The Trethowan Family

Alfred Trethowan was born in 1855 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. His sister, Augusta, was born in 1856. Both brother and sister married in 1877 and the two young couples set sail for Sydney, Australia, in October of that year.

The Trethowan family had had a ship building yard in Falmouth for over two centuries, but the world was changing and there was not going to be a future in building wooden sailing ships

The Trethowan boys had to make a new and different life. Alf had completed his apprenticeship as a shipwright before marrying Anna Maria Ham. When they arrived in Sydney they lived in the area now known as The Rocks, where their son Alfred Ham Trethowan was born on 12th January, 1879. Alf and Anna Maria established a Ham and Beef Shop (a deli today), which they sold at a profit. This process was repeated at Burwood and Glanville before Alf had enough deposit to buy a forty acre property on the corner of Smalls and Blacks Roads, Arcadia in November 1885. Here they established the family farm, growing citrus and poultry. Their young family of Alf, Ern, Daisy, and Bill grew up happily although they had the tragic death of little brother Sidney, aged 4.

The Trethowans and other local families were keen to have a Church of England place of worship at Arcadia. A site was chosen alongside the School and fundraising commenced. Alf senior as a shipwright was able to prepare the building plans for the little wooden church and with his three sons was among the volunteers who built St, Columbs, Arcadia which was opened in 1907.

Anna Maria and Alfred died in 1909 and 1913, and most of the family married and moved away, leaving Alf ll and his wife, Ruby and their only son, Dick on the original farm. Dick married Dorothy Davidson of Galston in 1934, and they had Michael, Terry, and Caryl (me !) over the next nine years. The whole family moved