VOLUME 7 NO. 2 February 2014 ISSN 1835-7628

FROM THE EDITOR built up over the years with the local Aboriginal people. Thanks particularly to Keith Amos for his article on The other issue that has been occupying my time has Beacon Hill. It is interesting for many reasons but I been the unacknowledged presence of Cook Pines in think that it also reinforces the point that Jim Boyce the heritage listed streetscapes and parks of Manly. makes in his commentary below, of the need to record This has been symptomatic of larger issues related to (and recognise) even very recent history. It already the management of history and heritage in local seems impossible that a key part of Australia's frontline government. There is no requirement in Heritage air defence system could have been located alongside Reviews for there to be a detailing of the management Warringah Road. Puts the controversy over Telecom structure concerned with history and heritage both towers into a different perspective. within a council and outside with such groups as However, there is a potential positive in this failure to community committees for heritage, museums , culture adequately remember and record. It means that there or precincts. As Heritage Reviews are only conducted, are countless stories out there to be rediscovered. The on average, every 20 years, there is a real need for short piece on OI Kempthorne demonstrates this periodic updating to keep the Heritage List contempora- graphically. neously relevant. The mechanism for this is often missing. As the leading architect Howard Tanner has Richard Michell remarked, there is a critical need for a moving defini- tion point for heritage and that a 25 year indicator FROM THE PRESIDENT should be used ie 1989 would be the current marker. This should be accompanied by the development of The February talk set a number of topics for further local history to at least up to that year. As the history development. The DVD project which John Illingsworth of the Cook Pine, with all its quirks, can be traced back has embarked upon will be something we will be to 1774, the tree deserves a place in the cultural assisting in any way possible. The early colonial period heritage of Manly. DVD that we saw that Saturday was extremely impres- As the public art work “Warringah Wings“ was launched sive. Hopefully , it will start something that is applicable at the Cromer Community Centre on Saturday 15 for Warringah or Manly. February, members are urged to go have a look. Fiona Recently I had a coffee with Jim Macken and it was Verity, the Warringah Artist–in–Residence has done a great to see him in good health. I wanted to compare great job and from our occasional vantage point at our notes with him on a number of issues, one of which was storage room there, we have watched this all come the progress of the Pittwater Council Heritage Review. together. The non-appearance of this document is concerning a Jim Boyce number of our members. This is all the more concern- ing as there is no Heritage Committee for Pittwater Council and there was only a three week window where Diary recommendations were to be accepted. As we met at the Strand at Dee Why, we had a short discussion March regarding Cook Pines which are much in evidence on Saturday 8th, 2.00pm the beach front and also behind the Surf Club building. In my detailing of the presence of Cook Pines in the Venue - Tramshed Narrabeen Manly LGA, I told Jim of the Cook Pine at “Whitehall“ in Balgowlah Heights. This tree, present in a mid Thirties Speaker - Richard White painting and apparently a mature tree then, must be over 100 years old. Jim also told me of annual trips to History of tourism on the Peninsula the West Kimberleys and the friendships that he has

Peninsula Historian Vol 7 #2 February 2014 page 1 NEWS AND VIEWS The last DVD was one of a series of DVDs that John is January monthly meeting producing as a historical project of his own. John had The talk by Alan Yuille at the Mona Vale Library fell into used various historical images to illustrate the contact three parts, the first focussing on the town of Mont- between the local Aboriginal people and the First gomery in Wales and its architectural heritage and Fleeters. He used copies of paintings such as Pittwater history. The second part was the showing of a DVD from Taylors Point (1788) by William Bradley to give “The Newspaper Run“, originally filmed in 1956 and the DVD a focus on Pittwater. He also included a updated by John Illingsworth, with a revisit to the same number of images of Aboriginal people as well as streets in Mona Vale and Newport in 2012. The third reference to the dreadful consequences of smallpox on was an excellent DVD produced by John focussed on the the Aboriginal community. We look forward to the early colonial history of Pittwater. While Alan John’s efforts in extending this series as the quality of handled the talking aspect of the afternoon, John was this DVD was much appreciated by all present on the at the controls of the screen system. As always Sarah afternoon. Thompson, the Local Studies Librarian, was on hand to All in all it was a very interesting afternoon presented fine tune the arrangements. by Alan and John, with a wide variety of interesting Starting with the first part, the screening of the piece content for everyone. on Montgomery presented a walking tour of the town Jim Boyce which has had a very rich history dating back to Roman Active members times. Although a small town now compared to other Welsh cities such as Cardiff, Wrexham and Carnarvon, The current (March) issue of Placenames Australia - the it is has had an important place in Welsh history, being Newsletter of the Australian Place Names Survey - has the place in 1286 where Llewellyn ceded power to the a major article by Tony Dawson - one of our members English crown and became the first Prince of Wales. and past Editor of this Newsletter - on Mount Cairn- The film was in Welsh but with English subtitles, and cross, located about 24 kilometres inland from Port was structured with an architect and a local historian Macquarie where Tony now lives. walking through the town, which had an extraordinary range of built heritage. An interesting feature was the POT POURRI design of the windows in the houses and the quality of the bricks and woodwork, and how that changed over Watching the Bathers at Manly the various styles of hoses. The walk through Mont- Perhaps inspired by the recent surfing extravaganza at gomery also included public buildings such as the old Manly, George Champion has sent me the following: prison. Alan talked about the possibility of producing a similar type of DVD for Manly and the Peninsula, "In the afternoon the -siders go over in hun- although it would be covering a shorter time period. dreds and, armed with bags of buns, biscuits and bananas, take up positions along the sea wall and fence “The Newspaper Run“ was a surprising insight into how to watch the bathers. this suburban area had changed over this 56 year time gap. The original film had the newsagent, Don Tweedie, Fewer women bathe in the afternoon; the morning’s slowly driving down the streets throwing the papers effort, combined with the heat of the sun, produce a right and left from his open car. John Illingsworth had languor, that invites the siesta, which is often indulged intercut into those images, film showing the same in on the sand in the sun, without recourse to streets in 2012. Thus it was not only an illustration of additional raiment, bar a mushroom hat to guard the how house facades had changed over time, it was an complexion. interesting overview of the changes in kerbside public Said one antiquated female to another, gazing at the spaces and front gardens. One could not miss how the bathers the day we were indulging in a dip a la 2012 version was so green and closely mown compared Trouville, “I think it’s disgraceful to see those women to the fairly overgrown and dry picture presented in bathing with men. I wonder it’s allowed. Do the police 1956. The later images of shrubs and trees displayed know it goes on?” To which charitable remark her evidence of electronic pruning and wooden letterboxes friend replied, “And fancy them bathing on Sunday had largely been replaced. 1956 also saw a range of afternoon too! You’re right, Martha, it is disgraceful,” dressing gowns worn by local residents which had been and the concentrated venom in their utterances would replaced by T shirts and shorts by 2012. The more you have made a good supply for a Borgia for a week, looked into the film’s background the more social overtime included. aspects became visible. A great effort by John. Quite different was a remark made by another woman.

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She turned to her husband and said, “Jim, if you weren’t a bigger fool than Nature intended you to be, you’d have brought some bathing things down, and we and the children could have had a good bathe, instead of having to trudge about all day long.” “It does look inviting,” said Jim. “What’s the good of the invitation when we can’t accept it?” demanded his better half. “Next time you bring us to

Manly, James, we’re going to be sensible, and spend the day in the water.” There is not a healthier or better way of spending a Sunday afternoon for the tired city man and his just-as-tired city wife than a lunge in the breakers. One forgets old age, care, and all the worries flesh is heir to in the delight of forcing one’s way through the oncoming lines of limpid green water; one’s skin tingles with the freshness of it all; one’s brain feels better, and one will sleep the sounder for it afterwards. If one can find sermons in stones and lessons in the Percy Spence, Manly Beach with Lady Lifesavers, 1910, running brooks, surely one can find a whole service on Watercolour on paper, 18 x 27cm, Manly Art Gallery & the bosom of the “great, sweet mother – mother and Museum (gift of the Gallery Committee, 1975) lover of men – the sea.”" Evening News 3 February 1905 The scene on the right, painted just five years after this article was written, shows just how rapidly the bathing situation was evolving in the early years of the 20th Century. Ed. Unheralded locals I am regularly amazed by my stumbling across (figuratively) earlier residents of our area who had incredible life stories which appear to have been completely forgotten. The following is one such example. Many of us will know Inman's Reserve at Dee Why West. But who was Inman? The obituary for Mr. Orlando Inman Kempthorne in the Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday the 30th August, 1930 is reproduced in the adjacent panel (with a more readable transcript on the next page). It reveals that the giving of his name to a couple of roads - Inman and Orlando - and to the Reserve (which he presumably bequeathed to Warringah Council) pales into insignifi- cance when compared with his other exploits. His life story would appear to be the potential basis for a Hollywood blockbuster. It also apparently reveals the existence of a substantial property in Dee Why West in the 1920s, complete with private theatre. It is amazing that the former existence of this property seems to be undocumented, together with its fate following O I Kempthorne's death. Surely a fertile research subject for someone. Richard Michell

Peninsula Historian Vol 7 #2 February 2014 page3 MR. O. I. KEMPTHORNE

Mr. Orlando Inman Kempthorne died at his home at Deewhy on Monday, aged 70 years. He had lived an adventurous life in the East, particularly in Japan in the days when that nation was emerging from comparitive obscurity and beginning the struggle which eventually placed it in the position of a first-class Power. He had hosts of professional and political friends and enter- tained lavishly, having built on his extensive grounds a private theatre capable of accommodating more than 100 persons. A native of Collingwood (Vic.), Mr. Kempthorne was a son of Mr. Thomas Whitlock Kempthorne, founder of the firm of Kempthorne Prosser Ltd., manufacturing chemicals, of , , and . Going to Western Australia as the repre- sentative of Messrs. Sargood, Nicol and Ewan, soft- goods warehousemen, and of Messrs. Felton and Grimwade, manufacturing chemists, he built up an ex- tensive agency business and, during the first Kalgoorlie goldrush, did a big trade with those engaged in the mining industry as a supplier of tools, drugs, etc. In the late nineties, Mr. Kempthorne went to Japan as com- mercial attache to the British Legation. He served as an officer in the Japanese Navy during the Boxer rebellion. Touring Japan, Korea and Manchuria, he lectured to native merchants on the best means of preparing their goods for foreign markets, his services being regarded by the Emporer as of such value that a Royal residence, with a retinue of servants, was set apart for his sole use. Mr. Kempthorne had much to do, in a semi-official capacity, with the building up of the Japanese Navy and carried through the negotiations which led to Japan's purchase of the first steel battleship from Britain. Souvenir postcard of the Japanese fleet visit in When the Japanese squadron visited Sydney in the early 1911. However Mr. Kempthorne was probably years of the century, Mr. Kempthorne came as the associated with the earlier, 1906 visit of the guest of the Emperor. His travels, however, were not Japanese Training Squadron. In this period, confined to the East. Australians had a positive view of Japan because The remains were cremated. of its success in the Russo/Japanese war of 1904/5.

Early Radar In Keith Amos' article on Beacon Hill that starts on the next page, mention is made of the installation of a Radar unit there in 1941. This was one of 17 such installations made at ports around Australia. They were based on work by the newly-created Radio Physics Laboratory at Sydney University, under the direction of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The development had been incredibly fast, having proceeded from a meeting in Britain in early 1939 where Australia, , Canada and South Africa were The first steel Japanese battleship Yashima photo- briefed on the then-embryonic British work. graphed in 1897, the year it was built (and deliv- ered) by Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd. Elswick Shipyard, Newcastle on Tyne. Designed by Sir Philip Watts.

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ARTICLE public reserve on Beacon Hill was first gazetted in 1888 Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve at Beacon Hill but revoked in 1907, prior to the granting of a lease to Beacon Brick Company, formalised on 21 April 1909. Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve covers the crest of This lease was situated north of the Reserve, generally Beacon Hill, near the junction of Warringah and Beacon bounded by present-day Gilles and Biralee Crescents. Hill Roads. It is a quiet bushland retreat, two hectares in size and 150 metres (about 500ft) above sea level, The Company quarried clay and shale, and also a purer with panoramic coastal and district views as far as the white clay called kaolin, suited to the making of centre of Sydney. porcelain. The main worksite opened in 1910, sited near present-day McKillop Road. Here the ore was The Reserve is a fine example of natural Hawkesbury hand-loaded into small hoppers, on temporary rail sandstone landscape, supporting a wide variety of tracks radiating out from a central loading platform. It native Australian trees, shrubs and wildflowers – over was then loaded into skips that descended via a 120 local species by recent count. It is regularly visited miniature railway to the Brookvale brickworks owned by local people, school and community groups and by Manly Brick and Tile Company. The two companies overseas tourists. The lookout is a good position for an merged in 1925, but were closed in 1936, when orientation of Sydney’s northern beaches, viewing absorbed into a large consortium named Brickworks sunrises or the starlight sky, or for sightings of city Ltd. Brickworks Ltd closed its Brookvale production fireworks. because of the building decline caused by the 1930’s For perhaps 40,000 years before the British first arrived depression, then after World War 2 building recovered, at Sydney, Aboriginal people roamed the local area in and local brickmaking reopened in 1946. At the Beacon small groups hunting and gathering food. Governor Hill quarry, bulldozers and trucks superseded the rail Phillip led the first British exploration of the district, system and mining continued until the quarry was starting at Manly and trekking for three days, 15-18 virtually worked out in 1962. April 1788. It is sometimes said, but cannot be A special by-product of the quarry was some amazing confirmed, that this expedition climbed Beacon Hill. Triassic age fossils - up to 220 million years old. They The explorers were certainly nearby however, being were casually picked up by miners and locals, mostly known to have camped one night in present-day while the excavation method was still pick and shovel. French’s Forest. Some unique examples of prehistoric fish, plants and On Governor Macquarie’s direction, an Irish-born insects were passed on to the Australian Museum in former convict, James Meehan, surveyed the first land College Street, Sydney, where they duly received quaint grants in the area, beginning in 1814. By this time the identifying names such as the genera ‘Brookvalia’ and local Aboriginal people were in sharp decline. They had 'Beaconia’. been decimated firstly by contact with European The crest of Beacon Hill remained as scenic bushland on diseases, to which they had no immunity, then increas- crown land. To help ensure its preservation, the Manly ingly displaced in the wake of settlement. Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society (MWPHS) The first landowner of Beacon Hill was Daniel Egan who sought Warringah Council approval in 1929 for a hilltop purchased 80 acres (32 hectares) around the summit monument in honour of Governor Phillip. The move on 31 December 1857. At that time the closest road was the Brookvale stretch of Jenkins’ road to Pittwater, now called Old Pittwater Road. Since 1822 this road had run through Miles’s gully, near the foot of present- day Beacon Hill Road - then only a rough track linking Jenkins’ Road with French’s Forest. To assist surveys of the district, observations were made in July-October 1879 for a ‘Trigonometrical Beacon’ above a waterfall behind Miles’s gully. This was built by the Department of Lands in 1881 and formally sited by Surveyor J. Brooks in August that year. A trig. station continues to be maintained on the hilltop to this day, the name Beacon Hill being derived from it. In the land boom of the 1880’s, Brookvale was sub- divided and a small township began to grow, complete with a school and church, both opened in 1887. A Unveiling the Cairn, 1929 – at front: Hon. E.A. Buttenshaw MLA (left), Percy Gledhill (right)

Peninsula Historian Vol 7 #2 February 2014 page5 succeeded, and a cairn supporting a bronze direction MWPHS), Marjorie Smith, Max Thornley, and Dora and plate was duly unveiled on 2 November 1929 by the Nicholas Wilson. The Trust held its first meeting on 10 Minister for Works, E.A. Buttenshaw. The idea to name April 1966, electing Dick Healey MLA as patron. Vera the reserve ‘Governor Phillip Lookout’ was suggested Duncan undertook publicity and Charles McDonald to the council by Percy Gledhill, a notable Brookvale agreed to write ‘The Beacon Hill Story’ (1969). The citizen and secretary of MWPHS. This was formally reserve placed in their trust was slightly less than five adopted in 1930 and officially bestowed on the reserve acres (two hectares) and remains that size today. by Shire President G.W. Hitchcock at a ceremony atop A major challenge faced the Trustees in 1969. In the Hill on 18 April 1931. February, the Department of Main Roads proposed to From 1937, the military occupied the hilltop in a widen and straighten Warringah Road by way of a defence facility called ‘Brookvale Observation Post’. cutting that would have carved deeply into the hilltop, Just below the rocky crest, a concrete bunker was built mostly destroying the lookout platform. Warringah with a 180 deg. window viewing the sea for any enemy Council initially supported the road plan, though it activity. Then in mid 1940, the crest was levelled for a expressed regret that proposed playing fields on the range-finding facility in a small fibro and tiled-roof western approach would be bisected and reduced in cottage, disguised to look like a residence. Staff plotted size. The Trust rallied community opposition, including the trajectory of shells, which was then phoned strong support from Dick Healey who made representa- through to the gun sites at North Head and Middle tions to the Minister of Lands, Tom Lewis. Shire Harbour. Also built was a small radar station facing the President Colin Huntington added Council support to sea above the bunker. Designed experimentally by the the protest, and ultimately the road was re-routed to CSIR, it operated in conjunction with similar radar posts curve around the playing fields and hilltop. By 1970 at Bluefish (nearly Shelley Beach) and Dover Heights. construction was underway, including a parking area After the War a new radar station further west, beside that provides front access to the Reserve today. Warringah Road, took on a more modern defensive With the Reserve secure, the trustees undertook vari- role. From here on, the hilltop buildings became ous improvements. The cairn, complete with its original disused and were eventually dismantled, the cottage bronze direction plate, was restored and ceremoniously being the last to go in 1965. unveiled on 21 April 1970. Next, a wooden and stone Coinciding with the army’s withdrawal, community entry gate and sandstone path to the summit were moves were made to restore Beacon Hill as a public added; then stonework, paving and seats on the reserve. This resulted in the Lands Department for- lookout platform. A fine bronze bust of Governor Phillip mally announcing Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve, on further distinguished the entry in 1991, and in 1996 the 25 March 1965, ‘for public recreation and promotion of Australian flag, previously flown only on Australia Day the study and preservation of native flora and fauna’. (from a collapsible flagpole) now became a permanent As a reserve trust, management fell to a board of seven feature, clearly visible from afar on a new 12 metre trustees appointed by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. Tom Lewis. They were Ken Rabbidge (president), Keith Watts (secretary), Charles McDonald (president of

Sketch plan of Brookvale Observation Post on Beacon Hill - by A.R. Griffin, who served there during World War 2 A similar military observation post at Dover Heights - 1941 photo

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Unveiling Governor Phillip, Australia Day 1991: from left, Trust President Paul Firth, MWPHS President Terry Metherell, Warringah The bust revealed Shire President John Caputo. (The sculpture by Victor Cusack has a backdrop of red bricks from Phillip’s cottage in England)

flagpole. for an Australia Day ceremony every year since 1974. In th In accordance with the Crown Lands Act of 1989, a early morning on 26 January, 200 or more people board of trustees for Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve gather on the hilltop to acknowledge their nationality is appointed every five years by the Department of with community singing, guest speeches and some Lands. The current (2014) trustees are Neville Bicker- traditional Australian damper and tea. These gather- staff (president), Keith Amos, Bill Chapman, David Hawkins, Rhonda Howard, Peter Mendl and Don Shirdon. Additionally, there can be some friends of the trust who assist the Board. The trustees and friends meet at least every second month and work at the reserve about one day per month. Regular working activities include native bush regeneration, weed con- trol, litter removal and other maintenance of the lookout area. Warringah Council provides valuable on- going assistance in all such management and is particularly supportive with the Australia Day ceremo- nies. Over the years, a number of MWPHS members have addressed formal occasions on the hilltop, often as guest speakers on Australia Day. Among these have been W.L. Ross, Percy Gledhill, Monty Wedd, George Champion, David Tribe, Terry Metherell, Phil Colman and Keith Amos. A notable feature of the Australia Day ceremony in 2000 was a time capsule buried on the summit for recovery after 50 years. Preserved in a 36cm artillery cartridge donated by the Army’s 8/12 Regiment, its contents included lists of top-selling songs and books, bus and ferry tickets, photos of fashionable clothing and everyday activities such as skateboarding, news clippings from the Manly Daily, a Warringah Council community newsletter, and a selec- Displaying the time capsule, Australia Day 2000: from tion of drawings and stories by local children. back left, Trust coordinator Neville Bickerstaff, Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve has been the venue Warringah Council Mayor Peter Moxham, an Army representative and Trust President Rhonda Howard - joined by children who contributed items.

Peninsula Historian Vol 7 #2 February 2014 page7 ings were the first and only Australia Day ceremonies in northern Sydney for almost a quarter of a century and have remained distinctively semi-formal compared with more recent Australia Day festivities at Dee Why Beach, Narrabeen Lagoon and Forestville. This year’s ceremony celebrated the 40 th anniversary of Australia Day gatherings on Beacon Hill. Keith Amos (Trustee since 2004) Manly, Warringah and Pittwater February 2014 Historical Society Inc. Established 1924 Further reference: Champion, Shelagh and George, Manly, Warringah and Patron Pittwater 1788-1850. 1997 Alan Ventress BA DipLib Gledhill, P.W., Manly and Pittwater: Its Beauty and Progress. 1946 Griffin, A.R .,‘Thoughts on Brookvale Observation Post’ . President 1997: Governor Phillip Lookout Reserve records Jim Boyce Jacobs, Ian, A History of the Aboriginal Clans of Syd- 0402 096 080 ney’s Northern Beaches. 2003 [email protected] Manly Daily. 90 th Anniversary Souvenir Edition. 1996 McDonald, Charles, The Story of Beacon Hill. 1969 Treasurer Pratten, Chris and Irving, Robert, Brookvale Brickworks Conservation Plan. Warringah Council, 1996 Barbara Davies Phillips, E.C., Hiking for Health (1936). Facsimile 2003 9997 6505 Prentis, Malcolm (ed.) Warringah History. 1989 [email protected]

Minutes Secretary WHAT'S ON Clive Halnan Manly Art Gallery and Museum 0410 867 685 EXPRESS YOURSELF [email protected] 21 February- 16 March 2014 Archivist Express Yourself is a vibrant, fascinating and dynamic Vacant exhibition showcasing the immense talent and creativ- ity of the 2013 crop of HSC Visual Arts students from Editor Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Richard Michell Warringah Library 9401 4525 [email protected] Is seeking historic photos and stories of holidays in Warringah for an exhibition to coincide with the 2014 Postal Address National Trust Heritage Festival. PO Box 695 Manly, NSW 1655 Please contact the Local Studies Librarian Tina Graham on 99422610 or [email protected] if Website you have photographs or stories to share. www.mwphs.co Mona Vale Library

Author Talk by Clio Calodoukas "All Roads Led to Shanghai", 25 February 2014 6.30pm

Author Talk by Barry Eaton "No Goodbyes: Insights from the Heaven World", 11 March 2014 6.30pm

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