trust news november 2015

TRUSTV

OL

UM

E 9

N

O 4

NO

VE

MB

ER

20

15

NATIONAL TRUST

news Australia

CAMPAIGN AT FISHERMANS BEND

NATIONAL ANZAC CENTRE ANNIVERSARY

UNESCO RECOGNITION

HERITAGE FESTIVAL CALL FOR EVENTS

301086 I N S I D E >

With 32 years of exploratory air touring throughout the continent, Magnificent Australia Heritage Air Tour Pty Limited has created for National Trust members an extraordinary itinerary of remote Australia and the founder and director of these tours, David Marks has been acknowledged as the pioneer of modern day air touring in Australia.

During the “dry season” - July and August 2016, two only departures will realize lifelong ambitions to experience a vast expanse of Australia, visiting destinations of world importance for wilderness and cultural heritage. The diverse and exciting itinerary includes specially arranged visits to ancient rock art sites in the Kimberley and in stone country of western Arnhemland. Also included is a rare opportunity for cultural exchange with Aboriginal saltwater people in remote eastern Arnhemland. Extensive surface touring by vehicle and boat on inland waterways is provided with expert or informed commentary.

Magnificent Australia Heritage Air Tour Pty Limited

Level 57, MLC Centre, Martin Place, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2000

Phone: (02) 9230 7070 Fax: (02) 9238 7633

Email: [email protected]

www.dreamtimebyair.com.au

NATIONAL TRUST MEMBERS PRICE

EXCLUSIVE SUBSTANTIAL DISCOUNT

ON PUBLISHED FARE

NATIONAL TRUST MEMBERS WANTING TO JOIN EITHER OF THE TWO DEPARTURES ARE URGED TO APPLY WITHOUT DELAY

TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT, AS EACH DEPARTURE IS LIMITED TO 17 PASSENGERS.ENQUIRIES AND BROCHURE:

2 D E PA R T U R E S

July 16 & August 21

15 DAYS 17 SEATS

PER DEPARTURE

Magnificent Australia

Heritage Air Tour 2016L I M I T E D A V A I L A B I L I T Y

3 TRUST NEWS AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 2015

14

6

20 24

8 12

ISSN: 1835-2316

Vol 9 No 4 2015

Trust News is published quarterly for National Trust members and subscribers in February, May, August and November.

Publication is coordinated by the National Trust of Australia (WA) on behalf of the

National Trusts of Australia and supported by the Department of Environment.

National Trust of Australia (WA)ABN 83 697 381 616

PO Box 1162West Perth WA 6872

T: 08 9321 6088 F: 08 9324 1571W:www.ntwa.com.au

Editor: Gina [email protected]

T: 08 9321 6088

Advertising: For advertising rates, contact the Editor.

Design: Dessein Graphics

Cover: Cape Jaffa Lighthouse erecting drawing No 1 c1860. NTSA

Next Issue: February 2016 Copy deadline:10 November 2015

Please help us to save our environment and circulate this magazine as widely as possible. This magazine is printed on recyclable paper

and packed in 100% degradable wrap.The views expressed in Trust News are not

necessarily those of the National Trusts or the Department of Environment. The articles in

this magazine are subject to copyright. No article may be used without the consent

of the National Trust and the author.

my WO R D with editor Gina Pickering

In this edition of Trust News Australia,

A colourful campaign to recognise the compelling industrial history of Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend as plans for redevelopment advance.

Outstanding adaptive reuse delivers international UNESCO recognition and a leading Cancer Wellness Centre for the community. There’s a new chapter for South Australia’s curious Cape Jaffa Lighthouse.

Also in this edition, we consider the National Trust’s history of persuasion and potential influence in heritage. The National ANZAC Centre celebrates a successful first anniversary and a new visitor experience creates pandemonium in Tasmania’s horror ‘Tench’ .

Gina Pickering | Editor

Inside

4 Realising a heritage commitment

5 Right of Reply The Future of Heritage Protection

5 Stories held at home

6 Changing the pulse of an industrial heart

7 Lottery future for Heritage funding

8 A deeply personal connection

10 International recognition for WANSLEA

11 Family Fun in the trees

12 Power and persuasion

14 Keeping a beacon shining

16 Breathing Life into Hidden Stories

18 A personal touch for an Old School

20 Pandemonium at ‘The Tench’

22 The fear of fakery and realities of restoration

24 Eurilla: A joy of restoration

26 Raising the Roof

27 Kelso Field Rising

28 Masters’ Students visiting from Zhejiang University, China

30 Stitched With Love

Realising a heritage commitmentGREG HUNT MP | MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Heritage is a major priority for this Government, as well as being a great personal interest of mine. It forms

one of the five foundation pillars underpinning our environment policy and I am absolutely committed to

securing the future of this sector during my time as Environment Minister.

That is why on coming to government my priority was the completion of an Australian Heritage Strategy, which will provide direction and a strong framework for the heritage sector over the coming decade and beyond. We are in the final stages of completing the Strategy and I hope to be able to share it with you in the coming months.

In the meantime, it was my great pleasure recently to announce almost $9 million in funding for 18 of our most iconic National Heritage sites.

Grants of up to $1 million each will fund vital conservation work and other activities aimed at enhancing visitor experience at these important sites.

The grants were made through the Australian Government’s Protecting National Historic Sites program to places that help define our nation’s history.

The Austral ian War Memorial, the former High Court of Australia, Woolmers Estate in Tasmania and the Hyde Park Barracks are among the key heritage-listed sites to receive funding through the grants.

Other successful projects include:• conservation work on the

Convict Workshops at Cockatoo Island (NSW)

• conservation works and development of public education and interpretation resources on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme (WA)

• archaeological research, i n v e s t i g a t i o n s , a n d conservation works to the historical graves within the Third Quarantine Cemetery (NSW)

• conservation works and the development of a cultural hub at the Rippon Lea House and Gardens (VIC).

The Australian Government has also recently funded a significant number of our outstanding National Heritage places under the Community Heritage and Icons Grants program.

This program has provided 30 groups including historical societies, Indigenous groups, National Trusts and ‘Friends-of’ groups with grants of up to $10,000 each.

Over $300,000 has been provided to raise awareness of community connections to local national heritage places and support opportunities to celebrate both the local and national significance.

Funding has enabled projects such as the development of an interpretive heritage walking trail at the Porongurup National Park, the development of a ‘heritage toolkit’ for the City of Broken Hill and the filming of a play about the people involved with the building of the Old Great North Road.

I expect to call new funding rounds under both programs before the end of this year.

I am delighted to work with local communities to ensure that our heritage places are protected for future generations.

FURTHER INFORMATION: https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/grants-and-funding

4TRUST NEWS AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 2015

ABOVE Woolmers Estate, Tasmania part of the World Heritage Listed Australian Convict Sites. Department of the EnvironmentBOTTOM The former Mess Hall on Cockatoo Island part of the World Heritage Listed Australian Convict Sites. Department of the Environment

PE R S PE C T I V E S

RIGHT OF REPLY

The Future of Heritage Protection

GREG HUNT MP | MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

In the last edition of Trust News, Queensland Senator Larissa Waters alleged that the

Australian Government is trying to weaken federal powers for the protection of Australia’s national heritage places. This could not be further from the truth.

Heritage is one of the five pillars underpinning our environment policy: Clean Air, Clean Land, Clean Water, Heritage Protection and Cities. I am absolutely committed to preserving our heritage and to ensuring that current protections remain in place.

The Australian Government is committed to delivering a One-Stop Shop for environmental approvals that will eliminate the duplication and delay caused by projects having to be assessed twice, at both state and federal level.

This process will accredit state planning systems under national environmental law, to create a single environmental assessment and approval process for nationally protected matters.

In practical terms this means that a single regulator will have responsibility for considering all state and nationally significant environmental matters— including heritage protection.

While there are some who would wilfully misrepresent this as a lowering of heritage and environmental protection standards, in fact the reverse is true. To receive the benefits of a single streamlined environmental approval process, state and territory governments must ensure that their own legislation, practices and processes provide an equivalent or greater level of protection for national heritage places than is currently provided under the Federal Government’s Environment Protection

and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

LEFT Green Turtle swimming over a coral reef with sunburst overhead at Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef. David Harasti

Stories held at home

ALICE CURTAIN

Last year I committed to extensive research into my house and the stories of the people who inhabited it over the past

110 years for the National History Challenge. The research opened my eyes to the history of my home and of Hobart. I explored the lives of three families, along with what Hobart was like in their time. I particularly wanted to look into history in a personal way, and to show others that history is all around us, in our homes, schools and towns.

My house is in New Town, Tasmania, and when renovating the early 20th century building, I discovered a variety of personal items left by its previous inhabitants. All these objects were found behind the fireplaces and included letters, cards, a World War Two ration book, coins, newspaper clippings, a photograph and a box of pills. These items sparked my interest into the history of the 1905-built house.

I discovered the stories of the people who owned them with the help of LINC – the Tasmanian archives. These objects not only gave me an insight to my house, but also transformed the way I viewed Hobart over time.

The people who built and first lived in the house were the Burrows family: Samuel Hurst Burrows and Annie Maria Elizabeth Propsting, perhaps with some of their six children. They resided there from 1905 till 1920. Only four years after Federation, building a house would have been a fresh start, along with the birth of modern Australia. The early 20th Century saw a shift away from the traditional agricultural primary industries towards industrialisation. Innovative changes followed such as a new public library, the Hobart-Launceston telephone line and the Hobart General Post Office.

Ellis Mace and Dorothy May Dick resided in the house from 1921 to 1930. There were only a few records of Ellis from the Boer War. But they interested me the most, with a photograph presumably of Dorothy, Ellis and their dog at New Town Bay. During the Roaring Twenties the economy of Hobart continued to rise, with new factories being built. The people of Hobart were changing their perspectives to more contemporary ways after the end of the First World War. The Maces were part of this 1920s change.

The last family I researched were the Ainsworths who lived in the house from 1931 till 1945. Leslie Ainsworth – the father of the family - served in both the First and Second World Wars and I was fortunate enough to meet a person who knew Leslie’s daughter, Pat Ainsworth, and she shared stories of when they were at school together.

Personal items and estates hold many stories that are waiting to be discovered, and these stories, which we discover and retell, are what preserve people and families forever in our memory.


TOP Alice Curtain, National History Challenge winner, with the range of personal objects found behind the fireplaces of a New Town home in Tasmania. R. FarrowBOTTOM Alice Curtain’s house. Brown and Banks Real Estate.


Changing the pulse of an industrial heart

FELICITY WATSON | SENIOR COMMUNITY ADVOCATE, NATIONAL TRUST (VIC)

Ask a Melburnian if they have ever been to

Fishermans Bend, and chances are they have

only glimpsed it from the Westgate Freeway.

Despite its central location, between the CBD

and Port Melbourne, this 450-hectare area has

largely been out of sight and out of mind since

European settlement.

Part of the Yarra River delta, the low-lying area was originally comprised of swamps, wetlands

and sand ridges, and frequented by the people of the Kulin nation. Following European settlement, the area’s status as an apparent wasteland and proximity to the burgeoning city made it the perfect place for Melbourne’s unwanted, rife with waste dumping, noxious trades and slums for the dispossessed and homeless. In the years following World War I however, Fishermans Bend became a hub for aviation and car manufacturing, industries which still characterise the area today.

Melbourne’s industrial heart is set to be reinvented as the site of the biggest

urban renewal plan in Australia’s history. Expected to accommodate up to 80,000 residents by 2050, the area is already a target for property speculation. With this in mind, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is waging a campaign for the recognition of the Fishermans Bend’s rich heritage, which remains largely unprotected.

Most recently, the Trust has campaigned for the protection of an Art Deco factory complex on Salmon Street, the precinct’s grand boulevard of manufacturing. When the site was recently sold to a developer, the National Trust commissioned heritage consultant Simon Reeves to investigate its history. Research has revealed its compelling historical significance. Originally constructed as an experimental tank depot in 1941 the site was later used for assembling Rootes and Chrysler cars.

ABOVE The Directorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles Production at Fishermans Bend. Defence Science & Technology Group TOP RIGHT Fishermans Bend, c1939–1945. Albert Tucker Photographic Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art & State Library of Victoria (H2008.98/497)CENTRE The interior of the experimental tank workshop. Defence Science & Technology Group RIGHT Car collectors at the National Trust’s Fishermans Bend campaign launch with vehicles that were assembled in the Art Deco factory. F Watson/NTVic



Lottery future for Heritage funding

ERIC HUTCHINSON | FEDERAL MEMBER FOR LYONS

THERE is a public conversation going on in Tasmania that could

provide a solution nationally to the constant struggle to fund heritage and the arts.

Australia needs a national heritage and arts lottery and the response from the broader community involved in heritage restoration, conservation and maintenance as well as the arts indicates that such a solution would be well received.

The electorate of Lyons is home to many of Tasmania’s most valuable heritage sites in a state which has more built heritage sites than any other in the country.

In Lyons alone, there are five built World Heritage sites related to our convict history at the Woolmers and Brickendon estates, at Longford, Darlington on Maria Island, the Coal Mines on the Tasman Peninsula and, of course, Port Arthur, the most recognisable to most Australians.

Many of these lesser known sites are on private land or are the responsibility of local councils or community groups which do not have access to the funds needed to care for these precious sites.

Yet Australia’s heritage, both built and natural, has huge, still untapped tourism potential while needing to be maintained in its own right.

In the past few months, a conversation at state and national level has been going on to see what people think about a national lottery for built heritage and the arts.

Funds from a source like this would be additional for special projects that would currently fall through the cracks.

The United Kingdom has run successful lotteries for the arts, heritage and sport for more than 20 years.

Since 1994, the UK has raised an average of three hundred and seventy million pounds or about

$700 million annually. The money has been used for a huge range of projects including the restoration of 17,000 properties, 900 parks and 70 railway engines.

Western Australia has had its own lottery for nearly a decade which mostly supports the film sector.

Australia’s arts icon, the Sydney Opera House, was funded by a lottery.

There are many projects in Tasmania which could benefit such as the historic Willow Court at New Norfolk in the Derwent Valley considered one of the best examples of an asylum in Australia.

The Derwent Valley Concert Band is a wonderful community band which self-funds irregularly to tour overseas.

One of its most successful concert tours was to Copenhagen to play at community events for the wedding of the former Tasmanian Princess Mary and Prince Frederick of Denmark.

The idea of a national heritage and arts lottery has in-principle support from Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt.

Arts Minister George Brandis confirmed in his capacity as Attorney General that there is no constitutional impediment to such a lottery in Australia.

Eric Hutchinson is the inaugural chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of History and Heritage and has presented this idea to the group for discussion.

The National Trust’s campaign was launched in spectacular fashion with a car rally outside the factory, where collectors of Rootes and Chrysler vehicles from across Victoria brought their treasured cars back to the place where they rolled off the production line.

As a result of publicity generated by this event, more information has emerged about the tank facility housed in the building from 1941 to 1943, including an album of rare photographs illustrating the tank manufacturing process from the drawing phase to casting and assembling. While the defence program was ultimately unsuccessful, with no tanks seeing active service, it was a turning point in Australian vehicle manufacturing as the first attempt to design and produce a vehicle locally. The Trust’s campaign has prompted the Victorian government to commit to re-examining heritage in Fishermans Bend.

ABOVE Fishermans Bend house, Albert Tucker SLV


ABOVE Federal Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson (at left) with Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Woolmers chairman Peter Rae on a tour of World Heritage listing Woolmers, near Longford in northern Tasmania. Office of Eric Hutchinson

I N N OVAT I O N

A deeply personal connectionRUSSELL BISHOP

From its commanding vantage point on Mt Adelaide

overlooking Albany’s glorious waterways, the new National Anzac Centre is

set to mark its first anniversary this month as a resounding success.


I N N OVAT I O N

W I N N E R Best Heritage Tourisim Precinct 2015

ABOVE A video wall presents service documentation and images of those who served.RIGHT Visitors select a character to follow during their time at the Centre (Images courtesy of the National Anzac Centre)

ABOVE The National Anzac Centre is dedicated to recognising the Anzacs of the First World War.

The centrepiece of Albany Heritage Park, which was

named Western Australia’s Best Heritage Tourism Precinct in 2015, the National ANZAC Centre had attracted more than 70,000 visitors by mid-September, far exceeding expectations.

Testament to the quality of the experience on offer at the Centre, nearly one in three of the visitors who journeyed to Albany, five hours drive south of Perth, came from interstate and overseas.

“We knew the National Anzac Centre was going to be special, but we didn’t know just how special it would be,” says Cameron Woods, Manager of Albany Heritage Park.

“The Anzac Centenary has inspired a great many Australians and New Zealanders to reflect upon the sacrifices of the ANZACs, and the National Anzac Centre is a natural national focal point for that reflection.”

Since last November, the Centre has also earned a maximum five star rating after more than 300 visitor reviews on the global TripAdvisor website.

Born from an idea by the local RSL sub-branch, funded by state and federal governments and managed by the City of Albany, the National ANZAC Centre opened in November 2014 to coincide with the centenary of the departure of the first convoys of Australian ships heading to World War One.

A key objective for the curators involved in designing the Centre was to offer visitors a deeply personal connection to the experiences of the 41,265 servicemen and women who passed through Albany in those convoys to help forge the ANZAC tradition.

The site for the Centre, within the Princess Royal Fortress, has dramatic views across Princess Royal Harbour, Ataturk Channel and King George Sound where the convoys assembled.

Inside, the Centre features innovative, interactive multimedia displays and a comprehensive collection of artefacts including rare film and photos.

One of the most popular offerings at the museum are

special ‘character cards’ which visitors select to follow

the fortunes of 32 individuals – including ANZACS

and others who participated in theatres of war in

Gallipoli, Palestine, Sinai and the Western Front.

“Near the end of the National Anzac Centre experience visitors discover the fate of ‘their’ character – which is a very emotional experience for many people,” says Mr Cameron.

“Visitors have also praised the fact that the Centre does not gloss over the horrors that the ANZACs experienced.”

For Albany, the stunning visitor reaction to the Centre has helped put the City’s pivotal role in hosting the first WW1 convoys back into the national psyche in Australia and New Zealand.

“The Centre has a very strong reputation already as a must-see experience and continues to receive high acclaim from visitors,” says Mr Cameron.


ABOVE Some of the service personnel featured during the National Anzac Centre experience.

I N N OVAT I O N

International recognition for WANSLEAKELLY RIPPINGALE | CONSERVATION ARCHITECT NATIONAL TRUST (WA)

The recently conserved and adapted National Trust property Wanslea Cancer Wellness Centre in the Perth

beachside suburb of Cottesloe has been recognised at this year’s UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural

Heritage Conservation gaining an honourable mention in the esteemed international awards.

It was shortlisted for nomination for the UNESCO Awards following its win at the 2015 Western Australian Heritage Awards, where it

received the prestigious Gerry Gauntlett Award for Conservation or Adaptive Reuse of a State Registered place.

Wanslea was the only Australian project to receive a conservation award at this year’s UNESCO Awards. Port Arthur Penitentiary in Tasmania was recognised with an award in the New Design in Heritage Contexts category.

The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation program recognises the efforts of private individuals and organisations who have successfully restored and conserved structures and buildings of heritage value.

“The UNESCO judges said the restoration of the heritage-listed Wanslea to house various cancer support and assistance groups is notable for its sensitive approach to embracing and articulating the multi-layered history of the site,” Heritage Minister Albert Jacob said.

The judges said the project had retained and rejuvenated all the existing buildings in the compound using a thoughtful conservation process.

This year, three WA projects competed against 36 entries from across the Asia-Pacific region.


I N N OVAT I O N

ABOVE Wanslea Cancer Wellness Centre received international attention for a sensitive approach to its complex history. INSET Library resource facilities. RIGHT Bannister and stained glass detail. (Images by Robert Frith/Acorn Photography)

Family Fun in the treesSAM MISTRAL | CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

One of Queensland’s major National Trust properties has introduced

tree-swinging, branch-dangling family fun to its environment.

New to the grounds of the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

in 2015, TreeTop Challenge is an exciting aerial, adventure-based activity for all ages, with courses designed to test every fitness level and get your adrenalin pumping. With 80 huge TreeTop Challenges, including eleven insane ziplines – such as the awesome Croc Shock where you literally zipline over crocodiles – the experiences promise to deliver an unforgettable day of thrills, action and adventure.

The TreeTop Challenge is Australia’s first adventure theme park in the trees and has been open for adventures in Queensland since April 2007 and took to the trees of Currumbin earlier this year.

A family company headed up by Max and Julie Taylor and their sons Luke, David and Stephen, TreeTop Challenge has seen a tremendous growth in customer numbers and satisfaction since taking over the adventure park at Mt Tamborine.

“We love our customers, and aim to give them the most fulfilling adventure experience on the Gold Coast,” Max said.

Since taking over the course at Currumbin, TreeTop Challenge staff, under the leadership of advanced rigger Steve Taylor, have completely refurbished the course. This has involved replacing more than two kilometres of safety cable, re-stringing all flying foxes to carry a new, faster pulley, rebuilding the platforms, and installing landing ramps on all these ziplines.

Visitors encounter five large courses while traversing through pristine bushland high up in the Currumbin treetops. If you pay close attention you may catch a glimpse of a Tasmanian devil or be thrilled by the eerie howl of an alpine dingo as you pass high above their enclosure. The TreeTop Challenge is ideal for families and groups, with something to challenge people of any fitness level.

National Trust of Australia (QLD) Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is an iconic Gold Coast tourist destination where you can enjoy exciting, interactive displays as well as presentations and dining experiences. National Trust members from Queensland benefit from free access to this great family destination with members from other states receiving entry at half price. Nestled within 27 hectares of lush eucalyptus and rain forest, each day the Sanctuary brings visitors face to face with extraordinary wildlife in shows and encounters.

National Trust of Australia (QLD) Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary houses an onsite wildlife hospital and works closely with the community, private and government organizations in matters of research and development of conservation projects essential to saving Australian native wildlife.


ABOVE There is a range of aerial adventures and zipline challenges to choose from that suit every fitness level. CENTRE Anticipating the TreeTop experienceRIGHT Enjoying a new zipline perspective of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. (Images courtesy of TreeTop)

I N N OVAT I O N

ANGELA LE SUEUR | NATIONAL TRUST (NSW)

The National Trust came into being in 1945 to protect heritage at risk.

Today this role is as important as ever, although the challenge has

broadened from the early days when urgent, direct action to prevent

demolition was so often necessary.

The introduction of heritage legislation and listings in the

1970s has changed the nature of threats to heritage, necessitating increasingly complex negotiations to ensure that respect for heritage is integral to planning and development as towns and cities grow and modernise. The Trust frequently works in partnership with other community and professional groups and individuals to protect heritage from threats including demolition, u n s y m p at h e t i c s t r u c t u r a l

change or uses, overshadowing, unacceptable compromise to context and the like, harnessing the concerns of a public now highly aware of the value of heritage to achieve results which work for everyone. It aims to foster strong communications with government at all levels, to put forward the voice of the community and provide professional advice to developers and decision-makers. In this, the Trust has the support of its technical committees, whose specialist expertise is invaluable.

The early days of the Trust in New South Wales saw on-the-street campaigns to save iconic colonial heritage, bushland reserves on the outskirts of Sydney, and inner-city suburbs which were threatened by demolition as the

Power and persuasion


TOP Proposed 271 m high tower at Barangaroo, Darling Harbour, Sydney. Image Source – Wilkinson Eyre, ArchitectsBOTTOM RIGHT St Paul’s Anglican Church, Carcoar (1845), designed by Edmund Thomas Blacket. NTNSW

C ATA LY S T

city struggled to become ‘modern’. Waving placards and lying down in front of bulldozers was de rigeur. While the NSW Heritage Act (1977) and bodies gathered to implement it and clamp down hard on unlawful demolition or wilful neglect, it didn’t bring the universal protection envisaged. Sometimes it was just too hard to police – many things just fell over, or were burnt down in the night. Once they were gone the damage was done.

The National Trust increasingly switched its approach from campaigns which some people might have termed ‘belligerent’, to a much softer, multi-directional approach designed to encourage communities and individuals to share the responsibility for taking care of heritage. Education has been a key part of this, both targeting school students with structured programs designed to raise awareness and enthusiasm, and the wider public, with walks, talks, exhibitions and other events featuring heritage properties, stories and traditions.

The Trust positions itself as a centre of professional expertise and advice largely thanks to its expert technical committees. Experts in specialist fields work at a strategic level to extend protection for lesser known categories of heritage, while evaluating specific proposals and offering comment and advice.

A major tool has been the NSW National Trust Register which now includes statements of significance and other relevant information about nearly 12,000 heritage items throughout the state. It includes everything from ferries to factories,

from toys to gardens. Although it doesn’t carry statutory weight, it is highly regarded by government, de ve lop e r s a n d t h e community as identifying items we can’t afford to lose.

Today, as regional centres such as Newcastle and Parramatta face redevelopment which could change the face of their historic core, the Trust is engaged in dialogue with decision-makers and the community to persuade government and developers to understand the value of sight-lines, curtilages, layers and mixes of elements in the urban environment. The process to save industrial heritage on Sydney’s rising Barangaroo site has been ongoing since the early days of planning. Other issues in New South Wales include the coal seam gas mining of prime agricultural and heritage areas and the impact the proposed WestConnex transportation system will have on inner city suburbs. The Trust is also protesting in disbelief at the recent announcement of the disbanding of the NSW Government Architect’s Office

and NSW Public Works Stoneyard – institutions responsible for the development and maintenance of iconic structures in Sydney and regional centres throughout the state and about to celebrate a Bicentenary in 2016.

There are wins and losses and outcomes sometimes take years – but a successful result may save decades, centuries and even millennia of history and heritage for present and future generations.


TOP RIGHT Jack Mundey arrested during a protest in The Rocks, January 1973. NTNSWBOTTOM RIGHT St James Church, King Street, Sydney – designed by Greenway and consecrated in 1824. NTNSW

C ATA LY S T

ABOVE Cape Jaffa Lighthouse level 1, Office signal room (4 rooms). NTSATOP Lighthouse Plan for relocation. NTSATOP RIGHT Cape Jaffa Lighthouse prisms and light.NTSA

Another chapter is being written in the history of the

Cape Jaffa Lighthouse at Kingston in South Australia,

with a major conservation project underway.

Since the 1600s, Australia’s perilous coastline has seen more than 8,000 shipwrecks. Throughout the nineteenth

century and well into the twentieth, lighthouses offered the only protection from disaster.

The wreck of the Admella in 1859, in which 86 lives were lost, on a reef near Cape Northumberland in South Australia highlighted the dangers of the state’s south-east coastline. In 1865, it was decided to build a lighthouse on the Margaret Brock reef, named for the vessel sunk there in 1852, 8km off the coast of Cape Jaffa and about 300km south-east of Adelaide. A ‘screw pile’ design, featuring wrought iron foundations screwed into the reef, was chosen, with a two-ton crystal lens lit by a kerosene burner that would be visible for 40km.

The Cape Jaffa lighthouse took three years to build due to the difficulty of the offshore location. When complete, it stood more than 40m above the reef and included an eight-room dwelling for two lighthouse keepers and their families. By 1872 it was operational and for 100 years it kept its watch.

Keeping a beacon

shiningDR DARREN PEACOCK | CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

NATIONAL TRUST (SA)


C ATA LY S T

ABOVE Cape Jaffa Lighthouse. NTSATOP RIGHT Cape Jaffa Lighthouse, detail. NTSARIGHT Cape Jaffa Lighthouse and part of jetty. 1910. NTSA

Tragedy struck again in 1966 when both lighthouse keepers disappeared from the reef. Shortly after, the Federal Government announced it would close the lighthouse. In 1973 a new automatic light was installed further south at Robe.

The closure of the lighthouse inspired one of the most ambitious salvage operations the National Trust has undertaken. Verne McLaren and a group of volunteers from the Kingston branch resolved to preserve the lighthouse by disassembling it and reconstructing it on land. They persuaded the Federal Government to donate the lighthouse to the National Trust in 1974, and began a task almost as difficult as was its original construction. By 1976 the project was complete and the relocated lighthouse was opened to the public.

In the 40 years since then, it has been a major tourism drawcard. However, exposure to the elements has corroded the lighthouse’s metal bolts and stripped its paint, and it urgently needs refurbishing if the whole structure is not to be lost.

The National Trust of South Australia has launched a fundraising appeal to support the restoration and conservation of the lighthouse. The Kingston District Council has generously offered to meet half the cost if the National Trust can match those funds. Please consider donating to the appeal.

VISIT www. saheritagefoundation.com.au/appeals/cape-jaffa-lighthouse


C ATA LY S T

CONSERVATION Restoration Appeal

http://www.saheritagefoundation.com.au/capejaffa

DR AMANDA GARDINER | POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Interpersonal violence between a mother and her baby is confronting and little documentation survives to provide evidence of the lived experiences of colonial women who committed infanticide. Many of the women were not literate, so they could not record their experiences in their own words. As these cases occurred within narratives of secrecy and abuse of power, compounded by experiences of sexual trauma or indiscretion, their crimes have been submerged under fear and shame.

Breathing Life into

Hidden Stories


C O N N E C T I O N S

ABOVE The case of Lottie Dryden in the Police Occurrence Book for Coolgardie Station (14 August 1895 - 6 January 1896). CONS463 Item 3 SRO

Women who committed infanticide are a secretive

part of our colonial Western Australian heritage. New research into this complex crime, an art exhibition and a partnership with the National Trust in Western Australia which invites artists to respond to the stories uncovered, seek to provide new awareness and empathy around a sensitive aspect of colonial history.

Infanticide is the crime of killing of a baby younger than one year of

age by their genetic mother. As part of the archival research for my

PhD thesis Sex, Death and Desperation, I investigated cases of

infanticide that occurred in Australia from non-Aboriginal

colonisation in 1829, to federation in 1901. Over the timeframe of

the project, 55 documented cases linked to infanticide occurred in

Western Australia.

A wide range of case studies was uncovered including young girls in their early teens and married women in their mid-40s. However, the link between all of their stories was the concept of ‘illegitimacy’. Other striking similarities between the cases were that most of the women concealed their pregnancies, many gave birth completely alone, and a majority of the small communities that these women lived in claimed that they did not know the woman was pregnant in the first place.

Women in the past who had children outside of marriage were shamed and ostracised. There were few options available for them to support themselves and their children as single mothers.

Because the disgrace and taboo of illegitimacy were borne by women and their children, this crime also highlights the social structures that were in place to protect men.

I n r e s p o n s e t o t h e overwhelming nature of this crime, my research seeks to breathe life into these stories as a

way of developing empathy and a deeper understanding about why infanticide occurs in the first place, while developing understanding of the motivations behind the incidences of infanticide that continue to occur in the present.

My current project The Spaces Between Us invites artists from a range of disciplines to engage with the colonial case studies uncovered to produce a curated exhibition at the Bunbury Museum & Heritage Centre, south of Perth later next year.

As an extension of the project, I am exploring an exhibition in collaboration with the National Trust in Western Australia which will culminate in a performance and exhibition at the historically significant East Perth Cemeteries as part of the 2017 National Trust Heritage Festival.


ABOVE (L-R) Dr Amanda Gardiner project leader, Sarah Murphy, National Trust of Australia (WA) Director of Conservation, artist Simon Gilby and photographer Eva Fernandez visited East Perth Cemeteries to inform the exhibition The Spaces Between Us and explore the rare locations offered at these highly intact colonial cemeteries. G PickeringBOTTOM St Bartholomew’s was the only mortuary chapel constructed in Western Australia and was later converted to a parish church. S Murphy


A personal touch for an Old SchoolGINA PICKERING | EDITOR

Old Perth Boys’ School in St Georges Terrace Perth is undergoing transformation into new city premises

for Curtin University. National Trust conservation architects and interpretation staff are working closely

with a Curtin team to produce a fit out that’s both inspiring and functional for what was, in 1854, Western

Australia’s first Government School. The National Trust

invested more than $1 million in conservation work to the

exterior of the building in 2011 and the work carried out

now will take the only remaining colonial building in the

City of Perth into a significant future with a leading

international tertiary institution and a long term lease.


TOP Preparing the interior of Old Perth Boys’ School. G PickeringABOVE Sarah Murphy, Director of Conservation with the original 1948 drawing of Old Perth Boys’ School by Herbert Watson Jones. G PickeringRIGHT Herbert Watson Jones. First Boys School, 1948, watercolour (detail) on paper, 70 x 90 cm


There are economic, environmental and social benefits connected with this deal. Curtin has ties

to predecessor institutions which occupied the site including Perth Technical College and the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT).

There are many histories associated with this place, including links to the Noongar nations, educational outcomes, leadership, courage, exceptional artists and everyday students too. Outstanding is the continuity of meetings, education and innovation at this site. Timing is everything and as the project unfolded the National Trust was contacted by the son of a former Technical College student who had a beautifully executed scale drawing of Old Perth Boys’ School.

Mark Metternick-Jones said the drawing was completed by his father Herbert Watson Jones as part of his architecture studies in June 1948 – almost 100 years after the original school was built.

“Dad had taken up the course following the Second World War when returning soldiers were encouraged to study and were provided assistance by the government to do so. He later went on to lecture at the Perth Technical College and continued after the course was transferred to WAIT at Bentley,” he said.

“There would have been hours of painstaking work to draw and then complete with watercolour wash only to have the marker stamp on the drawing, ‘Department of Architecture, Technical College, Perth’ and the mark written onto the stamp.”

The drawing received a score of five, but no one is sure at this stage if this is out of five, ten or more and in 2015 it doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is the drawing has a beautiful aesthetic to it and provides access to a range of values associated with the significance of Old Perth Boys’ School including the convict labour, Gothic architecture, national reconstruction, art and the value of learning.

It will be a key element of the new design and interpretation at Old Perth Boys’ School which will be completed for the new year.

Community connections are a vital benefit of National Trust places and contributions such as the Jones’ architectural drawing bring a very personal touch to places that are valued for present and future generations.


TOP The first weeks were spent stripping old paint and then freshening with a new coat. G PickeringRIGHT Herbert Watson Jones. First Boys School, 1948, watercolour on paper, 70 x 90 cm


Pandemonium at ‘The Tench’BECKY SHRIMPTON | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER NATIONAL TRUST (TAS)

In the early 1830s, a service in the chapel of the Van Diemen’s Land Prisoners’

Barracks Penitentiary (shortened by inmates to ‘The Tench’) would have

been a far from serene and holy experience.

The building, in the shape of a cruciform, was designed by John Lee Archer to make

additional space for the growing number of convicts arriving in Van Diemen’s Land and included 36 solitary confinement punishment cells beneath the Chapel floor.

The smallest of these brick ‘Dust Hole’ cells was only 70cm high. So dark and airless were these spaces that by 1847 they were declared inhumane and sealed up.

Above the cells, some 1000 convicts were crowded onto hard wooden benches in the east and west wings, while the north wing was opened up to the overflow congregation from a nearby church. Not surprisingly, there were complaints about the lack of ventilation and the terrible and unsightly noises coming from chained convicts below the chapel floor.


ABOVE Convict marks in Penitentiary brickwork. G PickeringRIGHT The Penitentiary Chapel, Hobart. NTTas

P L AC E S

Linus W. Miller, a 22-year-old American lawyer who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land as a state prisoner from Canada, describes the Divine Service as follows:

“On looking about me, I could not discover more than twelve, among

twelve hundred prisoners, who appeared to be taking any notice of the

service. Some were spinning yarns, some playing at pitch and toss, some

gambling with cards; several were crawling about under the benches, selling

candy, tobacco, &c., and one fellow carried a bottle of rum, which he was

serving out in small quantities to those who had an English sixpence to give

for a small wine-glass full. Disputes occasionally arose which ended in a

blow or kick; but in these cases the constables, who were present to maintain

order, generally felt called upon to interfere. If any resistance was offered to

their authority the culprit was seized by the arm and collar, dragged out of

the church and thrust into the cells beneath.”

Fast forward to the end of 2015, and visitors to The Tench will get a sense of that pandemonium thanks to a major grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund and the input of Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart - an academic expert on convict life in Australia who teaches History and Classics at the University of Tasmania – and the work of Roar Film, an innovative Tasmanian interactive digital media, film and television company.

Roar Films have been working with Professor Maxwell-Stewart on a number of related projects such as ‘Founders and Survivors Storylines’ - a multi-faceted broadcast and online experience that springs from one of the world’s great historical studies of immigration, forced labour and settlement, following 73,000 men, women and children who were transported to Tasmania.

The Pandemonium multi-media experience is planned to go live around Christmas and online bookings will be available through the National Trust of Tasmania’s online booking website nationaltrusttas.rezdy.com

There will be a discount for National Trust members.

It’s intended to complement the other popular experiences at The Tench including the fascinating day tours led by National Trust volunteers (free for NT members), night-time ghost tours and the ‘No Mercy’ living history convict drama.

The Tench, voted 6th top landmark in Australia in the TripAdvisor People’s Choice Awards, is also available for conference cocktail functions and group activities.

FURTHER INFOMATION: [email protected]


RIGHT Exterior of ‘The Tench’ which will host new experiences for visitors. NTTas

P L AC E S

A Divine EXPERIENCE DOWN UNDER

http://nationaltrusttas.rezdy.com

mailto:[email protected]

The fear of fakery and realities of restoration GRAHAM QUINT | DIRECTOR ADVOCACY NATIONAL TRUST (NSW)

‘Restoration’ is the reconstruction or reproduction of a building

to its original state, or the process of re-establishing its original

integrity. In recent decades, the world has produced many outstanding examples of

restoration where seemingly irreplaceable structures and even whole townships have been raised from

the ashes following disasters such as war and other wanton destruction, fire and natural phenomena.

The desire to recreate what once was, to restore

memories, beauty, cultural and other significance is now seen across many different cultures, in outcomes which display an extraordinary level of ingenuity and skill.

The ravages of war are often followed by a keen need to rebuild, to wipe away the horror and put back what is valued. Some of the buildings and bridges listed as World Heritage are actually reproductions of earlier structures and not the originals. An example is the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina originally developed

in the 15th and 16th centuries, which was largely destroyed in the war of 1992 – 1995 and rebuilt from 1998.

During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, more than 85 percent of Warsaw’s historic centre dating from the 13th century was destroyed by Nazi troops. After the war, a five-year reconstruction campaign meticulously restored the Old Town, its churches, palaces and market-place. It is an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century.

In Japan in June 2011, a seven year, 1.3 billion yen restoration project was completed on the

1179 Kangiin Shodenzan Temple at Saitama north of Tokyo. Much of the wood was so damaged that craftsmen had to fill chipped or cracked wood with a mix of lacquer, sawdust and rice starch which was then whittled and sanded to the original shape.

A fire in April 2015 burned down the UK National Trust 1720s property ‘Clandon Park’ at Guildford, Surrey. Classic architecture and important historical artefacts were lost as the roof and floors collapsed into the building. The National Trust is now assessing the damage and determining a way forward for restoration works.


ABOVE Before and after. The old centre of Warsaw immediately post World War II and after restoration. G Quint

P L AC E S

Between the lines

REMEMBERING THE WARS: COMMEMORATION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITIES

AUTHORS: JOHN STEPHENS AND GRAHAM SEAL

PUBLISHER: BLACK SWAN PRESS, PERTH, 2015

REVIEWER: IAN REID

There are more than 900 war

memorials in Western Australia.

Less than half are monuments

– obelisks, statues, columns,

crosses, etc. The rest take various

forms, from flagpoles to arches, from flower

gardens to ‘honour avenues’ of trees, from utilitarian buildings

to ornamental windows, walls and gates.

The general function of all these memorials is obvious

enough: they remind us of past wars. But as John Stephens

and Graham Seal remark in the introduction to their admirably

detailed and amply illustrated survey of war memorials in this

state, each particular embodiment of remembrance reflects

a local community’s decision about ‘what to remember and

how to remember.’ The specific nature of the commemoration

differs subtly but importantly in different times and places.

Erected in King’s Park in 1902 to honour the 43 soldiers

from this region who died in the South African campaign,

the first WA war monument glorifies heroism and expresses

imperial pride. Memorials constructed after World War 1 tend

to reflect changes in attitude, as a shocked society tried to

make sense of the huge scale of suffering: more than 6000

Western Australians dead and many more physically and

mentally wounded.

Fierce arguments during the 1920s about whether to build

a State Memorial, and if so in what form, indicate how deeply

divided our postwar society became. The RSL and other groups

wanted a shrine to the men whose lives had been sacrificed,

while the Premier Philip Collier, speaking for those with a

contrary view, contended that a new hospital development

would be preferable to a ‘useless pile of stones.’ Many wanted

to forget the horrors of war and get on with their lives.

Is there anything distinctive about Australian memorials

and Western Australian memorials in particular? As K.S. Inglis

remarks in his magisterial work Sacred Places, the fact that

WW1 Australian soldiers were not conscripts (uniquely among

combatant countries) explains why our monuments to the

‘Great War’ usually list volunteers – those who served, whether

‘fallen’ or not. That is not the norm elsewhere. Our country,

having no national religion, also tends to favour memorials

that are not specifically Christian – such as obelisks; and if

it’s true, as Stephens and Seal say, that obelisks are especially

popular in WA, this may perhaps indicate a more pervasive

secularity in the west than in other states.

Part of the value of this timely book is that it raises many

such questions.

Earlier this year, the world watched aghast as the ancient city of Palmyra, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980, fell into the hands of Daesh. The desert oasis with its millennia of history, structures and artefacts was threatened with wanton destruction. Statues were desecrated and looting began. In May, the first to second century Temple of Bel fell victim, followed by the detonation in August of the Temple of Baalshamin.

Human tragedy was given a new focus by the beheading of Khaled al-Asaad, the elderly Syrian archaeologist who refused to reveal the location of Palmyra’s moveable heritage. The destruction of Bel was condemned by UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova, as an intolerable crime against civilisation, with the rider that 4,500 years of history cannot be thus razed. Taken literally, is it possible that the marvels of modern technology and skills could recreate for posterity this wonder of the world?

If the unthinkable were to occur to important historic properties in Australia would we follow the examples from Europe and Japan in restoring these properties? Do we have the expertise and skilled craftspeople?


ABOVE Japanese temple at Saitama. G Quint

P L AC E S

Eurilla: A joy of restoration

TIM SIMPSON | ARCHITECT

This is the story of a glorious rebirth. On a hot, windy day in February 1983, a huge fire swept through

Adelaide’s Mount Lofty Ranges, gutting most of the grand Victorian ‘summer homes’ built around

the Mt Lofty summit by well-established citizens to escape the seasonal heat of the plains.


TOP Eurilla is inviting in the evening light more than 130 years after it was constructed.LEFT TO RIGHT Sculptured gardens and detailed interiors of the Mt Lofty home. All images by Hiro Ishino. Ouwens Casserly Real Estate

One of these homes was ‘Eurilla’, a two-storied,

towered mansion built in 1884 of local stone for politician and merchant Sir William Milne. Designed by Edmund Wright in the ‘Free Victorian Classical’ style at which Wright was particularly adept, the elegant edifice looked eastwards from its luxuriant gardens over the Piccadilly Valley.

William Milne’s heirs sold the property in 1917 to Sir Lavington Bonython, whose son, Kym Bonython, was in residence at the time of the fire. Kym escaped the fire, famously, on his classic Benelli motorcycle, but not before watching from Eurilla’s back lawn the terrible destruction being

wrought by the fire. All that was left of the house after the fire were the walls, tower and a few hardy trees in the once-beautiful grounds, while the gatehouse and stables escaped the flames.

Kym Bonython and his family were able to restore the ground floor and some of the garden, but the remains of the upper walls were removed, and the tower was left derelict. Some years later, the Bonythons sold the property, and

it was eventually acquired by the present owners.

With impressive optimism, they took on the task of restoring the old mansion largely to its original state.

Edmund Wright’s drawings were found in the State Gallery of Victoria and with assistance from local architect, Nick Ingerson and builder Greg Mutton, the reconstruction of ‘Eurilla’ began.

New stone was sourced from overseas, the local quarry having been closed for years. Modern services were subtly incorporated in the new fabric and some alterations were made to the internal layout.

The house now features large,

impressively proportioned living and dining rooms, five spacious bedrooms and multiple bathrooms, with numerous studies, storerooms and a capacious cellar.

There are several quite breathtaking spaces: the entrance hall, entered from a portico beneath the tall tower, and flanked by the wide verandah stretching out to either side of the front door, is wide with a lofty ceiling that continues into the stair hall with

its interesting curved panelling and central chandelier. The broad staircase returns around the generous space to arrive at the soberly wainscoted upper floor with its bedrooms, studies and access to the quaint rooms within the tower.

Elsewhere, there is a kitchen worthy of a small hotel and a delightful conservatory with a view across the garden which is well on the way to regaining its botanical glory.

That this has been more a labour of love for a beautiful old building than a simple restoration is obvious and the property is now on the market, as it talented owners seek new challenges.

The renaissance of ‘Eurilla’ has taken time, and has involved many hands, none more than those of the present owners and their family, but the result is little short of miraculous. No-one would have thought on that shocking Ash Wednesday that the stately structure whose end seemed assured as flames consumed all but its blackened walls would ever rise again let alone more beautiful than before.


LEFT A warmly furnished lounge area.RIGHT An extensive dining room.

P L AC E S

Raising the RoofBECKY SHRIMPTON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | NATIONAL TRUST (TAS)

After many months of filling buckets and mopping floors, the

National Trust of Tasmania has commissioned the re-roofing of the

historic Clarendon House at Evandale in Northern Tasmania by

securing $261,000 in Australian Government funding under the

Tasmanian Jobs and Growth Package.

However a further $70,000 is desperately needed to

complete the roof repair and a crowd-funding campaign (https://chuffed.org/project/raisetheroof) and other initiatives have been launched to raise the remaining funds. Those who donate to the cause through the crowd-funding platform have the option of choosing from a range of ‘perks’ which, for larger donations, include exclusive use of the house and grounds for private functions.

The new roof will replace the roof installed at Clarendon in 1880, making this only the third roof in the property’s 200 years. Ten thousand Welsh slates have been imported. At the Trust’s request, an apprentice has been appointed to learn traditional roofing methods under a master craftsman.

There are some other benefits. Shaw Contracting has been contracted for the project and, at the Trust’s request, has appointed an apprentice assigned to learn traditional roofing methods under a master craftsman.

Once the roof is repaired, water damage to some of the upstairs rooms can be rectified and the property will continue to undergo its ongoing program of rejuvenation.

“Last year, the downstairs dining and drawing rooms were magnificently refurbished after a donation of furniture, paintings and objects from Australian

designer Ros Palmer. We’d like to continue this work throughout the house with other designers who have a passion for heritage,” said Matt Smithies, Trust Managing Director.

The house will be closed to the public until after Christmas while these significant works are carried out, however the parklands and walled gardens are now open, along with the Australian Fly Fishing Museum, the Longford Plains Heritage Centre and a new Clarendon Fashion Centre which are all situated in heritage buildings on the Estate.

The Trust is also working on plans to enhance the visitor experience at Clarendon and maximise its potential as a venue for public, private and corporate events. This has included membership of Business Events Tasmania to promote the property for cocktail parties and other activities that support the growing number of conferences and conventions to the state. New theatrical tours will be offered, along with a National Trust bus service from Launceston linking Clarendon with other key heritage sites.

As National Trust of Tasmania Chairman Dario Tomat explained: “Our aim is to ensure a sustainable future for Clarendon and to protect it as one of Tasmania’s most important historical assets.”


TOP RIGHT Clarendon House. NTTasTOP LEFT (TOP TO BOTTOM) Scaffolding; Slate; Roof interior. NTTas.

P L AC E S

https://chuffed.org/project/raisetheroof

https://chuffed.org/project/raisetheroof

Kelso Field RisingRAY HOLYOAK | PHD CANDIDATE

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, Washington investigative journalist Robert

Sherrod spent two months in Townsville. Frustrated at censorship, he regarded Australia as the

“lemon of the news world” and “democracy’s worst failure” in his diaries. At Queens Hotel on

the Strand, he informally interviewed US Officers. In April 1942, he was told the

US 96th Engineers (Colored) had arrived to build airfields.

On 22 May 1942, 600 African Americans mutinied against

white officers following abuse and the death of a colleague by a white officer. The mutiny occurred at Kelso Field near a junction in Ross River where three airfields were under construction.

The armory was stormed and officers’ tents machine-gunned. Negotiators in armored vehicles made a hasty retreat from the camp after coming under fire. A US Officer was taken hostage and demands were radioed to US base command. The ammunition stockpile was deliberately exploded by a neighboring company that heard the disturbance but thought the Japanese had landed. The mutineers planned to travel into Townsville but were stopped at

an armed Australian road block. After eight hours the Chicago ringleaders negotiated with an Australian Officer and laid down arms. The company was quickly shipped to Port Moresby where Courts Martials were conducted by the US Judge Advocate.

Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson was sent to Australia as a Navy representative by President Roosevelt during May - June 1942. Whilst here, Johnson met with Sherrod who informed him of the failures in war planning that the Allies were facing. Johnson agreed to take a report on this and an investigation into Kelso to Sherrod’s US editors, thus bypassing censors.

On his US return, Johnson used Sherrod’s report as his own

‘research’ to both enhance his profile with Roosevelt and to improve his political ambitions. Roosevelt’s awareness of Kelso Field prompted his wife Eleanor to visit Townsville during her Australian visit in 1943 which included the “North American Club” in Flinders Street. This ‘Black only’ only club employed Indigenous women as waitresses. Eleanor’s press release states this was the first time she had visited a ‘Colored Club’.

What has previously been dismissed as ‘wartime rumors’ in Townsville was a real event grounded in civil rights. Mentioned in US Military Police records in 1945, the Kelso Field ‘Rising’ remains an incident of international significance.

During the Pacific War in May 1942 a rising occurred on Kelso Field in Townsville between African American troops and their white officers. The first land battle of the Pacific War involving troops of the segregated US Army occurred not between two armies with opposing ideologies, but between two races from the same republic. The power of wartime censorship and fear of punishment on those with links to the incident would prevent any published mention.

27 TRUST NEWS AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 201527TRUST NEWS AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 2015

ABOVE Roy Hodgkinson. One Sunday Afternoon in Townsville by Australian war artist Roy Hodgkinson. The scene depicts ‘The Strand’ beach with unidentified Australian Army and Navy personnel plus a US Military Provost Corp near African American engineers. Crayon, watercolour, pencil on paper. Australian War Memorial, ART21350

N OW and T H E N

Masters’ Students visiting from Zhejiang University, ChinaLEANNE BRASS | ARCHAEOLOGIST NATIONAL TRUST (WA)

Siyi Wang and Xiang Yu from Zhejiang

University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang

Province, Eastern China have recently

completed a four week internship

with the National Trust of Australia

(WA). They were in Perth as part of the

University of Western Australia’s Masters

of Heritage studies exchange program. The

program is designed to give students practical heritage

management experience alongside their theoretical studies.

During their time here Siyi and Xiang were able to gain an

insight into the work of both the Trust and the Western

Australian Museum.

As part of their two day a week internship at the Trust Siyi and Xiang worked closely with Trust staff to learn

more about a range of heritage conservation, archaeology, education and interpretation programs at key properties. They visited the Old Observatory, Old Perth Boys’ School, Peninsula Farm and East Perth Cemeteries to see some of these programs first hand. They also worked on a practical case-study by preparing a heritage management framework for a significant Chinese heritage site that they selected, using a model that the Trust has adopted for the management of its heritage places.


TOP (L-R) Conservation Architect Kelly Rippingale with Xiang Yu, Archaeologist Leanne Brass and Siyi Wang at the National Trust of Australia (WA) headquarters at the start of a four week internship. G PickeringBOTTOM LEFT A visit to East Perth Cemeteries with Conservation Architect Caroline Stokes. The Chinese community was the last to be allocated a burial space at East Perth Cemeteries in 1888. L Brass

G LO B A L

It is definitely a rare opportunity for me

to have an internship at the National

Trust of Australia (WA). Actually, I’m

quite interested in what the Trust is and

how it functions because there is no such

organisation in mainland China. After a

few weeks of placement I found the Trust

to be a something like a ‘heritage company’

with some similarities to the Chinese

example of the ‘Provincial Administration

of Cultural Heritage.’

In Zhejiang Province, where I come

from, the Provincial Administration

of Cultural Heritage focuses more on

cultural heritage policy making and

administration while the Trust directly

makes conservation, interpretation

and business plans for specific heritage

places it manages. Unlike the Trust, the

Provincial Administration of Cultural

Heritage is almost fully funded by both the

central and provincial governments.

There may be potential to start a

subsidiary heritage company to financially

support the operation of the Provincial

Administration of Cultural Heritage in

China. The Trust is a good example for

China to gain some experience from in

terms of how it develops conservation,

interpretation and business plans for its

heritage properties

but also through

how it generates

funds for heritage

management.

Xiang Yu

ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY

AN UNSENTIMENTAL BLOKE: THE LIFE AND WORK OF C J DENNIS

AUTHOR: PHILIP BUTTERSS

PUBLISHER: WAKEFIELD PRESS, ADELAIDE

REVIEWER: ROBERT DARE, NATIONAL TRUST (SA)

This year marks the centenary of the publication of

C.J. Dennis’s The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke. The

romance of Doreen and the Bloke takes place in the

slums of an Australian city, far from the beaches of that

other centenary, the Gallipoli campaign. But the two were

connected, and we now have Philip Butterss’s national

award-winning biography of Dennis to show us how.

By the time Sentimental Bloke was published in October

1915, the national unity that formed around the heroic

deeds of the diggers at Gallipoli in April and May had begun

to fracture. The campaign in the Dardenelles now seemed

more disaster than triumph, its planning misguided and

its objectives uncertain. As the war moved toward what

threatened to be a prolonged stalemate, conscription

became an imperative to growing numbers of Australians.

The faltering war opened old divisions along class, sectarian

and geographic lines.

The story of the Bloke and his girl promises a healing of

these divisions. The larrikin Bloke and the genteel Doreen

marry, leave the slums and move to the country. Class

antagonism and the country-city divide are forgotten. The

restless back-street brawler succumbs to the attractions

of domesticity. A good woman brings out his hidden

sentimentality. Anything is possible when we overcome our

differences.

Dennis followed the success of Sentimental Bloke with

The Moods of Ginger Mick. Here he shifted his attention

from healing social rifts to defining what it meant to be

Australian and how the ANZAC campaign made us a

nation. The characteristics that made Ginger Mick a rowdy

larrikin at home redeemed him as an exemplary soldier

in the Dardanelles. His ultimate sacrifice completed his

transformation from a marginal to a defining figure in

Australian life. Dennis was the first writer to make the

connection between the ANZACs and nation building.

Dennis spoke a language his contemporaries understood.

They bought his books in unprecedented numbers, and

made him rich. In his wonderful biography Butterss shows

that he can speak to us too. Measured by sales, he is Australia’s

most popular poet. The boisterous vernacular of his verse,

his dropped consonants and distinctive vowel sounds, and

his unashamed Australianness connect us to a world we can

still recognise. At his death in 1938 Prime Minister Joe Lyons

said Dennis had ‘become immortal’. Not quite, but Butterss

gives us ample reasons why he should.

Between the lines

The exchange has provided an opportunity for Trust staff to also learn more about heritage management practices in China. The Trust will continue to offer its support to the Masters of Heritage Studies Program at the University of Western Australia. And we wish Siyi and Xiang the best of luck in their future studies and careers.

TOP Exploring the details of 800 marked graves among ten thousand burials at St Bartholomew’s Church, East Perth Cemeteries. L BrassTOP Chinese exchange students Xiang Yu and Siyi Wang at St Bartholomew’s Church which was constructed in 1871 as a Mortuary Chapel. L Brass


G LO B A L

There are some d i f f e r e n t aspects to the management of cultural heritage between Australia and China. In China, there is no National Trust or similar organization and all cultural heritage is managed by governments both national and local. In Australia the Trust can manage heritage properties directly and has experience and expertise in developing management plans for these places including a business plan, an interpretation plan and a conservation plan. In China different types of cultural heritage are managed by different departments of government. These include the Ministry of Culture, Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Light Industry. Sometimes these organisations participate in joint management.For the Chinese local government which has responsibility for heritage sites, there is a top-down management system. The department of culture in the local government takes direct responsibility for preparing the management plan for certain local cultural heritage, e s p e c i a l l y the research, administration, conservation and use.

Siyi Wang

Stitched With LoveLOUISE MITCHELL AND JANE DONNELLY | NATIONAL TRUST (NSW)

‘A quilt is more than a quaint bedcover. Often they are repositories of memories

and family histories and they form part of a vibrant craft tradition’

Louise Mitchell, Curator - Labours of Love: Australian Quilts 1845-2105 Exhibition Catalogue

Two important quilts made in the colony in the mid

1800s were recently displayed at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, NSW for the exhibition Labours of Love: Australian Quilts 1845-2105. They will also be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in July 2016.

Both are quilts from the National Trust (NSW) Collection, hand pieced and sewn in the English paper template technique.

The star and diamond patchwork quilt attributed to Frederica Mary Josephson has undergone extensive conservation work in preparation for these exhibitions. Jane Donnelly from the National Trust worked under the supervision of International Conservation Services (ICS) to stabilise this beautifully designed quilt. The conservation process involved photographing and documenting, surface cleaning, sourcing materials, colour matching netting to eleven different fabric types (including hand-dying to colour match) and skilfully hand stitching over 70 individually cut netting patches

over the damaged areas.Frederica Mary Josephson

(née Miller), the daughter of a convict upholsterer, married Emmanuel Josephson, the son of the noted convict silversmith Jacob Josephson in 1853. The couple lived in Riverview Cottage at Longueville from 1853 to 1873 where it is speculated the quilt was made.

The printed cotton fabrics, mostly upholstery and presumably from her father’s business, and overall complex pattern suggest Frederica planned the design from the outset, not as an afterthought.

The other quilt; Lady Mary Fitzroy’s (1780-1847) unfinished hexagon mosaic patchwork is pieced together from printed cottons and plain coloured silk in a honeycomb pattern. In its unfinished state without backing material the paper templates are clearly visible.

Lady Mary’s needlework came to an abrupt end with her death in Parramatta in 1847. As the newspapers reported at the time: ‘His Excellency and Lady Fitzroy

were about to visit Sydney. The horses being fresh ran away the moment their heads were let go…the carriage was dashed to pieces and Lady Fitzroy [was] so much injured she died almost immediately…’ A memorial obelisk was erected at the site of her death in 1888.

The unfinished quilt, loose pieces and her workbag were gifted to the National Trust (NSW) in 1998 by the maker’s great, great, grand-daughter, Yvonne Perceval.


TOP LEFT Detail of the Fitzroy quilt showing the English paper template technique. NTNSW RIGHT Jane Donnelly and Gail Hamilton (ICS) working on Frederica’s quilt. NTNSW BOTTOM RIGHT Detail from the Frederica Mary Josehpson quilt, circa 1850. Diamond and hexagon design; upholstery chintz. NTNSWBOTTOM RIGHT Detail from the Mary Fitzroy quilt, c1848. Hexagon mosain patchwork, cotton and silk. NTNSW

N OW and T H E N

Untitled-1 1 15/10/2015 3:40:27 PM

trust news november 2015

Documents