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by Mary Barthelemy*

St Magdalen’s Tempe was an offshoot of the Good Samaritan Sisters’ House of the Good Shepherd in Sydney’s Pitt Street. Destitute women, including former prostitutes, were cared for in this refuge from the Order’s beginnings in the mid-19th century. Laundries were features of these establishments as they had a dual function – to help the women and provide a regular income to support the institution. These ‘fallen women’, ‘penitents’, are the subject of the ABC Radio National program The Missing Magdalens.

The ABC illustrated the first version of the program (19 July 2023) with an image of a young girl in a messy, depressing laundry. Whether the girl worked at this unidentified Irish laundry, whether it was Catholic or Protestant, is unknown.¹ But, it suited the story they wanted to tell.² The program used reports about Irish Magdalen laundries to sensationalise its story about St Magdalen’s. In the revision, published mid-November 2023 (August 2023 ABC website), this has been replaced by a picture of the real St Magdalen’s laundry c1980.

The narrator, Donna Abela, gives a particular slant to the story of the penitents – especially in her search for a voice from one of the ‘hidden’ women. She presents May Gould as such a voice. Gould’s misleading claims about working in the Retreat’s laundry in 1906 were widely disseminated in The Watchman; later repudiated by her former supporters.³ It is a travesty that nearly 120 years later these are presented as a ‘factual account’. One of Gould’s assertions, that three nine-year-old girls were working in the laundry, was highlighted in the broadcast. In her rebuttal, Mother Dominic stated that the youngest there in fact was 14 and a family placement.⁴ Another was that she had worked in a Bathurst presbytery (she had not). The list goes on. (Details are given in Jeff Kildea’s article, ‘”The Missing Magdalens’: the ABC resurrects a ‘hidden story’ discredited more than a century ago”.) The story has been retained and its use defended.

Listening to this program, particularly the story of ‘the penitent’, I realised that I first encountered it in recent research.⁵ This prompted another look at the history of St Magdalen’s. By highlighting the so-called ‘hidden voice’ and restricting the discussion to the institution’s earliest phase – up to the first decades of the 20th century – the one most removed from modern society, the broadcast, even in its current form, continues to do a disservice to many girls and women, including the Religious, who lived there.⁶

St Magdalen’s was a part of my childhood in the 1960s and early 70s. I had a privileged experience. My father was in charge of the grounds. When I was in primary school and into my teenage years I spent some time in the holidays there. I rarely saw the girls but I do remember one, perhaps 16+, quietly sweeping the paths near the chapel on one visit. Not only was I free to explore the grounds at the front but I was permitted to use the swimming pool (I had a hearing condition). I fondly remember ‘Rosie’ calling out, “Hello Mary Angela” followed by an echo from someone else … the many styles and colours of the swimming costumes hanging in the dressing room. I recall the convent as a place of welcome and many of the Sisters, including Sister Process us (Sister Mary Gregory); the kitchen at the rear of the house – the aroma of decades of cooking baked into the plaster.⁷ It was there still in the early 1990s at an open day for Tempe House organised by the local historical society. The scent of the cedar ceiling in the chapel remained though the furnishing was sadly derelict. By that time the large buildings had been demolished following a fire – a few years after the Sisters sold the property to Qantas (1989).

The Order hoped the site could be developed into aged living, like the Good Shepherd Sisters’ Ashfield laundry, but Rockdale Council rejected this. A small group of Vincentians lived there for a few years. Qantas eventually sold it: enormous change followed. The front paddock was used in the construction of the airport railway line. Wolli Creek station was built and the surrounding area developed into what is seen today – high-rise residential buildings. What little remained of the laundry was not considered valuable built heritage, was demolished and replaced by multi-storey apartments. Tempe House was the focus of heritage restoration and also the chapel.⁸ A plaque near the chapel provides a brief outline of the Retreat and the chapel’s architectural heritage. ‘Wolli Creek’ replaced ‘Arncliffe’.

There is another story to tell. In St Magdalen’s 100 years tremendous changes occurred – more subtle than the foregoing but change nonetheless. This article can only be a sketch of such a long and complex record. A knowledge of local history situates this institution in a new context and offers some insights into its place in the local community.

Continue reading in the Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, vol 44, 2023, page 22.

* Mary Barthelemy has an interest in researching and writing about history. She is currently employed as a public servant. This article is based on the author’s recollections, parish history and research as well as recent independent examination.

1. Unidentified Magdalen Laundry in Ireland early 20th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. ↩︎
2. Australian Town and Country produced a story and a two-page spread with photos of the Tempe laundry, dormitory, dining room, chapel, house and grounds in 1899. It also appears to be a source for some of the restoration of Tempe House. There are two laundry interiors either of which could have been used. “St Magdalen’s Retreat, Tempe” Australian Town and Country Journal 10 June 1899 p 31 ff. ↩︎
3. “The Bathurst Presbytery and the Tempe ‘Escapee’: a retraction by Dr Dill Macky” National Advocate 6 August 1906 p 2. Her former supporters were not afraid to class her a liar and in print. ↩︎
4. “A Shameless Slander Exposed” Freeman s Journal 14 July 1906 p 17. ↩︎
5. I intend to update this book: M Smith, M Barthelemy-Reason, A History of Sts Peter & Paul Cook’s River Tempe 1858-2008 Enmore-Tempe Parish, Enmore, 2008. ↩︎
6. For all the program’s emphasis on young unmarried mothers, St Magdalen’s at Tempe/Arncliffe was not this type of refuge. The Sisters of Mercy Foundling Home at Waitara became one. ↩︎
7. The shed housing equipment my father used had a large crack in its base due to having been built over a pool, there was also a large stand of tall bamboo nearby. The pool and bamboo are mentioned in “Our Catholic Institutions. No. XV. Magdalene Retreat.” Catholic Press 20 June 1896 p 16. Neither was preserved in the redevelopment. ↩︎
8. Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd Tempe House and Grounds: Non-Indigenous Archaeological Investigation (2002-6) – Report to Australand May 2010 (laundry remains pp 19-21 ). The lack of a plaque for a non-existent laundry building can hardly be blamed on the Sisters (or the Catholic Church). That was the provenance of the site conservationists and the developers. ↩︎

edited By Ian D. Clark And Fred Carhir
CSIRO Publishing, 2013. 303 pages & index.

Review by Laurice Bondfield

The subtitle of this book of articles is: “Forgotten Narratives” but as Dr. Peter Thorne, Vice President of the Royal Society of Victoria points out in his introduction, “Few episodes in Australia’s history have received as much attention as the Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860-61”. Books, films, music, paintings, poems, and memorials have been dedicated to commemorating, mourning, explaining or satirising the Burke and Wills expedition. Why another book? Dr. Thorne is Chair of the Burke and Wills Anniversary Advisory Committee, which was set up by the Royal Society of Victoria in 2008 to critically examine the historical and other studies of the expedition in order to identify any areas that had been overlooked previously. Two areas stood out. First, no study had been done on the scientific work carried out during the expedition. This oversight has been rectified and a book published. Second, no careful study had been done on “the interaction between Indigenous people and the expeditioners and their potential and actual contribution to the expedition.” This book is the result of a symposium on the topic held at the University of Ballarat under the guidance of the editors and contributors, Ian D. Clark and Fred Carhir.

Before I go on to discuss the actual contents of the book, I would like to say what a beautiful production it is. A hard backed copy (including bookmark ribbon!) with clear, well set out text and beautifully reproduced photographs and prints or drawings made on the expedition, it is a delight to look at and read. The book was shortlisted in the 2014 NSW Premier’s History Awards. Congratulations to CSIRO publishing!

Some of the articles may present a few difficulties for the non-specialist reader—perhaps the linguistic and anthropological studies use some unfamiliar technical terms—but most are straightforward historical studies.

Two articles that I found extremely interesting concerned the German members of the expedition. Both scientists, Ludvig Becker and Hermann Beckler were concerned to understand the land and the Aboriginal people. Both produced carefully documented and beautifully illustrated journals. Beckler even annotated some music he heard at a corroboree. Reproduction of these illustrations in the book are one of its pleasures. One article by Peta Jeffries shows how the land around Mootwingee influenced Ludvig Becker, how he began to get an idea of how Indigenous people regarded their country.

Some of the other fifteen papers discuss: the prior experience of members of the expedition working with Aboriginal people, the different groups that the expeditioners encountered and their protocols for dealing with visitors to their land, the way the Yandruwandha were able to live well in their lands while the expedition failed, the criticism by contemporaries of Burke’s lack of use of Indigenous guides and distrust of the Indigenous people he encountered and discussion of the follow up treks to discover what had happened. One paper by Darrell Lewis discusses the story that Burke was shot rather than died of exposure.

A Yandruwandha man, Aaron Paterson, writes of his knowledge of the way his ancestors perceived members of the expedition passing through their lands and how they lived well in what to others was forbidding country. Interestingly he counts as part of his family a descendant of Alice King, a daughter fathered by John King when he was living with the Yandruwandha before being found by the Howitt relief expedition.

For the casual reader, this book of seventeen articles can be dipped into and out of. It is aimed at an audience used to reading closely argued and annotated historical papers but is still not difficult to read. Nevertheless I can recommend it to you, not only for the interesting insights it provides into a disaster so often discussed before, but for the excellent maps, illustrations and general layout which greatly enhance the text.

Purchase The Aboriginal Story of Burke and Wills: Forgotten Narratives via CSIRO Publishing.

This article was first published in the March 2015 edition of our magazine.

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by Gifford and Eileen Eardley

About 1893 a lovely residence, named “Tottenham House”, evidently in nostalgic memory of the same place-name which occurs in North London, was constructed on the highest point of the ridge which leads to Dover, or Tom Ugly’s Point, at a distance of about one quarter of a mile short of the present day bridge over Georges River. By all accounts the house was built to the design of Mr. Roland Cook, an architect of no mean merit, who practised his profession at Rockdale, and it was first occupied by this gentleman’s father, Azarias Cook.

The beautiful home commands a magnificent view down the wide expanse of the Georges River eastward to the flats of Woolooware Bay and the sand hills beyond, which are such a prominent feature of the Botany Bay landscape. Nearer is the spacious extent of Kogarah Bay with St. Kilda Point and Rocky Point jutting out into the main waterway, the latter being united nowadays with the opposing Taren Point by the graceful curves of the Taren Point Bridge. Gawley Bay and the suburb of Sylvania line on the southern aspect of the vista, and the picturesque Shipwright’s Bay immediately below at the south-western angle, with the heights above Baldface Point forming the western skyline. Without a doubt, the outlook from the tower of “Tottenham House” would be most difficult to equal in this well chosen pretty riverside area.

The prominent feature of the house was the front drawing room, of large dimensions, which was surrounded by a wide verandah on three sides, and faced towards the east. The verandah floor was paved with rectangular shaped slabs of sandstone and its galvanised corrugated iron roof had each sheet painted, alternatively, in red and white. The outer portion of the roof was supported by slender cast-iron pillars and the frontal beams were hung with a delicate patterned cast-iron fringe, which, unfortunately, has been removed in recent years and now serves in a similar capacity at another suburb. Entrance to the verandah from the drive was gained by cut stone access steps placed on the northern side opposite the entrance hall doorway. This hail, passing beneath two plaster moulded archways, led through to the southern portion of the almost encircling verandah where a second entrance doorway was located, this outer end being surrounded, on its eastern and southern sides, by windows glazed with coloured glass.

A second hall, branching in an east-west direction from the first, led to the interior rooms of the house, and also contained a narrow width staircase which led to the upper bedrooms, four in number, and, beyond a small landing, a second staircase gave access to the higher observation tower, of four-square shape, built from cement rendered brickwork.

The front drawing room was supplied with five full length sash-windows, reaching from near the ceiling to almost floor level. A marble encased fireplace was placed on the southern side of the room. It has been stated that this marble fitment, together with its marble overmantle, was specially brought from Italy. Three other marble surrounds from the same source were provided for other rooms. Doors, skirtings, and other interior woodwork were of polished cedar. With the advent of gas-lighting a magnificent chandelier, replete with hundreds of scintillating three-sided cut glass prisms, was swung from the centre of the room, the light circle being about six feet in diameter. Dual gas brackets of ornate design were placed above the overmantle at each side of the fireplace. The drawing room also served as a music room and was provided with a Beckstein grand piano, a harp, and other musical instruments.

On the southern side of the east-west hallway, and opening therefrom, was a large dining room with a three-sided bow window which faced southwards to the glories of Shipwright’s Bay. This room was provided with a marble encased fireplace against the western wall, and was illuminated by a gaslit chandelier of similar design as that in the drawing room. When the electricity service was extended to the area the various gas fittings were removed and replaced by electric globes, using the older light shades, the wiring of the elaborate chandeliers being a most tedious and exacting process.

On the western side of, and against the dining room was the bathroom, also entered from the east-west hallway, which was replete with all the usual fittings for the performance of the family ablutions. Beyond the bathroom the east-west hallway, now isolated by a swing door, continued westward to the pantry, its southern wall being given over to a long row of casement windows.

At the northern side of the house, hard against the stairway, was the main bedroom, its windows opening to the northern portion of the tree-clad garden. This room also had a marble encased fireplace against its western wall and the woodwork was of polished cedar. To the west came the breakfast room which, in turn, had a black marble fireplace against the western wall, the sash window facing northwards to admit the early morning sun, and also to give a view over the length of Kogarah Bay, with Carss Park in the mid distance. To all intents and purposes the breakfast room, together with the bathroom on the opposite side of the hallway, marked what may be regarded as the main portion of the house with the exception of the kitchen. The three lesser rooms, of small dimensions, comprising the pantry, the scullery, and the laundry, were of temporary construction, subject to replacement on a grander scale at a later date.

The stairway led upwards to connect with four bedrooms used by the children of the house, two rooms being lit by dormer windows, one facing north and the other south, whilst the other two attic rooms faced west and were lit by wide sash windows. Part of the ceilings of the four attic rooms sloped for a short distance to accommodate the slope of the roof. As before mentioned, from the upper landing of the main stairway a very steep flight of stairs led to the floor of the tower.

As first built the property was served by a lower driveway which led from the northern entrance gates, placed against Woniora Road (now Princes Highway) to the two-storied stables and coach-house established on the lower level of the grounds, about 150 feet away from the house, in the vicinity of the present day Townson Street. This drive encircled the house in the length of its course and provided an easy grade for the carts carrying chaff and other heavy materials. There was an upper driveway, also leading from the entrance gate, which gave carriage access to the front entrance of the house, before encircling the drawing room extension and then descending westwards to the lower level driveway as it approached the stable enclosure. The stable menage catered for several horses and cows, whilst its upstairs rooms housed the handyman, under whose care the animals, and also the garden, were placed. This stable building was destroyed by fire about 1908 and was replaced by a single storied structure erected closer to the house and served latterly by an unpaved lane which led direct from the entrance gate to the stable yard, the former lower road being absorbed by the widening of Princes Highway. At this juncture it may be mentioned that Mr. William Molesworth Oxley, a former sea-captain and relative of John Oxley the explorer, found a safe haven at “Tottenham House” where he attended to the garden amongst other chores. The main horse paddock was ranged along the area now marked by Townsend Street, whilst a tennis court was located near the entrance gate opening on to Woniora Road.

The terraced garden was served by numerous paths, lined with low slabs of sandstone, delightfully arranged to follow the slopes of the hillside and mingle with the native tree growth and lemon-scented gums. There were a number of Sydney Red Gums, both young and old, which were really beautiful specimens of their kind, showing off their writhing shaped branches to the best advantage for their wondering and appreciative admirers. Intermixed with the indigenous growth were jacarandas, cypress trees, olive trees, and camphor-laurels, and along the drive to the house was a row of pine trees which overshadowed a mass of partridge-breasted aloes, aglow in their flowering season with clusters of red and orange bell-shaped flowers held aloft on long spindly stems resembling over-large Christmas Bells. One path is bordered with a dense growth of blue and white agapanthus, which thrive on the somewhat stony soil. Oleanders grew to large dimensions and displayed a multitude of pink sweet-smelling blossoms. There was one finely shaped Abies pine tree, a real gem with light green foliage and cream-leafed tips. Box trees with their reddish coloured trunks added charm to the scene, likewise the scarlet bell-shaped flowers of the tall hibiscus plants. A wealth of smaller flowering plants, such as geraniums of diverse sorts and colours, flourished at the western end of the house, whilst various varieties of climbing vines spread themselves over a large glass-house, which, at the time of our inspection in 1970, had fallen, literally, on evil days, and its former contents of ferns and begonias removed to places elsewhere. In its hey-day “Tottenham House” with its extensive gardens, must have been very beautiful.

The elder Mr. Azarias Cook passed away about 1905 and the house then came into the possession of its architect, Mr. Roland Cook, who, with his family, resided therein. About 1969 this lovely property was vacated and vandalism became rife to the detriment of the windows and internal fittings in particular. As far as can be ascertained the future of the stone built house has not been decided, but there is a possibility of the extensive grounds being subdivided, prospective buyers seeking that the beautiful tree growth be preserved, which is just as it should be.

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

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