Aerodome

Aerodome 89 Abbotsford Road Homebush, December 2021. Courtesy Strathfield Council

 

House names are fascinating. They so often reveal the heritage, aspirations or experiences of their owners. The three houses at 85, 87 and 89 Abbotsford Road, Homebush were all built during the mid-1920s for the three Hart sisters of Parramatta and their husbands. The builder was their uncle, A.E. Gazzard of Sydney Street, Concord.

The unusually named Aerodome at number 89 (originally 67) was the first to be built c1923 and belonged to Cassie and Ernest Lundie who moved from their previous home, also called Aerodome, in Burlington Road. Apartments now stand on this site.

But why the choice of house name?

Ernest Lundie and Cassie Hart were married in Parramatta in March 1912, by which time Cassie had become quite well-known as the sister of Australia’s first qualified pilot, dentist William (Billy) Ewart Hart.[1] On 3 November 1911, Hart made the first – entirely unplanned – cross-country flight in Australia when he flew his own biplane from Penrith to Parramatta, accompanied by his brother, Jack. It is worth noting that Jack refused to accompany him on the return flight, during which Hart was forced to land in a Chinese market garden. Hart had bought the plane only a short time earlier, just before the machine was badly damaged during a storm. Undeterred, he largely rebuilt it himself, using Australian timbers and the skills he had learned in the family’s timber business. He then taught himself to fly. A memorial to his first cross country flight stands in Parramatta Park.[2]

Dentist William Hart, holder of Australian pilot licence number 1
flying a bi-plane, Sydney, c.1912. Courtesy National Library of Australia

During November 1911 he flew a number of other cross-country flights and, at the end of that month, Cassie Hart became the first brave, Australian-born lady to fly with an Australian pilot when she was taken aloft by her brother at Victoria Park Racecourse. Her fiancé, Ernest and sister, Carrie also enjoyed flights that day but it was Cassie who received the glory in the press as Hart’s first lady passenger.[3] The newspapers reported on these events as far away as Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 1 December 1911 p.5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91326830

 

On 5 December 1911, William Ewart Hart received the very first Australian aviator’s licence.

Victoria Park Racecourse also quickly seized upon the spectacle to promote its races.

The Arrow 2 December 1911 p.12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/125985435

After Hart’s death in 1943, a former journalist described the plane: ‘It was no streamlined affair, but a cranky contraption of spars and wires, with a cantankerous engine. I accompanied Hart on a flight around Parramatta as a newsreel cameraman for Australian Gaumont Graphic. Everything except the pistons was open to the wind, which howled through the spars and made the wires whistle while I sat on a bicycle seat and wound my legs around one of the spars while I cranked the camera… There was never a more thankful man than the writer when Hart achieved a safe though bumpy landing in Parramatta Park.’[4]

Courtesy National Library of Australia

At Cassie’s wedding a few months later, a floral plane was suspended above the bridal couple’s head in the church instead of the traditional floral bell. The occasion received great press coverage and the newlyweds settled into their first home, Aerodome in Burlington Road, Homebush.

The Sun 5 February 1912 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/222000475

 

Interestingly, the first mention of ‘aerodome’ in Australian newspapers was in July 1896, when the term referred to the ‘plane’ itself – a contraption built of steel and powered by steam.[5] The term ‘aerodrome’ (with an ‘r’) came into existence in about 1908, coined by Captain Lovelace, the American aeronaut, referring to the large tent-like structure from which balloon ascents were made.[6] The word ‘aeroplane’ itself did not come into general use until later.

Hart’s exploits inspired a new generation of pilots, including one by the name of Bert Hinkler. Hinkler had trekked from Bundaberg, Queensland to Sydney to ask Hart to teach him to fly when he was still a youngster. In 1928 he made the first solo flight from Britain to Australia.[7]

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 2 March 1928 p.4
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107101776

William Ewart Hart went on to serve with the No.1 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps. during World War I as an instructor, but only after he had recovered from severe injuries received during a crash in September 1912.[8] Indeed, his injuries were so bad that his war service was quickly cut short and he was medically discharged, returning home to resume his dental career.

The Lundie family did not stay many years at Aerodome in Abbotsford Road. The house was offered for sale or lease in 1928 and was purchased by Sidney Roland Thompson who later named it Widgewong. Leslie Lee’s book The Road to Widgewong, a fictional story about two boys and their adventures during their bush travels, was published in 1928 and seems likely to have inspired Thompson’s choice of name.[9]

From left: numbers 89, 87 and 85 Abbotsford Road, Homebush, December 2021. Courtesy Strathfield Council

Next door to Aerodome, now number 87, was Cooinda, built for Oliver Cranston Milling and his wife Wynifred (nee Hart) who had married in Parramatta in 1915. Their sojourn in Abbotsford Road was brief and the house was quickly sold to Walter Fisher. Interestingly, there had also been a house named Cooinda in Vernon Street, Strathfield, where the Mailer family welcomed a baby daughter during January 1897.[10] Sources suggest that the word Cooinda was an Aboriginal word meaning ‘happy place’ and it was a popular choice of house name. In May 1929 Mrs Fisher offered a reward for the return of her lost purse to Cooinda.[11]

Number 85, Karuah became the home of Sidney Muddle and his wife, Caroline Hart who married in 1920, after his return from the war. It was Caroline who owned the house, but the land had previously belonged to her father, William Hart senior. The Muddles settled at Karuah in about 1926/1927, by which time the Millings had already sold Cooinda. By 1936 the Muddles had moved to 25 Wentworth Street, Parramatta, possibly to care for Caroline’s elderly father who resided there. These premises had also served as Billy Hart’s dental surgery before the war. Ownership of Karuah was transferred to Caroline’s father, William Hart senior who died in 1937. It was then sold to the Nichols family who resided in Burlington Road, Homebush.

Daily Telegraph 14 April 1927 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/246111444

 

Strathfield Council’s valuation records show that the houses in Abbotsford Road retained the names Widgewong, Cooinda and Karuah into the 1960s.

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Sydney Morning Herald 17 November 1911 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15289842

 

[2] Monument Australia https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/aviation/display/22738-william-ewart-hart

 

[3] Sydney Morning Herald 1 December 1911 p.9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15293234

 

[4] Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate 31 July 1943 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/10038368

 

[5] The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express 31 July 1896 p.33 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/99425443

 

[6] The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times 11 November 1908 p.3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132486739

 

[7] The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 2 March 1928 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107101776

 

[8] The Ballarat Star (VIC) 6 September 1912 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221724238

 

[9] Lee, Leslie The Road to Widgewong https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-18050034/view?partId=nla.obj-18089233

 

[10] Sydney Morning Herald 28 January 1897 p.1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14086190

 

[11] Sydney Morning Herald 21 May 1929 p.9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16552322

 

For further information about William Ewart Hart:

Australian Dictionary of Biography https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hart-william-ewart-bill-6592
Parramatta History & Heritage https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/blog/2014/07/09/australias-first-aviator-billy-hart-parramatta-stories

For more information on Abbotsford Road see also:

Jones, Cathy ‘Karuah’ 85 Abbotsford Road Homebush https://strathfieldheritage.com/streetnames/abbotsford-road-homebush/karuah-85-apabbotsford-road-homebush/
Jones, Cathy ‘Cooinda’ 87 Abbotsford Road Homebush https://strathfieldheritage.com/streetnames/abbotsford-road-homebush/cooinda-87-abbotsford-road-homebush/
Jones, Cathy ‘Widgewong’ 89 Abbotsford Road Homebush https://strathfieldheritage.com/streetnames/abbotsford-road-homebush/windgewong-89-abbotsford-road-homebush/
Jones, Cathy ‘Abbotsford Road Homebush’ https://strathfieldheritage.com/streetnames/abbotsford-road-homebush/