The Parramatta Justice Precinct

 

Parramatta’s Justice Precinct lays in the north-west area of Parramatta, bounded by many of Parramatta’s original streets, George Street running east-west, Marsden running north-south and O’Connell, north–south on the western side of the precinct.  The Precincts’ northern end is bounded by the upper reaches of the Parramatta River.

Parramatta, prior to British settlement, was inhabited by the Darug Aboriginal people, who would have certainly made use of the area for its proximity to the river and its fresh water, wild duck, turtle, eel and fish reserves.  The Precinct is one of Parramatta’s oldest (British) inhabited areas dating back to 1788 when the first colonists established their redoubt at Rose Hill, only a few hundred meters from the site.  In 1790, the then Governor, Arthur Phillip and Surveyor Augustus Alt laid out their plan of the town of Rose Hill (Parramatta), with High (George Street) and Marsden Streets figuring prominently in their plan.

The Hospital

The first convict hospital in Parramatta, the third in the colony, was erected on the northern end, facing the river and consisted of a series of tents.  Watkin Tench, described the hospital as: “A most wretched hospital, totally destitute of every convenience. Luckily for the gentleman (Thomas Arndell, First Fleet Surgeon) who superintends this hospital, and still more luckily for those who are doomed in case of sickness to enter it, the air of Rose Hill has hitherto been generally healthy”.  A second hospital, 25m long and 6m wide, operated from operated from c. 1792 until 1818.  David Collins stated the foundations of the hospital had been laid in April 1792.  By December, he observed: “At Parramatta a brick hospital, consisting of two wards, (two separate buildings) were finished this month and the sick were immediately removed into it.  The spot chosen for this building was at some distance from the principal street of the town, and convenient to the water.   A surgeon’s residence was added c.1799.

The discovery of a baby burial (c.1790’s), possibly new born, to the south of the 1792 hospital is stark evidence of the fragility of life and the difficulties of child bearing in the new colony.

From 1818, a new two-storey building that became known as the Colonial Hospital catered for the health care of the convicts.  But it wasn’t till 1848, that this building became the centre of one of Australia’s earliest public institutions when it was established as the Parramatta District Hospital.

A Nurses’ Home was suggested to be built, in honour to the WW1 nurses, but was never erected, within the Precinct.

1948 saw the construction of Jeffery House, a large modern brick six storey hospital which went on to be utilised as Parramatta District Hospital (P.D.H.).  With the establishment of Westmead Hospital, at Westmead in 1978 the role of P.D.H. changed and Acute Services were relocated from Jeffery House to Westmead.  Jeffery House continued to function as the rehabilitation arm of Westmead.  In 1991 all services were moved out of Jerry House and in 1995 the building was decommissioned.  The Parramatta Health (Community) Services moved into the recommissioned, newly refurbished Jeffery House in 2006, continuing the sites long history of health to the Parramatta area.

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Macquarie Street Asylum

 

Macquarie Street Asylum, Parramatta (1884-1913) / State Hospital and Asylum for the Blind and Men of Defective Sight and Senility, Macquarie Street, Parramatta (1913-1935)

First listed as a Government Institution in June 1884 (1), the Macquarie Street Asylum, Parramatta was formerly known as The Erysipelas Hospital, and "gradually merged into an Asylum for the Infirm and Destitute". (2) The premises had originally been built as stables and barracks for convicts, before being converted into a Military Hospital in 1843. After the Military Hospital closed in 1851, the premises were utilised by The Erysipelas Hospital. (3)

Although functioning primarily as an asylum for infirm and destitute men from 1884, wards for infectious conditions were still maintained and used for cases refused admission to Sydney Hospital, the Macquarie Street Asylum reputed to be "one Hospital whose doors are open to cases of all kinds of disease." (4) The Government Asylums generally included medical wards, and Macquarie Street became the centre for treatment of serious eye conditions, with 342 ophthalmic cases treated at Macquarie Street in 1893. (5) After administrative responsibility for Government Asylums transferred from the Department of Charitable Institutions to Public Health in 1913, Macquarie Street Asylum became known as the State Hospital and Asylum for the Blind and Men of Defective Sight and Senility, Macquarie Street, Parramatta. (6)

During 1926 admissions to the Hospital numbered 703, with 173 remaining resident at the end of the year. Residents of Government Asylums who were able to work were expected to contribute towards a measure of self-sufficiency, at Macquarie Street residents made clothing and bedding, carried out repairs to the building, and assisted in the Bakery which supplied bread and pastries to all the State Hospitals. (7)

In January 1935 the premises at Macquarie Street was found to be in an unsatisfactory condition, and too old for reconstruction. Patients were transferred to Lidcombe State Hospital, and Macquarie Street was closed on 13 February 1935, with the building demolished in July and August of that year. (8)

FOOTNOTES
1. NSW Government Blue Book 1884, p.42.
2. Government Asylums for the Infirm and Destitute, Report for 1884, in Votes and Proceedings 1885, Vol. 2, p.611 - (additional note, erysipelas is a medical term for an acute inflammation of the skin, usually on the face, caused by infection from streptococcus bacteria).
3. Health Dept, Histories of various NSW Government Hospitals 1879-1980, Folder for Parramatta Asylums, SRNSW Ref: [10/50590].
4. Government Asylums for the Infirm and Destitute, Report for 1884, op. cit.
5. Annual Report from the Director of Government Asylums and Boarding-Out Officer on the Department of Charitable Institutions, for the year ended 31 August 1894, Votes and Proceedings 1894-95, Vol. 5, p.449.
6. Report of the Director-General of Public Health for the year ended 31 December 1913, in Parliamentary Papers 1914-15, Vol. 4, p.340.
7. Report upon the State Hospitals under the control of the Director-General of Public Health, Report for the year 1926, in Parliamentary Papers 1927,Vol 2, p.951.
8. Health Dept, Histories of various NSW Government Hospitals 1879-1980, Folder for Parramatta Asylums, op. cit.

Source: State Records NSW

http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/Entity.aspx?Path=\Agency\1998

Rosehill Gardens Racecourse

 

 

The Rosehill Gardens Racecourse is located in the suburb of Rosehill, West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rosehill was considered the home of the Sydney Turf Club which was established in 1943.

In 1788 Parramatta was known as Rose Hill. John Bennett purchsed someof Elizabeth Fram land in 1882 and started the Rosehill Race Club. Work started to tnasform land into rece course in 1883.

Race course work completed at the cost of £ 17,000 with two grand stands with the combined capacity for 8,000 people. Rosehill has been conducting races since 1885. Opening Day attracted the crowd of 3000 people despite of miserable weather and  5 races were held. In 1889, James Bennett floated another company called Rosehill Racecourse Company for £100,000. By 1890, pressure from AJC regulations caused Canterbury, Moorefield and Rosehill to form the Associated Ponies Club. Harry Houdini made an appearance at the racecourse as an aviation pioneer in 1910. Thousands came to see him fly his biplane.

Australia’s Oldest Farm - Experiment Farm Cottage

 

Experiment Farm Cottage is located at 9 Ruse Street, Harris Park. This is the site of the first land grant in Australia, made in 1789 by Governor Phillip to the former convict James Ruse. The cottage is one of Australia’s oldest surviving buildings. Experiment Farm Cottage was built in the 1830s. Experiment Farm Cottage is colonial Indian style bungalow which was built by Surgeon John Harris.

This house is living museum and provides insight into the life and achievements of ex-convict and farmer, James Ruse.

In 1782, James Ruse was sentenced to prison for theft. He was transported to NSW in the First Fleet. When his prison term expired in July 1789 and he was allowed to settle as a farmer. On 21 November 1789 James Ruse made history by occupying one and a half acre land on the hillside – which is now called Harris Park. By 1791 Ruse had successfully farmed the 30 acres and could feed his family.

In October 1793 Surgeon John Harris purchased the land from James Ruse for £40. John Harris already owned the adjacent property. John Harris divided his time between being a surgeon and a farmer.  John Harris lived in the cottage till his death in 1838. The property stayed in the Harris family until 1921.

In 1961, The National Trust of Australia (NSW) purchased the Experiment Farm. This was the first NSW National Trust–owned property.

WW1 - Indian Soldiers - Lions of the Great War

With the outbreak of war in Europe, India, the Crown Jewel of the British Empire, joined the Allies in battle on the 4th of August 1914.

Contributing the most volunteers of any of the British imperial holdings that fought in the war, India produced between 900,000 to 1.5 million troops for combat by 1919. Of these troops, the Sikhs, one of the two loyal 'martial races' of the British Raj, rallied in enormous numbers for the King, Empire, and the defence of Europe.

At the beginning of the war, Sikh military personnel numbered around 35,000 men of the 161,000 troops of the Indian Army, around 22% of the armed forces, yet the Sikhs only made up less than 2% of the total Indian population. By the end of the war 100,000 Sikh volunteers joined the British Armed forces with a few Sikhs also contributing to the French Air Service and the American Expeditionary Force.

It is also said that some Sikh POWs (prisoners-of-war), captured in Belgium, were believed to have been Muslims by the Germans and taken to Turkey to fight along side their fellow 'Mohammedans'. However, they still remained loyal to the British Crown and escaped on a long trek to the British posts in Afghanistan, from Turkey through the Middle East, to once again fight under the British flag.

Though being paid a mere 11 rupees a month for his services to the Empire, the Sikh soldier took his duty as a soldier in an almost religious aspect in a romanticized idea of being a martyr and a knight for the King.

A Sikh soldier, Indar Singh, fighting on the Somme in September 1916, wrote home:

It is quite impossible that I should return alive. [But] don't be grieved at my death, because I shall die arms in hand, wearing the warrior's clothes. This is the most happy death that anyone can die.

The idea of martyrdom and battlefield heroics proved to be a necessity for the British as they were being pushed back by the Germans time and time again. In fact, the British felt it necessary to nourish Sikh fanaticism by allowing the Sikhs areas to set up temporary Gurdwaras (Sikh Temples), to observe the birthdays of Sikh gurus, to use traditional Sikh weapons (such as Sikh quoits and the sabre), and it was not uncommon to see the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, being carried before a marching Sikh battalion or even on the front lines among the battling Sikh troops.

These 'unique stalwarts from the east,' fought in the battles of Ypres, Flanders, the Somme, Gallipoli, East Africa, Palestine, Egypt / Suez Canal, Mesopotamia, and numerous other battlefields in nearly all theatres of the war.

This article cannot justly commemorate the contribution of these fine warriors who fought disease, filth, gas attacks, and the onslaught of German and Turkish troops and maxim guns with only their turbans to protect them from head wounds and their unshorn hair and long beards, as prescribed by their religious faith, in disease infested, muddy trenches.

The average Indian battalion had around 764 men when they landed in France, but by November 1914, the 47th Sikhs had only 385 men left. In Gallipoli, the 14th Sikhs lost 371 officers and men in mere minutes, and thousands of other Sikhs died in various other encounters such as Neuve Chappelle and the Somme.

The "Black Lions," as the Arabs called them in Mesopotamia, of the Punjab sacrificed their lives for the defence of freedom in Europe for an ally that was ruling their own homeland, yet they did it out of honour and loyalty. (Arjan Singh Flora)

First Grower’s Market – Parramatta

 

In June 1790, Governor Philip decided to lay out a regular town at Rose Hill. The town received its present name on the 4^th June 1791. The Governor called it “Parramatta”, the name by which the aborigines knew the locality. It is said to mean “the place where the eels lie down”.

 

By 1791 the town was more important and had a larger population than Sydney settlement. Two streets were marked out, known today as Church Street and George Street. Governor Philip ordered huts to be erected for convicts down both sides of George Street. They were built 100 feet from each hut containing 10 convicts who were responsible for growing their own vegetables in the small plots in front of the huts. Farmers’ Market at Church Street Mall, the site of the first growers market in Parramatta, established in 1791. The first gardens at Parramatta began to produce vegetables and fruit but there were also plots for shrubs and flowers.  In 1792 Governor Philip opened the Municipal Markets.

WW1 - Indian Soldier - Lance Naik Kulbir Thapa

Lance Naik Kulbir Thapa 

15 December 1889 – 3 October 1956

 

Kulbir Thapa was born in Palpa, Nepa. , Lance Naik Kulbir Thapa was a Rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Gurkha Rifles.

He had never been under fire until the battle where he was awarded his Victoria Cross at Fauquissart, France - a diversionary attack which was to be the opening move of the Battle of Loos.

After preliminary use of gas, artillery bombardment and a mine under the German position, the Allied infantry assault began at 0600 on September 25th, 1915. Kulbir Thapa was in one of the leading companies, many of whom were killed trying to breach the German wire under cover of thick smoke.

Kulbir Thapa made it through but was wounded and stranded on the German side of the line. Though alone, he began to dig a firing position intending to hold his ground till the next wave moved forward.

Nearby, he noticed a badly wounded soldier of the 2nd Btn, Leicester Regiment so went to him and although urged by the British soldier to save himself, stayed with him all day and night, comforting him with what little English he knew and killing any Germans who approached.

On the morning of September 26th there was a thick fog. Seizing his chance he picked up the wounded Leicester and carried him over the German trench and through the virtually uncut wire.

Placing the man in a shell crater for cover, he went back over the German trench to look for more Germans. Instead, he came across two badly wounded men of his own regiment. One at a time, Thapa carried these two men back to the lines of the 39th Garwahlis who were holding the British front line at this point.

Finally in broad daylight, under heavy fire and badly wounded, he returned once more to no mans land and rescued the wounded Leicester.

For his heroic deeds, Kulbir Thapa was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first Nepalese recipient. He was also promoted to the rank of Naik. He survived the war and retired eventually as a Havildar.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Gurkha Museum (Winchester, Hampshire, England).

He has not been forgotten by the Royal Leicestershire Regiment; he is remembered on a special panel in the Regimental Museum at the Newarke Houses Museum.