Article from ... ... Thursday 5th April 2012

Do you, dear readers, have the foggiest idea how many entries were received for the Federal Capital City Design Competition ... won of course by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin?

If you do have a foggy idea then the answer that comes to you through the fog is probably 137

One hundred and thirty seven has been the accepted wisdom because that's how many the Minister for Home Affairs and overseer of the competition, King O'Malley, said at the time (early 1912) had been received
But in his lecture "Tall Tales And True: Canberra's Lost American Narratives" to a select audience at the US Embassy last week, historian David Headon, historian-at-large in the official Canberra Centenary preparations, said that there were many things about the competition that are not well known

''There were, for example, many more entries than 137"

The month of March, 1912, was clearly the culling month
Constant, credible newspaper reports, and O'Malley's own comments, suggest at least 200 entries, perhaps as many as 400

''Tough trimming of the mass took place for sure, and, ultimately, within the 137, it must have been decided to have a small, representative selection of the 'non-professional' entries
So we have, within this ratified field, a journalist, miner, butcher, clerk, house furnisher, French polisher, chemist, accountant, teacher, stockbroker, wool sorter, gardener, draper, grazier and, no doubt reaching for the stars, an astronomer"

''Many of the culled, I'm sure, would have been just as interesting ... and a few have fortunately survived
Let's give them their centenary day in the sun"

Other entrants, the culled, included:-

Lyon Sab Fares Cavalier, born in Kafra, Lebanon, the Maitland optician who would alas be denied

Joseph Edward Coudrey, the Walsall, Staffordshire native, cum Adelaide chemist and author of 'A Perfume Prelude' and 'Fragna Voicelets' and 'Eau de France'
Coudrey, too, would be denied

This columnist promises to solicit Dr Headon's cerebral help in reporting more about these colourful entrants who competed in vain for the glory of designing a nation's capital city and for the potentially life-changing winning, second and third prizes of £1750, £750 and £500 respectively

Email to ... ... Monday 9th April 2012

Good Morning

My name is Geoff Roneberg, and I live in Cairns North Queensland

One of my "hobbies" is researching both mine and my wife's Family Histories
My wife's maiden name is 'COUDREY' and details can be seen by clicking ... HERE

Using Google Search, I discovered this article which was published on Thursday 5th April 2012

... and here is an extract from the article ...

Now, this Mr Joseph Edward Coudrey is my wife's great-great Uncle ... and details and photos of Joseph can be seen by going to Section #08 on the above Family History Link

You will notice that the information includes the family's arrival in Australia from Walsall, Joseph's Chemist Shop in Adelaide, etc, etc ... but we had no idea that he had submitted an entry into the "Canberra Design Competition" !!

The last paragraph in this Canberra Times article is ...

Is it possible to have contact with this Columnist ??

Naturally, I will now continue to search for more information ... but we would like to be advised should he or Dr Headon discover more details on Joseph and his entry into this Competition
A copy of Joseph's submission would be terrific !!

I'm sure you can appreciate that this is very exciting for us and the rest of the Coudrey Family !!

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you and / or your Columnist

Regards ... Geoff

Reply from ... ... Friday 13th April 2012

Geoff

My name is Ian Warden and I wrote the column you noticed

I don’t know anything more about Mr Coudrey at this stage, but if I do discover anything, I’ll tell you

Dr Headon is a real, full-time historian and will know things
He’s a little hard to track but is connected with the Canberra 100/Centenary Unit within the Chief Minister’s Department here and you can Google them and perhaps write to him and/or leave him a message

Regards ... Ian

Email to ... ... Saturday 14th April 2012

Appreciate your note, Ian, and I will do my best to track down Dr Headon

However, could I bother you on two final points ??

#01 - Your reference to Joseph Coudrey's entry

Out of all the names you could have quoted, it is intriguing ( and lucky for us !! ) that you used his !!
To me, this means that "somewhere" his name is written down in association with this Competition
This could be a perfect starting point in my search for further details, so could I ask where you found this detail ?? ... or was this also from Dr Headon ??
I have done a bit of looking, and have found a list of 'The Final 46 Entries' but unfortunately Joseph was not included ... ah, well !! ... keep looking !!

#02 - Use of Your Article

I have no idea if you looked at our Family History Web Site ... HERE ... and go to Section #08
If you did, you'll see that it is purely for our personal use and there is no commercial connection at all
Could I use the text of your article as an introduction to this information on Joseph ??
It would be perfect, and naturally I am happy to include any acknowledgements that you may require

Thanks again for your time ... Geoff

Good Morning

On Thursday 5th April, the Canberra Times newspaper included an article which was titled

This was written by Ian Warden and the complete article can be seen by clicking ... HERE
This includes references to Dr Headon's research on the above Design Competition

The article also includes this paragraph ...

Now, this Mr Joseph Edward Coudrey is my wife's great-great Uncle ... and details and photos of Joseph can be seen by going to Section #08 on ... THIS PAGE ... Our Family History

You will notice that the information includes the family's arrival in Australia from Walsall, Joseph's Chemist Shop in Adelaide, etc, etc ... but we had no idea that he had submitted an entry into the "Canberra Design Competition" !!

I have been in contact with Ian at the Canberra Times, but he is not able to give me any more details and he suggested that I contact Dr Headon

I can understand that Dr Headon would be extremely busy with the Centenary Preparations but I am hoping he could spare a few minutes to correspond with me as I, naturally, would like to find out as much information as I can about Joseph's entry ... a copy of it would be fantastic !!

I'm sure you can appreciate that this is very exciting for us and the rest of the Coudrey Family !!

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you

Regards ... Geoff

Hello once again

The note above was written just over a week ago
I have not received a response, but as mentioned, I do understand that Dr Headon would be busy at the present time

However, the information he could give us would be both important and very exciting for the Coudrey Family so I am hoping he can find the time to reply

Thanks ... Geoff

Geoff

Yes, you’re right, I am extremely busy with core Centenary projects

I may be able to connect the Coudrey Family to one or two Centenary Projects in the coming months, but not right now
If you haven’t had a reply by, say, the middle of June, email me

Regards ... Dave Headon

Hello Dr Headon

Well, it is just past the 'middle of June' so here I am again !!

However, I know what things and time can be like, and will understand if you need to postpone this again

Now, my original email is below, which includes a link to the story in The Canberra Times during April

And here is an extract of a paragraph from this article

This extract includes two names ... Lyon Sab Fares Cavalier and our relative, Joseph Edward Coudrey

I have done searching via Google and found a couple of things regarding this Competition ...
#1 - The Shortlist of 46 ... HERE ... and neither the name Cavalier or Coudrey appear, and
#2 - The Undisclosed List of 140 ... HERE ... and again these names are not listed

But somewhere their names must be written down in connection with this Competition ... how else would the reporter who wrote the article know that they both submitted an entry ??
... and this is the part that is driving me crazy !! ...... trying to find this 'link' to the two names, and more importantly, to the name of Joseph Coudrey !!

I really appreciate your offer of assistance in chasing down "The Coudrey Connection"... and will look forward to hearing back from you

Regards ... Geoff

Hi Geoff

Thank you for your email

I have requested that David replies to your email on Monday when he is in the office

Regards ... Hayley
Hayley Kershaw - Program Officer - Centenary of Canberra Unit

Geoff

I am about to start work on a Parliament House Exhibition, to run from January through to April 2013
I will dig out the reference then

And you can only come by the information through the National Archives ... deep in the bowels !!

Joseph Coudrey was not included in the 'official' entries because it didn't meet the criteria

Dave

Hello once again

Thanks for this note and I will wait until you climb out of the "bowels" of the National Archives !!

Just one thing ...
Canberra current temp at 6.30am Tuesday = 3 degrees
Cairns is 22 degrees right now with a maximum of 26 predicted
Any thoughts on moving the National Capital up to the tropics !!

Have a good day !!

Hi to you both once more

Well, it's been around two months since Dr Headon went "deep in the bowels of the NAA"
Too soon to check for any further infomation ??

Regards ... Geoff

Geoff

Still stuck in those "bowels"

Will make sure you are included in launch to Exhibition

Cheers ... Dave

Hi Geoff

Please let me know if David has not been in touch
We have had a very busy few weeks here at the Centenary

Regards ... Hayley
Hayley Kershaw - Program Officer - Centenary of Canberra Unit

Hi Hayley

And appreciate you following this up

Yes, David did reply on the same day I sent the note below ...
...........................Geoff
...........................Still stuck in those bowels
...........................Will make sure you are included in launch to Exhibition
...........................Cheers, Dave

I must admit that I am not sure what he means by the part that is underlined
A "wild guess" is that he might include Joseph Edward Coudrey's entry in the Exhibition
Just wait and see, eh !!

Have a nice day down there

Regards ... Geoff

Hi Geoff

Could I suggest if you are unsure of what David means to email him back advising him of this

Regards ... Hayley
Hayley Kershaw - Program Officer - Centenary of Canberra Unit

Hi again, David

In your reply to me you wrote ...
...........................Will make sure you are included in launch to Exhibition

I have no idea what you mean by that
Does it mean that, maybe, we are going to be lucky enough to have Mr Coudrey included in the Exhibition ??

Again, thanks for the time you are giving to my initial enquiry about the Design Competition

Geoff

Geoff

No, alas, your relly is not strictly relevant to the Parliament House Exhibition I am curating that will open 14th January 2013, entitled "But Once in a History ... The Foundation Stones and Naming Ceremonies ... 12th March 1913"

However, he has been mentioned in despatches on radio by me on one or two occasions

You will be invited to the above Exhibition

Cheers ... Dave

###

Geoff

A bit of inspiration
Check out the Centenary 'Diaspora Project' on the website ... HERE and HERE

That might be the avenue to place your story

Give it a go ... Dave

Hello down there, Dr David Headon and Hayley Kershaw !!

Yes, it's me again ... Geoff Roneberg from Cairns in North Queensland
And if you remember, my past correspondence referred to Joseph Edward Coudrey and his Design Submission for the City of Canberra

You may not have all the notes available so these web pages I made up should bring it all back to you
HERE ... this page has all the information I have been able to find out about Joseph's entry
HERE (this page) ... here is all the correspondence I have had with both The Canberra Times and with yourselves since I discovered the original newspaper article back in April 2012

Our last contact was on Monday 10th September 2012 in which an Exhibition during March 2013 was mentioned that I was going to be invited to !! ( I couldn't have gone anyway ... do not like aeroplanes !! )

It is much easier to follow all the emails this way rather than by 'old' emails that have been sent back and forth a dozen times

Righto, that brings everything up to date

Today I received the latest "Canberra 100 Newsletter" which included this section ...

Below is an extract from the page I have linked to above ( which includes the information on Joseph's entry )

I guess my question is ...
Has anything further been discovered about the original reference ??

I understand that you will be busy right now, but any reply and/or information you could send me would be greatly appreciated
(a copy of his Submission would be nice, eh !! )

Enjoy Friday ... and maybe a weekend off !!

Regards ... Geoff

Geoff

Great to have this meticulous offering

Much happening here in Canberra, regarding the Centenary

Let me absorb your information and get back to you shortly

Regards ... Dave