Secrets of a Sydney past

Mayor William Bailey JP

Mayor 1871-76, Councillor/Alderman 1863-64, 1867-78

He was a builder, he was no doubt pragmatic and the longest-serving of the early mayors.

His place of residence is unclear according to the Sands Directories; in Cooks River Road in 1858, in Station St/Enmore Rd between 63 and 71 (in 'Camborn Terrace' between Cooks River Road and Union St), in Cavendish Street in 1873 and in Enmore Rd in 1877 and at Trafalgar Terrace in 1886.

It is said that he belonged to the Church of England but this should be checked as the Sydney Mail of 10 August 1861 reports that a certain Mr W Bailey was appointed replacing Alderman Robert Dunlop to superintendent the Newtown Wesleyan schools.

He built the Congregational School which operated as a Sunday school and regular school. Thomas Holt MP officiated at the laying of the school's foundation stone on 23 January 1862, saying 'it is destined to be instrumental in working a great moral reformation in NSW' ('Sydney Mail'). Nicholas Trengrouse, a senior draghtsman in the Railway Department and an alderman in Marrickville's first council, designed it...