A general map for overseas 'visitors' to this webpage (Hello Richard!) showing where Penrith/Castlereagh and Australia are.  This map is probably not much needed for most people in Sydney, as just about everyone knows where Castlereagh is.   However it is also of some interest for showing the 'tentacles' of urbanisation that spread out from the 'sea of suburbia' that is Greater Sydney.   People who 'fly in' to Sydney sometimes remark on the big useage of red roofing tiles.   Most of these tiles are today made from the Londonderry Clay, quarried just north of Castlereagh.   Nature and the past are in retreat as Greater Sydney's spread everywhere advances, however notice that a lage "Castlereagh Nature Reserve" survives - this is a prominent green blob is you look at satellite views of the Cumberland Plain west of Sydney.

 

Currently the 'being developed' themes on this webpage include where members of the Byrnes family actually lived/worked in the area (two having been located along Farrell's Creek at the eastern side of the floodplain - James Byrnes in residence(?) at Nepean Street, till 1930; and Samuel Byrnes as a significant farmer alongside this same creek a little further south near where the Penrith glass factory was later built.   Also of interest has been search for a 'lost lagoon' that is prominent on all old maps of the area but which nobody seemed to know anything about.   Current conclusion is that the lagoon has became site of the city's sewerage treatment efforts. 

This webpage was created to hold unsorted notes and thoughts, some of which may be wrong or total 'dead ends', collected by John (contact john "@" ozemail.com.au) who is interested to receive almost any facts at all on the past [who lived where, what they did, any pictures?] especially in regard to the area called Upper Castlereagh.    This area became what is also called 'the largest sand and gravel quarry in Australia' and the voids from the sand and gravel extraction end up water-filled as the "Penrith Lakes".

What's herein, as described above, could be called just 'working notes'.   As I get more info enabling me to firm up or clean up this or that aspect, then that rendered-more-certain aspect will probably be put somewhere more appropriate.   In particular, in 2009 a day of "Castlereagh Talks" was held (at the Wesleyan church hall, Upper Castlereagh) and about eight themes on the past were mulled over or recognised there by attendees/speakers.   Those themes will be systematised and developed and this might end up as the writer's principal series of webpages on such things.

To see about the 'Castlereagh Talks', please go to:   http://www.geo-sites.zoomshare.com/files/Castlereagh-5Sep09-talks.htm

Upper Castlereagh was once prime farming land.  It later became quarrying land, and still later it is now being encoached upon by urban development.   Urban development, the "Waterside" project by Stocklands, is now right on the doorstep of the still rural-looking land where the last known of the Byrnes'es in the district, James Byrnes, probably died in 1930.

There have been at least three numbering systems started for interesting things around Penrith,  viz. the below table.   One comes from Regional Environment Study, one comes from the "Penrith Lakes Scheme Regional Environmental Study: History of European settlement" prepared by F. Bently and J. Birmingham in 1983, and the third numbering comes from the Local Environment Plan of the Council.   

Site numbering - Unfortunately  the writer does not have any comprehensive maps to include herein for showing

where all the district's sites lie.   It is hoped to rectify this in future.

 

Numerous sources have been presused and yielded snippets included on this webpage.   One good source for knowing about the past is always Councils' heritage studies.   Penrith Council has so far commissioned two such studies.  The last was in 2007, by Paul Davies Pty. Ltd. (Architects, Heritage Consultants).   The writer hopes to meet Paul for a chat about the challenges of past records etc.  The lack of exact place certainty throughout the old records is a constant difficulty for anyone trying to piece records together or 'make sense' of them.  Any student of the past will have experienced the frustration of this.   In the subject area names like Castlereagh/Cranebrook/Mt Pleasant have been used fluidly and people of such dwelling might also have been called people of Nepean (presumably if on the floodplain or close to the river), or of the Evan district (a broader term).    Street or road numbering did not come till rather late, and even then was sometimes confusing - plus many former street and lane names have disappeared.   Besides the general 'looseness' or 'flexibility' of place names, and the confusion of "relocating" roads and creeks, there is possibly just outright mistakes made from time to time.  For example, when the patriarchal Samuel Byrnes died, aged 89, in 1917 the Nepean Times newspaper did a fine orbituary but stated that he was buried at Kingswood.   He actually is buried with other family at Upper Castlereagh and one might think that by no stretch of the imagination should Upper Castlereagh be called Kingswood.    The name "Kingswood" in modern street directories is applied to an area east of Penrith and on  the southern side of the Great Western Highway - yet look at the 'Penrith development areas' map (see below) of the 50s/60s and you will see the name 'Kingswood' applied around the SW corner of the 1882 land sale area then termed "Mt Pleasant".   Yes, 'most confusing indeed'!   That earlier use of 'Kingswood' perhaps happened  because land within the large grant to Phillip Parker King (1821/1831, in part leased 'Commons') may have been forested shale lands called somehow "King's wood[land]".  In some such very vague/general sense of King's 'wood', Samuel Burns/Byrnes could even have been thought, by the generally very well informed author of his obituary (an anonymous/uncertain personage named 'Narrator'?)  to have lived or died at 'Kingswood', although he most certainly was not buried there as his grave stone at Upper Castlereagh is well known and preserved.  Regarding the 'Kingswood' name usage north of Penrith, there is a note in Davies (2007) "The vast and now largely industrial area to the north of Coreen Avenue retains in part a subdivision w hich was established in the mid-nineteenth century for tenant farms by the McHenry family. This area formed part of the Lambridge Estate which includes the low lying wetland which is now the Kingswood Park reserve".   Although modern street directories usually show park and reserves with their names, this name "Kingswood Park reserve" has not been found in any directory consulted.   It cannot be far from what is discussed herein under the name of the "Lost Lagoon".   Also in the Sydway Sydney street directory, the nearby community centre west of Illawong Avenue is named "Kingswood Park Community Centre".

Even the Byrnes family itself got pretty confused over the space of only a few generations living around Castlereagh/Penrith.   Samuel's death was recorded by his son Henry.   Henry wrongly thought that Samuel's father had been James Byrnes who had been a government soldier (no doubt mixing things up with the well known government soldier settler of Castlereagh John Lees, who also is ancestor of Henry and other children of Samuel via his second wife Eliza Gorman.   Perhaps by the time Samuel died at such an old age (91) none of the Byrnes'es even knew or remembered that they came from a David Burns/Byrnes, the Irish exile who arrived on the Friendship that transported a shipload of deemed Rebels  in the aftermath of the great but unsuccesful uprising of 1798?   Other anomalies exist for Samuel.   He really died aged 91 but his family must have thought he was 89, which is what is on the death certificate.   His age is likewise lowered by two years like this on his third marriage certification.   Perhaps it was Samuel himself who forgot his age?    After his marriage to Ellen Nicholas (nee Shaw) he went to live at her house in Cambridge Park, just a little to the east of Lemongrove where he had first acquired land.

The writer, John Byrnes, has long been interested in the land around Castlereagh (Upper Castlereagh / Cranebrook) where a concentration of the particular Byrnes family lived that he belongs to (from union of David Burns with Ann Reffin/Ralphin).

Although many Byrnes'es over time were born and lived at 'Castlereagh', just exactly where they lived and worked (most often 'farmed') has been very hard to pin down.   The Byrnes'es for some still uncertain reason converged ca. 1838 probably on Birds Eye Bend land, just south of the Wesleyan Methodist church which still survives there.   There is oral history passed on of a Byrnes' bull getting through the northern fence line there of a property along Sheen's Lane, by a young Kirkness who used to holiday there - showing the Byrnes'es certainly did farm there.   However the first definite evidence of the Byrnes'es leasing/working any sizeable holding or actually owning any land comes only much later in the 1890s.    By then both Samuel Byrnes and James had land along Farrell's Creek that runs northwards along the eastern flank of the floodplain flats.   Samuel was leasing sixty acres, and if it was being actively utilised this probably makes Samuel the biggest farmer ever of the Byrnes'es there.    It would seem likely that he would have worked or used the land  with assistance of his sons, as his son William Taylor Byrnes also worked with him in a shop the family ran on the High Street of Penrith (not far from the railway station).    Samuel's leased land is believed to have been east of Castlereagh Road and south of Andrews Street, where the Penrith glass factory was later built.    

These current notes are about the general past of the Castlereagh and nearby river flats area - with a particular long-running interest in finding out exactly where did early Byrnes'es of the writer's family live.    Generally they were 'farmers' or agricultural workers in their lives/work there, it is thought - although one or a few relatives may have also worked in other capacities (e.g. some at the Parkers slaughter yard which had existed over many years a little distance north of the Wesleyan church of Upper Castlereagh on Castlereagh Road (now renamed as Old Castlereagh Road).   Samuel did not buy any of the freehold subdivisions (5-10 acres) around there, and likely could not afford such.    The first land he actually bought was household block size land, when a close housing subdivision occurred 

at Lemongrove just north of Penrith.    Another subdivision sale, to small house blocks, occurred in the late 1800s at Farrell's Creek at the northern side of Nepean Street - the next main E-W street north of Samuel's leasehold farm on Andrews Street, and here his grandson James bought some adjoining blocks.   James, a farmer,  presumably lived here besides Farrell's Creek.  He died in 1930.

 

Besides where the Byrnes people lived the writer is generally also interested in the land - how it formed, and how it has been transforming over time as the area undergoes intensive change.   The largest change is due to quarrying, with Upper Castlereagh having developed into the largest sand and gravel quarry in Australia.   The lakes left after the quarrying, Penrith Lakes, are a very major change to the character of the land.   They also attract 'Lakeside' intense development and some of that has been happening along Farrell's Creek between the former James and Samuel land holdings.   Another 'watery' point of interest has been what happened to the large lagoon shown of the floodplain in all early maps around Penrith.   It would seem that this area has turned into the Penrith sewerage treatment works.    As this receives waste water from a large area, treats it, and discharges to the Nepean River (where the same water may be pumped out further downstream for consumption) this 'lost lagoon' place remains an important focus in the story of water.

 

The other interest of the writer has been to encourage responsible and capable people or organisations, like Councils, to take a more systematic approach to recording things of the past, especially subsurface things.

What's under Penrith?    The past can be known from libraries - to a degree.   The 'older' past is also to be found in the subsurface.  Penrith council officers in the course of their duties, as well as others, often do take sporadic photos of holes (such as this hole in 2003 at the Penrith Valley Art Community Precinct.   Sporadic photos are interesting, and may sometimes be informative even without explanation or notes. However, all  proposals to date that the Council take a systemmatic approach to recording the subsurface around Penrith have not met with any favour. What's below the surface should be of particular interest to geologists, archaeologists and others interested in deciphering the past.

 

 

THE NEPEAN 'DISCOVERED'

The river of course was long known to earlier inhabitants (and archaeologist Fr. Eugene Stockton some years back formed the opinion that Upper Castlereagh was the then oldest known human 'site' in Australia - viz. http://www.geo-sites.zoomshare.com/files/stockton-uc-5Sep09.htm ).

However, its European discovery came in 1789 when Captain William Trench, pressing west from Prospect Hill, came upon it.  Tench crossed the "trackless immeasurable desert, in awful silence" which is today called the Cumberland Plain/s, and across which the motorist of today may speed towards Penrith at 100 kph or more on the western motorway which parallels the earlier Great Western Highway.

Tench (1758-1833) came to Australia with the First Fleet and was an officer in the Royal Marines.   He became the discoverer of the Nepean River and the Castlereagh/Penrith area, in 1789.   He and others probably gazed over the Castlereagh river flats (if these are visible from Richmond Hill) on a slightly earlier trip up the Hawkesbury River (at that time not known to connect with the soon to be named Nepean River).

Thus Europeans first entered the Penrith area some 11 years before any probably began to live/squat there.  Governor Phillip had led exploring parties to probe outlying regions where the English had never before visited.   They could see from Sydney or near there that to the west was a barrier of mountains or hills, the Blue Mountains which were at first called "the Carmarthen Hills (after the then Secretary of State for the Foreign Office)".   Other names may also have been used, such as 'Lansdowne Hills' for the southern extension.   Up the northern or Hawkesbury end of this 'range' (the front of the Blue Mountains which is a sharp escarpment along the faulted/monoclinal "Lapstone Structural Zone") Phillip noted one mountain that he called Richmond Hill.   Phillip quite correctly guessed that a large river would run out of or along the foot of these mountains.   This was soon confirmed and it got named the Nepean.   On 22 April 1788, Phillip with others set off up Sydney Harbour and along the Parramatta River heading directly west.   Nobody then knew where the Parramatta River came from but it was soon discovered that it petered out fairly soon and certainly was not coming from the mountains on the distant western skyline.   At first a party continued westwards on foot towards the mountains, but they returned after five days.  In that time they had got half way through their provisions without getting even close to the mountains so considered it unsafe to press on.

Later on, exploration went up the coast and into the Hawkesbury via Broken Bay and thence headed westwards.   By June 1789 Phillip and party had reached and climbed Richmond Hill.   From there they possibly were the first Europeans to looked upon the site of the later City of Penrith, although there would have been nothing particularly noteworthy in the southwards vista about that spot at the time.    The party on this occasion had travelled along the Hawkesbury River ‘between 60 and 70 miles, when the farthest progress of the boats was stopped by a fall’. This was later named Yarramundi Falls (perhaps really just rapids?) near what was later named Agnes Banks.   This spot, near  the mouth of the Grose River, is today the northern limit of Penrith LGA (local government area).

Wrote Captain Watkin Tench, who was an excellent chronicler, "‘Close to the falls stands a very beautiful hill, ‘which our adventurers mounted and enjoyed from it an extensive prospect.  Potatoes, maize and garden seeds of various kinds were put into the earth, by the Governor’s order, on different parts of Richmond-hill, which was announced to be its name. Here also the river received the name of Hawkesbury, in honour of the noble lord who bears that title".

Only a few days after Phillip returned from Richmond Hill, he dispatched Tench, Mr. Assistant Surgeon Arndell, and Mr. Lowes (Surgeon’s mate of the Sirius), along with two marines and a convict servant, to again press directly overland and do follow-up examination along the mountainous front.   This would be the trip that 'discovered' the Nepean River at or near present day Penrith.  They left the Rose Hill (Parramatta) outpost at daybreak on 26 June 1789 and reached the river early the following day after camping possibly somewhere near it.   Tench's account of their trip is below.

 

Captain Watkin Tench, soldier-explorer-chronicler - from a miniature painting, per Mitchell Library (original in England)

To read more about the discovery, see - Watkin Tench, The Settlement at Port Jackson, Chapter 5 - at http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/tench/watkin/settlement/chapter5.html

The most pertinent part, for the Penrith/Castlereagh area, is as below (the outpost of Rose Hill as referred to therein is now the City of Parramatta):

""""""

At this period, I was unluckily invested with the command of the outpost at Rose Hill, which prevented me from being in the list of discoverers of the Hawkesbury. Stimulated, however, by a desire of acquiring a further knowledge of the country, on the 26th instant, accompanied by Mr. Arndell, assistant surgeon of the settlement, Mr. Lowes, surgeon’s mate of the ‘Sirius’, two marines, and a convict, I left the redoubt at day-break, pointing our march to a hill, distant five miles, in a westerly or inland direction, which commands a view of the great chain of mountains, called Carmarthen hills, extending from north to south farther than the eye can reach. Here we paused, surveying “the wild abyss; pondering our voyage.” Before us lay the trackless immeasurable desert, in awful silence. At length, after consultation, we determined to steer west and by north, by compass, the make of the land in that quarter indicating the existence of a river. We continued to march all day through a country untrodden before by an European foot. Save that a melancholy crow now and then flew croaking over head, or a kangaroo was seen to bound at a distance, the picture of solitude was complete and undisturbed. At four o’clock in the afternoon we halted near a small pond of water, where we took up our residence for the night, lighted a fire, and prepared to cook our supper: that was, to broil over a couple of ramrods a few slices of salt pork, and a crow which we had shot.

At daylight we renewed our peregrination; and in an hour after we found ourselves on the banks of a river, nearly as broad as the Thames at Putney, and apparently of great depth, the current running very slowly in a northerly direction. Vast flocks of wild ducks were swimming in the stream; but after being once fired at, they grew so shy that we could not get near them a second time. Nothing is more certain than that the sound of a gun had never before been heard within many miles of this spot.

We proceeded upwards, by a slow pace, through reeds, thickets, and a thousand other obstacles, which impeded our progress, over coarse sandy ground, which had been recently inundated, though full forty feet above the present level of the river. Traces of the natives appeared at every step, sometimes in their hunting-huts, which consist of nothing more than a large piece of bark, bent in the middle, and open at both ends, exactly resembling two cards, set up to form an acute angle; sometimes in marks on trees which they had climbed; or in squirrel-traps*; or, which surprised us more, from being new, in decoys for the purpose of ensnaring birds. These are formed of underwood and reeds, long and narrow, shaped like a mound raised over a grave; with a small aperture at one end for admission of the prey; and a grate made of sticks at the other: the bird enters at the aperture, seeing before him the light of the grate, between the bars of which, he vainly endeavours to thrust himself, until taken. Most of these decoys were full of feathers, chiefly those of quails, which shewed their utility. We also met with two old damaged canoes hauled up on the beach, which differed in no wise from those found on the sea coast.

[*A squirrel-trap is a cavity of considerable depth, formed by art, in the body of a tree. When the Indians in their hunting parties set fire to the surrounding country (which is a very common custom) the squirrels, opossums, and other animals, who live in trees, flee for refuge into these holes, whence they are easily dislodged and taken. The natives always pitch on a part of a tree for this purpose, which has been perforated by a worm, which indicates that the wood is in an unsound state, and will readily yield to their efforts. If the rudeness and imperfection of the tools with which they work be considered, it must be confessed to be an operation of great toil and difficulty.]

Having remained out three days, we returned to our quarters at Rose-hill, with the pleasing intelligence of our discovery. The country we had passed through we found tolerably plain, and little encumbered with underwood, except near the river side. It is entirely covered with the same sorts of trees as grow near Sydney; and in some places grass springs up luxuriantly; other places are quite bare of it. The soil is various: in many parts a stiff and clay, covered with small pebbles; in other places, of a soft loamy nature: but invariably, in every part near the river, it is a coarse sterile sand. Our observations on it (particularly mine, from carrying the compass by which we steered) were not so numerous as might have been wished. But, certainly, if the qualities of it be such as to deserve future cultivation, no impediment of surface, but that of cutting down and burning the trees, exists, to prevent its being tilled.

To this river the governor gave the name of Nepean. The distance of the part of the river which we first hit upon from the sea coast, is about 39 miles, in a direct line almost due west.   

""""""

Governor Phillip the area ‘Evan’ and the River ‘Nepean’. after Sir Evan Nepean, the Under-Secretary of the Home Department in Britain.  Sir Evan Nepean had overseen the arrangements for the First Fleet which established the Sydney settlement and penal colony.  It took till 1791 to positively establish that the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers were one and the same river, but this of course would have been suspected.  Tench himself led a second party back in August 1790 and wrote: "Little doubt now subsisted that the Hawkesbury and the Nepean were one river".    Settlers/squatters/hunters would have followed and some think.    Most 'evidence' is that earliest European presence happened at Birds Eye Bend (Upper Castlereagh) and it has been suggested settler outpost activities reached here as early as early as 1797, but the Government made no official grants there till 1803/1805.  The main claim of early settlement at Bird’s Eye Corner by 1800 comes from J. T. Ryan, whose grandfather Anthony Rope was an early settler, in his book Reminiscences of Australia  (only published when he was an old man in 1894).  Ryan's book states that by the time of the first grants issued by Governor King most of the land there was ("and amongst those who settled down in that corner were Jacob Russell, Pearce Collett, Randel’s, Rope’s, Collis’s, Field’s, McCarthy’s, Lewis’s, Frederick’s and Morris’s, and from intermarriage raised large families, so that they were almost all one family").

Because Tench records he was heading west "and by north" he may have come to the end of the plains just north of where Penrith is and the pond where he camped might even have been the main 'lagoon' of the alluvial tract.   But probably it was not and it could have been any other smaller pond.   The next morning it took them, after breaking camp, an hour's "peregrination" to find the deep river, so maybe they'd camped somewhat further east than on the floodplain?   After hitting the river they then followed it for some distance upstream and noted evidence that the river had recently flooded to a height of fully forty feet higher; and also that there was evidence 'at every step' that this stretch of the river was well inhabited by the native 'Indians'.    This stupendous periodic flooding along the river no longer happens, as the river has since been dammed at Warragamba in  the gorge, and the City of Sydney makes a tremendous demand on the water.   Mostly there is not a great amount of water flow left today to make its way over the weir at Penrith (a major observation/study point on the river) and at that point the old 'lost lagoon' that is today a sewerage works pours in a swift stream (Boundary Creek) that has often caused expressions of some concern about downstream water quality for drinking etc.   This has lead to many studies of the water situation along the river.   Some of the conflicting ideas on what's best to do, re maintaining "environmental flows" along the Nepean, on greater Sydney's inevitable population growth and strengthening demand on the Nepean water from Warragamba (competing with dam releases for 'environmental flow), and what best to do with waste water from the Nepean treatment works, are briefly mentioned herein.  

 

The earth 'scar' that is Upper Castlereagh (river flats of the Nepean River) is clearly visible from space and is the distinctly

coloured equant blob seen here just west of centre and north of Penrith.(between the numbers 32 and 9).  The reason

 the area appears as so prominent a 'scar' is because this had become the largest sand and gravel quarry in

Australia.   The present writer lives near Croydon seen in the lower right of the above view.

 

 

   

 

At left is the beautiful Nepean River gorge - a view of the river as it leaves its sandstone confines in the Blue Mountains and heads full bore for Penrith - only to be 'stopped' by the big bends at the Penrith weir and Birds Eye Corner

where the river clogged up totally with gravel.   (... there's a suspect climate change story in all this.)

At right is the view looking back upstream from Penrith weir.   (Photos:  Stuart Khan).

Stuart Khan, a water researcher (research fellow) in Environmental Engineering who took the above photos, writes of this stretch of the Nepean "One of the best-known views of the Nepean River is that from the Nepean Rowing Club, beside the Victoria Bridge. This photo was taken from the boat ramp behind the club and is facing back upstream towards Warragamba.  A few hundred meters downstream from the Nepean Rowing Club is Penrith Weir. The weir helps to maintain stable volume upstream. It was built in 1909 to provide Penrith with a permanent water supply. The weir forms a long pool on the upstream side of it, which extends for a distance of around 18 km and holds around 6000 ML of water. Dry weather flow releases from Warragamba Dam typically have a residence time in the weir pool of around 6 months".

Stuart's idea that the weir has formed the long 18 km stretch of deep water river extending upstream is one that is commonly held.   However all historical indications are that this is not so.   The weir certainly raises water level by a small height, which does amount to a vast amount of extra stored water, however it did not form the deep then shallowing downstream configuration.   That is original and the weir was merely built across the river at the pre-existing natural transition point.

Stuart continues "As we go further downstream, this area around Emu Plains is particularly degraded and suffers from a lack of water flow" - Ah, yes it IS very shallow but Stuart adds "The river reach has been significantly modified due to sand and gravel mining, producing artificial low flow velocities".   This is not so, that the mining (gravel extraction) has produced artificial low flow.   The earliest records indicate that the river always shallowed across gravel here.   And the spots of the weir and the Birds Eye Bend (Jackston's falls) were called "falls" (rapids or gurgles over very shallow gravel banks) and these were the traditional first crossing places of the river, prior to major bridge building.

Stuart, and anyone else, also notices that further downstream as here seen at Yarramundi bridge, the river again narrows and the bed becomes quite pebbly.  He notes that this is another major zone of the river that has been affected by in-stream gravel extraction, which occurred here between 1927 and 1989.

Again this confuses (reverses) cause and effect.   These gravel extraction operations have not been the cause of river shallowings, rather the gravel miners have gone to the places where gravel has naturally shallowed the river.   The Yarramundi bridge area gravel accumulation is somehow related to this being where the Grose River mouth is on the Nepean.   The natural history story along the Nepean is no doubt complicated but these 'popular' ideas show how little there is even any rudimentary appreciation of what really has happened in the history of this great river.

 

The Grose River mouth.   Photo by Stuart Khan who noted "A large rain event, which occurred a week prior to the below photograph deposited a large amount of silt in the lower reaches of the river. This photo is taken from Navua Reserve,

a few hundred meters upstream from the Hawkesbury. In low flow conditions, the Grose River contributes around 60 ML/day".   The whole area of the Grose River mouth has actually been greatly man-modified, and

sediments may not be as natural as many would assume.   

 

 

THE MANY WATER BODIES OF FLOODPLAINS NEAR PENRITH

The alluvial land around Penrith-Castlereagh was formerly prime farming and orchard lands.

The usual/typical development of land everywhere is to go through three stages:

* Primary production place - agriculture or other primary industries.

* Then it may become industrial land.

* And finally, as population and land values increase, it is (often after various forms of 'remediation' to address industrial leftovers) it gets converted to dense living space - called 'urbanisation'.

This 'general story' well enough applies to the river flats of the Nepean River valley, with development spreading out from centres, the biggest of which is the town, later City, of Penrith.

Many water bodies will remain on the plains, the biggest of which will be the "Penrith Lakes" that are the voids left after the quarrying of Upper Castlereagh (which became eventually the largest sand and gravel quarry in Australia).

The maintenance of these water bodies in good ecological standing can potentially be at problem.    If they go stagnant, the surface of small water bodies can totally coat over with luxuriant growth of algae and small water weeds, to the general detriment of other life forms.   One answer to that is to aerate the water - hence more and more bubbling 'springs' or aerators are seen over the years 'popping up' at water bodies around Penrith.    The below one (Penrith Council photograph in 2003) was at a duck pond on Castlereagh Road opposite the Milk Factory, installed to operated every day from dawn till dusk.   Such aerators present a pretty or charming aspect for ponds, and also have proved very effective in combatting the obnoxious water weed growth.   Hence their use and popularity has been on the increase.

Although the plains around Penrith has a myriad (and ever-increasing) number of water bodies, there is but one that is outstanding in historic terms - as being the large lagoon shown on the early maps of Penrith area (e.g. Map No. A.O. 809 at NSW Archives, of the early Nepean River land grants).  

There have been many plans to modify water bodies.   Some of the earliest planning signalled relatively little change but in the event change has been large, viz: 

"""""

Author(s): Kinhill Pty Ltd Year Of Publication: 1981

Title: Penrith Lakes Scheme: Interim Extraction and Rehabilitation Program: Environmental Impact Statement  

Place Of Publication: Penrith Pages: 248  

Location: Penrith Lakes Stream: Nepean

Objectives: To prepare an environmental impact statement for the interim extraction and rehabilitation program at Penrith Lakes ,

Findings: In the proposed Penrith Lakes Scheme some minor relocation of Cranebrook and McCarthys Creeks is proposed in a design that will ensure continuity of flow for downstream users along Cranebrook Creek System. No alteration of Farrells Creek is proposed. However flows which exceed the capacity of this floodway may be diverted into an existing quarry pit to provide a measure of flood mitigation and groundwater aquifer recharge. The Penrith Lakes Basin is subject to flooding from the Nepean River and from its own catchment. In general, the Basin drains in a northerly direction by way of three main creeks- Cranebrook, McCarthys and Farrells Creeks. There will be no alteration to the existing bank levels during quarrying or portions adjacent to the Nepean River. In the event of a flood with a recurrence interval in excess of 100 years, the floodwaters would be permitted to enter the quarry areas and would eventually pass through the natural floodways in the floodplain area.

""""""

NB:   What the 'McCarthys Creek' referred to above is remains unknown - possibly just a small westwards-flowing branch of Cranebrook Creek which no longer exists(?).   The plans for the quarrying over the Upper Castlereagh alluvial plain no doubt changed over time.  Thus, as for the abovementioned "some minor relocation" of Cranebrook Creek, the fact is that this 'famous' creek is now totally vanished.   And as for "No alteration of Farrells Creek is proposed", it may be noted that now the lower end of that too is now gone, and that the 'Lakeside Estate' (later known as 'Waterside'), as discussed hereing, has 'relocated' a segment of the orginal Farrells Creek (exactly where Farrells Creek goes/went upstream from there at present remains uncertain and in future it will likely just become underground drainage pipes upstream from the glass factory area(?).

 

CONSIDERING THE EARLIEST, AND THE LARGEST, LANDHOLDINGS

Where it all began - ? - the Fulton church-school land blocks.  In the Davies (2007) heritage study this is called

"C-15 Site of Fulton’s church and school, 184-194 Church Street, SHI 2260031 - The site of Rev. Henry Fulton’s church-school which was erected around 1814 within the original towns hip of Castlereagh and was demolished in 1870. The ruins of the foundations are reputed to be extant and thus provide a valuable insight into this early colonial experiment in town planning.   However site investigation of the area did not reveal the ruins or any evidence of the building. Despite this the site should remain on the heritage schedule."

Site "C-15" is also the two square blocks seen just west of the "1" number in the map immediately below.   Verbal tradition is that people HAVE in the past dug here and found some bricks at shallow depth.   There was also said to be a small pit with some brick fragments somewhere on the land, showing where someone had dug.   However walking over this vacant land briefly found no evidence of this.   Also, whether what is in Davies 2007 as above is in some doubt.   Application was made to the NSW Government for some modest support in 2010 to endeavour to get to the bottom of the historically important matter of just where exactly was the house of Reverend Henry Fulton - the Glebe house built on instruction by William Cox, and given to the Reverend Fulton but the Governor soon after completion.   This parsonage house was a costly public expenditure for the times but it was inspected by the Governor who in the end was well pleased with the result.   It had a well dug for it, a feature unlikely to be obliterated (just filled in probably) and that might be findable with ground penetrating radar or by other means (?). 

 

Grants - 'Cranebrook - north Penrith'

Grants - Penrith area

               

No.	'Penrith area' - Grantees	Name of holding	Area	Date of Grant
1	Mary Collett		70 acres	1st July, 1803
2	Robert Westmere		80 acres	30th June, 1803
3	Thomas Appledore		100 acres	Not yet learned of - July 1803 received 50 acres in the District of Evan
4	William Neate Chapman	Lambridge	1300 acres	10th February, 1804
5	Phillip Parker King	Saint Stephens	1500 acres (in part 'Commons' under lease from 1821)	19th October, 1831
6	Sarah MacHenry	Lemon Grove is here	100 acres	6th June, 1834 ( appl.1821)
7	John Best	Hornseywood	470 acres	2nd January, 1814
8	Daniel Woodriff	Rodley Farm	1000 acres	1st February, 1804

No.	'Cranebrook - north Penrith area' - Grantees	Name of holding	Area	Date of Grant
1		Castlereagh town reserve		1811
2		Glebe	40 acres	c. 1811
3	?Later acquired, Rev. Fulton	More Glebe land	400 acres	Not yet learned of
4	Thomas Biggers		100 acres	10th May, 1809
5	William Baker		140 acres	20th  May, 1809
6	Nathanel Lawrence		70 acres	13th Jan, 1818
7	George Peacock		150 acres	Not yet learned of
8	Willliam Neate Chapman	Lambridge	1300 acres	10 Feb, 18 Dec, 1805

Accumulating information on major grants (names, dates, grantees) in two areas, at Penrith and directly north

from there.    A good clear map for the more westerly early grants at Upper Castlereagh area is yet to be

obtained (note there is one unclear or 'fuzzy' copy below in the section dealing with the 'lost lagoon'.  .

Also omitted here is the important holding of "Mt Pleasant" which Samuel Terry amassed, for

at present the boundaries of Terry's built-up holdings are not known.

 

One important estate which is not shown in outline yet is that of Samuel Terry.   He bought up various lands to form a growing holding, and probably acquired much of the original Lambridge land, or at least the northern fringe of it.   Details, however, are still largely unknown of land transfers.

 

The major landholders in the above tables are discussed herein, like Woodriff, Chapman, McHenry (as well as Terry).   Who were the lesser ones in the tables?

 

Who was  Mary Collett -  On 1 July, 1803 Mary Collett received a land grant at 'Birds Eye Corner' and by 1806 had 11 acres under cultivation.   Little more is found under the name Collett or Collets, but try Collits.  This yields

( http://www.megalongcc.com.au/Ambermere/JOSEPH_COLLITS.htm ) that the family of Pierce and Mary Collits (five or so children born at Castlereagh) all lived in a  small slab cottage 'on the banks of the river at Birds Eye Corner' (or more likely on the Castlereagh road?).   Pierce was officially a convict, but happily was assigned to work for his wife.   Pierce had been transported on the Minorca and wife Mary had managed to come with him with her two daughters, carrying the status of free settler.  Mary was given the 70 acres of land as this was the entitlement system for free settlers (i.e. 20 acres for Mary and 20 acres each for the two girls to provide for their future) (it is a puzzle why the extra 10 acres was granted as convict Pierce would have had no land entitlement).  Pierce & Mary’s neighbours were  Edward Field who lived two blocks away,  Robert Sherringham,  John Harris,  James Morris,  Thomas Markwell, Robert Williams and Nathaniel Norton.   Later on their son Joseph married married Mary Anne Field at Castlereagh.  The family left Birds Eye Bend for Hartley Valley, running an inn there.

 

Who was Robert Westmere -  At first nothing could be found for 'Robert Westmere' (but see the ?mispelling 'Westmore farm' below).  Once search shifted to 'Westmore' it was found that Robert has a similar story as for the better known settler Thomas Appledore (below).   He was convicted at Southampton, arrived as a convict on the Admiral Barrington in 1791, and like Appledore, appears to have enlisted in the NSW Corps.  He is believed to have enlisted in 1794 and he was discharged on 10 April 1803.  Westmore received his land grant of 80 acres on 30 June 1803.   Why he received only 80 acres when Appledore had 100 acres (but other mentions suggest Appledore was initially granted only 50 acres?). ["Eighty Acres of Land in the District of Evan, bounded on the West Side by Collett's and,Stanyard's Farms, and on the East Side by Appledore Farm, on the  River Nepean - known by the Name of Westmore Farm" Sydney Gazette.].   Some other Gazzetted mentions of Robert Westmore can be found.   In 1841 

 

Who was Thomas Appledore - Thomas Appledore is a relatively well known resident of Birds Eye Bend, and his life has been researched by John Mitchell of Woking in Surrey ( d-mitchell@lineone.net ).   Thomas was baptised on Christmas Day 1767 at the Parish Church of St Stephen-by-Saltash in east Cornwall.   He later worked as a labourer in the Victualling Yards at Devonport Dock.  There he was accused of stealing 22 shillings’ worth of copper sheathing from His Majesty’s Dockyard at Devonport and he was tried for this on 15^th July 1799 at Exeter.  He was found guilty of stealing copper and sentenced to transportation.   Appledore was held in Exeter Gaol from 17 July 1799 to 12th Feb 1800 (30 weeks), awaiting transportation.  In 1800 he was transferred to the hulks, the overcrowded and insanitary floating prisons for those awaiting transportation.  From there he left for New South Wales on 26th August 1800, on the convict transport vessel Earl Cornwallis.   Appledore's imprisonment lead to his wife Anne (née Jagoe), and their three children (Richard, Thomas and Ann Jagoe) going on the poor list of the Parish of St Stephens-by-Saltash.  The Poor Relief provided them with shoes, thread, general relief and firewood.  After Thomas had been transported, his wife Anne was allowed to remarry in 1802 as a "widow" - everyone apparently understood that the transported never returned.  Thomas's sentence of 7 years would have been due to have been  completed in 1806.  However, July 1803 he was given a grant of 50 acres in the District of Evan as a "discharged soldier".  This shows that at some time, when on the hulks or in transport, or after arrival, Thomas had agreed to join the military, the NSW Corps.   This was common, that soldiers like the NSW Corps were recruited from gaols or convicts.

 

The List of Land Grants 1788 – 1809, page 134, signed by the then Governor Philip Gidley King, shows that Thomas was rated "I" ( = Industrious),  as opposed to "W.L" ( = Worthless and Lazy).

His Grant of Land is described in a list available on microfilm in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.  It was given on 1^st July 1803; a 'free'hold grant but nonetheless still with a quit/rent string attached, apparently, in the form of  2s 6d rent becoming payable exactly 5 years thereafter.  The location of the grant was given as: "Bounded on the W. Side by Westmore Farm on the River Nepean".   He is recorded as farming 100 acres by 1832.

Thomas turns up as employed by the Deputy Surveyor General, George Evans, as one of the exploration party that beyond the Blue Mountains in 1815 to complete the exploration for potential grazing land  there after a passage across the mountains had been made by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson.  Evans' expedition found much rolling grassland very suitable for pasture or cultivation, and in addition discovered a new river which was named the Lachlan River.   At Philip’s Crossing, 8 km northwest on the Billimari Road out of Cowra, NSW, stands an eight foot high granite stone with a a brass plaque bearing the names of the whole party.   This includes "George Kane, alias Thomas Appledore".

Why would Thomas mount any alias to be known as George?   That's a mystery.  It's believed that the plaque's wording came from Evans's diary as transcribed in Historical Records of Australia Series 1,Vol 8, p.619, in which he wrote:

(Transciption is difficult from handwritting .. the 'Patrick Nurns' is know to have actually been Patrick Burns, a.k.a. Patrick Byrne,

an Irish convict who had been sentenced to life transportation and arrived per Archduke Charles in 1813).

 

 

The initial brass plaque near Cowra has now been replaced and slightly amended as above.

That same year, 1815, on 24^th April, Thomas married the 15 year old Susannah Davis (Thomas was aged 47, which was an unusual age difference?).   The pair were married by Reverend Henry Fulton, with James Portsmouth and Marianne Field as witnesses.  Thomas was the only member of the wedding party who could write and the others made their marks with an "x".  By the time of the Muster of 1822,  Thomas seems to have been doing well at Birds Eye Corner and had 70 acres of  his grant cleared and producing wheat, maize, and fruit.  He also had 50 hogs.  The family had at least one convict assisting them, surnamed Peneloc who had arrived on the Britannia.  In 1831, Appledore gained another convict to assist on his farm. (Return of Applications for Male Convicts, 1831).

Although Thomas' wife back in England remarried as a 'widow', one of the children eventually decided to follow the father to Australia with his family.   Richard Appledore, Thomas’s oldest son, came as a free settler with his Wife, Mary Ann (née Hodge) on the Phoebe, arriving in 1846.  John, one of their three children (Emma, Thomas and John) later was drowned in the Nepean River, in 1866.   The son Richard possibly was motivated to emigrate in 1846 in order to take up his inheritance.  Thomas Appledore died on October 22^nd 1841, and was buried at the church of St Stephen at Penrith.  By his Will he divided his land equally among his three children.   But Richared, the oldest, evidently bought out the share of the two siblings and proceeded to Australia.

Penrith Regional Library possesses a photograph, dated around 1863, of the slab house known as "The Appledore House", as likely that which had been built by Thomas and possibly taken over by his eldest son, Richard.   What happened to this house (or its timber), known to have been  standing until recently is not yet known    Most of the Appledores, by that surname, have died out and family historian John Mitchell notes that in England there is just one such Appledore family left.

John Mitchell travelled to Australia to pursue this family history and expresses a hope:  "Do I have any wishes now that I have seen Thomas’s memorial plaque at Cowra and his headstone at St Stephen’s, Penrith?  Yes indeed: I noticed on my two visits in 1996 and 2002 that many of the early settlers are commemorated in street names. But not Thomas.  He is named in brass in Cowra, but at Penrith, nothing to my knowedge. It would be a wonderful ending to my Appledore quest if that omission could be rectified someday, especially if I could be present at the opening!".

Who was  Phillip Parker King -  Phillip Parker King was a son of Governor King and a large landholder, as well as a businessman.  In 1806 his father had granted him 660 acres (267 ha) on the South Creek, near Rooty Hill. Governor Macquarie had given him another 600 acres (243 ha). He had 850 cattle, 40 horses, 1800 sheep, 100 pigs, and some forty men employed on his property by July 1822 when he sought permission to buy additional land at Rooty Hill.  Governor Brisbane offered him instead a grant of 3000 acres (1214 ha).   He was a naval surveyor and was largely absent from the colony, e.g. spending much time overseas surveying the shores of South America.  King returned to Australia in 1832, joining his wife and family at his colonial home "Dunheved" that had been built on his land grant at South Creek.

 

Who was John Best -  John Best was a convict sentenced to transportation in 1783.  He spent time at Norfolk Island till 1812 where he became a superintendent of convicts and held other positions.   He was granted 470 acres at "Evan"  in 1814 (perhaps finalised in 1817?).   On 16 June 1817 he married Rebecca, Castlereagh.   By 1828 (his age given as 71) Best had 30 of his 470 acres cleared, and owned three horses and 20 cattle.  He employed two time-expired convicts, and a ticket of leave man as labourers.  Rebecca died in 1819 at the age of 48.   A Mary Wheeler in January 1828 (then married to William Gray) claimed John Best as her father in an unsuccessful petition to Governor Ralph Darling pleading distressed circumstances when her husband was sentenced to transportation to a penal settlement.  Best, she said, was then suffering from "infirmities and old age".   On 6 March 1839 Best died a pauper at Windsor, and seems to have suffered a drastic reduction in circumstances from having lost the assistance of his son-in-law William Gray.

 

Who was Thomas Biggers - Convict, Thomas Biggers 1757-1830 (born Cavan, Ireland) eventually became one of the largest landholders in the Pitt Town area, and his 100 acre grant at Cranebrook/Castlereagh might be regarded as subsidiary.  Biggers was charged with assault on a Hawkesbury district constable in 1803; but to his credit, in the big flood of 1806 it was reported that often at the risk of his own life he saved upwards of 150 men, women, and children.  Biggers, and others with boats, were constantly employed taking the settlers families from the roofs and ridges of the houses, where many had for hours clung despairing of assistance, and expecting to be shortly washed into the watery waste (Sydney Gazette.  30th March, 1806).   Biggers was manager of a large farm for John Palmer on the Hawkesbury, and earned a reputation of being a short-tempered overseer.   He likely had interests in various directions, including up the MacDonald River, and nothing is known of activities at his Cranebrook land.  In 1808 he was taken to court over failure to honour a promisory note (Thomas Pitt v. Thomas Biggers [1808] NSWKR 3 - Court of Civil Jurisdiction -  Kemp A.J.A., 9 August 1808).   He died on 7 May 1830, aged 78, at  Windsor.  

 

Who was William Baker -  The northern boundary of the Municipality of Penrith once (1895) ran along the northern edges of the Robert Stuart's, junior, 58 acres 1 rood, Nathaniel Lawrence's 70 acres, William. Baker's 140 acres, Thomas Bigger's 100 acres, and Edwd. Field's 100 acres grants ( http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/index.asp?id=210 ). 

 

Little for certain has been found re the Baker grant but there does seem to be various snippets that suggest links to Castlereagh.   Perthaps not all these snippets relate to the same William Baker though?

 

The William Baker receiving the grant at Cranebrook was probably William Baker (1775-1829) who was a storekeeper, publican and business at Windsor, it would seem.   The land which the Hawkesbury Museum stands on, at 7 Thompson Square, Windsor, was part of grant of 12 ha to William Baker in 1800.    He had arrived in the Colony on the "Neptune" in 1790 as a 14 year old convict.   He is thought to have married Sarah Draper  (c1772-1827) and had one daughter, Sarah; and to have lived with Mary Ann Raycroft (1788-1827) and had 6 children [but could this be confusion with another William Baker and de facto wife Mary, who was speared and killed by aborigines on Elizabeth Macarthur at Camden? ... but probably not and Raycroft seems to genuinely be associated)   There is apparently a family tree book on his relatives by Lorrae Johnson ( lorrae@uqconnect.net ) which should clear things up.  Also there is a Yahoo Group where more information could be sought.  This is WilliamBaker-Neptune1790 ("This group is for descendants and related families of William BAKER, his wife Sarah DRAPER, his long time partner Mary RAYCROFT and other associated early convict and settler families. William Baker arrived on the "Neptune" with the Second Fleet of convicts to New South Wales.  Many atrocious horrors were associated with the hell-ship Neptune's 1790 voyage to the antipodes.  2010 marks the 220th anniversary of William Baker's  arrival in Australia"  Descendants Group Committee President : Bev Savill bmsavill@bigpond.com ; Secretary / Certificate Co-ordinator: Bev Borey borjobe69@bigpond.com ; Assist Sec: Beverle MacLeod bevmacl@optusnet.com.au ; Treasurer: Lorrae Johnson lorrae@uqconnect.net ; Registrar (for Family Register): Lorrae Johnson lorrae@uqconnect.net ; Reunion MC: Fr.Peter Edwards frpetermark@yahoo.com ; Publicity / Newsletter: Jenni Murphy murphy25@optusnet.com.au ; Research / Reunion Venue: Phil Moore pmo65776@bigpond.net.au ; Web Masters: Mike Bailey Rosemary Beattie).
 

Baker's connections to Castlereagh are not well know but he would have known other landholders like the nearby Samuel Terry, and also Stephen Smith.   Smith (c1760-1811) was sentenced to death in 1788 at the Nottingham Assizes for highway robbery, transmuted to transportation, and he arrived on the Surprize in 1790.   In 1791 he was sent to Norfolk Island.  In 1794 he enlisted in the NSW Corps and was returned to Sydney.   He had formed a relationship with Maria Nash (Lady Juliana, 1789) on Norfolk Island and she followed him back to Sydney.  In 1795 Smith was granted 25 acres in the Hawkesbury district which he sold to William Baker, the storekeeper at Windsor.  Smith was one of those who were discharged from the NSW Corps in March 1803 and granted 100 acres at Castlereagh.   Smith and Nash lived on their grant and suffered great losses in the 1806 floods.  Smith was killed by James Hunt in December 1811.  Hunt was convicted of manslaughter.  At the time of his death Smith was indebted to Samuel Terry who applied for the administration of his estate.   Maria Nash continued to live in the district and worked for the Collitts family, eventually dying at Castlereagh in 1833.   In the Sydney Gazette of Tuesday 22 June 1841 there also is mention of land in Richmond which had been granted to William Baker, then deceased, and by him gifted to some Smiths (not the same Smiths).   By 1812 when listed as a 'settler', Baker appeared to be operating as a land agent.  He was possibly a land dealer of some sort, and he sought an auctioneer's licence at Windsor in 1821.   Probably the same William Baker had a publican's licence in 1820 (Royal Oak, Windsor).  

 

The Baker/Smith links noted above have not been resolved.  However, it is noted above that either/both women in Baker's life (Sarah Draper and Mary Ann Raycroft) died in 1827.  Then in 1828 a Mary Ann Smith (born 1811 at Richmond to Joseph Smith and Margaret Holmes) married a William Baker.   Yet another Mary Ann Smith associated with Castlereagh is, via Colonial Secretary records, associated with the convict William Richardson, per "Elizabeth" 1816.   Richardson was in 1816 disembarked from the "Elizabeth" and forwarded to Windsor for distribution (Reel 6005; 4/3495 p.183), where he became a servant of John Gaggin.  He was probably given ticket of leave in 1824 (Reel 6027; 4/1716.1 pp.259-60) and may have moved to Castlereagh, since the following year in January 1825 he sought permission to marry at Castlereagh (Reel 6014; 4/3513 p.249).  That March, Mary Ann Smith permitted to marry Richardson & consequently assigned to him (with some dispute over services between Mr Gaggin & William Powditch).  That particular Mary Ann Smith was a convict who had arrived on the "Providence" in 1825.    

 

Who was Nathanel Lawrence -  Nothing known about this one, yet.

 

Who was George Peacock -  Who George Peacock was is not learned of, however it is clear that this land at some time got acquired by Samuel Terry who bought up a lot of large in the district.   This is found gazetted thus:  "Case No. 734— Mrs. Martha Foxiow Hosking,of Pitt-street, Sydney, by her Attorney, Parish of Castlereagh; commencing at the south-east corner of Lawrence's errant, boundedon the west by a line north 23 chains ; on thenorth by a line east 66 chains to the Richmond-road ; on the east by that road, and on the  southby a line west 61 chains.  This land was located on an order of Governor Darling, dated June 26, 1830, in favour of George Peacock, from whom it would appear it passed to the late Samuel Terry who devised it to the late Edward Terry, and  claimant is his heiress at Law. The description was inserted in the Gazette Notice of 18 May, 1839, in the name the promisee" ( http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1840/N/general/44.pdf ).  These sorts of 'Cases' were pursued in the Court of Claims, called cases of claims to land and town allotments. 

 

Castlereagh (town reserve, C-14) was one of the five towns planned and founded by Governor Macquarie in 1810.

Castlereagh town site was laid out by surveyor James Meehan in December 1810.  Like others of these towns, it was located on the higher ground, atop the escarpment of the Tertiary gravels terrace that borders the river floodplain on its eastern side.

Since 1804 or even ca. 1800 perhaps, farmers had already settled on the river flats at Birds Eye Bend (Upper Castlereagh).   Each of the river flats farmers was allocated a village allotment within the new town reserve.  The town was named after Viscount Castlereagh, the English government’s then Secretary of State for the Colonies.   The intended town of Castlereagh, which was thought would develop into the central hub for the district then called Evan, became the town that never was.   In no way was it ever a success.   The reasons for this have been well described in the general histories of the area.

A Glebe house, later given to Reverend Henry Fulton to take up residence in, was erected, beginning in 1813, by William Cox for the Government.   The value of this work w as put at £1,808 3s.   A nearby burial ground was laid out (C-16).  To the south, additional glebe land of 400 acres w as reserved for the Anglican Church, but the details of this have not been learned of and it is thought that this was later transformed into a personal grant to Rev. Fulton.   Fulton (1761-1840) and descendants acquired considerable land.  Reverend Fulton was appointed in charge of the parishes of Castlereagh and Richmond from 1814.   In 1815 he was also appointed a justice of the peace and  magistrate for the district.   He also served the later Emu Plains convict farm establishment.   Fulton opened at his premises a "Classical Academy" to providing tuition for the sons of the local farmers capable of paying the boarding fee.  Charles Tompson, the author of Australia’s first published volume of poetry, Wild Notes from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel of 1826, attended Fulton’s school and dedicated his work to his former master.

Castlereagh town reserve remained a lonely place into the 1820s, with only a blacksmith, Fulton and the academy pupils probably being resident.  When the situation of hoped for town growth had not improved by the 1840s, the unoccupied township allotments were resumed by the Government and re-offered for sale.  this also had evidently little or success.  Land to the west and north of the town reserve was apparently retained by the government as a 'Common' for pasturing stock.   Cranebrook Road was the original road linking the town with 'The Northern Road'.   From the 1840s the 'Common' land and also perhaps Fulton’s Glebe (not entirely granted to Fulton?) was subdivided by the government.  The Castlereagh cemetery reserve was also enlarged, to 38 acres, through a dedication notified in October 1903 (C-16), although this hardley seems to have been necessary as the cemetery fell out of general use.   It was in the economically depressed 1890s that the 'commons' status of much of the Crown land (in all some 1,150 acres) seems to have been revoked, in 1891.   The purpose of this is unknown, perhaps being solely to gain money for the government.  Most of this land was then subdivided into small homesteads selection blocks of about 40 acres, which were offered for sale in 1896.   A large area to the west of The Northern Road was nonetheless retained as Crow n land and dedicated at first as reserve for refuge in time of flooding.   This reserve, of 460 acres, was taken over by the Commonwealth of Australia in May 1955 for purposes associated with the construction of the high frequency civil aircraft communication facility (ASA) as part of the post-war development of Sydney airport.   This is shown as the "Air Services Australia" land on the above map.

Further south there is overlap in time between the acquisitions of Samuel Terry and, further south, the William Neate Chapman’s large grant of  1300 acres named Lambridge.   Chapman's land at first passed to the McHenry family and by 1850 had been much divided into small tenant farms.  Terry's land came to centred about his house called Mount Pleasant, but the foundation of the expanding holding can be taken as Rosetta Marsh’s grant of 150 acres of 1809 named Islington, further west.  Terry married Marsh and the two in the 1820s further acquired neighbouring grants, some of them right through to present day suburbe of Llandilo.   The holding's included Terry’s own "Terry Brook estate".   Samuel Terry's doings are very extensive and he has been called the 'the Botany Bay Rothschild' in recognition of his business activities and growing wealth.   He arrived as a convict in the colony in 1801, but  soon entered into trade and acquired extensive land holdings through money lending, etc.  With a house in Sydney, Mount Pleasant was a country house for the Terrys.  The elevated site was tastefully laid out with a two-storey house.  After Terry died in 1838, his daughter Martha and her husband, the merchant John Hosking, inherited Mount Pleasant and lived there.  Martha died at the estate in 1877 while her husband died at Penrith in 1882.  Following that, some 300 acres of the 'Mount Pleasant' estate (which Terry must have acquired from Lambridge holding part acquisition) were subdivide for sale as small farms.

The Mt. Pleasant estate by 1828 had grown to about 2,000 acres.  It had been accreted from a grant of 950 acres made to Terry in 1815 (some say 1818) plus his wife’s (Rosetta Marsh) Islington own grant of 150 acres made in 1809, and various purchases made from  neighbouring freehold grants.   Samuel Terry's marriage to the widowed Nepean landowner Rosetta Marsh in 1810 may be what helped him much consolidate his landholdings, even before Governor Macquarie granted him the further 950 acres 1818.   Samuel and Rosetta's now demolished two-storied stone homestead was located to the west of the surviving windbreak and it is believed to have been built in the 1820s with the windbreak being planted at the same time.  A visitor’s description of 1832 establishes that  the house and associated garden setting were in existence at that time.  Mt Pleasant was their main rural property but most of the time they probably spent at their Sydney house which was near or where the Sydney GPO now stands at Martin Place.   The Mount Pleasant estate was inherited by Rosetta and Samuel’s daughter Martha Hosking, the wife of the prosperous Sydney merchant John Hosking.   Martha died at the homestead in 1877.  In 1882, following her husband’s death, 300 acres of the estate was offered for auction. The homestead was demolished in the 1950s.  

Later inhabitants of the Terrys' Mt Pleasant house included Dr. Stanisch, who purchased it around 1889 with intention of converting it to a sanatorium.   By the 1920s the house was occupied by a former local alderman, W H Hand. 

At 68 Soling Crescent,  Cranebrook, a heritage item tied back to Terry's estate is a windbreak of olive trees that is regarded as a remnant near Samuel and Rosetta Terry’s 'Mount Pleasant' house of the 1820s.  The ridgeline windbreak is of olive trees (Olea europa) that are now of some scientific (horticultural botany) significance given their age and number.   They also mark a track that should be important for its historic association with the estate.  

The line of old olive trees that lead up to the Mt Pleasant home of the Terrys.  Davies (2007) notes that the old house was

"destroyed" around 1950, but that the windbreak line of olive trees (planted ca.1820) continues to live on.  This

windbreak is is heritage landscape item  (CR-3).  There also remains traces of brick paving along the track.

 

A few other records mentioning "Mt Pleasant" include court proceedings.   For example, there's court record that some pigs were alleged stolen at Mt Pleasant in 1832, although a final verdict was "not guilty" was returned.  This is as follows:

""""

From AONSW CT T152/37 SCT 34 32/163 - Transcription as follows - Pig Stealing/Larceny
In the Supreme Court, The King against Henry Snowden, William B..s and Henry Godfrey.
Witnesses: John Proctor, William Rope, James Polter and John Turner
Friday August 10 1832 Not Guilty Plea in front of J Dowling
Monday Aug 20 1832 Not Guilty Plea in front of Stephen J - Verdict: All, Not Guilty.

In the third year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord William the Fourth, by the Grace of God, of the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith.

New South Wales (to wit.) - Be it remembered, that John Kinchela, Esquire, Doctor of Laws, His Majesty's Attorney General for the Colony of New South Wales, who prosecutes for His Majesty in this Behalf, being present in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, now here, on the First Day of August in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Two at Sydney, the Colony aforesaid, informs the said Court, that Henry Snowden late of Penrith in the Colony of New South Wales Labourer, William B..s late of the same place Labourer and Henry Godfrey late of the same place Labourer on the Eighth Day of June in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty two with Force and Arms at Mount Pleasant in the Colony aforesaid, Twenty Pigs of the price of Ten pounds of the Goods and Chattels of one Samuel Terry then and there being found, then and there feloniously did steal, take, and drive away against the Form of the Statute in such case made and provided, and against the Peace of Our said Lord the King, His Crown and Dignity. Signed John Kinchela Atty General.

""""

Unfortunately all such court records of the time can be very light on with recording exactly where things happened.

Another interesting snippet which seems to be impossible to check is that Terry's convicts, the Catholic John McCernan, supposedly compained to the Catholic  church that Terry or his men forced him to attend Protestant service at Castlereagh, which would have been at the Rev. Henry Fulton's church (although Terry himself was later a Methodist).  For his protests, McCernan claimed that he had been put in stocks and later sentenced by a magistrate to fourteen days walking the tread mill.   This tread mill was presumably at the Emu Plains government (prison) farm.   This record comes from Catholic sources (E. O'Brien, 1922.  The Life and times of Archpriest John Joseph Therry; on page 63).  The government side of this matter has not been located in any form, but again according to Catholic sources another convict known as Old Carey, when working as a carpenter in a road gang at the Cowpastures refused in 1824 to attend Anglican service, and received one hundred lashes.   Catholics continued their protests and were eventually excused from having to enter the Anglican churches - the very Devil's houses perhaps to some Catholics.   Unfortunately, in the Colonial Secretary's papers (indexed for 1788-1825) there are Thomas McKernen records but nothing like any "John McCernan" - so the individual cannot be found nor anything verified.

The 1902 Commonwealth electoral roll, lists 53 registered voters in the 'Cranebrook' locality, in part including Lambridge to the south.  The families recorded included the Andrews, Byrnes, Clarke, Dade, Elliot, Forsyth, Franklin, Fraser, Freeman, Gates, Gordon, Graham, Griffiths, Hair, Johnson, Langshaw , McCarthy, Mills, Nagell, Parsons, Plunkett, Schow e, Taplin, Tompson, and Witcom families.   Some of this probably includes persons living at Upper Castlereagh.

The Forsyth entry relates to G.A. Forsyth w ho resided at Kenilworth (erected 1869, CR-02) until the mid 1910s.  This is on the higher land east of the floodplains, at 6-9 Tallwood Road

Kenilworth

To service the rural community the government erected a school and teacher’s residence (CR-04) in 1883.  Initially known as Mount Pleasant school, the the name was later changed to Cranebrook, in 1886.  This school closed in 1985 and is at 216 Cranebrook Road.   A Presbyterian Church (CR-06) w as erected around 1900.

There is a decernable.'pocket' of narrow housing lots (and also a very small church building) at the corner of Nepean Street and Cranebrook Road, within grant 5 of  William Baker on  the map above.  This was a late-nineteenth century subdivision but it's name and timing are yet to be learned of.  This is where James Byrnes acquired house sized land lots, as further described below.  Some directories label this chuch on the Nepean Street corner as "The Lakes" Westminster Presbyterian  Chapel.

The area of the core suburb of Penrith is associated with three Crown land grants.   The largest is the 1,000 acres named Rodley Farm (grant no 8).   This was made to Daniel Woodriff in 1804.  Subsequent grants of 470 acres and 100 acres w ere made to John Best, 1814.  Woodriff was a captain in the Royal Navy and his interests at this time necessitated the lease of the grant to William Martin in 1804.  Woodriff left the colony in the same year, and was never to return.  In his absence, Woodriff’s affairs were initially managed by fellow Royal Navy officer John Oxley and after 1828 by solicitor James Norton.  Parts of the Woodriff estate were also leased by John McHenry and Joseph Josephson. McHenry operated a blacksmith’s shop in the early 1820s.  

John McHenry, who arrived in the colony in 1819 (or 1820?) , soon settled at Penrith w here he engaged in a diverse number of activities including publican, and managing convicts engaged in clearing the large estates of the region (e.g. in 1822).  In 1823 he was appointed magistrate to the bench at Penrith.  In 1821 he married Sarah Fulton, the daughter of Rev. Henry Fulton of Castlereagh.  McHenry was to buy part of large Woodriff’s grant and all of Chapman’s Lambridge.   He acquired much land around Penrith both through grants (1,200 acres in three parcels), and through purchase in 1829 of William Neate Chapman’s grant of 1300 acre Lambridge estate.  The McHenrys probably had a residence on the Lambridge estate (and certainly at Lemon Grove) but the bulk of the land was eventually subdivided for small tenant leasehold  farms, by 1850.  It was re-subdivided into 90 large allotments of freehold title by 1885, providing many farms suitable for fruit growers, market gardeners, poultry farmers, etc.   On what was their last grant (No. 6) of 100 acres of 1834, evidently applied for and promised in 1821 (the house being built before the grant finally came through?), the McHenrys built Lemon Grove around 1827, where John and Sarah lived.   After John McHenry's death and by 1872 the Lemon Grove land had been acquired by Robert and Margaret Thurston, who operated it as a grazing run until some 65 acres of it was subdivided in 1885 into 249 house blocks..  Just before this, the Lemon Grove house of the McHenrys was demolished, around 1884.

William Neate Chapman (?1773 – 1837) was a public servant.  His father was Henry Chapman, an affluent merchant and friend of Arthur Phillip, and his mother was the daughter of merchant, William Neate.  William Neate Chapman was interested in a naval career, and in 1791 he set out on the Gorgon for NSW with Lieutenant Governor Philip Gidley King.  On 10 December, he was appointed as a store keeper at 'Phillipsburgh'.   He gradually became one of Governor King’s right hand men and he sailed with King to New Zealand in 1793 on the Britannica.  After acting as Deputy-Commissary at Norfolk Island, Chapman was later appointed (1801) secretary to the Governor.  He was also  appointed a Naval Officer in October 1802.   In 1805, he received his large grant of 1300 acres (just north of the later day Penrith) in the District of Evan.  The grant probably first became partly subdivided in leases in 1806.   It was in 1829 that John Mcenry purchased Chapman's Lambridge Farm.  Chapman had sailed on the Calcutta in March 1804 with King, and after that he never returned to NSW.   After he moved to Java he remained there as a planter till his death in 1837.

Chapman had sold his Lambridge farm to John McHenry in 1829 but not long after that McHenry died in 1832 (his tomb or crypt, in the NE corner of Castlereagh cemetery, is also where Reverend Henry Fulton is buried).  McHenry was dying of cancer, or so he believed.   After McHenry died, at the age of only forty-tree, his wife could not effective run the estate as a farm, so she leased most of it to tennants until her sons reached adulthood in the 1850s.  After that the sons began themselves using or controlling this land.   The tennant farming included orchards, such as an orchard run by Hansen, fronting fronting Castlereagh Road.  Before John and Sarah McHenry gained their peak of holdings it appears they first built nearby at Lemongrove, in 1827.  There they erected a residence called "Lemon Grove House".   It is thought that part of the land was in use as a lemon orchard during this period, hence the name.  It would seem that John MacHenry was promised the land at Lemongrove as early as 1821.  However the grant of 100 acres was not formalised until 1834/35, after  MacHenry had died.   The grant therefore grant went to his wife Sarah, his father-in-law Rev. Henry Fulton and Alexander Fraser, the Executors of his will.  This land was subdivided and sold as the Lemogrove Estate in 1885.

 

 

THE LOST LAGOON

The boundary between the big Chapman (north of Penrith) and Woodriff (over Penrith) estates was a creek which became known as Boundary Creek, and still carries that name.   Shown on all early maps of the Penrith area was a large lagoon, and little else.   The lagoon was at the head of the short Boundary Creek and on the northern side of this E-W running creek.   The lagoon outline was elliptical with the long axis running NE, and the lagoon occupied the SE corner of Chapman's grant.

NSW State Achives map (A.O. Map No. 809) showing the big but now lost "Lagoon",

situated on the floodplain east of the big S-bend in the Nepean. 

The 'Lost Lagoon' is called the Lost Lagoon at the moment for lack of any better name.   An alternative might be to call it the SW corner Lambridge Estate lagoon, or even just the 'Lambridge' lagoon, but at present it is not known that anyone ever actually did call it that.

The district today is densely populated, yet nobody so far spoken to there has ever heard of any former lagoon - even though this was Penrith's once most noteworthy mapped feature following the noteworthy configuration of the big bends of the Nepean River just north (downstream of) Penrith.   

In December 2009 the writer went up on a nearby hill to the east  (off Hillcrest Avenue at the high tension powerline corridor) that looks over the alluvial plain.   From there one does glimpse some water surface (not visible from down of the now industrialised plain).   Comparing the spot where the water is seen, just south of the glass factory, it would seem that the Lost Lagoon at some time transformed into the Penrith sewerage works.  

Where the power lines go over the hill vantage point, and Hillcrest Avenue, is shown in the sketch below.

Note  that in this sketch, in  the NW corner, is shown the water that can be seen from the top of the hill, labelled here as  "wetlands".   The 'N/C" community centre shown here is called the North Penrith community centre, however on the  Sydway Sydney street directory, it is depicted as being the "Kingswood Park Community Centre".

These 'wetlands' are presumed remnant of Penrith's Lost Lagoon.

At the time of this sketch, dated 1999, the area was considered as a target for increasing useage of recycled water (the more such could be used then the less would enter the Nepean River - Richmond/Windsor people never being completely overjoyed by drinking Penrith's treated-sewerage, as the saying used to go).   So it was planned to divert some water up to this hill to encourage the "tree clusters" there to grow better.   The site, as noted, had been previous dumping site, on the northern slopes of this hill.   This had formerly been known as the "Hilltop Landfill', where Council had dumped material during the 1970s and 1980s.  Why this site was ever selected is uncertain (had there been any former extractive activity there - for shale - ??).    It was planned, in 1999, to re-contour the area and contruct a public pathway into it from the adjoining North Penrith Neighbourhood Centre ("N/C" on the sketch).   The State Government (DUAP) provided  a grant for this project.

Glenn Atkinson, a geologist-geographer who went into soil studies with the Soil Conservation Service of NSW (and later a Senior Environmental Scientist within the NSW government's amalgamated department of environment, climate change and water) studied the Nepean River floodplains and terraces (Atkinson, 1982-87), especially via his M.Sc. Thesis topic at the University of NSW ("Soil-Stratigraphic Relationships of the Clarendon and Cranebrook Formations, Nepean River, NSW: A Multivariate Analysis").     Around that time, with Soil Conservation Service of NSW, he did a soil survey for the Penrith Lakes Scheme area (Atkinson, 1982) which should be checked out.   This may likely to shed some light on the nature or origin of this 'lost lagoon' patch of wetland.

 

LANDOWNERS NORTH OF PENRITH AND AROUND THE LOST LAGOON

Early Penrith or pre-Penrith area, as already described, became a mass of tenants on two absentee-owned estates or early land grants.   There are records of persons whereabouts in the form of some ledgers maintained by Council for ratings that show for land parcels three people - owner, leasee and actual tennant or person using the land or dwelling there (i.e. leased and sub-leased or let, three levels of control/presence.   The estates were those of Daniel Woodriff (over the core of Penrith's development) and William Neate Chapman north of him.

The presence of the early big estate owners was minimal, and the estates were managed by agents who collected rents for the owners.  Chapman, who died in 1837, was largely off running a plantation in Java.   Woodriff, as his land began developing into a town and attracted many tennants, was an elderly man living in London - too ill to visit his mounting source of wealth in antipodes.

The Lands Department and others hold copy of an 1850 survey by Edward J.H. Knapp of 'Chapman's Grant, situated at Penrith and known as the Lambridge Estate' - Plan of the property of Mrs MacHenry situated in the town of Penrith and showing the allotments for sale or lease - Mort and Brown (not yet seen).

Directly north of Penrith, parts of the Lambridge estate area began transforming into industrial land.   The below sketch is from 1998, shows proposal by the RTA for the closures of Gordon and Camden at their intersections with Castlereagh Road; and closure of the Leland Street/Castlereagh Road intersection which had been specifically mentioned in a DCP for the "Lambridge Estate Industrial Area".   That DCP had apparently been adopted by Council in 1981,  and reaffirmed at a Council meeting in 1995.   Thus the planned industrialisation of the area no doubt goes back a long time.   In the view of the RTA, such closure of minor roads would improve traffic flow the main roads.  The RTA also thought that closing road intersections would reduce "the possible traffic conflicts" at such.   The land owners and businesses in the looming Industrial Area were supposedly consulted about all this and had no reported concerns.   Nobody raised the proposed closures was not raised as a concern, and the RTA then went ahead with upgrading works on the section of Castlereagh Road between Boundary Creek and McCarthys Lane (before that lane was closed and destroyed by quarrying - but with the name itself shifted to a new roadway further south).   

Planned changes around the "Rowers 'roundabout", back ca. 1998, as proposed by the RTA.

Although no concerns were raised during early planning phase, as the works were actually to commence Council again made know by publication what the RTA was about to do.  It published that the RTA was currently carrying out upgrading works on the section of Castlereagh Road between Boundary Creek and McCarthys Lane and was seeking Council’s approval or endorsement to close the Gordon Street/Castlereagh Road and Camden Street/Castlereagh Road intersections.   This was left as a running paid advertised in local papers for 28 days; and in addition the residents and businesses in the said "Industrial Area" were letter-boxed about what was going on.   At that stage four businesses did object ( Thermal Insulation at 50 Leland Street, Gebel Industries Pty Ltd at 19-29 Leland Street, Garpac Pty. Ltd at 50 Leland Street and Joyner Tractor Spares at 45 Leland Street).  The gist of the concerns was that a reduction to a "single access point" to the Industrial Estate they saw as a bad and retrograde thing.   They thought it could cause major disruption to the Estate - to business flow generally and maybe quite seriously if there were ever to be an 'emergency' there (such as a major fire as at one time affected the nearby glass factory).   Joyner Tractors people were perhaps the most adamant that the proposed closures, particularly that of   Leland Street at Castlereagh Road should not proceed.   Rather than close streets' access to prevent th " "the possible traffic conflicts" that RTA feared, it was suggested why not just impose traffic speed limits.   The RTA was determined to close Gordon and Camden streets main road access and there was no opposition to this, mainly just to the closure of Leland Street, which was relatively distant from the growing traffic 'heat' or potential congestion of the 'Rower's roundabout' (so known in later years because there are hedges on the roundabout cut in the shape of rowers - it is Byrnes family lore that once upon a time a Byrnes house sat right on this roundabout but no attempt has been made yet to try and track down the factuality of that idea).

After receiving such public input, Council determined that the two intersections that were least cared about could be closed as part of the road works, but that Leland Street closure at Castlereagh should be deferred and that later on Council in consultation with the RTA would carry out a further review to assess whether or not the Leland Street intersection could be 'safely' left opened.   At this intersection at the time stood a wooden house said to have been a home of a 'granny Byrnes' or something like that.   This house, at the western side of the intersection, is still standing in 2009 and it is surrounded by trucks and heavy duty vehicles that are on display for purpose of sale - i.e. "granny's house" there is now a used trucks salesyard (NB: all ideas of where Byrnes'es actually did live are very tentative - so far the site at Nepean Street besides an ?unnamed creek being the only place where any documentary evidence has yet been found).

Council was of the opinion, re the proposed road closures, that most vehicles to the Industrial Estate were using for access to the area the the  'unsignalised' (uncontrolled) Lugard Street/Castlereagh Road intersection, and hence that the closure of the other two intersection would not make a great deal of difference to the workers of the area.   It proposed signalisation of the Lugard Street/Castlereagh Road intersection "as soon as possible" to the RTA, as an expected benefical step.   Regarding the suggestion by objectors that speed limits be lowered, at that time Castlereagh Road had been formerly of a 70km/hr limit (but reduced to 60km/hr when upgrade works were going on).  Council determined to approach RTA to consider the idea of a lowered speed limit.

Portion of the same area as on a lands sale map of 1923.   Solid shaded areas  were available for ex-soldier purchase only,

and border-shaded parcels were for general purchase.   The sale was organised via the Crown Lands Agent at Penrith.

This floodplain land is noted as "Light Sandy Loam".    Note that Leland, Camden and Lugard streets are all present.  

So too is the eastern part of Gordon Street but the western part through to Leland Street is not present.  Note

also "Mill Lane", the southern boundary of parcel 320.   This no doubt lead down to the "McHenry" flour mill

that once operated on the river.    The Penrith Weir and the mouths of Peach Tree and Boundary Creeks

just downstream of it can also be seen.   Also note the land east of Camden Street still being called

the Lambridge Estate.

The river frontage land shown for sale in 1923 as above was apparently in part resumed by government with the intention of soldier re-settlement post WWI.  It is understood that some maps show a small village reserve at the junction of Castlereagh and Cranebrook Roads but this has not yet been seen.  A school is thought to have been built at the SE side of the intersection (near the later Cummins engineering building and subsequent service station).   Until quite recent times there were a number of roadside cottages evident in this industrialising area.

    

Photo showing what the "Light Sandy Loam" of the floodplain looks like.  This is a rectangular pit dug at the modern "Lambridge Park" 20 Ha industrial subdivision of approved by Penrith.Council, showing the typical loam of the floodplain around Penrith-Emu Plains-Castlereagh.   The concrete sheet lined cavity was fitted (right) with a 200-cartridge bank stormwater "filtering" system.  The cartridges are one litre per second capacity, with perlite (expanded volcanic glass) packing media.  The is serviced with triple interceptor tanks (one for each drainage line) upstream of the "200-cartridge StormFilter".   The treated stormwater from the area is then let flow to the  Penrith Lakes.   As the water in the lakes has a "high residence time" there is strong need for high level of treatment and the standard aimed for is 80% TSS and 45% Nutrient reductions.  The system maker is "Stormwater360" of Tarren :Point near Sydney and project engineer was Kellogg Brown & Root, installing the system for Penrith City Council as client.

Penrith development areas (urban expansion 1951-1986).   Shaded land designates areas turned industrial.  The area with

the glass factory, and the 'lost lagoon' would seem to have turned industrial in 1960(?).  The glass works may have begun

there in the 70s (details not yet known).

 

Entry to Penrith sewerage treatment area - the lost lagoon?!

Penrith City sewerage works  The Penrith Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) has a has a dry-weather flow rate of around

22 ML/day.    The reated effluent is discharged into Boundary Creek.

Boundary Creek, which is only a short creek, can be observed to be a particularly fast flowing creek.   That is due to the large STP discharge into it.

   

The swift flowing Boundary Creek where it enters the Nepean River.  This it meets about 500 m downstream

from the Penrith STP and about 50 m downstream of Penrith Weir.  (Photo:   Stuart Khan).

Approximately 62ML of water per day flows over Penrith Weir on the Nepean River under low flow conditions

Penrith Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) discharges about 22ML/day to Boundary Creek and then into the Nepean River, and St Marys STP discharges about 35ML/day to South Creek.   This potentially was leading to South Creek flow being mainly sewerage plant discharge.   A longer term plan has been to recycling water at Sydney’s inland treatment plants with its Replacement Flows Projects that would connect the Penrith, St Marys and Quakers Hill inland treatment plants.   The recycled water from these plants would then be discharged into the Nepean at Boundary Creek.  This was calculated to "recycle" 18 billion litres as replacement for water released from Warragamba Dam for environmental flows maintenance.  And then the equivalent 'saved' Warragamba Dam water could be used as further much needed Sydney water supply.   All these plans, like that for a desalination plant at Sydney, have been subject of debate.

* In the mid 1990's Sydney Water proposed to increase its water supply operations by various means. One was the raising the wall of Warragamba Dam. After much debate and controversy this proposal was rejected. Other proposals were also considered. Significant ecological consequences would have included:.

Locations of sewerage treatment plants

The upper-reaches of the Nepean River extend well south of Sydney to the Southern Highlands. They include the Nepean, Avon, Cataract and Cordeaux Dams and the tributaries downstream of those dams. As the river winds north towards western Sydney, a number of sewage treatment plant (STP) discharges contribute to the overall flow, including West Camden STP.

However under current conditions, environmental flow releases from the Upper Nepean Dams (and STPs) often do not make it as far as the Wallacia Weir, which is just upstream from the Warragamba River junction. Significant wet-weather events are required in order for there to be any measurable water flow over Wallacia Weir.

For around 40 per cent of the time, the only water-flow into the river downstream of Wallacia Weir is that which is intentionally released from Warragamba Dam via the Warragamba River. The Sydney Catchment Authority is normally required to release at least 43 megalitres per day (ML/day) from Warragamba Dam to keep the Nepean flowing. However, under the current drought conditions, the interim flow release has been decreased to approximately 22 ML/day.

Eventually, downstream, tidal water also dilutes then dominates in the Hawkesbury.    But for Windsor/Richmond supply some have thought that in dry periods the river flow can be as much as 50% treated water from upstream.   That's probably an overestimate, and experts generally think there is no health risk.  As at 2007,  Dr Khan, of the Centre for Water Waste and Management at UNSW, thought “The amount of water that comes out of the (Richmond) plant that’s actually recycled treated effluent, depending on the weather conditions and river flow, can be anywhere from 2 per cent to 20 per cent,” Dr Khan said.  

Another expert (Dr. Leslie) has said "“Depending on the time of year and the release of water from the dam, that river can run as high as 25-30 per cent recycled water.  The Penrith sewage treatment plant doesn’t have any membranes.  it’s just a regular sewage treatment plant. And there’s just sand at the filtration plant.  But even the water treated to this standard – which is far inferior to the treatment proposed by water recycling projects – is safe.   From a safety issue, it’s not an issue.  If it’s an issue, then we’ve got problems with Richmond. Because A, we don’t treat the water to the same standard as a recycled water project. And B, the time between when you discharge it and we drink it is only a day.  But the reality is, the water’s safe in these schemes.”    

 

SAMUELS FARMING NEAR THE PENRITH GLASS FACTORY

The first Byrnes to actually acquire land at Castlereagh, not just lease it or be a tennant, is thought to have probably been Samuel Byrnes (the grandfather of the writer's grandfather Arthur Byrnes).   Samuel's farm is thought to have been where the glass works were later built, on the southern side of Andrews Road.  This area, part of the original Lambridge farm grant of Chapman, was also later know as part of the Mt Pleasant estate, a name given to a subdivision bought by Samuel Terry.   But as early as 1815 Samuel Terry, a wealth merchant landowner known also as the 'The Botany Bay Rothschild', had established a farm called, Mount Pleasant "on the Nepean River", plus Terry also built a homestead of that name near Wollongong, whence the exact location of places so referred to can be confusing.   In 1841 Samuel Terry's daughter Martha was granted another 150 acres in the area ('Cranebrook' area), and just where the Terry estate later disposed of may have been is not yet ascertained.  Rating or land valuation records might be where the whereabouts of Samuel Byrnes's land at Lambridge will finally be found.    The working guess is that he dwelled somewhere that is around or under the present glass works.   Samuel seems to have produced a lot from the land, which he would take to Paddy's market in Sydney to sell, so he must have been living at the site for periods.

Samuel Byrnes is recorded as a householder at "Mt Pleasant" as early as 1869.   In 1868 his eldest daughter, Sarah, by his second wife Eliza Gorman, was accidentally burned to death at the age of thirteen, which may have been at this place.  Samuel may have taken up even more land there after the auction of 1882.   In 1885 (from "Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1885, Vol 111.  'Alphabetical Return of Several Holdings in the Colony ...'") Samuel held 6 acres with 5 horses, 2 cattle and 1 pig; but within a decade from then he seems to have been leasing much more land than that (60 acres by 1895).   He was early recorded as a farmer, but from 1882 onwards he became more of a small businessman - hawker, carrier, dealer (buyer/seller) and finally a store-keeper in High Street, Penrith (where the family suffered another disastrous fire).   Samuel was 'getting on' by this stage, aged 57 in 1883 and he had help from close family in running the store, particularly from his son William Taylor Byrnes (writer's great-grandfather).   By the 1890s, when the Byrnes shop at High Street burned down, Samuel was probably no longer living at 'Mt Pleasant' or Lambridge area but had moved to living even closer to Penrith, at Lemongrove Road, Lemongrove, which is just north of the railway line at Penrith.   After that various members of the Byrnes family stayed living at Lemongrove for quite some time.   Later Byrnes family homes that stood in Lemongrove Road, as recorded in Pat Curry's "A Byrnes Book" were the houses 'Coo-ee' at 9 Lemongrove Road and 'Killarney' at 5 Lemongrove Road.  Percy Byrnes built No. 9 and helped build No. 5 later on for his daughter and son-in-law.   The vacant block (No. 7) between the two houses had fruit trees and a large vegetable garden and was invaluable for feeding the Byrnes'es during the Great Depression.  Later on, the family built a home on No. 7 too, in 1961.   But still later the old houses were demolished and the area became high density housing (this street not yet visited by the present writer).   In 1945 when Percy Byrnes and his wife Annie Louisa Stokes (married at Samuel's Lemongrove house in 1895) had their Golden Wedding Anniversary they were particularly pleased when a message came from Buckingham Palace from the Queen, conveying congratulations and good wishes to Mr and Mrs Byrnes.   Percy died at age 83, in 1959, the Nepean Times in his obituary summarised how for more than a hundred years the Byrnes family had been well know in the Castlereagh area.  

The Lemongrove land sale of 1885.

Lemongrove conservation.   A core area of Lemongrove is today a designated conservation area, as here shown

coloured.   Note that the original lot numbering and current street numbering along Lemongrove Road has been

reversed.   Just where Samuel Byrnes's family had lived is not yet  ascertained but later Byrnes land there

 was at Nos. 5-7-9, at the northern end of  Lemongrove Road.   This northern end of the road had  already

 transformed to modern housing before any conservation value of the area was proclaimed.

 

 

Typical old homes of Lemongrove (Photos: Paul Davies Pty. Ltd., 2007).   The Byrnes house at No. 9 ("Coo-ee") was

a straight-front one like the above No. 41; and the No. 5 ("Killarney") house have been one with

front-recessed-verandah-at-right,  like No. 45 above.

Even into the 1890s, Samuel Byrnes retained strong connection with land further north in the Castlereagh area.  The 1895 Castlereagh rate book records him leasing 60 acres of grassland owned by Mrs Goodridge.  Exactly where  that was has not been established, however.   An 1876 map (Surveyor General's) shows planning for a road from Penrith and Castlereagh Road at "Field's Corner" to a then unnamed road at the boundary of Penrith Municipality, which was then commonly called Proctors Lane.    That 'Proctor's Lane' is presumably the section of road from Andrews Road, or then called "Field's Corner" that is now also called "Castlereagh Road".    The landowners somehow involved at the time were Mrs Hosking, J.C. Goodridge, Mrs Melville and J. Reddan.   Thus this is quite likely the area that Samuel was leasing land in; somewhere immediately south of Andrews road, and it does not rule out the glass factory site as family tradition has him connected with.   In fact the 60 ac size of the lease would seem to make it likely that it was the "Homestead" block reserved in the 1882 "Mount Pleasant" land sale depicted in the below advertisement:

Samuel Byrnes likely leased the 60 acre block shown in the upper left corner of this 1882 land sale area.

Living at Lambridge at the outbreak of WWI was a  Cyril Falkner Blaxland, the great grandson of explorer Gregory Blaxland who crossed the Blue Mountains with William Lawson and William Wentworth in 1813.  His mother was Margaret Camden (nee Goodridge) Blaxland.  Blaxland, who died in the war, near Ypres in Flanders, left his estate to his two sisters Marjorie Simpson and Noel Campion, but with income from his properties at Lambridge, tenanted by Garnet Honeman, Garret Honeman and George Willett to be paid to his mother during her life time.   

The Goodridge name also Goodridge comes in regard to Lambridge estate on a number of maps held at Penrith library collection:

Regarding the 1885 subdivision .. "Mrs Goodridge - Mrs Lugard - Lambridge Estate"; Map shows land for conveyance to Mrs Goodridge and Mrs Lugard. (Local map, LM181).

LM 188 - Land Grants - Fieldhouses Grant - Lees Grant - McCarty - Field - Biggers - Baker - Peacock - Appledores Grant - Woodriffe Estate - John Mac Henry - Mrs Mac Henry - Mrs Lugard - Mrs Goodridge.  

( Mrs. M.A. Lugard and Mrs. J.A. Goodridge gained title to part of the Lambridge Estate in 1885. )

LM 189 - And 1850 survey of Chapman's Grant, situated at Penrith and known as the Lambridge Estate. Land Grants - Fieldhouses Grant - Lees Grant - McCarty - Field - Biggers - Baker - Peacock - Appledores Grant - Woodriffe Estate - John Mac Henry - Mrs Mac Henry - Mrs Lugard - Mrs Goodridge - John McHenry - William Chapman (includes some tennant details too.)

LM 330 - Chief Assessor's Office, Taxation Department (William Baker - Mrs M. Lugard - Mrs McHenry - John McHenry - Lambridge - Thomas Biggers - Edward Field - Mrs J. Goodridge - E.M. Hume - James McCarthy - Thomas Appledore - Rosetta Marsh - James Morris - John Pugh - Christopher Frederick - John Lees - George Fieldhouse - Robert Wetmore - Mary Collett - Samuel Stanyard - Stephen Smith - John Jones - Thomas Lambley - Thomas Chesire - Thomas Green - Islington - Rose's Falls - The Mill Paddock - Jacob Russell - Jacksons Falls - Robert Williams - E. J. Wilshire - John Reddan - Rob Cartwright - Frederick D. Woodriff - Capt. Daniel Woodriff).

Especially revealing is subdivision map SD 39: 

- An 1890 poster, author J.F. C. Goodridge, announcing sale of Lambridge Estate land around "Leland Street - Camden Street - Lugard Street - Gordon Street - Lower Castlereagh Road.

From all these indications, Goodridge family must have at one time held major land holdings there.

There would have been little point for Samuel Byrnes to go on leasing this 60 acres in his final years.  In his Nepean Times obituary of 1917 it is stated that Samuel's farm "at Castlereagh (Mt. Pleasant), is now occupied by Mr. Purcell, and is one of the best holdings in that favoured patrimony of production".

 

THE PENRITH GLASS FACTORY

After Samuel's death the land he had likely been farming, at the corner of Castlereagh Road and Andrews Road, was still a major farm enterprise, carried on by Mr Purcell.   Later on it became industrial land, the largest industry there being the glass works.

Little information is yet gathered about the glass works.   The works noted in a local paper "A lot of people might still remember us as the old ACI or Smorgon’s Glass but today, we are one of Penrith’s biggest employers with around 350 people at our Andrews Road facility."

Although that is still a lot of employees, the works may be past their heydey.   Or maybe not; another recent note states that 376 work there.

It used to be an ACI plant, and before that belonged to Glass Containers Pty Ltd.  That company entered the glass container market in 1971, and their sole plant in Penrith was later purchased by Smorgon, which in turn then sold it in 1991 to ACI.   It is a 11 Ha site.

ACI Packaging purchased Smorgon Glass at Penrith in 1991 and subsequently closed its Sydney Waterloo site a few years later. Also in 1991, Rockware Glass in the UK was added to the glass container operations managed by ACI Packaging and the company also expanded its PET container business.

ACI Crown Glassware was established in 1926 and was an importer and marketer of glassware until the business was sold in 2000.   After World War II, ACI expanded and diversified. In 1948, Singapore Glass was established --- the first joint venture outside Australia and New Zealand. Other glass container plants were subsequently established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1968 (now trading under separate ownership as KL Glass); Jakarta, Indonesia in 1973; and Lae, Papua New Guinea in 1973 (now closed). For many years ACI also held equity in a glass container plant in Bangkok, Thailand.   In 1988, ACI International was acquired by the Melbourne-based BTR Nylex Limited. The major shareholder in BTR Nylex was BTR plc of London and the remaining shares were acquired by BTR plc in 1996.  In 1993, ACI entered a joint venture in Shanghai, China, followed by joint ventures in Guangzhou in 1994 and Tianjin in 2005.

In early 1998, ACI's glass and plastics businesses were acquired by Owens-Illinois, Inc. of the United States. The entities had worked together under a technical agreement for almost thirty years. Following the acquisition of ACI by Owens-Illinois, ACI was responsible for managing the Indian plants in Pondicherry, Rishikesh and Pune until their sale in 2001, and the Wuhan plant in China.

In 2005, Owens-Illinois and all its subsidiaries around the world changed their trading names to O-I, which is the current sign on the Penrith plant gate.

The O-I plant operates 24 hours, 365 days a year, to produce 320,000 tonnes of product annually – a total 1.4 billion containers.

Staff wellbeing is at the top of the priorities list for this company.  Last year’s WSIA judges considered this business to be “very impressive” with major culture changes introduced by the company proving demonstrably successful.  

OI Asia Pacific (ACI Operations Pty Ltd), as a large industrial employer to the south of the Waterside development project expressed serious concerns with respect to proposed changes on the Waterside Green Development to the north (across Andrews Road) of their Penrith glass container manufacturing operation.  The key concerns of ACI Operations, regarding this proposed development, were as follows:

• Acoustic impact on this 2(h) zone
• Visual amenity
• Use of barriers to reduce acoustic impact
• Removes previously ‘agreed’ buffer zone between sensitive land use and heavy industry
• Flies against previous discussions between Penrith Council, the developers and industry
• Threatens our pre-existing long term rights and consequently the high levels of employment in this area
• Leaves us exposed to community complaint from residences right across the road from a heavy industrial plant

Even earlier, in 1997, ACI had objected to the coming Waterside development across the road from it, when it was known as Lakeside Village project.  John Morris of ACI addressed Council on the "Penrith Lakes Environs" planning and advised that ACI had bought the glass works site in 1991 and that ACI had spent considerable time looking at the concerns over the project, and advised that ACI would oppose approval.   

 

 

 

THE "WATERSIDE" DEVELOPMENT (Earlier known as "Lakeside Village")

 

Although frowned on, as above, by its across-the-road neighbour, the glass factory, this development has been progressing as planned for a number of years and residents have commenced buying there.  On it's northern boundary, at Nepean Street, is the only known (so far) definite site owned by Byrnes'es on the floodplain.

 

AND WHO WAS THE '?LAST' BYRNES TO BE LIVING AT CASTLEREAGH 

The family Byrnes/Burns I belong to comes from union of David an exiled Irish 'rebel' (or suspected United Irishman) post the great uprising of 1798 in Ireland and an English petty thief given seven years transportation (must such transportees, being poor, never managed to return to motherland England) by the name of Ann Reffin (a.k.a. Ralphin).   Ann and David had some children, and later married, at Parramatta.  The children dispersed westwards till the hit the barrier of the Nepean and the Blue Mountains - then for some reason still unknown the whole kit and caboodle of them circa 1838 converged again, at Birds Eye Corner in Upper Castlereagh.   There they did not own any land at first but probably leased it, as farmers or agricultural workers.   There are records strongly linking them to the Wesleyan church and one member of the group (a Mrs Harriet Byrnes, wife of first generation son James Byrnes) was a prime shaker and mover in a near-miraculous or very inspiring revival within the largely Wesleyan (Methodist) local farming community ( i.e. Harriet and other ladies held tea meetings, sometimes also called 'love feasts' in early Methodist tradition, and from which the proceeds enabled the building of the presently observed brick chapel there (this was the third rebuild, the earlier two being very small and in wood, of the first Wesleyan chapel in Australia or the Southern hemisphere - intially started by farmer, and retired NSW Corps private,  Mr John Lees, the original first structure being adjoining to his home at Carter's Lane just across the small Crane Brook lagoon to the east).

On of David's close descendants, but changing surname as via one of the daughters, was John Jackson, son of David's daughter Ann Byrnes/Jackson/Harland.  John and his family lived along Jackson's Lane and obviously continued close family family links with the land at Castlereagh for decades.   The Jackson land, west of Castlereagh Road near the Wesleyan church has since been entirely quarried away.   Likewise other close relatives but of changed surnames, the result of many local intermarriages, probably continued on somehow at Upper Castlereagh.   A Byrnes won a contract from Council for resurfacing part of Castlereagh Road with river gravel at one time - and as such work often went to nearby landholders it is suggestive that he was at the time dwelling there.    A couple of 'Byrnes' houses are though to have been along the E-W stretch of Castlereagh Road, on the southern side.   But none of this is rendered definite as to exactly where they lived.   The best evidence, and what might be the last Byrnes in the area, is of a James Byrnes at Nepean Street next to Farrell's Creek.

Many people of 'Byrnes' name, or their close inter-breed relatives with surrounding other district families (e.g. the Jackson's and many others) over the years were born at Castlereagh and lived in the district.   The personal particulars of these folk may be found in the excellent compilation "A Byrnes Book 1800-2000" by Mrs Patricia Curry (formerly of 47 Linden Crescent at Cranebrook where the book was privately published - Mr and Mrs Curry are now moved to the lower Blue Mountains and Pat is a member of Glenbrook Historical Society).

Over time the Byrnes'es and kin gradually died out at Upper Castlereagh .. as just about everyone did (i.e. the population much diminished as the quarrying companies acquired the former farmland).

There's some 'approximate' sites known where Byrnes'es probably lived in the area but the first one to be 'nailed down' to specific land parcel (lot and DP numbers) was found in December 2009.   The particulars were found in a valuations book for the 'Castlereagh District'.   This was in the very first such book roughly browsed through.   There are many other such books preserved (the valuations were revised perhaps every three years or so).

The Byrnes man thus found, at the moment who might be thought of as the "last" of the Byrnes'es known to be living thereabouts, was named James Byrnes and was a farmer by occupation.    He would postdate Samuel, whose active farming days were long over when James Byrnes was still recorded as a 'farmer' in the area.

The particulars have been found in the Castlereagh "Valuation List - Vol. Nos. 536-1162" (on spine of book) dated 1930.

In that book the Byrnes valuation is found as No. 499 (doesn't tally with spine of book? - to be checked).  It records that in the district of Castlereagh James Byrnes, farmer, held land at Nepean Street - Section A, lots 25/26 (size 60' by 173' and 27 (size 30' by 174') [also refers to DP 1613, old titles Folio 223 in Vol. 804 (these volumes are held in the basement at Land Titles department near St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney).

The site where James Byrnes had these lots is shown below and has been visited.   It is right besides what seems to be an unchanged portion of a reedy froggy little creek, called Farrell's Creek to judge from various information later learned of.  Immediately to the south this creek has been extensively modified and slightly 'relocated', as will be described, in a major new keys-like housing development.    The planning documents surrounding this development indicate that the remaining downstream portion of the creek should be left unchanged.

 

The "Waterside" development (concept plan) by Stockland Corporation.  View looking southwest over the 

the Nepean River flats and towards Blue Mountains.   Below the tie-line of the left 'NEPEAN RIVER' label 

bridge over the river at Penrith is visble.  The bend at the right hand 'NEPEAN RIVER' is the Birds Eye

Bend where the river turns to flow north again.  The flat area enclosed between these two labels is

the Emu Plains, presumed to be similar as for the Upper Castlereagh river flat across the river to

the north of it but with much less drilling data available.  [View is looking SW].

 

 

 

Vertical view of the Stocklands "Waterside" development.   What's shown here as Cranebrook Road has since been

renamed as the (new) Castlereagh Road (= Castlereagh Road diversion due to the Penrith Lakes scheme

quarrying finally taking the old N-S stretch of Castlereagh Road south of (central) Castlereagh.  Also, what 

is shown here as "McCarthys Lane" is likewise a diversion.   The original McCarthy's Lane was a direct

westwards continuation of Nepean Street to the west of Cranebrook Road.

 

 

The estate won Penrith City Council's Urban Living Design Excellence award, and also awards from the Urban Design

Institute of Australia.  This photo is of Penrith's Mayor, Cr Pat Sheely (right), giving Brent Thompson, Stocklands's

Manager of the Waterside development project, the Council's design award.

 

 

Vertical satelllite view of Stocklands keys-like development.   It can be seen that the entrance strip off the 

(renamed) Castlereagh Road, and the VIP/display 'village' area is well advanced.

 

 

Early stage oblique aerial view of the "Waterside" development.

 

 

Looking west or northwesterly, across the developing display homes cluster, towards the front of the 

Blue Mountains (Lapstone Monocline) in the distance.

 

 

The rather dismal little reedy and froggy creek that James Byrnes lived by has been very considerably deepened and

enlaged in the just-upstream stretch of it that passes through the Stocklands 'Waterside' housing development.

The more original form of the creek, further downstream, is shown in following images.   Where this creek

rises, perhaps somewhere near the Penrith glass works ...? .... is not yet traced.

 

 

Enlargement at the western end of Nepean Street, showing James Byrnes's land.  The house there now is distinctly not 

anything original and is post-1930s.   The completely reedy-overgrown froggy 'stream' that's ponded and non-moving

water is the clearly seen waterway at right, running NNWesterly.   It probably joins the 'clay band' stream that runs

the length of the eastern low escarpment the forms the eastern boundary of the Castlereagh river flats area.

  Switching on 'Map' view for Google/Maplandia does not supply any name for this stream.   Stocklands, 

who have turned this waterway into the focal line of a major development immediately to the south, 

might know what the stream was originally known as (?).

 

 

Further NNW the unknown-name creek heads towards the big round pond seen

here in the NW corner of image (is this pond 'natural'?), but beyond that the 

former mouth of the stream cannot be found as the area further west is 

extensively re-formed after quarrying.  Older maps or air photos will

be needed to locate the former mouth of the creek.

 

 

Enlargement of the pond that is today the effective end of this creek.   This pond

now drains, as seen, directly underneath the (new) Castlereagh Road into one 

of the largish "Penrith Lakes". 

 

 

Just south of the 'round pond'.  Clearly the water in the round pond derives mainly from the Lakes scheme, 

and in normal times the NNW trending creek's flow all but peters out before it reaches the round pond.

 

James' land was on the northern side of Nepean Street at the small creek (later inferred to be Farrell's Creek) seen crossing under Nepean Street at the point of the start of the tie line that leads to the "NEPEAN ST" box.  

At the time of visiting this place (about sunset on a day in December 2009) this creek in its original course (presumably), on the downside at Nepean Street, was totally overgrown with 'reeds' vegetation and the water seen at the bottom of the reeds was standing water .. i.e. it is more like a narrow lagoon probably, that only has flowing water after heaviest or most prolonged periods of rain.   The air was thick with the noise of many frogs and other denizens of nature.  On the uptream side of Nepean Street the creek was less in evidence.   However, as seen in the futuristic plan above this unknown-name creek, in its section between Nepean and Andrews Streets, is to become an almost 'Florida keys' style massive housing development that is being developed by Stockland Corporation (observed over former decades this area was mostly just open space).   In December 2009 an entrance to the new development area was observed at Nepean Street alongside the creek and various earth-moving equipment was parked in there.   Signage is prominent at various places along the periphery of the new development offering "Waterside land".  Largely a housing development, Stockland also intends developing some commerical fringe (the "employment lands" in the above concept plan).   Once the marketing of the 686 or so housing lots at Waterside (initial estimate was for 701 dwellings to house about 2,150 persons) is well advanced, there will likely be a concentration on marketing the 'employment lands' area - as "Waterside Corporate" (an "exciting business opportunity in an elegant and picturesque lake setting covering").   Stockland acquired the site in 2003.   The commercial buildings part occupies about 11.5 hectares of the entire 71 hectares project area.  Plans to date, as above, do not show the likely appearance of the industrial area development in any way.  By 2005 Stockland had extensively sought expressions of interest for partners to develop the "employment lands" along the Andrews Road frontage.. Stockton was not having much succes and went to Council about the range of uses then permitted being too restrictive.  This it said was inhibiting development of the land, and sought amendment of conditions so as to increase the range of permissible uses.

The history of construction work at the Waterside project area has not yet been read about - however, and just as a guess, the development strategy may have been along the following lines.   To start with site is on the fringe of the alluvial flats or floodplain.  In the past many might habe considered such land was too 'boggy' to extensively build on.   This could be overcome by deeply digging out the small waterways, converting them into large ponds/lakes/keys, and the excavated soil is dumped alongside, raising the land so that nothing is boggy any longer. That sacrifices/converts some 10 hectares or so into much enlarged bodies of water but ensures good foundations for the housing - and also enhances the marketing benifits in terms of waterside-living promotion.   Homes there will have both waterviews as well as some of them (those facing west) having good Blue Mountains vistas.   Thus Stockland enlarged the water space of the small (?unamed) creek and it's minor branch drains into five sizeable lakes, and raised the land around them with the material excavated in doing this.   Whether or not there was also significant further amounts of material imported is not presently known; however an EIS type report at Penrith Library shows that some extra importation of material did take place.  This 'formula' of deepening waterways to raise adjoining 'boggy' land has presumably been used extensively and effectively in many other low-lying areas in the past.

Just south of the SW corner of the development area there used to be a small 'Cummins' engineering works - the owners of who might be related to the Cummings of the writer's antecedent 'Kate Cummings' on the Worboys line (viz. for details -     ), but that is an unchecked guess/hunch.

Re James Byrnes' land - at a first guess (the DP or folio not yet sighted), lots 25/26 (presumably conjoined and not separately fenced?) may have been on the western side of the creek and lot 27 on the eastern side.  Or so it was first thought, but if the numbers on the above Google mapping are lot numbers then that is not so and all the 1930 James Byrnes land was on the western side of the creek.

James Byrnes may have wanted this land only for grazing - as a few stock put there would have had ready water.   More likely though, this was his residence and he farmed elsewhere.   Looking at the land from the roadway only there is no evidence of any old house.   The present structure in the close vicinity (western side) is post-1930s and the owner has not yet been spoken with.

Who was this particular James - who might be the last Byrnes living at Castlereagh river flats area, and who bore the same first name as the first child of this Byrnes family to be born on Australian soil?    According to Pat Curry's book there have been four James'es:

Byrnes, James, son of David - born 1813 at Parramatta, died 1876 at Castlereagh (likely at Birds Eye Bend somewhere).

Byrnes, James, son of David's son John Byrnes - born 1813 at Castlereagh, died 4 Nov 1930

Byrnes, James, son of David's son Samuel - born 1846 at Castlereagh (first child by Samuel); died 1921 at Macksville.

Byrnes, James, grandson of Samuel - son of above James, born 1874 at Macleay River, died 1936 (presumably in northern NSW?).

As James the grandson of David (first child of Samuel) moved north, where he was a mounted constable for the North East Districts of NSW in 1874-1881 and settled at Nambucca (later having businesses in Nambucca, Nambucca Heads, Smithtown and Macksville) and died at Macksville he is not the one who owned land at Nepean Street in 1930.  Also his son James, born at Macleay River in 1874, seems very unlikely to have come back to Castlereagh area, although he did live into the 1930s.

The first James was dead long before the 1930s.   Thus the only remaining James as may have owned land at Nepean Street in 1930 would seem to be James the grandson of David and the son of John Byrnes.   John Byrnes died of cancer after four months of the detection of such, on 1 April 1888, aged 71 years.  His burial certificate (1888/2568) records that he died at 'Cranebrook'.   As the Nepean Street land would likely have been termed Cranebrook it might well be that this land was earlier owned by John?    Both John and his wife Eliza Aplet (Ablett) were buried at St Stephens Church of England at Penrith - suggesting they did not have the same involvement with the Wesleyan congregation at the Upper Castlereagh chapel as did the rest of the family in the 1800s.   After the 1861 a "Mrs Byrnes" is recorded as asking for emergency rations (flour, tea and sugar) - viz. Journal of the Nepean Family History History Society, vol. 68, Sept. 1997. p. 68.   There's no telling which Mrs Byrnes that was, and at the time there may have been various Mrs Byrnes'es in the district.  However if John and Eliza did live at this frog pond creek (not flowing today or at most times) there's little doubt that their home would have gone under in the big floods of the 1860s.   Today these floods no longer happen along the Nepean, but in the 1800s a house at this place, so close to a creek/lagoon, might well have been all but ruined after flooding.  The 1869/70 Electoral Roll lists John Byrnes as a resident at Castlereagh, so they certainly stayed on despite all the flooding which caused great hardship to many people.   Because of the number and ages of the children of John and Eliza, this family could have been particularly hard-struck by the floods.   

Very little is known at present about James the son of John.   He is recorded to have married Ellen Cunningham on 20 July 1889 at Lower Castlereagh (where there is/was another small Wesleyan chapel - again perhaps curious they did not used the Upper Castlereagh chapel which the rest of the family had been so much associated with).  Did they have children?   Don't know yet.

In a petition of July 1860 to form a Municipality of Penrith there is a James Byrnes of Mt Pleasant.    This locality description is consistent with this also being the same person.   In 1873 there is record of a James Byrnes being paid by Council to do maintenance and specific work along Castlereagh Road.  This is seen referred to in the following Minutes of the Council meetings:

* Minutes of meeting: 11 September 1873.  The committee recommended several accounts be paid - Finance Committee report adopted recommending payments to: William Coffey for Terry's Corner contract 9 pounds 10 shillings; James Byrnes for formation of Castlereagh Road 11 pounds. ..... - tender to deliver gravel to 6 culverts on Castlereagh Road awarded to James Byrnes at 2 shillings 2 pence per cubic yard.

* Minutes of meeting: 23 October 1873. Finance Committee report adopted recommending payments to:  Treasurer as petty cash 4 pounds 2 shillings 9 pence; Council Clerk quarterly salary 17 pounds 10 shillings; John Nash horse and cart labour 1 pound 18 shillings 6 pence; Michael Kilgannon 1 pound 8 shillings; John Hogan 2 pounds 5 shillings 6 pence; William Coffey (maintenance money) 2 pounds; James Byrnes (maintenance money) 2 pounds; James Byrnes for lowering table drains on Castlereagh Road 1 pound 10 shillings; Andrew Heavey for timber for breakwater on Henry Street 1 pound; William Sutton for boulders in breakwater in Henry Street 15 shillings; Price for spikes 4 shillings 2 pence; James Byrnes for 147 cubic yards of gravel on Castlereagh Road 15 pounds 18 shillings 6 pence.

Hunch - the 'vibes' at the reedy stream or frog pond on the downstream side of Nepean Street somehow don't feel good - this ?last place of Byrnes as so far detected in the area has a rather gloomy feel to it.   I am thinking that the Byrnes'es here faded away in relative poverty or destitution.   The only current property owner I've spoken with so far in the street (at ca. lot or no. 20) says that the people there, near the corner of Nepean Street with Cranebrook Road (now re-named somewhat confusingly as Castlereagh Road and cutting off an original section of Castlereagh Road that is now renamed 'Old Castlereagh Road'; along with 'shifting' the McCarthy's Lane which formerly was the direct westwards continuation of Nepean Street) used to be the Johnston family, which had lived thereabouts for many years or generations.  He hadn't heard of the name Byrnes as being there in/till the 1930s at all. 

Johnson's cottage at 19 Nepean Street, where enquiry was made re adjoining Byrnes in 1930s,

however the current occupant had never heard of any Byrnes having lived there.

 

 

The area as identified as Wetland No. 156 in Penrith Development Control Plan 1998 (Lakes Environs) – Amendment No. 3

The 1998 Development Control Plan proposed closing off Nepean Street and diverting it into the new development as shown.

The 1998 plan stated:

"""""

The area of the site north of Nepean Street is zoned 7(w) Environment Protection (Wetlands) under the provisions of the Penrith LEP 1998 - Lakes Environs. The wetlands area is also identified as ‘Mapped Wetland 156’, under the provisions of the Sydney Region Environmental Plan No. 20 - Hawkesbury Nepean River. Wetland 156 is mapped as a perennial wetland despite areas of the wetland being dry at various times of the year. The wetlands cover a total area of approximately 8.2 hectares in three sections, fragmented by Nepean Street and an existing drainage channel. For the purposes of discussion, the three (3) fragmented areas of Wetland 156 are labeled as A, B and C (refer Figure 2).

Wetland Area A is the largest, comprising approximately 7.5 hectares, or 91.5% of the overall area. Wetland Area A is located to the north of Nepean Street, and will not be disturbed. Wetland Areas B and C comprise the remaining 0.7 hectares, or 8.5%. These two areas are located within the proposed residential area and will be disturbed.

It is proposed to enlarge Area A by closing Nepean Street to through traffic; removing the carriageway of the closed section of Nepean Street; and extending Wetland Area A from the north of Nepean Street to the 2(g) zone. The rehabilitation will form one large wetland rather than three fragmented parts (refer Figure 3). The loss of wetland remnant Areas B and C will be compensated by the enlargement of wetland Area A and the construction of the lake system.

"""""

Regarding "The loss of wetland remnant Areas B and C will be compensated by the enlargement of wetland Area A and the construction of the lake system" the enlargement of area A, as shown by the figures, is very small - so the main compensation referred to, as the 'lake system', presumably refers to the water bodies to be created within the estate.

Geotechnique Pty Ltd of 34 Borec Road, Penrith (geotechnical staff - Emged Rizkalla and Indra Jworchan) were commissioned to carry out geotechnical, groundwater and preliminary environmental investigations for the proposed commercial and residential development at the corner of Cranebrook and Andrews Roads. The geotechnical and groundwater investigations involved test pit excavation, borehole drilling, installation of standpipes, in situ permeability testing and laboratory testing of recovered soil and rock samples and provided recommendations on excavation condition, foundation and pavement design, groundwater table and de-watering methods. The preliminary environmental investigation included review of site history and contamination assessment of soils. (Approximately site area is 72 Hectares).   Copies of these and other reports for the Lakeside Village planning are at Penrith Library, mostly completed in 2001.

Investigations of the site reported the presence of some 'saline' and 'sodic' clay soils.

By 2003 the list of developers involved for the Lakeside project ran to:

DAs 01/2588 and 01/2590

In a Council document (un-numbered but attached to Council meeting papers in 2003 as "Government Agencies General Terms of Approval" the 'Main Lakes' creek is called Farrell's Creek (applications were considered at Council meeting of 1 September 2003).   There is also reference to a Mt Pleasant Tributary.   Unfortunately no map is in the document to show these.   Penrith Council website mentions a Farrells Creek, but likewise does not show where it is - what it says of it is this:  "Farrells Creek - Before the construction of the Penrith Lakes Scheme, Farrells Creek flowed west into the Nepean River via Cranebrook Creek. It now forms part of the upper catchment for the lakes system. The lower reaches of this creek have been removed. It has been estimated that 26% of total annual water requirements of the Scheme will be provided by Scope and Farrells Creeks. This creek is surrounded predominately by medium density housing like Mt Pleasant, Cranebrook and Kingswood along its catchment area. The total catchment area is 500 hectares, with 151 ha of open space, 29 ha of industrial land and 320 ha of urban residential."

It is interesting that this very small creek could have once drained all the way from Kingswood.

Farrell's Lane used to be the westwards extension of Boundary Road, prior to the quarrying of the area.   Thus this creek perhaps ran across or near Farrell's Lane to join Cranebrook Creek.   A William Farrell had 75 acres at Castlereagh in 1885.

A map  that makes little sense?    This shows the Farrells Creek (not labelled) as flowing upstream from Andrews Street 

from west of the Penrith STP, rather than from the direction of Kingswood as otherwise written about.   The problem

with this is that this blue line is shown CROSSING Boundary Creek.   Streets may cross but creeks rarely would.

(Source:  Stated to be from PLDC, in a report by Maunsell on the Nepean River Pump and Pipeline project.

Lakeside Village Estate area orginal topography as surveyed ca. 1999 by Bowdens Group.  Note that this 

clearly shows the original course of Farrell's Creek, which crossed Andrews Street and presumably then 

passed just west of the ACO glass works.   Also note the 'Detention Basin' below 'Mt Pleasant'.

This may be the 'Mt Pleasant tributary' sometimes referred to(?).

 

REFERENCES

 

(For local records, at Penrith Library, also see:  "The Castlereagh Files" webpage).

 

Atkinson, G. , 1982.   Soil Survey and Erosion Control Measures for the Penrith Lakes Scheme.  Soil Conservation Service of NSW. Unpublished report.

Atkinson, G. , 1983.   Soil-Stratigraphic Relationships of the Clarendon and Cranebrook Formations, Nepean River, NSW: A Multivariate Analysis.  MSc Thesis, University of NSW.

Atkinson, G., 1987.  A review of soil and geological maps of the Nepean River terraces, NSW.  Australian Geographer. 18(2):13pp.

Bishop, P., 1982.  Stability or Change:  A Review of Ideas on Ancient Drainage in Eastern New South Wales.   Australian Geographer.  Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 219-230.

Paul Davies Pty. Ltd. (Architects, Heritage Consultants), 2007,   Penrith Heritage Study.

 SUBURBS profiles - these are downloadable, from the 2007 study, as follows:

http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Website/Planning_and_Development/Stage_1_Local_Plan/Penrith_Heritage_Study_2007/Penrith.pdf

http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Website/Planning_and_Development/Stage_1_Local_Plan/Penrith_Heritage_Study_2007/Cranebrook.pdf

http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Website/Planning_and_Development/Stage_1_Local_Plan/Penrith_Heritage_Study_2007/Castlereagh.pdf

(NB:  For some reason Cranebrook.pdf and Castlereagh.pdf turn out to be the same file, largely focussed on the eastern non-river part -- perhaps because of the difficulties of sorting out Upper Castlereagh and Cranebrook historic records ... which leaves the western 'Castlereagh' side relatively unattended to.)

CONTACT:    To send more information on this area, make equiries, or to correct any mistakes as may be above, please contact John at:    john.mail "@" ozemail.com.au