the balmainassociat ionincorporatednews sheet

X h e P e n i n s x i l a

V o l 2 9 N o 6 I s s u e 2 3 2 F o u n d e d 1 9 6 5 December/January 1994

O n e M a n R e m e m b e r s

For almost fifty years the BalmainT e n F o o t e r s c o u l d b e s e e n

skimming and skudding across theharbour on Sunday afternoons fromSeptember to April. I am not sure whenthe club began but I hold the Tom KeddieM e m o r i a l S h i e l d w h i c h w a s fi r s t

contested in 1907. My own memoriesdate from 1938 when Balmain was, likemany r i ve r and harbour suburbs , acentre of sailing. But only Balmain hada 10 foot Dinghy Sailing Club.

As their name suggests, these boatswere 10 feet in length and 7 feet to 7 feet6 inches on the beam with a depth of 21inches. They had lee and bow cloths andc a r r i e d a n e n o r m o u s s a i l a r e a . T h e m a i n

sail was 24 feet on the boom and 26 feeton the mast with an 8 feet long bumpkinthat carried a jib 19 feet on the hoist and10 feet on the foot.

Because these boats carr ied so muchsail they were tricky to sail and onlyskilled skippers were successful as thedesign of the boat and the huge sail area

made them tend to nose d i ve . L i f e was

very fast crewing in a 10 footer and onmore than one occasion I recall, withspinnaker in hand, 1 was directed to sit"on the rudder" as we ran up the harbourbefore a good breeze.

The crew o f a 10 foo ter cons is ted o fthe skipper, sheet hand, for'ard hand andtwo wel l hands, one to bai l out the wel lwater while the other had to hang out onthe gunwale to keep the boat on a righteven keel. Some of the skippers whosailed these boats to notable success are

Tony Russell, Horrie Balkwell (later tosail the successful and champion 18foo te r "Tek " ) , E E l l i s , Ken Mor row,Charlie Miller and Stan King (also asuccessful 18 foot skiff skipper andowner) to mention only a few of the keenparticipants in the sport.

As the son of a long experiencedSydney Flying Squadron 18 foot skiffskipper, my interest in skiff sailing waswell established at a very early age. In1938, aged 16 years, I joined the 10footers and sailed regularly with themuntil I joined the RAAF in 1942. During

' W a l l a b y '

the 1940/41 season I crewed in Wallabywith owner-skipper Stan King when wehad a wonderful year, winning 8 racesand being equal point scorers with theJean owned by Gus Hunt and skipperedby Charlie Miller. The popular saying inthe club was "If you can finish in front ofJean you win the race". The Wallabywas the only boat that season to win allthree excessively heavy weather races.

One race I vividly recall was blowingout the start in bare spars - no sailshoisted - then hoisting mainsail and jib tor u n d o w n t h e h a r b o u r b e f o r e t h e w i n d .W e l o w e r e d t h e m a i n s a i l a n d t o o k t h e

gaff out just letting the peak hang down.By this time we were level with the headsand on our way to Tasmania. We cameabout heading up the harbour where wew e r e d e c l a r e d t h e w i n n e r a s n o o t h e rboat was afloat .

The Wallaby was housed in a DoubleBay boatshed but naturally most of theboats sa i led ou t o f Ba lmain . The coursewe sailed began at Clarke Island downthe harbour to George's Head Light,b a c k t o S h a r k i s l a n d t h e n t o C l a r k eIsland and across to Taylor's Bay, backa r o u n d S h a r k I s l a n d t o fi n i s h a t C l a r k eIsland. The race covered approximately9 miles and commenced at 3pm and,depending on wind velocity, concludedbetween 4pm and 4.45pm.

My father, Frank Burrows Snr, was avery experienced 18 foot skiff man andas a result became starter and judge forthe Balmain Dinghy 10 foot Sailing Clubuntil it ceased to operate in the secondhal f o f the 1940s. As there was no c lub

house, the weekly meetings were held inthe Institute in Darling Street. It is now ashopping arcade.

A f t e r W o r l d Wa r I I t h e c l u b c e a s e d

racing and so ended a great era of sailingon Sydney Harbour and for Balmain inparticular. 1 hope this will bring back afew happy memories of those great days.The Balmain Tens Club was the trainingground for many successful 12 foot, 16f o o t a n d 1 8 f o o t c r e w s o f t h e 1 9 4 0 s ,

1950s and 1960s .F r a n k B u r r o w s

K id S i s te r

Two years ago Barbara Whitley, af o r m e r r e s i d e n t o f D u r h a m H o u s e

(demolished 1954) in Micholson Street,sent us the chapters of the manuscriptof her autobiography which dealt withher memories of growing up in Balmainin the years between 1918 and 1931. Wewere unfortunately unable to give herassistance in finding a publisher, but shehas kindly agreed with our request thatwe use extracts from the manuscript forpublication in the Observer. The first ofthese editored by Debbie Nicholls beginsw i t h t h i s i s s u e .

All the people living in NicholsonStreet must have been agog withc u r i o s i t y t h a t d a y w h e n o u r f a m i l ymoved into Number Eight. There wereso many of us! Nine children, aged fromeighteen down to two. (There wasanother one as well, but he was a grownman of nineteen, away at the war.) Sucha huge house, with such a big garden! Itwas the only one of its kind left in thatstreet, remaining there from the earlydays of Sydney, when East Balmain wasa suburb where wealthy men built grandand spacious homes. It was a beautifuland convenient place to live on a narrowpeninsula poking out into SydneyHarbour, with water close on three sides,and just a short ferry ride across to thecity.

By the time we went there, in October1918, several big shipping companies

had bu i l t wha rves and docks whe re t hestreets ran down to the water, givingwork and l i ve l i hood to mos t o f t he menof the district. The houses generally weresmall and pokey, either weatherboardcottages or narrow double-storey terracehouses (some of these with elegant ironlace decoration) and the gardens werem i n u s c u l e .

We wen t the re f rom Woo l lah ra whereour house seemed to be shrinking as ourfamily kept on growing. Our motherwanted a home big enough for us all, andt h i s w a s t h e o n e s h e f o u n d . I t w a s a n

enchanting house, at least to me. It hadthick sandstone walls, lots of big roomswith tall windows and high ceilings, awide hall going down the middle withpassage ways leading off it to otherrooms, and a fascinating staircase - asmall spiral with two turns in it. Therewas a balcony where seven of us had ourbeds, three girls on one side of the doorand four boys on the other; and even acellar quite bit and airy enough for us toplay in.

T h e h o u s e s t o o d i n a b o u t t h e m i d d l e

of an acre of ground. There was a bed,full of roses on one side of the front steps,a n d o n e w i t h c a m e l l i a s o n t h e o t h e r .

Beyond the driveway was the tenniscourt, and beyond that again anotherpatch of ground with trees-an oak in thecorner, camphor laurels, and an almondtree that was the first thing to flower inspring. In the middle of this strip was ahuge Moreton Bay fig tree that wasalmost impossible to climb - it had nof o o t h o l d o r h a n d h o l d f o r a t l e a s t t w i c e

my height and five trunks, separate butclose together. On the edge of this "bitof pleasance" was a hedge and then acorrugated iron fence. That hedge! Amixture of plumbago and red tecoma,there was enough space between it andthe fence for a smallish person to creepalong, or to hide.

All in all, the house was nearly bigenough to cover our heads, but Motherwas a bit of a snob in those days and shehad her doubts about Balmain beingwha t she ca l l ed a " l ower -c l ass " d i s t r i c t .She would have liked just such a housein a seemly suburb where we could havemet "suitable" friends; but there wasn't

enough money. But we young onesloved that place - house, garden, beingso close to the Harbour, everything.

This was our family, the Halls:- Dad,a surveyor who worked at that time in acity office; Mother, who had a busy lifelooking after us all; Pev, away in theRoyal Flying Corps; Nan, 18, (now 94)and Mollie, 17, at home helping Mother;Les and Winsome, 15 and 13, at highschool; George, 12, at Tech; Sep, 10 andmyself. Slippy, 7, at primary school; andBobaneenie (Bob & Ernie, Ed.), 4 and 2,who were really two boys but nearlyalways spoken of as one, still playing athome. Later on, when they were in thatwicked period this side and that of tenyears they'd sneak into the gap in thehedge and smoke cigarettes made outof newspaper, gum leaves - I hate tothink what! A strictly masculine pastime.

There were quite a few bitter-tastingtimes when I'd be told I couldn't join insome adventure because 1 was "only asheilah". There was "jumping thedummy" for instance. A tram used to rundown Darling Street to the ferry at thebottom of the peninsula. When it got tothe corner o f N icho lson St ree t i t had toconnect with the "dummy" waiting thereon the t raml ines. This was a remarkable

contraption designed to stop a a tramfrom careering too fast down the shortsteep hill and across the wharf into thewater. It was a sort of box on four wheels,with sides sloping inwards to a flat top,and a heavy counter weight under thetramlines. It looked as though a tramwould be pushing it down the hill, andpulling it back on the way up, to leave itstanding there till the next tram came.I'm sure that Sep, and George too, usedto risk their necks jumping on and offthis tempting piece of dare-devilment,but they wouldn't even have told me -definitely not for "sheilahs" this one.

Durham House with members of the Hall family Tram and counterweight going down Darling Street

Vic to r i a Road Tunne i

Apian for a tunnel under DarlingStreet to break the partition ofR o z e l l e a n d a l l o w e a s i e r a c c e s s t o

Balmain is being promoted by architect,Mr Greg Vicas. He is a consultant on theMainstreet study program for DarlingS t r e e t i n R o z e l l e a n d B a l m a i n . H i sscheme is for a Victoria Road underpassfrom just past Evans Street to WellingtonStreet. Ramps would connect to DarlingStreet with a roundabout allowing continuous traffic movement Car parkingspaces would be provided above thetunnel. See diagram below.

The plan would improve the environment of res idents and businesses inRozelle and recreate the old Rozelle town

r i j ^ i m

square. lAr Vicas claims that his projectcan be financed by sensit ive development of the State-owned BalmainPower Stat ion s i te and wi th contr ibut ionsfrom developers of the large sites on thepeninsula. He estimates that the costwould be $15 million. The LeichhardtCouncil and RTA have expressedi n t e r e s t .

C o m b i n e d w i t h a n e l e v a t i o n o fVictoria Road to al low traffic to enter ande x i t a t R o b e r t s S t r e e t t h e a c c e s s t oBa lma in wou ld be fac i l i t a ted and reduce

delays on the main arterial. This wouldbe cheaper and better than an extensionof Mullens Street over the railyards whichhas the disadvantage of encouragingtraffic through local streets.

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A i r c ra f t No i se

A rally of an estimated 15,000 angrypeople at Leichhardt Oval on 2December gave the Federal Governm e n t a n u l t i m a t u m t o a l l e v i a t e a i r c r a f tnoise or face a blockade of SydneyAirport. Eleven surrounding councilsorganised the meeting which set a deadline of 10 December for the Governmentto agree to a charter requiring the restoration of the east-west runway andclosure of the third runway until all runways can be used. Other demands arean expanded compensation package,assurances that the cur few be enshr inedin legislation and the opening ofBadgerys Creek as the principal airportin three years with Sydney airport usedfor domestic traffic only.

Residents under the flight path of thenorth-south runway have been subjectedto sharply increased noise levels sincethe opening of the third runway mainlybecause of the prevalence of strongnortherly winds. Despite CAA advice tothe Minister for Transport, Mr Brereton,some experts claim that with propermanagement the E-W runway can besafely used in conjunction with the other

runways. On 26 November aircraft werelanding from the west while other aircraftwere taking off on the N-S runway.

The decision in 1989 to build the third

runway rather than a new airport atBadgerys Creek has been vehementlydisputed. Tom CJren, in his book"Straight Left", blamed Peter Walsh forthreatening to resign from the HawkeGovernment unless the third runway wasapproved and the cab ine t caved i nb r e a k i n g t h e e l e c t i o n p r o m i s e .Marrickville Mayor, Barry Cotter, said,"There is only one solution: reopen theeast-west runway now".

I n t h e d r a f t E I S t h e c o n s u l t a n t s

estimated that the number of peoplemoderately affected by noise would bereduced from 170,100 to 82,000 andthose seriously affected from 54,700 to26,900. The number of residents northof the airport moderately affected wouldincrease f rom 61,600 to 71,900 andthose seriously affected would increasefrom 19,800 to 24,700. Even with theseunderstated figures the backlash wasf o r e s e e a b l e . T h e S t a t e G o v e r n m e n t i s

planning a residential development atSouth Creek on the Badgerys Creekflight path. Will they never learn?

M i d i - b u s e s . W h e n ?

Sydney Buses recently issued tendersfor 30 midi-buses to operate on innercity routes. They have invited subm i s s i o n s f o r d i e s e l o r a l t e r n a t i v e f u e l

powered vehicles of low floor designs.After the normal evaluation process, thesuccessfu l tenderer w i l l be nominated a tthe end of this year.

A regular size low floor bus iscurrently undergoing trials to determineits efficiency and to gain feedback fromvarious passenger groups.

Chempiex Heritage^ I ''he Rosgrove (Chempiex) site ini Terry Street, Rozelle is subject to an

application for the demolition of all of thebuildings and structures, asbestosr e m o v a l a n d r e m e d i a t i o n o f t h e l a n d .The applicant advises that they intend todo the work on a staged basis.

Le ichhard t Counc i l ' s Her i tageAdviser, Mr Paul Davies, has reported onwhether cer ta in e lements shou ld be considered for retention. An inspection ofthe site revealed some potentiallyinteresting items. These include aresidence cl896 facing Terry Street, abuilding used for sulphuric acid production originally by Elliott Bros; stoneretaining walls with important visualelements; tramway remains and roadp a t t e r n s w h i c h c o u l d i m p r o v e t h eunderstanding of the sites history.

The developers, the Walker Group,held a meeting with residents on 16N o v e m b e r t o e x p l a i n t h e i r s i t eremediation plans. The clean up will takeplace in stages on a 20 m̂ grid and eachpolluted area will be capped before proceeding to the next. 98 drums of pollutedsoil have been removed to a disposala rea near Dubbo . Consu l tan t , RossMacParlane, told the meeting that thework would take at least nine months butadmitted that there may be more to learnabout the site. There are hydrogensulphide (rotten eggs gas) emmissionsfrom sandstone near the High Schoolthat have to be capped.

The adjacent site of the BalmainPower Station is also subject to a development proposal by Pacific Power todemolish all structures except the SwitchHouse, Pumphouse and AdministrationBuilding. Both sites are subject to theappeal by the Leichhardt Council againstthe validity of the Greater MetropolitanRegional Environmental Plan No 1.

There's a chrysanthemum for everytaste. The exact origin of thisdelightful group of flowering plants iss o m e w h a tc o n f u s e d a n d i t 1i s h a r d t o d i s -c o v e r w h e t h e r »

they were firstc u l t i v a t e d i n ^China or Japan. Onething is certain thougha n d t h a t i s t h a t t h e

many different varietiescan be grown with littleeffort by virtually all ^gardeners.

Chrysanthemums will adapt themselves to almost any conditions, growingin most types of soil and are fairly hardy.Flowers come in a large range of shapesand sizes. Because there are both earlyand late flowering forms, blooms can behad from spring to autumn and give alarge supply of cut flowers over a verylong period. They are not long-livedplants and in fact the best results are

Back to Bolmoin Day.After the wild' winds of the previous

week, the weather for the 6th AnnualBack to Balmain Day, Sunday 30thOctober, was warm and sunny. Crowdso f f o r m e r s t u d e n t s v i s i t e d t h e B a l m a i n

(Rdjy) School and Birchgrove (Birchy)Schoo l . The se rv i ce he ld a t S t AndrewsC h u r c h w a s w e l l a t t e n d e d a n d fi n i s h e dwith a resounding community singing of"Happy days are here again", "Pack upyour troubles" and "Roll out the barrel".

Then to the picnic at Elkington Park.Two coach loads o f ex-Ba lmain i tes came

from the Central Coast to meet familyand friends. A member from Perth, TomMcGuire, met his scattered family thisyear. Book sales were brisk and familyhistory enquiries filled up pages of anotebook. The Leichhardt MunicipalCouncil Band played on and it was a veryhappy and successful day.

Congratulations and thanks to theCommittee. See you all next year onSunday, 29th October, 1995. TheColgate Palmolive photographs will beon display in the History Room at theWa t c h H o u s e u n t i l C h r i s t m a s .

Kath Harney

achieved by starting new plants fromcuttings each spring.

Co lou r fu l bo t t i eb rushes a re favour i teswith nector-eating birds. Adaptable tovarying soil and climatic conditions,b o t t i e b r u s h e s o r c a l l i s t e m o n s a r e i d e a lfot the garden. So showy and free-flowering, they cannot be ignored during

t h e i r s p r i n g fl o w e r i n gseason and again in autumnwhen they produce a fewm o r e b l o o m s . W h e n t h eh e a d s o f fl o w e r s a r e

ii finished, remove them,^ cutting just behind the flower head^ to promote new growth andjtf maintain a denser shapelier plant./ Most varieties are quick growing

and the large range available cangive you low bushes through to small

t r e e s . A l -

though theya r e h a r d y

—Qji ^ plants mostwould prefer3 m o i s t w e l ld r a i n e d s o i la n d l o t s o f

sunsh ine fo r them to b loom we l l .B o n n i e D a n i d s o n

wisL yoM a^^eripy Clkristmas

anKtl a liappyN ew Year

W a t c h H o i o e E x h i b i t i o n s

filter Davles - Dm 10-18Elaino NoHiiig-Feb 3-19A n n S h e f f d a r t ^ 2 5 4 y i a r 1 2W d n i s n ' s A r t C d fi e e l i v aSair^lto CoOiw- Mar 18-26Painting^ dravdi^ ascuiptulre

Printed on recycled paper bySnap Print, Balmain

© Not to be reproduced withouta u t h o r i s a t i o n

Ode to Australia DayOht How I Love Her StUl

Encircled by mighty oceans for nature at reasu re s to re .

Hung with a necklace of coral, crownedwith a pearl-studded shore.This is but part of her makeup, luring thestrong to their doom.C u r s e d w i t h h e r t r e a c h e r o u s w a t e r s f o rher luggers become a tomb.Draped in a mantle of desert, richlyembossed with gold.Taunting our sons to find it, making ouryoung men old.Moody, possess i ve and pass iona te ,holding her wealth to her breast.Breaking the men who seek it quicklysubduing the rest.Fringed with her mountains and forests,blessed with her rolling plain,Blackened and scorched by bush fires,flooded and washed with rain.Merciless, cruel, unrelenting, hungrilygorging her fill,I've tried so hard to hate her. Oh! how Ilove her sti l l .

Gordon Symonds.

T h e B a l m a i n A s s o c i a t i o n I n crepresenting Balmain, Birchgrove,

Roze l l e .Ou r A ims A re To :

• improve the living, working andr e c r e a t i o n a l a m e n i t i e s o f o u ra r e a

• maintain all features havingn a t u r a l a r c h i t e c t u r a l a n d / o rh i s t o r i c a l v a l u e

• compile and record history ofthe area & keep a permanentcol lect ion of i tems of h is tor icali n t e r e s t

• seek the cooperation ofeveryone concerned in ther e a l i s a t i o n o f t h e a b o v e

The Watch House is open everySaturday from 12 to 3pm

The Balmain Association meets on thefirst Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm

i n t h e W a t c h H o u s e

179 Darling Street, Balmain.Mail c/o PO Box 57. BALMAIN. 2041.Our editorial phone/fax is 818 4954

Interested artists, potters, sculptors,etc. who would like to organise ane x h i b i t i o n i n t h e Wa t c h H o u s e a r e

urged to contact Steve South on8 1 0 1 4 1 1 .

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Students $7, Organisation $21.