NSW history: Truth behind myth about colonial naming of Manly
The real meaning of this beachside suburb’s name is often misinterpreted but can be dated back to when Governor Arthur Phillip arrived to Australia in 1788.
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Whenever Brian McDonald hears the often told story of the naming of Manly, he squirms.
It’s one of the myths about the early days of white settlement in Sydney he is quick to point out to others.
The story goes that when Governor Arthur Phillip encountered a group of Aboriginal men at Manly Cove days after arriving at Port Botany in 1788 he was impressed by their “manly” physique and so named the sandy shore, Manly Cove.
That story is only partly right, McDonald says.
“The first thing the First Fleet had to do once they were in Botany Bay was find fresh water; Botany Bay was totally useless, it was shallow, all sandy soil and open to the winds and so Phillip set off in a group of three row boats to explore further north,” says McDonald, a tour guide of more than 40 years, most recently with The Rocks Walking Tours.
“As they rowed in through the heads, the arms of the Harbour opened up to them and they turned north, towards (modern-day) Manly.
“As they passed the beach, a group of Aboriginal people saw their boats and were fascinated. The documents say they put their spears on the ground and waded into the water to have a closer look.
“Phillip gave them trinkets — beads and looking glasses — and they continued around the bay.”
Phillip’s dispatch to Lord Sydney immortalises the encounter: “The boats, in passing near a point of land in the Harbour were seen by a number of men and 20 of them waded into the water unarmed, received what was offered them, and examined the boats with a curiosity that gave me a much higher opinion of them than I had formed from that behaviour of those seen in Captain Cook’s voyage, and the confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place.”
McDonald says the emphasis is often wrongly put on the Aboriginal men’s appearance, instead of their personality and behaviour — it is the confidence with which they approached Phillip’s boats that impressed him, McDonald argues.
He was particularly impressed because some of those who had previously encountered the Aboriginal people at Botany Bay had labelled them “weak, timid and cowardly” and these Aboriginal people, Phillip claimed, were the opposite.
Initially, Manly Cove was just known as ‘down the Harbour’ or North Arm, it wasn’t until Phillip’s recollections were published in The Voyage of Governor Arthur Phillip to Botany Bay in 1789 that the name of Manly was more widely used.
And sadly, these friendly early encounters between the Aboriginal people of Manly and the British did not last.
Phillip was speared by an Aboriginal warrior near Manly Cove in 1790 and around the same time, a smallpox epidemic hit the local Aboriginal people, which decimated their population to just a few by 1830.
While Manly was named by the British in the early days of white settlement, the suburb did not evolve for a long time. The only way to get to Manly was by road — travelling from Sydney via Parramatta, Hunters Hill, Lane Cove and Narrabeen — or crossing the Harbour.
British merchant Henry Gilbert Smith had visions of Manly as a perfect seaside retreat for colonials, much like Brighton in England, when he settled there in 1853.
He wrote to family in England: “The amusement I derive in making my improvements in Manly is no doubt the cause of my greater enjoyment, in fact I never feel a dull day while there.”
In 1855 a pier was constructed just east of where Manly Wharf is today and Gilbert also helped establish the Pier Hotel. The same year land was cleared linking the Harbour with the beach, known today as the Corso.
But the village didn’t really begin to thrive until a daily ferry service was established in 1856. On January 6, 1877 the municipality of Manly was created and by the 1880s Manly was a popular seaside resort town.
Got a local history story to share? Email mercedes.maguire@news.com.au
NEWSMAN SECOND IN SWIM RACE
A popular myth abounds that Manly newspaperman William Gocher was the first to challenge the ban on daylight public bathing when he plunged into the ocean — suitably dressed in a neck-to-knee bathing suit — in October 1902.
The ban had been in place since 1833 under the Sydney Police Act and, in Manly, forbade swimming between the hours of 7am and 8pm. Little did Gocher know that ban had already been repealed by Randwick Council earlier that year. Manly Council lifted the ban on public bathing in 1903, but neck-to-knee swimwear for all those over the age of eight was mandatory.
A WORLD AWAY FROM SYDNEY
Many Manly residents still subscribe to the mantra their suburb is “seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care” promoted by Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company in the 1920s.
A small ferry wharf was built in 1855 and a daily ferry service was introduced the following year. In the 1880s the pier was extended and a new facade and clock tower introduced and in the 1940s shops were added and the famous curved facade extended.
A cargo service, which was no longer needed when the Spit Bridge opened in 1928, was later turned into the Manly Fun Pier which ran from 1931 until the 1990s.
Olympic hero went from battlefield to Games
Every year since they came back from Helsinki in 1952, members of that year’s Olympic team would meet in locations around Sydney. They would light an Olympic torch at the start of the annual catch-up and they raise an Olympic Flag which two members had smuggled out of the village during the 1952 Games.
The Kapyla Club, named after the athletes village in Helsinki, would reminisce and tell stories of their shared experiences over a nice dinner and a few beers.
One of the members who attended was marathon runner Claude Smeal, who donated the torch after the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and who would have attended until his death in 1993.
But even after Smeal stopped attending, the runner remained in spirit, his story one of the most unusual of any other Olympic team member.
Claude Vincent Smeal was born in Waverley in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 1918. Little is known of his early life, but in 1939, he enlisted for military service in WWII at the age of 21. He was initially a sapper and later served in New Guinea as a signaller.
In 1942, Smeal married Amy Margaret Anderson at St Patrick’s Church, Kogarah, and the couple settled in Hurstville after the war. But Smeal remained with the Army during peacetime.
Smeal was a keen runner and is said to have run from his home in Hurstville to his work at Victoria Barracks and home again, a distance of 20km each way.
He joined the St George District Amateur Athletic Club in 1949 and won the NSW marathon in 1951, which possibly sparked his dreams of running in the Olympics.
When Australia went to war in Korea in 1950, Smeal again saw active duty, his dream of running in the Olympics a distant hope.
Now a captain in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Smeal missed his opportunity to be selected for the Australian Olympic team because he was posted in Korea, but he continued to train, running in fields laced with landmines and the threat of snipers in a pair of makeshift runners and his St George club singlet.
His efforts were picked up by two war correspondents in June 1952 – Noel Monks of the London Daily Mail and Australian Norman MacSwan of AAP-Reuters – who campaigned for Smeal to run a time trial for consideration in the Australian team, despite having missed the qualifiers.
With the newsmen as his official timekeepers, Smeal ran the trial in 2 hours and 44 minutes, six minutes outside Olympic qualifying time.
But he was accepted into the team due to the extreme circumstances and poor track conditions.
Smeal was excused from active service and, under the auspices of the Australian Army, travelled to Tokyo by jeep and transport plane then on to London where he was issued a tracksuit, measured for an official Olympic blazer and joined the team.
Smeal ran the marathon, coming 44th in a field of 68 but could be proud of his efforts in a distance race that saw 13 athletes pull out before reaching the finish line. After his Olympic participation, Smeal returned to the frontline in Korea.
John Treloar, son of sprinter John Treloar who competed in the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games, says Smeal’s story is one that shouldn’t be forgotten.
To this end, Treloar is writing a book called The Kapyla Club: Australia At The 1952 Helsinki Olympics that will include all 85 members of the Olympic Team and has been researching Smeal’s life.
“It’s such an interesting story,” Treloar says.
“His desire to run and his dream to participate in the Olympic Games is amazing. That he trained without proper shoes among landmines and snipers and still managed to run in a time just outside the qualifying Olympic time is outstanding.”
Smeal remained with the Army until he retired in 1973, aged 55 reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
He died in 1993, aged 75.
Got a local history story to tell? Email mercedes.maguire@news.com.au
CLUB CELEBRATED GLORY OF SPORT
Named after the village in Helsinki where athletes lived, the Kapyla Club met every year around the date of the Helsinki Olympics Opening Ceremony, July 18.
The Olympic Team that year comprised 81 members, and initially was restricted to men, then women joined and later partners and family members. The invitation to the first reunion read: “So happy was our association at Kapyla Village Helsinki, and at the XV Olympic Games, for the glory of sport it was felt that the spirit so started should be kindled yearly.”
In 2015, the IOC recognised Kapyla Club as the only Olympic team to hold regular reunions.
MARJORIE LED RACE TO GOLD
A team of 81 represented Australia in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki – 71 men and 10 women – in 12 sports.
The women dominated the gold medal wins with Marjorie Jackson claiming two in the women’s 100m and 200m track events and Shirley Strickland one in the women’s 80m women’s hurdles.
Russell Mockridge won gold in the men’s 1000m cycling time trial and, with Lionel Cox, took gold in the men’s 2000m tandem cycle.
In the pool, John Davies won gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke. A further two silver and three bronze medals made up the haul for the Australian team that year.
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