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by Philip Geeves F.R.A.H.S.

District Historian

The majority of our pioneers made their homes along the Rocky Point Road. At the time of which we are speaking this road was primitive and often dangerous. The Rocky Point Road ran from Cook’s River Dam to Rocky Point, or Sans Souci as we call it today. It was an extension of the Cook’s River Road from Newtown, which was then the principal shopping and trading centre of the entire Botany Bay District. As the traveller crossed the Dam into St. George, he paid toll at the toll bar 150 yards from Mr. Spark’s old Bathing House and a little further along he came to the junction of the Rocky Point and Muddy Creek (now West Botany Street) Roads. From this junction the road to Rocky Point began to rise steeply up Arncliffe Hill, known to our pioneers as Cobbler’s Pinch. After negotiating the rocky brow of the hill the road ran down sharply to a natural stream which crossed it near the present site of Spring Street, Banksia, and continued across swampy ground in what is now the vicinity of Ricketts & Thorp’s factory. Here the road surface was mainly corduroy track, for it skirted an extensive swamp between the present site of the Town Hall and the corner of Bay Street. Further on was another creek crossing close to Skidmore’s Farm where Muddy Creek or Black Creek was often impassable after rain.

It is no exaggeration to say that the early roads through the district were deterrents to the traveller.

In 1871 a traveller passed along Rocky Point Road and has left us this description.

“After passing Cook’s River Dam, for a mile or so, I pity a traveller’s poor bones if he proceeds faster than at a slow walk – but afterwards the road is tolerably good. It appears that the part of the road just described is a kind of “no man’s land” which partially accounts for its ill conditioned state. Beyond this we come upon numbers of market gardens and nestling among them a neat well-kept nursery called “Rosevale” which, when we passed, reminded me of a rich Brussels carpet, a patch of dahlias as a centre piece with their many varieties of colour, being its chief attraction.”

When the railway came to Rockdale in 1884, one reporter described our town – such as it was – as “a pretty little village”.

If we could go back in time and walk the rutted, dusty length of Rocky Point Road from Moorefield to Arncliffe, this is what we would have seen had we confined our observations to the eastern side of the road. From the boundary fence of Peter Moore’s estate “Moorefield” – the fence that ultimately became President Avenue – we would have made downhill to Skidmore’s Bridge which was built in 1862 and was the first improvement of its kind provided from Government funds in the district. It was merely called Skidmore’s Bridge because it was adjacent to Frederick Skidmore’s farmlet. On the eastern side of the road the principal families were those of Samuel and John Schofield, gardeners, Joseph Twiss,engineer, and Thomas Mascord, gardener and orchardist. No doubt many of you are familiar with the old Mascord home which still stands in Chandler Avenue but faces towards Rocky Point Road. In rear of these properties lay the Patmore Swamp, so called after the original grantee of Moorefield, Patrick Moore, who received this land from Governor Macquarie. This swamp, once a paradise for sportsmen who came there to shoot the abundance of water birds, was a continuing problem to many Councils over the years. After heavy rain the swamp came right up to the lower levels of Bay Street and was one immense sheet of water from that point to Moorefield. Boats could be rowed on it: indeed, James Beehag’s granddaughter informed me that her mother once fell out of a boat in the vicinity of what was previously James Street – named, of course, for James Beehag, the original proprietor of the land thereabouts.

But we have strayed from our subject ….. let us return to Rocky Point Road. Crossing the bridge near Skidmore’s Farm we would have encountered the homes of two professional men living near Dr. Lofberg’s residence; they were James Gannon, barrister, of “Kent Villa’ and William Rudolph Clay, Rockdale’s first doctor, whose home was “Montreux”. James Gannon was a relative of Michael Gannon, the one-time proprietor of much of present day Hurstville, then known as Gannon’s Forest.

Then came a small shop kept by John Andrews, draper, but cared usually in charge of his wife. It was Mr. Andrews who conducted Rockdale’s first school in the Wesleyan Chapel built on James Beehag’s land and from which Chapel Street took its name. As we proceeded past Andrew’s we would have passed Mr. Bryant’s saddlery, F. and A. Moir, timber merchants, several small shops and the branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank, which closed its doors in the great bank crash of the 1890’s. Speaking of banks, the position on the corner of Bay Street and Rocky Point Road now occupied by the Bank of N.S.W. was originally church land, part of the Wesleyan’s gift from James Beehag ….. and two large trees stood on the very corner. In rear of the trees, fronting Rocky Point Road, was an ironmongery kept by Mr. Harry Jobbins and nearby on the Bay Street frontage, was the greengrocery of Benjamin Bowmer. Other pioneer businessmen on this eastern side of Rocky Point Road were Charles Barsby, draper and boot importer, who came to Sydney from Victoria, opened a business in Hurstville and later conducted two shops at Kogarah and Rockdale. His Kogarah premises are now occupied by Turner Bros. Rockdale’s first Chemist was T. P. Swindale; his business later passed to Oscar Lofberg.

Bay Street was and still is the bisector of Rockdale township. In an age when most people and even doctors fondly believed that all ills could be cured by sea bathing and ozone, Bay Street carried much more traffic than Rocky Point Road because it led directly to the beach. This easy access enabled Rockdale to leap ahead of Kogarah in popularity, principally as a holiday resort, but also as a residential area. This traffic was, of course, the direct result of Thomas Saywell’s enterprises at New Brighton, Lady Robinson’s Beach – or Brighton le Sands as he later called this imaginative venture.

Saywell’s tram was the link between Rockdale station and Lady Robinson’s Beach … but before the tram tracks could be laid Bay Street had to be made. From the beach front to Farr Street it was little better than a chain of ponds; between Farr Street and the station there was a small mountitn of rock, one of the features that prompted Mary Ann Geeves, when requested to give the settlement an official title, to coin the descriptive name of “Rockdale” ….. a dale surrounded by rocky outcrops. When this rock was excavated at Thomas Saywell’s expense, the spoil was dumped into the marshland known as Frog Hollow which extended along the eastern side of Rocky Point Road, as we mentioned, from the corner of Bay Street almost to Bryant Street. In places this water lay more than a foot deep and supported a lush growth of bulrushes In rear of the swamp were age old mahoganies, about 100 feet high. Frog Hollow was well named because when night fell the residents of this little hamlet were regaled with a croaking chorus which was louder than that in “The Frogs” of Aristophanes. Even after the swamp was filled in and shops were built along the eastern side of the road, the frogs remained.

Apart from the few shops, the principal landmark between Bay Street and Bryant Street was the Grand Hotel, of which Mr. Charles W. Linke was mine host. It was the second hotel in Rockdale, the first being John Keats’ Royal Hotel. In rear of the Grand and extending to Bryant Street was Bray’s Paddock. The Brays were indeed a pioneer family; William and Walter Bray were both builders and William Bray Jnr. was a van proprietor. Their neighbour and relative was Mr. William Matheson. Mr. Bert Matheson who did so much for the Boy Scout Movement in this district is a grandson of Mr. Bray.

The street which now bears the name of Mr. E. J. C. Bryant was once the boundary fence of Conrad Frank’s garden and orchard. I am reliably informed by some schoolboys who tasted them eighty years ago that Frank’s peaches were the finest in the district ….. particularly when they were stolen, forbidden fruit always being sweeter.

Adjoining Frank’s to the north was Iliffe’s “Rosevale” nursery which was mentioned earlier.

The first name for Bestic Street was Goodes Road, so called after Richard Goode whose market garden was nearby. This was a most interesting thoroughfare which could have become the focal point of Rockdale. In 1882 whilst the railway was still being built, there was some doubt as to where the stations would be located. The plan was to space them as evenly as possible having regard to the existing hamlets along the route – although, with the possible exception of Hurstville, there were no centralised communities of any significant size. By May 1882 the location of Arncliffe station was certain; it was dictated by the great tunnel which is now an open cutting on the southern side of Arncliffe village. But the exact position of Rockdale Station was very much in doubt. Thomas Saywell, with his wealth and connections, kept himself abreast of developments. When he suspected that the station might be placed near what is now Bestic Street and was then Goodes Road, he approached Council in January 1883 to open this thoroughfare all the way to the beach, undertaking to contribute a substantial sum towards the cost of the work. No doubt he envisaged his tramway taking this route from the new station to his planned holiday resort at Lady Robinson’s Beach. The plan came to nothing, however, for the Rockdale station was eventually pegged out further south on Yeoman Geeves’s property and Saywell was then committed to the infinitely greater expense of cutting down the great rocky barrier in Bay Street to strike the levels for his tramway. Consequently Goodes Road remained in its pristine state.

At the northern corner of Goodes Road and Rocky Point Road was Peter Hermann’s garden, noted for its delicious strawberries. This portion of Bestic Street was often called Hermann’s Road in the early records.

Adjoining Herrmann’s property was Philipp Muhlhausen’s orchard. Like the Franks, Reuters and Herrmanns, the Muhlhausens were German migrants. The children of our pioneers divided their attention between Frank’s peaches and Muhlhausen’s quinces in their quest for vitamin C. At Frank’s it was a question of climbing a fence but Muhlhausen’s orchard could be entered much more adventurously by crawling through a subterranean drain which ran beneath Rocky Point Road. However, Mr. Muhlhausen knew about the larcenous tendencies of boys. His first line of defence was a pet parrot which screamed at the approach of strangers. Muhlhausen himself also kept a shotgun which he loaded with a mixture of shot and saltpetre … and his third protection was his son Fred, a giant of a man who could lift two boys across his outstretched arms.

Next to Muhlhausen’s was William Lawrence’s paddock which ran to the alignment of Spring Street. At the northern corner of Spring Street was Alfred Vincent’s nursery on the lower slopes of Arncliffe Hill and next to it the charming residence, still standing “Elysian”, the home of successful printer H. W. McKern.

But we have come far enough. The road has been rough and dusty and we are tired from climbing Arncliffe Hill. It is fortunate that we are right at the door of Mrs. dune’s well-named hostelry, “Botany View”.

– a precis of the talk delivered by Mr. Geeves at the October 1962 meeting of the St. George Historical Society.

This article was first published in the February 1963 edition of our magazine.

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M.L.A. Canterbury 1887-1894; M.L.A. St. George 1394-1908 M.L.C. 1908-1932. Premier of N.S.W. 1904-1907

by Alderman R. W. Rathbone

Joseph Hector Carruthers was born on 21st December 1857 at Kiama N.S.W. one of nine children of John Carruthers, a prosperous Scottish migrant farmer and his wife, Charlotte Prince. He was educated at William Street and Fort Street Schools in Sydney, Metcalf’s School in Goulburn and the University of Sydney from which he graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1876 and his Masters in 1878. He was articled to A. H. McCulloch and admitted as a solicitor in June 1879. In December the same year, at the age of 21, he married Louise Marion Roberts in St. James’s Church, King Street. They settled first in Ocean Street, Woollahra and then at Kogarah, later moving to Russell Avenue, Sans Souci.

Although slight of stature and frequently dogged by ill-health, he was an enthusiastic tennis player and represented the University at both football and cricket. It is the game of lawn bowls, however, for which he is best remembered and which he is credited with introducing into the St. George district.

He soon became involved in land speculation as a sideline to his conveyancing duties and made considerable sums of money from the land sales which followed the opening of the Illawarra Railway Line in October 1884. This he invested in grazing properties in the Central West and Monaro Regions. He was an active member of the Kogarah Progress Association, Patron of the movement working for the incorporation of Kogarah as a Municipality and Honorary Solicitor to the committee seeking the establishment of a public hospital in the area.

He first became interested in politics while still at the University when he worked for the return of the liberal Dr. Arthur Renwick for the University seat in the N.S.W. Parliament against conservative protectionist, Edmund Barton and in February 1887, was approached to stand as a Free Trade candidate for the four-member constituency of Canterbury in succession to William Judd of “Athelstane”, Arncliffe who had decided not to seek re-election. This seat covered the whole of southern Sydney from Watson’s Bay to Liverpool.

Despite his lack of political experience, he proved to be an energetic and capable. campaigner and topped the poll ahead of retiring member, William Henson, book publisher Alexander Hutchinson and race horse owner William Loyal Davis.

Of Canterbury’s four representatives Carruthers was soon marked out for ministerial preferment. A strong supporter of Sir Henry Parkes, he used his maiden speech to make a plea for the building of a tramway from Kogarah to Sans Souci and in November 1887, piloted through the House the Bill to change the name of the Municipality of West Botany to Rockdale. The same month saw him pressing for a protective fence for Arncliffe School where the cutting down of Cobblers Pinch at the entrance gates had made conditions extremely hazardous. The following year he demanded completion of the Western Outfall Sewer which at that stage was discharging into Cook’s River and acquisition of land at Kurnell for a public reserve. He was, in short, a most active and effective local member and no subject was too trivial to engage his attention. Throughout 1888 he did not miss a single sitting of the House but it was his well reasoned advocacy of Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration to settle trades union and labour disputes and for the provision of financial endowments to local government authorities which won him widespread notice and support.

The Parkes Ministry lasted until January 1889 when a revolt of his own supporters caused Parkes’s resignation and new elections. Carruthers again led the Free Trade team in Canterbury where his personal popularity ensured them the easiest of victories. When Parkes reformed his Ministry after the election, Joseph Hector Carruthers was named Minister for Public Instruction.

This was a particularly difficult portfolio because the full effect of Parkes’s Public Instruction Act of 1880 was only then beginning to be felt and existing school facilities were being strained to breaking point. Those schools which did exist were hopelessly overcrowded and new schools were needed in many rapidly expanding districts. There was a serious shortage of properly trained teachers and few facilities for secondary and tertiary education. This was a challenge that was to prove no match for Carruthers. Although, perhaps, the most harassed and closely questioned member of the Ministry, his great tolerance, patience, courtesy and understanding together with an acute intellect, unflagging industry and economical administration made him by far the most popular, approachable and respected member of the Government. During those years new schools were built at Kogarah and Hurstville and a school established at Hurstville West (Mortdale), the first mentioned being considered the finest educational building of its day. Moves were also made to establish a Teachers Training College but his most lasting monument was the establishment of our present system of technical education and the building of the Ultimo Technical College in 1891. Carruthers was also responsible for starting the School Penny Banking system and endowing the Women’s College within the University of Sydney.

The early 1890’s were, however, completely overshadowed by the Great Maritime Strike which brought N.S.W. to a standstill, disruption to industry and commerce and misery in many homes. After nearly twelve months of riots, strikes, lockouts and privation, the strike collapsed and the maritime unions were crushed. It was out of this strike that the Australian Labor Party was born and when the next State Election fell due in June 1891, one of the 45 seats in which the new Party ran candidates was Canterbury. Although a number of prominent St. George families which had previously supported Carruthers and the Free Trade Party switched their allegiances to Labor, Carruthers again topped the poll by thousands. But 36 Labor candidates were successful and in the new Parliament they held the balance of power. After a short flirtation with Parkas they switched their support to Protectionist Opposition Leader, Sir George Dibbs. This caused the resignation of the Parkas Ministry. Carruthers then moved into opposition where, in true character, anything he had to say was fair and helpful to the man who had succeeded him.

The next two years were, unfortunately, to prove very difficult for him. He suffered one of his most serious bouts of ill-health and his marriage ran into difficulties when his wife became an alcoholic. This resulted in an undefended divorce suit in 1895 when Carruthers was granted custody of their daughter. Throughout 1392 and 1893 his impeccable attendance record suffered and the only time he received a mention in the press was in June 1893 when, in an impassioned and thoroughly out of character speech, he accused the Premier, Sir George Dibbs, of deliberately withholding vital information which the police needed for the prosecution of a man named McNamara whose boiling down works at Rockdale were creating a public nuisance.

Just before the 1894 election fell due the Government abolished the old multi-member electorates and created in their place 125 single member constituencies. One of the new electorates was called St. George and embraced the three municipalities of Rockdale, Hurstville and Kogarah. Although there had been some speculation that, because of the state of his health and his marital problems, Carruthers might possibly retire from politics, the calling of the election seemed to give him new heart. George. Houston Reid had replaced Parkes as leader of the Free Trade Party and with the tide flowing strongly in his favour, fought an inspired campaign. Carruthers was his chief lieutenant. The result in St. George was such a foregone conclusion that Carruthers spent the greater part of the campaign speaking in other electorates where he was in great demand. One of the issues of the election was abolition of the Legislative Council and it was during this campaign that he made his now famous retort that “Anyone who felt the need for two chambers would do well to buy a kerosene tin”. The result was a Free Trade landslide, Carruthers polling more than seventy percent of the votes cast in St. George. After the declaration of the poll from the steps Of the Rockdale Town Hall he was carried shoulder high along the main street.

When Reid formed his Ministry, Carruthers was appointed Secretary for Lands. Like Public Instruction a decade before, this portfolio had been plagued by controversy but his penchant for reform, investment experience and legal expertise made him the ideal choice for the office. His proposals for closer settlement of rural holdings were considered to be a master stroke. The life of this Parliament, however, was dominated by the push for Federation of the six Australian colonies. This movement had begun as early as 1853 but State rivalries had ensured that little progress was made towards it. French and German colonial expansion in the Pacific in the 1880’s and a critical report in 1887 on Australia’s total inability to defend itself in the event of a hostile attack gave the matter more urgency and from the time of Parkes’s memorable speech on 24th October 1889 at Tenterfield, the move towards Federation gathered momentum.

Reid had little enthusiasm for Federation for, although he genuinely believed in the linking of the six Australian colonies, he realised it could only be achieved at the sacrifice of his beloved doctrine of Free Trade. Free Trade was the means of raising revenue by low duties on consumer goods and a graduated system of personal Income tax. The opposing doctrine of Protectionism was one of little or no personal income tax but high duties on consumer goods. This was practised by the five other Australian States. Carruthers was even less enthusiastic for, as an ardent States Righter, he could see the capital of the new Commonwealth of Australia being established in Melbourne – then Australia’s largest city and Victoria dominating the new Federation. When the first Referendum was held in 1897 to approve the Federal Constitution, Reid and Carruthers refused to instruct their supporters which way to vote and as a result, most Free Trade voters abstained. The affirmative vote failed to reach the minimum figure of 50,000 required under the enabling legislation. In July 1898, Parliament having run its three year course, new elections were held and Carruthers, because of his equivocation on the issue of Federation, found himself strongly challenged in St. George by an enthusiastic Federalist, Colonel George Walker Waddell, Chief Inspector of the Australian Joint Stock Bank and Commanding Officer of the Third Regiment, N.S.W. Volunteer Infantry. Although both Reid and Carruthers were returned their majorities were greatly reduced, the Government lost ground and it was obvious that despite the fact that the voters were satisfied with the administration of Reid and Carruthers, they also wanted Federation. A second Plebiscite was held in June 1899 and this time the Yes vote reached the required figure.

Reid continued on as Premier and Carruthers as his Minister for Lands where his never failing courtesy, firmness and fairness enabled him to resist the pressures from interested groups without giving offence to anyone but above all else he remained the local member extra-ordinary. His remarriage in January 1898 to Alice Burnett of Bexley, whose father was the Superintendent of Mails, only added to his immense popularity. In April 1899, Reid reconstructed his Ministry and Carruthers was promoted to the portfolio of Colonial Treasurer, the second most senior ranking position in the Cabinet after Reid himself but he was only to hold this office until September when the Labor members combined with Opposition leader, Sir William Lyne, to bring down the Government.

The year 1900, saw him devoting more and more time to his growing family and entertaining extensively at his new home, “Ellesmere” in Vista Street, Sans Souci. He was also able to concentrate on his flourishing legal practice and although he was still a persistent questioner, he spoke only briefly in the House.

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act received Royal Assent on September 17th 1900, one of the last acts of the dying Queen Victoria and Australia was officially declared a Nation on January 1st 1901. The first election for the Federal Parliament was set down for 29th and 30th March and a great scramble ensued to contest the new Federal electorates. The whole of the St. George district along with Sutherland, Canterbury, Marrickville and Newtown was located in the Federal Electorate of Lang and it was assumed that Carruthers would be the Free Trade candidate for this seat but Carruthers had other ideas and there was quite a little pique expressed locally when he stated flatly that he had no interest in Federal politics and had no intention of-deserting St. George for the rarefied atmosphere of the Federal Parliament. Premier Lyne was elected for Hume and Opposition leader Reid for East Sydney. This meant both major Parties in N.S.W. were left leaderless. John See succeeded Lyne as Premier and proposed a composite government consisting of representatives of all three Parties. This was flatly rejected by the other two.

When the Free Trade Party came to replace Reid, Carruthers appeared to be the logical choice but to everyone’s surprise it preferred the ailing Charles Alfred Lee, Member for Tenterfield who had served briefly as Reid’s Minister for Justice and Secretary for Public Works. Carruthers had favoured a composite government and had badly misjudged the feeling of his own Party on the matter. He was plainly disappointed and when State Elections were set down for July 1901, he seemed to have little heart for the fight. The Free Trade Party or as it had now become, the Liberal Party, began to fear that Carruthers was running dead and St. George could well be lost to the Labor Party. Despite his reluctance to campaign and a bitterly cold wet winter’s day, his supporters turned out in sufficient numbers to give him a comfortable win.

See continued to lead a Protectionist (now called Progressive) administration backed by Labor and in the months that followed, we see Carruthers in an entirely different role. Aggrieved at having been passed over for the leadership of his Party, he voted against his own leader on the question of reducing the size of the N.S.W. Parliament and featured in an ugly affray with Government members when the question of extending the franchise to women came before the House. Carruthers claimed women had not asked for the vote and their influence was more paramount in the home. In any case, he maintained, it would be necessary to provide separate polling places for women which would be both costly and inconvenient. Works Minister E. W. O’Sullivan described Carruthers’s speech as “ingenuous and leavened with crystallised conservatism” whilst Labor leader McGowan claimed he had no backbone and the barbed tongued John Norton, accused him of being the greatest confuser of issues of all time.

In September 1902, Liberal leader Lee resigned and this time, Carruthers was the unanimous choice of his Party. He immediately set the Liberal Party away from Free Trade V Protectionism and based it on anti socialism and reform. N.S.W. was experiencing its worst drought in many years, unemployment was rising and O’Sullivan’s grandiose public works were placing an intolerable strain on the State finances. The Peoples Reform League had been formed which demanded a reduction in the number of members of Parliament, curtailment of overseas borrowing and general economy of administration. When the Premier declared St. Patrick’s Day a public holiday in order to consolidate his support among the State’s large Irish Catholic population,the worst outbreak of sectarianism the State had ever experienced took place and resulted in the formation of the Protestant Defence Association led by the fiery Presbyterian prelate, Rev. W. M. Dill Macky.

Under the name of the Liberal and Reform Party, Carruthers now embraced most of the principles of the Peoples Reform League. In total contrast to his attitude only a few months before, he wielded the Opposition into a solidly united unit exhibiting a toughness and a political astuteness which amazed even his closest friends. He toured the country forming branches of the Liberal and Reform Party and attracted many converts from the Progressive Party. Carruthers also realised the potential danger of the Labor Party which he trenchantly described as “a bunch of parasites fastened onto the backs of the country’s workers” and sought to pin many of the criticisms of the Government on the fact that it was being held captive by Labor.

Dill Macky’s Protestant Defence Association also grew spectacularly and began to infiltrate the Liberal and Reform Party to such a degree that many Catholic Liberal voters were forced into the ranks of the Progressive and Labor Parties.

Early in 1904, Sir John See resigned as Premier and was replaced by Thomas Waddell but practically the whole of 1904 was given over to party pre-selection ballots for the State Election due in August. No party had more difficulty with these than Carruthers’ Liberal and Reform Association. The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly had been reduced from 125 to 90 and this meant many sitting members faced one another in party pre-selection ballots. Protestant and Temperance elements exerted great influence in Liberal ballots whilst the U.L.V.A. (United Licenced Victuallers Association) was active in Labor ones. Hordes of independents, independent Liberals and Unendorsed Liberals plagued the official Party and vote splitting in the first past the post system of voting threatened to cost Carruthers any hope of defeating the combined Progressive-Labor forces.

Carruthers campaigned like a man possessed. The Government was in deep trouble and when the numbers went up on election night, the Liberal and Reform Party had won a narrow majority of the 90 seats. The Progressive Party had been decimated and for the first time in N.S.W. Labor became the official Opposition. Carruthers offered to fuse his Party with the remnants of the Progressives to create a united front against Labor but this was rejected.

He now found himself both Premier and Treasurer and imposed an iron discipline on his Ministry and his parliamentary members. Taking advantage of the better seasons, he implemented measures of economic recovery, aided business, reformed the civil service and cut rail freights. He extended local government to all sections of the State except the sparsely populated Western Division, improved the State’s financial standing overseas and set up the Government Savings Bank of N.S.W. But his period as Premier was no bed of roses. His economies did not go far enough for the more extreme elements of the Reform Association and the large expenditure for public works provided in his 1904 budget brought bitter criticism from that quarter. Failure to act on the liquor question brought down upon his head the considerable displeasure of the Temperance Alliance and his enlightened industrial policy drew criticism from manufacturing interests who claimed he was trying to placate the Labor Party.

Carruthers, however, could be a very determined man and refused to be bullied by the extremists. During 1905 his government built up an impressive list of achievements. The Education Department was reformed and the first Teachers Training College established. The celebration of Empire Day was introduced. The Burrinjuck Water Conservation Scheme was commenced and Local Option Polls re-introduced. Carruthers balanced the State’s budget and general prosperity ensued. At the same time he incurred the wrath of the Protestant Defence Association when he appointed a number of Catholics to prominent positions in the Public Service and raised it to fury when he flatly refused to bring in legislation to compel convents to open their doors for public inspection and to bring Catholic industrial establishments under the Industrial Act. He also offended many Methodist supporters In his own electorate by declining to take action against Chinese market gardeners who worked on Sundays.

He successfully withstood the backwash of the Royal Commission into the Administration of the Lands Department which revealed widespread irregularities in land deals by Lands Minister, W. P. Crick, during Sir John See’s term as Premier.

Throughout 1906, Carruthers plugged doggedly on ignoring criticism of the management of the Railways Department, refusing to be rushed into hasty decisions, always steering the middle path. He amended the Gaming and Betting Act provoking a head on collision between the “Sports” and the “Wowsers”, passed the Murrumbidgee Canals Construction Act which allowed the development of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and provided the money to allow sewerage to be extended to the Illawarra Suburbs. He induced the banks to lower their interest rates to encourage investment, began work on the Mitchell Wing of the State Library and established chairs of Agriculture and Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney.

Carruthers was, however, constantly vilified by the Sydney Morning Herald which took every opportunity to denigrate hi:s achievements and to ridicule him personally. He had made it very clear from the commencement of his administration that he, and not the editor of this journal would dictate what legislation he put before the parliament. He was also criticised by a number of members of the Legislative Council who represented the manufacturing interests and did not endear himself to them when he snapped that he was thinking of abolishing this Chamber as it was nothing more than a haven of rest and replacing it with a panel of newspaper editors.

Despite these detractors, he kept the parliamentary Liberal Party and the outside organisation solidly behind him and vigorously defended his administration at every turn. In May 1907 he succeeded in fusing his Party with the Progressives and brought Progressive Leader, Waddell, into his ministry as Colonial Secretary and in September, he faced the people of N.S.W. for their verdict. The Protestant Defence Association, The Temperance Alliance, the Manufacturing Interests and the Sydney Morning Herald were left with no alternative but to support the Labor Party or to hold their peace. Labor accused the Government of being nothing more than the voice of the Methodist Church. Dr. Dill Macky said Labor was the voice of Rome. Cardinal Moran advised all Catholics to vote against any candidate wearing the endorsement of the Protestant Defence Association. Voting was particularly heavy and Labor made some gains in the suburbs but the tighter and more disciplined Liberal organisation picked up a number of seats lost on a split vote in 1904 and the Government found itself returned with a substantially increased majority.

Carruthers scored a personal triumph in his seat of St. George being returned by the greatest majority ever recorded in a State seat up till that time. The Labor candidate, veteran campaigner, George Black, did not even wait for the poll to be declared. But the three years of constant turmoil and criticism had taken Its toll on his never robust constitution. Two days before election day he had collapsed after addressing a meeting at Bexley. He was desperately in need of rest and suffering from increasing deafness and in the face of mounting industrial unrest and difficulty in reforming his Ministry, he resigned the Premiership and the leadership of the Liberal Party, leaving almost immediately, on an extended visit to England. His Party, the electors of St. George and the people of N.S.W. were stunned.

The Herald could hardly restrain Its glee. In a most patronising editorial It regretted his illness but declared “He has proved himself a politician of the most aggressive type, wanting in magnetism and with no remarkable amount of tact, often impetuous in his decisions but able to carry them into effect with determination”.

Whilst in London, he was offered the vacant Agent General’s position but declined although he did represent N.S.W. at the Franco British Exhibition there. He was also Invested with an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of St. Andrews and before returning to Australia was knighted by King Edward VII with the K.C.M.G. In October 1908 he resigned his beloved seat of St. George and was appointed to the Legislative Council. Not yet 52 and considerably recovered from the exhaustion which had caused his resignation as Premier, he became a most active and useful member of that Chamber. He led the Council’s opposition to the McGowan Labor Government’s proposals to tax rents and incomes from farming and grazing on freehold land but strongly supported the same government’s amendments to the Industrial Arbitration Act. It was not long before he became the unofficial leader of the Non Labor forces in the Legislative Council.

With the outbreak of the First World War, he threw himself enthusiastically into War Charity work and supported W. M. Hughes’s efforts to impose Conscription. He had moved from Sans Souci to Waverley in 1909 but continued to be active in Non Labor election committees in the St. George district at each election. He supported T. J. Ley against the Nationalist Party in 1920. In 1919 and 1920 he chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Agricultural Industry of N.S.W., the most extensive and in depth study of its kind ever undertaken in the State and so impressed his Party that when Nationalist Premier Holman lost his seat at the 1920 State Election, there was a strong move to draft him back into the Premiership. He served as Vice President of the Executive Council and Government Leader in the Upper House in Sir George Fuller’s ill-fated Seven Hours Ministry on 21st December 1921 and again in those positions in Fuller’s Second Ministry between 1922 and 1925.

He proved a major thorn in the side of the first Lang Government between 1925 and 1928 and showed that he had lost none of his political sagacity when, even after Lang had swamped the Legislative Council with new appointments pledged to vote for its abolition, he was able to get 50 of the 98 members to petition the Governor for its retention. He played no small part in resisting the excesses of the Second Lang Administration which finally resulted in its dismissal in May, 1932. It was Ironic that the same man who had been so savagely criticised by the Sydney Morning Herald in 1906-1907 was eulogised by that same journal in 1932 as “that bulwark against Labor extravagance”.

By now he was nearly 75 years of age and on 10th December 1932, shortly before his 75th birthday, he died peacefully at his home, “Highbury”, in Old South Head Road, Waverley. Apart from his political career he had had many other interests. He had been a member of the Senate of the University of Sydney and one of the founders of the University Union, President of the N.S.W. Chamber of Agriculture, a member of the Royal Agricultural Society, a trustee of National Park and the National Art Gallery. He was a past president of the N.S.W. Cricket Association, played bowls regularly and enjoyed fishing and shooting. He was a trustee of the M.L.C. Assurance Company, a director of the Kembla Grange and Moorefield Racing Clubs, the National Insurance Company and the Australian Widows Fund. He held extensive pastoral holdings in mid western and southern N.S.W.. For many years he had had a fascination with Captain Cook and was responsible for setting aside the Captain Cook Landing Place Reserve at Kurnell as well as being chairman of trustees of the Reserve for many years.

He was survived by his second wife, Lady Alice, three of his four sons and four daughters and lies buried in South Head Cemetery. Perhaps the most eloquent summation of the life of this outstanding man was made by Sir Henry Manning who succeeded him as Government Leader in the Legislative Council – “He looked at the world in a big way. He eschewed the small things of life and concentrated on the things that mattered. He brought to bear a most masterful hand, a most subtle intellect and a most persevering energy to every task he undertook”.

This article was first published in the December 1989 and February 1990 editions of our magazine.

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Once again it is my pleasure to report to Council and the St. George Historical Society another year of intense activity and sustained public interest at Lydham Hall.

During the year 2,030 people visited the home, a decrease on the previous year but one caused almost entirely by a succession of petrol strikes which resulted in the cancellation of a number of group visits. Visitors from interstate and overseas were particularly extravagant in their praise of the home. Perhaps the most important visitor of the year was the internationally acclaimed Australian authoress, Christina Stead, who spent her childhood at Lydham Hall and whose book The Man Who Loved Children is centred on the house. Her visit in August was her first since she moved to Watson’s Bay in 1913.

Further development and restoration of the property has been maintained at a high level. The former upstairs storeroom has been completely renovated and is now open as an exhibition room displaying our extensive collection of clothing. Plans have been prepared for landscaping the rear garden and provision has been allowed by Council to refloor the verandah and reslate the roof. Arrangements have also been made to renovate the larger of the two upstairs display rooms. This will complete the total restoration of the inside of the building.

Another matter of importance has been the considerable amount of new information which has come to light about the building during the year as a result of research into the development of the suburb of Bexley which I undertook in connection with the writing of a book on the subject. Lydham Hall stands on portion of the original Bexley land grant. It has always been assumed that information on the building supplied by the previous owners had been correctly researched. This is not the case. Lydham Hall could not possibly have been built in 1855 as an elaborate plaque on the front of the building proclaims as Joseph Davis did not buy the land until November 1859. It was not built (as previously claimed) by a Dutch stonemason named James Benson but by a Swedish stonemason named Sven Bengtson and his son Solomon Peter Benson whose granddaughter is still living at Casula. Action is in hand to correct these facts.

The year under review has also seen a veritable flood of additional artefacts and objects of interest come to Lydham Hall, together with the purchase of a new hall table, the disposal of two surplus chests of drawers and the gift of an attractive period china cabinet by the National Trust.

As a further attraction, souvenir teaspoons of the house are now available and these have proved most popular.

Whilst much has been achieved, two problems remain. One is to see that the property is continually and effectively promoted and the second is to ensure that a constant stream of people is available to assist Miss Otton in conducting visitors through the home. Lydham Hall has brought great credit to both the Rockdale Council and the St. George Historical Society. The Council has more than played its part in the restoration and promotion of the building but the flow of people prepared to assist in showing visitors through the building has often been very thin indeed.

To those people who have helped, the Local Committee would like to express its deep appreciation for Lydham Hall simply could not function without them.

The Committee would also like to place on record its unreserved praise for the Curator, Miss Otton, for the way in which she conducts the home, her complete dedication to her job and the immaculate way in which the home is always kept. She is a unique lady in a unique position and we are most fortunate to have her services.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge the willing co-operation of Mr. Kevin Casey of Council’s Staff, and the technical expertise of Council’s senior carpenter, Mr. Lloyd Deller, who has done so many jobs for us with such expert results and with a sense of complete dedication and commitment.

Alderman R.W. Rathbone.
Hon. Secretary,
Lydham Hall Local Committee.
24th March, 1980.

This article was first published in the May 1980 edition of our magazine.

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