Alderman Frederick Charles Passau

   Cause of his death was Pneumonia, Heart Failure.

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. & Jennie Morgan who writes:
Baptism record lists his name as spelt 'Passan'. This is a common mistake made when interpreting the handwritten letter U when it has the two dots above it.
Alderman of Manly and Mayor in 1897-98. Responsible for putting the Sewerage on at Manly and there is a plaque near the Surf club on the rock at the end of Ashburner Street. His most outstanding advancement was the setting up of the fire brigade as a constituted body and the building of the fire brigade building in Sydney Rd Manly.
An advertisement and photograph show he was both an Optician and practical spectacle maker at 494 George Street, Sydney and there use to be a plaque on a clock in the basement of the Gowings building, George Street, Sydney which bore his name and address. The clock is no longer there.
After the family moved from "Fairlands" in Ashburner Street Manly, they moved to Belgrave Street and called the home "Bavaria". This may be an indication that Frederick had been told by his father that the family origins were from Bavaria. The family story is that they come from "Passau" which is a city on the Blue Danube near the border of Austria and Germany.

• connection. Frederick Passeau's connection to Robert (her 3rd Great Grandnephew) is as follows:
Frederick Passau (1842)
His father was Samuel Passau who married Matilda Dawes (1818)
Her father was Aaron Daw ( 1779) & he also had Edward Dawes (1813)
He had James Dawes (1843)
He had Annie Florence Dawes (1873) who married Arthur Augustus Bray (1869)
They had Albert Alan Bray (1896)
He had Robert Alfred Bray (192)
He had Robert Arthur Bray (1947) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

• Medical. cause of death: Pneumonia/Heart failure

• Occupation. 1904, Listed in the NSW Post Office Directory at 494 George Street, Sydney, in the Royal Arcade, as Watchmaker. Jeweller/Spectacle maker. He was also the twelfth Mayor of Manly, NSW in 1897-98.
In 1886 F C Passau was leasing two shops in the Sydney Arcade, Nos 2 and
61. Only the legendary Quong Tart had more premises in the fashionable
Sydney Arcade in 1886 - with refreshment rooms (no 24); tea merchants
(No's 28-29); and his extremely popular Tea Rooms (No 44 & 50).
By 1889, with the boom over and economic recession deepening, F C Passau's
business began to contract. He closed one of his jewellery shops in the
Sydney Arcade.
Frederick Charles was elected to Manly Council for Steyne Ward in 1890 and made an immediate impact on Council with his business experience in
the Depression of the 1890s. Local and State Government, as well as business, were hard hit by what was arguably the worst depression in
Australian history. The new Manly Council had borrowed heavily to meet local community expectations for new roads, water and other services. The capital value of Manly property declined and rates were more difficult to
collect. By 1893, following the closure of many small banks and an economic crisis, Alderman F C
Passau pressed successfully for expenditure
cuts, including salary cuts and a four-day week
for Council labourers. Later that year, to avoid
retrenchments Council's labourers worked
alternate weeks.
Agitation for a proper sewerage system for
Manly gathered strength in the early 1890s.
Passau took the issue up with a passion. Following
completion of Manly Dam in 1892, which guaranteed a clean water supply to local homes, attention turned to sewerage. Manly's 'abominable and ancient system' of night soil removal by an 'old form of tank cart', for disposal at Brookvale in the headwaters of Curl Curl (now Manly) Lagoon was regarded as archaic. The 1890s Depression delayed funding.
However, after a successful poll of ratepayers in 1894; long negotiations with the Catholic Church on a land exchange to permit an ocean outfall at
Shelly Beach; an ingenious plan to lay a marine walk along the top of the sewer between South Steyne and Shelly Beach; and, finally NSW
Government funding, the sewerage scheme was completed in 1899.
Alderman Passau as Mayor in 1897-98 was able to build on the work of the previous Mayor, Harry Farmer, and drive the project through its most
difficult years to fruition. It is F C Passau's name that adorns the steel plaque commemorating these important sewerage works, although the project was not completed until the following year.
Frederick was also given credit for the establishment of Manly's fire brigade and the construction of the brigade's fire station in Fountain Street (now Sydney Road).

• Resided. 1883, Besmont Terrace, St John's Road, Glebe.
Over the years Rachael and Frederick had a number of family homes. Between 1871 to 1882 Rachel and Fred Passau are listed as owning property at the Glebe near Sydney part of Forest Lodge east on St Johns Road near Ross Street.
There was no listing for Frederick Passau in 1871. However, in 1873, Frederick C Passau [sic] was still shown in St John's Road, Glebe; and F C
Passau at the same address in 1877. In the early 1880s, they lived at Bessmount Terrace, St John's Road, Glebe. In 1884 they moved from their modest terrace to 'Corwenville' in then-fashionable Marrickville Road, Marrickville. A year later, in 1885, they moved again to their new house, Bavaria, in Belgrave Street, Manly. Supposedly, Bavaria reflects the Passau family
roots in the Bavarian town of Passau, near the Austrian border, at the junction of the Danube, Inn and Ilz Rivers.
In 1885-86, Frederick built one of Manly's grandest mansions, the Italianate 'boom-style- Fairlands in Ashburner Street, Manly and by the end of 1886 was living there as shown on the birth certificate of Ruby Lilian Passau born in December 1886. It appears that Passau bought the vacant land from G M Pitt, a director of the wool-broking firm, Pitt
Badgery and Sons in 1885.
During the Depression the family moved out of Fairlands in 1889 and moved briefly to Birchgrove Road, Balmain. His son, F S Passau who had joined him in the family jewellery and watch making business, lived nearby in Cove Street, Balmain. Fairlands was leased out, but they returned in 1892 and seem to have remained there during the period that Frederick was Mayor of Manly.
They moved out of Fairlands in 1899 and moved back to Bavaria in Belgrave Street as the Depression began to lift. Fairlands was sold around 1899-1900. In 1900, F C moved to a new house, Bellerive in Laurence Street, Manly (now Fairlight) part of the developing harbour-front strip adjoining Lauderdale Avenue.
In 1994-96, Fairlands was extensively renovated and remodelled to create four apartments. This fine Victorian Italianate mansion, now heritagelisted
, continues to dominate the harbour-front end of Manly's Ashburner Street \endash a substantial memory of a remarkable Manly family.
In 1909 Frederick is listed living at Marvera, in Belgrave Street, next door to 'Bavaria'. It seems likely that he owned both Marvera and Bavaria.
Reginald Passau moved to 7 Bower Street, Manly, on the corner of Cliff Street and two doors from J P Wright's spectacular cliff-top Federation
mansion Bowercliff (now the site of heritage-listed Borambil apartments).
In 1910 Frederick is listed as living at 92 Pittwater Road, Manly43 and in 1915 at Cambridge Street, Epping
One of Frederick's sons, Reginald B Passau lived at 7 Bower Street, Manly in 1910, and at Minstrel Avenue Mosman, by 1915. He also became a
jeweller and optician.
By 1914, Marvera was vacant and Bavaria was a boarding house run by Mrs Nash; Frederick was now living in retirement in the leafy outer northern
suburb of Epping, while Reginald had moved to Mistral Avenue, Mosman. FC Passau negotiated Part C of Lot 2 between Bassett, Darley east, N. W. by Ashburner Street at the Manly Parish, Manly Cove. He also owned 4 acres of land in the Parish of Manly Cove purchased in 1888-90. In 1904,
Frederick Charles Passau is listed as living in Laurence Street, Manly along with his wife Rachel, daughter Ethel May and son Reginald Benton Passau.
In 1905, Ethel married and Rachel died.

• Interests. Masonic Lodge: Manly, New South Wales, Australia St John's Lodge

Frederick married Rachael Benton, daughter of James Benton and Harriet Twist, on 1 Nov 1864 in Scots Presbyterian Church, Pitt St, Sydney, NSW Australia. (Rachael Benton was born on 14 Oct 1843 in Hobart, Tasmania Australia, christened on 20 Jun 1847 in Sydney, NSW Australia, died on 3 Nov 1905 in Ashburner St, Manly, Sydney, NSW Australia and was buried on 4 Nov 1905 in Manly Cemetery C of E Section, Sydney, NSW Australia Plot B.134, Folio 15.)