MOUNT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP
CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT
ROBERTSON & HINDMARSH PTY LTD VERSION 1.3 MAY 2013 MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP
CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT
Front cover illustration: View of the Mount Keira Scout Camp from Mount Keira Source: Pix Magazine, December 1950, p.16
Title page illustration (opposite): Mount Keira Scout Camp Lodge viewed from The Glen Source: Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, 2013
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MOUNT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP
CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT
ROBERTSON & HINDMARSH PTY LTD VERSION 1.3
MAY 2013
3 Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd May 2013 : Version 1.3 © Copyright State of NSW and the Office of Environment and Heritage
Disclaimer This report was prepared by Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd in good faith exercising all due care and attention, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the relevance, accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of this document in respect of any particular user’s circumstances. Users of this document should satisfy themselves concerning its application to, and where necessary seek expert advice in respect of, their situation. The views expressed within are not necessarily the views of the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) and may not represent OEH policy. Copyright material Every attempt has been made to identify and contact illustrative material copyright holders for permission to reproduce those images. If any copyright holder has not been contacted they can contact the authors of the report at Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, Architects, email address: [email protected] Where copyright permission has been granted by the copyright holder, it is for the display of this report on the website of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Permission has not been granted for any other use. The printed copies of this report are printed on environmentally sustainable paper.
MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary 9
1.0 Introduction 11 1.1 Commissioning 11 CONSERVATION 1.2 Site Location and Ownership 11 ANALYSIS REPORT 1.3 Precinct Locations 17 1.4 Report Objectives & Outcomes 17 1.5 Scope of Conservation Analysis 17 1.6 Study Method 18 1.7 Documentary Sources 18 1.8 Report Limitations 18 1.9 Further Research 19 1.10 Report Team & Authorship 19 1.11 Stakeholders, Contributors & Acknowledgements 19 1.12 Report Versions 20 1.13 Abbreviations 21
2.0 Historical Analysis 23 2.1 Chronology 23 2.2 Historical Outline 34 2.2.1 Overview of Aboriginal Significance of Mount Keira 34 2.2.2 Coal Mining and Farming at Mt Keira 35 2.2.3 The Slack Fires 48 2.2.4 Miners’ Farms 50 2.2.5 Ventilating Shafts (1870s) 51 2.2.6 Mount Keira Apple Orchards 53 2.2.7 Scenic Lookouts and Tourism 54 2.2.8 Defence Works 59 2.2.9 Australian Iron & Steel Company 60 2.2.10 The Russell’s Farm 61 2.2.11 The Hoskins’ Charitable Donations 62 2.3 History of the Scouting Movement 63 2.3.1 Robert Baden-Powell 63 2.3.2 The Scouting Movement 64 2.3.3 Scouting in Australia 65 2.3.4 Scouting in NSW 68 2.4 Mount Keira Scout Camp 71 2.4.1 Scouting in the Illawarra 71 2.4.2 Guardians of Our Wildlife 81
5 Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd May 2013 : Version 1.3 MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP 3.0 Physical Analysis - Landscape, Buildings & Structures 83 3.1 General Description of the Site 83 3.2 Scout Camp Precincts 88 3.3 Precinct A - Main Camping Flat 90 3.4 Precinct B - Lodge and Swimming Pool 98 3.5 Precinct C - Chapel 114 3.6 Precinct D - Cubs’ Area 119 3.7 Precinct E - Camp Kitchen, Camp Fire Circle & Rovers 125 3.8 Precinct F - Service Area 138 CONSERVATION 3.9 Precinct G - Car Park, Northcott Flat & Entrance ANALYSIS REPORT Road 147 3.10 Precinct H - Ring’s Farm & Scout Camp Water Supply 153 3.11 Axis, Views and Vistas 160 3.12 Curtilage 162
4.0 Historical Archaeological Analysis 164 4.1 Historic Land Use and Archaeological Potential 164 4.2 Assessment of Archaeological Potential 172 4.3 Discussion of Archaeological Significance 172 4.4 Statement of Heritage Significance 174 4.5 Statement of Archaeological Significance 175
5.0 Comparative Analysis 176 5.1 Scout Camps Generally 176 5.2 Baden-Powell Scout Centre, Pennant Hills 178 5.3 Camp Coutts, Waterfall 184 5.4 Comparison of Selected Scout Camps with Mount Keira Scout Camp 193 5.5 Analysis of Australian Scout Camp Designs 194 5.6 The Designers 195
6.0 Cultural Significance 209 6.1 Introduction 209 6.2 Existing Assessments of Significance 210 6.3 Basis of Assessment 212 6.4 Statement of Cultural Significance 212 6.5 Discussion of Individual Levels of Significance 216 6.6 Individual Levels of Significance - Items 218 6.7 Individual Levels of Significance - Elements of Items 221
7.0 Bibliography 228 7.1 Published 228 7.2 Newspapers and Magazines 229 7.3 Unpublished Reports, Manuscripts and Pictures 231 7.4 Electronic 233
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Appendices Appendix 1 Scout Promise & Scout Law 234 Appendix 2 Regions of Scouts in NSW 235 Appendix 3 Comparative Chart of Selected Scout Camps 236 Appendix 4 List of Sorensen Landscaping Projects 237 Appendix 5 Page from Sorensen Diaries, December 1939 238 Appendix 6 Deed of Conveyance and Agreement to Donate, AIS & Minister for Lands, 3 December 1979 239 Appendix 7 Building Permit, 1940 (Warden’s Cottage) 254 CONSERVATION Appendix 8 Building Permit 1989 (Female Ablution Block) 255 ANALYSIS REPORT Appendix 9 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Illawarra Escarpment Landscape Conservation Area Listing Map 257 Appendix 10 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service HHIMS Listing Card 258 Appendix 11 Map of Scout Licence Area, Mount Keira Scout Camp 259 Appendix 12 Maps and Original Building Plans 261 Appendix 13 Plan of Significant Trees, 2013 290
VOLUME 2
Historic Heritage Information Management System (HHIMS) Inventory Sheets 1. List of HHIMS inventory sheets 2. A1 A.S. Hoskins Gateway 3. A2 Sorensen Memorial Pathway 4. A3, A4 & A5 Main Camping Flat, power huts & Baden Powell Commemorative Grove 5. B1, B3 & B4 Lodge cleared area, stone walls, sundial, agpole & bell 6. B2 Paths from Main Camping Flat to Lodge 7. B5 The Lodge 8. B7 Swimming Pool 9. C Chapel and paths to Chapel (including the site of the Wishing Tree) 10. D2 Cub Lair Kitchen 11. D3 Cub Lair Jungle Circle 12. E1 Main Campfire Circle 13. E2 Camp Kitchen 14. E3 Camp HQ/Control Centre 15. E5 Charles Jackson Chalet 16. E6 Mount Keira Rover Den 17. E7 Rovers’ Amphitheatre 18. F4 Camp Warden’s Cottage 19. F5 Male Ablution Block 20. G2 & G7 Camp Access Road & Old Mount Keira Road 21. G3 Main Car Park 22. G4 Northcott Flat 23. G8 Site of the mine ventilation furnace shaft 24. H Site of former Ring’s Farm Buildings 25. H Ring’s Farm & Scout Camp Water Supply
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Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd 8 May 2013 : Version 1.3 MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Mount Keira Scout Camp is a rare instance of a scout camp in occupying a leased area within an area of national park/state forest in New South Wales. The historical reasons for this lie in the philanthropy of local industrialist and supporter of the scout movement, Mr A.S. ( Sid ) Hoskins, who supplied the site for the establishment of the scout camp on his company’s mining lease land. He not only supplied the land but financed the design and construction of the landscape by landscape designer and contractor, Paul Sorensen, and buildings by brother-in-law architect, Geoffrey Loveridge. The site later became part of what is now the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area. CONSERVATION The 1940 opening of the camp was filmed by Cinesound Newsreel and shown around ANALYSIS REPORT Australia as part of Australia’s morale-boosting, anti-fascist war effort. This Conservation Analysis Report was commissioned by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (National Parks and Wildlife Service) as the first stage of the process to identify and manage the uni ue built and natural heritage assets of the Mount Keira Scout Camp site within the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Mount Keira Scout Camp is significant aesthetically for its location high on the Illawarra Escarpment with its dramatic vistas and views over the Illawarra and for the considered layout of the camp as a series of cleared glades and levelled platforms forming a hierarchy of spaces as one moves through the site from east to west; from the mundane world of the car park, through the long main camping area aligned with the two high landscape features (Mount Keira and Robertson’s Lookout), to the well-designed community building (the Lodge), to the spiritually-charged open air Chapel at the end of the symbolic axis. The Mount Keira Scout Camp is significant aesthetically for the high uality of the design of the initial buildings on the site designed by the Hoskins’ architect, Geoffrey Loveridge, with respect to the Lodge and the continuance of the Lodge’s design aesthetic in later buildings designed by the drafting office of AI&S and BHP with respect to the Rovers Den, and the Camp Warden’s Cottage refurbishment. The design aesthetic refers directly to the rustic, American frontiersman buildings admired by Lord Baden-Powell and constructed at the Scouting Movement’s main base at Gilwell Park in London. The Mount Keira Scout Camp is significant for its association with important figures at a state, national and international levels Mr A.S. ( Sid ) Hoskins of Australian Iron and Steel, landscape designer Paul Sorensen, World Chief Guide Lady Baden-Powell, and HRH the Duchess of Gloucester and her two sons, Prince William and Prince Richard of Gloucester. The Mount Keira Scout Camp is significant for its physical environment with more than 70 species of rainforest trees, for the exotic plantings and stone hardworks by noted landscape designer, Paul Sorensen, and because it supports a number of endangered ecological communities (including the Illawarra Escarpment Sub-tropical Rainforest), and threatened plant and animal species. Mount Keira Scout Camp is significant as an early New South Wales scout camp forming part of the worldwide Scouting movement and its significance from a morale-boosting, propaganda aspect as depicted in the wartime 1940 Cinesound Newsreel as a wholesome counter to the youth movements of fascist Italy and Germany.
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Metropolitan Special Area Mt Pleasant
Mt Ousley
Mt Keira
CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT
Keiraville
LEGEND Mt Nebo Scout Licence Area Illawarra Escarpment SCA
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 COMMISSIONING
Figure 1.1 Site Location, with the On 17 October 2012 the Office of Environment and Heritage (National Parks and Wildlife scout camp highlighted in blue Service), NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet engaged Robertson and Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, Architects to undertake a conservation analysis and report of the Mount Keira
Source: NPWS Tender Documents Mt Scout Camp Precinct, Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area (tender OEH-730- Keira Scout Camp, 2012 2012).
1.2 SITE LOCATION AND OWNERSHIP
The study site is located on the eastern slopes of the Illawarra Escarpment on a sandstone bench of land connecting Mount Keira to the main face of the Escarpment, accessible by Mount Keira Road from both Wollongong in the south and the top of the escarpment in the north (figures 1.1 & 1.2).
The scout camp site lies within the Mount Keira precinct of the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area owned by the NSW Government and administered by the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage (NPWS). The scout camp is leased by Scouts Australia, NSW1 from the NSW Government.
The legal description of the scout camp licence area is Lot 1, DP 255281 (which is the reference used in the Wollongong LEP listing).
Lying within the Illawarra Escarpment, the study site occurs within a larger area listed on the Register of the National Trust of Australia (NSW) as a Scenic Landscape of State-wide significance.
1 Scouts Australia, NSW is the usual name of the Scout Association of Australia, NSW Branch, which is incorporated by Act of the NSW Parliament
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Figure 1.2 Site Location (circled) within the Illawarra
Source: Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation CONSERVATION Area, Visitor Guide (map), Dept of Environment and ANALYSIS REPORT Conservation (NSW), National Parks & Wildlife Service, 2005
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Figure 1.3 Site Location (circled) within the Mount Keira area
Source: Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation CONSERVATION Area, Visitor Guide (map), Dept of Environment and ANALYSIS REPORT Conservation (NSW), National Parks & Wildlife Service, 2005
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With its rich biodiversity, the Illawarra Escarpment supports a number of endangered ecological communities, threatened plant and animal species and spans ecological transition ones. Of particular significance at the Scout Camp is the presence of Illawarra Escarpment Subtropical Rainforest, an Endangered Ecological Community considered to be amongst the most mature intact subtropical rainforest in the Illawarra, having survived potential clearing for mining, agriculture and residential land uses. The location of the Mount Keira Scout Camp within a conservation reserve is a rare situation compared with many Scout camps in Australia where a number of camps are either surrounded by or adjacent to national CONSERVATION parks/state forests/conservation reserves. Management of the licence area, therefore, aims ANALYSIS REPORT to facilitate a sustainable balance between continuing Scout activities and conservation of the surrounding natural and cultural environment.
G1
G8 HANGMAN’S CREEK
RING’S FARM
WATER SUPPLY WEIR & TANKS G7
G2 G2 A4 G5 B6 G4 B9 A2 G9 B3 A5 A3 A1 B7 B5 B2 G6 B4 B10 F2 F3 RUSSELL’S FARM E3 G3 B1 B2 F6 B8 E2 F1 F5 E4 F4 F7 E7 E5 D5 E1 E8 D4 E6 D1 C1 D3 D2 MOUNT KEIRA G8 C2 BYARONG CREEK
C3
Figure 1.4 Site Plan Source: Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, 2013
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KEY TO BUILDINGS ON SITE PLAN (figure 1.4) A1 A.S. Hoskins Gateway A2 Sorensen Memorial Pathway CONSERVATION A3 Main Camping Flat ANALYSIS REPORT A4 Electrical sub-station A5 Baden-Powell Commemorative Grove B1 Stone walls (by Sorensen) B2 Paths from Camping Flat to Lodge (by Sorensen) B3 Flagpole and bell B4 Sundial B5 The Lodge B6 Lodge chair store B7 Swimming pool B8 Swimming pool pump house and chemical store B9 The Glen B10 Lodge Road (concrete driveway) C1 Path to the Chapel C2 The Chapel C3 Site of the Wishing Tree (destroyed) D1 Cub Lair D2 Cub Lair Kitchen D3 Cub Lair Jungle Circle D4 Cubs’s area turning circle and roadway D5 Cubs’ Area footpath to the Campfire Circle E1 Campfire Circle E2 Camp Kitchen E3 Camp HQ/Control Centre E4 Fairfax Cottage E5 Charles Jackson Chalet E6 Mount Keira Rover Den E7 Rovers’ amphitheatre E8 Electrical storage hut F1 Cabbage Patch F2 Training Shed F3 Warden’s Garage F4 Camp Warden’s Cottage F5 Male ablution block F6 Female ablution block F7 Shelter G1 Commemorative gates G2 Camp Road (camp access road) G3 Main Car Park G4 Northcott Flat G5 Corrimal Flat G6 Adventure Valley G7 Site of former Allawah Hut (demolished) G8 Old Mount Keira Road alignment G9 Approximate site of mine furnace ue 15 Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd May 2013 : Version 1.3 MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP
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H G
A ROBERTSON’S G LOOKOUT B F E D C MOUNT KEIRA
BYARONG CREEK
Figure 1.5 Location of the Precincts (red outline) and the approximate location of the Scout C a m p L i c e n c e A r e a ( g r e e n o u t l i n e ) Source: Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, 2013
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The study site has been divided into a number of precincts (figure 1.5) which are described in the physical analysis of the landscape, ora & fauna and the buildings, with more detailed maps of each precinct. These precincts do not re ect any Scout licence boundaries but re ect functional and symbolic areas of the Camp and the surrounding ad oining areas of the non-licence area of the Illawarra Escarpment State Conservation Area.
Precinct A - Main Camping Flat Precinct B - Lodge and Swimming Pool CONSERVATION Precinct C - Chapel ANALYSIS REPORT Precinct D - Cubs’ Area Precinct E - Camp Kitchen, Camp Fire Circle & Rovers Precinct F - Service Area Precinct G - Car Park, Northcott Flat & Entrance Road Precinct H - Ring’s Farm & Scout Camp Water Supply
1.4 REPORT OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES
The key pro ect ob ectives and outcomes re uired by the brief to tenderers dated 19 September 2012 are:
Objectives: (a) To prepare an engaging, authoritative and illustrated contextual history of the Mount Keira Scout Camp site; (b) To identify and record the cultural features/elements of the site, and to update OEH Historic Heritage Information Management System (HHIMS) database. This includes landscape, horticultural, built, movable heritage and archaeological features; (c) To assess its cultural significance as an entity and for each of the key features or buildings. The significance assessment must meet the NSW Heritage Office criteria; and (d) To produce a site plan clearly identifying all of the features and buildings and defining the curtilage of the heritage site and an archaeological oning plan.
Outcomes: 1) To support the long-term conservation and management of the study area 2) To ensure best practice management of cultural heritage values and 3) To inform a future Conservation Management Plan for the study area.
1.5 SCOPE OF CONSERVATION ANALYSIS
The report scope is limited to the following contents by the brief from NPWS and is not intended to be a complete conservation management plan but is the first part of a future conservation management plan: 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction 3. Historical Analysis 4. Physical Analysis 5. Archaeological Analysis 17 Robertson & Hindmarsh Pty Ltd May 2013 : Version 1.3 MT KEIRA SCOUT CAMP 6. Assessment of Cultural Significance: Comparative Analysis Definition of Curtilage Statement of Significance Gradings of Significance 7. Bibliography 8. Historic Heritage Information Management System (HHIMS) Inventory Sheets
CONSERVATION ANALYSIS REPORT 1.6 STUDY METHOD
In general, this Conservation Analysis follows the format as set out in The Conservation Plan by J. S. Kerr, The Guidelines to the Burra Charter – Conservation Policy and the NSW Heritage Manual, in addition to examining issues particular to this site.
1.7 DOCUMENTARY SOURCES
A complete list of the documentary sources is located in the bibliography of this report.
1.8 REPORT LIMITATIONS
The limitations of this study are: