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MEDIA FACTSHEET B
Nodes of Interest on Pulau Ubin
The following are destinations with ecological and cultural significance to Pulau Ubin.
Destination Background Ubin Jetty The main jetty was built in 1978. It was upgraded in 1994 to cater to the number of visitors arriving on the island; the upgraded jetty features a sheltered walkway and seating area for the comfort of visitors. The main jetty was featured on one of the stamps that commemorated the island’s heritage.
Before this jetty was built, the island was served by a jetty built during the Japanese Occupation that was sited not far from the current jetty. Back then, boats carrying passengers to the island had to beach on mud plains to let their passengers get off. The passengers would have to make their way on foot across the mud plains to complete their journey to the island. On 24 October 1965, a jetty was constructed and opened by then Minister of Education Mr Ong Pang Boon to replace the one built during the Japanese Occupation. When the current jetty was completed, the old jetty was abandoned.
Noordin Noordin Beach was a popular camping ground on the Northern coast Beach of Pulau Ubin. Since 1999, erosion of the beach has been observed but the situation worsened drastically from 2004. The erosion has exposed the foundation of the old buildings and undermines the structural integrity of two shelters there. In view of the potential safety risks to visitors, the campsite was closed in 2013.
Erosion has also been observed at various parts of Pulau Ubin’s coastline. The erosion of Ubin shores results in a loss of coastal habitats and their vegetation (e.g. beach forests and mangroves.) It also results in a loss of recreational opportunities, as in the case at Noordin Site.
Ketam The Ketam Mountain Bike Park is an illustration of how recreation Mountain can co-exist with nature conservation. Designed by a consultant from Bike Park the U.S. based International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), the bike park was built over 45 hectares of derelict land used formerly for a granite quarry, and has about 10 km of tracks around
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the fringes of the Ketam Quarry for avid mountain bikers to hone their skills.
The site has been reforested with over 2,000 shrubs and trees, creating habitats for biodiversity like birds, butterflies and dragonflies.
Ketam Formerly known as Aik Hwa Quarry, the company operated from Quarry 1964 to 1999. It employed more than 100 workers, most of them residents of the island. In the 1990s, the company was supplying Singapore with 160 to 180 tonnes of granite every month, or 30 to 40 percent of Singapore’s granite demand for construction works.
The quarry was closed in May 1999 and many of the company’s former employees retired and left the island. Those who remained on the island became fishermen or farmers, or operated shops to cater to the growing number of visitors to the island.
This was the last granite quarry to be closed on the island.
Butterfly Hill Butterfly Hill – a knoll created specially to conserve and showcase butterflies. About a football field in size, the knoll attracts about 140 species of butterflies.
Butterfly Hill is a successful model of how the community can be involved in nature conservation efforts. Local butterfly expert, Khew Sin Khoon, provided advice on how to plant over 50 butterfly- attracting plant species. Some of these were “nectaring” plants whose flowers provide energy-rich nectar for adult butterflies, while others were “host” plants fed upon by caterpillars. For aesthetic purposes, nectaring plants were generally placed near the edge of footpaths, shielding the host plants whose leaves were sometimes decimated by the voracious caterpillars.
Butterfly species you are likely to see at Butterfly Hill include the Blue Glassy Tiger, Black Veined Tiger, Common Bluebottle and Cycad Blue. Rarities include the Common Jay and Dwarf Crow. The latter species was previously presumed to be extinct from Singapore. It was only rediscovered in 2002 from Pulau Ubin and is so far known only from this locality. Species previously not recorded from Pulau Ubin like the Common Birdwing and Common Rose, have also been attracted to the hill and are now a common sight.
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As a result of this successful effort, Mr Khew Sin Khoon went on to form the Butterfly Circle, which continues to be involved in establishing butterfly habitats in other areas in Singapore.
Pekan Pekan Quarry was previously known as Ho Man Choo Quarry, but Quarry was renamed to reflect its proximity to the main village (“pekan” is Malay for “town”) of Pulau Ubin.
The site had two quarry pits that “merged” into one as the pits filled up with rainwater. The water at Pekan Quarry overflows at a drainage point that leads to the sea.
A look-out point was provided in 2007 to enable visitors to enjoy scenic views of the quarry. This has been very well received by visitors who often stop here to take photos.
House 363B This house once belonged to a local provision shop owner and was vacated in 2005. As the house was still in good condition, NParks worked with the relevant agencies to retain it for use as a demonstration kampong house. Fitted out to resemble a live-in house, House 363B will feature as a final stop for a new Kampong Tour, led by volunteers. The house will also be used as a base for volunteers keen on community gardening.
Wayang The Wayang Stage was an important part of social life on Pulau Stage Ubin. For decades, wayang performances at the stage were the island’s only form of entertainment. The stage started off as a small hut with a basic wooden stage. The residents made improvements to the hut, but by 1971 it was completely rebuilt and is now the current stage that stands opposite the Tua Peh Gong Temple. This stage is three times the size of the original stage. In the past, the stage served as rallying platforms during election times.
During festive dates like Vesak Day and the Hungry Ghost Festival, wayang troupes would stage wayang performances at the stage to celebrate the occasion and honour the patron deities of the Tua Peh Gong Temple. Even when the number of residents on the island started to decline, the performances continued to be staged to honour the patron deities.
One opera piece that is unique to Pulau Ubin is the “Beggar Capturing the Devil”. This piece was composed in Pulau Ubin and is
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only performed on the last night of performances. This is because it is believed that when this piece of opera was first performed, it was to stave off bad luck. The troupe that performed became very wealthy the following year. And ever since that time, this piece of opera has been popular with residents of the island who would request for it to be performed only on the last day of performances.
German Girl The German Girl Shrine is located close to Ketam Quarry and it is Shrine perhaps the most enigmatic feature on the island. The shrine is dedicated to a German girl believed to have died on the island. The shrine is popular with visitors from Singapore Island because it is believed that the spirit of the German girl would grant lucky lottery numbers to its believers.
The story of this shrine originated from the First World War when the British were rounding up Germans in Singapore to be interned. A German family was living on the island at the time. One evening in 1915, a detachment of British personnel was sent to take the family into custody. The father and mother of the family were arrested but their daughter slipped away into the darkness. During her escape she accidentally fell into the quarry and died. Quarry workers found her body the next day and buried her nearby. After the war, the parents of the girl were released from internment. After a fruitless search for their daughter, they left Singapore for good. Years later, it was said that her grave was discovered and whoever prayed at the grave became very lucky and blessed with lottery winnings.
As a result, a shrine was set up and dedicated to the girl. Many people would make offerings of ladies’ fashion accessories or cosmetics in exchange for good luck. The shrine has been the subject of great interest to paranormal groups in Singapore.
Kampong Traditional Malay kampong houses are located in the eastern part of Durian the island. During the 1880s, Encik Endun Senin initiated a major migration project to settle inhabitants from Kallang River area to Pulau Ubin. About 50 families settled around the South-eastern coast of the island at Kampong (Kg) Durian, Kg Melayu, Kg Sungei Durian and Kg Surau. Most of them were fishermen. The Malay houses are either built on raised platforms or on the ground. Usually, a house is a combination of both. The raised platform allows for greater ventilation. The houses are built on timber posts and have timber walls. Attap-thatched roofs (made from Nipah
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palm leaves) used to be common and have been converted to corrugated zinc roofs or clip-lock metal roofs. Elevated, they avoid contact with the dirt from the ground and flooding from the adjacent mangrove. The veranda is ideal for neighbourly social gathering.
The casement windows have timber railings. Often, colourful curtain are parted at the centre and are secured at mid-length. The timber panel wall tops are laced with decorative timber grilles.
The master bedrooms are usually on raised platforms. The dining rooms, kitchens, and toilets are built on the ground.
Jelutong The 7.5-ha Jelutong Campsite is the largest and most popular Campsite campsite in Pulau Ubin with space for over 100 four-men tents. It is near to the village hub and has amenities such as campfire pits, toilets, and shelters. The campsite overlooks Butterfly Hill, a knoll created specially to conserve and showcase butterflies.
Tua Peh The Tua Peh Gong Temple located across the Wayang Stage and in Gong the town centre is the secondary temple of the main Tua Peh Gong Temple Temple that is located near Ketam Quarry. The main temple on the island is located on a granite hill, next to the 1st granite quarry that established by Straits Settlement Government. This quarry was also later known as Ho Man Choo Quarry. It was dedicated to the deity Tua Peh Gong and most likely worshipped by quarry workers for protection. The secondary temple is dedicated to Tua Peh Gong and the Goddess of Mercy, reflecting the role and importance of the secondary temple in the community.
The lack of proper records made it difficult to date the time when the temples were constructed. The temples have also undergone periods of reconstructions and renovations which makes attempts to date the construction of the temples even more difficult. A stele in the main temple indicated that that temple was rebuilt in 1869, suggesting that the temple may have been first constructed sometime in 1847 when the first quarry was opened to quarry stone for the construction of the Horseburgh Lighthouse.
Ubin-HSBC The Ubin-HSBC Volunteer Hub houses a resource centre cum Volunteer volunteer lounge, and a seminar room. The one-stop resource centre Hub is stocked with reference and multimedia materials to facilitate project and conservation research by schools and other
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organisations. The seminar room hosts talks, slide shows and workshops for the public and volunteers.
Chek Jawa Chek Jawa Wetlands is located at the eastern end of Pulau Ubin. It is Wetlands 3 km away from the public jetty at Pulau Ubin. To get to Chek Jawa, visitors can hire a van or rent a bicycle from the main village. For the more adventurous, a walk to Chek Jawa from the jetty would take about 40 minutes.
Covering approximately 100 hectares in area, Chek Jawa is unique in that several ecosystems can be seen in one area – sandy beach, rocky beach, seagrass lagoon, coral rubble, mangroves and coastal forest.
Pulau Ubin's value for biodiversity conservation is highlighted by the recognition of a new plant species, named Utania nervosa. The Utania nervosa was discovered at Chek Jawa in 1997, and was previously called "Fagraea racemosa", having been confused with a much more common tree species that is native from Indo-China (Cambodia, South Vietnam) to Thailand, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. This new species was published in the international journal Plant Ecology and Evolution in July 2014, in effect becoming Singapore's newest species! Utania nervosa is known only from a very restricted area including southeast Johor and the Singapore islands of Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. Its known habitats in Johor are marginal sites in degraded swampland.
To create greater access for the public to visit Chek Jawa, NParks had put in place visitor facilities in July 2007. These include a visitor centre with a viewing jetty, a boardwalk (Mangrove and Coastal Loops) that is more than 1 km in length, and a 20 m viewing tower called the Jejawi Tower. They will constitute part of a long-term sustainable visitor management plan to protect the rich biodiversity there. Visitors can now conduct their own DIY tour along the boardwalks to appreciate the rich biodiversity at Chek Jawa seven days a week, between 8:30am and 6.00pm. Limited guided tours on the intertidal areas are conducted by NParks and can be booked on the NParks website at www.nparks.gov.sg.
Amenities at Chek Jawa Wetlands Visitor Centre (House No. 1)
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Located at the entrance of Chek Jawa, the visitor centre was converted from a Tudor-style house built in the 1930s. Fondly known as House No. 1 (its postal address in Ubin), the building was awarded conservation status by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in December 2003, and was carefully restored.
One of the unique features of the house is its original fireplace, which is probably the only one left in Singapore. The fireplace is no longer in use and is closed off as a family of Pouched Tomb bats currently reside in the chimney of the house. Another rare species of Malayan False Vampire bats can also be found in an old water tower just beside the house. The water tower and the bats were not disturbed, and a new water tank was constructed for use instead.
The HSBC Gallery on the ground level of the visitor centre houses information panels and interpretive displays that depict the history and beauty of the natural heritage in Chek Jawa.
Boardwalk and Jejawi Tower
From the visitor centre, visitors would be able to access two routes, the Coastal Loop (600m) and Mangrove Loop (500m) boardwalk with lookout platforms, a floating pontoon, and shelters. Educational panels and directional signs have been installed along the boardwalk to enhance visitors’ experience. Visitors would be able to complete both routes in about one and a half hours.
Along the way, visitors will be able to climb the seven-storey high (20m) Jejawi tower to view the tree canopy, or observe the biodiversity, such as birdlife. The viewing tower is named after the native tree (Malayan Banyan) that grows just beside the tower. Aluminum was used in the design and construction of the railings of the boardwalk, jetty, and viewing tower for its durability and ability to withstand harsh natural conditions at Chek Jawa.
Sustainable Architecture
The new amenities at Chek Jawa were developed with minimal impact on the environment. The use of environmentally friendly features in the design of the new amenities earned the Chek Jawa Wetlands development the Green Mark Gold Award. This includes the use of energy efficient lights, motion sensor lights, and solar
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powered battery cells. The design of the visitor centre also made use of natural ventilation and daylight.
Map of Pulau Ubin
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For more information, please contact: MND Izzah Amalina Communications Manager DID: 69087214 Mobile: 91517491 Email: [email protected]
NParks Cassandra Lew Communications Manager DID: 64717909 Mobile: 98235156 Email: [email protected]
URA Humphrey Sew Communications Exec Manager DID: 63218129 Mobile: 97333479 Email: [email protected]
NHB Soo Ming Jie Communications Manager DID: 63324419 Email: [email protected]
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