thought you might like this...
The Sun Thu 23 Jan 1913
SOME PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
Mr. Alfred Whetton, who died at his home, Johnston-street, Annandale, last week, was, 20 years ago, one of the best known figures on the Sydney waterfront. He came to Sydney in the old Panama Company's Lord Ashley as a carpenter, but saw a better chance of making money ashore, and after working with Mort's Dock and other firms set up as a pile driver, wharf-builder, and contractor. The wharves he erected included Parbury's (where the piles used were 135 feet long), the Union and the North Coast, and he put up the first jetty of the Government Wharf at Woolloomoolbo. It was he who raised the feriyboat Cammeray, which was sunk off Fort Macquarle in a collision in a fog with a Newcastle steamer; but of all he did he took the greatest pride in a little wharf he buiit for the Panama Co. at Pyrmont. That wharf was made up principally of shlp's spars, and he drove the piles down with an old cannon. He was 80 years old, and twice married, and had a family of seven sons (one of whom is a ferry company captain) and four daughters. In his younger days he was a sailing enthusiast, and won several races with his boat, "The Duke."
The Sun Thu 23 Jan 1913
SOME PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
Mr. Alfred Whetton, who died at his home, Johnston-street, Annandale, last week, was, 20 years ago, one of the best known figures on the Sydney waterfront. He came to Sydney in the old Panama Company's Lord Ashley as a carpenter, but saw a better chance of making money ashore, and after working with Mort's Dock and other firms set up as a pile driver, wharf-builder, and contractor. The wharves he erected included Parbury's (where the piles used were 135 feet long), the Union and the North Coast, and he put up the first jetty of the Government Wharf at Woolloomoolbo. It was he who raised the feriyboat Cammeray, which was sunk off Fort Macquarle in a collision in a fog with a Newcastle steamer; but of all he did he took the greatest pride in a little wharf he buiit for the Panama Co. at Pyrmont. That wharf was made up principally of shlp's spars, and he drove the piles down with an old cannon. He was 80 years old, and twice married, and had a family of seven sons (one of whom is a ferry company captain) and four daughters. In his younger days he was a sailing enthusiast, and won several races with his boat, "The Duke."
