y father settled down here somewhere about the year 1850. He brought five acres of land from a man named Bolton, I believe, and the amount of work he and my mother performed was marvellous. I remember when I was able to notice things, that he sent to Germany for his Father and Mother, they were both aged people. My father being a German, he could not speak English when he came to Australia and his parents never did learn the language during their life. I reckon my father was the Pioneer of the place called the Folly, and I think I can claim of being one of the first born of that locality. Later on father brought two more acres of land, I believe he paid 50 guineas an acre for it, making seven acres of land which he broke up and planted with grape vines, some market grapes, but mostly wine grapes. The other five acres were also planted with partly vines and fruit trees - the orange trees especially in the sandy soil were thirty feet high. I myself have picked 128 dozen oranges from one tree, but in those days we did not get much for them, somewhere about 3d or 4d per dozen and grapes.

The first cutting we got 6d but for most of the time 3d, was the prices.

When the wine grapes began to bear, Father made preparations to make a Plant to crush and press the grapes, and without a doubt in those days it could not have been improved. He kept improving on it every year until he had three pressers and he had as much as 3000 gallons of wine in different cellars about. He used to employ 10 or 12 boys and girls cutting grapes, paying them 1/6 a day, and it used to be my work looking after them and wheeling the grapes up to the cellar while Dad and one of my Brothers crushed them. Of course, that was when I was getting on in years.

My school days were spent in an old slab and shingle roof place about 30 feet long by 12 feet wide, close to our garden, part of which was the school-masters residence and part of the time before school and after I had to work in the garden before and after school hours, but when I reached the age of 13 I was sent to a school in Waratah, which was kept in a ordinary dwelling house.

The Folly, as it was called in those days, was a square block of land of about 58 acres, mostly 5 acre blocks, some less. There were 12 occupants of these blocks - Norgard Corebart, Williams Mathew in Crebert Street, Walters Hughes Davis in Kerr Street, Roach Crouther, Chant Kuhn McNulty, (Baker) in Bull Street, and old Patreach, a grand old man, lived in what was called Tourles Paddock and another man named Gray lived in the same block. Mr Tourle was an English Gentleman, and when he saw that my father was making wine, employed some men to trench a few acres of his land next to Bull Garden. I think they got 2/6 a rood so they did not make much of a wage at that. The rood is 16 feet square and the boys were in the habit of going to the river of a Sunday morning to swim, the Hunter River being about a quarter of a mile away. During the grape season, when the grapes were ripe, they never passed by Mr Tourles vineyard, but they sampled his grapes. In those days, they did not wear swimming suits. The old gentlemen was in the habit of driving with Mrs Tourle to St. John’s Church of England at Cook’s Hill in a buggy, and the boys used to watch him go away, then they would go to his home and see the girls who were mostly chums of theirs. The old gentleman lived to be 92 years of age, and is buried on the old burial ground at the Folly, where my father is buried. In 1895 he being about the last man to be buried there before it was closed to burials. My mother was buried in Sandgate burial grounds in 1914. She reached the age of 87.

Those days the harbour was full of sailing vessels waiting for crab, so the seamen had plenty of leisure in which to enjoy themselves, and by me going to town for manure meant in twelve months that we had a big heap of manure which naturally bred millions of flies, which, of course found their way into the kitchen. Thinking to get rid of them, we tied a clump of bushed to cross beams in our kitchen on which the flies settled at night. I had the task of blowing them down.

Let me explain how I done it. I got a flat sheet of iron about three feet square and laid it on the table, took a handpiece of blasting powder, placed it on the tin, then got a four pound double headed iron hammer and worked it to and fro till it was crushed fine, and I can remember smoking a pipe while doing so. When the powder was fine enough I spread it out on the sheet and held it up on my fingers under the bush where the flies were settled on, when someone handed one a live coal out of the fire with the tongs which dropped on the powder which exploded and of course caused the death of nearly a pint of flies, but they were just as plentiful the next night.

Some will say, why did you not got the fine powder. Well, the blasting powder was the cheapest, this was carried on every night except Sundays, I have often thought of the danger I was in by crushing the powder with an iron hammer, and smoking while doing so. It was Father’s plan crushing the powder, but not the smoking while doing so. There is an old saying which goes; Where ignorance is bliss, more further over ‘tis folly, to be ‘tis folly to be wise. It any be applied in this case.

I made my living those days by gardening, fencing and whatever work I could get to do, I was always a willing worker. I laid down the first Bowling Green rink in Waratah in the year 1890. The Lowlands green, the Stockton green, the Cessnock green and top-dressed a few up to the year 1914. I had the position of Watchman at the Newcastle Abbatoirs for seven years after my best friend did. I got disheartend and retired from work. That was sometime in the year 1921-22, I am not quite certain which all my boys are first class tradesmen, that is of those that are living I mean.

And now, a few lines on the worry and anxiety that we were subject to in growing grapes 60 years ago. No doubt, it is different in this age, but they still have disease to contend against. Some people think that all you have to do is to get a cutting, stick it in the ground and after two or three years gather the grapes. I will tell you what happened to our grape vine.

We always managed to have them pruned before August started. Some years as soon as the buds commenced to swivel, a beetle, which we called the elephant beetle attached itself to the buds and ate the inside out of the bud, which destroyed all the fruit, and caused the bud to throw out four of five branches instead of one with no fruit in them. The way we dealt with that pest was that we went through the vineyard every morning till the young shoots were five or six inches long, and gave the butt of the vine a light kick with our boot and the beetle would fall off onto the ground, then, we would break their head off or put them in a tin with a little kerosene. The reason why we called them elephant beetles was because they had a small trunk which they used to bore in the heart of the grape bud.

Our.vines were all put on the stake principle. Then more trouble occurred. When the grapes were to the size of a pea and before then, there was a disease, which was called Odium Tuckaria, and which attacked the vines and berries. To check this, we had to sulphur the vines. Father made some very handy small bellows to put the sulphur in to blow on the vines. Many a day I spent in sulphuring the vines, especially the vines in the morning. Then perhaps, if it was a very hot morning, we would get a thin desertspoon - in the afternoon, with rain which would spoil my work, and would have to be done again the next day.

The first residents of what is now Mayfield West were John Laurie Platt, his family and his assigned servants. Platt was an ex-officer of the British Navy who, on August 21st. 1821 received a grant of 2,000 acres of land, which was described as being "on the Hunter River at Newcastle."

This grant extended from what is now Mayfield West and a portion of Waratah to the Ironbark Creek. Platt occupied his grant in 1823, being the first settler in the Newcastle district.

He erected his homestead, which he named "Ironbark," on the north-eastern portion of his grant - the nearest to Newcastle; and herewith the aid of his assigned servants, he cleared a small portion of about 40 acres, which he planted with wheat.

Erected Windmill
Platt erected a windmill on the high ground near the waterfront. It was one of the old-fashioned type of windmill, fitted with "Dutch" arms.

Platt's mill was the first erected on the Hunter River, and some of the early settlers, among whom was J. Nowland, sent their wheat and maize there to be ground.

Platt's attempt at the cultivation of wheat proved a failure, due to the soil being unsuitable, and he met with a far greater misfortune when, on December 9, 1831, his home was destroyed by fire and two of his young sons were burned to death. A new homestead was then erected on the road to Maitland at what is now Sandgate; but by 1836 both Platt and his wife were dead.

The old mill stood for many years and gave to that area the title of the "Mill Paddock," so well known to old residents as the site for picdcs and other outings. Platt's Channel was also named after John Laurie Platt, whose executor later sold the whole of his estate to the Australian Agricultural Company.

"Platt's Folly"
The old pioneer's ill-starred and tragic attempt to establish himself as a settler in a new country was referred to by other settlers along the Hunter River as "Platt's Folly," a title which eventually was the reason that all the land along the river front from the "Mill Paddock" to Port Waratah was called "the Folly."

One of the first to purchase land on "the Folly" was Charles Simpson. who in 1848 secured three allotments, and upon one of 36 acres on the river front he erected a substantial homestead.

He named his residence "Waratah House," from the fact that in the brush at the rear of his allotment the Waratah flower grew, and this is stated to have been the most northerly spot in which that particular flora existed.

Simpson was an official of the Newcastle Customs House under Mr. Charles Bolton, the Sub-collector of Customs, who also had purchased several allotments of land at the "Folly," portion of which was known locally as "Bolton's Brush."

Waratah House.
In 1854, Simpson disposed of his property to Mr. Thomas Tourle, a wealthy squatter, who had made a fortune on his station, "Bellata," in the New England district. He was a son-in-law of the Rev. Charles Mose, for many years chaplain of Scone. Tourle made considerable additions to Waratah House. He laid out the grounds, planted vineyards, an orchard, etc. He lived at Waratah House until his death in 1899, at the great age of 93 years. He is described by old residents as being a fine old gentleman, who lived the life of the typical English squire.

Wine Production.
During 1S47, a Mr. Kirchner travelled through the Colony arranging with the principal landowners to bring out experienced vine dressers from Germany under the Government bounty.

One of these was Peter Crebert, born in Kudereck, Germany, in 1824, who arrived in Newcastle In 1849 under contract to Dr. James Mitchell. In 1853. Crebert purchased a fiveacre block of land at the "Folly" from Charles Bolton for 16/15/-, and two years later he added a further five acres for which he paid £100.

On his land Crebert cultivated a vineyard and orchard, and in 1859 he made the first wine produced in Newcastle. Crebert's "Folly" Gardens became well known in later years, and on Sundays and holidays Newcastle folk used to drive out to the "Folly" to walk through the gardens and buy fruit and wine.

In those days, most of the land in this portion of the "Folly" was used for orchards, vineyards and dairy farms. Names of some of the occupiers that come to mind are Bull, Williams, Myers, Norgard, Oakley, Gray, Russell, Croese, Crowther, Robertson, Kuhn and Lambke. Three of these pioneers have left their names there in the streets of to-day - Crebert, Bull and Williams.

n 1857 the Great Northern Railway was opened from Newcastle to East Maitland, and the first railway station out of Newcastle was named "Waratah" after Waratah House, then the only substantial building in the district. This gave the title of Waratah to all the surrounding district and the northern side of the railway line became North Waratah, although for many years the old title of the "Folly" was used by many. Then when the Waratah Coal Mining Company, in 1863, constructed a coal line from its tunnels to the river front for the shipment of its coal, this became Port Waratah.

During 1867, the company cleared an area of land here, and the Wallaroo and Moonta Copper Mining Company of South Australia erected a smelting works. This brought about a little settlement on the flats nearby, known as "Kalsina Flats."

First School.
The first school at the "Folly" was conducted by Miss Tourle in a small wooden building at the end of Crebert's vineyard. Then a building of slabs was erected on a two-acre block on the hill on what became the corner of Crebert and lngall Streets. This was the Folly Public School, opened in 1874, which over the years has borne the titles of "The Folly," "North Waratah," "Mayfield" and Mayfield East. The terms of the first three principals here - James Kilgour, John Gillespie and Donald Robertson -covered a span of 35 years.

At the rear of the school was a reserve, which in those days bore the high-sounding title of the Newcastle Botanical Gardens, of which a Mr. Ireland was the caretaker.

Opposite the school was the residence of Mr. Ingall, a well known Newcastle draper, and his name was bestowed upon a street running down to Maitland Road.

Soap Factory.
In 1870, Peter Crebert purchased an area of land east of Ingall Street, which he cleared and planted another vineyard; but this did not prove as successful as his other property, so eventually it was disposed of to Mr. Charles Upfold, managing director of the Sydney Soap and Candle Company.

It was the custom in the early days for landowners, prior to subdivision, to bestow distinguishing titles upon their estates, such as "Houghton-le-Springs," "Monkwearmouth" and "New Battle." They certainly looked well upon sale notices, but were soon forgotten.

When John Scholey subdivided for sale a large area of his land, he named it after his daughter May. Hence we have to-day the title of Mayfield. Little did the old gentleman realise that in the years to come the name he bestowed would cover the largest and most populous suburb in Newcastle, and an area within which are the greatest industrial plants in the Commonwealth.

50 Years of Progress: Mayfield Jubilee Celebrations 1900-1950 Souvenir Booklet.  <http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/archives/mayfield/pdf/mayfieldjubilee.pdf> (21/5/07)