TOM (1879-1951) and VICTORIA (1879-1962) SALISBURY

The Family Weekender

Thomas and Victoria Salisbury began a new life in a new location when they married on the first day of January 1906. The newlyweds chose to live in a small rented cottage in East Parade Sutherland. It was the last house in the street and where the funeral train left the main line before entering the Woronora Cemetery. Thomas travelled each day to the city where he worked as an engraver. He had learnt his profession while working for his father and continued in the business after his father’s death in 1898 when Thomas was 19 years old. Their skill was such that both father and son could engrave The Lord’s Prayer on a threepence, without the aid of a magnifying glass.

Thomas was born at Snails Bay, Birchgrove to Thomas and Janet Salisbury (nee Cormack). The family later lived at Greenwich where they were able to spend long hours rowing on the Lane Cove River.

Victoria’s life was centred in the city. She was born the same year as Thomas in 1879 in the family residence over their shop in George Street. Her parents were Cornelius and Eliza Loughnan, and her father was a tobacco manufacturer and merchant.

Thomas and Victoria had other homes in Sutherland and at one time in Loftus Avenue but about 1915 they moved into ‘Waverley’ Merton Street next door to Nurse Kate Lobb and her husband Arthur. This home held fond memories for the family where the children had a carefree existence playing on the dirt road and the vacant land and tennis court next door.

The fresh air and carefree living was what had attracted the family to the area but the waterways were where they decided to spend their leisure hours. Thomas had spent his youth on the waters around Sydney and they chose a waterfront block of land at Gymea Bay which they purchased around 1917. Sam Brinsley and Sam Houghton helped build a foundation wall and stone steps down to the property using sandstone from the property. The gatekeeper’s cottage at Sutherland Railway was purchased and transported to the site by way of a chute made from bent galvanised sheets of iron. Once on the site it was re-erected using as much original material as possible and measured 24 feet square by 10 feet high. It was partitioned off into two large rooms, one for the family living and eating, the other for a bedroom.

The setting was idyllic with the bay at the front doorstep and surrounded by bush with flannel flowers, Christmas bush, eucalyptus, boronia and banksias. Thomas never took a holiday except when he closed the business down between Christmas and New Year but spent his weekends at the cottage with family and friends. Extra people were accommodated in tents and on camp stretchers. Over time the cottage was extended by building a wider verandah on the front and along both sides. Large windows were eventually installed and the ceiling lined. The land was cleared every few years by burning and beating the fire around the edges with large branches to stop it from spreading.

Samuel and Bert Brinsley later purchased two adjoining blocks and became neighbours to share the fishing and boating. Other families also built weekenders or camped. The railway gatehouse that became the weekend and holiday retreat served the family well creating lasting memories.

In 1952 Tom Salisbury died and ten years later in 1962 Victoria, known as Vicie also died. At Tom’s funeral Arthur Lobb said that Tom “had no material aspirations in life and was happiest when surrounded by what nature had given him’

The land has never been sub-divided, however, there is now electricity, sewage and running water – there is no need for tapping the rungs of the tank and filling the kerosene lamps. The original 660 feet of hand-hewn sandstone steps still wind down to the water’s edge, but are no longer used any more with the luxury of an inclinator. The atmosphere of the original cottage is still present in the now-named ‘Gull Cottage’, a legacy from Tom and Vicie for the present owner-occupier, their grandson, Peter.

The Archives Section of the State Railway Authority of New South Wales have a copy of the plans of NSW Railways, Sydney to Wollongong and Kiama Gatekeepers’s Cottage, Sutherland. A check of the overall floor and height measurements of the still existing structure showed they coincided with that of the SRA Plan (24 feet square by 10 feet high) the original structure has been extended, the chimney dismantled and old white-ant eaten timber replaced with cladding, however it is still supported by that centre square of original beams from the Gatekeeper’s Cottage from Sutherland.

VALMAI PEARSE & MAREE McKINLEY

 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 nameS TOM 91879 – 1951) and VICTORIA (1879 – 1962) SALISBURY at the heading of this story. You will be taken to the database entry for Tom Salisbury and his family.