WILLIAM GEORGE SIMPSON (1841-1918)

The Father of Port Hacking

William George Simpson was born in Sydney in 1841. At the age of seven, he and his father, George went to live at Port Hacking. It was well-known that the area had been inhabited by local Aborigines and his father made a living gathering shells from the middens, transporting them by boat to Botany where they were turned into lime for building.

Later William began a market garden and sailed to Botany Bay in his boat The Blink Bonnie to sell the produce. After a short period he moved to Sans Souci where, for several years, he worked as a contractor undertaking road work. Missing the bush setting of Port Hacking, he returned to the area and hired himself out as a guide for sporting parties. He had a great knowledge of the area and was delighted when his patrons returned home from shooting and fishing excursions with a good bag.

In November 1863 William purchased a block of 50 acres of land at the mouth of Cabbage Tree Creek. Here he built his accommodation house. In 1890 the house was destroyed by a bush fire but was rebuilt. It was known by several names - ‘Tyreal House’, ‘Port Hacking Hotel’ but generally called ‘Simpson’s Hotel’.

To access to the hotel visitors would travel either by coach from Sydney or by train to Sutherland railway station and be conveyed by horse-drawn vehicles to the wharf at the bottom of Port Hacking Road. Here William had erected a flagstaff. When he saw a flag hoisted he would then cross over in his oil launch and bring the visitors to his wharf which he had built in 1892 (present day Bundeena). In an effort to make the road access easier for visitors William, along with Frederick Holt, was one of the first Trustees of the Road Trust. It was intended to clear a road from Sylvania to Turriel Point.

William married Susannah Tindall in 1866 and they had 12 children. One of their children drowned in the lagoon in 1886. Another was Henry who married Bessie Connell Laycock in 1902. The couple ran the Coach Depot at Caringbah and also Simpson’s Store where Bessie was the postmistress. William’s mother was known to have planted one of the Norfolk Island pines in front of the Government accommodation house at Kurnell, where Captain Cook first landed.

 William died on 11 January 1918 at the age of 77 and Susannah died on 22 June 1926. Both were buried in the Anglican section L grave 21 at Woronora Cemetery. Buried there also are daughters Alice May Aldridge who died 10 July 1964 aged 87 and May G Simpson who died 29 June 1911 aged 43; grandson Dudley H Simpson who died 5 December 1913 aged five weeks; Henry Chas Simpson who died 29 November 1920 aged 46 and Elizabeth Emmerson who died 11 September 1936 aged 69

 ANNETTE LEVEN

 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 WILLIAM GEORGE SIMPSON (1814 – 1918) at the heading of this story. You will be taken to the database entry for William Simpson and his family.

 Endnotes:

Kirby Indexes

The Propeller 1 Dec 1918

St George Call 26 Jan 1918

SSHS Bulletin Vol 22 Nov 1977 p105

SSHS Bulletin Vol 51 Feb 1985 p70, 74

L Philpott, The Bundeena Book

M Hutton-Neve, Bygone Days of the Sutherland Shire