A refreshing cup : Wagga Wagga's Cafe Society 1920 - 1954

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, January 1943

Cafes were a huge part of the community in the first part of the 20^th century.  More than just providers of food and drink, cafes were meeting places, landmarks for giving directions to events or other businesses, and they hosted events and parties of all kinds. 

Street stalls were part of the war time fundraising effort and directions for such were printed in the newspaper when announcing when and where the stalls were operating. People could buy goods from the stalls and the money raised went to supporting war related or other similar charities.  The Greek café community in Wagga Wagga also contributed greatly to the war effort by raising large amounts of money in 1942.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, December 1942

Cafes also made the news through brawls, breaching food health and safety laws, people behaving weirdly (yelling or knocking tables and chairs over) and being removed from the premises, fires, and over pricing of cigarettes, to name but a few examples. Farewells and bridge nights, engagement parties, musical evenings, in fact anything that involved people gathering for an event would most likely involve one of Wagga’s many cafes.

Above: from The Daily Advertiser, March 1923

Here is a by no means exhaustive list of cafes operating in Wagga Wagga from 1920 to 1954 :  

Riverina Café (Gurwood Street) 1920

St John’s Café (Baylis Street) 1921

Austral Café 1923

Mother’s Union Café 1926

Picone’s Café 1928

Wonderland Café (adjoins the Strand arcade) 1928
Siver Key Café  (Baylis Street) 1929

Page’s Wattle Café, 1930

White Rose Café 1931

Majestic Café (Gurwood Street) 1932

Black Cat Café (240 Baylis Street) 1933

Popular Café, (Fitzmaurice Street) 1933

Watson’s Café  1933

Café Royal (210 Baylis Street) 1934

Elizabeth Café (over Edmondson’s in Gurwood Street) 1934

Toby’s Tavern, ( Glamis Court, Gurwood Street) 1938

Continental Café 1940

Aussie Café 1942

Blue Moon Café (next to the Plaza Theatre) 1943

Crown Corner Café 1948

Alpine Café 1948

Ideal Café (Baylis Street) 1950

Bidgee Café 1951

Bridge Café 1951

In the early part of the 20^th century the  Café Chantant was also popular, a form of café event held outside in garden settings, where people sang and recited poetry and stalls sold different foods like ice creams and fizzy drinks, tea, coffee and little cakes. Gardens at twilight, with strings of fairy lights and Chinese lanterns decorating the trees, were pretty backdrops for the evening's programme. Mount Erin held a number of successful Café Chantants in the 1920s.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, November 1928

The Bridge Café is famous in Wagga Wagga’s history and is featured in Selling an American Dream : Australia’s Greek Café, the book accompanying the national travelling exhibition in 2013. Lex Marinos is a descendant of the original owner of the Bridge café, Anthony Karofilis. This book is part of the Wagga Wagga City Library local studies collection and is available to view within the library.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, May 1951

Above : Anthony Karofilis and staff, Bridge Cafe Wagga Wagga, 1950s. From  Selling an American dream : Australia's Greek Cafe

Different faces of Wagga Wagga : new books in local studies

The 1960s Aboriginal Fruit-Picking Scheme – A critical evaluation: An instructive history of social policy, social work, and Central Australian Aborigines by Milton James.

This study of the policies, procedures and outcomes of a fruit-picking scheme created to solve a labour shortage in selected rural areas covers the groups based at Gundagai, Leeton and Griffith, amongst others further afield.

The study contains statistics regarding pay rates, properties used in the scheme, as well as reminiscences from various people involved, from property owners to workers.

Wiradjuri Reserve Gobba Beach (Murrumbidgee River): Statement of Significance for an Aboriginal Place Declaration. Compiled by Go Green Services, Wagga Wagga.

Another extensively researched and readable report from Dick Green at Go Green Services, containing Indigenous history, maps, environmental facts, photographs and more.  There is a copy of this book in the general collection as well as in local studies, and is available for loan.

Faces of Wagga Wagga by John Egan.

A series of portraits of people who have contributed to the local community in diverse ways, taken by the photographer (and author) John Egan. There is a copy of this book in the general  collection as well as local studies. 

Wagga Wagga in the 1950s : "Quiet as the morgue"

By January  1950, Wagga Wagga had become a quiet and mostly respectable town, to the extent that its inhabitants felt it was generally dead as a doornail. The anonymous "Staff Reporter" (see above) felt that Wagga had improved somewhat from his first year in the town. The start of a new year was still a cause for celebration, especially at this time as it took the town further away from the austerity years of World War Two. A national debate about ending petrol and butter rationing was just beginning.  

So what was Wagga really like in the 1950s ? The pages of the Daily Advertiser provide a snapshot of a mostly wealthy, comfortable and progressive town with a reputation of being a little on the dull side.

But the future was arriving, with the newspaper announcing that "movies by telephone" were on the way :

The quirky side of Wagga also appears in sometimes startling, many and varied news items (also interesting to see what passed as news in that era), from the country beer shortage, snakes spotted in West Wyalong, the scandal of drunk, nude swimmers on Wagga beach, new Croquet lawns and a car inadvertently stolen twice by the same thieves.

Wagga Wagga held an annual Gift Race day, which brought an influx of people to participate and watch (the Gift included a cycling category). There was also a Boxing event which was always popular: 

What was on the menu in the early 1950s? Curried pilchards, tinned cauliflower and peas were another, perhaps explosive, carryover from the war years when people may have been less fussy about what they ate.

My favourite items from the 1950s are the clothing and other advertisements, elegant but somehow faintly ridiculous, like the sophisticated self supporting trouser, and the evening gown required for cigarette smoking.

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This blog post is the first in a series about the 1950s in Wagga, and we’d like to know what are your memories of the 1950s in Wagga ? Do you have any photographs, favourite toys or books, movies or events you would like to share with us ? contact us at wagga.local.studies@gmail.com and we can share your 1950s memories !

New to Wagga Wagga City Library’s local studies collection : A history of the North Wagga Public Hall by Geoff Burch

 

Local Historian Geoff Burch has written a concise and thoroughly researched history of the North Wagga Wagga hall, with its origin as a church and community hall for North Wagga particularly.

 

Local people’s memories of the social occasions held at the hall are many and varied, with dances, friendship clubs, weddings, and different community groups using the hall as a meeting place over the years.

 

There is extensive and precise historical information on architectural plans, ownership and leasing by various groups. The ownership of the hall is particularly covered in detail, with the author untangling a slightly confusing tale of two halls in the same area.  

 

A highlight in the North Wagga hall’s history is when it was raided by police in May 1950, when the businessmen of Wagga got together to hold a “fete” in the hall, which was actually a gambling event (p 13, A History of the North Wagga Public Hall, Geoff Burch) .

This item will soon be available to view as part of the local studies collection, and is well worth the read.  

 

 

 

 

Where in the world is Coffin Rock ?

Parish maps are a great way to find out who owned what, and when, across New South Wales during particular time periods. Some of the maps have basic geographical features drawn on, and all the notes, keys and other features of these maps make for interesting viewing.

Wagga Wagga City Library’s local studies collection has some local area parish maps available to look at. If you want to find out what parish maps are in the collection, go to the library’s homepage, and you can search the catalogue through the simple search :

Write down the call number – ( the shelf location number) and when you come into the library you can ask at the Information desk to see the map you are looking for.

Detail from the Sandy Creek Parish map, showing the beginnings of Coffin Rock

I’ve chosen the Parish of Coffin Rock to look at, which has a very intriguing name and it is not well known though comparatively close in to Wagga Wagga. A quick search through the Daily Advertiser newspapers online in Trove shows that Coffin Rock, though “sparsely populated” was a thriving little community with sports days, picnic meetings and more in the last century.

This excerpt is from the Daily Advertiser, Friday 26th of January, 1923.

If you would like to look at the Daily Advertiser newspapers available through Trove : 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/687

There are a number of websites that are useful if you are doing historical research and particularly wanting to use maps and similar type records. Here is a link to the Land and Property Information NSW website, where you can search for Parish Maps : 

http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/mapping_and_imagery/parish_maps 

To read or download a series of five guides to searching maps and other historical records online : 

http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/publications/search_guides

Happy researching  ! 

More tales and true in Local Studies : new books on World War One, the Kapooka Tradgedy, and the lost world of Pastoral Holdings circa 1890s



Loss, reverence and longing : ANZAC stories from the home front

This is the official catalogue of the exhibition of the same name , produced and shown by the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. If you missed the exhibition or are interested in anything to do with World War One, this book alone is well worth reading. Cover to cover, it has beautiful images, moving stories and historical information woven into one perfect whole. 

The Kapooka Explosion: 21 May 1945, by Sherry Morris

Sherry Morris has rescued another important part of Wagga Wagga's history that would otherwise have been lost, with her detailed account of the tragic explosion at Kapooka in 1945. There is also background information, new photographs, diagrams and other documents that fill out the story of what exactly happened that day.




Mackenzie's Riverina, second edition, Including Pictorial Supplement : A tour of the Hay district Pastoral Holdings of the 1890s , articles written by Harold M Mackenzie . Reprinted by the Hay Historical Society.

The preface to this work describes Harold M Mackenzie as "a travelling agent, dealer, and journalist of the late 1800s". (p. 5, Carolyn Merrylees, ed.) The second edition has been updated with photographs old and new, illustrations and maps, and is a cracking read , with Mackenzie's observations on people and properties amusing and informative. Mackenzie has a fine fireside literary style which he uses to great effect in his writing, and you feel like you are sitting with him as he tells his tales. 

If every man, woman or child were sent to goal for 24 hours without the option of a fine for whistling or humming "After the ball", it might have the effect perhaps of making life at present a little more tolerable. Harold M. Mackenzie, p 143, Mackenzie's Riverina 

Winter is a great time to catch up on your history reading so come into the library and have a look through our local history titles !   

Local history's local histories

Here is a sample of local histories for you to read, use in your research or prompt you to put your own research into print, and all from the local region.


There are a few histories of Batlow, focussing on different aspects of the town. I have chosen two :



Batlow : the growing years from gold to apples, compiled by the Batlow Historical Society.

A general history of the town and surrounding district.

 

Famous for flavour : 75 years of co-operation in Batlow by Sherry Morris.

A detailed study of the Batlow Fruit Co-Operative on their 75th anniversary of operation.

 

 



Grong Grong : the spirit of a small town, compiled by the Grong Grong History Committee. A general history with information drawn from oral histories, newspapers and more.

 

Wowsers, bowsers & peppercorn trees: a collection of history from Ariah Park and district compiled by Nigel Judd.

The history of Ariah Park town and the surrounding area, includes some family histories, stories about local characters, and church histories.

There are many more local histories to discover in the Wagga Wagga City Library collections, whether you are looking for a specific area or just want to browse the collection.