North Shore Historical Society Inc. PO Box 399 North Sydney NSW 2059

Email: NorthShoreHS@Hotmail.com ABN 58 742 490 986

President ph: 9929 6637 Secretary ph. 9957 2332 Affiliate Member of Royal Australian Historical Society

BULLETIN for February 2018

ISSN 2207-936X

NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the Society will be held on Thursday 8th February 2018 2nd floor Conference Room, Stanton Library, Miller Street, North Sydney.

Light refreshments served from 6.30pm prior to meeting which commences at 7pm.

Guest Speaker: Mervyn Rosen

Merv trained as an Industrial Engineer but spent most of his working life in the building and construction industry. The last 12 years of his career were spent working for an Engineering Consultancy firm. Merv is an active volunteer and guide at the National Maritime Museum and his interests in addition to the Krait, include the HMB Endeavour, the Lighthouse, HMAS Vampire, HMAS Onslow and HMAS Advance.

Topic: The Story of MV Krait

Operation Jaywick involved the KRAIT and is considered to be the most daring and successful seaborne raid in military history. This is a story of a Japanese fishing boat that transported a group of commandos from Exmouth in WA to an island 50 miles from Singapore and back. The commandos then paddled their folboats [collapsible canoes] at night from island to island to attach limpet mines to Japanese ships in Singapore harbour. 7 Japanese ships were sunk - 37,000 tons. This raid was kept secret for many years and had terrible consequences for innocent people. KRAIT is now being restored and brought back to the configuration used during the raid on Singapore. Come along and learn about the training required, the equipment used, the challenges they had to overcome and how they managed to get over 1,000 miles behind enemy territory and back undetected.

Welcome to new members - Bud Coffey, Annetta Francis, Brenda Hamer,

Sylvia Marks, Catherine Palmer, John Renzenbrink and Robin Solomon.

Vale – George Franki Not all of our members will be aware that long time Society member George Franki passed away last August at the age of 90, after a severe stroke. Unfortunately the Society did not become aware of George’s passing until after our last Bulletin for 2017 was published. A keen historian, George had a particular passion for military history. He co-authored with Clyde Slatyer, the story of (Mad) Harry Murray, Australia’s most decorated soldier. I also had the pleasure of assisting him put together his book The District’s Sorrow- North Sydney Dead in the Great War, along with the books launch in 2013. George was also a legendary member of the Balmoral Beach Club which he joined in 1971; he was still competing in BBC races in 2017. Sincere condolences are extended to George’s family and his many friends. Geoff Huntington, Vice-president

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Holtermann Plates added to the International Memory of the World Register

The world’s largest glass plate negatives of Sydney Harbour, taken from North Sydney, and held in the State Library of NSW’s collection, have just been added to International Memory of the World Register.

Captured in 1875, the three giant views of Sydney Harbour – the largest measuring over 1.6 metres wide – document the future site of the world‐heritage listed Sydney Opera House, with the developing city beyond still surrounded by virgin bush. The giant negatives join only five other inscriptions from Australia on the World Register.

The plates were funded by the German‐born entrepreneur, Bernhardt Otto Holtermann (of Holtermann nugget fame), who made his fortune at Hill End. Holtermann worked with the young Australian‐trained professional photographer Charles Bayliss to design a 23 metre high (87 foot) purpose‐built tower at his house (photo right) on the hill at North Sydney, turning the three metre‐square (10 foot) room at the top into a giant camera. It was there that they created the world’s largest images of the time by the wet‐plate process, and then toured them across the globe. The entire Holtermann collection includes some 3,500 glass‐plate negatives which capture gold rush towns (incl. Hill End & Gulgong) townspeople in NSW and Victoria, from 1870 to 1875. This unrivalled collection was inscribed on the UNESCO’s Australian Register in 2013.

More details at

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/blogs/unesco-recognises-our-colossal-images-sydney-harbour

Don Bank Tells the Story of North Sydney

A newly opened exhibition at North Sydney Council’s Don Bank Historic House Museum uses the story of the house, and of its long-term residents -the White family - to relive the early history of North Sydney. A wonderful collection of photographs and artefacts demonstrates the social history of the local area. Members of the White family were guests-of-honour at the exhibition launch in November last year. The North Shore Historical Society was instrumental in working with the Council in the 1970’s to save the historic cottage, the oldest wooden house in North Sydney. The Museum, which is on the State Heritage Register, is located at 6 Napier Street, North Sydney. It is open to visitors on Wednesdays (12-3pm) and Sundays (2-4pm).

Members are encouraged to visit for a great afternoon outing.

Volunteers to assist at Don Bank are also always welcome.

Looking Forward –

Our Proposed Outings for 2018 - (note dates may change closer to events)

Thursday February 15 - Victoria Barracks.

Wednesday April 18 - Tram Museum at Loftus.

Thursday June 21 - Darlinghurst Goal.

Thursday August 16 - Quarantine Station Manly.

Thursday October 18 - Local history walking tour: Heart of Cremorne Point.

February 2018 Outing

Tour of Victoria Barracks, Paddington

Thursday 15 February 2018 at 9.am.

Our first outing for 2018 is a tour of the Victoria Barracks, one of the oldest of the British Garrison Barracks still occupied and used by the Australian Army. Following its construction in the period from 1841 to 1848, it was occupied by the 11th North Devonshire Regiment and subsequently by Imperial, Colonial and Australian Army Units.

We will meet at the North Sydney Council Car Park, behind the Council Chambers from 8.45 am, to depart promptly at 9.00 am, travelling by Community Bus to Paddington. The bus cost is $5 per person one way, and it is intended participants will make their own way home from Oxford St Paddington.

On arrival at the Barracks you must show photo I.D. such as a driver’s licence or passport. If you do not have one of these, you need proof of identity such as a Medicare card or Pension card.

The guided tour of the Barracks is free and takes approximately one hour, after which time you can choose to stay on for morning tea, or visit their Museum (costs $5).

To participate, please register at our meeting on Thursday 8th February or send an email to the Outings Officer susan.wade@ozemail.com.au

Wading through the Archives

Susan Wade

Recently I have been indexing a batch of 1954 correspondence from the Cumberland County Council to those North Sydney residents whose properties were marked for resumption for the intended expressway. These notices were written to 134 property owners in the first instance, informing them their property would be wholly or partially resumed.

The proposed expressway was the Cahill Expressway and was classified as an urban freeway, the first to be constructed in Australia, opening to traffic sixty years ago, in 1958.1 It now starts from the Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel in Woolloomooloo, and runs through a series of sunken cuttings and tunnels between the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain. It then runs on an elevated section across the northern edge of the Sydney CBD at Circular Quay, and then across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to North Sydney (and now connects there to the Warringah Freeway).

The expressway was first proposed in 1945 as part of an overall expressway plan for Sydney. Public opposition began when the proposal was first made public seventy years ago, in 1948, with the Quay Planning Protest Committee being formed. Despite the opposition, construction on the elevated section of the expressway went ahead in 1955. Funding was provided by the Sydney Council and the NSW Government, and the elevated section was opened on 24 March 1958. Work on the sunken section commenced straight away after that, and the additional section was opened on 1 March 1962.[2]

1 "1998 Special Article - The State of New South Wales - Timeline of History".

2 "How to Build a Street". Sydney Streets.

In a pamphlet entitled Civic Development, compiled and distributed every two months by the Cumberland County Council, the lead article in January 1952 is entitled New Hope for Traffic Relief and confirms the County Council has begun to acquire land necessary for the express roads. The article begins with the claim The construction of these expressways by the Department of Main Roads will deal a major blow at some of Sydney’s biggest headaches – Road congestion, crowded public transport, road accidents, and centralisation.

It is tempting to be cynical at this point, as we all grumble, sixty years later, about exactly the same things - the road congestion, crowded public transport, road accidents and centralisation – but remember it was very forward-thinking sixty years ago! I have reproduced the article in full below, and hope you find it informative and entertaining (especially how “100 miles of expressways in New York State had proved safer than old-fashioned highways” and hence intimating we should follow suit!)

“The roads are a revolutionary design, unlike any yet built in Australia. Yet the principle of

their design is a simple one laid down by Macadam (John Loudon McAdam) more than a

century ago: “The road must be made to suit the traffic, not the traffic to suit the road.”

Had this policy been followed in the past, main highways would have no traffic lights, yellow

lines, domes or danger signs. These are only means of making the traffic fit the road.

A description of the proposed expressway reads like a fairy tale. Imagine a braid highway

divided by a garden, which not only lends beauty to the road, but prevents head-on collisions

and the glare of oncoming headlights. The road adapts itself to the natural contours of the

landscape, with smooth-flowing natural curves, easy gradients, and an ideal surface.

There are no crossroads or other dangerous intersections, no “ribbon-building” of shops,

factories and houses, no direct access to property except to rest houses, filling and service

stations. Frequently the road has a deep, friendly park strip on either side, free of hoardings

and ramshackle stalls. There is no pedestrian, horse or cycle traffic.

Pedestrians cross under the expressway by subways at pavement level and no more than 500

yards apart.

The expressway does not pass through any business centres, but is linked to them by short

connecting roads.

In New York State 100 miles of expressways are in use and have proved forty times safer than

old-fashioned highways. They have almost wiped out serious road congestion, relieved the

strain on public transport and accelerated the development of suburban business centres.

California is spending $500,000,000 on expressway construction over the next 10 years;

Germany built 3,000 miles in five years; Britain has planned a complete system to replace the

present national roads. All over the world, modern roads are appearing to serve modern

vehicles.”3

Question: While the above article is interesting and clearly “dated” in parts, do you think Macadam was correct when he claimed, more than a century ago: “The road must be made to suit the traffic, not the traffic to suit the road.”?? I suggest, given traffic in this century, that we could have a protracted debate about his statement! And in conclusion, a reminder our first expressway is named after the then New South Wales Premier John Joseph Cahill, who also approved construction of the Sydney Opera House. And while being a vital link in the Sydney road system, the “Cahill” is generally not well loved by Sydneysiders, who dislike its ugly appearance and its division of the city from its waterfront.

3 Civic Development A review of news and opinions. Cumberland County Council. Sydney January 1952.