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SHORE REPORTS MARCH 1988 DN OF SYDNEY CHURCH OF ENGLAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NORTH SYDNEY REGISTERED BY AUSTRALIA POST PUBLICATION NO. NBH5938

HOLTERMANN AND HIS NUGGET A STAINED GLASS WINDOW ORIGINALLY IN "HOLTERMANN'S TOWER" NOW IN THE SCHOOL LIBRARY,

THE SHORE CENTENARY ROSE "HOLTERMANN'S GOLD"

2

SHORE REPORTS

FROM THE CHAIRMAN - CENTENARY BUILDING APPEAL Dear Members of the Shore Community,

Finally, please make every effort to financially support the work of the Centenary Appeal and a member of the Committee will be communicating with you in the near future. Yours sincerely,

As you are probably aware, Shore will celebrate its 100th Birthday in a little over 12 months time. Last year the School Council announced its intention to celebrate the occasion by constructing two major capital building works to commemorate the School s first 100 years. The projects are, a major arts, crafts, music and drama centre here at North Sydney and a new rowing and general activities centre to be built at Gi adesvi lie. The Appeal achieved considerable success during 1987 and has received contributions totalling Our target is approximately $1.7 million todate. hopeful that this $2.5 million and we are very will be achieved, thus enabling the School to complete the two projects in the manner and style which is appropriate for Shore. As Chairman of the Centenary Appeal I would like to take this opportunity to express the thanks of myself and the School Council for the contributions The need of Shore to already given to the Fund. develop and keep developing its major facilities is, of course,an ongoing requirement of any leading It is vital to Shores educational institution. future success that it be equipped with the best facilities to meet the challenges of education into the future. The expansion of the School s educational base by the creation of these new and badly needed buildings will considerably assist in maintaining Shore as one of Australias leading schools. Unfortunately these projects cannot be funded from school fees as these are totally absorbed in the day-to-day operations of school activities. Therefore, we rely upon the School Community to assist by way of donation to help us create the capital projects necessary to keep Shore in the forefront of education. There have been several This is nothing new. appeals very successfully conducted within the last 30 years and the School is much indebted to the contributions made by former generations of the It now falls on the current Shore Community. generation to carry on this vital work and I have reason to believe that we are being very well served and can look forward to a considerable success with our current Centenary Appeal The need is great; the benefits are considerable and every boy in the School will have access to these facilities and in that sense they will be a very good investment for the School and its Community.

March, 1988.

FROM THE HEADMASTER

- PERFORMANCE AND INVOLVEMENT The capacity of Shore to produce young men of breadth of talent and performance has been a strong feature of the School for a very long time.

The tradition is maintained in a number of ways. For example, even though we have a record in Rowing which is second to no other G. P. S. School,our level of participation and quality of performance in a wide range of other sports is also consistently high - as the record of premierships, high placings, and strong contests with other, schools will testify. It is evident also in the way in which numbers of boys are able to contribute so well in Scholarship, Drama, Music, Service, and in similar activities. The final measure of a boys scholastic attainment at school is the H.S.C. Here too it is clear that many boys are able to achieve fine academic performance, and at the same time produce leadership in other endeavours. This of course is as it should be, for the person who has learnt to maintain a balanced perspective in his activities and at the same time find a breadth of commitment, is destined to make a positive mark on the wider community. In this context it is pleasing to report the successes of our boys in the recent H.S.0 in which 71% gained entry to a tertiary institution. In a fully comprehensive school ( and in which some H.S.C.candidates do not register for matriculation) this is a very good result. In particular it is most encouraging to see once again the level of performance of the top boys. These were the final years achievements of each of the students from Shore who attained the highest marks in the H.S.C. C.G. MENDEL (1st in General Proficiency Vith Form 1987). 1st VIII, Open Swimming Champion, Cross Country Team (undefeated); School Prefect.

3

SHORE REPORTS

G.P.S. 2nd Xl; 1st Xl; H.M.A. WATSON House Captain; School Prefect.

SENIOR PREFECT, 1988

2nd XV;

Grant Le Lievre has been formally inducted as Senior Prefect for 1988. He entered Term 1, 1986. 1st XV; G.P.S. Athletics 1986. Prefect, 1st XV, Captain of Football, 2nd VIII 1987. Senior Prefect, Captain of Football 1988.

M.F.W. THOMAS Captain Cross Country Team (undefeatAthletic Swimming Team; Basketball 2nds; ed); Sports ExShore Weekly Record Committee; Team; ecutive Secretary; Senior Leader Crusaders; School Prefect. G.P.S. Basketball ists (Premiers); S.B. DOCKER lsts Basketball; Combined Independent Schools House Captain; Rugby 3rd XV; Team; Basketball School Sub-Prefect.

Le L i e v r e

The leadership given by these boys and the quality of their performance is self-evident. It is pleasing to report that they were well supported by many others who were equally involved in the life of the School and who produced fine effort in both curricular and extra-curricular involvement.

Av7ZRobert A.I. Grant Headmas ter

OLYMPIC APPOINTMENT Congratulations to John Boultbee (at Shore 1963-67) who has been appointed Administration Director for Bolts has much the Australian 1988 Olympic Team. experience in sports administration having been manager of Australian Rowing Squads from 1977-82 and serving as Secretary of The Australian Rowing He still finds time to coach since 1982. Council the 2nd 1V.

WORTHY WTNNR

The School has a long history of support from the ladies of The Shore Family. Most Shore Mums spend an enormous amount of their time doing all manner of things to keep the School One such Mum support arms functioning smoothly. mother of Mark who left in 1987 is Jenny Johnson, and Richard currently in year 12. Jenny has been an inspiration to the volunteer workers for THE SHORE CENTENARY BUILDING APPEAL. So far she has made in excess of 100 visits to members of the School Community and encouraged them to generously support The Appeal. It is support and comitment such as this that makes The Shore Family As a prize incentive for the volunteer workers, QANTAS donated two return tickets to London they were to be drawn at The Boatshed Dinner Dance. Jenny was a most worthy winner. She and husband Keith will be enjoying a London trip later this year. Meanwhile, Jenny is still working hard making calls for The Centenary Appeal Like the TV commercial says - I can do without most things - but I cant do without my (Shore) Mum.

Jenny and husband Keith with President of O.B.U. Mink Sainburn and wife Meryl.

.Jnhri BnLHH

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-

'Happ) GLJesLs home from the Boatshed Dinner. L to S Scoff Minton1/J\1Or, Sandy Smeal. John E3oultbee, TrimS Evans.

L to R

Meryl Swinburn, Mink Sainburn Jenny Johnson Keith Johnson.

SHORE REPORTS

FROM A GOLDEN MOUNTAIN TO A GOLDEN ROSE (by Roderick W. Glassford) Bernhard Otto Holtermann was born in Hamburg, Germany, on April 29th 1838. On completion of schooling he was employed for a short time in the mercantile firm of Holtermann and Kopke, before migrating to Sydney, where he arrived on his 20th birthday. He tackled a variety of jobs - one of them as an assistant in a photographic studio. Photography was then in its infancy but, for him, this was to have some later significance. For the present he took to gold-mining - the occupation which dominated Australian life in the fifties and sixties of last century. These were the so-called Roaring Days - the road to Bathurst and Orange packed with men of all classes and numerous previous occupations, on foot and on horse and awheel, making for the The Diggings at Bathurst, Ophir, the Turon etc.. Holtermann teamed up with Ludwig Hugo Louis Beyers from Posen in Poland who had been on the Hill End field for 2 years before Holtermann arrived. Together they worked the nearby Tambaroora field for some eleven years, doing little more than scratch out a living. In fact, a blasting accident put young Holtermann hors de combat for months and he spent a lot of time dabbling in store-keeping, hotel management and so on in order to pay the bills and enable Beyers to keep the mine working. At last, fortune smiled upon the pair! In 1870 they moved to a new claim at Hawkins'Hill, previous Hill End experience near some of Beyers and where he had, more recently, made some observations on the movement of alluvial gold in the valleys. The first 28 tons of stone mined from the new claim produced 1400 ounces of gold so they floated the Star of Hope Gold-mining Company on April 17th 1872. Six months later, on October 19th, they discovered the largest specimen of reef gold ever found in the world - 7560 ounces with a gold content of about 3000 ounces. It was a large irregular mass but very approximately its dimensions were: 144 cm. long, 66 cm. wide and 10 cm. thick. It became known as "Holtermann's Nugget which not only failed to çive equal credit to the hardworking but modest Beyers, who did so much of the really hard work of the mine, but is also considered technically incorrect. It is best described as a specimen of reef gold masses in situ, whereas a nugget is actually a rough lump of gold. The largest actual nugget found in Australia was the Welcome Stranger at Dunolly in 1869 with a gross weight of 2520 ounces and a gold weight only 230 ounces less. The "find" of the two friends flooded Hill End with diggers and speculators - many were later to curse the day they ever heard of Hawkins Hill, Hill End or Holtermann. When he warned against 'wild cat schemes on the part of speculators, which purported to show that the Hill was a veritable mountain of gold, all the thanks Holtermann received was to Unfortunately, have his effigy burned in public. speculative euphoria was fuelled in 1873 when, in a speech at Hill End, Governor Sir Hercules Robinson referred to " the marvellous wealth of your golden mountai n'.

After ensuring that they extracted all accessible gold within their claim in the ensuing 2 years, the now well-off pair called it a day. It was a hard life and they had done spectacularly well at it. In the background of all their ups and downs were two women - sisters - the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Emmett of White Rock, Bathurst. In a joint ceremony at All Saints', Bathurst on February 22nd 1868, Bernhard Holtermann had married Harriett Emmett and Louis Beyers married her sister, Mary. After working through the mine, both of the prospectors returned to Sydney but Beyers still considered the West his home. He shunned the spotlight as much as his partner coveted it. He went into Parliament for two terms sitting for the Western Goldfields Division but when the next election was due he was seriously ill, could not campaign and was defeated. His mining had made him wealthy but, the story goes, a legal shark relieved him of a great part of his fortune. He was neither a drinker nor a gambler and unfortunately, he was not a good business man. He is a legend in his adopted home town of Hill End - his quaint English, compassion for the underdog and affectionate good nature are all inscribed in the lore of the old mining town where a tree-lined avenue commemorates him. He long outlived his brother-in-law and partner and died on May 18th 1910, aged 75, greatly loved by those who knew him. As might have been expected, the extrovert Holtermann also found his final métier in Parliament,but, before doing so he resurrected his old interest in photography. He bought a 13-acre property in North Sydney on September 12th 1873 from Edmund Pugh and proceeded to enlarge the bungalow on it and to add another storey and an impressive tower. He finished the building on August 24th 1874 and noted in his diary "Put on top of the tower - the last stone coping'. Contemporary land maps show the name of the property as The Towers'(they must have counted the chimneys as well to make the plural) but it was always known as Holtermann's Tower' or, less reverently, as "Holtermann's Folly". This latter was supposedly because of its isolation, though how this could be so when it stood next to Mr. T.A. Dibbs' great mansion,"Graythwaite" and within sight of several large residences in Lavender Bay Valley and Milson's Point,is hard to follow. "Holtermann's Tower" was not a particularly large house, but the owner had made several additions to it on the western side after adding a second storey and the famous tower. To make sure there was no doubt who owned the property, he inscribed the name "HOLTERMANN" in 60 cm. capitals around four sides of the tower! Today we still know the central and most visible part of the property as"Holtermann's Tower" but it is architecturally incorporated in School House. Having done all this, he turned,as mentioned above, to photography and was largely concerned with pictures of gold-mining and panoramas taken on wetplate negatives. He teamed up with two first-rate professional photographers - Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss in making a photo-record of the principal Victorian and N.S.W. goldfields. Holtermann and Bayliss then made a superb set of pictures from what is now School House tower, cover -ing views of the Harbour, the surrounding parts of North Sydney, the City (including the Rocks area

SHORE REPORTS

and westward to the Parramatta River. Bayliss made several of these towards the city by removing one of the circular windows in the tower and fitting a lens in its place, then blacking over the windows and exposing a glass wet-plate 152 cm. long within the 3 metre walls of the tower - the largest wetplate negatives ever made anywhere. Bernhard Holtermann took his photographic collection on tour not long after he completed his house and showed it in many of the larger cities of Europe and the United States. His intention was to use the exhibition to attract immigrants to his adopted country. At Philadelphia in 1876 and at Paris in 1878 he won awards. On his return to Australia he brought with him a number of agencies for German products, including the first German lager beer sold in this country. At this time, too, he moved house to "St. Leonards Lodge in the area west of to-day s St. Leonards Park and near to Crows Nest. The North Sydney property was rented to a Mr. R. Saddington and, later, to Mr. Edward Chisholm. Restless as ever, Holtermanns life took a new turn in December 1882 when he stood for Parliament and was elected as the Member for St. Leonards (as North Sydney was then known) holding the seat until his death in 1885 - by extraordinary coincidence, on April 29th, his 47th birthday and, also, the anniversary of the day on which he had first stepped ashore in Sydney! He is buried in St. Thomas burial ground, West Street. His executors sold The Towers to the next-door neighbour, Mr.T. A. (later Sir Thomas) Dibbs, owner of 'Graythwaite", but Edward Chisholm remained as tenant until 1888 He when he left and Dibbs subdivided the estate. sold 3 acres, 3 roods, 291 2 perches on March 26th 1888, including Holtermanns Tower, to the Church of England Property Trust for the establishment of a Church School - ' Shore". The present area is, of course, much larger - more than 6 times the original. The house was adapted to its new role by internal alterations and new building but few major alterations were made until 1920/21 when the McCaughey Bequest enabled the two lower dormitories to be built. By the end of the twenties it was evident, from the number of ad hoc additions made, that the building was in need of complete reconstruction, so that, as soon as the worst ofThe Great Depression' Not was over, in 1934, the work was carried out. only was the building remodelled and enlarged, but it was also encased in brick, including the Tower which was stripped of its ornamentation. The architect was Rupert Villiers Minnett, an Old Boy (1897-1904). In 1952 a remarkable event renewed our connection with Holtermann - the glass negatives of his pictures together with prints and other material were located in a locked shed in Willoughby where they had been stored for 40 years or so, until their "exhumation' by a team of researchers from the Australasian Photographic Review working under the direction of the Review's editor, Mr. Keast Burke, B.[c., A.R.P.S., A.P.S.A., an Old Boy of the School (1910-1914). Several large prints of the Tower pictures are held by the School - a gift from the grandson of the original Bernhard Holtermann through

Mr. Burke. Memory of both Holtermann and of Beyers has been maintained in various ways. As it is the former's house which we have occupied for nearly 100 years, it is only natural that Holtermann is the better known to us of the two. Furthermore, later generations and connections of the Holtermann family have attended Shore. Beyers part in finding the gold was revived in a very happy way about 10 years ago when a grand-daughter commenced a substantial series of donations to The Shore Foundation. Sadly, she died a little while ago but her surviving sister has continued to support the School in this generous way as evidence of the family's belief in the principle of independent schooling and also as a reminder of their grandfather's part in the gold strike which was the genesis of our first building. The work of Holtermann and Beyers on Hawkins' Hill 116 years ago has remained connected with the School by these historic threads and will be furacknowledged in the Centenary Year by an exquisite golden rose to be known as 'Holtermanns Gold'.

B.O. Holtermann phatogrphed at Hiul [nd in 1872.

L. H. L. Beyers

SHORE REPORTS

SURF LIFE SAVING OPEN DAY

The second of two Open Days conducted by The Shore S.L.S.C. was held at Long Reef on Saturday February 20th. The demonstration was to show the activities our Surf Life Savers are involved with on a day-to-day basis when patrolling the beach at Long Reef throughout the S.L.S. season. Competitive exercises included a series of events which The Shore Club uses on a regular basis to enThese sure the on-going fitness of our Members. events included the Run-Swin-Run, a 200m run The followed by 200m swin and further 200m run; Marathon Relay, a 000m swim leg followed by a one kilometre run and an BOOm Board Paddle; the Beach Sprint and Beach and Water Flags. The inflatable rescue boat was used in several exercises particuarly to demonstrate its speed and efficiency in a 'mass rescue' in contrast with the traditional reel line and belt. The Shore S.L.S.C. involves one five boys throughout the summer is pleasing to have an emerging Saving Competition. The first place between Shore, Scots and Reef during March.

'S.

liii Woodman, Lachlan The Reel Line & Belt Team: Menzies, Peter Kennedy, Ion Palmer, Andrea Mcfwen,

Justin Bracey.

hundred and twenty It sport season. G.P.S. Surf Life competition takes Riverview at Long

A three man pick-up-and-carry.

The

I.R.B. returns a

patient to shore

during

the

Mass Rescue.

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im

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-.......

James Grace returning to shore after the Board Paddle Leg of the Marathon Relay.

The Senior Beach Sprint.

A

CELEBRATION

OF

ShORE

- By Peter laylor -

Hain you ordered your copy of this new and exciting honk on Shore to mark the Schools One Hundredth Year iii It is a very readable account of chat School was like dUring previous decades and drama on recollections of those who were there at different times. Starting with the 1920s, the book folloms the life of the School throughout the intervening yeors and finishes with comments of those who left in 1986. A Celebration of Shore is a handsome book of 256 pages, case bound mith gold blocking on the spine. It contains about a hundred black and mhite photographs most of chich have not been published before, and 16 pages of colour photographs taken especially for this book. CONTENTS

C

A

e Sport

The Teenties

The First Hundred Years *The Thirties

Variety

of Activity

F

Music,

Drama, Scouts, Ajc, C a d e t s )CTh e Fortiesa Women and

Shore)The Shore Assoc iation, matronm,wives

of headmasters and housemasters) Portrait of a

5 The fifties

Master (Pat Lidershaw) The

Sixties

Orgnisations and Bene "of ors

rait of

a

tightees

Headmaster ( B. H. Tracers)

PortC

The

C Shore Today.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cut out and send -

ORDER

To: The Development Officer Sydney Church of England Crammer School, P.O. Box 1221, North Sydney. 2059.

No. of copies required .........

FORM

Please fornard me a copy/copieo of: A Celebration of Chore by Peter Tay]or.

NAME............................................

at $39.00 each $......... ADDI(FSS ......................................... Postage etc., at $0.00 each $.........

I enclose cheque/money order for

$.........

Post Code .........

Phone No. : (Bus. ..............Home

If you intend collecting your order frnnri thp Development Office of the Schul pWwr thorn hoc) ng if posted. please mrite 'Collect' in the postage space and we shall reserve your book and notify on alien it is ready. upplemcnt to 'Shore Reports" - March. 1988.

SHORE REPORTS

7

SHORE WALTER REGINALD LOCKE Old Boys, especially those of 1916 will learn with regret the death of Reg Locke an February 21st, his 87th birthday. At the 1987 O.Bs. Tea, he was the oldest Old Boy in attendance. Reg joined Larke Neave and Carter later (LNC Industries) in 1925, serving as Managing Director from 1946-1968 at which time he became Chairman until 1977. He was the longest serving employee of the company. He was a leader in the Motor Industry and will be remembered as the person who was instrumental in bringing the Volkswagen to Australia through his acquisition of the Franchise for N.S.W. in 1954.

ASSOCIATION

99th bT6athdap Paiotij wtCL be heLd vo The (Las Memc'caia.L Hatt, Nednecdap 4th May, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This will be an coenLeq to semcmhcw, and t'LL'L gae'e .thoe attendinq the oppaa tooL tp to ohd cLcqaa.Lntancec and meet rnembeao o6 the 56 Pam-aLp. 4

You will be abLe to pnachace a copp o "A Ceiiehsat-Len ol Shone" and meet the Autho. At 6.30 p.m. The ChaJeman ol Counc.LL, PnoQ66on L. N. Vao-Le-s will ma-sb the commencement ol the SchooI'c One Hundaed-th Vea- by tanech-'ing CoeencaL'o Centenaap Pnbtica-t-Lon, "A CeEebcat-Lovi ol Shoac" by ConocL17 has iinaLted teodng Old Pete-s Tapton. Bopc and othve Lleadceno o6 the Schoot Commun6tej to at-tend this Junction and to kema.n a6tvaoaed-c as CouncLt guect.s at thn 8.Lcthdap Pa-'ottj. Tiche-tc ace taLmLted so acquhce pows-s eaa2fj and ('ncon-sage othe-oo to do £ifzew-Lce. T.Lchetc - $15 pen peloson

HEAVMASTER'S 1987 REPORT Poe to ma-iJ.Lng p-sobtenso, the Headmas-ten's 1987 Repost wets not 6otwanded with the Vecembeiy issue o "Toizch Bea'te-s".

PLease send cheque with SELF AVVRESSEV STAMPED ENVELOPE To: Mac. V. M. Sea-s-Let-f 16 NonaLhcote Aoenue, KILLARA. 2071 .STAMPEV, SELF AVVRESSEV ENVELOPE IS ESSENTIAL

N.B.

NOTE CHANGE OF VATE FROM FIXTURE CARV

Showtd any O.B.U. Membea kequeke a copp p-tease ado-aLe the Veoe-topmen-t O{ij-Lce and a copp eeL-EL be Jonwanded.

BOATSHED DINNER DANCE

SHORE

ASSOCIATION

GOLF

VAY

To be heLd at Oa-ttand.c GoLd CLub, Bett-Lngton Road, Vundao - Tuesdag 18th Octobes, 1988 at 9.30 am. COST $25

The Boatshed Dinner Dance held during December 1987 in a huge blue and white striped marquee covering the entire waterfront of the Gladesville property was indeed a night to remember. Of the 380 members of The Shore Community who attended many were members of Shore Crews from 1940-84, former Olympic Oarsmen, 11 Captains of Boats, past and present coaches. Guests arrived in special buses, water taxis and even a dinghy. During the evening an auction of Rowing Memorabilia raised $26,000 for The Centenary Building Appeal.

CARP PLAYERS (VELCOME - $15 Pact and peasant mornbeec ol The AsooaLat-Lon a-se moot weLcome. &-obeiugs: Ms-s. 8senda ChaLme-es 21 Chevech St-seat CASTLE HILL. 2154. Phone: 680.1418

Thanks go to John Atkinson who arranged through his employer QANTAS, for two tickets to London which were donated for a lucky Centenary Appeal Volunteer. Special thanks to Diane Cadwallader and her team of Shore Mums" - Lyn Douglas, Yvonne Scott and Diana Griffin for the superb decoration of the marquee and helpful assistance in making the evening a great success.

Published by Sydney Church of England Crammer School, Blue St., North Sydney. 2060. Editor: M. C. Farmer

SHORE REPORTS TUE BOATSHED D A N C E

, JI ,400r,

- -

-

,--

.

r Interior shot of marquee. Above: Below: Angus Playfair, David Playfair

style oar for auction ($400 was bid)

and Alex Ferguson disembarking from

Below: Scene at Auction - Bruce Connors

water taxi at pontoon.

displaying an od oar during bidding.

CREW

L to P

MEMBERS

OF

Above:

THE

1956

VIII

Headmaster presenting new

ENJOYING

A

REUNION

Andrew Warden, Merri Lane, Adrian Lane, 3osephine Carr, Rob Carr, Shirley Warden, Michael Shirley, Bronwyn Shirley.