Mary Stuart

Canberra resident with memories of Acton (Past resident of Oaks Estate, and Goldenholm Dairy Fyshwick)
Born: 1934, Oaks Estate, Queanbeyan
Maiden name: Mary Rickman
Interview: December, 2013

“My name is Mary Stuart. My Maiden name was Mary Rickman. I was born in River Street, Oaks Estate in May 1934. My mother's name was Jessie Robertson and she was born in 1906. My mother, my grandfather and my great grandfather were all born in River Street, Oaks Estate. They go back to 1834, when Duncan Robertson was brought out to Canberra by Robert Campbell to work at Duntroon.

My father came here in 1922 to work as a carpenter. He worked on the causeway houses, and he was one of the first ones to work on the old Parliament House (I have a photo of him standing on the floorboards of Old Parliament house). He put the frame on the dome for the war memorial. He was also the foreman for the American Embassy during the war (that was the only building that was going on during the war - everything was brought from America to build it).

In 1952 I married Dugald Stuart, who was a dairy farmer along the Molonglo at Fyshwick, and that probably is where my connection with Springbank at Acton begins. My father-in-law was Mr Sandy Stuart. He was the first secretary of the racing club at Acton, he was the first secretary of the Federal Golf Club, which was at Acton, and he was the first secretary of the Canberra Highland Society and Burns Club which ran the Highland Gatherings at Acton.

We knew many of the farming families along the Molonglo Valley, including the Edlingtons at Duntroon, Frederickson, Cargills, Googe, Murray and Kelly near us at Fyshwick, and the Kayes at Springbank, Acton.”