The Old Balmain House
Page 30
Appendix : The Truth Behind the Imaginings
The perfume bottle described in this book is a product of my imagination. However this story is based on truth in some places as follows:
The arrival of my great-great grandfather in Sydney in 1841 is true, with what I know as compiled by other relatives as follows.
“Archibald Alexander Rodgers was born on 4th April 1814, at Barnyards village in Scotland. He was the fifth of seven children of James Rodger and Eupan Bruce. In 1841, Archibald Rodger travelled to Sydney, with his wife Hannah and their two children James and Archibald, arriving on the “William Turner” on October 5th. Archibald Junior’s twin brother John died in the United Kingdom before they left. In Australia they had further children Alison, Hannah and Alexander. Archibald was listed as “Blacksmith, Presbyterian, aged 27, can read and write”. Hannah was listed as “Dressmaker, Presbyterian, 24 years, can read and write” In Sydney Archibald worked in an engineering business with Roger McVey and Company, Shipsmith, at Mace’s Wharf in Sussex St, Sydney. The partnership, in 1847, became Rodgers and Buller, Engineers, in Gas St, then A Rodger, Engineer and Shipsmith, Gas Lane, off Kent St North.
Hannah died at Balmain, in Sydney, in March 1849, and Archibald Junior died shortly afterwards in June 1849. Shortly after their deaths Archibald sailed back to England on the “Sarah”, returning on the same ship to Sydney on 10th December 1849. With him was his younger brother William, William’s wife Isabella and their son. Also on the ship were Colin McLaren and his wife Helen. Colin died of cholera on the voyage.
Three months later Archibald Rodgers and Helen McLaren were married in Sydney. Their first child, Margaret, only lived for two weeks. Their next child, also named Helen, was my grandfather’s mother.
In 1854 they moved to Newcastle, and Archibald founded an engineering works “Iron and Brass Foundry and General Iron Works” at Honeysuckle Point, in lower Church St. This is now King St and the site of Newcastle City Hall and Civic Centre. In Newcastle they had three daughters, listed as born at the Foundry; Helen, Agnes and Anne. Archibald died of tetanus in 1870, after his hand was crushed in an accident at the Foundry.”
I know nothing further of his life in Balmain. Of the real Hannah I have discovered a photo of a pretty lady with dark hair, not the lady of fair hair and complexion I have imagined, though in other respects the similarity to my imagination is strong. This picture conveys to me a self-possessed woman, who in a mere 32 years of life had 6 children, crossed the world and established a new life for herself and her family. Her own mother is also named Alison, so my idea of Hannah’s first daughter being named for her mother is right.
Of this daughter Alison, when writing this novel, I knew nothing of her life at all, except that she was the oldest daughter. Since then I have discovered that she died in Newcastle on the 24th of April 1871, only a few months after her father’s death.
So it is like sliding doors, a real Alison, the great aunt I never knew who experienced the real grief and pain of losing her mother, brother, sister and father in her short life, and who never returned from Newcastle. Then there is my imaginary Alison – the mind shadow of what may have been if she lived on. I hope the soul of the real Alison is pleased with what I have created. From this unknown child’s pain comes the essence of the kind, wise, fun-loving soul of my book.
As with Alison, so too with Maria; a person of my imagination; living only in my book. Yet I can see her so clearly, waiting and hoping for her beloved Jimmy to return to her at the old Balmain house. For me she is also the Maria of Joe Dolan’s song.
‘Who’s going to tell Maria he won’t return,
Who’s going to tell Maria that love can burn’
But she waits still, her hope undimmed; and as the story teller I can give her the gift of joy regained.
Our move to Balmain and the purchase of a timber cottage in the locality of Smith Street is true in general if not in all specifics. The basic layout of the house and the pleasure it gave us is as described, as is the wonderful sense of welcome and community we discovered on coming to Balmain.
The discovery of a mass card of a little girl who had lived and died around the same time as Sophie, and which had been hidden in the chimney of our house in Balmain is true, though we did not discover it and I do not know the little girl’s name nor what happened to her.
The general locality of Balmain in relation to Sydney City and the streets referred to in Sydney and Balmain are real streets. The Exchange and West End Hotels and the Town Hall are real buildings. I do not know the names of the builders of the Town Hall, though it’s year of construction and the name of the architect are correct. The names and locations of churches and schools cited in Balmain are generally correct.
Ballast Point and Balmain East are real localities on the Balmain Peninsula, though their development bears little resemblance in time or type to that described in the book. Specifically Ballast Point was already substantially cleared and changed before the time cited in this book and fuel tanks were not built until the 1930s. The Navy had no role in their use.
I have no knowledge of a cemetery in East Balmain, though a later cemetery was built in Leichhardt. However it is likely that there was an early cemetery somewhere in locality of East Balmain where Hannah and Archibald Junior were buried in 1849. One day I will try to find out about them, and where they lived and died.
Balmain became a strongly working class area in the early 1900s with a very large number of dock workers living there.
Bubonic plague did occur in Sydney in 1900 with many deaths. I do not know if any plague deaths occurred in Balmain. Similarly, other epidemics of disease occurred in the early history of Sydney.
The Australian Federation Ceremony occurred in 1901, including a march from Hyde Park, which went along Park St, with a crowd of approximately 500,000 onlookers. Sir Henry Parkes lived in Balmain for several years at Hampton Villa and was a leading figure in the movement for the Australian Federation, although he died before it occurred. Edmund Barton was extensively involved in drafting the constitution for the Australian Federation.
A Balmain football team played at Birchgrove Oval in the late 1800s and early 1900s and became an inaugural team in the Rugby League competition established in 1908. It still wears the black and gold tiger colour and retains the Tigers Name, though now as part of the Wests Tigers. I am proud to say I am one of its many later day supporters and still go to watch it play, though now at Leichardt rather than Birchgrove Oval.
Balmain was and remains a village outside of time, centred around its people and the sense of community they create. It is also a repository of many hidden treasures, the beautiful old timber and sandstone houses, undiscovered cobbled lanes twisting between houses and plunging down to the sea, jacarandas in purple flower in spring, glimpsed vistas of hills and harbour, and the boats which quietly float across these views. At night, seen across the water all of Sydney city comes sparkling to life, light filled high rise towers and the dark towering masses of Anzac and Sydney Harbour Bridges.
Along with many thousands of others we watch fireworks on Sydney Harbour Bridge, as viewed from East Balmain and seen around the world on televisions, each New Year’s Eve.
The blue bird of my story is the beautiful fairy wren, once common and now seen just occasionally, on the headlands and in the forest fringes at the edges of Balmain. Now people are planting new bushland places for it to live. Perhaps again one day it will be often seen by Balmain’s children.
Dedicated to many people who have lived in and loved the place we call Balmain, over countless millennia