John Cheeseman Remembers his Childhood at Campbelltown 1911-16

Edited by Joan Warton

John Leonard Cheeseman visited Campbelltown on 7 May 1987 and recorded some memories of Campbelltown. Mr Cheeseman was born at Hornsby in 1907. His parents were Arthur Cheeseman and Louisa Rosina Cheeseman (nee Cox). He presented a beautiful ebony and silver baton that had belonged to his father to Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society. Still in excellent condition and in its blue velvet lined case, the baton is inscribed. The following was recorded in an interview with Mr Cheeseman.

Arrival

My father worked on the railway and was transferred from Junee to Campbelltown in 1911. We stayed at Hannaford's pub until we got the house on the hill at Stewart Street. We paid our rent to Mrs Munro for our cottage which is still standing today. My sister Pearl (later Pearl Woodhill) was born there. The yard was divided into sections - the cottage on one portion, my father's big vegetable patch next to the lane and the yard with the barn for the fowls. A large hedge of geraniums divided the yard and ducks we kept hid in them with their ducklings. Every Sunday we'd get the ducks together and take them through the gate to swim in the hollow next to Huckstepp's place.

School Days

I started school when I was five years old and had Miss McGuanne, my first and only teacher at Campbelltown Public School. I remember only two classes and two teachers, each having a range of ages in his or her class. The headmaster (and other teacher) was known as Baldy Klein - we never knew his first name.

[George Klein was appointed headmaster in September 1911 and held the position until succeeded by Eber Harris on 23 April 1925. Miss Kate McGuanne was appointed to Campbelltown Public School in 1894 and remained there until her retirement in 1922 at the age of 67.]

Baldy Klein was not a bad old stick but Miss McGuanne was a tyrant and I hated her. She wore four different frocks and each of them swept the ground. I remember them well. They was black, bottle green with black velvet lapels, grey with darker grey lapels, and mauve with wide lapels. Her jacket was fastened with frogs - braided loops that went between buttons on either side. Each was high collared with bones up to her throat. I told my mother she was just like an old turkey gobbler. She always wore a bonnet with an ostrich feather across the front and as I grew older I used to say she was a waitress of the Last Supper!

You never refused to do her bidding and she would regularly get me carrying her shopping basket after school and my mother used to wonder where I was. Miss McGuanne lived with her younger brother in the corner house near the site of the Campbelltown Mall today. Her brother was a real old sour puss too! When I used to take the shopping in, he never spoke - just grunted. I didn't like him.

She had a time set aside for a conversation piece when the class would tell her what had happened at home and she used this to find out the gossip and scandal in the town. She always seemed to know what was going on. I carry her mark to this very day - I shall never forget her. I was fidgeting with my pencils in the groove on my desk and without warning she brought the cane across my knuckles and broke my finger. It never recovered properly and is a reminder of Miss McGuanne that I shall always have.

As for Baldy Klein - he kept fowls and they often escaped from the pen. "Righto boys" he'd say "have a game of cockylorum and get 'em back in for me!"

Dr Mawson

My sister Pearl owes her life to Dr Mawson. She was desperately ill with double pneumonia, pleurisy and measles and Dr Mawson decided they must have a drug from a Sydney drug house. He rang Sydney and arranged for the small phial to be delivered to Campbelltown with the guard on the Melbourne express train. He met the train himself and brought it to the house and injected the contents. "She's in the hands of the Lord now" he said and it saved her life. He was a nice old bloke.

Shopping Disaster

We did the shopping for our mother and there is one incident I won't forget. We had a sovereign and with that [we] had to get meat from Kitching's butchery, groceries and green groceries and some change too! My sister and I stopped to play in the park and we came back from our game to find the sovereign gone - some kids had pinched our money. It was Saturday afternoon. Mother was not pleased, there was no more money for shopping. I had to take one of our old drakes to Lynch's auction to sell to get enough money for the shopping. I thought I was helping my mother get more for it by bidding too until I found I'd bought the drake myself! I was horrified and cried out that I didn't want it and luckily they took pity on me and I finally got the shopping done.

Out and About

I saw quite a bit of Campbelltown as I always seemed to be into everything. We went with our billycarts out to Longhursts' orchards and would pinch apples and quinces. We'd say to ourselves that we weren't really pinching them. They were hanging over the fence.

I used to help the man hose out at Seddon's Cordial Factory and they were still using bottles with a marble in it. At Kitching's butcher shop I'd ride the horse around on the sausage machine. The pole turned the cogs as the horse went round and round. Mr Kitchen would load up two meat baskets, one on each arm, and, with reins of the horse in hand as well, would deliver the meat on the old pony. It knew where to go.

Tyerman was the chemist and used an old bullock horn with the sharp end in his ear and we shouted down the other end. "Eh, what'd you say?" was his cry.

I sold some bottles at the bottle-o's and saw something fall on the ground. I was pretty sure it was a coin and waited two hours till the bottle-o was gone, all the time watching the spot where it had fallen. When I checked after my wait, it was a sixpence - and well worth the wait. I took it home and gave it to my mother.

I remember helping myself to the macadamia nuts off the tree in front of the Methodist parsonage. To open them we'd belt them with half a brick and they'd go everywhere!

Crowes Bakery

The bakery was in the main street and had a big awning on top with a sign [depicting] a crow's nest full of loaves of bread and cakes. On Good Friday morning the baker would be busy baking hot cross buns and around 4-5 am would deliver them around Campbelltown - up to the hills as well.

At Christmas time after he'd done the bake, the baker would get the oven down to a certain temperature and we'd be waiting with our baking dishes. In they'd go together, each dish had our name on it and many of the town's turkeys and ducks for Christmas dinner were cooked in the baker's oven. Perhaps he charged a small fee - a couple of pennies - but we'd all get our Christmas poultry cooked together.

Entertainment

We often attended concerts in the old Town Hall. The footlights were old kerosene lamps with a big shiny polished shield to reflect the light onto the stage. My brother and sister were in one number that I remember well. Big ropes were attached to the rafters and decorated with paper roses. From the swing so made, the children would swing out over the front of the stage as they sang "Let me call you sweetheart".

Every Empire Day and Queen's Birthday we would celebrate at the old showground with a maypole dance. The boys wore dark trousers, white shirts and red tie and the girls wore a sash.

The Band

My father Arthur Cheeseman was Bandmaster for Campbelltown Band and the 12-18 members met for regular practice on a Thursday night. This took place at the School of Arts in the old Town Hall in Queen Street. Mother used to send me with him to make sure he got home without a detour via the hotel.

Once a fortnight or once a month father and I would catch the steam train to Picton and go up the steps from the station and head for the hotel run by Mrs Curry (now the Imperial Hotel). Here the Picton Brass Band held their practice. Father was possibly Bandmaster for the Picton Brass Band as well as the Campbelltown Band. The band often played on the street corner in Picton.

One Christmas Eve, the Picton Brass Band played Christmas carols at a property out of Picton with a two storeyed house and a lot of trees. The owners paid for the band to play and met the players in a charabanc pulled by horses.

Campbelltown Band played in many processions in Campbelltown and regularly marched on Empire Day from the southern end of Queen Street to Mawson Park. One incident I remember well was the day the Kangaroos marched from Wagga in the early days of World War I calling on volunteers to enlist in the army. They were dressed in blue dungarees, white sandshoes and white hats. The band accompanied them from Kenny Hill and played them into Campbelltown. We left Campbelltown in 1916 to go to Woollahra where my father was to manage the picture theatre. The Picton Brass Band presented an ebony and silver baton to my father in appreciation for his services. It is beautifully engraved and still in its original case.

I remember singing a song to the tune of "Goodbye Sydney Town" - changing the words to suit:

Vintage

Remembering The Past