From Australia’s Jewish Past
A Tragic Family Accident – Hawkesbury River
On Sunday, 18 October 1936, a wonderful family group set out for a day’s enjoyment to Patonga on the Hawkesbury River, where they would celebrate the upcoming marriage of Henry Kalenstein to Sarah Klarnett at the home of Marion Jones. The couple were to be married in December of that year. The group comprised Cecil and Rachel Penn (nee Isenberg), Rachel’s brothers, Eric and David, Eric’s friend Minnie Franks, Woolfe and Clara Kalenstein, and their baby son Jack (Jacob), Woolfe’s brother and sister, Henry and Rachel and Henry’s fiancé, Sarah Klarnett. The group had been joined by a friend of Marion Jones and Marion’s son Clifton.
Following a great day out, the group, joined by a friend of Marion’s and Norman, a nephew of Clifton’s, started their journey by boat back to Brooklyn, where they would catch the train back to Sydney. What happened next was so very tragic. It was a lovely evening, and fourteen of the group travelled on the 18-foot launch captained by Clifton. There had been no warning of a change in weather conditions. As Norman reported once rescued, “A windy squall struck the launch, and it was all over in a flash. The launch went over so quickly that I did not think anybody moved. It was as if a giant hand had picked up the launch and capsized it’’ the bodies of the five women were found the day after the accident but the bodies of baby Jack, David, Eric, and Cecil were not found for another three days. Little Jack was not found until the day his father, Woolfe, was burying his wife, sister, and brother. Ten of the family group did not survive. The two survivors were Woolfe and Norman.
In a book titled ‘Patonga and Some of its People’ written by Ben Smith – ‘’A nor-wester…flattens out the ocean swell and because it’s shielded from the hills above Patonga and Juno Point, given the northern shore an almost placid, lake-life appearance, while the side stretches of the river would be boiling.’’
Dani Haski of the Australian Genealogical Society, a part of the AJHS, had a personal relationship with members of the group as three of the victims were her great-grandfather’s cousins. Cecil Penn, who was the second son of Barnett and Fanny Penn, emigrated to Australia in 1913. Cecil married Rachel Isenberg, the daughter of Morris and Esther Isenberg in 1935 and they were expecting their first child. The couple had met as very young children when the families emigrated to Australia and travelled on the same ship – the Ballarat.
Unfortunately, it was not until the next day that the alarm was raised, when Norman and Woolfe, were discovered by a passing fisherman. The men were naked and freezing on the rocks as they had managed to get to the Green Point rocks. The rescue mission took nearly a week to find all the bodies. As can be imagined, the family members of those who had drowned were so deeply affected by their deaths. Sarah’s younger brother, Mark, and his son, Harry, lived their whole lives with the tragedy at the forefront of their minds. Clara from Perth, had been one of six children, having married Woolfe in Sydney in 1932 and their son Jacob was born in 1934. Woolfe’s sister and brother, Rachel and Henry, also perished, and the saddest of all was their mother, who outlived her children. Morris and Esther Isenberg lost three of their ten children in the accident. Their parents told the remaining children that they were never allowed to go on boats. Eric Isenberg’s friend Minnie Franks lived locally in Annandale with her parents.
This horrific tragedy and loss of life was mourned by hundreds. Sydney’s Jewish community at that time was by no means the size of what it is today and, such a devasting tragedy, with the number of lives that were lost, certainly took some time for those who knew the families, to heal. The family members who lost their lives were buried at Rookwood Cemetery. Cecil Penn’s father Barnett who was a successful businessman, paid for the memorial at the gravesite. Unfortunately, eighty-eight years on, the memorial has deteriorated, and with the help of Dani Haski, this will be restored. It is even sad to have learned that Woolfe was killed in a car accident near Newcastle three years later in 1939.
In an article published in the Daily Telegraph on 6 February 2021, journalist Mercedes Maguire wrote ‘’that perhaps Rachel may have had a premonition of the disaster that was about to hit her family as she set out on what should have been a fun day on the water.’’ A neighbour of Rachel’s told reporters that Rachel had changed her frock and hat at the last minute that morning because she felt ‘’something would happen to them’’.
Newspapers carried headlines ‘’Tragic ending to Sunday outing’’. Unless one visits the row of graves at Rookwood Cemetery, this shocking tragedy has all but been forgotten.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Daily Telegraph 6 February 2021; Kosher Koala October 2011; National Library of Australia – Trove 19 and 20 October 1936
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