Tag: Local Studies

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Community Partnerships: Are they all that they are cracked up to be?

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2009 Museums Australia National Conference, Work in Progress. Newcastle, 17 – 20 May 2009.

Day 3 Wednesday 20 May 2009, Session 14.3 Community Partnerships – Help or Hindrance? Concert Hall, Newcastle Town Hall, 11.00am-12.15pm.

Conference Paper

In 2007, Peter Scrivener[1] wrote a report for Hawkesbury City Council on community partnerships, and in it, he presented a summary of a partnership between the Camden Historical Society and Camden Council.  In brief, it stated:

These two parties are proud of the amicable relationship they have nurtured over many years, during which time the museum has gained considerable support as an acknowledged ‘model’ local museum demonstrating exemplary practice. Currently [that is in 2007], the council-owned building is being renovated to share foyer space with the adjacent council library… They have never had a formal arrangement but recently have signed a one-page Memorandum of Understanding… [the memorandum] simply outlines the spirit and intended community outcomes that can flow from greater linkages and integration between the two parties. (Scrivener, 2007)

This partnership is the subject of this paper. 

At a local level, community partnerships are one form of collaboration between voluntary organisations and councils that can bring measurable benefits to participating stakeholders. They encourage a sustainable solution to the achievement of goals at a time when there are increasing demands on a limited set of resources while at the same time maintaining that despite their advantages, community partnerships are not a silver bullet. They can be compared to a living organism which needs constant attention and nurturing and, if neglected, will wither and die.    

 My interest in community partnerships was initiated by research on the three local historical societies in our area and the role of their local museums in their communities (Willis, 2007b). In that work, which is the subject of a forthcoming paper (Willis, 2009),  I maintain that these organisations occupy a privileged place in their community through storytelling and contribute to the development of community identity and place-making. They have received the official endorsement of their local councils and in some cases, have entered partnerships with them.   

Scholarly work on community partnerships between local councils and historical societies is virtually invisible, although there has been some useful work done by Peter Scrivener (Scrivener, 2007), and others (Sandell, 2004). These limited efforts have shown that these type of community partnerships have mixed results.[2]  This field of endeavour deserves the attention of researchers and hopefully this paper will shine some light on a dark corner.

The setting for this case study is the Camden Local Government Area (LGA), which is on the rural-urban interface on south-western fringe of Sydney. The LGA is the fastest growing in New South Wales with a population of  52,000 in 2008 and an annual growth rate that has been in excess of 15 per cent per year.  The Camden LGA has a strong community sector with over 250 voluntary organisations (Willis, 2007a: 18).

The two stakeholders in this community partnership are the Camden Historical Society which was founded in 1957 and has 160 members. Its main aim has been the promotion of local history through public education and memorialisation, which includes managing a local museum.   The second member of the partnership is Camden Council and its Library Service. The library has two branches, Camden and Narellan, a borrowing collection of 70,000 items and 17 full-time equivalent staff.  It should be noted that the Camden Family History Society is also part of this arrangement but is not the subject of this paper. The author also needs to declare his interest in this subject as an insider through his membership of the Camden Historical Society. 

This paper will examine the Camden partnership using Jupp’s four simple processes that he felt were essential for a successful partnership. They are: ‘developing clear objectives; ensuring that each partner benefits individually as well as helping to achieve a common goal; building in evaluation; and finally, developing understanding and trust between partners’ (Jupp, 2000, p. 8).  The last factor will be treated first.

Understanding and Trust

The basis of the current partnership agreement between the council and the historical society is to be found in the  trust and understanding that has developed over the last 52 years between these two organisations.

Since the foundation of the historical society (1957) the council has come to support and endorse the story of Camden as it has been told by the society. From the beginning the society has presented a conservative view of local history based around the pioneer legend and the town’s material progress.  This view of the world was strengthened in 1970 when the society opened a small pioneer museum with the assistance of the Camden Rotary Club. The council supported the venture by providing space for the museum for rent-free use. It did this without a formal agreement being put in place. This was followed in short order by society members erecting three public monuments to Camden pioneers located outside the council chambers in 1977, 1978 and 1979.  The council then supported the expansion of the museum in 1980, and again in 1999, again without any formal agreement with the historical society. 

By promoting an officially sanctioned view of Camden’s social history the historical society has achieved a privileged position in the community and become the custodian of the Camden story.  In recent years the representation of the Camden story in the museum has broadened, as Australian history has in the remainder of the country, to include  Aborigines, women, rural labourers and other aspects of country town life.  The museum has also become a site where, according to  Robyn Till (Till, 2004), the local community has derived a sense of belonging from storytelling and where a continuity of generations in the one locality, according to Sonya Salamon (Salamon, 2007:3), have contributed to the essence of a strong community identity and sense of place.

Clear Objectives

The next stage in the development of the partnership agreement occurred in  2002 when Camden Council issued a draft strategic plan for the future of Camden library service, called Vibrant Places, People Spaces. [3]  The aim of the plan was twofold: firstly, the creation of a new community space around the existing library and museum building; and secondly, the formalisation of the existing  arrangements between the council and the society to facilitate the building project.

The plan envisaged a new integrated complex as a multi-purpose centre which could function as  ‘a unified educational, recreational, cultural and tourist complex’.[4] The library was to be a public space that could strengthen community cohesiveness by becoming a ‘community hub’ and ‘communal meeting place’.  According to Sonya Salamon,  this type of space could act as an arena where the residents could develop a sense of community that bonded them to the place (Salamon, 2007: 13).  The library would, according to the council, provide an opportunity for local residents to ‘embrace Camden’s culture and sense of community’ and contribute to place-making (Camden Council, 2002: 3). 

The new complex was based on the re-adaptive use  of two historic buildings:  the Camden School of Arts building (1866), which was later the Camden Town Hall then council offices; and secondly the Camden Temperance Hall (1867), which functioned as the Camden Fire Station between 1916-1993.  By  the end of  2007 the $2.3 million re-development had resulted in a single building with a common street entry after the former laneway between the buildings had been covered with a glass roof to create a galleria. The view of the council’s general manager of the completed complex was that it provided ‘the community with a stronger sense of belonging and place’ and  ‘a place based and people focused facility’.[5]    

In the end the co-location has had a number of advantages for both stakeholders. For the library, according to Kathryn Baget the library services manager, it has meant that it has had one stop convenience, better building maintenance and security, and a sharing of infrastructure with the historical society; a type of convergence, a notion that has received attention in recent times including this conference (Stapleton, 2009).[6]  As far as the historical society was concerned it gained a street entrance on John Street, enhanced security, a new lift to the first floor and improved fire safety.

The second part of the strategic planning process was the development of a formal agreement, which was achieved through a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This would be the first time that there had been a formalised relationship between the historical society and the council, and according to the Australian Government is the recommended way to go for community partnerships (DEST, 2004). The purpose of the MoU,  according to the council, was to facilitate the building project and to ‘promote a stronger working partnership between the Library Service and the Historical Society’ (Camden Council, 2006:124).

The MoU was worked up through a number of stages from 2004 and was eventually passed by council in November 2006 (Camden Council, 2006:112).  The document is a single page, free of legalese and clearly sets out the objectives of the partnership.  The agreement is flexible and open-ended. The council maintains that the MoU is ‘underpinned by a spirit of co-operation’ (Camden Council, 2006: 124) and has reflected the relationship of trust and understanding that has developed over the years between the historical society and the council. The MoU specifically excludes property matters, such as insurance and maintenance, which are addressed through other agreements. 

Within the partnership arrangement the formal lines of communication between the library and the historical society are kept open through quarterly partnership meetings chaired by the library’s local studies librarian, who also circulates the agenda and minutes.  The partnership is reviewed each November with the aim of identifying ‘joint programs, projects and funding opportunities for the coming year’ (Camden Council, 2006: 112). The formal meeting setting provides the appropriate planning and ongoing communication that Kathryn Baget claims are needed in all partnerships.[7]

The formal linkages within the partnership are supported by leadership from ‘community champions’ like John Wrigley and Peter Hayward from the historical society, and Kathryn Baget from the library, who have been central to the success of the partnership. They have been involved in the partnership process from the release of the strategic plan in 2002. Their enthusiasm and perseverance has facilitated the progress of the partnership. They have acted as community organisers in a host of areas including meeting facilitation, negotiation and networking, and communicating the vision of the partnership to the wider community, as other people have done elsewhere in Australia (Johns, Kilpatrick and Whelan, 2007: 53-54).  John Wrigley maintains that the success of the partnership can only ‘work with the positive and willing participation of both partners’.  He has stated that he has been ‘willing to do anything to ensure the successful continuing operation and improvement of the partnership’.[8]  Such enthusiasm has been the basis of the current partnership, and has been fundamental to the development of trust and understanding between council and the historical society for over 50 years.

Just as important to the partnership has been the informal linkages between the organisations. For example, some Camden library staff are members of the society and volunteer their time at the museum on weekends. There is also casual interaction between society officers and library staff, both within and outside of the library setting. These informal linkages reflect the strong interpersonal and familial networks which still exist in Camden from earlier decades and help strengthen the formation of social capital.  

Common Goals and Benefits

The common goals of all stakeholders in the partnership were outlined by the Camden mayor in March 2007  at the opening of the completed building complex. He stated that the partnership was about ‘participation, association and joint interest’ and that it captured ‘the history, culture and relevance of the community’.[9] 

The implementation of these aspirations, as detailed in the MoU,  are best characterised by the various joint projects that are undertaken between the library service and the historical society.  According to Kathryn Baget, the joint projects have brought a ‘new perspective, new ideas and possibly additional resources’.[10]  They are part of the story telling process of the historical society and help build a sense of ownership amongst those who participate in this process. 

The most important of these projects is HistoryPix and  involves  the digitising of the historical society’s photographic collection.[11] Photographs are part of the story telling experience by providing the participants to the story with a window on the past. They are a visual aid and can act as a memory prompt when telling a story.  They also capture a moment in time, a glimpse of the past, and are a good resource for tracking changes in the local history landscape. 

The aim of HistoryPix has been to provide greater public access to the historical society’s image collection, which is one of the society’s most valuable assets. The project is facilitated by Peter Mylrea, the society’s archivist, who has processed over 2500 photographs so far.    The society provides the photographs and the photograph captions, the images are digitised by Searchtech (a private company which provides image library software, publishing and scanning services), the council provides the IT and online support, and the library staff handle the sale of photographs and set the charges. According to Doug Barrett, the secretary of the society, the partnership relieves the society of the need to provide a volunteer to deal with enquiries for and supply of copies of photographs to the community and other interested parties.[12] In essence, the council funds the project, and the society provides the photographs and voluntary labour. 

‘HistoryPix’ has proved to be a valuable public asset and is used by members of the public, local and Sydney media, local businesses and community organisations. Online access to the images is provided through both the websites of the historical society, the library and  PictureAustralia. In the last three months of 2008, there were 23,600 hits and 23,700 searches, while in the seven months from April 2008 and January 2009, there were 43,000 hits and 55,000 searches.

More recent joint projects which have been developed within the partnership include, firstly, the Dictionary of Sydney Project.  This is a local history project which involves writing short histories of different localities in the LGA for the Dictionary of Sydney project. These histories have also been placed on the historical society’s website. Secondly, there is the  Camden Area Families Project, which is an oral history project which encourages local people to tell their stories, provide their photographs and develop a family tree. It was launched in late 2007 by Camden’s deputy mayor. The society has supported the project through  its Research and Writing Group and recently hosted an oral history training workshop for the community  at the museum.  Other linkages include workshops and seminars (history week and heritage week) and  links between the library catalogue and the historical society library. 

Evaluation

The partnership is formally assessed at the end of each year as part of the MoU process as mentioned earlier. Even the preparation of this paper is part of the evaluation process, and  has provided an opportunity for some of the partnership stakeholders to reflect on the process associated with its development and success (they are mentioned in the notes at the end of the paper).

More generally, though,  the partnership has been an opportunity for the historical society to consolidate the position of the museum by formalising its occupation of  a council-owned building for the first time.  This will then provide a strong base for any further development that the society may want to pursue into the future.

The library has better met the guidelines for floor space in a modern library building in the LGA. It is better able to offer modern services in a heritage precinct. It has, according to Kathryn Baget, allowed the library to ‘attract a new audience, create unique programs and services for our community’.[13]

 There are also considerable benefits for Camden Council.   Firstly, it has relieved council of the considerable cost of providing a community museum managed by professional curatorial staff.  Secondly, the time and resources that volunteers bring to the museum represents a form of voluntary taxation that benefits the whole community.   Further, the presence of the society and its archives, according to Wrigley, ‘provide a ready source of historical information and advice to council as a virtual unpaid ‘heritage branch’ of council’. In addition, the museum acts as a ‘secure repository for anything important which council wishes to retain of an historical nature’.[14]

The partnership is not without its challenges. Firstly,  there is the non-alignment of opening hours between the museum and the library.  The library is shut Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, while the museum is closed between Monday and Wednesday. Secondly,  there is the inherent tension between two organisations, one using full-time paid staff, the other using unpaid volunteers. [15]   Thirdly,  there is the potential political tension if the council and the historical society differ over policy matters related to local history and heritage, and fourthly, the need to ensure a smooth generational change in the administration and implementation of the  MoU into the future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I will make some observations about the partnership.

The partnership has brought together the library service and the historical society, whose parallel aims of strengthening community identity and place-making have strengthened community development.  This has been achieved by creating a new community space in the Camden LGA where community identity and a sense of place are increasingly being challenged by higher levels of urbanisation.

The success of the partnership has rested on the willingness of all the participants to achieve a common goal and  for those involved to ensure that the partnership succeeds. Wrigley has observed that  ‘so far we have been very fortunate with the enthusiasm and commitment of the people involved from both partners’.[16] 

The community partnership has met all expectations made from it so far and given the continuation of the goodwill from all involved should continue to do so into the future.

Finally, the paper has shown that given the right conditions, community partnerships can be ‘what they are cracked up to be’.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the input of John Wrigley, Julie Wrigley, Kathryn Baget, Peter Mylrea, Jo Oliver, and Doug Barrett and their comments on this paper.

 References

 Camden Council, 2002, Draft Vibrant Places, People Spaces, A vision for Camden Council Library Service 2010. Camden: Camden Council. 

Camden Council, 2006, Minutes of the Ordinary Council Meeting held on 13 November 2006, Camden: Camden Council, pp. 6, 112-113. Online at http://www.camden.nsw.gov.au/files/2006_minutes/ord_131106.pdf  accessed 4 February 2009.

 Department of Education, Science and Training, 2004, A Community Partnerships Resource: Supporting Young People Through Their Life, Learning and Work Transitions, Canberra: Australian Government. Online at http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/career_development/publications_resources/ <http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/F5328E2A-3806-498D-ADE9-A740F404FCF4/2593/community_partnerships_resources.pdf&gt; . Accessed on 27 February 2009.

 Johns, Susan, Sue Kilpatrick and Jessica Whelan, 2007, ‘Our Health in Our Hands: Building Effective Community Partnerships for Rural Health Service Provision’, Rural Society, Vol. 17, No. 1, August, pp. 50-65.

 Jupp, Ben, Working Together, Creating a Better Environment for Cross-Sector Partnerships, London; Demos. Online at http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/workingtogether Accessed 2 March 2009.

 Salamon, Sonya, 2007, Newcomers to Old Towns, Suburbanization of the Heartland, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sandell, Claire, ‘Local History Collections for the Future: Meaningful Partnerships Between Public Libraries and Community Heritage Groups’, Conference paper, Museum Australia Conference, Melbourne, 16-21 May 2004. Online at http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/site/page313.php Accessed 4 March 2009.

Scrivener, Peter, 2007, Assessment Report on a Proposed Deed of Agreement between Hawkesbury City Council, Hawkesbury Historical Society and the Friends of Hawkesbury Art Collection and Regional Art Gallery, Windsor: Hawkesbury City Council.

Stapleton, Maisy, 2009,  M&G NSW Convergence Study, Sydney: Museum and Galleries NSW.

Till, Robyn, 2004,  ‘Propagate or perish: Partnerships, Community Value and Sustainability’, Conference paper, Museum Australia Conference, Melbourne, 16-21 May 2004. Online at http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/site/page313.php Accessed 4 March 2009.

 Willis, Ian, 2007a, ‘Democracy in Action in Local Government: Camden, NSW’, Australian Quarterly, Vol. 79, Issue 2, March-April, pp.17-21.

Willis, Ian, 2007b,’ Fifty years of local history, the Camden Historical Society, 1957-2007, Address at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Camden Historical Society, 12 July, Camden’. Camden History, September, Vol 2 No 1, pp. 96-117.

 Willis, Ian, 2009, ‘Stories and Things, The Role of the Local Historical Society, Campbelltown, Camden and The Oaks’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. (forthcoming)

Endnotes

[1] Peter Scrivener, 1999-2000 Parramatta Heritage Centre, 2002-2004 Museums and Galleries NSW, 2004 member of Australian National Committee of International Council of Museums (ICOM Australia),  2006-2008 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.

[2] Scrivener gives details of (a) successful partnerships: Wagga Wagga Historical Society; Camden Historical Society; Combined Tweed River Historical Societies; Gilgandra Historical Society; (b) unsuccessful partnerships: Liverpool Regional Museum; Centennial Bakery Museum (Hurstville); Cowra Historical Museum; Peppin Heritage Centre (Denniliquin).

[3] Correspondence, K Baget, Camden Council Library Service to Camden Historical Society, December 2002.

[4] Correspondence, P. Hayward, Camden Historical Society, Camden. 15 February 2005.

[5] General Manager Notes, Schedule, Camden Library Re-opening, 2 March 2007.

[6] Kathryn Baget, Library Partnerships, Discussion Paper, 19 February 2009

[7] Kathryn Baget, Library Partnerships, Discussion Paper, 19 February 2009.

[8] John Wrigley, Camden Library Service – Camden Historical Society Partnership, Discussion Paper, January 2009.

[9] Mayoral Notes, Schedule, Camden Library Re-opening, 2 March 2007.

[10] Kathryn Baget, Library Partnerships, Discussion Paper, 19 February 2009.

[11] ‘A proposal to put photographs of Camden history on to a computerized system’, Draft document, Camden Historical Society, 24 June 2003. The name HistoryPix was a joint suggestion of the library staff and the society.

[12] Interview, Doug Barrett, Camden Historical Society, Camden, 18 February 2009.

[13] Kathryn Baget, Library Partnerships, Discussion Paper, 19 February 2009.

[14] John Wrigley, Camden Library Service – Camden Historical Society Partnership, Discussion Paper, January 2009.

[15] Interview, Doug Barrett, Camden Historical Society, Camden, 18 February 2009.

[16] John Wrigley, Camden Library Service – Camden Historical Society Partnership, Discussion Paper, January 2009.

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The Camden Story: the historiography of the history of the country town of Camden NSW

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Journal Article Review

‘Making Camden History: local history and untold stories in a small community’. ISAA Review, Journal of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia. Special Edition, Historiography. Volume 19, Number 1, 2023, pp. 23-38.

The history of telling the story of a small community has been interpreted in different ways at different times in the past by different historians.

This area of study is called the historiography.

This is an aerial image of the country town of Camden in the 1940s with St John’s Church on the ridge overlooking the town and the Nepean River floodplain. The Macarthur family-funded church is the community’s soul and was constructed shortly after the private town was established by the Macarthur family at the river crossing into Camden Park Estate. (Camden Images)

I have recently published an article on the historiography of the small country town of Camden, NSW.

The Camden township is located 65 kilometres southwest of the Sydney CBD and, in recent years, has been absorbed by Sydney’s urban growth.

The main streets are a mix of Victorian, Edwardian and interwar architecture comprising commercial, government and domestic buildings.

The town site was originally the entry point into what became Governor King’s Cowpasture Reserve at the Nepean River crossing, part of the lands of the Dharawal people, which then called Benkennie.

Jill Wheeler argues that while local histories are embedded in a long storytelling tradition, new understandings inform our interpretation in a contemporary context.

The historiography of the history of a small country town demonstrates the shifting nature of storytelling and how different actors interpret the past.

This article seeks to examine some of what Wheeler calls ‘the other’ by looking beyond the conventional history of Camden as found in newspapers, journals, monuments, celebrations, commemorations and other places.

I have written an article about the making of the history of Camden NSW to illustrate and explore these issues.

Click here to learn more

This is the cover of my Pictorial History Camden & District, which tells the Camden story in words and pictures. The book is a brief account of the main events, characters and institutions that were part of the Camden township from its foundation to the present, as well as the Indigenous story in pre-European times and the foundation of the Cowpastures Reserve.
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History Magazine photoshoot for RAHS captures a window into the past in Camden

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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.

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Bella Vista Farm, an early part of the Macarthur rural empire

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The late Victorian house built Bella Vista by the Pearce family in the late 1800s UTP

Bella Vista Farm was part of the colonial farming empire of the Macarthur family of Elizabeth Farm which they called the Seven Hills Farm. The farm was on the overland route opened up between Rose Hill (Parramatta) and the Hawkesbury settlement around 1791 a road constructed between Toongabbie and Windsor by the NSW corps using convict labour. Intially the route was called the Hawkesbury Road and eventually the Old Windsor Road.

The farm is located on the lands between the clan areas of of the Toogagal Toongabbie and the Bidjigal of the Castle Hill area of the Darug people. Bella Vista is located on a hilltop and would have been a lookout site.

John Macarthur purchased the property in 1801 for £2000 with 1250 sheep from Major Joseph Foveaux. In 1799 John Foveaux and Charles Grimes, the Deputy Surveyor of Crown Lands,  were granted 980 acres in the Crestwood area, and within months Grimes sold his share of the grant to Foveaux a month later.

Combined with a further grant of 190 acres in 1799, and 600 acres in 1800 was called by Foveaux, Stock Farm. This made him the largest landholder in the colony of 2020 acres, together with his flock of 1027 sheep the largest stock-owner in the colony.

Major Joseph Foveaux the owner of Stock Farm which he sold to the Macarthur family (AP)

Foveaux sold his property,  which he called  ‘Stock Farm’, to the Macarthurs in 1801 after he was appointed Acting Lieutenant Governor on Norfold Island.

John Macarthur was absent from New South Wales from 1801 1805. Macarthur was always an argumentative character and had a disagreement with Colonel Paterson his commanding officer, fought a duel, and Paterson was wounded. Governor King had Macarthur arrested and sent for trial in England in 1801.

In John’s absence the family’s pastoral interests were managed by Elizabeth from her home at Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta. She called Stock Farm her Seven Hills Farm and was ably assisted by her farm manager, or overseer, initially with Richard Fitzgerald, followed by William Joyce, John Hindle and Thomas Herbert.

Elizabeth Macarthur SLNSW

Under Elizabeth’s management the Macarthur’s flock of sheep increased from 2000 to 1801, to 3000 in 1803 and 5920 by 1805. A substantial number of this sheep flock was held at the Seven Hills Farm.

Sheep in pen at Bella Vista Farm Park 2016 IWillis

Elizabeth subsequently purchased land a neighboring property from Richard Fitzgerald. This purchase was made up of two part, one a 1799 160 acre to Richard Richardson, and a 270 acre grant to William Goodhall. Fitzgerald  sold his holding to Elizabeth and worked for the Macarthurs as a steward, manager and record keeper.

John was again absent from New South Wales between 1809 to 1817  over his part in the only coup d’etat  in Australian history, the  arrest of Governor Bligh in a tin pot take over called the Rum Rebellion.

John asked Elizabeth to negotiate to exchange the Seven Hills estate for land in the Cowpastures in 1809. There was a devastating drought between 1813 and 1815 and the sheep flock was moved elsewhere.

By 1821 the farm was known as Seven Hills Farm and covered 2270 acres. The Macarthurs exchanged the farm for Crown land in the Cowpastures. It was on the Seven Hills Farm that Elizabeth bred some of the earliest Spanish merino sheep.

Aerial view of Bella Vista Farm Park with house and outbuildings dating from the late Victorian period of the Pearce family. BVFP

Subsequent owners of Bella Vista and support groups

1821 James Robertson

1838 Isabella Acres

1842 William Pearce

1865 Edward Pearce, inherited from father

1912 Edward WCS Pearce, inherited from father

1933 leased by Edwards wife after Edward’s death

1950 North Sydney Brick and Tile Company

1952 house leased

1974 Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board for water storage

1979 Interim Heritage order

1980 Formation of the Elizabeth Macarthur Seven Hills Farm Assocation

1997 Permanent Heritage order

1997 Department of Planning, NSW Government

1997 Baulkham Hills Shire Council

2006 Formation of The Friends of Bella Vista Farm

From Gate of Bella Vista Farm Park 2016 BVFP

Significance

The New South Wales State Heritage Inventory states that Bella Vista Farm is significant because of the:

Evidence of the documentary record, of the agricultural activities of the Macarthur family, managed by Elizabeth Macarthur from Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta (SHR item # 1), and locally by her stewards. These records indicate early experiments at grazing sheep by Grimes, Foveaux and the Macarthurs that failed due to insect plagues, low stock per acre ratios, droughts and the unsuitability of hoofed animals to Australian conditions. Indicating also the monopoly held by, and extensive grants given to certain officers, including John Macarthur.

The Farm is a rare example of an intact rural cultural landscape on the Cumberland Plain, continuously used for grazing since the 1790s. The Farm is one of the most intact and best examples on the Cumberland Plain of the summit model of homestead siting, where the house and plantings are sited high on a prominent hill in contrast with open fields around. The farm is an increasingly rare example, on the Cumberland Plain, of a rural property, where the evidence of the staged development of the homestead survives from slab cottage to villa.[1]

Bella Vista Farm market day open to the general public and used to raise funds for the management of the site with the Bunya Pines at the rear planted in the 1840s 2016 IWillis

Notes

[1] Office of Heritage and Environment, ‘Bella Vista’, NSW Government, Sydney. Online @ http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045705 Accessed 16 April 2017

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Goulburn’s Belmore Park, a space of memories and monuments

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A formal urban park

In central Goulburn, on the New South Wales Southern Tablelands, is a lovely urban space known as Belmore Park. Since the mid-19th century, the park has a formal, symmetrical layout. This was typical of many 19th-century Victorian urban parks, with paths crossing it on the diagonal for promenading and adding to the balance of the space. The park is abutted by lovingly conserved 19th-century architecture and the Victorian-designed railway station, which all add to the ambience of the precinct in the town’s heritage centre.

Pleasant view across the picturesque Belmore Park Goulburn on a Sunday morning in March 2017 (IWillis)

The origin of urban parks has been traced to a number of sources. At its simplest, it was an open space that became the village green, or there were grassed fields and stadia in Greek cities, or they were an open area with a grove of sacred trees. By the medieval period, they were open grassed areas within or adjacent to a village where the lord allowed the common villagers to graze their animals. Some were royal hunting parks that date from ancient days where the king walled off a section of forest to keep out poachers. From the 18th century, French and British noblemen were aided by landscape designers like Capability Brown to design private parks and pleasure grounds. The Italians had their piazza, which was usually paved. In the United Kingdom, the establishment of Birkenhead Park in 1843, Central Park in New York in the mid-1850s, Philadelphia’s urban park system in the 1860s, Sydney’s Governors’ Domain and Hyde Park all had an influence.

Market Square

Belmore Park was Goulburn’s Market Square from the 1830s and was renamed Belmore Square in 1869 in honour of the visit of Lord and Lady Belmore on the opening of the railway at Goulburn, and a picket fence was built around the square. In the early twentieth century, it was the site of a small zoo, perhaps reflecting the zoo in the Sydney Botanic Gardens or the Botanic Gardens in Hobart, which was part of the notion of creating a ‘pleasure ground’. Belmore Square was re-dedicated as the Belmore Botanic Gardens in 1899. During the 20th century, the park became a landscape of monuments and memorials, similar to Hyde Park in Sydney and other urban parks around Australia.

View of a rare Boer War Memorial to Goulburn veterans from the South African War. The monument was erected in 1904 and unveiled by the mayor WR Costley. It is one of a handful of war memorials to the Boer War in Australia. 2017 (IWillis)

A landscape of monuments and memorials

Boer War Memorial in Belmore Park Goulburn. The memorial consists of three sections: a wide base of three Bundanoon sandstone steps; a square die with the dedication and inscriptions on marble plaques flanked by corner pilasters with ionic capitals; and a statue of a mounted trooper with rifle and bandolier built of Carrara marble and carved in Italy. 2017 (IWillis)

The band rotunda was built in 1897 to commemorate the reign of Queen Victoria. Band rotundas were common park furniture in many urban parks throughout Australia. Banding was a popular pastime in the late 19th century, and all self-respecting communities had a town band. Goulburn had a host of bands from the 1860s, and the Goulburn Model Brass Band performed in Belmore Park in 1891. The Goulburn City Band was formed in 1870 and was still performing in the First World War. This rotunda is High Victorian and designed by Goulburn architect EC Manfred. (Image 2017 IWillis)

This is the Knowlman Monument to commemorate Goulburn Mayor J Knowlman in 1910. He was mayor from 1899 to 1900. The column typifies uprightness, honour, eternity and rest. (Images 2017 IWillis)

This is a view of the Hollis Fountain erected in 1899 by Dr LT Hollis, who was the MLA for Goulburn from 1891 to 1898. It is a highly decorative Victorian-style concrete fountain that duplicates a similar fountain in St Leonards Park North Sydney that celebrates Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (60th year of reign). Designed by FW Grant of Sydney firm Grant and Cocks. (Image 2017 IWillis)

Updated 23 September 2023. Originally posted on 12 March 2017 as ‘A space of memories and monuments’.