HERITAGE NEWSLETTER OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS ASSOCIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS INC. JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE No. 31 Governor to open Locomotive Depot museum at Valley Heights by John Leary, OAM LONG GONE is the excitement of the steam train, like a great steel monster white steam gushing from its nostrils, as it pulls out of Sydney Central, quickly passing the back yards of another generation’s dwellings of the western suburbs, then racing at what in those days was considered a break-neck speed across the Cumberland Plains much of it then still farmland until the noisy loco and its train reached Penrith, then a small country town soon to develop as the hub of a satellite city with new suburbs housing a considerable population.
At Emu Plains the speed slowed Engine 5183 is turned at Valley Heights. Photograph - Australian Railway with the loco chugging along as it History Society (NSW RRC) 060615 NJ Simons Collection. wound its way around the lower Blue Mountains until it reached the needed power to pull the Heights Locomotive Heritage Valley Heights. carriages up the mountains to Museum has organised a year-long Katoomba. centenary celebration of events. At Valley Heights a pilot engine which had been waiting steamed up The Valley Heights Locomotive On January 31, the Governor of ready to do its work was hooked to Depot was officially opened in NSW, Her Excellency Professor the front of the main loco adding to January 1914 and the Valley Marie Bashir AC, CVO will officially open the Valley Heights Locomotive Heritage Museum. (The opening is by invitation only). Some 47 years earlier, on July 11, 1867, the first official journey by train was made between Penrith and Weatherboard (Wentworth Falls) where the line terminated.
The depot’s locomotives assisted up to 30 trains a day from Valley Heights to Katoomba. Located on the steeply graded line to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, the depot served the railways for 75 years.
However, its days became numbered when more efficient and powerful electric locomotives were introduced - eventually resulting in Engine 3827 and standard good pilot ready for departure the closure of the depot, marking a from Valley Heights. major milestone in the state’s Photograph: Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW RRC) 004024. railway history. Continued page 3
HERITAGE 1 January - February 2014 Contents...... An opinion from the editor...... HERITAGE January - February 2014 What is cultural heritage? ...Is it all *P1 Governor to open Locomotive Depot about the past? Museum at Valley Heights by John Leary I am frequently asked: What is in the future some historian or *P2 Opinion - What is cultural cultural heritage? ...Is it all about musical researcher may find in heritage? by John Leary the past? Australia the instruments given to *P3 Another year for BMACHO me and return them to their native *P4 ‘For the cricket tragics’ by Definitions of cultural heritage are country to see a revival in the John Leary highly varied. tradition. *P5 An alternative crossing: The definition perhaps I find to be He recently passed away, but Bells Line of Roads pt 2 the simplest and most decisive is, before he did, I told him that while I 1823 - 1872 …cultural heritage is the legacy of had kept the shakuhachi, the other *P7 Heritage churches subject physical artefacts and intangible two instruments, the koto and for BM history conference attributes of a group or society that shamishan had been gifted to two *P8 Heritage pear tree are inherited from past separate institutions with the hope remnant of Woodford generations, maintained in the that a wider distribution of the Academy orchard bears present and bestowed for the artefacts might make possible the fruit by John Leary benefit of future generations. enactment of his vision.
The definition embraces simply the The shakuhachi flute has been ‘physical’ and ‘intangible’ and has traced back as far as ancient Egypt a timeline of the past, present and and is thought to have migrated future. through India and China before being brought back to Japan by I often think of the precise nature monks who were studying abroad in of that statement when I ponder a China during the 6th century. *P9 100 years of wedding trust that was placed in me some dresses 20 years ago by a very influential Is this cultural heritage? I believe it *P9 Jazz in the artist’s gardens Japanese friend when he as the is — it certainly fits the definition, *P10 Wendy Hawkes to talk mayor of a large city and I, were that I most like, albeit the about the Cooks directing efforts of a sister cities experience is more in the nature of *P10 Yvonne Jenkins memorial relationship which has endured Japan’s cultural heritage and the award from the 1980s to the present. vision of a far thinking and *P10 HMSBounty cannonball on generous man. display He had expressed to me a concern *P11 Lesser known accounts of that young people in Japan were Is it all about the past? No.It has a early and mid19th Century no longer interested in traditional timeline embracingof the past, journeys over the Blue music, but instead followed blindly present and future. Mountains by Peter the American trends. Rickwood Another reputable definition is that These trends have built-in … cultural heritage is an expression obsolecence that was gradually of the ways of living developed by a seeing the emergence of community and passed on from everything without an apparent generation to generation, including use, being placed on the customs, practices, places, objects, scrapheap of oblivion when its artistic expressions and values. *P17 Honour for Andrew Tink used-by date is reached.. *P18 Joan Smith retires to Cultural heritage is often expressed Melbourne My friend, Shimamura sensei as either intangible or tangible *P18 Retro 2014 asked if I would accept three cultural heritage (ICOMOS, 2002). *P18 The railway to the west instruments as personal gifts to be John Leary, OAM - *P19 Sydney’s hard rock story kept and passed down through President, Blue Mountains ... the cultural heritage of generations of the Leary family to Association of Cultural Heritage trachyte which I hesitatingly agreed to Organisations Inc. *P20 Wasteland, Wilderness, accept, being mindful of the ‘The care of our own Wonderland obligation being place on me. *P20 Accolades for HERITAGE historical memory *P21 The kangaroo that could His vision was that if and when the reveals the degree of rewrite history traditional musical arts and craft civilization and were lost to Japan, that some time morality of a country.’
HERITAGE 2 January - February 2014 “The Fish” and “The Chips” Continued from page 1 Although the depot has been on its Valley Heights site since 1914, February 2, 1957 saw the end of steam operations from Valley Heights.
On this day No. 27 passenger train was hauled by steam locomotive 3662 and on arrival at Valley Heights electric locomotives 4611 and 4617 backed out of the depot and assisted the train to Katoomba.
From that train all steam hauled trains, both freight and passenger were electrically assisted to Katoomba, until complete electrification saw steam removed A 53 class engine assisting a 35 class out of Valley Heights - from the scene. Photograph Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW RCC) 012376 The depot in latter years was But for commuters in the Blue The era of steam trains which basically a very efficient freight Mountains trains like the “The Fish” fascinated travellers around the wagon and electric locomotive and “The Chips” were a way of life. world, may be long gone, but for repair workshop, the electric those who enjoy a stroll along engines receiving minor repairs and “The Fish” is still the name of one of ‘memory lane’ the Valley Heights complete overhauls at the depot. the peak hour train services Locomotive Heritage Museum will between Sydney and Lithgow. go a long way towards bringing The demise of Valley Heights depot back that enchantment with steam began when the 85 class electric For about fourteen years this train travel. locomotives were introduced in service was regularly driven by a Mr 1979 and through working of freight John Heron who, being a big man, For details of centenary activities trains commenced. gained the nick name “The Big www.infobluemountains.net.au/ Fish” which eventually transferred to locodepot/centenary.shtml The demise was accelerated with the train itself. the introduction of the 86 class References: locomotives in early 1983. From the The original engine pulling “The Valley Heights Locomotive Depot mid 1980s the number of trains Fish” survived about 20 years. Heritage Museum http:// requiring piloting from Valley www.infobluemountains.net.au/ Heights had been reduced to a locodepot/history.shtml handful each day, until the depot
The site is now home to the Locomotive Depot Heritage Another year for BMACHO --- Museum which provides interactive annual general meeting exhibits of engines and carriages, along with other unique displays of ANOTHER YEAR has come A guest speaker soon to be railway memorabilia. around as BMACHO goes into its finalised will be announced on 9th year of operations. Facebook and by e-mail to Rail travel for more than150 years members. in Australia has been popular, The association’s annual general despite the sometimes meeting will be held at the Members of the association and uncomfortable conditions with the Woodford Academy on Saturday, their representatives at the odd coal cinder in the eye when one March 22, 2014 commencing at meeting will also be given the opened the windows and today, 2pm. opportunity to look through this cramped and dirty commuter rail building the property being the The business including services. oldest on the Blue Mountains. president’s report, financial There were and still are in Australia reports and election of office Formal notice of the meeting interesting services available to bearers will be followed by a together with the calling of travellers who prefer the slower guest speaker and afternoon tea. nominations for the 10 member pace. management committee will be distributed in the near future.
HERITAGE 3 January - February 2014 ‘For the cricket tragics’ By John Leary, OAM Adult participation is unknown MANY of our readers have before the early 17th century. probably spent considerable time Despite many other suggested during the 2013 - 14 festive references, the first definite mention season, watching grown men of the game is found in a 1598 court throw a usually red leather covered case concerning an ownership ball at three sticks, which another dispute over a plot of common land player seems to protect, while in Guildford, Surrey. others on the field stand by in silly mid on and in slips seemingly with A 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, little to do. testified that he and his school friends had played crecket on the It seems there have been five tests site fifty years earlier when they this summer between England and attended the Free School. Australia and the uninitiated must English cricket legendWG Grace wonder why so many examinations Derrick’s account seems to prove “taking guard” in 1883. His pads and for what seemingly is a simple beyond reasonable doubt that the bat are very similar to those used sport. game was being played in Surrey today. The gloves have evolved circa 1550. somewhat. Many modern players And they have played in these utilise more defensive equipment tests for the doubtful prize of a set There is also a reference to cricket than was available to Grace, notably of bails burned to ash and being played as an adult sport was helmets, and a thing called a “box” . secreted in a small wooden urn. in 1611, when two men in Sussex Cricket has a close relationship were prosecuted for playing cricket Patriotically, the writer must state with Australian rules football and on Sunday instead of going to Australia seems to be the many players have competed at church. brightest, its team having top levels in both sports. succeeded in all five tests while In the same year, a dictionary the English have failed each time In 1858, prominent Australian defined cricket as a boys’ game and they were before the stumps cricketer Tom Wills called for the this suggests that adult participation behind which stands a man in a formation of a “foot-ball club” with was a recent development white coat and a number of hats. “a code of laws” to keep cricketers fit during the off-season. Cricket has had an influence on the Perhaps those ‘cricket tragics’ lexicon of nations around the world, might ponder this little piece about The following year, Wills and other especially in the English language, the origins of this manly sport. Victorian cricketers founded the with such phrases as “that’s not Melbourne Football Club and cricket” (unfair), “had a good The game of cricket has a known codified the first laws of the game. innings”, “sticky wicket”, and history spanning from the 16th It is typically played on modified “bowled over “. century to the present day, with cricket fields and borrows international matches played since terminology from cricket, such as Cricket has been played in Australia 1844, although the official history “umpire” and “sledging”. for over 210 years. of international Test cricket began in 1877. The first recorded cricket match in It is often said that in Australia the Australia took place in Sydney in office of test captain is second in However, no one knows for sure December 1803 and a report in the stature behind the office of prime when or where cricket began but Sydney Gazette on January 8, 1804 minister. there is a body of evidence, that suggested that cricket was already suggests cricket was devised by well established in the infant colony. As a member of the No Cricket children and survived for many and Football League, the author is Intercolonial cricket in Australia generations as essentially a now so overloaded with cricket started with a visit by cricketers children’s game. minutia it is perhaps an from Victoria to Tasmania in appropriate time, as the cricketing February 1851. fraternity say, to ‘take tea” ,which may well be an euphemisim for The first tour by an English team to consumption of a beverage better Australia was in 1861 - 62, known as a beer organised by the catering firm of Spiers and Pond as a private Editor’s note. Some of this material enterprise. A further tour followed in has been sourced from Wikipedia 1863-64, led by George Parr and and we leave it to the reader to was even more successful than the check the veracity of the previous. information. jkl Cricket at Melbourne Cricket Ground Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/ January 1, 1864 wiki/History_of_cricket_to_1725
HERITAGE 4 January - February 2014 An alternative crossing: Bells Line of Road part 2: 1823 to 1872 by Ian Jack IN THE November/December 2013 issue of HERITAGE I discussed the making of an alternative road Jacob’s leading across the Blue Mountains Ladder, on the to Hartley Valley in 1823. notoriously difficult The main problem with the new western pass route was Mount Tomah: the road leaving Mount from the Zig Zag descending Tomah in the westwards from Kurrajong Heights nineteenth and leading to Mount Tomah was century. relatively level and straight, with Conrad good fodder for animals. Martens made this drawing in This section of Bells Line of Road November soon attracted some settlement, in 1876 soon Bilpin and Berambing. after improvements The Royal Veterans Company in had been New South Wales had been formed made but just in 1810 mainly from old Napoleonic before a by- soldiers. When it was disbanded in pass was 1823, it was anticipated that its created. State members might be settled along Library of NSW, Bells Line.1 Mitchell This did not happen but when Library,PXD307 reincarnated veterans’ companies vol.2 fo.13. arrived in the colony in 1826 and Reproduced by proved quite unsuitable in courtesy of the government employ, Governor State Library. Darling offered them either a passage back to Britain or a land grant of 40 to 100 acres. Bowen built a fine stone house with two farms under grain and pigs called Bulgamatta (the Aboriginal being reared.5 Some of the veterans took up the name for the area), with three sitting offer of land and in 1829 twelve rooms and four bedrooms along Because of this increased allotments each of 100 acres (40 with outbuildings and a sawmill on occupation of the stretch of Bells hectares) were surveyed at Bilpin the creek below, but in 1836 was Line between Kurrajong Heights and Berambing, of which ten were obliged to sell to the entrepreneur and Mount Tomah in the 1830s, taken up and occupied for a while. Robert Towns (the later founder of because of the pressure applied by Townsville) after he ‘lost a large Bowen and Towns, because of In 1830 it was anticipated that three portion of [his] capital and some of overnight accommodation being bullock teams would transport the [his] best years’.3 offered by the Douglasses at necessary equipment to these Kurrajong Heights, and because of veterans’ farms over Kurrajong Bowen’s mother returned to increased citrus orcharding on the Heights, but, despite petitions from England in the same year and sold Kurrajong foothills, there was the new settlers, Mitchell in 1832 Mount Tomah, where she had not increased local interest in improving refused to spend public money on built any residence, to her son’s the road from the Hawkesbury. improving the Zig Zag at Kurrajong army acquaintance, Captain George 2 Heights. Bartley, in 1838.4 Accordingly a Committee of Management of the Windsor and The other new owners of land on Bowen had built huts for his Bathurst New Road, with the Bells Line in 1830 were Mrs employees about 2 kilometres west Surveyor-General, JL Scarvell, as Susannah Bowen and her son, of Bulgamatta. These probably its secretary, was formed and in George Meares Countess Bowen, a remained in occupation under the 1839 was soliciting tenders ‘for retired army man, who occupied overseer for Robert Towns, Sam making a Dray Road from substantial grants on Mount Tomah Seinor, an ex-convict who lived in Richmond, through the Kurryjong, (1280 acres) and at Berambing Bulgamatta homestead and had a by Mount Tomah, over the (2560 acres) respectively. number of workers on the property, Mountains to the present Bathurst Road’.6
HERITAGE 5 January - February 2014 ‘£100 for dray road from Richmond over the mountains’ The stone cottage called Bulgamatta, built on Bells Line of Road by Continued from page 5 George Meares Countess Bowen at Berambing, just east of Mount Tomah, as soon as he entered on his grant of 2,560 acres (1,030 The sum of £160 was raised and hectares) in 1830. The pencil drawing was done spent in 1840, principally for by Conrad Martens in July 1838 ‘clearing’ the road from Mount Tomah to Bowenfels, but Sam (State Libary of NSW,Mitchell Library, SSV SP Coll Martens 3). Seinor was also paid for ‘clearing This was, however, an exceptional the eastern side of Mount Tomah’ of cattle without human aid. His act of bravura and did not create a and James Douglass a similar only help was his dogs, which were habit. Sam Boughton, who knew amount for a rock cutting on the wonder of the age.’ most of the bullockies and the Tabaraga ridge on Kurrajong drovers, was quite clear that no Heights, while Thomas Dargan ( who One dog brought firewood to the drays coming from the Hawkesbury gave his name to Dargans Creek nightly camp, another water and the could get beyond Mount Tomah until beyond Bell) had two men employed third controlled the cattle, Timmins the 1870s.11 ‘improving the pass at Mount boasted, though Boughton 13 7 expressed discreet reservations. Tomah’. Until a new Road Trust undertook successful improvements to the Despite these locally funded efforts, The road was consistently used. road in 1872 and subsequent years, the ‘new line of road over Mount Alfred Smith, born in 1831, was a Bells Line as a through-way to the Tomah’ was described in 1841 as drover in his youth and recalled how west operated primarily as a drove only ‘a bridle road’, though it was he had brought 63 flocks of sheep road. 14 hoped that it would ‘shortly become over Bells Line. fit for the carriage’.8 The western graziers regarded it as Droving required yards and some a desirable alternative to the Great This was optimistic, for, in occasional inns. Sam Seinor, Western Highway. George Cox, for particular¸ the descent of the Towns’ overseer at Bulgamatta, built example, wrote to his sons in 1848: Western Pass, known as Jacob’s stockyards for drovers at Dargans ‘… when you come down … find out Ladder, was acutely steep and Creek near Bell, at Mount Charles whether it will be at all practicable to 15 contained dangerous rock steps and at Bulgamatta. send the sheep across … either called ‘jumps’.9 down Bell’s line of road, or onto the During the Gold Rush years of the The first crossing with a bullock Mountain Road at Blackheath. 1850s there were many prospectors team was indeed in 1840, with Either of which must be preferable on the move, walking across Bells experienced men, including the to their going up the Mount Victoria Line to Ophir and the Turon, so blacksmith William McAlpine who Road to avoid all that pounded Red Thomas Sherwood opened an 12 had gone with Bell in 1823, and Ironstone up Mount Victoria.’ accommodation house near Thomas Dargan who had been Bulgamatta, built with timbers from The drovers on Bells Line were supervising road works, but they Bowen’s old house. familiar faces in Richmond. Some used a ‘slide’ instead of a wheeled were larger than life, like Jack dray, dragged by four bullocks, and Sherwood and his sons regularly Timmins of Yarramundi, born in the slide was soon broken on a bad went a distance west to meet 1813 and still yarning to Sam stretch of road at Mount Charles. drovers coming to the coast and to Boughton in 1903: ‘the only man I help them up Jacob’s Ladder.16 An improvised slide was created out ever heard of [wrote Boughton] Continued page 7 of a tree-fork and the return trip to crossing the mountains with a drove North Richmond was completed safely.10
HERITAGE 6 January - February 2014 There he met a herd of Fitzgerald’s 6 Australian, 16 May 1839; cattle coming from Dabee to the Hungerford, Bilpin, p.66. ‘no ride in coastal markets, ‘winding slowly 7 Australian, 20 October 1840; round the mountain in “single file”, Hungerford, Bilpin, p.66. adding not a little to the scene’. 8 Australian, 6 April 1841; Hungerford, Bilpin, p.67. the colony Cadell remounted and rode on 9 Hungerford, Bilpin, pp.94-95. westwards to Dargans Creek ‘over 10 ‘Cooramill’, Reminiscences of a monotonous road, some parts of it Richmond, from the Forties Down, can be very good, others not quite so, but ed. C. McHardy, Kurrajong, 2010, mostly free of the heavy sands p.107; Hungerford, Bilpin, p.67. which are such a hindrance on the 11 ‘Cooramill’, Reminiscences of other line [the Great Western Richmond, pp.107, 116, 120-121; more 18 Highway]. Hungerford, Bilpin, p.96. 12 George Cox of Mulgoa and And so Bells Line remained for Mudgee: Letters to his Sons, 1846- enchanting’ another twenty years, until the local 1849, ed. E. Hickson, Mudgee, Roads Trust was formed in 1872 1980, p.72. Continued from page 6 which was instrumental in opening 13 ‘Cooramill’, Reminiscences of The Hawkesbury end of the road, the entire road to wheeled vehicles. Richmond, pp.103-104: cf. J.T. from Kurrajong to the river, was by Ryan, Reminiscences of Australia, far the busiest part of Bells Line. (Endnotes) 1894, reprinted South Penrith, 1 Cutting from Morning Herald, 21 1982, p.65. Not only was there increasing June 1824, Mitchell Library, ML 14 A. Smith, Some Ups and Downs farming and orcharding, but the 1493, reel CY 907, p.390b. of an Old Richmondite, Nepean Putty Road, which was an important 2 M. Hungerford, Bilpin, the Apple Family History Society, Emu Plains, drove route from the Hunter, joined Country: a Local History, Bilpin, 1991, pp.30-31. Bells Line at Kurrajong, so the final 1995, pp.34, 37-40. 15 Ibid., p.116; letter from T. Cadell, eastern stage saw cattle and sheep 3 Sydney Herald, 4 January 1836 p.4 Sydney Morning Herald, 4 July converging from both the western c.5; Hungerford, Bilpin, pp.31-32. 1851, p.3 c.4. plains and the Hunter Valley. 4 H.A. MacLeod Morgan. ‘George 16 Smith, Some Ups and Downs of Meares Countess Bowen’, Australian The Packhorse Inn at North an Old Richmondite, p.123; Genealogist, 8, 1955-8, pp.113-114; Richmond (later the Woolpack) Hungerford, Bilpin, p.90. Hungerford, Bilpin, p.37. 17 became an important place for the Ryan, Reminiscences of 5 W.L. Havard, ‘Sir Paul Edmund de Sydney butchers to acquire stock, Australia, 295-8; ‘Cooramill’, Strzelecki’, Journal of Royal just as Joseph Collett’s inn in Little Reminiscences of Richmond, p.117. Australian Historical Society, 26, 18 Hartley was a rendezvous for Letter from Cadell, Sydney 1940, p.41; Hungerford, Bilpin, Hawkesbury dealers to acquire Morning Herald, 4 July 1851, p.3 pp.64-65. Seinor’s surname was stock cheaply in the 1850s before cc.3-4; partly printed in Hungerford, later misremembered as ‘Senior’. city price-rises were known over the Bilpin, p.72. Mountains.17
All the characteristics of Bells Line Heritage churches subject for in this period are summed up in a letter from Thomas Cadell junior of BM history conference Ben Bullen, published in the Sydney HECTOR ABRAHAMS has now A particular interest is in Christian Morning Herald in July 1851. agreed to be one of the speakers churches. He is chairman of the for the Blue Mountains History NSW Heritage Council Religious He went on horseback from conference to be held at the Property Advisory Panel as the Windsor, crossed the river on the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba on representative of the Australian punt and rode up to Douglass’ May 10, 2014. Institute of Architects and serves on accommodation house: it was a several architectural panels in the good road and ‘no ride in the colony He has been asked to present an Anglican Church. He is trustee and can be more enchanting than this of address about the architectural honorary secretary of the a fine evening’. and cultural heritage value of Camperdown Cemetery Trust. He is religious buildings in the Blue a former councillor and vice Cadell had to walk his horse over Mountains, Lithgow, Hawkesbury president of the Royal Australian Kurrajong Heights, but then he rode and Sydney regions. Historical Society. for two hours to Towns’ Tomah House, now unoccupied, and an Hector Abrahams BSc (Arch) He is the author of the entry for hour later he came to Mount Tomah, (Hons), BArch, ARAIA is an Church architecture on the where he dismounted and led his architect with diverse experience in Dictionary of Sydney, and the very horse as any ‘merciful man’ would public and private work in the substantial entries for Edmund do. areas of conservation, cultural Thomas Blacket and John Horbury projects and adaptive re-use since Hunt in the Encyclopedia of graduating from the University of Australian Architecture. Sydney over 25 years ago.
HERITAGE 7 January - February 2014 Heritage pear tree remnant of Woodford Academy orchard bears fruit IT WASN’T A PARTRIDGE IN THE PEAR TREE from the English carol lyrics first published in 1780, but it was four pears in a tree, the image captured by Elizabeth Burgess on a delightful festive greetings e-mail from Woodford Academy which leapt off the computer screen just before Christmas 2013.
Closer inspection revealed the pears had been growing on what is probably a heritage tree planted at Woodford Academy in the time of Alfred Fairfax’s occupation circa 1868 -1880s.
Local professional horticulturalist and former horticulturalist teacher with TAFE, Doug Knowles has recently inspected the tree and suggests it could be as old as 150 years. This magnificent image of the pears fruiting on what may well be a heritage tree on land adjacent to Wooford Academy was taken by Mr Knowles says that the tree is in Elizabeth Burgess, Woodford Academy Management Committee - an advanced state of decreptitude. summer of 2013 It has very short incremental seasonal growth and extensive but no descriptions and I cannot There had been an inn on the wood rot. therefore cast any light on its property since circa 1834 with varietal name,” Mr Knowles said. Thomas Pembroke having been “What we see are the remains of a granted 2 acres of land in 1831. very old tree easily one of the Fairfax bought the property in 1868 original trees. It could have been from the widow of William Buss. Pembroke named the inn ‘The planted 150 years ago :1860/70,” Woodman’ and lived there with his Mr Knowles has suggested. Buss had conducted an inn which wife and 6 children. was licensed as ‘The Kings Arms’ in “The Camden Park Catalogue of 1855. The establishment was more The inn provided food and lodgings 1857 liists 31 cultivated varieties, popularly known as Buss’ Inn. for travellers from Sydney on their way to Bathurst and the western plains. Soldiers and colonial officials were some of their guests.
In 1835 Pembroke was granted a further 48 acres at what was then known as Twenty Mile Hollow
Pembroke fell on hard times, heavily mortgaging the property and being sentenced to 2 years on a road gang for stealing slabs of wood at Springwood.
His sentence was later reduced to one year but forced him to sell the property in 1839.
But back to the pears and in particular the tree which is most likely to be the last remnant of an orchard and garden planted for Fairfax who developed the property The pear tree in all its glory of spring bloom. Photograph by Elizabeth as a gentleman’s residence. Burgess, Woodfrod Academy Management Committee - spring 2013 Continued page 9
HERITAGE 8 January - February 2014 Pear tree probably planted 150 years ago in Alfred Fairfax’s orchard Continued from page 8 subdivided the property and sold photographer and the inititiave and Fairfax renamed his home, some of the land. innovating use of the image as a ‘Woodford House’ and built the greeting card and for the promotion second storey east wing primarily to The fruit in the picture on this page of Woodford Academy which stands accommodate his Sydney friends is in fact a China pear, not very on the site which has been and their servants. good for eating unless cooked or occupied by a building longer than made into bottling fruit and chutney. anywhere on the Blue Mountains. It became an exclusive retreat for Fairfax and his friends. REFERENCES 1. Leary, Nanette A Brief History of Jazz in the During his time at Woodford he Woodford Academy. 2004 Friends bought more land circa 1868 and of Woodford Academy. then owned 90 acres on which he artist’sgardens created an orchard and house 2. I am also grateful to Hazelbrook garden to provide fresh food for his historian and author Ken Goodlet guests. who has knowledge of the tree’s more recent existence having One of the more notable events at sighted a 1943 aerial photograph in Woodford House was in 1874 when which a grown tree appears in the members of the scientific location of the subject tree. community visited the Fairfax 3. I also acknowledge the advice of property to observe the transit of Sun Valley horticulturist and current Venus. Portable observatories were president of Glenbrook District set up in tents for the observations. Historical Society Doug Knowles who recently visited the site to In 1897 losing money in his examine the tree and its gnarled financial dealings in mining trunk. ventures, Alfred Fairfax sold the 4. Finally, I pay tribute to Elizabeth house to a David Flannery who THIS VERY popular Jazz in the Burgess for her skills as a Garden event celebrates the birthday of one of Australia’s finest 100 years of wedding dresses at Everglades artists Norman Lindsay. 1880 to 1980 This event is scheduled for Saturday, February 22, 2014 from 5 The Friends of Everglades to 9pm in the gardens of the are holding a fabulous Norman Lindsay Gallery, display of wedding dresses Faulconbridge through the ages staged by The North Shore Cavalcade This vibrant picnic event attracts 800 jazz lovers from all over NSW, of History and Fashion. The the very popular legendary presentation is accompanied Galapagos Duck will perform jazz by a fascinating talk on classics and some upbeat jazz-rock changes to wedding dresses from the gallery verandah. over the years. Now is the time to organise your group of family and friends. at the Leura Golf Club 1 Sublime Point Road, Leura Bring with you some food and on Saturday 12 April 2014 beverages, chair or blanket, free 2pm. parking is included as is admission to the gallery. $35 per person The Friends of the Norman Lindsay $30 National Trust members Gallery and Galapagos Duck includes afternoon tea. promise this evening of jazz will be like you’ve never heard before. Bookings essential - phone Anita McIlwrath 4784 1974 or Tickets: adult $30, children $15 Birgitta Sandstrom members $25. Photograph credit: © Cavalcade - 0448 219 254 Enquiries: (02) 4751 1067 Timeline Photography [email protected]
HERITAGE 9 January - February 2014 Wendy Hawkes to talk about the Cooks THE LIVES of Sir Joseph Cook and year, however the Dame Mary Cook will be the topic meeting was cancelled for the guest speaker, Wendy because of the Hawkes at a BMACHO general bushfires which raged meeting to be held on Saturday, through the Blue February 8, at the Paragon Mountains and Lithgow. Restaurant, Katoomba. The Cooks moved to Wendy Hawkes, is the cultural Lithgow in 1886 and Sir development officer with Lithgow Joseph worked in the City Council and curator at Eskbank Vale of Clwydd Colliery House, Lithgow, where an exhibition as he studied and about the Cooks was recently worked his way up staged. through the unions and into politics. He Wendy was to have been the guest became prime minister speaker at a general meeting last 27 years later.
A light lunch will be HMS Bounty provided, in the Paragon (at BMACHO cannonball on expense), at approximately 12.30 display pm A CANNONBALL from HMS Bounty After lunch, from 1.30 is currently part of an exhibition at pm to 3.30 pm (or Hawkesbury Regional Museum at earlier) a workshop will Windsor. be conducted, where a suggested format for an A very special recent acquisition, Wendy Hawkes the cannonball is from HMS Bounty, “Explorers Cultural Trail” brochure phone Jan Koperberg on (02) 4751 infamous as the vessel whose crew will be presented. 5834 mutinied and cast off their Those attending the workshop will commander, William Bligh. When: Saturday, February 8, 2014 be asked for input into this project. from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm Where: This is one of the best-known Paragon Restaurant, Katoomba Please RSVP by email stories in the English-speaking Street, Katoomba. [email protected] or world, and to have a material part of Cost to participants: FREE. it in a local museum is very exciting, particularly because of Bligh’s association with the Hawkesbury: Yvonne Jenkins memorial After the mutiny, Bligh came to New award South Wales as governor, and YVONNE JENKINS of Rydal was a Entry is open to members and non- helped the Hawkesbury to recover well known family historian and members of the society and is in from the disastrous flood of 1806. author of several books on family the form of a short essay (1000 history in the Bowenfels, Rydal words). He established a farm for himself at and surrounding areas. present-day Pitt Town, installing The topic for the 2014 award is “My Andrew Thompson as manager, and She was the convenor of the Ancestor was a…..”. was supported by the people of the Lithgow and District Family History Hawkesbury in the conflict with Society in 1986 and encouraged The winner will receive a certificate John Macarthur and his cronies that members to write stories about and one year’s membership of the culminated in what became known their ancestors. society. as the Rum Rebellion. The Lithgow and District Family Entries close on April 30 and must The relic is a donation by Barry History Society has chosen to be accompanied by an entry form, Craft, who spent time on Pitcairn commemorate Ms Jenkins memory available on the society’s Island and was given the each year by conducting the websitewww.lisp.com.au/ldfhs. cannonball, as well as a replica of Yvonne Jenkins Memorial Award. HMS Bounty made from local timber and using actual Bounty nails. For more details T: 4560 4655 DIARY DATE; Blue Mountains History Conference at the [email protected] Carrington Hotel, Katoomba May 10, 2014 [email protected]
HERITAGE 10 January - February 2014 Lesser known accounts of early and mid-19th Century journeys over the Blue Mountains by Peter Rickwood Dr Peter Rickwood the researcher and author of this article is a regular contributor to HERITAGE and in describing some of the perils faced by lesser known travellers than the three celebrated explorers, he has meticulously transcribed reports which have appeared in the earliest publications of the colony.
Peter is currently the editor of BMACHO’s Blue Mountains History Journal which late last year released its fourth online edition although hard copies are available and will in time become a collector’s item. He is a member of Blue Mountains Historical Society and its former president. Introduction frequently encounters, and as After being released from this The diaries of Blaxland, Lawson he passes dray after dray, with unpleasant dilemma, and and Wentworth relating to their the miserable horses crawling scraping off the mud and dirt discovery of a route over the Blue and staggering under their which was pretty heavy and Mountains in 1813, of Evans in heavy loads, he cannot but thick upon my members, I made extending that route to Bathurst in wonder why the railway is not an effort to get along through a 1814, and of Cox in building the available to this purpose, and so mere pond of mud and slush road, all predate the type of journey much labour and horse flesh knee-deep, for half-a-mile long. that is of concern here. devoted to some more useful Oh ! shade of M’Adam, thy and profitable occupation.”5 mantle has not yet descended Well known, and often cited, are the upon the sapient members of descriptions of journeys over the A railway service to Penrith did not the trust for this great Blue Mountains road that were commence until July 18626 so prior thoroughfare, for it is sadly, it is collated by Mackaness in his to that year horse conveyances still grossly neglected; the chasms “Fourteen Journeys”1. Amongst had to be used and another who and rents which stand yawning these are accounts of travel on the travelled in 1855 described the wide to embowel man and ‘road’ by Antill (1815), Macquarie harrowing conditions encountered horse, are fearful to (1815), Quoy, Guadichaud and before even reaching the Nepean contemplate.”7. Pellion (1819), Hawkins (1822), River: Field (1822), Lesson (1824), And with that traveller’s experience Dumaresq (1827), Backhouse “I crossed the eastern creek, already soured it is not surprising to (1835), Darwin (1836), Meredith and on descending the hill read his summary: (1839) and Stanger (1841) - many opposite Minchinbury was published long after the year of their enveloped in a perfect “It was my fate some days since, journey. Accounts by ‘celebrities’ quagmire. There I got stuck up from urgent circumstances, to such as Louisa Meredith2 and to the axel, and but for the make a journey to the western Rachel Henning3 have recently assistance of two friendly good- interior for the first time, and I been followed by John Low’s natured bullock drivers, who lent earnestly hope it may be the discussion of the travels of Mrs their aid, I might have remained last, for the dangers and Mary Elizabeth Martindale.4 at the mercy of the elements all difficulties I have experienced the live-long night. through the But lying in the newspaper archives execrable are some enchanting and graphic state of the descriptions by lesser mortals roads, and whose turn of phrase warrants other repeating. [The quality of copies of obstacles newspaper extracts is seldom good were truly so what follows are carefully made appalling.” transcriptions.] The Journey Commences In 1858 one writer, appalled by the opposing traffic on the road, pleaded for a railway: Continued page 12
“The first thing that attracts the Figure 1. Emu Ferry - sketch by Conrad attention of the traveller leaving Martens, 15 May 1835 Sydney for the far west is the State Library of NSW, DL PX 24/No.3 long string of drays laden with http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/ wood for the fires of the good itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=446239
HERITAGE 11 January - February 2014 Crossing the Nepean your friends about the Western ‘…with a crash Road. Shock No. 1 is the River initiatory shock; shocks ad Crossing the Nepean River in those infinitum follow closely upon its times was quite an ‘adventure’ and a bump; heels; you almost feel inclined to (Figure 1), an informative account implore the driver to stop and let of which was published the shock is you out were it not for very anonymously in 1858: shame. By this time you get on tremendous; to the last decent piece of road “A quarter of an hour’s drive between the Bathurst Plains and brings us to the banks of the your seat the Nepean, and are whirled Nepean, which have a gradual over Emu Plains at the rate of slope down to the river. The about eight miles an hour.”9. punt is all ready, and we are seems to slowly driven into it, coach, The Ascent of Lapstone horses, passengers, and leave you in Hill baggage; but the puntman is not An 1827 account of an ascent quite ready; he presently shows mid-air, and contrasts with those of most up, and with provoking coolness travellers who have described this sets about adjusting down you obstacle in terms amounting to preliminaries for our puntation ‘horrendous’ (Figure 2): across the river, which is a fine sheet of water. About a quarter come with a “The first ascent of the Blue of an hour, or perhaps more, is Mountains, by this new Lapstone spent in slowly dragging us over, horrible jolt…’ Hill is excellent. It would be by means of hawsers extended The horses make a desperate perfectly practicable to take from one bank to the other, and plunge; the wheels slowly rotate over, as I said before, a train of traversing over certain pulleys until they have arrived at the twenty-four pounders. ... it fixed to a kind of hand-rail or apex of these egg-shaped would ... be a fine sight to see frame, which protects the stones, when, all of a sudden, fifty bullocks harnessed to a gun passengers and cattle from down go the front wheels with a marching in array up the 10 falling over the sides of the punt. crash and a bump; the shock is bristling hill.” This piece of business is an tremendous; your seat seems to index to the whole history of leave you in mid-air, and down Nevertheless the topography was travelling on the Great Western you come with a horrible jolt deemed to be ‘frightening’ even in Road. Nearly seventy years which shocks your whole frame, 1858: have passed away since the your teeth coming together with colony was founded; vast strides a gnash which sends fire out of “A couple of miles over a rough have been made by us in the your eyes; your bones knock cobblestone road now carries interval, in settlement and against each other as though you, across the Emu Plains, to civilization, but we still use the they would break off short, and the foot of the Blue Mountains, rude punt to cross the Nepean. you now for the first time begin and here you commence the The Western District yields a to realise the dreadful stories of ascent of Lapstone Hill. large revenue to the public treasury, and yet we have not a bridge across the Nepean, distant only 33 miles from the metropolis.” 8
But the real journey was only about to begin and according to this description even the approach to the Lapstone Hill proved uncomfortable as late as 1858:
“After a great deal of pulling, and tugging, and straining, we are conveyed across in our barbarous conveyance; the chain in front of the horses is cast off, and away they plunge as if eager for a gallop; but they are now on the wrong side of the Figure 2. Lapstone Hill - watercolour (no date) by Samuel Thomas Gill Nepean for galloping. Large (1818-1880). boulders crop out of the ground Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW DG v*/Sp Coll/Gill/12 as if they had been purposely http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=840625 placed there to upset the coach
HERITAGE 12 January - February 2014 Continued from page 12 ‘…I discovered a large white After a short distance, you find yourself on a broad road escarped from the side of a tarantula, about the size of a tremendous precipice of sandstone formation, and dollar, just over my head…’ following the windings of a deep of mud holes, and forms one of dungeon-appearance of the chasm; on the left, the rock rises the worst parts of a bad road. place, we were not exactly on some hundreds of feet in Still further on, and a patch of the Bath road. “How many perpendicular height above you, squared log work occurs; this is quarts of corn shall I give your crowned with loose masses, much better, and appears to horses?” said a private of the hundreds of tons in weight, stand, but is not equal to the 57th regt. one of the road party which seem ever about to fall, sawn plank.”12 under charge of a corporal and, like an avalanche, crush all usually stationed at this first beneath them; on the right, you And just a decade after the road stage of the Mountain road. I look down for a fearful height had been completed, even a horse had previously heard that our when nothing is to be seen but ride could be a challenging horses would be very badly off heavy masses of rock, dark experience as was found in 1827: going over the Mountains, but I sombre looking trees, and scrub was not prepared to hear of corn clinging to the side of the “We now rode on for being sold by the quart. I precipice, which gradually fade Springwood, and had an thought I could not do better into gloom and darkness; while unpleasant ride the last six or than refer the good natured the precipitous and rocky seven miles in the dark, the road soldier to the horse himself, and mountain on the opposite side not being here so good, many requested he might have for his covered with stunted trees, casts stumps being left standing in the supper as much as he could his shadow over the road and middle, on which my tired horse eat.”13 seems to defy the power of man made a frequent stumble. From to reach his summit. The ravine Sydney to Springwood in one Before the coming of the railway to now becomes more and more day is no joke, to one not Wentworth Falls in June 1867 and shallow as you proceed, and a accustomed to the saddle: and I to Mount Victoria in May 186814, sudden turn in the road leads to thought this ten or twelve miles establishments on the Mountains a fine bridge of one arch, over in the dark, longer than all the often only provided ‘very basic’ which the escarped way takes a rest of the journey put together. accommodation and at Springwood sharp turn or two, and leaving Once or twice, from the in 1827 it could be zoologically the ravine and precipices behind blackness of the night, and the ‘interesting’: soon leads to the top of the narrowness of the road, I got mountain and places you upon a into the bush, till suddenly “I discovered a large white table land from which you will brought up by a thick scrub, tarantula, about the size of a not descend for forty miles. The which the horse could not dollar, just over my head, upon a road up the pass is in good penetrate, or receiving a knock piece of cotton that served as a condition, with the exception of a on the head from an impending curtain to the couch or bed, couple of hundred tons of rock bough, I was obliged to exert my outside of which we lay. We had piled upon the bridge for the lungs and cooey out for my made up our minds to fleas and purpose either of testing the companion, who cooeyed in bugs in quantity, and were not strength of the arch, or trying the return, and by the sound of his disappointed, but had made no skill of the teamsters who have voice I was enabled to find my reckoning for any of the spider sufficient to contend with in the way back to the road. I thought species; my companion sharp turn on both sides.”11 we should never get to therefore seized a fork to run Springwood, and from the horrid this tarantula through, but On the Lower Blue length of the miles, had I been though an excellent shot in Mountains asked, at the moment, how I general, he missed his aim, and Conditions were still bad in 1858 liked the Blue Mountains, I must the tarantula fell down upon the immediately after the ascent: certainly have answered with bed, ... As an additional Maiochi ‘piu no que si.’ At last comforter to us, one of the “... to the top of Lapstone Hill, the yelping of some dozen angry soldiers in the adjoining room two miles beyond Wascoe’s Inn, curs, resounding through the cried out “ah! there’s a good the road becomes very bad, the silent forest, gave symptoms of many tarantulopes (sic) in that naked rocks protruding, and the abode of man – it must be ‘ere room.” So what with the rendering it almost impassable; Springwood – but it was a fleas, bugs, and the aforesaid a little further on a Canadian miserable melancholy hole – not tarantulopes, and the noise of cord wood road has been laid a glimmer of light of any kind two entire horses, who were down for about a quarter of a shone askaunt (sic) the lofty fighting and kicking one another mile, the logs used being in the trees, and but for the noisy all night, loose in the paddock, round and of unequal diameter, dogs, we might have passed it in we had not a wink of sleep, and rendering the floor rough, and the dark. I got off my saddle were glad to jump out of our the vibration of the timber with a slight groan, and was dungeon at the first peep of irregular – consequently it is full soon convinced by the dark day.”15
HERITAGE 13 January - February 2014 dereliction rush upon the ‘…the thoughts.” We imagine the dying passengers unfortunate, ...”17 There is a corroborating, but less drunk, to the detailed, report of that disappearance18 without specifying that location, which is not a well annoyance of known modern site – so where was the 16 mile tree ? William Cox Figure 4. The present location of the sober…’ wrote in his diary: Caley’s Repulse. Continued from page 13 Photograph: Peter Rickwood, 2013 Coach travellers were at the mercy “August 26. — At 10 a.m. arrived at Martin’s ...” of the driver when it came to the Survey, the 16 mile mark was number and frequency of the stops. “August 27. — Measured to the between Faulconbridge and Linden One in 1858 wrote that after leaving at about Weemala Avenue. the Pilgrim Inn at Blaxland: 16th mile, immediately after which the ground got very rocky, Thereabouts is the junction of four deep valleys (Figure 5) with “Thus we go on hour after hour, and in half-a-mile we came to a Weemala Avenue having been stopping at public-houses where high mountain, which will cost constructed along a narrow ridge there is no need whatever to much labour to make a road 19 trending to the NNW and Cox’s stop, but to make one portion of over.” Road (now the Great Western the passengers drunk, to the Highway) along a NE-SW aligned annoyance of the sober portion, “September 3. — ... The road narrow ridge - a fire prone and and to fritter away the time finished to Caley’s heap of 20 bleak spot indeed. which would be infinitely better stones, 17¾ miles”. spent by the post-master in Bathurst, on the following [Evans saw Caley’s Heap of Stones evening, in sorting and on the ridge at the W end of the delivering the letters to the good boundary between numbers 2 & 3 21 people of that town, about whom Caley Lane, Linden , from where the mail contractor or his Cox reported that there was a view 22 servants do not appear to care of “A table rock...” . The identity of very much.”16 that summit is uncertain; it might be what is now known as ‘Flat Top’ Some parts of the Western Road (Figure 3A) which lay c.14 km to the were particularly bleak in the early WNW in the direction that they were years of its existence: travelling, or more likely it was the more prominent feature which in “Near the 16 mile tree, for the 1804 Caley called ‘Table Hill’ trees are marked all the way to (Figure 3B) that is c.20 km to the Bathurst, is the spot where NNW. some years ago, a gentleman of Irrespective, that comment indicates Figure 5. Topographic map of the name of O’Brien lost himself. East Linden. © Land and Property It is supposed he left the ridge that it relates to a vantage point on the top of the ridge whereas the Information NSW 2013 © City of for the purpose of obtaining Blue Mountains 2013 water for himself or horse, and present location of Caley’s Repulse (as it is now called - Figure 4) is going into the dell, met with The “high mountain” mentioned by some accident, and died, as he below the ridge line so it cannot be in the original position - the offset Cox was the summit where today is has never since been heard of. Linden reservoir2 The horse was found some from the true location is c.50 m in weeks afterwards, grazing on an ENE direction.] 3. the mountain road with his saddle on. It is a melancholy Based on that measurement and Continued page 15 spot, – “all the evils of measuring along the route of Evans
Figure 3A. Flat Top Figure 3B. Mount Bell (aka Table Hill) Photographs: Peter Rickwood 2013
HERITAGE 14 January - February 2014 ‘…the sooner we get off the mountain the better…’ Continued from page 14 When travellers eventually got to . Lawson (Figure 6) in 1855 the road conditions ahead were no better:
“At Perry’s Blue Mountain Inn, which is reached a little before noon, and which terminates another stage, the country descends, forming a valley, above which, in the distance, tower the mountains from which the inn takes its name. Hitherto, the roads, although nowhere as good as could be desired, have been tolerably firm and regular. After leaving the Inn just named, Figure 6. The second Blue Mountain Inn - built 1875. however, a striking change for Royal Australian Historical Society Inc., Walker Collection U0152 the worse begins to be perceptible. In some places, the “The weather boarded hut was resembling coffee in colour, but rock appears at a very only two miles further; and there in all other respects tasting like dangerous height above the we refreshed, at the highest burnt maize, sans milk, sans sand and gravel with which the inhabited spot, of the Blue flavour, sans relish; having road is covered; while in other Mountains. It is a bleak and hastily swallowed the cup of places, wide and deep ruts forbidding place, at the entrance coffee, the modest charge of render very careful driving of Jamison’s Valley; the soil, is a one shilling is made, and we set necessary, in order to keep at a wet and rotten peat, that after forth upon our journey once distance the probability of an the least shower, will take a more. A couple of hours driving upset.”24 horse up to the girths at every bring us to Black Heath, where step. In addition to the we ought to have breakfast if But further on there were inns to corporal’s party stationed in this matters were properly arranged, distract travellers, such as at sterile region, we were surprised but where we cannot from some Woodford and Wentworth Falls: at finding an opposition shop cause of which everyone is newly opened, for the ignorant.”28 “Well, here is the Twenty-Mile entertainment of travellers. Hollow. Don’t go in! “Why ?” What will not the spirit of English Thus what we now know as the you ask. Simply because we competition bring about ! Here Upper Blue Mountains was reached, wish to perform a day’s journey, we are in one of the wildest and according to this 1858 writer and if we once get in there, our spots in nature, thirty miles in the road improved although he day’s work is at an end, for the the midst of the mountains of seems to have misconceived ideas agreeable host and hostess will Australia, and nearly 4000 feet about the slope of the land! surround you with so many high; and yet the question arose comforts that you cannot leave “which house shall we go to?” “The traveller has now a desert them to face the d—d ugly road We patronised the nearest, and mountain road before him. again. The sooner we get off found ourselves and horses, From the soft and friable nature the mountain the better, so let us after a couple of hours, all the of the sandstone – the only push on to the “Weatherboard,” better for the rest.”27 stone to be obtained along the which is a very decent inn; the ridge for many miles – it is in the present proprietor has made Establishments on the Mountains worst possible condition, and wonderful alterations – in fact, only provided ‘survival’ food, and with this material it is equally completely metamorphosed the even as late as 1858 that was not impossible to keep it in repair. place, and it wanted it (sic).” 25 always available: The road for the whole distance to Mount Victoria is carried Even in 1827 Wentworth Falls “Daylight breaks in and we draw along the crown of a ridge, with was a ‘settlement’ of note up to get a cup of coffee at a frequent escarpments, to avoid (Figures 7 & 8), but this public-house some distance the many rocky peaks and description would not have from the road side; we get a cup summits that occur in its course; appeal for a modern traveller! of some kind of decoction (sic)
HERITAGE 15 January - February 2014 However by 1848 the Pass of Mount at Lapstone Hill – the hewn rock ‘Finally the Victoria had long been completed ascending on one side, while on and was then the normal route off the other the gully precipitously descent from the Blue Mountains, but this ‘better’ descends almost interminably. descent still troubled some Here is shown the spot where, a Mount travellers: short time since, the mail coach went over, killing two “Descending Mount Victoria by a passengers out of seven. ... , Victoria had somewhat precipitous road, where the broken carriage covered with loose stones like remains to this day.”31 to be faced.’ cannon balls, a viaduct presents Continued from page 15 itself, connecting the road which is about to be left behind, with a Acknowledgement it rises by easy gradients until it road cut out of the rock in an I am grateful to Graham Warmbath reaches the Weatherboard Hut, opposite mountain. This viaduct (Blue Mountains Historical Society and then gradually descends to or causeway is, at a rough Inc.) for providing electronic files of the top of Mount Victoria. It guess, about one hundred yards Figures 7 and 8. requires nothing but a hard solid long, is about sufficiently wide roadway to make it one of the barely to allow of two teams best mountain roads in the passing each other, should such References world; as it is, it may be classed an emergency ever arise, is 1 Mackaness, G. (editor) (1965) with the worst.”29. according to one of the Fourteen Journeys over the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Finally the descent from Mount passengers on the coach, who 1813-1841. Collected and Edited Victoria had to be faced. In 1827 is familiar with the district, 1000 by George Mackaness. Horowitz the unstated route was by Lawsons feet high, and is curbed (?) on Publications Inc. Pty. Ltd. and The Long Alley: either side by a row of small flags placed upright, end to end. Grahame Book Company Pty. Ltd., “The descent down Mount York This peculiar parapet which I Sydney. 273pp. 2 did not surprise me, after so previously had occasion to Meredith, Mrs. C. (1973) much has been said about it. It notice along the road, gives the Notes and Sketches of New South was the new road and causeway a baby-house Wales During a Residence in the comparatively easy. It is appearance which contrasts Colony from 1839-1844. Ure Smith, perfectly safe, but rather too most singularly with the Sydney. 164pp. [originally narrow, as it will soon become stupendous nature of the works published 1844.][Mitchell Library cut up by water channels, after a in other respects. Passing to 309.194402/1] 3 winter’s rain. It should be at the other side, the descent Adams, D. (editor) (1985) The least twice the present breadth, commences towards Hartley, Letters of Rachel Henning. with a deep grooved gutter on which is now about four miles Penguin Books. Ringwood, the high side for the water, and a distant, the road being, for some Victoria. 292pp. (1969, reprinted low parapet on the off-side, of length, somewhat similar to that 1985). solid stone work, with numerous holes underneath, like scuppers in a ship’s deck, to let the water off. We soon arrived at the bottom, where the ground was strewed with fallen trees, in great numbers, all regularly arranged by the road side. As the country was by no means thinly timbered, I could not conceive what these trees were intended for. They all appeared more or less black by age; and it was only after my companion had rode up from the rear, that I understood how the trees came there. ... It appears that all carts coming down the Big Hill, as this is called, must, ere (?sic) they descend, cut down a tree at the top, to fix behind the dray, instead of locking the wheel. They were all of great weight and size, and I should have thought much too large for such a purpose.”30 Figure 7. The Weatherboard Hut (1814-c.1836)26 - 1815 watercolour by John William Lewin (1770-1819). State Library of NSW; PXE 888/3
HERITAGE 16 January - February 2014 Early journeys in the Blue Mountains
Continued from page 16 4 Low, J. (2011) The Martindale Family and the Sketchbook of Mary Elizabeth Martindale. Blue Mountains History Journal 2: 1- 14. 5 column 1 in Anonymous (1858b) The Western Road. [By a Gold- digger] The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 November 1858, p10, cols.1-3. http://nla.gov.au/nla. newsarticle13019771
HERITAGE 17 January - February 2014 Joan Smith The railway to the west retires to AS ALL STUDENTS will know the Blue Mountains was first crossed by Europeans in 1813 and within a very short time Evans had surveyed a route and Cox and his Melbourne party of convicts had built a road to Bathurst. It wasnot JOAN SMITH who was highly until the late1860s when the Lapstone Hill section of the respected locally for her work as western railway was conquered that the real movement Blue Mountains Historical Society’s stock and grain was able to be achieved. research officer, has retired from this position. Cost constraints by the colonial government meant that expensive tunnels could not be built, so a zig zag layout Doug Knowles She is going to live in Melbourne to was devised to get the single track be close to her daughter and family. line over the top of Lapstone Hill. President of Glenbrook and District This is a loss for the society which Historical Society, Doug Knowles will be deeply felt for some time to The limitations of the zig zag were who has lived in the area most of come. later eased by by building a single his life with his inquisitive mind is track tunnel through the top of the an excellent choice as a speaker on President of Blue Mountains ridge in 1892. this subject at this Blue Mountains Historical Society, Mrs Judy Barham History Confernce on May 10 at the said: “Joan joined the Society in This single track tunnel created Carrington Hotel, Katoomba. 1997. She became research officer almost as many problems as it was and secretary in 2004. supposed to solve. In 1910 it was For conference bookings contact decided to build a double track Jan Koperberg “Joan was an active committee railway through the Glenbrook Creek [email protected] member until she retired from the Gorge. committee in 2011 while still remaining research officer.
“Joan’s contribution to the society has been enormous.
“She has done the research required for over 1,000 house histories which has greatly added to the pool of local knowledge in our files.
“Often phone queries came in which she could answer without hesitation.
“Members with that pool of knowledge are hard to replace. It takes time, dedication and an inquiring mind.
“She was highly regarded by members of the Blue Mountains City Council for whom she did occasional research,” Mrs Barham said.
Members of the society who want a quick answer to a question, will no longer be able to say “Let’s ask Joan. She’ll know”.
“We will miss you Joan but the society is so grateful to you for the great contribution you made and we wish you well in your new life.”
Joan Smith was a member of the original management committee of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations and her valuable contribution was appreciated.
HERITAGE 18 January - February 2014 Sydney’s hard rock story ...the cultural heritage of trachyte WHAT IS TRACHYTE and how did it become the unsung hero of Sydney’s building stones?
The answer is found in this fascinating story of how hard stone quarried in the Southern Highlands of NSW became the city’s most important stone after sandstone.
The title provides an apt description: trachyte was Sydney’s hard rock.
Sandstone with all its virtues was the premier building stone of Sydney’s early and middle years but trachyte had qualities sandstone lacked and so it perfectly complemented the ‘yellowblock” of our heritage buildings.
Sydney’s hard rock provided what sandstone, with all its beauty, could not provide.
This tough, distinctively coloured igneous stone was first quarried at Mount Gibraltar near Bowral in the 1880s and soon began appearing in the kerbs and gutters along the growing city’s streets.
Soon it was adopted by builders and architects and can still be seen overhead in the keystones of the great buildings as well as under foot, in myriad small and large scale projects throughout New South Wales and beyond.
Its importance in the city is why the authors have called their tale Sydney’s Hard Rock Story. 350 George Street, Sydney, formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States building. The book traces trachyte’s extensive uses, starting Its American architect, Edward Raht, believed it with its geology and some of the dramas of Bowral’s would last ‘a thousand years’. The facade is almost ‘Gib’ and its quarrymen. entirely of trachyte. A special feature of the book, showcasing many fine and It continues by examining its basic utilitarian surprising examples of this special stone, is the beginnings like kerbing. After designers were illustrated trachyte walk in central Sydney. Handsomely awakened to its qualities they used trachyte to create illustrated throughout with 245 illustrations including 25 some of our finest monuments, foundation stones, colour photographs. commemorative plaques and paving. Publication date: April 2014 Retail price: $29.95 Potential readers: Those fascinated with Sydney’s built environment, architects, and engineers.
RON POWELL is an architect and NOEL IRVING is a research The authors stone consultant. For a decade until assistant and picture researcher ROBERT IRVING is an architec- recently he was manager of the who has worked on publications tural historian, a fellow and former NSW Centenary Stonework including Paradise Purgatory Hell president of the Royal Australian program, which provides strategic Hole and Twentieth Century Historical Society (1987) and was a approach to the ‘catch-up’ of state- Architecture in Wollongong. senior lecturer in architecture at owned, heritage stone buildings and UNSW. monuments; he was also landscape He was co-author of Donald director for Darling Harbour and Thomas Esplin Architect: His Life He was the co-author of Identifying public domain co-ordinator for the and Work. Australian Architecture published in Pyrmont/Ultimo Redevelopment. 1989 as well as several other works Noel has also served as a member including First Views of Australia A resident of the Blue Mountains of Sydney City Council’s Sandstone 1788 - 1825, The History and Ron is a member of the Blue and Trachyte Committee. Design of the Australian House and Mountains City Council’s Heritage Fine Houses of Sydney. Advisory Committee.
HERITAGE 19 January - February 2014 Wasteland, Wilderness, Wonderland. Getting to know Sydney’s Sandstone Country Gil Jones Wasteland, Wilderness, Wonderland is the latest publication produced by Blue Mountain Education Research Trust (BMERT) at Lawson.
The official launch of Gil Jones book will be at Jamison Park, Wentworth Falls on Saturday, 12 noon on February 1, 2014.
Other publications produced by BMERT, can be viewed at their websitehttp://www.catholica.com.au/ marketplace/bmert/ or contact BMACHO secretary, Jan Koperberg [email protected] for a full list, with jpgs of the covers and a descriptive list of the publications.
BMERT encourages those with interesting historical and cultural heritage research to commit it to paper and have it published. The books are beautifully illustrated and would make a fine gift.
The following is the description for Wasteland, Wilderness, Wonderland: Sydney city stands on the eastern rim of a shallow basin defined by deeply dissected sandstone plateaus encircling the lowlands of western Sydney and extending west to Lithgow, north to the Hunter Valley, and south to the Illawarra Also recalled is the ruthless dispossession of its first escarpment. people whose rock engravings and cave paintings provide a glimpse of a sense of country and belonging In this book, surveyors, scientists, writers and artists which is critical to a fulfilled future in this privileged are joined in the physical and intellectual exploration place. of Sydney’s sandstone country – its landscape and landscape history, and its distinctively Australian Recommended retail price - $40 including GST, plus vegetation with its Gondwanan inheritance. postage and handling ISBN 978-0-646-91496-1 Accolades for HERITAGE THROUGH THE YEARS we have received numerous From Kate Santlben: Look forward to reading e-mail and communications congratulating those HERITAGE and congratulations on five years of associated with the production of HERITAGE and this publication... encouragement is really appreciated. From Wendy Blaxland, author and descendant of We strive for excellence, but regret that some times Gregory Blaxland: Thanks so much for another great we fall short of the mark. There are many people issue, and many thanks for everything you have done involved in this publication from writers, researchers and continue to do to keep the history of the Blue and contributors to proofreaders and all deserve Mountains alive. credit for the work they are doing to keep alive an interest in our heritage and history and promote it as a From Len Ashworth, OAM – Editor Lithgow Mercury : living legend. Congratulations on another great effort. I love reading it (and occasionally stealing from it). Space will not allow the publication of each accolade received and again this edition records just a sample From John Low, OAM - author and historian: Thank of those received since the last edition. you for the latest edition of HERITAGE and for all the work you put into its production. It is one of the most From Dr Peter Stanbury OAM – Individual member of interesting ‘newsletters’ around and greatly BMACHO: Another great issue; especially the lead appreciated. article and yours about the sealing of the road. In fact full of well written news, very welcome in Phnom Penh. From Marcia Osterberg-Olsen Mt Victoria and District Elections here in a week’s time, present PM has been Historical Society: Thanks for the wonderful HERITAGE in power for 34 years, but will be challenged this time newsletters. so lots of marching, loudspeakers, roads closed and mass demonstrations here.
HERITAGE 20 January - February 2014 The kangaroo that could rewrite history AN IMAGE of what is thought to be a kangaroo on a 16th-century processional could lend weight to the theory that the Portuguese were the first explorers to set foot on Australian soil, before the Dutch or English.
The document, acquired by Les Enluminures Gallery in New York, shows a sketch of an apparent kangaroo (‘’canguru’’ in Portuguese) nestled in its text and is dated between 1580 and 1620.
It has led researchers to believe images of the marsupial . were already being circulated by the time the Dutch ship Duyfken - long thought to have been the first European National Library of Australia curator of maps Martin vessel to visit Australia - landed in 1606. Woods said that while the image looked like a kangaroo or a wallaby, it alone was not proof enough to Portugal was extremely secretive about her trade routes alter Australia's history books. during this period, explaining why their presence there ''The likeness of the animal to a kangaroo or wallaby is wasn’t widely known. clear enough, but then it could be another animal in south-east Asia, like any number of deer species, some The pocket-sized manuscript, known as a processional, of which stand on their hind legs to feed off high contains text and music for a liturgical procession and is branches,'' Dr Woods said. inscribed with the name Caterina de Carvalho, believed to be a nun from Caldas da Rainha in western Portugal. 'For now, unfortunately the appearance of a long-eared big-footed animal in a manuscript doesn't really add Peter Trickett, an award-winning historian and author of much.''Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/ Beyond Capricorn, has long argued that a Portuguese entertainment/books/16thcentury-manuscript-could- maritime expedition first mapped the coast of Australia in rewrite-australian-history-20140115- 1521 - 22, nearly a century before the Dutch landing. 30vak.html#ixzz2qpBjYIoh BLUE MOUNTAINS ASSOCIATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS INC. REGISTERED OFFICE 1/19 Stypandra Place, MEMBERSHIP The following organisations are members of Springwood, 2777 (02) 4751 5834 E-mail: BMACHO: Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah, [email protected] or Blue Mountains City Library, Blue Mountains Cultural Heritage [email protected] Centre, Blue Mountain Education and Research Trust, Blue Website: www.bluemountainsheritage.com Mountains Historical Society Inc., Blue Mountains Family ABN53 994 839 952 History Society Inc., Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, Eskbank Rail Heritage Centre, Everglades Historic House & THE ORGANISATION Blue Mountains Association of Gardens, Friends of Norman Lindsay Gallery, Glenbrook & Cultural Organisations Inc. (BMACHO) was established District Historical Society Inc., Hartley Valley District Progress in April 2006 following a unanimous response to a Association, Kurrajong-Comleroy Historical Society Inc, proposal from Professor Barrie Reynolds at the 2004 Lithgow and District Family History Society Inc., Lithgow Blue Mountains Local History Conference which sought Mining Museum Inc., Lithgow Regional Library – Local from Blue Mountains City Council the creation of a Studies, Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum Inc, Mt Victoria cultural heritage strategy for the city. and District Historical Society Inc., Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine BMACHO in its constitution uses the definition: “Cultural Historical Society Inc. (including Turkish Bath Museum), heritage is all aspects of life of the peoples of the Blue Mudgee Historical Society Inc., National Trust of Australia Mountains which was later changed to cover Lithgow and (NSW) - Blue Mountains Branch, National Trust of Australia the villages along the Bell’s Line of Roads. It therefore (NSW) - Lithgow Branch, Nepean District Historical Society involves the recording, preserving and interpreting of Inc., Paragon Restaurant - Katoomba, Scenic World – Blue information in whatever form: documents, objects, Mountains Limited, Springwood & District Historical Society recorded memories as well as buildings and sites.” Inc., Springwood Historians Inc., Transport Signal and The objectives of the organisation are: Communication Museum Inc., The Darnell Collection Pty Ltd, i. To raise public consciousness of Valley Heights Locomotive Depot and Museum, Woodford the value of cultural heritage. Academy Management Committe, Zig Zag Railway Co-op Ltd. ii. To encourage and assist cultural The following are individual members: Ray Christison, heritage activities of member organisations. Associate Professor Ian Jack, Joan Kent, John Leary OAM, iii. To initiate and support cultural John Low OAM, Ian Milliss, Patsy Moppett, Professor Barrie heritage activities not already covered by Reynolds, Dr Peter Rickwood and Dr Peter Stanbury OAM. member organisations. One of the aims of BMACHO is to bring the various bodies into closer contact, to COMMITTEE The committee for 2013-14 is: encourage them to work more closely together and to John Leary, OAM (president), Ian Jack (vice president), provide a combined voice on matters of importance Jan Koperberg (secretary), Kevin Frappell, Wendy Hawkes, within the heritage sector. Doug Knowles, Patsy Moppett, Dick Morony (public officer), Scott Pollock and Jean Winston. AFFILIATIONS BMACHO is a member of the Royal Australian Historical Society Inc. DISCLAIMER Views and opinions expressed in HERITAGE originate from many sources and contributors. HERITAGE BMACHO’s official newsletter is edited Every effort is taken to ensure accuracy of material. Content by John Leary, OAM. does not necessarily represent or reflect the views and Blue Mountains History Journal is edited by opinions of BMACHO, its committee or members. If errors are Dr Peter Rickwood. found feedback is most welcome.
HERITAGE 21 January - February 2014