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THOMAS ASKEW HUTCHINSON (1876-1945) and son ALBERT HUTCHINSON (1906-2004)
Thomas Askew
was born at Waratah NSW in
1876, the son of John and Ann Hutchinson. Thomas grew up in the Newcastle area.
He learnt the trade of stone mason well and in 1897 he married Mary Vipon at
Sunny Corner. She was born in the Newcastle area, the birth being registered at
Lambton in 1878 with parents William and Mary Vipon, sometimes spelt Vipen1.
Mary was born at Wallsend and brought up at Sunny Corner, attending school there
as her father was an engineer at the
mines2.
In 1898, the year following their marriage, Tom and Mary
moved to the Sutherland district which was probably a big wrench for them both,
particularly Mary as her sisters were all settled on the west side of the
mountains at Cobar, Nyngan and Lithgow. As an expert stone mason Tom's skills
were put to good use in the district. He did a much stonework along the Hacking
River and it is probable that he also worked on Audley Weir and on buildings in
the Grays Point area3.
Albert Hutchinson,
mostly known as Alby,
was born 5 January 1906 in what is now President Avenue, between Miranda and
Sutherland on 6 January 1906, taking his place in the Hutchinson family which
included by this time, three boys and three girls4. That was the year
when locals realised there was a possibility that their area might be swallowed
up by Bulli Shire, and with 1500 residents, they needed a local Shire Council
which could address the many needs of the growing population5.
As more people chose, by necessity or desire, to live in
this remote part of the Sydney environs, more homes were needed and Tom did
spec-building, erecting fifty or sixty mostly weatherboard homes, ten or twelve
being around Sutherland and others at Gymea Bay. He also built about ten of his
own homes as the family moved often. At one time they lived in what was the
original Council meeting place at the southern end of the Princes Highway,
between Boyle Street and President Avenue where they had a store for a while6.
However, problems arose and Tom was declared bankrupt, though no circumstances
are known. In 1912 he applied in the Supreme Court of NSW for a Certificate of
Discharge in Bankruptcy as advertised in the local paper7.
About 1913 Tom, then living at Caringbah, bought Lots 14
and 15 on the Yowie Point peninsula, probably as part of his building program8.
When Alby was about thirteen, he was left on his own as his parents, Tom and
Mary, went 'walkabout', working in the back areas of the shire9. In
1945 Tom, then settled in Forest Road, Sutherland, died at the age of 6910
leaving as his memorial, many solid stone walls and homes scattered throughout
the shire.
Alby attended Miranda School from the age of five, and recalled the free ride
for the children on the first tram to Cronulla and back in 1911. The tram linked
Sutherland and Cronulla and there had been much agitation for it in the early
part of the 20th century, with an enquiry into the Proposal for a Tramway being
carried out in 190811.
After
a few years at Miranda School, the family moved to a house which would now be in
Flora Street near the Sutherland Post Office. Here they had a shop, so Alby
attended Sutherland School. He found it wasn't an ideal place to live as, not
being an academic student, he preferred to ‘wag’ school, which he did often. In
the warmer months the most popular place for the school truants was the swimming
hole down the south end of Glencoe Street near the slaughter yards used by
Stapleton's butchers. There could be eight or nine other children there avoiding
school and they would peel off their clothes and jump in. Fortunately, the pool
was just uphill from the slaughter yards, which drained down into the river
below. He was often in trouble for some misdemeanour and sent to be caned but
would walk around the school and back into the hall again, as if the punishment
was over. On one occasion when he returned he was asked how many 'cuts' of the
cane had been given and he said 'Four'. Whereupon the Master, then Mr Davies,
said ‘I don't recall seeing you‘ and he was given the cane, just to make sure.
East of the shops on the Highway there was vacant land
which was used by circuses and travelling shows. Like a beacon, it attracted the
children. Alby remembers that the 'kids had all the tricks in the world’ and
would sneak in unnoticed to enjoy the shows. Some were not above visiting a
Princes Highway shop midway between Flora Street and the lane south where
Muston's bakery had operated earlier, and booking up tuppence or threepence
worth of lollies with the old lady shopkeeper whom they knew as Mrs McGinty.
Many of the children's entrepreneurial skills were honed
in those days by the proximity of the Woronora Cemetery and its capacity for
fund raising. Funerals arrived at the cemetery by horse-drawn vehicles and
stopped at the shut gates. There, for a small coin, the children would open the
gates but not until the money appeared. When a funeral arrived by train the
children boarded at Sutherland and had a ride into the “cemo”. The tram and
train connection also provided some tips for pocket money when offers to carry
suitcases from one to the other were accepted.
Waratah Park was a rifle range in those first few
decades of the 20th century. The children picked many wildflowers growing there
and sold them at the railway station. There was always some way for a ‘keen kid‘
to earn a few pence. However, it was not a lucrative existence for the children,
especially at Christmas, but they hung their stockings up very hopefully and
were grateful to receive something they appreciated. As an occasional joke they
might get some horse manure for the garden, which rather added to the merriment
of the season12."
Sunday school was not a regular occurrence but Alby did
attend about twice a year at the Church of England at the eastern end of Boyle
Street where the old Police Station was situated. This usually coincided with
the annual picnic and Alby recalls some picnics going by train to Stanwell Park.
He remembers the gypsies camping in tents and caravans on the flat by the ‘mad
mile’, the straight piece of road now running by the Council pool and Waratah
Park at Sutherland. In Alby's opinion the gypsies “needed a wash” and he also
thought it wise to walk around near them with his hands in his pockets, to
protect his money.
During 1919 the influenza epidemic came to the shire,
brought back by the soldiers returning from the World War I. Planned events
where people gathered were cancelled, hotels were restricted to trading only
between 6am and 6pm, Inoculation Depots and Emergency Hospitals were set up as
there was no hospital in the shire and only two doctors. Several masks could be
found along Cronulla beach, discarded as their wearers entered the water. A
government order made it compulsory to wear masks in all sorts of transport and
public lifts and Alby remembers wearing one during that period13.
After Alby joyfully left school, he worked in a variety of labouring jobs. Work
as a fettler on the tram lines was hard, but Alby knew everyone who lived on the
main road between Sutherland and Cronulla. He remembered Jack Kelly, a local
character, who worked shovelling coal at the tram yard and was always black from
the dust. He worked for the Council on the roads and the kerbing and guttering,
also for Loveday‘s carrying business and the Miranda Co-op, the name adopted by
the Agricultural Bureau in 192414.
He did ‘pick and shovel‘ work in the shell pits of the shire for Bakewell Bros,
brick makers. The shell was transported to their brickworks at Mitchell Street
St Peters. He was put off from this job during the depression and spent 3¼ years
on the dole.
By
this time Alby was married with two children.
When Bakewell contacted him years later to come and see them, he didn't have the
fare to St Peters. A local, Freddie Mullins gave him ten shillings and he
returned to work for Bakewell in their shale pit at Caringbah for seven years.
His final job was at Woronora Cemetery, where he became foreman, lasted 30 years
and left there at the age of 65. Alby lived opposite the cemetery for many
years. He knew that part of the cemetery land was originally a brick pit and
before it was gazetted as a Cemetery in 1895, moves were made to make the area a
racecourse which was strongly opposed15.
Alby met his wife, Alice Griffiths, when he was 16. She
came from Laurieton to work at the Central Railway Refreshment Rooms and lived
at Annandale. After two weeks she agreed to go out with him. They married in
1927, registered at Rockdale,16 and lived at Linden Street,
Sutherland with their daughter born at a Belmont Street house. Their son was
born at Waratah Street where they had a home built for them. Unfortunately lack
of money during the depression saw them lose this home and Alby regrets this,
particularly as they only owed about £120 on it. On the dole Alby was receiving
21/- (just over $2) to feed his family and he maintains they had more dinner
times than dinners. The dole office was at Boyle's Hall, where boxing
tournaments were held and which later became the movie theatre. Some old women
in the audience used to read out loud any writing on the screen. Dole tickets
were collected there every fortnight and taken to the butcher, baker and other
suppliers. After the loss of their home they moved to Linden Street, renting.17
The family walked down to the Woronora River quite often as it cost nothing and
later went to Cronulla, mostly to the river side, Gunnamatta Bay. Alby remembers
Dr Sproule from Cronulla and Dr Sanbrook who set up at Sutherland, bringing two
of his children into the world. The doctor's house at Sutherland was near the
old Council Chambers at the northern end of Eton Street The writer recalls
visiting that house often when it became the first Council Library at
Sutherland.18
When World War II broke out, Alby, then working at the
cemetery as a grave digger, volunteered. He was refused because he was in an
exempt job in a ‘protected industry‘. During the war Alby joined the Chapter of
the local Masonic Lodge, the original Temple of which was just south of Dr
Sanbrook's house and by 1993 he had completed fifty years with this group. He
became a foundation member of Sutherland Bowling Club in 1950 and always
remained a financial member. An Oldsmobile about 1927 was the first of about
four cars owned by him and as the years passed they had a variety of caravans as
they enjoyed touring after he retired.19 It was a bonus to be able to
tour around the country as Alby had worked hard all his life. His parent‘s
liking for moving about had obviously been passed on to Alby. Though the
depression deprived him and many others of some opportunities, his wonderful
sense of humour remained an asset and kept him smiling.
Albert died on 6 September 2004 but Alice had
predeceased him by many years. She died on 21 March 1988. Both were cremated at
Woronora and their ashes were interred in the Old Section Family Rose Garden.
MERLE KAVANAGH
First published in Sutherland Shire, Some Early Residents, 2006, by Botany Bay Family History Society. Compiled by Maree McKinley and Sue Hewitt.
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Endnotes:
3 ibid.
10 NSW BDM Index 1945 12823; The Propellor, 12 July 1945, p3