Walk along South Steyne

On the hill in the distance is St Patrick's College, built as a Roman Catholic
seminary in 1889. Manly has had a reputation as a health resort for many years. In 1873, Dr William O'Reilly, writing about Manly in the New South Wales Medical Gazette, urged the medical profession to consider the 'locality's sanitary importance and advantages as a convalescent station ... any professional gentleman has only to visit Manly once to become aware of the fact that it offers special inducements to those suffering from liver complaints and chronic infections of the digestive organs...' At the beginning of this century newspapers wrote of Manly as 'the Watering Place of the Nation' and the 'Brighton of the South' referring to it as place for recuperation and relaxation.
Opposite the beach stands the Royal Far West Children's Home. Family life
in outback NSW was tough when Methodist pastor, Stanley Drummond, and
his wife Lucy cast about for a remedy to relieve those who suffered most. Sea
breezes and good food were the tonic they chose. In 1925 they brought a
group of 58 children and six mothers to the coast for the first in a series of
visits that became an annual event. The children they selected were physically disabled, malnourished and debilitated by the heat, dust and flies. The
Drummonds' legacy has continued. This important organisation today still provides all country children with accommodation and education while they receive medical treatment.

A commercial kitchen on the ground floor serviced the Restaurant De Luxe above. In 1925 the company Dungowan Ltd converted the Paramount Picture Theatre next door into the Cabaret Dungowan where grand social occasions were celebrated. An ice skating rink was added at the end of the 1920s, creating a complex of buildings extending to the corner of Ashburner Street and South Steyne.

In 1908 the Sydney Morning Herald described Manly as, 'The Boulogne of Australia...it has been a common thing for 20,000 to 30, 000 people to go over to Manly on a single afternoon...long lines of dressing sheds have been put up for them [surfbathers] under the seawall. The long curved avenue of Norfolk Island Pines, which is the hallmark of Manly is nothing except Australian. But the ocean beach itself might belong to the north coast of France...the long line off hire chairs, with standing parasols and many coloured skirts peeping over the edges of them, a bunch of drowsy saddled ponies, the donkeys and side shows, miniature railways... entertain the crowd of bathers'.

Manly is historically important in the introduction of daylight swimming, recreational beach culture, surf lifesaving, and board surfing into Australian culture. Here Tommy Tanna, a native of Talma Island in Vanuatu, taught 16-year-old Fred Williams to body surf at South Steyne in 1891 beginning the popularisation of surf bathing. Daylight bathing was illegal until local newspaper proprietor William Gocher campaigned successfully to change Manly Council's by-law. When legislation was introduced to permit bathing in daylight hours in 1903 the Manly community began campaigning for an organised surf rescue service. On Boxing Day that year, Eddie and Joe Sly, their fishing boat adapted for surf rescues, staged a carnival demonstrating a variety of rescue techniques.

In July 1907 the Manly Surf Club held its inaugural meeting. Three months later the State co-ordinating body, the New South Wales Surf Bathing Association, was formed, the forerunner of today's Surf Lifesaving Association of Australia. New Zealander, Happy Eyre, the first lifeguard employed by Manly Council, started work in October 1907. He patrolled at North Steyne on alternate Sundays, with the members of the North Steyne Surf Bathers and Life Saving Club, beginning today's system of close co-operation between professional lifeguards and volunteers.

The culture of the beach fostered an easygoing attitude and a determination
to balance endeavour and relaxation which is a feature of the Australian character. It produced a cultural symbol, the bronzed Aussie lifesaver and led to Australia's outstanding record of achievement in water sports.

A booklet advertising Steyne Court in 1904 described it as a place of exciting technology and breathtaking adventure. Twenty arc lights, each giving off
2000 candle-power, spread light as bright as day over the grounds. The water
chute ride stood 15 metres high and used a winch driven by a 50 horsepower
engine to pull a boatload of eight passengers up greased hardwood skids, at an incline of one in three, to the top of the tower. The boat was then re- leased and plunged headlong into an artificial lake at such speed that it skipped along its surface before coming under the control of the steersman who guided it to a landing at the opposite end of the lake. The lake was shaped like a large kite 65m by 25m, its walls made of concrete and brick. It held 48,000 litres of fresh water which was topped up daily from the mains supply.

There was also a fast toboggan ride, with a track of steep slopes and camelback humps. For those who preferred a more sedate pace, the Great Dragon, 'perfectly tame and docile' and powered by a De Dian six horsepower motor
inside its head, meandered a trackless route through the grounds. A shooting gallery gave marksmen the opportunity to shoot kangaroo and other wild
animals.

The Bijou Theatre entertained audiences with a biotint called 'A Trip to the Moon'. The 32 moon scenes included 'photographs' of its inhabitants.
Audiences found 'weirdly delightful' ... 'A beautiful Electrical Transformation Cloak Effect Act'. Entertainments described as 'the latest successes from London and American theatres' were on the Bijou's schedule, with four daily performances. In the background an orchestra played day and night from a gaily illuminated band stand. At the gypsy tea rooms waitresses in Swiss costume served ices, ice creams, fruit salads, cakes and fancy pastries; and at the kiosk patrons could buy a glass of wine. Family parties were catered for at any time and supper parties could be catered for by arrangement. The grounds were enclosed by a 4 metre high fence that was decorated by land-scape artist, Ray Phillips. Steyne Court covered one and a half acres of land between Wentworth and Ashburner Streets. It opened daily from 2.30 to 10pm and on holidays, 11am to 10pm. Admission was 6d for adults and 3d for children.

Turn from the ocean and walk toward the harbour along Ashburner Street

Landowner, Katherine Darley/Bassett, nee Wentworth, and her son-in-law, Francis James Ashburner were only two of the many who endowed Manly's streets with their names in the 19th century.

Notice the iron plaque bolted to the rock face marking the start of work in 1898 on major improvements to Manly's sewage disposal system. The Manly Grammar School for Girls is commemorated nearby on another plaque, which was unveiled on 20 June 1994 by former students of the school. The Latin motto means 'Manners maketh man'.

The oldest blocks of flats, erected during Manly's building boom in the 1920s and 30s, are nos. 43, 41, 39-37, and opposite no. 34, Rowena and no. 30, Winchelsea. The domestic style of Gallipoli Flats no. 43 and The Astor no. 41, differ remarkably from The Checkers next door. Its entrance, marked by grand columns and terrazzo stairs inlaid with the building's name, creates an image of material success and symbolises the optimism of investors - a reminder that not everyone lost money in the Great Depression. Valentia at no. 33 was built about 1918. The horizontal lines decorating the facade, repeated in the house number, the verandah steps, and front fence, are precursor to the Art Deco style of the 1930s.

The cottages at nos. 20 and 18 are Victorian Italianate in style, featuring ornate timber fascias, and cast iron columns and valances. Across the road the three cottages nos. 23, 21, and 19 and 23, and no.10 opposite, were built just after world War I. The absence of ornamentation, noticeable where the houses retain heir original appearance, indicates that they were typical workers cottages of his period. Nos. 16 and 14 are also workers cottages built in the mid 1920s. Their rick entrances, stained glass, and intricately carved verandah brackets indicate that they were built in a time of greater prosperity.

A small two-storied building at no. 15A was built in the 1870s. It has a pressed metal skirt beneath its bay window, and its brick sidewall is rendered and scored to imitate sandstone. In the 1890s there was a timber merchant and coal and fuel depot here, whose delivery carts loaded in the yard behind the double gates.

8A Ashburner Street is particularly interesting because the folding doors that now form part of the street wall once opened daily onto the footpath. They are a remnant of the industry that operated from this combined factory and residence. In 1895, cordial manufacturer, H.E. Stevenson, lived here and later, Sanders and Co., carriers. The entrance to the residence is set back from the street, giving privacy to the family who lived there.

Facing Darley Road is a Victorian terrace with a Spanish Mission facade, added some 50 years later. This was one of the ways owners updated their properties.

Cross Darley Road using the pedestrian refuge up the hill and return again to Ashburner Street

Adastra, no. 8, is an example of Art Deco architecture. The feature at the top, centre of the building has a waterfall motif, a theme typical of this style.

Set back from the road at no. 2, is Fairlands. Its architectural style is Victorian Rustic Gothic with contemporary additions. The Mayor of Manly 1897- 98, F.C. Passau built Fairlands in 1885. A plaque on the driveway wall gives a description of Fairlands' history. Opposite Fairlands at nos. 7A and 5 there are two late Victorian terraces typical of high density working class suburbs, such as Glebe or Paddington. The iron lace verandahs provide a decorative facade to the modest building behind.

Ashbumer Street's architecture captures a microcosm of Manly's history. The cottages were the homes of workers and tradespeople who serviced the 19th century mansions built on the hillsides above, and the visitors who stayed here. The flats of the 1920s and 30s and the units of the 1960s and 70s mark Manly's transition from village to dormitory suburb.