Past Events 2020

Brad Manera, the CEO and Senior Historian at Sydney’s Hyde Park Anzac Memorial, launched Preserving Their Names. Mr Manera is described by the NSW RSL as a “war history guru”. His life-long passion for military history and battlefield archaeology has transcended both pastime and vocation. Mr Manera was a member of the editorial team writing the official history of NSW in the Great War.

The research for Preserving Their Names began with the work of Kerry Ann O’Reilly and Peter Byron recording the names on as many local WW1 Honour Boards as they could find. Then more searches of a variety of sources by a dedicated team added to the list and we ended up with over 3,000 names.

Brad’s presentation was enthralling. He outlined how the First World War progressed, highlighting Australia’s involvement from Gallipoli to the Middle East and the Western Front. Throughout he wove in the names of some of the local people who are recorded in Preserving their Names along with others from his own research, placing soldiers from Ashfield and District at some of the most significant battles of WW1.

The question and answer session at the end of Brad’s address was also detailed and engaging and could have gone on for much longer given the strong interest shown by members attending.

Mark Sabolch and David Rollinson both offered the Society’s fulsome thanks to Brad for launching the journal and his presentation. We hope to be able to put a copy of Brad’s address on this website soon.

This is the first time the Society has used the Concert Room at the Mungo Scott Mill building as a venue. Some of the sight lines were a bit limited but, apart from that, this venue was a good choice and the right size particularly as we were limited to 40 participants due to virus restrictions.

As usual, the afternoon was rounded off with coffee and tea, a wonderful array of beautiful food (individually served) and lots of great conversation between members and friends.

This fantastic publication written by Ann O’Connell, Mark Sabolch and Lois Gray, edited by David Rollinson and Ann O’Connell, was launched to coincide with the official opening of the new Ashfield Aquatic Centre held the previous day. Society members received their copy following Bob Irving’s presentation (see below). The release of the book was much awaited and great feedback has been received from Inner West Council, who commissioned the Society to write the history of the Ashfield Pool.

More information about the book, the opening of the new Ashfield Aquatic Centre and photographs is available Here.

Members can pick up their copies of the book at the Society’s rooms at Thirning Villa when they are open on the second and last Saturday of each month between 11:00am and 4:00pm. Non-members can purchase copies of the book for $25 from our rooms when they are open.

Marc Sabolch presented Mark Persi, Melissa Pride and Peter Romero with copies of Taking the Plunge at the launch on Sunday.

Peter Romero, grew up in Ashfield and is a life member of the Ashfield Amateur Swimming Club. Melissa Pride is a swimming teacher and daughter of Warwick Webster who had the swim school lease at Ashfield Pool from 1965. Mark Persi is a water polo player and founding member of the Ashfield Amateur Water Polo Club that started at the Ashfield Pool when it first opened in 1963. The Society has oral history recordings of each of these three people, and we hope to make them available through the website soon. 

The Society now has a digitised copy of the 16mm film commissioned by Ashfield Council to record the official opening of the Pool in 1963. This was shown to those who attended and initiated a lot of discussion.

Sunday the 18^th of October was a great day. It was the first time in six months the Society has been able to hold an indoor event. Life member of the Society Robert Irving OAM (our esteemed architectural historian) presented a talk on Australia’s First Real Building. Bob’s wealth of knowledge on history and heritage was evident as he presented his research on one of the least-known historical structures of early Sydney.

When Arthur Phillip arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, he brought with him a ‘portable house’ for his occupation until the (now long-gone) First Government House could be erected for him. Bob likened the portable house to an IKEA flatpack. It was Australia’s first prefabricated building, a remarkable example in the New World of the burgeoning industrial revolution in Britain.

Bob has invested considerable time in researching the ‘portable house’ and in his talk he presented, for the first time, his insights into this important part of the architectural history of Sydney. Regrettably, the building itself has disappeared but Bob used his knowledge of architecture and building to ‘reconstruct’ and describe this structure and using early maps and depictions of Sydney Cove, he has been able to determine where it was located.

It was a wonderful talk, with material also drawn from Bob’s international research, well received by a capacity audience.

After many months of not being able to organise events the Society organised a walk along Victoria Street Ashfield. The numbers for this event were limited due to COVID-19 restrictions. The walk was a warm-up for a larger event to be held when conditions permit a larger gathering.

The day started out rather ominously with a heavy fall of rain but by 2pm the skies were almost clear and Mark Sabolch with Lois Gray, Ann O’Connell, Chris Pratten and Bernadette Williamson, lead a group of 17 through a wonderful walk.

The walk commenced at No 1 Victoria Street opposite the Fire Station and the next two hours were jam packed with information and experience. The walk and talk covered everything from the architectural history of some of the amazing residences and buildings such as Glentworth, Northridge, Mountjoy, the Sydney Private Hospital, and the former Patons Electrical Factory (at No 90) to name a few.

The Society has produced another publication Preserving Their Names commemorating those from the Ashfield district who served in WW1. During the progress of the walk Ann O’Connell and Lois Gray provided a wealth of information about some of the men who had lived in Victoria Street and had enlisted. This publication is to be launched on the 15^th of November and contains the names of over 3,000 people with 19 explored in detail.

A highlight of the walk was an invitation by Cheryl Borsak to explore the garden and external areas of her home, Northridge. Cheryl and her family had arranged a large display of photographs and she provided a great narrative describing some of the trials and tribulations of buying and restoring one of the grand homes in Victoria Street. It was a great pleasure to visit and to hear of the respectful restoration they are still undertaking and the Society extends its appreciation and thanks to the Borsak family.

We didn’t get to complete the Victoria Street walk because there was just so much to discuss and view. The Society in organising the next Victoria Street walk will probably hold it in two parts so that everything can be covered!

Bernadette Williamson and a group of volunteers from the Society host a stall at the Flour Mills Markets in Summer Hill. The Markets are held every second Sunday. The stall has been a great initiative and has resulted in quite a few sales of our publications and has also generated a lot of interest in the Society. If you are wandering around the market drop by and say ‘hello’ to Bernadette and her helpers!

The Society’s AGM held on 16 February 2020 was a great event. The Mayor of the Inner West Council, Darcy Byrne gave the main address, an entertaining and informative talk on ‘Growing up in the Inner West’ (see below).

Darcy is an impressive speaker and told us some interesting stories about the colourful political figures and events that he and his family have met and witnessed.

Darcy Byrne has lived his entire life (38 years) in the inner west. His parents, both graduates of the University of Sydney and members of the left wing Sydney Push, chose to live in lively Balmain among like-minded people including Frank Moorhouse and Darcy Waters.

During Darcy’s childhood, Balmain was a very politicised community dominated by the ALP. Eminent ALP leaders like J.J. Cahill, Neville Wran and Tom Uren were local identities. Darcy’s anecdotes included these three and also journalist Paddy McGuiness, swimmer Dawn Fraser and footballer Wayne Pearce.

Darcy also expressed his enthusiasm for the history and heritage of inner west suburbs beyond Balmain. He expressed surprise that his proposals to re-brand the Norton St precinct in Leichhardt as ‘Little Italy’ and the entire Council area as the “national capital of arts and culture”, have proved controversial.