the old name. As George and Shelagh Champion note: “A comparative newcomer to Manly Beach proposed as a secondary and unforeseen item on the agenda, at a meeting called for another purpose, that the name ‘Manly’ should be used instead of ‘Brighton’!” And surprisingly, the Colonial Secretary granted the request of the deputation, and proclaimed the Municipal District of Manly, on 6 January 1877, despite noting in the same paragraph that the petition he had received had prayed for the Municipality to be known as the Municipal District of Brighton.
So who was the 'Mr Slattery' who pulled off this coup? In fact, he was rather more influential than has previously been thought. Born in Ireland in 1844, Thomas Michael Slattery came to Australia with his family in 1847. He became a lawyer, and at the time of the petition, had risen to be Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court of NSW, no less, at the very heart of the NSW Establishment. He was a crony of the influential Manly businessman and Mayor of Sydney, John Woods, a fellow Irishman. Slattery was a wily operator, and later became a Member of Parliament for Boorowa and Minister of Justice in the 1880s, not to mention a Knight of St Gregory. He would have had the ear of Robertson, the Colonial Secretary, and between them he and Woods would have had no difficulty in persuading him to drop ‘Brighton’ and go with ‘Manly’, or indeed any other name they chose. But after all that, having finagled the name change Mr Slattery soon moved elsewhere. He died at Mosman in 1920.

Gallipoli Nightingale

2009-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

Among the names on the Manly Roll of Honour of those who served in World War One are a handful of women. most of whom served as nurses. One Manly nurse in particular appears to have been an unsung heroine. She was Florence Ethel Spalding, daughter of the late William and Mrs Mary Spalding, of Hope House, West Esplanade, Manly, and later of 52 Darley Road, Manly. Born in Goulburn in 1881, she lived in Manly with her mother before serving in the AANS prior to the war. When war broke out, she rejoined and left Sydney on28 November 1914 on the Kyarra for Cairo. In April 1915, she was one of the team of nursing sisters who served on the hospital ships at the Gallipoli landings. “I went backwards and forwards there till the evacuation”, she wrote. She was twice Mentioned in Despatches, and for distinguished services in the field she was awarded the Royal Red Cross Decoration (2nd Class) on 1 January 1916; the Decoration 1st Class is only very rarely awarded. While nursing Australian soldiers at Cairo, she fell in love with Mr William Fidler, and left the nursing service to get married to him, returning to Australia in March 1916. National Archives records show that she was also the recipient of the 1914/15 Star, the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal. She applied for the Anzac commemorative medal and badge in 1967, by which time she was living at Hunter’s Hill. She died in 1976. Marianne Barker’s book Nightingales in the Mud, though it does not mention Sister Spalding, is a very good source of further information on the Gallipoli nurses.

History Week

2009-09-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

History Week runs from 5-13 September 2009, and Manly Library is marking this year’s theme of “Scandals, Crime and Corruption” with a display of memorable front page stories from the Manly Daily and other newspapers. One of the more unusual cases was recorded by the Queenslander newspaper in March 1883. Two Queensland Aboriginals were discovered in the bush near Manly, one wearing a shirt, the other nude. When challenged by the local policeman, Senior-Constable John Leplaw, the two ran off. When Leplaw went to apprehend one of them, he produced a knife from under his shirt and wounded the constable. But with assistance, Leplaw was able to subdue and handcuff the pair, and took them by the Fairlight ferry to prison in Sydney.
It transpired that the two Aboriginals, with seven others, had been procured in Queensland by an agent for the well-known P T Barnum circus, who had brought them to Sydney with the intention of removing them to the USA. None of them could speak a word of English. When the case came to court the Magistrate, Mr Marsh, stated that it appeared to him as though the Aboriginals had simply been kidnapped. The two men in question had escaped from the agent and were endeavouring to find their way home when they were approached by Senior-Constable Leplaw. Marsh instructed the police to investigate the agent’s behavior to see if criminal charges should be brought against him, and the two Queensland Aboriginals were set free. But did they find their way home? The newspapers don’t tell us, so we can only speculate.

A Hero in Waiting

2009-08-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

A group of photographs showing the young Roden Cutler has just been donated to our collection. Among the photos is this one, taken in 1940 at what looks like Martin Place, Sydney, of Roden aged about 23, with his younger sister Doone.
Colleen McCullough, in her biography Roden Cutler VC, notes that the 2/5th Field Artillery Regiment sailed for Suez on the Queen Mary in October of 1940. The following year Lieutenant Cutler won his Victoria Cross.

La Stupenda

2009-08-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

There was a treat for music-lovers on 8th September 1948, when Manly Music Club presented one of its regular ‘musicales’ at St Andrew’s Church Hall in Raglan Street. Accompanied by her teacher, Aida Summers, was the 21-year-old Joan Sutherland, in a recital that included arias by Handel, Mozart, and Richard Strauss. The young Joan Sutherland performing ‘Porgi Amor’ must have been quite something. She also performed a group of three songs by the American composer and accompanist Frank La Forge, one of which, ‘I Came With a Song’ is still available in Dame Joan’s back catalogue on Decca. Sutherland left Australia in 1951 for Covent Garden, so this would have been a rare chance to hear her in a recital setting before her international success.
The other artist performing that night was the pianist Igor Hmelnitsky, well-known in Sydney as a soloist and piano teacher.
This programme is one of a number kindly donated to our collection by Mr Boyd Osborne, augmenting our existing group of programmes of Manly Music Club recitals.

Robert Shute

2009-08-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

The Manly Daily (Tuesday 18 August 2009) carried an article by John Morcombe about Robert Shute, after whom the NSW Rugby Union trophy, the Shute Shield was named. Playing in a trial match for The Rest against NSW at Manly Oval on 5 June 1922, Shute suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in a heavy tackle, and died at a Manly private hospital the following day. He had survived service with the Field Artillery in World War One, which must have intensified the loss felt by his family and friends. By coincidence, a photograph has recently been found which shows the Sydney University Engineering students of 1920, with Robert Shute in the front row. Some of his classmates went on to distinguished engineering careers, and there can be little doubt that he would have had similar success but for that fateful incident.

Anti-German Manly in WWI

2009-08-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

When and why did Vienna Street become Kitchener Street? Why did the captain of Manly Life Saving Club change his name from Fritz Schwarz to Fred Campbell? Why was Antonio de Fina’s shop on Manly Wharf destroyed in a riot? The answer lies in the xenophobia which infected Manly, and Australia generally, during World War One. Historian Dr Terry Metherell has examined how Manly took the lead in inciting anti-German sentiment, and how this resulted in various grotesque outcomes. You can read his article by clicking on the link.

Anti-German%20sentiment%20in%20WWI.docx

Sweet Nell

2009-08-04T18:49:00.001-07:00

Manly has been home to a number of colourful characters over the years. One of the most fondly remembered was ‘Sweet Nell’. Manly Council gave Sweet Nell, (Helen Sullivan) the right to sell sweets and chewing-gum on Manly Beach, throughout the 1920s. She became a familiar figure, in her gaudy costumes, pushing a barrow laden with Jaffas, Mintoes and Wrigley’s chewing gum. Her personal circumstances were hard, but she was always cheerful and loved chatting to the children on the beach. When she died, aged 60, in 1933, her funeral was paid for by a group of local businessmen, and, according to the Manly Daily Pictorial, over 3,000 people lined the Corso to pay their respects.

Finding George Stewart

2009-07-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

A recent donation to our collection is ‘Finding George’, a family memoir by George Ramsey-Stewart. Professor Ramsey-Stewart has published this very limited edition in memory of his uncle, Joseph George Allen Stewart, known as George. George Stewart was an ANZAC, who was wounded at Gallipoli, and died in France in the 1914-18 war aged just 20. From family letters and from official sources, his short life has been recreated in interesting detail. He was the sixth child in a family of ten children, and his father, J G Stewart, a Scot, opened a prosperous department store on the west side of the Corso in 1905. Stewart’s Emporium was extended in 1911, and stretched from 33-39 Corso. The photograph shows the shop at its fullest extent circa 1916; Professor Stewart’s father, Stan, is third from the right. Another view of the shop can be seen in the 2007 autobiography by Justice Don Stewart, Recollections of an Unreasonable Man.
The Stewart boys were high-spirited. Out paddling one evening, “they came upon a fair-sized beached stingray. For some inexplicable reason, they decided to take this creature home. However, while walking along West Esplanade, they decided that this was not really such a good idea. This revelation hit them as they passed a residence with an open front door and a well lit, linoleum-floored, long hallway. George and Fred, encouraged by Stan and little Harold, with a doubtful Will looking on, lobbed the stingray through the below-street level doorway. Whereupon it slid noisily the length of the hallway, bringing down an aspidistra in a brass pot on its journey. This produced great consternation in the resident family, who unsuccessfully pursued the Stewart boys into the evening darkness.” (p23)
George was a popular member of the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club, and earned his Bronze Medallion. He played rugby for the Manly Second Grade side, and when war came, he enlisted with a couple of his mates from the team, Clarrie Creighton and Roy Quirk. Finding George vividly describes their war-time experiences.

One horse-power

2009-06-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

This evocative photograph comes from a postcard loaned to us by Mrs Richards of Dee Why. It shows one of the horse-car trams which operated in Manly from 1903-1907. The postcard was sold by J W Williams, who had a tobacconist’s at 17 Corso from 1909-1914. The photograph shows the premises of Phillips and Cook, estate agents; Adrian’s Boot and Shoe Store; and Purves’ Bakery on the west side of the Corso, and Williams’ shop just beyond that. On the east side, the old St Matthew’s Church juts out into the Corso in the middle-distance. Presumably the driver of the tram is off watering the horse; meanwhile the passengers wait patiently.

Manly twitters

2009-06-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

I came across this little story in the Sydney Morning Herald for 8 January 1885:

"On Saturday last, Captain [Francis] Wagstaff of the ship La Hogue, liberated a number of English birds, which he brought out with him last voyage at Burnt Bridge Creek, Manly. They were mostly chaffinches, green linnets and yellow-hammers, all insect-eating birds. Captain Wagstaff writes “I chose near the creek so that they would know where to find water. The little creatures were no sooner out of the cage than they flew to the water and immediately took a good bath after their long voyage from England. We watched them for some time and they seemed perfectly at home in this their new country. This creek lies about two miles from Manly, quite in the bush; and I hope they will not get shot by some of the boys we have about Manly and neighbourhood.”"

I wonder if they survived in their new environment. Does anyone know if these species can still be found locally?

Old Sweats

2009-06-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of John Gorman, comes this great photo of members of the Manly AIF Swimming Club taking time out at the old Manly Baths on a sunny Sunday morning some time in the mid 1930s. There are some well-known local names here - Harry Hay, Fitz Lough, Eric Fox, Charlie Bell and Tom O’Neill among them.
Sitting left to right: Dr K Flook, E Fox, H Green, C Bell, F Garvan, F Norman. Kneeling: B Johnston, W Trickett, F Powell, J Evans, S Cook, F Lough. Standing: T O’Neill, S Donkin, S Webb, S Riddington, H Hay, P Osborne, - , R Martin, B Healy, A Barry, A Hollingworth, B Neilly, P Goldstein, C Turner, A Barling, S Gilbert.

Icarus at Clontarf

2009-06-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

A century ago, the biggest daredevil in Sydney was Vincent Patrick Taylor (1874-1930). Taylor, who went by the name ‘Captain Penfold’ was a balloonist, parachutist and all-round stuntman who astounded crowds across Sydney with his hair-raising feats over a 20 year period. His daredevil feats included scaling city buildings, jumping from bridges and riding the rapids in an inflatable rubber suit of his own design. He also thrilled audiences abroad; in London on one occasion he jumped from his balloon wearing a Santa Claus suit. The Sydney Morning Herald (12 July 1909) described one balloon ascent he made near Clontarf, in 1909:
“Captain Penfold, who has made many balloon ascents and parachute descents in Sydney had an exciting experience at Clontarf yesterday, when instead of landing on solid earth he dropped into Middle Harbour.
The aeronaut’s ascent was satisfactory, and he hung by his legs from his trapeze, at a height of several thousand feet, calmly snapshotting the city and harbour. He then cut away the parachute, and dropped steadily towards the ground, intending to land near the Spit Point. As he neared the ground however, he saw that he was dropping straight for the waters of Middle Harbour, and he immediately started manipulating his cords in an endeavour to work the parachute over to dry earth. He missed the shore by a few yards, and leaving the parachute, swam to a boat, and was soon on the launch which was waiting to pick him up in case matters should turn out as they did. The balloon also dropped into the water close by, and both this and the parachute were afterwards recovered.”
Captain Penfold also made a number of balloon ascents from Manly Oval in 1911.

War canoes at Clontarf

2009-06-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

A ‘Maori village’ was erected as a temporary tourist attraction at Clontarf in 1910. The Sydney Morning Herald (4 January 1910) advertised:
“The Village, which is peopled by 70 Maoris, including the famous guides, Maggie and Ella Papakura, has been erected with material specially brought from the Lake District of New Zealand and is a faithful representation of a Maori pah. See Maori carvings and curios, and historic war canoes 60 feet long.
There are novel entertainments daily at 3pm and 8.30pm. The village is well lighted by electric light and can be viewed as well by day as by night. The unique character of the performance, the beautiful open-air surroundings, the quaint village in the background, all afford a specially tempting form of entertainment for a summer evening.
Return fare including admission, 1/6, steamers from Fort Macquarie."
The Maori were from the Rotorua area of New Zealand, and their touring show later went on to visit London.

The image is from the collection of the Manly Warringah Pittwater Historical Society.

The Shute Shield

2009-06-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Shute Shield was struck in honour of the late Robert Elliott Stewart Shute, who died on June 6, 1922, following a match at Manly Oval. Shute served as an infantryman in 30th Battery A.I.F. during World War One. On his return to Australia he took up his studies at Sydney University and joined the Sydney University rugby club as a front row forward in the first XV.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 7 June 1922 reported: “As a result of injuries received while playing at Manly in the Rugby football match between the team which toured New Zealand and the Next 15, Robert Elliott Shute, a front row forward in the latter team, died at a private hospital at Manly yesterday morning. The accident occurred during the latter portion of the first spell of the match. Shute secured the ball and when tackled fell heavily. He was removed to a private hospital, where it was ascertained that he was suffering from cerebral hemorrhage. Without recovering consciousness he died at 6am. A former pupil of Sydney Grammar School, Shute, who was 23 years of age, was a third year student at Sydney University and he played for the University first fifteen. He served in the AIF for four years."
The University club had the shield made following his death and donated it to the NSWRU to be used as a perpetual trophy for the Sydney first grade competition.

A Manly Mansion

2009-06-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

A now-demolished property in Stuart Street, on the corner with Addison Road, had a variety of uses over the years. It began in 1885 as Elibank, the large mansion home of a Mr James Smith. Three years later, the house changed its name to Keira, possibly after Mount Keira on the outskirts of Wollongong, and the householder was Mrs Rosina FitzStubbs, widow of well-to-do land agent Robert Fitz-Stubbs. From 1905 up to the mid-1920s, a Mrs J Ritchie was the householder, and the house, now referred to as Keira Hall, was a popular bed and breakfast establishment.
In 1932, there was a change of use, and the building became the home of Manly Presbyterian Grammar School for Boys, founded by the Educational Trust of the Presbyterian Church of NSW. An advertisement described how “its commanding position, pleasant play grounds and large, sunny, well-ventilated rooms combine to render the Manly Presbyterian Grammar School ideal for the welfare and education of boys.” The Headmaster was Mr J H Irvine.
The School closed in 1939 with the approach of WWII, but then in 1940, the site was developed as ‘Keera Hall’, a house for “underprivileged and delinquent children”, run by the Social Service department of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales. An appeal was launched for funds to provide necessary furnishings: “single iron bedsteads, mattresses, bedding, blankets, linen, also for kitchen and dining-room furniture and equipment; also for a few men, who could bring along a few tools and paint-brushes and repair and tidy the place and the grounds.”
The Boys’ Home closed in December 1962, and the site was subsequently redeveloped with a large three-storey block of units.

The band on the ferry

2009-06-04T19:35:00.001-07:00

In pre-War days on the Manly ferries there used to be a band on board, playing the popular tunes of the day. The following anonymous poem which dates from the 1920s is supposedly by 'an old bandsman who used to come down to Sydney for the Brass Band Contest every year':

I love to go to Manly where the gentle breezes blow
And where the men and maidens in the bounding billows go.
I loved the journey over, it was bonza, it was grand,
As the ferry moved to music from the little German Band.

On the upper deck they gathered, sometimes four, sometimes three
And oh the jazzes that they played, and oh the melodee.
They played the latest numbers heard at the pantomime
And then, the way they played them, Lor’ luv me, it was fine.

Of course you couldn’t hear them from the bottom deck, you know,
Nor underneath the hatches where the courting couples go;
Still, that was but a detail for one would make descent
And offer the collection box no matter where you went!

But now the trip to Manly, with glimpse of rolling sea
With bobbing empty bottles holds never charm with me,
I miss the quaint piano, and the queer asthmatic flute
The double bass and fiddle – why the boat is cold and mute!

I always went to Sydney when contest time came round
For I loved to hear the playing and the waves of rolling sound
And when I wearied sometimes of the masters’ noble notes
I would steal away to Manly and the band upon the boats!

This year I’m doin’ nothin’, the contest won’t see me,
The men that run the show down there and I do not agree -
We sent an ultimatum, and to the Sec. I wrote,
“If you want me at your concert, put the band back on the boat!”

Manly Council's surf-boat

2009-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

The Manly Daily printed this account of the launching of the first Council-purchased surf boat on 25 March 1907. The account was reprinted on 15 September 1931, and 28 July 1966 (p19). The surfboat was constructed by J Hubbard of Leichhardt Street, Glebe, and was, as far as we know, the first municipally-funded surf rescue boat in the world.
“The launching of the Manly surf boat on Saturday afternoon [23 March 1907] was a magnificent success, perhaps one of the greatest successes the Manly Council has to its credit.
This was mainly due to the efforts and activity of Mayor Learmonth, ex-Mayor Quirk and Mr D Hogan (Council Clerk) who were ably assisted by many other willing and energetic workers.
The Mayor of Manly presided and on the specially erected platforms there were also: Mr C G Wade, KC, Attorney-General; Mr C W Oakes, MLA for Paddington; Dr Richard Arthur, MLA for Middle Harbour; ex-Mayor Quirk, Alderman Walker, Alderman King, Mr D Hogan (Council Clerk), Commander M Roberts, Mr A von Tossau, Mr W Tonge, and Captain Webber (Royal Shipwreck Society).
The Manly surf carnival was a new departure in the 'pastime natatorial' and was organised for the purpose of celebrating the launching of the recently built surf boat, which, under the control of Messrs Sly brothers will patrol the water fronting ocean beach during the bathing season.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 people were present.
The Attorney-General referred to the widespread popularity of surf-bathing. It was essential, he said, that bathers should be well catered for and every effort should be made to contend against the possibility of loss of life through drowning.
Mr Wade, with a pair of silver scissors, presented to him by Mayor Learmonth (on behalf of the Council) severed the red silk ribbon and performed the ceremony of launching the surf boat.
During the afternoon ‘Appy Eyre, beach custodian, and Mr A von Tossau, gave a display of life-saving, Eyre entering the water and effecting a rescue after which the usual methods of resuscitation were adopted.
The Seagull Club (Messrs Chambers, Lane, Rosenthal, Wickham and Triglone) contributed a diving display from a pedestal erected in the sea.
The Manly Borough Band played selections during the afternoon.
After the ceremony and whilst the surf carnival was proceeding Mayor Learmonth invited Mr Wade, KC, and a few others to join him in a few toasts at the New Brighton Hotel, where host P J Byrne had placed a tempting and pleasing little spread.”
Identified in the photograph from right to left are: Dr Arthur, ex-Mayor Quirk, and addressing the crowd, Attorney-General Wade.

The North Head Spy

2009-05-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

The Manly Daily reported on 4 August 1978 the discovery by Australian Army gunners on exercises at North Head of human remains in a cave. The cave is under an overhanging ledge on the ocean side of the headland, and is not visible from the cliff-top. Inside it, the soldiers discovered two-way radio equipment, a typewriter, a shotgun, a 50-foot length of copper wire which could have been a radio aerial, and the remains of a watch. They also found a Japanese yen. The human bones found did not include a skull. One theory was that they belonged to a World War Two spy, who may have blown his head off with the shotgun; or the skull could have been removed by scavenging wildlife.

Dick Reynolds of Balgowlah told the Daily that he had been stationed at the North Head Fort during the war, and that a mystery prowler was spotted one night. The guards gave chase, but the spy eluded his pursuers in the dark. On another occasion, Dick saw a lamp flashing from the American liner Mariposa, as it steamed out of the Heads, in breach of the tight blackout conditions: it could have been signalling to someone on the cliffs. If there was indeed a Japanese spy on North Head during the war, might he have been involved in the attack on Sydney Harbour by midget submarines on the night of 31 May 1942?

Traffic, what traffic?

2009-05-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, we were allowed to make a copy of this nice photo from 1918, which will appeal to tram enthusiasts. It shows ‘A busy day at Manly Pier’. In the photo are several Manly Tramways employees – from left to right, J Welfare, G May, J Gibbons, C Knowles, R Dobson, and J Dewhurst. On the left of the photo, an O class tram, no 885, sits in the Eustace Street depot. The tall white block of flats are the Savings Bank Flats, erected in 1915, with the Government Savings Bank on the ground floor. Adjacent to them is Rushbrook Flats – it’s not clear what the business on the ground floor of these flats is. Adjacent to Rushbrook is Mansion Flats, built probably late 1917 or early 1918, with Mrs G A Colquhoun’s Esplanade Café on the ground floor. A good place to have a café, ready to catch visitors off the ferry, or people waiting for a tram to arrive. The small building to the left of the photo is probably the NSW Tramway Office. To the right of the Savings Bank Flats is the small premises of P Carew, Estate Agent. To its right is the Pier Hotel. The ABC Bank beyond, at the foot of the Corso.
The Savings Bank Flats survived into the 1980s, but were demolished not long after the Hotel Manly came down. The Grande Esplanade apartments are now on the site. It would be good to know their architect was, as they are some of the earliest apartments built in Manly.

A Secret Passage

2009-05-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

The following article has puzzled me for some time. Writing in the Sunday Times, 25 June 1916, ‘Dorothy’ stated: “About 1860 there was an old renegade who lived in a ramshackle hut on the corner of Belgrave and Raglan Street, Manly, NSW, the site now being occupied by a small grocery business. In destroying his hut after his death, it was found to cover a cellar which was the start of a subterranean passage. This passage ended, it was found, in a dark fissure in the cliff some 200 yards from the start, and half-way along was a widening out of the tunnel, which formed a room, evidently used for storing etc. The fissure can still be seen by the observant in the lane opposite the oval entrance. Undoubtedly he was a smuggler, but what he smuggled is still in the dark. The proprietor of the shop would be interested to know that his cellar forms the original cellar, as I have been in it, and have seen traces of rough stonework put unskillfully together.” Presumably the lane opposite the oval entrance is Kangaroo Lane. In 1915 E H Millett’s grocer’s business was in Raglan Street adjacent to the Central Hall and Manly Methodist Church, roughly 200 yards from Kangaroo Lane. (It can be seen in a State Library photo, PXA 635/548-559.) This would have meant that the passage ran under the Belgrave Street/Raglan Street intersection, which seems pretty unlikely. Does anyone have any additional information about this secret passage?

1908 photo

2009-05-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

This image dates from circa 1908, and shows Manly Ocean beach from the high ground above Marine Parade. On a second glance, it's possible to make out at the foot of the picture the boys diving from a makeshift plank diving-board extending out from one of the trees. This has always been a rocky corner, and they must only just have cleared the rocks with their dives. No public liability worries then.

Click on photo for more detail.