Clerk with a "velvet fist"

If the title 'Father of Modern Campbelltown' was given out, most agree there could only be one candidate - Harley James Daley.

As Town Clerk for a whopping 41 years, he ran the Council with a velvet fist and watched over Campbelltown as it grew from 8000 people into a city of more than 130,000.

The only break in his term came with World War II when he joined the ill-fated 8th Division, was captured by the Japanese, and spent three and a half years in Changi Prison.

Beginning his career as a junior clerk at Colo Shire in 1920, Harley was later appointed Town Clerk of a united Campbelltown Council.

The Campbelltown Agricultural Society, Lions Club, Golf Club, RSL, Masonic Lodge, regional hospitals and countless sporting groups can tell tales of his involvement, and in 1961 he was awarded the MBE for his services.

Harley admitted to being 'the proudest man in Campbelltown' on his retirement in 1971 when the Council named the new city library in his honour. He died in 1987.

Extracted from, Campbelltown Clippings, 1993. Published by Campbelltown City Council. Reproduced with the permission of the author, Jeff McGill.

Frederick George James Fisher was born in London on 28 August 1792. He worked as a shopkeeper until, either innocently or deliberately, he obtained forged banknotes through his business. On 26 July 1815, Fred was sentenced to 14 years transportation to Australia. In 1822 he applied for a ticket-of-leave and eventually secured a property at Campbelltown, where he soon prospered.

What happened to Fred Fisher?

In 1825 Fred had an argument with a local carpenter and received a light prison sentence. Worried about his farm, Fred gave his neighbour, George Worrall, power of attorney during his sentence. After his release, on 17 June 1826, Fred Fisher mysteriously disappeared and George Worrall announced that Fred had sailed for England. Three week´s later, George sold Fred´s horse and belongings. Needless to say the townspeople were suspicious.

Almost four months after the mysterious disappearance of local farmer, Fred Fisher, in 1826 a strange occurrence took place in a local hotel. On that memorable night, a wealthy and respectable farmer, John Farley, stumbled into a local hotel in a state of shock. John claimed he had seen the ghost of Fred Fisher sitting on the rail of a bridge over a creek. The ghost pointed to a paddock down the creek then faded away.

The body of Fred Fisher was later discovered in the paddock where the ghost had pointed. His brother buried him locally in St Peter´s Graveyard, however no headstone was erected.

On 17 September 1826, George Worrall was arrested on suspicion of Fred´s murder. During the trial George confessed - even though the tale of the ghostly sighting could not be told in court, as stories of the supernatural were not permitted in a court of law.

In a strange twist of fate, George Worrall is now buried at one of Australia´s most popular locations overlooking Sydney Harbour at The Rocks.

"Finding Fred Fisher" narrated by Andrew Allen from Campbelltown Library

The Legend of Fisher's Ghost is one of Australia's most well-known ghost stories

Since John Farley first told the story of his encounter with the spectre, tales of the ghost have inspired writers, artists, poets, songwriters and film producers, and captivated the imagination of generations. The story of Frederick Fisher and his Ghost has been documented by many, including Charles Dickens, and J.W. Downing in his 300-page typewritten manuscript titled "Call Not Tomorrow Thine: The Story of Fred Fisher."

You can learn more about Fisher and the manuscript here.

From a pamphlet by A. Robinson of Leumeah High School

"Honest John" Kidd was “consistently straight forward and possessed all of the rugged charm of a Scotsman who had come a youth to a young and almost unknown country and had carved a career for himself by methods of undeviating honesty…” said the Sydney Morning Herald on his death at Campbelltown on 8th April, 1919.¹

How did John Kidd earn his nickname? Why was his death reported in such an important newspaper? What did he have to do with Campbelltown?

Born a son of a cobbler in the small town of Brechin in Scotland, John Kidd began work at an early age. He attended night school to improve his education. Aged 18 years, he then migrated to Sydney on the “Mary Anne” and began a bakery in Sydney. In 1860, three years after arriving in the colony, he married Sophie Collier and moved to Campbelltown.

John Kidd’s reputation for honesty soon won him many customers and he expanded his business into a general store. About this time dairying became important in the district and John Kidd acquired land.

The well-known Blair Athol house was built for him in the 1880’s and on this farm he bred Ayrshire cattle. Later Kidd became a director of the Farmers and Dairymen’s Milk Co Ltd. The equally well known St Andrews farm at Minto was also owned by him.

As a resident of Campbelltown, John Kidd interested himself in all kinds of things. He was very involved in the Presbyterian Church and the local School of Arts. In 1870 he was a appointed a magistrate and served as a chairman of the local Licensing branch. He was a foundation member of the Masonic lodge in Campbelltown and became the first Patron of the Campbelltown Agricultural Society.

In 1876 J.P. Fowler and John Kidd provided ninety school pupils with “a bag of sweetmeats and lollies…upon each bag was printed ‘opening of the Public School Campbelltown Jan 11th, 1876’.” John Kidd remained on the school board for the next twenty-five years.

By now, Honest John as he was nicknamed was becoming well known and respected enough to be asked to run as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly of the NSW Parliament. Elected to the seat of Nepean in 1880, he still found time for local affairs. As a member of the steering committee, to form a town council, Honest John saw the first council incorporated in 1881. The population was 688.

Sir George Dibbs, the premiere of NSW, asked Honest John to be the Postmaster General in 1891. In 1901 after being re-elected to the new seat of Camden (defeated in 1895) he became Minister for Mines and Agriculture.

Retiring in 1904, Honest John continued to supervise his farms at Campbelltown until his death at 81 years of age. On hearing of his death, Sir Edmund Barton M.L.A. said "I always found him to be a loyal colleague and a strictly upright public man."

References

¹:April 9, 1919 (Page 12 of 20). (1919, Apr 09). The Sydney Morning Herald (1842-2002)
https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/april-9-1919-page-12-20/docview/2569573822/se-2

John Macarthur (c. 1767 -1834)

The son of a Scottish draper, John Macarthur was instrumental in pioneering the Australian Wool industry.

At 15, John won a commission in the British army, a regiment formed to serve in the American War of Independence but the war ended and he was put on half pay. Later, being posted to Gibraltar he made approaches to the War Office and secured a lieutenant position in the N.S.W. Corp in 1785. In 1793 the Governor awarded him 100 acres of land near Parramatta, some of the "best ground that has been discovered'. After clearing and cultivating 50 acres he was awarded another 100, the following year as a reward.

Macarthur is noted to have had a short temper and after the favourable acquiescence of Governor Grose and successor William Paterson tensions grew between the new Governor Hunter and those who came after. He was particularly instrumental in the Bligh Rebellion.

In 1805 Macarthur claimed the prime grazing land of Cowpastures which had water supplied by the Nepean River. He named it Camden park in honour of Lord Camden who earlier, had given permission for his resignation from the army and who gave his continued patronage thereafter.

Macarthur participated in the Agricultural Society, the Bank of Australia and the Australian and Sydney colleges where disagreements soon followed. His last appointment was to the reformed Legislative Council in 1829 where he remained until 1832. Governor Richard Bourke had him removed on grounds he had been "pronounced a lunatic," there being "little hope of his restoration."

Macarthur died on 11 April 1834. He was buried at Camden Park.

Elizabeth Macarthur (nee Veale (1766 - 1850))

Elizabeth was born on the 14 of August in Devon, England. She married Captain John Macarthur in 1788 and just over a year later sailed from England with their baby son, Edward.

On her arrival she found life in the colony difficult. Food was scarce and so rationed. Even so Elizabeth remained cheerful and busied herself with various studies including botany, astronomy and piano.

John Macarthur was granted 40 hectares at Parramatta in 1793 naming it Elizabeth farm. Elizabeth remarked that the house they built there was "a very excellent brick building."

Together John and Elizabeth had seven more children Elizabeth (1792-1842), James (1793-1794), John (1794-1831), Mary (b. 1795) James (1798-1867), William (1800-1882) and Emmeline (b.1808).

Her husband was twice absent from the colony between 1801-1805 and 1809-1817. During this time Elizabeth showed great fortitude and resilience as she controlled the farming operations and making many improvements. She made sure that stumps were cleared to make ploughing easier; sold hay and won the respect of the farmhands the majority of which were convicts.

In 1850 her granddaughter wrote of her “Through all the difficulties and trials that beset her path, her Christian spirit shines forth, and in all her letters to her children, with whom she corresponded regularly until her death, there is found no complaining or ill-natured word."

Elizabeth Macarthur died in her son-in law’s house at Clovelly on the 9th of February 1850. She was buried at Camden Park.

Bibliography

Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1824) was Governor of the penal colony of NSW from 1810 to 1822.

During his time as governor, he and his wife Elizabeth Henrietta Macquarie (nee Campbell, 1778-1835) made many tours of the colonies. These journeys are documented in his journals available online via the Macquarie University website.

Several of his exploratory tours were to the district known as "Airds," where he chose the site for modern day Campbelltown. Macquarie was encouraged by the fertile land of the surrounding district and the promising start made by several early European industrious land grantees.

On 8 November, 1810 Governor Macquarie and his party inspected the Minto district. He visited such farms in the Campbelltown area as Throsby (Glenfield), Meehan (Macquarie Fields), Brooks (Denham Court), Dr Townson (Varroville) and Thompson (St Andrews).

Thompson and Townson’s farms were on the best soils and bounded by ‘a large creek of brackish water called "Bunbury Curran”. Macquarie inspected in detail the property of St Andrews noting the animals, buildings and soils.

Lachlan Macquarie founded the town of "Campbelltown" on Friday 1st December 1820 and named it after his wife's maiden name "Campbell," a famous clan in Scotland. Many of the suburb and street names in the district reflect the Scottish ancestry of this couple. He formally marked the boundaries of the township, including the school, church and burial ground.

Want to know more?

From the online edition of The Australian Dictionary of Biography, see Elizabeth Macquarie and Lachlan Macquarie.

Read the Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archives on the Macquarie University website.

History of our suburbs further explores how and why they got their names.

Born in Cooldery, Ireland in 1774, James was transported for a minor offence involving the Irish rebellion of 1798, possibly even leaving a wife a children behind. A petition by Meehan in 1799 describes himself as a "Schoolmaster and surveyor." He also asserts that he was a sergeant with the United Irishmen.

In 1800 James arrived in Sydney aboard the Friendship. His experience as a surveyor was used by the Acting Surveyor General, Charles Grimes. With a heavy workload Grimes soon fell ill leaving his assistant Meehan to do much of the work. In 1803 Grimes recovered but left for England leaving Meehan the only qualified surveyor in the colony for the next three years.

From 1803 to 1820 Meehan marked not only farms but roads, rivers and creeks, much of it in harsh rugged country where he became as much an explorer as experienced surveyor. He also marked towns, churches and burial grounds.

1805 saw Meehan surveying the track used by John Warby between Prospect and Cowpastures. He also marked out 5000 acres for John Macarthur at Camden Park. It was during this year he gained a conditional pardon and upon the return of Grimes an absolute Pardon.

Meehan was granted 340 acres of land in the district of Minto in 1809. He was to have called it Thomas Town after his only son but the grant was withdrawn after a review by Macquarie. In 1810, however, Macquarie did grant Meehan 1140 acres to be known by the name "Macquarie Field."

An official public notice in the Sydney Gazette of 1811 asks all persons who have been promised lands in the districts of Minto, Airds or Appin to meet the acting-surveyor, at Mr Robert Campbell’s stockyard and to bring blankets and 10-12 days provisions "to enable them to remain out with the surveyor for as long as may be necessary."

James Meehan very nearly became the Surveyor-General in 1812, recommended by Macquarie himself but John Oxley, a naval officer, petitioned the British government persistently from the very day Grimes resigned and won the post much to Meehan’s and Macquarie’s disappointment.

Meehan mortgaged Macquarie field to the bank of NSW in 1819 for £500.

In 1820 James Meehan was asked by Macquarie if he would let his Macquarie Field house to be used as an academy for the upper-class youth of the colony, it was to be conducted by Rev Thomas Reddall. Meehan agreed so long as he could keep two rooms for himself.

In 1824 a plot was hatched by convicts and bushrangers to liberate the convicts. To achieve this end they intended to rob various properties in the area and outfit themselves with equipment including a compass, quadrant and some guns. They felt sure they could find the navigational tools at Meehan’s house. When the plotters arrived they found the window locked and they went no further.

On the way back along Campbelltown Road a man named Leach met one of the plotters and told him "not to have anything to do with Mr Meehan’s property for if they did he could soon overtake them - being so well acquainted with the bush."

James had children with Ruth Goodair. His son, Thomas was born in 1808 and a daughter, Mary in 1810 though sadly she died in 1823.

Macquarie wrote of Meehan in 1817: "there is not a more useful officer serving under this Government, being particularly well qualified for the office of Deputy Surveyor General from his perfect knowledge in that particular line, his local and extensive knowledge of every part of this Territory and his intimate acquaintance with the history and cause of every grant or lease ever made in the colony since its first establishment.”

The strain of his work took its toll and in 1821 and Meehan tendered his resignation though it was not accepted till the following year.

He died at Macquarie Field on the 21 of April 1826. His Macquarie Fields estate was now 2400 acres with several tenants farming the land. Thomas, his eighteen year old son, inherited the property. Until his 21st birthday it was to be managed by Charles Throsby and William Redfern the trustee and neighbour. Unfortunately, Throsby committed suicide and Redfern went overseas. When Thomas Meehan finally came into his inheritance there were only debts and he was forced to sell Macquarie Fields in 1831. The stress broke young Mary Ann, Thomas’ wife of two years, who was committed to Liverpool Asylum from 1831 until her death in 1876.

Thomas Meehan served briefly as postmaster at Campbelltown and died in 1835, aged 27, leaving two infant daughters.

Bibliography

"Mad" Dan Morgan as he is most famously known was born on the 30th April, 1830 in Appin. Not much is known about his early life but what we do know is that Dan was the illegitimate son of Mary Owen and George Fuller. Well known characters in the area, his mother gained the name of "the Gypsy" for her complexion and his father sold fruit and vegetables.

From the age of two until 17 Morgan lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts, known around town as "the Welshman." Supposedly, Dan Morgan attended a Catholic School in Campbelltown. It is said that he only ever learnt if he was coerced and even at this young age was considered "bad."

Although a poor student, he had a great affinity with animals, in particular horses allowing him to become a horseman with great ability. As an adult he worked from place to place as a stockman. Those he came into contact with said he had a very quick temper. The gold rush of the era attracted him to Victoria where he soon gained the reputation of a horse thief.

In 1854 Morgan was back in Campbelltown and staying at ‘the Welshmans’ hut. Idling for some months he decides to visit his mother in Ballarat and so steals two horses for the journey. He was reportedly chased for some miles by Campbelltown police but he eluded them.

Morgan was charged with armed robbery and sentenced to twelve years prison on the 10 June 1854. After just six years he gained a ticket-of–leave but broke his parole conditions by not reporting to police as instructed. Morgan instead lived by himself near the King River, stealing what he needed and duffing (rustling) the occasional horse. One of these horses belonged to a man named John Evans. Together with his neighbour E.M. Bond, who also had horses missing, they tracked Morgan down and while they wounded him he survived. Morgan did not forget.

On the night of the 2nd of April 1865, after years of crime Morgan crossed the border into Victoria determined to exact revenge on Evans and Bond. On the 6th he set alight haystacks on Evan’s station. He bailed up anyone rushing from the house but Evan’s was not home.

Morgan had heard talk of a fine racehorse nearby and endeavoured to steal it. Having had no sleep for five nights, he arrived at Peechelba Station near Wangaratta where he asked (at gunpoint) for some food and a horse to take him back over the border. The family’s daughters played piano for the bushranger while two servants went to get help.

By 8 am on the 9th April, ten police and volunteers had the homestead surrounded. When Morgan stepped out and approached them he was shot and taken to a nearby woolshed where he died later that afternoon.

The coroner had the bushranger decapitated and his head sent to a scientist for study. His beard was also cut off and became a souvenir.

Over his lifetime, Morgan had accumulated a number of aliases including: William John Owen, Bill the Native, John Smith, Dan Moran, William Morgan, Big Morgan "Down the River Jack" and "Terror of the Riverina" but he will be best remembered as "Mad" Dan Morgan.

References

Rose Hannah Payten, known to her friends as “Babe” is considered by many to have been Campbelltown’s most outstanding sporting personality.

Born at Woodbine, which stood on Campbelltown Road at Leumeah, in 1880, Rose Payten was the only girl in a family of five boys. Her brothers were all keen sportsmen, and although she participated in cricket, golf, horse riding and shooting, tennis proved to be her main delight. Whilst a pupil at Normanhurst private school in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, Rose’s natural ability at tennis enabled her to beat any of the other girls.

In 1898, whilst still a school girl, she competed in the New South Wales Open Tennis Tournament, but was defeated in the semi-finals. The Sydney Week by Week magazine said of her:

“Miss Payten is a bright, lively, little lady … tanned and freckled with the sun, with pretty fair hair, laughing light eyes and very white teeth. She wore an ankle-length dark blue serge dress, tan shoes, black stockings, a large sailor hat with a Katoomba ribbon, and a free and unembarrassed manner.”

In 1899 she again competed in the New South Wales Open, but was narrowly defeated in the final by reigning champion, Miss P Hewitt, the score being 3-6, 10-8, 7-5. In 1900, she won the New South Wales singles championship, defeating Miss Dight 6-0, 6-2 in the final, and Mrs Cater 6-1, 6-1 in the Challenge Round.

The Sydney Morning Herald described her style as free and graceful, and said that her play off the ground or on the volley was invincible.

In 1901 Rose again won the singles title, partnered H M Rice to win the mixed doubles title, and partnered Miss Dransfield to win the women’s doubles title. To have won all three titles was an unprecedented feat, but Rose repeated her successes in 1902, 1903, and 1904. She also won all three titles at the Victoria Championships in 1903 and at the Queensland Championships in 1904.

It was at this Queensland Tournament that Rose Payten performed a most remarkable feat. She competed in the handicap event and in the final she played a Miss Goodwin, who at the time was classed as one of the three best Queensland players. Miss Goodwin was placed on a handicap of +40 and Rose on a handicap of -40. This meant that Miss Goodwin had only to win one point to take a game, whereas Rose had to win eight consecutive points. With an exhibition of accurate power tennis, Rose was able to win the handicap event as well.

There was no New South Wales Open held in 1905, and at the time of the 1906 championships, Rose was too ill to defend her singles title. So as not to let her partners down, however, she competed in the women’s and mixed doubles. Of the women’s doubles, the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

“… Misses Payten and Jones are still the champion pair of the state. Miss Payten though out of health and too weak to run, was too skilful for her opponents who were compelled to cramp their game so as to get everything to Miss Jones. The latter’s play was very strong, and her hard drives continually compelled her opponents to lift the ball to Miss Payten who skilfully put it out of reach.”

Of the mixed doubles, the Sydney Morning Herald said:

“This year Miss Payten was but a pale image of her usual self, and to those who know her play it was almost painful to see her reduced by sickness to an absolute inability to run for a ball out of her reach. Still she played a fine skilful game, and she and her partner were only just beaten after two close sets.”

In the same year, Rose Payten competed in the Strathfield Tournament, which in New South Wales was rated almost as important as the New South Wales Open, and again she won the three titles. She also won the Triple Crown at the Western Australian Open in 1906.

In 1907, Rose Payten repeated her performances of 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904. The Sydney Morning Herald, in its report of the mixed doubles, said:

“Miss Payten’s play was as effective as ever. She and A B Jones had an easy win from S Jones and Miss M Jones … Miss Payten’s skill in volleying (she follows her service to the net, and with good effect) made her and Jones as good as any men’s doubles pair.”

When it is considered that at this time Australasia held the Davis Cup, this was indeed very high praise for Rose Payten.

Immediately after the New South Wales Championships of 1907, Rose Payten announced her retirement from competitive tennis, acting on doctor’s advice. From 1900 to 1907, she was never once beaten in singles play, and was without doubt the best woman player in Australia during this time. The Town and Country Journal said of her:

“The Ladies Championship again went to Miss Payten, and this young lady is classed above all her opponents … Certainly no better lady player has ever been seen in Australia.”

After retiring from competition tennis, Rose joined her two brothers, Percy and Jim, in breeding and training harness ponies. For many years her ponies won major prizes at the Campbelltown and Camden shows. In 1922 she took two of her ponies to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, where she won three second prizes. In subsequent years her awards were as follows:

• 1923 Two first prizes and champion harness pony.
• 1924 One first prize, one second prize, one third prize.
• 1925 One second prize, two third prizes.
• 1926 Three first prizes, one second prize.
• 1927 Three first prizes, one second prize, one third prize and champion harness pony.

Although she continued to exhibit at the Campbelltown Show for several more years, 1927 was the last year that Rose entered her ponies at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

During these years Rose had also developed a keen interest in the game of golf. She was a member of the Kensington Club (now The Australian Golf Club), and in the 1920s she was instrumental in the formation of the Campbelltown Associates Golf Club, which played on the golf course at the corner of Camden and Menangle Roads.

With her knowledge of the game and its rules, she was selected Club Captain at the initial meeting, a position she held for a number of years. In 1930, Rose Payten won the Ladies Championship. A Sydney paper, “The Evening News,” reported her victory:

“Back in 1900 a girl from the country flashed into the tennis firmament of the Metropolis and trailed a path of glory for several years. She was Miss Rose Payten of Campbelltown, who won the Ladies Singles Championship of that year, and triple honours – singles, doubles and mixed doubles – in 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1907; unprecedented achievements that have never been repeated. This week Miss Payten came back into the limelight by winning the Ladies Golf Championship of Campbelltown Club.”

Having won the championship in 1930, she repeated her effort in 1931, 1934, 1936, 1938 and 1939. She was also successful in winning the foursomes championship in 1934 and 1938.

Rose Payten was also an Associate member of the Australian Golf Club, and for a number of years she served on the committee of the ladies Golf Union of New South Wales, She was also very active in organising the Ladies Country Week Tournament.

At the age of 71 years, Rose Payten died at Woodbine on 9 May 1951 and is buried in St Peter’s Anglican cemetery, Campbelltown. The Campbelltown Golf Associates still play annually for two trophies in her memory – the Rose Payten Cup and the Rose Payten Silver Salver.

Not only was Rose Payten an extremely talented sportswoman, but she was also a very capable sports administrator, who during her life endeavoured to promote good sportsmanship and friendship. She remains one of Campbelltown’s finest ever sporting personalities, having enjoyed a career that was truly remarkable.

Rose Hannah Payten - Sportswoman Extraordinaire

Thomas Reddall (1780-1838), clergyman and educationist, was the son of Luke Reddall, of Aldridge, Staffordshire, England. He was educated for three years at Alban Hall, Oxford, in preparation for a colonial chaplaincy, was ordained on 19 December 1819, and next day appointed assistant chaplain to New South Wales.

Reddall arrived in Sydney with his wife, Isabella, and seven children on 14 September 1820. Two other daughters were born in the colony. Reddall immediately made a marked impression.

At the end of 1820 Castle Meehan at Macquarie Fields was rented for him at the high figure of £180 a year. He opened a private school there and two of his first pupils were the son of Lachlan Macquarie and the son of Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell, of Van Diemen's Land. In May 1821 he began duty as clergyman for the districts of Airds, Appin and Minto, and he was made a magistrate in August. In 1822 he became incumbent of the new Church of St Peter at Campbelltown. In January 1824 the Male and Female Orphan Schools and the Native Institution were brought under the joint administration of a committee of three, of whom Reddall was one. On 18 August 1824, on account of 'the languishing state of education', Reddall was appointed to the imposing position of director-general of all the government public schools, and the extra salary he received was greater than that of a chaplain. First Macquarie and then Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, sometimes in excess of their powers, were lavish in assisting him with land, cattle and finance. When Archdeacon Thomas Scott arrived in June 1825 as King's Visitor to the schools, Reddall was supernumerary but remained director-general until 6 February 1826. Next month all government schools passed under the control of the Church and School Corporation and Reddall's connexion with them ceased.

Reddall was commissioned to introduce the Madras system into the public schools of New South Wales, and he drew a salary as schoolmaster and director-general as well as his salary as chaplain for over five years. At the end of that period, however, the only schools using the system were the two in Sydney, the two orphan schools, and his own parish school at Campbelltown, and even these were not wholly the result of Reddall's efforts. It had taken only a brief period to complete a similar change in Van Diemen's Land. What promised to be a brilliant career ended in sterility. He was all too eager to rush into rural pursuits. He was using his glebe before there was a church. His private boys' school, begun so favourably, soon changed into a girls' school conducted by his wife and daughters. Instead of a parsonage he built his own home, Glen Alpine, two miles (3.2 km) outside Campbelltown, and essayed a social status somewhat beyond his means. He overreached himself in his rural activities and ran into financial difficulties. A man of taste and refinement with a bright and active mind, an excellent conversationalist, cultured and capable, with a pleasing personality, he misused his talents. He died on 30 November 1838.

Extract from Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967 by V. W. E. Goodin.

William Redfern, the surgeon, was probably born in Canada, and brought up at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. In June 1797 after passing the examination of the London Company of Surgeons, (the predecessor of the Royal College of Surgeons), he was commissioned as a surgeon's mate in the navy. He joined H.M.S. Standard, whose crew a few months later took part in the mutiny of the fleet at the Nore, which followed the success of the mutiny of the Channel Fleet at Spithead. In the course of the trouble Redfern advised the men 'to be more united among themselves', so he was included among the leaders to be tried by court martial. On 27 August a court sentenced him to death, but because of his youth he was reprieved. He was kept in prison for four years until sent to New South Wales on the Minorca, on whose indent his name is bracketed with thirteen others as 'Mutineers'. On board he helped the surgeon and reached Sydney on 14 December 1801.

In 1808, Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Foveaux appointed him assistant surgeon owing to "the distressed state of the colony for medical aid" since "his skill and ability in his profession are unquestionable, and his conduct has been such as to deserve particular approbation."

As he had no documentary evidence of his professional qualifications, surgeons Thomas Jamison, John Harris and William Bohan examined him in 'Medicine, surgery and other necessary collateral branches of medical literature'. They found him 'qualified to exercise the Profession of a Surgeon etc.'; the examination set a precedent followed for many years for testing anyone who wished to practise medicine in the colony.

During 1809 Redfern attended John Macarthur's daughter and earned her father's deep gratitude for 'the skill he … manifested in discovering and applying an efficacious remedy to her extraordinary disease'. Macarthur promised to use his influence in Redfern's favour 'whenever Mr. Bligh's affair is settled', but by that time Governor Lachlan Macquarie had recommended the confirmation of Redfern's appointment, and to this the secretary of state agreed.

Redfern conducted a daily out-patient clinic for men from the convict gangs. He also had the most extensive private practice in the colony, for he was the most popular doctor in the settlement and his services were widely sought. He was the family doctor to the Macarthur's and the Macquarie's and attended the birth of Governor Macquarie's son. His professional skill was highly regarded by his colleagues and he had the reputation of being the best obstetrician in the colony.

Since Redfern was concerned with convict health it was natural that he should have been asked to investigate the heavy mortality suffered on the calamitous voyages of the convict transports Surry, General Hewitt and Three Bees in 1814. His report is one of the major Australian contributions to public health. His recommendations on the ventilation, cleanliness and fumigation of the ships, on the diet and clothing of the prisoners and the need for permitting them on deck were all important, but even more noteworthy was his insistence on the need for 'approved and skilful' surgeons in each ship and for defining clearly their powers vis-à-vis the ships' masters. To provide men for this service he recommended naval surgeons, 'Men of abilities, who have been accustomed to sea practice, who know what is due to themselves as men, and as officers with full power to exercise their judgment, without being liable to the control of the masters of the transports'. This advice was followed and the appointment of surgeon-superintendents of convict, and later emigrant, ships put an end to most of the abuses of the past.

Redfern always took an active part in the life of New South Wales. He was an honorary medical officer of the Benevolent Society, a member of its committee and that of the Aborigines' Institution. He was one of the first directors of the Bank of New South Wales. He and his wife had an estate of 100 acres (40 ha) which gave the name of Redfern to the Sydney suburb which later developed about it. In 1818 he was granted 1300 acres (526 ha) in the Airds district. This he called Campbell Fields in honour of Mrs Macquarie, and it was praised by Bigge as one of the best developed properties in the colony.

He was one of the greatest of the early medical practitioners of the colony, the first to receive an Australian qualification, the first teacher of Australian medical students, and the author of important reforms in the convict transports. Nevertheless, as a result of his youthful actions at the Nore, which, however justified, were naturally resented by the government, his later important services in New South Wales were ill requited.

Extract from Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967 by Edward Ford.

James Ruse was born in Launceston, Cornwall in 1760 where he gained the rudiments of farming.

At the Bodmin Assizes in 1782 he was convicted of breaking and entering. This Capital sentence was changed to transportation for seven years, but because of the loss of the American colonies, he spent five years on the hulks at Plymouth.

When it was decided to establish a penal colony in New South Wales he was sent out with the first fleet in 1787 on the Scarborough. He claimed to have been the first man to set foot on shores of Botany Bay in 1788 when he carried Captain John Hunter ashore.

In July 1789 he claimed that his sentence had expired and soon afterwards he applied for a land grant. Governor Phillip did not at first give him a grant, but in November permitted him to occupy an allotment near Parramatta. The title to that grant was withheld until his capacity as a farmer and his right to freedom had been proved. The governor made this concession partly because he knew Ruse to be industrious and partly because he was anxious to discover how long it would take an emancipist to become self-sufficient. They were supplied with provisions, clothing, seed, implements, livestock, a hut and assistance in clearing a small area of land.

James Ruse married Elizabeth Perry at Parramatta in 1790 and they successfully farmed their land. In February 1791, Ruse received 30 acres in Land Grant Number 1 and by the end of the year Ruse, his wife and child no longer needed food from the government store.

In October 1793 he sold his farm to Surgeon Harris for £40. In January 1794 he obtained the first land grant in the Hawkesbury area, which he sold in 1798 for £300. Another grant at Pitt Town Bottoms which he obtained in 1797 he sold in 1809.

In 1800 he purchased twenty acres facing the river near North Richmond but because of heavy losses due to floods in 1800 and 1801, he sold it to Richard Cheers. In 1809 he successfully obtained a land grant in Bankstown, and in 1819 he received a grant of 100 acres at Riverstone.

By 1825 he was recorded as owning a mere ten acres of land, and in 1824 was working as an overseer for Captain Brooks at Lower Minto. In 1834 he was living at Macquarie Fields.James Ruse died on 5th September 1837, his seventy-seventh birthday. During his last months he occupied himself with the melancholy task of carving his story on his own tombstone.

It reads (spelling mistakes included):

TO THE MEMEREY OF JAMES RUSE WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE sept 5th IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1837 NATEF OF CORNWELL AND ARRIVED IN THIS COLENEY BY THE FORST FLEET AGED 77 MY MOTHER REREAD ME TENDERLEY WITH ME SHE TOCK MUCH PAINES AND WHEN I ARIVED IN THIS COELNEY IS OWD THE EORST GRAIN AND NOW WITH MY HEAVENLY FATHER I HOPE FOR EVER TO REMAIN

He is buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Church, Campbelltown.

- from a pamphlet distributed in the 1980’s and an information sheet prepared by: L. Gapps, R.J. Meredith, B. Mitchell and G.Waller.

Reference

Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Joseph Therry, Catholic priest, the son of John Therry, of Cork, Ireland, and his wife Eliza, née Connolly, was educated privately and at St Patrick's College, Carlow. Ordained priest in 1815, he was assigned to parochial work in Dublin and then Cork, where he became secretary to the bishop, Dr Murphy. His interest in Australia, aroused by the transportation of Irish convicts and the publicity surrounding the forced return of Father Jeremiah O'Flynn in 1818, came to the notice of Bishop Edward Bede Slater, whom Pius VII had appointed vicar-apostolic of the 'Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, Mauritius, and New Holland with the adjacent islands'. At the same time the Colonial Office had consented under the pressure of radical demand, the increasing influence of the Irish hierarchy and the somewhat diffident promptings of Bishop Poynter, vicar-apostolic of the London district, to send two official Roman Catholic chaplains to New South Wales. Recommended by his own bishop as a capable, zealous and 'valuable young man', Therry sailed from Cork under a senior priest, Father Philip Conolly, in the Janus, which carried more than a hundred prisoners. They arrived in Sydney, authorized by both church and state, in May 1820.

Therry described his life in Australia for the next forty-four years as 'one of incessant labour very often accompanied by painful anxiety'. Popular, energetic and restless, he appreciated from the beginning the delicacy of his role. He had to be at once a farseeing pastor making up for years of neglect, a conscientious official of an autocratic British colonial system, and a pragmatic Irish supporter of the democratic freedoms. Though respectful of authority and grateful for co-operation, he was impatient of any curtailment of what he considered his own legal or social rights as a Catholic priest in a situation governed by extraordinary circumstances.

The immediate tasks of instruction, visitation and administration of the Sacraments went ahead, and Governor Lachlan Macquarie's initial attitude of executive peremptoriness combined with abrupt, detailed regulation gave way to a gruff but friendly trust. Commissioner John Thomas Bigge was courteous and helpful. In 1821 Father Conolly, an eccentric temperamentally incompatible with his companion, went to Van Diemen's Land, leaving Therry for five seminal years the only priest on the mainland. Articulate and thorough, he set himself the task of attending to every aspect of the moral and religious life of the Catholics. He travelled unceasingly, living with his scattered people wherever they were to be found, sometimes using three or four horses in a day.

His influence was impressive among the Protestant settlers and outstanding among the convicts. His correspondence shows the trust they placed in him. For the rest of his life he was banker, adviser and arbitrator to many of them as well as spiritual director and community leader. He also early formed a lasting interest in the Aboriginals, who became very attached to him. He pleaded the cause of their education to Governor (Sir) Ralph Darling and in 1834 wrote to the governor's private secretary renewing his offer of services and accommodation.

The building of a church in Sydney, planned from the first days of the chaplaincy, was one of Therry's main preoccupations. The assistance or substantial tolerance of the leading colonists was assured, and on 29 October 1821 Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone of St Mary's Church on a site he had assigned at the edge of Hyde Park, near the convict barracks. Francis Greenway made himself available for consultation on the architecture and construction. John Campbell, John Piper and Frederick Goulburn were regularly involved in the organization of subscriptions. Government help was promised, but Therry was criticized for the elaborate design and size of the building, and the project quickly got out of hand financially. His accounts, never very coherent though always scrupulously maintained, became progressively more chaotic as his charities multiplied and the financing of schools and churches in Sydney, Parramatta, and the outlying townships involved him in attempts to raise funds by farming and stock-breeding. The scattered and casual nature of his dealings, the absence of a reliable and able book-keeper and his own sanguine character made financial crisis inevitable. His failure to separate private and public matters hampered and indeed later crippled his apostolate. But demands for his service came from the hospital, gaols, farms, the government establishments, his own day and Sunday schools, and from road-gangs and assigned convicts. He went, whenever summoned, to Wollongong, Goulburn, Maitland, Bathurst and Newcastle.

Oppressive behaviour by officials or settlers towards the soldiers or convicts angered him, particularly where religious issues were involved. He was bitterly resentful of his exclusion from certain government institutions, especially the Orphan School, where he was unhappy about children whose parents were Catholic being baptized and instructed by the Anglican chaplains. By 1824, however, the patronage of Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane and his own growing experience encouraged him to hope for impartiality and support. He was confident that, with the arrival of new priests to share his work, a remarkable expansion of Catholic practice and activity was possible. With the aid of his committees, trustees and friends, and the advent of what he termed 'a free, liberal and talented press', he began to feel secure. He had even been held up by the governor as a model of discrimination and good judgment to the zealous and horrified Presbyterian pioneer, the recently arrived Dr John Dunmore Lang.

When the British government decided on a major religious adjustment to ensure the stability and increase the influence of the straining overseas branches of the state Church, Therry along with other Dissenters found himself fighting once more for permission to carry out vital services of his ministry. In New South Wales the appointment of Archdeacon Thomas Scott was accompanied by the creation of the Church and School Corporation in 1825. In its provisions the Church of England was overwhelmingly favoured. Therry was proud of his friendship and contacts with non-Catholics and irenical rather than sectarian by conviction, but found it hard enough to cope with the demands of the ten thousand Catholics for assembly, instruction and burial without the added unwelcome prospect of perpetual disputes with the privileged Anglicans over precedence, registration, fees and access to colonial funds. Already a rallying point for religious grievance, he now became prominent in a possible opposition party. On 14 June 1825 the Sydney Gazette misquoted him as having but 'qualified' respect for 'the other Revd. Gentlemen of the Establishment'. The incident was magnified in a time of tension. Bathurst was shocked at Therry's pragmatic approach to those regulations he regarded as unjust or petty and at his open assault on religious monopoly. He was removed from his official situation as chaplain and his salary was withdrawn soon after the arrival of Governor Darling. Despite frequent and general protest he was not reinstated until 1837. However, Therry had grown accustomed to fend for himself and saw that the generosity of his friends and his countrymen would enable him to carry on much as he had done. He decided to stay and to represent his claims. His criticisms were enthusiastically taken up by William Charles Wentworth and Robert Wardell in the Australian, and Edward Smith Hall in the Monitor. Darling distrusted Therry's influence among the convicts, but decided to ignore rather than to expel him, chiefly because his removal "would in all probability have called forth some expression of the public opinion in his favour."

The withdrawal of government approval involved Therry in continual disabilities and hindrances in the exercise of his priestly functions, especially in the visitation of the sick and dying in gaols and hospitals, and in the performance of marriages. But even after the arrival of Father Daniel Power as official chaplain in December 1826 Therry remained the chief influence. The two priests had more work than they could deal with, but Therry's impetuosity and Power's inadequate health led them into a series of collisions, particularly when the building of St Mary's came to a standstill and Therry demanded more vigorous action. Father Power died in March 1830 and Therry was again left alone with his mounting debts and worries. His genius for publicity and organization is illustrated in the repeated representations made on his behalf by the principal officials and magistrates, and supported in March 1830 by over 1400 householders. Grudgingly he was permitted to act as chaplain without status or salary. His popularity and energy made it impossible for Father Christopher Dowling, who arrived in September 1831, to replace him in the public estimation, much to the chagrin of both newcomer and governor.

The arrival of Governor Bourke, the news of Catholic emancipation, the collapse of the Church and School Corporation, and the appointment first of Roger Therry as commissioner of the Court of Requests in 1829 and of John Hubert Plunkett as solicitor-general in 1832, both loyal friends of Therry, offered new opportunities for Catholic progress. Yet Therry was still frustrated and unrecognized when Father John McEncroe landed in June 1832. McEncroe was quite capable of managing the indomitable but stubborn veterans and making them lifelong colleagues and confidants. A dispute about the St Mary's land had become deadlocked through Therry's obstinacy, and disastrous litigation was in prospect when Bishop Morris, Slater's successor, appointed the English Benedictine, Father William Ullathorne, as his vicar-general in the colony. Despite his youth, Ullathorne's confidence and ecclesiastical authority enabled him to take over the reins from Therry when he arrived in February 1833. The first bishop, John Bede Polding, came in 1835 and Therry went willingly as parish priest to Campbelltown, with an area extending beyond Yass as his immediate care. By Bourke's Church Act of 1836 the principle of religious equality had been accepted in the colony, and in April 1837 he was restored to a government salary.

Father Therry’s sermons were initially celebrated under a great tree in the square at Campbelltown. The tree provided shelter from the elements for many a service during the 1820s. One such story from those times concerned the weather. On a particular occasion a dark menacing cloud began to emit large drops of sleet and water. Knowing the tree would provide limited shelter for the approaching storm, Father Therry led his congregation over to the nearby almost completed Church of England. Thus the first religious service in the Anglican Church was a Catholic Mass.

The Rector, Thomas Reddall, was very angry and demanded an apology. The reply was vintage Therry: “I have the same respect for you that I had prior to receiving your letter; you being a magistrate has no terrors for me. It is not unusual for your Church and mine to hold devine service in the same building…my church is more restrictive in discipline than yours, yet it permits such usage. I took the liberty in question, anticipating your consent…”

In April 1838 he was sent by Polding to Van Diemen's Land as vicar-general. It was intended also that he should visit Port Phillip on his way, but he did not do so, going to Launceston and thence to Hobart Town, where Father Conolly had become estranged from his people, and the usual difficulties had arisen about jurisdiction, salaries and the deeds of church land. Therry reconciled Conolly before the latter's death in August 1839. He visited the interior and attended to the convicts. His church building at Hobart and Launceston was assisted by Sir John Franklin's spasmodic patronage, but on St Joseph's Hobart, and on the schools demanded by the free settlers, he overreached himself. Loneliness, responsibility, illness and debt pressed heavily on him and he found himself again struggling for justice and religious equality in the government institutions. In July 1841 he visited Sydney briefly to get help and to try to clear up some of his business entanglements. There he was consulted by Caroline Chisholm, whom he was able to help and advise about her first plans to work among the emigrants. Though sick, he was thinking of a mission to New Zealand and perhaps the Pacific Islands, and formed an interest which in 1860 prompted him to implore Governor Sir William Denison to put an end to the Maori wars and to offer his own services as mediator.

Dr Robert Willson, the first bishop, arrived in Hobart in May 1844. He had not expected the church debts to be so great or so complicated, and the two men fell out. A long and dreary dispute arose, especially about the St Joseph's property. Neither man had much humour, and not all the goodwill they certainly possessed, or the good offices of Polding, McEncroe, Charles Swanston of the Derwent Bank, the colonial secretary or Rome itself could bring an end to the quarrel, which smouldered for fourteen miserable years. The affair became an idée fixe with Therry, who stayed on for fear that his lay trustees would be victimized or that his debts would not be met in a time of depression. In September 1846, however, he went to Melbourne as parish priest in the place of Father Patrick Geoghegan who had founded the church there. He remained until April 1847.

Therry was at Windsor in New South Wales as parish priest until June 1848 when he returned to live in Van Diemen's Land for six years. His efforts to settle affairs there were unsuccessful and, after a period of adjustment in New South Wales, he went in May 1856 to Balmain where he spent the rest of his life. Mellowed and serene, he continued to be an energetic pastor, watching the growth of the church in whose establishment he had played such a definitive part, the coming of the religious Orders, and the completion of his own church at Balmain and the first St Mary's, generously contributing whenever he could to every new development. He became spiritual director to the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent's, and in 1858 was made archpriest, taking precedence after the vicar-general. In 1859 he was elected a founding fellow of the council of St John's College within the University of Sydney. He had been given or had bought a number of properties which he tried to develop for the provision of more schools and churches for the growing Catholic community. Notable among these were his farms at Bong Bong and Albury, a property which is now the suburb of Lidcombe, and 1500 acres (607 ha) at Pittwater, where he tried unsuccessfully to mine coal.

Simple and unselfish, a firm democrat and a zealous priest, Therry was a man of large notions and considerable achievement. He was an unsophisticated man with no clear ideas of social systems or political reform. Yet his energy and persistence proved a continual source of trouble to those who opposed his ideas of what was right or possible. Of the middle class, gentle, 'pious, zealous, and obstinate', he admired but lacked the education and ability of his more vivid contemporaries. But despite his peculiarities and limitations he undertook many obligations and responsibilities which would in the circumstances have crushed greater men. His enthusiasm and sincerity assure him of a firm place among the founders of the Catholic Church and in the history of civil liberties in Australia. He firmly believed in a distant future for which he built, often regardless of existing conditions. A legend in his own lifetime, he died on 25 May 1864, and his funeral was 'certainly the most numerously attended' ever seen in Sydney to that date. His remains are now in the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral, where the Lady Chapel was erected as his memorial.

Bibliography

This article was published in the Campbelltown Macarthur Advertiser, Wednesday 5 July 2006, p.22. Reproduced here with permission of the author and editor.

My passing mention of John Warby in last week's column generated a bit of comment, given the recent death of one of his well known descendants, Les.

I'm a big John Warby fan. If a list of the 10 greatest Campbelltownians of all time was ever drawn up, I reckon pioneer John Warby would have to be a frontrunner.

Today, he is remembered by not only Warby Street, near the Old Showground, but also John Warby Public School at Airds.

So what's his story, then?

Warby was transported as a convict for theft, arriving at Sydney in 1792, and four years later, he married convict Sarah Bentley. Together, they had nine sons and five daughters. After his sentence expired, Warby was given a small land grant at Prospect where he worked hard as a wheat farmer.

But his life took a dramatic turn in 1803 when he was appointed stockman of the wild cattle grazing in the Cowpastures, the site of modern Camden.

(The path he beat between his farm and the Nepean is still known in parts as Cowpasture Road).

Warby appears to have been blessed with an easygoing streak of compassion and human dignity and forged a lifelong bond with the Tharawal Aborigines, particularly the hunters Boodbury and Bundle.

(In fact, it was Warby and Boodbury who captured the murdering bushranger, Patrick Collins, by spearing him in the leg and arm).

Warby gained increasing respect in the colony as a guide and assistant to various exploration parties.

Under Governor Bligh, he was appointed a constable, as well as a superintendent of the Cowpastures region, with full responsibility for the herds. As an amateur explorer, he was one of the first to check out The Oaks, Bargo and Burragorang Valley, and continued to be in demand as a guide.

His reputation was such that he - and his Tharawal friends - acted as personal guides to Governor Macquarie in 1810 and 1815.

When violence broke out between Gundangarra Aborigines and European settlers in 1816, Warby was once again called upon to mediate. But events spun out of control with the arrival of soldiers under Captain Wallis who saw any black face, innocent or not as the enemy.

Warby and Wallis took an instant dislike to each other, and the ex-convict's efforts to lead the redcoats on a wild goose chase in the local bush ended in stern words.

Particularly when Wallis began to view Warby's Tharawal friends as foes - and the latter arranged for them to escape.

In fact it was only after warby was removed from the situation that Wallis undertook the infamous Appin Massacre.

After the violence ended, Warby was given a land grant which he called Leumeah, an Aboriginal word for 'here I rest'. The modern suburb is named after it.

Warby and his wife raised their large family on surrounding paddocks and he became a respected town elder.

It was Warby's advice to use aboriginal trackers that led to the discovery of Fred Fisher's buried body in 1826.

The grand old pioneer died at Campbelltown in June 1851, his wife living a further 18 years.

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Kevin Arthur Wheatley, soldier, was born on 13 March 1937 at Surry Hills, Sydney, third child of Raymond George Wheatley, labourer, and his wife Ivy Sarah Ann, née Newman, both born in Sydney. Educated at Maroubra Junction Junior Technical School, Kevin worked as a milk carter, food sterilizer, machine operator and brick burner. At the registrar-general's office, Sydney, on 20 July 1954 he married a 14-year-old milk-bar assistant Edna Aileen Davis, who used her stepfather's surname, Gimson.

On 12 June 1956 Wheatley enlisted in the Australian Regular Army. Following recruit training he joined the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in September 1956 and transferred to the 3rd Battalion in March 1957. He served in the Malayan Emergency from September that year to July 1959, before transferring in August to the 2nd Battalion and in June 1961 to the 1st Battalion.

On his return from Malaya in 1959 the Wheatleys bought cheap land at Campbelltown. They moved into a place at East Campbelltown.

In January 1964 he was promoted sergeant and in August, temporary warrant officer, class two. Short and stocky, he was a highly respected and well-liked non-commissioned officer with a reputation as a rough, wild man who was a good soldier. He was known as 'Dasher' for his Rugby Union football prowess.

Arriving in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in March 1965, Wheatley joined the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. He distinguished himself on 28 May by risking heavy fire to rescue a 3-year-old girl. On 18 August, when South Vietnamese troops ceased advancing during an assault, he took the lead and inspired them to continue charging up a hill. His men routed some fifty People's Liberation Armed Forces (Viet Cong) soldiers.

Wheatley and another Australian, Warrant Officer R. J. Swanton, were on a search and destroy mission in the Tra Bong valley, Quang Ngai province, with a platoon of the Civil Irregular Defence Group on 13 November 1965 when it was attacked by the Viet Cong. Accompanying the force were Captain F. Fazekas, senior Australian Adviser, with the centre platoon. The platoon broke in the face of heavy fire and began to scatter. Swanton was shot in the chest. Although told that Swanton was dying, Wheatley refused to leave him.

Under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, he half-dragged and half-carried Swanton out of open rice paddies into the comparative safety of nearby jungle. He refused a second request to withdraw, pulled the pins from his two grenades and waited with his motionless colleague while the enemy approached. Two grenade explosions were heard, followed by several bursts of fire. Wheatley and Swanton were found at first light next morning, dead from gunshot wounds.

The Australian policy at the time was to bury war dead overseas but Wheatley's body was returned to Australia after funds were raised privately. Survived by his wife, and their son and three daughters, he was buried with full military honours in Pine Grove cemetery, Eastern Creek, Sydney. A public outcry resulted in the government announcing on 21 January 1966 that the remains of service personnel who died overseas would in future be returned to Australia at public expense if their families desired.

For refusing to abandon a wounded comrade in the face of overwhelming odds Wheatley was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. He had also been awarded the United States of America's Silver Star. The Republic of Vietnam had appointed him a knight of its National Order and awarded him its Military Merit Medal and Cross of Gallantry with Palm. In 1993 Wheatley's V.C. and other medals were presented to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

Kevin Wheatley Memorial Park and sports centre are located in the Campbelltown suburb of Airds.

On Wednesday 13 November 2013, on the 48th anniversary of Kevin’s death, a memorial was unveiled in Mawson Park, Campbelltown to pay tribute to a man whose gallantry and valour have become a well-documented part of Australia’s wartime history.

Council worked closely with the Wheatley family, as well as the Australian War Memorial and the Campbelltown and Ingleburn RSL Sub Branches, in bringing the memorial to fruition.

The plaque is an exact replica of the one that had been erected in Vietnam and returned to Australia after the withdrawal of Australian troops in 1971.

The memorial serves as a place to reflect on peace and freedom, and commemorates Kevin’s great gallantry in the face of overwhelming odds.

Australian Dictionary of Biography