Okinya Story told by Rita in 1981
THE
STORY OF OKINYA BUILT 1898
by
Rita Cudmore nee Wilcox January 1981
WILCOX
FAMILY HISTORY
About
1860 Grandfather George Wilcox was sent out from St. Neot, England to
a small town in South Australia - Gawler, north of Adelaide.
He
was given £100 to help his brother Joseph from bankruptcy in the
store.
They
apparently prospered and bought up large tracts of land in South
Australia on which they ran 1 sheep to 11 acres. They had gone into
partnership with the ship’s captain - Mr Hamilton - and so were
able to get into anything to do with shipping. At one time they
secured a big consignment of bacon and tried to sell it in a part of
the far east where no pig was eaten. It had to be brought back.
George
Seaborne Wilcox
Their
second son, George Seaborne was born in 1873 on board the sailing
ship "City
of Adelaide"
when just off the Scilly Isles. He was registered in Hepney, England,
where all British babies born on British ships, were registered.
The
ship
“City of Adelaide”
The
Wilcox's made numerous trips on this ship.
On
one voyage that ship actually took only 5 weeks to reach England,
whereas at times it could take 6 months. The "City of Adelaide"
ended up moored at Glasgow, moored on the Clyde as a recreation and
camping boat for the British navy. It sank there at its mooring in
1980.
In
2010, the Scottish Government decided that the ship would be moved to
Adelaide, to be preserved as a museum ship. In September 2013 the
ship moved by barge from Scotland to the Netherlands to prepare for
transport to Australia. In late November 2013, loaded on the deck of
a cargo ship, City of
Adelaide departed
Europe bound for Port
Adelaide,
Australia, where she arrived on 3 February 2014.
Wilcox
& Co.
Grandfather
George Wilcox gradually set up wool stores to sell his wool and hides
and skins in the capital cities and many towns. Eventually running 35
centres as alternately George Wilcox & Co., Wilcox Mofflin &
Co.
Site
of "Okinya"
When
in Sydney he(grandfather George) bought 3 blocks of harbour front
land right on the end of Darling Point. These he gave to his sons
Sidney, George and Murray. They drew for these and our father,
George, drew an end block which was named "Okinya." The
name is aboriginal for "a well." There was an old store
well fed from a natural stream running under Darling Point on it. The
sailing ships used to get their water supplies from this well.
The
other end block was drawn by Sidney and had on it an old 4 story
house built by a Captain Malcolm and first known as "Malcolm's
Folly", then "Chollerton" It was eventually bought by
Sir George Julius, the inventor of the totalisator. Augustus Gibbes
was resident of "Chollerton", 91-93 Yarranabbe Road,
Darling Point in 1893.
The
middle block, drawn by Murray was called "Yatalunga."
Venie
Wilcox
Okinya,
85 Yarranabbe Rd., Darling Point, was built about 1898.
George
married Constance (Venie) Navena WelNewman in 1899 of Wagga. We five
children were born at Okinya.
1900
August 15th Rita
1903
August 14th Alan George
1905
June 2nd Vera Elsie (Poppy)
1909
June 15th Jean Martha
1911
June 14th Jack Seaborne
Sir
Jarvie Hood confined Venie for the births of the children.
In
1912 Okinya was altered to make more accommodation - a bedroom and
bathroom were pulled down and 2 bathrooms and 3 rooms were added. The
house was run with a cook and housemaid in the early years, at
another time. with a housekeeper and nurse. We went to junior schools
till 1912 and travelled along Darling Point by a double-decker house
bus. Rita first went to a Froebel Kindergarten in Rushcutters Bay as
she would poke at the baby Alan's eyes and run away with him. Alan
went to Miss van Heuklaus Boys Preparatory School about 1905 and then
to King's School to board (Parramatta). About 1908 Rita and Poppy
went to "Shirley" in Edgecliff Road and later to board at
Normanhurst, Ashfield. Mother took us to choose our own school.
Jean
and Jack went to kindergarten with Miss Lion and Miss Horsley on
Darling Point. They then went on to Ascham and King's School,
respectively.
At
this stage Mother (Venie) ran the house with a housekeeper and
laundress. When Dad came home from office he always had a Dewar's
Whiskey and hors d’oeuvre with us hanging on for a few nibbles. In
those days it was caviar, pâté de foie gras, olives etc. Every week
he brought home his salary. In a brown envelope containing seven gold
sovereigns (£1 each, now $14) for the housekeeping. We were very
lucky children as we had a big play room where we could each have our
own hobbies. There were 2 swimming pools - one with. a shallow beach,
the other a deep pool jutting into the harbour. Our father George had
a bachelor friend - an English engineer, John Bainton. He was
wonderful to all of us, always coming at Christmas with exotic
presents. He had a car and a motor boat - the latter kept near us in
the next door boat house. Mother and Dad and many friends and we
Children had outings in this. On one occasion their Scotch terrier
went overboard into the harbour and Jack had pushed him in! Dad and
his friends used to put out a bait for sharks which we often saw in
the harbour, but I don't remember one being caught.
OKINYA
after Venie's death
Jack and Betty bought land in Gordon and built a house there. After
Mother's death in 1932 Okinya was let till we decided what to do. We
thought of demolishing it and building a four storey building of
flats which was designed to cost £10,000. Jack would not agree to
this so he bought us out.
Jack
bought the four of us out for £1000 each. That was in about 1936.
He
and Betty and the family lived there till 1956 with the six children
Venie, Sid & Jim. George and the twins Gai And Mymie were born
there.
The
Okinya house was burnt down completely in 1951 when a spark from
garden rubbish being burnt off caught fire under the roof and spread
exploding in the ceilings which collapsed and caught fire in all the
rooms. Fire engines had trouble along Yarranabbe Rd and then hoses
were not strong enough to break the windows. The family was
accommodated in a flat nearby till Jack converted the stables to a
liveable state. He then proceeded to repair the house.
Jack
altered and renovated it till 1954 when he gradually developed
stomach cancer. The building was close to lock up stage when he died
in hospital from inoperable stomach cancer and after his death it was
sold to a builder and a huge block of flats was erected taking up the
whole site. The flats are called SANTINA.
Accident
On
one occasion the housemaid was asked to hang the canvas cover round
the bird cage. She stood on the lid of a liquid manure cask and fell
in up to her waist - great fun for us. John Badminton was called
"Pip" by us as he always pipped his car horn when he came
to see us. He was instrumental in bringing from America the first
telephones, first shop lifts, and first moving stairways.
First
Motor Car 1905
Grandpa
George in Adelaide sent us a French car - a de Ion Boston - by ship.
It was drawn by a horse from the ship through Sydney into our
carriage shed above Okinya. Dad and all his friends toyed with it for
months to get it going. It never went so was carted away by a horse!
At
One time we children adopted a stray Irish Terrier. He and the
bull-dog next door hated each other and always fought. One day the
bull-dog got him in the pool and our housekeeper had to take the
clothes prop and a pepper pot to separate them. That makes me think
of the man with a cart load of clothes props for clothes lines who
used to call out every few weeks as he drove the horse by.
Lighting
1900
In
those days we had only open gas flames in the house for lighting;
then came "mantels" of fine material which burnt with a
better light, but broke easily if wobbled or touched with a match -
1910. The street lights had this system and old lamp-lighters used to
go round all the suburbs lighting these each night with a candle on
the end of a long stick. Electricity came later, about 1918.
Trams
Electric
trams ran along New South Head Road from King St. to Watson's Bay.
There was a horse drawn tram at La Perouse. These were stopped about
1965? and replaced by buses.
Electric
Car
A
Mr Allen was the only man in Sydney who had an electric motor car
about 1910-1912. It had a box-like body and was the same back and
front. Dad bought a single seater Renault car about 1908-1912, its
number was 26Y, only on the back. It had a rubber-bulb for a horn and
hand-worked screen wipers and no hood.
GEORGE
SEABORNE WILCOX -
Rita's father
George
was born in 1873 at sea on board the "City Of Adelaide" as
I described before. He was a wonderful and a devoted father. He and
Venie went to America in 1899 for their honeymoon with John Bainton
who went on business.
He,
George, and his brother Murray bought a property in the country at
Wallenbean near Yass. This was not a success and the partnership was
split up. Alan and I went there as children.
Great
War 1
In
1913 all business was getting difficult and George had a nervous
break-down. To help him Venie and he went to England to see
relations. On the way back the Great War I broke out and the ship
"Beltana" had to sail blacked out round Cape Horn 1914.
George's
Death
George's
condition got worse on his return and all the business and shipping
troubles were had during the war. George was in and out of hospital
and felt himself too big a burden to the family so he committed
suicide on July 15th, 1915. This left Mother (Venie) in a terrible
state and we children were inconsolable as we all adored him as a
wonderful father.
Uncle
Harvey Welman
At
this stage Mother's brother Uncle Harvey and his son of 9-11 came to
stay with us as he was divorced from his wife. She was a lovely
red-haired young woman and fell in love with a friend of Uncle
Harvey's and went off and married him. Not long after that Uncle
Harvey committed suicide leaving Mother to have little Harvey. There
was a family feud over little Harvey as his mother wanted him and
Venie's relations thought that she should not rear him. Mother
(Venie) fought for Harvey to go to his own mother which he did, and
had a wonderful step-father.
Auntie
Elsie Welman
Mother
had only one sister Elsie, younger than Venie. She was very fond of
Vera (Pop) who was called Elsie after her. She nicknamed Vera her
sweet "Poppy" and this has stuck for life. She came to
Okinya to look after 5 of us 1914. While Mother and Dad went to
England. She had finished her nursing at Royal Prince Alfred. As
Mother and Dad sailed across the harbour in front of Okinya we all
went onto the veranda and waved towels. Jean was in the kitchen and
pulled the big wooden safe onto herself and had a big cut on her
forehead. When Mother and Dad got home from England Auntie Elsie
joined the British Nursing Service and went to England. She was first
on the hospital ship "Panama" and received the first
wounded men evacuated from Gallipoli. The ship was fitted for 300
men, but 600 came abroad and with shocking wounds. She met a
bush-brother, Arthur White, returning from the war and he gave up his
church vows of celibacy and married her and had a Parish in
Melbourne. They had one son John who joined the army and fought in
Korea.
“Na"
"Na"
is Danish for "Grandmother", and she was called Na by us as
children as she was Mother's grandmother, and great-grandmother to
us. She was the daughter of one of the earliest settlers on a
property near Wagga and as she was a local beauty was first married
at 16 to a Mr Bourke. She had two young daughters by him, Clara and
Constance, the latter being Mother's (Venie's) mother. Her husband
became ill on the property and a rider was sent 70 miles for a
doctor. The doctor rode back the 70 miles to find the patient had
died of a ruptured appendix. Later Na married a second time a Mr
Thompson, and after his death married a third time, Mr Scriven. He
died leaving her a widow of course. We children used to ask her "What
was Mr Scriven like?" She would chair up herself and say, "A
fine upstanding man!" Mother had told us he was so bad tempered
he used to throw furniture at her. She lived in boarding houses round
King's Cross for years till she became too crippled to manage alone.
So she came to live with us at Okinya about 1916. The boys called her
"Snow". because of her white hair and she used to shake it
out and rattle her teeth at Jack and Jean to frighten them. She'd
catch them by the legs with her hooked walking sticks and say "Come
here, you little devils." She died in 1926 aged 86. She used to
do the most splendid drawn thread work and we all still have some
from 1900 or before
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