“It was a very close community” A walking tour of the Union/Bank Street Conservation Area, McMahons Point Distance: 3.5 km Approximate time: 3 hours Grading: low to medium

Introduction The Union/Bank/Thomas Street Conservation Area is largely contained within two major residential subdivisions of the mid-nineteenth century. The area immediately south of Union Street was part of William Blue’s 50-acre land grant, part of which was inherited by his daughter Susannah, and subdivided in 1859 by her husband William Chuter. Whilst to the north of Union Street is the 1870s subdivision of Edwin Sayers ‘Euroka’ Estate. The land was originally owned by the Cammeraygal people. Their numbers and social structures were devastated in the decades following colonization and land was being given away to colonists from the late 1800s. In 1817 Governor Macquarie gave a grant of 80-acres of land on the North Shore to ex-convict William Blue and he named this area, encompassing the present day suburb of McMahons Point, ‘Northampton Farm’. This was a working farm on which he and his family cultivated vegetables and fruit for the Sydney market. Prior to receiving his land grant he was living in the Rocks and had started the first ferry service across the Harbour from Dawes Point to Blues Point in 1807. After Blue’s death in 1834 Northampton Farm was divided up amongst his children William, Robert, John, Susannah and Mary. And contrary to his will, the family began to subdivide and sell portions of the property from as early as 1836. In 1859 William Chuter, second husband of Blue’s daughter Susannah, auctioned the Chuter Estate. In 1882 John Blue subdivided and sold his land north of the Chuter Estate bounded on the north by Union Street, east by Blues Point Road and south by Holt Street continuing west to Berrys Bay.

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By this time the township of St Leonards had been gazetted (1838), adjoining Blue’s grant and which established the present day North Sydney town centre and a road from Blues Point northward (Blues Point Road then named St Leonards Road). Local government arrived in the district in the late 1860s and the Borough of Victoria was formed in 1871, encompassing the present day suburb of McMahons Point. The provision of infrastructure such as gas, water, transport, and communications, religious and educational facilities fostered a thriving working class community in the vicinity of the Chuter, Blue and Euroka Estates. North of Union Street early land grants to Walker and Miller were amalgamated and acquired by shipping magnate and parliamentarian Sir Edwin Mawney Sayers, who sold ‘Euroka’ to Sir Thomas Dibbs. He in turn began to subdivide the western slopes of the property in the 1870s, forming the present day Ancrum, Bank and Euroka Streets precinct. Allotments in these estates were uniformly small, whilst some building sites were steeply sloping and difficult to build on. Purchasers of land were predominantly working class people such as mariners, boatbuilders, carpenters, stonemasons, carpenters, bricklayers and other labourers. In this area rows of single and double storey terrace houses appeared in the 1870s and 1880s using readily available local sandstone. A small number of allotments were developed into the early twentieth century as detached red brick Federation houses. The area saw significant upheaval caused by the construction of the railway line to Milsons Point in 1893 and again in the mid-1920s when construction began at Euroka St for the new railway line and tunnel to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Today, the prevailing attitude of outsiders is that the entire North Sydney population are “silvertails”. Whether this is fair or not, this was by no means always the case, and certainly not in the 1800s through until the late twentieth century in the Bank/Thomas/Union Streets precinct of McMahons Point. Former McMahons Point resident Jack Sullivan laughs at this description, “we lived in slums and they’re calling us silvertails with money. Bank Street and Ancrum Street and some of those little slums down there in Union Street in North Sydney, paying twelve and six a week rent and ten shillings a week”. What was once a workman’s area has been gentrified in recent decades. The long-time older working class residents have either moved out or died and a younger, more middle class population has moved into the area. As a result of this recent trend, the cottages have been restored and extended and guidelines to recognise the architectural residential character been enshrined in the LEP and DCP. Our walk starts at the Commodore Hotel, cnr Blues Point Road and Union Street.

William and George William Montgomery in front of the Old Commodore Hotel, 1880s. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF 664)

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The Billy Blue Inn was built in 1848 by John Blue. This building was demolished in 1901 when taken over by Tooth and Co. and they built a new pub on the site. This building in turn was replaced in 1938 and again in 1973 when it too was demolished and replaced by a new Old Commodore Tavern. The present hotel was extensively rebuilt and extended in 1997. Walk west along Union St This street marks the boundary between William Blue’s 50-acre land grant known as Northumberland Farm and the small grants to the north given to William Miller and Thomas Walker. Continue up Union St Stop at the entrance gate to Graythwaite. In September 1832, Thomas Walker, public official, paid 60 pounds 9 shillings for a 39-acre land grant. On the 25 October 1833, Thomas Walker conveyed 13 acres of his grant, to the north and east of where Graythwaite was later built, to William Miller, for 20 pounds thirteen shillings. By 1837, Walker had built himself a residence on his grant almost adjacent to Miller's newly built house. In January 1845 Walker drew up his will bequeathing this house, called Euroka and 16 acres to his wife. He died in 1850. Three years after Walker’s death, the house and remaining land was sold to George Tuting, a mercer of Pitt St, Sydney for 1500 pounds, at which time the grounds were described as comprising 113 acres. He sold the house and land in 1853 to Edwin Sayers, Sydney for $3900 pounds. The new owner, Edwin Mawney Sayers (1818-1909), was a shipowner who had arrived in Sydney from Melbourne about 1850. He was

mainly interested in the coastal shipping trade. Sayers occupied Euroka and remained there until 1868. Sayers was also a Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly 17 Jun 1859 -17 Jun 1859; and Member for St Leonards 17 Jun 1859 - 17 Jun 1859. He was a founder of North Sydney School of Arts, Warden of St Thomas' Church of England. He died in Mosman in 1909. From 1860 Sayers experienced severe financial difficulties and was eventually forced by the mortgagees to sell Euroka in 1867 at which time there were no buyers. Thomas Allwright Dibbs, manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, acquired the property and leased the house from 1872-1880 to his brother Sir George Richard Dibbs (1834-1904), who was Premier of NSW and Colonial Secretary 1891-1894. Merchant and ship owner, Dibbs was educated at St Philip's Church of England School and then the Australian College under the Reverend J. D. Lang. He became junior clerk with William Brown & Co., wine merchants in 1848. He joined his brother in Dibbs & Co., commission agents, in c.1854; associated with father-in-law in business ventures 1857-1859; then returned to J.C. Dibbs & Company, as manager of Newcastle branch and later the Sydney office. He travelled to Valparaiso, Chile, as corn factor, opening a branch of J.C. Dibbs & Company in 1865; he was bankrupted by the failure of the Agra Bank 1866; he returned to Sydney in 1867 and by 1875 he had paid his creditors in full. He was a Member of Legislative Assembly representing West Sydney 1874-1877, St Leonards 1882-1885, The Murrumbidgee 1885-

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1894 and Tamworth 1894-1895. He was made Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1892. Dibbs also moved into importing and ship owning from 1869, becoming the Chairman of the Australia Steam Navigation Co. and was also managing trustee, Savings Bank of New South Wales, 1896 - 1904. He appears to have left ‘Euroka’ by 1880.

Graythwaite as it looked during the ownership of the Dibbs family, c1897. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF 1773) His brother Thomas Allwright Dibbs had been buying up many parcels of land on the North Shore and by 1882 Euroka became the family home and he renamed it Graythwaite. Dibbs' had a fine reputation as an astute and skilful manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. His management of the Bank was generally credited with saving it from the fate of other less fortunate banks in the 1890s Depression. Dibbs was apparently shocked at the carnage taking place overseas during the Great War and donated his home, Graythwaite, to the state as a convalescent home for soldiers returning from the front. On 1 October 1915 the property was formally transferred by Dibbs to the Crown, in consideration of 'my admiration of and sincere

sympathy for those brave men who have so unselfishly given their services and their lives fighting for the Empire in the cause of Justice and liberty as a Convalescent Home for our Sick and Wounded Soldiers and Sailors and when not required for that purpose as a Convalescent Home in perpetuity for distressed subjects of the British Empire regardless of Sect or Creed.' An official opening of Graythwaite was held on 1 March 1916. Dibbs presented the deeds of Graythwaite to the Premier who handed the property on to the NSW branch of the Red Cross. Alterations were made to Graythwaite to fit it out as a convalescent home and was at first used for less severely ill convalescents. In 1918, the Red Cross decided that Graythwaite should be converted into a Hostel for long-term cases of disablement. A change in emphasis required substantial changes to the building. Graythwaite was used as a convalescent home to 1977, when non-military cases were referred by the Health Commission. The Red Cross then decided to relinquish the Hospital to enable it to be used as geriatric hospital by the Home of Peace Hospitals, under the supervision of the Health Commission. The buildings were officially handed over in December 1980. Graythwaite's grounds contain one of the largest and most significant collections of late 19th century and early 20th century cultural plantings in North Sydney. Moreton Bay and Port Jackson figs dominate an eclectic mix of exotic and Australian rainforest plantings including rare historic and botanic examples. Continue along Union St Kailoa, No. 44 Union St was built in 1885 –86 as the matrimonial home of Tom Burton

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Dibbs and his bride. Tom was the son of Thomas Allwright Dibbs, general manager of the Commercial Banking Co of Sydney and nephew of Sir George Richard Dibbs, Premier of NSW.

Kailoa, c.1897. (North Sydney Heritage Centre PF1771) Tom and his family lived continuously in the home from 1886 to 1913, after which a succession of tenants was in occupation until 1922 when it was sold to Leonard Gabriel, a dentist. He in turn sold the house to grazier, J.J. Dorward in 1924 who moved into the house in 1929 or 1930. He eventually sold the house to Shore School in December 1961. Shore School had purchased the house in anticipation of demolishing it to make way for tennis courts. Public opposition to the commencement of demolition included a protest march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the National Trust’s Headquarters at Observatory Hill in 1980, eventually resulted in the Heritage Council placing a interim conservation order on the house, later a Permanent Conservation Order. Chorus from song of same name by Dean Thomas: Don’t pull Kailoa down, Don’t pull Kailoa down, It’s part of Sydney’s heritage-

Don’t pull Kailoa down. The house was restored and reopened by State Planning and Environmental Minister Bob Carr in 1987 as the office of advertising agency Foster Nunn and Loveder. Nos. 34–42 Union St, presently undergoing restoration, are a group of very early two-storey sandstone houses erected by Edwin Mawney Sayers on the frontage of his property Euroka in the period 1853 and 1867. At this time the two pairs of buildings 34-36 and 38-40 were known as Euroka Villas. Sayers ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell the entire property. Thomas Dibbs acquired the Euroka property in 1873, including 34-42 Union St, and converted them to torrens title, at which time they were sold to Charles Edward Hoyer and then onsold to Captain James Mu(o)nro in 1879. The Monro family held ownership of the properties until the early 1910s. Eventually they came into the ownership of J. Virgona who converted them into boarding houses in the 1950s.

In foreground, rear of Euroka Villas and Euroka Terrace, Union Street, c.1880s (North Sydney Heritage Centre, F749/5)

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The adjoining terrace houses, Nos. 20-28, known as Euroka Terrace, were built on lots 1-4 of the Euroka Estate. This group of six terrace houses were completed in 1880 and built by Captain James Monro. Continue along Union St and turn right into Bank St Note across the road, Gannura Reserve, on the corner of Bank St and Bank Lane occupies the site of c.1880 shop and dwelling house, demolished between 1925 and 1927. The land was eventually purchased by Council for open space but it remained little used until local residents, working with Council's Streets Alive program transformed this public land into a local park. Gannura is the combination of two Aboriginal words - Gan meaning lizard and nura meaning place of. Lizard-friendly features have been incorporated into the Reserve to attract blue-tongued and other lizards back into the area. Bank St had a not entirely deserved unsavoury reputation in the first half of the 1900s through the Depression years when it was a poor working class neighbourhood. North Sydney middle class residents such as Jean Blundell recall that “it was ingrained in us not to roam, to go out into the street and you didn’t go down to Bank Street – which was below – because that’s where some rather awful people lived. You had to be very careful in Bank Street. It was a bit of ‘riff raff’ down round here and they lived in shanties”. Former residents of the neighbourhood recall that life was harsh for families struggling during the Depression years. When Frank Cox’s father was put off during the Depression, “like most other people, he used to grow vegetables [in our

pretty big backyard] and we had a lot of chooks.” However as difficult as those years was, “it was a very close community” where neighbours helped each other and children played on the streets. The houses were well built but “conveniences internally were basic”. Walk along Bank St on the eastern frontage (right hand side) The first group of houses on this side of the road past Bank Lane, Nos. 1-35 are predominantly built between 1877 and 1887. Nos. 1-7 were built by Connors (No. 3 built in 1881). Sandstone houses at Nos. 27 (Redding) and 29 (Montrose), along with No. 31 (Andrie) were built by Munro, Gardyne and Duncan respectively in 1879. Nos. 39-45 comprises four lots subdivided for sale in 1909 and erected in 1917 by owner/builder John William Atkinson who lived in No. 39. Nos. 51-55 comprises a group of undistinguished and uncharacteristic Federation houses erected by North Sydney builder John Trevaskis. No. 61/63 is locally known as “the bakery” and was built in 1882 by H R Ridout as a dwelling but soon afterwards described as a house and shop. The property was occupied during the 1890s by Thomas Adamson Senior, and after his death in 1899, John and Robert Adamson continued to lease the building out to various tenants. There is no evidence to support the legend that it ever operated as a bakery, and was more likely to have been run as a grocery store.

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Nos. 67-73 is a group of four Federation brick cottages. This group of houses were built between 1911-13 by John O’Sullivan, who also built two houses in Lord Street. Stop at Lord St Named after ‘Lord’s Paddock’, the property of the Hon. Francis Lord, MLC, acquired in 1857 and subdivided in 1877. ‘Upton Grange’, the SCEGS Shore Preparatory School close by in Edward Street, was built for his daughter and son-in-law Francis Hixson as a marital home.

Bank Street in the days of horse and cart, 1912-1915. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF514) Continue along Bank St The sharp turn in the street beyond the Lord Street intersection marks the boundary of Conrad Martens property, Rockleigh Grange. Walk up path into Riley St No. 10 Riley St was the home of famous Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953) from 1905 to 1915. Note plaque inset in front fence. Return to Bank St and cross over

Note the extensive rock wall at the end of the street marks the boundary of the Priory Estate and Lord’s Paddock Estate and the pedestrian pathway to Toongarah Road. Walk along Bank St on the opposite side of the road The houses along this section of Bank St are typical of Victorian workers cottages, especially No. 100 a simple vertical slab cottage built in 1890 by Alexander McNaught. It was later sold to Charles Wenzel. Long-time North Sydney resident Millie Rea lived here with her family: “it …was a wooden place with slats coming down…there were tennis courts behind us [and] there were Italian people who lived next door.” She recalls that Bank St “seemed to be teeming with children… [and] was full of working people, just ordinary working people and everybody seemed to be in the same place. It was a very happy place to live”. Millie’s family lived here about 1929 and she recalls that when they moved here they were extremely poor. Her mother used to send her up to St Josephs Convent in Mount Street with a note and they would receive food from the nuns. Fortunately for the family, her father got a job on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and they then moved up into North Sydney into Eden Street. Mrs Freislich purchased the house from Clem Millward in 1964. When interviewed in 1996, she recalled that the house “was unbelievably cheap to buy, £3000, [and that] everybody who had had this house had done things to it – I have too”. No. 80 Bank St was the former home of Jack Sullivan and subsequently his mate Frank Cox. Actually Jack’s family moved out and Frank’s

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family moved in during the Depression. Prior to renting this house, they had been sharing a house in Union St with another family, “for cheap rent”. His father heard about No. 80 and “was told ‘It’ll fall to pieces but it’s down there”, so Dad made enquiries and Mr Ward said “he could have it for sixteen shillings a week [and] that was in ’32”. His father “was put off like most men during the Depression” but they grew fruit trees and a vegetable garden in the backyard as well as keeping chickens. His sister got a job at Mr Carey’s knitting mill in Ancrum Street after she left school, whilst his mother “used to go out and do washing for people at about five ‘bob’ for a day’s washing and she’d come home and we’d always have something to eat”. Later on after World War II, Frank got a loan from the bank and bought the house for £300, “it was a terrible lot of money…I thought I’d never pay it off”. He later extended it at the rear on one level for his ailing mother. There as no electric light and the kids of the neighbourhood would all go down to the Lavender Bay wharf to rummage for good coke to take home and burn. Bath time was difficult because “if you wanted a bath you had to light up the copper and had to pick it up and take it down the back”. Eventually the family got a kerosene unit but one day “it caught fire, the bathroom, and the bath went through the floor”. But “we were very happy”. No. 70 Bank St is situated on lot 23 section 2 Euroka Estate originally purchased by Emma Darton. She sold the land to carpenter David Bennett who built the present single storey timber cottage in 1893. He leased out Avon Cottage to various tenants from 1896. The house eventually passed into the ownership of

the War Service Homes Commission in the early 1920s. No. 68 Bank St a two-storey brick iron house was built by master mariner Almar Bridge in 1890. He lived here until 1907. No. 64 Bank St is a simple timber and iron house erected in 1879 by stonemason William Gaff. From 1893 he and his wife Esther leased the house out to a succession of working class tenants who worked as labourers, carters, etc. No. 50 Bank St was built and occupied by James North in 1876 and within two years sold to stonemason John Hepburn. He lived here until his death in 1932. No. 44 Bank St, formerly a simple timber iron cottage, was erected in 1876 by John Monro. He then sold the house to Mrs Bullock in 1895. Until the 1990s, the house had changed hands only four times since she owned it. The aluminium cladding and roofing was erected in the mid-1970s.

View south along Bank Street, 1950s (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF1336) Rockleigh, No. 38 Bank St, was erected in 1884 on lot 10, Euroka Estate by G. Solomon, who soon after, onsold it to Valentine Scholtz. The house remained in the possession of the Scholtz family until the early 1920s.

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According to former Bank/Ancrum St resident Jack Sullivan there was one shop at the northern end near his home but that “there also another shop down the other end past the railway bridge”)

Robert Robins outside his shop at 30 Bank St, 1944. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF2114) Jack’s family arrived in North Sydney in 1929 and they lived in 179 Bank St and then moved “3 doors down to Ancrum St”. He recalls that all the neighbours were renting, as it was cheap rent. “He did not know anyone in those days who owned their own house”. Those living in Bank Street were mostly out of work or had a government job. He “knew everybody who lived there [in the neighbourhood of Bank/Ancrum/Euroka Sts]”. His father, like his mate Frank Cox, was laid off during the depression and they too grew vegetables in the back garden of the house they moved into in Ancrum Street. Also, like Millie Rea and Frank Cox, Jack recalls that “nobody had any money” but they, as children and teenagers, seemed to have a good happy life. No. 18 Bank St is a small Federation cottage erected in 1903 and called Re-wol (the owner’s name in reverse). William Theodore Lower, variously described as a fireman or engine driver, was the first owner of the property and

lived here until the late 1930s. This house was built on the subdivision of lot 2 section 2 of the Euroka Estate. Continue along Bank St and turn right into pathway alongside railway line (below) Euroka Street Bridge Abutment and Retaining Wall, Euroka Street, Lavender Bay, 1923 (Courtesy, State Records, NSW)

In 1923, work on the Sydney Harbour Bridge began -not at the water’s edge, but here at Euroka Street, North Sydney.

The bridge was never simply an arch across water. For the bridge to function, far-reaching construction was needed that would re-shape North Sydney. A new train line was built from Waverton to the new station of North Sydney—

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By 1927, 470 houses had been demolished in North Sydney and Milsons Point. Demolitions continued in 1931. More than 3,000 people, almost 10 percent of North Sydney’s population, were shifted. Ancrum St was split in two, leaving only seven cottages on the southern side. Similarly Nos.17-23 and 32-36 Bank St and a large number of houses were resumed in Euroka St on both sides of the street and a massive concrete viaduct built across the latter street. Proceed down path to Ancrum St Ancrum Street was formerly known as Euroka Lane. The houses along this street are small allotments (on average 14 ¾ perches size) some subdivided from the Bank St frontage and were purchased by boatbuilders, stonemasons, mariners, labourers and Turn right into Ancrum St No. 27-29 Ancrum St Note the name of the registered proprietor Maxco Industries above the lintel. Across the road note a lovely Victorian sandstone cottage at No. 31. A few doors away is No. 37 is a converted knitting factory built by Charles Edward Carey in about 1916/17 and converted into the present home in 1976 by architect Stuart Murray. Return down Ancrum St and turn right into Euroka Ln. Turn right into Euroka St The western frontage of Euroka St features a nice group of sandstone cottages built, including Nos. 7-9, 26, 28, 36, 38 and 56. At the high end of the street is a pair of Victorian terraces with the name Holbeck engraved in the parapet above the houses. Also interspersed between

these sandstone houses are a few nice timber cottages, namely Nos. 40 (Ferryman), 42 and 44. The upper end of Euroka St was slow to develop because of difficult sites on which to build and most of these houses were built after 1890. However Nos. 2-4 and 8-10 were built about 1884. Stop at the foot of Euroka St on the left Inset in the large rock before the railway bridge is a plaque commemorating Australia’s most famous and loved writer, Henry Lawson, who was a resident of North Sydney for three periods of his short but productive life. During these brief periods in North Sydney he wrote several poems and short stories inspired by the sites, sounds, events and people of McMahons Point. The following poem, Kiddies’ Land was written in 1915 and describes the geography of Euroka St where he lived in several houses and looked after by his dear friend Mrs Byers. The street is old and built of stone – And other things beside; And though in length it’s very short, The roadway’s fairly wide. Our street is blind and at the top Are “Grounds” where gnarled trees stand, Like gnomes against the evening sky – Down here in Kiddies’ Land. Our street is an asphated street, And when the school-day’s done, You hear the sounds of little feet, And little go-carts run; And at the bottom, by the Bay, Are strips pf scrubby sand And grass where children love to play – Down here in Kiddies’ Land.

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And still with war and thoughts of war Their little souls are vexed – The Allies of the day before Are enemies the next. They charge with pop-guns and with sticks, Retreat, and make a stand – They imitate our grown up tricks, Down here in Kiddies’ Land. Our street, it hath a lolly shop, As you’ll have guessed before; Where every hard old “lollie-pop: Is new-named from the War. It buys their empty bottles, too; And so, you’ll understand, The kids are a commercial crew, Down here in Kiddies’ Land. And all the little sunflowers That in my garden grown, Are nodding to each other And talking soft and low; They’re holding mothers’ meetings, As you might understand, While all the children are at play, Down here in Kiddies’ Land. And when the honours of War and Trade, Of Peace and Strife, are sped, And all the working mothers of our street Call kiddies home to bed; The branches moving in the breeze, While the stars are chining grand, Seem Somethings in the gnarled old trees That watch o’er Kiddies’ Land. Cross over Euroka St into Commodore Cres. Stop at Henry Lawson Steps (entrance to Waverton Park)

Note the flat area below the steps which was the site of Ivycliff a substantial two-storey gothic style sandstone residence built by former Sydney Town Clerk Charles Henry Woolcott. He purchased lots 1-5 sec E of the Blues Estate in 1858 and the house was built about 1865. Whilst living at Ivycliff Charles Woolcott rowed daily across the harbour to attend his duties at City of Sydney Council. He continued to reside here until his death in August 1905 at 83 years of age.

View across Berrys Bay to Ivycliff about 1887. Photograph by Robert Hunt. (Courtesy Macleay Museum, PF1075/1) The house remained in the family for some years after. One of the most notorious tenants during this time was William James Chidley, philosopher with unconventional theories on sex, diet and clothing, who reportedly sunbathed naked with his followers upon the lawns at the rear of the house (with followers) in full view of trains passing by. The house was demolished, sometime between 1939 and 1942 and the site of the house and its former gardens were absorbed into the newly created reserve, named Waverton Park. Continue along Commodore Cres Monte Cristo, No. 3 Commodore Cres

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Variously named Dalvey House and Cliff(e) Ash, this is a very early sandstone house built as early as 1844 by John Blue, son of Billy Blue. The land upon which the house stands lies within Billy Blue’s 50-acre land grant and upon William’s death willed to his son John. During this period John mostly lived at the Old Commodore Inn but was in residence at least in the 1870s. For a short time Edwin Mawney Sayers was a tenant. North Sydney furniture retailer William Gourlay was a long-time tenant of the house from 1908. Return back to small pocket park and cross Railway Bridge to Union St This present bridge replaces a much earlier one in this approximate location used by the Woolcott Family to access Ivycliff after the railway line was constructed in 1893. Continue along Union St up the hill and turn right into Thomas St Thomas St is a narrow street with the northern end lying within John Blue’s subdivision and the lower end in the 1858 William Chuter estate. The street is characterised by a group of modest single storey narrow fronted Victorian and Federation cottages including the following: No. 1 was built in 1878 whilst two doors away, No. 5 backs onto properties in Webb St at the southern end of Thomas St. This simple timber cottage was erected by William Ray by 1875 and occupied by a succession of tenants when owned by Margaret Ray and then Mrs Janes Chapman. Nos. 7-19 were built in1913. Nos. 21-33 were all built in 1883-84.

No. 35 is a single storey brick iron house erected between 1881 and 1884 by Louisa Somers. Nos. 37-39 Thomas St Airlie and Aldershville, a pair of two-storey terrace houses, were built by Anton Jorgenson (master mariner) in 1888. He lived at No. 37 until 1891. A famous tenant of No. 37 was engineer Herbert Austin, the subject of the heritage plaque on the pavement in front of the house, who produced the first 4-wheeled Wolseley car in 1899. Interestingly, according to a 1914 car registration list for NSW, Anton Jorgenson was one of the first North Sydney residents to have a motor car. On the opposite site of Thomas St: - No. 2 is now a shop, but was the former site of a simple wooden cottage built in 1890 by Edward Waterhouse. Griffith and Annie Thomas (laundress) lived here from 1895 until the 1908 when the house was demolished to make way for the present building. Nos. 4-6 is a pair of brick iron houses erected by William and Elizabeth Waterhouse in 1886. Nos. 10-12 is another pair of two storey terrace houses built by the Waterhouse family, (William) in 1886. No. 12 was called Wendouree. No. 14 is a simple wood shingle cottage erected by William Ray in 1879. No. 16 is a simple wood cottage erected by John Ray in 1871. No. 22, a small timber house, was built in 1876 by/for G Solomon. It was subsequently sold to James O’Loughlin and then to William Grey a civil servant who lived here from 1900 till the mid-1920s. No. 26 was built in 1890 by Henry Stevens but leased out to a succession of tenants.

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Nos. 48 - 58 is a group of modest brick federation cottages erected 1913-14 by builder Arthur Eugene Smith Pugh about 1913. Continue to end and Victoria St and turn left Victoria St was formerly called Susannah St after Susannah Blue, eldest child of Billy Blue, baptised in 1805. Susannah was first married to John Moxon in 1827. Her second husband was George Lavender (former boatswain of the convict hulk Phoenix) whom she married in 1834. He committed suicide at his brother-in-law John Blue’s Commodore Hotel in 1851 whereupon Susannah married William Chuter in the same year. When Susannah died in 1861 she left considerable property which her third and final husband William Chuter subdivided in 1858. He was variously described as a stonemason or quarryman and at the time of his death in 1882 was living in Miller St. The street was apparently renamed to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837-1901. Victoria St also marks the northern boundary of Chuters Estate. Walk uphill in Victoria St and turn left into Webb St This is a narrow cul-de-sac, featuring a group of small scale, predominantly single storey timber cottages. On the corner is a small reserve upon which once stood Mrs Grace O’Brien’s simple timber cottage demolished between 1914 and 1916 (formerly No. 2).

Adjoining the reserve on the western frontage (left side) is Nos. 4 and 6, both properties once owned by the Ray family. No. 4, a small wood shingle cottage, was built by 1870 by/for William Ray, whilst next-door, No. 6, was built in 1876 and occupied by Mrs Margaret Ray from 1890. No. 8, at one time called Evada, is an unusual house in that it appears to be an original early cottage, but according to North Sydney Council Building Records, a building application was lodged in 1923 for a “re-erection of wood brick cottage” in 1923 by James Strong. Prior to 1922 this site appears as land. On the eastern frontage (right side) is a group of mostly timber cottages, including No. 7 built in 1867 by/for stonemason J. T Hayes and called Kia-Ora and No.1 Morlie Glen erected in the mid-1860s also. Return back to Victoria St and continue walking uphill Nos. 30-32 is a pair of two storey terrace houses built by David Elric in 1874. No. 36 a small sandstone cottage at one time known as Mor(e)ton Cottage. This house was built between 1858 and 1869 by William Shipley and was occupied by various tenants whilst in the ownership of the Shipley Family until the early 1900s. No. 38 is a simple timber iron cottage erected by William Robertson between 1858 and 1869. Turn left at Chuter St Note the red brick building on the corner of Chuter and Victoria Sts. No. 44-60 which is the former Kalamazoo factory erected in 1940. This factory is built on the site of the early Victorian gothic residence Fairlawn. The property was purchased by Kalamazoo Australia Ltd from

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grazier John McCalman between 1925 and 1927 and demolished in 1938.

Fairlawn was a substantial two storey stone and slate house built between 1858-69. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF 1216/1) Thomas Lake sold it to W. James Monro in 1876 and he then Hector Monro occupied the house into the 1880s. The Monro family retained ownership through Mrs Maria Monro until 1901 when John McCalman purchased it for an investment property.

Kalamazoo Factory, newly built about 1942. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF 1217/2)) The adjoining site in Victoria St was another early home known as Glenro at No. 50 and it too was built during the early 1860s. A notable tenant of this house was Bernard Otto

Holtermann who lived here in 1873-74. This property was subdivided and the house demolished for the present commercial buildings in the mid-twentieth century. Chuter St is named for William Chuter, a stonemason, who was the third husband of Billy Blue’s eldest daughter, Susannah. In the 1860s, Chuter owned the Billy Blue Inn. Susannah died in 1861 aged 66 years. Her husband died in 1882 aged 72 years and they are both buried in St Thomas’ Cemetery, West St, Crows Nest with other members of her family. Holt St marks the boundary between the subdivisions of William Chuter and John Blue. Houses situated between the intersection of Holt St and the Victoria St end lie within William Chuter’s 1858 subdivision. In this southern section of the street the surviving sandstone houses were built by stonemason Samuel Crews. Samuel Crews died in 1901 and was buried in Gore Hill Cemetery aged 72 years. He was in partnership with fellow stonemason and builder Jago. Members of the family continued to live in the area after his death, in Chuter and Webb Sts. Nos. 2-4 were built before 1869 whilst the adjoining Nos. 6-10 first appear as built in 1886. On the opposite side of the street the pair of two-storey sandstone houses at Nos. 9-11 were built prior to 1869 by Samuel Crews. He also built another pair of two-storey sandstone houses at Nos.1-3 in 1880 but which were demolished for the present commercial building during the 1970s. Crews lived at No.1 Chuter St whilst his yard was located in Holt St.

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Continue along Chuter St passing Holt St John Blue subdivided this northern section of the street in 1882. Take note of Nos. 12-16 on the left hand side (opposite Holt St) which were built in 1896 by clerk Frederick Smith, whilst the pair of two-storey terrace houses Nos. 18-20 were built a decade earlier in 1885 by Robert Fordyce who lived in No. 18. Continuing along the street, the trio of two-storey terrace houses Nos. 24-28 were built by Edward and William Fieldhouse in 1884. Lastly, No. 32, a two-storey brick iron house, was erected in 1891 by sawyer John King. Continue along Chuter St to end and turn right into Union St No. 93 is a two storey Victorian house erected in 1890 for Mrs Mary Purcell. A notable tenant of this house was marine surveyor John Vine Hall. No. 95 was erected by Robert Brindley in 1896 on John Blue’s estate. No. 99 is an early Victorian house erected in 1882 by Samuel Blue. No. 101 (next door) was built by John Blue in 1882, and subsequently owned and occupied for many years by Mrs Wilmington. Further along the street is a group of two storey Victorian terraces Nos. 103-109 built by John Blue on his estate in 1884. Aston Villa, No. 111 Union St was erected by John Blue on his subdivision in 1884. He lived here until his death in 1891 aged 76 years. John Blue was born in 1815 and was the youngest of Billy Blue’s children. He was an alderman of the Borough of Victoria from its inception in 1869 until the 1880s and prior to the amalgamation of the three local councils to form North Sydney. He was the landlord of the Old Commodore Hotel from about 1850 and remained there until 1866. Later he kept two

other hotels and was variously described as a lighterman and towards the end of his life as a shipowner. The present factory/office building at the rear is the former Shelta Umbrella factory erected in 1952.

Portion of panorama of Sydney and Sydney Harbour from heights of North Sydney. Photograph by Charles Bayliss, about 1893. (North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF749/3) Our “It was a very close community” walking tour ends here at Union Street. These walking tour notes were compiled by the Historical Services Team in 2008 from resources held in the North Sydney Heritage Centre, Stanton Library. Ph: 99368400