HERITAGE: TIMELESS WOLLONGONG
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PART ONE
Three years ago when I started writing the Timeless Wollongong articles I was president of the Illawarra Historical Society.
At that time the column was only half the size and my first article was on John Lindsay of Kembla Park and his champion cow Honeycomb.
Kembla Park was purchased by Mr Lindsay out of Berkeley Estate.
Robert Jenkins, one of the first land grantees in Illawarra, was officially issued with the 1000-acre grant of land on January 24, 1817.
When he died on May 5, 1822, a result of falling from his horse in George Street, Sydney, he left a widow, Jemima, and sons Robert, 8, and William, 6.
On September 24, 1834, Jemima Jenkins was granted a further 2000 acres of land adjoining Berkeley Estate.
Jemima Jenkins died intestate on March 22, 1842.
Her eldest son, Robert Jenkins, transferred 2000 acres of Berkeley Estate to his younger brother William Warren Jenkins in January 1843.
This left about 1000 acres of the estate with Robert Pitt Jenkins.
Within two months, in March 1843, W.W.Jenkins mortgaged his estate.
The reconveyance to Mr Jenkins did not take place until July 1850.
During those seven years, Mr Jenkins created smaller farms and clearing leases on his estate.
In July 1848, he placed them in the hands of Davies and Duffin, Commission Agents of King Street, Sydney.
The very next day Mr Jenkins again mortgaged his estate.
Small farms dotted around the estate were providing him with an income. Some of those early settlers on the small farms were Burgess, Duncan, Alger, Jolliffe, Barrett, Hegherty, Denniss, MacKenzie and Neaves.
About 1855, a 420-acre parcel of land was purchased by John Lindsay who established Kembla Park.
The section sold to Lindsay was situated in the southwestern section of Berkeley Estate.
A meeting was held at the temporary schoolhouse at Berkeley in July 1856 with the intention of petitioning for a national school.
Mr Jenkins offered one acre of land for this purpose.
In December 1856, Mr Jenkins was calling for a man to make 50,000 bricks on the estate. Elected as treasurer of the schoolhouse committee, he called for subscriptions and by October 1857, a total of £150 had been pledged.
In April 1862, the Jenkins family gave one acre of land to the Church of England for the establishment of a cemetery where burials of family, servants, tenants and their friends could take place.
By November 1862, a small chapel had been erected on the site.
Mrs Matilda Jenkins, who died in 1876, and William Warren Jenkins in 1884, are both buried in the cemetery.
In August 1884, a son of the Jenkins, William James Robert Jenkins, called for tenders to construct a dwelling house.
He built his home, calling it Nudjia, on the western section of the estate.
In 1885, after W.W.Jenkins’s death, the Berkeley Estate was being administered by trustees.
During that year, the region was in the grip of a severe drought and many of the tenant farmers lost most of their dairy stock.
The farmers appealed to the trustees, requesting a reduction in their rent.
The trustees agreed to a reduction by a quarter for the year 1885.
The tenant farmers acknowledged the generosity of the trustees by the publication of a letter in the Illawarra Mercury in August 1885.
In 1888, while the estate was still managed by the trustees, they were approached by representatives of The Great Dapto Syndicate who wanted to purchase the whole estate.
The syndicate had a capital of £180,000 and its offer to the trustees was £20 per acre.
Next week the story continues with the eventual subdivision of the estate and the impact it had on the tenant farmers.