Blast from the past: at the recent Picton chamber of commerce annual charity golf day at Antill golf course was none other than Pete Roberts.
But in ancient times, before the turn of the century, he ran Pete’s Café, located at the back of the Macarthur Advertiser building on 263 Queen Street, Campbelltown.
I stand corrected but Pete’s Café was the first café to serve really decent coffee in Campbelltown, so it was very popular even though it didn’t have a main street location.
Peter Roberts has moved on to a different path since closing the café, but it was good to see him behind the barbecue grill at Antill.
And I’ve got to say, he served up some of the best bacon and egg rolls we’ve ever had for breakfast at a charity golf day!
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Soccer fans, sorry, football fans, will remember how Ante Milicic left Macarthur FC in slightly mysterious circumstances: “returning home to Croatia for “personal reasons’’.
A few days ago the Matildas, our incredibly popular women’s soccer team played China, and who popped up as their coach – Ante Milicic.
He told the journos in a media conference that he had taken a year away from the game, etc.
Milicic is a very good coach and hopefully we’ll see him back here coaching someone in Australia before too long.
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The Campbelltown Billabong Parklands has many features, and one of them are the lifeguards.
They have already started working there even though the swimming season won’t get under way until some time in September.
During Saturday’s official opening, and just before Mayor George Greiss did the official honours, we had a chat to one of them, a female lifeguard.
We were not surprised to hear her tells us she lives in Wollongong.
So it was rather amusing to hear a former mayor a little later, generously given the microphone by his successor, Cr Greiss, waffle on about how the Billabong had created local jobs, just like “those lifeguards you see over there’’.
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And then there’s people like Marie Reeves, (nee Antill), who cop any losses on the chin and get on with their lives.
Ms Reeves, who lives in Campbelltown, worked hard to get a Blue Plaque for Jarvisfield, the homestead on Antill golf course built by the man who established Picton, Major Henry Colden Antill.
Blue Plaques, a fairly new program in NSW, add prestige to heritage listed properties.
Although it was a surprise such a historic building as Jarvisfield missed out, maybe the Blue Plaque people weren’t impressed with the the building’s poor appearance. It does a need a coat of paint, as sharp eyed readers would have noticed from the picture above.
Ms Reeves penned this note when she informed us of the decision:
“I have fond memories of Vault Hill. As children in the 60’s we used to play on the hills and often visited the cemetery on Vault Hill. It was vandalised then which was sad to see. I hope it is preserved as it is an important part of history.
“My grandparents at the time owned a house in Menangle Street which was built in 1888 and the original owner was an Antill. I have the deed with his name on it.
“The house is still there but has been gutted inside and changed immensely. This house should have been heritage listed. It seems New South Wales is not good with preserving its history.’’
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And still on matters of heritage, Liverpool Historic Society is about to get a new museum.
The official opening is on June 22 on site, the back of the Hilda Davis Senior Citizens Centre. The museum will occupy the former Senior Citizens Association part which is at the rear of the building on the corner of Bigge and Moore Streets.
It seems the local senior citizens association ceased to exist more than 10 years ago.
It’s also the historic society’s 65th anniversary so the museum opening will include a birthday cake.
In a note to us, the society said that “it’s also 60 years since the Beatles almost came to Liverpool. They didn’t of course but manager Brian Epstein did. So the Liverpool City Brass Band will be playing Beatle tunes on the day’’.
Yeah yeah.
