• the politics, people and community processes involved in preserving local heritage
• historical information about significant residents, places and buildings
• reference material about building restoration, stone walls, landscapes, streetscapes and trees.

The journal is a testimony to the energy and commitment of Trust members over a 40 year period, demonstrating the benefits of our ongoing work to preserve the natural, built and social heritage of our community.  Go to Publications to find the archive that is being assembled.

Left to Right: Captain John Hunter, second governor of NSW. Thomas Muir, Scottish activist and convict.

by Beverley Sherry

Recently the notion that the Municipality of Hunter’s Hill derived its name from Thomas Muir’s Huntershill has been resurrected, suggested by Don Beresford in an address to the Hunter’s Hill Historical Society.¹ Thomas Muir (1765-1799) was one of the five so-called “Scottish Martyrs” transported to New South Wales in 1794 for sedition.² He and his fellow prisoners brought money with them and were not treated as felons.  Two convict servants were assigned to Muir and he was able to purchase land. In a letter to a friend in London of 13 December 1794, he describes his situation in Sydney, and this description, followed by the complete concluding text of the letter, was published in the London Morning Chronicle of 29 July 1795.³ Muir writes: “I have a neat little house here [in Sydney town], and another two miles distant, at a farm across the water, which I purchased.” He does not name the farm, but Peter Mackenzie, in his 1831 biography of Muir states, without documentary support, that he called it Huntershill after his home in Scotland. ⁴ This has been repeated. In a 1926 essay, Maybanke Anderson quotes Muir’s letter (inaccurately); a fact not noted before is that she adds a sentence of her own: “This house I have called after my father’s house in Glasgow, ‘Huntershill’.”⁵ This too has been repeated.

The precise location of “two miles distant,… across the water” has been disputed. An early researcher suggested Milsons Point, but no records exist for the purchase of a farm there by Thomas Muir. ⁶ The individual researches of James Jervis and James Scott, both in 1960, cast doubt on this location. Scott quotes a letter from one of the other Scottish Martyrs, the Rev. Thomas Fysshe Palmer, of 15 September 1795, which refers to the dwellings of Muir, William Skirving (another Martyr), and himself: “our houses at Sydney are contiguous, as also our farms in the country”, and Palmer’s farm was accessed via Rozelle Bay.⁷

There is some doubt, then, over the location of Muir’s farm house. More importantly for the present enquiry, and whether Muir called his farm Huntershill or not, the name Hunter’s Hill (as two words) was used in government documents before Muir arrived in Sydney. As early as 3 October 1794, three government grants were issued in “the district of Hunter’s Hill”, whereas Muir arrived on the transport Surprize on 25 October 1794, coming ashore with the other Scottish Martyrs in November.⁸ So, when Muir arrived, the name Hunter’s Hill was already in use, and designated the high ground on the north shore, around Gore Hill.

These historical facts were pointed out by James Jervis in 1945 and again in 1960.⁹ Don Beresford takes no account of them, or of the most recent histories of Hunter’s Hill. The claim for Muir’s Huntershill has been repeatedly rejected: by Isadore Brodsky, in Hunter’s Hill, New South Wales 1861-1961(1961); by R. Hamilton in Hunter’s Hill Pre- 1835 (1970); by the Hunter’s Hill Trust in all four editions of their Heritage of Hunter’s Hill (1969,1977, 1982, 2002); by P.R. Stephenson and Brian Kennedy in The History and Description of Sydney Harbour (1978); by Meredith Walker & Associates in the Hunter’s Hill Heritage Study (1984); and by myself in Hunter’s Hill: Australia’s Oldest Garden Suburb (1989).

Brodsky devotes a subsection of his book to “The Myth of Thomas Muir.” ¹⁰ Stephensen deals with the question at greater length, and concludes: “There has been no need to seek such an odd and unconvincing explanation of the name Hunter’s Hill, which was in official and popular use, as a well-deserved compliment to Captain John Hunter, of H.M.S. Sirius, before Thomas Muir was ever heard of at Sydney.”¹¹ I will consider the case for Hunter shortly, but the faulty history about Muir was given impetus by Maybanke Anderson’s essay of 1926. She was evidently ignorant of the land grants in “the district of Hunter’s Hill” of 3 October 1794, before Muir’s arrival. Lacking this knowledge and calculating that Muir had a farm at Milsons Point called Huntershill, she deduced that the suburb of Hunter’s Hill derived its name from Muir.

Dates alone preclude this derivation. Moreover, any name for Muir’s farm was hardly public knowledge. No mention of it appears in the lengthy collection of contemporary documents on “The Scotch Martyrs” preserved in the Historical Records of New South Wales. ¹² Nor do Lieutenant- Governor Grose, Governor Hunter, or Judge-Advocate David Collins, in their reports on Muir, refer to a Huntershill. In his Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (1798), Collins records that Muir “chiefly passed his time in literary ease and retirement, living out of the town at a little spot of ground which he had purchased for the purpose of seclusion.” ¹³

Prompted by Don Beresford’s address to the Hunter’s Hill Historical Society, a suggestion has been made to erect a commemorative plaque to Thomas Muir in Hunter’s Hill; readers in Scotland who have accessed Beresford’s paper on the internet have also expressed enthusiasm. ¹⁴ Does Muir deserve this? First, historical facts prove that the name Hunter’s Hill predates his arrival. Second, there are no moral or civic grounds to warrant a memorial for him. What did Muir do for Australia? Despite his privileged life style, he absconded as soon as an opportunity arose. Sixteen months after his arrival, he escaped on 18 February 1796 by the American ship, The Otter, as recorded by Collins and the shipping records. ¹⁵

This is not to deny Muir’s eminence as a champion of human rights in the era of the French revolution. He was a radical ahead of his time, and is deservedly commemorated at the village of Huntershill near Glasgow and in the imposing monuments to the Scottish Martyrs in Edinburgh and London.  As the Scottish historian Michael Donnelly shows in his biography of Muir, he was “a man of principle” in his practice as a lawyer, “prepared to take on the most unrewarding and difficult cases and even occasionally foregoing a fee when petitioned by a destitute client”; and his trial in Glasgow in 1793 was “a classic example of the political abuse of the judicial process.” ¹⁶ Donnelly records Muir’s transportation and his “uneventful” term of confinement in Sydney:

Unlike his companions, or indeed his father, Muir had little or no taste for farming and with an eye to ultimate escape from the settlement, he purchased a small hut and several acres of land on the opposite side of the bay. by this means he was able to remove himself from the direct observation of the Governor and his soldiers and at the same time was provided with a legitimate excuse for keeping a small boat. (Donnelly, pp. 17-18).

It was by means of this boat that he and his two convict servants managed to row out through Sydney Heads on the night of 17 February 1796 and were picked up the next day, at a predetermined site offshore, by The Otter. After tremendous hardship, Muir reached France, where he died in 1799, far too young at the age of thirty-three.

In his work in Scotland, Ireland, and France, Muir was a hero of the dispossessed and the downtrodden, but there is no evidence that he identified with or provided inspiration for the shackled convicts of Port Jackson or that he aired his ideas on liberty. In fact, upon their arrival, Lieutenant- Governor Grose ordered the Scottish Martyrs “to avoid on all occasions a recital of those politicks” which had reduced them to their present “unfortunate situation.” ¹⁷ So Muir lived, as Collins notes, away from the public eye. He and his fellow Martyrs were “gentlemen of leisure”, “pampered prisoners” (Stephensen, p. 258); as the historian Christina Bewley writes, they “were separated by education and background from almost the entire community.” ¹⁸

The question remains, where did the name Hunter’s Hill come from? It is unlikely that it was named for hunting in “the district of Hunter’s Hill”, where farming was carried on. The most likely origin is another Scot, Captain John Hunter, later Governor Hunter. This is now the general consensus, and what follows is based on my history of Hunter’s Hill. ¹⁹

In contrast to Muir, Hunter did a great deal for Australia. As Beresford acknowledges, one of his enduring legacies is as an artist and naturalist, a shining example of his work being The Hunter Sketchbook. From the first days of the settlement, Hunter contributed to the making of the colony. On 28 January 1788, two days after the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, he set off in a six-oared boat to survey the harbour, an undertaking which took several months, was meticulously done, and involved not only continual depth soundings but careful observation of the Aborigines; the latter is invaluable information recorded in Hunter’s Journal (1793). Parts of the harbour were named after Hunter’s officers and are so indicated on his chart – Bradley’s Head for Lieutenant Bradley, Ball’s Head for Lieutenant Ball; Hunter Bay is also marked, although this later became known as Balmoral Beach.

[Detail, Deputy Surveyor General’s Plan of the Settlements in New South Wales (1796). “Hunters Hill” then designated land north-east of Lane Cove. Thirty-three farms are marked, numbered 14 to 46. In the complete plan, their acreage (25 to 30 acres) and owners’ names are listed. Thomas Muir is not named anywhere on the plan nor does his supposed farm at Milsons Point, Huntershill, appear. Reproduced from Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 3, fold-out following title page.]

The name Hunter’s Hill, however, went into permanent usage. The high ground which was known as “the district of Hunter’s Hill” before Thomas Muir arrived in Australia is clearly marked on Hunter’s map of the New South Wales settlements preserved in the Mitchell Library. ²⁰ “Hunters Hill” is written in Hunter’s small, neat handwriting on the area of today’s Gore Hill, “Mount Hunter” in the area of Camden. When the County of Cumberland was divided into parishes in the 1830s, the name Hunter’s Hill shifted to designate the land between the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers and as far west as Ryde. When the Municipality of Hunter’s Hill was formed in 1861, the name moved eastwards, to define the municipality.

Hunter was less than successful in the difficult job of Governor of the colony (1795-1800), but he achieved much as a navigator, cartographer, and explorer, whether sounding the depths of the harbour, recording his observations about the Aborigines, tramping through bush and wading through swamps from Pittwater to Middle Harbour, or bringing back provisions from the Cape of Good Hope in 1789 to the starving colony. In 1788, he and his assistants, in that six-oared boat, were the first Europeans to lay eyes on the area now known as Hunter’s Hill, and his chart shows thirty depth soundings around the peninsula. ²¹

The Municipality of Hunter’s Hill did not derive its name from Thomas Muir; of that there is strong historical evidence. While there is no absolute evidence that it was named for Captain Hunter, the name did not come out of thin air, and Hunter is manifestly the most likely origin.

Dr Beverley Sherry is an Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney and author of Hunter’s Hill: Australia’s Oldest Garden Suburb, a history commissioned by the Hunter’s Hill Council for Australia’s bicentenary.

Notes

JRAHS: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society

HRNSW: Historical Records of New South Wales

1.  Don Beresford, “Was it Thomas Muir or John Hunter?” Bunk (Journal of the Hunter’s Hill Historical Society), vol.8, Issue 1 (February, 2008), pp. 2-5; this paper is a transcript of Beresford’s address to the Society on 3 December 2007.

2.  On Muir’s life, see John Earnshaw, Thomas Muir Scottish Martyr. Studies in Australian and Pacific History No. 1 (Cremorne, NSW, 1959) and Earnshaw’s entry on Muir in the Australian Dictionary of Biography online; H.T. Dickinson’s entry on Thomas Muir in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online; Michael Donnelly, Thomas Muir of Huntershill (Bishopbriggs, Scotland, 1975) and Donnelly’s entry on Thomas Muir in Biographical Dictionary of Modern British Radicals, ed. Joseph A. Bayllen and Norbert A. Gossman (Hassocks, Sussex, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 330-34; Christina Bewley, Muir of Huntershill (Oxford, 1981); and Jonathan Wantrup, The transportation, exile and escape of Thomas Muir (Melbourne, 1990), a translation, with Notes and Introduction, of Histoire de la Tyrannie du Gouvernement Anglais, exercee envers le celebre Thomas Muir, Ecossais (Paris, 1798).

3.  Extracts of the letter were reprinted in HRNSW, vol. 2, p. 870. I am indebted to the University of Sydney Library for obtaining a copy of the Morning Chronicle letter of 29 July 1795.

4.  Peter Mackenzie, The Life of Thomas Muir (Glasgow, 1831), p.33. Mackenzie’s biography has numerous mistakes and is generally regarded now as unreliable.

5.  Maybanke Anderson, “The Story of Hunter’s Hill”, JRAHS 12 (1926): 142. This essay totally lacks references.

6.  J.H. Watson, “Notes on Some Suburbs of Sydney”, JRAHS 13, Part 1 (1927): 25-27.

7.  James Scott, “The Scottish Martyrs’ Farms,” JRAHS 46, Part 3 (1960): 166.

8.  J.S.Cumpton, Shipping Arrivals and Departures Sydney 1788-1825 Parts I, II and II (Canberra, ACT, 1964), p. 29, where Muir is listed among the passengers; David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (London, 1798; repr. Adelaide, 1971), pp. 395, 399.

9.  James Jervis, “The Origin of the Names in Port Jackson”, JRAHS 31 (1945), 397 and “Settlement in the Parish of Hunter’s Hill”, JRAHS 46, Part 4 (1960), 187-88.

10.  Isadore Brodsky, Hunter’s Hill 1861-1961 (Sydney, 1961), pp. 9-11.

11.  P.R. Stephensen and Brian Kennedy, The History and Description of Sydney Harbour (2nd ed., Sydney, 1980), p. 258; for the full account of the question, see pp. 255-59.

12.  HRNSW, vol. 2, Appendix F pp. 821-86.

13.  Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, p. 457.

14.  Bunk, vol. 9, Issue 2 (April 2009), p. 1 and vol. 9, Issue 3 (June 2009), pp. 1, 3.

15.  Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, p. 457; Cumpton, Shipping Arrivals and Departures, p. 31.

16.  Donnelly, Thomas Muir, pp. 7, 13.

17.  Letter from Grose to the Rev. T.F. Palmer, 26 October 1794, HRNSW, vol. 2, p. 868.

18.  Bewley, Muir of Huntershill, p. 122.

19.  Beverley Sherry, Hunter’s Hill: Australia’s Oldest Garden Suburb (Balmain, NSW, 1989), pp. 18-25.

20. [New South Wales sketch of the settlements 20th August 1796] [cartographic material] / [by Governor Hunter].

21.  George Raper, Chart of Port Jackson . . . Survey’d by Capt.n Iohn Hunter. . . 1788 [Mitchell Library]

Before the Sydney Harbour bridge was opened in 1932, the Sydney Ferries limited was the biggest ferry company in the world. According to bill Allen, ferry researcher, the company provided 47 million passenger trips every year. The steamers of the early 1900s were ‘small single-ended craft, quite open on the top deck, with curtains of canvas which were lowered in wet weather; and were illuminated at night with a few kerosene lamps’ Captain Albert Heesh of longueville. They took about an hour to run from erskine Street in the city to get to Fig Tree.

Today the only active ferry wharves are at valentia Street, Alexandra Street and Huntley’s Point, but old maps show more than 20 public wharves in Hunters Hill. These include Ady Street, Alexandra Street, Crescent Street (Garrick’s wharf), De Milhau road (villa Maria wharf), Ferry Street, Fig Tree, Fern bay, Gale Street, Dick Street, Herberton Avenue, Margaret Street, Mornington, Mount Street north (long Wharf) and Mount street South, Park road north (Mary Street north), Princes Street east, Pulpit Point, Punt road (bedlam Point), Serpentine road, valentia Street (onion’s wharf) and William Street.

Ferry Street terminal

The Hunters Hill wharf was built at the end of Ferry Street in 1855. only a parapet, stone steps and waiting shed remain today. up until 1927 the Sydney Ferries limited provided a free service between villa Maria and Ferry Street where passengers could join other ferries to Parramatta or the city. The una, pictured, used to collect passengers from wharves at villa Maria, Herberton Street, Huntley’s Point, Mount Street and Cambridge Street.

Una at the Ferry Street Terminal, 1915

Pig escort to Fig tree ferry

eugenie McNeil tells the story of how in the 1890s her father Hippolyte Delarue and one of the young Jouberts used to walk to Fig Tree wharf every morning. They wore frock coats and carried sticks with elaborate silver tops which they used to salute other gentlemen. Apparently they doffed their toppers and bowed deeply when they encountered ladies. ‘their self esteem was in no way pricked by the fact that Monsieur Joubert’s pet pig used to follow at a respectful distance and after seeing them safely onto the ferry, would run squealing all the way home’. (eugenie McNeil A Bunyip close behind me: recollections of the nineties retold by her daughter Eugenie Crawford, 1972).

Ferries to remote region of Killara

The recreational potential of the lane Cove river opened up when the Joubert family started the Hunter’s Hill and lane Cove river Steam Ferry Company in 1871.The Sydney Morning Herald extolled the virtues of the river’s ‘calm, secluded bays and cool retreats for picnic parties and pleasure seekers’. The service operated from Figtree House where people could make use of the Avenue Picnic Grounds or hire boats and fishing tackle ‘so that a cheap and novel excursion could be had’. The 1888 Illustrated Sydney News described how ‘a romantic looking stone bathing house projects into the tide, and one of the most magnificent fig trees in the colony overhangs the bank.’

Thomas Ashcroft of Joubert Street sought permission to build wharves and landing stages along the lane Cove river above Fig Tree bridge. ‘I am asking you to grant me permission to erect these wharves charging only a very nominal rental say one shilling per wharf per year and reserve to me the right to run a launch plying for hire for otherwise, chartered to these wharves’. Sydney Harbour Trust records, 1908.

Una at Villa Maria Wharf, 1915

Two launches Native rose and Killara ran a feeder service to Killara from the Figtree steam ferry terminus. ‘On week days, they provided the only regular link with Sydney for residents of the remote regions of the headwaters; at holiday times they carried pleasure seekers to popular excursion grounds like ‘Fairyland’. The launches carried groups of 60 to 70 people up to the Fairyland Pleasure Grounds. When silting became a problem in the river, the upper lane Cove Ferry Company’s launches were replaced by Fairyland’s own single deck, shallow boats, the escort and Twilight.

Fairyland was an enormously popular picnic ground where hundreds of people gathered for fun. There were organised activities such as cricket, dancing, tug-o-war, sack races and egg-and-spoon races. The play equipment included boat swings, a flying fox and razzle-dazzle. The Swan family created picnic areas by planting exotic plants, including pines, phoenix palms and soft ferns. eventually, in 1978 Fairyland became part of the lane Cove river State recreation Area.

Lady Denman at the Figtree Ferry Depot, 1925

Avenue Picnic Grounds adjacent to Figtree House, circa 1920

Remains of the Park Road wharf

Park road wharf today (previously known as mary Street north)

People who use the Great North Walk in boronia Park will know a tiny sandy beach where the crabs scuttle in the mangroves and wading birds poke about the mud. but they may not know the story behind the regular pieces of sandstone that are lined up at the edge of the lane Cove river. These stones are all that is left of the old Mary Street wharf. At one time, what is now known as Park road was called Mary Street. between 1908 and 1920, passengers could take a ferry from here to travel up the lane Cove river to Fairylands, or go east to another lost wharf at the end of Princes Street and then to Figtree wharf. A large wedge of public land links barons Crescent, to the Great North Walk and the lane Cove river. Council, with the help of a State government grant, has recently organised for weeds to be cleared from this land. What is needed next is for funds to be found to repair the eroded track and clearly signpost it so that people can access this public space and get down to the river.

The Mary Street wharf was in operation for just a few years, but the nearby midden heaps remind walkers of the Walumeda and Camaraigal people who lived by the river for millennia, with plentiful supplies of oysters, fish, crabs and waterfowl.

Hunters Hill Trust is always interested in building the local archives. Please contact us if you have any old photos of Hunters Hill ferries, wharves and harbour activities that we can borrow to scan and include them in the collection.

In it we point out that the big picture planning issues of global warming, an unsustainable “continuous growth” economy, peak oil and population growth have not even been acknowledged let alone planned for. We also point out that the plans are out of step with the NSW Department of Planning’s latest advice regarding the health impacts from living near major roads.

As well, the Plans do not contain any details as to how an objective such as “provide an elevated connection across Victoria Rd to Council and RTA satisfaction” is to be achieved. Effectively all the Plans’ objectives rely entirely on private developers being prepared to accept a couple of carrots to leaven their proposals with a teaspoon of public benefit. This is much more like wishful thinking than planning.

Our submission did not address the fact that the Plans make no allowance for a possible railway station at Gladesville, which may or may not be part of a State Government “Metro” scheme. But this may be a unique example of the Plans’ foresight, particularly when you read yet another example of Metro madness like the one that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of March 24, 2009:

MORE than 20,000 people an hour could be stranded at Rozelle in the afternoon peak when they get off the proposed $4.8 billion CBD Metro.

The state’s top transport agency has revealed no examination has been undertaken on how the metro will integrate with a separate $162 million upgrade of Victoria Road,

potentially creating bedlam at the end of the metro line at Darling Street at Victoria Road, one of the busiest intersections in the country.

The metro will be able to carry up to 30,000 people an hour to Rozelle. But when they get off the metro, the Government only has room for about 3100 people an hour on buses to take them home.

In a letter to the Department of Planning, the Ministry of Transport has raised concerns about “potentially competing objectives” between the hurried metro proposal and the plan to duplicate Iron Cove Bridge.

Planning documents used to justify the road upgrade were prepared while a different metro proposal – for one along Victoria Road to Denistone – was policy.

Putting all this together, it is clear that the planning process in NSW is in a state of disarray and Barry O’Farrell is right when he says that Premier is: “making it up as he goes along, scribbling notes on the back of lemon- squash coasters and presenting that as some hope for the public of NSW.” This is not to say that Mr. O’ Farrell has any plans of merit himself, which only further adds to the sense of gloom.

On top of all this comes the Downturn. But there may be a silver lining in these dark economic clouds. After all, much of Sydney’s existing heritage, including the 19th century houses of Paddington, Woollahra, Balmain and Hunters Hill have survived because of neglect during periods of economic downturn when scarce development money was spent elsewhere. This of course is the do- nothing option, an option that was not canvassed in any of the planning proposals above, but one that is often the best and the cheapest.

We continued upriver past Homebush Bay as far as the sadly polluted Duck Creek, calling in at interesting bays and byways. It’s fascinating what a different perspective you get from the water. If any members haven’t been on one of our Reliance trips, we recommend you look out for the next one which will be in November

The patterns relate to towns, buildings and construction. For example, pattern number 125 “Stair Seats” states: “wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting are those high enough to give people a vantage point and low enough to put them in the action”. Other patterns out of a total of 252 include “Shopping Street”, “Old People Everywhere”, “Windows on Two Sides” etc and each pattern gives an argument as to why it is important to include these considerations in planning either a town or a house.

Pattern No 21 is “Four Storey Limit”. In this pattern it is argued that there is “abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy”. Studies are cited to support this assertion, including a Danish study comparing children from high and low residential blocks, which showed that kids from the high blocks started playing out of doors on their own at a later age than the low block kids and that the percentage of kids playing out of doors on their own decreased with the height of their homes.

The pattern concludes that a four storey limit is “an appropriate way to express the proper connection between building height and the health of people” and quotes a Glasgow children’s verse that relates to flinging a “piece”, a slice of bread and jam, from a window to a child in the street. This has been a recognised custom in Glasgow tenement housing.

The Jelly Piece Song By Adam McNaughton

I’m a skyscraper wean, live on the nineteenth floor, On’ I’m no’ gaun oot tae play ony mair, For since we moved tae oor new house I’m wastin’ away, ‘Cos I’m gettin’ wan less meal ev’ry day,

Oh, ye canny fling pieces oot a twenty-storey flat, Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that, If it’s butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan, The odds against it reaching us is ninety-nine tae wan

We’ve wrote away tae Oxfam tae try an’ get some aid, We’ve a’ joined thegither and formed a “piece” brigade, We’re gonny march tae London tae demand oor Civil Rights, Like “Nae mair hooses ower piece flingin’ heights”.

Sheila Swain was widely known and respected having lived in Hunter’s Hill with husband Geoff since 1954 and always active and interested in her local community. Elected to Council in 1971, Sheila served for 20 years including two terms as Mayor – the first woman to do so. A lifelong member and great supporter of the Trust and its activities, Sheila was also involved with the preservation and management of the National Trust’s Vienna Cottage.

Ewan Cheyne-Macpherson was elected to Council with Sheila Swain, the only two of the nine Trust-endorsed candidates to be successful in 1971 (an election that attracted 30 candidates!). Ewan was also President of the Trust from 1977 to 1979 and a life member. He was Scottish to the last as well as a proud local resident, very much at home in the Batemans Road house which was built in the early 1880’s and owned by the family for many decades.

Charles Martin resided in Hunter’s Hill for only 5 years but his influence in the early days of the battle to save our local heritage and in the formation of the Trust was immense. Born in the USA in 1924 he became a highly respected academic and philosopher. He came to Adelaide University – via positions at both Cambridge and Oxford – in 1954 and to Sydney University in 1966, later becoming an activist within campus with Professor Charles Birch opposing the Vietnam War. During this time he was also a forceful founding member of the Trust, urging Council to plan for prevention of further destruction of historic buildings and to protect Clarke’s Point as public open space.

David Abotomey was at the inaugural meeting to form the Trust on 4.1.1968 and on the First Permanent Committee elected in July that year. He was also successfully elected to Council’s East ward in December 1968 – the year the nine Trust-sponsored candidates swept the poll with 55% of all primary votes cast (there was a very high turn-out – and no compulsory voting then). David was a young conservation- minded builder and restorer who, so incensed by the destruction of old houses in Church Street, bought one before it was demolished and re-erected it stone by stone on land at 6 Lot Lane where it stands today.

For more detail on the history of the Trust’s early days, “The Vision & The Struggle”, an account of the Trust’s first 20 years, is recommended reading – available from HHT at a discount to members.

Brigid Dowsett