EJ Sykes (1874-1953) (Third Generation)

Edwin Joseph Sykes, known as EJ, was one of a large family, born at Currawong (known to Des and otherrs in the Sykes family history as Currawang), which is 23 or 24 miles south of Goulburn (New South Wales).

EJs parents were Stephen Sykes and Charlotte Barden. His grandparents, William and Sarah Sykes, were both convicts, transported to Sydney. William Sykes, an inn-keeper, was convicted of receiving stolen beer, and Sarah Byrne convicted of stealing a quilt.

Stephen and Charlotte around 1882 settled in Telegraph Hill, a few miles from Spring Valley, where their parents (George and Catherine) had settled in 1827 (for more details about EJs family and ancestry, see the Sykes Family Tree).

According to Des Sykes, EJ's first child: EJ attended a small school about a mile and a half from his parents’ home, where he was taught by John Joseph Kelly who afterwards married my aunt Kathleen. (Kathleen Sykes, born 1868). EJ completed his secondary education at Morpeth on the Hunter river.

John Kelly must have been a great inspiration to EJ. This is an account given about John by another of his pupils:
A sportsman himself, he knew the value of games, yet kept them in their right place. Under his supervision we built a tennis court, and it was he who organised the schools in the district, in cricket competition. He ran concerts by the school to obtain the money to pay for our sports material. I am glad to remember that we did him proud by being the first winners of the cricket competition, though in numbers we were the smallest of the schools.
EJ appears to have been strongly influenced by John Kelly. EJ also became a keen sportsman, and at the age of seventeen he became a school teacher.

EJ was appointed to two part time schools 12 miles apart on the Darling river.
There was a railway to Hay and (in 1891, at the age of 17) dad Sykes rode a bicycle - one of the first two-wheeled pneumatic tyred bicycles in that part of the world - across from Hay, cross country, to the Darling, where he stayed at Moorara station (see box on left) - that was his base - with a wonderful family called Wreford.

From today’s perspective, it may look like EJ was sent to the remote outback, to a place with long distances and few people. But in the 188's and the start of the 1890s, the area was booming. Wentworth was one of the biggest towns in the country – only Sydney and Newcastle had busier ports. There were almost a hundred paddle steamers moving up and down the Darling river. The stations there had many times more sheep and more people than they do today. The river ports of Bourke, Wilcannia and Wentworth were shipping world record amounts of wool to Europe.

Mildura was little more than a sheep run, but each day paddlesteamers laden with wool stopped at Wentworth to pay state taxes before moving down the Murray to South Australia. In addition, bullock and donkey trains came in laden with wool from the outback stations. Joan Sykes, EJ’s daughter, often used the expression ‘Australia rides on the sheep’s back’.

EJ's bicycle attracted as much attention as a private aeroplane would have attracted about 25 years ago. (Des’s comments were made around 1975).
Crowds used to gather around and wonder how it worked. And of course the tyres weren’t very strong, and over the burry country there was plenty of punctures, but he had the gear and finally got through it. Bike riding was a great sport, and he used to come down to Wentworth for that purpose, and being an amateur, one of his first prizes was a sewing machine.
The Singer sewing machine won by EJ was used by my mother Joan (Des’s sister) until the 1960s, when it was replace by an electric sewing machine.

After Des died, I discovered that there was a bike track and a school at Lethero station, on the Darling river, the largest station south of Pooncarie. Tom Cullinan, from x station, wrote:
The sports ground is down the river near Old Lethero, the bike track circuit is nearby. Tennis court further south, as was the school (see photo left) a bit further down on high ground it was later closed and moved to Pomona near Wentworth. This is where E. J. played sport, rode his bike and taught his pupils. In a later letter, Tom described the school on Lethero as the Round Hill school. EJ is likely to have been the first teacher in this school in the early 1890s (see photo of the school on the right).

For more details, see the map of the Lower Darling area showing the location of some of the stations that EJ taught at.

Tom described EJs resilience:
EJ once rode his bike from here to the Euston Balranald area, on back tracks with a few houses. It became dark and he had to stop, his water bottle was empty, he had a cabbage in his pack which he pulled apart and set up on the ground cup-like. The dew at night drained down into these ‘cups’ and he had a drink next morning before he rode on.
At dead man’s gate in this area there are the graves of four men who tried to walk it. Died of thirst.
I remember as a small boy seeing EJ going to play golf in his cap, jacket, plus fours and long stockings. He had a cold shower each morning at pub.

According to Des:
EJ was a good horseman. Harry Williams, who lived across the river, and became a wealthy grazier, used to tell me ‘Oh EJ, he was game enough, he’d get on anything. They used to throw him and buck him off, by jingies, he always got back again. And he was as game as Ned Kelly, he was.’
And so dad learned to ride pretty well. Certainly he had a way with horses… he enjoyed being with animals, rather than in business at the hotel or anywhere else.

EJ and Cricket at the Darling Hotel 1896
A local newspaper in 1896 (Federal Standard and Western Districts Advocate) refers to a cricket match, in which EJ was a captain. The Darling Hotel was on Lethero (station) on the eastern side of the Darling River on the Wentworth to Pooncarie road:

Sports at the Darling Hotel.
Seeing in your last issue of the Federal Standard an account of a cricket match, Burtundy v. Conorgie, played at Mr Weaver's "Studley", I hasten to let you know something of the doings of Mr Garrett Byrnes' Darling Hotel on Tuesday last 17th of "Auld Ireland"
…the day's proceedings began with a cricket match, sides being picked by Mr A. Leary and our energetic schoolmaster Mr E. Sykes.

EJ was the captain of the Conorgie Cricket Club. Another account (describing two teams - Pooncarie and Conorgie) in that same year says:
...I find the above teams playing a well contested match on the oval at the Darling Hotel grounds, which is the convincing ground for the players of the Conorgie Cricket Club.
The captains of the respective teams were the teachers' schools, both of whom are gentleman who adopt a laudable example of identifying themselves with the outdoor sports of their charges as well as training their minds when in school. The scoring arrangements were provided for by the hometown and consisted of a table set up under an umbrageous eucalyptus in a convenient position.
(umbrageous means ‘shady’ –like an umbrella).

EJ left the lower darling area in 1900, and was presented with a handsome red leather binder as a token of appreciation of a group of the major station owners in the area. In 1901 he married Selina Wilkes.