Newsletter - 7 August 2011 - the Willoughby District Historical

WILLOUGHBY DISTRICT
HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 7
WILLO U G H BY
CHAT T E RS
AUGUST 2011
WDHS sponsors MOSAiC training at Chatswood
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
CHURCHES
UPDATE Part 10
2
BERYL COSTIN
3
SOCIETY NEWS
3
HISTORIC
PHOTO
4
CONTACT
DETAILS
4
COMING EVENTS
4
Popular speaker Judith
Dunn is our speaker at
the WDHS meeting on
13 August. Please
come along (p 4)
We are seeking volunteers for a range of
tasks (see p 4).
HI S T O RY
Willoughb y Mus eum
hosted training courses in
use of the MOSAiC database for historical groups
from across New South
Wales on 7-9 July. The
courses, presented by the
program’s proprietors,
Rew and Sally-Anne Whittington of Information &
Technology Services of
Secret Harbour WA, provided participants with
hands-on practice using
the full range of capabilities of the MOSAiC program.
Willoughby City Council
had kindly arranged for us
to use the Banksia Room
on the 6th floor of the
Victor Street offices and
this proved to be an ideal
venue. This required a
frantic round of activity on
the Wednesday evening
to set up suitable furniture and the laptop computers on a network.
gent. We were joined by
participants from the Australian Tennis Museum,
Blundell’s Cottage in Canberra, Canada Bay Museum, Carcoar Hospital
Museum, Glenalvon Museum in Campbelltown,
Lane Cove Historical Society, Maitland Historical
Society (3), Narromine Aviation Museum and the
Nowra Museum. There
were 12 participants for
the Saturday course for
program managers and
administrators, including
Deborah Beck from the
National Arts School in Darlinghurst.
There was an extended
break for lunch on the
Thursday when the WDHS
hosted the group to lunch at
the Willoughby Museum. Our
thanks are extended to Paul
Storm for preparing the meal,
which was greatly appreciated by all participants.
The course was based on the
latest version of MOSAiC
(10.66)
and participants
were most impressed by its
range of capabilities. Rew
and Sally-Anne are highly
skilled trainers and all participants were lavish in their
praise of the interaction they
enjoyed at the venue.
Our museum volunteers have
commenced the task of entering data on our collection,
related places and people. It
will be an ongoing task.
Bob McKillop
The first two days covered
data input and retrieval
with 16 participants for
each course. Mary Thom,
Chris Lattimore, Judy Peters and Bob McKillop
attended as the Willoughby Museum continABOVE: Rew Whittington (left) prepares to lead a session of the MOSAiC course for administrators on
Saturday 9 July.
Bob McKillop photo
WILLOUGHBY HISTORY CHATTERS
Page 2
UPDATE ON OUR RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS, Part 10
The Armenian Apostolic Church at
10 Macquarie Street, Chatswood is the
Diocesan Centre of the Armenian
Church of Australia and New Zealand.
It claims to have played a role in the
Governor proclaiming Willoughby as a
‘city’ in November 1989. Under the
1919 Act, which has since been replaced, one of the criteria was that the
municipality needed to be home to the
headquarters of a ‘major institution/
entity.’ The early history of the Armenian Church in Australia is well covered
in Council’s 1988 Bicentennial booklet
on East Chatswood. The then Primate
of the Diocese, Archbishop Aghan
Baliozian, is still at the head of the
church.
The Macquarie Street church is a gathering place for Armenians to connect
with their ancestral roots. Whilst the
hub of the community and a large portion of Armenian settlement were originally within the Willoughby LGA, there
has been a subsequent shift to the
Warringah, Ryde and Hills districts.
Nevertheless, the community still regards the Macquarie Street church as
its centre and travels there for worship
and for all important occasions. It has
a range of groups and social activities:
three church choirs, a ladies auxiliary,
youth group, Sunday school, a monthly
Church Bulletin and a local radio programme.
Formerly the church’s mission work
was largely focused on the provision of
safe passage and settlement assistance for new Armenian migrants. That
role has expanded to provide social
support both for young families and for
older migrants. An Armenian Community Welfare Centre was established
under the auspices of the diocese,
which cares primarily for the aged and
frail by provision of day care services,
dementia and respite care, together
with home visiting and monthly outings
programs. It also provides youth counselling and focus groups, together with
information and referral sources to
ensure members of the Armenian community can access mainstream social
and community services.
The church owns four properties adjacent to No 10. Plans are currently being drawn up to develop residential
property on 16 Macquarie Street.
There is a short to medium term plan
to develop the other blocks for church
needs.
The Armenian Evangelical Church,
Frenchs Road, Willoughby South, belongs
to the Uniting Church family. It is an impressive modern structure consisting of
the church, a connecting church hall with
attached services and the pastor’s office.
The parsonage is built as a second storey
above the hall. The complex is on a site
previously occupied by a small timber
Uniting Church and was opened by the
then Prime Minister, John Howard, in November 1996. The money for the new
building came from three sources: a share
of the proceeds from the sale of the Uniting Church on Pacific Hwy (Clanwilliam St
Uniting Church was also funded by it),
money from the Armenian Missionary Association of America, and a loan from the
Uniting Church. The new pastor, Rev.
Hagop Sarkissian, has been here for nine
months having come to Australia with his
wife and two children from Somalia. He
has served for many years in Evangelical
churches in Syria and Lebanon.
Armenian Apostolic Church, Chatswood.
As is the case with most organisations
a change in leadership leads to revitalisation. There is a congregation of
about 150 for church services: 10am
Family Service with children attending
the first 15 minutes before going to
Sunday School, 6.30pm Youth Groups
followed by Fellowship. The Wednesday 7.30 pm Bible Study has a mixed
attendance including many men of
various ages, there’s a couples’ meeting once a month, a women’s meeting
on Thursday mornings.
Music plays an important part. At
Morning Service there is piano and
guitar and sometimes other instruments such as violin and cello. The
6.30pm Service also has synthesiser
and drums. The Church hosts the Willoughby Music Centre where there are
group music lessons, individual piano
and guitar tuition and its students perform at an annual concert.
Mollie Shelly
Photo Robyn McKegg
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 7
Page 3
BERYL MAY (SLACK) COSTIN, 1919-2011
We wish to record the passing of Beryl
Costin on 14 July 2011. She was an
early member of the WDHS, joining in
1979. She went on many of the society's outings during this period including one to Bear Island at Botany Bay,
during which she had a heart attack
and was taken off to hospital.
father in the cordial business from time
to time. Beryl married Douglas Cecil
Costin of Nardoo Street Willoughby at
St Stephen’s Church on Saturday 18
September, 1943. Doug was on the
engineering staff at Balmain Power
Station and they moved to Neutral Bay
so he could get to work more easily.
When the Willoughby Museum opened
in 1993, Beryl joined her friend Betty
Doggett as an active volunteer there.
She was active in assisting Betty to
develop and set up the exhibitions on
Willoughby’s brick industry (2000) and
our tanneries (2002). She remained a
regular attendee at our general meetings.
Sadly, Doug met with an electrical accident at the power station and died in
hospital a day or two later on 3 May
1945. Beryl moved back to her parents
home in Artarmon. She was six months
pregnant with their child. On Sunday,
Beryl was the youngest of four Slack
children. When her father, Leslie Slack,
took over a small soft drinks company,
he renamed it Cascade Cordials and
moved the factory to Willoughby Road,
Naremburn. The family relocated to 27
Godfrey Road, Artarmon in August
1927. Beryl attended Artarmon Public
School, but in 1928 she moved to Willoughby Primary School and later attended Willoughby Domestic Science
School.
19 August 1945, her only son Graeme
Douglas Leslie Costin was born. Ensuring Graeme had a good upbringing was
Beryl’s preoccupation. She also became
an active member of the St Stephens
congregation, played classical music on
the piano and loved gardening.
Betty Doggett, Paul Storm and Chris
Lattimore represented the society at the
Thanksgiving Service for Beryl at St
Stephens on 20 July.
Graeme and Faith Costin
RIGHT: Beryl Costin.
Photo courtesy Graeme Costin
Beryl studied at a business college and
was then employed by a firm of debt
collectors. She also worked with her
SOCIETY NEWS
We are pleased to welcome two new
members this month. Robert Wilson, a
Willoughby City councillor, has been a
supporter of the society for some time
and has now formally joined. He has a
keen appreciation of Willoughby’s history and heritage. Anne Pittman, a
Willoughby resident, is interested in
our local history and joined at our July
general meeting.
We are fortunate to have received a
collection of important objects and
documents relating to Miss Evelyn
Whiting and the Whiting family’s grand
family residence, Valetta, at Gore Hill.
Evelyn passed these items — which
include personal objects such as a
travelling writing case and sewing machine, a sewing box, art works created
by Evelyn and personal documents — to
her personal maid, Anita Rigelsford.
They have been retained by Anita’s
descendants until her granddaughter,
Josephine Regan, approached the
North Shore Historical Society to arrange their safe keeping. As Valetta
was located within the Willoughby
LGA, the NSHS in turn donated the
items to the Willoughby Museum.
The small team of volunteers managing our collection have now commenced the task of entering the findings of our research on items (and
many others) into the MOSAiC database. It is a huge task and we urgently
need more volunteers to assist with
collection management tasks, serve
as museum guides and many other
tasks (see p 4 for details).
CONTACTS
Willoughby Museum
Our museum is located at Boronia,
58 Johnson Street, Chatswood.
Opening hours: 1-4pm each Sunday. Admission $4 adults; $3 concession; $2 child,
$10 family.
Patron: Pat Reilly, Mayor of Willoughby
Management Committee:
President: Paul Storm (9419 7354)
Vice-Presidents Mary Thom, Judy Baird
An inspection of the Suspension Bridge on 27 May 1936 found the suspension
cables to be unsafe and the bridge was immediately closed to all except pedestrian
traffic. A decision was made to replace the old bridge with a modern concrete arch
structure, Hornibrook Brothers & Clark was contracted to build the new bridge for
£75,000 in March 1937. Among our recent donations are four photographs of the
bridge reconstruction from Mrs T Merewether of East Lindfield. Taken by her
brother Douglas Hemshaw in 1937-38, the photos are of excellent quality. This one
shows the formwork for the new arch in place.
Secretary: Chris Lattimore
Minute Secretary: Judy Peters,
Treasurer: John Levings
Museum Curator Bob McKillop
Committee Members: Joan Antarakis,
Betty Doggett, Harry Fox, Geoffrey Sherington.
COMING EVENTS
Members’ Meetings
At the Dougherty Centre,
7 Victor Street, commencing at 2.30pm.
13 August, Judith Dunn
(Parramatta DHS) will return as our guest speaker
and will cover ‘Unknown
Pioneers’. Judith is an outstanding speaker, so
please come along and
invite some friends.
10 September, Workshop on history research. Bob McKillop will
lea d a d is c us s ion /
workshop on approaches,
techniques and resources
to research using practical
examples. Note: this is the
Spring Fair day, so please
use public transport.
Tours & Events
14 September: Em. Professor Geoffrey Sherington
will lead a 1 hour walking
tour and exploration of Sydney University and its buildings. Meet at the Clock
Tower at 10am. From 11am
there will be individual unaccompanied visits to the
Nicolson Museum of classical antiquities, the War Memorial Gallery and the Macleay Museum of anthropology museums. Lunch at the
Annex Cafe after 12 noon.
Parking is limited, so please
travel by bus and get off at
Parramatta Gates or Union
Steps (next to overhead
bridge).
25 September: Guided
walks of Flat Rock Gully
jointly hosted by WDHS and
the Aboriginal Heritage Office
as part of the Willoughby
Spring Festival. Further details in August issue.
Willoughby Museum
‘Tales of Flat Rock Creek:
Rugged, Ruined and Re-
claimed. This exhibition
explores the impact of
urban development on a
pristine natural environment since the European
settlement, through the
eyes of Willoughby residents. Please come and
bring your friends.
Volunteers required
Please encourage your
friends to volunteer to help
at the museum. They will
join a congenial group in
interesting tasks. Please
contact Bob McKillop (see
below) for information.
WILLOUGHBY DISTRICT
HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
58 Johnson Street, Chatswood
Phone: (02) 9410 3203
E-mail contact:
Secretary: willoughbydistrict@bigpond.com
Editor: rfmckillop@bigpond.com