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Trailflix: Heathcote Pipeline - Trail Area History |
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Aboriginal History
It’s estimated that Aborigines have been living in the Sydney/Illawarra coast area for at least 7,000 years. It appears their tribal communities were small but compact and peaceful, each tribe having it's own traditionally defined “home country”. The Port Hacking district was a recognised camping ground where tribes from the Illawarra district gathered annually to fish and to hunt the wallaby, opossum and bandicoot in the South West Creek region of the Royal National Park. Here, too, was the ancient “crossing place” for the South Coast Aborigines on the annual walkabout to the northern coastal areas for the winter season.
European History
The Sutherland Shire name, of which Heathcote is a part, comes from the name of a seaman on Cooks 18th century voyage of discovery. During the Endeavour’s brief stay it was anchored off Kurnell Peninsula in April 1770, wherein a Scottish seaman named Forbus (Forby) Sutherland died from tuberculosis. He was buried on May 1 on the beach at Kurnell, just above high-water mark. The approximate site of the grave was located in 1923 by the Royal Australian Historical Society, and marked. Recording Sutherland’s death in the ship’s log, Cook noted that he had named the northwest point ‘Point Sutherland’ in his memory.
There was little active settlement prior to 1869. Timber cutting was the principal industry, much of it taking place on leased Crown Lands. Itinerant workers carried out shell gatherings, especially in the Port Hacking area. The shell was shipped to Sydney for burning into lime for building and other commercial purposes.
Alpha Farm at Kurnell was renowned, especially in the early days, for its fruit and vegetables, with cattle-raising as a sideline. A couple of land grants south of Port Hacking were used for grazing of cattle. The only other industry was the watermill built about 1825 by John Lucas at Woronora. This mill was used to grind corn grown by Illawarra farmers. The farmers’ small ships sailed up the coast and into Botany Bay, Georges and Woronora Rivers. Thus they saved wharfage and customs dues charged at Port Jackson. The mill was razed by fire in the late 1830s; it was not rebuilt.
Governor Bourke on May 27, 1835, issued a proclamation declaring the Nineteen Counties. Each County was divided into ‘Hundreds’. This was an Old English land measurement. A large part of what is now Sutherland Shire was proclaimed as the Hundred of Woronora, bounded by Georges River, Port Hacking and the Hacking River, the ocean and the Woronora River. It consisted of the ‘civil Parishes’ of Southerland (sic), Bulgo, Heathcote and Wattamolla. By 1840 the word ‘Hundred’ appears to have been dropped and the district then was also known as Heathcote. Once the survey had been completed and maps issued, the Government authorised plans for the selling of Crown Lands.
Heathcote was one of the towns laid out in ‘fourteen town allotments’. In 1842, the earliest settlement in the whole Shire was the ‘Village of Bottle Forest’. It was created on the instructions of Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell, and is part of Heathcote, east of the railway. Here stands ‘Heathcote Hall’, it’s high tower framed amongst the trees. It was built by Sydney brick maker Abel Harber in 1882, and is a typical example of late Victorian domestic architecture. The first road linking Sydney to Wollongong via Forest Road, Lugarno Ferry, Old Illawarra Road and the Needles ford passed through Heathcote.
Heathcote did not get reticulated water until 1954 and that started the whole place moving ahead, whereafter it changed from a rural area to a suburban area.
Bushwalking & the first Environmental Movement
In 1914, Myles Dunphy formed the first bushwalking club in NSW and called it the Mountain Trails Club. The club became helped bring about the creation of National Parks and Reserves and the conservation movement. In 1927, some members of the Mountain Trails Club formed the Sydney Bush Walkers and when visiting the Blue Gum Forest area in 1931, they discovered that a farmer was planning to clear-fell the area. This stimulated the walkers to form an ‘action group' to raise money to save the forest and motivated other clubs in New South Wales to form the Federation of Walking Clubs in 1932 which continues today with over 8,500 members.
The Mountain Trails Club then went on to raise money in the early 1930’s to lease some acreage in what is now Heathcote National Park, from the government. By 1937 and this became the basis of the Heathcote Primitive Area, which was gazetted in 1943. The area was later extended to 2250 hectares and came under the control of the NPWS in 1967, becoming Heathcote National Park in the 1970’s. Because there are no roads within the bounds of the park, it has preserved a higher degree of native fauna than some other areas and is highly regarded as a good place for bird watching.
The Heathcote area has a history of bush fires: 1943, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1968, 1983, 1993, 1994, and 1997. A brief but interesting history of the Heathcote Rural Fire Brigade can be found under that title on Google.
The early history information is distilled from a great website: www.ourshire.com.au - a comprehensive resource for information about the Sutherland Shire. |
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