Category: Shopping

Aesthetics · Attachment to place · Business · Cultural Heritage · Cumberland Plain · Dharawal · Entertainment · House history · Lifestyle · Living History · Media · Media History · Photography · Retailing · Sense of place · Shopping · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Sydney · Uncategorized · Wollondilly Shire Council

The West Journal

camdenhistorynotes

A new lifestyle magazine

The local area has a new lifestyle magazine. I found my print copy of Edition 1 Volume 1 of The West Journal at Camden’s florist The Green Seed in Argyle Street, Camden.

The magazine is an interesting addition to the local media landscape. (Willis 2021)

The West Journal is a new lifestyle magazine and addition to the local media landscape (I Willis 2021)

Published by Camden based Olsen Palmer, the 262 page A5 (15cm x 21 cm) colour card cover magazine is a handsome addition to the Sydney lifestyle market. The magazine is published ‘seasonally’ – July, October, January, April. (TWJ:8; Media Kit)

The publisher of The West Journal boasts an estimated readership of 60,000, with social media impressions monthly average between 17,000-20,000. The magazine is distributed to ‘accommodation locations, hotels, pubs, clubs and sporting facilities, local and regional airports, and a host of hospitality locations’. (TWJ Media Kit)

Minimalism

The cover of the first edition has an unmissable orange cover, and the magazine is reflective of stripped back minimalist design principles.  The New Yorker magazine said of minimalism in a critique that it is

a mode of living that strips away protective barriers and heightens the miracle of human presence and the urgency, today, of what that miracle entails. (The New Yorker, February 3 2020)

As The New Yorker points out, the simplicity of minimalism hides the reality of a complex world. The simplicity of the cover design of  TWJ belies the complexity of publishing a magazine of this quality.

The publishers have been influenced by what Richard Rogers calls the notion of ‘Instagramism’  and image-driven platforms. TWJ states:

Our journal is made up of many beautiful images; we want our advertisers to emulate this. Minimise text, maximise imagery. (TWJ Media Kit)

Editor Boone states that this editorial policy leads to ‘simple and effective communications to our readers’. (TWJ Media Kit) 

This is an interesting image of the Nepean River Walkway at Elderslie and not one that is normally used to reflect the Camden area. It is a different interpretation of the cultural heritage of an area rich in Indigenous and European history. There are Dreaming stories of Dharawal People and the colonial stories of settlement from the time of the Cowpastures district from 1975 to the 1850s. (I Willis, 2021)

Cultural diversity and stereotypes

The magazine’s pitch is at a market in Western Sydney hungry for acknowledgement of its riches. Sydney’s West is a land of undiscovered treasures and unacknowledged riches of culture, travel and food.

Sydney’s West is a vast cosmopolitan landscape of a foodie’s heaven for those searching for suburban delicacies. This secret is out for city-based foodie tours who deliver their passengers to Westie foodie-hot-spots.

Sydney’s West has been undersold for years and dogged by unfair stereotypes. The West Journal states in its opening paragraph that

For too long, a generational stigma has tainted the perception of Western Sydney. (TWJ:1)

The stigma has persisted for more than one generation, and I have labelled it the #sydneyculturewar. (Willis, 2016) In recent months it has been fostered in the name of Covid.  

Campbelltown journalist and raconteur Jeff McGill wrote in 2013 ‘Careful what you call south west Sydney’. He examined the stereotypes and name-calling that existed in Sydney’s West and Southwest. Jenny said she had met contempt towards her by those in Sydney’s beachside and harbourside suburbs in a Facebook comment. She said that they think you are ‘slow-witted, lazy, anti-social’. 

The West Journal is a positive move to counter these attitudes and boasts that it

Wants to celebrate the cultural diversity, food and individuality found within Western Sydney and Regional NSW. (TWJ:1)

Academic Gabriele Gwyther has argued that Western Sydney is a

 region of great complexity: a patchwork of culture, language, ethnicity, personal histories, religion, income and status. (Gwyther 2008)

A rich history

More than this, I have argued that Sydney’s West has a rich history from the pre-colonial period to the present. (Willis 2018)

The magazine demonstrates the influence of the past on the present by presenting stylish images of the West’s cultural and natural heritage. The past shapes the present, and there is no escaping its clutches, whatever its colours.

The stories of the Dharawal, the Dharug and Gundungurra provide a rich tapestry of storytelling.  TWJ acknowledges the traditional custodians of each site in the magazine, for example, the Dharug People at Blacktown. (TWJ: 14)

The European story on the Hawkesbury and down to The Cowpastures adds another layer (Willis 2018; Karskens 2020) with a profile of  Camden Park House (CPH 2020), arguably one of the most important colonial properties still in the hands of the family built in the 1830s. (TWJ:226-229)

Embracing growth and change

The West Journal encompasses all of this and distribution across Sydney’s West from Hawkesbury Shire Council in the north, Wollondilly Shire Council in the south, west to Blue Mountains City Council, east to the Canterbury Bankstown.

Editor Deane Boone boasts that the magazine will ‘explore everything Western Sydney and Regional NSW has to offer’ extending to ‘West of West’ taking in Wagga Wagga to Armidale and Dubbo. (TWJ:4-5)

The New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP has endorsed The West Journal and commended the publishers on their efforts in promoting Sydney’s West (I Willis 2021)

These claims are endorsed by New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP.  She states ‘Western Sydney is an exciting region undergoing profound growth and change’, and her government ‘shares this enthusiasm for Sydney’s West as a wonderful place’. The premier ‘commends’ the publisher for their efforts. (TWJ:6)

Editor Boone has set a high standard with this issue. It is hoped that later volumes match it.  The magazine closes with the bold aim:

To embrace, inform and celebrate the amazing cultural diversity, experiences and offerings the West has to offer. (TWJ:263)

Here’s hoping it meets its aim.

Pick up your print copy or view it online

References

Boone, Dean (ed), 2021, The West Journal,  Edition 1, Volume 1. https://www.thewestjournal.com.au/, viewed September 17 2021

Camden Park House 2020, Home, Camden Park House, Menangle, NSW, 2568, <https://www.camdenparkhouse.com.au/>, viewed September 19 2021.

Gwyther, Gabrielle 2008. Western Sydney, Dictionary of Sydney, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/western_sydney, viewed September 17 2021

Karskens, Grace  2020,  People of the river : lost worlds of early Australia.  Allen & Unwin Crows Nest, NSW

Rogers, Richard 2021, ‘Visual media analysis for Instagram and other online platforms’. Big Data & Society. Vol 8 issue 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211022370

Willis, Ian  2018, ‘The Cowpastures Region 1795-1840’, Camden History Notes, weblog, April 27, <https://camdenhistorynotes.com/2018/04/27/the-cowpastures-region-1795-1840/>, viewed September 18 2021.

Willis, Ian 2016, ‘Westies, Bogans and Yobbos. What’s in a name?’ Camden History Notes, weblog, June 9,  https://camdenhistorynotes.com/2016/06/09/westies-bogans-and-yobbos-whats-in-a-name/  Viewed September 18 2021.

Willis, Ian 2021. Local Newspapers and a Regional Setting in New South Wales, Media History, 27:2, 197-209, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2020.1833710

Active citizenship · Argyle Street · Attachment to place · Business · Camden · Camden Museum · Camden Story · Community identity · Country Women's Association · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Economy · Families · Family history · Genealogy · Heritage · Historical Research · History · Local History · Local Studies · Medical history · Memory · Place making · Sense of place · Shopping · Storytelling · Uncategorized · Volunteering · Volunteerism · Women's history

Local identities, Colin and Dorothy Clark

camdenhistorynotes

Active citizens with a vision for the future

In 2002 the Sydney press commemorated the life and times of Camden identity Colin Clark, a successful pharmacist who served his community, church and family. (SMH 20 May 2002) Colin married Dorothy, and together, they shaped ‘a vision for their future’ in Camden.

My interest in the Clarks was partly prompted by a photograph of a bottle of liquid paraffin sent to me by local resident Nicole Comerford. Colin had dispensed the paraffin to Nicole’s grandmother, Sheila Murdoch of Orangeville.

Liquid Paraffin medicine that Sheila Murdoch purchased from Camden pharmacist Colin Clark in Argyle Street. The bottle dates from the mid-20th century. (N Comerford, 2021)

Colin Clark ran a pharmacy in Argyle Street for over 35 years.  He trained as a pharmacist at the Melbourne College of Pharmacy,  and met Dorothy in Stroud. They married in 1933 at Malvern Hill Methodist Church (Clark, Fix Ears, p.72) before moving to Camden in 1934.

Dorothy was an accomplished musician and an artist. In the mid-1920s, she received a scholarship to the Sydney Art School  (Julian Ashton Art School) (Clark, Fix Ears, p.71), which trained several notable Australian artists.

The Clarks planned to stay in Camden for seven years (Mylrea, Interview) and as things turned out, they stayed a lifetime. (Camden News, 6 August 1981)  Their Methodist faith shaped their worldview and they how fitted into Camden’s rich social fabric and became part of the ‘backbone of the community’. (Camden News, 6 August 1981). They mixed with other Methodist families who amongst others included the Whitemans, the Sidmans and the Stuckeys.

Colin became a well-regarded businessman and Dorothy, a stay-at-home mother. They were respected in all strata of society and mixed with people ‘of so-called high and low estate’. (Clark, Eulogy) 

Colin Clark Camden (Camden Images)

John Kearns argues that John Wesley ‘was an active citizen, concerned with people’s physical, mental and economic welfare as well as their spiritual well-being and he did many good works’. As were the Clarks.

Community service – ‘the backbone of the community’

Colin and Dorothy were community-minded active citizens who constantly devoted their ‘energies to the gentle pursuit of shaping their community’s lifestyle and character’ through several local organisations. (Camden News, 6 August 1981)

Colin was president of the Camden Historical Society from 1968 to 1970 and was made a life member in 1994. He was a foundation member of the Camden Rotary Club and served the club for 33 years. He was a member of the Carrington Hospital Board from 1967 to 1981, made a trustee in 1975 (Camden News 6 August 1981) and to honour his service, the board room was named after him (Clark Eulogy). He was president of the Camden Central School P&C in the early 1950s, a member of the Camden Masonic Lodge and a board member of the Camden Uniting Church. (Clark, Eulogy).

Colin was an active sportsman and participated in tennis, cricket, golf and lawn bowls. He was a foundation member of the Camden Golf Club, an early committee member of the Camden Bowling Club and instrumental in the foundation of the Camden CWA Rooms building.

Dorothy – musician, artist and mother

Dorothy was a musician and an artist with an appreciation of the arts.  She was an accomplished pianist, and in 1936 played the piano at a Methodist ladies ‘towel afternoon’ (Camden News, 6 August 1936). In 1942 she was the pianist for a concert for the troops at the Narellan Military Base (Camden News, 5 February 1942), and in 1952 she played the piano at a fashion parade fundraiser for the Camden Hospital Ladies Auxiliary (Camden News, 2 October 1952). Dorothy was the pianist for the first Camden Musical Society performance. (Camden News 6 August 1981)  

Dorothy Clark was an active member of the Camden Red Cross, Camden District Hospital Auxiliary, and the Camden Country Women’s Association.

Colin Clark (RHS) with fellow Rotarians Geoff McAleer (LHS) and Noel Riordan (centre) in the early development of the Camden Museum in 1969. The Camden Museum opened in 1970. The objects in the picture are the Brunero spinning wheel for spinning wool with a penny farthing bicycle in front. (Camden Images)

Camden Museum – ‘a vision for the future’

In the mid-1960s, Colin and Dorothy had a vision for a local history museum in Camden where a collection of objects and things could tell the local story. (Mylrea, Interview)  The Clark’s view of the world would have seen a museum providing  an educational experience based on authentic objects and stories taken from Camden’s cultural traditions and values, and the individuals who created them. (Willis, Stories and Things)

 The Clark’s vision and enthusiasm encouraged support after initial scepticism. With the help of Camden Rotary Club Colin eventually secured the old council rooms at the rear of the Camden School of Arts and opened a museum in 1970. (Wrigley, Camden Museum)

John Wrigley writes

Colin Clark was the president of the Camden Historical Society at the founding of the Camden Museum in 1970. Colin became a member of the society in 1963 and president in 1968. He was the fourth president of the society. (Wrigley, 2021)

Colin Clark 2nd from left on the 25th Anniversary of the Camden Historical Society in 1995. These fellows were all past presidents of the society and they are L-R: RE Nixon, Colin, Owen Blattman, John Wrigley. They are standing outside the original entry of Camden Museum in the laneway between Camden Library and the Presbyterian Church (Camden Images)

The village apothecary

Colin’s career as a pharmacist fitted into the English tradition of the village apothecary dating back to the 13th century where he was a person who kept a stock of these commodities, and he sold from his shop or street stall. 

The Clark pharmacy was part of the move  by the early 20th century when the role of pharmacist had shifted to a more scientific approach. There was a move away from compounding towards premanufactured proprietary products and the traditional role of apothecary of the frontier and colonial period. 

Colin recalled, ‘In the 1930s it was quite common to be called upon to dispense a prescription mixture. There were no prepared medicines and it took around 20 minutes to put a script together. There were very few cosmetic preparations.’ (The Crier, 14 November 1979) 

The Clark Chemist shop (on the LHS of the image) was located in the Whiteman’s building in the late 1930s at 90 Argyle Street Camden (Camden Images)

Colin’s pharmacy was initially located in the Whiteman building at 90 Argyle Street when he purchased Niddries business. The pharmacy opened at 8.30am, with half-an-hour for lunch to 8.30pm. The local doctors always ran a night surgery and Colin would be dispensing mixtures for the patients. On Saturday he opened at 8.30am to 1.00pm, then back at 6.00pm to 8.30pm and then Sundays and after-hours calls. ‘It was a very hard life.’ (Mylrea, Interview)  

In the mid-1950s Colin moved the business west along Argyle Street to 108 Argyle Street into the former Greens Ladies Wear. (Mylrea, Interview) His pharmacy was part of what Jill Finch has argued was the advent of patent medicines and manufactured tablets which broadened the range of drugs, and by the 1960s pharmacists were primarily dispensing premanufactured capsules and tablets.

References

Clark, GM 2021, I want to fix ears, Inside the Cochlear Implant story, Iscast, Melbourne.

Clark, Graeme 2002. Eulogy for CC, Camden. 27 March, Camden Museum Archives.

Dwyer, P 1997, Pharmacy Practice Today: An Increased Exposure to Legal Liability, UNSW Law Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 724-759.

Finch, J 2017, Pharmacy – Cultural Artefact, Companion to Tasmanian History, viewed 05 September 2021, <http://www.utas.edu.au/tasmanian-companion/browse_r_concepts.htm>.

Kearns, Adrian J. “Active Citizenship and Urban Governance.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 17, no. 1, 1992, pp. 20–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/622634. Accessed 4 Sept. 2021.

Mylrea, Peter 1994. Transcript of an Interview with CC, Camden, 12 November, 19 November, 10 December 1993, 19 January 1994, Camden Museum Archives.

Mylrea, Peter 2001. ‘Camden Historical Society, Its First 25 Years, 1957-1982’. Camden History, Vol 1, No 1, March 2001, p.11.

Mylrea, Peter 2001. ‘Glimpses of Camden, Interview with Colin Clark’. Camden History, Vol 1, no 2, September 2001, pp.24-28.

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries 2021, Origins, The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, viewed 05 September 2021, <https://www.apothecaries.org/history/origins/>.

Urick, B. Y., & Meggs, E. V. (2019). Towards a Greater Professional Standing: Evolution of Pharmacy Practice and Education, 1920-2020. Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland), 7(3), 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7030098

Willis, I. 2009. ‘Stories and things: the role of the local historical society, Campbelltown, Camden and The Oaks’. Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 95(1), 18–37. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.200906492

Worthing, M 2015, Graeme Clark, The man who invented the bionic ear, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

Wrigley, John 2020. ‘The Rise and Rise of the Camden Museum, Celebrating Fifty Years!’, Camden History, Vol 4, no 9, March 2020, p405.

Wrigley, John 2021, ‘Colin Clark’. Typescript, Camden Museum.

Agricultural heritage · Camden Park House and Garden · Camden Story · Community Health · Contamination · Cultural Heritage · Dairying · Economy · Farming · Heritage · History · Infant Welfare · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur · Memory · Modernism · Place making · Produce · Retailing · Sense of place · Shopping · Storytelling · Sydney

Bottled milk and hygienic dairies: agricultural modernism

camdenhistorynotes

Bottled milk reduces contamination  

Contaminated milk being sold to consumers today is completely unthinkable, yet there was a time in Camden when it was not unusual at all.

Contaminated milk was such as issue that 1931 local milk supplier Camden Vale Milk Company Limited advertised the hygienic properties of its bottled milk.

Camden Vale Milk was produced by the dairies of Camden Park Estate. It was promoted  as ‘Free from Tubercule, Typhoid and Diphtheria Bacilli’. Camden Vale promised that its milk was ‘rich, clean’ and ‘safe’.  

The advertisement by Camden Vale Milk appeared in the 1931 booklet for Sydney Health Week and was used to promote the sale of bottled milk.

An advertisement promoting bottled milk placed by Camden Vale Milk Company Limited in the 1931 Health and Baby Welfare Booklet as part of Sydney Health Week. Health Week ran from 10 October 1931 to 23 October 1931 across New South Wales.

Sydney Health Week was launched in October 1921 with the aim of improving community health particularly the health of infants. Dr Purdy of the organising committee stated that infant mortality in Australia was twice the rate of Great Britain. Health Week was modelled on the Health Week of Great Britain  which started in 1912 by the Agenda Club and renewed after the war. The week was launched with the support of the NSW Labor Government and the Minister for Public Health and Motherhood, Mr G McGirr. (Tweed Daily, 27 October 1921)

The cover of the 1931 booklet published to promote Health and Baby Welfare Week. The booklet was produced by Executive of the Eleventh Annual Sydney Health Week. It had a circulation of 207,000 and was 128 pages.

Camden Vale Bottled Milk

Camden Park Dairies started selling bottled milk from 1926 under the Camden Vale Bottled Milk brand across the Sydney market. The growth of bottled milk contributed to better hygiene and stopped contamination.

The Macarthur family of Camden Park established the Camden Vale Milk Company Limited in 1920 to distribute whole liquid milk to the Sydney market. The company became a co-operative the following year with 131 shareholders and FA Macarthur Onslow was the managing director. Camden Park’s dairy processing assets, including the Menangle Milk factory, Redfern processing plant and delivery trucks, were transferred to Camden Vale in 1920.

The company opened a milk receiving depot at the corner of Edward and Argyle Streets in Camden in 1921. The Menangle factory sent milk to Redfern for pasteurisation and bottling. Bottled milk gave Camden Vale an edge in the Sydney market where there was fierce competition from over-supply and price-cutting.

Camden Vale Milk Company Limited Depot at the corner of Edward and Argyle Street Camden adjacent to the Camden-Campbelltown tramway. This 1923 view is the timber building that burnt down shortly after this image was taken and replaced with the current brick building. The railway allowed easy transportation of whole milk to the Sydney market. (Camden Images)

Adulterated milk

The Camden Vale Milk  advertising for Sydney Health Week might seem alarmist today. Yet a short history of the Sydney milk supply and issues of contamination and milk-borne disease illustrates that these type of concerns were far from alarmist. Indeed they were quite prudent.

So what were the issues with milk in 1931?

In the early 20th century tuberculosis, typhoid diphtheria and other diseases were a constant threat.

A quick search of Trove and the pages of the Camden News and Picton Post reveals the extent of notifiable disease within the Camden  community in the past. There were a host of outbreaks in the early 20th century and late 19th century reported by these newspapers. They included: scarlet fever (1914, 1927, 1948); measles (1914); cholera (1899, 1900, 1902, 1911, 1914); infantile paralysis or polio (1932, 1946); typhoid fever (1914, 1916, 1921); consumption or tuberculosis (1912, 1913, 1916); diphtheria (1896, 1898, 1907, 1922, 1948); and others.

Milk-borne disease

The threat of milk-borne diseases was a real threat in the 19th century.

Medical historian Milton Lewis has argued

Well before the advent of germ theory and modern epidemiology, milk was being named as the means by which typhoid, scarlet fever and diphtheria were sometimes spread.    The connection between infant mortality and cows’ milk had been noted early in the nineteenth century.

It was not until 1861 that Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases.

 The first attempt in New South Wales to control the quality of milk from dairies in the Sydney area were laws to stop the adulteration of food in the 1870s. They were based on English laws. It was quite common for Sydney dairymen to adulterate pure milk with added water, justifying their claims that they could not make a profit without adding water. In 1875 there was an outcry from NSW Medical Gazette about the practice.

New South Wales authorities were prompted into action in 1886 when an outbreak of milk-borne typhoid in Sydney was traced to a well on a Leichhardt dairy. The dairy was contaminated by sewage from surrounding houses. There were further outbreaks linked to polluted dairies in St Leonards in 1887 and 1890, and another in the Randwick area in 1890.

Raw milk

The inspection of Sydney dairy herds from the 1890s led to a decline in the incidence of milk-borne tuberculosis and improved conditions at the dairies. The major risk arose from the sale of raw milk by city dairies.

The local ‘milko’ sold customers raw milk. It was sometimes poor quality and there was no guarantee it was free from contamination. The ‘milko’ poured milk into from a tank in his van into the customer’s jug.

By 1905 action by city health authorities led to significant improvements on city dairies and milk shops. Authorities had started to take action on the adulteration of milk with water and chemical preservatives. 

Pasteurisation

Pasteurisation of milk was an effective way of protecting consumers from the milk-borne disease. It involves heat treatment of milk then rapid cooling.

The Farmers’ and Dairymans’ Company started to pasteurise its milk supply in 1903 but contamination occurred in the supply chain. In 1905 the company along with the NSW Fresh Food and Ice Company advertised pasteurised milk in the Sydney press. (Farmers’ and Dairymen’s Milk Co. advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1905; N.S.W. Fresh Food and Ice Co. advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1905, 9).

Commercial pasteurisations was first introduced in the USA in 1907 and spread quickly across American cities as it improved the keeping quality of milk. The first regulations were introduced in England in 1922.

Following the First World War the New South Wales Board of Trade maintained that child health could be improved by higher consumption of milk. The Board added that infant feeding on uncontaminated milk could be achieved by the use of dried milk.

The poor quality of fresh milk from Sydney suburban dairies in 1923 meant that baby health clinics recommended mothers feed their infants a combination of dried milk and fruit juice. The aim was to reduce infant mortality from gastro-enteritis.

Bottled milk and Camden Vale Milk Company Limited

Farmers had started selling bottled milk in 1925.  The first bottled milk was produced in Sydney in 1911 but the company was unable to survive the competition from established firm.  The first use of bottled milk in Sydney according to newspaper reports was in 1898 following its adoption and use in the Philadelphia in the USA.

A milk bottle produced by Camden Vale Milk Co Ltd (Belgenny Farm)

In 1929 Camden Vale merged with Dairy Farmers’ Cooperative Milk Company, established by South Coast dairy farmers in 1900, and Farmers’ and Dairymans’ Company. The company continued to use the Camden Vale brand and eventually in 1934 the Camden Vale Milk Co Ltd was wound up.

Herd testing at Camden Park Estate

The Camden Park management were industry leaders in the Sydney market. In 1924 were the first dairy herds in New South Wales to be certified TB free.

Camden Park Estate Model Dairy No 2 milking showing concrete floor and fitted out with equipment that is easy to clean in 1938 (Camden Images)

In 1926 the Camden Park opened its first ‘model’ dairy at Menangle to give Camden Vale bottled milk an edge in the competitive Sydney market. It represented the ‘best practice and high standards of hygiene’. This meant

 The brick dairy had a concrete floor with bails, fittings and equipment designed for ease of cleaning and optimum hygiene. 

(Belgenny Farm)

Milk was pasteurised at the Menangle and Camden factories, bottled and delivered to customers.

‘The Milk with the Golden Cap’ slogan or tagline was used in the promotional advertising for Camden Vale bottled milk. The milk was sold at a premium across the Sydney market.

The Macarthur family at Camden Park Estate followed the latest scientific methods in their dairy herds and regularly won prizes at the Camden Show and the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

1968 Sydney Region Outline Plan · 1973 New Cities Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan · Aesthetics · Airds · Architecture · Attachment to place · Campbelltown · Collective Memory · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Economy · Heritage · Historical consciousness · Historical Research · Historical thinking · History · Housing · Landscape · Lifestyle · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · localism · Lost Sydney · Macarthur · Macarthur Growth Centre · Malls · Memory · Mid-century modernism · Modernism · Myths · Place making · Placemaking · Retailing · rural-urban fringe · Sense of place · Shopping · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Streetscapes · Supermarkets · Sydney · Town planning · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history · Urban Planning · urban sprawl · Urbanism

Airds Shopping Mall: The retail centre hope forgot

camdenhistorynotes1 Comment

The sad side of mid-century Modernism

Recently I came across an article about the future of the Airds shopping mall in the Macarthur Chronicle headed ‘Dilapidated centre set to be transformed’. It stated:

A wrecking ball could be swinging towards a dilapidated shopping village. The grand plans propose to demolish Airds Village shopping centre, on Riverside Drive, and replace it with a $21 million centre.

Airds Shopping Centre redevelopment Macarthur Chroncile 2020Apr1

 

A story of decay and neglect

The imminent demolition of the decaying and neglected Airds shopping mall is a sad indictment of the dreams of many and the ultimate demise of the 1970s Macarthur Growth Centre.

The shopping mall is an example of urban decay in the middle of our local suburbia. It is a failure of modernism and the town-planning utopia of city-based decision-makers.

The decay at Airds is not unusual and symbolic of more significant trends in global retail where shopping malls are declining.

The current dismal state of affairs hides the issue that in the mid-20th century, Campbelltown’s civic leaders had great hope and optimism for the area’s development and progress.

Airds Shopping Centre Frontage from Walkway underpass 2020 IW lowres
The front view of the Airds Shopping Centre framed by  the underpass at Riverside Drive Airds (I Willis, 2020)

Progress, development, and Modernism

There were grand plans for Campbelltown as a satellite city within the New South Wales state government’s County of Cumberland Plan.

Local confidence saw the construction of the 1964 modernist council chambers and, in 1968, the declaration of city status, electrification of the railway and the announcement of the Sydney Region Outline Plan by the state government.

Influenced by the British New Town movement, the city was incorporated in the State Planning Authority of NSW’s 1973 New Cities of Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan.  This later became the Macarthur Growth Centre, administered by the Macarthur Development Board.

Airds Shopping Centre Front from footpath with grass 2020 IW lowres
The unkempt state of the surrounds at the Airds Shopping Centre in Riverside Drive Airds (I Willis 2020)

Radburn – a ‘foreign country’

Airds was one of several ‘corridor’ public housing suburbs following the American Radburn principles.  The Airds shopping centre was built as part of the 1975 Housing Commission of New South Wales subdivision of ‘Kentlyn’, renamed Airds in 1976.

The Radburn principles were applied to five public housing estates developed by the Housing Commission of New South Wales in the Campbelltown area between 1972 and 1989. The other four estates were Macquarie Fields, Claymore, Minto and Ambervale.

The design concept originated from Radburn in New Jersey in 1928 and reflected the optimism of American modernism around the motor car and consumerism.

Houses were developed ‘back-to-front’ with a front-facing walkway or green open space and the back door facing the street. This meant a separation of pedestrians and cars, with a large communal open area centred on the walkways between the rows of houses. This resulted in a streetscape with rows of high blank fences enclosing backyards.

Travis Collins from the University of New South Wales argues that the Radburn principles were initially designed for aspirational upper-middle-class areas and their desire for a garden suburb where pedestrian walkways and common areas linked across the estate. These areas were expected to be the centre of neighbourhood life without needing a car.

Airds Shopping Centre Interior Signage 2020 IW lowres
The interior walkway into the middle of the Airds Shopping Centre (I Willis 2020)

Radburn watered down

The suburb of Airds, and other Campbelltown public housing estates, started off with grand plans that evaporated over time due to: changes of government; cost-cutting; abolition of government instrumentalities; and neglect. This resulted in a ‘watered down’ Radburn vision.

The public housing estates did have extensive open space, which was true to Radburn principles. Yet there were compromises, and the Housing Commission built townhouses, that were counter to the  Radburn concept.

The tracts of open space became wastelands of neglect and vandalism that were poorly provisioned and maintained by the Housing Commission, with a lack of privacy and security. The back lanes and streets were isolated, lacked security and resident surveillance and were sites characterised by dumped rubbish and graffiti.

The estates were populated with single-parent families, who suffered from high levels of social exclusion, unemployment, and low incomes.

Airds Shopping Centre Interior2 2020 IW lowres
The interior space of the Airds Shopping Centre (I Willis 2020)

Radburn failures

Collins argues that the Radburn principles were a failure, and contributing factors included: poor surveillance of the street by residents because of high rear fences fronting the street, anti-social behaviour along the walkways and open space areas, and the low socio-economic status of residents.

The failure of the Radburn scheme was finally recognised by the authorities in the early 2000s. They acknowledged that: the design was unsuitable for concentrated public housing estates; they created confusing neighbourhoods with unsafe walkways, poor car access, and poor surveillance of open space; the poorly constructed housing stock became run down and dilapidated; the housing stock was infested with termites. These issues were reflected in Airds and the shopping mall from the mid-1970s.

Airds Shopping Centre Frontage from Walkway 2020 IW lowres
Approaching the front of the Airds Shopping Centre from the underpass at Riverside Drive Airds (I Willis 2020)

Memories of hope

In the 1970s, I taught at Airds High School, adjacent to the shopping mall, and my memories are mixed. Young people, who came from dysfunctional backgrounds, yet their resilience allowed them to rise above it, grow and mature into sensible young adults. This process is supported by the life experience of former Airds resident Fiona Woods (Facebook, April 2020), who grew up in Airds in the 1970s and 1980s. She says:

I have the best memories of Airds, especially that shopping centre. Riding our bikes to buy lollies.  Growing up in Airds in the 70s was very communal. I loved it. I arrived at Airds in 1977 when I was 3 and lived there until 1984. I went to John Warby [Public School]. There was such a strong sense of community. My mum met her best friend when they moved into their new houses in Airds. They have been friends for over 40 years and still speak daily.

Fiona tells the story of her sister, who taught at Airds High School in the 1990s. She found the teaching experience challenging, as I did 20 years earlier, yet the youngsters were confident, grounded and without airs and graces.

Similarly, I found Airds’ school children had a refreshing unsophisticated innocence generated by difficult circumstances. They were unpretentious, and you quickly knew where you stood with them teaching in a classroom that was always full of unconfined energy. You always had classroom ‘war stories’, and this is where I did my ‘missionary work’.

Bogans galore and more

The Airds shopping mall is a metaphor for what happened to Campbelltown between the 1970s and the present. It represents the collision of modernism and neoliberalism in place. The optimism of the 1960s contrasted with the despair of the 1980s.

The shopping mall is a metaphor for the stereotypes linked with the geographical term ‘Western Sydney’ and the use of terms like ‘bogan’ and ‘westie’. Typified by Sydney’s latte line where city-based decision-makers dealt with suburbs west of the latte line as a foreign country. In 2013 Campbelltown journalist Jeff McGill took exception to the ‘bogan’ characterisation of the Campbelltown area by the Sydney media.

Gabrielle Gwyther put it this way:

Derogatory labeling of residents of western Sydney was aided by the social problems and cheap aesthetic of large-scale, public housing estates developed in the 1950s at Seven Hills, followed by Green Valley and Mount Druitt in the 1960s, and the Radburn estates of Bonnyrigg, Villawood, Claymore, Minto, Airds and Macquarie Fields in the 1970s.

Airds Shopping Centre Gate Entry 2020 IW lowres
The side security gates at the Airds Shopping Centre Riverside Drive Airds (I Willis 2020)

De-Radburnisation

These failures were acknowledged in 1995 with the state government’s public housing renewal projects and their de-Radburnisation through the Neighbourhood Improvement Program.

At Airds, this is partly responsible for the re-development of the shopping centre as outlined in the Macarthur Chronicle.

Updated 12 May 2023; Originally posted 11 April 2020

20th century · Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Attachment to place · Australia · Camden · Camden Story · Community identity · Costume History · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Dairying · Dress history · Entertainment · Farming · Fashion · Fashion History · Festivals · Heritage · Historical consciousness · Historical Research · Historical thinking · History · Hotels · Interwar · Landscape aesthetics · Leisure · Lifestyle · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Memory · Mid-century modernism · Modernism · Motoring History · Moveable Heritage · Myths · Pageant · Place making · Placemaking · Railway · Re-enactments · Retailing · Ruralism · Sense of place · Shopping · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Streetscapes · Sydney · Theatre · Tourism · Transport · Women's history

History Magazine photoshoot for RAHS captures a window into the past in Camden

camdenhistorynotes

A camera captures a moment in time

A historian rarely gets a window into the past in real-time through the lens of a camera. I did this in Camden, New South Wales, recently at a photo shoot for the History Magazine for the Royal Australian Historical Society.

camden laura jane arygle st photo shoot 2019 iwillis
A photo shoot in Camden, NSW, for the Royal Australian Historical Society History Magazine. Model Laura Jane, photographer Jeff McGill. Location Argyle Street Camden 2018 (IWillis)

Photographer Jeff McGill and author Laura Jane were the participants in this activity. We all walked along Camden’s historic main thoroughfare, Argyle Street, which still echoes the Victorian period.  Our little group made quite a splash and drew the attention of local women who swooned over the ‘gorgeous’ vintage dress Laura Jane wore.

sydney david jones market street 1938 sam hood dos slnsw
Sydney’s David Jones Market Street store was one of the city’s most elegant shopping precincts. The city had several department stores that attracted women from rural New South Wales. This image was taken by noted Sydney photographer Sam Hood in 1938. (SLNSW)

Mid-20th century enthusiast Laura Janes lived the lifestyle in dress, makeup and hairstyle. They made the perfect foil for her History article on Sydney fashion, the David Jones store and their links to Dior’s fashion house.  Laura Jane modelled her 1950s Dior style vintage dress  in front of Camden’s storefronts that were reminiscent of the period. With a matching handbag, gloves, hat, hairstyle, stiletto heels, and makeup, she made a picture to behold captured by Campbelltown photographer Jeff.

camden laura jane looking class 2019 iwillis lowres
A photo shoot for the History Magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society in Argyle Street Camden. The location is Looking Class retail outlet in a building from the Interwar period. The entry tiles are reminiscent of the mid-20th century that are representative of the period for model Laura Jane’s Dior-style gown. (I Willis)

Laura Jane encompasses the experience of the country woman going to town when Camden women would dress up in their Sunday best to shop in Camden or catch the train to the city.

Pansy Camden train crossing Hume Hwy L Manny Camden Images
The ‘Pansy’ Camden train crossed Hume Highway at Narellan in the mid-20th century. This was a light rail service which used a tanker locomotive and ran as a mixed freight and passenger service. The service ran several times a day  between Camden and Campbelltown railway stations. The train has just left Narellan Railway Station on its way to the next stop at Currans Hill. (L Manny/Camden Images)

A city shopping expedition would entail catching the Pansy train at Camden Railway Station, changing steam trains at Campbelltown Railway Station, and another change at Liverpool Railway Station from steam train to the electric suburban service for Central Railway Station in Sydney. The suburban electric trains did not arrive at Campbelltown until 1968.

burragorang valley women 1923 claude jenkins' service car at the bluff light six buick cipp
This image shows country women from the Burragorang Valley coming to town in 1923. They are done up in hats, gloves and stockings and travel in the valley service car run by Claude Jenkins. He ran a daily service between Camden and the Valley using this Light Buick Six Tourer. Here they are stopped at The Bluff lookout above the Burragorang Valley. (Camden Images)

City outings for country women often happened around the Royal Easter Show when the whole family would go to the city. The family would bring their prized horses and cattle to compete with other rural producers for the honour and glory of winning a sash. While the menfolk were busy with rural matters, their women folk would be off to town to shop for the latest fashions for church and show balls or to fit out the family for the upcoming year.

sydney royal easter show cattle parade sam hood 1938 slnsw 17102h
The Sydney Royal Easter Show was a regular outing for the whole family. The men would show their prized animals in the various sections hoping for a sash, while the women went shopping in town. This image by noted Sydney photographer Sam Hood shows the cattle parade for Herefords at the 1938 Royal Easter Show. (SLNSW)

Country women from further away might stay at swish city hotels like the up-market elegant Hotel Australia near Martin Place. These infrequent city outings were a treat and a break from the drudgery of domesticity, and women would take the opportunity to combine a shopping trip with a visit to see a play or the Tivoli theatre.

The Sydney street photographers captured the intrinsic nature of the city outings for country women.   They operated around the Martin Place, Circular Quay, Macquarie and Elizabeth Street precincts and are depicted in an current photographic exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.

sydney hotel australia 1932 wikimedia
Sydney’s Hotel Australia was the city’s most elegant hotel on Martin Place and Castlereagh Street, opened in 1891. The country family would stay here for a special treat when the Royal Easter Show was on at the Moore Park Showground site. This image is from 1932. (Wikimedia)

The images of the Sydney street photographer captured moments in time, and their most prolific period was during the 1930s to the 1950s. The country woman would be captured on film as she and a friend wandered along a city street. They would be given a token, and they could purchase a memento of their city visit in a postcard image that they could purchase at a processing booth in a city arcade. The Sydney street photographer captured living history and has not completely disappeared from Sydney street.

sydney street photographers mofsyd 2019 iwillis
Sydney street photographers were a standard part of the city streetscape between the 1930s and the 1960s. They captured Sydney street life in a way that was unique and, along with it provided the viewer with an insight into Sydney’s cultural life. These images are from the photographic exhibition on at the Museum of Sydney. (I Willis, 2019)

Laura Jane, whose lifestyle encompasses the mid-20th century, expresses the living history movement in motion.  The living history movement is a popular platform for experiencing the past. It incorporates those who want to live the past in the present, aka Laura Jane, or relive it occasionally as re-enactors who relive the past for a moment. There are many examples of the latter at historic sites in Australia, the USA, and the UK.

The Camden photo shoot was an example of how a moment in time can truly be part of living history, where the photographer captures a glimpse of the past in the present. An example of how the present never really escapes the past.

Many of these stories are in my Pictorial History of Camden and District.

Cover Pictorial History Camden District Ian Willis 2015
Front Cover of Ian Willis’s Pictorial History of Camden and District (Kingsclear, 2015)

Updated on 9 May 2023. Originally posted on 13 January 2019.

Adaptive Re-use · Aesthetics · Architecture · Attachment to place · Burra Charter · Business · Business History · Camden · Camden Town Centre · Collective Memory · Colonial Camden · Community identity · Country town · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Economy · Edwardian · Entertainment · Family history · First World War · Heritage · Historical consciousness · Historical Research · History · Interwar · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · localism · Memory · Modernism · Place making · Placemaking · Retail history · Retailing · Ruralism · Sense of place · Shopping · Small communities · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Streetscapes · Tourism · Urban development · Urban growth · Victorian

Whiteman commercial buildings in Camden, an example of adaptive re-use

camdenhistorynotes1 Comment

The wonderful Victorian colonial building that was once the Whiteman’s General Store has had a new lease of life through the Burra Charter principle of adaptive reuse. There has been a continuous retail shopping presence on the same site for over 135 years.

While the building has also had new work and restoration, it is an excellent example of how a building can be adaptively re-used for commercial activities without destroying the integrity of the building’s historic character and charm.

Camden Whitemans Store 1923 CIPP
The Whiteman General Store in 1923 were a universal provider of all sorts of goods to the town and country folk across the Camden district from Menangle to Burragorang Valley. The store would deliver to your door in town just like parcels purchased online today. (Camden Images)

Adaptive reuse maintains the historic character of the streetscape and the sense of place that is so important to community identity, resilience and sustainability.

Adaptive reuse is not new and has been going on for a long time.  In Europe, hundreds of years old buildings continually go through the process of re-use century after century.

The Tower of London – a building with a fantastic history of adaptive re-use

The Tower of London has been re-used over the centuries since the White Tower was constructed by William the Conqueror in 1066 as a fortress and gateway to the city.

Over the centuries, the Tower of London complex has been a royal residence, military storehouse, prison, place of royal execution, parliament, treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, storage of crown jewels, royal armoury, regimental headquarters, and most recently a centre of tourism.

London Tower of London 2006 PPikous-Flckr
The Tower of London has gone through many usage changes across the centuries. (P Pikous, 2006)

Adaptive re-use in Australia

In Australia, the adaptive reuse of historic buildings comes under the Burra Charter, which defines the principles and procedures for conserving Australian heritage places.

The Burra Charter accepts the principles of the ICOMOS Venice Charter (1964) and was adopted in 1979 at a meeting of ICOMOS in 1979 at the historic town of Burra, South Australia.

The Burra Charter has been adopted by heritage authorities across Australia – Heritage Council of NSW (2004).

Adaptive re-use is covered by Article 21 of the Burra Charter and states:

Article 21. Adaptation 21.1 Adaptation is acceptable only where the adaptation has minimal impact on the cultural significance of the place. 21.2 Adaptation should involve minimal change to significant fabric, achieved only after considering alternatives.

The explanatory notes say:

Adaptation may involve additions to the place, the introduction of new services, or a  new use, or changes to safeguard the place.  Adaptation of a place for a new use is often referred to as ‘adaptive re-use’ and should be  consistent with Article 7.2.

Other countries and adaptive re-use

In other countries, there is legal enforcement of reuse of historical buildings and precincts.

In Irish planning, a conservation ensemble is known as an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA). ACA status provides statutory protection to existing building stock and urban features, and applies strict design and materials standards to new developments. Protections prohibit works with negative impacts on the character of buildings, monuments, urban design features, open spaces and views.

The architectural principles of adaptive reuse can be contested and contentious within communities.

The objectives of ensemble-scale heritage conservation can be highly political – sense of place, ownership of space and local politics come together in this process.

Reasons for adaptive re-use for historic buildings

Architects advance several reasons why historic buildings should be adaptively re-used. They include

  • Seasoned building materials are not even available in today’s world. Close-grained, first-growth lumber is naturally more robust and rich-looking than today’s timbers. Does vinyl siding have the sustainability of old brick?
  • The process of adaptive reuse is inherently green. The construction materials are already produced and transported onto the site.
  • Architecture is history. Architecture is memory.

[Craven, Jackie. “Adaptive Reuse – How to Give Old Buildings New Life.” ThoughtCo, May. 22, 2018, thoughtco.com/adaptive-reuse-repurposing-old-buildings-178242]

Whiteman commercial building

The Whiteman family conducted a general store in Argyle Street on the same site for over 100 years.

Camden Whitemans General Store 86-100 Argyle St. 1900s. CIPP[1]
Camden Whiteman’s General Store, 86-100 Argyle Street, Camden c1900s. The customer would go to the wide-wooden shop counter with their list of requisites and receive personal service from a male shop assistant who would fill their order. (Camden Images)

In 1878 CT (Charles Thomas) Whiteman, who operated a family business in Sydney, brought produce to Camden. He purchased a single-storey home at the corner of Argyle and Oxley Street and ran his store from the site. (SHI) In 1878 a fire destroyed the business.

CT Whiteman was a storekeeper in Goulburn and Newtown and later married local Camden girl Anne Bensley in 1872. Whiteman was a staunch Methodist and was an important public figure in Camden and served as the town’s first mayor from 1892 to 1894.

CT Whiteman moved to premises in Argyle Street in 1889, occupied by ironmonger J Burret.  Whiteman modified the building for a shopfront conversion.   (SHI)   The store was later leased to the Woodhill family from 1903 to 1906.

Camden Whiteman Bldg Tenant Woodhills General Store c1906
The Whiteman’s commercial building was leased by the Woodhill family as a general store for many years after Federation. A coach service like the one in the image plied a daily service between Camden and Yerranderie, leaving at the corner of Argyle and John Street run by the Butler family. (Camden Images)

From 1889 to 1940, the building was known as the Cumberland Stores. The store supplied groceries, drapery, men’s wear, boots and shoes, farm machinery, hardware, produce and stationery. (Gibson, 1940)

The original Argyle Street building was an early timber verandahed Victorian period store.

The building was a two-storey rendered masonry building with a hipped tile roof, projecting brick chimneys. The second storey had painted timber framed windows shaded by a steeply pitched tile roof awning supported on painted timber brackets. (SHI)

A two-storey addition was constructed in 1936, and the verandah posts were removed in 1939 when this policy was implemented by Camden Municipal Council.

Later shopfront modifications to the adjacent mid-20th century façade street-frontage included wide aluminium framed glazing and an awning to the ground level of the building. (SHI)

The Whiteman’s General Store sold various goods and became one of the longest-running retail businesses in Camden.

Camden Whitemans Store 1978[1] CIPP
By 1978 Whiteman’s General Store had undergone several extensions and provided a range of goods from men’s and boys’ wear to haberdashery. Produce, hay and grain for local farmers could be obtained at the rear of the store from the Hill Street entrance. The mid-20th-century building extension is to the left of the image. Upstairs were several flats that were leased out to local folk. (Camden Images)

The Whiteman’s Store was trading as Argyle Living when it closed in 2006 under the control of Fred Whiteman. On the store’s closure, the Whiteman family had operated on the same site in Camden for 123 years.

On the closure of Argyle Living, the store sold homewares, clothing, furniture and a range of knickknacks and was the largest retail outlet in Camden with 1200 square metres of space.

Current usage of the Whiteman’s commercial building

After 2007 the building was converted, through adaptive reuse, to an arcade with several retail outlets and professional rooms on the ground floor, with a restaurant and other businesses upstairs.

Camden Whitemans Going Upstairs (at Freds) 2018 IWillis
Image Going Upstairs (at Freds) to the restored rooms, once small flats and accommodation above the men’s wear downstairs. The first restaurant was developed by David Constantine, called Impassion, in 2005. David said, ‘I like to think we are just caretakers for a while. I’ll treat it well and ensure it’s here for someone else’s lifetime’. (I Willis, 2018/Camden History, September 2007)

Camden Whiteman Bldg Upstairs (at Freds) 2018 IWillis
The old flats Upstairs [at Freds] in the Whiteman’s building have been converted into a restaurant and performance space. This conversion was initially completed in 2005 by restauranter David Constantine of Impassion. Here Lisa DeAngeles is entertaining a small and enthusiastic crowd in the room in the restaurant Upstairs at Freds. The front verandah is out through the doors to the left of the room. (I Willis, 2018)

The building has largely retained its integrity and historic character and delight in the town’s business centre.

The Whiteman commercial building adds to the mid-20th century streetscape that still broadly characterises the Camden town centre and attracts hordes of day-trippers.

Camden Whiteman's Building Upstairs (at Freds) 2018 IWillis
A quiet function room with a historic flavour in the restored area Upstairs at Freds. The scenes on the left show the Australia Light Horse Infantry on a forced from the Menangle ALH Camp in 1916, marching down Argyle Street Camden past Whiteman’s General Store. The image on the right in the Whiteman’s General Store in 1923. (I Willis, 2018)

Camden Whitemans Building 2018 IWillis
The Camden Whiteman’s building is shown here from the street frontage in Argyle Street. The building has undergone adaptive reuse following the Burra Charter (ICOMOS) and continues to be a busy retail outlet as it has done since the Victorian days. This means that there has been a retail outlet continuously occupying this site for over 135 years. The current building usage continues to contribute to the Camden town centre’s delight and charm, attracting thousands of tourists every year. (I Willis, 2018)

Learn more

State Heritage Inventory

Julie Wrigley, ‘Whiteman family’. The District Reporter, 8 December 2017.

Updated on 15 May 2023. Originally posted on 1 October 2018 as ‘Adaptive re-use and the Whiteman commercial buildings in Camden NSW’

20th century · Advertising · Architecture · Attachment to place · Built heritag · Business · Business History · Camden · Camden Story · Camden Town Centre · Community identity · Country town · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Fashion · Food · Heritage · Historical consciousness · Historical thinking · History · Lifestyle · Local History · Local Studies · localism · Memory · Modernism · Place making · Placemaking · Retailing · Sense of place · Shopping · Storytelling · Supermarkets · Urban growth · Urban Planning · Urbanism · Women's history

Supermarkets come to Camden, consumerism and modernism

camdenhistorynotes1 Comment

Supermarkets are one of the ultimate expressions of modernism. The township of Camden was not isolated from these global forces of consumerism that originated in the USA. The Camden community was bombarded daily with American cultural influences through movies, motor cars, drive-ins, motels, TV, and radio. Now consumerism was expressed by the appearance of self-service retailing and the development of the supermarket.

Camden Argyle St Camden 2012
This image of Argyle Street is from the northern end of the street (I Willis, 2012)

Retailing in Camden took its lead from England. At the village level, the market stall turned into a high-street shop. All goods were kept behind the counter, customers were served by male shop assistants, and goods were delivered to the customer’s home.

Shopping in Camden was a rather dull affair by all accounts. The methods of retailing in Camden had changed little from the 19th century.

Camden women fronted up to the counter and handed their list of needs to the male shop assistant who filled the order for her. There were several choices from those owned by the Whitemans, the Cliftons, the Furners and others.

The winds of change were about to descend on the  Camden shopping experience. The old-fashioned general stores were about to find out what real competition with a global presence meant in a small country town.

Menangle Army Camp men on manoeuvres marching through Camden 1916 CIPP
This image from 1916 shows retail outlets along the eastern side of Argyle Street from the corner of John Street. The centre shops are located in the Whiteman building.  Soldiers in training from the Menangle Army Camp on a forced march passing along Argyle Street Camden 1916 (CIPP)

According to Ann Satterthwaite’s Going Shopping, self-service was the industrialisation of retailing and the chain store. These stores featured cash and carry, no delivery and shelving displaying pre-packaged goods. In the USA there were an array of stores from Niffy Jiffy, Help Selfy, Handy Andy to Clarence Saunders  Piggly Wiggly stores in Memphis in 1916, a type of cafeteria retailing. Piggly Wiggly was allegedly the first self-serve outlet for groceries. Self-service retailing emerged after the American civil war in response to labour shortages. For others like Edison’s Samaritan Market, it was an attempt to make shopping more efficient.

The first time that groceries were sold in Australia using self-service in occurred in Brisbane in 1923. The Brisbane Courier reported that the first exclusive cash-and-carry grocery store started in Brisbane under the name Brisbane Cash and Carry Store. The proprietor Mr CA Fraser had opened three stores by 1927. The press report maintained that

The system was practically a novelty in Brisbane, but some idea of what success can be obtained through an honest endeavour to give self-service to the public in a courteous and efficient manner can be gauged by  [its success].

The news report suggests that lower costs were obtained by the customer paying in cash, thus eliminating store credit. The customer serving ‘herself, and eliminating the necessity of salesman effects further savings’. It was claimed that the three stores served over a half a million people each year and the stores were ‘a model of neatness, cleanliness and efficiency’.

Camden Argyle St cnr John St BoardmanButchery 1973 LKernohan
This image of Argyle Street shows 110 Argyle Street with Boardman’s Butchery at the corner of Argyle and John Street in 1973. The buildings are little changed from the 1930s. (LKernohan/CIPP)

The first cash and carry store to open in Camden occurred in 1933 and was owned by Mr Joe B Roberts at 110 Argyle Street. The Camden News stated that Roberts had obtained the premises previously occupied by Mr Green next door to Mr Fred Boardman’s butchery. The report stated that ‘the shop has been specially fitted for Mr Roberts, who [would] personally conduct the store’. By 1936 Mr Roberts’s store was adjacent to Mr Green’s Drapery store. His Christmas special was a free beach towel with five purchases from the advertisement in the Camden News.

Retail ColgateToothpaste AWW 12 May1951
A promotional advertisement aimed at women for the sale of Colgate Tooth Powder in the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1951 (AWW 12 May 1951)

A recent article on JStor on sex and the supermarket by researchers Tracey Deutsch and Adam Mack claims that supermarkets were places where gender and sexuality collided for American women. Supermarkets were one of the mid-20th century’s most important suburban sites for the important weekly ritual of shopping for the modern family. The supermarket was both aspirational and practical. In a weekly ritual, the modern housewife could get lost is a sea of idealised dreams created by marketing gurus around an overwhelming splash of colour, perfectly merchandised products and an endless supply of brands that promised to make life easier for the modern housewife.

Retail KeroseneFridge Clintons CN 5 Jun1941
A promotional advertisement in the Camden News on 5 June 1941 for a kerosene refrigerator sold by Clintons Distributing Pty Ltd at Narellan (Camden News, 5 June 1941)

In the USA, a parallel development occurred in the kitchen. There was the development of refrigerators, the gas stove and products started to be promoted in cans. As the US economy developed fewer women went into domestic service, and wealthier middle-class women started shopping in these new supermarkets.

Retail CocaCola Promo 1951

The design of the supermarket was based on making them feminised spaces based on the latest psychological theories. Sex appeal made its way into shopping. Supermarkets were brighter, more colourful, cleaner, and sexier than the dingy general stores. The new aesthetic meant these spaces were made to titillate and fascinate women. Supermarkets were clean and efficient, with modern fluorescent lighting and carefully selected colours.

One of the earliest feminist authors, Betty Friedan wrote about how women were shackled through shopping to their domesticity in 1963 in her book The Feminine Mystique.

Supermarkets are sites where gender roles are reinforced and where women’s sexuality is ‘contained and re-directed’ to consumption.

In 1941 press reports from Los Angeles stated that the hype surrounding the opening of the latest supermarkets ranked with the opening of the latest blockbuster Hollywood movies. The Southern Californian housewife went on the hunt for the latest bargains. The supermarkets operated with huge carparks and large neon signs, with some staying open 24 hours, 7 days a week. They traded under names like Bi-Best Market, Sel-Rite Market, The Stop-and-Save, Thriftmart, and Wundermart.

Retail Woolworths 1950 BeverlyHills 1stSelfService
The mad enthusiasm of women at the opening of Woolworths first self-service supermarket at Beverley Hills, NSW, in 1950 (Woolworths)

In the post-war years, self-service retailing gained momentum in the Sydney area. Kings Cross grocer Mr Jack Greathead was the owner of a small self-serve store, and in 1950 cut the price of his butter and triggered a price war. Chain stores joined the price war. Mr FC Burnard, the grocery buyer for David Jones, predicted after a visit to the USA that self-service and other retailing innovations would soon be implemented in Australia. He was particularly impressed with the use of trolley carts and pre-packaged hosiery and frozen goods.

Camden Woolworths 132 Argyle Street 1970 CIPP
This image shows the new Woolworths stand-alone self-serve supermarket at 166-172 Argyle Street. This was Camden’s first self-service supermarket which was built in 1963 (CIPP)

In Camden, Woolworths came to town in 1963. Woolworths opened the first stand-alone self-service store with a clean modern design that made shopping more efficient. With modern lighting, wide isles, bright colours and lots of appealing merchandise, with nationally advertised, well-known brands. Some brands were American, re-enforcing the international and cosmopolitan nature of the new shopping experience.

Retail CocaCola Promo mid20th century

The new Woolworths store at 166-172 Argyle Street Camden was light and airy compared to the local general stores up the road, which appeared old-fashioned and stodgy. The new supermarket encouraged local women to experience the thrill and titillation of shopping. Slick brand marketing created dreams in the minds of the shoppers. Shoppers were encouraged to immerse themselves in the dream. Shopping became sexy. Shopping stimulated the sense with bright colours, in-store music and excitement of the new experience. Shopping became exciting. Shopping was sensual as much as it was practical.

The Woolworths supermarket consolidated several lots in Argyle Street occupied by W Ward, the butcher, Monica Ray and Beaton and Wylie.

Camden Coles 2017 ICW Murray St
This image is of the Camden Coles self-service supermarket in Murray Street, Camden. The supermarket was built in 1979. (I Willis, 2018)

Coles opened a stand-alone grocery store in Camden in 1979, and Woolworths moved into its current store on Oxley Street in 1986.

Updated 13 May 2023. Originally posted on 8 January 2018.