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by Bettye Ross

Just over two years ago an article appeared in the St. George & Sutherland Shire Leader titled “The Grave Mystery of Will and Eliza’s Death”.

I thought it was a pretty eye-catching headline and on reading through it, found that a headstone had been found in bushes in a backyard in Como which is the next suburb to Oyster Bay where I live. Now the headstone had been thrown over the fence of this property some years before, presumably as a party piece, and had ended up in the bushes. New occupants clearing the block had found it and wondered where it came from, why and whose was it?

Its inscription read:

“William Jonathon Johnson
Died, October 3, 1866, aged 55
This sweet remembrance of the
just shall flourish when he
sleeps in dust. Psm CXII.6″

underneath in smaller letters a smaller tribute stated:

“Eliza Harris who died on December 8, 1878, aged 65”

Eliza’s name and tribute had a pretty insignificant tone about it compared to William’s. Was Harris her surname? The Leader asked this as well as wondering whether the pair were sister and brother or “star-crossed lovers who thwarted convention by not marrying more than a century ago?”

This threw me into a mood of this has got to be solvable so I set to looking up newspapers of the time and found a nice long obituary to William and other notices of his occupations and abilities in various other articles, but so little about Eliza it amounted to nothing. But was she Eliza Harris or was she Eliza Johnson or was she Eliza the de facto of William Johnson or had she remarried after her husband William Johnson died? It didn’t matter what or where I looked she was not there. So if she wasn’t there, when and where had she come from? I was fairly certain of one thing – she had been “lying in state” wherever that headstone had originally stood – I hoped! There was not even a birth registration for an Eliza Harris or Johnson if she’d been related before marriage to William Johnson. There was only a marriage for a William Johnson to an Eliza Tompson. No way you wrote Harris could it look like Tompson!

There were two deaths registered who possibly could have been her, so I sent for both certificates, one didn’t fit because it was a death of an Eliza Johnson before the above date, but the other one did have a possibility although it was for a burial for 2 January 1879 – 25 days after she died! Not only that but between Eliza and Johnson was an H.! That certainly could stand for Harris. Naturally this death certificate didn’t have any more helpful details than that – no date of death, she was a female and she had been buried 2.1.1879 at Camperdown by Mrs. Kinsela & Sons of Sydney and witnesses were Henry Kinsela and William O’Dwyer. No date of death as I said, no age, no birthplace, no husband and no children!

Well I swung into research action – I eventually found where Kinsela’s burial registers were but they were scant and some years missing, but Eliza Johnson was there no date but round about 1879-80, no more details than I had. So I started looking around the date of burial instead of death, nothing. I was starting to get to know Eliza – she appeared in my mind as a pathetically lonely lady, living on her own, her children gone or estranged from her, alone since her husband’s death! Perhaps she’d fallen, lay injured on the floor with no one to hear her cries, no one to come and comfort or cover her emaciated body. Perhaps she’d died of thirst, exposure and loneliness! I knew she was emaciated because I’d now worked out how pathetic were her circumstances! If it wasn’t 120 years ago I’d probably have considered going and forcing her door open to find her!

I didn’t though – I went back to the old registers looking for more clues and decided to follow all the indexes of William Johnson marriages. The one that fitted was Eliza Tompson because the groom had the second initial of J. When hooked it up they had married 21 July 1838 at St. Philip’s, Sydney, her name given as Eliza Harris Tompson and the groom as William Jonathon Johnson. The witnesses were Charles Tompson, Richard Johnson, James Johnson, Jane Ann Armytage and Mary Ann Johnson.

A lot of Johnson’s to say the least and who was Jane Ann Armytage, was she a relation?

This took me back to the 1828 Census and I found Charles Tompson aged 44 who had arrived Free on the “Coromandel” in 1804, his wife Jane aged 34 and children Charles Jnr. 21, Frederick 14, Eliza H. 11, Edwin 9, Alfred 7, Emma 5, Ferdinand 3, and another Eliza H. aged 18 months, but how could wife Jane aged 34 years have a son aged 21? All except Charles Snr. had been born in the Colony.

Then when I looked under the Census for Armytage I found it stated Charles aged 12, George 9 and Jane Ann aged 10 months were the children of Mrs. C. Tompson and in the appendix it states “Children of Jane Morris by former husband”.

I now had two Eliza H.’s, two Charles’ and a Jane Ann Armytage – back to the drawing board and after a few more delvings into archives I came up with Eliza Harris Tompson daughter of Charles Tompson and Jane Armytage (nee Morris) marrying William Jonathon Johnson. I’d solved it!

My findings were sent off to the Leader a couple of months later and it was inserted under the heading “Mystery of Como Tombstone Known” BUT, read part 2 to find out how I fell on my face, and the stories and twists this riddle took me into!

This article was first published in the May 2002 edition of our magazine.

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by Molly McDonnell

In March of 1982, we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of St Francis Xavier’s Church, Arncliffe. The present beautiful edifice with its magnificent façade, round tower, and beautiful interior will forever stand as a monument to the great and untiring efforts of the late Monsignor Joseph Patrick Rafferty. With his great band of helpers he was responsible for the building of our present church which was opened in 1932 and only 4 years later being declared free of debt, was duly consecrated. Given that all this was achieved during the years of the “Great Depression”, this itself stands as a tribute to the generosity of parishioners and others and the hard work of all those who committed themselves wholeheartedly to this project.

Prior to this we had the original school-church, but the first of the ecclesiastical buildings was the convent, about which we shall talk.

The Convent

There was much speculation as to when the convent was actually built and by whom. But the first name to appear in Sands Directory was a Mr Parrish, in 1887, who lived there with his family until about 1900. In 1901, it became the property of a Mr Herd who died in 1909, leaving the property to his wife who remained in residence until 1911. There is letter extant in the Kogarah Parish archives written by the sisters of Charity saying that they could no longer staff the Kogarah Parish school. There would have been a reply and correspondence requesting help from the Sisters of St Joseph, North Sydney. These letters no longer exist, unfortunately. They would have given us definite dates. However, 1911 seems to be the year when things began to move. The convent at Arncliffe was purchased by the sisters of St Joseph. The Superiors at the time, of the Sydney Province of the Sisters of St Joseph, signed the Certificate of Title on 14 September 1911. Their names as they appear on the deeds were:- Mary Molloy, Bridget Howley, Veronica O’Brien, and Mary Meskill. It would have been shortly after this date that 4 sisters took up residence: They were Sisters Gerard, Conception, Ignatius, and an unknown postulant. From Arncliffe they travelled to Rockdale and Kogarah to teach in the parish schools. As at that time there was no school in Arncliffe, the first pupils about 12 in number, were taught in the convent until the church-school was completed in 1912.

Over the years there have been many alterations to the present convent, mainly interior. New additions were also added upstairs. What is now the chapel was once the music room and later the room adjoining it became the music room. In these days the chapel had to be upstairs in 2-storey type buildings. When our new church was built, the passageway leading to the sacristy and church was added, giving the sisters direct and easy access to the sacristy and their own chapel at the side of the High Altar, this later is no longer in use as a chapel. In recent years the small vestibule leading into the present music room has been considerably altered providing the sisters with a beautiful dining-room and access to a very modern kitchen

To the best of the writer’s recollection, sister Marcellus was the first music teacher, with pupils numbering over 90. Lessons were given at all hours including Saturday.

The Church School

The district stagnated during the 1850s as the lure of gold enticed many families to the goldfields but by the time Alexander Brodie Spark died at Tempe House in 1856, there was a well established village at Arncliffe, with an inn and several substantial buildings. As the population increased, the need for schools and churches was increasingly evident. There were other denominational churches and schools in the district but none for the Catholic population. About 1862, and due to the untiring efforts of Archbishop Polding, there were at least 2 schools in the Cook’s River district. One at Rocky Point Road Kogarah, and one at Cook’s River, Tempe.

In the early 1900s Hurstville appeared to be the central church for all the surrounding districts, including Kogarah. Pastors were Rev. Fathers O’Driscoll, Walsh, Peoples and Cusack. Then Kogarah became the parent church and Arncliffe was incorporated in it.

Before these parishes were established, the nearest church was St Benedict’s Broadway. It was nothing for families to travel a distance of 20 miles there and back to mass, sometimes on foot. With the establishment of St Peter and Paul’s, Tempe, some of the Arncliffe Catholics were able to attend Sunday Mass there. Later on some of these families were privileged to attend Mass at St Magdalene’s Retreat (on the former Tempe House estate) for some years until the number of people increased and the problem of accommodation arose, and the Rev. Mother was forced to revoke the privilege. From Arncliffe and Banksia nearly all went to Rockdale church which by now had been established. It was a normal sight to see several families grouped together going to and returning from Sunday Mass all on shanks’s pony (on foot / walking). Members of the Hardge, Stone, O’Keefe, Scott and other families used to walk to Rockdale to school and back, because trains were few and far between.

In 1904, Farther O’Driscoll was placed in charge of St Patrick’s Kogarah. He erected Catholic buildings in Rockdale, Arncliffe, Hurstville, Penshurst, Cronulla, and in later days completed St Patrick’s Kogarah which up to that time was an unpretentious stone church. The foundation stone of St Joseph’s, Rockdale, was laid in 1891, but even the establishment of Rockdale church did not suffice for the ever-increasing number of Catholics common in to the district; and on 5 February 1911, Fr. O’Driscoll presided over a meeting, held in the convent, Arncliffe, to discuss the desirability of erecting a school-church to meet the requirements of the Catholics of Arncliffe, and to relieve the congestion of Sunday morning at Rockdale. It was decided to erect a school-church at a cost not to exceed £600. As the sisters had acquired their convent on Forest Road, the site of the school was purchased from them at cost of £200.

In the Freemans’s Journal and Catholic Press of 7 December, 1911, the following article appeared: “New Church At Arncliffe, his Grace Archbishop Kelly, ceaseless in his efforts to provide for the spiritual wants of his flock, opened a new church at Arncliffe on Sunday, 3 December 1911. The rapid growth of that part of the Illawarra District has increased the religious responsibilities of the energetic Father O’Driscoll. During recent years he had his hand to the busy plough of Catholicity, furrowing a road that leads sons to their eternal home and, with the co-operation of generous parishioners, new schools and churches have studded the picturesque heights of the district.”

The new church will be of brick. The building will be 70-foot long and 30-foot wide, with walls 15-foot 6 inches in height, and will accommodate 400 persons. The windows will be of Gothic design and the church is to be well lighted and ventilated to the apex of the roof with patent cowl ventilator. The site is alongside the convent in Forest Road, and is convenient to the railway station. Architect is Mr J Frank White, 94 Pitt St Sydney, and the contractor Mr W J Symons, Forest Road, Arncliffe.

The school-church was eventually completed in 1912 with pupils numbering 72. By 1914, it had increased to 76. The 4 extra pupils could have included the writer’s 2 sisters and brother, whose family had arrived from England in April that same year. The writer also recalls Father O’Driscoll. In August, 1914, World War I broke out. It was a very sad and hard time for all concerned and, no doubt, raising money for the completion of the church must have been a problem.

The building was one long room with two long red curtains dividing the school from the sanctuary where the Blessed Sacrament was kept. The curtains were easily drawn aside for the altar to be exposed and for Mass to be celebrated. Large heavy desks were supported by adjustable brackets in such a way that they could be dropped perpendicularly on their hinges. Ink pots, of course, had to be removed from ink-wells! The front of the building did not reach the footpath alignment, as at present. There were a few steps leading into a porch and thence into the classroom.

By now the number of Catholics continued to increase; and in March 1916, the Rockdale-Arncliffe portion was divided from the parent Parish of Kogarah and made a separate parish under Father J P Hyland. A year later the parishioners of St Francis Xavier’s rejoiced to learn that the Archbishop had formed a separate parish in Arncliffe, with Rev. Father Andrew Mulvihill as its first pastor.

Continued in part 2.

This article was first published in the April 1991 edition of our magazine.

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by Margaret Collister

John Bowmer, aged 25, arrived in Sydney on the “Irene” on 16th October 1852 with his wife, Eliza Maria aged 28 and their infant daughter Fanny, born in 1852, another child having died at sea on the way out.

John was a gardener and was born at Rephem in Lincolnshire, England where his father, Abraham, was a groom. His mother was born at Bully Gloucestershire.

John and Eliza Maria were married at Cottesmore in Rutlandshire (the smallest county in England) in 1849 and when they first arrived in Sydney they lived at Woolloomooloo before moving to Stanmore near where Newington College is now situated.

In 1862 John bought land in Rockdale at the corner of West Botany and Bryant Streets where he worked a market garden. He later sold some of this land to James Wilson who built the stone house still standing opposite Rockdale Park in West Botany Street which now belongs to Bayside Council and is known as “Wilson’s farmhouse”. The stone for this house was quarried nearby. The Bowmer house was in Bryant Street at the side of the Wilson farmhouse and the property stayed in the family for three generations until it was sold in 1968.

There were 10 children of this marriage and 17 grandchildren.

John played a leading role in municipal affairs. In the early days of the West Botany Council his work in West Botany Street had so impressed the Council that it decided to form a further 24 chains (482 metres) of road in the street at a cost of £30, he being employed almost full time by the Council as its first road construction contractor.

In 1876 John was elected to the Council. The only unfortunate incident on the Council that year occurred in April when some person with evil intent sent John a packet of black spiders through the post. In one of its very few unanimous decisions the Council recorded its “disgust at the unmanly conduct of the person or persons who sent the packet to the Mayor”. The reason for this was that Bowmer was a most gentlemanly and patriarchal figure and enjoyed enormous popularity both with the Council and the other residents.

During stormy protests and complaints during the years to 1880 only the steady hand of Alderman Bowmer (now in his third term as Mayor) kept the ship of state on an even keel. He presided at the luncheon on 15 October 1884 to celebrate the opening of the railway line as far as Hurstville. He was mayor for seven terms from 1878 to 1884. In 1884 he was appointed the first Returning Officer for the State electorate of St. George. To celebrate this fact he was given a medal by his fellow clerks to be hung on his watch chain.

He is mentioned in the Centennial history of N.S.W. in 1888.

He was one of the founders of the West Botany Wesleyan Church (now the Uniting Church in Bay Street, Rockdale). In those days it was known as the Rocky Point Chapel, attached to the Newtown circuit.

The movement towards municipal incorporation in Kogarah began at a public meeting held on Monday, April 7, 1884, at the Beavers’ Gardeners’ Arms Hotel, Kogarah at which there was an attendance of 40 persons and J. Bowmer, Mayor of West Botany presided.

He died on December 13, 1903 at Rockdale aged 76 and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery at Sutherland.

As one of its pioneers John Bowmer made a significant contribution to the development of our district in the days when life was a very different proposition from what it is today.

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

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by Thelma Hayman

Included amongst the several large tracts of land bestowed on various people in the early days of the settlement that became known as Koggerah (now spelled as Kogarah) was a triangular shaped area which came into the possession of John Porter. Its boundaries were set by the western side of Rocky Point Road from its intersection with Kogarah Road (now portion of the Princes Highway) and along the eastern side of Kogarah Road to the vicinity of the intersection of Jubilee Avenue, a modern extension of the former Hector Street which left Rocky Point Road in a westerly direction for a short distance before terminating in a cul-de-sac. John Porter’s estate embraced the fertile low-lying lands at the head of Kogarah, or Townson’s Bay, and the western hill slopes of what is now known as Fitzgerald’s Hill. At the junction of Rocky Point Road and Kogarah Road a section was ceded to John Emerson at an early date whereon was built Prendergast’s Rocky Point Hotel, believed to have been a slab-sided structure with shingled roof and outside brick built chimneys.

It is evident that the Porter Estate was subdivided in the early 1850s, or thereabouts, and that a section lying on the northern slopes of Fitzgerald’s Hill and facing the western alignment of Rocky Point Road, came into the hands of Thomas Fitzgerald and was subsequently developed into a market garden and orchard. The southern boundary of the property would be today marked by Fitzgerald Avenue, the northern in the vicinity of Shaw Street, and the western by Ercildoune Avenue (on its eastern side). These boundaries as listed in this essay may only be approximate but they serve to give an idea of the extent of the orchard and farm enclosure.

Thomas Fitzgerald was a native of Ballangarry, a township in the Irish county of Limerick, where he was born in the year 1818. In due course he married a colleen named Sarah, whose surname has escaped us, but it is known that the lady was born in 1828 and hailed from the County of Monagham. The couple migrated to Australia and it has been stated that they settled on their land at Kogarah about 1855 where a brick double-fronted cottage, named “Springwood” was subsequently erected, facing towards Rocky Point Road.

“Springwood” had an end-gabled roof running the full length of the house and its centrally placed entrance hall was wide and capacious. It is possible that the original roof was shingled, as customary at this period to cover the few cottage homes existing in the area then known, somewhat loosely, as Rocky Point. A galvanised corrugated-iron roof was certainly noted in the early days of the present century, together with a full length front verandah, and short length side verandahs branching therefrom, the iron roofs of which were bent down at the outer edges to meet the guttering. Details are not to hand in reference to that important adjunct the kitchen and its culinary arrangements, likewise scant knowledge has been obtained at this late date of the location and design of the stables, packing sheds, and other farmyard appurtenances. When the system of street numbering came into force the number 221 was bestowed on “Springwood”, marking its precise location on Rocky Point Road. This cottage is still standing but has been “modernised” with a texture brick facade and additions made to the rear of the premises, the whole being covered., with a red-tiled roof of unusual design, a circumstance brought about by the need to incorporate the original roof structure in the new scheme of things. The cottage has been divided into two “semis” which, at July 1971, bore street numbers 75 and 77.

The Fitzgerald family carried on the business of market gardeners and orchardists, the main crops being sweet potatoes and chokos, whilst in the orchard a wide range of fruit trees were cultivated, including quinces, mulberries, loquats, figs, peaches, apricots etc. There are still many fruit-trees growing in the now subdivided property which may include some of the original trees, or possibly seedlings therefrom. Robust choko vines can also be noticed covering several of the dividing paling fences.

The family of Thomas and Sarah Fitzgerald comprised a daughter, also named Sarah, who was born in 1860, Thomas, born in 1864; Edward David, born in 1868, and William Henry, born in 1871. To complete the record of the family, which is now extinct, it must be mentioned that the father, Thomas Fitzgerald, died on November 30, 1900, in his 82nd year. His good wife Sarah, a resident of Kogarah for 66 years, died at the age of 93 years on November 26, 1921. The eldest child and only daughter, Sarah, died on August 24, 1942, at the age of 82 years. The eldest son, Thomas, died on July 17, 1936, in his 72nd year. The second son, Edward David, died on May 23, 1932, aged 64, and the third son, William Henry, died in August 1913, at the age of 42 years. The members of the family were interred in the Fitzgerald vault located in the Roman Catholic portion of the Woronora Cemetery at Sutherland. The latter group of melancholy details were kindly supplied by J. Kirby (nee Aileen Sippel) who was acquainted with this old established pioneering family in its latter years. It is passing strange that none of the four children saw fit to engage in the affairs of matrimonial bliss, although it has been ascertained that young Sarah may have had ideas in this direction as she kept company with Mr. Clarke who resided nearby in Wilson Street.

Towards the latter period of his life Thomas Fitzgerald (Senior) often walked cross-country from his Kogarah residence to Parramatta, just for a jaunt. In order to offset the icy blasts of winter on these journeys he generally wore two overcoats. His son, Thomas (Junior), was distinguished by a “walrus” moustache, and also preferred to wear lace-up boots without laces, an arrangement which permitted the lower end of his trouser legs to be inserted, in wrapped fashion, into the upper portion of his boots. In its later years the Fitzgerald menage was well served by a dusky lady referred to, not unkindly, as “Black Annie”, who evidently had an Aboriginal background. She proved to be a devoted companion as well as a servant to Sarah Fitzgerald and officiated with some renown as a cook, specially in relation to her skill of cake making. By all accounts she resented her mistress dabbling in the cakemaking art and, so it has been said, that when Sarah placed her own admirable efforts in the oven Annie would wait until an opportunity occurred to open the oven door and close it with a bang, to the sad detriment of the “rising” of Sarah’s cake. It is understood that Sarah left Annie a sum of money and a cottage at Carlton in her will.

Apart from the agricultural interests the Fitzgerald family became concerned with the acquisition of real estate in and around the Kogarah district. They also owned a boot and shoe emporium at Newtown for some years and Sarah acted as manager. This shop was eventually sold to Messrs. John Hunter and Company, a firm which operated boot and shoe stores in many suburbs as well as in the city. When the James Beehag grant at Kogarah was subdivided in the 1880s the opportunity was taken by the Fitzgerald family to purchase several blocks of land ranged along the eastern side of Rocky Point Road (opposite “Springwood”) with a frontage of about 240 feet. This land occupied the area between the present Austral Street and Wilson Street. Four weatherboard cottages were built on these rather large blocks which were later further subdivided for additional housing purposes. The Endeavour Convalescent Hospital has recently been built on land formerly occupied by the two cottages nearest Wilson Street corner. At the Austral Street corner was a large weatherboard store which, in modern terminology, would be described as a split-level building as the corner portion was built at a slightly higher level than the section immediately adjacent. It is possible that two shops were originally incorporated within the building. One recalls a painted “tin” sign fixed to the outside wall advertising “Fry’s Chocolates By Appointment To Her Majesty Queen Victoria”. About 1939 the weatherboard shop was demolished and its occupier, George Fletcher, moved his grocery business across the road to one of a new group of brick-built shops and dwellings which had then been erected on the northern portion of the Fitzgerald property in what is now known as South Kogarah.

In addition to the above the family bought properties ranged along the Railway Parade at Kogarah and built weatherboard shops in front of the existing dwellings, thus helping to establish Railway Parade as the main shopping centre. They also owned property in Austral, Barton and South Streets at Kogarah.

The lower northern portion of the “Springwood” estate was sub-let to a Chinese gentleman known to the local inhabitants as “Giggly”, for the obvious reason that he was a merry soul and always giggling. He occupied a small hump near the present entrance to Hillpine Avenue and sold the produce from his vegetable garden to the neighbouring housewives. During the time that the area was farmed by the Fitzgerald family this portion of their land was given over to barley-crops.

With the elimination of their arduous farming activities the Fitzgerald family erected four large brick cottages, with cement rendered walls, two at either side of “Springwood”. A large semi-detached residence numbered now as 59 and 61 Rocky Point Road, was built on the second block southwards from the intersection of Hillpine Avenue, where members of the well known Sippel family have lived since 1907. It is possible that all five dwellings were erected prior to 1899, each having external characteristics common with the others. No. 69 of this group was occupied for many years by Miss Nagg. The house erected on the northern corner of Rocky Point Road and Fitzgerald Avenue has recently been demolished and at July 1971 the block was vacant. This cottage, formerly 117, No. 231, was tenanted by a family named Mutton. For many years there was a vacant block at the southern corner of Rocky Point Road and Hillpine Avenue and it is understood that Sarah Fitzgerald would not sell it as she always hoped that it would prove to be an advantageous site for a post office. It was a gesture typical of this far-seeing woman. Until the year that the block was subdivided, after Sarah Fitzgerald’s death, there was a magnificent peppercorn tree standing in the centre, a tree that seemed always to be an attraction to boys and sometimes girls who climbed along its out-spreading branches. The grassy block also proved convenient as a site for the bonfires and ear-splitting orgies of “cracker-night”. Nearby were numerous clumps of spiky-leaved Yucca plants which, on occasion displayed lengthy stalks of creamy coloured cup-shaped heavily perfumed flowers.

About 1923 the Fitzgerald family moved to a house named “Waratah” placed on the southern corner of the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue and Rocky Point Road, their “Springwood” home being later occupied by Mrs. C. Phillips. The house “Waratah” was listed at 1899 under the occupancy of Mr. G. T. Lee and it was subsequently tenanted by numerous people. There were tennis courts at the rear of the property which were overshadowed by a magnificent pine-tree growing on the sidewalk of the adjacent Fitzgerald Avenue. On the long established adage, “If it moves – shoot it – if it doesn’t cut it down”, some minion of the Kogarah Municipal Council conceived the idea of selling the beautiful age-old tree to a match company, thereby enriching the Council’s coffers, so it has been said, to the extent of five pounds.

The stay at “Waratah” was of short duration and by 1926 the Fitzgerald family were ensconced in “Glendower”, a fine brick-built two-storied mansion which was then numbered as 237 Rocky Point Road. As far as can be gathered at this late date the house “Glendower” was built by Mr. Arthur Brown, an out-back squatter of more or less independent means, and who trained and raced trotting horses as a side line. It is even thought that the house name “Glendower” originated from that of a successful racehorse. Be this as it may, he house was certainly beautiful in its outward appearance and indoor appointments. The outer side of the brick walls were cement rendered, the plaster being scored to simulate stone jointing. A colour wash was added to the walls which gave a creamy-pink finish and looked very attractive. Bay windows of the semi-hexagonal shape served both the lower and the upper floors on the southern side of the facade, whilst the lower verandah and the upper balcony were entered from within the house by means of French windows, in addition to the lower main entrance doorway. Both the verandah and the balcony were continued for a short distance along the northern wall of the building. The servant’s quarters, and presumably the kitchen, were located at the rear of the premises, and a capacious ballroom occupied the space above. The blue-grey slate roof was topped by a “Captain’s Walk” from which an embracing view of Botany Bay and its opposing headlands could be obtained. To the south-east lay the sandhills of Cronulla whilst to the south-west the blue waters of Kogarah Bay, backed by the wooded hills of Blakehurst, made a most pleasant scene.

The house was built well back from the street frontage and, so it has been said, the foundations rested on a thick bed of asphalt, a substance not particularly edible to white-ants. The spacious grounds were entered from Rocky Point Road through a pair of wrought-iron gates, each being swung from stone pillars in which the name “Glendower” was cut, the letters being thrown into relief by black paint. The lower portion of the front fence was formed of cut sandstone with the top course half-rounded to support a row of round iron spikes some five feet in height. Privacy from the road was obtained by a dense hedge growing against the seemingly murderous spikes. From the entrance gates the drive led westwards to the rear of the house and its stables etc. A branch drive leading to the front of the house and its entrance doorway was circular in shape for the ready reversal of horse-drawn and later, motor vehicles. The grounds were plentifully dotted with trees, Norfolk Island Pines predominating. At the rear of the house was a small stone cottage, whose origin is somewhat of a mystery but it was charmingly named “Rose Cottage”. It is understood that prior to Sarah Fitzgerald purchasing “Glendower”, this mansion was occupied by Mr. A. Womsley about the 1924 period, this gentleman evidently taking over the property from Mrs. H. Brown, the widow of the former owner.

About this period Sarah Fitzgerald became the proud owner of an early model “Essex” sedan motor car in which she made numerous shopping excursions and short tours of the immediate district. “Black Annie” usually reclined in comfort on the back seat whilst the late Mrs. Simpson (Senior), a close friend of Miss Fitzgerald residing at No. 40 Ercildoune Avenue, occupied the front seat next to the driver. It has been related that on one auspicious occasion, Mrs. Simpson was scared out of her wits as she was sure Miss Fitzgerald had gone up Skidmore’s Hill (south of the Skidmore’s Bridge over Muddy Creek, Rockdale) at sixty miles an hour and all the time asking “Black Annie” to tell her “what was coming at the back”. Mrs. Simpson at the same time telling Miss Fitzgerald “to watch what was coming towards them and not to worry about what was behind them”. It must have been a most exhilarating journey made over the rough unsealed Rocky Point Road at that period.

A regular visitor to “Glendower” was a genial Irishman named Patrick Keiran, who resided nearby in the stable building associated with “Oak Hill”, the former residence of Sir Joseph Carruthers. Patrick was a character in his own way and had a quaint turn of speech and a wealth of expression. On one occasion, at the time of much bad weather, he credited the atmospheric upheaval as being caused “by the caustic rays from the masonic bomb”.

During the late 1920s, Sarah Fitzgerald subdivided the western portion of the “Springwood” property and Hillpine Avenue, serving the housing allotments, came into existence. The development of this area came to a standstill when the infamous bank-inspired depression hit Australia and it was not until 1933 that building operations recommenced. The steam tram system, running between Kogarah Railway Station and Sans Souci, first served the transport needs of the area at South Kogarah and on its replacement with trolley buses in 1937 the land sales on the Fitzgerald Estate fairly boomed.

The large number of Norfolk Island Pine trees growing so splendidly in the grounds of “Glendower” were cut down in the early years of the 1939-1945 War and their timber was donated by Miss Fitzgerald to the war effort for the manufacture of gun cases. Incidentally, it has been stated that there was a legend that the site of “Glendower”, together with that of the adjacent Simpson home, was, before the arrival of the white settlers, a camping ground for the local tribe of Aboriginals. Chosen so it has been claimed, because the hill was the warmest area in the immediate district and also one of the highest. I have been informed by a local resident, Mr. Simpson, that there is a marked difference in the temperature between his property and that on the lower lying areas. In 1970 when severe frosts affected the market and other gardens, even turning brown the foliage of such hardy shrubs as Hibiscus, the plant growth at the crest of Fitzgerald’s Hill was not touched by the hoary hand of winter.

The late Mrs. Simpson (Senior) was out driving with Sarah Fitzgerald when the latter became ill and just managed to get the car back to “Glendower” before she collapsed with a slight stroke. About two weeks later she suffered another stroke and was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney where she died on August 24, 1942. She was the last member of a very interesting, successful, and most charitable family.

The considerable estate was left to the Roman Catholic Church authorities and His Eminence Cardinal Sir Norman Gilroy was one of the trustees. It is said that Sarah Fitzgerald expressed the wish that a hospital catering for all denominations should be built on the site where “Glendower” stood, That wish was fulfilled when the Calvary Hospital was opened on March 7th, 1965. The hospital is under the jurisdiction of the “Sisters of the Little Company of Mary” of Lewisham Hospital.

It is strange that some time after the death of Miss Sarah Fitzgerald the front portion of “Glendower” was occupied as a meeting point of the American sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, and later, the fine old house became the target for stupid acts of vandalism, which, as usual, meant that the glass windows were smashed and internal fittings destroyed. It is remarkable what satisfaction these pea-brained louts get from smashing glass and destroying fine timber joinery work.

The culling of information dealing with the affairs of the pioneering Fitzgerald Family has been most pleasant and I am particularly grateful to Mrs. S. Hanlon, Mr. & Mrs. Jack Kirby, Mrs. Pearl Minehan, Mr. & Mrs. Moody, Mr. Les Sippel, and Mr. & Mrs. J. Simpson, amongst many other people too numerous to mention, for their kindly, assistance and interest in the preparation of this essay.

This article was first published in the September 1971 edition of our magazine.

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