Frederick William Birmingham

Frederick William Birmingham was born in the Irish town of Westport, County Mayo. Frederick’s father was a civil engineer named William Birmingham (1791-1848) who probably helped him get his first job, aged 17, assisting with a major project to survey the West of Ireland. He then spent the next eight years surveying Ireland and England before moving to New York.

In 1852 he arrived in Australia. After an extended stay in Victoria, he settled down in Parramatta, where he rented an office in Fennel Street. On April 20, 1855, he took up a draftsman’s position in the Surveyor General’s Department. As a man of integrity and ability, he was elected as an alderman in 1865 and then again in 1867.

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Birmingham’s Ark: An airship from the spirit world, By Chris Aubeck

Old David Jones Building - Parramatta

 

1959 - Announcement that stone house of Mr J. K. S. Houison, President of the Parramatta Historical Society, and known locally as the ‘Bond House’, is to be demolished to make way for a new David Jones department store.

1961 - Plans for the new 2,000,000 pound department store on the banks of the river are released

1962 - David Jones Store opens to 400 per minute entering the store with more than 4000 people witnessing the opening ceremony. 

1963 - Commemorative Stone is set to mark old building, the ‘Bond House’ that was demolished to build the David Jones store.

1986 - David Jones celebrates 25 years of business in Parramatta

1989 - David Jones announces move from its riverside site in 1991 to the new Westfield mall.

1994-1998 - In these years the building was owned by various companies.

1998 - Building bought by ICA Property and to be turned into $40 million Riverbank corporate Centre. The site was previously owned the Friendship Pty Ltd.

2001 - David Jones to starts an upmarket venture called ‘Food Chain’ at the Riverbank Centre.

2002 -  ‘Food Chain’ store closes

2008: 2010 - David Jones building brought by Parramatta Site Developments Pty Ltd a subsidiary of Professional Investment Services. During this time the building is used as a factory outlet 

2010 - Meriton Group buys the David Jones building

2011: The Twin Towers design by Tony Caro approved.

2013 - Meriton relinquishes its 50 year lease over the council owned car park and other land providing for wider foreshore access.

 

The Parramatta Female Orphan School

 

 

On 13 May 1787, the First Fleeters sailed from Portsmouth Harbour - 1530 people consisted of officials and their wives, marines and their wives, the ships’ crews, male and female convicts, and children.

Total forty five children landed at Sydney Cove in 1788. These were the sons and daughters who were born during the voyage, or accompanied their parents on board the ships at Portsmouth. Twenty-three were the children of marines and ten were born during the voyage. The remaining twenty-two were the children of women convicts, and eleven of these children were born during the voyage to Australia.

 

The Female Orphan Institution (also known as the Female Orphan School) was established in 1800 by Governor King to care for orphaned and abandoned children in the colony of NSW. Located in Lieutenant William Kent's house in George Street, Sydney, the orphanage was supported financially by port duties and the income generated from allocated parcels of land. It was officially opened on 17 August, 1801. It was home to 31 girls aged between the ages of 7 and 14. The girls were taught spinning and sewing and some were taught reading and writing. Evidence given by Governor Bligh to the British Select Committee on Transportation in 1812 suggested that there was little emphasis on education, and that the Institution had instead become a clothing factory and a source of domestic servants for colonial households.

The Female Orphan School building's foundation stone was laid in 1813 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and was one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by the fledgling colonial government. The building was to be modelled after Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie’s family home ‘Airds’ in Appin, Scotland, and would have been an imposing sight. The building was finally ready for occupation in 1818. . The George Street, Sydney site became the Male Orphan School.

By 1829 the female orphanage housed 152 girls from a cross-section of colonial society including Aboriginal communities. Most girls had convict parents or mothers. Many had one living parent. Girls were accepted in the house from two years of age which was lowered from the original age limit of five. Girls received a basic education and were placed as domestic servants at thirteen.

The Female Orphanage was supervised by voluntary committee of distinguished individuals appointed by the Governor which includes magistrates, government officials, clergy and settlers. The first committee was comprised of two Anglican Chaplains, Rev. Samuel Marsden and Rev. Richard Johnson, Mrs King (the Governor's wife) and Mrs Paterson (wife of the Lieutenant- Governor), the surgeon William Balmain and John Harris, surgeon, magistrate and officer-in-charge of police. In March 1926, the management, care and superintendence of both the Male and Female Orphan Schools became the responsibility of the Clergy and School Lands Corporation. From 1833 the Female and Male Orphan Schools continued under the control of the Colonial Secretary.

 

A resident Matron and her husband were responsible for the daily management of the orphanage. The first Matron was Mrs John Hosking (1800-1820), followed by Mary Collicott, Susannah Matilda Ward (1821-) and Sarah Sweetman (1823-1824). The Wesleyan missionary William Walker and his wife Cordelia Walker took up the positions in 1825, bringing with them a number of girls from the Blacktown Aboriginal settlement, where they had previously worked. They resigned following difficulties with Archdeacon Scott, the official Visitor of colonial schools, and were succeeded in mid-1827 by the Reverend Charles Pleydell Neale Wilton and his wife. Wilton was succeeded in turn by Captain Alexander Martin, RN, and his wife.

On 30 April, 1850 the Male Orphan School, which had been relocated at Liverpool in 1823 was closed. The remaining residents moved to the Female Orphan School site at Parramatta and the two establishments amalgamated to form the Protestant Orphan School.

The Female Orphan School has had a varied institutional history. It originally operated as a school for orphaned girls and expanded in 1850 to include orphaned boys. The school was closed in 1887 when a change in government policy favoured placing orphans with foster families. In 1888 Sir Henry Parkes authorised that the building be used as a hospital for the mentally ill, and the building became the Rydalmere Hospital for the Insane. From 1893-1904 expansions to the wings were added by Liberty Vernon, the New South Wales Government Architect. In 1975 the school was listed by the National Trust and in the mid 1980s it was vacated when the Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital was closed. The psychiatric hospital operated for some 90 years.

 

The NSW Government transferred ownership of the Female Orphan School which had been derelict since the mid 1980’s to the University of Western Sydney in 1995. The University undertook an internal restoration of the three-storey central section of the main building as well as a complete external restoration of the entire Female Orphan School. The building was formally re-opened on 21 October 2003. The building now houses the Whitlam Institute and the Margaret Whitlam Galleries.

 

 In June 2012 Federal Government announced the restoration of the East Wing of the Female Factory Orphan School at the University of Western Sydney. Fully restored Female Orphan School building was opened on 24^th September 2013. The building is the new home of the Whitlam Institute and the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection. 

 

Australia's First Independent School: Old King's School Parramatta

 

 

Evolution of the place:

Pew – 1788: The Burramattagal people inhabit the area

1788:  Governor Phillip names the district Rose Hill due to its proximity to the river and lush landscape.

1806-1823: Rising land on the north side of the river is named Mount Betham by Governor Bligh.

1830-1831: The King’s School is established by Archdeacon Broughton.

1832:  The King’s School opens in George St, Parramatta with 3 Boys.

1833: Headmaster Forrest requests purchase of the land at Mt Betham. Land is granted a year later.

1834:  A tender for £ 2350 for brick building on a new site is accepted and construction begins.

1836:  The King’s School moves to the new building on the north bank of Parramatta River.

1843:  School is temporarily closed due to scarlet fever epidemic.

1864:  The school roof falls in. The school is closed and pupils moved to St Mark’s Collegiate College, Macquarie Fields.

1869:  The School reopens after repairs. The first floor is made up of four compartments, each with twenty beds. A stone staircase is replaced with cedar. A military-style uniform is introduced.

1887:  Lady Carrington, wife of NSW Governor Lord Carrington, lays the foundation stone for the Chapel.

1900-1910: Additions include a new dining hall, dormitories, quarters for the domestic staff, three story armoury and a swimming pool.

1920s: Extensive interior remodelling. Boarders and staff move to new quarters.

1964:  The King’s School moves to its new site at Gowan Brae, North Parramatta.

The State Government purchases the former King’s complex.

1968:  Marsden Rehabilitation Centre opens in the former King’s School as a training

centre for intellectually handicapped children. Extensive remodelling of the interior of the buildings is carried out. 

 

2001-2002: The buildings are transferred from the Health Department of the Heritage

Office. The main building and master’s cottage are conserved and adapted for reuse as office space.

2003:  The Heritage Office and Heritage Council of NSW move into the main building

           of the former King’s School.

The King’s School has been important in the development of Parramatta and the history of schooling in NSW. Kings School was named after the King’s School in Canterbury, established in AD597 and one of the Britain’s old schools.

In 1829, William Grant Broughton arrived in the Colony and recoganised the need for schools which can offer classical, mathematical and general studies, possibly similar to the education he received during his time at Cambridge. His Plan for the Establishment and Regulation of The King's School in New South Wales was placed before Governor Darling in 1830 and despatched to England. His Majesty's Government approved the creation of two Schools, one in Sydney which was to be short-lived, the other at Parramatta, the despatch arriving in March 1831, thereafter the foundation date for the School.

The King's School Parramatta is Australia's oldest independent school. Founded in 1831 by command of King William IV of England, King's was established as a boys' school that would provide Australia with its next generation of leaders. It is situated on 300 acres of beautiful park-land in the demographic center of Sydney.  

The King's School opened its doors on 13 February 1832 with just three young boys, numbers quickly grew and by the end of the year, with numbers approaching a hundred, accommodation at the rented premises - now known as Harrisford in George Street Parramatta. Within three years the School had moved to a new site supplied by the New South Wales government on the banks of the river.

In 1836 Robert Forrest, a former pupil, was the first headmaster. The boarders now lived in ‘Macarthur House’, Melville St. Parramatta. They slept on straw mattresses until 1855. 1865 The building was in a dilapidated state. The school community was then removed to Macquarie Fields. It was here the first Cadet Corps began in 1866.  Renovations, costing £1,000, began at Parramatta in 1868. By 1869 the school was reopened.

Rev. George Fairfowl Macarthur, an ‘old boy’ was headmaster. He instigated the policies regarding tuition and the school prospered. A Sports oval was leased from Parramatta Park and a Bowling Green was created in the grounds. In 1876 there were 60 pupils. The school chapel was completed in 1889. 

By 1900 outside houses were again necessary for the number of boarders. Old Government House, Parramatta, was used by the Junior school, in 1910. A swimming pool had been installed in 1908. The clock was installed, by commission, to honour a past teacher, William Stewart Corr. (1888-1913).  Two additions were to the chapel in 1923 as a memorial to those ‘old boys’, who died in the First World War. The property Gowan Brae on Pennant Hills Rd was purchased with a generous bequest from Mrs Violet Macanash, whose brothers were past pupils. The First Prep School was transferred there in 1956.  In 1962 The Senior school was also transferred to Gowan Brae. This ended 126 years of occupation on the Parramatta site. The final service in the school chapel was in November 1969 and it was demolished, to be rebuilt block by block at Gowen Brae.

Lennox Bridge, Parramatta, 1836-1990

 

Lennox Bridge - Time Line
1790: July - Town of Rose Hill (later Parramatta) marked

1794: First (wooden) bridge over the river at Parramatta Constructed

1795: Wooden Bridge swept away by floodwater

1796: Second Bridge constructed of timber girders on stone piers erected on site of existing bridge.

1802: Two stone bridge piers replaced by timber trestles

1826: Second Bridge sustained further damage but repaired

1832: August 11 - David Lennox arrives in Sydney

1832: October - David Lennox appointed Sub-Inspector of Roads

1833: June – David Lennox appointed Superintendent of Bridges

1833: Lennox reported on deteriorating Condition of second bridge at Parramatta, submitting plans for a replacement structure

1835: July - Second Bridge reported to be in a very insecure state

1836: October 22 - Lennox announced that construction of a new stone bridge to be built alongside the old one would commence in about a fortnight

1836: November 23 - Foundation stone of a new bridge laid by Governor Bourke

1838: March - Bridge only half complete

1838: September - A section of the new bridge was first opened to traffic

1839: Stone arch bridge finally completed at a cost of 1797 pounds

1867: Bridge officially named "Lennox Bridge" by Parramatta Council in honour of its designer

1873: November - David Lennox died and was buried in Parramatta

1885: November - Plans were prepared for the construction of cantilevered foot way on either side of the bridge

1895: February - widening of bridge from 30 feet to 52 feet

1901 – 1902: Width of 10 feet of the stone arch was strengthened internally for the purposes of carrying the Parramatta-Castle Hill Tramway.

1902: August 18 - Tramway opened for traffic

1912: Parapet on the western side was removed and a continuous foot way 5'3" wide was added to the bridge

1932: Tramway Bridge was closed

1934 – 1935: Bridge was widened.

1976: Lennox Bridge classified by National Trust of Australia (NSW)

1989: December - Lennox Bridge entered on Australian Heritage Commission’s register

1990: February 21 - Lennox Bridge declared a “National Work” under Local Government Act