Bonnie the Cow

 The Graham family lived at Lake Illawarra. Mr. Charles Graham worked building the roads in the area in the 1920s and 1930s. Bonnie was the Graham family’s pet cow.

When Mr. Graham was working on the roads he would have to feed the team of men working with him, and for this reason he bought Bonnie to supply the milk.

Ron Graham (Charles son) had to milk Bonnie every morning before he went to school and then when he came home again.

Bonnie never had a paddock, she would just roam all over Lake Illawarra, sometimes walking up to three miles almost all the way to Shellharbour.

One day Ron found her on Windang Island. She had walked all the way across the sand  through the entrance of the lake to get to the grass on the island.

About three o’clock every afternoon, Bonnie would begin to make her way home again to be milked. Ron would meet her half way and walk back with her.

After giving her a feed of some chaff and bread, Ron would sit on his little stool with his milking bucket.

Ron’s parents later bought a block of land and built a shop, Graham’s Store. Charles built a jetty  into the lake and hired out boats to holiday makers.

Ron’s mother Gladys ran the hire boats and would let out holiday homes in the area. Owners would give Gladys the keys to their weekenders to let them out to  holidaymakers at the lake.

 

Bonnie the Cow and the Graham kids
Photograph courtesy Ron Graham.
  

Graham Store, Lake South
Photograph courtesy Ron Graham.

Congratulations Kevin and Dorothy Gillis!

Congratulations to Oak Flats couple Kevin and Dorothy Gillis for being awarded a medal of the Order of Australia for their contribution to historical research and the preservation of heritage sites in the Illawarra. They provide a valuable service at our Tongarra Museum and have worked with Council to erect plaques at historic sites around the city.

Boer War Day - Private Samuel Charles Atchison

The Boer War is remembered on Boer War Day on the 26th May.

Clorinda Thomas married Samuel Atchison and they farmed at Bass Point for many years. Their son Samuel Charles Atchison was the only young man in the district to be killed in the Boer War in South Africa in 1899.

Samuel Charles Atchison was born in 1877 at Bass Point; the sixth child of Samuel and Clorinda Atchison. Private Samuel Atchison volunteered to serve with the NSW Infantry Unit in the Boer War where he was killed in action on 20th February 1900, aged 24.

Samuel’s father had died in 1897 and a letter came to Clorinda and the family with heartbreaking news: Mrs C. Atchison from Major General G. A. French, NSW Military Forces 24th February 1900, ‘killed whilst worthily doing his duty in action against The Boers at Arundel, South Africa’.

Shortly after Private Samuel Atchison’s death the Shellharbour community gathered at the Shellharbour School of Arts, initiating steps for a memorial to S.C. Atchison of the Scottish Rifles, Sydney. The marble monument was erected by public subscription on 30 May 1900. It stood on the hillside in Little Park Shellharbour Village until erosion made it necessary to move it to the flatter area in 1957. It was later relocated to Caroline Chisholm Park in Addison Street and incorporated with both the World War memorials and the memorial to the wreck of the Cities Service Boston. 

On 20th February 2000, on the 100th anniversary of his death, a commemoration service was held and a plaque unveiled to his honour at Caroline Chisholm Park, Addison Street Shellharbour. 

Information - Gillis, Dorothy 2009, '150 Years of Shellharbour City Area', Tongarra Heritage Society Inc.

Private Samuel Charles Atchison
Photograph courtesy David O'Meley.

Members of the Tongarra Heritage Society at the memorial to
Private Samuel Charles Atchison, Caroline Chisholm Park, Shellharbour Village. 

70th Anniversary of the Wreck of Cities Service Boston

Thursday 16 May marked the 70th anniversary of the wreck of the Cities Service Boston at Bass Point. A memorial service was held on Sunday 19 May at the wreck site with last surviving member of the rescue crew from the 6^th Machine Gun Battalion, Mick Wilkinson attended the ceremony with friends and family.

The United States tanker Cities Service Boston ran aground at Shellharbour in1943. It was it a convoy of ships sailing close to the coast following reports of Japanese subs in the area during WWII.

Despite the very rough seas, soldiers from the 6th Australian Machine Gun Battalion AIF who were camped at Kembla Grange, rescued the entire 62 American crew, with the tragic loss of four Australian rescue soldiers. The men who lost their lives that day were Sgt W F Allen, Pte G W Pitt, Pte R J Snell and Pte B H Symons.

A memorial dedicated to their bravery on the 8th September 1968 stands on the northern side of Bass Point.

                                    

The tanker was sold for salvage to several companies, including Port Kembla Steelworks. Copper pipes and brass fittings were the first to be removed. Salvage operations on the wreck took over ten years to complete.

Wreck of the Cities Service Boston 1943
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries

Wreck of the Cities Service Boston c.1950
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries

Remains of the propeller from Cities Service Boston 1957
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries

Deck of the Cities Service Boston during salvage c.1950
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries