Harold Seymour 

Actively involved in the construction the buildings, Harold and his brother dug the pits for the underground petrol storage tanks by hand, opening for business in December 1929. He was a foundation member of the Service Station Association and acted as a district secretary of the association. Harold’s nephew Don Seymour (Roland’s son) joined in running the business in 1958 and in 1960 it expanded to include selling cars, at one stage becoming the largest Renault / Peugeot dealership in Australia. Up until the last few years of its operation, Seymour’s was reputedly one of the few garages left in Sydney still selling more than one brand of petrol. Petrol brands being sold in the 1970’s were BP, Caltex, Golden Fleece, Ampol and Shell.

The encroachment of larger car dealerships and self-serve petrol stations led to the termination of the business at the end of July 1982. Harold worked full-time in the business until the age of 79, then continuing part-time for another decade. The Seymour’s Service Station buildings still remain, heritage listed as a fine example of the Spanish Mission style of architecture, designed in the office of the well-known architect Virgil Dante Cizzio, the son of a Swiss migrant who arrived in Australia in 1883.

Harold was deeply interested in native plants and became widely respected for his knowledge of the local flora, particularly that of the Sydney region. He spent many hours in his bushland garden, welcoming interested visitors, conducting long rambles through the undergrowth as initially there were no paths to follow. To many it seemed that he knew every plant personally. He became well respected for his knowledge of indigenous flora, thus earning the friendship and support of people well known in the world of natural history and conservation. In testament to this, Harold was officially appointed as an Honorary Ranger for the purpose of native plant protection. (see right the extract from Government Gazette May 1955).

Harold was also an accomplished artist, painter, potter and wood carver, having studied Art in Rome and London during the 1950’s. He entered a self-portrait in an Archibald competition. While it was not accepted into the Archibald competition itself, it was good enough to be included in an exhibition of the “pick-of-the-rejects” at the All Nations Club. He carved a magnificent Aboriginal head from a Grass Tree root which was part of the decoration of the Royal Box in the Tivoli Theatre on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s first Royal Tour in 1954. Native flowers from what was then his private land (later to become Katandra) were also used to decorate the Royal Box.

From his home on the edge of the escarpment Harold watched with dismay the gradual encroachment of ‘development’ (in the form of glasshouses for the growing of tomatoes) upon his beloved bushland surroundings, conceiving the idea of the setting up a sanctuary to preserve it for the benefit and enjoyment of both present and future generations ‘just as it was when Captain Cook sailed by”.

His plan to give his gift of land to the government to establish a wildlife reserve met some initial resistance.  He found, to his amazement, how difficult it was to give land away. To the official mind 18 acres appeared too small an area to be worth preserving, even though it could be had for nothing. It was after fighting a bushfire that threatened his property in 1964 that the break-through came.

He was introduced to H J Stanley, Administrator of Parks and Gardens in the Department of Lands, inviting him to inspect is property. Following this inspection Harold wrote to Mr Stanley to “confirm that it is my desire to present to the state a portion of my land, about twenty acres, to be proclaimed and gazetted as a sanctuary and a refuge for the preservation, conservation and maintenance of Australian flora and fauna in its present natural state”. 

This offer was finally accepted and procedures necessary to give effect to the proposal were commenced. In typical “government red-tape” fashion, Harold could not give the land away for nothing, he would have to sell it, which he did, for $1. In later years he sold further acreage to the crown on very favourable terms to be added to the Sanctuary. The Katandra Bushland Sanctuary now occupies almost 35 acres of land following the addition of some other small pockets of neighbouring Crown land in the 1970s.

Having been given the “green light” by the Lands Department, one of the first things to establish was a name for the sanctuary. Harold canvassed amongst his friends and business associates who came up with about 40 suggestions, out of which he chose ‘Katandra’, noting “an aboriginal name meaning ‘Song of Birds’ seems appropriate as this area for years has given sanctuary to numbers of native song birds including the rare lyrebird which is seldom seen so close to the city. Therefore I feel that this would be a very suitable name for this reserve”.

So it was in 1964 that what had been known as Seymour’s Private Sanctuary became the Katandra Bushland Sanctuary. About the same time the thought of forming a group of active conservationists into a workforce for the Sanctuary was conceived, and in February 1965 the Katandra Bushland Club was formed for this purpose. The inaugural meeting of this club was held in the Sanctuary on 14th February 1965 when 73 foundation members attended. To mark the occasion two wattle trees were plants near the “Inaugural Stump” by –

1.     David Seymour, 4 year-old great nephew of Harold Seymour and

2.     Mr G. A. Barter, a Foundation Member.

The “Katandra Bushland Club”, later known as “the Friends of Katandra”, helped to supply and support a group of active volunteers to construct bridges and maintain the bushland and walking tracks and to allow “active wildlife conservationists” to associate with Katandra.

Now that Harold’s offer had been accepted, procedures necessary to give effect to the proposal were commenced. There was considerable discussion at the time about the regulations for the management of the Sanctuary and it was on Harold’s insistence that regulation 21 q was included, which forbids ‘the confining in pens or cages any animal, bird or reptile’. 

It was also Harold’s wish that the Sanctuary, when gazetted, be known as “bushland”.

Katandra was officially gazetted as a 'Bushland Reserve' on 27th October 1967. A voluntary Trust was then appointed to administer the Sanctuary on behalf of NSW Crown Lands. The original Trustees were – Robert H. Anderson (Trust President and former Director of Sydney Botanic Gardens), George L. Veitch, Betty F. Maloney, Robert B. Lewers, Ellen (Poppy) L. Gordon-Baker

Early meetings of the Trust were held in the small “shack” that Harold lived in at Katandra, some having to resort to sitting on the end of his bed to fit in. Harold was unable to be appointed as a Trustee of Katandra due to his age (at the time there was an age limit of 70 years), however he was appointed as Honorary Curator.

Despite his generosity to others, Harold was well known to being quite frugal and being a “master of making do” when it came to his own comfort. He actively took part in the physical management of the Sanctuary and the administrative work of the Trust and continued to live at Katandra up until his death in 1987, on the eve of his 94th birthday, always reminding members of the particular aims and objectives of Katandra.

Although Harold would never countenance Katandra becoming a memorial park, it will nevertheless be a living memorial to him. He will of course be remembered particularly for his most generous gift of Katandra and for his contributions to the promotion of, the study of, and the preservation of native flora and fauna.

Footnote – In a remarkable coincidence, Harold’s grandfather, Richard Seymour, who owned property in Bundamba near Ipswich, also donated some of his land in 1865, about half an acre, on which a Primitive Methodist Tabernacle was built, later to be replaced by a Methodist church hall which occupies the land to this day.