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by F and B Lenane

Our Mum, Dora Victoria Lenane, was born in June on 7th April 1919, making her 94 years young. Dora’s many friends knew her by name, but her very large family always knew her simply as Mum or Nana.

Neither name reflects the amazing energy and joy of life that Mum brought to all around her. I can’t tell you the number of people who would always ask what she was taking! I can tell you today that her simple secret was, she loved life, and she loved people. In fact Mum was selfless. It was never about her, and only ever about whom she was with at the time — family, friends, members of the bowls club, the historical society, and the local gym, to mention a few.

Mum grew up in the St George area in a blended family of 10 children. She was particularly close to her brothers Basil, Clem, and Allan. Her own mother was the centre of her world and they were more than mother & daughter, they were great friends. Our grandmother Ann was the glue that bound her family together, and as time has passed, that is how our Mum has become to her extended family. She did a great job in this role and we have all benefited from the love & support she has always given us.

Mum left school early and went to work at Clooney’s clothing factory as a seamstress. She met her lifelong friends, Jean Conden, and Jean Healey about that time. They both became our Aunty Jean’s, for the rest of their lives.

Mum was also a scout mistress when her younger brothers were in the cubs & scouts. In the war years she was in the VAD helping the nurses. Unlike the girls of her time, Mum learned to drive and was still doing so until last year. Mum loved driving! She always made regular trips to and from Drummoyne, Rockdale, Turramurra, Turrella, & Castle Hill to visit us all.

Mum met and married our father Vince, a young man from Goulburn, who had been in the army during the war. They shared a great love of ball-room dancing. Sadly Vince passed away when Patricia was only 11 months old. Mum was left to raise two children in difficult times. She gained strength & support from many different avenues – in particular from her brothers. They were great role models and helped enormously with house repairs, painting, or car repairs. Our Uncle Allan spent a huge amount of time with us all.

He visited several times a week, particularly on a Saturday at lunch time, to make sure we were up to date with world championship wrestling, and taught us all the moves too. He also took us all away on camping trips, and has been at every significant event in our lives.

Mum went back to work when Patricia was 3 years old, first in clothing manufacturing, and later as an office Manager at Green Cabs. She stayed in this position for many years, and the directors & staff treated her like family. I think they admired this woman who was raising two children by herself, and driving from Annandale to Rushcutters Bay every day. When we were older and not in need of babysitting, Mum even decided to drive cabs on the weekend when the company were short staffed. She even worked at our shop, helping out for many years.

Mum took herself off to night school to learn woodwork, in order to be able to do more repair work around the house. It was nothing to come home from the beach, to find her on the roof of the house at Annandale, doing a bit of patchwork to the iron roof! You might also find all the furniture re-arranged whilst you were out, without anyone helping her.

Mum was a member of the Leichardt Bowling Club and was playing (although not frequently) until the end of last year. She also joined the historical society at Rockdale, and was an active member until recently.

Mum joined Five Dock Leisure Centre a couple of years ago, as part of a government initiative “living longer —livings stronger”, and was featured in the local paper as the cover girl – for this endeavour.

Her very proud achievement was being a volunteer at the Sydney Olympics, where she had the role of driving dignitaries around to different venues — she was 81 years old at that time!!

Mum had a continued association with the 2nd – 3rd Field Regiment that our Dad served in. She went to great lengths to keep the Anzac Day March tradition alive. When very few members of the Regiment remained, Mum started enlisting her grandchildren, and then marching with them, so the Regiment would still be acknowledged.

Mum is best known to her friends as the chief organiser of “theatre parties”. She loved bringing people from her different groups together, at least twice a year, to watch the latest musicals to hit Sydney Ticketek will miss the 40 people she would book for.

One of the things Mum would like this day to be, is a celebration of a life well lived. She was a party person who loved getting together with her family, listening to music, and dancing, and we feel sure that she is now dancing with our Dad in Heaven. Rest in Peace Mum — we will love you forever.

This article was first published in the June 2013 edition of our magazine.

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by B.J. Madden

Within what is now the Bexley Golf Course was a slaughter-house operated by C J Stone. The slaughter-house was adjacent to the creek which flows through the eastern end of the golf course, and blood from the slaughtered cattle ran into the creek. Blood was also buried in trenches in a paddock near Moore Street. There were holding yards adjacent to the slaughter-house. The wine bar was on Stoney Creek Road and at the western end was Jauncey’s Dairy. The land for the slaughter yard was leased from Smithsons.

The Stone family have been connected with butchers shops in the district since 1868. This was when the original Dick Stone commenced serving meat in the Rockdale-Bexley area. Many other shops were opened. Great-great-great-grandsons of the original Dick Stone still work in butchers shops in the district.

It is not clear when C J Stone, who was a son of the original Dick Stone, and other sons, commenced to slaughter on the site at Bexley, but it may have been in the late 1890’s. The first listing of a slaughter yard at this spot in Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory was in 1898, with James Smithson’s name. 1899 and 1900 Directories are the same, but 1901 lists Keep and Stone.

An article in the Town and Country Journal of 24 November states that, when the Bexley Municipality was created in 1900, Stone and Keep were the lessees (and J Smithson, owner) of one of the two operating slaughter-houses in the municipality, and that there were two others not being used at the time.

Operations ended about 1920. The 1920 Sands Directory lists Charles J Stone, but 1921 Directory lists a Metropolitan Meat Co. Ltd. Depot. This was when all private slaughter-houses within 60 miles of Sydney had to close and all slaughtering had to be carried out at abattoirs, originally by the Metropolitan Meat Co. at Auburn, and later at Homebush.

Butcher’s wagons transported meat from the Bexley slaughter-house to local butchers, as well as to Stones’ shops.

Cattle, sheep and pigs were all driven through Kingsgrove to the slaughter-yards from the saleyards at Homebush and other places, and old residents tell of the noise as the mobs of cattle were driven through Belmore and down Kingsgrove Road at night. Because the sales were usually held on Mondays and Thursdays, it would be Monday and Thursday nights that the cattle were driven through.

About 1928, while the Tempe-East Hills railway line was under construction, Bill Setten Stone opened a butcher shop in Kingsgrove Road near the railway station, next door to the present Grove Inn. At the time, the only other building in the vicinity was the weatherboard estate agency. Deliveries were by horse- drawn carts, and the horses were stabled at the back. Bill liked to find an excuse to give children a ride on a horse or in a cart. Mr Stone continued the business until he sold out in the mid 1970’s.

This article was first published in the May 1981 edition of our magazine.

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by R W Rathbone

David Hannam was born in the village of Holton in Somerset on 23rd June 1805, the eldest child and only son of Reuben Hannam and his wife, Elizabeth Hews.

Reuben Hannam was convicted of ‘larceny in a dwelling house” at the Taunton Assizes on 31st March, 1810 and sentence to death, a sentence which, on appeal, was commuted to transportation for life.

He arrived in Sydney on 20th September, 1811 aboard the convict transport “Admiral Gambier”. A brick and tile maker by trade, he was immediately put to work in the Government Brickworks then working at top pressure to meet the demands of the building boom created by the extensive programme of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

He so impressed the Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Isaac Nichols and the Assistant Chaplain, William Cowper, with his industry that they supported his petition to Macquarie, in August, 1813, that he be allowed to bring to New South Wales, his wife and two children, still living in England in extremely straitened circumstances.

Macquarie, in turn, wrote to Under-Secretary Goulburn asking him to recommend to Earl Bathurst that they be put on the first available convict ship.

Elizabeth Hannam and her two children, David aged nearly ten and Charlotte aged seven, arrived in Sydney On the “Northampton” on 19th June, 1815.

Just before their reunion, on 9th June, 1815, Reuben Hannam was given a conditional pardon and in August the same year was promoted to be Overseer of the Government Brickworks at Brickfield Hill. He is credited with making the first sandstock bricks in Australia from a mixture of lime, ash and sand.

Over the next few years the family prospered and on 17th August,119, Reuben was given a grant of 100 acres of land at Airds (now Campbelltown). On 28th October 1821, he was granted a free and unconditional pardon and two years later became an Honorary Constable in the District of Campbelltown.

On 21st November, 1825, he was granted a further 100 acres of land on the banks of Wolli Creek near Cook’s River.

At the time of the 1828 Census, Reuben Hannam was living in Bathurst Street, Sydney and later became a substantial landowner in the city. For a number of years he was the licensee of an inn in Castlereagh Street, “The Sign of the Red Cow”.

On 15th November, 1825, Reuben Hannan had also obtained a grant of 60 acres of land adjacent to his Cook’s River property, for his son, David (which was not confirmed until August, 1833).

At St. Peter’s Church, Campbelltown on 17th March 1828, David, now 23 married Mary Masterton aged 17, the first white child born in the district of Airds.

Mary Masterton’s parents were of Protestant Irish stock and had arrived in the Colony in 1800 and 1803 respectively. With his new bride and her twelve year old brother, John, David Hannam set up house on his 60 acre grant, farming and raising pigs, poultry and cattle.

The 1828 Census also revealed that he was being assisted by three assignees, John Atson, James Curtis and James Rede.

In this peaceful rural setting, David and Mary Hannam raised a family of 12 children, 8 girls and 4 boys, the last of whom was born on 6th April, 1857. They ere named Reuben Junior, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Phillis, David Junior, James Australia, Charlotte, Sarah Jane, Catherine, Lydia and Louisa Ruth.

No doubt concerned at the lack of educational facilities for his own family, David Hannam, in 1858, gave half an acre of land from his father’s grant at the junction of today’s Hirst and Edward Streets to the Church of England for the erection of a church-school which, opened early in 1861.

It consisted of a single room 22′ long by 14′ wide built partly of stone and partly of slabs with a galvanised iron roof and an “asphalte” floor to combat the white ants. The first teacher was Mr Charles Kellett who depended entirely for his salary on the fees he collected from his pupils.

The first religious service in the building was held on 24th February 1861 with Rev. A H Bull M.A. incumbent of St. Peter’s Cook’s River, presiding. Some time after 1875 this structure was demolished and replaced by picturesque “Old St. David’s Church” which was sold to Rockdale Council in 1972.

David Hannam became a very prominent figure in the Arncliffe District leading many deputations to the Government for improved roads and educational facilities. He was a personal friend of local politician, John Lucas, whose campaign committees he often headed in the St. George section of the Canterbury Electorate. He was a prime mover in the incorporation of the district into the Municipality of West Botany in January 1871.

He died aged 67 on 5th September, 1872, and was buried in St. Paul’s Anglican Churchyard at Kogarah.

Mary Hannam continued to live on the property until 1878 when large portion of it was resumed for the construction of the Illawarra Railway Line. The remainder was subdivided in 1880 as the Wincanton Estate to give the Municipality Firth, Queen, Belmore, Done, Eden, Charles and Wickham Streets. In 1872, Mary Hannam had sold the site of the original West Botany Council Chambers fronting Rocky Point Road to the Council for 20 pounds.

Her son, David Junior, served for two years, 1872-73, as an alderman of the Council and in April, 1879 was appointed the Council’s first Inspector of Nuisances at a salary of pounds 10.0.0 per annum plus half the fines he collected.

Mary Hannam died at Beaconsfield Street, Bexley aged 82 on 10th August 1894.

David Senior’s sister, Charlotte, married builder, pastoralist and politician., Edward Flood, the illegitimate son of an Irish convict who rose to be one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the Colony. After bearing him 9 children he deserted her for Jane Oatley with whom he lived for years and by whom he fathered another three children, leaving his wife to die in poverty in Newtown on 5th May, 1879.

It is often assumed that the name Arncliffe became associated with the area because the Hannams had originated in that tiny Yorkshire village. The Hannams were, in fact, West Country folk from around the village of Wincanton in Somerset. According to Mrs Mary Hannam who was interviewed by a correspondent of the St. George’s Advocate in 1893, the name was given to the district by Newtown surveyor, William Meadows Brownrigg, a, close personal friend of the Hannams’ neighbour, Alexander Brodie Spark.

This article was first published in the May 1981 edition of our magazine.

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