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EUGENE VON GUERARD IN ILLAWARRA
A Micro-Historical Study of his Portrait of Blanche & Agnes Gordon and his Masterpiece Landscapes of
American Creek and Lake Illawarra
The received wisdom of Von Guerard’s 1859 visit to Illawarra is best encapsulated in the notes which were presented at the Sotheby's “Important Australian Art” sale in 2007. At that auction a work said to be entitled “Cabbage Trees near Shoalhaven River N.S.W. (Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1860, image 47 x 74 cm; in frame 83 x 109 cm.) -‐ and also said to bear the inscription 'Cabbage Palms Bread and Water Creek’ -‐ was put up on the block and snapped up by the State Library of NSW.
The oil currently held by the SLNSW and purchased from Sothebys
The work, said to have been taken to London by Major-‐General Macarthur, was reputedly shown at the London International Exhibition of 1862.
The work in question is identical in nearly all respects (except size) to a work long held by Wollongong Art Gallery. At that institution the work has been
catalogued as follows: “Eugene von Guerard, Cabbage tree forest, American Creek, New South Wales, 1860, oil on canvas, 51.2 x 85.5cm, Wollongong Art Gallery Collection, Purchased with assistance from the Wollongong Gallery Society, NSW Office of the Minister for the Arts. Public subscription, 1984.”
American Creek (spelt “Amerikan Creek” by Eugene von Guerard in his sketchbook held by the SLNSW) is not a watercourse located in the Shoalhaven but at Figtree -‐ just a few miles south-‐west of Wollongong
Despite the title – which the State Library indicates comes from an inscription on the back of the painting – the on-‐line SLNSW cataloguer accurately states “This painting depicts a view of the forest at Brandy and Water Creek, with Mount Kembla in the left-‐hand corner.”
The oil held by Wollongong Art Gallery
Cabbage tree forest, American Creek, New South Wales, 1860, oil on canvas, 51.2 x 85.5cm, Wollongong Art Gallery Collection, Purchased with assistance from the Wollongong Gallery Society, NSW Office of the Minister for the Arts and Public
Subscription, 1984.
The SLNSW cataloguer also makes reference to the pencil drawing of the same view also held by that institution -‐ entitled "Brandy and Water Creek Palm Valley Farm James Kewan 6th dec. 1859" -‐ and held at Dixon Gallery and catalogued as
“D 17, no. 44. Also related images in von Guerard's sketchbook, DGB 16, vol. 10, ff. 8-‐21 (4-‐18 Dec. 1859)”.
“Brandy and Water Creek”, however, (just like von Guerard’s “Amerikan Creek”) is a real place in Illawarra.
The “American Creek” and the “Brandy and Water Creek” flow as two distinct and separate watercourses from their separate headwaters until the Brandy and Water Creek joins the American Creek at “Central Kembla” -‐ now part of the Wollongong suburb today named Figtree.
The junction of the two streams is in the vicinity of – and in a westerly direction -‐ from present-‐day Govett Crescent in Figtree.
The headwaters of the American Creek are in Windy Gully (at Kembla Heights) and the headwaters of the Brandy and Water Creek are in a valley over the escarpment above the Mount Kembla Colliery Mine site. The headwaters of the Brandy and Water Creek and the headwaters of the Kembla Creek are actually in fairly close proximity to each other but separated by a low ridge.
Tributaries of Brandy and Water & American Creeks
Map showing Brandy and Water & American creeks
Brandy and Water & American Creeks Catchment Dimensions
Despite the remarkable similarity (a testament to the strength of von Guerard’s sketches, memory and extraordinary drawing skills) there is a minor difference between the pencil sketch of the Brandy and Water Creek and the two oils insofar as both oils have a mountain (Mount Kembla) in the background and the pencil sketch does not.
The road depicted, I then suspected, might possibly be the old Gibson's Road (now named “Amaroo Avenue”) and may, I thought, have then formed the eastern boundary of Benjamin Rixon's 40 acres.
For almost a decade, however, the SLNSW’s online transcription of the phrase "Brandy and Water Creek Palm Valley Farm James Kewan 6th dec. 1859" led me astray – as did the SLNSW’s reluctance to switch either the confusing title “Cabbage Trees Near The Shoalhaven River, N.S.W.” or the presumably erroneous inscription 'Cabbage Palms Bread and Water Creek”.
Despite much intensive research, nowhere in the annals of Illawarra’s exceedingly parochial history could I then locate a “Mr Kewan”.
So what was a boy to do?
Well – I basically gave up.
But looking recently again at von Guerard’s sketchbooks for an exhibition entitled "The Road to Wollongong” (June-‐November 2015) I was co-‐curating with my daughter, Ione Davis, at Wollongong City Gallery, I noticed a pencil sketch in the SLNSW containing the inscription “Mr Gordon’s Farm”
“Mr Gordon’s Farm near Wollongong 6 December 1859
And the sketchbook also contained a delightful portrait of a woman holding a child.
“Amerikan Creek” – 7th December 1859 – from Volume 10: Sketchbook XXXI, No. 14 Australian. 1859, 1862 / by Eugene von Guerard, SLNSW
Moreover, undertaken on the same day of December 1859, von Guerard’s sketchbook also contains a charming self-‐portrait of the artist sketching while sitting upon the massive roots of an Illawarra fig.
FigTree Amerikan Creek 7 December 1859
But so what?
Seeing these images was not really getting me anywhere as I knew nothing of a “Mr Kewan” and, although very familiar with the early history of Illawarra, I was unfamiliar with a “Mr Gordon” -‐ and assumed it was going to be a fearfully common local name that would be exceedingly difficult to research.
I then had stroke of luck.
A number of social media local history Facebook sites had cropped up in Illawarra and, on a site named “Kembla Jottings”, a man named John Stafford had pointed out after I posted the details relating to “Brandy and Water Creek Palm Valley Farm James Kewan 6th dec. 1859" that this was clearly a mis-‐transcription on the part of either von Guerard or The SLNSW.
Mr Stafford suggested the transcription should read James Slevin (sometimes variously spelt as Sleven or even Slaven).
A quick check of both local newspapers and the NSW birth records revealed that Mr Stafford was indeed correct.
Better still Mr Stafford provided some additional information.
“There was an earlier settler in American Creek by the name of Henry Gordon.”
Mr Stafford continued by adding that “Henry Gordon had several blocks which were in close vicinity or joined to each other. These blocks straddled both the American Creek and Cordeaux Road and were and are on the Eastern side of Stone's Road (so named after a pioneering family)... If you able to stand on
Stones Road in the vicinity of the Mount Kembla Recreation ground and face east and then, by looking left, a low ridge will be in sight and then, looking right, another low ridge will be in sight (past Cordeaux Road) ... It is between the ridges from north to south and then a distance to the bridge on the bottom of ‘Bushels Hill’ (or perhaps further) is where Mr Gordon had his property where at the time some sketches were made by E. Von Guerard.”
John Stafford also confirmed that “regarding the name on the E. von Guerard sketch of Brandy and Water Creek… the name written there is Slevin not "Kewan".
“There are two blocks occupied by persons with the surname Slevin. One block is in the name of Thomas Slevin consisting of 25 Acres. This block is immediately
north of Henry Gordon's 30-Acre Lot and is West of the boundary line between the Parish of Kembla and the Parish of Wollongong. Another block immediately north of Thomas Slevin's block is in the name of James Slevin and consists of 25 Acres and it too has the boundary between the Parish of Kembla and the Parish of
Wollongong as its Eastern Boundary. The Brandy and Water Creek passes through Thomas Slevin's block. However there is a smaller stream of water running south through James Slevin's Block until it reaches the Brandy and Water Creek. Both of these Slevin blocks are 2 or 3 hundred metres West of the actual point where the Brandy and Water Creek flows into the American Creek. If you were to stand midway (more or less) between the William James Drive and Cordeaux Road intersection and the bottom of Bushell Hill (where the Steam Locomotive stops when the commemorations for the Mount Kembla Mine Disaster are being held) and look North from that mid point you will see a ridge ... It is over that ridge in the next valley where the Brandy and Water Creek passed through and a line
going North from this mid-point is (more or less) the Eastern Boundary of Henry Gordon's Lots and the Eastern Boundary of the two Slevin Lots . These lots can be seen in J.L. McNamara's Book "Life At Cordeaux River " - well actually inside the back cover where Mr. McNamara has placed a Map of the Parish of Kembla. The Slevin Blocks are numbers 96 and 97 and are not far from the curve in Stones
Road as it climbs the Hill north of the American Creek. How would E. Von Guerard get access to these blocks? Probably because there were surveyed "roads" or an allowance between individual blocks of between 33 links and 1 chain to build a road if needed. If the occupiers could get to their block then the Artist could also... I can see how the name Kewan is arrived at but if the name Slevin is written in old fashioned "running writing " the capital S and the lower case L can appear to be
joined thus seem to be the letter H or K….”
I became very excited after receiving this information for I then immediately thought that the sketch of the woman and child might thus depict the wife of either James or Thomas Slevin.
A check of the on-‐line Land Title records proved Mr Stafford was very much on the mark and so I looked forward to the detective work of trying to conclusively identify the woman and child in von Guerard's pencil sketch dated 7th December 1859.
The next day I was off to the Land Titles office and the details which I found therein, tedious though they may be to some, are as follows.
“The vendor SLEVIN James TO purchaser OWEN, Robert 11.11.1857 Registration
Book 53 Number 378 DESCRIPTION: Mortgage. 20 acres & 26 acres near American Creek, Illawarra: 20a being West by road opposite measured portion of 52acres, South by a road opposite measured portion of 25 acres, being Lot 3 in advert 20.03.1852; 26a
being [bearing] East by measured portion of 30a, West by road opposite measured portion of 46a, S by road opposite measured portion of 31a, being
Lot 2 in advert 19.05.1854. Reconveyance see Registration Book 65 Number 215.” In this transaction James Slevin is described as “Farmer Brandy & Water Creek, Illawarra” – as is his brother Thomas Slevin.
The vendor Kennelly, William to purchaser SLEVIN, James 10.11.1857 Registration Book 53 Number 379 Conveyance. 26 acres near American Creek,
East by measured portion of 30 acres, W
The vendor Owen, Robert to purchaser Slevein, James 12.12.1859 65 215 Reconveyance of Mtge 11.11.1857 Reg 53 Number 378. 20a & 26a nr American Creek, Illawarra: 20a being W by rd opp msrd ptn of 52a, S by a rd opp mp of 25a, being Lot 3 in advert 20.03.1852; 26a being E by msrd ptn of 30a, W by rd opp msrd ptn of 46a, S by rd opp msrd ptn of 31a, being Lot 2 in advert 19.05.1854.
The vendor Plunkett, John Hubert to purchaser Slevein, James 12.12.1859 65 216 C. 36a 3r 10p Lot 8 Keelogues Estate, commg on O'Brien's Rd where Wstn bdy of
the estate crosses it, W by S line, SE by NE line, NE by O'Brien's Rd
Slevein, James to Owen, Robert 13.12.1859 65 217 M. Lots nr American Creek & pt of Keelogues Estate: 20a nr American Creek, W by rd opp mp of 52a, N by E line, E by S line, S by rd opp mp of 25a, being Lot 3 in Advert 20.03.1852; 36a 3r 10p Lot 8
Keelogues Estate, commg on O'Brien's Rd where Wstn bdy of the estate crosses it, W by S line, SE by NE line, NE by
O'Brien's Rd.
The vendor Slavein, Thomas To purchaser Slevein, James 21.12.1859 65 218 Deed of Exchange concerning Grants to Thos Slevein 12.10.1852 & to James.
This seemed all very well and good but when I checked the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriage records for a Slevin living in the vicinity of American creek I was both delighted and disappointed.
I quickly found an 1856 birth for a child named Mary Slavin born to James and Rosa and registered at Wollongong.
Despite the variant spelling, this had to be our man SLEVIN and his wife and daughter.
The disappointment, however, was that the child depicted in the sketch by von Guerard in December 1859 was clearly far too small to be that child named “Mary Slevin” born in 1856.
Not to be defeated, however, I then turned to the local archives to see what I could learn of the person von Guerard named as “Mr. Gordon.
As it turned out there was indeed a real person named “Henry Gordon Esquire J.P.” -‐ and, as his appended title indicates, he was of considerably higher local social status that either Thomas, James or Mary Slevin.
***
“Henry Gordon, of Sydney” had obtained on March 28, 1843 four blocks of land, all described as being on American Creek.
To my great excitement I also learnt that an early Illawarra resident I had previously heavily researched -‐ Samuel McAuley -‐ had on “17.09.1846” sold to Henry Gordon “24 acres at Illawarra, pt of the Great Reserve, commg at W bdy of G Blaxland's 1280a Grant at SE cnr of a msrd ptn of 30a, N by that 30a to American Creek.”
The question now to be asked was whether or not Henry Gordon resided on his land or was simply an absentee owner?
And, as luck would have it, Mr Gordon did appear to have been living at American Creek in December 1859 – or at least was visiting on that date.
A record was found in the Illawarra Mercury (Monday 28 December 1857) that "Henry Lehanoy" (variously spelt) appeared on summons to answer the charge of having used abusive and threatening language to Henry Gordon, Esq., J. P., of ‘Woodbrook’, in a public place at American Creek.”
The Lehany [Lehaey] and Buckland and Slevin and Organ farms shown in close proximity to Henry Gordon’s land
Henry Gordon’s land between American and Brandy and Water Creeks
Early that year, however, a rather odd news report from the same journal indicated that Mr Henry Gordon had a family and did indeed appear to be living on his land:
“A Duck's Gizard. — H. Gordon, Esq., of Woodbrook, transmitted to us, on Saturday last, two nuggets of pure gold, taken from the gizard of a duck which had been killed on that day, by a member of his family. The gizard, containing small grains of quartz and other, perhaps, valuable stones, Mr. Gordon has preserved in spirits for further inspection. The block of land has frontage to the American Creek, from which it is presumed the gold has been procured; but, whether it has been washed down Mount Kembla, or whether Illawarra may yet turn out a gold formation,
contrary to the opinions set forth by our geologists, remains to be seen (Illawarra Mercury, Monday 9 March 1857)
Whether either Henry Gordon (or the historian writing this essay) had struck gold thus also remained to be seen. Moreover, the issue of who the woman in the von Guerard sketch holding a child might actually be was still yet to be resolved.
It was certainly not Mrs Slevin – but did that therefore mean that it must certainly be Mrs Gordon?
At first blush it looked unlikely – for, tragically, Mrs Gordon had but a few months to live after December 7, 1859.
The Examiner (Kiama) Saturday 16 June 1860
But then I again checked the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriage records.
And, sure enough, in 1859 “Frances B. Gordon” (wife of Henry Gordon of Wollongong) had given birth to a child named Agnes M. Gordon.
Moreover, the baby – “Agnes Gordon” -‐ would have been only three months old when von Guerard visited American Creek and so looked to be just about the right size to be the babe in arms depicted in von Guerard’s SLNSW sketchbook.
We can know this for certain from the following detailed obituaries, which appeared in the Illawarra Mercury.
LATE MISS ANNA GORDON.
On Monday the death occurred of I Miss Anna Louisa Ranclaud Gordon, I of Smith Street, Wollongong, one of the oldest residents of the town. She carried her age remarkably well until recently, and took an active interest in the affairs of life. The late Miss Gordon was the eldest surviving daughter of the late Mr. Henry Gordon, who came from Ireland in the early eighties [sic]. He established an
Educational Academy in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, where the deceased was born 93 years ago. The late Mr. Gordon came to the Illawarra district in 1845 and engaged
in farming at Mount Kembla. Later he relinquished the farm, and came to Wollongong to live, where he established a school, which he conducted for some years. The deceased had lived in Wollongong ever since, where she had endeared herself to a circle of friends. When the deceased was 18 years of age her mother
died, and the following year her eldest sister passed away; she was left to mother three brothers and five sisters, the youngest of whom was nine months of age.
After the death of her mother, the family settled in Wollongong, where the late Mr. Gordon opened a private school. The late Miss Gordon was a great worker for her church, which she loved. In her younger days she was a Sunday School teacher, and was an active worker in raising funds for the erection of the present St. Michael's Church. She had a very keen recollection of the early days of Wollongong, and to hear her stories of life in those far off days was most
interesting. One of her sisters married Mr. Frank Thompson, who went to reside at Horsley [a famed local farm at West Dapto], and later settled in Sydney, and another sister married Mr. Arthur Orpen MacGillycuddy, who at that time was
associated with the Public Works Department, when the Wollongong breakwater was under construction. The remains were taken to St. Michael's Church on
Tuesday, where a service was conducted by the Rev. T. Gee at 2 p.m., which was attended by a number of old residents, in addition to immediate relatives and
friends. In 'referring to the exemplary life which the deceased had lived, the Rev. T.' Gee based his remarks on Job V., 26: ‘Thou shall come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season’. Amongst the relatives present at the service were: Mr. G.H. Gordon (brother), Miss Blanche Gordon (sister), Messrs. Harry Gordon, Dan Gordon, Orpen MacGillycuddy, Ernest and Langloh Thompson (nephews), Mr. and Mrs. J. Rearley (Pymble) and Mrs. Gordon MacGillycuddy
(niece). The interment took place in the C. of E. cemetery, Wollongong, the Rev. T. Gee officiated at the graveside, and in addition to the relatives, a number of
residents of the town were in attendance (Illawarra Mercury, Friday 26 January 1934)
OBITUARY LATE MISS BLANCHE GORDON |
The death occurred on Monday at her residence, Smith Street, Wollongong, of Miss Blanche Gordon, who had been a resident of the district for a long number of years, having been born at Mt. Kembla 77 years ago. Her late father, Mr Henry Gordon, came to Australia from Ireland in the early forties [sic], and established
an Educational Academy in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. This he subsequently relinquished in order to take up farming at Mt. Kembla, about 90 years ago, and it
was there that the deceased was born. About 1860 the family moved to Wollongong where Mr. Gordon opened a private educational academy in Market Square. Soon after the family settled in Wollongong, Mr. Gordon lost his wife, and Miss Anna Gordon, who passed away in January 1934, undertook the duty of
rearing the family. The late Miss Blanche Gordon was a noted musician in her day, and for many years officiated as accompanist for the then Wollongong
Philharmonic Society, going with the Society to Ballarat and Bendigo to take part in choral competitions. She was also a member of the Choir of St. Michael's Church, Wollongong, for many years, and also acted as assistant organist to Mr. Brook
Tozer, who was organist at that time. In 1903 deceased took over 'Sorrento' Guest House, Smith St., Wollongong, which she conducted until a few months ago, when she relinquished management owing to ill health. The late Miss Gordon was noted
for her sweet disposition and charitable nature. She only saw the best in everybody. On Tuesday, the funeral left St. Michael's Church for the Wollongong C.E. cemetery. A service was conducted in the Church by the Rev. E. Walker, R.D., assisted by the Rev. W. K. Deasey. Mr. Walker made feeling reference during the service to the Christian character of the late Miss Gordon, and her love for her church. The hymn, 'For Ever With The Lord' was sung, and as the funeral cortege left the church; Mr. Brooke Tozer, who presided at the organ, played the Funeral March. The Rev. E.' Walker, assisted by Rev. W. K. Deasey, also officiated at the
graveside. The chief mourners were Messrs. George Gordon, (brother), Harry Gordon, D. Macgillicuddy, Gordon Macgillicuddy, Orpin Macgillicuddy, Ernest
Thompson, Jack Reavley (nephews), Rex Jenkins, Mrs. Reavley; - Mrs. Macgillicuddy, Mrs. A. O. Macgillicuddy (nieces).
Illawarra Mercury Friday 26 July 1935
By an extraordinary coincidence the baby girl von Guerard had sketched on December 7th 1859 would grow up to, in 1886, marry a man named Arthur Orpin MacGillycuddy (variously spelt). He and his new bride, Agnes M. Gordon, would go on, in 1889, to produce a son named Henry Gordon MacGillycuddy. This child, in turn, would live to father a daughter named Denise MacGillycuddy.
The young Denise MacGillycuddy grew up to herself become an artist – though nowhere near as successful a one as von Guerard. Indeed, none of her works are publicly known to have survived or to have escaped family captivity. She nonetheless married well and, in 1951, after much overseas travel, became the first President of the Illawarra Society of Artists. (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Monday 8 February 1951). For the story of her role in forming the Illawarra Society of Artists see my long catalogue essay for 50 years of the Illawarra Art Society: 1951-2001 (Wollongong City Gallery, 2001)
One could hardly hope for a neater piece of synchronicity and serendipity to close discussion of a previously unresearched portrait sketch by a famous Australian colonial artist of an unnamed Wollongong woman holding an unnamed child.
But to tie that almost complete circle into the most extraordinary perfect knot, there is not just the pictorial evidence of the wife of Henry Gordon – Fanny Gordon neé Frances (Fanny) Blanche Findlay -‐ and her baby in arms, little Agnes Gordon.
Incredibly, there survives an exceedingly early written record of the Gordon family’s connection to American Creek.
Moreover, it reveals that the educationalist Henry Gordon was not himself hacking away at the subtropical rainforest depicted in the fabulous von Guerard oil and lithograph of American Creek held by Wollongong Art Gallery.
Some of that axe-‐work had been done by the white pioneer of Thirroul – Samuel McCauley – who had apparently learnt a lot in the intervening years since his early days on a clearing lease on the nearby Jenkins “Berkeley Estate” and his purchase of a small plot on American Creek which he then on-‐sold to Henry Gordon.
Remarkably, included within "The Road to Wollongong 1815-‐2015” exhibition I was then co-‐curating for Wollongong Art Gallery with my daughter, Ione Davis, was the earliest photographic image of Thirroul – taken by Nicholas Caire in 1879.
Serendipitously that image depicts the ring-‐barked escarpment forest at Thirroul which the McCauleys – no doubt based on their bitter experience of root and trunk grubbing on both the clearing lease on the Jenkins’ “Berkeley Estate” and,
later, at American Creek – decided the best approach to deforesting Illawarra escarpment land was to ring-‐bark every giant tree and simply wait. And, indeed, after his arrival in Thirroul in 1845 and the time elapsed until Nicholas Caire snapped his panoramic photograph in 1879, a very large number of ghostly dead eucalyptus trees were pretty much all that remained of the once pristine giants of the escarpment forest above Thirroul.
“Coast scene from the Illawarra Range” - Nicholas Caire 1879
Augustus Earle gives us some indication of the gloomy forest and fantastically tall escarpment trees in his celebrated 1827 works (the earliest Illawarra images we can conclusively date) – undertaken under such precarious conditions that he actually broke his leg while struggling back up the escarpment track on his return trip to Sydney.
Augustus Earle – “A bivouack, [i.e. bivouac] day break on the Ilawarra [i.e. Illawarra] Mountains”, NLA
Yet, even as late as 1892, A. H. Fullwood in his watercolour of the same panorama depicted in Nicholas Caire’s image, a few of the same remnant ghost gums and the largely cleared escarpment forest are still apparent.
A.H. Fullwood – Thirroul from Bulli Pass. A Tuck World Wide Series Postcard c. 1905 (based on an 1892 watercolour)
Nicholas Caire - Mount Bulli [Thirroul] 1879
Nicholas Caire “Free selection in the Bulli Mountains [Thirroul]” 1879
To better understand the above photographic analysis of the impact of white settlers on the Illawarra escarpment such as the McCauley at Thirroul from 1845 it is helpful to carefully read the remarkable letters written by Henry Gordon (whose farm von Guerard sketched and painted) relating to his American Creek land in 1843 and 1845.
Incredibly the two letters written in the 1840s by Denise MacGillycuddy Yates’ great grandfather (Henry Gordon) to Denise’s great grandmother (Fanny Gordon neé Finlay) have survived and are held by the SLNSW.
Miraculously, they provide some insight into the way the very landscape that von Guerard depicted in December 1859 had been shaped by the small landholders who purchased Illawarra escarpment land and then started hacking into the subtropical rainforest.
LETTERS OF HENRY GORDON
The first letter is headed “Normal Institution”. This was a Sydney Private School from which Henry Gordon retired as Superintendent Headmaster in December 1848, having commenced in that position in 1838 after previously being employed as a teacher there.
A Mr. Henry Carmichael had established the School in Elizabeth Street (opposite Hyde Park) and it opened to students in January 1835. The school operated as a boys' school for both day students and boarders, with fees differing accordingly,
until Carmichael handed over management of the school to Henry Gordon in 1838.
All underlined material in the transcription of the letters which follow has been added for either clarification purposes or to provide biographical and historical details relating to people who seem to be either referred to or alluded to in the letters.
The First Letter
Normal Institution
Monday 2nd Oct 1843
James MACLEHOSE (John CARMICHAEL engraver), Sydney. 1838 ink; paper engraving, printed in black ink, from one copper plate (8.8 x 15.9 cm)
My dear Fanny
I congratulate you on your pleasant trip and safe arrival at Woodbrook [at American Creek, Illawarra]. We heard distinctly Elizabeth’s groaning
[presumably a joke: laugh out loud] during the whole of the passage [in the “Sophia Jane” pictured below in 1841; in the year 1843 the “Sophia Jane” Paddle Steamer left Sydney for Wollongong every Thursday at 9.00 p.m.]
Mr Catt [not conclusively identified but presumably managing the ‘Woodbrook’ farm at American Creek for Henry Gordon] was taken a little aback when you made your appearance and I hope will be kept to the Mill for some time [the expression ‘kept to the Mill’ presumably means ‘kept working hard’]. How are the little ones? [Henry and Frances Gordon had two children living -‐ Frances H. Gordon (born either 1838 or 1839 and Henry W. Gordon (born 1843)]. How do you like the Castle [presumably their first home or hut at American Creek named “Woodbrook”], the waterfalls, the flowers. I am quite at a loss to take me up [?]. Have they yet forgotten papa I cannot visit you till after rent day. I got the 18 pounds from Ellis as he promised [Mr Ellis may have been an amateur vocalist active in Sydney in the 1830s and 1840s]. Times are getting worse I am not aware of the no. who have left [the School named the ‘Normal Institution’; in 1843 the severe economic depression had caused widespread bankruptcies and private school fees were thus often a low priority] but Gould wrote me this morning but cannot stand and three are withdrawn [“Master J. Gould” won a “prize for neat ciphering” according to the Sydney Morning Herald 19th December 1842]. several others have left and I stand it like a philosopher because you are at Home beyond the fear of want. I have no doubt that you will think Woodbrook a lovely spot such as lovers like to woo! Can you see the Kangaroo on the mountain? But I apprehend your time will be taken up in calculating pounds shillings and pence and thinking how the farm could be made to pay. This has been my study, a puzzle, for some time, in church, by day and by night, the thoughts are not sinful as long as so dear a charge is at stake. The potatoes are not worth sending [to Sydney] I fear. 2/6 a cwt. was offered by the dealers! and I
suppose there are not many to send. Only 2 pounds 10 shillings I am able to take up the bill without applying to the savings bank, and I expect enough in before rent day to meet that demand. If matters do not alter and I cannot alter [sic?] see how, there will not be a school in Sydney next year but [Henry Gordon’s pessimism proved unfounded and he was still operating the school in 1848]-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐. Betsy [unidentified] called yesterday for a place but as Sarah [presumably Sarah Hawkins – daughter of the Captain Hawkins mentioned in the next letter transcribed below] is writing she will tell all. Your hydrangea is almost in flower and we have had showers today which makes everything look green unless [except?] those animate objects which the times make look blue [presumably another reference to the economic depression then engulfing the colony]. As the sawyers have done will you see what rations they have had from Catt and also what Fox [unidentified] has had. How much timber there is sawn since I paid Daly [possibly either Owen or Patrick Daly – builders and carpenters – of Kent street Sydney (Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 12 September 1846) and, who by 1859, also seem to have become timber merchants at Tomerong (Illawarra Mercury Monday 13 June 1859) but a Patrick Daly (presumably the same man) was living, in 1859, at Goonarew (variously spelt Gundarew etc) which is another name for the Keelogues Estate. Gregory Blaxland, of Blue Mountains fame, had a property of 1280 acres promised to him in 1830 known as "Keelogues" and later as "Gundarun". John Hubert Plunkett (who was appointed as Solicitor General for the Colony in 1832) secured this grant in 1837 for £1300. Plunkett subdivided and sold Keelogues estate for £13,000 in 1840 and Samuel McCauley purchased a block he later on-‐sold to Henry Gordon] Let me know what you think of the spot the sawyers have cleared and what quantity of ground McCauley’s man has cleared [This is presumably the labourer working for Samuel McCauley who sold 23 acres to Henry Gordon and then left American Creek to become the white pioneer of Thirroul (which was then simply known as “North Bulli”] Catt should have more cleared than either. Tell Catt that I have agreed with Mr Gray of Kiama to Exchange the Dray for a smaller one which is now getting made. Gray saw the dray in Wollongong when it was landed and would have given any money for it [“Gray” is most likely either George Gray (1805-‐1889) or Henry Gray (1806-‐1894) who arrived in NSW in 1841 and were working a clearing lease on James Robb's 1000 acres "Riversdale" estate at Kiama by 1843] Ask Catt if it is any thing worse than when he got it. (This will frighten him). I fear (though you say not). You will be uncomfortable in Catt’s Castle
Henry Gray of Kiama (undated)
Every morning I wish I could sit with you and listen to the solemn stillness interrupted only by the rippling of the brook, or to wander along the avenue to Palm Valley.
Von Guerard SLNW sketchbook Wollongong 7 Dec. 1859 – “Valley of the American Creek”
Tell me how the vines have taken and where will be the best situation for a vineyard. Catt must get some fencing done to keep the bullocks from straying. He has talked of sending them to Bates but I fear this would never do [Bates remains unidentified]. If the sawyers have not done as they should a very easy method will be to charge them a pound an acre from the time they took possession and not to grant lease on any other conditions. There is a basket with 400 nails sent but what else it contains Sarah [presumably the daughter of Captain Hawkins] must inform you. Mr Dargin of Bathurst called for the purpose of taking Loder & Dargin from School but I would not agree without the proper notice. They will leave at Christmas, so that we can now almost see the worst. But as to success we have as good a chance as any other. The business of the establishment is going on very well, the servants do not appear to have too much to do and are much merrier than I profess to be, and now that I have said so much about Normal Affairs [i.e. School business at the Normal Institution] must ask you to tell me how Fanny [Frances H. born 1839] and Anna [their eldest daughter whose birth does not seem to have ever been registered] behave themselves. I hope they are good and never cry or quarrel. They must make a little summer house and a little flower garden for me, and they must have nice little fish in the creek for me, and nice little well to hold water and all other nice things and Fanny must learn three lessons every day as well as write a copy, and for the little fellow [Henry W.
Gordon born 1843 and so still only a tiny baby] he cares for nobody as much as himself. I have not been out since I parted with you and have no news but what you will find in the paper I posted.
I am
My dear Fanny
Yrs affectionately
Henry Gordon
The envelope was addressed:
Mrs Hy Gordon
Woodbrook
Wollongong
And cross-‐notated:
Shippers letter with a basket containing nails etc per “Sophia Jane” [paddle steamer]
The Second Letter
Woodbrook. Illawarra
17th Decr. 1845
My Dear Fanny
This is my fourth day and second of fine weather. The rain has destroyed the greater part of the wheat, that was in stock through the whole district. [Rust disease would soon put an end to wheat-‐growing throughout Illawarra] We have about a dozen stooks almost lost, but it will answer to grind down for the pigs or cattle and will be better than any other food. I am sending in the dray with potatoes for Paddy [possibly Patrick Lehany who owned a farm close to Henry Gordon or the Patrick Daly previously mentioned above] and Buckland [The John Buckland who married Mary Ann Organ in 1840 and then farmed between American Creek and Brandy and Water Creek near present day Figtree for which I will get them to reap. I have Paddy today I had a set-‐too with him yesterday
about two heifers he had getting into the peach-‐tree paddock and I find him a little improved for a Scot. [The Lehanys may have been an argumentative pair for one “Maria Fishlock complained of Mary Lehany, that she had used threatening language towards her”. (Illawarra Mercury Friday 22 August 1862). Patrick had arrived (presumably an Irish rebel – although this could sometimes amount to the mildest of offences) in 1822 with a life sentence. He also spent six months in irons on a road gang in 1826 for a recidivist offence but had somehow acquired title to land at American Creek by the 1840s]. I send you a bag of the kidney potatoes and would have sent more but I could not spare the men from reaping.
I must try to meet Mr W K. and Mrs Brown (possibly the William Brown who was the cousin of George Brown of Brownsville (near Dapto) and one of the confusing number of Browns/Brownes in the Dapto area at the time but who then had a grant south of his cousin and closer to present day Dapto] but I shall only be able to go as far as the road. I do not like to go from home at all. I was busy cleaning up last night. I have got everything washed. The mice had made such a place. They had made a nurcery [sic] of the sugar, a dozen leapt out when I opened the door. I broke a bottle on the way and have to give the reapers grog. I am to have four new hands tomorrow, which will finish. The bullocks will pay [for?] them. I have got, in the wet weather, the ground beside the hen house made into fires ready to burn when dry. All the fruit has been picked by the birds. There were lots of cherries nothing remains but the stones. I think I shall get a quarter of beef at a penny a pound and if you could send me salt and petre. I would get Woodhouse [no individual of that name living close-‐by has been identified] to cure it for himself then we could have some fresh joints off it.
I have not got my things from Wollongong yet. Captain Hawkins called yesterday. he has been at court with one of his men and won the suit. [A Captain Hawkins (possibly the same man -‐ had a three-‐masted schooner (203 tons) named “Lord of the Isles”. On 21 January 1854, sailing in the “Osprey”, a three-‐masted schooner (149 tons) and built in 1834, Hawkins was involved in collision with the vessel named “Dundee”, in Corio Bay. Captain Hawkins also ran ashore in a gale near the mouth of the Erskine River at Lorne, Victoria, on the 18th June 1854. All crew were saved. He seems to have sold up and appears to have left the colony in 1857 (Sydney Empire Tuesday 10 March 1857] They are all well in that quarter and Mrs H[awkins] will not send for the DR. till I go over, because I happened to call on that occasion last time. He is going to get Sarah married to a captain somebody.
The clover is springing up beautifully and the cows are improving in their milk. I cannot make out how many eggs there are and it is a hard matter to get their eggs. The wheat is growing better headed than last year but not so thick. Paddy says it is the best crop he has seen in the country. The grape vines are all running to wood. I wish I had taken my own plans [pains?] pruning them. None of the Bates [unidentified] have been over yet which is a wonder. Let me know how the children are, tell them that summer house looks beautiful and that their little fillies are as merry as they are. Tell Henry William he must save up his money to buy a whip and a saddle to ride his horse Dilly. I do not know if anything may want – but if you are writing it is as easy to make a parcel of anything and pay
12d as a letter and pay 4d but perhaps you could send the letters by hand. The man Ned [unidentified] cannot reap well so I keep him at other work.
With kind remembrances to the children
I am
My dear Fanny
Yrs affectionately
Henry Gordon
(send me a few wafers)
What is wonderful about these letters for the art historian is that they give the name of the family (The McCauleys) who first started to hack at the subtropical rainforest on Henry Gordon’s land between American and Brandy and Water Creek. It also indicates that Henry Gordon was not, between 1843 and 1845, himself clearing the forest but employing others to do so.
The letters also reveal Henry as a pretty hopeless farmer and it becomes clear why his wife (who was residing in the wilderness between these creeks in October 1843) might sensibly have decamped to Sydney by December 1845 and Henry (as he was still employed as headmaster to The Normal Institution in Sydney) must have only been resident in Illawarra during school holidays and between school terms. Gordon and family appear to have become permanent residents at American Creek only after 1848 (when he resigns from the Normal Institution) and remained living at that watercourse until 1860 when the family moved to Burelli Street Wollongong (possibly due to Fanny’s illness) Henry Gordon later began a second career as Headmaster – this time of “The Wollongong College” (a slightly more appealing name, to modern ears at least, than the “Normal Institution”).
What Henry Gordon’s letters give us, above all, is precisely the same sense of the rainforest being hacked away by small farmers as depicted in the fabulous von Gerard sketches of December 1859, the oils of 1860 and 1862 and the lithograph of 1867.
***
What is curious, however, is that von Guerard seems to have spent so much time on the Gordon and Slevin farms rather than with the more obvious family with whom a talented visiting colonial artist might be expected to stay.
That family was that of William Warren Jenkins who owned the giant Berkeley estate which stretched up from Lake Illawarra to the north and also extended close to the Gordon and Slevin farms between American Creek and Brandy and Water Creek in the lower Mount Kembla area to the west.
An early map showing the 2000-acre Jenkins property. The much smaller Slevin and Gordon farms (unmarked on the map) lie below Mount Kembla and to the north west of the Jenkins Estate
A considerable portion of the southern section of Jenkins 2000 acre grant can be seen in this image
Eugene von Guerard, View of Lake Illawarra with distant mountains of Kiama, 1860, oil on canvas, 51.1 x 85.3cm. Wollongong Art Gallery Collection, The George and Nerissa Johnson Memorial Bequest, purchased 1992, with assistance from The IMB and the support of WIN Television, South Coast Equipment and the Illawarra Mercury. This work was originally owned by Peter Manifold, of
'Purrumbete', near Camperdown, Victoria, and thence by descent to Sir Chester Manifold and Lady Manifold
Von Guerard clearly visited the Jenkins property and one would normally have expected him to have stayed there – presumably obtaining free accommodation in exchange for doing family portraits and, quite possibly, an image of the Jenkins’ impressive "Berkeley House" (designed by Edmund Blackett no less).
Berkeley House – home of the Jenkins family - from the Australian Town and Country Journal Saturday 18 October 1879
Although von Guerard provides us with the magnificent view of the Jenkins’ Lake Illawarra property in sketch, oil and lithograph he oddly, unlike happened with the Manifolds of Purrumbete, whom Karen Manton (currently undertaking a
Ph.D on von Guerard) informs us commissioned the oil, we get no obvious image of the Jenkins’ Homestead.
There does appear to be, perhaps, a distant sketch (the Purrumbete images of the Manifold Homestead are also less than close-‐ups it must be noted) of one of what is presumed to be the dwellings situated on one of the Jenkins’ clearing leases but no image of the Jenkins' substantial homestead can be found in von Guerard’s sketchbooks – and no portraits of the Jenkins family either.
Photograph of the Jenkins family by an unknown photographer c.1860s
Back row left to right: Matilda Jenkins, Mr Wilshire, Ellinor Jenkins and Mr Wilshire. Front row left to right: Alice Jenkins, William Warren Jenkins, Alfred
Matcham Jenkins and Mrs W. W. Jenkins.
This is puzzling. And, although I have endeavoured for years to uncover a connection between the Manifold and Jenkins families the task to date has proved fruitless.
It might simply be that von Guerard was completely unaware of the Jenkins’ local status and so did not avail himself of the opportunity to meet them. Or could it be that the Jenkins property – which was one of the first five land grants in Illawarra in 1817 – was simply too developed and denuded of vegetation for von Guerard’s environmental purposes and so he sought out the nearby properties of lesser local lights such as Henry Gordon Esquire J.P. and the genuine little Aussie battler small-‐settlers of the likes of Thomas and James Slevin.
“This belongs to the view of Lake Illawarra NSW” – from Sketchbook XXXI, No. 14 Australian. 1859, 1862 by Eugene von Guerard.
One could also speculate about the possibility of von Guerard somehow offending the Jenkins family (perhaps by undertaking a slightly indiscreet portrait of one of the Jenkins daughters?) but no firm evidence has emerged to sustain such a wild presumption.
Detail from the von Guerard Lake Illawarra lithograph (1867)
Detail from the von Guerard American Creek oil (1860)
There is, after all, what would appear to be a seriously conscious effort on the part of von Guerard to indicate – by means of the addition of the road on the left hand side of the American creek oil – precisely what will happen to the pristine forest (and as has so obviously already taken place on the Jenkins “Berkeley Estate” depicted in the Lake Illawarra oil and lithograph.
Any perusal of von Guerard’s sketchbook makes it obvious he was enthusiastic about the accurate depiction of exotic botany and geology and so the landscape of American and Brandy and Water Creeks surely held much more interest than the by now long developed Jenkins’ “Berkeley Estate”.
There is also, as Karen Manton has pointed out, the strange case of the insertion of a woman carrying goods on her head in the 1867 lithographic version of the Lake Illawarra image (for which series von Guerard drew on the lithographic stone himself) -‐ a representation of a woman who seems to be also seen in one of von Guerard‘s Naples paintings.
Eugene von Guerard, Lake Illawarra (N.S.W.), 1867, colour lithograph, 32.0 x 53.0cm. Wollongong Art Gallery Collection. The George and Nerissa Johnson
Memorial Bequest, purchased 1992
The Hermitage of St Maria of the Avvocatella near Naples (Die Eremitage von St Maria del Avvocatella bei Naples) 1849 oil on canvas (28.3 x 42.0 cm) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, K. M. Christensen and A. E. Bond Bequest, 2010
Curiously, von Guerard similarly adds some slightly more prominent (though much less Neapolitan) figures to the left foreground of his 1867 American Creek lithograph – although the individuals depicted are clearly still dwarfed by the remnant old growth rainforest.
Eugene von Guerard, Cabbage tree forest, American Creek, 1867, colour lithograph, 33.3 x 53.0cm. Wollongong Art Gallery Collection. The George and
Nerissa Johnson Memorial Bequest, purchased 1993
***
What is truly special to the local historian about von Gerard’s visit to Illawarra, however, is his depiction of Mrs Fanny Gordon and her baby – the soon to be motherless child (Agnes) who would go on to marry Arthur McGillycuddy and that gentleman would then, in turn, father the child -‐ Denise McGillycuddy -‐ who (as Denise Yates) would, in 1951, go on to form the Illawarra Society of Artists.
Such fortuity and serendipity is one of the delights of the kind of micro history I have endeavoured to unfold in this examination of a great colonial artist's first experiences with subtropical rainforest in Illawarra.
Von Guerard’s images of Fanny Gordon and her baby daughter Agnes, when combined with the extraordinary survival of the two letters by Henry Gordon and the detail they provide about what was happening to the cabbage tree forest in that location, help cement the reputation of von Guerard’s 1860 depiction of American Creek in oil held by Wollongong Art Gallery (even in its 1862 version held by the SLNSW) as one of the greatest Australian environmental statements of the 19th century.
In the view of the escarpment forest between Brandy and Water and American Creeks (with Mount Kembla in the left-‐hand corner) von Guerard has provided as good a pictorial record of the botany of Illawarra in all its density and lushness we are ever likely to ever get -‐ while also simultaneously depicting how it was at
that very moment still being hacked to pieces by small landholders. It is thus, for my money at least, von Guerard's finest single oil painting.
Better still, however, that wonderful sketch of Mrs. Fanny Gordon and her baby (combined with the two wonderful letters written to Fanny by Henry Gordon) has made certain that this current investigation of the micro-‐history of a single moment in von Guerard’s life has also provided us with the most personal artistic depiction of any woman who ever lived in Illawarra prior to 1860.
Joseph Davis
Thirroul July 2015
Denise MacGillycuddy (pictured above in January 1940 in a photo by Norton Trevaire Studios) would go on -‐ as Mrs Denise Yates -‐ to form the Illawarra Society of Artists in 1951 and was the grandaughter of the baby Agnes (depicted with her mother Fanny Gordon) seen in von Guerard’s 1859 sketch at American Creek in Illawarra.
APPENDIX 1
Death of Mr. Henry Gordon, J.P.
— Mr. Henry Gordon, J.P. of the College School, Market-‐Square, died at his residence, early on Wednesday morning last. The deceased gentleman had been
ailing for a few weeks previously, but until within the last few days of his existence it was not seriously apprehended that his illness would prove fatal. His sickness commenced as if it were a severe attack of influenza, and although he appeared to rally a little after a time, he sank gradually until he finally succumbed and died on the day named. Mr Gordon had resided in this district for about thirty years, having previously conducted the Normal Institution in Sydney for a considerable time, the same being at that period one of the highest, if not the very highest, scholastic institution in the colony. In the course of his career as head master of that academy, he had under his charge and tuition several scholars who at the present day are among the leading men of the colony in different stations and professions. Previous to his coming to this colony, about forty years ago, the deceased gentleman occupied a high office as teacher in the Bishop's College, in the county of Armagh, Ireland, which was his native place. During the greater portion of his residence in this district he lived at Westbrook, American Creek, upon a farm which he purchased when he first came here. A few years ago, however, he disposed of his farm, and came to reside in town, where he opened the College School, which was successfully conducted by him until the attack of illness which carried him off. As in Sydney, some of his pupils here distinguished themselves in the scholastic ranks of the colony — several of them having passed successful examinations at the University, and one having written a prize Essay in competition with all the schools in the colony. Mr Gordon was 65 years of age, and had been a widower since 1860. He was highly respected, as is also his family of two sons and several daughters, left to mourn their loss. The mortal remains of the deceased gentleman were followed to their last resting place yesterday after noon, by a large procession, being deposited in the same grassy plot which previously received the remains of his wife and several of his children.” (Illawarra Mercury Friday 20 June 1873)
***
Henry Gordon’s death occasioned a number of important positions to be filled. He had only been elected at the top of the bill as an Auditor (along with the solicitor Francis Woodward whose son he taught) with the Wollongong Borough Council in the Municipal elections held three months prior to his death. (Illawarra Mercury Tuesday 11 February 1873)
Additionally, just days after Henry Gordon’s death it was announced that “The office of Manager of the branch of the Savings Bank in this town having become vacant by the death of the late Mr. Henry Gordon, J. P., the same has been re-‐filled by the appointment of Mr F. A. Thompson, J.P., of whom the deceased gentleman was father-‐in-‐law. (Illawarra Mercury Friday 27 June 1873)
For the purposes of Probate, Henry’s daughter, Anna Gordon, was named “Sole Executrix of her father’s estate”. (Illawarra Mercury Friday 5 September 1873)
Two years later the following items were put up for sale as “sundries” in a Wollongong auction – “a lot of Valuable School and other books (from the library of the Late Henry Gordon, Esq.), pair of school globes.” Illawarra Mercury Tuesday 5 October 1875 p 3)
And, in 1878, the Gordon family home was put on the market.
Choice Freehold Property.
MARKET-‐SQUARE, WOLLONGONG.
GF. SMITH has been instructed by, the representatives of the late Henry Gordon, Esq., to sell by auction, at Osborne's, Commercial Hotel.
ON TUESDAY. DECEMBER 3rd, At 2 o'clock
'That choice and desirably situated residence; now occupied by Miss Gordon, consisting of a brick house of six well proportioned rooms, with kitchen, stable, including a never failing tank of water on the premises. The property has a frontage to Market Square of 66 feet, in sight of Post-‐Office, running back to
Smith Street, 5 chains, having a frontage to that street of 60 feet, which, is a really delightful situation for another house, and adjoins the properties of Percy Owen
and H. G. Smith, Esqs., overlooking the beach in sight of the harbor and proposed railway line. To parties requiring a healthy situation this has few
equals in or near Wollongong.
APPENDIX 2
Henry Gordon’s More Famous Wollongong Neighbours
Percy Owen
Percy was a Wollongong solicitor whose sons Robert Haylock Owen (1862-‐1927), soldier and Percy Thomas Owen (1864-‐1936), military and civil engineer, were born at Wollongong on 7 January 1862 and 16 September 1864 respectively.
Robert Haylock Owen Robert became chief staff officer of the New Zealand Local Forces in 1900. He was promoted to Major in October 1902, retiring from the British Regular Army at the end of that year, but continued to serve in the New Zealand Militia as Lieutenant Colonel. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Owen was living in retirement near Wollongong. He was chosen as Commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, Australian Imperial Force, to command the 3rd Battalion. Owen, aged 52, led the battalion throughout its training in Australia and Egypt. At the landing at Anzac Cove on
25 April 1915 (and during the fighting that followed) Owen also briefly commanded the brigade in May. Wounded on 22 June, he was invalided home and discharged from the A.I.F. in May 1916. He had been appointed C.M.G. and mentioned in dispatches. Robert Owen died in Devon, England on 5 April 1927. His son, Lieutenant P. I. H. Owen, had been killed in action in Flanders in 1917. Percy Thomas Owen Percy (junior) became a military and civil engineer. In 1899 Percy Owen was chosen as a special service officer in the South African War. In April 1900 he became staff officer of the Royal Engineers. Percy Owen's biggest claim to fame, however, is his connexion with the proposed Federal Capital at Canberra. Along with Charles Scrivener, he investigated possible sites. When Canberra was finally selected, Percy prepared many of the essential engineering works. In 1912 he was an influential member of the departmental board which reviewed the winning design for the city submitted by Walter Burley Griffin.
After the board failed to reach agreement with Griffin a new Federal Minister dissolved it and Griffin was appointed part-‐time Director of Design and Construction.
Owen was also a member of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee appointed early in 1921 He moved his headquarters to Canberra in 1922 and became increasingly involved with the local works which, in 1924, the government decided to place under a commission. To his chagrin, Owen was not appointed a commissioner. Nonetheless, he gained appointment as the commission's chief engineer commencing on New Year’s Day 1925. In this role Owen continued his study of the Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers, something very necessary for the design of the Canberra Lakes. Owen also supervised the construction of Parliament House. In 1925 he was promoted from O.B.E. (awarded in 1920) to C.B.E. He was made a member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia in 1927 and became a Councillor in 1928-‐29 and 1933-‐36. After retirement in March 1929 he lived at Wollongong. He divorced his wife in June 1928 and on 3 April 1929 married in Sydney. Survived by his new wife, he died, childless, at Wollongong on 16 June 1936. His monument could well be Lake Burley Griffin, which seems to conform more to Owen’s ideas than to Walter Burley Griffin's.
Henry Gilbert Smith (1802-1886)
Smith, a merchant, arrived in Australia in 1827 and became impressed by prospects in NSW and bought 2560 acres (1036 ha) on the Molonglo plain near present day Canberra.
Henry did well as a merchant and, in 1833, took his 9-‐year-‐old nephew Thomas Whistler Smith into his office as a clerk, and gradually the business began to prosper and expand even further. In July 1835 Henry was elected a Director of the Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney and in 1853 chairman of its Board of Directors. Also in 1835 Henry became the Sydney agent of the Bathurst Bank. In February 1846 he was appointed provisional director of the proposed Railway Association; later he was one of the three Government Directors of the Sydney Railway Co. From May 1856 to August 1858 Smith was a member of the Legislative Council.
In the late 1840s Henry had moved to a property named “Fairlight” which he had built at Manly on a large area of land stretching from Sydney Harbour to Ocean Beach. The idea for Manly as a Pleasure resort -‐ “Seven Miles from Sydney and a Thousand Miles from Care” -‐ was largely Henry’s inspiration. Struck by Manly’s charms as a seaside resort Smith built cottages, a hotel, church, school, 'Vauxhall Gardens', and baths. He placed the stone kangaroo on the cliff above Manly facing the ocean and had much to do with planting the first Norfolk Island pines on the oceanfront. Smith family names were given to many streets in the area.
Henry had the same plans for Wollongong and brought a very large number of properties close to the sea. His dreams were not realised in Wollongong – although, of course, they became a spectacular success at Manly. In 1856 H.G. Smith donated the land for a Congregational Church to be built in Wollongong which still stands today.
Despite all this his name is not well known in Wollongong as it is often confused with that of the unrelated white pioneer settler -‐ C.T Smith -‐ who was dubbed ‘The Father of Wollongong’.
APPENDIX 3
ILLAWARA IMAGES BY VON GUERARD APPEARING IN THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS
1) Illustrated Sydney News Saturday 16 September 1865
2) Illustrated Sydney News Thursday 5 August 1869
Illustrated Sydney News Saturday 16 September 1865
Letter Press accompanying the “VIEW ON THE AMERICAN CREEK, WOLLONGONG, NEW SOUTH WALES.”
“The American Creek, of which the accompanying sketch is a truthful representation, lies near the small but thriving sea-‐port of Wollongong. The Illawarra district, in which Wollongong is situated, is one remarkable for the beauty and grandeur of its scenery, and for the peculiarity of its arboral vegetation.
The first view of Wollongong from the Sydney Road is at once highly picturesque and striking. After travelling along an elevated road over a rugged granite formation, and through a dense eucalyptus scrub, for several miles, the tourist suddenly comes upon a sight which, if he has the leisure, and unless he be totally devoid of all idea of the beautiful, must cause him to stop and gaze in admiration.
Turning round the corner of a large rock on the left side of the road he suddenly comes to the very edge of a precipice, whence falls sheer for a depth of thousands of feet the southern face of Mount Keira, overhanging, and almost over-‐shadowing, the town of Wollongong, which is built at its base. On the left lies the boundless Pacific, foam flecked and blue, and studded opposite the township with basaltic rocks, known as the Five Islands.
On the right towers a range of forest-‐crowned heights amongst which rises conspicuously the rounded hump Mount Kembla strangely piled with rugged rocky masses of volcanic basalt up to its very summit. In front, the road -‐ after leading tortuously down the steep side of the mountain, in many places cut into its very face, winds through an undulating valley past the pretty village of Dapto, until it is lost in the hills of Jamberoo, Kiama, and Shoalhaven district.
The creek represented by the accompanying sketch rises in the volcanic formation of these ranges, to the west of Dapto, and after flowing between their fissures, at an elevation of 2,000 feet above the sea level, waters a flat an extremely fertile plain, where its banks are fringed and shaded by trees and shrubs, many of which are almost of a tropical character. The cabbage tree, Corypha Australis; the bangalo palm, Livistonia inermis; the gigantic wild fig, Ficus Macrophylla; the umbrageous nettle tree, Urtica gigas; rosewood sassafras, Doryphora sassafras; and most remarkable of all, from its gorgeous clusters of ruby red blossoms, the blaze tree, Brackychiton acerifolium.
The waters of the creek rippling over their rocky bed, and gurgling down the long sandy reaches beneath the luxuriant undergrowth of ferns and water plants; the hanging wreaths of flowering creepers garlanding, the tangled tendrils of the wild vine, Cissus; and the many hued plumage of the numerous honey-‐eating birds which infest the secluded regions, and of the shy and gorgeous lyre birds, form a picture which cannot be surpassed, if equalled, in any other part of the colony.”
2) CABBAGE-TREE FOREST, AMERICAN CREEK, N.S.W.
Cabbage-Tree Forest, American Creek, N.S.W
Illustrated Sydney News Thursday 5 August 1869
“THIS sylvan scene is situated at a distance of little more than ten miles from Wollongong, near the junction of a little stream upon which some prosaic devotee of the bottle has bestowed the dishonoring appellation of the Brandy and Water Creek, with the American Creek, and at the foot of a noble range of mountains. With the lofty bangalow palm, the cabbage palm, the gigantic wild fig-‐tree, and the fire tree (otherwise known as the blaze tree), with its vividly scarlet blossoms, are intermingled the nettle tree, the rose-‐wood, the sassafras, the white-‐wood, the wild rose, numerous varieties of the fern tree, and parasites innumerable; the whole being woven together into one dense and almost impenetrable mass of foliage. Unfortunately the progress of settlement is necessitating the destruction of some of these magnificent forests, which in many instances clothe a rich chocolate soil of especial value to the farmer. At the time this view was sketched numerous fires had been kindled by the wood-‐cutters, and the stately giants were rapidly falling before the pitiless axe of the hardy pioneers of civilisation.”
The particularly fine reproduction of von Guerard’s work pictured above was executed by Frederick Casemero (Charles) Terry (1825-‐1869), artist and
engraver – and yet, in the mention of the “fires” seem to suggest von Guerard may have provided the text.
Despite being a seriously talented watercolourist and engraver, Frederick Terry found it hard to make ends meet despite his being, in my view, easily among the finest artists of his generation resident in Australia.
He also had some considerable personal experience of Illawarra vegetation and so was in a sound position to sensitively and faithfully reproduce von Guerard’s image of American creek.
My daughter, Ione Davis, and I included one of Terry’s masterworks in our “The Road To Wollongong (1815-‐2015)” exhibition held at Wollongong City gallery, 26th July -‐ 1 November 2015.
Terry’s “View from Bulli Pass, 1863” provides an exemplar of just how difficult the access to Illawarra by means of the picturesque escarpment walling-‐in of the narrow coastal plain remained until well into at least the late 1860s.
Joseph Davis
Thirroul July 2015
The End
