CHARLES DISTON (1844—1927)

Coaches, Coffins and Census Taker

Charles Diston arrived in the district in 1886¹ and became the proprietor of a coach business, which ran from Sutherland to Yowie Bay. Horse drawn vehicles were then the most common means of transport and it would be another 26 years before a tramline was constructed to convey travellers to other parts of the district. When the railway came to Sutherland at the end of 1885 it brought with it the opportunity for enterprising businessmen to pursue new interests. Charles Diston appears to have been such a man.

Although the area was only sparsely populated, people also came to the district in the pursuit of pleasure and Yowie Bay was one of the waterside destinations regularly frequented by holidaymakers and weekend visitors. The leisurely pastimes of boating and fishing were very popular and shrewdly Charles built the first boatshed on the Bay. It was situated at the end of Wonga Road on Lot 49 Village of Weeroona (Yowie Bay).

Apart from his coach and boating interests Charles had also begun an undertaker’s business in the 1880s and was Sutherland’s first undertaker. The only other undertaker was William Allerdice but his business commenced in 1895, the year the cemetery opened, and was in Forest Road, Hurstville. Charles adapted a coach to use as a hearse, suitably conveyed by his large and very slow black horse.² These were the days when the funeral carriages were black and ornate with glass sides enclosing the coffin. The undertaker would toss a coin to the waiting children who in return opened the cemetery gates for him.³

There were other pursuits for Charles. He became the licensee of the Royal Hotel at Sutherland⁴ for a while, was the census taker in 1891⁵ and again in 1901, the same year he sold his coach business to Robert Cook. He was agent for the Holt-Sutherland Company.⁶ At one time he fitted up two shops in the former Burns Timber Yard premises at Caringbah.⁷ He was an estate agent⁸ and it was he who carried out the first land valuations for the Sutherland Shire Council in 1907 and again in 1909 he revalued the land receiving £30 for his efforts. ⁹

Charles was a civic minded man and in the first elections for the Sutherland Shire Council held on 24 November 1906, he stood as a candidate for A Riding. Voting was then restricted to ‘an occupier-owner of land’ therefore not every adult voted. At an election meeting at Cooper’s rooms at Como he was presented as an ‘honest man who had done much good already for the district and was a candidate ready and able to do more’.¹⁰

Although given a unanimous vote of confidence Charles failed to gain selection. The voting system was ‘first past the post’ and two candidates from each of the three Ridings were elected. There were five candidates in A Riding and he came in third behind Hyndman and Lehane who were duly elected to Council. He also stood in the 1911 election but again was unsuccessful.

Of Charles’ family life little is known. He and his wife Elizabeth Ellen (nee Owens) had only one child Catherine who was born in 1889.¹¹ Sadly Catherine died when she was 9 years and 4 months old and was buried in the Congregational portion, Section B grave 12-13 of Woronora Cemetery. Charles, who had the nickname ‘Toby’, and Elizabeth appear to have lived in various locations. In Eton Street on the site of the Sutherland Primary School and on Princes Highway near Merton Street where St Vincent de Paul’s premises are now located were two found to be listed. The 1907 Sutherland Shire rate books show the couple had five parcels of land. Three of these were at Yowie Bay, one at Sylvania and one in the Sutherland township. The land at the end of Wonga Road (Lot 49) had a house and boatshed on it and they gave this as their address at one time. Some of their holdings were in Elizabeth’s name and Lot 39 Weroona, which was 3 acres 17 perches in area, was one. This was sold about 1916.¹³

At the end of his life he was living in ‘Bryn-Avon’, Princes Highway Sutherland and it was there that he died on 28 February 1927 and was buried with his daughter in the Congregational portion, Section B grave 12-13. He was 83 years old, a man who had seen much – the tramway he agitated for was still running when he died, the railway to Sutherland was electrified and electric lighting was installed in the main street of Sutherland – the end of an era and the beginning of another.

Maree McKiney

First published in  Sutherland Shire, Some Early Residents, 2006, by Botany Bay Family History Society. Compiled by Maree McKinley and Sue Hewitt.   

Click on the name CHARLES DISTON (1844—1927) in the heading of thIs story. You will be taken to the database entry for Charles Diston and his family.

 Endnotes:

 1. Merle Kavanagh, Echoes from the Past, 2004

2. SSHS Bulletin No 29 Aug 1979

3. Michael Boyd, Woronora Cemetery and Crematorium Sutherland     1895-1995

4. SSHS Bulletin No 72 May 1990

5. Merle Kavanagh, Echoes from the Past, 2004

6. Merle Kavanagh, Echoes from the Past, 2004

7. SSHS Bulletin No 29 Aug 1979

8. 1913 Electoral Roll for the Div of Illawarra, Sub div of Sutherland

9. St George Call 8 May 1909

10.St George Call 20 Oct 1906

11.NSW BDM index

12.SSHS Bulletin No 54

13. Merle Kavanagh, Echoes from the Past, 2004