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On 28 November 1885 a group of interested residents held a meeting to form the Trust and take steps towards the erection of the West Botany St. Wesleyan Church. The first five meetings were held in the Rockdale Sunday School rooms.

Mr Fooks generously gave the building site and after calling tenders, that of Messrs. E & J Godfrey for £497 was accepted. The first service was held on 30 May 1886 followed by a public tea the following Wednesday. Tickets were 1 shilling, sixpence for adults and a shilling for children under 12. The practice of holding an anniversary service and tea meeting continued for many years. And so the West Botany St. Wesleyan Church came into being, serving the spiritual needs of a small semi-rural community, mostly of pioneering stock settled on the arable but swampy farm lands located midway between the now populous suburbs of Rockdale and Brighton-Le-Sands.

In their far-sighted wisdom the original trustees set their new church well back from the street alignment, thus making provision for additions, if and when required.

The depression of the early 1890s played havoc with the finances of the church, whilst at the same time the white ants played havoc with the floor joists and timbers. It was decided to relay the floor and saturate the ground beneath with carbolic acid as a deterrent to further termite attack. This work was carried out in 1893 by Eli Godfrey at a total cost of £10.3.6. As there were no funds the trustees paid from their own pockets. The financial position improved during the following year, so the organ underwent urgently needed repairs. In May 1895, gas was introduced to the district and the trustees decided to connect the church for better lighting, at a cost of pounds £18.15.0.

One cannot but admire the tenacity of purpose of the comparatively few adherents of the church in their endeavour to maintain their property in good repair. It was an uphill battle, but they all felt that their Christian purpose was well worth fighting for.

About September 1896 considerable discussions took place as to the advisability of forming a union with other churches which followed principles close to the Wesleyan faith. However, it was 1901 before Union was implemented, and the West Botany St. Wesleyan Church became known as the West Botany St. Methodist Church.

As the Golden Jubilee of the Church was fast approaching (1930s), it was decided to erect a new church building and attach it to the existing one. Charles Gray’s tender for £1,100.0.0. was accepted the dedication took place on 2 May 1936. The special ceremony of opening the new entrance door was an honour bestowed on Lily Bowmer. The two buildings were connected with folding doors, which were opened for special occasions to make more seating accommodation.

As the years passed, the trustees and congregation realised the need for new Sunday School premises. The main hall was inadequate for their various needs, whilst the kitchen and office accommodation left much to be desired. The old weatherboard kindergarten hail had been ravaged by white ants and had become an eyesore.

It was decided that some form of improvement should be undertaken as early as possible; so the Parents & Friends’ Association, Ladies Church Aid and other organisations began raising funds, which were augmented by church anniversary appeals.

By June 1962 the sum of £2,631.0.0. was in hand and the trustees were now thinking in terms of a new hall and the renovation of the former hail, a scheme that would involve the expenditure of many thousands of pounds. Accordingly, a canvass was undertaken and after almost 3 years the income from this, together with donations, lifted finances to a satisfactory position for the work to begin. During this period, plans were prepared by Messrs. Brown & Mowbray, providing for a large hall and stage with 2 dressing rooms, a modern kitchen, office and storage space below the stage, and for the old hail to be modernised for kindergarten purposes with new furnishings throughout.

Special mention should be made of the Parents & Friends’ Association who by their catering efforts raised well over £1,000.0.0 and the other organisations who worked very hard.

The tender of H. N. Barton of Strathfield was accepted for £14,125.0.0. This together with architects’ fees, interest on the bank loan, and furnishings finally amounted to a cost of $35,413.64. The hall was opened and dedicated on 7 August 1965 by Rev. S. M. Barrett, Secretary of Methodist Conference and President elect. The final payment on the hall was made to the English, Scottish & Australian Bank on 4 July 1969. A wonderful effort by all. (Ed: The bank merged with Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) the following year)

It had always been a community-neighbourhood church, and from then on saw a gradual decline in numbers as young people married and moved away. Some older folk, too, either left the district or passed on, and there were no new families coming into the church.

This trend continued until late 1980, when a decision was made for the Sunday School to join with the Rockdale Sunday School and for the congregation to join with Rockdale for worship services from February 1981, but still maintaining their identity and the West Botany St. property.

Now the time has come, from January 1982, for the joining of the Congregations, with the Parish Council taking care of the property until some satisfactory use or sale is found for it.

Although West Botany St. has always been essentially a neighbourhood Church, its influence has spread far and wide and there are many from different localities and varied walks of life who look back in gratitude to the days at West Botany St. when they first came to know of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

As we come to the time for the closing of this centre of worship, we give praise and thanks to Almighty God for the privilege of witnessing in this corner of His vineyard over a period of 96 years. We pray that this witness may continue and grow in the lives of members, both past and present, to the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This article was first published in the February 1982 edition of our magazine.

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Unless noted, images courtesy of the Bayside Library Service Local History Collection.

by Arthur and Florence Day

When the Bexley Ward of Hurstville Municipality became the Borough of Bexley it had 75 gas street lamps. The Australian Gaslight Company charged £4 per annum each for their maintenance. However, gas was not reticulated throughout the entire borough and, where it was not available, any lighting required had to be by kerosene lamps.

Gas lamps were lit and extinguished by a gas company lamplighter who rode a bicycle and carried a stick with a hook on its end. With this he was able to pull on one or other of the rings attached to the gas cock, the pilot light being continuously burning. For a few days around full moon the lamps would not be lit. Later, the operation was performed by a clockwork mechanism which required periodical winding.

The kerosene lamps were lit by a council employee who sometimes had other duties in addition. As late as 1924 the impounding officer is recorded as having the duty of lighting and extinguishing oil lamps and maintaining the oil supply and the wicks all for 25 shillings per week. This arrangement was evidently not satisfactory for the council received many complaints and the lamplighter was threatened with dismissal if there were no improvement within a week. A few months later a new appointment was made of a “Lighter of Oil Lamps” at a wage of shillings per week. It was stipulated that he must attend to the lamps personally.

Fortunately, Bexley started its gas street lighting with incandescent mantles. In 1902 Carlton Railway Station, which was on the boundary of the borough, was still lit by the flames of fish-tail (or batswing) burners. Council asked the railway commissioners if this could be changed to incandescent lighting.

In order that more gas lamps might be installed, a special lighting rate of five pence in the £1 was levied in 1904. Also, a charge was made on the gas company for gas mains laid in the streets. No record is available of early years, but in 1921 this charge for gas mains had reached £241 for the year.

In the early days, shortage of council funds was a frequent occurrence. Thus, in 1905, Rockdale Council told Bexley Council that it could not afford to pay for installation of a gas lamp in Harrow Road at Beaconsfield Street. Bexley had asked Rockdale for this lamp because it claimed to be already doing more than its share of Harrow Road lighting. Maintenance of this lighting was supposed to be shared equally by the two authorities, as the boundary ran down the centre of the road. January 1910 found Bexley so short of funds that it had to defer payment of the gas account. After the general strike of 1917, the gas company was asked by Bexley Council for a rebate of payment to allow for lamps not lit during the strike. It is not recorded whether any allowance was made.

Street name slips were an attractive feature of gas street lighting. This idea originated in 1904, when the gas company supplied and erected them at a cost of nine pence per slip. Many years later, when lighting was changed to electric, the loss of these name slips was recorded as a minor disadvantage.

Considering the easy accessibility of the gas street lamp, it is surprising that interference by vandals was not common. No cases of practical jokers interchanging name slips were recorded, but the police had to be informed of damage to lamps on several occasions.

The location of gas lamps was not always satisfactory and requests were often made for improvement. The lamp at the eastern corner of Harrow Road and Gladstone Street, while making an attractive night scene against the adjoining camphor laurel, cast a shadow up the Gladstone Street eastern footpath. In those days this sort of thing was accepted as safe and no change was ever made. The Methodist Church in the next block on the same side of Gladstone Street in 1905, asked for a lamp outside the church. It was thought to improve the lighting of street intersections on the wide Dunmore and Queen Victoria Streets by moving the lamps to the centre of the road. On cloudy, but otherwise full moon, nights when the lights would not be lit, the horse-drawn vehicles of those days, with little lighting of their own, occasionally collided with the lamp standards in their new positions. Though it was claimed that the council would not be liable for damages in such cases, the lamps were later moved back to the footpath for greater safety.

The period 1905 to the start of the First World War was one of occasional complaint, if not of the quality of lighting (frequently caused by low gas pressure), then of lamp locations. As early as 1906 a municipal gas works was suggested for the St George district, but nothing came of the idea.

In March 1913, a gas strike occurred and extra kerosene lamps had to be obtained for lighting some very dark, but important, locations in the Bexley area.

The first mention of electricity for street lighting appears to have been early in 1908, when Botany Council suggested that the Tramway Department make a supply available. Nothing resulted from this idea and it was not until seven years later (February 1915) that the next move was made. The Sydney Municipal Council (now known as the Council of the City of Sydney), which then had an electricity department with reticulation into neighbouring suburbs, was asked what the cost of lighting Bexley streets would be. The reply was evidently favourable, for a motion was passed by Bexley Council that the City Council be asked to extend its cables to Illawarra suburbs, but this was never done.

The first public use of electric lighting in Bexley Municipality was in July 1918 when, with council permission, the Carlton and West Kogarah Voluntary Workers Association erected poles in Short Street, Carlton, to carry electric lighting wires from Mrs. Rates’ factory to the entrance of Carlton Station. The factory had an electricity generator and advantage was taken of this to arrange the lighting at the station for wartime patriotic purposes.

It was not until the formation of the St George County Council that electric lighting of Bexley streets began. This was in 1922 and at the same time the special lighting rate of 1904 was abandoned. The gas company agreed to accept 14 days notice for discontinuance of a gas lamp.

As electricity became available only gradually to the more settled parts of Bexley, gas lamps were still being asked for in the more remote parts. Where there was no gas main a kerosene lamp had to be used. This occurred as late as 1924. Delays to the completion of the scheme of electrification were frequently caused by the non-arrival of transformers. Thus, in June 1923 it was stated that the supply would not be available north of Stoney Creek Road for at least six months.

As was the case with gas-lamps many years before, special requests were received for lamps in certain places. The police department, no doubt with some justification, asked for an electric light outside the Bexley Police Station, then existing at 3 Oriental Street.

At first, electric lamp sizes were 60-watt for side streets and 100-watt (with a few 200-watt) in busier locations. At the end of 1923 there were 79 gas lamps, 182 60-watt, 3 100-watt and 13 200-watt electric lamps in the streets of the municipality; the number of oil lamps still existing at that date is not known, but there were some. The cost of erecting a 60-watt or 100-watt lamp on an existing pole was stated to be £11.20 in 1936.

In spite of the change over to electric street lighting, complaints were sometimes received of insufficient light. Poor lighting was said to have led to a horse being killed by a car in Croydon Road in 1936.

During the 1930s a change to mercury vapour lamps for main roads was started. But, by 1940, with the Second World War increasing in intensity, materials became difficult to get and the work had to be stopped.

Up to August 1938 the arterial lighting of Forest Road was switched off at midnight, then changed to all-night lighting.

“White Way” lighting should be considered as a contribution to street lighting. Confined as it usually was to shopping areas, it originated in the days of late shopping nights. In Bexley, the chamber of commerce erected “white way” lighting at its own expense about 1924. This gave an attractive addition to the footpath illumination in the main shopping centre and was very popular. Bexley Council is recorded as having congratulated the chamber of commerce on its work. However, soon afterwards (1925) the latter asked the council to take over maintenance, if possible, on 1 January 1926. Many months were to elapse before this eventuated.

Unfortunately, the construction used for the Bexley “White Way” was vulnerable to damage by high vehicles, and it seems, did not stand up to weather conditions as well as might be expected. So after nine years service (October 1933), the St George County Council reported that the wiring was in a dangerous condition and urgently needed reconstruction. Certain sections had had to be disconnected, so the St George County Council was asked to advise on a course of action. The chamber of commerce offered to pay one-third of the cost of reconstruction, the Bexley Council to bear the remainder. A tender was let and the new “White Way” was switched on in May 1934. Five years later, as an economy measure at the start of World War II the individual shopkeepers were given permission to clean the lamps in front of their premises. The “White Way” fell into disuse during the war because of government restrictions, but early in 1946 it was possible to go into the question of its second reconstruction. The chamber of commerce made a contribution of £25, but on this occasion recommended only the section between Dunmore Street and Bayview Street for attention, as the shopkeepers towards Westminster Street were reported to be uncooperative. When the work was completed the shopkeepers on the south-east side of Forest Road, from the Commonwealth Bank to near the post office complained that no “White Way” had been erected outside their premises. It was explained that their premises were erected after the construction of the “White Way” and that, in any case their exterior lighting was similar to that of the “White Way”. The chief difference was that they paid for the electricity through their own meters. Had it been necessary to continue the “White Way” in uniform fashion right to Harrow Road the existing circuit would have been overloaded and another would have been needed to cope with the load. This extra expense was not thought to be warranted.

Maintenance of the equipment, including time switch, but excluding the cost of electricity and lamp and shade replacements was said to have cost approximately 10 shillings per week.

In July 1947, a deputation from Carlton (west side) asked council to provide, among other things, a “White Way” for their shopping centre.

The life of Bexley as a separate municipality was now nearing its end and the coming of more intense street lighting in the form of fluorescent and, later, mercury fluorescent lamps caused the abandonment of “White Ways” of filament lamps.

This article was first published in the February 1972 edition of our magazine.

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Unless noted, images courtesy of the Bayside Library Service Local History Collection.

by Ron Rathbone

Of all the members who represented the Canterbury Electorate or its predecessors, which covered the St. George District until 1893, none proved as energetic, capable, effective or painstaking as John Lucas. Broad shouldered and inclined to be both assertive and bombastic, he had a great fighting heart and a vision and an intellect which made him one of the outstanding figures of the Legislative Assembly. Born in Newtown in 1818, he was the grandson of an officer of the NSW Corps. At 16 he was apprenticed as a carpenter and subsequently became a builder and contractor. For many years he lived in Bridge Road, Camperdown.

From his election in 1860 he waged an unrelenting war against the government, whatever its composition or political complexion. His abhorrence of waste made him many enemies by constantly seeking economies in the public service and curtailment of its perquisites. He had a morbid interest in the acquisition of land for cemeteries and a detestation of dancing and music in public houses but perhaps his strangest request occurred on 5 March 1861, when he formally and understandably unsuccessfully moved that the plush green leather seating in the Legislative Assembly be changed from stuffed cushions to cane.

It was to his credit that for the next twenty years as an unapologetic protectionist, he held one of the safest Free Trade seats in the colony.

Perhaps his success was due to the fact that he never lost touch with his electors, shrewdly avoided committing himself on unpopular issues and during his first term secured huge concessions from the government to repair the Cooks River Dam and bridges in the southern part of his electorate.

It is not generally known that it was largely due to Lucas’s efforts that the Jenolan Caves were opened up and proclaimed as a public reserve – one of the caves today bearing his name, but it was his one-man crusade during 1860 and 1861 to have restrictions placed on the entry of Chinese immigrants to Australia which first brought him into prominence.

Lucas was one of the first members of Parliament to realise the danger of unrestricted Oriental immigration and against bitter opposition, he persisted in his efforts to have a poll tax placed on each new arrival. After the serious Lambing Flat Riots of 1861 in which one white man got himself shot in the knee and a number of Orientals lost their pig tails and very nearly their lives on the goldfields around Young, the Government adopted his proposals – the forerunner and foundation of today’s White Australia Policy.

In May 1860, Lucas caused a sensation by demanding the removal of Judge Cary from the District Court Bench when the learned the judge told his jury he felt like sending them to do hard labour on Cockatoo Island Penal Settlement as well as the prisoner they had just convicted, remarks, Lucas claimed to have been occasioned entirely because Cary’s son had been the prisoner’s defence attorney.

At the election of 1865, Lucas was opposed by Alderman James Oatley, the popular Goulburn Street Publican who was Mayor of Sydney in 1862, and whose father had been keeper of the Town Clock. He was also opposed by two quite delightful characters named John Beer who, despite his name, was a most ardent and uncompromising temperance advocate and Tertius Thomas Rider, whose vocabulary rivalled that of a bullock driver and who delighted the electors of Canterbury by proclaiming from the hustings that he stood for “free land, free trade, free education, in fact every bloody thing that was free.”

This same year Lucas gave evidence before the select committee which investigated the problem of Sydney’s ever dwindling water supplies. The Botany or Lachlan Swamps which had supplied Sydney for many years were becoming inadequate, polluted and filled with drifting sand.

Former Canterbury member, Edward Flood argued strongly in favour of using the waters of Cooks River and its tributary Shea’s Creek which drained the heavily populated and largely unsewered suburbs of Redfern, Alexandria, and Waterloo with their many slaughterhouses, knackeries, and boiling down works but was heavily polluted even at that stage. John B. Carroll of Kogarah and Hon. Thomas Holt propounded the quite fantastic scheme of damming the Georges River at Rocky Point, Tom Ugly’s Point or Kangaroo Point. This was also ruled out by the commissioners because of the unreliability of its tributaries and the high mineral content of the Georges River basin – though it was admitted that in spite of certain additives from the paper works and wool wash, the inhabitants of Liverpool appeared to thrive on the aqua pura from this river.

Lucas poured scorn on both schemes and proposed a system of dams on the Woronora, Upper Nepean, and Warragamba Rivers. 50 years later this scheme was adopted in its entirety and almost 90 years later the mighty Warragamba Dam was completed.

In 1868, Lucas encountered his first serious opposition in the Canterbury Electorate when William Henson, lawyer, temperance advocate, and Methodist lay preacher, nominated against him.

Henson was enthusiastically embraced in the St George section of the electorate which at this time had the highest proportion of Methodists of any part of the colony. Such prominent local families as the Peakes, the Bowmers, and Beehags flocked to his cause. Henson was a particularly vitriolic individual and taunted the retiring member with being a hypocrite and insincere. He accused Lucas with having the toll bar moved to the far side of a property he owned at Punchbowl so he didn’t have to contribute towards the toll and of keeping £120 worth of toll money from the Punchbowl Salt Pan Creek Road which as a trustee he was responsible for spending. Henson went on to accuse Lucas of having his sons promoted in the public service at a time when its staff were being retrenched, and of having their salaries increased whilst others were having theirs reduced as a part of the government’s economy measures. In the closing stages of the campaign Lucas’s horse bolted and his sociable overturned rendering him insensible and a large sympathy vote ensured his return.

In 1873, Lucas was appointed Secretary for Mines and it was largely due to his persistent representations that the government ultimately agreed to the construction of the long-projected Illawarra Railway Line. This measure was enthusiastically received by the people of St George who on June 8, 1876, drew up a petition “noting with extreme satisfaction the fact that the government had placed on the loan estimates for the year a sum of money for constructing a railway from the deep waters of Sydney Harbour to Wollongong to bring to the doors of the city an unlimited supply of cheap coal and an abundance of fresh pure cheap milk and other products from the want of which much illness and unnecessary suffering is inflicted on the rising generation of the city”.

The whole question of the Illawarra Railway was bitterly opposed in another very largely signed petition from the inhabitants of Newcastle.

In June 1875, Lucas officially opened the first government school at Hurstville which at that time was the show place of the state. It was described as “an excellent building of hewn freestone lacking only a bell, two chairs, a lavatory for the boys, and the inscription ‘Public School'”.

But perhaps the outstanding event of Lucas’s term as Secretary for Mines was his securing of an area of crown land in every town in NSW for dedication as a public park.

At last, in 1880, Lucas decided to call it a day but was immediately appointed to the Legislative Council where he remained a much valued member until his death at the age of 84 in 1902.

The following election saw the persistent William Henson elected to the Legislative Assembly although he refused to address his electors outside a public house because of the unrighteous traffic in alcoholic liquors.

And for the next three years the Legislative Assembly was in constant uproar.

In October 1881, during the bitter anti-Chinese debates he seriously questioned whether Chinese tea was fit for human consumption and in January 1882 vehemently opposed the purchase of a billiard table for members of parliament on the grounds “that the expenditure of public money on such an implement of pleasure, delight, and diversion was unwarranted and unjustifiable and calculated to absorb in idle amusement many hours of members’ time which should more patriotically be devoted to affairs of state”.

Two months later he failed to get a seconder when he moved to have the parliamentary refreshment rooms de-licenced and was equally unsuccessful in attempts to have boxing banned, private bars in hotels abolished, and to prevent the use of public houses as polling booths.

During 1883 he conducted the Royal Commission on Noxious and Offensive Trades on an extensive visit to his electorate. In their report Mr. Barden’s boiling-down works and slaughter house at Kogarah were described as passably clean; D. Chapplow’s poultry farm was not very so, whilst Henry Latham’s piggery adjacent to the Illawarra Railway Works near the Cooks River Dam was described as being in a filthy state. The Commissioners encountered more pigeons than they had seen anywhere else in the colony at Solomon Dominey’s Pig Farm near Gannon’s Forest but it was at Godfrey and Moon’s Boiling Down Works and slaughter house between Rocky Point Road and Seven Mile Beach that their journey to the district really became worthwhile.

This dreadful establishment which processed the offal from some 50 of Sydney’s butcher’s shops produced 5 tons of tallow and 1000 tons of bone dust a week. It also boiled down on instructions from the police most of Sydney’s unwanted dogs, goats, and other discarded domestic animals, their skins going to the nearby tanneries at Botany whilst their fat was used to dress leather and to make candles. The stench from this enterprise was described as “abominable and foul beyond description”.

Henson was still member for Canterbury when the Illawarra Railway Line was opened as far as Hurstville in 1884.

This article was first published in the May 1966 edition of our magazine.

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by Gifford and Eileen Eardley

One of the most colourful personalities to be noted at Kogarah as from 1889 until his death, in a road accident, which occurred in 1942, was the Reverend James Clark. This English gentleman, the only son of wealthy parents, was educated at Cambridge University, and became a Barrister at the early age of nineteen. He quickly proved himself to be a most capable lawyer with a brilliant gift of oratory. Coming to New South Wales, he entered the Church of England priesthood, his educational standards being such that he was ordained a Deacon, and, in 1882, he was appointed Curate at St. Paul’s, Deniliquin.

Later in the same year he was transferred to Urana and Jerinderie as Curate-in-charge. His next preferment was in 1884 when he was priested by the then Bishop of Goulburn and, as assistant priest, attached to St. Saviour’s Cathedral at Goulburn. His stay at St. Saviour’s was somewhat short as, later in 1884, he undertook the duties of locum tenens at St. Jude’s, Randwick, and the following year he took up a similar position at the historic Church of St. Peter’s, Richmond. Then in 1886 the more onerous duties of an incumbent were thrust upon him with his appointment to Holy Trinity, at Dulwich Hill, where he laboured until 1889. His next, and last, appointment was to the Parish of St. George, with headquarters at St. Paul’s, Kogarah.

The Parish of St. George at the period of the Reverend James Clark’s ministry was most embracive, as it covered the land district of St. George as well as a large area extending southwards to the region of Heathcote. Kogarah was regarded as the administrative centre of the St. George District at large, both from a civil departmental angle as well as that pertaining to Episcopalian matters. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties at St. Paul’s, Kogarah, the Reverend James Clark supervised the affairs of the older established St. George’s Church, Forest Road, Hurstville, and also Christ Church, Bexley, together with the small brick edifice now known as Old St. David’s, Hirst Street, Arncliffe.

His eloquent preaching and sincerity made him extremely popular amongst his parishioners, a circumstance which stood him in good stead in his later years when he sadly needed personal assistance. It is most unfortunate that, through over-study, this brilliant and much loved clergyman suffered a mental derangement which, amongst other things, affected his marital life which culminated in his wife seeking for a divorce.

He pleaded his own case at the divorce proceedings, and brought the presiding judge to the witness box for cross-examination. He walked from the Rectory at Kogarah, to the Supreme Court, with his papers tied up in black crepe, tucked under his arm. The outcome of the divorce proceedings led to him being defrocked, a circumstance against which he appealed in vain, to the local Church authorities. Being a determined man, he then journeyed to England to plead his case before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the presiding authority of the Church of England. But the journey availed him not, and the sadly disillusioned man returned to Kogarah. It has been related that he walked to England where ever walking was possible, a remarkable feat in itself and one that showed him to be a pedestrian of no mean order.

The Reverend A. Kilworth succeeded James Clark as Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of St. George, consequently, in due course, the latter gentleman was required to vacate St. Paul’s Rectory. His eccentricity appears to have become more marked and, so it is stated, he lived in a cave at Oatley for a while, let his hair grow to shoulder length, and carried a heavy walking stick of such robust dimensions that it was more in the nature of a club. This so-called stick was usually held in a horizontal position and unhesitatingly used to clear a passage through the midst of any group of people who unwittingly stood in his path, much to their consternation. In addition to wearing short leather gaiters, he wore an almost brimless pot-shaped felt hat, of 1890 fashion, which also served to distinguish him from his fellow men.

It has been said, but not confirmed, that at this period he was instrumental in either building, or utilising, a large brick structure which still stands, in a half occupied condition, in Pitt Street, Rockdale, as a Free Church of England, under the name of St. Stephens. In the writers’ memory, this building was spoken of as the Oddfellows’ Hall, but whether James Clark rented the building for the purpose of his church, or was its owner, is a circumstance that still requires elucidation. It is understood that for a time he used the place for a domicile and it has been mentioned that St. Stephen’s Church was in a more or less abandoned condition at about this time.

About 1908 it was his custom to sleep at the foot of the sandhills ranged along the shore of Lady Robinson’s Beach, near the junction of President Avenue and The Grand Parade. At times he would leave his few personal belongings in a cache on the beach whilst he took a constitutional run to Ramsgate and back. One sunny morning, whilst fast asleep at the base of his favourite sand-cliff, he was most rudely awakened, and more than half smothered by tons of sand toppling down on to his recumbent form. The writer, then a young lad, with his mate Roy Hastings, were responsible for this outrage on his privacy. “We were completely unaware of his presence and had a fine time jumping along the cliff edge sending the crest of sand down the slopes. However, his shrieking bellow, coupled with a peep over the edge to see who was thus annoyed, made us quickly depart for the safety and the cover afforded by the nearby Patmore’s Swamp.”

James Clark did not have another home after leaving St. Paul’s Rectory, and relied on the charity and good grace of many of his former parishioners. He was always welcome at the Nascord, Twiss and Whitehall homes, amongst others, whilst David Keep of butchering and veterinary fame of Regent Street, Kogarah, was always most kind to him. Police Sergeant Langsworthy of Kogarah Station, was also a friend in his need, whilst he was always welcome at the St. Paul’s Rectory, where, in the Reverend Stanley G. Best’s ministry, he had the use of both bathroom and library. He retained his clever brain and could match his wits against those of any intelligent person who cared to converse with him. On being questioned as to how many birthdays he had experienced, he tartly replied “Only one, the rest were anniversaries.”

Like most similarly afflicted persons, he was always in a hurry to get somewhere for no apparent reason, or so it appeared to discreet onlookers. He was the bogie-man of small children, and the butt of teenagers, who delivered cheek from a safe distance, ready to run at a turn of his head. “Old Jimmy Clark, go and get your hair cut, you are robbing the barber” was the usual formula on such occasions, and never failed to bring forth a series of threatening gestures from that awful-looking waddy which invariably accompanied him on his peregrinations. A group of girls and women from the local Girls’ Friendly Society were standing on the footpath having the usual natter after the meeting, along came James Clark out of St. Paul’s Churchyard, and waving his stick in mid-air, scattered scared females right and left, yelling at the same time: “Go home and stop your scandal-monging.” They all left for home at speed.

I was told that he was loth to accept money as a gift, so one Sunday morning as I came face to face with him, I said “If you saw two shilling on the footpath, would you pick it up?” He snapped back “Of course I would”. Thereupon I placed a florin on the ground and he promptly picked it up, and with a twinkle in his eye, passed on his way. After this episode, as a Churchwarden of St. Paul’s Kogarah, I wrote a personal letter to His Grace, the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Wright, explaining the sore straits which had befallen the former clergyman, James Clark. His Grace kindly forwarded a cheque to the Reverend Stanley G. Best, then Rector of St. Paul’s to be disbursed at his discretion so as to give the greatest benefit to the sorely afflicted man.

Eventually James Clark, through exposure and neglect, became a very sick man, and a staunch friend, Elizabeth Whitehall, managed to have him accommodated on a small sheltered verandah of a house opposite his old Church at Kogarah. He was nursed back to a semblance of his former self, and in the process it was found that his heavy clothing was weighted with banknotes sewn carefully into the lining. At last he was sufficiently recovered, to once again walk the centre of the King’s Highway, a no man’s land on which everybody had equal rights, according to his legal theory on the subject. That same night he was knocked down by a careless motorist and rushed to St. George Hospital. Here he refused to have his coat removed, for now obvious reasons, and he was transferred to the “Warren”, at Tempe, where said coat was removed. It was the beginning of the end, and so passed from our midst a once talented man, who, through force of circumstances, became an outcast of society and an object of wonderment to all unaware of his tragic background.

In conclusion, the authors wish to thank Elizabeth Whitehall, Nancy Wakefield, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Phillip Geeves, amongst many other friends, for contributing material which has been incorporated in this short biography of the late James Clark.

This article was first published in the May 1966 edition of our magazine.

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Unless noted, images courtesy of the Bayside Library Service Local History Collection.

by Dr James N. Pendlebury

The end of the 19th century and the commencement of the 20th was a time of excitement in Australia. For years people of political vision had struggled with the idea of creating a nation out of six independent colonies, steeped in self interest. At the same time, and even for longer, Methodists of vision had struggled with the idea of creating a single, national Methodist Church from the three independent denominations which traced their spiritual ancestry back to John Wesley.

On 1 January 1901, Federation came about and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. On 1 January 1902, the Primitive Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Free Church united to become the Methodist Church of Australasia.

At the local level, the Borough of Bexley was proclaimed on 28 June 1900 with a population of approximately 3,000 people. Determining the location of the Council Chambers was the main item of business for the new Council during the first half of 1901. Finally two blocks of land were purchased on the corner of Queen Victoria Rd and Northbrook St and the building was ready for occupation in November 1901. Residents of Bexley who worshipped at the Rockdale Methodist Church in Bay St were ready to branch out themselves and on 8 January 1902 the Rockdale Methodist Quarterly Meeting unanimously agreed to commence Services in Bexley and the first Services were held on 26 January 1902 in the brand new Bexley Council Chambers (now Jack & Jill Pre-School). The Rockdale Minister at the time was Rev J. W. Moore and a layman, active in the establishment of the new Congregation, was Mr H. G. Barringham.

Referring to the Bexley Congregation it was reported on 15 February 1902 in The Methodist:
“We commence here with good prospects of establishing, in time, a flourishing cause, by the blessing of God.” In fact,
“Not withstanding the heat of the day the attendances were good – about 50 in the afternoon and not so many at night, but still a good attendance.”

The Sunday School was opened on the same day, meeting at 10am and 2pm, the latter immediately before the afternoon church Service. Mr Thomas Brent was the inaugural Superintendent and he was assisted by Mr William Pike.

It was not long before the need for a church building began to occupy the thinking of the congregation. A report in The Methodist on 20 August 1902 supports this.
“The cause here is progressing favourably. There are now 35 children on the roll of the Sunday School. The afternoon congregation is increasing and the evening congregation is well sustained. A choice allotment has been secured as a sight for a church… Having a frontage to Gladstone St, of 66 ft. with a depth of 200 ft, nearly opposite the Rockdale College.”

A Church Building Fund was launched and by October 1902 an anonymous donation of £100 had been received. Various means were used to raise money in addition to straight out donations e.g. a “Lantern Lecture” and a ‘Tamasha’ in the Town Hall, Rockdale. At the time of the dedication of the church only “£100 of interest-bearing debt remained.”

In 1903 Rev J. W. Moore reported having negotiated a loan of £102/13/6 covering the price of the 2 blocks of land in Gladstone St, (secured earlier) and associated expenses. In the same year, having considered stone and weatherboard as the possible building material, it was resolved:
“That we have a brick building, the cost not to exceed £350, that the matter be placed in the hands of Mr F. Board, Architect, for plans and specifications and that Rev M. Maddem be requested to see to the same and that we apply to the Sustentation Fund for a loan of £300 for building purposes.”

Contrary to the resolution, a tender of £400, by Mr S. Gillett, was eventually accepted and the two foundations stones were laid on 23 April 1904 in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Sydney and the Presidents of the National and NSW Methodist Conferences. There was a very touching moment in the Service. An invitation was given to place contributions on the stones while children sang the “Sunbeam Song” and then
” … Suiting the action to the word, (the children) laid a contribution on the stone which they had raised at a Doll Fair on the previous Saturday.”

Altogether, £55 was raised, “a goodly and generous response indeed.”

The Minutes of the Borough of Bexley dated the 16 May 1904 state “HG Barringharn, steward of the Methodist Church and E. Barringham, Secretary, ‘Methodist Band of Hope’, gave notice that these bodies would not require the use of the Council Chambers after 22 June.”

The new church was dedicated on Saturday, 2 July 1904 and the opening Services were held on 3 and 10 July 1904. It was a typical brick church of the period; rectangular, with a small porch at centre-front with a door on each side. The back wall was made of weatherboard to allow for future extension, which was taken advantage of in 1908. This room described as a “Vestry Improvement” provided the Sunday School with some of the additional space it required. It was not until 1914 that the weather-board Sunday School Hall was built. Mr D. T. Brown prepared the ‘Plans & Specifications’ for the Vestry, Mr J. L. Lewellen submitted the successful tender of £67 and two other laymen, Alfred Taylor and William Berryman provided 3 doors and 7 or 8 window frames and 3 full length seats. Mr Fiddick offered to make the new church tables and trestles, if timber were provided.

By 1924, the provision of considerable additional space was unavoidable and this led to the erection of a second, larger church on 2 adjacent blocks which has been described in an earlier issue of this newsletter. This present church building, inadequate in size for some of the congregation’s community Services, nevertheless has served the congregation well for 76 years bringing them into their centenary year.

Rather than a single anniversary Service, the congregation has devised a year of celebration including several very special Services and 4 concerts involving choirs and soloists.

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

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Images courtesy of Bayside Library Service Local History Collection.