STEP Matters Number 130, August 2005 Walk Pennant Hills Fire Trail Further along the creek we pass In this Issue and Devlins Creek, the feature for which this stretch Walk Pennant Hills Fire Trail Lane Cove National Park is well known, Whale Rock. A and Devlins Creek, Lane short distance on, we turn off Cove National Park..............1 Date: Sunday 28 August Devlins Creek and rejoin Byles Talk on Exotic Plant Invasion Time: 12:45 pm for a 1 pm start Creek and return to our starting point. and Bush Regeneration.......1 Place: Day Road picnic area Gordon Creek Bridge................2 carpark near the end of Those who wish will be able to Day Road, Cheltenham visit AHIMSA, the National Trust Membership Renewals Due .....3 Grade: Medium — an initial hill property at the end of the walk. Conference: The Great climb, then easy walking Greenhouse Gamble ...........3 at first on a level fire trail, National Threatened which then drops down Talk on Exotic Plant Invasion Species Day ........................4 to the lower creek level and Bush Regeneration and back to the start UTS Draft Heritage LEP ...........4 Date: Tuesday 6 September Bring: Water, walking shoes/ Wingham Brush ........................4 Time: 8 pm boots, appropriate hat, binoculars (optional) and Place: St Andrews Church Hall wear sunscreen (Vernon Street, South STEP Committee Turramurra) Leader: Bill Jones (9498 6052) President Contact: Michelle Leishman We cross Byles Creek and come Michelle Leishman (9489 8972) quickly to an area where a Committee second creek enters Byles Do join us for this rescheduled Tim Gastineau-Hills Creek. This presents an talk when Dr Michelle Leishman, Bruno Krockenberger opportunity to see weed-free STEP’s president, will tell us Neroli Lock rainforest species. about recent experimental John Martyn findings on the factors that We will follow the track up the contribute to the success of Tony Morrison hillside on to the ridge top with Ann Perry exotic plants in urban bushland Sydney sandstone vegetation. At on Sydney’s Hawkesbury Helen Wortham the top of the hill, we will pass Sandstone. Michelle will also through some of the diverse flora discuss the implications for bush of Sydney sandstone. Here we will Diary Dates regeneration. search for some of the rare and 28 Aug Walk in Lane Cove threatened species located on National Park these ridge tops. We will compare this vegetation with that found 6 Sept Talk on Exotic Weeds across the Lane Cove River in 25 Sept Walk West Head Wahroonga and Turramurra. Farewell to Jenny Schwarz, a (details to be advised) dedicated and long-serving We continue down to Devlins 18 Oct Annual General Meeting committee member, who has Creek at its junction with the Lane (details to be advised) recently relocated to Cove River, observing changes in Tasmania. We’ll miss you 11 Dec Christmas Barbecue species. By comparison with the Jenny, but we hope you enjoy (details to be advised) area seen at the beginning, this your sea change. creek is very weedy and yet there are special birds found here. STEP Inc Community-based Environmental Conservation since 1978 PO Box 697, Turramurra, NSW 2074 [email protected] www.step.org.au ABN 55 851 3472 043 Newsletter of STEP Inc, Number 130, page 2 Gordon Creek Bridge Point (Primrose Park, Mosman) important part of the system for John Balint treatment plant. There was no Ku-ring-gai was the West Middle sewage system north of Harbour submain extension north For many years on my walks Chatswood, generally individual along the western side of Middle through the magnificent bushland septic tanks and night soil Harbour to collect sewage from in East Killara I often wondered collection was used. Lindfield, Killara and Gordon. This about the origins of the old timber was completed in 1927 and In the early 1900s a new scheme bridge over Gordon Creek. Initially involved tunnelling through the was developed for the north side of I thought it might have been part of rocky ridges of East Lindfield and the harbour based on the an early road through the district. East Killara. However my research has led me discharge of raw sewage into the to discover some of the fascinating ocean. A Parliamentary Standing The old timber bridge over Gordon story of Sydney’s early sewerage Committee on Public Works held in Creek is one remaining visible part development, the important role 1916 considered the proposal to of this system. It was built as an the Gordon Creek Bridge played in build a Northern Suburbs Outfall to aqueduct to take the West Middle this and has led me to try to save discharge sewage into the ocean Harbour submain over Gordon this historic structure from certain at Blue Fish Point at North Head Creek. Walkers following the demolition. (the location of the current walking tracks along the western treatment plant). The committee side of Middle Harbour Creek, in One hundred years ago, at the stated in their report: what is now Garigal National Park, time of the move to Federation, the have used this bridge for some North Shore was caught up in a Many complaints have been received by the Health seventy years. major environmental and health Department particularly in the crisis over the sewerage system or The bridge has deteriorated due to Shire of Ku-ring-gai … as to the lack of maintenance and was really the lack of it. The population difficulty of dealing with the waste closed in 1998, preventing walkers on the North Shore had expanded water from dwellings, and the rapidly in the late 1900s, spurred disposal of effluent from septic from following the heritage tracks on by overcrowding in Sydney and tanks. In particular, Roseville is through the pristine bushland from the opening of the Turramurra to gradually being built upon, and as Roseville to St Ives, a distance of St Leonard’s railway in 1890. The settlement becomes more some 10 kilometres. panic that occurred with the 1900 marked frequent complaints are received as to the disposal of the A heritage assessment carried out plague in Sydney also assisted the waste water. in 2003 by National Parks boom in development on the North nominated the bridge as having Shore. Manly residents were not so high local heritage significance and enthusiastic. Manly had recently Prior to this in the 1880s the recommended an engineering installed its own sewerage system assessment to estimate the cost of Sydney sewerage system south discharging into the ocean north of of the harbour had been restoration. Unfortunately funds Blue Fish Point. The rock cutting have not been forthcoming for this, developed to collect sewage and can be seen when you walk discharge it untreated into the but there is now hope that this through the car park at Shelley assessment may be done in ocean at Bondi and Long Bay Beach and look out over the (Malabar). This was obviously a 2005/6. In the meantime the bridge ocean. They believed, based on is still under threat of demolition major improvement for the their experience, that the northern people of Sydney compared to and is effectively being demolished beaches would be badly polluted through neglect. the previous system of combined by this new outfall. Alderman sewage and stormwater Ellison Wentworth Quirk of Manly The bridge is an impressive timber discharge directly into the stated in evidence to the structure, 80 metres long and harbour. However it did set an committee that ‘there is a stands some 15 metres above the important environmental possibility of its ruining, not only creek. You can have a look at the precedent for Sydney that is still the main Manly Beach but all the bridge, using your new Middle raising controversy today. beaches as far north as Harbour map. Either walk down Meanwhile on the north side of Barrenjoey’. The committee the fire trail from the end of Barrie the harbour, disposal of sewage decided, based on so-called expert Street, East Killara, or walk in was being handled by opinion, that this pollution would along the fire trail from Arterial overloaded and unhygienic not occur. How wrong they were. Road, Lindfield, near Soldiers Memorial Park. systems. The system north of the Construction of the outfall system harbour included a septic at an estimated cost of £2,236,000 If you have any information on treatment plant at Chatswood was completed in 1930 under the history of the bridge and the (Scott’s Creek) discharging into Chief Engineer Ernest de Burgh. tracks leading to it, or want to be Willoughby Bay, septic treatment William Hudson of Snowy involved in saving the bridge, tanks at Balmoral, and the North Mountains Scheme fame also please contact John Balint on Sydney sewerage system worked on the outfall project. An 9498 7527. discharging through the Folly Newsletter of STEP Inc, Number 130, page 3 Membership Renewals Due Conference: The Great The objectives of the conference If the year ‘05’ is printed Greenhouse Gamble are: underneath your address on the The Nature Conservation Council • to provide a scientific update next page, your membership is of NSW (NCC) is convening a on climate change; due for renewal. conference entitled The Great • to raise awareness of, and Greenhouse Gamble on focus on, the impacts on Please complete the form at the biodiversity and resource bottom of this page, indicate any 15 and 16 September at the Powerhouse Museum. NCC is management and identify any changes needed to the address research gaps; label, and mail the completed currently calling for papers on the impacts of climate change on • to define links between form and payment (by cheque current legislation, policy and made payable to STEP Inc) to: biodiversity and natural resource management.