James McCaskie 1853-1938

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Kindly contributed by Jack Brown of New South Wales - great grandson of John McCaskie who emigrated from Ardstraw to Sydney in 1841

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Uncle "Jimbo"

James McCaskie was my mother's uncle - but to me, as a young child, he was "Uncle Jimbo" and quite a favourite of mine.

The McCaskie Family owned "the farm" at Meadowbank, the "shack" at Greenhills (now North Narrabeen) and Jimbo also had land in Alfred St Dee Why

Jimbo and and his sister Lizzie never married and lived at Crescent St Rozelle in the big old house, along with my Grandmother Agnes and her husband Henry. "Auntie Liz" ran a shop there

Jimbo was a blacksmith and I have his indentures as an apprentice blacksmith.
I also have some blacksmith's tools used by Jimbo.One is a wheel circumference measuring device, to accurately measure the amount of steel tyre material to be rolled and forge joined, to make the tyre for a wooden sulky wheel.
The other is a blacksmith's double calliper to provide two measurements for the Smith to work to.

The blacksmith’s shop, where Jimbo served his apprenticeship, was in Hunter St and was next door to an ivory turning shop of Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales for 20 years

Sir Henry Parkes

Sir Henry Parkes.

Jimbo used to walk to and from Rozelle to Hunter St. to work.

It was too far and so Aunty Liz, as a young girl, set up house in George St. to look after Jimbo.

The blacksmiths shop and forge stood
on the corner of Crescent and Parsons

photo shows proprietor and the
workers standing outside.

Jimbo went to the Boer War. Here are photographs of him in uniform.


I don't remember him having a horse and/or a sulky and his means of transport seemed to be public transport. This was by tram from Crescent St. to Top Ryde Tram Terminus, where a branch line operated up Church St. and then down Victoria Road until it turned into Ryedale Rd and up to its terminus outside West Ryde Railway Station. To get to "The Farm" Jimbo would take the two trams and then walk from West Ryde. Our House was in Adelaide St. above the farm and I remember waiting and watching for Jimbo to appear around the corner of the paddock, next to Sharpham the builder’s house. When he did I would let out a whoop of joy and run up to meet him. He was always dressed the same in a pair of baggy blue serge trousers and a coarse grey flannel shirt. He always carried his things in a hessian sugar bag. He would put it down on the veranda and produce from it a small white paper bag containing white tablet lollies called "Conversations" - because embossed on the tablet were words like "Good morning" and "How are you?" and other such conversation pieces. As well as Conversations there were Humbugs,which were boiled lollies, black and white and tasting of aniseed. I think they came from the sweet display case at Aunt Lizzie's shop. As well as our treats there were items sent to my mother from the family at Crescent St. Jimbo would have a cup of tea with Mum and then go on down to the Farm and the market gardens. Whenever Jimbo was in residence at the Farm, Aunt Liz would come up for a couple of days and "do the housework" before returning to Crescent St.. On these occasions she would feed me with Arnott's Milk Arrowroot biscuits and spoonfuls of condensed milk, whilst she laboured over a big fuel stove doing the cooking. Jimbo owned about 14 blocks of land in James St. (The Street named after him), and as finances or perhaps the mood took him, he would erect a "Hudson ready cut house" on one of the blocks, without too much regard to the boundaries of the block. The inevitable result being that on his death the estate had to realign half the properties in James St.
Thanks to The Kosciusko Huts Association Gudgenby Cottage Namadgi National Park Canberra is a Hudson Ready-Cut kit home, built in 1927 for the Bootes family, as a visitors cottage and later for the Gudgenby property manager. Jimbo's house at No 5 James St. backed onto our side boundary of No 101 Adelaide St; which was our home, as Jimbo had sold the land to my father, on some pay as you can basis. The farm house had been rented and Jimbo took to using No 5 as his base. This suited me as the child because I just went out our back door to the side fence and into No 5. Jimbo grew a lot of corn in his market gardens and he used to harvest it and store the cobs in the front room of No 5 until they dried out thoroughly. All this corn had to be removed from the cob. This was achieved by means of a very old and heavy anvil, which sat in the middle of the floor in the front room. With the aid of a large wooden mallet, the cob of corn was driven end on through a hole in the anvil and the individual corn grains flew in all directions. I have a recollection of corn seeds a couple of feet thick all over the room. He would then bag it all up and send it off to market. His garden down at Warraba Rd Greenhills, now called North Narrabeen, was a lush place, with a shop owned by Aunt Liz on the corner of Warraba and The Crescent. “The Shack", Jimbo's two room residence, was next door. The Shack later became our families holiday place at Xmas and my mother eventually inherited both blocks from Jimbo.

Uncle Jimbo	Uncle Jimbo
Transport from Rozelle was by tram to Circular Quay, Ferry to Manly, then tram again to Narrabeen Tram terminus at the bridge. The rest was a walk. I have no idea how he got his produce to market or back to Rozelle to Lizzie's shop. When Jimbo became quite old, in his eighties, he retired to Crescent St. Rozelle, his home for a lifetime. I remember visiting him sitting in the sun on the upstairs veranda He was a gentle, kind man and we kids were very fond of him. *Jack Brown New South Wales Jan 2002*

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