An April 1898 photo by Alfred Charles Cowle from a series of photos of Mrs Frances Henrietta Jones’ garden party at her residence Warooka in Dapto. Photo: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.
When I first posted the above image on the Dapto in History Facebook site more than a decade ago, the very witty Brad Craig remarked: “Such a classy photo … not all Daptoids are bogans, just most of us.”
But despite the up-turned eyebrows my enthusiasm for Dapto sometimes engenders, I still find it the most interesting historical place in all Illawarra – and not only because it was one of Illawarra’s earliest-settled communities but also because some of Australia’s wealthiest and most fashionable once lived there.
Henry Osborne of nearby Marshall Mount House was arguably Australia’s richest man when died in 1859. His children lived lives of extraordinary luxury and Henry’s brother, Dr Alick Osborne, even had Dapto’s original Daisybank residence built for him.
And even the Marshall family were also well-to-do and at one time owned all the land on the western side of the highway to Darkes Road and Avondale.
Of course there is also Dapto’s Illawarra cedar interiors of Horsley Homestead, the fabulous wedding venue of my wife and I back in 1988 at a time when green fields still stretched west all the way to the escarpment.
Nonetheless, apart from the fact that plenty of Australians have heard of the Dapto Dogs, 20th Century Dapto has very often come in for a beating.
Even a local take on one of Australia’s most popular songs has had a seriously good tongue-in-cheek go at Dapto’s current residents.
Yet the photo of the garden party at Dapto demonstrates that, at least for some, late 19th century Dapto was a very different place, particularly if you were the Mrs Frances Henrietta Jones who owned the lovely house Warooka on the main road.
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine any photo looking both less Australian and less like Dapto today. Moreover, as far as I can tell, none of the vegetation in this very English Dapto garden appears to be native to Illawarra.
Another of Cowle’s photos of the 1898 Jones’ garden party in Dapto, including Sophie Steffanoni and brother Lewis on the right. Photo: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.
Apart from the lovely house and the seemingly leisurely lifestyle of its inhabitants, the above photo shows a now celebrated Australian woman artist, Miss Sophie Steffanoni who is seated on the right next to her older brother, Lewis.
The reason they were there is that Lewis Steffanoni Jnr was busy trying to woo the Miss Ethel Jones seen standing at centre. It took Lewis an extra three years (and presumably quite a few additional visits to Dapto) for Ethel to marry him. His persistence (including ridiculous top-hat and all) prevailed.
Berry’s Broughton Creek Mail reported on 28 February 1901 of the wedding of Steffanoni and Jones: “A very pretty wedding was solemnised at St. Luke’s Church, Dapto, by the Rev. Stack, the bridegroom being Mr. Lewis Steffanoni, licensed surveyor, of Collie, W.A., and the bride, Miss Ethel Jones, youngest daughter of Mrs. F. H. Jones, of Warooka, Dapto. The church was very nicely decorated for the occasion. Mr. Steffanoni is in partnership in the West with Mr. John Ewing, late of Berry.”
Lewis and Sophie Steffanoni were the children of Lewis Steffanoni Snr who was born in 1835 at Holborn in London.
He worked as an upholsterer and gold bullion embroiderer before migrating to Sydney. By 1869, Lewis Snr had married Sarah Reading (1844-1916) who was the niece of the fabulously wealthy John Fairfax and formed a company with Sarah’s mother known as Reading, Son & Steffanoni.
And the reason A.C. Cowle was there to take these three fabulous Dapto photos was that, on a painting trip to Tasmania, Sophie Steffanoni had become friends with the artist Kate Cowle who later also became the first recorded Australian female to trek to the top of Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain in 1910.
Good fortune often continues to favour the fortunate and the now happily married Lewis and Ethel Steffanoni’s daughter, Rita, became the wife of Western Australia Premier Sir Charles Court.
The artist Sophie Steffanoni and her brother Lewis arriving at the Jones’ garden party. Photo: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.
One of Sir Charles and Lady Rita’s sons went on to marry Margaret Court, the former world number one tennis player, who is today a figure of some controversy.
So while the Steffanoni family did well being related to a niece of John Fairfax, Dapto’s Mrs Frances Henrietta Jones (eldest daughter of Robert Jackson, from Holloway in England) had become the wealthy owner of lots of Dapto property after the death of her Welsh-born husband, Edward Arthur Jones, in 1888.
The couple had married in 1860 and Edward ran a drapery called Britannia House in Crown Street Wollongong. At his death in 1888 Edward’s widow was also left quite cashed-up.
Consequently, she and her son, Arthur, were wealthy enough to live for more than a year in England from 1905-1906 and then for Arthur to further holiday in America.
Mrs Frances Henrietta Jones died at Warooka in Dapto in 1907 and so her fabulous garden parties were no more.
The artist Sophie Steffanoni died in 1906 but Wollongong Art Gallery proudly holds four of her many historically important works.
