Taylors Bay - Its Place in Sydney's History

Taylors Bay, Sydney Harbour - August 2012 . 

Taylors Bay is located between Chowder Head and Bradley's Head in Sydney Harbour. Today it a very peaceful spot with a beautiful little secluded beach. But in 1942, it was the bay into which the Japanese HA-21 Type A Midget Submarine (also known as M22) sank to the sea bed on the ill-fated night of 31 May/1 June when three enemy submarines came to Sydney.

On that night, HA-21 was manned by Lieutenant Keiu Matsuo and Petty Officer First Class Masao Tsuzuku. It was first detected in the Harbour about 11pm and was depth charged by the patrol boat HMAS Yandra. It surfaced at 3.50am at Neutral Bay where it was fired on by HMS Kaminbla. Between 5am to 8.30 am it was trapped in Taylors Bay and again heavily depth charged by the three patrol boats, HMAS Steady Hour, Sea Mist and Yarroma. At some point the crew committed suicide.

The submarine was salvaged within a week by the Royal Australian Navy and taken to Clark Island. It was badly battered. A series of postcards was produced to record the story of the Japanese midget submarines in Sydney Harbour..

I recalled I have one such postcard, Serial No 6 dated 30 July 1942 which shows the salvage party at work at Taylors Bay using a floating crane. A similar photo is incorporated in the plaque in the photo at top.

Salvage of HA-21 at Taylors Bay - Postcard Serial No 6
dated 30 July 1942

I have previously researched the story of the Japanese midget submarines in my blog, Sydney Harbour War Time Boom Net, dated  31 May 2011.

It was very interesting then to actually visit Taylors Bay and locate a piece of Sydney's history.

                   ***************************************************************************** 
If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to our website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Bedlam Point Convict Precinct

  

Remains of the Bedlam Point Wharf looking across to Abbotsford - July 2012

On the eastern side of Looking Glass Bay is Bedlam Point. Many times we have looked across the Parramatta River to this point from Abbotsford Wharf but we had not explored the area until recently.

What is the story of Bedlam Point?

The area was named Bethlem Point as early as 1820 and was officially called Bedlam Point soon afterwards. Bedlam is a corruption of Bethlam/Bethlehem which was the name of England's first lunatic asylum. Although the origins of our local naming are unclear, it certainly predates the building of the nearby Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum in 1838. [Angela Phippen and Margaret Farlow, Dictionary of Sydney 2008].

The distance between Bedlam Point and Abbotsford, at some 200 metres, is the narrowest point of the Parramatta River below Homebush Bay. In 1828, the Surveyor-General, Sir Thomas Mitchell recommended a crossing of the river here to facilitate a 'New Line' of the Great North Road through Abbotsford on the southern side to points on the northern shore.

From Bedlam Point, the Great North Road climbed up the hill to a government flagstaff (located near the site of today's Gladesville Post Office) and continued north-west along the ridge of today's Victoria Road to St Anne's Church at Ryde and then through Epping and Pennant Hills to join the old Great North Road at Dural. Construction of this section took place in 1829-31.

A cable-driven punt was established in 1832 from Abbotsford to Bedlam Point to ferry people, produce, livestock and carriages across the river. It was the only river crossing for some thirty years before being decommissioned in 1860's. 

Overgrown scrub on the original roadway to the Bedlam Point Wharf - July 2012

On site exploration at Bedlam Point is quite challenging. A lot of the area has been now overtaken by lantana bushes and over the years it appears that much hard fill has been dumped   on what would have been the original rubble paved roadway down to the shore.

However we were able to find some exciting evidence of convict history.

Convicts were employed in the area to work both on the building of a ferry wharf and the Great North Road extension. Our discoveries were:

1)The remains of the stone ferry wharf built by convicts in 1834 as seen in the photo at top.

2) A plaque telling the story of the Bedlam Point Convict Precinct. It was lain in a rock which bore a wedge-pit mark of a convict steel spike which would have been driven into the rock to break off a section. This pointer gave us a good idea of the likely line of the edge of the road leading down to the shore.

Plaque and Convict Rock

3) An interesting date carved into a rock - seemingly XVII XI?

Rock outdrop with convict carvings

4) A Latin phrase, De Mortious Nil Nisi Bonum which loosely translates as "Speak no ill of the Dead", carved along the top of the rock above. As the work of a convict labourer it may give us a clue to the thoughts of those working in the road gangs, or at the very least point to a skilled and well educated stoenmason. The initials ''AK'' appear above the inscription.

De Mortious Nil Nisi Bonum

 4) More initials carved into the rock. It is not possible to precisely identify to whom they may have belonged, but they are an interesting piece of colonial 'graffiti.'

''LG''

"M J"

5) Convict pick marks in rocks on the right hand side of Punt Road looking up the hill. These rocks formed the roadside gutters for drainage.  

Convict Pick marks on the edge of the road

View looking up Punt Road with the above rocks at the mid right of photo  - July 2012

History Services NSW has records of two convicts that were known to have worked in the Bedlam Point area, viz:

George Frederick BROWN - per Royal Admiral, being recorded in 1832 as having been ''apprehended after abscondment from Bedlam Point'', and

William JONES - per Georgiana, being recorded in 1834 as having been  ''apprehended after abscondment from Detached Party, Bedlam Point''.

If you are researching a convict ancestor who may have worked on the Great North Road and  require more information, you should go to our website at : 

http://www.historyservices.com.au/convicts.htm

Looking Glass Bay

Looking Glass Bay - July 2012

At the end of Punt Road at Gladesville (Sydney, New South Wales), looking up the Parramatta River is a bay with beautifully clear water which reflects its surroundings. It is known as Looking Glass Bay.

How did it get its name?

On its western shore (near the Shore School Rowing Shed), there is a plaque which reads:

Plaque commemorating CaptainArthur Phillip''s Landing

Just after the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, Captain Arthur Phillip, Lieutenant William Bradley and James Keltie (Master of the Sirius) were taking a party up the River to explore the area that Bradley had previously named "The Flats" (present day Homebush Bay). Lieutenant Bradley explains in an extract from his journal about their stop at Looking Glass Bay:

We stopped at a Neck of Land for breakfast. We were soon met there by a Native arm'd. He laid down his spear as soon as he joined us, & had more curiosity than any we had met with. He examined everything attentively & amp;and went into all our boats from one to the other...The Governor gave this Man a hatchet, & a looking-glass, which, when he looked into, he looked immediately behind the Glass to see if any person was there, & then pointed to the Glass and the Shadows which he saw in the Water, signifying that they were similar.

[Lieutenant William Bradley, 15 February 1788']

In its later life, Looking Glass Bay was home to :

1) Rock End Cottage, built in the late 1830's as an inn and from 1866 to 1909 home to  the grandmother of the Australin poet, A B (Banjo) Paterson: and

Rock End Cottage at Looking Glass Bay - July 2012

2) Harold Meggitt Limited a leading producer in the edible vegetable oil industry from 1923 to its closure in 1973. 

The Harold Meggitt Story


**********************************************************************************************************************

If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to our website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Third Quarantine Cemetery

Entrance to the Third Quarantine Cemetery, North Head Sanctuary - July 2012

On a return visit to North Head Sanctuary (fascinating place!), we found the Third Quarantine Cemetery atop the ridge with great views over Sydney Harbour. This Cemetery was established in 1881 for the victims of a smallpox outbreak. It closed in 1925 and contains the graves of some 241 people.

Many of these were victims of the bubonic plague which came to Sydney in 1900. They were mainly young people and and children which made for sobering reading.

Grave of Maggie Whitehead - Third Quarantine Cemetery, July 2012

One interesting grave was that of Maggie Whitehead of Borambil Station near Condobolin, New South Wales.

What was her story?

According to Obituaries Australia 2010-2012, Maggie Whitehead, aged 40 years, was visiting Sydney en route to England. She contracted the bubonic plague and was taken to the Quarantine Station where she lasted only three days, dying on 3 May 1900. She was the wife of Richard Whitehead of Borambil and the eldest daughter of Alexander and Jessie Cameron of Satimur Station in Western Victoria.

                   ***************************************************************************** 
If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to our website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Sydney's Defences in World War Two - North Fort

View from North Head looking down Sydney Harbour - June 2012

On Sunday afternoon, we went on a most interesting tour of North Head Sanctuary on the northern headland of the entrance to Sydney Harbour.

The tour was sponsored was the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and was conducted by two volunteers from the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust which now has responsibility for this section of the Headland.

The present day history of this area began in the 1930's with its fortification as part of the Australian coastal defence network established in the build-up to World War Two.

North Fort was built with a battery of two 9.2 inch Coastal guns and four 3.7 inch heavy artillery anti-aircraft guns. There was a extensive network of underground tunnels; a plotting room to interpret any intelligence received; a Shell Store and Engine Room - all concreted some 6 metres underground. It was one of the most heavily fortified sites in Australia in World War Two.

The following photos are from the gun battery complex:

No 2  Gun Placement- North Head June 2012

Cross Section of the Gun Complex

Site of the Gun Placement

Shell Store - could hold  250 shells when fully stocked

Underground tunnel - North Fort June 2012

Above ground again, we came upon:

The Close Defence Battery Observation Post which was manned generally at night or for close defence actions and could be used in conjunction with searchlights mounted in the cliff face on North Head.

Close Defence Battery Observation Post

The Avenue of Honour - a cobblestone avenue created in 1928 as a memorial to local soldiers killed in the First World War. It was originally lined with Norfolk pines and today straddles a stone perimeter fence built in the Great Depression.

Avenue of Honour

The second major pre-war establishment on the North Head site was the Army Base for the gunners serving at North Fort. It consisted of a huge barracks, a Sergeants' Mess and other auxilliary buildings, an oval and a parade ground. The Art Deco style entrance to the Barracks is shown in the photo below. 

Main Entrance to the Barracks Building

At the end of the War, the Army Barracks complex became the School of Artillery which remained there till 1998 when it was moved to Pukapunyal in Victoria.

The old North Fort today houses the National Artillery Museum which was established in 1990.

As a postscript to the day, we saw the Chilean Navy tall ship Esmeralda sailing out of Sydney Harbour on a training voyage.

Esmeralda sailing out of Sydney Harbour - 24 June 2012

   
                   ***************************************************************************** 
If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to our website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Balmoral - Of Temples and Trams

Edwards Beach, Balmoral, looking towards Sydney Heads, May  2012

Standing on Edwards Beach at the northern end of Balmoral, on a beautiful Indian summer day looking out to Sydney Heads, it is fascinating to discover that this was once the site of a Greek Doric temple?

This was the Star Amphitheatre built in 1923/24 for the Order of the Star in the East (OSE). It was a white painted concrete structure which seated 2000 and had standing room for a further 1000 people. It had a stage, a chapel, a meeting room and a library.

It was the vision of Dr Mary Rocke, a prominent theosophical worker in Sydney in 1920's. The OSE intended to use the Amphitheatre for a 'new world teacher', Jiddu Krisnamurti, to address his audience. He did so only once and subsequently rejected his role. The OSE was dissolved in 1929.

It was an urban myth at the time, that there would be a Messianic coming through Sydney Heads, even of the Lord Jesus. But this did not happen either.

The Amphitheatre was sold and subsequently used in the 1930s for concerts and plays and as a mini-golf course. Nothing of this this piece of Sydney's history remains today except for the stories.The structure was demolished in 1951 to make way for what was one of Sydeny's first  block of home units, Stancliff.

Another piece of Balmoral history of which there are few remnants today, is its tram service. The Balmoral line was opened a branch line of the Georges Heights line in May 1922. From Middle Head Road, the line swung left into Gordon Street and  zig-zagged through a steep descent across Mulbring, Plunkett and Beaconsfield Streets, to emerge through a narrow rock cutting into the Lawry Plunkett Reserve. The trams then continued along The Esplanade to the terminus at the corner of Mandalong Road. (Photo below)

Old tram shed a the terminus of the Balmoral Tram Line, The Esplanade
May 2012 

The route through the Lawry Plunkett Reserve was opened as a public walking track in 2004. (Photo below). Several tram items have been donated by the Sydney Tram Museum and are on display in the rock cutting, including sections of former tram tracks and sleepers, a tram wheel and a pair of cast iron brake shoes, a tram brake wheel and a typical section of overhead span wire fittings used to hold the copper overhead wire.

Old tram route through Lawry Plunkett Reserve, Balmora,l May 2012

We did discover some original rosettes attached to the sandstone walls of the cutting, used to support the overhead tram wires.

Tram rosette, Lawry Plunkett Reserve, Balmoral, May 2012 

Tram rosette, Lawry Plunkett Reserve, Balmoral, May 2012 

      ***************************************************************************** 
If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to out website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/

Secrets of Berry's Bay

Down the hills to Berry's Bay - Roland Wakelin  1916
Art Gallery of New South Wales

Inspired by a 1916 painting entitled "Down the hills to Berry's Bay" by Australian artist Roland Wakelin, we set out today to explore Berry's Bay along the Waverton Peninsula in Sydney Harbour.

We had a bit of difficulty in locating the exact spot form where Wakelin may have sat in 1916 to do his work. The area is so changed: the trees have grown, there are a lot more boats and of course there is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby Waverton Park was a popular haunt of Wakelin  and fellow artist Lloyd Rees, and yes Wakelin probably did take some artistic licence. But we did discover some very interesting history of the area. 

Berry's Bay - May 2012

We parked in Larkin Street and walked along the ridge of the present day Waverton Peninsula Reserve. Wakelin's position was probably fairly close to the spot in the photo above. But the site had had another life from its use in 1916.

BP Site - Waverton Peninsula Reserve, May 2012 showing
the remains of the main Bund Wall.   

From 1922 to 1993 it was a major oil storage facility operated successively by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Commonwealth Oil Refineries and BP Australia. It housed an extensive piece of infrastructure containing thirty-one above ground tanks and at least thirty kilometres of associated pipelines. There were bund walls, an administration building, roads and wharves -the remains of which can still be seen in various stages today.
   

Overlooking Sydney Harbour from the site -May 2012

When BP cease operations in 1993 the tanks were demolished and environmental rehabilitation commenced. The site, along with the Caltex and Coal Loader sites on the western side of the Waverton Peninsula were opened as public parkland on 12 March 2005.   

Another piece of history found in the Wakelin painting is the steam train in the upper left-hand corner. In our current photo today, you can see a Sydney suburban train. But what is this railway line and where did it go ?

It is, in fact, the 1893 extension of the North Shore Railway line from St Leonards to Milsons Point along the Sydney Harbour Foreshore. Before the coming of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the original station at Milsons Point was located near the site of the present northern pylon. Passengers were transported to Sydney by ferry. 

Most of the North Shore line was duplicated between 1900 and 1900 but was not electrified until 1927. Hence our steam train.

When construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge commenced, the southern terminus of the line was moved to Lavender Bay where a station was opened on 27 April 1924. New stations at North Sydney and Milsons Point were built on the northern approaches to the Bridge. After the Bridge  was opened on 19 March 1932, the North Shoreline was diverted to its current route. The Lavender Bay site became a storage depot for electric trains which remains in use today. It joins the main line today at Waverton Station. It was reduced to a single track which can be seen in the photo below.

Lavender Bay Railway Line - Munro Street overbridge
May 2012

The history of the Lavender Bay Railway is very interesting. But that is an excursion for another day!

       *****************************************************************************

If you are interested in researching Australian history, go to out website at:
http://www.historyservices.com.au/