ÒNurungiÓ OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE CONCORD HERITAGE SOCIETY email: [email protected] www.concordheritage.asn.au EDITOR Mr. GRAHAM PACKETT No. 75 May 2002 9743-3007 PRESIDENT Next Meeting Ms. TRISH HARRINGTON Wed 8th May – Petty Officer Leon Nichols, HMAS Hobart 9764-3296 (decommissioned, after 3 months patrolling in Antarctic Wa- PUBLIC RELATIONS ters. Spectacular photographs of the history of the Hobart, Mrs. TRISH SKEHAN Antarctica, Gulf War, Bi-Centenary and Olympics. This 9743-4172 should be a most interesting talk so please come along and SECRETARY bring any friends. Mrs. LOIS MICHEL Please note change of speaker. Because Petty Officer 3 Flavelle Street Nichols was only available during this time Bill Barlow has (P.O. Box 152) kindly agreed to postpone his talk until a future date. Concord 2137 Phone: 9744-8528 Fax: 9744-7591 Future Meetings * Wed. 12th June – a lady from the local Lapidary Club (full de- MEETINGS tails next time) General Meetings *Sunday, 14th July – Robyn Hawes from The Friends of 2nd Wednesday of month Rookwood, speaking on her favourite subject, “Rookwood at 7:30 pm in the Cemetery”. Concord Citizens’ Centre *Please note change of date and time for July meeting. Executive Meetings 4th Wednesday of month Anzac History at 7:45 pm in the Concord Citizens’ Centre Rising Sun – The Badge of Distinction Committee Meetings The design of the famous Rising Sun Badge worn by Austral- Contact Chairpersons ian soldiers was inspired by a brace of bayonets mounted on a Museum plaque on the office wall of General Sir Edward Hutton. Sim- Fred Stansfield, 9743-1866 ple enough but as with most Australian icons, the scenario is Walker Estates far more involved that it first seems. Errol Grace, 9743-4301 Heritage The bayonet shield was the brainchild of Major Joseph Maria Bill Barlow, 9743-3662 Gordon. Born in Spain, he served in the British Army until ill Oral History health terminated his career. However his condition improved Lola Sharp, 8753-0659 and he gained a permanent position as Commander of Fort * Glenville, a small defence installation assigned to guard the sea MUSEUM approaches to Adelaide. 5 Wellbank Street It was there that he originated the trophy as ‘a meaningful sym- Open 2:00 - 4:00 pm bol of defence’. He often referred to it as the ‘rising sun’ and Wednesday & Saturday took it with him on lecture tours. The trophy was actually con- structed by Commander William Creswell, out of the bush some kilometres outside the Commandant of the Naval Forces of South northern Queensland town of Herberton. Australia which at that time comprised one One grave stands out by its simplicity. It is vessel, a small cruiser called Protector. covered by a protective whitewashed concrete In 1889 Gordon, by now a Colonel, went to the slab with a cement cross at its top end. No South African war and while there he renewed epitaph recalls even the name of the de- acquaintance with a Major General Hutton, a ceased. The inscription on the cross is a former ADC to Queen Victoria. The two had mere two words: “A Priest”. met about five years earlier, while Hutton was No one could identify this grave as that of the re-organising the military forces of NSW. dedicated clergyman who created the Dawn Gordon gave the trophy to Hutton as a per- Service. A marker placed next to it in more sonal gift. recent times reads: At the turn of the century Hutton was ap- “Adjacent to, and on the right of this marker pointed Commander in Chief of Australian lies the grave of the late Rev. Arthur Ernest forces and was confronted with the problem White, a Church of England clergyman and of designing a badge for Australian forces in Padre, 44th Bn First AIF.” South Africa – part of the problem was that the British troops wore slouch hats also and At dawn on 25th April, 1923 on Mt. Clarence, something was needed to make it distinctively overlooking King George Sound, Albany, WA, Australian. Rev. White, with some 20 men with him, si- lently watched a wreath floating out to sea. While studying sketches submitted by a Mel- He then quietly recited the words, “As the sun bourne die sinker, during the badge develop- rises and goeth down we will remember ment, he refused to consider designs them”. All were deeply moved and the news featuring Australian flora or fauna – wanting of the ceremony soon spread. something with a look of martial purpose. “Albany”, Rev. White is quoted to have said, “Why not something like that?” he asked, “was the last sight of land these Anzac troops pointing to the bayonet trophy of arms which saw after leaving Australian shores and some was fastened to the wall over his office door of them never returned. We should hold a – Room 52A, Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. service (here) at the first light of dawn each Thus it was that the digger got his now famil- Anzac Day to commemorate them.” iar Sun Badge which has gone through many evolutionary changes over the decades, albeit And that is how, on Anzac Day 1923, he held extremely subtle. The irony is that it is asso- the First Dawn Service. ciated with the rising sun and not bayonets. “Remember Traditions” For many years the original trophy which in- The booklet from which these two items were taken . spired the Rising Sun badge was relegated to . “is designed to explain some of the ceremonies and a remote corner of a drill hall at HMAS symbols Australia uses to honour those responsible for Cerberus, the naval training depot at Flinders, today’s peace and freedom and the unique way of life Victoria. It was put into store, but in 1967 it Australians call their own.” It is full of interesting in- was refurbished and given pride of place on formation and can be purchased from Remember Pub- public view at the main entrance to Russell Hill lications, (02) 9642-6903. Defence Headquarters in Canberra. “Remember Traditions” Sydney by Ferry Exhibition at the Museum of Sydney on the The Dawn Parade Began Out West site of first Government House - 12th April to 4th August, 2002 The Dawn Service on Anzac Day has become a solemn Australian tradition. Its story is “The Harbour creeps between the thousand buried, as it were, in a small cemetery carved inlets like a series of grand canals, and across them glide the gondolas, the Sydney ferry- November 1788. After that nothing is known boats . .” of her existence until her marriage in 1805 Sydney by Ferry will trace the journeys and to Isaac Nichols. It is clear, however, that by the destinations of Sydney’s ferries in their this time, she was fully accepted by her moth- heyday - from the 1890s to the 1930s. In the ers family. days before the Harbour Bridge and the mo- Roseanna had three sons by the widower tor car, commuters took their regular seats on Isaac Nichols, the emancipist licensee of The boats such as the Wallaby and the Lady Jolly Roger, overseer of convicts under both Hampden, and swarmed into Circular Quay; Governor Hunter and George Johnston (her reversing the process at 5 pm. Schoolboys stepfather), and a landownder of considerable peered curiously into engine rooms, while la- holdings. An entrepreneur as well, Nichols dies returning from an afternoon’s shopping engaged in ship-building and coastal trading, retired to the ladies’ saloon. On weekends the and in 1809 was appointed superintendent of ‘great picnic trade’ ferried Sydney’s multitudes public works and assistant to the Naval officer. - not just to Manly, but to the ‘pleasure resorts’ This led, in 1810, to his appointment as first at Cremorne, Taronga Zoo, Lane Cove and postmaster. Cabarita. By then, the Nichols were living in their new From the northern and southern shores of the house in High Street, The Rocks, scene in harbour, to the upper reaches of the July 1811 of the annual Bachelor’s Ball. The Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers, Sydney by Sydney Gazette reported that ‘His Excellency Ferry will hilight Sydney’s forgotten pleasure the Governor was pleased to express much destinations - such as Athol Gardens, satisfaction at the conveniences the house Correy’s Gardens, the Avenue Pleasure afforded, and as the proprietor had declared Grounds and Fairyland. The exhibition will a willingness to devote it to the public accom- also take visitors on a visual journey of har- modation, His Excellency was himself bour landmarks (past and present). Through pleased to honour it with the appellation of the beautiful photography and painting, ferry Sydney Hotel’. models and ephemera, Sydney by Ferry will In November 1814, Roseanna and her hus- tell a wonderful story of the ferries and har- band were witnesses at the wedding of her bour journeys that have inspired painters, mother, Esther, to George Johnston. After poets and Sydneysiders alike. Nichols died, five years later, Roseanna mar- This is a fantastic exhibition to which our society has ried James Stewart on 13 August 1820, with contributed photographs and is well worth a visit. Blanche Johnston, her half-sister, as a wit- ness. Roseanna’s children of her first mar- Roseanna Abrahams . riage subsequently lived for varying periods with the Johnstons at Annandale. was born in Newgate Gaol on 18 March 1787 some eight months after her mother Esther Roseanna died on 11 April 1837, aged 49, Abrahams, committed the felony for which she and was buried with Isaac Nichols in the fam- was transported, with Roseanna, to NSW. ily vault at Rookwood. Roseanna must have been a sturdy baby for in those days of high infant mortality, Newgate Yaralla Open Day Gaol provided one of the least sanitary envi- As always, this was an outstanding success.