williamthomashitchen

Rowlands drink stall set up beside the Marked Tree for the Coo-ee recruiting march - Medlow Bath, NSW, c. 1915 by P J Rodgers

from State Library of New South Wales

• 9 older comments, and then…
• Pixel Wrangler said:

  Coo-ee Recruiting March — from Wikipedia During World War I, recruitment marches or snowball marches to Sydney were a feature of volunteer recruiting drives for the Australian Imperial Force in rural New South Wales. Twenty six men left Gilgandra on 10 October, 1915 on the 'Coo-ee March', led by the Captain of the local rifle club, William Thomas Hitchen. At each town on the route the marchers shouted "coo-ee" to attract recruits and held recruitment meetings. By the time they reached Sydney just over one month later on 12 November, the numbers had swelled to 263 recruits, marching a total of 320 miles and being welcomed by large crowds along the way. The marches were also called "snowball marches" in the hope that like a snowball rolling down a hill will pick up more snow, gaining more mass and surface area, and picking up even more snow as it rolls along, the marchers would also collect more marchers as they progressed to the recruiting depot.   E Rowlands Beverages - Medlow Bath, NSW Mr. Evan Rowlands (1826-1894) was a pioneer in the aerated water trade in Australia. He began in Melbourne, eventually expanding to Sydney where he built a large factory at a cost of £15,000, at the corner of Burns and Little Hay Streets, Darling Harbour. Pure water was essential to the product, and a fine spring of water was discovered at Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, and the site was leased from the government. The water was brought to Sydney by rail. —More from the Bottle College. Mr Rowlands died in 1894 but his company continued until well after the Second World War, when it was sold to Schweppes.[1]   "Market Tree" I think it highly likely that this was originally meant to be captioned the Marked Tree which was, in theory, located on the highway between Medlow Bath and Katoomba.

  "The tree was dead by late 1903 and as it was considered unsafe, the upper section was sawn off. That lay beside the highway until 1904 when it was removed by Mark Foy to his hotel at Medlow Bath. There it was erected as an 'historic relic' on a pedestal in the grounds of the Hydro Majestic ..."

  I can't make out if the remains of the tree are at the right of this photograph. There looks like there could be a display of framed photographs – possibly different views of the tree.(?) This "drink stall" (and the staff) may be part of the Hydro Majestic Hotel -- more research is necessary. In the meantime ;) I can add to the folklore, controversy, myth and legend surrounding The Marked Tree — A Tree and a Legend  

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  @State Library of NSW -- is it possible to check the original record to see if the last letter in "market" is a "t" or if it could be a "d"? ;)  

• State Library of New South Wales said:

  Suspect you are right... Good pickup. EG 'During their stay in Katoomba to-day the Gilgandra contingent will be the guests of the municipal council and the residents of the town. The residents will assemble at the Town Hall at 10.30 a.m., and leave for the Marked Tree at 11 o'clock, headed by the Leura band, followed by the Mayor and alder- men, militia, cadets, rifle club, fire brigade, scouts, school children, and townspeople. All business people have consented to close their premises between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and to decorate their premises.' SMH 5 Nov. 1915 p. 8 nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15622799

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  And from that same article that you found, "MARCH OF THE MEN", I read this: "At Medlow Bath there are further preparations for a welcome. Katoomba residents will meet the contingent at the Explorers' Tree, and escort them into the town. They will stay there during Friday night." So "Explorers Tree" and "Marked Tree" were used in the same article. I imagine the 176 men marching pretty-well demolished the contents of the "drink stall" :)  

• State Library of New South Wales said:

  No doubt. Nice dainty cups for a couple of hundred strapping men, too! EG