Bikes put boys on a road to freedom

Road trip: Boys on an adventure. Setting off for Port Macquarie 1956. This is the second in a two part series. You will find the first here. 

In 1904, the North Coast Steam Navigation Company published its Tourists’ & Settlers Guide to the Northern Coastal River Districts of New South Wales. By then, the Great Northern Railway had attracted most inland traffic, but water travel was still the dominant transport mode along the North Coast and up the coastal rivers.

The Guide is something of a classic period piece, one that tells us much about the detail of Australian life in a particular place at a particular time. It includes hints about cycle tourism.

By 1904, the safety bicycle had become a popular sporting and touring machine, but it was still more the workhorse for many working men in country and city alike. Bicycles were used to get to work, to collect orders and to deliver goods.

By the 1950s, bikes had become the province of young people, boys in particular. Both girls and boys peddled to school, all schools had bike racks, but boys were allowed to roam, girls were restricted.

“I still remember”, Catherine Marker recalls, “learning to ride a bike when I was 7 or 8 with friend Beryl teaching me. However, as a girl I was not allowed to do the fun rides my brothers did”.

Bikes gave boys freedom. They travelled.

John Caling recalls: ‘I used to ride out to my old mate Robin Munsie's place "Strathhaven" on Burying Ground Creek most weekends. When I first started that ride the Grafton road was only sealed as far as Ralph Toombs' property at the edge of Armidale. The rest was gravel and pretty rough in places”.

Dick McDertmott remembers riding to Woolomombi Falls, Dangarsleigh Falls, Gara Gorge, Thunderbolts Rock, the Dangarsleigh War Memorial and Gates, Dumaresq Dam, the Blue Hole, the Pine Forest, Bald Knob and Hillgrove.

Sometimes, Dick and his friends would travel with rabbit traps, slug guns over their shoulders. The skins would go to Thos Green and the meat to the Niagara cafe.

Most trips were day trips, but long trips were a rite of passage for many boys.

 In 1956, fifteen year old Keith Douglas, Ken Sweeney and Richard Hoy set off for Port Macquarie down the then dirt roads. By the end of the first day they were at the bottom of the range. “Not a bad day’s ride”, Keith later commented.  

Four years later, fifteen year Philip Kitley and friend David Belshaw set off to ride to Sawtell, something that Philip recorded in a piece in the Armidalian. They made it in two days.

There wasn’t a lot of money around following the Second World War. Many of our bikes were made from bits and pieces, heavy steel frame bikes, but they were well used.  

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 26 June 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Riding the cycling craze: Safety bike a transport breakthrough

 Safety Bike group about 1900: Note the heavy dresses that had to be accommodated on the bikes, giving us the girls' and boys' bikes we know today. Photo National Museum.

“Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze” is the opening line in one of Banjo Paterson’s poems first published in the Sydney Mail on 25 July 1896. That poem signals the arrival of one of the most important inventions of the late 19^th century, the safety bike.

I was reminded of this a few weeks back. I had been doing some contract writing in the city. Each day I walked from the bus stop to the office past construction work underway for the Sydney metro. There, suddenly, the side of a building was revealed through demolition carrying the words Bennett and Wood. I was at what had once been Sydney bike central, the home of the famous Speedwell brand. 

Cycling had been popular for some time, although some of the early variants such as the velocipede or the later Penny Farthing are strange to modern eyes. They were heavy, expensive and could be dangerous.

There were three wheelers suitable for the ladies. Queen Victoria had one, although there is no record of her ever using it, but cycling was the largely the domain of men,

The arrival of the safety bike changed all this. It had a diamond shaped frame, two equal sized wheels, pedals that provided drive to the back wheel by a chain.

Women with their bulky dresses could not easily ride the new bikes. They were accommodated with a step through frame with a guard over the chain to stop their dresses becoming caught.

Men and women could now ride together. The result was a cycling craze that swept the world. 

In Sydney, Bennett and Wood had opened a cycle sale shop in 1882 in humble premises in Clarence Street, a single fronted two-storey warehouse. They were both cycling enthusiasts.

Initially they imported Penny Farthings, but then began importing the new safety bikes from England. In 1887, Bennett took full control of the business. As demand grew, he began local manufacture.

Demand continued to grow and the company bought premises in George Street and then Market Street. Meantime, down in Melbourne, a cycling enthusiast called Tom Finnigan had established a cycling business in the suburb of Malvern. The famous Malvern Star bike was born.  

The cultural and social effects of these developments were quite profound. They formed a pattern of life that survived in Australia to the 1960s.

Next week, I will take you down memory lane with a particular focus on Armidale, bringing back a world in which kids could roam wild in a way that’s no longer possible. 

This is the first of a two part series. You will find the second part here. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 19 June 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

History Revisited - Resting Place of Australia's first world champ

AN EARLY FAVOURITE: Rowing was extremely popular in Australia's early days. Edward Trickett was an avid rower and Australia's first world champion. 

Uralla residents will know the old Trickett’s store with its impressive Victorian Italianate decorative parapet. Local business man C.E. Solomons built the corner portion with its parapet. In 1920, the building was purchased by local retailer Fred Trickett and extended further along Bridge Street to create Uralla’s main emporium. .

Four years before, in November 1916, Fred’s father Edward (Ned, “The Slab”) Trickett had been visiting Uralla to see his son. In addition to the general store, Fred was mining gold. His father was helping Fred in the mine when the shaft walls collapsed, severely injuring Edward.

On 28 November 1916, Edward died at his son’s home. The death was a major story, for Edward Trickett had been Australia’s first sporting world champion.

Edward Trickett was born on 12 September 1851 at Greenwich on Sydney’s Lane Cove River, son of boot maker and former convict George Trickett and his wife Mary. He grew into a tall (6 ft 4 ins or193 cm) well built man who worked initially as a quarryman.

Rowing had long been a popular sport in the colony.. By 1837 when the first Anniversary Regatta was held in Sydney,. both rowing and sailing were well established sports.

Trickett was ten when took part in his first race, finishing second in the under 16 maiden skulls at the Anniversary Day Regatta. At fourteen, he won the 12-foot dinghy title. He went on to defeat most of the State's professional scullers to become Australian Professional Sculling Champion.

In 1876, Sydney innkeeper and former sculler James Punch took Trickett to England to challenge for the world championship. On 27 June 1876 Trickett defeated reigning Champion James H. Sadler on the Thames’ Putney-Mortlake course, becoming the first Australian to win a world championship in any sport. On his return to Australia, 25,000 people gathered to give him a hero’s welcome.

Trickett became licensee of Trickett's Hotel and then proprietor of the International Hotel, both in Sydney. He continued competitive sculling. However, a rolling beer keg crushed one hand, leading to the loss of fingers. This affected his stroke.

In June 1880 Trickett went to England to defend his world title against Canadian Ned Hanlan, but on 15 November was defeated on the Thames course. In May 1882, he tried again against Hanlan, this time suffering a humiliating defeat

In May1884, Trickett moved to Rockhampton as a publican but was forced to return to Sydney in dire straits following losses in a mining venture. .Now teetotal and a strong advocate for the Salvation Army, his Church connections helped him obtain a position with the customs service.

Trickett retired from the service on 11 September 1916, just six weeks before his death.

Trickett was an immensely popular man, a sporting celebrity. In all, he won over 150 trophies, feats celebrated in ballad and verse and on cigarette cards.

In 1918, public subscriptions funded a memorial to him in Uralla. He is buried in the Uralla cemetery. Uralla's McCrossin's Mill Museum has a display on Edward Trickett including the memorial.. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 17 February 2016. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016.

History Revisited - teeing off a history of sport in New England

A PLEASANT WALK SPOILED: Jim Belshaw's research led him to discover fascinating aspects of the history of golf in Armidale

Did you know that there have been three very different Armidale golf courses? I didn’t until I read Pat Chapman’s history of the Armidale Golf Club 1899-1981.

Organised golf was played in Armidale from at least 1893, although the Armidale Golf Club itself was not formed until 1899. The Club’s first golf course meandered through the paddocks along Dumaresq Creek from near Markham Street as far west as Douglas Street.

That first course had its own problems. Plucking balls from the tar filled effluent from the gasworks was usually a smelly job, There were also problems with landholders and indeed with angry bulls, making ball recovery difficult.

Matters came to a head after the First World War when a series of wet seasons with consequent long grass made the course virtually unplayable. Finally, the Armidale Golf Club leased the grass rights on the race course from the Armidale Jockey Club with the tea rooms as club house. The new nine hole course opened in 1922.

I blinked a bit when I read this, for the race course grounds were multi-purpose space, including Armidale’s aerodrome. Indeed, it was a remarkably crowded space catering not only for gallops, golf and aircraft, but also trotting, coursing, cricket, soccer and hockey. 

Mrs A R J Woller found this out first hand when she was forced to take refuge in the horse stands after fleeing from a wayward aircraft which had struck hockey posts on takeoff!

In 1927, the Armidale Golf Club committee was charged with acquiring a sufficient area of land for an 18 hole golf course. This was quite a brave decision, for the Club had only 40 pounds in the bank.

Searching, the committee purchased from Frank Pearson a block in a commanding position overlooking Armidale from the southwest. The price? A thousand pounds!

To fund the purchase, the Club launched an oversubscribed debenture issue paying 6 per cent interest. Repayment was to be by an annual ballot, with 10 per cent of the capital to be repaid. 

You couldn’t do this today, of course. The Armidale Club issuing debentures? The rules wouldn’t allow it. 

During the depression of the 1930s, those holding the debentures hoped that they would not be selected for repayment in the annual ballot. Investments yielding 6 per cent were very hard to find.

The site that the Club purchased is that we know today. It remains one of Armidale’s major community assets, one that many of us know and have greatly enjoyed.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 6 May 2015. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015.

History revisited – remnants of a past era

Just outside one of the doors leading into Booloominbah from the courtyard is a very strange piece of brickwork. Built in an L shape, it has no discernible purpose.

When brother David and I were very young, Dad’s office was in Booloominbah just down the corridor and up the stairs from that doorway. We often played there, standing on and jumping off the raised L. However, we had no idea what it was for. It was just odd.

I finally found out what it’s purpose last year,. I had come up to Armidale for the gala seqesquicentenary production of Armidale – Our Town. A friend came with me, and on the Saturday morning we decided to do the Heritage tour. Our guide was Werner Schwarz.

At Booloominbah, Werner explained that the brickwork in question was a sidesaddle dismounting point for the ladies of the house and their female friends. They could slide of the horse in a modest fashion, then step down to ground level.

While there are depictions and descriptions of women riding aside on Greek vases and sculptures and in some of the Celtic stories, by the Medieval period in Europe all women rode aside. This was partly the nature of women’s clothing with its many skirts, more a matter of modesty.

This modesty was deeply ingrained. In the middle of the 19^th century on the Macleay, Ellen Kemp and her sister were skilled bush riders, but it was always sidesaddle. “Not astride! No – we would not even let the gum trees see us in that position.”

The first sidesaddles did not allow women to control their horses, requiring them to be led. This was impractical. Women did ride and needed to control their own animals. However, progress was slow. According to Wikipedia, the first reasonably practical sidesaddle was not developed until the sixteenth century.

The modern sidesaddle was invented in the 1830s by Jules Pellier. This was revolutionary, for it allowed  women to ride at a gallop and to take part in equestrian events. At Sydney’s Royal Easter Show in 1915, Yarrowitch woman Mrs Esther Stace set a world record for a sidesaddle jump of 6’ 6” (1.98m).

Mrs Stace’s jump marked a high point in more ways than one.

As early as 1909, the Mullumbimby Show permitted women to ride astride for First Class events. Now in the turmoil of war and the social changes that marked the first decades of the twentieth century, astride riding swept the sidesaddle aside. With it went memory of the ladies’ dismount point at Booloominbah.

Today, sidesaddle riding has enjoyed a modest revival, keeping alive that feature of women’s life over so many centuries. We can still see for ourselves, to visualise what this part of life must have been like.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 21 May 2014. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014.

History revisited – how an era began

My father couldn’t swim. Born in New Zealand in the first decade of the twentieth twenty century, he grew up on the cool Canterbury Plains. There was no need, little incentive, less opportunity.

By the time David and I were born, things were very different. We joined the compulsory swimming classes at the Armidale Demonstration School, marched off to the local pool for our lessons. We gaily went swimming at the deep end, while Prof on his rare excursions to the pool paddled around the shallow end.

Like Dad, the great bulk of the first European settlers could not swim. By 1788, sea bathing had already become fashionable among the English upper classes. However, the early settlers did not swim for sport. Swimming described a physical activity, but most bathed. They went into the sea and especially the still waters for that purpose. The sea was, I suppose, the equivalent of the Roman baths.

Australia was very different. It was hot, very hot for a European population not yet acclimatised. The sea was attractive. However, the Australian coast with its surf was rough and dangerous for those who could not swim.

Worried about deaths from drowning at the Newcastle convict settlement, Governor Macquarie directed that people should avoid the surf and bath only in the sheltered waters. Quite quickly, the early settlers adopted the Aboriginal word bogie for sea bathing. The words bogey hole came to describe a place where it was safe to bath.

The Victorian age was a rigid and censorious period so far as morality was concerned. In an age practised in but worried about sin, rules were introduced to govern clothing, the mixing of the sexes and the hours during which it was permissible to sea bath.

This happened in Australia too. However, the heat, the need to cool, the attractions of the surf, were in constant conflict with the dictates of middle class prudishness. By the early 1900s, Ballina resident Herbert Peake was welcoming the arrival of popular surf bathing as “the first flush of a rosy dawn heralding the delights of a glorious day” and the end of “prudishness.”

Given that drownings were common at the beach, in river holes or dams, you would think that Australia would be a global leader in learn to swim programs. In fact, so far as the colonies were concerned, learn to swim began in England.

On 3 January 1891, the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) was founded in England to combat the high drowning toll. The first Australian branch was formed three years later in Sydney.

As part of the trend, surf lifesaving organisations emerged. Ballina traces its history to 1905, Newcastle to 1908. A new era had dawned.

The Australian Commonwealth was founded on 1 January 1901. The images used to illustrate the event were all land based, for Australia was its country. Now a new beach based image was to emerge, the bronzed and disciplined surf lifesaver.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 23 April 2014. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014.

History revisited - New England rode high in rodeo past

For Father’s Day, youngest (Clare) gave me Alwyn Torebeek with David Gilchrist, Life in the Saddle: Adventures of the Legendary horseman the Kokotunga Kid, Michael Joseph, Melbourne 2011). My family tease me sometimes because I can always find a New England connection. This case proved to be no different!

Investigating the history of rodeo in Australia, I found that on Thursday 28 March 1946, a group of bushmen had gathered at the Imperial Hotel in Maitland. They had important business to consider, the formation of a new association, the Northern (N.S.W.) Bushmen's Carnival Association.

In 1960, the name was changed to the Australian Bushmen’s Carnival Association and then in 1985 to the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft & Rodeo Association (ABCRA). Today, the Tamworth based ABCRA along with its rival, the Warwick based Australian Professional Rodeo Association (APRA), are the largest national rodeo bodies.

By that Thursday in 1948, events based on riding or stock activities including roughriding and camp drafting had a long history. During the 1880s, newspapers were recording Victorian roughriding events, included rough riding and bullock-throwing. In 1885, the first formal competition involving the uniquely Australian sport of campdrafting was held at that year’s Tenterfield Show.

The first draft was not held in the ring, but just outside the Tenterfield Showground on a vacant area. One of the competitors, Clarence Smith, a cattleman and horse breeder from Boorook Station, drew up the rules that remain the basis of the sport today.

From the 1890s, there were many Australian and some international Wild West shows travelling the country. Bushmen's Carnivals, the Australian equivalents of American rodeos, originated in Northern New South Wales in the 1920s and were well established by the 1930s. In 1930, Warwick, Queensland added the American-style contests of clowns, ropers and trick riders

The Americanisation of language and later equipment that had begun to take place did not please all. By the mid 1930s Mick Bruxner, the Member for Tenterfield and NSW Country Party Leader and Deputy Premier, was complaining at the way that the popularity of American westerns seemed to be affecting the language surrounding bush events.

Bruxner’s cousin was the noted Australian film maker, Warwick born Charles Chauvel. Annoyed by the dominance of American films and the pernicious effects on the language, Bruxner persuaded the NSW Government to attempt to introduce quotas requiring NSW cinemas to show a certain proportion of Australian films. This first ever Australian content rule seems to have failed, although the specific reasons for that are unclear.

In some ways, the period from the end of the Second World War until the advent of television marked the peak of rodeo and bush carnival activities. These were massively popular events in country Australia. Still, they remain popular with the smell of the dust and the horses, the noise, the sudden sharp excitement.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 25 September 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.

History revisited - punching sky high for big dreams in region

SHOW That WOULD PULL THE CROWD: the local show occupied a special place full of strange things. Jimmy Sharman's boxing troup was one such.

I have been trying to write a piece dealing in part with Armidale rhythms when I was a child. Not musical rhythms, but the rhythms of life. These were formed by the interacting rhythms of town, gown and country.

Town patterns included school and church, the shops, the local play, sport, the events such as the show. Country patterns included the rhythms of pastoral and agricultural life, the regular visits to town by country people, lambing and shearing. Gown patterns were set by the rhythms of life in the young university college and then university; the three terms still carrying their old English names; the examination cycle; the major academic ceremonies; the various university functions including games and fetes; and the academic visitors who had to be entertained and shown the district.

Within these interacting patterns, the local show occupied a special place full of strange things. Jimmy Sharman’s boxing troupe was one such.

The drum would start beating to draw the crowd. Those like my brother and I would be attracted by the noise, and come drifting across the rutted dusty ground towards the stand. There we would stand, while the spruker expounded the virtues of the fighters. "Come on, come on, come on. Give it a go. Survive three rounds and we will give you five pounds."

Each fighter would be brought forward and introduced to the crowd. "Surely some of you blokes can beat him. Three rounds, five pounds." The locals would hold up their hands and be called into the stand to be fitted out.

Inside we got near the ring, sat and waited on the hard seats while the dust motes drifted in the sunlight streaming down onto the ring. The fighters were brought out and introduced, the troupe fighter and then the local challenger. The bell sounded, and the fight began.

In today's terms it would all seem quite brutal, although we did not see it that way. It was just sport. It was only when fights were completely unbalanced that it became cruel.

Generally the locals were outclassed and it was over quite quickly. The local retired bearing his scars to the beer tent, there to stand in glory with his friends for giving it a go. However, there was one fight I remember that did not go according to plan.

The troupe boxer was a young, good looking, blonde bloke. He ran up against a very tough local who cut him to pieces. By mid way through the second round the troupe boxer's face was bruised and cut, his lips smashed. He kept going, but the crowd started to call for an end to the fight. It was no longer sport.

I actually saw a fair bit of boxing. Yes, I am aware of the health risks, but I am glad that I did see Jimmy Sharman's touring stadium before new regulations forced an end to the tent shows.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 28 August 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013

History Revisited - our love affair with racing

Colonial New Englanders were horse mad.

While many New Englanders did not own horses, relying instead on shanks’ pony or later bicycles for daily transport, horses were everywhere. They pulled drays, sulkies and coaches, were used for personal transport and to round up stock.

The Australian climate and lack of alternative entertainments encouraged interest in sport. Horse racing quickly became an addiction. The horses were readily available, while racing provided not only spectacle, but also facilitated two great Australian passions, gambling and drinking!

The first organised horse race in Armidale took place in 1842, just three years after the city’s foundation and the year before the first race meetings in South Australia or Queensland.

Most little settlements from the upper Hunter to the gold fields of the upper Clarence quickly acquired a race track.

Those first race tracks were pretty rough and ready affairs, with horses racing along Armidale’s dust tracks or on small flat spaces in mountainous regions. However, if you are going to have sport, you must have rules.

The Australian Racing Committee was formed in Sydney in May 1840 to set standards for racing in the colony, becoming the Australian Jockey Club in January 1842. As a consequence, the formal race trappings that we know today spread quite quickly, with judges, stewards, clerks, handicappers, starters and, of course, the obligatory Hon Sec and Treasurer!

Those early race meetings were major social events. They could run for several days, offered substantial prize money, and attracted people from considerable distances.

With time, several streams emerged.

There was flat racing provided through organised clubs such as the Armidale Jockey Club. Jump racing began in Sydney in 1832, but never attracted the same level of support. Then there was picnic racing.

While some of those early race meetings were quite highly organised, they featured amateur riders and local horses. There was a picnic feel to many of the smaller meetings, leading to the term picnic races.

As racing became more professional in the later 1800s, amateurs and pony racers were largely excluded. The popularity of country picnic races boomed as keen amateur racers took to the country circuits. Picnic races became organised events, with their own circuits featuring grass fed horses.

In Armidale, the picnic races became a long standing annual tradition. much favoured by country people. The day began with a Calcutta auction, then the races and finally a ball. It was a chance for people to meet and have some fun.

Picnic racing has been in sad decline. While they still exist in some places, the 2013-2014 NSW racing calendar does not list a single New England event. An era has ended.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 3 July 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013