05 April 2008

Gosford People

Past attempts to develop the Gosford region.

From the Gosford Times
4th March 1898
It is said that the meeting to be held at Ourimbah on Monday night next re the proposed park promises to be a rather “stormy” one. Much bitterness, uncalled for no doubt, has been engendered against certain members of the Progress Association for their alleged ‘shady’ actions in influencing the selection of a certain site. It is a great pity that local petty jealousies should intrude themselves at this early stage of the proceedings, for if perpetuated it will assuredly be the deathblow to the Park – a public boon that wellwishers have striven hard to secure. Let us hope that wiser council will prevail in future.
25th march 1898
Ald. Kibble produced a photograph of an improved night cart, which was offered for sale at 35 pounds, and in accordance with his notice at last meeting, moved that cess pit closets be abolished and the pan system adopted throughout the borough. Ald. Mason seconded. On the advice of other Aldermen, however, the motion was withdrawn pending the receipt of further information from boroughs where the pan system is in vogue.

[Alderman Kibble realized that cess pit toilets had disadvantages, particularly in the low lying, swampy, areas at the bottom of the Gosford ‘bowl’, and the potential value of his land holdings in this area could only be improved by a change to the sanitation system.]

Of course such self-interest might seem strange to us today.
But then, people have changed. Do we see people on the Central Coast resembling Australians from the 1880s?

Poster from 1885

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