19th February 2022. Edition One. In this edition:
President's Report, BCCT eNews,
Welcome to our new Council members,
Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust Annual General Meeting,
Clean Up Australia Day,
Autumn Walk,
Beecroft − Cheltenham Shared Path,
Wandering trad biocontrol agent,
Women artists of Beecroft/Cheltenham,
Orchard Road Reserve Playground Upgrade,
Beecroft Cheltenham has seen the passing of two longtime residents,
Parramatta ePulse,
Recent Development Applications,
Latest Police Reports,
Message from the President Members
of the Trust Committee held their first face-to-face (and zoom) meeting
for 2022. We discussed many issues of concern to the Trust and the
community including new and existing Development Applications.
Other matters discussed were the ongoing use of the Church sale funds,
the M2 noise, and the fencing and upgrading of the Lyne Reserve Dog
Park. The Lyne Reseve is the only ‘off-leash’ dog facility in the
Cheltenham / Beecroft area.
I am confident there will be resolution of some of our concerns this year.
The ongoing issue of the church-funds always generates much discussion
and many ideas regarding appropriate community projects to which this
money can contribute. Projects that will benefit the whole
community.
Since its inception (6 years ago) some of this money has been used but
it is worth noting that there appears to have been a shift in community
priorities - so options may need to be rethought. We discussed the best
way to canvas community feedback for this project - one option
considered was a survey link on the Trusts website?
We will keep the community informed and we welcome your suggestions.
Finally, the two guest speakers at the meeting were Hornsby Shire C Ward Council members Verity Greenwood and Sreeni Pillamarri.
We will also organise a meeting with other members of both Councils,
Hornsby and Parramatta as soon as we are able to accommodate this.
(COVID restrictions, etc.).
I will be participating in the Epping Trust AGM and being that time of year, the date of our next AGM will be soon be confirmed.
The Trust looks forward to meeting with both Parramatta and Hornsby Councils in the immediate future.
We will also keep you updated about the federal election
candidates. We will once again host a “Meet the Candidates”
evening at a time convenient to all. (Date and time to be confirmed).
I hope this year proves to be the beginning of a less restricted life for Australia and our community.
Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust eNews. The
Trust publishes this monthly eNews newsletter. If you would like
to receive this newsletter on a regular basis, please CLICK HERE to subscribe to the eNews.
Welcome to our new Council members. In Hornsby Shire Council the Hon Philip Ruddock AO has been re-elected as Mayor.
We have three Councillors representing Beecroft and Cheltenham. They are
Verity Greenwood, Emma Heyde and Sreeni Pillamarri. Their email
addresses and mobile numbers, together with the Mayor and other ward
Councillors are listed at this following link. CLICK HERE
Similarly, Beecroft residents residing south of the M2 in the City of
Parramatta have three Epping Ward Councillors. They are the Lord
Mayor Donna Davis and Councillors Lorraine Wearne and Cameron
Maclean. Their email addresses and mobile numbers can be accessed via
this link. CLICK HERE
Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust Annual General Meeting
March 2022 The
Civic Trust will be holding the Annual General Meeting in March 2022 at
the Beecroft Presbyterian Church commencing 7.30pm. We will
confirm the date closer to the event.
Clean Up Australia - Sunday morning 6th March The
Trust has again registered the Beecroft Village Green as a collection
point for Clean Up Australia. All welcome . Simply turn up on
Sunday morning on the 6th March between 9am and 11am. With
many helpers we can again clean up the regular bad spots and be finished
by noon. Wear robust gardening clothes, hat and gloves.
Bags will be provided together with a limited selection of gloves.
Autumn Walk. Sunday 1st May 2022 The Trust will hold its annual Autumn Walk on Sunday afternoon the 1st
May 2022. This year the walk will visit the Ray Park area. The
walk will commence at Cheltenham Oval netball courts at 2pm and proceed
via Kirkham St and Midson Rd to Ray and Hazelwood Parks. We will
return to Cheltenham Oval about 4pm via a slightly different route.
Beecroft − Cheltenham Shared Path Hornsby
Shire Council has engaged contractors to build a new shared pedestrian /
cycleway path and associated roadworks between Beecroft Community
Centre and Cheltenham Railway Station.
It
is proposed that work on the shared pathway will begin at Beecroft
Community Centre, progressing through The Village Green, and then
continue along The Crescent before terminating at Cheltenham Road,
Cheltenham.
Works are scheduled to commence in early March 2022 and are expected to be completed by late 2022 (subject to weather).
Funds From the Sale of the Church on Beecroft Rd There has been considerable community discussion on how the Church funds should be spent.
Because the funds are administered by Hornsby Shire Council, the
Trust has decided to seek a meeting with Hornsby Shire Council staff to
obtain advice on planned works so that any proposals from the Trust do
not duplicate work already planned. These projects being proposed
by the Trust will then be submitted to the community for further
discussion.
Orchard Road Reserve Playground Upgrade - Construction Update
Over
two stages of engagement delivered throughout 2021, Council sought
community feedback on the upgrade of Orchard Road Reserve Playground in
Beecroft (also referred to as Carlingford Oval Playground).
During the last stage of engagement, two options for the new play
equipment were presented to the community. The clear preference was
Option One, with 98% of respondents preferring this design!
In response to this recommendation and the community feedback that was provided, Council has developed a concept plan for the new playground.
Construction of the new playground
Construction of the new playground is scheduled to commence in
mid-February 2022 and will take approximately 8 weeks to complete
(weather permitting).
You can stay updated about this project on Participate Parramatta.
Wandering Trad Biocontrol Agent Wandering trad fungus
has been released in Chilworth Reserve in selected locations last
year and its success is being monitored by Council staff.
This will be further discussed on the Autumn walk.
CSIRO information on this fungus can be viewed CLICK HERE.
Women artists of Beecroft/Cheltenham - from the Beecroft Cheltenham History Group In
many works on Australian art there will be entries on some of the
significant male artists with a connection to Beecroft or Cheltenham.
These include: J J Hilder (1881-1916)
Whose wife’s family lived at St Elmo 143 Copeland Road East
Beecroft and a number of his paintings are set in the vicinity of this
house. One of Australia’s greatest watercolourists, his works are in the
style of Camille Corot. Sydney Ure Smith commenced what we now know as
art publication in Australia, with a posthumous retrospective of his
work. Peter Rushforth (1920-2015)
Lived (and had a studio) in the 1950s and 1960s on the corner of Hull
and Albert Roads. A follower of the style of Bernard Leach as well as
being an exponent of Japanese work he was one of Australia’s great
potters and was first President of the Potters Society of
Australia. Oswald Brett (1921-2017)
Spent his childhood at 72 Cheltenham Road Cheltenham and has at least
one drawing showing him rowing on Devlins Creek. Based in the United
States, he became one of the great marine artists - including having a
painting on an Australian stamp.
But the work of some of the women artists is less well known with some of these leading exponents being: Delia Cadden (1884-1916)
Lived with her family from 1910 until her death in Ravenshurst,
114 Beecroft Road Beecroft. An early exhibition of her work was in 1907
at the Women’s Work Exhibition in Melbourne. She worked in ceramics
initially with Australian native motifs (and was a leading exponent of
the Federation art movement) but later with an oriental motif. Some of
her most famous works feature Australian frogs. Her work is found in
places such as the Powerhouse Museum. Mary Alice Evatt (1898-1973)
Lived at Ottumwa, 50 Beecroft Road Beecroft between 1929 and
1931. While noted (with her husband Dr H V Evatt) as a supporter of
contemporary art and artists she was also a modernist artist in her own
right. During these years she gifted a work by the marine artist John
Allcott to the Beecroft Public School which was inspirational for Oswald
Brett. Winifred Caddy (1884-1981)
Lived with her parents in Wongala Crescent and Malton Road. Following
their deaths she lived in the late 1930 at 5 York Street and then from
at least 1943 to 1970 in a flat in the home of Mr & Mrs Charles
Robertson-Swan at Kunawore 11 Malton Road Beecroft.
She mostly painted (usually exhibiting water colours but also in oil)
landscapes and historic buildings. These included paintings of jacaranda
in bloom in Beecroft. Her work ‘Old Bridge, Parramatta’ was described
by a critic of the 1920 exhibition as “absolutely true to reality and
yet seems suffused with an impalpable romance.” In 1935 she went on a
tour of England with a critic of a 1937 exhibition saying: “Miss Caddy
looked with artist eyes at the London fogs mingled with the smoke in the
air and the sunlight struggling through.”
Of critical importance to the work of women artists generally, Caddy was heavily involved in the (Sydney) Society of Women Painters
(Lloyd Rees later recollected that “they were strangled by their very
title”) that existed between 1910 and 1934. This group was formed
because women artists were frequently damned by the critics, needed to
build collegiate support, and found considerable difficulty in achieving
hanging space in exhibitions. They were regarded as being amateurs,
lacking in professionalism, even though many (like Caddy) made their
living from their art. By way of example, Alison Rehfisch (a North
Shore, although not a Beecroft artist) had her work described in 1933 as
“occasionally her mannerisms of painting become too insistent …her
landscapes lack the subtlety of her still life being, by a strange
contrast, too raw in colour” whereas her work is now lauded as providing
leading examples of modernism in Australia with “her generous, but
thinly applied colour and formalized, finely balanced composition.”
From 1929 until closing in 1935 Caddy was the Secretary of the Society
of Women Painters, contributor across this period in each of its
bi-annual exhibitions (initially in the Queen Victoria Building and then
in the exhibition space of the Department of Education) and attendee at
most of its functions. In 1935 a new group was formed that sought to
incorporate the goals of commercial artists with the studio artist and
for a short period she continued to exhibit with the new group but
increasingly began to exhibit in the Royal Art Society until the
commencement of World War 2. Little description of her work appears
thereafter. Olive Lucy Birkenhead (1898-1995)
Came to Beecroft when her parents built a home here in 1897. They
subsequently sold that home and built a new one in 1903 called Warialda corner Welham Street and Beecroft Road where they remained until the late 1920s.
In 1922 she won first prize for a student work in the Royal Art Society
exhibition and then in 1931 she won the George Taylor prize for the best
painting in the exhibition of that year. While she exhibited a water
colour in 1924 most of her works were in oil and a critic in 1934 said
that “among the local landscapists no one surpasses’ her work. However
from around the same time there are increasing comments that she was no
longer fulfilling the promise that she showed in her earlier works.
There is little reference to her work after the close of the Society of
Women Painters.
She moved with her family to Manly in about 1930, then spent time in
Ballarat before settling in Wentworth Falls. Like Caddy she retired to
live in Mowll Village (now Anglican Retirement Villages, Castle Hill).
Unlike Caddy who always gave her occupation as ‘artist,’ the Electoral
Rolls describe Birkenhead as ‘home duties’ from the 1950s.
Beecroft Cheltenham has seen the passing of two longtime residents Harry Fowell
was a long time resident of Beecroft. He and his wife Pamella
very active in the garden club and other community activities. To
view Harry Fowell's tributes published in the Sydney Morning Herald CLICK HERE
Doug Unmack was actively involved in bush regeneration
at Chilworth Reserve for over 25 years. He was the maverick of the team
and regardless of the season, was always in shorts, short sleeve shirt
and sandshoes. And of course no gloves. Doug wasn’t one to hand
weeding small patches of grass but instead loved getting involved in the
physically demanding primary clearing of weeds in Chilworth Reserve.
Doug stopped doing bushcare about 3 years ago before Covid arrived.
A former venturer / scout leader at Beecroft Scouts he enjoyed the
outdoors. Besides bushwalking Doug loved mountain climbing and tackled
many mountain peaks overseas. Trained as an electrical engineer he
specialised in transformers and worked in both Sydney and Melbourne. He
was extremely knowledgeable on many subjects. He will be missed.
Doug Unmack; bottom left
The January edition of the ePulse can be read CLICK HERE
The February edition of the ePulse can be read CLICK HERE
Recent Development Applications The
Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust's Web Site now has links to recently
submitted Development Applications in the 2119 postcode area for both
Hornsby and Parramatta Shire Councils. This page will be updated
with every eNews publication. CLICK HERE To access them.
Latest Police Reports CLICK HEREfor
the latest reports. Just a reminder that these reports are
regularly provided by the Ryde Police Area Command which includes the
entire suburbs of Beecroft & Cheltenham.
Annual Memberships for 2022 are due in March... CLICK HERE
Keep our two suburbs strong and informed by being a member!
To support or join the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust, please visit our website. CLICK HERE.The
eNews has become our main method for disseminating information to the
community. Currently we have over 1090 email addresses. We
encourage residents who receive the eNews to tell their neighbours and
friends. The eNews letter is available to all who subscribe.
Trust Membership is not a requirement.
The eNews archives are available HERE. To subscribe to the eNews: CLICK HERE.The Trust has always had an unwritten policy to assist any resident regardless of their membership status.
