Albert Edward Moore (1872-1942) came to Beecroft in 1906 with his wife Lillian (née Williams) and their two young children. Albert was the son of Samuel James and Rhoda Moore of Dural and his wife was from a farming family in Old Northern Road. When younger, Albert had owned an orchard at Round Corner, Dural, but after an accident left him unable to do heavy work, he went into partnership with Alan Lloyd as fruit agents in the City Markets. The Moores were one of the few families in Beecroft who came from a rural area, most of the new residents moving from suburbs closer to the city.
On a 2¼ acre block between Beecroft Road, Malton Road and Railway Crescent, Albert Moore built his two-storeyed home, ‘Shrublands’, to his own design and he turned the grounds into a large garden with many varieties of shrubs, fruit trees and flowers which he exhibited at district shows. He also raised poultry, employing a man to help with this work. In 1917 the local newspaper reported:
‘Mr. Albert Moore the well-known poultry fancier of Beecroft has imported nine White Leghorn pullets and two cockerels and a Barred Rock cockerel from the Oregon Agricultural College, Cornwallis, Oregon, USA’.[1]
Within a few months of his arrival in Beecroft, Albert Moore was elected to the new Board for the Public School which his children attended. The Board became the Parents’ and Residents’ Association and Albert was at various times Secretary, Treasurer and Vice-President. He was also an involved member of the Progress Association for many years, being twice on a deputation to the Railway Commissioners and a delegate on the Joint Committee. As an expert gardener he was one of the committee to beautify the station gardens in 1916 and 1918. In a public meeting in Beecroft in 1916 which supported the six o’clock closing of hotels, Albert Moore was elected Secretary of the committee formed.[2]
A long involvement with St John’s Church of England, Beecroft, began in 1907 when Albert Moore was appointed a Warden. From 1906 to 1915 he was Superintendent of the Sunday School and was the recipient of a gold sovereign case and an illuminated address on his retirement.[3]
Lillian Moore was also an active member of St John’s and in 1915 donated the Sunday School prizes. Her greatest love was croquet and she moved from champion of Beecroft Club to that of New South Wales, and once represented Australia in an international competition.[4]
The Moores’ elder daughter, Amy (born 1897), married Arthur Brown, son of Fanny Skellett, second wife of Thomas Skellett of Copeland Road East. The Moores’ second son Charles Gordon (born 1903) married Gladys Allum of Pennant Hills. He joined the 2nd AIF, was taken prisoner, and died in May 1945 in Sandakan prisoner of war camp in Borneo. Edna (born 1907) married Vivien Lambert of Beecroft.
In the early 1920s the Moores sold ‘Shrublands’ and built a brick cottage, ‘East Gate’, on the eastern portion of their land, facing Railway Crescent where a poultry run was retained. After Albert died in 1942, Lillian moved to Eastwood to live with her daughter Edna and died there seven years later, aged 77 years.
[1] Land Titles Office 1636/140, 1914/199, 1023/52, 985/97; Cumberland Argus, 31 March 1917, 27 May 1916.
[2] Cumberland Argus, 27 February 1909, 9 March 1912, 26 May 1907, 3 October 1914, 3 April 1915 to 26 August 1916, 19 January 1918, 20 May 1916.
[3] Cumberland Argus, 27 November 1915.
[4] Cumberland Argus, 15 May 1915, 3 July
1915, 13 July 1918. Also, undated newspaper articles held by the Moore family.
[5] Information from Mrs Joan Edwards of Epping.