Arthur Hill

Arthur Samuel Hill was born locally in 1893. A Leumeah signwriter, he enlisted in the 33rd Batallion in June 1917. On the 3rd of April 1918 at Villers-Bretonneaux in France, he was brushing his clothes when a shell landed close to him and wounded him in the thigh and shoulder. He was taken to the aid post 200 yards away but Arthur's life could not be saved and he died of his wounds two days later. His mate Private England described him as "a very nice chap about 22 or 23, dark." Private Hill was one of the many Campbelltown soldiers never to return from an overseas war. He was buried at St Sever Cemetery at Rouen in France.

Written by Andrew Allen

Charles Kerry Photographs

The library's online historic photographs collection "Our Past in Pictures" contains a number of photographs taken by Kerry and Jones of George Street, Sydney. These are all dated 1886 indicating that a visit to the Campbelltown area was made by someone from their photographic studio that year.

Charles Henry Kerry was born at Bombala, New South Wales in 1857. He began his career as a photographer in about 1875, working for the Sydney portrait photographer, A.H. Lamartiniere. By 1884, Kerry had taken over the business and had his studio at 308 George Street, Sydney. Lamartinere absconded with Kerry's small capital but Kerry stayed on, and in partnership with C. D. Jones, built the small studio into the colony's largest photographic organization.

Kerry was later appointed official photographer to the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Carrington. In addition to his portrait work, Kerry took on a number of government commissions, including travelling through New South Wales to photograph Aboriginal peoples, their camps and corroborees and taking detailed interior views of Jenolan Caves. Kerry and Jones later became Kerry and Co. He retired in 1913 to take up mining and died in 1928 at his home in Neutral Bay.

The Kerry and Jones photographs in our collection are all sepia photographs. Some are taken of the Gilead property on Appin Road, including the windmill. Others include distant shots of Campbelltown taken from Terrys Hill and recognisable landmarks of the area from the time such as St Peter's Church of England and the cattle tank.

One of the Kerry and Jones images taken in 1886 of Mount Gilead farm buildings with the windmill in the distance.

Do you have any old photographs of the Campbelltown area? Please contact the library if you are interested in sharing them with us as we are interested in donations or the chance to copy them for our collection.

Written by Andrew Allen

How they used to treat snake bites!

From the Australian Town and Country Journal dated 2nd November, 1872:

Campbelltown. Wednesday. "Today, a man named Edward Barrett, while lifting a sheet of bark, was bitten in the finger by a black snake. After lacerating the wound, he galloped into town, a distance of three miles, where Mr. J. Egan sucked the wound, and accidentally swallowed some of the poison. Barnett is much better, but Mr. Egan is in a very dangerous state."

Snakes have a long history of terrorising Campbelltown folk. This one was caught around 1920 at Denham Court by Fred Asher and John McDonald.

Written by Andrew Allen

Mrs Hickey's General Store

One of the earliest photographs the library has in its collection is this one taken in 1871 of Mrs Hickey's general store. The building was built of weatherboard with a shingled roof. The rear annex was of brick and rough stone set in a mortar matrix, probably of sand and lime with or without cement. In the shop window you can see various bottles, vases and jars. Other items that Mrs Hickey sold included cutlery, pottery, garden tools, farm products, linen, clothing, pots and pans, lamps and lanterns.

If you look closely at the photograph you can see the absence of guttering. Rain drops from the roof created shallow trenches along the frontage to the verandah and from all accounts meant mud was everywhere in wet weather. A foot scraper would've been essential!

Also note the cat sunning itself on the road. A reminder of the placid life of that time so long ago.

Mrs Hickey's quaint little shop was situated 50 metres south of the Queen Street and Bradbury Avenue intersection on the western side of Queen Street. This places it in the vicinity of where the car wash is located.

Source:

"Buildings of Yore in Campbelltown" by Eddie McBarron
In Grist Mills  Vol.3, No.3, July 1986

Written by Andrew Allen

Macarthur Square

Macarthur Square Shopping Centre was officially opened on Monday, September 10, 1979. A crowd of about 600 people attended the opening. The centre cost $30 million and was completed six months ahead of schedule. Workers were still delivering the finishing touches to the centre on opening day as live music played in the background as well as the Macarthur Square jingle!

Various businesses immediately advertised their products and services. P & S Michael advertised a 2 piece safari suit for $89.90 and the supermarket sold Stork margarine and a 1kg bag of sugar each for 10 cents. Macarthur Dry Cleaners offered an enticement of $1.20 per article of clothing to be dry cleaned.

High drama struck the square one day in early December 1983. A three year old boy plunged 10 metres from the balcony to the tiles below and fractured his skull. Ali Elassad and his brother were looking over the railing at Christmas decorations on the ground floor when the accident happened. Ali became known as the miracle boy of Sydney after he escaped death and permanent injury. After some weeks in hospital he returned home for Christmas.

I'm sure many people have wondered who the faces of the people are on the Bolger Street facade of the centre. The artworks were created by local artist Fiona McDonald in 2006 and are of people connected with the Campbelltown region. They include John and Elizabeth Macarthur, their son James, Nanny Barrett a representative of the local Aboriginal people, Charles Sturt, Hamilton Hume and local community identities teacher Kat McGuanne, town clerk Fred Sheather and publican John Hurley.

An $160 million expansion in 2005, which expanded the centre's floor area from 29,000m² to 90,000², saw Macarthur Square become one of the largest shopping complexes in Sydney.

This photograph is of Macarthur Square looking from Macarthur Station. It was taken in the 1980s. (Macarthur Development Board Collection. Campbelltown City Library. Local Studies Collection.)

Written by Andrew Allen