HOBBY'S OUTREACH Newsletter of BLUE MOUNTAINS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Inc.
PO Box 17, WENTWORTH FALLS, NSW 2782 ISSN 1835-3010 Hobby's Reach , 99 Blaxland Rd , Wentworth Falls Telephone: (02) 4757 3824 Web: www.bluemountainshistory.com Email: bmhs@email. com Volume 23 Number 1 April - May 2011
National Pass, Wentworth Falls, H.Phillips, 1920 /
Wentworth Falls Reserve Trustees Before listing the known trustees between 1878 and 1942, 1 will describe the way that these trusts operated. If you have ever enjoyed a stroll along the walking tracks on the cliff tops at Wentworth Falls or in the adjacent The various Crown Lands Acts from 1861 made Jamison Valley (Prince Regent's Glen) you are benefiting provision for the gazettal of land 'for public purposes', from the vision and works planned by voluntary trustees including recreation, and for the appointment of trustees going back as far as the 1870s. The location of the 'to be charged with the care and management of lands' lookouts, the design, materials, and positioning of the gazetted under the Acts. Trustees were unpaid. They walking tracks and the naming of features were all were usually local small businessmen who had a decisions made by the trustees. They came from a wide tremendous pride in a local area. The Minister for Lands variety of professions but were united in their desire to would make annual grants for the use of the trustees make the beauties of the Wenn:vmih Falls escarpment area in developing tourist attractions within the recreation safe and accessible for visitors. Over the years I came reserves. The trustees would employ a ranger who was across the names of some of these trustees in newspaper paid out of these grants. Trustees usually met every reports and other sources. However, recently, as I month or t\:vo and received a report from the ranger on became more conscious of the debt we owe to these men the condition of the tracks and lookouts. Minutes were (there were no women trustees), I decided to make a more kept of the meetings and annual repo1is sent to the Lands systematic search to identify as many of the Wentworth Department. In the Blue Mountains there was friendly Falls Reserve Trustees as possible. There were n:vo main competition ben:veen each town's group of trustees, sources for their names. The first was the minute book leading to a proliferation of walking track construction. of the earliest trustees - one of the great treasures of the However, no other town ever came close to the Blue Mountains Historical Society - entitled: 'Went\:vo1ih remarkably dense concentration of tracks in Wentworth Falls Late Weatherboard Reserve Trust'. As this lists Falls. The walking track nen:vork has been recognised as the trustees attending each meeting, it is possible to get having State Heritage Significance for its cultural values. a complete list of all members from the first meeting on the 31 •• October 1878 until the last meeting recorded in See now Table 1 on page 5/6 this book, on the 7"1 August 1903. The second source is a handwritten list of trustees serving ben:veen 1917 and 1942. It is in the State Records Repository as part of the Notes. In some cases the time served as trustee is an archives of the Lands Depa1iment Miscellaneous Branch. estimate from newspaper reports. The Lands Department lts title is ' Recreation Reserves Register -Trustees of Miscellaneous Branch Register usually does not show Tern porary Reserves, 11 /21982)'. After the passing of clearly when trustees started or completed their service. the Crown Lands Consolidation Act in 191 7, a single Where only a single year is given as the period of service set of trustees administered all the recreation reserves it is usually because the starting and finishing years are in Went\:vorth Falls, which were collectively termed not known. Some trustees became inactive, missing the 'Went\:vorth Falls Group of Blue Mountains Sights meetings for long periods, but still remaining officially as Reserves'. a trustee.
The gap between 1903 and 191 7 can be partially filled Not many of the tmstees have files containing from articles in local newspapers summarising the biographical information in the Blue Mountains trustees' meetings, which often listed those present at Historical Society. Only a small minority have obituaries the meeting. The Blue Mountains Echo, which began in the local papers. The years of death of the trustees in 1909, was particularly consistent in publishing these were obtained from a variety of sources including the Our reports. There is a regrettable lack of any extant Blue Past Blue Mountaineers series and the New South Wales Mountains newspapers for the period 1906-1908. A few Registry ofBi1ihs, Deaths and Marriages' historical lists of trustees can be found in the Lithgow Mercury indexes. Joan Smith assisted with compiling this data. for this period. There are probably other records in the The years of birth are usually estimates from the age Lands Department Miscellaneous Branch archives that at death. Some trustees, whose given names are only would allow a complete list of trustees to be completed. listed as initials in the sources, have had their full names Appointments and resignations of trustees were listed in identified through the historical indexes. The trustees the New South Wales Government Gazene·out tnere is G.H.L-egge -and A.E.Turtle have their most likely-given no easy way of locating these gazettals. After 1942 the names in the table. local media took virtually no interest in the activities of the trustees. Indeed there was very little to report, as the There are many ways in which the list of trustees could trustee system was then in decline. be analysed, probably enough for a history Honours thesis. I will now look at a few aspects which hav~ interested me.
2 Social Position For the 78 year period that trustees managed the Wentworth Falls Resen;e there were only five kno\vn There is a clear change through time in the social status rangers (called ' caretakers' in the early days). These men of trustees. The earliest trustees were relatively well carried out the hard labour of making and maintaining off professional men, public servants, Sydney-based the tracks and associated facilities. I suspect there were businessmen, and a few politicians, whose principal - some periods when interruptions to reserve grants meant residence was in Sydney but who had 'weekenders' that there was no ranger employed. Bewley believed that in Wentworth Fa!Is (or at Faulconbrid'ge in the case of Burke took over from Mulheran. However, an article Parkes). In the later period, typical trustees were local in the Blue Mountains Echo on the fifth of September shopkeepers and tradesmen. Toll and Ellis ran Toil's 1913 stated 'a ranger is to be engaged to keep the various Hotel. Two of the Wilsons were associated with the tracks in order and also to preserve law and order if Grandview Hotel. Rose was a teacher at Wentworth Falls required' . Work on the reserves in the period 1902- 1913 Public School and Weeks, a former teacher there, who may have been carried out by day labour. There were was a real estate agent and poultry fanner while trustee. probably other gaps when there was no ranger employed It was not necessary to live in Wentworth Falls, or have on the reserve. In addition to the full-time reserve staff property there, to be a local reserve trustee. Some many other men were employed for special projects, such residents of Wentworth Falls served as trustees for the as the construction of the National Pass in 1906-1907. reserves in other townships, for example James Bennett Bewley left the employment of the trustees to enlist for ( 1832-1900). A significant number of tmstees were World War IL Hook's retirement at the time of the Blue '--" born overseas including Parkes, Toll , Murray, Rose and Mountains City Council takeover indicates either that Mulheran. · he did not apply to work for Council or did not get the position. He was 63 years old at the time.
Length of Service The work of the trustees
Most trustees served for at least a decade (the average for those whose start and finish years are knmvn is over I have divided the development of the Wentworth Falls 10 years). Typically, trustees were in their 50s when reserve into four eras. they began service. Only a few were in their 30s or 40s. Backhouse, Pritchard, Rooke, Murray and Rose all served 1. The pioneering era. 1878-1902. 20 years or more. The record is held by Capt. Murray who, despite being 58 when he began, notched up 27 The earliest trustees began their work with only the years. His period of service ended only with his death Prince's Rock track in existence. Over the next 20 or so at the age of85. Seven other men died while they were years they developed a dense network of tracks on the trustees. Six trustees served between 16 and 20 years. cliff tops and into the Jamison Valley as far as Vera Falls. Three families contributed more than one trustee. There The final project from this era was the Wentworth Pass. were tlu·ee Wilsons, two Weames and two Murphys. Virtually all of this track and lookout construction was carried out by Peter Mulheran. Regardless of their social status, trustees of al I eras often caJTied out voluntary pick and shovel work or 2. The heroic era. 1906-1908. other improvements to supplement the work of the paid rangers. Slack and Fletcher are the only trustees who had a feature in the reserve named after them, although a Diplomatic lobbying by Weeks lead to a special grant number of trustees had waterfalls or other places named large enough to carry out the most ambitious track after their wives or daughters. Some of the trustees have construction project in the reserve, the construction of streets in Wentw01ih Falls named after them. The only the National Pass. Capt. Murray was a dominant trustee memorial to a trustee is the brass direction plate on a during this time. pedestal near the end of Falls Road, which was erected by the family of W.T. Wearne. Mostly, the trustees received 3. The consolidation era. l 920s- l 930s. little contemporary recognition from the ~ommunity_,_ Service on the Blue Mountains Reserve Trusts did not Dominant trustees of this era included the schoolteacher appear to be a prestigious fom1 of community service. Rose and the retired real estate agent Slack. The trustees This is in contrast to the trustees for the (later Royal) filled in the gaps between the existing track segments by National Park south of Sydney who were mostly Knights creating new links and opening up the possibilities for and Members of Parliament. many new round trips. The last of the new lookouts on the cliff tops were created. The major project of this era See now Table 2 on page 6 was the creation of.Circular Drive (later called Sir Hemy
3 Burrell Drive) in the mid- l 930s. An interesting feature community control. For the first 78 years, during which of this era was the ' role reversal ' of Peter Mulheran. He the tourism assets of the reserve were created, members had moved tens of thousands of tonnes of earth and rock of the local community set the priorities and made the in building the core of the track network in the pioneering management decisions and were responsive to local era. He returned, at the age of 68, as a trustee. The community concerns. Local accommodation proprietors meeting, in the late I 870s, between the trustee Walter and shopkeepers became aware of any problems on the Annstrong and Mulheran was one of the most fo11uitous walking tracks through their customers. Their concerns in Wentworth Falls' history. Soon after his aITival in could be passed directly on to the trustees or local ranger Australia from Ireland, Mulheran came to Wentworth who would attend to the problem immediately. Trustees Falls to work as caretaker at Armstrong's Wentworth Falls personally inspected all works caITied out. Rangers had house 'Gila' (later called ' Green 9ables' ). Armstrong to prepare monthly written reports on the condition of had him appointed as Caretaker of the Wentworth Falls the tracks and facilities. No ranger would have dreamed Reserve, a job be carried out with enonnous energy and of taking his annual leave in February, as they knew that enthusiasm for some 20 years. the mid-afternoon storms during this month could create significant erosion damage to the tracks. From previous 4. Decline. I 940s- l 956. experience they knew exactly where to go after the rain. After the westerly winds had been blowing, they would go out the next day to clear fallen trees and branches. A combination ofrising costs, lower reserve grants and Trustees and rangers developed a very high level of perhaps less committed trustees meant that no new work personal pride in the good condition of the Reserve. was carried out in the reserve after the construction of Newspaper rep011s indicate that the trustees would often ~ Circular Drive. Trustees struggled to maintain, with visit the Reserve, taking pleasure in seeing people happily diminishing resources, the dense network of tracks which enjoying themselves. they had inherited. A typical complaint was made by Mr Moorhead, of the Wentworth Falls Progress Association in 1951: 'the Goverrunent allocation to the Wentworth The 30 year period of Blue Mountains City Council Falls Sights Resen;es Trust was nowhere near sufficient control was an intermediate stage. The Reserve was now to maintain the existing paths, lookouts, sheds, seats, etc, under the control of paid bureaucrats, but at least this much less improve them'. (Blue Mountains Courier, 29 111 bureaucracy was local and could be lobbied tlu·ough the November 1951). Aldennen (Councillors) and the 530A committee. The rangers were as dedicated as those of the trustee era but stanred of staff and sufficient resources. Responsible The end of the trustee system for the reserves citywide, they could only really carry out a holding operation to keep open as much of the Blue Mountains City Council took over control of the track network as possible. Notable rangers of this era Wentw011h Falls Reserve in 1956. The Reserve came were Phil Roux, who made Danvin 's walk, the first new under the control of Council 's Engineering Department. walking track in Wentworth Falls since the 1930s and the Council appointed Rangers were responsible for all of Alcorn brothers who restored Slack's Stairs and the Vera the reserves throughout the city. They were not able to Falls and Wentworth Pass tracks. gain the intense local knowledge of individual reserves that the trustee appointed rangers developed. In 1970 a We are now coming up to a quarter-century of National committee appointed under section 530A of the Local Parks and Wildlife Service (now Department of Government Act 1919 was fom1ed to advise Council Envirorunent, Climate Change and Water) management. on the management of the Wentworth Falls Reserve. Bureaucratic control is now remote. The aptly named In contrast to the exclusively male trustees, a majority park workers, who carry out track maintenance, are under of the committee members were women. Members the control of rangers based in local offices, who report were diligent in cmTying out inspections of the Reserve to the regional office in Parramatta, which reports to and made numerous reports to Council's Engineering the head office in Hurstville, which is responsible to a Department, recommending that urgent work be carried State govenunent minister who is pai1 of a govenunent out. Unfortunately, most of these repo11s were ignored. accountable, over a wide range of issues, to the electorate Jn February 1987 the National Parks and Wildlife Service every four years. Staff at all levels of this chain of took over the Wentw011h Falls Reserve, which became command can turn over rapidly. The long periods of local pa11 of the Blue Mountains National Park. __ . ___ service of the trustees and their local rangers ai·e virtually unheard of today. I've lost count of the number of Conclusion rangers over the last 24 years who have been ' in charge of' the Jamison Valley. How can rangers, who typically Management of the Wentworth Falls Reserve over move on to other areas of the park or to other national the past 130 years has seen a progressive loss of local
4 parks within a few years ever gain the intimate local practical environmental knowledge of the early trustee rangers?
The Blue Mountains National Park advisory committee is supposed to represent community concerns about park management but members are, in actual practice, hand-picked by National Parks and Wildlife Service staff and stage managed to operate as a ham1less adjunct to the bureaucracy. Periods when public comment is called for, for example when new national park management plans are put on display, are tokenistic and achieve only the predetermined outcomes.
The depa1iment can point to some major expenditures such as the $2 million spent to restore the National Pass (which originally cost £480 to hew from virgin rock) and over $600,000 to tar and cement the Wentworth Falls picnic area, but the overall condition of the walking tracks has never been worse. The tourism assets of the Wentworth Falls Reserve were handed to the National Parks and Wildlife Service in a condition suitable for their use by family groups. The trustees and rangers of the early days would weep to see the deep erosion gullies along the tracks and the number of closed track segments and lookouts. I hope to Ii ve long enough to see the adoption of a management regime for our national parks that is truly accountable to the community and that encourages rangers to stay long enough (at least I 0 years) in one area to develop a personal identification with, and pride in, the area they manage. Jim Smith Table 1: Trustees of the Wentworth Falls Reserve 1878-1942 "---' Trustee Time as Trustee Life span
Sir Henry Parkes 1878-1887 1815-1896 David Fletcher 1878-1892 -1892 Benjamin Backhouse 1878-1902 1829-1904 William Pritchard 1878-1903 1829-1903 Walter Dickinson Annstrong 1878-1883 1841-1920 Ernest H.Biden 1883-1885 -1926 Frederick Charles Rooke 1885-1908 1852-1941 James Somerville Murray 1892-1919 1834-1919 Thomas Frederick Thompson 1892-1903 1838-1930 Robert Matcham Pitt jnr 1890-1908 1849-1935 David James Davis 1890-1892 -1943 Douglas Montague Hadkins 1890-1892 1868-1919 John Charles Smith 1890-1896 1862-1899 Thomas James Cale snr 1890-1908 1867-1930 George Atkin 1890-1892 -1921
"---" John Lebbeus Horden 1890-1892 1848-1910 Frederick Henry Moore 1896-1913 1839-1934 Dr Alfred E.Perkins 1903 -1919 Joseph Toll 1908 1853-1909 Walter Francis Weeks 1908 1857-1927 Phillip Lazarus 1917-1918 -1942 Samuel Charles Rose 1918-1938 -1941 Robert Brand Patterson 1917 -1924 William Page Wilson 1908-1926 1867-1926 Frederick Bari ing 1917 1863-1956 James Arthur Cashman 1917-1926 1880-1956 Harry Albert Hickman 1917-1925 -1925 Isaac Platt Slack 1919-1938 1860-1956 John Herbe1i Ellis -1920--- -- =-1935 Peter Joseph Mulheran 1919-1927 1851-1936 John Richard Bainton 1922-1924 1868-1924 William Taylor Wearne 1925- 1925 1867-1925 James Joseph Murphy 1925-1947 1891-1980 Clarence Wales Wilson 1926-1942 1875-1951 Charles D. Cottrell 1926-1927 1875-1927
5 George Todd 1926-1929 1867-1940 George Daniel Woodall 1927-1938 1859-1944 Charles E. Cripps 1931-1936 1874-1956 Alfred Edward Turtle 1931-1933 -1973 Joseph Wearne 1933-1936 1868-1945 Gordon Herbert Legge 1935-1936 -1957 Robert Henry Curry 1942 1888-1973 Oscar C.Fumiss 1942 1889-1949 Francis William Peterson 1942 -1973 Clarence Herny Wilson 1932-1942 1904-1965 Thomas Charles Murphy 1942 -1967 Thomas Nonnan Johnston 1942 -1945 Robert Laing 1942-1945 1883-1945
Table 2: Rangers who served under the trustees.
Name Period of Service Life Span
Peter Joseph Mulheran 1880-c.1901 1851-1936 '-../Lionel Robert ('Bob') Burke -1932 -1968 William ('Bill') James Bewley 1932-1941 1909-2003 Selby ('Cobby') Pearce 1941-1944 1883-1963 A1ihur Alfred Hook 1944-1956 1893-1970
Source: this list of rangers is based on interviews, by Allan Goodwin, of Bill Bewley and Alf Gillham (the first Blue Mountains City Council ranger) in A. Goodwin, Conservation Plan, Wentworth Falls Picnic Area, unpublished rep01i for National Parks and Wildlife Service, June 1988.
' • . 1 ..... MOUNTAIN S'tl!ll'S, The pise house It is a practice aniong numbers of visitors to urther to Jim Smith's tribute to Mary Shaw in Mountain resotts to JJ1etnorise or write .the anuary's Hobqy's Outreach is a paragraph from an Jessee ccount of the excursion to the Megalong Valley number of steps traversed. The of Ka· ed by Jack Austin in October 2000: toowba .Mnntclpal -Baths, always keen bb '------secnring ·information likely to interest ire· '\Y./e moved on to the house of Mary Shaw, grand qnenterejof the Mountains, recently obtained daughter of Mark Foy. In the shade of a massiv from a party of five young men a li~t of steps :veeping elm at the back of her house of earth walls to the followil'lg localities the list beiag now on overhung by a roof at peace 'W-ith itself, Mary hel vie\v at the Baths' refr~hment stall :..:Bntering court. "In 1926, the house was built by locals, in at J{atoomba Falls, the Ulllnber of eteps aloag allow, without foundations. So when it rains, th the Federal Pass to Linda Falls ate 2543 ; from :x.rater seeps up and I've lost a wall." Jack asks Mary Linda Fa.Us to F~iry Dell, 4Zl ~ Fairy Dell to bout her early days and Mark Fay's shooting lodge: Leura Falls; ?9Z : Leura Falls to Shelter sbed,. · "built to shoot eagles - and they grew vegetables 1023; Falls to Baths, ·1303; from for the Hydro Majestic Hotel - the Chinese? no, n Leura the rouble with the Chinese growing vegetables ... onl3 Baths to Lessee's house. 178. The same party :x.rhen the 'Spaniards' came!" also enumerated the steps from · ~be ~k.out- - In the background, we can hear the river giggl . to Govet'ts .~eap as being1062. and1from Evans' . nd the donkeys tearing at the grass of its banks.' ~ook·ont to the Grand canyon . as SO~. Ap· parentl r these fignre friends thou tired o1 Ed The origin of 'pise' may be pisi de tein or 'walling made of ob, damp earth or rammed-earth' in Penguin's A DiitionmJ counting, albeit other .steps were combatted. qf Building, Mitcham,1964. &ct . T _.
6 Walks and Talks April - May 2011
NB. Excursions must be paid for at the time of booking to ensure your place as Society excursions have to be pre-paid. If, at the last moment, you are unable to attend, please find a replacement as there is no refund.
Saturday 2 April AGM MEETING - The Annual General Meeting will be held at the earlier time of lOam with morning tea served at its conclusion. This will then be followed by our speaker - Peter Newton, 'All You Gotta Do Is Swing - Some Adventures and Misadventures at the Sharp End of Jazz' . Peter, a recently joined member of the Blue Mountains Historical Society, is a freelance writer, specialist editor, discographer/ bibliographer and essayist who has spei1t much of his adult life writing about the varieties of jazz. He has also served on many management committees for private and govenunent sponsored promoters dedicated specifically to jazz. He is presently Chair of the NS W Jazz Archive and for 22 years has edited Quarterly Rag, the flagship journal of the Sydney Jazz Club. Fu1ther infomrntion: John Low, 4782 3751.
Monday 11 April EXCURSION - Historic Tour of Richmond. The Community Bus will depart from Hobby's Reach at 9am. Sites to be visited include Durham Bowes, Hobartville, George Evans house and Clear Pines. A 20 page booklet will be provided. Bring lunch and morning tea. The cost will be $25 payable at BMHS AGM Sat. 2 April. For further information: contact Don Graham, 4751 2991.
Saturday 7 May MEETING - Speaker: Andy Macqueen, ' Frederick Robert D' Arey: Colonial Surveyor, Explorer ---.../ and Artist'. Andy will talk to his recently published biography of Frederick D' Arey, an important figure in the surveying and mapping ofNSW, and one of Andy's forebears. D' Arey offers an interesting example of how one could rise and fall in the confines ofVictorian society in the NSW of the mid-19th century. Andy will focus particularly on D'Arcy's achievements and transgressions in the Blue Mountains area. Fwther information: John Low, 4782 3751
Monday 9 May EXCURSION - Lachlan Macquarie Talk and Tour of the Sydney Botanic Gardens . Volunteer guides will deliver a talk on Lachlan Macquarie and a tour of sites still present in the Sydney Botanic Gardens from his era. The meeting time is 10.30 for I lam start at the Education Centre I Maiden Theatre just off Woolloomooloo Gate entrance on Art Gallery Road. It will be expected to finish at l.30pm. The cost is $13 and does not include your own food and transport costs. Money and names will be collected at April and May meetings. Further information: ring Liz Benson, 4759 2123.
Saturday 4 June MEETING- Speaker: Gavin Jones, 'The NSW Corps of Marines' . Gavin is a member of the NSW Corps of Marines re-enactment group and will speak on the original Corps of Marines' role in our colonial history. He and his colleagues will also present a demonstration of marching and musket fire. The re-enactment group appeared at one of our 2009 Open Days to great acclaim and this return perfonnance promises to be another colourful , informative and dramatic event. For further information: Susan Warm bath, 4757 3402 or John Low, 4782 3751.
June EXCURSION - Lancer Barracks at Parramatta [To be Confirmed] Frnther infonnation; contact Don Graham, 4751 2991.
Vale New Members
Ronald George Radnidge 1927-2011 A very warm welcome is extended to our Assistant Curator of Tarella. new members who we hope will enjoy their Our sympathy is extended to Ron's family in their membership and will become involved in the sad loss. activities of the Society.
Yvonne Gladys Jenkins OAM 1924-2011 Christine Cramer Leura ~Alex~a Lennor:i Leura -- - Founder of Lithgow and District FannlyHislory Pam Stephenson Wentworth Falls Society, local historian and author of several books, Greg Kraushaar Wentworth Falls the most recent being Robert Foster Wentworth Falls Bowenfels,People, Places, Past and Present. Joamy Smith Katoomba She will be sadly missed.
7 Australia's Open Garden Scheme
Since 1987, Australia's Open Garden Scheme has promoted not only European-style gardens but also significant historical landscapes. To announce that Tarella's grounds are to be included in the AOGS Guidebook, published in August, is a matter for pride for us all. We understand that ' each season more than 800 gardens open in all Australian states and territories' and ' details are broadcast on ABC Radio's local radio network' . More news to follow. Here follows Tarella's ' garden detail':
Tarella
LIBRARY NEWS CARCOAR MRS . FOX, MIDWIFE AND NURSE, Now that the stocktake of the lending library is finished I have been able to stand back and look Begs to inform the Ladies of this District, at the collection and examine its strengths and that having given up the duties of Postmistress, weaknesses. she is now prepared to attend upon them during their confinement at their residences, Surprisingly for an area which is proud of its or to receive them into her own house. The greatest care will be taken of and attention paid gardens, there is little on Australian garden history. to all Ladies who may require her services. We have a few books on individual gardens and one The highest testimonials can be produced. of Edna Walling's books. There is the book on Paul Tenns, moderate. Sorensen which, being in the Reference section, is only available for research. At the end of the year Bathurst Free Press, 26 January 18 51 I was able to buy The Garden ofIdeas which is an interesting book covering the effects of ait and JUST PUBLISHED,AND ON SALE AT THIS OFFICE, architecture movements on Australian garden design. PRICE ONE SHILLING, The other book recently published is A Passion for A PAMPHLET, containing the Anti-Trans Place by Allison Halliday & Joanne Hambrett on the portation League and Solemn Engagement of history of the gardens of Mt Wilson. This and several the Australian Colonies; an Address from the other new books will be on the New Acquisitions League to the Inhabitants of the United King table at the April meeting. Do have a look at this dom ; an Address from the League to the table, and you can borrow any of them if you wish. inhabitants of Australasia; and the Constitution of the League. The above little work contains the principal Our strengths lie in our local collection which is Arguments against Transp011ation, and comp vast. Also the biographical and war eoHeetfons are rehends all the statistics connected therewith, extensive. There are some very interesting books showing the results of the system in its political, in both of these sections. Do take time to browse social, and moral bearings, and as regards pauperism, Lunacy, and crime. Every Transport through both of these sections. I am sure you will ationist ought to provide himself with a copy. find something of interest Judy Barham Bathurst Free Press, 26 April 1851
8 How I saw the Bush This query took some time to answer, and gave me a by a British Globe-Trotter good deal more exercise in the process. I was taken through a range of snowy bath-rooms, fitted up with The Hydro Majestic si1rprised our traveller and last douche, spray, vapor bath, and Aix massage apparatus; months retelling ofhis tale left offwith his words: 'I had furthermore, through a suite of rooms belonging to the still my bed-chamber to choose'. Now read on. resident doctor, where one could see real electric baths, also endless apparatus for electrically massaging every They took me through a hundred and twenty thousand limb or organ of the body. Then there was an electric bedrooms (someone in the hotel said it was only 120, light bath in a building by itself, which astonished me but I knew better). All of them were like the convent in exceedingly. You are shut up in a white box, with your Davidson's poem, that hung "high on a hill" head outside, and the light of seven hundred and eighty O' er half a duchy looking four candles concentrated into fo1ty-nine electric bulbs down, that dot the interior of the box, is focussed on to your for every one faced towards the sun, and the deep, lonely unclothed skin. The result is that you immediately lose Kanimbla Valley, and the tumbled, violet-blue peaks that your rheumatism , gout, indigestion, spinal complaint, have given the Blue Mountains district its well-deserved neurasthenia, perihepatitis, and housemaid's knee, and name. There were electric heaters and steam pipes in come out ready to play in an international football match. these rooms, and the rules of the hotel were printed in At least, that is what I am given to understand. gold on white satin and hung at the head of each bed. There is one more bath, but it is some distance away, And they had little verandahs overlooking the blue valley a walk of several minutes from the main building. It ~ like swallows' nests on a wall, and there was a telephone consists of an immense brushwood fence, thick enough beside each bed, and the satin arm-chairs and rich carpets to shut out the most prying of Peeping Toms; a stretch of and dainty wall-papers, and quaint, curious beds were sunny grass and a shallow basin filled with snow ·white differently colored and patterned in every room. There sand, brought sixty miles across the mountains. This is were pictures, too - good pictures; but none of them the Sun Bath, where visitors - men or women, at different equalled the marvellous picture painted by Nature herself, times - lie about very lightly clad, enjoying the strong franied-in by every new tone of golden light and hyacinth rays of the healing sun, and leaving behind them any shadow that swept over the breast of the sleeping hills. stray weakness that the electric light bath, the electric I began to understand the architecture now. The place water bath, the electric massage, plain massage, douche, was built in two wings and the tremendous gallery, room spray, shower, or vapor baths, may possibly have failed to beside room, like a row of cells in a honeycomb. Above hit. were the bedrooms, all looking out on the valley below, I could not help feeling a little nervous in this hotel: the immense corridor with its endless alcoves, stained I had no disease or illness, and 1 did not know what the glass doors, and wide windows, looking on one side consequences might be of coming within range of such a over a stretch of ornamental gardens, on the other upon battery of powerful cures, without any little trouble that a balustraded terrace of white stone, which overhung one might cast as a sop to Cerberus. They were bound to the valley. From the entrance hall wing at one end to "get you" somewhere and somehow, and who knew how? the offices at the other was a distance of a quarter of a 1 resolved to spend my time in the billiard-room ...__.., mile. The conception of the whole place was daring and and the Casino, and in that wonderful Gallery with the brilliant enough for Monte Carlo himself. And the "swag" magnet at either end. Then I should be safe. and the shanty and the cabbage-leaf hat of my dreams. "Will you, though," observed a fellow guest (Quite Oh, my head! My head! a civilised man, who did not even wear knee-boots or a There is a delicacy of thought about these colonials red shirt) to whom I confided my intention. "The billiard in some details, concerning which I, an Englislunan, room will clear your pockets out, because the tables are honestly express my gratitude and surprise. Thoughtful, so good that you will play a great deal more than you beyond words thoughtful, is that well nigh poetic ought. As to the Casino, why, you'll get heart disease conception of placing a bar, but a coy, dainty, retiring there, see if you don't!" little bar - at each end of this marvellous sea-serpent among hotels. I fortified myself before starting on that Unabridged, pp 10-15, fiwn copy of original book owned by long march; I refreshed myself at its close. The feeling Paddy Hennessey, Hartley Vale. that, in whatever direction one may turn, there is always The original book may have been written by John Smythe that pleasant oasis ahead - this is indeed tme..enjo~ment. cl908/10. The "Bath" question now began to agitate my mind. If there was no dark pool among the woods haunted by Editor's Note dusky aborigines, who laid down their boomerangs and Please could items for the next issue be with the editor their wallabys on the bank as they came to bathe, what at [email protected] no later than 15th May. was there? Items for Walks & Talks the previous week to John Low [email protected], thank you.
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