Parramatta Gasworks

Parramatta gasworks was established by on the outskirts of Parramatta in 1872. The Gasworks Bridge near the former gasworks site is a reminder today of this former industrial site. Gasworks Bridge is named after thriving industries such as flour and woollen mills at that time. Boatsheds and inns were located on the riverfront here to support the settlement.

The Parramatta Gas Company purchased land on the river in 1872 and immediately began the construction of the brick retort house. The gasworks opened in 1873, bringing coal along the river to the works where it was converted to gas. George Street was lit by gas in 1876, before a permanent water supply was connected. The Gasworks complex included a number of large and small structures adjacent to both George Street.

Australian Gas Light Company

The Australian Gas Light Company is Australia’s second oldest company. The Australian Gas Light Company, was established by private interests in New South Wales on 7 September 1837 to light the streets of Sydney with coal gas. The first gas street lights were lit in 1841 and by March 1843 there were 165 gas lamps in the city - 14 Government lights, 11 Corporation lamps, 106 Publicans’ lights, and 34 Private lamps. The rest of the people used traditional oil lamps which were to remain as the predominant source of lighting both industrially and domestically until the arrival of electricity.

The Australian Gaslight Company operated from premises in Pitt Street on land south from Campbell Street to Redfern. It was known as the Government Paddock that was originally part of the brick pits from Sydney’s earliest years. The first gasholder and a two story building were erected in 1855. By 1858 the company purchased another eight allotments in Pitt St., and in 1860 were considering extension of the service to Newtown, Redfern and Glebe. Two new holders were constructed in 1861 and 1865, a fourth holder was built in 1874.

The former Australian Gaslight Company's head office was situated at 479-487 Pitt Street, Sydney. Coal was stored in a coal store from where it was delivered to the vertical retorts by overhead conveyor. Gas was produced in vertical retorts before being piped to the scrubbers and purifiers to remove any impurities. It then passed through a meter room before being stored in gasholders under pressure.


Gas was manufactured from coal, which had to be shipped in by barges and ferries. Consequently, suburban gas companies established their plants at harbour side locations. With the growth of Sydney, the sites where these now-abandoned plants were built have become valuable real estate, being at key locations around the harbour. Some sites have been re-developed for other industry or housing, while a few have been reserved for public use in the form of harbour side parklands.

Dogs in World War One

 Sergeant Stubby

Dogs had a vital part to play in World War One as the complexes of trenches spread throughout the Western Front. It is estimated that by 1918, Germany had employed 30,000 dogs, Britain, France and Belgian over 20,000 and Italy 3000. America, at first, did not use dogs except to utilise a few hundred from the Allies for specific missions. Later, after a chance stowaway, the USA produced the most decorated and highly-ranked service dog in military history, Sergeant Stubby.

Lots of dog breeds were used during World War One, but the most popular type of dogs were medium-sized, intelligent and trainable breeds. Two in particular were used because of their superior strength, agility, territorial nature and trainability; Doberman Pinscher's and GSDs, both native to Germany. Doberman's were used because they are both highly intelligent and easily trainable, and possess excellent guarding abilities. Being of slight frame and extremely agile, their dark coat allowed them to slip undetected through terrain without alerting the enemy. They were employed most frequently in Germany. German Shepherd's were used also because of their strength, intelligence and trainability, being eager to please their masters. Other breeds associated with WWI were smaller breeds such as terriers, who were most often employed as 'ratters'; dogs trained to hunt and kill rats in the trenches.

Roles and functions of military dogs

Military dogs in World War One were positioned in a variety of roles, depending on their size, intelligence and training. Generally, the roles fell into the category of sentry dogs, scout dogs, casualty dogs, explosive dogs, ratters and mascot dogs.

Sentry dogs

These dogs were patrolled using a short leash and a firm hand. They were trained to accompany usually one specific guard and were taught to give a warning signal such as a growl, bark or snarl to indicate when an unknown or suspect presence was in the secure area such as a camp or military base. Dobermans have traditionally been used as sentry dogs and are still widely used today as guard dogs.

Scout dogs

These dogs were highly trained and had to be of a quiet, disciplined nature. Their role was to work with soldiers on foot patrolling the terrain ahead of them. These dogs were useful to the military because they could detect enemy scent up to 1000 yards away, sooner than any man could. Instead of barking and thus drawing attention to the squad, the dogs would stiffen raise its shackles and point its tail, which indicated that the enemy was encroaching upon the terrain. Scout dogs were widely used because they were highly efficient in avoiding detection of the squad.

Casualty dogs

Casualty or 'Mercy' dogs were vital in World War One. Originally trained in the late 1800's by the Germans, they were later utilised across Europe. Known as 'Sanitatshunde' in Germany, these dogs were trained to find the wounded and dying on battlefields and were equipped with medical supplies to aid those suffering. Those soldiers who could help themselves to supplies would tend to their own wounds, whilst other more gravely wounded soldiers would seek the company of a Mercy dog to wait with them whilst they died.

Messenger dogs

Dogs were used as messengers and proved to be as reliable as soldiers in the dangerous job of running messages. The complexities of trench warfare meant that communication was always a problem. Field communication systems were crude and there was always the very real possibility that vital messages from the front would never get back to headquarters or vice versa. Human runners were potentially large targets and weighed down by uniforms there was a chance that they would not get through. In the heat of a battle, there was even less of a chance of a runner getting through as the enemy's artillery was likely to be pounding your frontline and the area behind it. Vehicles were also problematic as they could breakdown or the 'roads' could have been reduced to a mushy pulp and travel on them made impossible.

Dogs were the obvious solution to this pressing problem. A trained dog was faster than a human runner, presented less of a target to a sniper and could travel over any terrain. Above all, dogs proved to be extremely reliable if they were well trained. A dog training school was established in Scotland and a recruit from this school traveled over 4000 metres on the Western Front with an important message to a brigade's headquarters. The dog traveled this distance (war records classed it as "very difficult" terrain) in less than sixty minutes. All other methods of communicating with the headquarters had failed - but the dog had got through.

Mascot dogs

Dogs also had another role to play on the Western Front. For men trapped in the horrors of trench warfare, a dog in the trenches (whether a messenger dog or not) was a psychological comfort that took away, if only for a short time, the horrors they lived through. It is said that Adolf Hitler kept a dog with him in the German trenches. For many soldiers on any of the sides that fought in the trenches, a dog must have reminded them of home comforts.

        

Gasworks Bridge

The Gasworks Bridge over the Parramatta River is one of 32 lattice girder bridges built between 1870 and 1893 throughout NSW. Twenty were road bridges, twelve were railway bridges e.g. Meadowbank railway bridge. Gasworks Bridge, Parramatta is also known as Newlands Bridge.  

The Gasworks Bridge has the same deep, rectangular lattice trusses of John A McDonald’s early designs. Bridge is supported on large sandstone piers. It has three main spans each 31m in length and two steel beam approach spans. The overall length is 110m and is still in use.

Just east of the Gasworks Bridge is the site of the first official landing place in Parramatta where Governor Phillip and a small party of Marines arrived in 1788 to establish the colony’s second settlement. Gasworks Bridge is named after thriving industries such as flour and woollen mills at that time. Boatsheds and inns were located on the riverfront here to support the settlement.

Archie Barwick

Archie Albert Barwick was a farmer when he enlisted at the age of 24 in August 1914. He embarked for the Dardenelles on 4 April 1915 and fought in the Gallipoli campaign. From 1916 to 1918 he served in France and Belgium. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in July 1918 before returning home to Australia in December 1918. 

World War One - 1914 to 1919 - Timeline

Timeline of WWI From 1914 to 1919

World War 1 (WWI) was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 and ended with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. 

1914

• June 28 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary's throne, and his wife, Sophie, are assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip while the couple were visiting Sarajevo.
• July 28 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
• August 1 - Germany declares war on Russia.
• August 3 - Germany declares war on France.
• August 4 - The United Kingdom declares war on Germany, after Germany invades Belgium.
• August 6 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia and Serbia declares war on Germany.
• August 26 - The Battle of Tannenberg begins.
• August 19 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces the U.S. will remain neutral.
• September 5 - The First Battle of the Marne begins. Trench warfare begins as soldiers on both sides dig in.
• October 19 - Battle of Ypres begins.
• November 3 - The United Kingdom announces that the North Sea is a military area, effectively creating a blockade of goods into Germany.
• December 24 The unofficial Christmas truce is declared.

1915

• February 4 - Germany declares a "war zone" around Great Britain, essentially effecting a submarine blockade where even neutral merchant vessels were to be potential targets.
• February 19 - The Dardanelles Campaign begins.
• April 22 - The Second Battle of Ypres begins. It is during this battle that the Germans first use poison gas.
• April 25 - The Battle of Gallipoli begins.
• May 7 - The British ocean liner RMS Lusitania is sunk by German U-boat, U-20
• September 5 - Tsar Nicholas II takes personal control over Russia's armies.

1916

• February 21 - The Battle of Verdun begins. The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I and was one of the bloodiest.
• May 31 - The Battle of Jutland, the major naval battle of the war, begins.
• July 1 - The Battle of the Somme begins. During the Battle of the Somme, tanks are first introduced into battle.

1917

• January 19 - Germany sends the secret Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico in an effort to entice Mexico to join the war. The British intercept and decipher the coded message.
• March 15 - Russian Tsar Nicholas II abdicates.
• April 6 - The United States declares war on Germany.
• July 31 - The Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) begins.
• November 7 - The Bolsheviks successfully overthrow the Russian government.
• December 17 - The armistice agreed upon between the new Russian government and the Central Powers goes into effect.

1918

• January 8 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issues his Fourteen Points to peace.
• March 3 - Russia signs the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which is a peace treaty between Russia and the Central Powers.
• March 21 - Germany launches the Spring Offensive.
• April 21 - German flying ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen (more commonly known as the Red Baron), is shot down.
• July 15 - The Second Battle of the Marne begins.
• November 9 - German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and flees Germany.
• November 11 - Germany signs the armistice at Compiegne, France. Fighting ends on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

1919

• June 28 - The Treaty of Versailles officially ends WWI.

Commercial Bank Building

The Commercial Bank building in George Street, Parramatta, circa 1880

Image features a front and side view of an imposing two storey brick and sandstone building of the Victorian Academic Classical style. The building is enclosed by a high iron picket fence.

Female Factory

Precinct Timeline

1788 - Area explored& settled

1792 - Smith's 30 acre grant

1806 - Marsden acquires Smiths grant; Gov Bligh granted adjacent 105 acres

1816- 4 acres of Bligh's grant for Female Factory site

1818 - Female Factory Foundation stone laid

1821 - Female Factory occupied

1824 - Sleeping quarters for Female Factory 3rd class women built

1827 - Female Factory women riot, break out

1838 - Female Factory 3rd class penitentiary built

1839 - Sisters of Charity arrive at Female Factory

1840 - work starts on Roman Catholic Orphan School

1844 - Roman Catholic Orphan School occupied

1848 - Female Factory proclaimed a Lunatic Asylum

1859 - Sisters of the Good Samaritan take over Management Roman Catholic Orphan School

1886 - Orphan School vacated

1887 - Roman Catholic Orphan School site occupied as Girls Industrial School - first riot takes place

1961 - Hay Girls Institution est as Girls Industrial School / Parramatta Girls Home annex

1974 - Girls Industrial School / Parramatta Girls Home officially closes

1975 – Parramatta Girls Home renamed Kamballa & Taldree Children's Shelter

1980 - Norma Parker Detention Centre established in former GIS/PGH buildings

2003 - Parramatta Girls reunion

In April 1788 four months after the First Fleet anchored in Sydney Cove, Capt'n Arthur Phillip led and expedition up the Parramatta River in search of arable lands. Arriving at a point where a fresh water stream trickled across a platform of broad flat stones into the river, the party set up camp in the lee of a Crescent shaped beach on the river foreshores. From a gentle rise in the land above the river Phillip surveyed a lightly wooded landscape of open grasslands and it was here he decided to establish a gaol town and farm later to be known as Parramatta.

Prince Alfred Park

This historic park is the site of Australia’s first gaol which was completed in 1797. Two years later it was burnt down by inmates, and was replaced in 1804 by a two-storey stone structure. The upper floor of this stone building was used as the first female factory.

Female Factory

In 1818 Governor Lachlan Macquarie engaged Francis Greenway, a convict architect, to design a new building specifically for the female convicts. Built by a local firm of Isaac Payten and William Watkins, at a cost of £4,800.

On four acres of land on the north side of the River, it was an imposing sight. It was three storeys high in stone cut from the nearby quarry, and enclosed by a nine foot stone wall. There was to be Matron’s Quarters, a hospital, dining rooms, sleeping accommodation, kitchens and storerooms. The Factory was to accommodate 300 women, the wings for carding, spinning, weaving and looms and the hospital. The women moved into the Factory in 1821. There were three classes in the Factory:

1st class for those newly arrived, waiting for assignments or those returned to the Factory for various reasons, such as unsuitable for service or being pregnant.

2nd class for those from 3rd class for good behaviour, or promoted from 1st class for misconduct.

3rd class was the crime class, either for the original conviction, or a colonial conviction sentenced by the Court or magistrate. Punishment was Hard Labour, moving earth, breaking rocks etc. Also to have their head shaved rations cut, solitary confinement with bread and water and more.

In 1822 the factory produced 60,000 yards of cloth and took in the laundry for the military.

Female Factory clock

Once located in the central arch above the entrance to the main barrack building the original Female Factory clock was 1 of 5 clocks gifted to the colony by King George IV in 1822. Manufactured by Thwaite and Reed, Clerkenwell London, the clock was later moved to its present location in the north tower of Asylum Ward 1 around 1885. The clock was displayed as an insignia on items belonging to the Factory.

1826 Lady Darling formed a Ladies Committee, to teach the ‘better behaved’ inmates skills such as straw plaiting for bonnet making. This did not last long.

Matrons were often a problem and their records do not all survive, except in some Colonial secretary papers.

1827 Matron Fulloon was appointed, but when an inmate died of ‘hunger and harsh treatment, was removed and replaced by Matron Raine. Matron Ann Gordon was appointed in 1827, she was the highest paid woman in the colony at this time at £120 a year. Her manner was immortalised in the records, in the local newspapers, so, the recalcitrant women were sent to‘Gordon’s Seminary’, or to be ‘Gordonised’.

By 1828 the population in the Factory was 537. There were several riots in the Factory, and the leaders were sent to Port Macquarie. In 1830 there were 400 women incarcerated.

By 1837 there were 500 inside the walls. The Sisters of Charity began to visit in 1839 and convinced the authorities to build laundries and work rooms where they taught the inmates to read and write, to sew and give them skills for when they were sent out into the colony.

In 1847 The Factory was closed after 26 infamous years.

In 1848 it was reassigned as a Hospital for Lunatics and Invalids: An Asylum. The original Factory Entrance Gate and Building were demolished in 1880’s. Some of the stones were reused for the building now standing on the site, which has the original clock in the tower.

References:

Parramatta Correctional Centre its past development and future care.Kerr, J. DPCS, Sydney, 1995

Out of Sight, out of Mind -Australia's places of confinement, 1788-1988, Kerr, J. S.H. Ervin Gallery,Sydney, 1988

With Just but relentless discipline - a social history of Corrective Services in New South Wales, Ramsland, J. Kangaroo, Kenthurst, 1996

A Merciless Place - the story of Britain's convict disaster in Africa and how it led to the settlement of Australia. Christopher, E. Allen & Unwin 2010

Parramatta A Past Revealed. Terry Kass et al, Parramatta City Council, 1996

Women Transported, Life in Australia’s Convict Female Factories.

 

Female Orphan School and Historical Precinct

It has been estimated when the First Fleeters sailed from Portsmouth Harbour on 13

May 1787, those approximately 1530 persons were included, with a total of 1420 persons actually identified as being part of the First Fleet. These people consisted of officials and their wives, marines and their wives, the ships’ crews, male and female convicts, and children.

The number of children who landed at Sydney Cove in 1788, has been calculated as forty-five. These were the sons and daughters who had accompanied their parents on board the ships at Portsmouth, or who were born during the voyage. Twenty-three were the children of marines, of whom 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 (a secular equivalent of the glebe). When it was officially opened on 17 August, 1801 31 girls aged between the ages of 7 and 14 were in residence. 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—though most girls had convict parents or mothers. Many had one parent living. Girls were accepted from two years of age (lowered from the original age limit of five), they received a basic education and were placed as domestic servants at thirteen.

Supervision of the orphanage was initially the responsibility of a voluntary committee of distinguished individuals appointed by the Governor—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, the Master) was 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 (nee Hassall) 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.

The Whitlam Institute is delighted by the announcement of the Federal Government's decision in June 2012 to fund the restoration of the East Wing of the Female Orphan School at the University of Western Sydney, and the establishment of a permanent home there for the Institute.

Parramatta Library

Parramatta’s Central Library was built in Civic Place in 1964 (cost 40,000 pounds). State library allocated a grant to Parramatta City Council for building extension to Parramatta Library. Extension to the library was done in 1979 by Architects Buckland, Druce and Harley Pty Ltd. In 1979, Parramatta Library was largest regional library service in the state.  It was serving Baulkham Hills, Holroyd.

In 1988, Baulkham Hills Council decided to split from Parramatta Council and have their own four libraries to provide better service to Shire residents.