Willoughby people

Don Swonnell was born on 15 September 1947 at Parkes, NSW. He spent his early years moving frequently across Australia due to his father’s job as a travelling salesman with Mobil.

Don studied commercial art at Prahran Art School and then started his first job in Sydney with John Lysaght Steel, at Crows Nest. He was called up for national service in 1968 and placed in the Australian Army’s Signal Corps, but rather than being sent to Vietnam he was asked to head up the Art department because of his qualifications and skills in design and layout.

By the time he completed his two years' service in 1970, Don had decided to move on from art and become an actor. He undertook training at the Ensemble Acting School under Hayes Gordon (1920–1999) and went on to spend more than two decades working as an actor, primarily in theatre, along with television appearances and extensive voice work.

Then, in another remarkable career shift, Don joined Willoughby Council as a bushland manager in 1997 after taking part in the Wesley New Work Opportunities program at Flat Rock Gully in 1995. He devoted the next 28 years to restoring Flat Rock Gully. Over that time, he planted an estimated 18,000 trees and shrubs, helping to reshape the environmental landscape for future generations. He and his colleagues initiated the bush care volunteer program, that now includes hundreds of community members who maintain Willoughby’s extensive bushland reserves. His commitment helped protect over 300 hectares of local bushland and fostered strong public engagement in conservation.

Heritage conservation became another passion. After finding a cave in Flat Rock Gully, which local historian, Eric Wilksch told him had once been a popular haunt of poet Henry Lawson, when he lived at Naremburn between 1906–7, Don came up with the idea of a bush poetry reading. Don instigated the first bush poetry reading event at the Henry Lawson Cave in 1997. Over more than two decades, these events grew from small gatherings into beloved community occasions, celebrating Henry Lawson and other poets, such as Banjo Paterson, C.J. Dennis and Dorothea Mackellar. An amphitheatre had to be created opposite the cave to accommodate the growing number of visitors to these events which were held twice a year and often included music, storytelling and tea and damper. This initiative helped to promote Henry Lawson’s connection with the Willoughby area and the preservation of Flat Rock Gully.

Beyond his environmental and cultural achievements, Don also found time to serve his community, as a Willoughby resident, through longstanding involvement in local Progress Associations – initially at Naremburn and then Willoughby South, the Federation of Progress Associations and the Willoughby District Historical Society. He was Vice President of the Historical Society in 2024/25.

His deep interest in local history and heritage has helped to preserve stories and knowledge for future generations while his legacy in bushcare is immeasurable.

Don retired from the Council in December 2023 and passed away in 2026, aged 78.

Eric Nicholls was born in Victoria in 1902. He began his architectural career in 1916 and in 1921 began to work with Walter and Marion Griffin. His calm leadership style and conflict resolution skills combined with his architectural talent impressed the Griffins. When they first moved to Castlecrag in 1925 they left Nicholls in charge of the Melbourne office.

In 1929 Nicholls joined an impressed former client in building incinerators that were sympathetic to their surroundings as well as functional. Both alone and together with Griffin, numerous incinerators were designed and built, and Nicholls moved his family to Sydney in 1930. The Willoughby Incinerator began operating in 1934, and is currently one of the best remaining examples of their work.

During this period Griffin was the primary designer of homes in Castlecrag, but following his death in 1937 Nicholls completed more work in the area. His work began to take on a distinctive sandstone pillar style.

As well as designing houses, Nicholls created public buildings. He was appointed Honorary Town Planner for Willoughby City Council in the 1940s. He designed the Albert Chowne Memorial Hall and the Willoughby Park Bowling Club, as well as several other community buildings. He also donated his time as honorary architect to the Castlecrag Community Hall, Kindergarten and Library.

Two of his most well-known designers were office buildings in the Sydney CBD, Caltex House and Local Government House. Later on in life Nicholls devoted his time and money to a venture in Thredbo, as well as building and establishing Glenaeon Schools in Pymble and Middle Cove. Nicholls continued to live in Castlecrag until his death in 1965.

Francis (Frank) Channon was born on 20 February 1893 at Newcastle, NSW. His family moved to Sydney when he was a teenager and after finishing school he was employed as a clerk.

He came to the Willoughby area following his marriage to Emily Estelle (Stella) Young in April, 1916. World War I was then underway and a few months later, at the age of 22, Frank enlisted in the Australian Infantry Force (AIF) and served as a gunner with a Trench Mortar Battalion in France and Belgium. 

In 1918 he sustained a leg injury and was evacuated to England to recover, then redeployed to military supplies until the War ended. He was repatriated to Australia in 1919.

Frank kept a diary from the day he sailed out of Sydney on the troopship SS Borda on 17 October 1916 through to the day he sailed out of Melbourne bound for Sydney on 21 May 1919. The diary chronicles the 12-week voyage to England, two months training at Salisbury Plain and subsequent experiences in a trench mortar battalion at the Western Front battlefields, including The Somme, Ypres and Zillebeke. Over this period his diary records his daily activities and thoughts – the daily terror of war, the loss of friends and comrades, premonition of his mother’s death, the joy of letters from home and places he visited or was stationed at.

Following his return home Frank and his wife, Stella, bought a house at 1 Gordon Avenue, Chatswood in 1919 where they lived for the next 60 years. They had three daughters, Betty, Esma and Jill, who were born between 1920 and 1931. Frank worked as a clerk in the Railways Department of NSW, until he retired at 65.

In addition to his job, Frank also became active in the local community. He was involved with a variety of organisations, including the Chatswood Public School P&C and the West Ward Progress Association. He helped to establish the Lane Cove River Park (as it was known at that time).

Frank joined the Chatswood/Willoughby RSL Club, and was later made a life member for his services to the Club. During World War II he took on the role of Welfare Officer, helping returned servicemen with war-related injuries to obtain the benefits they needed and assisting war widows in their applications for pensions and other entitlements. Frank acted as a marshal in Anzac Day marches and was heavily involved in organising Chatswood’s annual Dawn Service at the Garden of Remembrance as well as booking performers for the Anzac Day Concert held in the former Arcadia Theatre, at Chatswood.  One of these performers was a very young opera singer named Joan Sutherland and as an opera lover, Frank keenly followed her career.

Frank’s involvement in community activities led to him running for Council and he served as an alderman on Willoughby Council from 1941-44. In that capacity he played a prominent part in establishing the Garden of Remembrance on the eastern side of Chatswood Station, beside Albert Street. He arranged for the Garden’s signature rose variety – the Rose of Picardy – named after a popular World War I song called the ‘Roses of Picardy’ - to be imported from France. They formed the core of the garden rose plantings and are still there today. His daughters remembered the original rose plants being stored in the laundry at their Gordon Avenue house while the garden beds were prepared for planting.

Once established he regularly visited the Garden of Remembrance and later enjoyed taking his grandchildren along to tell them the history of the roses and stories about some of the young soldiers he had known whose names are commemorated on the plaques. He would often stop to weed the garden beds and check that the garden was being well maintained. He and Stella were both dedicated gardeners and in their later years they entered garden competitions and won prizes on a couple of occasions. He also tended the street garden at the end of the Avenue near his house. 

Following Stella’s death, in 1975, Frank continued living in the family home until he was unable to care for himself and the house. He then moved to the RSL War Veterans Home at Narrabeen, where he died in June 1979. As a tribute to his untiring community service the walkway between Chatswood Bowling Club (located behind the Channon house) and the railway line was named the Frank Channon Walk.

Born in Grenfell, New South Wales in 1867, Henry Lawson is one of Australia’s most well-known and loved writers. Although much of his work was set in the bush, he spent most of his life living in urban areas. He moved around frequently, but spent some time in Naremburn.

He had a hard life – his parents divorced, he struggled with deafness, alcoholism and his own unhappy marriage – but his poetry and prose was published in books, magazines, journals and newspapers during his life and is still popular today.

From June 1906 to January 1907 Lawson lodged with Mrs Isabel Byers in her iron-roofed cottage in Market Street. He described it in a letter to one of his publishers as ‘an unusual little cottage in a little paddock of its own’. He also resided in the area after World War I. Lawson was quite fond of the natural beauties of the area, and in the same letter advised his friend that ‘it would be well worth your time to go to Naremburn about sunset some fine autumn day and wait til the afterglow’.

Because of his alcohol and financial problems he was not very well received by those in the area, though he did quite well ‘singing for his supper’ in the local pubs; he would compose a poem on the spot in return for a drink. After visiting the tavern he would sleep it off in a little cave in Flat Rock Gully, listening to the cascade of the Naremburn Falls. The cave was overrun by noxious weed, but Council staff have now transformed the area from a rubbish dump to a natural space for the whole community. Council frequently organises poetry readings with damper and performances by the local community, held regularly in honour of Lawson and the spirit of the place.

In 1919 the following poem by Henry Lawson was published in Lone Hand magazine:

Twas an old respected settler, in the unrespected days,
Who had land along the North Shore, and - we’ll say his name was Hayes,
And he came there as a young man, when there was great work to do
And his young wife’s name was “Chattie” (and no doubt, she chatted, too).
‘Twas a “small place in the country” – where he went to be carefree – 
Out beyond the pleasant suburb that they now call Willoughby;
And a little wood was on it, and the trees were tall and good,
And his young wife used to dream there, so he called it “Chattie’s Wood”.
“Chattie’s Wood” has long since gone, and shops are standing in a row
Where the young wife went a-dreaming in a the days of long ago,
How the pretty name was altered doesn’t matter, anyhow,
But the wife is still remembered, as they call it “Chatswood” now.

                                                                                - Henry Lawson, 1919

Much of the information below was gathered from the Walter Burley Griffin Society. This is a good page for anyone interested in the architectural history of Castlecrag or environmentally-conscious design.

Born in Chicago in 1871, Marion Mahony was the second woman to graduate in architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was the first registered female architect in Illinois. Her professional career spanned fifty years.

A first-class architect in her own right, she married her colleague Walter Burley Griffin in 1911 and lent her beautiful drawing talent to many of his designs. Their successful design of Canberra was a joint project. They moved to Sydney and developed the Middle Harbour area. As well as working on the development, Marion was involved with the Haven Scenic Theatre.

After living in Sydney and developing the Middle Harbour area, Walter died in India in 1937. Marion eventually returned to Chicago where she continued architectural work and also became an author.

Past President and Life Member of the Willoughby Theatre Company

The Willoughby Theatre Company has lost one of its leading lights with the death of Tom Sweeney, on Wednesday 6^th May 2026.

Tom grew up in Lane Cove and attended St Pius X College, Chatswood where he was a member of the choir.

He was persuaded to join what was then called the Willoughby Musical Society in 1969 “to help make up the numbers in the men’s chorus” and never left. Over the succeeding decades he has done everything from acting, singing and directing to set design, props and even making the tea.

“Oliver!” in 1978 marked his debut as a Producer and Choreographer and broke attendance records for the Society with 3,653 people coming to see the show. Tom directed over 40 musicals including “Sweet Charity” in 1984, “Chicago” in 1987; “42^nd Street” in 1997, “Titanic” in 2003 and “The Boy from Oz” in 2011 as well as the 60^th Anniversary Gala performance in 2017. 

His early experiences in musicals at Willoughby Musical Society led him to take lessons in tap and modern dance and singing to improve his skills and he then performed for a couple of years in a local group of singers and dancers called The Music Makers to raise money for charity.  

He met his wife, Joy Charman, in his first show, “Oklahoma!” in which she played the leading lady and they married in 1974. Joy is also a talented actor, director, writer and skilled costume designer and was Willoughby Citizen of the Year in 2010. Both Tom and Joy served in committee as well as production roles at the Society and were passionate about musical theatre, giving their time generously to help bring countless shows to the stage for audiences to enjoy, as well as fostering young talent and forming many long lasting friendships along the way.

In a 1980 newspaper article in the North Shore Times Tom attributed his interest in theatre to his grandfather, known as Ted Stanley, who was a comedian and vaudeville performer in the early 20^th Century as well as a successful children’s entertainer on radio in the late 1930s to early 1940s.

Willoughby Musical Society changed its name in 2006 to Willoughby Theatre Company and the following year Tom was elected President of the Company, serving in this role for 12 years during which Chatswood’s new performing arts complex, known as The Concourse, was built on the former Civic Centre site between 2008–11. The Bailey Hall, WTC’s performance venue for more than 30 years was one of the Civic buildings demolished to make way for The Concourse, leaving them without a theatre during the interim. Tom became involved with the planning of the new development and then in the organisation of its opening celebrations. The Willoughby Theatre Company staged the first production at The Concourse Theatre, “The Boy from Oz” which played in September–October 2011.

In 2003, Tom was named Willoughby Citizen of the Year and 15 years later he received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in The Queen’s Birthday 2018 Honours List for his service to the performing arts and to the community of Willoughby.

Outside of theatre Tom had a career in PR and Marketing and worked in roles as diverse as a member of the special events team that opened the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, Director for the 1988 World Scout Jamboree Closing Ceremony, the Department of Health, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (now called NextSense) and as a celebrant. One of his former workplaces was Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium where he drew on his acting skills to run ‘ghost’ tours to help raise the Cemetery’s profile, following its name change from Northern Suburbs General Cemetery in 2004. In an interview with Stage Whispers, Tom described how he played a lantern carrying character called Mr Sowerberry from Oliver!, the musical, based on the Charles Dickens novel, for the evening tours of the graves of famous people buried in the cemetery. 

His love of theatre extended to other community theatre groups, notably the Pymble Players of which he was a long-term member and Vice President; and Theatre on Chester at Epping. He has also been involved in the Scouting movement and Rotary. In 2022 Willoughby Theatre Company established the Sweeney Award in honour of both Tom and Joy. The Award is presented at the end of each WTC production and recognises someone who commits themselves wholeheartedly to a show in the spirit of Tom and Joy Sweeney.

WTC now has an enviable reputation as one of Australia’s leading community theatre companies largely due to the unflagging efforts of Tom (and Joy) Sweeney. Willoughby Theatre Company President, Scott Richmond knew Tom for nearly 40 years and remembers him as “Larger than life… A little bit cheeky. Commanding the room with that unmistakable twinkle in his eye.” His many qualities included a boundless energy, charisma, panache, commitment and ability to inspire others to believe in themselves. In his eulogy for Tom’s funeral Scott said that “Tom had a gift for making people feel seen…. valued… and welcome” … and… “He didn’t just direct shows, he directed people toward their potential.”

His legacy is enormous.

Tom was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer called Myeloma about five years ago and passed away on Wednesday 6^th May 2026, shortly after celebrating his 79^th birthday in April. His funeral was held in the Magnolia Chapel at Macquarie Park Cemetery on Thursday 14^th May 2026.

Image credits

• Tom and Joy Sweeney receiving the OAM, 2018. Source: Willoughby Theatre Company Facebook page.
• Publicity headshot of Tom Sweeney. Source: The Association of Community Theatre (ACT).

Much of the information below was gathered from the Walter Burley Griffin Society. This is a good website for anyone interested in the architectural history of Castlecrag or environmentally-conscious design.

Walter Burley Griffin was an American-born architect and planner whose career spanned the US, Australia and India. In Australia he is most well-known for the winning design for the city of Canberra (which was not built faithfully to the Griffin’s plan), but after leaving the Canberra project he and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin bought 650 acres of land in Middle Harbour. This area has developed into the suburbs of Castlecrag, Middle Cove and Castle Cove.

The Griffins moved to Castlecrag and lived there for ten years. They designed and developed the area with the goal of creating a suburb in harmony with the natural landscape. The roads followed the contours of the land; they established public natural reserves and the houses were built to take advantage of the setting without disturbing it. More than forty houses were designed but only fifteen were built due to the depression.

In 1929 the Griffins formed a partnership with architect Eric Nicholls in order to design incinerators. Their designs aimed to add an aesthetic aspect to a functional building. One of these is the Willoughby Incinerator, which still stands today.

Walter Burley Griffin died in India in 1937.

Chatswood Library holds a great deal of information about Walter Burley Griffin, who was responsible for naming and planning Castlecrag. There are books, photos, maps and plans of the Castlecrag subdivision as well as material on the Griffin Incinerator. See also the Walter Burley Griffin Society website.