Thank you for another interesting edition. I’m amazed by the variety of architecture in one suburb. It’s evolution has been shaped by so many people and institutions.
As I dried myself of after showering, I was interrupted by the Creator reciting all the comments on the Randwick video. I feel I need not say you have all made someone’s day. Normally we would have chosen a suburb which borders on one we have already done. Randwick is out on its own, so it’s heartening to see the response. We are still trying to discover our audience. Initially we thought we were creating for residents, now we are inclined to think it also includes many who are former residents.I think we have already received a complimentary remark from you on a past video, certainly this is true of the other two comments. Other comments would be appreciated, as after two years we are still somewhat blindly making decisions on what the next video will be, which might please our audience. Do please the read the other comments and our replies on the Randwick site.
Another great video guys. Randwick is such an historic suburb. Also, just wanted to say Thank You for considering my request and deciding to make a video on Haberfield. I will be very much looking forward to it. Keep up the good work.
Good to hear from you again. Today you have made one person happy. See the other comments and my reply for further information. The choice of Haberfield as our next video was an executive decision made by the Creator some time ago. Today she has launched into researching Haberfield, and her enthusiasm may well stem from your complimentary remarks. She appears to be enthused as to what she has uncovered so far. Whether a certain two story concrete block, which at present it appears under construction, or a certain act of hypocrisy by one home owner, proves noteworthy remains to be seen. Do read our other replies on Randwick. We can understand that your growing up in Haberfield causes you to look at the video, but why do I catch you watching Randwick. Understanding our audience is our challenge, though we are not chasing popularity, and delight in our comments page being remarkably civilised.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 I Grew up travelling the streets, lanes, canals, by bike and trains of Sydney all my childhood. I love history of all suburbs in Sydney. Been to most of these places. I live out south west now but still love the inner west. I'm glad you have found Haberfield so interesting. It is just a small suburb, but with an amazing and unique history. I was certain when you looked into it a bit more, you would agree. Don't forget that M5 tunnel now almost built going straight under Haberfield and many houses and units were knocked down to make way for the M5 and Westconnex Tunnels... Progress!!?
@@ruidean72 Thanks for your good wishes for the New Year, to which we reciprocate. We are even more heartened by your reference to the West Connex and M5. tunnel, and its affect on Haberfield. Its on the end of the our time frame, thus going beyond the reach of a ‘Trove,’ search. Would hope that others might keep us informed of facts such as these, that can be easily overlooked by outsiders like ourselves. Without of course overwhelming us.
Excellent introduction to Randwick for any strolling visitor or even the resident who might be curious about the gems of architecture around them. Randwick is like a rich fruit cake that has been hit by a bomb. It doesn’t make any sense and lacks cohesion, but you know the scattered raisins, currants, walnuts, glazed fruit and even the crumbs were once part of something bigger. It’s been clobbered by vested interests and craven local government since the 1860s. The finest architectural suburbs (and towns) were rich once then fell out of economic favour. Think Goulburn or Bathurst or Hobart or Hunters Hill. Randwick has been like an open cut coal mine worked continuously since the early days of colony. That anything remains is a miracle.
I thought we had lost you, so glad to know you are still out there. We have posed the question to the others that have left comments on this page, why have you an interest in so many suburbs? If someone else had not read the comments out loud be me this morning, I would have been inclined to read out loud the piece comparing Randwick to a rich fruit pudding. We are agree with you with regard to the ‘development of Randwick.’ We made a decision, before launching our channel not to be critical of people or institutions, this was entirely because of the fear of being overwhelmed by controversy. We have given the names of influential people and institutions in our video, we commend to everyone, that a trawl through ‘Trove’ on the N.S.W. Library site, who were the heroes and who the villains. One final word, what shines out are those pieces of rich fruit cake, the juxtaposition of it them with the ‘modern’( something that Randwick does quite magnificently) points to how the beautiful has been replaced by the decidedly inferior. Thankfully a picture is worth a thousand words and we can see both sides of the coin. Do please read the other comments on this page and our response.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Quite right, quite right, you are best to stay well away from squabbles about local politics and such unseemly subjects. The best historians in my opinion are objective historians, more akin to archaeologists than social agitators. That’s why I like your work! And I almost feel apologetic for sullying the waters. Though, sometimes in my walks and cycles I see an interesting old pile of stones, and when I look a bit closer, maybe even lift up a corner of the slab, I am amazed what’s been hiding in the darkness and soon scurries from the light. Haha, enough of these torturous analogies. Cheers to all the team, and best wishes for the new year.
Thanks for you comment. We are always interested to find out about what you enjoyed and why.This helps us in formulating what suburb we should tackle next. We wonder whether our audience are residents, and particularly new residents who have got something from watching. Or former residents, whose memories were triggered by what we presented. We are beginning to think there are those who have never lived in the suburb, but who for work, leisure and perhaps shopping, had reason to know Randwick. This indeed is the thinking behind choosing Randwick, and I am sure I don’t have to mention by name what the peculiar attractions of Randwick are. It is the same thinking that brought us to do Manly as our next video. After two years we are still on a learning curve.
Thank you so much for this video; another champion effort! I concur with the observations that Randwick is an architectural playground, with neither rhyme nor rhythm to its buildings. An interesting point in the video is the 6000 visitors to the reintroduction, or proper introduction, to the opening of the racecourse -- which makes me wonder from how far afield those visitors came. It may have been quite the new highlight of Sydney society at the time, which then leads into the architectural diversity: perhaps, or as though, property owners were out to show off themselves, or at least their ideas, with the wealth to do so. It would be very interesting to get a contemporary perspective on how Randwick was viewed by other suburbs, through the developing decades. Maybe it's worth mentioning that Randwick may be a considerably easier suburb for exploring, these days, being easier than some to drive around and park. I know one long-time Randwick resident who may be interested in this video, and all of your other ones, though hesitant to publicly posiit a name. Think perhaps: recent author on Australian history, the ABC, and Sydney rail, as three clues. May I make a suggestion? These days people like to click on a link to a website, you may find some visitors doing just that if you add the full link in your video description(s). Randwick: very diverse, yet somehow has achieved a singular brand of its own, quite remarkable, really. And somewhere along the way the suburb learned to play superb rugby! Well done and thank you again.
Thanks for the compliments. The following comment on the first race meeting at Randwick, we viewed with disbelief. However having searched ‘Australians Historical Statistics we think it may well be true. Population of Sydney and suburbs in 1856- 33,931, with population of N.S.W. being 350,860 in 1861. “The AJC first held a race meeting at the site between the 29-31 May 1860, with more than 6,000 attendees on the opening day, swelling to 10,000 by the last day of the meeting. The success of the enterprise was marked by the sheer volume of attendees - with just under 57,000 people in Sydney at the time, a 10,000- strong crowd was a triumph for the AJC. For the public, it was an inexpensive day out, as the racecourse itself was not enclosed and only the grandstand area required payment of an entry fee - anyone could watch the races free of charge. A ‘tent city’ mushroomed to cater for the thirst and hunger of the crowd, with publicans setting up booths to maximize the opportunity and providing free entertainment such as Punch and Judy puppet shows and bands to draw patrons.” I think what we may be missing, is that with the Australian Jockey Club establishing itself at Randwick, they had produced a quality product. Just how third rate racing prior to Randwick may be judged by the comments of Alexander Brodie Spark of Tempe House in his diary records: “SEPTEMBER 1836 20th Accompanied by Dr Smith, Mr Duguid & Mr Gill went to the Hurdle Race which came off near the Race Course on the Botany Road. Altho’ there was no great amusement in seeing a company of riders in pied liveries kicking down the rails over which they ought to have leaped, yet as the day was fine and the company numerous, the scene was animating and the exercise pleasant.” Granted there is a twenty four year gap, but there is much evidence that from early days, goodly crowds could be assembled for anything which vaguely resembled sport. A public house in Sydney would, on the morning of a bare knuckle fight, provide details of the destination, which allowed the ‘leisured classes’ to attend the performance somewhere on or beyond the Cook’s River. On whether one would describe the leisured classes as being quality, I shall not comment. Tempe, had race meetings, qualifications for taking part included, whether the horse had been employed in brick carting along the Cooks River Road. As for our website we do mention it at the end of each video, and we do have a link from it to our UA-cam channel. It is devoted to the history of our local area and attracts much attention from people tracing their ancestry. After two years, we had our first person, to move from watching a video on a suburb to contacting us through our website. We were able to inform him that the home he lived in had so many horseshoes in the garden, because a previous owner was a carter, horse drawn of course. Almost 50% of our views are generated by UA-cam placement, in that their algorithm, allows them too know what you are interested in. We understand your reticence in not mentioning names. You can of course contact us through our web site. Thanks once again for your response.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Those are truly big statistics, and made me rethink how Randwick developed, and what role it played for the greater region. I can't think from loose memory of another sport/leisure activity that pulled in 6-10,000 people, and would only be stab-in-the-dark guessing that cricket or some form of football, maybe in Melbourne, would equal or better it, if not Melbourne horse racing itself. In Sydney though, those visitor numbers are around one-in-four to one-in-six people attending. Not knowing if children were included in those population statistics, or included also in the Randwick horse race statistics, or not, that week of horse racing had a massive grip on the population. In light then of your informative remark about the nature of people attending, with that much grip on the population it's certain that it was the non-wealthy masses that went there, given the wealthy were fairly few and far between. No wonder horse racing developed as the punter's (in both versions of definition) domain. Then in considering your further information, Randwick had a situation where a huge influx of people flowed in regularly. Again, I wonder if any other Sydney suburb had obtained that inflow. Creating, providing and maintaining those horse racing developments may well have been a determining element in how Randwick and that immediate area grew. It is very interesting indeed, and with 'horse racing' not being widely attributed to Randwick's growth, these days, it really is cause for wonder. I may also add that the cost of purchase and upkeep for a racing horse would not have been easily met in the very early days, prior to the activity being more fully developed, so it's easy to imagine all manners of beasts and get-ups having a go. It would have been a spectacle, often hilarious, when primitive. Isn't it wonderful how history is a mystery to be continually unravelled! Your efforts are truly priceless, with that in mind. In relation to your website, I was referring to adding the URL into your UA-cam video descriptions, sorry if that wasn't as clear as could have been. Thus, the following link copy-pasted (in full) into your video descriptions makes it easy for people to visit your wonderful website, (going from UA-cam to your site). Well worth a visit for any viewers and comment readers! stpeterscooksriverhistory.wordpress.com/
@@lukecasey3480 Regarding population, Sydney and suburbs, and counting everyone over the age of fourteen: 21926, but that was the census of 1856. New South Wales counting everyone over the age of fifteen: 217,639 in 1861. I shall run your idea of linking the websight to our channel, past the creator. As to who attended race meetings, I suspect all levels of society, with a leavening of flash gents employed in clerical positions whose relatives conveniently died at the appropriate time, or those who had a certain dexterity that allowed them to earn a living on the wrong side of the law, and are now celebrated in song in a Dickensian musical. At Barwon Park races there were pickings to be had, but the long arm of the law was sadly active in that area.
www.youtube.com/@stpeterscooksriver1873/playlists Check out our play list.The videos are grouped such that, whenever possible those that are geographically close are together.
10:17 If the Odeon theatre was still there even though it was only built in 1921, pretty much everything of historical significance in Randwick would be intact. It is amazing how many suburban picture theatres from the 1920s and 1930s are now gone.
The Creator has read your comment, and heartily endorses it. I think it is all too easy to think that what has been knocked down was of the same value as that which remains. The problem is that the modern that has replaced it is for the most part equally and decidedly inferior to that of the past. I share your feeling of loss at the disappearance of a cinema. So many presented to the working man and woman, a sense of occasion, of being in a palace, and all this before the film rolled. We have lost something when we have turned them into ironmongers, haberdasheries, and the like. Before I forget, does the Struggletown vet of Randwick still treat horses, and do look out for the I.G.A. store in our next video on Haberfield.
Thank you for another interesting edition. I’m amazed by the variety of architecture in one suburb. It’s evolution has been shaped by so many people and institutions.
As I dried myself of after showering, I was interrupted by the Creator reciting all the comments on the Randwick video. I feel I need not say you have all made someone’s day. Normally we would have chosen a suburb which borders on one we have already done. Randwick is out on its own, so it’s heartening to see the response. We are still trying to discover our audience. Initially we thought we were creating for residents, now we are inclined to think it also includes many who are former residents.I think we have already received a complimentary remark from you on a past video, certainly this is true of the other two comments. Other comments would be appreciated, as after two years we are still somewhat blindly making decisions on what the next video will be, which might please our audience. Do please the read the other comments and our replies on the Randwick site.
Another great video guys. Randwick is such an historic suburb. Also, just wanted to say Thank You for considering my request and deciding to make a video on Haberfield. I will be very much looking forward to it. Keep up the good work.
Good to hear from you again. Today you have made one person happy. See the other comments and my reply for further information. The choice of Haberfield as our next video was an executive decision made by the Creator some time ago. Today she has launched into researching Haberfield, and her enthusiasm may well stem from your complimentary remarks. She appears to be enthused as to what she has uncovered so far. Whether a certain two story concrete block, which at present it appears under construction, or a certain act of hypocrisy by one home owner, proves noteworthy remains to be seen. Do read our other replies on Randwick. We can understand that your growing up in Haberfield causes you to look at the video, but why do I catch you watching Randwick. Understanding our audience is our challenge, though we are not chasing popularity, and delight in our comments page being remarkably civilised.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 I Grew up travelling the streets, lanes, canals, by bike and trains of Sydney all my childhood. I love history of all suburbs in Sydney. Been to most of these places. I live out south west now but still love the inner west.
I'm glad you have found Haberfield so interesting. It is just a small suburb, but with an amazing and unique history. I was certain when you looked into it a bit more, you would agree.
Don't forget that M5 tunnel now almost built going straight under Haberfield and many houses and units were knocked down to make way for the M5 and Westconnex Tunnels... Progress!!?
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Best wishes for the New Year.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Also, one last thing. Haberfield Library may be a great source for material and facts, etc
@@ruidean72 Thanks for your good wishes for the New Year, to which we reciprocate. We are even more heartened by your reference to the West Connex and M5. tunnel, and its affect on Haberfield. Its on the end of the our time frame, thus going beyond the reach of a ‘Trove,’ search. Would hope that others might keep us informed of facts such as these, that can be easily overlooked by outsiders like ourselves. Without of course overwhelming us.
Excellent introduction to Randwick for any strolling visitor or even the resident who might be curious about the gems of architecture around them.
Randwick is like a rich fruit cake that has been hit by a bomb. It doesn’t make any sense and lacks cohesion, but you know the scattered raisins, currants, walnuts, glazed fruit and even the crumbs were once part of something bigger. It’s been clobbered by vested interests and craven local government since the 1860s.
The finest architectural suburbs (and towns) were rich once then fell out of economic favour. Think Goulburn or Bathurst or Hobart or Hunters Hill. Randwick has been like an open cut coal mine worked continuously since the early days of colony. That anything remains is a miracle.
I thought we had lost you, so glad to know you are still out there. We have posed the question to the others that have left comments on this page, why have you an interest in so many suburbs? If someone else had not read the comments out loud be me this morning, I would have been inclined to read out loud the piece comparing Randwick to a rich fruit pudding. We are agree with you with regard to the ‘development of Randwick.’ We made a decision, before launching our channel not to be critical of people or institutions, this was entirely because of the fear of being overwhelmed by controversy.
We have given the names of influential people and institutions in our video, we commend to everyone, that a trawl through ‘Trove’ on the N.S.W. Library site, who were the heroes and who the villains. One final word, what shines out are those pieces of rich fruit cake, the juxtaposition of it them with the ‘modern’( something that Randwick does quite magnificently) points to how the beautiful has been replaced by the decidedly inferior. Thankfully a picture is worth a thousand words and we can see both sides of the coin. Do please read the other comments on this page and our response.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Quite right, quite right, you are best to stay well away from squabbles about local politics and such unseemly subjects. The best historians in my opinion are objective historians, more akin to archaeologists than social agitators. That’s why I like your work!
And I almost feel apologetic for sullying the waters. Though, sometimes in my walks and cycles I see an interesting old pile of stones, and when I look a bit closer, maybe even lift up a corner of the slab, I am amazed what’s been hiding in the darkness and soon scurries from the light.
Haha, enough of these torturous analogies. Cheers to all the team, and best wishes for the new year.
Loved it. Nice work, well done.
Thanks for you comment. We are always interested to find out about what you enjoyed and why.This helps us in formulating what suburb we should tackle next. We wonder whether our audience are residents, and particularly new residents who have got something from watching. Or former residents, whose memories were triggered by what we presented. We are beginning to think there are those who have never lived in the suburb, but who for work, leisure and perhaps shopping, had reason to know Randwick. This indeed is the thinking behind choosing Randwick, and I am sure I don’t have to mention by name what the peculiar attractions of Randwick are. It is the same thinking that brought us to do Manly as our next video. After two years we are still on a learning curve.
Thank you so much for this video; another champion effort!
I concur with the observations that Randwick is an architectural playground, with neither rhyme nor rhythm to its buildings. An interesting point in the video is the 6000 visitors to the reintroduction, or proper introduction, to the opening of the racecourse -- which makes me wonder from how far afield those visitors came. It may have been quite the new highlight of Sydney society at the time, which then leads into the architectural diversity: perhaps, or as though, property owners were out to show off themselves, or at least their ideas, with the wealth to do so.
It would be very interesting to get a contemporary perspective on how Randwick was viewed by other suburbs, through the developing decades.
Maybe it's worth mentioning that Randwick may be a considerably easier suburb for exploring, these days, being easier than some to drive around and park.
I know one long-time Randwick resident who may be interested in this video, and all of your other ones, though hesitant to publicly posiit a name. Think perhaps: recent author on Australian history, the ABC, and Sydney rail, as three clues.
May I make a suggestion? These days people like to click on a link to a website, you may find some visitors doing just that if you add the full link in your video description(s).
Randwick: very diverse, yet somehow has achieved a singular brand of its own, quite remarkable, really. And somewhere along the way the suburb learned to play superb rugby!
Well done and thank you again.
Thanks for the compliments. The following comment on the first race meeting at Randwick, we viewed with disbelief. However having searched ‘Australians Historical Statistics we think it may well be true. Population of Sydney and suburbs in 1856- 33,931, with population of N.S.W. being 350,860 in 1861.
“The AJC first held a race meeting at the site between the 29-31 May 1860, with more than 6,000 attendees on the opening day, swelling to 10,000 by the last day of the meeting. The success of the enterprise was marked by the sheer volume of attendees - with just under 57,000 people in Sydney at the time, a 10,000- strong crowd was a triumph for the AJC. For the public, it was an inexpensive day out, as the racecourse itself was not enclosed and only the grandstand area required payment of an entry fee - anyone could watch the races free of charge. A ‘tent city’ mushroomed to cater for the thirst and hunger of the crowd, with publicans setting up booths to maximize the opportunity and providing free entertainment such as Punch and Judy puppet shows and bands to draw patrons.”
I think what we may be missing, is that with the Australian Jockey Club establishing itself at Randwick, they had produced a quality product. Just how third rate racing prior to Randwick may be judged by the comments of Alexander Brodie Spark of Tempe House in his diary records:
“SEPTEMBER 1836 20th Accompanied by Dr Smith, Mr Duguid & Mr Gill went to the Hurdle Race which came off near the Race Course on the Botany Road. Altho’ there was no great amusement in seeing a company of riders in pied liveries kicking down the rails over which they ought to have leaped, yet as the day was fine and the company numerous, the scene was animating and the exercise pleasant.”
Granted there is a twenty four year gap, but there is much evidence that from early days, goodly crowds could be assembled for anything which vaguely resembled sport. A public house in Sydney would, on the morning of a bare knuckle fight, provide details of the destination, which allowed the ‘leisured classes’ to attend the performance somewhere on or beyond the Cook’s River. On whether one would describe the leisured classes as being quality, I shall not comment. Tempe, had race meetings, qualifications for taking part included, whether the horse had been employed in brick carting along the Cooks River Road.
As for our website we do mention it at the end of each video, and we do have a link from it to our UA-cam channel. It is devoted to the history of our local area and attracts much attention from people tracing their ancestry. After two years, we had our first person, to move from watching a video on a suburb to contacting us through our website. We were able to inform him that the home he lived in had so many horseshoes in the garden, because a previous owner was a carter, horse drawn of course. Almost 50% of our views are generated by UA-cam placement, in that their algorithm, allows them too
know what you are interested in. We understand your reticence in not mentioning names. You can of course contact us through our web site. Thanks once again for your response.
@@stpeterscooksriver1873 Those are truly big statistics, and made me rethink how Randwick developed, and what role it played for the greater region.
I can't think from loose memory of another sport/leisure activity that pulled in 6-10,000 people, and would only be stab-in-the-dark guessing that cricket or some form of football, maybe in Melbourne, would equal or better it, if not Melbourne horse racing itself.
In Sydney though, those visitor numbers are around one-in-four to one-in-six people attending. Not knowing if children were included in those population statistics, or included also in the Randwick horse race statistics, or not, that week of horse racing had a massive grip on the population.
In light then of your informative remark about the nature of people attending, with that much grip on the population it's certain that it was the non-wealthy masses that went there, given the wealthy were fairly few and far between. No wonder horse racing developed as the punter's (in both versions of definition) domain.
Then in considering your further information, Randwick had a situation where a huge influx of people flowed in regularly. Again, I wonder if any other Sydney suburb had obtained that inflow.
Creating, providing and maintaining those horse racing developments may well have been a determining element in how Randwick and that immediate area grew.
It is very interesting indeed, and with 'horse racing' not being widely attributed to Randwick's growth, these days, it really is cause for wonder.
I may also add that the cost of purchase and upkeep for a racing horse would not have been easily met in the very early days, prior to the activity being more fully developed, so it's easy to imagine all manners of beasts and get-ups having a go. It would have been a spectacle, often hilarious, when primitive.
Isn't it wonderful how history is a mystery to be continually unravelled!
Your efforts are truly priceless, with that in mind. In relation to your website, I was referring to adding the URL into your UA-cam video descriptions, sorry if that wasn't as clear as could have been.
Thus, the following link copy-pasted (in full) into your video descriptions makes it easy for people to visit your wonderful website, (going from UA-cam to your site). Well worth a visit for any viewers and comment readers!
stpeterscooksriverhistory.wordpress.com/
@@lukecasey3480 Regarding population, Sydney and suburbs, and counting everyone over the age of fourteen: 21926, but that was the census of 1856. New South Wales counting everyone over the age of fifteen: 217,639 in 1861. I shall run your idea of linking the websight to our channel, past the creator. As to who attended race meetings, I suspect all levels of society, with a leavening of flash gents employed in clerical positions whose relatives conveniently died at the appropriate time, or those who had a certain dexterity that allowed them to earn a living on the wrong side of the law, and are now celebrated in song in a Dickensian musical. At Barwon Park races there were pickings to be had, but the long arm of the law was sadly active in that area.
www.youtube.com/@stpeterscooksriver1873/playlists Check out our play list.The videos are grouped such that, whenever possible those that are geographically close are together.
10:17 If the Odeon theatre was still there even though it was only built in 1921, pretty much everything of historical significance in Randwick would be intact. It is amazing how many suburban picture theatres from the 1920s and 1930s are now gone.
The Creator has read your comment, and heartily endorses it. I think it is all too easy to think that what has been knocked down was of the same value as that which remains. The problem is that the modern that has replaced it is for the most part equally and decidedly inferior to that of the past. I share your feeling of loss at the disappearance of a cinema. So many presented to the working man and woman, a sense of occasion, of being in a palace, and all this before the film rolled. We have lost something when we have turned them into ironmongers, haberdasheries, and the like.
Before I forget, does the Struggletown vet of Randwick still treat horses, and do look out for the I.G.A. store in our next video on Haberfield.