| Welcome | Database | Indexes | Copyright/Disclaimer | Login |
FREDERICK
FRANCIS FERDINAND MATSON (1839--1920)
Rowlocks and Roller Skates
Frederick Matson,
in 1879,
only a short time after the National Park was dedicated brought twelve
skiffs down from Cooks River and commenced a business at Audley hiring them out.
With his wife Rebecca and young son, the family initially lived in a small hut
and the boats were secured to the river bank.
Fred was a very skilled and enterprising man. He had
been born in Helsingford, Finland and is said to have jumped ship in Sydney. In
1870 he married Rebecca Johnson and their son, like his father, was named
Frederick.
In the years leading up to the commencement of his
business venture at Audley, Fred had a shop in Sussex Street where he repaired
umbrellas, boots and leather goods and worked with canvas. He ran a boat hire
business on the Parramatta River, managed the Woolloomooloo baths, ran another
boat business on Cooks River and bought a 54-ton ketch to carry cargo. This
ketch, which he renamed the Rebecca,
was purchased from Mrs McAlister who owned a fleet of pearling luggers. (See
Charles and Christina McAlister)
Within a few years of moving to Audley, Fred expanded
the business and began to build boats. A boatshed had been erected but larger
vessels were built in a dockyard constructed for the purpose. His craftsmanship
was legendary and the business flourished.
In 1894 his son Frederick branched out and built a home
and boatshed on the Yowie Bay waterfront at the end of Wonga Road. This was the
first Port Hacking waterfront land made available from the Holt-Sutherland
Company. The following year Frederick and Ethel Rose Kidd were married by the
Rev Bosworth of Heathcote. In 1896 their daughter Vera was born followed in July
1899 by the birth of their twins, Frederick and Oscar.
Around
the turn of the century people began to frequent the ‘pleasure grounds’ that had
sprung up and young Fred saw the opportunity to diversify. He moved from the
Wonga Road property to the head of the bay and built a home on the waterfront.
He then created the Matson’s Pleasure Grounds where the attractions were many
and varied. While the boat-hire business was maintained, there was also a
pavilion for dancing, several restaurants, seven summer houses, swings and
playground equipment and accommodation. Visitors could stay from a night to a
week or longer. People came on bicycles, horse drawn vehicles and buses and they
could swim, play cricket, use the rifle range, roller skate or simply visit.
The diverse talents of this family were legendary and one can imagine how they
enjoyed entertained the visitors to the pleasure grounds. Among these visitors
were the Duchess of Cornwall and York (later Queen Mary) and the Prince and
Princess of Japan. Fred and Ethel were proficient in roller skating and under
water swimming. Fred won the Junior Roller Skating Champion in 1874 when only
four years old and went on to win the Australian Championship five times. He was
an acrobat, the local speed skating champion, an expert at roller skating while
playing the concertina, could skate on stilts and his trick skating repertoire
included jumping over six chairs. They were often called upon to lend their
talents to charity events and were very generous with their time and much sought
after.
During the era of the pleasure ground Rebecca Matson
died at the age of 62 years. This was on 25 July 1910 and she was buried in the
Anglican section of Woronora Cemetery. Towards the end of 1913 the family moved
to Lawson in the Blue Mountains. Ethel, who handled the catering arrangements at
the pleasure ground, was suffering ill-health and this possibly was the catalyst
for the move. The family stayed for six months, returning in May 1914.
It appears they worked the Audley boatshed on their
return as the children attended Reid’s Flat School which was down river from the
Audley weir. Their son Fred said in later years when interviewed for the Miranda
School Centenary, that after he attended Miranda School and ‘when my parents
were operating the Audley boatsheds, we attended a local school there with only
7 or 8 pupils. We had a good time then and it was pleasant to learn, we were
about 12 or 13 at the time.’
This was when the pleasure ground’s popularity waned.
Although daytime bathing had been legalised in 1906 it was the steam tram, which
commenced taking passengers from Sutherland to Cronulla in 1911, that was blamed
for the downturn in business for the Matsons. The pleasure grounds were closed
and the hire boats sent to Audley. Although the hall was converted into a boat
building workshop, other buildings were demolished and the land was auctioned.
When the First World War began Fred sold the Audley boat
concession and the family left the Sutherland Shire and moved to Dripstone in
the central west of New South Wales. This move obviously did not suit old Fred
and he returned to live by himself on the Yowie Bay property. It was here that
he took his own life on 8 January 1920, a sad end for a man who had brought so
much pleasure to so many people.
Fred and Ethel’s family returned and the converted hall
was used by the twins as a timber milling concern, moving to the Kingsway
Miranda in 1924. Fred then shifted to the eastern shore opposite the old shed.
In 1926 Oscar married Florence Cope and the following year his twin brother Fred
married her sister Gwendolin. The depression years were difficult ones but in
1934 they were again building boats. From 1946 to 1964 they worked from their
shed in Kareena Road where the private hospital now stands.
Like their parents, Fred and Oscar had the ability to
amuse and entertain. Fred and his wife Gwendolin were champion ballroom dancers
and Fred was a skilled artist. Both the boys were also athletically inclined and
Oscar was State Champion for discus and javelin in 1924 and finished second in
the 1931 State decathlon championship. Oscar also had a reputation as a
comedian.
On 26 July 1958 their mother Ethel died aged 84. Just
three weeks later on 16 August, their father Fred who was 89 years old, also
died. Oscar died on Christmas day 1967 and his sister Vera Nolan on 19 August
1976 aged 80 years. They are all buried with Frederick Francis Ferdinand and
Rebecca in the Anglican 1 Section graves 656-657 at Woronora Cemetery. When
Frederick died in 1993 at the age of 94, he had outlived his family.
The family name is immortalised in Matson Crescent where the family had
their pleasure grounds.
This was a truly interesting family. They were
hardworking and very skilled in several aspects. Their craftsmanship in boat
building, their physical ability and athleticism, their sense of humour and
community commitment make them memorable pioneers of the Sutherland Shire.
Click on the name
FREDERICK FRANCIS FERDINAND MATSON (1839 – 1920)
at the heading of this story. You will be taken to the database entry for
FrederickMatson and his family.
Kavanagh, Merle,
Echoes from the Bay – The Yowie Bay Story, 2004
Miranda Public School 100
years 1893-1993
Pictorial History
Sutherland Shire
by Pauline Curby, Kingsclear Books 2004
Propeller
16 Jan 1920 p.1
Leader
Sutherland Shire 75th Anniversary Issue 1906-1981
Pictorial News
28 Aug 1958 p1, p12
SSHS Bulletin No 55 Feb 1986