Some varied history and observations about Turramurra, a suburb in the north and west of Sydney, split by the north shore rail line and the Pacific Highway. Anecdotally the northern side of the suburb is the place to be if you happen to like big houses, big cars and expansive lawns and gardens. The Pacific Hwy was variously in parts called either Lane Cove Road or Gordon Road up to Pearces Corner, where Peats Ferry Road began. 

Geological Sites – Especially around Sydney

TURRAMURRA
Lovers Jump waterfall. Lovers Jump (locally also known as Lovers Leap) is a waterfall with a significantly large pool at its base, on the northern side of Burns Road between Finchley Place and McRae Place. A pool at the base of the waterfall is not known to have ever dried up, even though the creek may periodically run dry. The relatively deep valley of Lovers Leap (Lovers Jump) Creek below the waterfall has an area of remant Blue Gum High Forest ecological community. Brush turkeys in groups of up to 4 or 5 lives along the creek and the birds are seen in McRae Place where nesting mounds have been built and chicks have emerged in recent years. Also known in the area are lyre birds, owls, lizards like the water dragon, water rat, eels, etc. No particular reason for the waterfall development here is apparent. The creek at the top of the falls is probably close to the top of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. Where McRae Place makes its first bend (to the east) shale has been met with in digging on the northern side of the road, and close downslope from here the sandstone outcrops. This is probably an accurate elevation point for the base of the Mittagong Formation. Opposite the entrance to McCrae Place, on the south side of Burns Road, building excavation in 2007 exposed weathered Ashfield Shale passing down into Mittagong Formation. Near here was Irish Town. For a time this was an isolated community of orchardists who settled after 1850, with frequent intermarriage and picnicing at the Lovers Leap waterhole (fide Ku-ring-gai Historical Society). Irish Town is remembered by the small “Irish Town Grove” creek reserve between Bannockburn Road and Adams Street; although some accounts state that much of North Turramurra was known as Irish Town. The orchards are also remembered by the Orange Green park behind North Turramurra public school. This school was opened in 1914 to serve the community of orchardists, market gardeners and dairy farmers. In 1920 fruit fly proved disastrous to commercial orchardists on the North Shore

Turramurra, New South Wales – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turramurra is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Turramurra is located 17 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. North Turramurra and South Turramurra are separate suburbs.[1]

Turramurra, New South Wales – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Early settlers referred to the area as Eastern Road until the name Turramurra was adopted when the railway station was built here in 1890. One of the early local landmarks was Ingleholme, a two-storey Federation home in Boomerang Street. It was designed by John Sulman (1849-1934) as his own home and built circa 1896. The house was part of the Presbyterian Ladies College for some time afterwards and is now on the Register of the National Estate. It is notable as an example of John Sulman’s style.[2] The first post office opened in 1890. The Hillview estate was marked for heritage listing.[3] Another humble landmark is St Andrew’s in Kissing Point Road, which is an example of the Federation Carpenter Gothic style.

Ku-ring-gai Historical Society – Local history – Turramurra

Turramurra is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘high hill’ or ‘big hill’. When the railway was opened on 1 January 1890 the suburb was called Eastern Road after the border of one of the major estates in the area. This was changed to Turramurra on 14 December 1890 as it was thought more appropriate the suburb have an Aboriginal name.

Turramurra is a large suburb, extending from the Lane Cove National Park in the south to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the north. Both these parks govern the boundaries of North and South Turramurra. The township of Turramurra is divided from Wahroonga by Finlay Road, Cherry Street, Brentwood Avenue then east to Eastern Road. From here it continues along Eastern Road to its junction with Burns Road, to swing south to a branch of Cowan Creek. On the Pymble side, the boundary goes south to Pentecost Avenue, west to Bobbin Head Road, then south again to the Pacific Highway. It crosses the highway, runs down along the edge of Rofe Park to end of the Lane Cove River…

In 1822 Thomas Hyndes leased and subsequently purchased 2,000 acres north of Robert Pymble’s grant. Turramurra was part of this lease, known afterwards as The Big Estate Lease.

Some varied history and observations about Turramurra, a suburb in the north and west of Sydney, split by the north shore rail line and the Pacific Highway. Anecdotally the northern side of the suburb is the place to be if you happen to like big houses, big cars and expansive lawns and gardens. The Pacific Hwy was variously in parts called either Lane Cove Road or Gordon Road up to Pearces Corner, where Peats Ferry Road began. 

Geological Sites – Especially around Sydney

TURRAMURRA
Lovers Jump waterfall. Lovers Jump (locally also known as Lovers Leap) is a waterfall with a significantly large pool at its base, on the northern side of Burns Road between Finchley Place and McRae Place. A pool at the base of the waterfall is not known to have ever dried up, even though the creek may periodically run dry. The relatively deep valley of Lovers Leap (Lovers Jump) Creek below the waterfall has an area of remant Blue Gum High Forest ecological community. Brush turkeys in groups of up to 4 or 5 lives along the creek and the birds are seen in McRae Place where nesting mounds have been built and chicks have emerged in recent years. Also known in the area are lyre birds, owls, lizards like the water dragon, water rat, eels, etc. No particular reason for the waterfall development here is apparent. The creek at the top of the falls is probably close to the top of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. Where McRae Place makes its first bend (to the east) shale has been met with in digging on the northern side of the road, and close downslope from here the sandstone outcrops. This is probably an accurate elevation point for the base of the Mittagong Formation. Opposite the entrance to McCrae Place, on the south side of Burns Road, building excavation in 2007 exposed weathered Ashfield Shale passing down into Mittagong Formation. Near here was Irish Town. For a time this was an isolated community of orchardists who settled after 1850, with frequent intermarriage and picnicing at the Lovers Leap waterhole (fide Ku-ring-gai Historical Society). Irish Town is remembered by the small “Irish Town Grove” creek reserve between Bannockburn Road and Adams Street; although some accounts state that much of North Turramurra was known as Irish Town. The orchards are also remembered by the Orange Green park behind North Turramurra public school. This school was opened in 1914 to serve the community of orchardists, market gardeners and dairy farmers. In 1920 fruit fly proved disastrous to commercial orchardists on the North Shore

Turramurra, New South Wales – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turramurra is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Turramurra is located 17 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. North Turramurra and South Turramurra are separate suburbs.[1]

Turramurra, New South Wales – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Early settlers referred to the area as Eastern Road until the name Turramurra was adopted when the railway station was built here in 1890. One of the early local landmarks was Ingleholme, a two-storey Federation home in Boomerang Street. It was designed by John Sulman (1849-1934) as his own home and built circa 1896. The house was part of the Presbyterian Ladies College for some time afterwards and is now on the Register of the National Estate. It is notable as an example of John Sulman’s style.[2] The first post office opened in 1890. The Hillview estate was marked for heritage listing.[3] Another humble landmark is St Andrew’s in Kissing Point Road, which is an example of the Federation Carpenter Gothic style.

Ku-ring-gai Historical Society – Local history – Turramurra

Turramurra is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘high hill’ or ‘big hill’. When the railway was opened on 1 January 1890 the suburb was called Eastern Road after the border of one of the major estates in the area. This was changed to Turramurra on 14 December 1890 as it was thought more appropriate the suburb have an Aboriginal name.

Turramurra is a large suburb, extending from the Lane Cove National Park in the south to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the north. Both these parks govern the boundaries of North and South Turramurra. The township of Turramurra is divided from Wahroonga by Finlay Road, Cherry Street, Brentwood Avenue then east to Eastern Road. From here it continues along Eastern Road to its junction with Burns Road, to swing south to a branch of Cowan Creek. On the Pymble side, the boundary goes south to Pentecost Avenue, west to Bobbin Head Road, then south again to the Pacific Highway. It crosses the highway, runs down along the edge of Rofe Park to end of the Lane Cove River…

In 1822 Thomas Hyndes leased and subsequently purchased 2,000 acres north of Robert Pymble’s grant. Turramurra was part of this lease, known afterwards as The Big Estate Lease.

I’ve previously mentioned that the Riley Street (Surry Hills) indoor board velodrome was shifted holus-bolus to Canterbury – splinters and all – which is remarkable enough, but there’s more to Canterbury than just an old velodrome site, a station, a bus terminus and a horse racetrack. There’s also a river – the Cooks River – that runs from Botany Bay to Canterbury and further westward. It was of course once a working natural river with meanders but dams, industry and concrete culverts put an end to much of the “natural-ness”.

I’ll post a map of the Tempe dam soon, but the article quoted below makes the location clear enough. The river was dammed to poor effect at Tempe and at Canterbury. The flood of the late 19th century wiped out much of the market gardening and led to grand schemes of tunnels and canals, of which only Alexandra Canal really came to pass. The river’s mouth was also moved to accommodate an enlargement of Sydney’s Mascot airport. You can find maps of that elsewhere on this blog.   

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Descriptions of the country along Cooks River by the early explorers were not optimistic about the land’s potential for food production. Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley both mentioned the shallowness of the water and the large swamps, in place of Cook’s ‘fine meadow’, so it was to the alluvial terraces of the Parramatta and Hawkesbury Rivers that the farmers of the colony went. The Reverend Richard Johnson, however, took time out from his chief mission – first pastor to the settlements in New South Wales – to cultivate his properties, among them being a grant of 250 acres at Canterbury (stretching along the river from present Garnet Street, Hurlstone Park to Croydon Avenue, Ashbury). There is no evidence that he ever lived on his ‘Canterbury Vale’ farm. But with the help of an overseer, several convicts, and labourers paid by himself, he cleared and planted several acres. Yields were high enough from his estates for him to be described by Watkin Tench as ‘the best farmer in the colony’. When the property was sold to William Cox in 1800, it included livestock, two acres of vineyard, and another acre of orchard with orange trees, nectarines, peaches and apricots.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Major industries of the area were fishing and lime burning, especially around the mouth of the river and in Botany Bay. In a new settlement, three basic needs had to be satisfied: the need for food, the need for water, and the need for shelter for the inhabitants. Although brick-making clay was abundant, nothing could be found for a long time to hold these bricks permanently together. Lime, essential in making mortar, was in such a short supply that most brick buildings collapsed in a heap of rubble as soon as the walls were leant on, and Governor Phillip constantly appealed for limestone to be sent out as ballast in the ships from home. Shell middens left by the aborigines on the shores of the Cooks River and Botany Bay proved to be a vital source of lime, and many colonists managed to make a living gathering the remnants from thousands of years of aboriginal meals to supply their kilns.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Cornelius Prout built a punt to give him access to his property, Belle Ombre (along the river from today’s Canterbury Road to Clissold Parade, Campsie); a punt also operated somewhere about the same time at Undercliffe, known as Thorpe’s Punt. This was a link on one of the roads to the Illawarra district. Fords existed at Tempe and further up the river, but with the spread of settlement and eventually industry, permanent bridges were needed.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

A B Spark, Leslie Duguid, and F W Unwin all built country houses beside Cooks River in the late 1830′s, and by 1840, three bridge crossings were in use; Unwin’s Bridge at Tempe, (to give access from Sydney to his house, Wanstead); Prout’s Bridge, replacing the punt, at Canterbury; and the dam at Tempe, continuing the line of Cook’s River Road (Princes Highway) past the house of Alexander Brodie Spark.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

A second dam was built to serve the river’s first manufacturing industry: the Australian Sugar Company’s refinery at Canterbury; this location was selected because of the need for ample supplies of water in processing.

The Sugar House is placed within one hundred feet on Cook’s River which is shortly expected to be fresh water, the Dam being quite close and is built of beautiful white sandstone. (Sydney Herald, 4 October, 1841)

Cooks River – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cooks River is a 23 kilometre long urban waterway of south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia emptying into Botany Bay. The course of the river has been altered to accommodate various developments along its shore. It serves as part of a stormwater system for the 100 square kilometres of its watershed, and many of the original streams running into it have been turned into concrete lined channels. The tidal sections support significant areas of mangroves, bird, and fish life, and are used for recreational activities.

Geological Sites – Especially around Sydney

The river was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770 but it was not until 1793 that any permanent settlement began to occur along it. The first bridge was erected here in 1810, give access to the southern bank of the river for timber getting. It was then a limit of recreational excursions from Sydney.

With the degradation and growing inadequacy of Sydney’s Tank Stream water suppy by 1826 the Cooks River was considered as a possibly fresh water supply. A dam was built across it here for that purpose, in the 1830s. The work was mainly completed in 1839-1841 using convict labour. It was considered that floods might flush out the saline water and give allow a fresh supply behind the dam (cf. in a flood of 1889 the river flowed 10 above the dam at Tempe). However, the dam was unsuccessful, as the water remained saline and the main effect of the dam, because of the increase of upstream polluting industries, was to generate a cesspool. Most of the fresh water remained dammed behind the later dam at the Sugar House at Canterbury, but that dam water too was often in a very offensive condition. There was an outbreak of typhoid fever affecting swimmers in 1896. The Tempe dam was lowered to improve flushing, and eventually demolished entirely.

I’ve previously mentioned that the Riley Street (Surry Hills) indoor board velodrome was shifted holus-bolus to Canterbury – splinters and all – which is remarkable enough, but there’s more to Canterbury than just an old velodrome site, a station, a bus terminus and a horse racetrack. There’s also a river – the Cooks River – that runs from Botany Bay to Canterbury and further westward. It was of course once a working natural river with meanders but dams, industry and concrete culverts put an end to much of the “natural-ness”.

I’ll post a map of the Tempe dam soon, but the article quoted below makes the location clear enough. The river was dammed to poor effect at Tempe and at Canterbury. The flood of the late 19th century wiped out much of the market gardening and led to grand schemes of tunnels and canals, of which only Alexandra Canal really came to pass. The river’s mouth was also moved to accommodate an enlargement of Sydney’s Mascot airport. You can find maps of that elsewhere on this blog.   

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Descriptions of the country along Cooks River by the early explorers were not optimistic about the land’s potential for food production. Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley both mentioned the shallowness of the water and the large swamps, in place of Cook’s ‘fine meadow’, so it was to the alluvial terraces of the Parramatta and Hawkesbury Rivers that the farmers of the colony went. The Reverend Richard Johnson, however, took time out from his chief mission – first pastor to the settlements in New South Wales – to cultivate his properties, among them being a grant of 250 acres at Canterbury (stretching along the river from present Garnet Street, Hurlstone Park to Croydon Avenue, Ashbury). There is no evidence that he ever lived on his ‘Canterbury Vale’ farm. But with the help of an overseer, several convicts, and labourers paid by himself, he cleared and planted several acres. Yields were high enough from his estates for him to be described by Watkin Tench as ‘the best farmer in the colony’. When the property was sold to William Cox in 1800, it included livestock, two acres of vineyard, and another acre of orchard with orange trees, nectarines, peaches and apricots.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Major industries of the area were fishing and lime burning, especially around the mouth of the river and in Botany Bay. In a new settlement, three basic needs had to be satisfied: the need for food, the need for water, and the need for shelter for the inhabitants. Although brick-making clay was abundant, nothing could be found for a long time to hold these bricks permanently together. Lime, essential in making mortar, was in such a short supply that most brick buildings collapsed in a heap of rubble as soon as the walls were leant on, and Governor Phillip constantly appealed for limestone to be sent out as ballast in the ships from home. Shell middens left by the aborigines on the shores of the Cooks River and Botany Bay proved to be a vital source of lime, and many colonists managed to make a living gathering the remnants from thousands of years of aboriginal meals to supply their kilns.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

Cornelius Prout built a punt to give him access to his property, Belle Ombre (along the river from today’s Canterbury Road to Clissold Parade, Campsie); a punt also operated somewhere about the same time at Undercliffe, known as Thorpe’s Punt. This was a link on one of the roads to the Illawarra district. Fords existed at Tempe and further up the river, but with the spread of settlement and eventually industry, permanent bridges were needed.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

A B Spark, Leslie Duguid, and F W Unwin all built country houses beside Cooks River in the late 1830′s, and by 1840, three bridge crossings were in use; Unwin’s Bridge at Tempe, (to give access from Sydney to his house, Wanstead); Prout’s Bridge, replacing the punt, at Canterbury; and the dam at Tempe, continuing the line of Cook’s River Road (Princes Highway) past the house of Alexander Brodie Spark.

City of Canterbury – History of Cooks River

A second dam was built to serve the river’s first manufacturing industry: the Australian Sugar Company’s refinery at Canterbury; this location was selected because of the need for ample supplies of water in processing.

The Sugar House is placed within one hundred feet on Cook’s River which is shortly expected to be fresh water, the Dam being quite close and is built of beautiful white sandstone. (Sydney Herald, 4 October, 1841)

Cooks River – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cooks River is a 23 kilometre long urban waterway of south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia emptying into Botany Bay. The course of the river has been altered to accommodate various developments along its shore. It serves as part of a stormwater system for the 100 square kilometres of its watershed, and many of the original streams running into it have been turned into concrete lined channels. The tidal sections support significant areas of mangroves, bird, and fish life, and are used for recreational activities.

Geological Sites – Especially around Sydney

The river was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770 but it was not until 1793 that any permanent settlement began to occur along it. The first bridge was erected here in 1810, give access to the southern bank of the river for timber getting. It was then a limit of recreational excursions from Sydney.

With the degradation and growing inadequacy of Sydney’s Tank Stream water suppy by 1826 the Cooks River was considered as a possibly fresh water supply. A dam was built across it here for that purpose, in the 1830s. The work was mainly completed in 1839-1841 using convict labour. It was considered that floods might flush out the saline water and give allow a fresh supply behind the dam (cf. in a flood of 1889 the river flowed 10 above the dam at Tempe). However, the dam was unsuccessful, as the water remained saline and the main effect of the dam, because of the increase of upstream polluting industries, was to generate a cesspool. Most of the fresh water remained dammed behind the later dam at the Sugar House at Canterbury, but that dam water too was often in a very offensive condition. There was an outbreak of typhoid fever affecting swimmers in 1896. The Tempe dam was lowered to improve flushing, and eventually demolished entirely.

It’s obviously a traumatic and sad event when an aircraft crashes with a loss of life – and we don’t need local agitators jumping on the bandwagon. But they will. Of course aircraft don’t crash on approach or departure from Bankstown as regularly as cars and trucks crash on our roads – far from it – yet the fear campaign will be all about the unsuitability of having an airport adjacent to houses, schools and offices. It may be a statistically low risk but it’s an emotive issue, especially so immediately after a crash occurs. It’s ghoulish and sad that people will use this event in a manipulative way, but it will add to the aircraft noise debate (arguably the real issue) and may eventually cause Bankstown to be reduced in scope, or to close. Perhaps.

Sometimes issues just mount up and force a hand. Further to the west of Sydney Hoxton Park has closed, at least partly because of the fear campaigns of elected parliamentary members just “doing their job”, and partly in aid of a bigger transport picture involving airport privatisation and development. The end result is another airport closure, putting more pressure on existing facilities – like Bankstown.

Now Bankstown airport has been around a long time (planned in 1929 but built during WWII) and pre-dates much of the industrial and residential development that now surrounds it. Indeed it is hemmed in and further growth is impeded. And as Sydney’s airfields have closed – many of the WWII airfields such as Castlereagh or Fleurs lasting only into the ’50s or at best early ’60s – others have taken up the slack, like Bankstown, Camden, Wedderburn and The Oaks (despite the quote below very much an active field) . Be they the late lamented Naval Air Station at Schofields or the more recent closure of Hoxton Park the loss of landing strips forces light to medium aircraft users, owners and operators into either more distant airfields like Wedderburn or The Oaks or into busier ones like Bankstown. And we aren’t actually opening any new ones, are we?

By the way I’m hardly a silvertail (read below for the bald faced rhetoric), having grown up in Marrickville in the 60′s. I don’t fly any more but the point is that private pilots can come from any socio-economic background. That’s what our egalitarian society is all about – opportunity coupled with fairness and social mobility. Or is that just rhetoric as well?  

Hoxton Park Airport – 07/05/2002 – NSW Parliament

Mr LYNCH (Liverpool) [4.41 p.m.]: I ask the House to note as a matter of public importance Hoxton Park Airport and the surrounding suburbs. Hoxton Park Airport is located within my electorate and it is the subject of considerable controversy. Both in terms of the safety of residents living around it and in the amenity of their neighbourhoods, a substantial number of people have been calling for the airport’s closure. The suburbs surrounding the airport include Cecil Hills, Green Valley, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park and West Hoxton. I have called for the closure of the airport on previous occasions, and I restate that call today. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions in this House. Indeed, I debated an urgent motion on the matter in 1999. It is appropriate to raise the matter again today because only several weeks ago there was a further accident at the airport.

Hoxton Park Airport is a general aviation airport. It covers 85 hectares and has one sealed runway that is 1,098 metres in length. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, circuit training is restricted to between 6.00 a.m. and 11.00 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays, 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. on Saturdays, and 6.00 a.m. to one hour after last light on Sundays. It caters to both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, that is, planes and helicopters. It is usually busier on weekends than on weekdays, which says something about the people who are using the airport to train. As I understand the evidence, an average of about six or seven planes are in the air around the vicinity of the airport at any given time.

The airport was originally constructed in about 1942 as part of a group of airfields to be used as aircraft dispersal fields in anticipation of a Japanese air attack. Others included Menangle, Bargo, the Oaks, Wallgrove, Fleurs, St Marys, Castlereagh, Pitt Town and Ettalong. Interestingly enough, none of those airfields is currently operating as an airport. RAAF pilots also used Hoxton Park Airport for training purposes and the like. After the war the airport was leased to the Hardy Rubber Company for use as a tyre test track. Eventually its use as an airport was resumed, but its current use is very different to what it was then. It is now used overwhelmingly for training purposes.

It’s obviously a traumatic and sad event when an aircraft crashes with a loss of life – and we don’t need local agitators jumping on the bandwagon. But they will. Of course aircraft don’t crash on approach or departure from Bankstown as regularly as cars and trucks crash on our roads – far from it – yet the fear campaign will be all about the unsuitability of having an airport adjacent to houses, schools and offices. It may be a statistically low risk but it’s an emotive issue, especially so immediately after a crash occurs. It’s ghoulish and sad that people will use this event in a manipulative way, but it will add to the aircraft noise debate (arguably the real issue) and may eventually cause Bankstown to be reduced in scope, or to close. Perhaps.

Sometimes issues just mount up and force a hand. Further to the west of Sydney Hoxton Park has closed, at least partly because of the fear campaigns of elected parliamentary members just “doing their job”, and partly in aid of a bigger transport picture involving airport privatisation and development. The end result is another airport closure, putting more pressure on existing facilities – like Bankstown.

Now Bankstown airport has been around a long time (planned in 1929 but built during WWII) and pre-dates much of the industrial and residential development that now surrounds it. Indeed it is hemmed in and further growth is impeded. And as Sydney’s airfields have closed – many of the WWII airfields such as Castlereagh or Fleurs lasting only into the ’50s or at best early ’60s – others have taken up the slack, like Bankstown, Camden, Wedderburn and The Oaks (despite the quote below very much an active field) . Be they the late lamented Naval Air Station at Schofields or the more recent closure of Hoxton Park the loss of landing strips forces light to medium aircraft users, owners and operators into either more distant airfields like Wedderburn or The Oaks or into busier ones like Bankstown. And we aren’t actually opening any new ones, are we?

By the way I’m hardly a silvertail (read below for the bald faced rhetoric), having grown up in Marrickville in the 60′s. I don’t fly any more but the point is that private pilots can come from any socio-economic background. That’s what our egalitarian society is all about – opportunity coupled with fairness and social mobility. Or is that just rhetoric as well?  

Hoxton Park Airport – 07/05/2002 – NSW Parliament

Mr LYNCH (Liverpool) [4.41 p.m.]: I ask the House to note as a matter of public importance Hoxton Park Airport and the surrounding suburbs. Hoxton Park Airport is located within my electorate and it is the subject of considerable controversy. Both in terms of the safety of residents living around it and in the amenity of their neighbourhoods, a substantial number of people have been calling for the airport’s closure. The suburbs surrounding the airport include Cecil Hills, Green Valley, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park and West Hoxton. I have called for the closure of the airport on previous occasions, and I restate that call today. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions in this House. Indeed, I debated an urgent motion on the matter in 1999. It is appropriate to raise the matter again today because only several weeks ago there was a further accident at the airport.

Hoxton Park Airport is a general aviation airport. It covers 85 hectares and has one sealed runway that is 1,098 metres in length. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, circuit training is restricted to between 6.00 a.m. and 11.00 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays, 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. on Saturdays, and 6.00 a.m. to one hour after last light on Sundays. It caters to both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, that is, planes and helicopters. It is usually busier on weekends than on weekdays, which says something about the people who are using the airport to train. As I understand the evidence, an average of about six or seven planes are in the air around the vicinity of the airport at any given time.

The airport was originally constructed in about 1942 as part of a group of airfields to be used as aircraft dispersal fields in anticipation of a Japanese air attack. Others included Menangle, Bargo, the Oaks, Wallgrove, Fleurs, St Marys, Castlereagh, Pitt Town and Ettalong. Interestingly enough, none of those airfields is currently operating as an airport. RAAF pilots also used Hoxton Park Airport for training purposes and the like. After the war the airport was leased to the Hardy Rubber Company for use as a tyre test track. Eventually its use as an airport was resumed, but its current use is very different to what it was then. It is now used overwhelmingly for training purposes.

A really interesting history of Camden Airport, particularly from a gliding perspective at the link below.

My first experience of Camden was as an aircraft-mad Marrickville kid growing up in the mid 1960s – and my recollection is much as the 1953 description below. Very much a “WWII RAAF airfield” feel with the gate house and raised gate, the house on the hill and the buildings on the hillside, the twisting road down to the hangars and so on. Of course there was also the Camden Museum of Aviation, an absolute must-see at the time.

My next recollection would be around 1976 or so, flying into Camden in a Cessna 150 and a Cherokee, practising touch-and-goes. I did taxi there, too, and the Kittyhawk-width grooves were certainly for real.

And then in the early ’80s I took off and landed a German-built sailplane there, on a grass strip.
 
Finally the airport had a complete revamp, new tower, the museum was booted out and eventually new private owners took charge. I haven’t been there since.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

The aerodrome area was originally a race track owned by Arthur Macarthur-Onslow. In 1919 a film called “Silks and Saddles” was being made which required a race between a horse and an Avro 504K, and the Camden track was ideal for shooting this sequence… …Camden became Australia’s first private aerodrome. Edward Macarthur-Onslow became a great personality in aviation and formed the Macquarie Grove Flying School which by 1939 employed more than thirty people in the workshops at Camden Aerodrome servicing about a dozen aircraft at all levels, including engine overhauls and propeller manufacture.

When World War 2 came, Edward Macarthur-Onslow made the aerodrome available to the Commonwealth Government “for the training of Australian war pilots”. Then the RAAF moved in, and then the Americans, the elegant Macquarie Grove House on the aerodrome was turned into an officer’s mess and the sergeants made even more of a “mess” of Hassell Cottage at the top of the hill… …What the gliding people saw in 1953 was an almost intact example of a WW2 Air Force training base. Near the top of the hill at the bend in the road was a sentry box with boom gate and khaki painted wooden huts stretched in rows right down the hill to the hangers which were full of unwanted aircraft, mainly Avro Ansons… …That so much should have remained in 1953 was remarkable. But no one else visited the place and it was like an old movie set of WW2. The gliding people were even given the use of a few wooden huts.

An extra note here is the training status of Camden:
Camden, NSW is recorded as being the only Central Flying School (CFS) in the
country as at December 1941.34 This seems to be the case as sources claim the
CFS moved to Tamworth RAAF Base.35 Table 1 therefore lists the CFS as the
principal function at Tamworth.

A really interesting history of Camden Airport, particularly from a gliding perspective at the link below.

My first experience of Camden was as an aircraft-mad Marrickville kid growing up in the mid 1960s – and my recollection is much as the 1953 description below. Very much a “WWII RAAF airfield” feel with the gate house and raised gate, the house on the hill and the buildings on the hillside, the twisting road down to the hangars and so on. Of course there was also the Camden Museum of Aviation, an absolute must-see at the time.

My next recollection would be around 1976 or so, flying into Camden in a Cessna 150 and a Cherokee, practising touch-and-goes. I did taxi there, too, and the Kittyhawk-width grooves were certainly for real.

And then in the early ’80s I took off and landed a German-built sailplane there, on a grass strip.
 
Finally the airport had a complete revamp, new tower, the museum was booted out and eventually new private owners took charge. I haven’t been there since.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

The aerodrome area was originally a race track owned by Arthur Macarthur-Onslow. In 1919 a film called “Silks and Saddles” was being made which required a race between a horse and an Avro 504K, and the Camden track was ideal for shooting this sequence… …Camden became Australia’s first private aerodrome. Edward Macarthur-Onslow became a great personality in aviation and formed the Macquarie Grove Flying School which by 1939 employed more than thirty people in the workshops at Camden Aerodrome servicing about a dozen aircraft at all levels, including engine overhauls and propeller manufacture.

When World War 2 came, Edward Macarthur-Onslow made the aerodrome available to the Commonwealth Government “for the training of Australian war pilots”. Then the RAAF moved in, and then the Americans, the elegant Macquarie Grove House on the aerodrome was turned into an officer’s mess and the sergeants made even more of a “mess” of Hassell Cottage at the top of the hill… …What the gliding people saw in 1953 was an almost intact example of a WW2 Air Force training base. Near the top of the hill at the bend in the road was a sentry box with boom gate and khaki painted wooden huts stretched in rows right down the hill to the hangers which were full of unwanted aircraft, mainly Avro Ansons… …That so much should have remained in 1953 was remarkable. But no one else visited the place and it was like an old movie set of WW2. The gliding people were even given the use of a few wooden huts.

An extra note here is the training status of Camden:
Camden, NSW is recorded as being the only Central Flying School (CFS) in the
country as at December 1941.34 This seems to be the case as sources claim the
CFS moved to Tamworth RAAF Base.35 Table 1 therefore lists the CFS as the
principal function at Tamworth.

I’ve already quoted from the excellent Gliding.com.au site but here I go again, just for the record.

The first glider flight: Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

The first “glider” flight in Australia was made in December 1909 by George Taylor at Narrabeen, NSW. A special memorial has been erected opposite the Narrabeen Post Office to commemorate this feat. Taylor’s partner was a young fellow by the name of Edward Halstrom who was to become a household name in Australia for his gas powered Silent Knight home refrigerators of the 1950s and his private zoo of rare animals.

Did you realise that there once was a Granville glider club? Or that they test flew at Duck Creek, Auburn? Well it was a while ago… but on the other hand I can remember the odd paddock strung along Parramatta Road in that area from Homebush to Parramatta, persisting until the 1970s at least.
 
Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

I spoke to Stan Rose who was later to become Secretary of the Southern Cross Club about the early days. In 1930, he saw the Granville Club’s glider and was very impressed with it. Being a lad of 15, he went home and found a design of a hang glider in “Chums Annual” and decided to build it. It had about a 5 metre wingspan and was made of bamboo tied together with cord fishing line.

When the wings were ready for covering the only logical material was some bed sheets and these proved ideal although his mother put on no end of a performance when she found out. Ah, one of the first of many little differences of opinion caused by gliding.

So with the wing covering held on with flour and water glue, it was ready for test flying. The site was Duck Creek at Auburn and it was blowing a good westerly. Stan got up a bit of a run and with a good angle of attack, the thing jumped about five feet into the air. Next it dropped one wing, zoomed into the creek and clobbered the only tree stump in sight.

Gliding – or perhaps hang gliding – is not a surprise at the Cronulla/Kurnell sandhills.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Harry Ryan, who was later the CFI of the Southern Cross Gliding Club, was one of the early pioneers of gliding. He had his first flights with Martin Warner and Alf Pelton who operated a German Primary glider from the sandhills at Cronulla in 1931.

But Bunnerong Park is a bit of a surprise. Especially in the dark.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Another group was started by Jack Munn who designed and built the Falcon. They formed the Sydney Metropolitan Gliding Club and flew at Bunerong Park, about a kilometre from Mascot Airport. They flew by day and night and records show that the group often flew until midnight if the moonlight was bright enough. To help with night landings, a motor bike headlamp was fitted to the front of the machine and a motor bike battery tied inside the nacelle. When coming in to land, at a few feet off the ground, the pilot used his left hand to clip a lead onto the battery terminal.

I’ve already quoted from the excellent Gliding.com.au site but here I go again, just for the record.

The first glider flight: Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

The first “glider” flight in Australia was made in December 1909 by George Taylor at Narrabeen, NSW. A special memorial has been erected opposite the Narrabeen Post Office to commemorate this feat. Taylor’s partner was a young fellow by the name of Edward Halstrom who was to become a household name in Australia for his gas powered Silent Knight home refrigerators of the 1950s and his private zoo of rare animals.

Did you realise that there once was a Granville glider club? Or that they test flew at Duck Creek, Auburn? Well it was a while ago… but on the other hand I can remember the odd paddock strung along Parramatta Road in that area from Homebush to Parramatta, persisting until the 1970s at least.
 
Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

I spoke to Stan Rose who was later to become Secretary of the Southern Cross Club about the early days. In 1930, he saw the Granville Club’s glider and was very impressed with it. Being a lad of 15, he went home and found a design of a hang glider in “Chums Annual” and decided to build it. It had about a 5 metre wingspan and was made of bamboo tied together with cord fishing line.

When the wings were ready for covering the only logical material was some bed sheets and these proved ideal although his mother put on no end of a performance when she found out. Ah, one of the first of many little differences of opinion caused by gliding.

So with the wing covering held on with flour and water glue, it was ready for test flying. The site was Duck Creek at Auburn and it was blowing a good westerly. Stan got up a bit of a run and with a good angle of attack, the thing jumped about five feet into the air. Next it dropped one wing, zoomed into the creek and clobbered the only tree stump in sight.

Gliding – or perhaps hang gliding – is not a surprise at the Cronulla/Kurnell sandhills.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Harry Ryan, who was later the CFI of the Southern Cross Gliding Club, was one of the early pioneers of gliding. He had his first flights with Martin Warner and Alf Pelton who operated a German Primary glider from the sandhills at Cronulla in 1931.

But Bunnerong Park is a bit of a surprise. Especially in the dark.

Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Another group was started by Jack Munn who designed and built the Falcon. They formed the Sydney Metropolitan Gliding Club and flew at Bunerong Park, about a kilometre from Mascot Airport. They flew by day and night and records show that the group often flew until midnight if the moonlight was bright enough. To help with night landings, a motor bike headlamp was fitted to the front of the machine and a motor bike battery tied inside the nacelle. When coming in to land, at a few feet off the ground, the pilot used his left hand to clip a lead onto the battery terminal.

NSW Sport Aircraft Club – Wedderburn

Become a member of the NSW Sports Aircraft Club Inc. and enjoy the general experience of belonging to a club dedicated to the private ownership of aircraft and to the comradeship of the aviation fraternity. Wedderburn was founded as an inexpensive venue for members to fly, house their aircraft and fraternize with aviation minded people. And it continues to adhere to those principals today. So ideally it is the Flying Club there for your pleasure—- not simply a place to park your aircraft.

NSW Sport Aircraft Club – Wedderburn

Become a member of the NSW Sports Aircraft Club Inc. and enjoy the general experience of belonging to a club dedicated to the private ownership of aircraft and to the comradeship of the aviation fraternity. Wedderburn was founded as an inexpensive venue for members to fly, house their aircraft and fraternize with aviation minded people. And it continues to adhere to those principals today. So ideally it is the Flying Club there for your pleasure—- not simply a place to park your aircraft.

Castlereagh Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Castlereagh Aerodrome was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) emergency landing ground and dispersal ground during World War II at Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia. The runway was 5,000 ft long (1,500 m) x 150 ft wide (46 m). The airfield was to become home to No. 94 Squadron’s Mosquito aircraft and had been upgraded by No. 9 Airfield Construction Squadron, however the aircraft did not arrive before No. 94 Squadron was relocated to RAAF Base Richmond and disbanded.

After disposal by the RAAF, the airfield was used as a drag strip eventually closing in April 1984, becoming Castlereagh Country Estate.

Castlereagh Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Castlereagh Aerodrome was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) emergency landing ground and dispersal ground during World War II at Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia. The runway was 5,000 ft long (1,500 m) x 150 ft wide (46 m). The airfield was to become home to No. 94 Squadron’s Mosquito aircraft and had been upgraded by No. 9 Airfield Construction Squadron, however the aircraft did not arrive before No. 94 Squadron was relocated to RAAF Base Richmond and disbanded.

After disposal by the RAAF, the airfield was used as a drag strip eventually closing in April 1984, becoming Castlereagh Country Estate.

Fleurs Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fleurs Aerodrome was a parent aerodrome built on behalf of the Royal Australian Air Force near Penrith, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

Construction started on the aerodrome in 1942 and was still under construction in 1944 as part of a proposal to base a United States Navy Fleet Air Wing in Sydney should the need arise. Initially planned with three runways, No.1 (5000ft) and No. 3 (6000ft) runways were serviceable, however construction of No. 2 runway (5000ft) was abandoned. A total of eight aircraft dispersal hideouts were constructed and accommodation was a farm house and a former Civil Constructional Corps camp.

In 1969, Fleurs was considered as a site of the second airport for Sydney. The aerodrome is now utilised as precision ground-reflection antenna range operated by the University of Sydney, known as the Fleurs Radio Observatory.

Not only but also….
“…Satellite aerodromes were constructed to alleviate congestion at ‘parent’ aerodromes. The degree of congestion at any of the ‘parents’ could be indicated by the number of satellites. For instance, in Western Sydney between Blacktown and Penrith (at the foot of the Blue Mountains), Fleur
had five satellites. Fleur was a Station for the United States Navy Fleet Air Arm (USN FAA). As Australia needed the assistance of the US with its extensive defence assets, the government considered it appropriate to provide any necessary infrastructure from which the US fleet could base itself in the southern hemisphere. It was an objective of the US Navy to have one ‘parent’ and six dispersal airfields in the Sydney region and Fleur met this requirement. The presence of the US in the State and at its aerodromes is obviously significant due to their success in the South-West Pacific Area campaign.”

Fleurs Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fleurs Aerodrome was a parent aerodrome built on behalf of the Royal Australian Air Force near Penrith, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

Construction started on the aerodrome in 1942 and was still under construction in 1944 as part of a proposal to base a United States Navy Fleet Air Wing in Sydney should the need arise. Initially planned with three runways, No.1 (5000ft) and No. 3 (6000ft) runways were serviceable, however construction of No. 2 runway (5000ft) was abandoned. A total of eight aircraft dispersal hideouts were constructed and accommodation was a farm house and a former Civil Constructional Corps camp.

In 1969, Fleurs was considered as a site of the second airport for Sydney. The aerodrome is now utilised as precision ground-reflection antenna range operated by the University of Sydney, known as the Fleurs Radio Observatory.

Not only but also….
“…Satellite aerodromes were constructed to alleviate congestion at ‘parent’ aerodromes. The degree of congestion at any of the ‘parents’ could be indicated by the number of satellites. For instance, in Western Sydney between Blacktown and Penrith (at the foot of the Blue Mountains), Fleur
had five satellites. Fleur was a Station for the United States Navy Fleet Air Arm (USN FAA). As Australia needed the assistance of the US with its extensive defence assets, the government considered it appropriate to provide any necessary infrastructure from which the US fleet could base itself in the southern hemisphere. It was an objective of the US Navy to have one ‘parent’ and six dispersal airfields in the Sydney region and Fleur met this requirement. The presence of the US in the State and at its aerodromes is obviously significant due to their success in the South-West Pacific Area campaign.”

Getting confused yet? The WWII airstrip at Wallgrove (or Doonside) is just 3km or so from the Fleurs airstrip. Sydney was ringed with the darned things, apparently.

Wallgrove Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wallgrove Aerodrome was a Royal Australian Air Force satellite and emergency airfield at Doonside, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

The aerodrome was built in 1942 and the runway was 5000ft (1524m) long and 150ft (45.72m) wide running NW-SW. After World War 2 the aerodrome was closed in 1946 and reverted to farmland.

A number of former revetments are still in existence and the runway can still be located. A industrial area has been built over the southern end of the aerodrome.

Getting confused yet? The WWII airstrip at Wallgrove (or Doonside) is just 3km or so from the Fleurs airstrip. Sydney was ringed with the darned things, apparently.

Wallgrove Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wallgrove Aerodrome was a Royal Australian Air Force satellite and emergency airfield at Doonside, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

The aerodrome was built in 1942 and the runway was 5000ft (1524m) long and 150ft (45.72m) wide running NW-SW. After World War 2 the aerodrome was closed in 1946 and reverted to farmland.

A number of former revetments are still in existence and the runway can still be located. A industrial area has been built over the southern end of the aerodrome.

Marsden Park Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marsden Park Aerodrome was an aerodrome constructed by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) near Marsden Park, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

The aerodrome was built in 1942, as a relief landing ground for RAAF Base Richmond, with a runway 5,000 feet (1,500 m) long and 150 feet (46 m) wide. A number of RAAF radar stations; No’s 169, 170, 309 & 312 were located around the aerodrome during separate times. The aerodrome was abandoned after World War II and was briefly used as a motorsport facility in the 1950′s.

Marsden Park Aerodrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marsden Park Aerodrome was an aerodrome constructed by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) near Marsden Park, New South Wales, Australia during World War II.

The aerodrome was built in 1942, as a relief landing ground for RAAF Base Richmond, with a runway 5,000 feet (1,500 m) long and 150 feet (46 m) wide. A number of RAAF radar stations; No’s 169, 170, 309 & 312 were located around the aerodrome during separate times. The aerodrome was abandoned after World War II and was briefly used as a motorsport facility in the 1950′s.

As I’ve mentioned several times before Sydney and nearby towns played host to a number of wartime airstrips including The Oaks, Cordeaux, Schofields, Hoxton Park and Woy Woy amongst many others. Some of these remain usable but others were re-used as motor racing tracks or simply became disused.

So here’s RAAF Fleur, another one with an interesting post-war use.

The CSIRO connection – Flowering_of_Fleurs

Fleurs is situated about 40 km west-south-west of central Sydney near Badgery’s Creek, and occupies an expanse of flat land between South Creek and Kemps Creek adjacent to a disused WWII air strip. Between 1954 and 1963, Fleurs was the leading field station of the CSIRO’s Division of Radiophysics, and was home to three innovative cross-type radio telescopes, the Mills Cross, Shain Cross and the Chris Cross (Figure 1), all of which played important roles in furthering international radio astronomy (Robertson, 1992). This article discusses these radio telescopes, and the research that was carried out at the Fleurs field station.

The Gliding connection – Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

In 1946 the AWA Club moved to a disused wartime emergency strip just west of Cabramatta called Fleurs Airstrip which was only 3 Km away from the Doonside airfield. It was to become more or less a permanent home for gliding operations. Being on the bend of a river, it used to flood regularly and when a hanger was finally built the machines were always lifted up on top of 200 litre drums as a safety measure. On visiting the strip after one of these floods, the first job was always to retrieve the toilet hut which always seemed to be a couple of kilometres downstream.

At the end of ’46 things were pretty busy at Fleurs. The clubs operating from there were the AWA Club, Sydney Metropolitan, Cumberland-Phoenix (now amalgamated) and occasionally Sydney Soaring.

Gliding moves to Camden – Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Late in 1953 the NSW Gliding Association decided to hold a “gliding pageant” at Camden. The Hinkler and Sydney Soaring Clubs were already flying their sailplanes from this site. Although the Southern Cross membership was down to five, they loaded the old Primary onto an antique Bedford truck and decided to attend the pageant as well.

They were very impressed with the long smooth Camden runways and decided not to return to Fleurs Airstrip which was destined to be taken over by the CSIRO for the Maltese Cross Radio Telescope. Besides Camden was totally deserted apart from a few gliding people and a locally owned Macarthur-Onslow Hornet Moth which rarely flew.

As I’ve mentioned several times before Sydney and nearby towns played host to a number of wartime airstrips including The Oaks, Cordeaux, Schofields, Hoxton Park and Woy Woy amongst many others. Some of these remain usable but others were re-used as motor racing tracks or simply became disused.

So here’s RAAF Fleur, another one with an interesting post-war use.

The CSIRO connection – Flowering_of_Fleurs

Fleurs is situated about 40 km west-south-west of central Sydney near Badgery’s Creek, and occupies an expanse of flat land between South Creek and Kemps Creek adjacent to a disused WWII air strip. Between 1954 and 1963, Fleurs was the leading field station of the CSIRO’s Division of Radiophysics, and was home to three innovative cross-type radio telescopes, the Mills Cross, Shain Cross and the Chris Cross (Figure 1), all of which played important roles in furthering international radio astronomy (Robertson, 1992). This article discusses these radio telescopes, and the research that was carried out at the Fleurs field station.

The Gliding connection – Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

In 1946 the AWA Club moved to a disused wartime emergency strip just west of Cabramatta called Fleurs Airstrip which was only 3 Km away from the Doonside airfield. It was to become more or less a permanent home for gliding operations. Being on the bend of a river, it used to flood regularly and when a hanger was finally built the machines were always lifted up on top of 200 litre drums as a safety measure. On visiting the strip after one of these floods, the first job was always to retrieve the toilet hut which always seemed to be a couple of kilometres downstream.

At the end of ’46 things were pretty busy at Fleurs. The clubs operating from there were the AWA Club, Sydney Metropolitan, Cumberland-Phoenix (now amalgamated) and occasionally Sydney Soaring.

Gliding moves to Camden – Southern Cross Gliding Club, Sydney

Late in 1953 the NSW Gliding Association decided to hold a “gliding pageant” at Camden. The Hinkler and Sydney Soaring Clubs were already flying their sailplanes from this site. Although the Southern Cross membership was down to five, they loaded the old Primary onto an antique Bedford truck and decided to attend the pageant as well.

They were very impressed with the long smooth Camden runways and decided not to return to Fleurs Airstrip which was destined to be taken over by the CSIRO for the Maltese Cross Radio Telescope. Besides Camden was totally deserted apart from a few gliding people and a locally owned Macarthur-Onslow Hornet Moth which rarely flew.

Before the F3 there was the Pacific Highway – a wondrously snaking road that originally crossed the Hawkesbury at Peats’ ferry. And what a marvellous way to cross a mighty river – slowly. Just imagine the queues at either end these days! Well the ferry ended in c1945 (although there are substantial remains at each end) and the replacement bridge is still in use. (Let’s not forget the rail bridges downstream, either, and the remnants of the original rail route.) Alas the F3 did away with the old and swept in the new, but it’s still interesting to reflect on how we got where we are now, and the options that were spurned.

So why replace the old road? Traffic – too much of it. I do remember the traffic jams at the Hawkesbury crossing and at Wyong. Endless jams. And my father’s car boiling over in summer. One time we stopped at a creek on the old highway and topped up with pure river water, bellbirds tinkling around us. I also remember my father dodging the 20cent toll. Doesn’t seem like a lot now but “toll dodging” (usually by joining or exiting the “freeway” at Mount White) remained a popular sport for years, until the toll was lifted.
 
Ozroads: Sydney-Newcastle Freeway

Following World War II, it was glaringly obvious that the existing route between Sydney and Newcastle, not even 20 years old by that time, was completely inadequate for the amount of traffic it carried. By 1960, traffic across the 3-lane Peats Ferry Bridge had reached a daily average of 6,600 vehicles, rising to over 18,000 per day in holiday times. The existing two-lane, winding alignment was unsuitable to carry this amount of traffic, let alone any future increase, and there was considerable local-through traffic conflict through the busy town centres of Gosford, Wyong, Swansea and Belmont.

Interesting that the government of the day considered a private toll-road at the time but was pressured by its own bureaucrats to fund it publicly, even if a small toll was still required. It would have brought forward the idea of a “public-private partneship” by some years, had it gone ahead. Of course money for infrastructure was always – and remains – the main issue in a country so big in area yet small in population.
 
Ozroads: Sydney-Newcastle Freeway

the DMR was always against letting the private sector construct such an important project and the commissioner of the time, Howard Sherrard, threatened to resign when the government decided it would take Solomon up on his offer. This caused the government to abandon the private sector idea, and announce in January 1962 that it had accepted a proposal from the DMR for the construction of a four-lane expressway that would not only connect Sydney and Newcastle but form part of an improved route to the north and north-west of the state. In 1965, the proposal was refined to include a new route across Mooney Mooney Creek downstream from the Pacific Hwy crossing that would render the existing Peats Ridge route redundant. However, it was recognised that construction would not be possible until at least the mid-1970′s due to financial restrictions.

Although there’s a lot more that interests me about the F3, I’ll also link to this history of Peats Ridge Road and allow you to read the details. If you ever drive this road (which proceeds northwards from Calga to almost Ourimbah) you’ll be struck by its mostly excellent construction, its width and general feeling of over-engineering for the current task. And of you are old enough to remember when it was a national highway you’ll understand why! Personally I remember stopping at the Oak roadhouse at Peats Ridge (now a strip of shops including a cafe with some memorabilia to look over) on a number of occasions, including when it must have been quite fresh and new. (There’s another roadhouse at the old road on the southern side of the Hawkesbury, near Brooklyn – unused and strangely moth-balled but well worth a look-see.)    

Ozroads: Former NH1 Peats Ridge Rd

Peats Ridge Road itself was constructed purposely by the DMR to take the National Highway 1 shield (then National Route 1) as the main route between Sydney & Newcastle. However, it was not given the NH1 shield until the arrival of federal funding via the National Highway system in 1974. Prior to this, the route was signposted as either ‘Newcastle via Peats Ridge’ or ‘Sydney via Peats Ridge’.

Peats Ridge Rd carried the steadily increasing expressway traffic for 22 years (12 years as NH1) until the 7km shorter expressway route between Calga and Somersby opened to traffic. Some of the original route was retained, the 7km between Somersby and Ourimbah was duplicated and incorporated into the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway. National Highway 1 was removed from Peats Ridge Rd in December 1986

Before the F3 there was the Pacific Highway – a wondrously snaking road that originally crossed the Hawkesbury at Peats’ ferry. And what a marvellous way to cross a mighty river – slowly. Just imagine the queues at either end these days! Well the ferry ended in c1945 (although there are substantial remains at each end) and the replacement bridge is still in use. (Let’s not forget the rail bridges downstream, either, and the remnants of the original rail route.) Alas the F3 did away with the old and swept in the new, but it’s still interesting to reflect on how we got where we are now, and the options that were spurned.

So why replace the old road? Traffic – too much of it. I do remember the traffic jams at the Hawkesbury crossing and at Wyong. Endless jams. And my father’s car boiling over in summer. One time we stopped at a creek on the old highway and topped up with pure river water, bellbirds tinkling around us. I also remember my father dodging the 20cent toll. Doesn’t seem like a lot now but “toll dodging” (usually by joining or exiting the “freeway” at Mount White) remained a popular sport for years, until the toll was lifted.
 
Ozroads: Sydney-Newcastle Freeway

Following World War II, it was glaringly obvious that the existing route between Sydney and Newcastle, not even 20 years old by that time, was completely inadequate for the amount of traffic it carried. By 1960, traffic across the 3-lane Peats Ferry Bridge had reached a daily average of 6,600 vehicles, rising to over 18,000 per day in holiday times. The existing two-lane, winding alignment was unsuitable to carry this amount of traffic, let alone any future increase, and there was considerable local-through traffic conflict through the busy town centres of Gosford, Wyong, Swansea and Belmont.

Interesting that the government of the day considered a private toll-road at the time but was pressured by its own bureaucrats to fund it publicly, even if a small toll was still required. It would have brought forward the idea of a “public-private partneship” by some years, had it gone ahead. Of course money for infrastructure was always – and remains – the main issue in a country so big in area yet small in population.
 
Ozroads: Sydney-Newcastle Freeway

the DMR was always against letting the private sector construct such an important project and the commissioner of the time, Howard Sherrard, threatened to resign when the government decided it would take Solomon up on his offer. This caused the government to abandon the private sector idea, and announce in January 1962 that it had accepted a proposal from the DMR for the construction of a four-lane expressway that would not only connect Sydney and Newcastle but form part of an improved route to the north and north-west of the state. In 1965, the proposal was refined to include a new route across Mooney Mooney Creek downstream from the Pacific Hwy crossing that would render the existing Peats Ridge route redundant. However, it was recognised that construction would not be possible until at least the mid-1970′s due to financial restrictions.

Although there’s a lot more that interests me about the F3, I’ll also link to this history of Peats Ridge Road and allow you to read the details. If you ever drive this road (which proceeds northwards from Calga to almost Ourimbah) you’ll be struck by its mostly excellent construction, its width and general feeling of over-engineering for the current task. And of you are old enough to remember when it was a national highway you’ll understand why! Personally I remember stopping at the Oak roadhouse at Peats Ridge (now a strip of shops including a cafe with some memorabilia to look over) on a number of occasions, including when it must have been quite fresh and new. (There’s another roadhouse at the old road on the southern side of the Hawkesbury, near Brooklyn – unused and strangely moth-balled but well worth a look-see.)    

Ozroads: Former NH1 Peats Ridge Rd

Peats Ridge Road itself was constructed purposely by the DMR to take the National Highway 1 shield (then National Route 1) as the main route between Sydney & Newcastle. However, it was not given the NH1 shield until the arrival of federal funding via the National Highway system in 1974. Prior to this, the route was signposted as either ‘Newcastle via Peats Ridge’ or ‘Sydney via Peats Ridge’.

Peats Ridge Rd carried the steadily increasing expressway traffic for 22 years (12 years as NH1) until the 7km shorter expressway route between Calga and Somersby opened to traffic. Some of the original route was retained, the 7km between Somersby and Ourimbah was duplicated and incorporated into the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway. National Highway 1 was removed from Peats Ridge Rd in December 1986