Coogee Media

Hobson Court at 169 Arden Street - note the full stop

CHARLES HOBSON & THE PALACE AQUARIUM
Charles William Hobson was the owner of the large building that dominated the northern side of Coogee called the Palace Aquarium. This landmark entertainment building was designed by Architect John Smedley (1841 to 1903) and its popularity as an amusement and recreation venue from the late 19th century and into the first quarter of the 20th century meant that Coogee rivalled Manly and Bondi as Sydney's most popular seaside resort.

The Aquarium complex opened on 23rd December 1887 and was surmounted by a 50-foot dome. The surrounding amusement gardens occupied the whole block between Arden, Dolphin, Bream and Beach Streets. Numerous attractions and events, such as swings, whirligigs, rocking horses, toy boats, donkey rides, aviaries, flower beds, bandstands, ice skating, an open-air bar, and a giant toboggan rink came and went over the years. The indoor swimming pool opened in 1888.

The rebuilt Aquarium is now a popular hotel and nightclub known as the Coogee Pavilion. Hobson Court., constructed about 1924, was therefore on land that belonged to Charles Hobsons' Palace Aquarium site. One of Charles Hobson's sons, Albert "Bert" Hobson, ran a carrier and trucking business from the site next door on No. 167 (on the corner of Arden and Bream Streets). In the 1920s the two properties were numbered 121 and 123 - street numbering has changed since then.

Charles Hobson subdivided the Aquarium Estate in 1914 and sold off portions

ALBERT HOBSON & THE SHARKS
Albert "Bert" Hobson was also a fisherman who regularly caught sharks off Coogee and nearby beaches, brought them ashore live, and displayed them in the Aquarium pool. These catches were popular sensations and with press publicity, proved to be big draw cards for the Aquarium. For instance, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday 2nd June 1917, that:

The Hobson brothers landed a blue pointer shark 14ft. long at 'Coogee' this morning. They fixed a bait to two hooks, and both of them held. The struggle to get the monster ashore lasted two hours, and was watched by a great crowd of interested spectators. The shark had been seen cruising around the aquarium end of the beach, and it was about 50 yards out when it took the bait. The catch was put on to a ladder and carried to the Aquarium Baths, where it is now on view.

1920s advert for Albert Hobson's carrier business

A photograph in The Sun on Thursday 17th April 1930, p 20, shows a shark swimming near the edge of the pool watched on by two boys.

Catching sharks and putting them on public display at Coogee was Albert Hobson's schtick, a routine he employed up until 1935, which the press regularly reported on. The Hobson brothers did their best to encourage publicity about the sharks to attract (paying) crowds to the Aquarium to gawk at the captive beasts.

SHARK ARM MURDER CASE
On about 20th April, 1935, Albert Hobson caught a 4-metre Tiger shark and placed it on display in the Aquarium pool. Eight days later on the 25th April, the shark became listless and ill and vomited up a tattooed human arm with a rope attached to it. Albert Hobson fished the arm out of the water and called police who began a long and complicated investigation of what would become Coogee's and perhaps Sydney's most sensational murder case. The actions of the main protagonists in the months after the grisly discovery helped to engender lurid headlines and public interest. Even today, almost 90 years after the event, the Shark Arm Murder Case still sparks much public interest and has been the subject of many articles and a number of books.

SENSATIONAL CRIME
The police found that the arm had not been chewed off, but cut. Fingerprints showed that the hand belonged to a former boxer named Jim Smith. The rest of him was never found. Smith was an England-born criminal who had lived in Balmain with his wife and child, where he managed a billiards saloon. Either there or at Tattersalls Club, where he also worked, he met a major criminal named Reginald Holmes.

Holmes was a boat-builder with premises on the shore of Lavender Bay and a prestigious residence at McMahons Point. He was married, with two children, and was a pillar of society. He also employed men to drive fast motor boats out to sea and collect packages of cocaine and other goods thrown overboard by seamen on incoming ships. He made more money from criminal activities than from boat-building.

Police eventually decided that Smith was working for Holmes and was later killed by a criminal named Patrick Brady, with whom he was last seen probably near Cronulla. The exact relationship between the three men was uncertain, but it seems Brady cut off Smith's arm and later threw it into the sea at Maroubra. Brady was arrested and charged with murder. However, police had no firm evidence, and Brady denied the charge, although he did admit to having met with Holmes around the time of Smith's disappearance. The boat builder said he'd never met Brady. On 20th May 1935, Holmes unsuccessfully tried to kill himself at Lavender Bay with a pistol, after which he led the Water Police on a four-hour chase around the Harbour and beyond. Finally, two kilometres out to sea, he stopped and allowed the police to arrest him, saying Jimmy Smith is dead and there is only another left. If you leave me until tonight I will finish him. When Holmes was finally released from hospital some weeks later, he gave police a rambling account of Smith's demise and declared he had nothing to do with the murder but blaming Brady. On the morning of the coronial inquest Reginald Holmes was found dead in the driver's seat of his car in Hickson Road in the Rockin Hickson Road in the Rocks (near Sydney City). There were three gunshot wounds in his chest. The inquest came to no conclusion and the case against Patrick Brady was dismissed. In a final bizarre twist, police concluded Holmes had probably been killed by a hitman hired by himself, as a strange act of suicide.

ALBERT HOBSON RETIRES
Though Albert Hobson's only involvement in the case was catching and displaying the shark, the shark arm murder seems to have been a turning point for Hobson. It appears from newspapers of the time that this was the last time Albert was reported landing a shark. According to his obituary in the Newcastle Morning Herald (Friday 20th July 1945, p. 4) he left Coogee in 1935 and settled at Swansea (14 Peel Street) on the NSW central coast.

DISPUTED WILL
Albert married Winifred Ivy Vandervord on April 14 1945, just two months before he signed his will making Winifred the sole beneficiary of an estate of £7,000 and just three months before he died. His family seems not to have been entirely trusting of Hobson's new wife because his sister, Elizabeth Beer, opposed the granting of probate. Hobson had been in what was euphemistically called the Reception House. His sister claimed that at the time he made his will Hobson was not of sound mind, memory or understanding.

Charles Hobson died aged 69 on February 13, 1926 and is buried with other members of the Hobson clan in vault 101 at Randwick General Cemetery. Not surprisingly, although Albert is also buried at Randwick General Cemetery, he rests in a different spot (CE FF plot 5): he died on July 7, 1945 - so it was the end, full-stop, for Albert Hobson and landing sharks at Coogee.

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