Controversy surrounded the gunpowder works at Ingleside in the 1880s
Most readers will have some knowledge of Carl von Bieren’s gunpowder works at Ingleside, from which Powderworks Road derives its name. The powder works was a grand plan in the 1880s that collapsed in controversy. It was touted to manufacture gunpowder for the first time in Australia. However, Carl was a fraudster and left investors deeply in debt, without ever producing a grain of gunpowder.
What may not be as well known is how he was brought to trial.
In June 1885, facing mounting suspicion, Carl secretly began to arrange his flight from Australia. Under various business ruses he obtained loans from two of the company’s directors and quietly sent his wife Anna, then four-months pregnant, with their infant child Viola, back to the USA. Carl never returned to them.
In September he arranged his own departure, heading by train to Melbourne. On 13 October he took passage, under the alias Clinton Hiram Walbridge, an American citizen, on the Loch Vennacher, bound for London via South America.
When Carl didn’t return to Sydney as expected, the company chairman, John Taylor, informed Manly police station and the officer in charge, Senior Constable Edward George Murphy, took up the case. Murphy traced Carl to Melbourne and deduced his departure as CH Walbridge. Supported financially by some of Carl’s creditors, he obtained a warrant from Sydney Water Police authorising him to pursue and arrest Carl on a charge of insolvency.
Cutting an exciting story short, a disguised Murphy took a direct ship to England and surprised Carl as he arrived off Margate near London. He brought him back to Sydney where, after several trials, he was finally found guilty of fraudulent insolvency. But, ever the charmer, the jury recommended mercy. He was sentenced to two years 10 months, with no hard labour, while the grateful citizens of Manly presented the senior constable with a gold watch.
With acknowledgement to Keith Amos
Richard Michell is the vice-president of the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society and the secretary of Friends of Dee Why Lagoon. Visit mwphs.org.au and fodyl.au respectively.