Sydney’s Hyde Park was Aboriginal ceremonial ground prior to 1810
When Sydney’s Hyde Park began life as a racecourse, its role in a significant Aboriginal tradition was lost.
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Long before games of cricket and horse races were held there and long before ladies with pretty parasols walked its paths, Hyde Park was an important place for the Aboriginal people.
While an exact location is unclear, the area roughly around the southern end of Hyde Park was a ceremonial contest ground where Aboriginal people from around Sydney and from as far away as the Hunter to the north and Illawarra to the south would gather for ritualised conflict settlement.
But in 1810, a proclamation made by Governor Lachlan Macquarie appeared on the front page of the Sydney Gazette stating the space would henceforth be known as Hyde Park.
“The whole of the open ground yet unoccupied in the vicinity of the town of Sydney, hitherto known and alternately called by the names of ‘The Common’, ‘Exercising Ground’, ‘Cricket Ground’, and ‘Race Course’ … being intended in future for the recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the town and as a field of exercise for the troops, the Governor has thought proper to name the ground thus described ‘Hyde Park’.”
This site continued to be used by the Aboriginal people after arrival of the British, City of Sydney historian Lisa Murray says.
“It was totally about (the British) appropriating the land and taking it for their own uses.”
One of those first uses, Murray says, was as a racecourse.
“The 73rd Regiment officers convinced the governor they should have a racecourse around the park,” Murray says.
“They argued it was to help improve the health of the horses, but it’s safe to say the regiment were desperate for entertainment and this gave them the opportunity to let off some steam.”
The first race was held in mid-October 1810 and a map dated 1821 shows Hyde Park with a racecourse marked out. But it was about this time the newly-arrived Governor Thomas Brisbane banned races in an attempt to put a lid on the exuberance of the military.
In the 1830s the park became a water supply site for the city, piped in from the Lachlan Swamp (later Centennial Parklands). Busby’s Bore was established and horse and cart transport is depicted in drawings carting huge barrels of water from Hyde Park.
By the 1840s, watercolour paintings show picket fence enclosures and sports such as cricket being played there, but without a tree in sight, not at all the way we think of our city’s beautiful green heart today. But that wasn’t far off.
In the 1850s the Hyde Park Improvement Committee was established with plans to beautify the park, introduce plants, trees, grass and plot out pathways.
It was intended to complement this increasingly prestigious part of town. Around the park’s perimeter was the Australian Museum and Sydney College (later Sydney Grammar School), both opened in 1857; Lyons Terrace, a row of beautiful townhouses on Liverpool St, built in 1841; and St Mary’s Cathedral, finished in 1835.
For a few weeks in 1851 Hyde Park was even the site of a zoo after the City Council granted entrepreneurs Beaumont and Waller permission to exhibit animals they had imported for a zoological garden at Botany Bay.
Admission was one shilling for adults and sixpence for children, who got to see an elephant, a black Bengal sheep, Royal Bengal tiger, black bears from the Himalayas and a red deer from Manila.
When the underground railway network was built in the 1930s, a large portion of Hyde Park was dug up to lay the tunnels that would link St James and Museum stations with the City Circle line.
“Hyde Park has had many different functions, even as a place for people to gather on public holidays and protest and march throughout the decades,” Murray says.
“But one of the special things we have to remember is that although Hyde Park is a central part of Sydneysiders’ lives today, it is also an important place for the Gadigal people and other tribes.”
Got a local history story to tell? Email mercedes.maguire@news.com.au
STREETS SIGN OF THE TIMES
In the same proclamation Governor Lachlan Macquarie made on October 6, 1810, that set aside Hyde Park for the city, he also established the names of some of Sydney’s main streets.
“The principal street in the town, and leading through the middle of it from Dawes Point to the place near the Brickfields … being upwards of a mile in length, and hitherto known alternately by the names of High Street, Spring Row and Serjeant Major’s Row, is now named George Street in honour of our revered and gracious sovereign.”
Other street names endorsed that day were King, Bligh, Macquarie, Market, Park and Bridge.
COLONY GETS ITS FIRST ZOO
It would be strange to think of wild animals roaming around a park or garden, but that’s exactly what happened when entrepreneur William Beaumont, who owned the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel at Botany, and his business partner James Waller imported animals including elephants, tigers and deer to showcase at their pleasure gardens next to the hotel in the 1850s, making it Australia’s first zoo.
Beaumont kept the zoo until the 1860s when the animals were donated to the Sydney Zoological Gardens, which would move to a couple of locations around Sydney before becoming Taronga Zoo in Mosman in 1916.
Camperdown boarding house arsenic scandal
In the dead of night in October 1946, a group of men gathered at the gravesite of Robert Walter Reynolds at the Northern Suburbs Cemetery.
Under the watchful eye of three Sydney detectives, the grave of the man who was buried four years previously was exhumed and his body taken to the city morgue for a post mortem examination.
It was expected his true cause of death, previously believed to be gastroenteritis coupled with pneumonia, would be confirmed as arsenic poisoning.
And the alleged criminal? A diminutive 43-year-old boarding house proprietress from Camperdown, Mrs Marjorie Coleman.
The scandalous case filled the pages of the Sydney metro newspapers in the lead-up to Christmas 1946, particularly when the two alleged victims who had survived her other poisoning attempts spoke in Central Sydney Court about the goings on in St Mary St, Camperdown.
Reynolds, who was 48 when he died, is believed to have been Coleman’s first victim, despite witnesses claiming the two were very much in love.
Court transcripts state Coleman tried to poison him between October 14 and 31, 1942, and that he died at Coleman’s residence.
But the most scandalous news came on December 2 when Coleman’s second alleged victim, Constable William Patrick O’Dea of Balmain Police Station, took to the stand.
The papers reported Coleman was well-dressed in a frock and coat, wore bright lipstick and brought a “flavour of elegance to the court”.
O’Dea said he first noticed feeling unwell around January 31 that year while he was living at Coleman’s boarding house. He said after drinking a cup of tea with Coleman and another resident, 26-year-old Muriel Joan Bewhey, he had to run out of the house because he had a violent vomiting attack.
The next morning, following another cup of tea, he again felt sick and was taken to Balmain Hospital where he stayed for about five weeks. About two weeks after he returned to Coleman’s boarding house he again became ill.
He testified she brought him a glass of water one day that looked discoloured and tasted sweet and soon after he began to vomit again.
In September, he had samples taken of his fingernails, toenails and hair and the results showed he was suffering from poisoning.
He also testified that at Easter that year he had intervened in a fight between Coleman and Bewhey and two weeks later Bewhey started vomiting and lost the use of her limbs. She went to hospital and then to live with friends.
It was alleged Coleman tried to poison Bewhey, a divorcee, between May 15 and June 26 that year.
And a witness who had worked at a Newtown Cafe where Bewhey was a waitress and Coleman a night manager said she heard Coleman say: “I can’t understand what Muriel has done to me. If she riles me much longer, I will do her in.”
The prosecutor attempted to establish a motive of financial gain, at least in the case of Reynolds and O’Dea. O’Dea said Coleman had suggested he write a will, which he claimed would benefit her and his brother. It was also suggested Coleman held a will made by the deceased Reynolds.
O’Dea said another man had also left a will benefiting Coleman before allegedly committing suicide. But she claimed she had destroyed it.
There was also an attempt by Coleman’s defence to paint O’Dea as the aggressor when Coleman claimed it was actually the constable who had tried to poison her and that Bewhey had seen O’Dea draining water from a bowl containing a fly target, which acted as a kind of poison.
Another witness claimed O’Dea had been seen attempting to buy arsenic. O’Dea strongly denied both claims.
Despite all evidence – albeit circumstantial – pointing at Coleman, she was released on February 22, 1947 after spending almost three months in jail as the trial proceeded.
The Crown had simply decided not to prosecute any further.
Got a local history story to share? Email mercedes.maguire@news.com.au
KILLER BEAUTY TREATMENT
Arsenic is a natural element – number 33 on the periodic table – which has been around since as early as the 4th century BC.
It is called the “king of poisons” because of a perfect combination of being both odourless and tasteless.
Large amounts of arsenic will lead to immediate sickness and even death, and in 1836, in response to a spate of arsenic poisonings, British chemist James Marsh developed a test to detect arsenic in food and human remains.
Despite this, women in Victorian England would apply the poison to their skin, mixed with vinegar, to enhance their complexion.
BAFFLING CASE OF SOMERTON MAN
For true crime fans, the Somerton Man Mystery needs no explanation. The case is one of Australia’s most baffling mysteries; a man in his 40s found dead, slumped against the seawall on Somerton Park Beach in Adelaide on December 1, 1948.
He was well-dressed in a shirt and tie, well-groomed and in top physical condition. But despite poisoning being the most popular suspicion of death, the coroner was unable to confirm either a cause of death or his identity.
Earlier this year, his remains were exhumed from Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery for further forensic examination and possible DNA extraction.
How The Smith Family began in Sydney
Five businessmen were returning to Sydney from a trip to the Blue Mountains in the weeks prior to Christmas 1922. They were in good spirits and decided to stop for a refreshing drink at the Woolpack Hotel in Parramatta.
The longtime friends talked about their Christmas plans and the gifts they had brought their children – a train set, a climbing monkey, a Meccano building set. One of the five made mention they were a fortunate bunch and hoped all children in Sydney were as lucky as theirs.
“Surely nobody starves in Sydney,” one said.
The men left each other that evening with plans to investigate whether there were indeed families less fortunate than them in the community.
When they came back together, they shared their findings of children in orphanages, homes, hospitals and private residences in the community for whom Christmas would be just another day on the calendar, and some who had never even seen Santa Claus before.
In consultation with the matron at Carlingford Boys Home, the five businessmen made a pact to bring the joy of Christmas to the 40 boys at the institution and arrived on Christmas Eve, one of them dressed as Santa, and with a car laden with gifts and toys for each child at the home.
As they were leaving, the matron asked “Who are you men anyway?” to which the man dressed as Santa replied, “Tell the lady who we are fellers”.
Another of the group simply said: “Just call us the Smiths matron, we are members of a very big family.”
And so on Christmas Eve 1922, one of Australia’s biggest charity groups – The Smith Family – was born in the Sydney suburbs.
Visits to hospitals, children’s homes and aged care facilities followed and friends of the five businessmen soon joined their ranks in a bid to help the less fortunate.
By September 18, 1923, the organisation known as The Smith Family Joyspreaders Unlimited was officially formed with its headquarters in the basement of 31 Pitt St.
And this week, The Smith Family celebrates the start of its centenary year.
“Anonymity was part and parcel of being involved with the organisation for at least the first 50 years,” says The Smith Family company secretary Ben Watkinson, who has been with the organisation for 45 years.
“Even the chairman was not publicly known, he was known only (in the public records) as Secretary Smith.
“They did it because it was a good thing to do, not to get public plaudits. Their motivations that long ago were probably very different from what they are today.”
The focus of The Smith Family has always been the children and, by association, their families. But they are also a group which has responded to society’s evolving challenges.
In 1931, as the Great Depression took hold in Sydney, The Smith Family established the Malnourished Children Scheme in order to distribute free fruit, vegetables, eggs, milk and other pantry staples to poor families in the community.
A few years later in 1933, the group built Mt Arcadia Children’s Hospital to treat kids suffering from rheumatic fever. By the 1970s, as waves of immigrant families settled in Australia, they established Each One Teach One, a program to teach English as a second language.
In 1987, the focus changed again, this time to the importance of education for children with the launch of the pilot program EDU-CATE to provide mentors and scholarships to study. It evolved into a full-scholarship model a decade later called Learning For Life.
The Covid-19 pandemic has again shifted its focus, this time towards helping children impacted by remote learning during lockdown through a program called Catch-Up.
“(The centenary) is quite a milestone,” Watkinson says.
“The organisation has continued to grow and evolve and I’m proud of the fact we have focused on the issues of the day. That we continue to provide a valuable service to the community, even after 100 years, is amazing.”
Got local history story to share? Email mercedes.maguire@news.com.au
CHARITY IN AUSTRALIA
There are almost 60,000 charities registered in Australia. But topping the list of the 10 most popular charities in 2021 was the Australian Red Cross, according to not-for-profit charity facilitator good2give.
The charity’s popularity this year was due to their response to the 2020 Australian bushfires and recent floods in NSW and QLD.
Coming in a close second was The Smith Family who were heralded for the help they give disadvantaged children in schools, particularly those who had limited digital access during homeschooling.
And the third spot went to WIRES wildlife rescue group which was on the front lines helping animals during the 2020 bushfires.
CYCLE OF DISADVANTAGE
One in six Australian children – or 1.2 million – live in poverty. And, according to The Smith Family, this can lead to a cycle of disadvantage with generational effect.
This is because poverty can negatively impact educational outcomes. For example, one in five children the charity supports have attended four or more schools, and three in 10 families they help through the Learning For Life program do not have a computer or tablet connected to the internet.
As a result, disadvantaged students can be two to three years behind in reading and maths by the age of 15.
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