Northcote Rd was part of the final subdivision of the Toxteth Estate, advertised for sale in October 1904.

Source: http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/

Federal Park (Glebe) was then much smaller, bounded by Eglinton Rd and Victoria Rd (to the south), Northcote Rd (to the east), what is now the pathway to the bridge from Federal Rd (to the north), and the canal (to the west). The Annandale part of the park was west of the canal.

The pathway was originally a road (Federal Rd) constructed in 18991 after the reclamation works which now form the Bicentennial Park but then they were for waterfront use managed by the Harbour Trust Commission.

Creation of the park began in 1901.

‘Mr. J. A. Hogue, M.L.A. for the Glebe, and Mr. W. H. Mahoney, M.L.A. for Annandale, have been informed that the sum of £50 has been set apart by the Minister for Lands for the improvement of Federal Park; also, that the services of a landscape gardener will be placed at the disposal of the trustees of the park for the purposes of laying out the ground.’2

One of the earliest recorded sporting uses of Federal Park was a cricket match in 1902 involving aldermen.3

The park had become very popular and reportedly  ‘thousands of people were using it’ as documented by the Annandale and Glebe Councils in their appeal for more funds from the State Government in 1905.4

Despite the local support for its inclusion into the park the waterfront continued to be used by waterfront industries right up until 1988 when the Bicentennial Park was created.

Tree planting at Federal Park ‘…was commenced on Saturday afternoon, [24 October 1908] when at the invitation of Glebe Council a number of residents of Glebe and Annandale assembled to witness the ceremony of planting the first 12 trees along the western boundary of the park.’5

Sales

The first lot to be sold was No 11 in January 1905 although it wasn’t until 1923 there were house numbers. Prior to then each house was named and No11 was “Lorne”.

Houses and First Owners

House No. Purchased Purchaser
1 10 Sep 1908 Mary Kelleher wife of A W Kelleher, marine engineer
3 1 Jul 1908 Hester Augusta Norris, wife of C R Norris of Thursday Island, postmaster
5 4 Dec 1905 Jessie Grace Hogg wife of J Hogg, sergeant of police
7 14 Jun 1906 Mary Ann Theresa Kelly wife of A J Kelly, farmer
9 27 Oct 1906 Amy Annie McEnnally wife of W C McEnnally, fruit merchant
11 17 Jan 1905 Irene Alice Oatley and Leila Millicent Blanche Oatley, spinsters
13 20 Dec 1907 Russell Woodfield, master mariner and Isabella E Woodfield his wife
15 9 Apr 1906 Henry Beeson of Turramurra, builder
17 9 Apr 1906 Emilie Williams wife of H G Williams, letter sorter
(Source: Certificates of Title)

 

image: National Library of Australia [map-lfsp88]

Sisters Irene and Leila Oatley were the owners and living with their father William, the head of the household in the 1908 Sands Directory the first time Northcote Rd was included.

William Oatley (29) had married Amelia Graham (25) on 18 August 1881 in Sydney however it was a troubled union. Living in Leichhardt, Amelia ran off with a neighbour leading to their divorce in 18996 but all must have been forgiven over time because they remarried in 19177.

William was a clerk in the Department of Public Works NSW, joining in January 1873 aged 208. When he retired in 1915 aged 63 and after 42 years’ service he was earning only £260 pa, very little more than the £250 pa he got in 1898.

Irene (30) was the first to marry, to George Hewitt (35) in 1912, soon after his divorce from his first wife9, and not long before Irene’s first child Alma was born. They moved to 10 Arthur St, Forest Lodge overlooking Minogue Crescent and the trotting track at Harold Park where they had two sons and a daughter before George died in 1925. Irene died in 1961 at Newtown aged 79.

Leila (36) married Louis Charles Willis, an upholsterer, in 1920. They lived in Darlinghurst first at 322 Victoria St then at 8 Royston St until Louis died in 1952. Leila then went to live with Irene at Forest Lodge. She died in 1963, also aged 79.

Irene and Leila sold No.11 in February 1909 to Johanna Freeman of Glebe Point, a married woman.

Jessie Hogg purchased No 5 (Bonnie Doon) in December 1905. Her husband, Sergeant James Hogg of the NSW Police, joined the police force in 1883 aged 26, reportedly a year after arriving from Scotland on the ship Duntroon10.

Jessie had arrived in Sydney travelling 3rd class from London on the steam ship Oroya on Friday 19 August 1887, the then fastest ever recorded voyage between the Suez Canal and Adelaide and only 41 days from Plymouth11. They married in 1889 having two daughters (Mary A b1890, Jessie B b1892) and a son (James E b1898).

Initially living at 63 Rose St, Chippendale, then 38 Broughton St, Glebe the family moved into their new home at No 5 Northcote Rd in about 1907. Hogg family members continuously owned No 5 until 1972.

Senior Sergeant James Hogg, as he became, fearlessly prosecuted the law and was particularly disliked by some Glebe residents when he was in the Licensing Branch12. He died in 1935 aged 78.

Jessie continued to live at No 5 until just before her death in January 1952 at which time, aged 92, she was living with her daughter Mary MacKenzie at Homebush.

Architect/builder Henry Beeson purchased No.15 in April 1906. Henry had already built a number of other houses in Glebe and at this time was living at Turramurra13. It is likely he built all the houses in Northcote Rd but as yet there is no definitive evidence.

Henry sold No.15 (Wybenia) in March 1907 to Hester Augusta Norris, wife of Charles Robert Norris of Thursday Island, postmaster. See discussion below.

Emilie Williams, wife of Henry G Williams letter sorter, purchased No.17 (St Malo) in April 1906.

Emilie, daughter of a French master mariner, Emile Landergren was born in Brittany, France. It is at present unclear when she arrived in Australia but she and Henry married in Sydney in 1897 and had two sons before moving to No.17. They were Harry b1900 and Jack b1903.

How Emilie and Henry could afford to purchase the property on Henry’s salary of £150 pa14 is worthy of further investigation.

Harry died in 1924. Emilie, Harry jnr and Jack continued living at No.17 while the boys completed their education, eventually both becoming accountants.

The three of them moved to 2 Orinoco St, Pymble in 1937 however No.17 wasn’t sold until January 1940. Emilie died on 25 May 1949 leaving the boys the Pymble property.

Harry (49) married Mona Gwydir (45) in 1949. The couple enjoyed over 30 years of marriage in Pymble until Mona died in 1982 and Harry in 1984.

Jack’s whereabouts after the 1954 Electoral Rolls are not known.

Mary Ann Theresa Kelly (1861-1946) wife of Augustine James Kelly, farmer in the Hawkesbury Valley purchased No.7 (Hillside) in June 1906 with a mortgage from Reginald Charles Allen and Arthur Wigram Allen, solicitors.

The property was sold in June 1908 to Ella M Green, most likely just after the house had been built.

Amy Annie McEnnally wife of William Charles McEnnally, fruit merchant, purchased No.9 (Gowan Brae) in October 1906.

Amy Viquert and William McEnnally were married at St Johns Church, Glebe on 31 October 1900, she was the 7th daughter and he the eldest son. Prior to moving into their new house the family had been living at 73 Westmoreland St, Glebe where they had two children, then another three while at Northcote Rd.

The family moved to Manly in 1915, however they didn’t sell No.9 until August 1928.

In addition to being a fruit merchant William had a timber case making business employing 20 men at Darling Harbour making packing cases for transporting fruit15.

In 1913 McEnnally Bros and Co Ltd was registered with a capital of £20,000 in shares of £1 each, for a tug boat business with the first directors William Charles McEnnally, Robert Morrow McEnnally and Edward A Lamb.

William must have been exploring possible business opportunities in New Guinea when he departed Sydney on the steamer Matunga on 27 July 1917, during WW1. Initially the ship was reported overdue with the list of passengers and crew published in the newspapers16. He and the other 19 passengers and 45 crew would have had no idea that their journey as prisoners-of-war would take them more than 20 months via Germany and England17.

Eventually back in Australia he continued to work in the family business and also worked tirelessly for the returned WW1 soldiers and widows18 however William’s wartime experiences must have played on his mind. He became a troubled man and in his last years he was an inmate of Broughton Hall at Callan Park Mental Hospital in the early 1930s. He died there in 1935 aged 61. Amy died in 1943 aged 67.

Master mariner Russell Woodfield and his wife Isabella Elizabeth purchased No.13 (Gunyah) on 20 Dec 1907. Isabella’s sister Mary Kelleher purchased No.1 (Trimden) on 10 Sep 1908.

Isabella Short had married English born Russell in 1900. No.13 was transferred to Isabella’s sister Rose Crammond, victualler of Newcastle, in February 1912. By this stage Russell was gravely ill them both living with Rose’s family in Newcastle.

No.13 was transferred back to Isabella’s name in January 1913 and Russell died in November the same year, aged only 44. The property was sold in September 1920. Isabella died in January 1927 while on a trip to England, aged 56. They didn’t have any children.

Mary Short had married marine engineer Albert W Kelleher in 1899 at about the time she purchased 12 Allen St, Glebe. The couple lived in Allen St for 16 years until she died in 1916, aged 51. After Mary’s death Albert moved to Dulwich Hill where he died in December 1930, aged 77. It seems they didn’t have any children.

On Mary’s death No.1 was willed to her sisters Rose Crammond, Isabella Woodfield and Laura Kerr in November 1917. No.1 was sold by the sisters in August 1921.

Hester Augusta Norris purchased No.3 (Charliern) in July 1908. Readers would recall that Hester had already bought No.15 from Henry Beeson in March 1907 so No 3 was her second property in Northcote Rd. Both were investment properties.

Hester and husband Charles were English born however they married in Queensland in 1890. It would appear that they didn’t have any children.

In 1907, Charles was the postmaster at Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. Later in that year he was promoted to become the postmaster at Mount Morgan, Queensland on a salary of £31019.

In 1911 Charles was appointed Federal Electoral Registrar to keep the roll for the Mackay subdivision of Herbert, in Queensland20.

Charles later became the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Queensland, from which he retired in October 1924 at the retirement age of 6521. In retirement Charles and Hester enjoyed many trips back to England, some via the Suez Canal and others via Canada and New York, the last one being in 1938.

Returning to Sydney, the couple initially lived in Darlinghurst then at Double Bay. Hester died there in 1943 aged 81. Charles died in 1948 aged 89.

Both No.3 and No.15 were sold to Michael Toohey, victualler, in July 1918 to become part of his expanding property interests. The Toohey family also purchased No 11 in 1936.

11 Northcote Rd today
(image: realestate.com.au)
Sources: [1] Daily Telegraph; Mon 18 Dec 1899, p2; 2 Evening News (Sydney); Mon 11 Feb 1901; p4 – Federal Park; 3 Evening News (Sydney); Fri 31 Jan 1902 – Aldermen at Cricket; 4 SMH; Fri 30 Jun 1905, p4; 5 SMH; Mon 26 Oct 1908, p5 – Federal Park; 6 Evening News, 26 Aug 1899, p6; 7 NSW Marriage Ref 6756/1917; 8 Ancestry.com; New South Wales, Australia, Public Service Lists, 1858-1960; 9 SMH, Sat 9 Nov 1912, p10; 10 SMH; 18 Jan 1935, p8 [Obit]; 11 SMH; Sat 20 Aug 1887 [Arrival of the RMS Oroya] & Ancestry.com; Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923, Series: VPRS 7666; Series Title: Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) [Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]; 12 Further details of Sergeant Hogg can be found in Grandeur and Grit by Max Solling; 13 See also Henry Beeson in ‘Who lived in these houses? – Arcadia Rd (north side), by Rodney Hammett, Glebe Society Bulletin No 4 (June) 2017; 14 Ancestry.com; New South Wales, Australia, Public Service Lists, 1858-1960; 15 SMH; 7 Feb 1908, p7 [Enough to Frighten Anyone]; 16 SMH; 15 Aug 1917, p9 [Matunga Overdue] & Townsville Daily; 15 Aug 1917, p4 [Still no Tidings]; 17 See also State Library of NSW http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2013/D04594/a3040.htm; 18 Sunday Times; Sun 30 Mar 1919, p2 [Manly’s Thirteenth Soldier’s Cottage]; 19 Telegraph, Brisbane; Tue 2 Jun 1908, p7; 20 Daily Mercury, Mackay; Sat 12 Aug 1911, p6; 21 Daily Mercury, Mackay; Wed 1 Oct 1924, p6