Shellharbour's Local History Blog: Mrs Hurry

Sarah Denniss was a local Albion Park midwife. She married Lionel Hurry and they had one daughter Albertina. The Hurry family lived in a small home Vine Cottage at Albion Park

According to local identity Bert Weston, Mrs. Hurry was in looks and dress a replica of Queen Victoria and spent most of her time in her small cottage preparing and plaiting strands of cabbage tree palms into long flat lengths, which she then fashioned and stitched into cabbage tree hats. Many of the old timers in Albion Park wore nothing else.

Mrs. Hurry was a midwife and ‘ready to saddle forth and any time of day or night for an impending birth’. Bert Weston and his family of six brothers and sisters were all ‘introduced squalling to the light of day by Mrs. Hurry and for which dubious service she charged $2 per head.

According to Bert, ‘A family of seven for seven quid was cheap nation building.’

At the age of three, Albertina Hurry was present at the dedication of All Saints Church of England, Albion Park. She worshipped there all her life, and for many years was a Sunday school teacher. On her death, Albertina left her estate to the church. The Hurry Memorial Christian Centre, adjacent to All Saints Church, was built in honour of her generous bequest.
‘Albion Park Saga’, Bert Weston, The Tongarra Heritage Society, 1996

‘Albion Park Saga’, Bert Weston, The Tongarra Heritage Society, 1996.