Pine street, Chippendale
Image © City of Sydney Archives, NSCA CRS 51/639.
Not all research results in a rewarding conclusion, or the satisfaction of a mystery solved. Sometimes, no matter how much information you have access to, a definitive answer is always just out of reach. This is exactly what occurred with my latest choice from the archives.
When I first noticed this photograph in the City of Sydney archives, I was far more interested in the two sweet little cottages to the centre and right of the image. When I saw the address – Pine Street, Chippendale, 1914 – my heart sank a little: being familiar with the area, now full of 20th century warehouses and apartment buildings, I had little hope of finding any of the old cottages still standing.
I was amazed to find, however, that the terrace on the left hand side of the photograph still survives today, and in remarkably original condition. Its rough, sandstone walls and intricate, wrought iron lacework renders it immediately identifiable. Looking closely at the original image, I also noticed the figures of what appear to be a woman and a small child standing on the balcony. Now armed with a full street address and a date, I was determined to find out more about these two shadowy figures.
In 1914 the house was occupied by one Abraham Davis – a depressingly common surname for a researcher to come across, and one which invariably causes many a trail to go cold. Nevertheless, some tantalising clues appear with regards to Abraham. As early as 1889, an Abraham Davis, aged 40, of “Pine Street, Redfern” (the names of both localities being interchangeable in those days) is reported to have received an injury to his arm after being run over in the street. Thus, our Abraham is either no longer a young man by 1914, or the descendant of a namesake from the same address.
Abraham makes two appearances in the NSW Police Gazette, once in 1913, and again in 1914, as the victim of theft, in which eighteen pairs of dead rabbits, to the value of 18s (shillings), were stolen from him. This little titbit of information tells us that Abraham was most likely one of the neighbourhood's now famous “rabbitohs”: purveyors of rabbit meat and skins, who made their living hawking their wares along the local streets with the cheerful cry of “rabbit-o!” (and as one apocryphal tale has it, gave their name and badge to the South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League side, which was founded in Redfern.) One Daniel Hickson, alias Magnus, was caught and sentenced for the crime, the miscreant receiving three months’ hard labour for his troubles.
At the time this photograph was taken, Pine street was part of a tough neighbourhood. Frequent reports appear in newspapers about street gangs menacing and mugging local pedestrians. In one report of 1915, a policeman attempting an arrest just a few doors down from Abraham’s house was set upon by a “crowd of roughs, who, after knocking him down, kicked him into insensibility.” The constable’s arm was broken, and he suffered cuts and bruises to most of his body. It would not have been a pleasant neighbourhood in which to grow old.
Abraham’s birth records remain elusive – not only is there an Abraham Davis born approximately every twenty years in New South Wales, but at least one migrant of the same name arrives within the relevant time period. Thus we cannot safely say how old our Abraham is, or even if we are looking at the same Abraham over a thirty-year period, or two or more members of the same family. Other mentions include an Abraham Davis of Outram Street, Chippendale, in 1882, again a victim of theft; the same Abraham of Outram Street caused an accident involving a bus while driving a spring-cart in 1878, just outside the General Post Office on George Street in the centre of town.
One particularly interesting Abraham Davis is also of Redfern. Born circa 1884, he was first charged with wife desertion in 1917. He is described as “33 years of age, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, slight build, fair complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, clean shaved.” His wife, Alice Davis, resided at 92 Ivy Street, Darlington, just five minutes’ walk from Pine Street. Interestingly, this Abraham is also described as having burn scars on his back and arm: in February 1893, a then 10 year old Abraham Davis of "Vine-street, Redfern", was reported to have suffered severe burns to his back in a kitchen accident. Unfortunately for the researcher, Vine Street also exists: the assumption cannot be made that the address was misidentified by the journalist.
Could this Abraham possibly be the son of our Abraham? The same, younger Abraham was cited several times for the same offense, namely wife desertion, both in Redfern during the 1910s, and later in Daceyville during the 1920s. An Abraham Davis married Alice Campbell in 1903, and had at least three children, fitting the time frame for our photograph quite neatly. It will not do to assume too much from this, however: at this stage, no proof exists that the two families are even related.
At the end of the day, the identity of the woman and child on Abraham Davis’ terrace balcony seem determined to remain a mystery. Are they Abraham’s long suffering daughter-in-law Alice and a grandchild, taken in after one of Abraham junior’s lapses in care, or perhaps only a family of lodgers? For the time being at least, this one will remain a mystery. It is satisfying at least to have discovered a little more about one of Sydney’s invisible people, a humble rabbitoh and long term resident of Pine street, Chippendale.
