Hi, it’s Adrian Bo here. Today, I’m at Trenerry Reserve in South Coogee. As you can see, I’ve got the beautiful Wedding Cake Island behind me. To tell you the story about the man this park was named after, before I do that, The Australian Newspaper reported a 12 year old girl fell off a cliff in this area a few days ago. They reported she fell onto rocks along here last Thursday. Emergency crews climbed down and she was winched to safety by the Air Ambulance and taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital. It said she was stable, though, had suffered serious lower leg injuries. Let’s hope she’s okay and makes a full recovery. There have been many cliff falls over the years along the Coogee coastline and we certainly need to be careful walking close to the edge. Though the views of the Pacific Ocean rolling in are magnificent, in fact there was another nasty fall here two years ago by a 17 year old girl and I recall another teenage girl also falling at Gordon’s Bay, just to the south of us here, one month ago. Let’s, again, hope they’re all okay. So onto the man about whom Trenerry Reserve is named after, which we’re in that beautiful park here today. Thanks to a fantastic posting by his granddaughter, which I will link to in the post below the video, there are some great stories about Vivian Trenerry, better known as Roy, who was born in Brisbane in 1902.

Apparently soon after he was born, his family moved south, which led to him attending my old school actually, the great Waverley College, where he won a sports cap. He went on to become a teacher and after a few country school postings, he was called into the Home Guard during the 2nd World War. For Roy, this included being positioned on the roof of the Department of Education building on Kippax Street, there in Surry Hills where he would monitor enemy planes flying over. Apparently, news to me, there were regular enemy planes flying over Sydney, though, they were purely for reconnaissance as it was too far for the enemy bombers to fly. Another role Roy was deployed to, during the war was as a truant officer and his granddaughter relates the tale that one of the kids he regularly caught red-handed was none other than Dawn Fraser, who went onto win four Olympic Gold Medals, including three consecutive Olympic victories in the 100m freestyle. Apparently, kids went wild during the war due to the fact that so many dads were away fighting. Before the war, Roy had started to teach “learn to swim” classes on Coogee Beach. He taught thousands of kids to swim here in Coogee over many years. One of them was Ron Casey who went on to become a New South Wales State Swimming Champion as well as a professional swimming coach, then a controversial radio and TV journalist, famous for punching Norman Rowe on the nose during a heated debate on a Nine Network daytime TV show hosted by Ray Martin, which I actually recall quite properly. Roy was involved at The Coogee Surf Club as well and refereed handball actually and rugby. And at one stage, he lived with his wife Rita in an apartment at 28 Carr Street.

It sounds like he was quite a character and certainly heavily involved in the local community. According to his granddaughter, he passed away on the bowls green in 1972. The reserve here includes an off-leash 24 hour dog park, which is amazing if you’re a passionate dog lover like myself. Now, over the 32 years, I’ve been selling real estate in this area for literally over three decades and many of them have been in this immediate vicinity, including apartment 15 at 251 Oberon Street, a 1 bedroom unit, which sold for $1,007,000. 5 at 19 Alexander Street, a 3 bedroom unit, which I sold for $1,525,000. And 5 at 3 Alexander Street, another 2 bedroom unit, which I sold for $1,595,000. I really hope you enjoyed the story of Roy Trenerry, yet another local legend whose story needs preserving. I love keeping local history alive in our community. Keep smiling during the lockdown. I can’t wait for the day that we get out of this lockdown. COVID is real and vaccinations are a personal choice. However, lockdowns really have to be a breach of our own human rights, which inevitably must be lifted. So, why are we waiting? It’s not as if daily case numbers are actually going down, so I think that it’d be delusional to think that that’s gonna happen. Please make an informed and educated decision about your own health and your movements within the community. And certainly stay safe and always remember that your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.