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information, please contact LachlanHunter at john.mail@ozemail.com.au
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TEMPE
The notes below pertain mainly to the northern and southern side of the Cooks River where it is crossed by the Princes Highway, which follows the course of an early dam across the river.
The river was discovoured by Captain James Cook in 1770 but it was not until 1793 that any permanent settlement began to occur along it. The first bridge was erected here in 1810, give access to the southern bank of the river for timber getting. It was then a limit of recreational excursions from Sydney.
With the degradation and growing inadequacy of Sydney's Tank Stream water suppy by 1826 the Cooks River was considered as a possibly fresh water supply. A dam was built across it here for that purpose, in the 1830s. The work was mainly completed in 1839-1841 using convict labour. It was considered that floods might flush out the saline water and give allow a fresh supply behind the dam (cf. in a flood of 1889 the river flowed 10 above the dam at Tempe). However, the dam was unsuccessful, as the water remained saline and the main effect of the dam, because of the increase of upstream polluting industries, was to generate a cesspool. Most of the fresh water remained dammed behind the later dam at the Sugar House at Canterbury, but that dam water too was often in a very offensive condition. There was an outbreak of typhoid fever affecting swimmers in 1896. The Tempe dam was lowered to improve flushing, and eventually demolished entirely.
Midden - The only known possible surviving remnant of an open shell midden known along the Cooks River is at Kendrick Park (NPWS Aboriginal sites register), just upstream of where the Princes Highway crosses the river (Cooks River Bridge) and near where the railway line crosses the river. Minor road widening works just east of the stormwater drain at the end of View Street, near the railway line and along the northern side of Kendrick Park, revealed what was considered to be in situ midden shells. A 24 mm silcrete flake was also found here (reference/repository to be sought; NPWS). The general area, the northern edge of the park, appears to all have been a quarry once, and the potential for preservation of original land surface would not seem great. Marrickville Council website (2008) said of it "The Cooks River Midden is situated on a sandstone ridge overlooking the Cooks River. This is one of the oldest surviving middens discovered to date in the Sydney coastal area"..."The site is located on a hill slope overlooking the Cooks River. Estuarine shell was found over an area 38m x 14m ..... The shell in one area has been exposed by earth removal in leveling (sic) for a road with masses of Eurpean rubbish covering the site" (/places_midden.htm).
Kendrick Park quarry - The cut sandstone face along View Street and marking the northern edge of Kendrick Park was a small quarry presumably accessed when working via Quarry Street which runs soutwards towards it. This is a very small quarry compared to the large sandstone quarry faces seen a little further up the river near Steel Park (see under 'Marrickville South').
Shell burning - Also near Cooks River Bridge, at the water's edge at the opposite side of the highway there once stood a large lime burning kiln:
Lime kiln at the Cooks River Dam (Illustrated Sydney News, 1871)
Earlier views of the same site (First two Mitchell Library, fide Marrickville Council; below right
and 1850 copper plate engraving by W. Harris, now in National Gallery, well showing the
rough roadway top of the dam and the rocky outcrop lying to the east of the
Tempe House homestead that was called "Mt Olympus".)
Artist's impression of how the northern side and rear of Tempe House
will be surrounded by ca. 1,000 highrise units (Rockdale Council)
The Cooks River Dam was constructed where the Princes Highway today crosses the river, and the small bay that the kiln is on the bank of is now a moorings habour for small private boats and pleasure craft, bounded by the highway and Holbeach Avenue. The registers of the St Peters Church at Cooks river give the following evidence (as received from Laurel Horton per Tony Carr) of a sizeable shell burning industry, employing at least 31 persons over time:
In the baptisms register there are 14 lime burners names listed when their children were baptised, and 15 shellgatherers. Two people Curtis and Illingworth are listed as both limeburners and shellgatherers. The
dates for the limeburners range from 1846 till 1886, the shellgatherers from 1857 till 1869.
Names of limeburners: -
At Cooks River: Hurley, Duncan, Illingworth, Baker, Curtis, Taff, Blackwell, Rattenbury, Cairncross, Fallage
At St Peters: Chappelow, Malley,
At Botany:Puckridge, Gambell
Names of Shellgatherers: -
At Cooks River: Newman, Ellensworth, Illingworth
At Cooks River & St George: Douglas,
At Botany: Wood, Rogers (Pelican St), Kemster (Pelican), Home
At Newtown: Hibbert
At St Peters: Lorsman
At Wooli Creek: Curtis
At Georges River: Duncan, Bennett, Backhouse
At Weeces Ck: Chemister
The burial register has six names for shellgatherers and limeburners who died in the district: Ibbett (Botany), Illingworth (Cooks River), Honeybun (Carters Island), Carffy (Cooks & Georges Rivers), Blackwall (St George), Duncan (Cooks River).
Mt Olympus - The newer suburban name for this southern side of the Cooks River is now Wolli Creek, but as it is also the original Tempe homestead it is included here. Mt Olympus became the site of a major highrise development (A$ 800 million) by Australand Holdings Ltd. Australand's name for the 7.8 ha project is "Discovery Point" and the project effected major excavation on the northern flank of the Mt Olympus sandstone outcrop area. The site was a Landcom tendered sale which Landcom had named as Interciti. Expressions of interest had been called for in 2002, with a view to construction commencing of more than 1,000 apartments beginning in 2004. The blocks of highrise apartments were to be built, as shown in the artist's impression above, around the historic buildings of Tempe House (1836) and its adjoining St Magdalene's chapel (1888). The area lies just southeast of Wolli Creek railway station, from which it was also planned to construct a new underground railway line to Sydney Airport which would pass under the Cooks River immediately south of Cooks River bridge of the Princes Highway. For the Discovery Point buildings on the northern flank of the project area it was expected that staged basement construction would be in difficult ground conditions with a high water table, and this work was contracted to the Robert Bird Group Pty Ltd of structural and civil engineers (Level 5, 9 Castlereagh St., Sydney). Robert Bird's civil engineering department carried out the bulk excavations.
TERREY HILLS
Ferruginisation - Ferruginised surface of plateau at Frank Beckman Reserve, especially at the northern side of the intersection of McCarrs Creek Road and Yulong Avenue near where a reservoir is located. There is a three metre deep road cutting exposure of the the weathered surface of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. There is deep red and brown colouration, and formation of iron oxide crusts. The iron accumulation may or may not be of lateritic affinity (see also the Tumbledown Dick site about 1 km SSE).
TERREY HILLS (north of, in national park)
Walking tracks north from Terrey Hills. The point marked "Walk from here" is the start of
Elvina Track, a good trail for viewing polygonal jointed weathering surface on Hawkesbury
Sandstone with associated Aboriginal engravings and many Snames. The other track
leading south from near the NPWS toll gate also rises up to plateau surface and more
polygonal jointing exposure (photo below). Another walk of interest might be to go up
upstream on Coal and Candle Creek and look for the Narrabeen/Hawkesbury
formational contact. (Annotations: Peter Adderley)
Polygonal jointing - North of Terrey Hills. Situated along "Centre Track" walking trail in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, most of the way from McCarr's Creek Road towards Liberator General San Martin Drive. Other occurrences of this jointing continue further north in the West Head area. The easiest way to this particular site is to pick up the track at 30m past the toll booth on Liberator General San Martin Drive and then walk about 0.5 km along track uphill towards the highest knoll which is where the jointing is found. Faint engravings of footprints are recorded from here. This high ground overlooks McCarr's Creek to the south and Coal and Candle Creek to the north.
Plateau-top polygonal jointing on Hawkesbury Sandstone. There are also faint
aboriginal engravings in this area (Photo: M. McClelland, 2006).
THORNLEIGH
Dartford Road - Thornleigh Brickworks operated a pit and kilns here for over half a century. The pit was between the Main Northern Line railway and Pennant Hills Road. The brickpit continued for some years after the kilns closed. The Ashfield Shale was worked to its base, with sandstone explosed in the floor of the quarry. After quarrying ceased the pit was filled with garbage by the Metropolitan Waste Disposal Authority and was completely full by 1986.
De Saxe Close - Sandstone quarry near end of street. (Lots 547 and 1569, DP 752053). Dates from at least the 1875. Stone was carried by a small railway, including zig-zag, to Thornleigh; possibly largely for crushed aggregate use. May have been a significant employer in the 1880s-1890s.
THORNTON
Silcrete. Almost 1 km from Woodberry Swamp is a site with silcrete gravel which appears to have been utilised as an implements site. It was recorded in a survey by P. Kuskie in 1994 of DP 559519 when Lot 1 was proposed for residential development.
TURRAMURRA
Lovers Jump waterfall. Lovers Jump (locally also known as Lovers Leap) is a waterfall with a significantly large pool at its base, on the northern side of Burns Road between Finchley Place and McRae Place. A pool at the base of the waterfall is not known to have ever dried up, even though the creek may periodically run dry. The relatively deep valley of Lovers Leap (Lovers Jump) Creek below the waterfall has an area of remant Blue Gum High Forest ecological community. Brush turkeys in groups of up to 4 or 5 lives along the creek and the birds are seen in McRae Place where nesting mounds have been built and chicks have emerged in recent years. Also known in the area are lyre birds, owls, lizards like the water dragon, water rat, eels, etc. No particular reason for the waterfall development here is apparent. The creek at the top of the falls is probably close to the top of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. Where McRae Place makes its first bend (to the east) shale has been met with in digging on the northern side of the road, and close downslope from here the sandstone outcrops. This is probably an accurate elevation point for the base of the Mittagong Formation. Opposite the entrance to McCrae Place, on the south side of Burns Road, building excavation in 2007 exposed weathered Ashfield Shale passing down into Mittagong Formation. Near here was Irish Town. For a time this was an isolated community of orchardists who settled after 1850, with frequent intermarriage and picnicing at the Lovers Leap waterhole (fide Ku-ring-gai Historical Society). Irish Town is remembered by the small "Irish Town Grove" creek reserve between Bannockburn Road and Adams Street; although some accounts state that much of North Turramurra was known as Irish Town. The orchards are also remembered by the Orange Green park behind North Turramurra public school. This school was opened in 1914 to serve the community of orchardists, market gardeners and dairy farmers. In 1920 fruit fly proved disastrous to commercial orchardists on the North Shore
ULLADULLA
Glendonites. Glendonites, glacial erratics, and marine fossils occur at Waden Head, about 1.5 km east of Ulladulla.
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