HOBBY'S OUTREACH Newsletter ef: BLUE MOUNTAINS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Inc. ISSN 1835-3010 P 0Box17, WENT\VORTH FAILS NSW 2782 Telephone: (02) 4757 3824 Hobby's Reach, 99 Blaxland Road, Wentworth Falls, NSW Email: [email protected] !Volume 20 Number3 August - September 20081 5 APRIL 2008 MEETING Contributed lry Colin Slade Continued from June-July issue The Garden Palace and The International Exhibition Sydney 1879 ,,,,":(a, -i-e-c-e-14~ 'f 111-i:J,'l"fll, !""""""'"" ,.,,1,7(e-~ During the first three days of the Exhibition some eighteen thousand visitors (excluding exhibitors and officials) passed -.... through the gates and an uneasy doubt was felt among the Commissioners as to the popular appeal of the Show. But Saturday 27 September, the first 'Shilling Day', banished all apprehension as 30,000 visitors crowded the Garden Palace and applauded a repeat performance of the Exhibition Cantata and the Hallelujah Chorus. The Sydney tram system owes its origins to the Exhibition. The first tram lines were laid from the nearest railway station at Redfern to Hunter Street to bring visitors in a double-decked carriage driven by a newly built steam tram. After the Exhibition this tram line was doubled all the way and extended to the eastern, southern and western suburbs. Among the many exhibits, only to name but a few from all over the world, included a Turkish Bazaar, Japanese Tea House, 116 samples of tea from different countries, Emerson's Oyster Saloon, a Maori House, Austro-Hungarian Wme and Beer Tasting Hall. A Fijian house, for a time inhabited by dancing natives claiming to have been cannibals, The Australian Dairy (a glass of fresh, cold milk for a penny), 20 kingdoms, republics and colonies were represented. Machinery exhibitions and new technology were to the fore, including a giant steam shovel, a ploughing engine and a horizontal engine. The most popular item was certainly the Whittier Steam Passenger Elevator installed in the northern tower, by which passengers could be whisked up to the viewing platform high above the main hall. At this time America was the leader in machinery. Also refrigeration technology and machinery were on display. A concrete-block cottage, of Portland Cement was on display. It claimed to be waterproof, vermin-proof, fireproof and available in sizes of one to six rooms. Also the new floor-covering linoleum, galvanised wire netting, electro-plated tableware, new yarns and fabrics, porcelains, furniture and gem stones were on display, also a beautiful ornate silver and emu egg cricket trophy (now inthe Power House Museum). Statuary was also a feature. Bronze busts of Alfred Tennyson the poet-laureate, Charles Dickens and Sir Herculus Robinson were on display. Two bronze statues that I admire and still survive today were the 'Huntsman and Dogs' can still be seen in the Botanic Gardens near the Conservatorium gates and 'Retaliation' in the NSW Art Gallery. A notable building erected in the grounds was The Art Gallery annex. This was due to the efforts of Eccleston Du Faur. Hobf?y's Outreach Altgusf-September 2008 Although constructed only of wood and iron it was by no stored were Gold Commissioner's reports and gold miners' means an unimportant building, covering nearly half an acre. licenses. Plans for the NSW Commission for the Amsterdam It contained nine fair-sized galleries, a corridor from 16 to International Exhibition. 25 feet in height with about 1,400 running feet of wall space. Another notable collection was of thirteen cabinets of Du Faur pointed out that had the trustees not been able to fossils, and a large library of maps and field books belonging have this annex constructed and retained, the whole of their to Rev. W B Clarke, of gold discovery claim. Clarke had died collection, then worth £30,000, would have been destroyed in 1878 and this collection was sold by his widow to the in the fire. It was to become the forerunner of the present NSW Government for £7,000. It is ironic that all but the NSW Art Gallery (first portion completed in 1897). Among fossils were destroyed in the fire and are now part of the the many paintings on display I would like to point out Sydney Geological and Mining Museum. All the previous notable ones: 'Non Angli Sed Angeli' by British painter K documents, archives and collection were totally destroyed Halswelle, awarded a special small silver medal a First Degree by the fire. Merit Special. Now in the present Art Gallery. 'Chloe' by Therefore, the Garden Palace was a busy place. BUT the French artist Lefebvre, caused a sensation then and still end came too soon! 'In an instant between one breath and continues to this day. A grand medal winner at the Paris another never taken, a life or object can vanish into Salon of 1876 'Chole' was on display in the French Gallery. nothingness forever'. So was the sad fate of the Garden She next appeared at the Melbourne Exhibition, then the Palace. At approximately 5:30am of 22 September 1882, Victorian National Gallery where she was considered unfit Frederick Kirchen, the night watchman was greeting his relief (too hot) to be displayed, passed into private hands and finally J McKnight, at the gate when McKnight gasped: 'My God, into the bar of Young and Jackson's Hotel, Melbourne. look!' Germane to the Blue Mountains was a watercolour of Wreathing from the high dome was an ominous ribbon 'Govetts Leap' by Charles Edward Hern, painted in 1879 it of smoke. The two men rushed inside to be met by a choking "-../ was a First Degree Merit Specia1 and a special silver medal. cloud of fumes. Flames were licking the pedestal of Queen Of great significance to the Blue Mountains on display was Victoria's statue, creeping along the timber pillars and beams a column (pillar) of coal, weighing 4cwt (1/5 ton or 203kg) and clawing the dome. The standpipe and hose were useless, from the Katoomba Coal Mine owned by John Britty North. even the fire brigades that were called could do little but It was hauled up the slope from the mine by manpower, watch in horror. loaded on a bullock wagon, transported to Katoomba station and then by rail to Sydney. By the time it arrived at the The intense heat burst open the great dome with a roar Exhibition it had deteriorated in condition and was refused like dynamite and sent it crashing, a ball of fire, into the entry. North, not to be daunted, gathered the broken pieces, inferno below. Violent explosions punctuated the roaring stuck them together and put it on display - it earned an crackle of blazing timber as the iron roof twisted and writhed award of Special Merit, and a Government contract for in the heat and the lesser towers collapsed. The fierce upsurge North, which certainly put him on the map. of hot air lifted sheets of corrugated roofing as though they were feathers and carried them as far as Rushcutters Bay. The Exhibition was due to close in April 1880, was extended another month. The heat being so intense cracked the glass in the windows of houses in Macquarie Street. People there prepared to Although hailed as a success and only good said of it, it evacuate. The horses in the Government Stables were showed a deficit of £103 .61 s. The Exhibition Commissioner evacuated. PA Jennings, said: ' ... that this figure cannot be said to be at all relatively extravagant or beyond the means of a richly By 9 o'clock it was all over and the once beauteous Garden dowered state as ours'. · Palace was a smouldering mass of burnt ruins. Although the Garden Palace was conceived as a temporary F Cumming wrote: structure and no formal plans for its existence after the ' .. .The wonder of a year, the horror of a night Exhibition closed had ever been made, it continued de facto Many the treasurers therein, too were lost, as a useful headquarters of various cultural and administrative And some of which we ne'er can count the cost; bodies. But, oh! The Palace! That enriched the air; The great halls served to stage concerts, balls, flower shows, Our Garden Palace stands no longer there. lectures and public meetings. The galleries were converted Ruins and dross are all we now can see; .. into a Technological, Ind1,1strial and Sanitary Museum, forerunner of the Power House Museum. The Department We turn away in grief, and sadly sigh for thee .. .' of Mines installed a permanent geological display, The An estimate of the material and intrinsic value of Linnean Society had a museum and library and meeting room everything destroyed was given at £300,000. Charles Moore, and the Fishery Department had a display. the then Director of the Royal Botanic Garden responsible for judging the horticultural exhibits and the landscaping of The basement became offices and archives storage for the ground, was deeply saddened by the estimated loss of sundry divisions of the Civil Service, including the newly between 20,000-30,000 plants. A compensatory factor was compiled NSW Government Census of 1881, occupancy that after the fire the land was given over to the Botanic records from the beginning of the colony, surveys and Gardens and today forms the Upper Garden. irreplaceable maps. One n~table was a map compiled on geodetic principles (curved lines instead of straight lines) by How the fire started was the topic of the day and many E Du Faur for the Lands Office, the most complete map of days thereafter. Sydney split into two camps, arsonists or the the colony prepared up to that date - ten years work.