Sydney Wheeler (1885 - 1963)

Born 24 Feb 1885 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Evelyn Suzannah (Smith) Wheeler — married 9 May 1906 in Beecroft, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 22 Aug 1963 at age 78 in Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Births, Deaths, NSW Gov. Father Charles W Wheeler 35 Travelled to Australia in 1884 on SS Warwick with wife Alice 28 and two children Mildred 2 & George 1 (Mildred died on voyage) Charles was a plasterer by trade born in Hauts Hampshire (Southampton) Alice Surrey England

On his parents arrival in Sydney they lived first at 7 Turner Street Redfern. It was a small, pokey, terrace house near the police station. The house no longer exists as it was demolished under slum clearance and the area was redeveloped. It was while they lived there that the rest of the children were born. Sydney in 1885, May in 1887, Charles in 1889, and Annie (aka as Tot or Tottie) in 1891. In 1894 the family moved to a block of land at Beecroft. It cost 9 pounds and encompassed an area of one and a quarter acres. It was a natural bush area with a steep drop down to a creek. There were big rocks above the ground, full-grown trees, with an undergrowth of scrub. The soil was poor. My great, great grandad called the place „The Bourn.‟

On the day of the move, Charles (Sydney's father) took a one-horse cartload of possessions and the rest of the family caught the train. The first night they slept under a rocky ledge which was almost like a small cave. They then slept in a tent until they built the hut.

The location was on the east side of the railway line on Copeland Road (east), Beecroft. The hut they lived in had no number and was made of saplings with a stone floor and a bark roof. Water was carried by bucket from the creek and light was from kerosene lanterns and candles. In those days the creek would have been unpolluted. Apparently they shifted a few rocks here and there to make a little swimming pool and that's where they learnt to swim.

When the boys were much older they built the old couple a more substantial home. In this second house Great Great Grandad Charles must have used his expertise as a plasterer and tiler to tile the floor.

Sometime In the 1960‟s Roy Wheeler went with his brother John, his sons and his parents, Susan and Charles (junior), to the site of the Wheeler home. The land had long since been subdivided and built on but Charles (junior)worked out where the house had stood. The people who then owned the land showed them the ornamentally tiled area of their garden. This was part of the floor of the Wheelers' second house. The first roughly built house that Charles grew up in was a slab hut with a bark roof.

Sourced Roy Wheeler grandson of Charles Walter Wheeler and Alice Wheeler History of Beecroft NSW

Information from actual Captains log book NSW Gov site scanned ebook

Sources