Sharrock

The next “Take a Photo” pic was part of the Western District Families Facebook page theme “Along the Hamilton Highway” in 2017 and is a favourite photo of mine. From the Museums Victoria Collection, the caption reads “A woman, Christina Park (sic), drying apples.” The date was given as c1931, the place depicted as Lake Linlithgow, and the creator of the photo, Myrtle Sharrock.

Christina looks as though she could have been drying apples at Lake Linlithgow near Penshurst all her life, however, I found the photo depicted just a short moment in time in a long life.

CHRISTINA PARKE DRYING APPLES NEAR LAKE LINLITHGOW, CROXTON EAST. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/769626

Christina was born Christina Arbuthnot in 1855 in the Geelong district, the second eldest child of Alexander Arbuthnot and Elizabeth McKenzie (1) ). It appears she grew up in the Blakeville district north of Ballan. In 1875 aged twenty, she married Frank Parke (2). Frank built a house at Blakeville and they went on to have ten children over the next twenty years with most born around Blakeville. In 1883, while working as a sawyer for Mr Blake’s mill at Blakeville, Frank badly cut his hand and was taken to Ballarat Hospital. In 1885, baby Agnes was born at Barry’s Reef near Blackwood but died a month later. (3) (4).

BARRY’S REEF c1900
Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/401042

After thirty-five years, Christina moved away from the area she had known most of her life when the Parke family went to Warragul. Baby Charles born there in 1891 (5). But it was around the time she turned forty, Christina’s life saw the greatest change when the family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. Rate books from 1896 show they were living at 90 Reilly Street (now Alexandra Parade) in a rented brick home owned by Arthur Taylor (6). Frank’s occupation was given as sawyer however later records show he was working as a bootmaker, possibly at one of the many boot factories in Collinwood and surrounds. The Parke children too worked in the boot trade on finishing school. Also in 1896, the last of the Parke children Myrtle Alpha was born (7).

Over the next fifteen years, the Parke family moved to various homes in the northern part of Collingwood. It would have been very different for Christina after forty years in the “bush”.

SMITH STREET, COLLINGWOOD. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/279623

In 1904, Christina and Frank’s son Charles died at the Carlton Children’s Hospital aged thirteen (8). About five years later they moved further north to the suburb of Northcote and that’s where Frank died in 1912 aged sixty-two (9). Not only did Frank die in 1912 but also son George at Collingwood aged thirty-three. (10) And just a year later, another son Ernest died. (11)

Christina moved back to Reilly Street, Collingwood for a short time before spending the next eight years or so living with her youngest daughters Ivy and Myrtle in homes in Northcote, Clifton Hill, and Fitzroy North, while the girls continued working in the boot trade. When she was sixty-five in July 1920, Christina’s mother Elizabeth died at Camberwell. By that time, Christina and her younger sister Ellen were the remaining Arbuthnot children from a family of eight.

The following year in 1921, Christina’s twenty-six-year-old daughter Myrtle married William Joseph Sharrock. William was a son of John Sharrock and Janet McMillian of Fernleigh near Mount Napier, just south of Hamilton.

Family Notices (1921, May 14). The Age, p. 5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203972411

William worked as manager of Rockewei near Penshurst and Myrtle went to live with him on the property and so did Christina. By the time the 1930s arrived, Christina was seventy-five and she went to live in Cobb Street in Penshurst while William and Myrtle were off at Glenthompson managing another property (11). Next William managed a property at Croxton East, the location of Lake Linlithgow and Christina moved in again. It’s from that time we find out more about Christiana thanks to the Weekly Times. In 1932, Christina participated in the paper’s Free Exchange Service, offering plant cuttings and National Geographic Magazines in exchange for Robour Tea coupons.

OUR WOMEN READERS’ FREE EXCHANGE SERVICE (1932, August 6). Weekly Times p. 25 (SECOND EDITION). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223813061

Also, Myrtle took a photo of her mother drying apples and sent it to “Miranda” of the “Women’s Bureau” column in the Weekly Times., the same photo held by Museums Victoria. From Myrtle’s letter, we learn about Christina riding horses and giving swimming lessons.

THE WOMAN’S BUREAU (1934, March 17). Weekly Times, p. 21.http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223202919

Christina was soon on the move again. Her next residence was at Buangor where William and Myrtle were also living around 1936. (12) By 1942, William had taken up the family property Ferneigh at Mount Napier and Christina went with them.

MOUNT NAPIER.

By the end of the decade and into her nineties, Christina made her longest journey, moving to Brisbane. She died on 10 July 1950, aged ninety-five while living in an Eventide Home in Brisbane leaving three daughters, Olivia Limpus of Frenchville, Queensland, Myrtle Sharrock of Hamilton, and Elizabeth James of Toorak.

Family Notices (1950, July 17). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 – 1954), p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56950418

What a life!

Sources

Victorian Birth Index, Christina Arbuthnot, 1855, Registration No. 4650/1855
Victorian Marriages Index, Christina Arbuthnot, 1875, Registration No. 3981/1875
Victorian Birth Index, Agnes Park, 1885, Registration No,7689/1885
Victorian Death Index, Agnes Parke, 1885 Registration No. 4146/1885
Victorian Birth Index, Charles Clyde Parke, 1891, Registration No. 18049/1891
Victoria, Australia, Rate Books, 1855-1963
Victorian Birth Index, Myrtle Alpha Parke, 1896, Registration No. 18977/1896
Victorian Death Index, Chas Parke, 1904, Registration No. 11812/1904
Victorian Death Index, Frank Parke, 1912, Registration No. 11531/1912
Victorian Death Index, George Alexander Parke, 1912, Registration No. 5236/1912
Victorian Death Index, Ernest Sydney Parke, 1913, Registration No. 10202/1913
Electoral Rolls, Australian Electoral Commission, Christina Parke, 1931, Penshurst, Wannon, Victoria
Electoral Rolls, Australian Electoral Commission, Christina Parke, 1936, Buangor, Corangamite, Victoria

One of the features of Western District Families is Hamilton’s WW1 now with sixty-six profiles of enlisted men with Hamilton links.

‘HAMILTON BOYS’ c 30 April 1915. Photo Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no. DAOD1060 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DAOD1060/

I’ve set a target, possibly an over ambitious one, of 100 profiles by Anzac Day but I’ll give it a go. There are some good stories about Hamilton nurses that I would like to share before 25 April 2016 too. But first something I’ve noticed…well it’s one of many things I’ve observed during the course of my research, but let’s start with memorials…well, one of the things I’ve noticed about memorials…

If you visit the Hamilton War Memorial and look at the names, you could be excused for thinking those men listed lived in Hamilton for a significant part of their lives or, at the very least, were born there. But that’s not the case, they were from all over with a few men having only a fleeting connection with Hamilton.

Some of the men had fathers who moved often with work. Clifford Williams, who was unlikely to have even visited Hamilton, was a son of a teacher while William Thompson was the son of a railway worker who often moved his family. Both are on the Hamilton War Memorial (below). Others went to Hamilton as adults for work and were only there a short time before enlisting, such as Edwin Smith who arrived in Hamilton around 1913 to work at the Union Bank. Reginald Briant was born in Hampshire, England and spent a few years in Melbourne before working for the Hamilton Electric Supply Company before his enlistment.

When searching for a family member on memorials and honour boards, clues from Electoral Rolls, Trove newspapers and the solider’s Attestation papers can help you find them. Even if your soldier’s family just “passed through” a particular town, it’s worth following up. Soldiers were often memorialised in several towns. As well as the Hamilton War Memorial, Clifford Williams and Percy Osborne had trees planted along Bacchus Marsh’s Avenue Honour. And don’t overlook workplaces and churches. Percy Osborne has a memorial window at Hamilton’s Christ Church Cathedral (below) and is on the Union Bank Honour Roll in Melbourne.

MEMORIAL WINDOW FOR PERCY OSBORNE BEAUMONT, HAMILTON CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL.

MEMORIAL WINDOW FOR PERCY BEAUMONT OSBORNE, HAMILTON CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL.

If you are wondering if Hamilton commemorated your WW1 soldier’s service, all Hamilton’s outdoor WW1 War Memorials including names are at Hamilton’s WW1. Eventually, I will add Hamilton’s honour boards. The Victorian War Heritage Inventory is a useful resource for locating memorials across Victoria. You can search by the name or a place.

A quick reminder…to delve into the daily events of Hamilton 100 years ago, “like” the Hamilton WW1 Facebook page. Along with new profiles, six days a week I post an article from the Hamilton Spectator from 100 years before. It’s been interesting to read how Hamilton, just like other towns, continued on while so many were away fighting and how the subject of war managed to creep into most aspects of daily life.

The names of the sixty-six soldiers profiled at Hamilton’s WW1 are below. I’ve included their place of birth and other towns they had connections to. Most never returned to Australia. For some of those who did, life was never the same. Lest We Forget.

AUSTIN, Glenister Burton Hamilton

AUSTIN, William John Hamilton, Adelaide

BARR, Gordon Hotspur, Strathkellar, Warrnambool

BRAKE, William Horsham, Hamilton, Mont Albert

BRIANT, Reginald Stuart Hampshire (ENG), East Melbourne, Hamilton.

BURGESS, Ebenezer Benalla, Mildura, Numurkah, Wonthaggi, Stratford

CAMERON, Archibald Douglas Branxholme, Hamilton

CAMERON, Sidney Joseph Hamilton

CAMERON, Thomas Waddell Port Fairy, Hamilton, Kyabram

COULTER, Robert James Hamilton

DAVIES, Albert Hamilton

DAVIES, Stanley Walton Hamilton, Lubeck