Helensburgh New South Wales 2508
The small town of Helensburgh in New South Wales is known as the gateway between the cities of Sydney and Wollongong, as it is located roughly halfway between the two (45km south of Sydney’s CBD and 34km north of Wollongong).
Find what’s on our Blog! We’re adding interesting snippets and tidbits to it regularly…
An interview with Tom Anderson, former resident of Helensburgh and son to Mr Bill [William Franklin] Anderson and Jean Anderson [nee Griffiths] founders of the Helensburgh Mushroom Co Pty Ltd.
1. A bit about Myself and growing up.
I was born in Sydney in 1946 and probably moved to Helensburgh with my parents around 1947/48 when Dad left the Navy. My first memories of Helensburgh are living in what we called “The Shack” in Harper Lane alongside the Cook family. It may have been No 9 but I am not certain of this. We moved not long after to 20 Robertson Street to be alongside my mother’s parents who lived at 18 Robertson Street. This was to be our family home from around 1949 until I left Helensburgh in 1968 to come to Canberra.
I went to Helensburgh Public School from 1951 to 1957 finishing in 6th Class as Dux of the School. My School photo shows 44 students and our Teacher, Mr Catts, who was then the Acting Headmaster as the then Headmaster, Mr Sutirs has died in a car crash between Sutherland and Helensburgh. Mr Catts pushed several of us in that Class and four of us went on to Selective Schools in Sydney. I went to Sydney Technical High School at Bexley along with Greg East, Margaret Rae went onto St George Girls High School at Kogarah and Ted Duffy went to Port Hacking High at Miranda. This was almost unheard of in those days as almost everyone went to an Intermediate High School for 3 years and graduated with an Intermediate Certificate and then left at 15 to join the workforce.
There was a time between leaving school and joining the Commonwealth Public Service which I will come to later. I came to Canberra with the Taxation Office in 1968 and I transferred to the Australian Customs Service in 1970 and stayed with it until my retirement in 2008. I had a fortunate life with Customs living and working in Auckland, London, Brussels, Washington and Beijing for a total of almost 10 years between 1983 and 2008. I was also fortunate to work as a Departmental Liaison Officer for four Ministers in the Howard Government who had responsibility for Customs including the current Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and the ever popular Senator Amanda Vanstone.
I married in 1974 and we have two adult children now in their 30’s and Margaret and I continue to live in the house that we built in Canberra in 1974.
2. What was Life Like Growing up in Helensburgh during the 1950’s and 60’s.
Helensburgh was a great place to grow up in. Everyone was friendly and you didn’t need to lock your home. We were used to calling in at our friends houses and knocking and just walking in. That was the way life was.
Living initially was pretty basic. We had tank water at first but the water supply came around 1951 from Woronora Dam. We still had the night cart for the outside toilets all the time that I lived at home, the ice man came as we had an ice chest – still suffering the rationing after the war and you had to put your name on a list for a refrigerator and when your name came up then whatever type of refrigerator it was, was yours. We washed in an outside laundry with a proper copper set in brick within the laundry and concrete tubs and had ducks and chooks in the back yard.
“Chippy” was the Postman and he delivered the mail by horseback. Our green grocer came with a truck while the bread came by horse and cart from the Co-operative Store. There was no Supermarket, just the Co-op and 2 or 3 general grocery stores. Macs on the corner of Parkes and Walker Streets and one in Walker Street which was the one we mainly used. We would give a list to the storekeeper and he would deliver it later that day.
Stan Callahan was the barber and there was a baker and newsagent around where the RSL Hall was in those days.
Most of us rode or walked everywhere as few people had cars in the 1950’s. As children we would play in the bush across the road from Robertson Street. It is still that way today. We would regularly go to the old rifle range and pick bullets out and occasionally go to the large mine dam over the hill. My playmates were mainly Peter Lindwall from No 24 and Bob Butt from further along Robertson Street.
3. My Family Heritage in Helensburgh
My mother’s parents, Thomas and Agnes Griffiths, migrated to Australia in 1912 and 1913, initially living at Thirroul where Mum was born and then moved to Helensburgh around 1920 to live at 18 Robertson Street. They lived in the same house until both passed away in the 1950’s. My mother’s sister, Gwen, married Bill Rae, a miner, and they lived in High Street. Sadly they had no children.
My Grandfather worked at the Metropolitan Colliery Mine as a Winding Engine Driver – that’s the person who operates the large revolving reel with steel cables like a lift which raised and lowered the workers, the coal skips and the horses from the mine. The old workings of the mine were about 1200 feet below the surface and here there were stables for the pit horses who were kept there for 11 months before being let out at Christmas. These old lower workings of the mine were closed down when the new coal seam was mined around the 1950’s.
4. Growing Mushrooms
Dad had joined the Navy in 1936 for 12 years and served through World War II. He married Mum in Sydney in 1941 and we think that Mum’s Brother in Law “Taffy” Davies [he married Mum’s other sister Charlotte or Lottie as she was known] introduced Dad to Mum as they were both Chief Petty Officers in the Navy stationed in Sydney. When Dad left the Navy he moved to Helensburgh and started working at Metropolitan Colliery around 1948. It wasn’t too much longer after this that he must have obtained the lease from the Lands Department for the use of the Railway Tunnel and started to develop growing mushrooms there. I can remember walking from our house in Robertson Street down to the Tunnel and being with him while he worked there and then usually he would carry me on his shoulders back up the hill to home. I was only 2 or 3 at the time.
I have some photos with some of Mum and Dad’s good friends the Simpsons dated October 1950 with picked mushrooms so it must have been close to the first ever crop grown there. There is also one of me with Alec Simpson and my mother and father.
![Mac and Lillian Simpson with my mother Jean Anderson [front left] with picked mushrooms circa October 1950](https://i0.wp.com/www.helensburgh.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Mum-and-Mac-and-Lil-Simpson-October-1950-001.jpg?resize=1024%2C725)
I know that it wasn’t long before Dad was working there full time and Mum would help out with picking the mushrooms. Dad built the shed to cover where the work was done, then a railway with about an 18 inch gauge with a trolley about 8 yards long on which to stack the trays which had the compost in up to the tunnel and back out when the crop was finished. He concreted the large area under the shed so that it was a good working area, built the steam room or pasteurising room out of besser blocks with a system of pipes to generate a hot house atmosphere, a boiler room to heat the water to create steam to go into the pasteurising room. These were the main things which needed to be built to make the place operational. After this he bought a cool room not unlike the ones that green grocers use in which we kept the picked mushrooms before they were either sent by railway to Sydney’s Markets or later picked up by PMU who canned them.
We seemed to go regularly to Army Disposal Auctions and we bought old ammunition boxes and used the wood to make trays for the mushroom compost to be placed in. These trays were then all handmade so that they could be stacked in a certain way. He also designed and built a machine to turn the compost as it was being prepared for the next “crop” and one to enable the compost to be recycled and spawned while in the pasteurising room.
To put a crop together we would assemble the necessary ingredients which included at least a truck load each of chicken, horse and cow manure plus certain chemicals to get the ph right and hay or straw as we put it to let the compost breathe.
All of the manure was loaded onto the truck by hand. We travelled far and wide to get this. Horse manure initially came from the South Bulli Colliery which still had working horses there and then later on a deal with racehorse trainers at Warwick Farm and Rosehill where we would provide the hay for the stables and then we had the right to collect all of the manure. Chicken manure came from the various chicken farms established around Liverpool and the cow manure came from the same area.
Around 1953 we had our first car – an old 1928 car which was good until it broke a tailshaft near Liverpool and Dad sold it. We then bought a new Holden Ute in 1954 or 1955 and this made life much easier. It was followed up by a 1948 Chevrolet Van with no synchromesh on the gears – a great way to learn to drive.
All of our work with trucks was through hiring them and the driver. Dad would always book the truck well in advance and it was also advantageous as the same driver would take away the used compost at no cost as he would sell it to gardeners as it is great for the garden.
Around 1957 the Helensburgh Mushroom Co Pty Ltd was formed on advice from Dad’s accountant. The one mistake was to include our house at 20 Robertson Street as an asset of the company. This was the Registered Office of the Company. Things went from strength to strength and Mum and Dad always wanted a property and wanted to expand the business so they bought about 10 acres of land at Hoxton Park west of Liverpool and gained a loan of $10,000 to build some self contained, insulated sheds there as well as a large covered area in which to do all the work of composting.
All went well until the credit squeeze of 1960/61 and hot weather through the summer which reduced the crops from Hoxton Park. The business never really recovered from this but it continued to grow mushrooms until around 1970 when the Company was wound up over outstanding monies to the Taxation Office among others.
I think then that the tunnel just went into decline as no-one wanted it but I have no real knowledge of this.
Mum and Dad had lost their house with the winding up of the Company and moved to Kirrawee where Dad gained employment and luckily they had enough to buy a house there. Sadly Mum died in 1973 – we put it down to the stress of losing the house and business. Dad eventually remarried and moved to Bogangar near Tweed Heads and passed away on his 70th birthday in 1986.
5. The Crop and Preparation Cycle
I can’t remember if it was a 3 or 4 week cycle but I suspect that it was 3 weeks. In that time we would do the following:
So it was a lot to do in 21 days.
6. Picking and Packing
Dad employed women on a casual basis to pick the mushrooms. The numbers on any given day would vary and there would always be more needed when a new crop had its first flush. That is the first lot of mushrooms that came through after about 10 days in the tunnel. The only name that I can remember here is a Mrs Moore who lived nearby on The Ridge.
For the markets we used cherry cases to pack the mushrooms in and here we would pick the mushrooms with the underneath skin unbroken while when we sold to the cannery we would let them flatten out and we didn’t need to be as careful. These were packed in larger wooden boxes something like oranges.
The mushrooms for the markets would be sent by train from Helensburgh to George Yanniotis who had a stand at the markets in Sydney. From memory we used to get about 7 shillings and 6 pence per pound at the market and about 3 shillings and 6 pence from PMU for the cannery.
We would hold the mushrooms in the cool room until it was time for them to be picked up by PMU or to send off to the markets. Eventually we came to deliver the Friday mushrooms into the market by getting up around 3 am and heading off to load the van, drive to Sydney and then come home and for Dad start work or for me head off to High School in my last year. Still it was worth it for what we gained from selling at the markets.
7. What did I do in the business?
Like any agricultural business it was a 7 day a week proposition. I was involved early on helping out on weekends by going with Dad and sometimes Mum and Dad to the Tunnel – we would water and pick mushrooms on a Sunday so that we could send them off by train on a Sunday night to the markets fresh for Monday. There was always a trip back to the tunnel on Sunday night to take the mushrooms to the station in the evening so that they were in good condition. Early on before we had the ute we would walk down and take the mushrooms around by wheel barrow one or more trips to get them there. It did become much easier once we had the ute!! This went on for years.
I would travel with Dad during the school holidays on his trips to collect spawn from Arthur Robotham in Castle Hill. I was also allowed early on to go and “help” with the collection of the manure. At times, when Dad was short of a person to water the compost while it was being turned I would be asked to come and be that waterer.
Once a year we would get one or two railway trucks of straw and we would have to unload them and stack the straw under the shed. This was always in January and it was hot and hard work. Tossing bales of straw down and up as we stacked a motor truck [I think that it was Bennett’s trucks that we hired] to drive the straw around to the shed to unload and then stack it under cover. It was always something that I looked forward to.
One of my other regular tasks was to help with the watering of the mushrooms – sometimes at night and regularly over the weekend. Dad and I would usually go down after dinner and he would water and I would do the same as with the two of us it cut the time in half for him. I did this for years with him from when I was quite young until I left home.
I was taught to drive at 15 and would drive around to the Station and back with the ute or the van to help with getting the mushrooms on the train. Though it wasn’t until I had my license that I drove any further. I alternated with Dad in taking the mushrooms to market on a Friday in my last year of high school and then when I was about 19 I came back to try to help out in getting the business out of its problems. I stayed with him for the next 18 months doing all the manual work as we tried to salvage the business. In the end he told me that he didn’t think he would get out of it and to look for something else.
8. Other Mushroom Growers in Helensburgh
There was one other mushroom company in Helensburgh. Marsh Lawson owned the Lilyvale Mushroom Company and operated out of premises in Parkes Street almost at the old Princes Highway. This was a bigger operation than Dad’s with the at least two railway tunnels being used. I can’t really remember which tunnels he used but I think that Lilyvale Tunnel was one and Cawley Tunnel was the other.
Both Dad and Marsh were initial members of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association. Were they competitive? Yes you could say so. Each one took pride in their business and wanted it to succeed and of course for your product to excel. Certainly Dad was very proud of his product as we would almost always get the highest price at the markets for his mushrooms so I suppose that said we were growing good mushrooms.
They didn’t co-operate too much. I think that they exchanged ideas from time to time but in reality each has his own business and they didn’t really need each other.
It wasn’t long before Dad was classed as an “expert” in mushroom growing and he was asked for advice by several growers who wanted to start up in an abandoned tunnel. I can recall trips to Picton and Mittagong where he was asked for his advice.
9. What are my Fondest memories of Helensburgh and the Mushroom business?
We were a close knit bunch in Helensburgh growing up. Memories are always good but it was a happy time for me and my friends. We started playing soccer at age about 8 for the Helensburgh Thistle Football Club I think it was called. We would go away by bus on a Saturday morning with the Under 10’s, 12’s and 14’s and all play the same teams. It was a great experience.
In those early days the Club’s First grade team played in the Illawarra competition and excelled. A wonderful goalkeeper named Davy Hunt I think and the best penalty taker I have ever seen in a young fellow about 18 named Bill Burns. Noel Burns elder brother. Sadly within about 6 years all of these wonderful players had retired and the Club slumped so much that we, at 16 and 17, were playing first grade.
Time spent in the bush too was great whether on our bikes or just wandering and playing there and exploring far and wide. Only ending the day when we would hear the call of one of our parents that it was time to come home.
Added to that I joined the Surf Club at Stanwell Park when I was 12 and spent several great summers on the beach and representing the Club in the boat race and helping with belt races.
My fondest memories of the mushroom business was just the business of it all and getting to travel quite far in those days to do things for and with Dad. I was also very impressed by his architectural and design skills for making machinery and also making things work. I find it quite remarkable really as he had left school at 12. The one other thing he always had was a thirst for knowledge.
His was a small business and he employed a few locals and that was good. He also spent within the town where he could and he supported the local Soccer club to which he was a very enthusiastic supporter including some funding.
The tragedy of all of this was that today it was such a small amount of money that meant the difference between surviving in business and being out of business.
I’d like to thank Tom Anderson for sharing his personal (and families) stories and photos of their time in Helensburgh.
Photos, Article © Tom Anderson 2014 – all rights reserved,
Article © Ian Piggott 2014 – all rights reserved,
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Will we see a longer Sea Cliff Bridge in the future?
The Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) have recently received cost estimates on extending the current Sea Cliff Bridge located at Coalcliff in the northern Illawarra, NSW, Australia. In addition to the costing estimates, professional consultation has also been provided on various value engineering options, cost estimates of various other design solutions such as rock and block revetments.
The extension will be a cantilever bridge, designed in the same way of its world famous original and will address localised rock slippages, which result in temporary road closures to Lawrence Hargrave Drive.
The RMS appears to be in the consultancy stage at the moment, and with all large infrastructure projects; time, money and government resources are required. I expect at least 1-3 years before any major announcements are made.
I’ll post more information when it comes to hand.
Read about the famous Love Locks of the Sea Cliff Bridge.
The Wollongong City Council are seeking input in relation to Council’s future management of the Waterfall General (Garrawarra) Cemetery Site north of Helensburgh.
As part of the exhibition, WCCouncil has prepared a documentary film of the site “Not Forgotten: The Story of Waterfall General Cemetery”. This film, and a range of other documents and materials, including a discussion paper, a conservation management plan, and a copy of the original burial register, can be viewed on Council’s website via the following link. I encourage you to visit the website, view the film, and to have your say on Council’s future decision making, and management of this important historic site.
Helensburgh Historical Society and Helensburgh Landcare Group recently submitted their views to the WCC.
At the special meeting on 4th November, the Helensburgh Historical Society discussed what could be done to preserve the historical value of the cemetery at Garrawarra Hospital (Waterfall General Cemetery). Please find attached our submission to Wollongong City Council for your information and comment.
Helensburgh Historical Society [PDF]
5 November 2013
General Manager
Wollongong City Council
Locked Bag 8821
WOLLONGONG DC NSW 2500
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE: WATERFALL GENERAL (GARRAWARRA) CEMETERY
The Helensburgh District Historical Society at a special meeting held on Monday 4 November strongly supported the heritage value of the site and the need to protect the cemetery from further deterioration in the Local, State and National interest, being unique in its historical content. We acknowledged that Council has already in their discussion papers expressed the importance of the heritage value contained within the cemetery and the need to protect it for the future.
The Society at this stage of the consultation process supports council’s proposal that either Local or State Governments preserve what remains of the cemetery and gives a higher level of heritage classification. We also consider that the heritage classification of the old hospital buildings and surrounding auxiliary buildings being currently under heritage protection by the State should amalgamate the cemetery from the same period.
The Society over the last several years has received numerous Waterfall (Garrawarra) Cemetery enquiries. Now with the Burial Registers we can give relatives the information they are asking for, but it only gives them partial closure because the cemetery is closed to the public. Relatives in many cases need to visit where their loved ones are buried, and at the moment we cannot give them that privilege. It is important that council considers that at some stage during the next process of consultation relatives are given assurance that at some period they will be able to visit the site, if not to the grave, but to a memorial in the cemetery.
SUMMARY:
In response to section 4.0 Key Issues and Options contained in the discussion paper; we feel that until the issue of ownership, management and zoning of the cemetery is resolved we cannot give our considered options to this section in full, only that we support the need that something has to be done to stop further problems associated with the cemetery as outlined in the discussion paper. In what form this takes is also dictated by the above issue of ownership, management and zoning.
4.1 Future Custodianship still needs to be resolved before council can move forward with all the options set out in the discussion paper.
4.2 The issue of Management Strategies is the most controversial, and that is what to do with the site, and again this is up to who will be the future custodians and who will be the best custodians to look after the heritage integrity of the cemetery.
4.3 Access to the cemetery is another important step, being land-locked by various government departments, and again cannot be resolved until custodianship is sorted.
4.4 The issue of Planning and Land Use Zoning has in itself ramifications to how the site can be managed by the regularity zoning or rezoning of the site, and we consider the zoning must give an amount of flexibility to be able to manage the site.
4.5 Heritage Listing is a necessity as we discussed in our earlier paragraphs and supported by council’s reports. We ask council to recommend that the Cemetery, along with the former Waterfall State Sanatorium site, be included in the State Heritage Register. We consider that Council should prepare a nomination for listing on the State Heritage Register as set out in the discussion paper as soon as possible as this is an important step in planning the future for the cemetery.
We understand fully that council has now found itself custodianship of a very unique historic cemetery site that will require a lot of planning and finances. With this in mind Council has accepted its responsibility to resolve the issues it is faced with. Importantly to Council’s credit, it could also be seen as setting a precedent for the future management of historic cemeteries that have been left in the same disrepair as the Waterfall (Garrawarra) Cemetery, not only local but possibly state wide.
In closing, the society would like to participate in the ongoing process of community consultations and have input into a “Friends Group” or “Cemetery Conservation Group” within the society’s limited resources available at the time.
Yours faithfully,
Jenny Donohoe
Research Officer
Helensburgh District Historical Society
info@historichelensburgh.org.au
Helensburgh and District Landcare Group [PDF]
Helensburgh and District
Landcare Group
The General Manager
Wollongong City Council
Locked Bag 8821
Wollongong DC
NSW 2500
13 November 2013
Subject: Waterfall General (Garrawarra) Cemetery
ESP-100.06.010
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing on behalf of Helensburgh and District Landcare to lodge our strong support for the heritage
listing and protection of the Waterfall General (Garrawarra) Cemetery.
The cemetery and the Garrawarra Centre for Aged Care lie inside a small area of bushland between the Princes Highway and the F6 Freeway. Helensburgh Landcare has had a long term interest in this land which is bounded on the eastern side of the freeway by the Garawarra State Conservation Area and on the western side of the Princes Highway, the Woronora Special Area (Woronora Dam Catchment) and the Heathcote National Park. Our group actively worked with the former Hacking River Catchment Committee in addressing the illegal dumping of household waste and hazardous material on that part of which traverses the area in question. We conducted clean-ups in the area and were largely responsible for the gating and closure of Cawley Road.
Several years ago, we proposed that this small parcel of land, excluding the Garrawarra Centre for Aged Care, should be added to the Garawarra State Conservation Area and managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. At the time, we believed that the cemetery was under the control of Department of Crown Lands, but in recent years learnt that Wollongong Council is the responsible authority. Our proposal consisted of two objectives, the first being the management of the bushland as a wildlife corridor to the Garawarra State Conservation Area, and the second, the protection and management of the cemetery as an historically important site. The wildlife corridor concept involved the eco-scaping of the bridge over the freeway to become a safe transit point for reptiles and mammals. For various reasons, this proposal met with obstacles, the most notable being associated with the cemetery. About eighteen months ago, we canvassed the possibility of establishing the area as an Environment and Heritage Protection Reserve. This is not a new concept to us as we were successful in having such a reserve established adjacent to Helensburgh Railway Station.
We appreciate that Council’s concern is with the future of the cemetery, however, we believe there is still a substantial case to be made for a broader approach to be taken in regards to the cemetery and the surrounding bushland. We still support the establishment of an Environment and Heritage Protection Reserve, administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service or Department of Crown Lands or Wollongong Council. With this stated as a medium to long term objective, we wish to comment on the immediate issue, the management of Waterfall General (Garrawarra) Cemetery.
Helensburgh Landcare believes the cemetery and sanatorium sites have significant State heritage value and endorses the nomination of the Waterfall General Cemetery and Waterfall State Sanatorium sites to the
State Heritage Register as a combined listing.
We note that the past history of the cemetery is entirely associated with the sanatorium. It was not a general cemetery servicing the community at large. The cemetery was established by the State Government and used solely by the State Government when an active cemetery. Council never managed it as an active cemetery, so logically the State Government should be asked to manage what was its in the first place. For reasons outlined above, we believe the cemetery and the bushland ‘spit’ should be seen as one entity, established as an Environment and Heritage Protection Reserve and administered by the NSW State Government. Assuming this may be difficult to achieve in the short term or at all, we would support the management of the cemetery as a ‘bush cemetery’ by Wollongong Council.
Irrespective of who manages the cemetery, steps should be taken as soon as possible to remove debris from the site and protect graves and headstones from further damage by vegetation, particularly trees. We completely reject a ‘no maintenance’ approach to the cemetery as eventually all the surviving headstones, etc. would be ‘consumed by nature’.
The question of public access is a difficult one to address. We favour minimal pedestrian access and only on prescribed open days where a guide should be in attendance. We believe there is a significant risk in any other form of access, particularly when there is no indication of the potential public interest in visiting the cemetery. With just over 2,000 burials in the cemetery and only a small number of identifiable headstones, it would appear reasonable to assume there could be early significant public interest in visitation and then a decline to a small number of visitors per annum. If this is seen as a likely outcome, expenditure on roads and parking would be, in our view, unjustifiable.
There is a significant historical story to be told about the sanatorium and the cemetery. We urge Council to not only have the details of those buried at the cemetery made available on the internet, but also include a historical narrative about the sanatorium, the cemetery and people of note. It would appear appropriate to install an interpretative feature at the entrance to the cemetery, ideally with the names of those buried there.
In regards to a ‘Friends of the Cemetery Group’ or ‘Cemetery Conservation Group’, we feel this would be desirable, but feel that such a group might lose its momentum rather quickly and just fade away. It is worth a try, but we think a better solution lies in formalised management.
Finally, Helensburgh Landcare would be happy to provide further input and views on the future of the
cemetery.
Yours faithfully
Allan House
President
Every year during the Helensburgh Country Fair, the Peabody Energy owned, Metropolitan Coal conduct ground facilities tour during the fair. Being Australia’s oldest working coal mine, and it’s unique geographical location, makes a visit to Helensburgh’s Metropolitan Coal mine an educating and fascinating experience. If you get the time this year during the Helensburgh Country Fair to take the Mine Tour; do it.
Here is a video I shot of the Metropolitan Coal Ground Facilities Tour during the 2012 fair.
Learn more about the Helensburgh Mine
Video/Images/Photos, and Article © Ian Piggott 2013 – all rights reserved,
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