Alexander (Sandy) McDonald

Alexander McDonald (1879-1968) was the Mayor of West Maitland for about five years in the 1930s and early 1940s before becoming the Mayor of the City of Maitland on three occasions after the proclamation of the City in 1945.

The City resulted from a merger of the municipal councils of West Maitland, East Maitland and Morpeth, and parts of the shires of Bolwarra, Kearsley and Tarro. No other person until Peter Blackmore, who held the mayoral chains for more than 20 years (1986-90 and 1999-2017), did more than McDonald’s ten years in six stints in the position. The last of these ended in 1956.

McDonald was also for a time the President of the New South Wales branch of the Local Government Association of Australia. He was also on the boards of several business and community organisations including the Hunter District Water Board, was a member of the Congregationalist Church, and enthusiastically supported the Maitland Repertory Society.

McDonald was born at Hill Park, his parents’ property near Wingham on the Manning River. His family moved to Maitland when he was 17 and he became a keen bicyclist and long-distance walker. In adulthood he was involved in business as a general merchant, and in 1913 he married Catherine McKenzie of Stroud. They made their home at ‘Ferintosh’, in Maitland’s Mount Pleasant St. He sold his business in 1930 and spent the rest of his life in local government.

Alexander McDonald

(Maitland City Council)

The Barrington Tops interest

During the 1920s McDonald developed an interest in the Barrington Tops and its potential for development. He became a member of the Maitland chapter of the Barrington Tops League and in 1924 was a prime mover in organising a visit to the Tops by senior state government figures including WE Wearne (Minister for Lands), elected local government people, businessmen and media personnel. The goal was to achieve funding for the development of roads to the Tops: this would open them up. Powerful backers, positive publicity and local support were needed.

A lavishly-illustrated book was planned to publicise the tourist potential of the area. This, it was hoped, would draw people to a wide range of activities including horse racing, golf, fishing and (in winter) skiing and skating. A lake stocked with trout was envisaged, with skating on it a winter attraction.

The intense lobbying of the state government for access to the Tops, underlain by publicity obtained via the Maitland Mercury, came to little. No substantial road was created until 1978, when a route was pushed through across the Tops from Gloucester to Scone. No road to the high plateau was ever built from the Maitland side up the rugged valleys of the Allyn or Paterson rivers. The hoped-for tourist hotels and other facilities never eventuated, and the Tops remained largely undeveloped save for sawmilling.

There was some skiing undertaken by Newcastle people, a short run being cleared during the 1930s, but it did not last. It was a victim of the poor access and the lack of reliability of the snow.

The Barrington Tops National Park, with streams emanating from the Tops

(Dulcie Hartley)

The 1955 flood

McDonald’s first stint as Mayor of West Maitland was from 1930-35. Probably his best-remembered work as Mayor of the later City of Maitland came during the Great Flood of 1955. At that time he was much involved in communicating with the population as the floodwaters approached, pleading with people over radio 2NX (formerly 2HR and housed in the CBC Bank building in High St) to evacuate from central Maitland and other low-lying areas. Not everybody complied, and some died as a consequence. The CBC Bank building is now known as Mansfield House.

Mansfield House

(Newcastle Weekly)

McDonald’s home ‘Ferintosh’ appears to have survived the flood, though twenty-one Mount Pleasant St houses to its west did not. They were swept to their destruction by a raging torrent when the flood burst through levees upstream near the Oakhampton rail bridge.

McDonald’s efforts during the 1955 flood led to the award of a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) which superseded the OBE (Officer) he had been granted in 1954 in recognition of his contribution to the community over many years. All told, he served in local government for 36 years. He died in 1968, aged 89.

References

Hartley, Dulcie, Barrington Tops: a vision splendid, the author, 1993.

Keys, Chas, ‘Our past: progress v conservation on the edge of our city’, Maitland Mercury, 18 November 2022.

Maitland Mercury.