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BLUE MOUNTAINS Blue MountainsHI AssociationSTOR of CulturalY JO HeritageUR OrganisationsNAL Issue 10 March 2021 photo courtesy of JCHAPS Cover Photo:A Dind’s of Katoomba parlour coach outside Hartley Courthousecirca 1962/63 with a group including JCHAPS member Kath Bellamy and her family.. Blue Mountains History Journal Editor Dr Peter Rickwood Editorial Board Associate Professor Carol Liston AO Mr John Low OAM Mr Andrew Macqueen OAM Dr Peter Stanbury OAM Design Mr Peter Hughes The Blue Mountains History Journal is published online under the auspices of BMACHO (Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc.). It contains refereed and fully referenced articles on the human history, and related subjects, of the Greater Blue Mountains and neighbouring areas. Anyone may submit an article which is ‘intermediate’ in size between a Newsletter contribution and a book chapter. Hard copies of all published articles are to be archived in the National Library of Australia, the State Library of NSW, the Royal Australian Historical Society, the Springwood Library, the Lithgow Regional Library and with the Blue Mountains Historical Society Inc. This project is supported by the Create NSW Cultural Grants Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government i Go to Index Go to Index ii BLUHEISTMOORYUNJOTUARINNASL http://www.bluemountainsheritage.com.au/journal.html (A publication of the BLUE MOUNTAINS ASSOCIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS INCORPORATED) ABN 53 994 839 952 ISSUE10 March2021 ISSN-1838-5036 CONTENTS EDITORIAL Peter C. Rickwood iii The Blackheath Stockade; Peter C. Rickwood 1 The buildings and the occupants. Cable Ladders in the Blue Mountains . Brian K. Fox 31 By Motor and Train to the Caves: A brief history of motorised road and Chris Betteridge 41 rail travel to the Jenolan Caves, NSW. Yesterday’s Heroes: Mount York Harry Dillon 67 The Pioneer Legend and Australian Identity. Mary Boswell Reynolds Obituary Des Barrett 88 Cumulative List of Published Issues. 90 EDITORIAL Publication of Issue 10 ofThe Blue Mountains History Journal has been delayed due to various effects of COVID-19 but this is not the first time that issues have not been published in successive years. Issue 10 contains four papers; one is about Blackheath in the early 19th Century, two are on topics relating to the late 19th and early 20th Century in Katoomba and Jenolan, and the fourth concerns early 20th Century memorials and events at Mount Victoria. They have been inserted in an order which is basically chronological. The first paper relates to the Blackheath Stockade which was occupied from 1844-1849; it includes copies of the original plans for that small ‘prison settlement’ and of the Superintendent’s Quarters - now the site of Blackheath Public Primary School. Not only is the work of the successive Superintendents discussed but also that of the successive medical men and the chaplains who cared for the needs of the convicts. iii Go to Index Brian Fox is a well known bushwalker with an extensive list of published books; his paper published here is the result of discoveries made during some of his walks. Herein he tackles the topic of the history of little known ways that intrepid miners used to reach their goals at the base of cliffs in the Katoomba area. One was a set of wire rope ladders that miners installed in c.1919 to reach a coal seam on the western side of Katoomba near Cahills Lookout. The second was a set of ladders constructed in c.1889 on the western side of Narrow Neck Plateau for John Britty North; they gave his employees reasonably quick access to the Glen Shale Mines in the Megalong Valley. Chris Betteridge has followed on from John Low (Issue 9, pp.1-22) in tackling aspects of travel to the Jenolan Caves. The larger part of this account is of the motorised vehicles used in the early 20th Century, and of some of the potential hazards of the journey; it is well illustrated by photographs of identified vehicles. Also in this paper is a concise discussion of travel to, and over, the Upper Blue Mountains by trains such asThe Caves Express and of the locomotives involved. It is a companion paper to the author’s account of the development of Caves House and of the gardens at Jenolan (Issue 9, pp.23-42). The last paper is by Harry Dillon and is a thoughtful reflection on the installations of monuments at Mount York in c.1913 to mark the centenary of the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. It includes details of the events held to accompany those installations. The author also evaluates the 1951 re-enactment of the 1813 crossing, and on the subsequent bicentenary events in 2013, at times of changed cultural values. For the convenience of readers, at the end of this issue there is a cumulative list of the papers that were published in Issues 1 to 9. Extracts from this publication may be reproduced provided that the source is fully acknowledged. Dr Peter C. Rickwood, Editor Go to Index iv The Blackheath Stockade; the buildings and the occupants. Peter C. Rickwood BEES University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 [email protected] Abstract who filled the positions of Superintendent, Stockades were created in the Blue Surgeon and Clerk in the 1844-1849 interval Mountains to house convicts while they were have been compiled from primary sources. constructing roads, the first was at Woodford This paper is complimentary to the very and then in 1844 the second opened at different account of the Blackheath Stockade Blackheath where many buildings had been written by Siobhán Lavelle in 2005. constructed. In addition to those for prisoners, there was a hospital of sorts and a Key words:Stockade, convict, Bull, Rogers, house for the Superintendent. Closure in Gledhill, Blackheath, Blue Mountains 1849 brought the need to relocate all of the prisoners and to sell the land, the buildings INTRODUCTION and various stores but sales continued for The Scotch Thistle Inn at Blackheath, which decades. Herein are copies of the original opened in 1831, remained the only building in illustrations and descriptions of the principal the area until several dwellings were opened buildings. In additon brief accounts of those for the Stockade in 1844 (Figure 2). NSW Government Gazette, 4 July 1848, p.822. Figure 1. Colonial Secretary’s announcement. 1 Go to Index Belatedly, explanations of the intended approved of them, they being less purpose of the Stockade at Blackheath were expensive and more secure then the Boxes published four years after it had been opened now used; for this Work and the repairs of and not long before it was closed. Thus in hand Carts etc, the Nails were required.” 1848 the Colonial Secretary (Thomson (Bull 1844c). 1848d) issued a notice stating the Governor’s directive (Figure 1). The notation made on the side of this letter indicates that the sum of £1106:17:6 had been Establishment allocated for the Blue Mountains Iron Gang Construction of the Stockade seems to have for 1844 and was required to cover all started in 1843 for on 10 January 1844 expenses excepting rations and clothing for Captain Bull of the 99th Regiment, then the convicts. stationed at 20 Mile Hollow (i.e. Woodford), [The construction plans for these boxes were wrote to the Colonial Secretary: reproduced by Rosen (2006, p.152)]. “Submitting Requisitions for Stores ... urgently required in consequence of But the perceived needs had not ended for erecting a new Stockade at Blackheath Captain Bull wrote to the Colonial Secretary now in progress ... the Majority ofArticles on 12 January 1844: are wanted for the new Buildings at “Applying for use of additional oxen to Blackheath ... my teams are fully engaged complete Stockade at Blackheath.” at Blackheath.” (Bull 1844a). “in consequence of the quantity of Logs, To this was added a notation by an unknown Slabs etc required to be drawn from the person in the Colonial Secretary's office: Bush a considerable distance to the site of “Captn Bull seems to have some expensive the new Stockade now in progress at Buildings in contemplation - but I know of Blackheath... so as to have the Stockade none that have been authorised. I cannot ready for occupation in March next.” (Bull sanction the requisition without further 1844b). Explanation.”. By mid 1844 construction had progressed But writing from 20 Mile Hollow on 20 sufficiently for Bull to move his contingent January 1844 Bull penned his explanation from Woodford to Blackheath on 16 July regarding his requisition: 1844 leaving a soldier and a prisoner to “I have the honor to State that in protect the premises at 20 Mile Hollow from Compliance with Instructions received “.. being destroyed by the Bullock Drivers from Coll. Barney, previous to his etc, which had been the case with other departure from the Colony, I am now Government Buildings.” (Bull 1844e). busily engaged in erecting a new Stockade at Blackheath where there are Seven Miles Appearance in length of a Road to make, and that in Governor Sir Charles A. Fitzroy visited consequence of the distance from this Blackheath on 12 November 1846, place being 21 Miles, very little of the accompanied by his cousin Lt Colonel Materials of this Stockade can be removed Godfrey Charles Mundy who wrote: especially the Iron Gang Boxes they are in “Suddenly the highway became Smooth such a dilapidated State, Some of them as a bowling-green, beautifully being upwards of nine Years in Use & the macadamized; and our carriages trundled Bottom Timbers are rotten; I laid a plan of on the nails of their new tire-irons into the Huts I am now Building for the Gang Blackheath; for here resides Captain Bull & Military etc., before Coll.

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