In Correy’s good style Richard Stone delves into some social history via the Library’s Ephemera Collection As part of the process of selecting illustrations for a book to be published by the National Library later this year, I recently had the privilege of trawling through the Library’s vast collection of Australian ephemera. While examining over 170 000 fascinating items, I came across many old friends—familiar items which had previously passed over my desk in my former existence as Australian Collection Development Librarian. Part of my responsibility then was the selection and acquisition of Australian ephemera. Even with this professional familiarity, however, I experienced many a frisson of rediscovery of the gems and riches in the collection. One group of items caught my attention just as it had in 1988 when it was offered to the Library by a Sydney bookseller. Individually the items are modest programs for social functions held between 1902 and 1913 at a venue called Correy’s Gardens at Cabarita, Sydney. It is unusual, however, to come across such a cohesive group of ephemeral items from that period for events all held at the same venue. It may well be a unique collection, as little other ephemera from Correy’s has apparently survived. (The only others located are five programs of the Master Builders’ Association of New South Wales, in the Mitchell Library. The same institution also holds an intriguing photograph of a large group of about 500 people outside a building in a riverside setting. Undated and unidentified, it is most probably Correy’s Gardens.)
The apparent lack of resources might go some way to explaining why there is limited published information about Correy’s. Some material appears in local and family histories of the Concord area, or in accounts of Sydney’s ferries. The most useful account appears in Sheena Coupe’s Concord: A Centenary History, published in 1983. Correy’s Gardens operated at Cabarita, on the Parramatta River about 15 kilometres from the city, from the mid-1880s to 1918. The 2.8 hectare site was next to Cabarita Park, a public space which still exists on the tip of Cabarita Point. Correy’s bushland site straddled the point, and faced onto both Hen and Chicken Bay and Kendall Bay with a ferry wharf, a large building for functions, a dirt racetrack, and a pavilion. The Correy family was prominent in local business and politics in Concord. The Gardens were sold in 1918, and the redeveloped industrial site eventually housed a Dulux paint factory. In recent years, riverside suburbia has taken over, with marinas and apartment blocks built on the gently sloping foreshores. A boat wharf still exists where Correy’s wharf once stood, and the two-storey Correy home has been incorporated into the new development. Correy’s was a day-tripper destination, a place for large celebratory functions, and a venue hired for private functions. It is this latter aspect which the programs in the Library’s Ephemera Collection illuminate. These programs were not published by Correy’s Gardens themselves as selfadvertising, but by clients of Correy’s, for their guests. As such they were meant to be inviting and informative. A century later these elements mean that their importance lies in the detail they contain. Such is the nature of all worthwhile ephemera.
Visually, the programs are not particularly striking, being basically folded cards resulting in two or four pages. The largest is 22 x 9.5 centimetres. Standard stationery was used, with decorative features limited to art nouveau borders, and the occasional cherub or floral motif. Two notable exceptions incorporate photographs. In 1913 the Master Builders’ Association included a photo of their headquarters in Castlereagh Street, with two other illustrations extolling the benefits of arbitration and conciliation in action. In fact, these illustrations, plus an expansive sports program, filled up one program, which forced them to publish a separate Menu/Toast List–giving two pieces of ephemera for one event! The other exception occurred in 1911 when Henry Bull & Co included a small photo of their woollen mills at Liverpool and their head office in London. Earlier, in 1905, a Wunderlich’s program provides a true rarity—a photo of Cabarita Point with a partial view of Correy’s Gardens: so far the only identified photo of the site located. Nearly all the Correy’s programs are for an ‘annual picnic’, an important social ritual associated with the workplace. Variations appear when Wunderlich’s annual picnic of 1905 was combined with a ‘Welcome home to Mr & Mrs A. Wunderlich’; similarly a ‘Bon voyage farewell dinner’ to Mr & Mrs Stedman in February 1911 was held by staff of their confectionery company. Other firms represented in the collection include Hodgson, Smith & Co (merchants), Charles Barnes (ham and bacon curer), the Sydney Rubber Club (employees of Perdriau & Co., a rubber manufacturer which later merged with Dunlop), and the wool manufacturer Henry Bull & Co. As well, four New South Wales employer trade associations—the Bakers, Butchers, Carriers and Builders—all held annual picnics at Correy’s in the years just before World War I.
Transport to Correy’s was predominantly by river steamer: Correy’s had their own wharf where steamers hired for the event would dock. As well, there was access to the public wharf on Cabarita Point. A pleasant river trip of 45 minutes from Erskine Street wharf or Fort Macquarie in the city, aboard the steamers Aleatha or Kookaburra, was part of the attraction of holding a function at Correy’s. Road transport is listed in one program from 1902, with a notice that ‘Drags leave for Summer Hill at 10.15 pm’. The picnics are divided evenly between afternoon and evening functions, with one lasting all day from 9 am to 9 pm. The private firm picnics tended to be held on Saturdays, whereas several of the trade association picnics took place midweek. In 1905 the postcard for Wunderlich’s annual picnic exhorted the guests to: ‘Banquet in Correy’s good style. Do it justice’. It is evident this meant guests would be doing justice to the same banquet menu, whether it was luncheon or dinner. Menus are included in most of the programs in the collection, which spans 11 years of Correy’s catering. Invariably they list roasts of turkey, goose, duck, and fowl, plus ox tongue and York ham, always accompanied by peas and potatoes and salads. In a radical variation, roast sucking pig was added at the Stedman farewell in 1911. These guests were also served oysters on the shell upon arrival, a tasty treat which was repeated at the annual picnics for the Master Bakers’ Association in 1911 and 1912. Desserts were cakes, pastries, pies, and custards, with special mention of blancmange, champagne jellies and charlotte russe. ‘Afternoon teas’, ‘Light refreshments’, and a ‘Knife and fork tea’ were other meals provided. There is little mention of alcohol, as Correy’s did not have a licence to sell liquor. It was a matter of BYO, and two menus include wine and beer. Whatever the liquid, toasts were an important aspect of the festivities, with toast lists featuring prominently in most programs. There is a great consistency in the subject of the toasts, with ‘The King’ being the most popular, followed closely by ‘The Ladies’, and then ‘Visitors’. A few toasts were offered to ‘The Press’, the ‘Firm or Association’, the ‘Owners’ or ‘Employees’ of the firm, and to ‘Parliament’. In between eating and toasting came sports and entertainments. Correy’s had a famous tallowwood dance floor, and dancing is listed in most programs. In one case, ‘Dancing in the pavilion all day’ is assured. The Dance Program for the 1911 Stedman dinner appropriately reflected the company’s business—with Butterball Quadrille, Cream Kiss Schottische, Milk Pole Waltz, and Turkish Delight Lancers amongst the 13 dances, which finished with the Shivery Shaky Gallop.
Several programs devote considerable space to sports events, races being most popular. The program for the Master Builders’ Association picnic in 1913 lists an exhausting 13-event sports program, mainly for children, but also including a ‘Single ladies egg and spoon race’, a ‘Competition for married ladies’, and a ‘Pillow fight, members only’. In 1907 the program for the picnic for staff and families from Sargood Bros’ warehouse was entirely devoted to describing 14 sports events held between 2.20 pm and 5.10 pm, with afternoon tea and a Punch and Judy show thrown in. Rules were given for the ‘Ladies’ nomination race’, the ‘Siamese variety race’, and the allimportant ‘Departmental relay race’, and also for the prizes to be awarded. Children could win a mechanical boat, a postcard album, a watch, and a knife-fork-and-spoon set for girls under 15. Triumphant adults could expect spoons, a pipe, a butter dish, and silk handkerchiefs for the victorious Siamese racer. Perhaps the most thoughtful prize was a walking-stick for the winner of the ‘Tourney de la bolster’. The weary victor of this competition, which involved dislodging your opponent with a pillow while sitting astride a spar, probably welcomed the stick to assist him on his way to the wharf for the return journey. The annual picnic programs which have survived in the Library’s Ephemera Collection allow an appreciation of what it meant to do full justice to a big day out at Correy’s Gardens, one of Sydney’s most popular social venues a century ago. RICHARD STONE is a former National Library staff member. He is currently a consultant on ephemera and performing arts resources |
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