Notes: Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the Eucalyptus genus.
Frank Walker (1861-1948) was President of the RAHS and a passionate supporter of local history. For much of his life he was literally an historian-in-the-field. He bicycled more than 22,000 miles (almost 35,000 kilometres) around country New South Wales taking thousands of images on glass plate negatives, many of which he later used as lantern slides for his lectures.
Format: b&w photo 7.5 cm x 10.5 cm
Date Range: 1914
Location: Linden
Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.
Repository: Blue Mountains City Library bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/default/
Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS 185
Provenance: donation, from an album - ‘Western District Relics Illustrated’ by Frank Walker FRAHS, 1914.
Links: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/maiden-joseph-henry-7463
Tags: botanist
Notes: "The two-storey convict built Inn was one of the earliest and best known in the district. It had a carved staircase, made by convict labour. There were wide over-hanging eaves and the many windows had small panes of glass. There were sixteen rooms in the building. A huge pepper tree grew out the front with a camping ground nearby for the teamsters who made up a large proportion of the travellers in the early days.
It began life in 1827 as the Emu Ferry Inn or Wilson’s Hotel. The reason being that Wilson ran the inn and the ferry at that spot. He was the step-son of Josephson who built the inn. There was no bridge across the river. It was quite profitable for Wilson to run the ferry across the river as well as run an inn because he could decide if the river was too high, low or muddy to run the ferry and in consequence he probably did a good trade.
Around 1829 the name was changed to Pineapple Inn. However, when Charles Darwin stayed there in 1836 he said he stayed at the inn at Emu Ferry which could simply mean it was near the ferry. The inn was then taken over by Josephson’s real son, Henry and he changed the name to The Governor Bourke. Governor Fitzroy stayed there during his tour across the Blue Mountains in 1847 and was not impressed - the host and hostess “were so ultra-republican in their independence that they did not suitably address the Governor and his lady”.
At some time it was also called the George IV, and by 1882 a Mr Thurston from Lemongrove bought it. He sold it to TR Smith who changed the name to The Riverside. There was at that time much competition between hotels to try to attract the sporting crowd. A big boxing tournament was held at The Riverside but it resulted in many difficulties and fights and a broken arm. This hotel advertised “one of the most comfortable and complete hostelries in the district. Steam launches and boats were available for visitors; vehicles meet every train”.
In 1925 Sir Joynton Smith, Lord Mayor of Sydney, held interests in the Carrington Hotel at Katoomba, Hydro Majestic Medlow Bath and the Imperial at Mt Druitt. On his trips back and forward he deplored the fact that he could not get ‘a decent cuppa’ in Penrith. He bought the property and opened the Log House tea room. It was extended in 1939 to become The Log Cabin Hotel and granted a liquor licence. This became a popular out of town spot for Sydney-siders.
In the 1940’s a railway station was built nearby – although it had limited use and was demolished after 10 years. The hotel slowly declined over the war years. In 1955 Frank and Doreen McKittrick did extensions and constructed the motel. In 1969 Mrs. McCreedy who owned the Log Cabin was fined $20 on a charge that she did sell a certain article of food – to wit, rum, which had been adulterated. It seems that the Health Inspector tested all open bottles of spirits in the hotel and found the rum bottle quite weak – in fact approximately 4% water. Mrs. McCreedy thought it was caused by evaporation but the judge thought a member of staff had been taking a nip and filling it up with water so Mrs. McCreedy was fined."
The ‘Loggy’ as it was fondly known by locals, was an iconic Penrith landmark. It was destroyed by Fire, March 9, 2012.
Frank Walker (1861-1948) was President of the RAHS and a passionate supporter of local history. For much of his life he was literally an historian-in-the-field. He bicycled more than 22,000 miles (almost 35,000 kilometres) around country New South Wales taking thousands of images on glass plate negatives, many of which he later used as lantern slides for his lectures.
Format: b&w photo 9.5 cm x 7.5 cm
Date Range: 1914
Location: Penrith
Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.
Repository: Blue Mountains City Library bmcc.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/default/
Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS 185
Provenance: donation, from an album - ‘Western District Relics Illustrated’ by Frank Walker FRAHS, 1914.
Links:
penrithhistory.com/industries/history-of-hotels-in-the-pe...
issuu.com/weekenderpenrith/docs/wwmay1/69
The Emu Ferry Inn (1924, July 5). Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), p. 8. Retrieved June 21, 2018, from nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108674417
Notes: title from album page, identified as the grave of Eliza Rodd.
Glenroy was a significant government station in the two decades after 1816. Nothing remains above ground of the government site and this grave is unusual testimony to the soldiers stationed there. It is also the earliest dated grave marker west of the Blue Mountains.
As soon as William Cox and his convicts built a road over the Blue Mountains and across the western plains in 1813-14, Governor Macquarie moved government stock over the mountains first to Hartley in 1815 then to Glenroy in 1816. The Glenroy settlement consisted of stockyards, pens, slab huts for stockmen and soldiers' accommodation near Cox's crossing of Cox's River: it retained importance until the early 1830s.
In 1831 the 39th regiment of foot was stationed at Glenroy: on 12 January the wife of the colour sergeant, James Rodd, bore a daughter. She was christened Eliza but died on 14 September 1831 and was buried some 300 metres from the barracks. The property has been pastoral since the military withdrew soon after Eliza's burial.
Inscription
"SACRED To The MEMORY
of
ELIZA RODD
who departed this life September 14the 1831
Aged 8 months and 2 days daughter of
J Rodd colour sergant in his
MAGESTY 39th Regt foot
How can a tender Mothers care
cease to love the child she bers
how can my frends discontented be
since my Savour has taken me"
Preceding civil registration, this stone is the only evidence of Eliza Rodd's existence. Its vernacular spelling and touching text are valuable evidence for social life in the area in the 1830s and of high significance at so early a date. (Heritage listing)
Format: b&w photo 9.5 cm x 6.5 cm
Date Range: c.1910. Frank Walker was photographing around Lithgow in May 1910.
Location: Glenroy, Hartley
Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.
Repository: Blue Mountains City Library - library.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/
Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS 185
Provenance: donation, from an album - ‘Western District Relics Illustrated’ by Frank Walker (1861-1948) FRAHS, 1914.
Links: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDe...
www.lithgow-nsw.com/GlenroyH7.html
www.gg.gov.au/program/eliza-rodd-governor-macquarie-manly...
Tags: grave headstone Eliza Rodd foot stone
Notes: this wooden structure, built on six concrete piers, was opened and named Glenroy Bridge on October 19, 1901, by the Hon. E.W. O’Sullivan, Minister for Works.
"In April, 1837, James Blair, Police Magistrate, reported that William Kay, a life prisoner, had with another convict been left un-superintended on the land at Cox’s River, and that he had been brought before the Bench charged with being out at night, without a pass, and with abusive language. Consequently Blacket was informed that unless he kept a ticket-of-leave overseer on his land his assigned servants would be withdrawn. Blacket replied that he had visited the property twice and his free groom once since its recent purchase, that he had engaged free carpenters to build a house there for himself, and finally that a free man should be “sent to Glenroy, Cox’s River by 1st May”. On May 1 Blair reported that a qualified person had been duly sent and was then residing on the property. Here is the first known mention of the name “Glenroy” for this locality. In the Lithgow Mercury of January 6, 1922, it is stated that, in Gaelic it means the ‘Red Valley’."
Format & creator : b&w photo postcard 14 cm x 9 cm. Henry T Mellor worked at a studio in Lithgow until 1911 before moving to Sydney, he photographed the ten tunnels deviation at the Lithgow Zig Zag in 1910.
Date Range: c. 1910.
Location: Glenroy, Hartley
Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.
Repository: Blue Mountains City Library - library.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/
Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS 185
Provenance: donation, from an album - ‘Western District Relics Illustrated’ by Frank Walker (1861-1948) FRAHS, 1914.
Links: www.lithgow-nsw.com/GlenroyH8.html
Notes: father leads the way while mother and the three children pause for the photo in the sulky.
Also known simply as, The Gap, Brown's Gap is the access between Lithgow and Hartley, via Browns Gap Road. The Sun, 16th April 1913, p. 5, records the Aboriginal name as,Gnallwarra. Named after Thomas Brown (1811-1889), who lived at Eskbank House . Thomas Brown was police magistrate and land commissioner for the district of Hartley and used to ride down a bridle track in the vicinity of the present road over the Gap on his way to and from the courthouse at Hartley.
Ref: Lithgow Mercury 9th June 1916, p. 6. The Empire, 20th April 1865, p. 7, records the name Browns Gap.
Format & creator : b&w photo postcard 14 cm x 9 cm. Henry T Mellor worked at a studio in Lithgow until 1911 before moving to Sydney, he photographed the ten tunnels deviation at the Lithgow Zig Zag in 1910.
Date Range: c. 1910.
Location: River Lett near Hartley
Licensing: Attribution, share alike, creative commons.
Repository: Blue Mountains City Library - library.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/
Part of: Local Studies Collection SHS 185
Provenance: donation, from an album - ‘Western District Relics Illustrated’ by Frank Walker (1861-1948) FRAHS, 1914.
Links:
Brown's Gap - www.bushexplorers.com.au/encyclopaedia/browns-gap
River Lett - www.bushexplorers.com.au/encyclopaedia/river-lett