Prior to the construction of the railway from Mullet Creek to Gosford, the Woy Woy area was largely undeveloped. Land was first granted to James Webb in 1823, however the land was mainly sand, making it undesirable to agriculturalists. Aborigines, occupied the area for thousands of years with evidence of shell middens on the shores of Woy Woy Creek and various places throughout the Gosford area as described by a visitor to the area in 1887.
‘We first pass round some large heaps of shells, and if the tide is low we will see several men up to their thighs in the water digging away and putting things into a basket, and washing it in the water, and then emptying the contents into flat-bottomed punts. Strangers will wonder what they are at, so I must explain – they are shell digging at the bottom of this part of the water. There are layers of dead shells some places only a few inches thick, at others a foot and more. These shells are required to burn for lime-making, and the men who are accustomed to the work earn a fair living, but the work is hard and not very agreeable…..This is called “Wet Shell Getting”. Deposits of shells are also found, as I have stated above, upon the land, supposed to have been carried there by the Aborigines. There is a very good proof of this found in some of these shell mounds. For instance stone ‘tomahawks’ are often found among the shells, and in one very large deposit near the Catholic Church, at the entrance to Kincumber Broadwater, two or three human skeletons were found embeded (sic) in the shells.'(1)
The first European occupant of the head of Woy Woy Creek was Thomas and Ann Riley, when thirty three acres of land was purchased in 1854. Thomas originally applied to purchase two islands, later known as St Huberts and Rileys Island, but they were later purchased by Father Cornelius Coglan and John Riley in 1855.
Thomas was born in County Kildare in Ireland in 1814. After he was convicted of highway robbery in 1836 he received a sentence of transportation for life in New South Wales. He arrived in Australia on board the Waterloo the same year. Thomas met and married Anne Gannon in 1845 in Wollongong. Anne was born in Liverpool in England in 1810. She came to Australia as a free immigrant on board the Marchioness of Bute in 1842. The couple had two children, Mary Helen and Anne. Thomas was a farmer and we can assume he farmed his land at Woy Woy Creek. Thomas was not a well man and passed away in 1863. He had ‘been ill for years’ according to Ann who claimed he had ‘not been in his senses for four months’ prior to his death. At the time, medical aid was limited, and as Ann stated, she ’wished him to go to the infirmary but he would not go’. Father Henry Woolfrey a Cistercian Monk, based at Kincumber gave him medical supplies to alleviate his symptoms. Father Woolfrey, together with his brother Father William Woolfrey, travelled throughout the Central Coast on horseback attending to the needs of settlers.(2)
Afraid for her safety, Ann informed police that her husband ‘was out of his mind, he had made three fires in the room … I was afraid he would make away with himself with the fires, he took up a bayonet and chased us about’. Constables Dunn and Overall from Gosford visited the household taking Thomas to the police office. Sadly Thomas died the day after(4). We are not sure if Anne and her daughters stayed at Woy Woy Creek, however some time after this event Anne was admitted to Callan Park mental hospital in Sydney and died in 1889. There were difficulties finding any living relatives after her death, therefore Anne’s estate was left to the administrators of Callan Park. Rose and Thomas’ daughter, Mary Helen, who married George Kloppenburg in 1870, died in 1874 and the whereabouts of their other daughter, Anne were unknown.(5)
The Railway Settlement at Woy Woy Creek
Woy Woy ‘…is at present only a “canvas town”, being occupied only by the miners etc who are employed on the works, but I believe some day, not far distant, when the whole of Woy Woy will be built upon, and if for no other reason its delightful scenery and enjoyable climate, also its position, either in relation to Sydney or Newcastle, being about three hours from either place by rail. At least I would sooner live there than any other place I know – boating and fishing at one’s very door, with a delightful climate, and surrounded by nature’s works in such grandeur and profusion that few places can even equal.'(6)
In 1883 George Blunt was appointed as railway engineer in charge of railway works from Mullet Creek to Gosford. During the building of the Woy Woy railway tunnel, workers and their families established a railway settlement at the head of Woy Woy Creek, occupying crown land and the piece of land once owned by Thomas and Ann Riley. The settlement contained most amenities and services you would expect to find in a small country town. Those included numerous stores, boarding houses, hotels, grocers, post office, butcher and a public school.
William Hawkins, a former railway excavator, was the proprietor of the White Horse Hotel at the camp. The hotel was erected on property owned by Rock Davis, a local ship builder. While the hotel was not designed for permanency it was more substantial than a tin shed which was commonly found at railway camps. The building was primarily made of corrugated iron but was quite large containing billiard tables and ‘six rooms, exclusive of those required for the use of the family’. His family consisted of daughter Jane and her husband Isaac Milliner and their three children.(7) William Hawkins died in 1884 leaving the hotel to his daughter Jane. The hotel remained in operation until the completion of the tunnel and associated railway works. Another hotel at the camp, known as the Railway Hotel, was run by Charles Peter Johnson and his wife Charlotte. Agnes Fagan a local settler in the area stopped at a hotel at the camp on the way home from a holiday at Brooklyn and remarked in her diary:
‘We continued our walk, as we neared the town of “Woy Woy” we heard the men busy at the tunnel, from the hill above the town, the view was so pretty, you could see the water and numbers of tents away in the bush, all looked like a town away at some distance, we found as we descended the hill the road very rugged, we met a policeman and asked him the best hotel to go to, he very kindly informed us, so we reached it just at one o’clock. George inquired if we could have some dinner, to which the man said, we were just in time, and in a few minutes the girl brought us a good sized plateful of roast beef, veal cabbage, turnips and potates, bread, suet pudding a teapot of tea, plenty of milk and sugar.’
Navvies were notorious drinkers and hard workers therefore hotels could be lucrative establishments at railway camps. Due to the isolation of the area most navvies lived, worked and were entertained at the camp at Woy Woy Creek. Entertainment in railway camps often involved drinking and gambling in rough temporary hotels. Dance houses or saloons were a popular pastime for young people at the time and were often attached to these hotels. Dance houses were prevalent in mining and railway camps as well as cities throughout Australia and the United Kingdom. Girls and boys as young as eleven were attracted to them, however most attendees were aged from their mid teens to early twenties. Some charged a small fee on entrance where drinking and dancing to all hours of the night would occur. Evidence suggests there was a dance saloon at the Woy Woy camp that was not welcome by all at the camp. A notice appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal in March 1885:
With few women residing in mining and railway camps men often resorted to dancing with other men as witnessed by a visitor to a mining camp in Temora NSW in 1880(8):
‘… we went to a dancing saloon. Of course I didn’t expect the Argyll or Cremorne, but I didn’t expect to find men dancing with one another to the noise (it wasn’t music) of a cracked concertina, and enjoying it. One man had the impudence to ask me to dance, and on my refusal wanted to fight with me.’
Not all miners at Woy Woy Creek, however, were disturbed by the noise, some were contributors of noise and violence. An altercation which ended in violence and injuries occurred on Christmas night in 1885. John Gorman, Robert Ryan and Henry Goddard, who were miners working on the tunnel, became intoxicated and assaulted constables Hepburn and Danks who were stationed at the camp. They were charged with assault, found guilty and received jail sentences.(9)
Woy Woy Creek School
Due to the number of workers and their families that had temporarily moved to the Woy Woy area a school needed to be established to cater for the growing number of children. The closest school was Gosford Public school which was deemed too far for children to travel. George Blunt wrote to the Department of Public Instruction on 17 November 1883 requesting a school be set up at Woy Woy. After numerous delays and correspondence to the department a decision was made in May 1884 that ‘the number of children in the camp renders the establishment of a school very desirable’.(10)
Mr A Von Ziegler from Woy Woy sold a disused building, once used as a dance academy, to the Department for use as a school room. The original spot chosen for the schoolhouse was thought to be too close to the proposed tramway and powder magazine. As such a more suitable site was chosen which is close to what is now the storage facility at Nagiri Road.
George Blunt clearly was concerned for his workers and their families as indicated in numerous letters he sent to the Department of Public Instruction. By August 1884 the tone of his correspondence changed.(10)
Interested, as I am, in getting the school opened at the earliest opportunity. I may perhaps venture to suggest to you that there are several little things to be done which demand your early attention. No closets are constructed nor do I hear that any provision has been made for their erection. There are at the present moment between 60 and 70 children at Woe Woe (sic) and as it is proposed to commence bricking the tunnel almost directly there will in all probability be upward of 100 children to take advantage of the school and it is impossible to do without closets. But this is a matter that has evidently escaped your attention.’
By October 1884 the school building was completed. The first children enrolled in Woy Woy school were:
Mary Ann Dempsey
John Thomas Dempsey
James Patrick Dempsey
Eliza Jane Dempsey
William Hans Dempsey
Elizabeth Duggan
Emily Duggan
Hamilton Edgar
Edmund Edgar
Hans Edgar
Lilian Edgar
Mary Ann Johnson
Ann Julie Johnson
Fenetta Hinds
James Milliner
Jane Milliner
William Milliner
John Smith
Matilda Smith
Richard Stevenson
Janet Stevenson
Alice Wrench
Henry Wrench
Nellie Wrench
George Foote was appointed as teacher on 30 August 1884 and remained at the school until it’s closure. Perhaps due to an increase in student numbers a second teacher was required. As such, nineteen year old Violet Lavinia La Roche was appointed as teacher on 14 January 1887. Violet lived with her family in Gosford. Her father George, a doctor based in Gosford, attended those families and workers in need at the camp. The school remained viable until March 1888 when most of the railway workers and their families left the area.(11)
References
(1) Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 1 October 1887.
(2) St Cecilia’s Church Wyong NSW, A Celebration of 100 Years 1908-2008, Wyong Catholic Parish 2008, p. 8.
(3) Gosford Crown Land Agent’s Office, Tracings of Plans Showing Land for Lease or Sale, 1853-1875, NSW State Records.
(4) Gosford Deposition Books 1855-1872, pp. 184-185.
(5) Australian Star, 15 September 1890.
(6) Maitland Mercury, 1 October 1887.
(7) Evening News, 14 September 1883.
(8) Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser, 31 July 1880.
(9) Gaol Photographic Description Books, NSW State Records.
(10) Woy Woy School File, NSW State Records.
(11) NSW Teachers Rolls 1869-1908, NSW State Records.