From Colony Issue 87 – February 2021
Already 2021 is in its second month, and our South Coast Chapter has held its first face to face meeting of the year at The Café, St Lukes, Moombarra St Dapto. It was so nice to be together again after so many months of Zoom on line meetings – though the Board of the Fellowship is still meeting via Zoom at this stage. Continuing the entries in the Chapter’s Meeting Minutes book revealed how much we had covered via Zoom. I’d like to thank those who were able to persevere with this technology and I understand that for many it was not possible to participate. Nevertheless Joan Phipps kept providing me with comments and feedback via email which I greatly appreciated.
So many family associations have cancelled or deferred get togethers eg my John Small Mary Parker event cancelled in October 2020, and now the Ann Forbes event just rescheduled to April 2022. Also cancelled in the second week of February 2021 was my high school year group’s annual get together at the Thirroul Beaches Hotel. We had been hopeful it might have been possible. However the covid-19 cases affecting Illawarra residents in December 2020 and February 2021 remind us that this terrible saga is not yet gone. Throughout 2020 I often reflected on how our forbears must have felt about Pneumonic Influenza in 1919 immediately following the horror years of WW1. Back then in Australia it was known as Pneumonic Influenza rather than the Spanish Flu as we think of it today.
Our Chapter February 2021 meeting featured the Annual Show and Tell session, which was quite diverse as usual – from historic books and paintings to the history of the bass guitar. I also enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with my cousins Rob Herbert and Brian Harris. We are each descended from several First Fleeters, however we are related on other lines. There is so much interconnectedness amongst those early European families, plus also some Aboriginal connections.
Well 2021 has rolled around and we have not yet shed the insidious covid-19 virus from our world – hopefully by the end of 2021 there may be some sort of return to the normality which we previously knew. However David Roach, a local Northern Illawarra filmmaker behind projects such as “Beneath Hill 60´, shared a different perspective at the local Wollongong U3A in early February. I found his presentation on “Finding Meaning in a Covid Year´ quite moving. David had planned to be in Southern Africa researching for a film on the plight of the Rhino – poached for their horns for use in questionable cancer treatments. Instead he was confined to home – but it gave him time to slow down and connect in with local people in his community at the Clifton School of Arts. He and his wife really appreciated the slower pace and found that “boring´ wasn¶t quite so bad. David Roach also shared about evocative music in films and cited “Beneath Hill 60´ and “Red Obsession´ as examples. Of course I knew of “Beneath Hill 60´ set in WW1, but I didn’t really know of “Red Obsession´. It is set in Bordeaux, a noted wine growing region in France for centuries, and how its wines have been bought up by hedge funds and begun to be traded as commodities, becoming too expensive to drink. It’s a quite different story to the 2001 book “Wine and War´ by Don and Petie Kladstrup. The book, a birthday or Christmas gift for David Christian, starts with the 1945 opening of Hitler’s Cave of plundered wine – Chateau Lafite – Rothschild, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Latour and more – some from the 19th Century. It had been stored in a cellar high up in the Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. And from there the history of how French wines were saved and some stolen in WW2. It’s a very different tale of times in WW2.
David Christian is President of Wollongong U3A, and for 2021 he has roped me into being a Programme Coordinator for Speakers on Thursday sessions. Another hat to be added to those I already wear. Currently I am preparing several talks to deliver in Term 2 – on American writers in the 20th Century, Herman Wouk and Phillip Roth, as well as one on Illawarra in the 1940’s. I have shed one hat however, late December 2020 I ended a nine year stint on Australia’s national Nuclear Safety Committee, an advisory committee to Australia’s Nuclear regulatory body ARPANSA. And even in that role there was so much history to be across, viz in the global nuclear industry.
Each year on March 23, as part of the Black Diamond District Heritage Centre Museum in Bulli, I have been involved in coordinating the annual commemoration of the 1887 Bulli Mine Disaster that claimed the lives of 81 men and boys. In 2020, the planned event at St Augustines Anglican Church Bulli, was one was one of the first events to fall victim to covid-19. So far it appears we may be able to commemorate the tragedy in 2021, but with reduced numbers and sadly we would be unlikely to have the LampLighters Mens Choir who add so much to the occasion. Two of our Chapter members, Dorothy and Linden Conkey are descendants of one of the victims William Williams, while some members have been part of the LampLighters Choir.
The Black Diamond District Heritage Centre Museum, like many museums, closed during much of 2020 and to re-open I had to develop and register a Covid Safety Management Plan, with QR codes, sanitising and masks. My thanks to our Chapter member Brian Harris who volunteers with the Moruya Museum, and who provided me with some guidance in developing our plan. Now I am working towards an exhibition on the history of Rixons Pass and its people in Woonona. Rixons Pass was the first road down the Escarpment to the Northern Illawarra in the 1850’s before Bulli Pass etc. Of course the exhibition will feature Benjamin Rixon, a European Illawarra Pioneer and noted Tracker, who developed the pass. He is better associated with the Figtree Unanderra Mt Kembla Charcoal areas. However I was quite taken aback to discover that he had also been buried in an unmarked grave in 1886 in St Augustines Anglican Cemetery Bulli, a year before most of the miners were buried there in 1887. I’ve been in touch with descendants of Benjamin Rixon who have done so much on the family. Ben was born in 1806, being one of the first European Triplets born in the NSW Colony. He and brother James survived. Sadly the third triplet, an unnamed male, did not survive
As you are aware the Fellowship held its 2020 AGM via Zoom and its annual Australia Day Luncheon at the Portman Hotel in Sydney did not eventuate in January 2021. And now its May 2021 luncheon, planned to commemorate the departure of the First Fleet from Portsmouth England on May 13, 1787, which was to be held at Parliament House has had to be cancelled. Our hardworking and incoming Fellowship Vice President Gillian Doyle put great effort in organising this event, but alas it was not to be. However, the Fellowship is encouraging local Chapters to hold smaller events in their own regions to commemorate the Departure. Our Chapter had to cancel our annual May event in 2020, but our Chapter Committee is working on plans for an event to be held on Saturday May 15 2021. Various venues have been suggested so far – including Illawarra Yacht Club, Passionate Palate, Corrimal RSL Club.
As for the Chapter’s activities in 2021, most speakers planned for 2020 have been rebooked for 2021 and I am only to hear back from a speaker planned for June 2021. Once again a thank you to Brian Harris our Chapter member from Moruya who has stepped up to help out on Colony as Val O’Shea and Michael Baldwin battle their respective health challenges.
In Fellowship – Kerrie Anne Christian, President South Coast Chapter of FFF.
South Coast Chapter Fellowship of First Fleeters 