(1800 – 1877)

The son of a London physician who died in financial straits, George Allen was brought to Australia by his widowed mother and became the first solicitor to be trained in this country. An active Wesleyan, he established what became a successful legal firm. He married Jane Bowden in 1823 and she produced five boys and five girls who survived infancy, the most noteworthy, historically, being George Wigram Allen in 1824. By 1831 he had acquired 96 acres of Glebe land and commissioned John Verge to build Toxteth Park, the foundation stone for which was laid on 21 March 1829.

 
Toxteth Park, now St Scholastica's College

George Allen also led an active public life, serving as Mayor of Sydney (1844-45), President of the Bank of NSW (1860-66), MLC (1845-73) and Fellow of the Senate at the University of Sydney (1859-77). Today the legal firm of Allens Arthur Robinson still maintains a high profile in Sydney and their corporate contemporary art collection, exceeding 1,000 paintings, embraces the theme of 'art in the workplace'.

An extract from "Leichhardt: on the margins of the city" by Max Solling and Peter Reynolds, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1997:

The Cadigal clan occupied a territory that embraced Sydney Cove and stretched along the southern side of Port Jackson from South Head to about Petersham. The tract of land from Petersham westwards to Rosehill, embracing the present Leichhardt municipality, belonged to the Wangal clan; the boundary that separated them from the Cadigal seems to have been the Balmain peninsula.

Within eighteen months of the arrival of the First Fleet, smallpox, introduced by the Europeans, swept through the Sydney bands, killing over half the local indigenous population. Many were found dead in the rock shelters and bays of the harbour. The disease, named "gal-gal" by the Aborigines, spread so rapidly that many were dead before they had a chance to see the "gubbas" (white ghosts) who invaded the land. Captain Hunter, returning from the Cape of Good Hope in May 1789, was surprised to see no Aborigines or their canoes as his ship sailed up the harbour. In his journal Lieutenant Bradley wrote of the terror and panic that smallpox caused as it decimated the Aboriginal population.

Deprived of their lands, their traditional food supply seriously disrupted, and many of the Sydney bands destroyed by smallpox, small remnants of bands combined to form new groups. It brought a drastic change to Aboriginal social relations and occupation patterns, with remnants of the Sydney bands withdrawing from the settlement, suspicious of whites and executing "vengeance on unfortunate stragglers". In 1790 the 50-strong Cadigal clan had been reduced to three members and it seems likely that the adjoining Wangal clan, so close to Sydney Cove, was also decimated.

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Aboriginal Cooperative College

The Tranby Aboriginal Cooperative College is the only facility of its type in Australia. Located in Mansfield Street, Glebe, Tranby has been in operation since 1958 and continues to provide an alternative and independent learning environment for Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.

Tranby has an average of 150 students and aims to provide for up to 500 students, based on the demand for courses. Tranby also provides a family/ community atmosphere, with an informal hands-on approach to learning. It seeks to provide self-determination for Indigenous Australians.

By following Maxwell and Arcadia Streets, which contain some of the most attractive houses in the area, you will find the Sze Yup Chinese temple in Edward Street. Built in 1898 but destroyed by fire, it now dates from 1955.

Unfortunately, a further fire on 29th January 2008 resulted in major damage to Hall 3 (Hall of the God of Fortune), and Sydney Council approved plans in January 2009 for the restoration of this section of the temple.

The Sze Yup temple gate

Bernard Smith (1916 – ) and Kate Smith (1915 – 1989)

Bernard Smith came to Glebe in 1967, following his appointment as Power Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney. At that time financial institutions were not interested in offering mortgages on property in what was regarded as the rundown suburb of Glebe. How times have changed!

Kate Smith

He and Kate Challis were married in 1942, when both were teaching in NSW. It was a happy marriage, complementing each other’s qualities. While proving a very supportive wife to an increasingly public figure, Kate never lost her own identity. In Glebe Society matters, for instance, Bernard had the public authority, verbal assurance and writing skills to be a forceful and effective President, both at the inception of the Society and in a subsequent term of office. Kate was the grassroots worker, who knew people in Glebe, helped them, and developed a social organisation invaluable when an occasion called for people to rally for a protest or a photo for issues involving The National Trust, as an example.

Bernard Smith, image from National Library of Australia Kate and Bernard jointly collaborated in the research which resulted in a key work about Glebe, The Architectural Character of Glebe. Bernard has also published numerous important works on art history and an autobiography of his early life, The Boy Adeodatus. A work by Kate has recently been edited and published by Bernard, Tales of Sydney Cove — which is seen by Bernard as contributing “its mite to the reconciliation process”.Upon Kate’s death in 1989, Bernard sold a number of the modern paintings they had acquired over the years in order to establish an award at The University of Melbourne for Aboriginal Australians.

Bernard Smith died in Melbourne in 2011, and in November 2012 a “wake” was held in Glebe at the Toxteth Hotel to commemorate his pioneering activism in Glebe.  Max Solling, local historian, delivered the following talk at the wake.  To view the full text of the talk, click here.

(1821 -1896)

Ferdinand Reuss was active as an architect, builder and surveyor during the 1870s and 1880s. He trained as a civil engineer in the firm of Robert Stevenson, the great lighthouse engineer and grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson. He was working in the USA, when the discovery of gold led him to Victoria in 1851. He soon moved to Sydney, however, and established an architectural business at 134 Pitt Street, Sydney. By 1863 he was living in Hereford Street, Glebe and within about two years purchased two parcels of land on either side of Pyrmont Bridge Road near Woolley Street. On these he built ‘cottages’, most of which he rented to others. He built The Hermitage at 154 Bridge Road (in which he lived from 1866 until his death in 1896).

Reussdale – now and then!

Hamilton at 156 Bridge Road (now derelict) and Reussdale, shown here (now and then) at 160 Bridge Road are thought to date from the late 1860s. Reussdale is seen as the earliest example of High Victorian domestic design in Glebe and its very existence is threatened by neglect [as seen in above photo], despite the listing of these Reuss’ buildings by the National Trust. Local residents continue to be outraged by this blatant abuse of such a highly-valued heritage building.

On the other side of Bridge Road, Reuss is attributed to the building of No. 177 and his family later built Hamilton Lodge (named after Sir William Hamilton) in Woolley Street.

Lyndhurst and Toxteth Park Estates

By 1828 many Glebe allotments were auctioned and while many purchasers were speculators, there were also some successful professional men who sought a convivial location upon which to build family residences on ample grounds with a fine view of the harbour. Today only two of these large Regency houses remain, Toxteth Park and Lyndhurst, both designed by John Verge.

Toxteth Park was built for George Allen (1800-77). Originally designed by John Verge, Toxteth Park was a rectangular two-storey block with single-storey wings, a stone-flagged verandah on two sides, with the kitchen and servants’ quarters behind. During extensions in 1878-81 the ground floor was renovated, but the present-day long drawing-room and bay window retain many original features.

Lyndhurst is the only other surviving Regency villa in Glebe and was built for Dr James Bowman, the son-in-law of James Macarthur. Dr. Bowman was Principal Surgeon of Sydney Hospital and in1823 he married Macarthur’s second daughter, Mary.

Lyndhurst, now a private home,
but occupied by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW for several years..

Because of its proximity to the hospital, James Bowman became interested in Glebe and, by 1833, had purchased 36 acres for 1,500 pounds.

By this stage John Verge was building Camden Park for his brother-in-law, William Macarthur, and thus, Verge began to build Lyndhurst by year-end, with the villa having its finishing touches in 1837.

Lyndhurst featured a portico of coupled Tuscan columns with the back enclosed by single-storey domestic quarters (subsequently demolished in 1878 and 1885 upon subdivisions) and only the main two-storey block remains today. As both Lyndhurst and Camden Park were built contemporaneously, it is not surprising that they have common features, such as the size and proportion of the main reception rooms, the joinery and "plaster-groined" ceilings etc.

Following James Bowman’s retirement in 1838, Lyndhurst was used for a few years by the Macarthur family, and in 1847 became St. James College, to train young men for the clergy until 1849. Lyndhurst was then purchased by the Catholic Archbishop and St. Mary’s College for the classical education of upper-class secular and day students, as well as priests for the ministry. By 1870 Lyndhurst had declined and the grounds were subdivided in 1878 and 1885.

In 1972 when The Glebe Society was in its infancy, the NSW government proposed that Lyndhurst should be demolished for the north-western expressway through Glebe. After a long public campaign, the expressway was abandoned and historic Lyndhurst was saved, thanks largely due to the efforts of our Society’s founding members who were prepared to stand before bulldozers and put themselves at risk. Although Lyndhurst was in a deplorable condition at that time, it has been slowly conserved and the HIstoric Houses Trust took responsibility for it in 1982 and used in as their head office till about 2005 when it was sold.  It is currently a private home and is maintained to a high standard.

In her book The Glebe: Portraits and Places, Freda MacDonnell has written of Captain Arthur Phillip’s grant of 400 acres to the Rev. Richard Johnson, the only chaplain of the First Fleet, to the Church of England for its glebe (Latin glaeba, meaning a clod of earth) … "because the time-worn English custom of providing for the clergy had been brought to Sydney with our first settlers. This glebe was to be used for the support of the clergyman of the Established Church who had accompanied the First Fleet as chaplain." This land grant places the Rev. Richard Johnson as the first white man in Glebe.

The chaplain’s first church was built on the present site of ‘Richard Johnson Square’, now the intersection of Hunter and Bligh Streets, Sydney. It was constructed from the abundant timber Callicoma serratifolia, commonly known at that time as ‘black wattle’ and then smeared with daub to form Sydney’s first rough buildings.

It seems that Johnson "owed his appointment to the Eclectic Society, a group of zealous evangelicals that included William Wilberforce and the ex-slaver, John Newton". As both the governor and his chaplain had a sound knowledge of farming, it is possible that Phillip, always grudging in his dealings with the clergy, made the original land grant which was "never gratefully regarded by Johnson who wrote scornfully ‘four hundred acres’ for which I would not give four hundred pence".

When only allotted three convicts to clear the heavily forested land at Glebe, it seemed an affront to Rev. Johnson and he then applied for a grant in the same manner as the officers of the regiment. "By his prudence and economy he made a large fortune and when he returned to England his lands consisted of six hundred acres, with 150 sheep, a mare and three fillies and some horned cattle. His reputation both as a farmer and gardener was well known, and he no doubt made a contribution to the colony’s food position, and set a much needed example to a settlement sometimes much too close to starvation."

In 1974, a small terrace house in Westmoreland Street, Glebe became a refuge for women and children trying to escape domestic violence. Glebe women, amongst others, were instrumental in its establishment and maintenance.

Elsie was the first such refuge to be set up in Australia and soon was burgeoning with people needing help. By 1999, more than 300 similar refuges had been founded in this country.

For further reading about Elsie consult our Bibliography.

(1817 – 1883)

Edmund Blacket was born in the UK and arrived in sydney with his wife Sarah on the emigrant ship Eden in 1842.  In 1847 he was appointed Diocesan Architect and two years later was appointed Colonial Architect.  During his time as Colonial Architect and private practitioner, Blacket designed schools, hospitals, colleges, convents, lighthouses, asylums, bridges, commercial buildings and nearly 50 churches. 

In 1854 he resigned as Colonial Architect to take up work designing the new university buildings at Grose Farm.

Edmund Blacket

Sarah Blacket

Blacket's work in Glebe included:

• St John's Bishopthorpe, (1868-70) – In this work, Blacket was assisted by John Horbury Hunt; the church is in the High Victorian Gothic style and is constructed of Pyrmont sandstone.  The tower was completed in 1911 by Cyril Blacket.
• Glebe Island Abattoirs (closed c1916; since demolished)
• Bidura (C1860), 357 Glebe Point Road, designed by Blacket and occupied by his family until 1870.  Built in the Colonial Regency style, the influence of John Verge can be seen in the open ironwork pilasters (also refer Lyndhurst).
• Calmar (1863), 128 Glebe Point Road.

Architect Morton Herman commented that Blacket "was in the architectural sense, a copyist…but he was able to arrange the parts with such a sure touch and harmony of materials, scale, and proportion, that true architecture resulted.  His placing of buildings so that they seemed inevitable on their sites…showed a superlative sense of arrangement and fitness…"

Two of Edmund Blacket's sons, Cyril and Arthur, designed the Hunter Baillie Church (1888) in nearby Annandale which is notable for its landmark elegant spire.              

Sources:

Merman, Morton, The Architecture of Victorian Sydney, Angus & robertsonb, 2nd edition, 1964

Jahn, Graham, Sydney Architecture, Watermark Press, 1997

Australia's Noblest Son

Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, was born in Glebe in 1849. He attended Fort Street School and the University of Sydney and rose to prominence in NSW politics before strongly supporting the push for the Federation of Australia's states.

Edmund Barton was our Prime Minister from 1901 to 1903 and is noteworthy for being one of the few Australian Prime Ministers to leave office at a time of his own choosing. He served as a High Court Judge from 1903 until his death in 1920, at which time he was described as 'Australia's noblest son'.

The Sydney Morning Herald obituary read : "Barton saw Australia's destiny and worked for it; he had a gift of political foresight denied to many more astute politicians. His work will last as long as Australia remains a nation, and therein he has made for himself a monument more lasting than bronze and more precious than gold."

For many years, The Glebe Society noted that there was no street or park in Glebe which acknowledged and commemorated Barton's birthplace.

In March 2009, the Lord Mayor unveiled a bronze plaque that commemorates the birth in Glebe of Edmund Barton.  The plaque is installed on one of the pillars adjacent to the footbridge (which crosses Parramatta Road) in Arundel Street.  The placement of the plaque symbolizes Barton's connection to Glebe and to the University of Sydney where he studied Classics and was a Fellow of the Senate for many years. 

(1827 -1904)

"The greatest of all Colonial Architects"

James Barnet was born in Scotland and studied drawing, design and architecture in London before he sailed for Sydney with his wife Amy in 1854. He lived all his Australian years in Glebe (Derwent Street in 1865) and Forest Lodge (Braeside, now demolished).

In 1860, Barnet joined the Colonial Architect's Office. In 1865, he became Colonial Architect and served in this position for 25 years. Barnet's work in Sydney signalled its maturation from a Georgian town to a Victorian city. His work contributed to a sense of stability and civic pride and includes :

* The Australian Museum (1864)
* The GPO in Martin Place (1866-90)
* The Colonial Secretary's building (1878)
* The Lands Department building (1876-81, 1888-93)

Further afield, Barnet designed 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses (including the Glebe Courthouse (1889)) and many other public buildings across the state.

Glebe Courthouse with the police station in the background.

Barnet was 'a promoter of new technologies, used concrete and fire-resistant materials, introduced electricity into his buildings and was first to install a telephone in a government office.' Chris Johnson, the former Government Architect, states that Barnet was the Colonial Architect who most significantly affected the shaping of Sydney.

James Barnet has left Sydney a legacy of iconic and much-loved Victorian buildings. He died at Forest Lodge aged 78 on 16 December 1904 and was buried at Rookwood Cemetery.

Sources:
Johnson, Chris, Shaping Sydney, 1999
Herman, Morton, The Architecture of Victorian Sydney, 1964
Lawrence, Joan and Warne, Catherine, Balmain to Glebe, 1995
MacDonnell, Freda, The Glebe: Portraits and Places, 1975
Smith, Bernard and Kate, The architectural character of Glebe, 1989

(1824 – 1885)

During that time he sponsored the reclamation of Wentworth Park and, together with Edmund Blacket and Glebe Council members, was responsible for Glebe’s water supply and gas lighting as well as the construction of new streets. The Allens, both father and son, were keen cricketers and built a private ground in what is now bounded by Glebe Point and Toxteth Roads and Mansfield and Boyce Streets. It was here that Frederick Spofforth, a great bowler who lived in Derwent Street, frequently played.

Upon his father’s death in 1877 he made extensive additions to Toxteth Park, when a third storey, tower and ballroom were added. However Sir George did not live so long after his father and subsequently this stalwart Wesleyan’s house, in 1901, was sold to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, a Benedictine Order, which is today St. Scholastica’s College. He had amassed a fortune of 300,000 pounds by the time of his death.

Lady Allen’s charitable interests helped to establish the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, which until quite recently focused on the health of Sydney’s children — the hospital is now closed and the large site is developing into a new housing area to be known as the City Quarter.

ITS HISTORY AND USES

Text of a talk by Glebe’s historian Max Solling, OAM
at the Wentworth Park Community Games Day, Sunday 18 May 2008

Reclamation

Near the end of 1879, as reclamation of Blackwattle Swamp neared completion, Glebe Council urged Henry Parkes to set apart a portion of the former swamp for “a cricket and quoit ground”. In December 1880 the trustees of the crown land invited competitive designs for the layout of 32 acres of the former swamp to become a park or place for public recreation to be named after patriot W.C.Wentworth. Even prior to 1880 estate agents extolled the virtue of residential land adjoining a park “second only to the Botanical Gardens as a recreation ground”. The ground was dedicated as a place for public recreation in November 1885.

Layout

The overseer of Domains, James Jones, laid out Wentworth Park in the Gardenesque style with peripheral plantings of evergreen and deciduous trees, a curving path system, with the central focus being an enclosed cricket ground, an ornamental lake with islands, and an unenclosed football ground. The bowling green and pavilion of the Glebe Bowling Club, was located on the north-eastern comer of the park. Later an elegant rotunda, where the Pyrmont and Glebe brass bands played on summer evenings, was constructed on the park’s western margin.

Cricket and Rugby

Wentworth Park was formally opened as a recreation area in September 1882 : “This park, looking at the surroundings, bids fair to become one of the finest in the colony”, the Town & County Journal reported “The oval set apart for cricket is very large and contains 6.25 acres, having a white painted rail all round”. Cricket, the most respectable sport, occupied pride of place on the park, with rugby teams forced to play on the unfenced expanses of the park. The cricket oval was managed by the Wentworth Park Cricket Association whose executive was dominated by pillars of the community. A growing sense of identification with place could be discerned in inner Sydney, and any club taking the name of the suburb, attracted strong support. So at Wentworth Park, local elders too old to play cricket or rugby, but with emotion to expend, watched, shouted and gained satisfaction from talking over the day’s play. Local cricket clubs at Wentworth Park in the 1880′s participated in two main competitions. Pyrmont, Glebe, Toxteth, Corio, Excelsior and Osborne competed for the Evan Jones Challenge Silver Cup while other local elevens, Derwent, Glebe Strathmore, Waratah, and Glebe Clifton played in the Furness Cup competition. The low lying recreation ground could become sodden after a heavy deluge, and rugby, under wet, wintry conditions, did much more damage to its main oval than cricket. As a consequence, football of any description was confined to the outer expanses of the park before 1900.

Rugby games were being played there from 1883. For example on Saturday 7 July 1883 teams representing the first Glebe and first Parramatta met at Wentworth Park before 3,000 spectators. The game started at 3.45 pm, and playing “some pleasing music” nearby was the Pyrmont Brass Band. In Sydney, most rugby grounds were unfenced and there were insufficient police to exercise effective control to prevent persistent interference by spectators.

Football final at Wentworth Park, 1956
City of Sydney Archives

Brass Bands

Invasion of unenclosed fields continued to plague Sydney rugby, forcing the abandonment of games; Wentworth Park was also a playground for larrikins. They found rugby games to their liking, running onto the football field to grab the ball, and disappear down Bridge Road with it. Brass bands were a separate part of the musical world, and associated with working class performers and audiences. The Salvation Army adapted the brass band to its own particular purpose but local bands broke from the socio-religious mould. Suburban bands at Pyrmont and Glebe were busy playing at the park’s rotunda, at football matches and regattas but they had chequered histories, as these independent entities, created by a strong group of local people, survived only as long as their members had the will and means to carry on.

Soccer

Blue collar workers from England and Scotland filled Sydney Association Football (soccer) teams from 1882 when a governing body was created to control the game. In Pyrmont, soccer was the most popular ball game for decades. The Pyrmont Rangers, with their all blue jersey, dominated the Gardiner Cup, appearing in 17 finals between 1889 and 1914. “Pyrmont was rich in the number of her barrackers”, noted the Australian Star in 1889, “who appeared upon the scene with large tickets in the front of their hats, upon which were inscribed words of encouragement to the Rangers”. Apart from soccer, other leisure activities of Pyrmont residents focused on its waterfront. The Point Street Baths from 1875 became the base for Pyrmont Swimming Club as well as Pyrmont’s strong water polo teams, while on the water its Flying Squadrons revelled in the delights of the sea.

Maintenance

Government grants and subsidies ensured Wentworth Park was well maintained between 1880 and 1887 with £5,000 spent on it. Though the park was formally transferred to Glebe municipality in 1893, responsibility for its maintenance remained with crown appointed trustees; expenditure on park maintenance soon declined, with only £450 spent on the park between 1902 and 1905. The government approached Glebe Council in 1905 to accept responsibility for maintenance. Glebe Council informed the government they were not prepared to impose such a burden on their ratepayers unless the government gave them an annual grant of £1,000 for the park’s upkeep. Responsibility for park maintenance remained with the government. Wentworth Park, with its gardens, lakes and winding paths, was picturesque in 1900 when it was depicted in a series of photographs under the heading of the “Progress of Pyrmont”. But by 1910 its lakes and gardens had largely gone.

1890s Depression

The Sydney District Cricket Competition, with its strict residential district qualifications, began in 1893, and Wentworth Park became one of its main venues; a cricket match at Wentworth Park in 1896, it was reported, attracted a crowd of 10,000 people. All local sporting clubs struggled with rising unemployment and falling wages in the 1890′s economic recession, but they still provided their members with a sense of regularity in a changing social milieu, with clubs reducing annual subscriptions in a time of social dislocation and economic instability. Wentworth, Glebe and Forest Lodge – Cambridge were the strongest locally-based rugby clubs then playing on the park.. The Wentworth club, first junior premiers in 1890 and 1891, distinguished itself on the playing fields, and locals bathed in the reflected glory.

Concerted efforts were made to establish Australia Rules in Sydney during the 1890′s when the West Sydney Australian Football Club played its home games at Wentworth Park. Australian Rules experienced a revival in 1903 when 11 clubs engaged in a district competition; in 1906, for example, 3,000 people watched Balmain play YMCA at Wentworth Park. Fifty eight state schools and 13 Catholic schools played Australian Rules in Sydney in 1908, when hurling was also played at the park.

Amateurs vs professionals

Improved wages, increased leisure hours, an extension of tram and train tracks linking the city to the suburbs, and the sheer growth of the City of Sydney by 1901, facilitated the development of an urban popular culture, and made mass spectator sport possible. An increasing number of people paid to enjoy commercialised activities – the theatre, and the sporting life which centred around the cricket pitch, the football field and the harbour. The years between 1890 and 1920 were the heyday for locally-based sporting clubs playing regularly at Wentworth Park. In the acrimonious debate about amateurism and professionalism, the acquisition of Wentworth Park was crucial to the new ruby league in 1908 as it struggled to obtain grounds, with most ovals leased to rugby union in winter. More working men took up rugby union after the Sydney district competition was introduced in 1900; the issue of payment of rugby players to cover out-of-pocket expenses, or the possibility of loss of wages through injury, came before the Metropolitan Rugby Union in Sydney in 1904. Any payment, they said, could not be countenanced because it was professionalism. Growing discontent among players led to a schism in the game, and the formation of a breakaway movement, the NSW Rugby Football League (NSWRFL) in 1907 which promised its players broken-time payments for loss of wages through injury and for travelling expenses. Conflict over the so-called evils of professionalism was a class struggle, and the ferocity of attacks mounted by the conservative press in 1907 on the ethics of professionalism suggested the middle class was in no mood to compromise.

Union vs League

The boundaries of the Glebe District Rugby Union Club, formed in 1900 embraced Pyrmont, Annandale and Glebe, and men from these three suburbs formed the backbone of the club. With Wentworth Park as its home ground, the Glebe Club emerged as the dominant rugby union club in the Sydney competition between 1900 and 1914, winning the first grade premiership seven times, and the second grade competition on six occasions. Thirty two members of this club won state caps, and 12 members played for Australia against visiting international rugby teams.

From 1910 the loyalties of Sydney football crowds shifted dramatically from rugby union to rugby league. League was very much in the ascendancy when rugby union suspended its competition for the duration of the war. In 1920, when competition recommenced, union’s support base had shifted perceptibly from the inner suburbs to north of the harbour, and to the east.

The Metropolitan Rugby Union had leases of the SCG and other prominent ovals in Sydney, and the League could obtain only three grounds in 1908 – the Agricultural ground at Moore Park, Birchgrove oval and Wentworth Park. The trustees of Wentworth Park granted the NSW Rugby League a three year lease in January 1908 because their tender, 40% of all gate receipts, and 15% of takings from representative games, was a more competitive tender than those offered by the MRU and the NSW Australian Football League. But loyalties of the trustees were divided. Three of the eight trustees (Abrams, Duggan and Harman) voted to lease the ground to the Metropolitan Rugby League.

A growing number of patrons passing through the turnstiles at Wentworth Park to watch the new code convinced the trustees of the need for a new grandstand. They accepted a tender of £750 from George Hudson to build a timber stand which J.A.Hogue opened on 30 June 1909.

Caretaker’s memories

The diary of Wentworth Park caretaker, Jack Newell in 1909 provides details on other activities there. An open air picture show in the park in 1909 was an exciting new attraction, held on Mondays and Fridays from 7pm to 9pm. Newell noted that local children clambered, up trees near the oval to get a free view of the silent movies, and the trees were high enough for them to peer over the high fence that sought to shut out non-paying rugby league customers. After-theatre rampages of local youth on Friday evenings forced Newell to stay up late to protect his tenderly prepared wicket. Rival groups of league supporters, Newell recorded in his diary, were in the habit of gathering outside Wentworth Park after games there in July 1909 to settle their differences. Order was restored when police arrived. But brawling at the park was not confined to league matches. A church union match between St Barnabas and Trinity erupted into fisticuffs and, wrote Newell “had to be put down by five constables”. Police cautioned the parents of children apprehended for stone throwing, and Newell recorded that the larrikin class were very troublesome on the Prince of Wales Birthday holiday in June 1909. Police patrolled the park’s grounds in 1909 preventing men from playing two-up. But by 1914 police were ignoring two up games played there on Friday nights and Sunday. But there was a price for immunity from prosecution. When a constable appeared on the corner of Wentworth Park Road and Bay Street he would doff his cap, a sign that it was time to “slip him a quid”.

Facilities

Facilities generally at Wentworth Park were spartan. Most watched the game from raised mounds, occasionally with, but more usually without, wooden terracing. The ordinary standing spectator, especially if of modest height, had difficulty seeing the play if the crowd was large. On a wet day they were often ankle deep in mud, and overcoats were stained by sauce from the next spectator’s hot dog or pie sold at the ground by Horsehead Ryan. The condition of the oval surrounds kept the more fainted-hearted away, but this did not deter the NSWRFL from holding a rugby league Test between England and Australasia at Wentworth Park in July 1910.

Leaseholders

The League’s tender for a three year lease from 1911 procured Wentworth Park for them, offering the Trust identical terms to those of 1908. Without other sporting bodies competing for Wentworth Park after the outbreak of war, the NSWRFL drove a hard bargain with the trustees. The league reduced its offer to 20% of gross takings for the three year lease from 1914, and for the three years from 1917 offered only 10% of gross takings, which meant the trustees received only £150 per season. The paltry nature of the NSWRFL offer rankled the trustees. And they had long memories.

With war over, the NSW Football Association in March 1920 offered a minimum of £200 for a one year lease, much better than the League, still seeking bargain basement prices they had extracted during the war years. Soccer became the winter game in the park in 1920. In 1921, the NSWRFL went all out to regain use of the oval, but the Metropolitan Soccer Football Association tender of £450 easily outbid the League. The Soccer Association’s tender also stressed the “excellent behaviour of our players and followers”. In accepting their tender, Arthur Laing told fellow trustees he’d received many complaints about letting the ground “to the ragtags and bob-tails” during the war.

The NSWRFL, concerned at its failure to regain use of Wentworth Park, met the seven trustees at the caretaker’s cottage at the north-eastern end of the park on 18 August 1921. Chairman of trustees Frank Buckle told League delegates “for some reason or other you do not offer us anything reasonable at all for our ground – at any rate, it has not done so in the past. You all know the price we are getting for the ground now”, and added “you should not have forgotten that there would have been no League if it had not been for Wentworth Park”. Soccer was played at the park in winter from 1920 to 1924. League returned to the park in 1925 after their offer of £1,800 for a three year lease was accepted, and they retained use of the ground up to the end of the 1931 season. Glebe Rugby League Club was eliminated from the competition at the end of 1929, and the League did not tender for the ground in 1932, ending the park’s association with the Sydney rugby league competition.

Goods line

During the war there were changes to the park’s landscape. A parliamentary committee in 1910 recommended the Darling Harbour Goods Line be linked by a railway goods line to the head of Rozelle Bay in a scheme to redevelop the port functions of Blackwattle and Rozelle Bays which, by 1914, had become a centre for the coal and timber coastal trade. The Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners in 1914 noted the “pressing needs of increasing trade and the larger modern vessels” and proposed building extensive broadside wharfage in Johnston’s, Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays. During World War I a railway proceeded by viaduct across Wentworth Park and by tunnel under Glebe Point to Rozelle Bay. And towards the southern end of the park, Wentworth Kindergarten opened in 1916. The Free kindergarten movement, begun in 1896, was designed to improve the lot of inner-city children; it was hoped that through this tool of urban social reform, working class children would be inculcated with middle-class norms.

Crowd attendance

Rugby league emerged as a major spectator sport between 1911 and 1922, and during this time Glebe was always near the top of the premiership table. Glebe’s home ground, Wentworth Park, was barely able to contain the increasing numbers attracted to the game, and the closeness of the ground to small workers cottages wedged in between warehouses and factories added to the personal intimacy of the occasion. In May 1911 a football correspondent observed “Wentworth park crowds are always demonstrative. They never hesitate to show on which side of the fence their sympathies lie. So when the play was at its fiercest on Saturday, the crowd yelled ‘Red, red, red’, to encourage the local champions”. The try scoring feats of Frank Burge made him a legend. At lock forward, Burge would break swiftly from the pack and use his speed and keen sense of anticipation to link with the backs. Long striding, fast and powerful, with a magnificent fend, Frank “Chunky” Burge was seen at his best running with a high knee action at top speed down the middle of the field. As the leading try scorer in Sydney in 1915, 1916 and 1918, the Glebe attack revolved around the finest try scoring forward the game had seen.

Rivalry

Rugby league thrived on inter-suburban rivalry. It was suburb against suburb. A victory over Balmain or Souths, Glebe’s nearest neighbours, was especially satisfying, a triumph to be celebrated with friends over a beer at the local. The men who wore maroon on the football field, representing your territory, often lived just down the street. If you didn’t know the player personally, you certainly knew all about him and his football feats. Working class people from inner Sydney had a deep emotional attachment to their league club, rather than the game for its own sake. They came to see their side win, and did not have much patience with honourable defeat. After all in their own lives, they experienced more than their fair share of setbacks. They expected Glebe, the Reds, to practise ritual slaughter on whoever their visitors were when they trooped down to Wentworth Park on a Saturday afternoon. These partisans thrived on success. If defeat became a frequent occurrence their fickleness began to shine through. The volatile Paddy Gray was a popular target for local supporters. On one occasion, Stephen Gascoigne, known as Yabba, close to the fence at Wentworth Park, was having a wonderful time at Gray’s expense; “A pound to the wife of the unknown soldier if Gray handles the ball”, Yabba kept repeating. At half time Gray sauntered over to Yabba and barked; “You mention my name once more, I’ll pull that silly looking nose off your face”. Yabba thought it prudent to heckle someone else in the second half.

Newspaper reports suggest that violence at rugby league games, both on and off the field, was widespread. Leaving Wentworth Park, after a game, could be a dangerous experience for visiting supporters and referees, and Glebe supporters experienced similar hazards when they journeyed to Birchgrove Oval, where lumps of coal, extracted from a mine under the harbour, were thrown at them. Referees recalled narrow escapes when they had to run “the gauntlet of the hordes of wild colonial youths who could see nothing any good outside their own idols”. As Tom McMahon was escorted up Bay Street on one occasion “between a brace of burly coppers”, he still had to avoid blue metal thrown at him by unhappy local fans. During the late 1920′s Ray Blissett recalled Glebe police escorted league referees from Wentworth Park up to the tram stop near Glebe post office. It was, he said, an absolutely essential precaution if Glebe lost.

Tibby Cotter, cricketer

The Glebe District Cricket Club, which contained Australian players Tibby Cotter, Warren Bardsley, Charlie Kelleway and Bert Oldfield, had played their home game fixtures at Wentworth Park since 1893. In the early years of Federation large crowds were drawn to Wentworth Park to watch Glebe and Australian opening batsman Warren Bardsley plunder 26 centuries from inner suburban attacks, and cricket spectators flocked to Wentworth Park especially when Glebe played Paddington there. There were several memorable encounters between Paddington’s supreme batting stylist Victor Trumper, and the blistering pace of Glebe fast bowler Tibby Cotter, the spearhead of the Australian attack. Warren Bardsley remembered team mate Cotter as:

“…a real corker, strong, big. Never got tired. He broke more stumps than any other fast bowler at Wentworth Park. Tibby loved to break stumps and he loved to pink a batsman … We were playing North Sydney one day and Tibby was in great form, knocking stumps over in all directions. In came Stud White and first ball Tibby smashed Stud’s fingers against the handle of the bat. A sickening crunch. They took him off to hospital. Never forget Tibby’s remark. ‘Well,’ he said, wiping his hands , ‘that’s one of the … out of the way’. About an hour later Stud came back to bat again with the fingers bandaged. Very brave man, Stud. Tibby took one look at him and snorted ‘Give me the ball. I’ll break the bastard’s neck this time’. Tibby reckoned that when he ‘pinked’ a batsman, he should remain pinked”. Cotter was the only Australian Test cricketer killed in World War I.

The Glebe District Cricket Club played their last first grade game at Wentworth Park at the end of the 1922/23 season. They then switched to Jubilee Oval, Glebe which became their new home ground.

Interwar years

New leisure forms during the interwar years, ranging from the cinema and radio to speedway motor cycling, motoring and greyhound racing played an increasing cultural role. In an endeavour to boost revenue Wentworth Park trustees granted Thomas Hollis a five year lease for motor cycle racing, “Auto Thrills” from May 1928, together with other novelty events between 6.30 pm and 10.30 pm at night. Between 1928 and 1932 large crowds thrilled to the antics of motor cyclists who rode in a way that had little regard to their own safety. In 1929 James Bendrodt, who had prospered as a trick skater and Martin Place restaurateur, submitted a proposal to the trustees to develop part of the Bay Street end of the park as an Amusement Park. It did not proceed.

Greyhound racing

Despite the gradual disappearance of both pony racing, and the proprietary thoroughbred racing companies after World War I, the gambler had increasing opportunities to bet. The number of horse race meetings declined marginally but any such decline was more than countered by the growth of trotting and greyhound racing, forms of racing which did not have claims of vice-regal patronage and a tradition to justify their existence. Greyhound racing in Britain in the 1930′s was the third largest commercial leisure activity, and betting lay at the heart of its appeal. Greyhound coursing had its origins as an aristocratic field sport but it flourished as an urban leisure activity after the advent of electrically propelled lures. The “tin hare” racing, invented by American Owen Smith in 1912, promised to change the nature of greyhound racing. The mechanical tin hare was mounted on a rail, and driven around a track ahead of a field of chasing greyhounds. Frederick Swindell, a somewhat shady American character who called himself Judge Swindell, formed a proprietary company, the Greyhound Coursing Association (GCA) to promote the new sport which obtained a limited use lease of Harold Park and commenced evening “tin hare” racing under lights there on 28 May 1927. Advertised in the Herald as “The Sport of the Masses”; it turned out to be popular, and a very successful as a commercial venture. Crowds of 20,000 or 30,000 regularly attended the night meetings, and spirited gambling took place, with over 180 bookmakers in attendance. The promoters were careful to imitate the atmosphere of Randwick race meetings, with attendants formally parading the greyhounds before races, the adoption of the terms “paddock” and “ledger”, the wearing of jockey caps and colours by trainers and with kennel inspections, coloured saddle cloths, semaphore boards and judges boxes. The colourful bookmakers, with their often confident, charismatic, loud and outspoken demeanour, the boards and umbrellas, and the sound, disorder and excitement of the betting ring had a popular appeal. Many spectators were impressed with the tremendous pace of the dogs. But the new sport barely had time to celebrate its successful beginnings when the Bavin conservative government amended the Gaming and Betting Act in 1928 to prevent betting after sunset. Without betting, greyhound racing collapsed but its fortunes changed with the return of the Lang government in 1930. Premier Lang announced that the previous government’s attitudes were designed to rob the worker of his simple pleasures and legalised gambling at greyhound meetings. Greyhound racing drew on a constituency that came largely from the working class; apart from offering a good night out and value for money, working people were attracted by much cheaper entrance fees, and the absence of the airs of superiority associated with upper class patrons of normal racecourses. After the war, there was also genuine affection for some leading dogs like Chief Havoc, Macareena and Zoom Top who caught and held the imagination of the public. The industry depended on big crowds and mass betting, catered for by ranks of bookmakers or tote windows. The downside of Swindell’s commercially successful venture at Harold Park was the growing criticism by Anglican clergy and other citizens who denounced the new sport as “a pastime of parasites”. The survival of Harold Park made it appear Swindell had friends in high places, prompting allegations of corruption of the licensing system. In 1932 a royal commission on greyhound racing and fruit machines examined allegations that Swindell had manipulated shares. Swindell was found guilty but slipped out of Port Phillip Bay on an oil tanker and was never seen again.

The ‘tin hare’

The trustees of Wentworth Park considered a proposal by Jack Munro, who recruited American boxers for Stadiums Limited, for “tin hare” racing there in August 1927 but it was not until 20 July 1938 that the NSW government issued a second greyhound racing licence for the Sydney area, and in 1939 Wentworth Park trustees granted the National Coursing Association a lease of the central area of the oval for greyhound racing, and totalisator betting facilities were installed there. The totalisator, a computerised machine that controlled the betting system, a feature of greyhound racing, invented by London-born Australian George Julius, enabled machines to take over betting completely. The tote was very popular with the poor working class punters, and with women who preferred to bet their “small amount of money” there as “they do not have to join in a scramble round the bookie” or endure a “rude retort” for their small bets, preferring the “civility of the machine”. At Wentworth Park, the greyhound track was isolated from the surrounding parkland by construction of a brick boundary walls, denying local residents access. But not long after Wentworth Park was commandeered for use by the Americans as an army camp during the war with the remainder of the park taken over by wool stores. Timber sheds storing wool were also constructed on the park during the first World War. In 1941 the NSW Trotting Club, owners of Harold Park, and the NCA agreed to form Harold Park & Wentworth Park Metropolitan District Greyhound Racing Association in 1941 to control greyhound racing within a 40 mile radius of the GPO. Between 1939 and 1945 the NCA shared its greyhound meetings with the NSWTC at Harold Park. Though NSW had two metropolitan greyhound racing clubs in 1939, it was in country NSW that it really boomed. The rapid expansion of country dog tracks, 45 in 1938, provided a new visual experience for punters. In a time when relatively few owned a car, the NSW government railways built special dog trains which were divided, with seats on one side and kennels on the other. In NSW in 1938-39 there was a total of 1,693 race meetings. Wentworth Park upgraded its facilities and closed the greyhound track for five weeks from October 1949 and 18,600 people attended the reopening of the remodelled Wentworth Park track. Two special starting chutes were installed at the entrance of the two straights that increased the distances to 585 and 785 yards. They also altered the mechanical hare system so that it ran around inside the rail, instead of outside.

Attendance

The Greyhound Recorder, a newspaper devoted solely to covering all aspects of greyhound racing, kept owners, trainers and punters informed about the sport. As racing became more sophisticated, technical improvements and innovations were introduced – electronically operated starting boxes from 1946, photo finish cameras two years later, and electronic timing devices. Throughout the 1950′s, 1960, and 1970′s the Wenty dogs averaged about 7,000 to 8,000 patrons per meeting. Betting at the dogs increased with installation at Wentworth Park of one of the first electronic totalisator systems there in 1970. The last greyhound race was held at Harold Park in 1987, and the NCA began construction of an $18 million grandstand at Wentworth Park to accommodate what it envisaged would be continued expansion of patronage of greyhound racing.

Wentworth Park Trust

The Wentworth Park Sporting Complex Trust (WPSCT) area divides Wentworth Park into three parts: the WPSCT complex, the public sports fields, and the playground area. The NSW National Coursing Association Ltd and the NSW Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association Ltd in 1985 entered into a service deed for 20 years with a Trust Board comprised of representatives appointed by the Minister for Lands under Part 5 of the Crown Lands Act, 1989. The Trust is responsible for the care, control and management of the sporting complex. The Trust receives license fees from the greyhound bodies, and income from the lease of Sports House. Other occasional users of the Sporting Complex are Easts Rugby League Club, primary schools athletic carnivals, as a tertiary examinations centre, Combined Auctions, antique fairs and functions at the Functions Centre in the grandstand.

Betting

Dog racing, a working class sport, had its roots in the inner city where many dreamt of owning a dog that would bring them fame and fortune, but increasingly from the late 1960′s inner city greyhound owners and trainers began to move further out from the city centre. The trusteeship of the balance of Wentworth Park was transferred to Sydney City Council in 1990. By legalising off-course betting, the TAB made the sport respectable, and increased its popularity. This increased the resources available for prize money and industry development since clubs now got a share of off-course takings. But it also meant the public no longer had to attend a track to place a bet. It marked the beginning of the end of big crowds at ordinary meetings at Wentworth Park. The advent of satellite television in TAB shops, hotels and social clubs in the 1990′s completed the process. Today greyhound racing at Wentworth Park is testimony to the amount of revenue it generates from betting on off-course TAB and Sky Television. Based on TAB estimates, greyhound racing generates about $50-$55 million revenue for the NSW State Budget annually. The TAB Limited study in 2003 estimates that in NSW $4.74 billion is wagered on racing, of which $489 million is generated by greyhound racing. Off-course wagering in the metropolitan area, principally at Wentworth Park, accounts for approximately 67% of total wagering on greyhounds.

And finally, an important part of local collective memory in the 1970′s and 1980′s were the circus tents, colourful characters, caged animals on the northern edge of Wentworth Park, and the sight of elephants occasionally ambling around inner city streets

At the southern end of Glebe is the Glebe Estate, an original subdivision of workmen’s cottages, suburban villas, terraces and grand houses which, by the 1970s had noticeably deteriorated. It was only through protracted political activism that the suburb’s public housing and significant history is still able to be admired. Examples of the Estate’s rejuvenation can be seen in the cottages along Mitchell Street, and to the west of Glebe Point Road into Mt. Vernon, Derwent and Westmoreland Streets.

The Glebe Estate was once part of a land grant (or ‘glaeba’) given to Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain of the First Fleet, which arrived in Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788.

Derwent Street in the Glebe Estate

Former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, has written in detail a chapter on the Glebe Estate in The Whitlam Government, 1972-1975, E.G. Whitlam (1985) Penguin Books Australia.

"Few places in Australia are richer in history than the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe. The area was first surveyed in 1790, two and a half years after Governor Phillip established he penal colony at Sydney town. The name was acquired when approximately 200 hectares of land were granted to the Church of England. The Church subdivided and sold much of the estate in 1824. It kept 19 hectares for its own use, comprising Bishopthorpe as a residence for the Bishop of Australia and St. Phillip estate running down to the harbour.

"Sydney’s aristocracy built large homes in the district. Leading architects, Edward Hallen (Hereford House 1929) and John Verge (Toxteth Park 1831, Lyndhurst 1834 and Forest Lodge 1836) were commissioned to design elegant houses. From the 1840s, however, the area progressively adopted a more working class nature. Bishopthorpe was subdivided in 1856 and substantial brick homes were built on land leased for 99 years. Tradesmen and labourers inhabited the St. Phillip estate within range of the slaughterhouses on Blackwattle Bay.

"Glebe was fully built up by World War I and began to decline after it. With Chippendale, Redfern and Waterloo it began to show signs of urban blight. Commercial interests began to leave the area, faced with competition from new businesses along Broadway. Social problems associated with the Great Depression reduced Glebe to one of Sydney’s less savoury districts. Despite this decline, the area retained a close and distinctive community.

"After World War II it became increasingly obvious that, however effective in building mansions in heaven, the Church of England could not cope with its houses in Glebe. Low rent return meant that the Church could not allocate enough money for repair work. As a result, in 1973 the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney urged the Federal or State Governments to buy the Glebe estate for a planned experiment in low-income housing. My Government readily accepted this offer, regarding it as an excellent opportunity for Federal involvement in urban rehabilitation schemes. In May the Bishopthrope and St. Phillip estates, occupied by more than 700 dwellings, were purchased at a cost of $17.5 million. Uren [Tom Uren, MP and Minister for Urban and Regional Development] introduced the enabling legislation, the Glebe Lands (Appropriation) Bill on 11 July 1974.

"A Glebe Project Board, including 10 representatives elected by local residents, was established. The Board determined that the restoration of dwellings would occur in three stages – reroofing followed by repairing exterior appearance and, finally refitting interiors. A great deal of work was carried out and, if it were not for the Fraser Government’s cutting funds and then in 1981 abandoning the project, all houses would now have been renovated. In December 1984 the Hawke Government sold the estate to the NSW Government which was determined to complete the restoration work commenced under my Government.

"The quality of the completed renovations prompted the Royal Australian Planning Institute Journal to comment in November 1979 that "The Glebe project has become a classic example of successful rehabilitation. It stands as a refreshing and humane contrast to the insane excesses of the commercial redevelopment of the central business district and as a remarkable symbol of official concern for community values rather than developers’ balance sheets." Improved housing facilities in turn fostered the regeneration of commercial activity. During the late 1970s Glebe Point Road became a thriving mixture of new restaurants and antique shops and traditional corner grocery stores and second-hand merchandise dealers.

"The project was also a tremendous financial success. A financial analysis in 1978 showed that the Glebe estate was capable of earning a real rate of return of about four percent on the funds invested, given market-level rents and optimum rehabilitation. While a renovated home at Glebe in 1978 cost $39,000 a comparable dwelling in new Housing Commission low-rise housing at Waterloo cost $44,500."