School Visit to Watch House
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the balmain XHe Peninsula 313 association J Incorporated news sheet Vol46No.2 Issue319 Founded November 1965 June 2011 SCHOOL VISIT TO WATCH HOUSE On Tuesday 5 April two groups of back cell with no light other than The tours were taken by children from Father John Therry the small amount of daylight Kathleen Hamey and Diana School visited the Balmain Watch through the grill. The clang of the Garder. House. The children had been heavy iron door brought squeals By Di Garder studying the history of their local of excitement from most, perhaps area and the Watch House and apprehension from some. its story fitted well Planning Matters into their studies. Anka Site, Terry St Rozelle Each group of Year 3 The Balmain Association children arrived with responded to Leichhardt Council's their teacher and a community consultations on this site parent and were by expressing concern that excited to go inside overdevelopment would lead to the building. The first unacceptable levels of traffic in Terry St and Victoria Rd. The Association stop was the Charge argued that the density of the Room where they proposed development should be learnt about the reduced, and street frontages kept to history of the building a maximum height of three storeys. and the surrounding area as well as the Former Balmain Leagues Club use of this room. (Tigers) site, Victoria Rd Rozelle Before the elections, the Association T h e r e w a s m u c h wrote to State candidates deploring discussion about the the use of Part 3 A of the Planning different sorts of Act to facilitate excessive crimes people would development on this site, in have been charged contravention of the Joint Regional with in those times. Planning Panel's (JRPP) earlier decision. We sought candidates' Upstairs the children views on the use of Part 3A. Liberal were fascinated to candidate James Falk responded Children in Exercise Yard with Diana learn that the last Police that an O'Farrell government would Garder, Kathleen Harney and Louise Sergeant, Gray, lived there with scrap Part 3A and refer incomplete McCarthy, teacher. Part 3A determinations to a panel of his 12 children - independent experts. Supportive The school children were left The photographic exhibition for responses were also received from wondering where the family Heritage Week was hanging and Independent candidates Jane Ward would have all slept!! the children were interested to and Maire Sheehan find their street on the maps and By Meg Wallace They also talked about dinner find out how it had been named. time for such a large family and I N T H I S I S S U E the washing up - no dishwashers It was an enjoyable morning and Page then!! I'm sure that some of our young 1 School visit to Watch House 1 Planning Matters local schoolchildren learnt a little The highlight of the tour was the 2 1920's and 30's, and Now more about their suburb. 3 Mort's Dock Heritage listing experience, like any common 4 What's on at the Watch House felon, of being locked into the In the 1920's and 30's Some things change, some things stay the same. Unlike today, in the 1920's and 30's fruit grew in pence. Fruit ice-creams with pure frozen fruit were a abundance in people's yards, including stone fruit such healthier popular alternative at one penny each as peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums. Christmas apples, quinces, passionfruit vines, china pears and Recycling took place back then, and is still very much in pomegranates formed a rich harvest not only for fashion today. Scrap iron and bottles were collected by families but also school children who made a habit of 'Bottlos'. Discarded fuel stoves and iron baths ended up pinching what they could by climbing over the back as 'Bottlo's booty. An empty beer bottle fetched a fence and leaving with shirts full of 'loot'. halfpenny. Back street shops traded a halfpenny worth of lollies for a bottle - it was illegal to pay by cash. Talking of animals, horses with carts roamed the streets Nickio was a well-known and highly respected Bottio of Balmain and made stops at horse troughs along the who did his run on a weekday and on weekends sold way in places such as the corner of Seattle and Palmer ice-cream from a cart. A beer bottle would buy a Sts. and the Rowntree St end of Macquarie Tee. The halfpenny ice-cream. Though not an accomplished trough water flowed with the aid of a cistern. It was kept musician, his bugle call was well-recognised. under a steel cover and rose and sank to maintain the w a t e r l e v e l . H o t e l Who can resist toffee? In the 1930's a patrons nearby husband and wife team operated a mini wouldn't be keen to showcase outside Balmain Demonstration d r i n k f r o m t h e s e School and sold toffee to the children troughs! before and after school. Dental hygiene G o a t s w e r e a l s o a must not have been an issue back then! feature. Most houses The showcase was a converted old pram had a pet goat. They shaped into a barrow - necessity was the wandered the streets mother of Invention then, and probably feeding on grass always will be. verges. Once the Healthier pursuits included blackberry t r a m s a r r i v e d t h e picking - a popular activity during the goats left. school holidays. Blackberries in season were seen in a number of parks around Balmain. The Meat eaters could frequent Windred's butcher shop in favourite was in Palmer St, opposite Wortley St. Loyalty Square. Meat would hang outside adorned with Blackberry pies were popular. The blackberry bush ferns. Refrigeration was not available. There were lots exists to this day in the area - a weed or desired fruit? more butcher shops in the backstreets - they are few and far between today. Fishing from a borrowed boat or from a wharf, such as Smoked fish was also on the menu. Artie Beaumont's Thames St wharf, was also a past-time of this period. Valley St home was the setting for smoking fish using Squid was used for bait - though a popular identity slow-burning sawdust. Taylor was the favoured fish and 'Felix' insisted the bait was better for eating than any the process took 2 to 3 days. Carrying a basket, Artie fish one might catch. That might well be true today in was to be seen hawking his wares to households and our polluted waterways. Blue swimmer crabs were hotels. When Artie passed away his special smoking caught using snares made from horses' tails and wire. A method died with him. fairly expensive delicacy today, it is to be 'caught' mostly in fish shops or restaurants. At the foot of Llewellyn St were the Balmain Ice works Ducks and chickens were commonplace in the run by the Lucy family for some 40 years. Ice in blocks backyards of Balmain. The poultry were fed scraps such was available daily. Ice cream too was available in 2 or as pollard mixed with bran. 3 gallon cans and kept in an ice chest with crushed ice and saltpeter to aid freezing. There were deliveries A circus used to come to Balmain once a year and set every 4 days from manufacturers such as Peters. Large up at a paddock between Darling and Montague Sts. numbers of children would gather round the delivery The star attraction was a tight-rope walker, Blondie. truck - an attraction that continues to this day. Milkshakes called soda drinks, made with ice-cream, During the Great Depression the Sydney City Mission in became available in the area in 1936. No. 272 Darling Beattie St was the largest local soup kitchen. The St (now National Bank) and No. 297 (next to what is Sydney City Mission still continues its community now the Commonwealth bank) were the two main welfare services in the city. 'Milkshake' shops. A favourite ice-cream was the choc- By Penny Alexander and Christina Ritchie coated vanilla 'Eskimo pie' - quite expensive at three Source; Wal Gourlie's 'Reminiscences". 2 Mort's Dock listed on the NSW State Heritage Register Thomas Mart, and Issy Wyner proud. It celebrates the businessman, social and cultural significance of the site, and one of and will help to protect not only Mort Bay the greatest Park - because the Heritage Council of contributors to NSW will need to give approval for any Australia's works to be undertaken - but the vitality industries of Balmain's working harbour which continues to be active to this day. The listed area is located within Mort Bay Park, but does not include the western section of the Park that Leichhardt Council calls "Site C" - i.e. the land Balmain's Mort's Dock (now Mort Bay between McKell, Bay and Short Streets, in Mort's Dock 1942 Park) is listed on the State Heritage Birchgrove. Register - the highest form of heritage For all these reasons Balmain resident, Sarah Ward, Maritime Archaeologist recognition and protection in NSW. and State Maritime Archaeologist, Sarah Office of Environment & Heritage Former Member for Balmain, Verity Ward, nominated the site for the State NSW Dept of Premier & Cabinet Firth joined former Planning Minister Heritage Register. To view full listing go to: Tony Kelly and members of the Balmain The listing is fantastic for the people of http://www.hcritagc.nsw.gov.au/07_ Association for a special event at Mort Bay Balmain, and would make Nick Origlass subnav 04 2.cfm?itemid=5061224 Park to officially declare Mort's Dock a State Heritage Site on 17 January 2011.