In December of 1879, a woman named Harriet Bull used a beautiful ceremonial trowel to lay the foundation stone for the new Liverpool post and telegraph office.
Harriet wasn’t just any woman: the daughter of the famous Anthony Hordern, she was married to Nathaniel George Bull, an alderman (as councillors were called in those days) who had already served one term as Liverpool mayor in 1877.
More than 130 years later, a well known Campbelltown identity, Frank Ward, learned that Nathaniel George Bull was his great great great uncle.
He also found out about the famous trowel.
Ward, who is now 88 years of age and enjoying retirement living in Shoal Bay, would love to see the trowel that Harriet used all those years ago on public display.
But that’s not going to be as easy as it sounds.
For starters, the person who currently has possession of it, Beverley Dunbier, says she cannot find it.
Her late husband, Max, received the trowel from his father, Ron Dunbier.
He in turn had been given the trowel by a Miss Bull and it has been in the Dunbier family since the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Ron Dunbier, who was an alderman and mayor on Liverpool Council for many years, used the trowel to lay the foundation stone for the Michael Wenden pool, named after the great local swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
Frank Ward knew Ron’s son, Max Dunbier, and they got on well even though they stood against each other in a state election in 1969 for the new seat of Campbelltown.
“I bumped into Max after I found out about my link to the Bull family and he told me about the trowel,’’ recalls Ward.
“He even let me borrow it for a family reunion a couple of years later.
“And Max agreed with me that the trowel should be put on public display.’’
Max Dunbier died last September, so Frank Ward suggests I may call his widow, Beverley Dunbier, to discuss the future of the trowel.
I promise to do so.
♦ The Campbelltown library’s local history section contains a book called Charlie Francis Bull – His Life and Times.
It was published in 2011 and that’s the year when Frank Ward found out for the very first time that he was related to the Bull family, holders of the most famous trowel in all of south west Sydney.
He also realised that Charlie Francis Bull, the second mayor of Campbelltown, was his great great grandfather and was related to the Bull family of Liverpool, including Nathaniel.
His guess is that Charlie Bull was probably the first Bull to “migrate’’ from Liverpool to Macarthur.
“The book was researched by two cousins from Queensland, who were daughters of my mother’s brother David, who until the book I never knew existed,’’ says Ward.
After Max Dunbier died last year, Frank Ward approached his widow about the trowel.
“I called Beverly Dunbier and asked her if she could let me have the trowel as it has more reference to my family history,’’ he says.
Not that he wants to keep it himself or for his family: his goal for this clearly significant historical item is to put it on public display.
“I’d like to see the trowel put on public display, maybe the Liverpool Historical Society, so everyone can see it and read the great story around it,’’ he adds.
“I have not had any further reply from Mrs Dunbier.
“Why don’t you call her, maybe she will let you take a photo of it,’’ says Frank Ward over the phone from Shoal Bay.
I again promise to contact Mrs Dunbier.
♦ One loose end about this story was why Frank Ward took so long – more than 80 years – to find out about his connection to the Bull family across both Liverpool and Campbelltown.
He is happy to explain:
“The reason I had no knowledge of my great great great uncle Nathaniel Bull was that my mother died when I was two years old and following the collapse of my father’s health we were taken into care in 1931 by the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage, St Patricks in Armidale,’’ he says.
Eventually Frank Ward made his way to Campbelltown, where he spent 40 years of his life.
“I came to Campbelltown as manager of Stuart Homes in 1959 and we were selling house and land packages in East Campbelltown to mainly ex-servicemen for only $5,750 on $20 deposit.
“When I decided I wanted to seek a political career I started my own real estate office, Frank D Ward Real Estate in 1961 and then stood for council in 1962, sixty years after Charlie Francis, and was elected.
“I served nine years and stood for parliament in 1969 for the Labor Party against Max Dunbier, the Liberal Party candidate.’’
Frank Ward lost by a few hundred votes.
“The extraordinary thing about finding out about my family connection to Campbelltown is that I stood for parliament in 1969 on almost the same boundaries that old Mayor Charlie Francis Bull – my great great grandfather – had when he was elected to Parliament in 1895 as the Member for Camden.
“If I had known of my family connections to the area through Charlie Bull I believe it may have got me over the line in 1969,’’ says Frank Ward.
♦ When the South West Voice finally phones Beverly Dunbier – as promised – and explain what Frank Ward told us about the trowel, she exclaims: “That man [Frank Ward] stood against my husband in 1968 in the seat of Campbelltown’’.
As for the trowel, Mrs Dunbier told the South West Voice that although she now lived in the Carrington retirement village, she went back to the family home from time to time to pick up the odd thing.
“Give me your phone number and if I find the trowel I will call to let you know,’’ she said.
Great bit of history.
Thank you for the opportunity to write this great yarn, Frank Ward