Latest / Urban Ambling / Brooklyn: A Great Hawkesbury Town.

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Brooklyn: A Great Hawkesbury Town. · Urban Ambling

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Sydney's northern outpost, Brooklyn, a great Hawkesbury town.
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The first thing I want to say about Brooklyn is it's
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just a great little place.
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it's totally unexpected.
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It's totally, cut off from Sydney.
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It's everything that Sydney isn't.
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It's surrounded by a national park, mainly the Kuring-gai Chase National Park,
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which we talked about some episodes back.
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But the wonderful thing about it is it's quiet, it's laid back,
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and basically it's probably pretty much as it was 100 years ago.
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there's no high-rise, there's no unit blocks there's none of that pressure
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that you get in Sydney, and it's, it's just a great spot to visit.
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There's, lot of good little eateries around.
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There's a park, it's called Mackell Park after the, one of the early premiers
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and, uh, one of the governor-generals of Australia years ago, which runs
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a little to the east of the town, and there's picnic shelters there.
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It's a great spot, where a family could come.
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Come by train is the best way, the old Red Rattler as we used to call it,
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and, you can make a cheap day of it.
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Um, picnic areas and a lot of historical charts, et cetera.
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So it's, it's just a great spot, and, uh, we're going through very difficult times
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at the moment, and it looks like they're not going to get any easier for some time.
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So if you wanna just do something different with your friends or
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just by yourself or with your family, just hop on the train.
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It's only about half an hour or so, perhaps a bit less north of Hornsby,
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and you arrive down and you're on the banks of the Hawkesbury.
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that's, that's a very interesting thing because Sydneysiders really,
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I think, in, in general, uh, d- generalizations are always dangerous,
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but generally don't have much appreciation of the Hawkesbury at all.
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and that may be because is actually fairly hard to access for most of its course.
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Now, the combined system is called the Nepean-Hawkesbury system.
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The Nepean River rises right down in the Southern Highlands just a little to
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the north of Robertson, and that itself is up on the top of the escarpment
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before you drop down the coast range to, uh, the Wollongong south coast area.
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And I was there last year and I went hunting for the The source of the
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Nepean, now that's always a bit of a fool's errand because, you know,
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how do you tell where a river begins?
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I mean, at some point enough little trickles coalesce to say there's a stream.
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But certainly I reached a point where there's a very beautiful, very wide
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dish-shaped area facing generally north, and that's certainly where it arises.
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And it flows down, and we'll deal with some other tributaries in a minute.
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But the Nepean becomes the Hawkesbury at the point where the Grose River joins
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it just near a place called Yarramundi, which is a bit out of Richmond.
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Now, we some years ago, there was about four or five of us, I think,
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walked, a good part of the Hawkesbury.
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We started at Mangrove Creek, which I'll mention later.
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It's one of the northern tributaries, and walked round down to Wisemans Ferry
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and then followed the river down to where the Grose River joins, and that's,
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as I say, the source of the Hawkesbury.
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It was quite funny really because we had a swim in the-- at the point where
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the rivers join, and you'd assume there you'd be as safe as houses from sharks.
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But we then learned while we were there that, someone had recently found a
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bull nose shark not, you know, 200, meters from where we were swimming.
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So, uh, no longer can we think that because we're in basically fresh water,
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we're clear of, bull nose sharks.
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So that's something to remember.
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But the Hawkesbury from that point flows through that wonderful, riparian land,
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the flat, very good river flats through, beside Richmond and beside particularly
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Windsor, and then it goes up towards, some small settlements further up.
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But then it goes into really quite heavily wooded country where it's
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basically got national parks on both sides, and that continues right up until
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Wisemans Ferry, and at that point river's been traveling generally north, but
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it then basically swings to the east.
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But between Windsor and, the Kowong Creek or Kowong Water where the walk-
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the Hawkesbury discharges into Broken Bay, there's very few settlements.
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You've got Windsor itself.
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Uh, you've got a few small farming settlements, but once you get into
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the bushland, the only settlements thereafter is, uh, Wisemans Ferry, which
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is a small but very pleasant place.
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Spencer, which is tiny, but again, a very, uh, pleasant place with
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a great few eating spots there.
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And then you come down to Brooklyn and there's Brooklyn on the southern
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side of the river and Murriny Murriny on northern side of the river.
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But for present purpose, treat them as one.
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So really, Brooklyn is the, only significant or place of any
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significance on the Hawkesbury between, Windsor and the sea.
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So it's for that reason that I think Brooklyn can be very rightly
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called a great Hawkesbury town.
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Now, if I could just come back to the Hawkesbury a bit, because as I
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say, I I think it's really ignored.
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You know, most people's involvement with the Hawkesbury, I think would be either
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crossing it at the bridge at Windsor or crossing it at the bridge at Brooklyn,
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uh, on the expressway or the old highway.
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They're really the only two spots you can cross.
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The only other two ways of getting across is there's a couple of punts on the, uh,
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river up around Wisemans Ferry and there.
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But the river system, I don't think a lot of us appreciate
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just how extraordinary it is.
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as I said, the Nepean itself rises a little to the north of Robertson on the
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Southern Highlands, but the Wollondilly is also a tributary and, tributary
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in turn to the Wollondilly, in fact rises up near Lakes Bathurst, which is
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just roughly to the east of Canberra.
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So when you're in Goulburn, you're in fact still in the Hawkesbury catchment.
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If you go to the west, it's probably even more remarkable because the Cox's
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River which rises up between Lithgow and, Majubee near a place called, uh,
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Bullen Bullen it flows down and joins the Warragamba now as part of Warragamba Dam.
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And that is in fact a tributary of the Hawkesbury and part
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of the Hawkesbury basin.
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So quite extraordinarily, when you're driving out of Ba- uh, of Lithgow rather
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you in fact cross the Cox's River, and I think it'd be quite astonishing
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to, to most people to know that that's still in the Hawkesbury catchment area.
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If you then turn to the north, there's the four Ms which are the
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northern-- generally north-south rivers that flow into the Hawkesbury
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at or to the east of Wisemans Ferry.
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And the one at Wisemans Ferry is the Macdonald River.
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Now that's the biggest of the four, and it rises in a mountain range, which is,
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a little bit north of west of Cessnock.
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So just to encapsulate that, the Hawkesbury in part rises west of Cessnock
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west of Lithgow and south of Goulburn.
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And the other incredible thing is the point where the Nepean rises is
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probably only 15 or 20 kilometers as the crow flies from, the, um, the sea.
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So in fact, that system entirely surrounds Sydney, and we're only 15 or
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20 kilometers from being on an island.
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And it's, a system that we should pay a lot more attention to because it basically
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supplies all our water from the very early Nepean system, which we've talked about
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in, past episodes through to Warragamba Dam, which was built in the '60s.
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That's where our water comes from, and we owe it-- We really owe our existence to
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uh,
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that river system.
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And I think, that's often forgotten.
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But one of the other great things is having all that, water infrastructure
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and catchment areas and protection means that again, Sydney is just surrounded
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by this extraordinary quantity of either park or catchment areas and natural bush.
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So one thing about Brooklyn, apart from being a great place, it's a
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place where people can go and have a look at the scenery, some of
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that glorious scenery, and gain an appreciation for this river which I
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say, uh, has so often been ignored.
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And it's interesting that, others, in the past have
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appreciated a lot more than we do.
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And, in a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 24th of April 1873,
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there was a little note about a trip that had been made by a person who
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was described as the great author and traveler, Mr. Anthony Trollope.
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Now, he was an Englishman.
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He came to Australia, he toured around, and in due course he wrote
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up, an article about, amongst other things, the Hawkesbury.
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And, uh, I'll just read this passage or part of it from The Herald in
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April 1873, and quite extraordinarily, that's almost 24th of April.
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It's almost exactly 153 years to the day when I'm just
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recording these few observations.
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It goes like this.
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It's headed to Mr. Trollope on the Hawkesbury, rather
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an interesting, headline.
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When the great author and traveler, Mr. Anthony Trollope, was being
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entertained by his New South Wales parliamentary friends at a picnic
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extending over two days amongst the charming scenery of the Hawkesbury
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River The untraveled senators could not but think that their distinguished
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guest was flatting, flattering, if not quizzing, when he told them that the
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native scenery of the Hawkesbury was superior to that of the far-famed Rhine.
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The scenery that was immortalized by Lord Byron, in a poem, and I won't
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read it all to you, but the first two lines are, " Adieu to thee, fair Rhine.
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How long delighted the stranger fain would linger on his way." And, uh, it
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then goes on to say, "And yet we find when Mr. Trollope's description of New
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South Wales comes to hand, that he devotes four pages to that ever-memorable trip
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and the scenery of the Hawkesbury, and more than confirms what he told, us
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while floating down the river in Mr.
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T.S. Mort's beautiful steam yacht, Bronze Wing, kindly placed at the disposal
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of the party by that liberal-hearted gentleman." And you recall that we did a,
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uh, a pod on Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, quite an amazing person, back some time ago.
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uh,
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so Trollope was very impressed, but when he in fact went on and
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published, his works, what he said was quite extraordinary, and
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I'll come to that in a minute.
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But in an article on the 22nd of November 1873, in this wonderful journal, which was
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called The Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agricultural, Agriculturist
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and Grazier, and this was from 1873 from that distinguished paper, there's
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this description on under a heading of an article, A Trip Up the Hawkesbury.
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And in part it's this, "Lying within about 40 miles of our city, the sylvan
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loveliness of this charming river is as little known as if it were situated in
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Germany, and the time is fast arriving when we dwellers in Sydney should begin
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to arouse from our apathy and take an interest in the beauty that surrounds us."
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And this is a very interesting passage, the next paragraph.
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" We have too long subscribed to the notion that anything which is not obtained
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by means of time, trouble, distance, and expense is utterly valueless.
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And if Anthony Trollope, whose opinion ought to be worth something, will have
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been the instrument of arousing our dead sense of the beautiful, he will have done
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us New South Welshmen a kindly turn."
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And, and that of course is one of the things that I try to achieve with these
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podcasts is just Making the point that we don't have to run off around the world,
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especially present circumstances, to find things of interest and satisfaction.
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But Trollope went on in the article he wrote to say this: " There can,
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I think, be no doubt that among rivers, the Rhine has the highest
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character for sustained beauty.
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There may be special points on other streams which have endeared themselves to
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the world, such especially as the Falls of Niagara, as such as the Inn at Innsbruck
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or the Rhone at Geneva, or the Upper Lake at Killarney, which is in truth a river.
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But for continued scenery, the Rhine stands first.
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There is a river, or rather a portion of the river known to very few tourists,
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which I think beats the Rhine."
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Now bear in mind, this is 1873 this is being written.
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This is the upper Mississippi for about 150 miles below St. Paul.
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It is not my business here to describe the Mississippi, but I mention it with
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the object of saying that in my opinion, the Hawkesbury beats the Mississippi.
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I should not make the contrast unless there were many features
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in the two which are similar."
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And then it, it goes on from there.
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But he speaks in particular of the, the way the land meets the river.
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And of course, one of the great things of the Hawkesbury is once it gets
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beyond the settled agricultural lands and Windsor, you pass into these,
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what could really be called gorges.
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And then you wouldn't call them mountains, but they're certainly very big hills.
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So the Hawkesbury is worth learning about and understanding and Brooklyn
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offers a real opportunity for us to do it, and to do it cheaply and to do it
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easily, and by using public transport.
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and one thing that you can do at Brooklyn, which I'll just mention now, is that since
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about 1910, there's been a little business running called the Riverboat Postman,
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which in fact leaves from Brooklyn.
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I think it's only on weekdays, but you could easily check up online.
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And goes up to all the various settlements, houses, and all
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the small places delivering mail and goods and everything else.
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now it's many years since we've done it, but it was great.
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And, uh, if you don't know the Hawkesbury at all, that would be a fantastic way,
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uh, of getting to know it and having indeed a very pleasant trip indeed.
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But Hawkesbury, uh, the Brooklyn rather, has other historical associations,
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which I'll come to in a minute.
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So it's a very interesting place beyond just being a great place to visit source
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of the name's always been a bit of in contention, but it seems fairly clear that
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on a survey plan in January 1884 for the subdivision of land where Brooklyn now
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is the place was described as Brooklyn.
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Now, a lot of people had thought that the name Brooklyn came with the, the
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camps for the workers who built the Brooklyn Railway Bridge, which was built
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by an American company, the New York Bridge and Rail, something like that.
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But it seems clear that wherever it came from, it in fact was on a plan in 1884.
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Now Brooklyn, again, goes back to the very early part of European settlement, and
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there's an obelisk near the station, a marble obelisk just as you come down off
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the station, which was erected in 1939, but records the visit of Governor Phillip
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to the area on the 11th of June 1789.
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Now, that's only a year and a bit after we Europeans arrived.
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on that trip, he in fact reached Danger Island, and that's an island
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in the river just off Brooklyn.
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Again, you can go there by ferry.
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I must say I haven't been there, but I, after looking at it for
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this, I'll certainly be going there.
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And he initially called it Mullet Island, and the reason he did was very simple,
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is they'd managed to catch a whole host of mullet, which they had for dinner.
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So it remained as, Mullet Island until it was renet- renamed Danger
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Island when a gentleman by that name took up the grant in that
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area, and that was some years later.
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And I should just, mention here the original first peoples in the area,
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the Darug peoples, they called the Hawkesbury Dyarubbin, D-Y-A-R-U-B-B-I-N.
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So we should really refer to it with both those names.
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Now the railway has played a very big part in the prominence of Brooklyn because it
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was in fact the building of the railway bridge at Brooklyn across the Hawkesbury
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that in fact completed certainly the unification of the rail system in
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New South Wales, but also enabled all the various disparate colonies in the
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eastern colonies to be joined together by rail the contract for the building
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of the bridge was let in January 1886 to the Union Bridge Company of New York.
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and when the camp was put in for the building of the bridge,
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they adopted the name Brooklyn.
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Now it seems that some people always said, "Oh, yes, well, it was 'cause they were
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from New York and Brooklyn is Brooklyn." But it seems that Brooklyn was probably
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Brooklyn because someone had called it that for whatever reason back in, 1884.
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But it certainly joined up the New South Wales railway system because what had
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happened in New South Wales is that a rail system developed from Sydney which
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serviced the west and the southwest and the south, and an independent system
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developed from Newcastle which went to the north and northeast, northwest, and
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these were joined by this railway line.
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So it, it did have a very particular system
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uh,
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a, a very particular effect in bringing a sense of unity and
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a sense of communication to the various disparate colonies.
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And it was said at the opening of the bridge which joined the railway system
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together, that that enabled someone to travel from Charleville in Queensland,
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which is right out in west of Queensland, pretty well directly west of Brisbane, to
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Coward Springs in South Australia, which is right up to the west of Lake Eyre.
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So it was an enormously significant event which happened to give
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Brooklyn a very great prominence.
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And that distance, with the opening of the bridge and the linking of the
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system, you could travel by rail, 4,140 kilometers, and this had a huge effect
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on a sense of unity for the colonies.
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Now, we'll come back to that in a minute because Sir Henry Parkes, who's often
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called one of the fathers of federation, gave a speech, might I say a very
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long speech, at the opening ceremony.
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But I just wanna mention one thing before that, and it goes back to 1891.
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And there'd been a lot of movement in all the colonies to thinking about
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federation and that was becoming quite structured and serious by 1890,
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and there was to be the first formal federation convention in Sydney in 1891.
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and one of the people who was a very forceful advocate of this
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was Samuel Griffiths, who had been a former premier of Queensland.
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And was actively involved, um, was one of the people attending
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for Queensland at the convention.
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And in those days because of transport problems, the Queensland government
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had its own boat called the Lucinda.
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And in fact, in March 1891, Sir Samuel Griffiths was on the Lucinda,
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and in the process of the voyage was doing his first draft of what
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became the Australian Constitution.
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And the Lucinda put into Broken Bay and round into the Hawkesbury in March
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1981, and remained there for some days because they were a bit ahead of time
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and, uh, they wanted to allow use up a bit of time before they got to Sydney.
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And whilst there, Sir Samuel continued his writing of the Constitution.
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So once again, i- in a quite extraordinary coincidence, Brooklyn has that
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connection to the cause of federation as well as the, the railway line.
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Now as I say, the railway was a, a particularly big event and, there was a
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huge celebration and a huge dinner, uh, lunch rather, uh, on the 1st of May 1889.
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They'd tested the bridge in April.
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They sent locomotives over the bridge to make sure it's all right.
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I wonder how they drew lots for who drove the locomotives in those circumstances.
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But for the purposes, they had a huge barge which had been used for the building
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of the bridge, and they moored it over near Dawngar Island and set up this most
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magnificent banquet hall with drapes and huge event, probably hundreds of people.
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And it was a big event.
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And again, it was, it was at Brooklyn, and Sir Henry Parkes spoke there.
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Now, as I say, it's a very long speech.
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He was a very, he was a very interesting person, a bit mercurial.
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But, he certainly could give a long speech.
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Now, the first thing that struck me is he began his speech
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by, " My lord and gentlemen."
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I mean, that's quite extraordinary, isn't it?
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That's you know, some 130 years ago.
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But the ladies entirely ignored.
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Although oddly enough, at the end of the order of ceremonies, there was
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some man giving a toast to the ladies.
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But, um, it's all a bit extraordinary.
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But anyway, that was how they did it in those days.
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Now, there's just a couple of passages I wanna read from, Sir Henry Parkes'
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speech, and he certainly could get out some glossy prose on this beautiful
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labyrinth of waters, many national enjoyments have taken place, and today
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we meet to celebrate the erection of a work which will connect the
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bulk of the Australian population.
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It is almost impossible to find time to dwell upon what the future may be.
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That is God's unknown, and the wise amongst us cannot measure the future.
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But we may be assured that a gigantic progress will take place in our midst.
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Invention and science will have some of their highest achievements here, and
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we hope that wisdom will show herself in a sober and most attractive form.
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And he then spoke about how this was linking up Queensland and South Australia.
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Uh, but at the end of his speech, he said this: " In this great system of
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material arteries which we complete today, we see the crimson fluid of kinship
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pulsing through all the iron veins.
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In mortal marriage, as it is said, whom God has joined
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together, let no man put asunder.
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In contemplating the great powers of Australian progress, which enterprise,
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invention, and noble emul- emulation and nature have here brought together, may not
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the united heart of this great gathering put up the devout prayer that no human
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force in the long invisible hereafter may be strong enough to rend them asunder."
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That was received with loud cheers.
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It was certainly pretty flowery, but you could see what he was driving at.
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And the toast was simply, " I ask you to drink the toast of United
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Australia." And the note, in a wonderful book by a bloke called Richmond, on,
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uh... He's a chap who lives there.
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He was a school principal in Sydney, on the, the Brooklyn.
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he says this observation, which is very true.
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" The ceremonies on the pontoon off Dangar Island deserve
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recognition as a significant step in the progress to federation.
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The banquet brought together leaders from all over New South
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Wales as repres- as well as representatives from other colonies.
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There was an obvious recognition that this event marked the
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overcoming of an important physical barrier, barrier to federation."
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So quite extraordinarily, the wonderful little town of Brooklyn,
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as I say, just a wonderful backwater, has this most extraordinary history.
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But there's one other matter I, uh, should mention, or a
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few other incidental matters.
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it also had the distinction, Brooklyn, of appearing on the
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first £5 note when the Australian government began issuing Its currency.
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And it was taken from a hill, the hill at the back to the south.
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There used to be an old hotel called the Sanatorium Hotel, and it was
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looking over the inlet and, uh, to the northwest where the road bridge is now.
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And that was on the £5 note for the Commonwealth from 1913 to 1932.
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And interestingly, back in those days, the banks used to issue their
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own, uh, currency, and the Bank of New South Wales, uh, back in the
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19th century, issued their £1 note.
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In fact, had a picture of the railway bridge, at Brooklyn.
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and it's, it's quite a distinctive little note.
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So there it is.
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it's a little place but it's got a great history.
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it's got a great present attitude and, it's well worth a visit.
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Uh, there's just three other things I'll mention very briefly.
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It is on the Great North Walk, so if you're super keen.
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God me, goodness.
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On the Great North Walk, and it's-- the track comes down from Cowwarr.
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I walked it many years ago.
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I'm glad I did years ago.
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But it's, it's a difficult walk, but it's a great walk.
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And there's also a very interesting note somewhere that, things haven't
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always been glossy in Brooklyn, because apparently in 1892, there was great
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contention by the residents because for some reason there was an excess of pigs
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wandering around in the, in the towns.
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But I don't know what that's all about.
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But I see, goodness, time goes so quickly.
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Tempus fugit.
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I just want to finish with two things.
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One is when I say that... Or three things, actually.
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One other thing I want to say is that when I say it's the same as it was 100
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years ago, it's with one huge exception.
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The, the present hotel, the Anglers Arms, is a great place, recently
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renovated, well worth a visit.
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But its predecessor, roughly 100 years ago, was a magnificent old hotel called
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the Hawkesbury River Railway Hotel.
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And it was one of those huge weatherboard hotels with an upstairs
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veranda and the awnings below, and it had a wonderful pointed tower.
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And it's a great shame we lost that.
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And, um, the other matter is simply this, and it's a good thing to finish
23:53
because whatever else Brooklyn can claim, I think this might be the real doozy.
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Because if you go to the cemetery at Brooklyn, it's situated a little
24:02
to the west of the town, adjacent to the old Pacific Highway you will
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be able to find somewhere there the grave of Robert Buie, B-U-I-E.
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Now Buie, and the tomb-tombstone says this, was responsible for the shooting
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down of Manfred von Richthofen, who was in fact the German Red Baron.
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Now, I made some inquiries into this, and it seems that it's not 100% sure it
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was Buie, but he's certainly one of two.
24:32
There was a Canadian pilot c- in his plane who was engaged in a joist with the Red
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Baron, but it was worked out that when he fired his weapon, it was too soon.
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The, Red Baron went on for a bit longer than that.
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But there were two Lewis gunners
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uh,
24:47
on the ground firing, and there's some contention as to whose gun,
24:50
whose bullet really hit the Red Baron, but Buie is certainly one of them.
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So there you go.
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Brooklyn can claim to have the grave of certainly one of the
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men who downed the Red Baron.
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That's it.
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That's 32 minutes.
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Goodness, goodness.
25:04
Just two very quick little facts.
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Three, I suppose.
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We were in Adelaide last week and walking along that wonderful North
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Terrace, and there's statues everywhere.
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It's a fantastic place to amble, wander.
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I was wandering along, and I came upon a statue to Matthew Flinders,
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and it only then dawned on me that Flinders was only 40 when he died.
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not far away from him, there's a statue to Robbie Burns, the great Scottish poet.
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He died at 36.
25:30
People still have dinners everywhere every year on Burns Night.
25:33
And of course, that fits in with, uh, Flinders' mate, Bass, who was only
25:37
30 or 30 or 31 when he sailed out of Sydney Heads, never to be seen again.
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And it's this extraordinary thing that people lived what we would
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regard as very short lives, but achieved an enormous amount.
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So that's it.
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Enough from me.
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Put Brooklyn on a, a day trip.
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It'll be well worth it.
25:54
So until next time, keep ambling, choose to be happy, and until then, cheerio.