WWI Digger Burns was a shire timber yard pioneer

William Joseph (Bill) Burns operated the shire's first timber yard at the Caringbah crossroads - the Kingsway, President Avenue and Port Hacking Road.

The site is now occupied by the Caringbah Hotel, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church and primary school and De La Salle College.

The timber yard closed in 1931 due to a strike by workers and the Great Depression, but reopened a few years later on the other side of President Avenue, where McDowell's (Waltons) department store was later built.

A clock mounted above the office of the timber yard was a landmark for passengers on steam trams travelling between Sutherland and Cronulla.

Softwood imported from Oregon in the US and Denmark was hauled by horse and cart from Pyrmont to Caringbah to meet the shire's growing building needs.

William Joseph Burns worked on projects with legendary shire identity C.O."Joe" Monro and was involved in early fundraising for Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club.

One of his six children, Peter, helped found the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League Club, and the leagues club grandstand is named after him.

Dennis Burns, the soldier and timber merchant's grandson, who lives at Caringbah South and teaches history at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, said there were many descendants in the shire.

They included his son and a cousin, both named William Burns.

William Joseph Burns was born in Rockdale in 1894 and joined his father's timber business, which had yards at Pyrmont and Rockdale, when he was 16.

During the early years of the war he served in the Australia Militia, but transferred to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to fight overseas after his cousin died in action.

His skills with horses and wagons led to a role as an engineer and horse driver. He married his sweetheart Kathleen (Cassie) shortly before embarkation.

Dennis Burns said his grandfather's war diary recorded his arrival in France in January 1918 in rainy, bitter winter weather.

"He was in charge of six horses, delivering supplies under heavy fire to the front line, and then bringing out the wounded," Mr Burns said.

"That year was the bloodiest on the Western Front, and he lost a lot of mates.

"His first battle was at Villers-Bretonneux and he was in the battle of Perrone. Several of his horses were also killed by German fire, and as their number dwindled they were replaced by mules."

Mr Burns said his grandfather, who finished the war as a sergeant, returned home to run a new Caringbah branch of the family's business with his older sister Mollie.

Her death from tuberculosis in 1920 and the loss of their father three years later gave him full management responsibility.

"When the family lived at Rockdale, they used to ride through Caringbah, which was called Highfield before World War I, on their way to their holiday cottage at Darook Park on Gunnamatta Bay," Mr Burns said.

"My great-grandfather, who was also named William, predicted the dusty crossroads would be the centre of future development, although at that time the area was bushland with scattered market gardens, orchards and poultry farms.

"In 1910, he bought three acres, now occupied by the hotel, church and school, and established a timber yard, house and farm.

"The horse paddock was where Glenn McGrath Oval is now."

Mr Burns said in the 1930s William Joseph Burns, a devout Catholic, sold two acres to the church for a small sum.

A school playground named in his honour, as well as adjoining Burns Lane, were small reminders of his generosity.

After William Joseph Burns' death at 60 in 1954, the business moved to 61 Captain Cook Drive, North Caringbah, but was later sold and no longer exists.

BOOK HAS DETAILS

Driver William Joseph Burns, of the 7th Field Company Engineers, is named on war memorials at Caringbah, Cronulla, Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club and Sutherland.

His life is among those commemorated in a book compiled by Marilyn Handley and Sue Hewitt, who researched 431 World War I names, including 64 who died, on shire memorials.

Mrs Handley, of Heathcote, and Mrs Hewitt, of Gymea, who are Botany Bay Family History Society members, worked as volunteers on the five-year project.

 Copies: sutherlandsoldiers@gmail.com