Ardill and Warrimoo (1936-1945)
George Ardill may have had some earlier association with
Warrimoo, but his influence only becomes clear in the nine years between 1936
and 1945. He was due to turn 80 in 1937, and it would seem logical that he may
have been planning some form of ‘retirement’ from his frenetic charitable activities
in Sydney
 |
| Ardill in mid-life--he moved to Warrimoo as he approached 80 years of age. His wife Kelsie was frail and needing attention. Possibly Ardill was seeking some rest from the constant demands of his charitable work in Sydney when he arrived in the mid 1930's. |
Around this time, Lawrence
Way
…our neighbour …asked
me if I would like to do some work weeding the gardens and other jobs. I
readily agreed as I was growing some vegetables to get some money and there was
not much in that. I was surprised when I received six shillings for the day…[1]
Our neighbour Mr.
Ardill had a hall built in Rickard
Road Sydney
at the Jewish rescue organisation and was showing slides as to what was
happening in Israel
This further testament to George Ardill’s arrival, in the
construction of the Gospel Hall on Rickard
Road Baptist Church
 |
| The Gospel Hall as it appears today. A brick facade has been added to bring modernity to a structure built by voluntary labour in 1936. Several upgrades have occurred over the years so that the overall size is considerably larger than the original building. |
The Progress Association
The Gospel Hall became a hub of activity over the following
decade, with church services, ‘invitation teas’, hymn singing evenings, Sunday
Schools, fund-raising events and yes, even Warrimoo Progress Association
meetings happening there. Indeed, the latter organisation appears to have been
resuscitated within its hallowed walls…
A meeting of property
owners and permanent residents was held in the Gospel Hall, Rickard Road
After preliminary
discussion, it was resolved to form an association of property owners and
residents of the district, to be called “The Warrimoo Progress Association.”
The following were elected office-bearers for the ensuing year:--Chairman, Mr.
W.T. Ely; Vice Chairmen, Messrs G. W. Duckles and T. Pritchard; hon. Secretary
and Treasurer, Mr. G. E. Ardill. It was arranged that meetings be held on the
fourth Saturday in each month.[4]
 |
| The Gospel Hall became a hub of community activity during the 'Ardill Years'. Apart from Sunday Services, there were film nights, invitation teas and of course, meetings of the revived 'Warrimoo Progress Association'. |
A ‘Warrimoo Progress Association’ had already existed to
serve the community in the 1920’s, and must have lasted (at least, according to
Nepean Times reports) till 1933. This was the Progress Association of
Mudie/Neall/Watts which must have somehow faded from view. Either Ardill was unaware
of this or he chose to recreate the organisation under new auspices with the
inspiration of ‘A New Movement’.[5] The
signed up membership was eighteen in number with the optimistic proviso that
those who were ‘unavoidably absent’ were nevertheless keen to join at some
later date.
Issues most
concerning the new Association were to be addressed immediately…
…officers were
empowered to continue the agitation for the improvement of the turn-off from
the Great Western Road Florabella Street Blue Mountains Shire for these facilities. The urgent
need for a permanent water supply for the district was brought under notice,
and it was decided that the secretary make enquiry as to the probability of an
extension from Springwood.
Reference was made to
the inconvenience to voters who had to travel to other districts to record
their votes, and it was resolved to urge the provision of a local polling
booth.[6]
Clearly Warrimoo residents still required their own water
tanks and wells, used pan toilets in backyard sheds, and town lighting was poor
at night, but the Highway overbridge crossing of the railway turned too sharply
at this time and as a matter of road safety (several serious accidents had
already occurred) George Ardill became obsessed with its rectification. He kept
count of the number of accidents and then pursued a letter-writing campaign to
all levels of government calling for action. This agitation continued for
years.
Finally, in 1944, a new bridge was constructed…
Mr. J. B. Chifley
(officiating at the opening—WH), Federal Treasurer, spoke in commendation of
the work that had been carried out in the area. The old bridge had been a death
trap, and he viewed with pleasure the completion of this new one.
Mr. O’Sullivan,
Minister, said that the old bridge had caused quite a number of accidents.
There had been nine recorded accidents during the few years since February, 1937,
four of which were serious, on one occasion a life being lost. On three
occasions the bridge parapet had been demolished, the debris falling on the
railway line. This new bridge had been so designed and constructed that there
was no interruption of road traffic…and was able to carry the heaviest military
loads…[7]
In speeches at the opening, reference was made to the
commendable part played, over a number of years, in the agitation for this
bridge by Mr. G. E. Ardill, President of the Warrimoo Progress Association.
Activism in Warrimoo
It is some indication of George Ardill’s character and
religious fortitude that he had thrown himself into the work surrounding
formation of the Progress Association a mere two months after the death of his
second wife, Kelsie, on the 7th January, 1937. Here was a woman who
had been his Christian partner since 1921, one who had preached with him,
worked tirelessly in all his projects and provided secretarial and moral
support throughout, now moved to Warrimoo to retire with him—possibly frail and
terminally ill, and now dead, with all her funerary considerations fulfilled by
him, yet her husband still possessed the 80 year old wherewithal to carry on
further community activism. And, so he did.
If Ardill had come to Warrimoo to retire he clearly found it
difficult to do so. The first couple of years saw the construction of the
Gospel Hall and his own unique but modest home at 13 Florabella Street Sydney
After Kelsie’s passing he contracted his sister in law(?) to
be his live-in housekeeper. He purchased several blocks of land around Warrimoo
in The Avenue and Florabella
Street
 |
| Arguably the first Women's Refuge in Australia, the 'House of Hope' received homeless and 'fallen' women in secure accommodation in Newtown, Sydney. The women were put to work cleaning laundry. You can see other women at the windows. Here was yet another charitable institution managed by George Ardill. |
All the while George Ardill pursued his life-long mission to
save souls. His influence upon people like Lawrence Way
Mr Ardill was feeling
his age and had retired from his work. His wife had died and he was being cared
for by a sister-in-law who had moved from Leura to live with him…I was working
there one day and I heard her say to Mr. Ardill, “Laurie Way
…Shortly after, I was
riding to Katoomba with a Christian who introduced me to an elderly retired
missionary who said she read the Bible through yearly. My reaction was if she
could do that, so could I and I have been very thankful for her example. I
remember Mr. Ardill being delighted by my new stand…
…My conversion at the
age of seventeen was so real to me and despite the evolutionary teaching of my
father in my teens (Laurie’s father was an atheist—WH) there has never been any doubt of God’s existence.[8]
Occasions such as Easter and Christmas saw Ardill’s elaborate
engagement with the Warrimoo community…
On Sunday, Dec. 24, at
the Gospel Hall, Warrimoo, special services were held in connection with the
Christmas season. The preacher was Mr. G. E. Ardill, who had the Hall built
nearly 10 years ago. Mr. Ardill attained the ripe age of 87 years on the 17th
ult. and was preacher twice that day.
At the evening service,
in place of the usual sermon, a series of Christmas carols was rendered, and
the speaker made comments on the Scripture teaching of each carol when it had
been sung.
At the conclusion of
this service the congregation adjourned to the Main Western Highway
The speaker, in like
manner in the hall, made comments after each carol had been sung…[9]
 |
| George Ardill's modest weatherboard home at 13 Florabella Street. He lived there with a housekeeper, reputedly his sister-in-law, after his wife Kelsie died in 1937. Ardill was neighbour to the youth, Lawrence Way, who admits to the huge influence Ardill had on his life at this time. (Drawing done by local Warrimoo resident, Terry Dernee*) |
Death and Legacy
A few months after his Christmas dedications, on 11th
May 1945, George Ardill passed away. There is no doubt he left a distinct
impression on the people of Warrimoo and upon the township’s character.
For a start, the activities of Progress Association became
more focussed and successful. It met regularly, once a month, in the Gospel
Hall, had good attendances (ranging between 10 and 30 members), and its Minutes
were faithfully published in the Nepean Times and the Katoomba
Daily. Continuous pressure was directed to local, State and Federal
government representatives to take note of the needs of Warrimoo residents and
to act upon them.
Whether it was singularly due to the efforts of Ardill and
‘the Progress’, or as well a convergence of other factors: a growing
population, the end of the Depression, infrastructure needs of the War effort,
technological advances or pure good fortune, Warrimoo was a better place in
terms of amenity than before Ardill’s arrival.
Roads were better, a new Highway Bridge crossed the railway,
street lighting was improved and Warrimoo now possessed a concrete water tank
on the highest point of the township on Victoria Street to deliver ‘town
water’. Things were looking up. More shops were appearing. A fresh crop of war
veterans were about to arrive in this welcoming neighbourhood, and Warrimoo was
to become something of a religious ‘hub’ for smaller religious groups: apart
from the little Anglican church on Arthur Street which has already been built
in the 1920’s, he had established an ecumenical (later ‘Baptist’) Gospel Hall
on Rickard Road, followed by Methodists (GWH), Seventh Day Adventists
(Terrymont Road) and Jehovahs Witnesses (cnr The Avenue and Waratah Road—later
Greens Parade).
 |
| Ardill was born a Baptist, but his evangelical work involved engagement with Bible Societies and the distribution of the Word of God as broadly as possible. He grew decidedly ecumenical in his days at Warrimoo, yet was buried with Anglican rites at his funeral in Stanmore. |
Recognition for Ardill’s evangelist and charitable work
arrived in 1934 when he was awarded the MBE (‘Member of the British Empire’)
“for services to the community”, indeed, he was probably the most renowned
philanthropic missionary in Sydney
Paternal righteousness brought a political reaction during
his work on the Aborigines Protection Board. It can be safely said that
George Ardill was the principle architect of the ‘Stolen Generations’ policy
that developed in the first three decades of the 20th century.
Innumerable children were forcibly taken from their Indigenous parents, placed in
orphanage-style institutions, then apprenticed to farms or factories if they
were males, or allocated as domestic servants if female. All the while he urged
legislators to supply more power to the Protection Board to direct the lives of
Aboriginal people throughout NSW. Ultimately the policy was accused of creating
a slave labour force so that Aboriginal communities and their sympathisers in
unions and other churches pushed back. Public opinion began to turn on the
Board.
Ardill resigned his position on the Protection Board in
1916, but continued to agitate for his views from the outside. His son, another
‘George Edward Ardill’, became a conservative (‘Nationalist’) politician in the
NSW parliament and later joined the Board to reflect similar views to those of
his father—it was not till after WWII that attitudes and policies towards
Aboriginal people began to take a different course.
 |
| Cootamundra Girls Home was set up primarily under the Aborigines Protection Act and operated under Ardill's studious direction. Taken from their Aboriginal families under the guise of receiving 'useful education' the girls were trained to become domestic servants for well-off and 'appropriate' white families. It did not close till 1968. |
Whatever his profile in Sydney, Ardill’s standing in
Warrimoo remained staunch and respected. As his age reached 86 he may have been
showing signs of infirmity, for now the Warrimoo Progress Association urged the
naming of a park in his honour…
TRIBUTE TO
MR. ARDILL
The members of
the Warrimoo Progress Association, in view of the deep interest in
the progress of the district shown by the President, Mr.G.
E. Ardill, unanimously resolved to urge that the reserve which was
granted for recreation purposes, fronting the main Western Road and in the
vicinity of the local railway station, be named Ardill Park.
The Blue Mountains
Shire approved the proposal, which was then placed before Mr J. M. Tully,
Minister for Lands, who has approved of the reserve being so named, and has
written stating that the maps of the' Lands Department have been noted
accordingly.[10]
And so the most central public park in the township, the one
leading pedestrians from the railway station to the Citizens Hall, the one
giving pergola solace and picnic space for weary car travellers passing through the Lower Mountains,
this park was designated ‘Ardill Park’ by the Minister of Lands Mr. J.M. Tully
in October 1944.[11] So it
remains to this day.
George Edward Ardill was no doubt utterly convinced of his
own good intentions. The Anglican Archbishop Mowll eulogised at his funeral…
 |
| George Edward Ardill lived long enough to see a Warrimoo Park named in his honour. He had already received an MBE in 1934 for his 'service to the community' generally, but now the citizens of Warrimoo had successfully agitated for public recognition of one of their own... |
G.E. Ardill possessed outstanding
qualities. He was never negative, but ever positive. He wrought manfully,
fought valiantly, served devotedly, and was ever to be found where the battle
was the thickest. He was a born leader, and loved to plan and scheme and
contrive in the interests of causes dearer to his heart. Even those who opposed
him had to concede that he possessed uncommon qualities and front rank abilities.
He breathed the spirit of God, he was a man of unswerving devotion to Christ.
His loyalty was absolute. He was a man of heroic unselfishness.[12]
Despite his funeral service being held in Stanmore and his
burial in Waverley
[1] Way,
Lawrence, My Story, op.cit, p.43
[2] Ibid.,
p. 44
[3] TROVE, Nepean
[4] Ibid.
Thursday 1st April, 1937
[5] TROVE,
Katoomba Daily, Thursday 1st April, 1937
[6] Ibid
[7] TROVE, Nepean
[8] Way,
Lawence, op. cit., pp 45-47
[9] TROVE, Nepean
[10] TROVE,
Ibid, Thursday 28th September, 1944
[11] TROVE,
Ibid., Thursday 6th October, 1944
No comments:
Post a Comment