Visit Sydney Australia
The History of Sydney
Late Colonial Sydney
1822 - 1838
Period covered by this chapter - 1st December 1821 to 23rd February 1838
Governors of Late Colonial Sydney
1st December, 1821 to 1st December, 1825: Major-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, Governor.
19th December, 1825 to 21st October, 1831: Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, Governor.
22nd October to 2nd December, 1831: Colonal Patrick Lindesay administered.
3rd December, 1831 to 5th December, 1837: Major-General Sir Richard Bourke, Governor
6th December, 1837 to 23rd February, 1838: Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass administered.
Though public spending was brought under tight control after what was seen by the British government as extravagance on the part of Gov. Lachlan Macquarie after his departure, his efforts had been sufficient to set in motion a sense of civic pride, a new direction and confidence in the future based on the premise that Sydney was become more and more a colony of settlers and less and less a prison camp. The commercial sector grew in leaps and bounds as a result of the pastoral boom of the 1820s and 30s which saw land from the Camden area in the south to the Hawkesbury in the north, not to mention the Bathurst plains beyond the Great Divide snapped up, cleared and farmed.
In spite of the optimism instilled into the hearts and minds of the people of Sydney by Macquarie, the lot of the convict did not improve, rather it worsened. It was particularly bad under Darling who vigorously maintained such harsh treatments as public floggings, solitary confinement, the wearing of ball and chain and the use of chain gangs to make roads. This treatment of convicts continued until the late 1830s when the Molesworth Committee Enquiry into the effectiveness of the existing convict transportation scheme as a deterrent presented its findings to the Bitish Government in 1838 and put the whole issue of transportation and the treatment of convicts under the microscope throughout the British Empire. The system was found to be sadly lacking and totally ineffective both as a deterrent and as a rehabilition process. As a result, transportation to all Australian colonies except Western Australia ceased in 1849. The last 259 convicts to New South Wales sailed from London on 17th August 1849 aboard the Adelaide and arrived in Sydney on 24th December 1849. A further 40 aboard thhe Adelaide sailed on the Hobart. The last convicts to be transported to Australia arrived at Fremantle in 1868.
As for Sydney itself, the grid pattern of streets which Macquarie had introduced was extended. The original grants in the outlying areas of Woolloomooloo and Potts Point in the east and Pyrmont, Balmain and Annandale in the west had been subdivided for development. By the time gold was discovered near Bathurst in 1851, the districts of Strawberry Hill, Surry Hills, Chippendale, Redfern and Alexandria to the south, Pyrmont, Leichhardt and Glebe to the west and Paddington and Darlinghurst to the east joined the list of localities that had been or were in the process of being subdivided and developed. St. Leonards, the first settlement on the north shore, began its slow but steady growth in the 1820s, boasting a population of 412 and a church by 1843. In those days, its name referred the whole area between modern day Lane Cove and Neutral Bay. Orchards were planted in the Lane Cove district on the land cleared by timber cutters who had begun their logging activities during Macquarie's governorship when a saw-pit was established on the Lane Cove River in 1813.
To the north-west, farms and orchards had been established in and around Ryde, with vineyards successfully planted and the colony's first brewery opening there in the 1830s. But development was always slower on the north shore than the south, its steep, heavily wooded valleys were difficult to access and less suitable to farming than the lightly timbered plains of the harbour's southern shores. It was not until the arrival of the railway late in the 19th century that the Hornsby plateau became easily accessible and the orchards dotted along the bush track that became Pacific Highway slowly gave way to residential development.
The supply of fresh water to the town of Sydney remained a problem, though it was alleviated somewhat in 1827 by a scheme which brought water from Lachlan Swamps (now part of Centennial Park) to a distribution point in Hyde Park. New houses, shops, factories and warehouses sprung up throughout the inner city. More wharves and storehouses were constructed along the shores of Sydney Cove to handle the increase in maritime business activities as Sydney began to force its way onto the world's trade routes. In accordance with J.T. Bigge's recommendation, Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour) was developed as a commercial district with wharfage facilities. The settlement of areas up and down the coast beyond Sydney led to an increase in maritime traffic in Sydney Harbour and the wharves of Cockle Bay were developed and used specifically to service the developing coastal trade to these new, outlying centres. It was here that grain and farm produce arrived in Sydney to meet the needs of its growing population. Such was the growth of coastal trade, by the turn of the 20th century, 39 separate wharves and jetties jutted out into Darling Harbour on its eastern shore between Millers Point and Haymarket. The deep waters of the western side of Darling Harbour, particularly those of Pyrmont Bay, were ideal anchorages for vessels offloading timber and coal and during the 1830s. The first port facilities of Pyrmont were established to service this aspect of coastal trade. By the 1840s, shipbuilding facilities dedicated to the building and servicing of coastal trading vessels were shifting from Sydney Cove to Pyrmont.
Two decades earlier, the shipyards on the west side of Sydney Cove had become a hive of activity after the limit of 350 tons for colonial built ships was lifted. So great was demand, Sydney Cove soon became overcrowed and the shores of the recently settled Balmain peninsula became dotted with shipyards. These businesses would outlast those on Sydney Cove and Pyrmont, remaining well into the twentieth century. Though sealing was in decline, whaling was at its peak. A number of whaling stations were established on the north shore, particularly in the Mosman Bay area, which by 1835 was home to no less than 76 Sydney based whaling vessels. Visiting whalers tended to drop anchor in Walsh Bay and Chowder Bay became a regular haunt of American whalers who plied their trade in the southern waters of the Pacific Ocean, using Sydney to replinish their supplies and refit their ships. The name of the bay recalls the staple diet of fish stew enjoyed by the Americans.
Steam power for ships arrived in 1831 though a decade or more was to pass before local shipbuilders turned to steam to power their ferries and coastal vessels. The increase in maritime activity during the 1830s and 40s saw The Rocks and Millers Point develop as typical ports with their riotous grog shops, prostitutes and push gangs whose ploy was to get an unwary sailor drunk then cart him off to a waiting vessel. When he woke up next morning, the ship would have sailed and he would be forced to pay his way working the rigging or be otherwise gainfully employed below deck until he could jump ship at the next port of call.
Ten years after Macquarie's departure, the population of Sydney had grown by 5,000 to 16,000. By 1843, it had reached 35,000. Governor Bourke was concerned that the number of males in Sydney outnumbered female by 5 to 1. The social consequences of this imbalance were already being felt, so Bourke sought and got approval for a campaign to be launched in England which invited women to emigrate to Australia. Bourke's migrant drive, modified some years later to target skilled males with families to move to populated rural areas, was the first of many assisted passage schemes used by Governments over the next 120 years in which the migrants had their fare to Australia either paid in full or subsidised by the Government. By 1850, the total number of people who had migrated to Australia since 1788 was around 140,000, 32,000 of which were convicts. 80% had settled in New South Wales.
At the time of Governor Macquarie's departure, Sydney's suburban area had developed east to Kings Cross, south to Surry Hills and west to Leichhardt. Beyond their fringes in areas like Alexandria, Enmore Ashfield and Balmain, small farms were being carved out of the virgin bush. By the end of the century, the farms and the bush would give way to suburban development and what were once outlying areas would become inner suburbs. To the east, where sweeping views of the harbour could be enjoyed from the high ground, mansions were being built by the wealthier colonists, establishing a pattern than would ensure the district would remain one of Sydney's more desirable and prestigious neighbourhoods. As the suburbs grew, so did the need for transport to and from them. Privately owned sulkies had become commonplace on the streets of Sydney in the early to mid 1800s and remained the most popular form of privately owned transport until the arrival of the motor car in 1900.
In 1819, a stage coach was imported from Britain, becoming the first to operate in Australia where it was employed on the Sydney-to-Parramatta run. Other areas were soon serviced by a mix of locally made and imported coaches and wagons. The roads, often little more than bush tracks, were so hard on the wagons few of these vehicles survived more than a year of service before falling apart. Construction methods had to be modified to suit the conditions, not to mention improvements to the condition of the roads. Similar to a stage coach but often smaller, the horse bus reigned supreme as the land-based public transport system in Sydney for almost a century. Often crammed to capacity with passengers on top as well as inside, they also provided a vital community service as the official mail carriers, delivering letters and small parcels to the post offices and postal agencies in the suburbs and outer-lying areas.
The Hornsby run, operated by a stage coach, was a once-a-day service with a trip to North Sydney in the morning and a return journey late afternoon. Its terminus was where the Milsons Point Railway Station now stands in Campbell Street, a thoroughfare which disappeared off the maps when the northern approaches to the Harbour Bridge were built. The 2-3 hour journey, mainly through bush, was completed in three stages, with horses changed at Lane Cove and Gordon. Being the only form of regular transport through the area until the advent of the railway, the stage coach served as both a passenger and goods service, with many a spare seat filled with produce from outlying fruit orchards, all destined for the Sydney markets. The coach travelled what today is known as Pacific Highway, but in those days it was nothing more than a series of rough bush tracks. The road north of Gordon was part of the Great North Road; from Lane Cove to Gordon it was the Gordon Road; from Lane Cove to North Sydney it was the Lane Cove Road.
Steam power came to Sydney in May 1831 when the British built paddle steamer Sophie Jane arrived and was brought into service on the Sydney to Parramatta run. The first steamer to be built locally was Australia, also on the Parramatta run. Launched in 1834 at a cost of £200, it did a roaring trade as competition was sparse. Ferry services between Parramatta and Sydney continued to boom until 1855 when the railway link between the two centres was opened. It had a negative effect on the passenger ferry service which fell into an immediate decline from which it never fully recovered in spite of enjoying a tourist boom between the 1880s to the late 1920s. The transfort of freight on the river was initially unaffected by the railway as most factories were built on the shores of the Parramatta River between Sydney and Parramatta to gain access to its barges. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century when rail and road transport services were considerably improved that the barge service declined.
Billy Blue continued to ferry passengers by row boat from Lavender Bay to Dawes Point. His trade was not affected when, in 1832, a ferry service from Abbotsford to Gladesville at Bedlam Point commenced. Linking the northern and southern sections of the Great North Road, which at that time was the main road north out of Sydney, this service continued until February 1881 when it replaced by the first Gladesville Bridge. In the 1830s, permission was granted to watermen other than Billy Blue to operate rowed ferry services across the harbour, and from that time Dawes Point and Man-o-War Steps became regular pick-up points for these water taxi services. The first steam powered ferry service between Sydney and the North Shore was the Ferry Queen, which was brought into service on a run between Windmill Street in The Rocks and Blues Point in 1845. The fare was 3d for a daytime journey and 6d for an evening ride up to 11.00 pm.
In 1840, experiments were carried out into the viability of operating steam powered vehicular punts guided by cables. Due to the impracticalities of laying cables across the busier parts of Sydney Harbour which is very deep, cable punts were never used in Port Jackson itself, but have been used at various times at The Spit, Putney, Ryde and Gladesville. Cable punts began operation at Putney Point and Uhr's Point in the 1840s. The Uhr's Point service provided a vehicular link between Concord Road and Church Street, Ryde, until 1935 when it was replaced by the first of two bridges which today carry vehicular traffic from Concord to Ryde. The Putney punt is still operational and is the last of its kind on the Parramatta River/Sydney Harbour waterways. A non cable-guided punt operated between Milsons Point and Sydney from the 1860s until 1932 when it was withdrawn with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
A hand punt run by Peter Ellery plied the tidal gap between The Spit and the area now known as Seaforth from 1850. Ellery charged 6d for passengers and 1/6 for horse drawn vehicles. The punt was taken over by the Government in 1888 and replaced by a steam powered vessel. This ferry, which connected with a tram service to Mosman after 1900, continued in service until toll gates and a timber lift-span bridge were brought into operation on 23rd December 1924 at a cost of £60,000. A 'temporary structure', this bridge was replaced by the current concrete and steel bridge in 1958. Built at a cost of $2.2 million, it features a lift-up section which allows access to the upper Middle Harbour by tall-masted ocean-going yachts. The ramp used to board the punt is still visible at the water's edge on the northern bank.
Ferries and vehicular punts operated at numerous points along the Georges River for close to a century. A service across the Georges River at Lugarno provided the link between Forest Road and Old Illawarra Road, which had formed the main road south from Sydney since the 1840s. Princes Highway began to take the bulk of traffic south to Wollongong in 1929 when Tom Ugly's Bridge at Blakehurst was opened, replacing a punt service. The Lugarno punt continued to operate until the late 1970s when the recently opened bridge at Alfords Point linking Bankstown to Menai made it obsolete.
In the 1830s, Barney Kearns began a ferry service from Balmoral to Balgowlah using a sail boat to service the 50 or so residents living in the Manly area at that time. This service continued on and off for some years, along with a number of services by steam-powered cargo vessels. In 1854 the first Manly Pier was built and a regular ferry service between Manly Cove and Sydney was instigated by developer Henry Gilbert Smith. Sail boats were well established on the Hawkesbury when steamers came onto the scene in 1831 and they drastically cut down travelling times between the Hawkesbury and Sydney. Hand in hand with shipbuilding and tourism, trade ran vigorously throughout the 19th century, peaking in the 1880s when over 450 large boats berthed annually at Richmond's wharf, the centre of activity and industry of the river.
A government-run punt service began on the Nepean in 1823 which led to several new buildings being constructed on the Penrith side of the river. The first bridge over the Nepean River was opened in 1856 and was duly swept away by floods in the following year and again in 1860. Until it was proved that newer bridges could withstand the floodwaters common to the area, punts continued to be well patronised. The subsequent development of rail and road transport brought the river trade in the Hawkesbury and Nepean districts into decline, though the river.s increased popularity as a venue for sport and recreational activities has ensured that, though cargo traffic has long gone, passenger transport has continued to this day.
The main thoroughfare through the Sydney suburb of Five Dock is called the Great North Road. It heads north from Parramatta Road for a short distance before abruptly stopping at the Parramatta River. To today's travellers, it is a main road to nowhere, but to the colonists of the 1830s it was the lifeline to the Hawkesbury and Hunter Valley regions which were being opened up to white settlement at thhat time. Extending north from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, the 240 km Great North Road was built between 1826 and 1836 by re-offending convicts stationed at Newcastle. In the early 1820s settlers began taking up land in the fertile Hunter Valley. They petitioned for a decent road and in 1825 Assistant Surveyor Heneage Finch was sent to survey a suitable route. By following a number of aboriginal tracks along the ridge-tops he was able to map out a route. Gov. Ralph Darling assigned convict road gangs to start building the road and it was progressively brought into use. As the road passed along remote and desolate ridges where there was little food or water for travelling stock, the isolated sections of it were unpopular and travellers quickly found it preferable to use alternative routes. The Glenorie to Maroota section was abandoned shortly after its completion in favour of the more hospitable route through Pitt Town. It returned to use after motor vehicles were introduced.
The Great North Road originally branched from Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills along what is now called Old Northern Road, to Wisemans Ferry. In 1829 Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell developed a shorter route which branched north from the Parramatta Road at Five Dock. A ferry crossed the Parramatta River from Abbotsford to Bedlam Point at Gladesville where part of the convict-built ferry landing remains. The original road then followed the present line of Victoria Road to St Annes church at Ryde, and then roughly followed the line of Blaxland Road, the North Road, Corunna Rd, Vimiera Rd, Essex St and Old Beecroft Road to eventually become New Line Road at Pennant Hills where it re-joins the original line of road from Castle Hill at Dural.
In 1832, steamships began servicing the Hawkesbury and fifty years later, railways entered the area, leading to the road falling into further disuse and a poor state of repair. Most of this road at the Hawkesbury end remains today, offering an alternative, slower paced scenic route between Sydney and the Hunter and access to some of 19th century Australia's greatest engineering feats created by hundreds of convicts - many working in leg-irons. These include stone retaining walls, wharves, culverts, bridges and buttresses in Sydney suburbs like Epping and Gladesville, at Wisemans Ferry, Wollombi, Bucketty and Broke, and on walks in Dharug and Yengo National Parks. Much of this quality construction was carried out under the supervision of Assistant Surveyor Percy Simpson who was based at Wisemans Ferry between 1828 and 1832, and Heneage Finch, who was in charge of construction around Bucketty and Laguna in 1830-31. Simpson was an engineer who had sound knowledge of road construction techniques being developed in Europe and was given the most difficult sections to build. Much of the high quality work created by convicts under his command remains intact today - a tribute to his ability to lead an unskilled and unwilling labour force and get the best out of them. Up to 700 convicts worked on the road at any one time - clearing timber, digging drains, blasting and shaping stone, and shifting it into position. Some of the blocks weighed up to 660 kg.
Originally 33 bridges were built, their timber decks often supported by elaborate stone foundations. The few which remain are the oldest bridges on mainland Australia. Construction required highly skilled stonemasonry as stone walls were often needed to support the road where it climbed steep hillsides and crossed gullies and watercourses. One wall on Devines Hill just north of Wisemans Ferry reaches almost 10 metres, and was supported by 5 massive buttresses. There are still some places where well-preserved sections of the original road can be seen on what is known today as the Convict Trail. These include: a 43 km section immediately north of Wisemans Ferry which goes through very steep and rugged country. Devines Hill, beginning 500m west of the Wisemans Ferry landing on the northern side of the Hawkesbury River, contains fine examples of high walling with massive buttresses, drainage systems and quarries; Clares Bridge, near Ten Mile Hollow; the Circuit Flat Bridge, near Mt Manning; the descent into Wisemans Ferry from the south; the Bucketty Wall, Mt McQuoid, at the intersection of George Downes Drive and the St Albans road; Ramsays Leap and the Murrays Run Culvert between Bucketty and Laguna.
Pacific Highway today
This major road North began as a service road through the forests of St Leonards to the logging camps around the Lane Cove River. Commencing on the Milsons Point peninsular, the site of the first white settlement on the north shore, it travelled north to Crows Nest (originally the homestead of pioneer settler Wollstonecraft) and then north-west along the ridge between the Lane Cove River and Middle Harbour. So as to avoid the steep grades of the valleys in the area, the road followed the highest peaks from each area to the next, which explains its twisting, winding path. It is believed these roads followed Aboriginal tracks, though the lack of information in early records leave this supposition unconfirmed. Military Road, which follows a path beaten through the bush from North Sydney to Bradleys Head, came into being much later and in different circumstances. It was created in the 1860s by soldiers and local residents as a pathway down which they rolled guns from a jetty at Neutral Bay to the new Bradleys Head military installations.
Roads such as Burns Bay Road, Epping Road, Millwood Avenue, Fullers Road, Ryde Road, Longueville Road, Sailors Bay Road, and Cammeray Road were originally bullock tracks leading down from the main road at the top of the ridge to the farms and logging settlements in the valleys. Again, they probably followed Aboriginal tracks, though this cannot be confirmed. Timber was hauled up their steep inclines by bullocks to the main roads which followed the line of ridges down to the bays on the Lower North Shore. Mills on the Lane Cove River cut the timber which was then shipped to Sydney.
The opening up of the Liverpool and Macarthur regions and the area west of Parramatta to farming led to the creation of a network of tracks and roads through these regions which branched off the Parramatta and Liverpool Roads, the two main thoroughfares through the region. Convict road chain gangs became part of the scenery, with over 20 such parties setting out each day from their base at Toongabbie to build the roads which now criss cross these areas. One such road was Dog Trap Road, a track cut through the bush from Parramatta to Liverpool, which is now known as Woodville Road. As its name suggests, it was a real pioneer track and anyone venturing along it had to put up with everything from wild dogs to bushrangers and hermit bush-dwelling timber getters.
The creation of new roads led to more land being settled and an increase in traffic on these roads. As a result, inns were established along the main roads. The settlements of Fairfield, Holroyd, Blacktown, Merrylands, Penrith and Emu Plains are just a few of the communities which sprang up around these stopping places. The large tracts of land between them and the major settlements were virtually uninhabited and provided a safe haven for runaway convicts who quickly adapted to living off the land and became bushrangers and stock thieves. The areas of Strathfield and Lidcome on the Parramatta Road, Ashfield and Belfield on the Liverpool Road and Lansvale and Fairfield on the Dog Trap Road became the most popular haunts of bushrangers and remained that way until the 1850s when the lure of gold attracted Sydney's strays away from the city to the diggings in the Bathurst region.
Bore Well, Victoria Barracks
The construction of Busby's Bore, a water supply tunnel extending from Centennial Park to Hyde Park, began in September 1827 and was completed 10 years later. The bore was designed to carry water from the Lachlan Swamp, now Centennial and Queen's Parks. It would supply the 'rising capital of Australia', as Sydney was described in the Report of a Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to enquire into the state of the tunnel and outstanding wage claims in 1837. The water was gravity fed, the fall being 53mm over the 3.2 km from end to end, to feed out at Hyde Park at a height sufficient to allow the supply of the General Hospital in Macquarie Street. The tunnel is constructed through sandstone and varies in size from 1 to 3 metres in height and from 0.6 to 1.2 metres width. It is lined in some sections with dressed stone slabs to carry water from Lachlan Swamps, Centennial Park at west side, Lang and Cook Roads, beneath the Sydney showground, Victoria Barracks and Oxford Street to the corner of Liverpool and Oxford Streets, Hyde Park.
The tunnel had to be re-routed around the sites now occupied by the Sydney Football Stadium and Cricket Ground and through the Showground because of quicksand encountered in Moore Park. John Busby had been employed as a mineral and water surveyor in England, Ireland and Scotland. He applied to the English Colonial Office for employment in NSW. Bathurst, then Secretary of State, appointed him as Mineral Surveyor and Civil Engineer with particular attention to 'the management of coal mines [and] in supplying the Town of Sydney with water'. Busby arrived in Sydney in 1824 aged 59. He was employed as engineer at the Newcastle Coal Mines and on the breakwater then under construction there. However, his major task was to undertake surveys with a view to obtaining a permanent and adequate water supply for Sydney. During Busby's time at Newcastle, the Sydney domestic water still came from the virtually defunct and certainly highly polluted Tank Stream and a spring at Ultimo and another near Oxford Street.
These were supplemented by wells both public and private. Many of these, especially those in the north of the town, were contaminated. At the start of construction Busby engaged his son Alexander as his assistant, but the appointment was disallowed in London. William Busby then acted as assistant at his fathers expense. There were three free overseers but these were for the first year only. Apart from these, the whole of the work was performed by convicts. Between 50 and 140 were employed working 24 hours a day in three 8 hour shifts, a common practice in mining since it prevented any unnecessary build up of underground water. Busby complained that not only 1 in 10 of the men were trained stone miners and that the rest had to be trained on the job. He also complained of their 'vicious, drunken and idle habits' and alleged that they were often absent as they preferred to work illicitly on their own account in the town. False returns of work were made by their convict overseers. 'One third of the time lost [could] be ascribed to the workmen, and the villainy of the overseers' sent to the bore. Such was the character of the men employed, that their acquired constant vigilance, though such was their character that Busby was afraid ever to enter the underground workings.'
This is not surprising given the working conditions. The prisoners were often up to their waists in water. Most of the work was by pick through rock. Gunpowder was used occasionally, but when this occurred the blast fouled the air in the tunnel and filled it with smoke. Work started at the Hyde Park end and progressed along South Head Road (Oxford Street), turning west of that road at Dowling Street, then across the west corner of Victoria Barracks to Moore Park Road. The route traversed several springs and low lying basins which drained into the bore. Thus by 1830, with the tunnel well short of the Lachlan Swamp, a pipe at Hyde Park began to supply pure, filtered water and the supply increased with the length of the bore. Offcuts from the tunnel also trapped sources of ground water. In 1837 the tunnel reached a point near what is now the corner of Cook and Lang Roads. The only work outstanding was an open cut into the swamp itself and the construction of reservoirs or holding dams at each end. There is no evidence that these were ever built, though some sort of channel seems to have been cut at the south end of the tunnel. Major Barney, Commander of the Royal Engineers, was called to inspect the work. Although critical of the site of the tunnel Barney considered the structure to be of professional merit and fairly done. Busby, then 72 years of age, retired to his property, Kirkton, between Branxton and Singleton in the Hunter Valley where he died in 1857.
The creation of a municipal water supply in the form of Busby's Bore highlighted the need for an administration to control its use. Municipal instructions were discussed for the colony in the early 1830s but met with fears in the community that such institutions would impose a burden of taxes of levies. In 1842 the Sydney Corporation was formed. The Sydney Corporation endeavoured to squeeze as much revenue as possible from Busby's Bore and ignored public demands for planning towards the development of new and more suitable sources. In 1851 Sydney manufacturers expressed a total lack of confidence in the Sydney Corporation after its failure to fulfill its contracts with new industrial developments such as Tooth's Brewery and Sugar Company. The length of time to complete the bore, that it relied on the simple mechanism of mechanical feed and that it and its successor, the Botany Bay Swamps Scheme, tied up land suitable for industrial development in water reserves had a significant impact on the shape and development of Sydney. The bore can also be seen as having a critical role in forcing the creation of municipal administration in the colony.Busby's Bore is a unique engineering achievement which played a crucial role in the development of urban Sydney. The intactness of the bore and the fact that it is still in use make it a rare survivor from the first half of the 19th century within urban Sydney.
Modifications and Dates: 1881 - Some pipes laid inside tunnel in Oxford Street to reduce tainting from coal tar laid on road surface. 1934 - Partly filled in when the weight of tram traffic caused stone slabs under Oxford Street to collapse.
Colonial Georgian
Clydebank, Millers Point
Examples:
The Judge's House, 5312 Kent Street, Sydney (1822; William Harper)
Hambeldon Cottage, Hassell Street, Parramatta (1822)
The Rectory, Greenway Crescent, Windsor (1823; Francis Greenway)
Glover Cottages, 124-6 Kent Street, Millers Point (1823; Thomas Glover)
Clydebank (Bligh House), 43 Lower Fort Street, The Rocks (1824; Francis Greenway?)
Cleveland House, 51 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills (1824; Francis Greenway?)
Glenfield Farm House, Leacock's Lane, Casula (1825)
Argyle Stores, 14-20 Argyle Street, The Rocks (1826 on; Henry Cooper?)
The Barn, 3a Avenue Road, Mosman (1930s)
Waterman's Cottage, Darling Street, Balmain (1841)
Late Georgian
An extension of the colonial Georgian style which survived well into the Victorian period, the major changes being the materials used. Corrugated iron replaced roof shingles, the availability of large sheets of glass led to enlarged windows and the simple timber verandah supports gave way to decorated cast iron or stone columns and balustrades.Characteristics:
The symmetry and simplicity of Colonial Georgian style was retained, but dormers and combinations of brick and stone became common.
Examples:
Durham Hall, 207 Albion Street, Surry Hills (1835)
Rosemeath Cottage, O'Connell St, Parramatta (c1837)
Rockwall, Maclaey Street, Potts Point (1837; John Verge)
Regency
Camden Park Estate
The regency style continued throughout the Late Colonial period and well into the Victorian period, the leading exponent of the style in Sydney being architect John Verge.
Examples:
Camden Park House, Menangle (1831; John Verge)
Tusculum Villa, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point (1832; John Verge)
Newington House, Silverwater (1832)
Barnham, 215 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst (1833; John Verge)
Lord Nelson Hotel, Argyle Street, The Rocks (1834)
Town Houses, 39 - 41 Lower Fort Street, The Rocks (1836: John Verge)
Lyndhurst, 61 Darghan Street, Glebe (1836; John Verge)
The Doctor's House, Thompson Square, Windsor (1837)
Elizabeth Bay House, Onslow Ave, Elizabeth Bay (1837; John Verge)
Horbury Terrace, Macquarie Street, Sydney (c1839)
Terrace Houses, Burton Street, Darlinghurst (c1840)
Gothic picturesque
St Andrews Cathedral
A reflection of the rebelliousness of the Romantic Period (1850 to 1900) in the arts against the structure of the Classical Period (1750-1850), Gothic was a free, imaginative style reflecting the mysticism and melodrama conjured up by the ruins of abbeys and castles built in the Middle Ages which at the time were enjoying a revival of interest by the artists and writers of the day. Fuelled by the popularity of the novels of Walter Scott, Gothic Picturesque was widely embraced in Australia, particularly for churches. Many examples of this style were built to designs lifted from architectural pattern books like J.C. Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture (1833). The simpler homes were often in the 'gingerbread house' style.
Characteristics:
A radical departure from the plain symmetry of Georgian, Gothic was asymmetrical and highly embellished with turrets, high pitched roofs often with gabled windows, medieval motifs, pointed arches and highly decorated barge boards prominently featured. Ornamental brickwork and combinations of brick and stone were common.
Examples:
St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney Square, Cnr George & Bathurst Sts., Sydney (1819-68; Edmund Blacket)
Conservatorium of Music (formerly Government House Stables), Macquarie Street, Sydney (1821; Francis Greenway)
Lindesay, 1 Carthona Avenue, Darling Point (1836: Edward Hallen
The homes of early 19th century Sydney reflected the extremes of poverty and wealth on the social ladder of the colony. There were the gentry - the military men, the businessmen and landowners - who lived in luxury, many residing in villas built on the ridges overlooking the harbour. At the other extreme were the convicts who toiled all day in chain gangs, their only relief being a night's rest in a canvas hummock at the Hyde Park Convict Barracks. In between were the common folk, who made up the majority - shopkeepers, labourers, farm workers and servants of the well-to-do. For most of them, home was a humble one or two bedroom cottage with a thatched or shingled roof. If they were poor, the building material was inevitably timber. For those above the poverty line, the material used was brick, or stone if there was sufficient to be quarried on site.
For the rich, the ultimate home was a one or two storey 'gentleman's residence' in one of the town's more fashionable streets, with a picket fence and beautifully manicured English garden complete with trimmed lawn and flower beds. Most of these were built using sandstone quarried on site, which was in plenteous supply on the escarpments surrounding the harbour. The quarries of the eastern shores of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour) produced stone composed of distinctive horizontal layers, which was particularly suited to flagging, hearthstones, mantelpieces etc. A quarry at the Domain - the Domain car park was built in the crater left by the quarrying - produced good Ashlar which was excellent for walling and suitable for most applications except flagging. By contrast, a quarry at Darlinghurst, which provided the stone for the Darlinghurst Gaol, was good Ashlar but subject to colour variation due to impregnations of iron in the rock. This often caused it to darken when exposed to air. Pyrmont stone was first used in the 1830s by the Macarthurs for their own use. Most of Pyrmont's famous quarries were within their grant on the peninsula. After 1839, the Macarthurs sold the stone commercially, and from that time on Pyrmont became the major source of stone for the buildings of Sydney's town centre.
Cedar from the forests of Lane Cove, Frenchs Forest and from the 1840s, the St. George area, was used for timber paneling; Blackbutt, often cut on site, was the most commonly used timber for flooring and for making joists, battens and rafters. Where there was insufficient timber on site, further supplies were sourced from the estates of Petersham, Annandale, St Peters and Canterbury or the lower north shore. Farming in these areas came later; during the late Colonial period, the main source of revenue came from the supply of timber for building and fuel for the colony's brick kilns. In places like Annandale, Newtown and Concord where clay deposits were found, sections of estates were set aside for what were known as brickfields. Commercial brickworks were established there to supplement the income earned from the sale of timber.
Elizabeth Bay House
Most buildings had shingled roofs, the shingles being split from trees from the casuarina family, or from the ironbark which grew along the coastal ridges. Unfortunately, shingles had their limitations. They were not fireproof, they quickly deteriorated and were not totally damp-proof. Until the discovery of shale beds in the Great Dividing Range in the 1840s, slate had to be imported, which made it very expensive as well as scarce. Elizabeth Bay House was the first building in Sydney to use slate, which was imported from Wales and brought out as ship's ballast. Another luxury was marble, all of which had to be imported until workable marble was discovered at Marulan near Goulburn.
By the 1830s, bricks were in plenteous supply and began to replace timber as the most commonly used building material. Brickmaking activities became centered around Newtown, the colony's richest clay seam running from Newtown to St Peters alongside the Cooks River Road (Princes Highway). Brickmaking was the dominant occupation in Newtown. Typical of its brickmakers was James Ram who supplied the bricks for the Lyndhurst villa in Pyrmont. A builder by trade, Ram was transported to Sydney for burglary in 1817 and was granted ticket of leave after volunteering to help build the new prison settlement at Port Macquarie. Another leading brickmaker was William Henry Wood, licensee of the Coach & Horses pub on Parramatta Road who employed over 30 people to refine the clay and then press it by hand into moulds before firing.
Statue of Rev. Dr John Dunmore Lang, Wynyard Park, Sydney
Rev. Dr John Dunmore Lang, a Presbyterian minister, played a vital role in relieving the colony's shortage of skilled tradesmen when he solicited 50 such men from his homeland of Scotland to come to Sydney and build his Australian College in College Street on a site now occupied by the Australian Museum. Lang's recruits, who included 17 stonemasons and 18 carpenters, arrived aboard the Stirling Castle in October 1831 and made Millers Point their new home. Among them were men who would become household names in the fledgling colony. Hugh Brodie and Alexander Craig became business partners and built the Victoria Barracks using a team of 80 free men and 200 convicts. James Kay, a highly skilled carpenter, was quickly in big demand by the colony's more wealthy colonists. William Carss, a master cabinetmaker, arrived with nothing, but by using his skills to create some of the finest furniture crafted in the colony from the local timber, acquired sufficient wealth to purchase a large tract of land in the Blakehurst area. The cottage he built still stands beside the calm waters of Kogarah Bay.
Though not one of Dr Lang's men, another free settler who did well was Thomas Shepherd, an Englishman with a green thumb, whose plant nursery located beside Victoria Park (Cnr Parramatta Road and City Road) supplied the plants for many of the garden estates of the colony. Simon Lord, one of the most successful emancipists of the colony, established a mill and factory complex at Botany making textiles, leathergoods and hats. All were prosperous ventures, though much of their proceeds were eaten up in law suits.
Though the villas of the colony reflected the opulence and often extravagance of their owners, they did provide great benefit to the community at large as they were a major source of employment for the unskilled. It was not uncommon for a villa to be staffed but as many as 20 people, most of whom supported a family of anywhere from two to 12 persons. John Blaxland, a wealthy free settler, built 'Newington', an English style villa, beside the Parramatta River in the area we now know as Silverwater. Blaxland was the largest employee in the Sydney area for many years. John Blaxland and his brother Gregory, an explorer who was among the party which blazed the trail across the Blue Mountains, primarily bred cattle which they slaughtered and salted. In the 1820s they leased the land on which the Queen Victoria Building now stands to graze cattle. As well as a slaughterhouse, they built a salt works for their meat-curing business within the grounds of Newington. It was run by a professional salt maker brought out from England to manage the operation. The property also supported an orchard. A woolen factory, lime kiln and flour mill which they later built on the property became the nucleus around which the industrial area of Silverwater developed.
Hambledon Cottage
1824 - Hambledon Cottage, Hassall Street, Parramatta
A typical example of the modest homestead built by farmers in the early 1800s. It follows the pattern set by Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose, who, when building his cottage in 1793, abandoned the English standard of a narrow porch and steep sloping roof line for a low pitched roof line and a wide verandah. The cottage was built for John & Elizabeth Macarthur by convicts for the governess of their children, Penelope Lucas.
1826 - Glover Cottages, 124-34 Kent Street, Millers Point.
Built by and for Thomas Glover, the mason responsible for much of the stonework of the buildings commissioned by Gov. Macquarie. Glover, a miner from Somerset, was transported to New South Wales for seven years. In the colony he worked as a stonemason and later became the landlord of the Sailor's Return. The cottages were claimed for the support of Glover's children by their uncle who had helped Glover to build them. It is believed that the stone for the two cottages was quarried locally. After Glover died his widow remarried and left the country. The cottages are also known as Noah's Ark, as the roadway of Kent Street has been lowered at this point to reduce the steepness of the hill for road traffic, leaving them high and dry above the new level of the road.
Gledswood
1830 - Gledswood, Camden Valley Way, Catherine Field.
An historic homestead and winery, part of which were built with convict labour for a French Nobleman, Gabriel Louis Marie Huon De Kerillion, who was tutor to John Macarthur's sons. The property, then known as Buckingham, was re-named Gledswood in 1816 by its new owner, James Chisholm, who was once baled up by the 'wild colonial boy', John Donohue. It was Chisholm who established the vineyard and built a winery and its 20,000-bottle capacity cellar. Today, the vineyard has 28 ha of Traminer grapes under cultivation. Activities include boomerang throwing, sheep shearing, sheepdog mustering, scenic trail rides, craft shop, barbecue and picnic facilities.
Argyle Place, Millers Point
1832 onwards - 22, 24, 26, 30, 32 Argyle Place, Millers Point
This mostly intact row of two storey Colonial Georgian Terraces is part of the streetscape element facing Argyle Place, an historic streetscape comprised of a row of terrace, a central park and a dominant church, giving Argyle Place the appearance of a typical London Square. Work on Argyle Place was commenced by Governor Macquarie however, this area was not fully formed until after cessation of quarrying at nearby rockface. It was commenced by Governor Macquarie but not fully formed until after quarrying of the adjacent rock face had ceased in about 1865. This row of terraces appears much as it did in the mid 19th century. With a construction date that appears to predate 1832, this terrace is of stone construction, with simple stone parapet, shingle roof and rendered stone facade. Window sills are simple stone slab and simple fan light over doorway consists of twelve small panes of glass.
1833 - Bligh House, Lower Fort Street, Millers Point
High Colonial in style featuring Greek Classical Doric verandah columns. This house, typical of the mansions built in the upper class section of The Rocks, was built for a wealthy merchant.
Elizabeth Bay House
1835-39 - Elizabeth Bay House, 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay
Built for the Colonial Secretary, Alexander Macleay and one of the finest examples of the work of John Verge. The building is a two storey Regency villa of Greek Revival style. The kitchen was originally in a separate building to avoid the risk of the house being destroyed by fire. The villa is built around an grand hall featuring an elliptical, domed roof and cantilevered staircase. Original plans included a colonnade, but this was never built. The present portico was added in 1893. Six years after occupancy, the building remained unfinished. Macleay borrowed against a fortune amassed by his eldest son, William Sharp Macleay, to finance construction. As a result of Maclaey's financial extravagance combined with the high cost of the house's upkeep and the economic depression of the 1840s, he had difficulty repaying the debt. William Sharp migrated to Australia to sort out the problem. Realising his father would never be able to meet the debt, he foreclosed, selling the property and putting his parents on the street. Maclaey senior went into bankruptcy and he and his wife were left at the mercy of his other children.
Tusculum Villa
1831-36 - Tusculum Villa, Manning Street, Potts Point
One of the earliest surviving examples of the designs of John Verge, a leading Australian architect. This villa features a double-storeyed verandah, later enclosed, which encircled the house. Built for a wealthy free settler and merchant named Alexander Spark, it has been considerably altered over the years, and underwent major resto ration work in the 1980s.
Darlinghurst Gaol
1822-1842 - Darlinghurst Gaol, Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
Built over a 20 year period from 1822, it was built by convicts using stone quarried on the site. Known originally as the Woolloomooloo Stockade, the complex has housed many of Sydney's most violent criminals of which 67 were hanged there between 1841 and 1908. When it ceased to be used as a gaol in 1921, it became an art school where some of Australia's most noted artists such as Frank Hodgkinson and William Dobell received their training. It is now part of the Sydney Institute of Technology.
Argyle Centre, The Rocks
1826, 1884 - Argyle Stores, 18 Argyle Street, The Rocks
A collection of sandstone bond stores, the first of which was constructed in 1826 for Captain John piper. The building was confiscated and sold after Piper was arrested and convicted of embezzlement. In the 1880s, the store was used to house goods such as spirits which had been confiscated for non payment of duties. These goods were periodically auctioned in the courtyard.
St Anne's Church and Cemetery, Ryde
1826 - St Anne's Church and Cemetery, Cnr Church St and Victoria Rd, Ryde
Ryde was the first non-convict settlement outside of Sydney and Parramatta. St Anne's church was of locally quarried sandstone and the cemetery opened at the same time. It contains the graves of many of its earliest white settlers. These include first fleeters James Bradley and Edward Goodwin. Bradley was transported for 7 years for steal ing a handkerchief with a value of 2 shillings. He arrived aged about 23 and died in 1838, a free man and farmer in the Ryde district. Goodwin was sentenced to transportation for 7 years, aged about 22, for stealing material with a value of 100 shillings and was a fellow passenger with Bradley on the transport ship Scarborough. He died in January 1839, also a free man and resident of the Ryde district. Others people of note buried at St Anne's include family members of explorer and pioneer local settler Gregory Blaxland; Lady Eleanor Parkes, the wife of statesman Sir Henry Parkes; Emma Oxley, the wife of explorer and Surveyor-General John Oxley; Maria Smith, known as Granny Smith, who developed a hybrid apple tree which produced the now famous Granny Smith apple named in her honour.
Gunpowder Magazine Complex, Goat Island
1833-39 - Gunpowder Magazine Complex, Goat Island
A convict built complex to house the colony's gunpowder supplies. The complex, a series of well designed and built structures erected by Commanding Royal Engineer, George Barney, comprises of the classically designed Queens Magazine, cooperage, a sentry post and wall, barracks building and kitchen. Constructed of sandstone quarried on the island, it is one of the few major public utilities in Sydney that was built by Gov. Richard Bourke.
1835-1838 - Darlinghurst Courthouse, Forbes Street, Darlinghurst.
Adapted from a design in Peter Nicholson's The New Practical Builder (1823), this pioneer example of the classic Grecian style is the work of master Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis. it is a splendid example which boasts a prominent pediment supported by a six columned Doric portico. The side wings of the building were an 1880s addition.
Lord Nelson Hotel
1836 - Lord Nelson Hotel, 19 Kent Street, Sydney
The oldest working licensed hotel in the city (the license was first granted in June 1842), it is one of only two hotels in the immediate area to be retained by the Sydney Harbour Trust when Millers Point was resumed during the time of the plague in 1900. The Lord Nelson Hotel, the Hero of Waterloo and a commercial terrace at 246 George Street are the only two remaining examples of hotel buildings in the Old Colonial Regency style, which once were prolific in the inner city area. It was part of a network of corner hotels in the northern end of the city which provided social and recreational venues and budget accommodation.
CLocated on what was first named named Cockle Bay Point, the neighbourhood which sprung up in the area around a mill built there in the 1790s was known as 'Jack the Miller's Point', named after an ex-convict and miller, John Leighton. By the turn of the century, thhe point had become a major source of stone for the buildings of Sydney and became known as 'The Quarries' and supplied a large part of the early stone for Sydney. The land on which the Hotel is situated was originally part of the Crown Grant to the plasterer William Wells dated 14th May 1836 and part of the Grant (in trust) to Richard Driver dated 30th November 1840. The hotel was constructed during the late 1830s by either Wells or a relative to a design by architect Michael Lehane. Wells is believed to have lived on the opposite corner to the Sailor's Return in the present day Lord Nelson until 1842 when the liquor licence for the hotel was granted. A smooth faced, three storey sandstone building, it has a hipped, corrugated asbestos cement roof, following the 'L-shaped' form of the building. The sandstone blocks of which its walls are built are believed to have been quarried from the area at the base of Observatory Hill. Its name recalls Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, who was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Over the years, some changes have been made to the building, but these have been mainly in the form of additions (extensions to the north and west, 1842-1845) or internal modifications (keg slide, 1957; kitchen and WC. 1938) which have left the visual aspect of the building unchanged since its construction.
La Perouse Monument
1825 - La Perouse Monument, La Perouse
A stone obelisk with a globe on top which commemorates the visit to Botany Bay in January 1788 of French explorer La Perouse and his two ships L'Astrolabe and La Boussole. The two ships stayed at Botany Bay for six weeks before setting sail never to be seen again. More than a century later they later discovered wrecked on reefs at Vantikoro off the Solomon Islands. The monument was designed by Colonial Architect George Cockney to the instructions of the Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, and officially commemorated by Captain B.H. Bougainville. It is believed to be the oldest monument in Sydney and perhaps the whole of Australia. Several plaques have since been added which commemorate other French citizens in Australia.
1837-45 - Government House
Somewhat less lavish than first planned, Government House was designed by English architect Edward Blore (1789-1879), one of the most well-known British architects of the 19th century who was responsible for parts of Buckingham and St James' Palaces in London, and for a large number of other buildings in England and Scotland. He was a personal friend of Sir Walter Scott and had a keen interest in the architecture of Scottish castles. Governor Bourke chose Blore for the task because he felt that no colonial architect had sufficient experience to plan such a building. Blore was not involved in its erection and in fact never saw it in his lifetime, which is just as well as Mortimer Lewis who supervised construction made plenty of modifications to Blore's design and specifications. Of turreted Gothic Revival design to match Francis Greenway's similarly styled Government House Stables (today's Conservatorium of Music building), it is constructed of local sandstone and cedar. Built as the official residence of the State Governor, in recent years it was considered rather oppulent in today's society for that purpose and ceased to be used thus in 1966. It is now open for public access when not being used for special State functions.
Cockatoo Island grain silo
1838-41 Grain Silos, Cockatoo Island
On the summit of Cockatoo Island, four kilometres west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stand the remains of a convict prison built by Gov. Bourke in 1833 and used for that purpose until 1909. Close by a 20 of Australia's earliest public grain silos, in their original condition but empty as they have been for over 150 years. Built as the colony's first government grain silos by convicts stationed at the island's prison by Gov. Gipps, the bottle shaped silos were chiselled down by hand out of the island's bedrock. each cavern is 9 metres deep and 6 metres in diameter at its base and held 3,000 - 5,000 bushells (84 to 140 tonnes). Completed in 1841, they were an engineering marvel of their day. Amazingly, the British Government ordered their closure just months after they were brought into use and they have remained empty, apart from discarded rum bottles thrown in by soldiers stationed on the island to guard the convicts, which were removed in the 1980s. A transit tunnel which passes under the centre of Cockatoo Island at close to sea level was cut many years later when the island was used as a dockyard and shipbuilding facility. tours of Cockatoo Island are presently conducted by the Harbour Trust.
1839-61 - Campbell's Storehouses, Circular Quay West, The Rocks
A row of sandstone bond stores built by successful merchant Robert Campbell to house the tea, coffee, sugar, spirits and cloth he imported from India. Originally a one storey structure comprising of 12 bays, the upper storey was added in 1890. Eleven of the 12 bays survive and today house a number of shops, galleries and restaurants. 1840 - The Garrison Church, Argyle Street, The Rocks
Built to a design by Henry Ginn, the Holy Trinity Church (its correct name) was Australia's first military church, being constructed as a place of worship for the British regiment stationed at nearby Dawes Point. Architect Edmund Blackett was commissioned to enlarge the church to accommodate 600 people in 1855, his additions being finally completed in 1878, some 18 years after the military ceased using it for morning prayers. The church features regimental plaques recalling its military associations, a carved red cedar pulpit and a brightly coloured east window donated by a parishioner, Dr James Mitchell, the father of David Scott Mitchell who was the principal benefactor of the Mitchell Library wing of the State Library of New South Wales.
1824-64: The Road to the Illawarra
Motorists who use Princes Highway to reach the Illawarra region via Tom Ugly's Bridge, Sutherland, Heathcote and Waterfall follow what is in fact the third of three routes that were at one time or another known as the Illawarra Road. Before all of these routes were established, however, access by land to the Illawarra had to be via Parramatta Road to Parramatta Junction (Granville), then south along Dog Trap Road (Woodville Road) to Liverpool. From Liverpool the traveller took the Campbelltown Road and then the Appin Road south to Wollongong.
The original and now forgotten Illawarra Road from Liverpool to Darkes Forest and the Illawarra appears to have been built in the early 1800s as the major thoroughfare south to the Illawarra from Liverpool, though determining its exact age is difficult. An 1810 map indicates Macquarie's district of Airds, the eastern boundary of which coincides with the route of Greenhills Road from Liverpool. Note: Greenhills is the early name for Windsor, and this a remnant of the original northern road linking Windsor and the Illawarra via Liverpool. This same map indicates a road progressing onwards from the Airds boundary line which is marked The Road to Five Islands - the earlier name for the Illawarra District. It is therefore likely that this route was used to travel to the then Five Islands and that they may have been following an original Aboriginal migration route. If so, this road would be one of the earliest Australian roads surviving in a relatively original setting.
Known as the Old Coach Road, it was the longest of the three Illawarra Roads but had far less hills than the others. According to early records, convicts constructed the Old Coach Road in 1850. Today's Heathcote Road follows the line of this road. Macarthur Drive to the south of Holsworthy railway station and then Old Illawarra Road thereafter continue to follow its line through the middle of the Holsworthy Military Area. Presumably it joined with the earlier road (Greenhills Road?) and continued south to Darkes Forest. At some stage it would have crossed the Georges River Road which ran south from Liverpool Road (Hume Highway) to Campbelltown. A coach station (probably Cobb & Co) was established on the today's Heathcote Road at Giles Junction, presumably in the 1860s. The wells, cobbled roads and horse yards for this station still survive. The former Denmark Hotel on Princes Highway, Bulli has a watch tower which was used as a lookout on coach days when a member of the household would "scan the mountain track for the coming of the Cobb and Co Coach." This indicated it was probably the next staging post on the route after the Giles Junction Station.
The Old Coach Road remained in use until 1915 when the Holsworthy Military Area was created and became a restricted area. The present day Heathcote Road, which skirts the perimeter of the Military Area, was built to take traffic that would otherwise have used the Old Coach Road. After the establishment of the Lugarno and Blakehurst ferry services across the Georges River and the development of what became Princes Highway, the Old Coach Road handled mainly traffic between Liverpool and Parramatta and the Illawarra, Sydney traffic opting for the shorter routes.
The Old Illawarra Road: During the 1830s and 40s, the government under Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell's guidance embarked on a major campaign of exploration and development across the state of NSW. The building of a new, shorter route between Sydney and the Illawarra was part of this development programme. Laid out between 1843 and 1845, it started at Cooks River (Tempe) and passed through the estate of ex-convict, builder and timber getter, Michael Gannon, and followed an Aboriginal pathway to the Georges River. This section of road was called Gannon's Forest Road and is known to day by the shortened version of its name, Forest Road. Mitchell established a punt service which took his Illawarra Road across the Georges River at the southern tip of Lugarno. Beyond the crossing, it wound its way up the hillside of Illawong (Old Ferry Road) where it continued south (Old Illawarra Road) through Menai, Woronora Ford, Heathcote and on to the Illawarra. Sir Thomas Mitchell's Old Illawarra Road joined the Old Coach Road at present day Lucas Heights. For various reasons Mitchell's Illawarra Road was never used to any great extent. After the establishment of a punt service at Tom Ugly's Point, Blakehurst in 1864 it fell altogether into disuse as the main route to the South Coast. The abandoned section of highway from Illawong joins the present main road about a kilometre on the Sydney side of Heathcote railway station, where for many years a finger board at the intersection bore the inscription "Old Illawarra Road, Woronora River, 2 Miles."
Lugarno punt, Princes Highway
Princes Highway
The third road to the Illawarra, known today as Princes Highway, was cut across the hillside of Sylvania from Horse Rock Point following the establishment of the ferry service across the Georges River at Blakehurst in 1864. The subsequent development of the village of Sylvania increased local traffic and brought significant improvements in the road's condition. This led to the Blakehurst route taking the bulk of traffic south to Wollongong. The Tom Uglys Point ferry service soon began to struggle to keep traffic flowing efficiently. To ease congestion the government replaced the ferry with its own more reliable punt service in 1883. The punt service was replaced in 1929 by the Georges River Bridge which forged a permanent link between Horse Rock Point, Sylvania and Tom Ugly's Point, Blakehurst. Tom Ugly's Bridge, built alongside the original bridge over the river in the 1980s, shares the traffic load today. The Lugarno punt continued to operate until the late 1970s when the recently opened bridge at Alfords Point linking Bankstown to Menai made it obsolete.1826-36 - The Great North Road, Five Dock to Broke
Convict built ferry landing,Bedlam Point, Gladesville
Extending north from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, the 240 km Great North Road was built between 1826 and 1836 by re-offending convicts stationed at Newcastle. In the early 1820s settlers began taking up land in the fertile Hunter Valley. They petitioned for a decent road and in 1825 Assistant Surveyor Heneage Finch was sent to survey a suitable route. By following a number of Aboriginal tracks along the ridge-tops he achieved success. Gov. Ralph Darling assigned convict road gangs to start building the road and it was progressively brought into use. As the road passed along remote and desolate ridges where there was little food or water for travelling stock, the isolated sections of it were unpopular and travellers quickly found it preferable to use alternative routes. The Glenorie to Maroota section was abandoned shortly after its completion in favour of a more hospitable route through Pitt Town. It returned to use after motor vehicles were introduced.
The Great North Road originally branched from Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills along what is now called Old Northern Road to Wisemans Ferry. In 1829 Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell developed a shorter route which branched north from the Parramatta Road at Five Dock. A ferry crossed the Parramatta River from Abbotsford to Bedlam Point at Gladesville where part of the convict-built ferry landing remains. The original road then followed the present line of Victoria Road to St Annes church at Ryde, and then roughly followed the line of Blaxland Road, the North Road, Corunna Rd, Vimiera Rd, Essex St and Old Beecroft Road to eventually become New Line Road at Pennant Hills where it re-joins the original line of road from Castle Hill at Dural.
In 1832, steamships began servicing the Hawkesbury and fifty years later, railways entered the area, leading to the road falling into further disuse and a poor state of repair. Most of this road at the Hawkesbury end remains today, offering an alternative, slower paced scenic route between Sydney and the Hunter and access to some of 19th century Australia's greatest engineering feats created by hundreds of convicts - many working in leg-irons. These include stone retaining walls, wharves, culverts, bridges and buttresses in Sydney suburbs like Epping and Gladesville, at Wisemans Ferry, Wollombi, Bucketty and Broke, and on walks in Dharug and Yengo National Parks. Much of this quality construction was carried out under the supervision of Assistant Surveyor Percy Simpson who was based at Wisemans Ferry between 1828 and 1832, and Heneage Finch, who was in charge of construction around Bucketty and Laguna in 1830-31.
Simpson was an engineer who had sound knowledge of road construction techniques being developed in Europe and was given the most difficult sections to build. Much of the high quality work created by convicts under his command remains intact today - a tribute to his ability to lead an unskilled and unwilling labour force and get the best out of them. Up to 700 convicts worked on the road at any one time - clearing timber, digging drains, blasting and shaping stone, and shifting it into position. Some of the blocks weighed up to 660 kg. Originally 33 bridges were built, their timber decks often supported by elaborate stone foundations.
The few which remain are the oldest bridges on mainland Australia. Construction required highly skilled stonemasonry as stone walls were often needed to support the road where it climbed steep hillsides and crossed gullies and watercourses. One wall on Devines Hill just north of Wisemans Ferry reaches almost 10 metres, and is supported by 5 massive buttresses.
Ramseys Leap, Great North Road, Wisemans Ferry
Wisemans Ferry area: There are still some places where well-preserved sections of the original road can be seen on what is known today as the Convict Trail. These include: a 43 km section immediately north of Wisemans Ferry which goes through very steep and rugged country. Devines Hill, beginning 500m west of the Wisemans Ferry landing on the northern side of the Hawkesbury River, contains fine examples of high walling with massive buttresses, drainage systems and quarries. These include Clares Bridge, near Ten Mile Hollow; the Circuit Flat Bridge, near Mt Manning; the descent into Wisemans Ferry from the south; the Bucketty Wall, Mt McQuoid, at the intersection of George Downes Drive and the St Albans road; Ramsays Leap and the Murrays Run Culvert between Bucketty and Laguna.
Abbotford: The only section of the Great North Road to retain its original name heads north from Parramatta Road, Five Dock for a short distance before abruptly stopping at the Parramatta River. No evidence of the original roadway remains today except the line it takes which follows the original and very first section built in 1829.
Gladesville: Bedlam Point was chosen as the place where The Great North Road would cross the Parramatta River. A punt service which took travellers across the river at Bedlam Point was established in 1832. Remains of the convict built landing and the cutting through which the road climbed the river bank are still visible at the end of Punt Road along with grooves and initials cut into the rock by the convict road gang which built it. Nearby in Banjo Paterson Park is Rockend cottage. Once thoug ht to have been the puntman's cottage or an inn, it appears to have been built in the 1850s after the land around Looking Glass Bay was subdivided. In 1866 it was bought by the grandmother of poet Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson.
Epping: A convict built causeway across Devlins Creek is visible at Epping on land between Beecroft Road and the railway underneath the bus flyover of the M2 Tollway. Cherrybrook/Dural: The small masonry abutments of Pyes Creek Bridge (circa 1830) are in a reserve in Woodlark Place, Castle Hill. Convict hewn rock faces and stone gutters remain on the original line of New Line Road adjacent to Daintree Place, Dural.
1831-33 - Mitchells Pass Road, Lapstone
The first road up the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, built by William Cox (1814-15), was in Governor Macquarie's words "pretty steep and sharp" and was found to be subject to serious washways. This was superseded in 1824 by what was known as the Bathurst Road (now Old Bathurst Road). It avoided watercourses, but its grade was very steep and this rendered it hazardous to travellers. Early in 1832, Surveyor-General Major Thomas Mitchell surveyed and recommended the construction of a road along this route midway between the other two in preference to the Governor's suggestion of stationing a permanent repair gang on the Old Bathurst Road. Then known as the Lapstone Zig Zag Road, it was the zig zags on this route and their constant erosion by carts which had to negotiate them that led to Great Western Highway being eventually re-routed across the Knapsack Viaduct and along the old railway route to Blaxland in 1926.
Lennox Bridge, which takes the road over Lapstone Creek, is the oldest surviving as well as the first scientifically designed stone-arch bridge on the Australian mainland. It was the first of a number of bridges scottish bridge builder David Lennox designed and constructed in and around Sydney. Its single arch was crafted from locally quarried sandstone by a team of 20 hand picked convicts from the roads gang. The bridge was completed in July 1833, being the first scientifically designed stone-arch bridge on the Australian mainland. A unique feature is that its western side is a straight line while its eastern is a graceful curve. The bridge formed part of the main route to the west until the Great Western Highway was channelled across the Knapsack Viaduct and along the old railway route to Blaxland in 1926.
With the advent of motor vehicles, heavy trucks taking a short-cut down the mountain often slewed around the curve of the bridge, causing structural damage. The brid Uge had to be closed in 1956. Restoration work began in the late 1970's - designed so as to recreate the shape and appearance of the original bridge while at the same time providing the structural strength necessary to prevent damage by modern traffic. The road below the bridge is now one-way traffic down to the old highway at Emu Plains.
Other Buildings and Structures in the Sydney Region
1822 (?) - Beulah House, Appin Road, Appin. Single storey home of Alexander Hamilton Hume, father of the explorer. Hume & Hovell;s expendition of 1824 left from here.
1830 - Meadow Vale, Appin Road Appin. Double storey home which replaced the original Hume homestead.
1838 - Old Rectory, 5 Glebe Close Appin. One and a half storey Georgian sandstone cottage that was built as the St Mark's Recory.
1820s - Northampton Dale, Brools Point Road Appin. The second storey with mansard roof was added in 1830s.
1827 onwards - Union Revived Inn (former), Main Street, Appin. Considerably added to over time, the original stone and weatherboard single storey building was one of Appin's earliest inns.
1838 - Elladale, Elladale Road Appin. One and a half storey house built of ashlar sandstone by Rev. Starling.
Tempe House
1835 - Tempe House, 1 Princes Highway, Arncliffe. Home of Spark. Designed by John Verge, a single storey brick building in Italianate style.
1834 - Orange Grove, Forum Crescent, Baulkham Hills. Built near the site of King's Langley, home of the 1st free settler in the area, Matthew Pearce, which was burnt down in 1912. Orange Grove was built by his son on the northern side of the farm.
1820s - McCall Gardens, 10 Terry Road Baulkham Hills. Built by Samual Terry as his country seat. A single storey brick house with stone-flagged verandahs. Federation style added 1896 during renovations.
C1830 - Rumery Homestead, 13 Windsor Road, Box Hill. Built by Rumery family, who were orchardists in the Riverstone/Box Hill area.
Oatlands House
1820s - Kelvin Park, Badgery's Creek Road, Bringelly. Single storey stone cottage built for Capt. Thomas Laycock of NSW Corps.
Late 1830s - Wellings, 4 Woodside Avenue East, Burwood. Single storey timber home of London shipowner, William Richards.
1820s - Hassall Cottage, Macquarie Grove Road, Camden. Single storey building for missionary and sheep breeder Rowland Hassall. Includes a barn, grannery, cellar, dairy, stable and coach house.
1827 - Brownlow Hill Estate, Brownlow Hill Loop Road, Camden. Fine collection of brick and corrugated iron cottage and farm outbuildings, much of them built by George Maclaey, the son of Colonial Secretary Alexander Maclaey.
1834 - Workers cottage, 244 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill. A single storey timber cottage, it is the oldest building of its kind in the area. It replaced the original slab cottage built on William Fishburne's grant.
1820s - Nepean Park, Castlereagh Road, Castlereagh. 2 storey brick building. The farmhouse of John Single, who established a farm, orange groves, vineyards, wheat and corn fields here.
1826 - Merrymount, Riverside Oaks Golf Clun, O'Brien's Road, Cattai. Double storey stone residence built by George Smith Hall on his 100 acre property.
1820s - Cecil Hills farm, Elizabeth Drive, Cecil Park. One of earliest and oldest surviving farm complexes in Liverpool area, Rare example of bricknog construction. Farm and home of Sir John Wilde, Judge Advocate to Governors Macquarie and Brisbane and co-founder of Bank of NSW (Westpac).
1822 - Denbigh, 421 Northern Road, Cobbitty. Single storey weatherboard home; second storey wing added in late 1820s. Home of Capt. Hook.
1820s - Macquarie Grove, Macquarie Grove Road, Cobbitty. Tudor Gothic brick residence built as an extension to an early homestead from the 1820s. Property first owned by missionary Rowland Hassall (granted 1812) and subsequent family members.
1820s - The Octagon, Octagon Road, Darling Point. Built as military guardhouse.
1836 - Lindesay, 1 Carthona Avenue, Darling Point. Gothic picturesque. Architect: Edward Hallen.
Oatlands House
1830s - Oatlands House, Bettington Road, Dundas. Home of Capt. Percival Simpson, army office and farmer who served a term as Commandant of Wellington convict settlement. Building was originally a single storey cottage with flagstone verandahs and courtyards. 2nd storey added in 1840 by convict labour. Cedar used in its construction was felled on the property, and the sandstone was quarried nearby. Now a restaurant and wedding reception centre.
1830 - 66 Surrey Street, East Sydney.
1837 - 11 Woods Lane, East Sydney. Stone cottage to house Conish tradesmen working on the Darlinghurst Gaol.
1830 - 265 Victoria Street, East Sydney.
1833 - Barnham, 215 Forbes Street, East Sydney. Home of Edward Deas Thomson, Gov. Bourke's son-in-law who succeeded Macleay as Colonial Secretary.
1830 - Edensor Park, Edensor Road, Edensor Park. Songle storey stone building.
1837 - The Homestead, 1a Lionel Street, Georges Hall. Single storey Georgian home of family members of Major George Johnston. The suburb's name recalls the first grantee of the area. Remnants of Johnston's first homestead (a carriageway and line of oak trees) can be found in Beatty Parade.
1844(?) - The Priory, Gladesville Hospital, Salter Street, Gladeville.
1838 - Cell Block, Gladesville Hospital, Gladesville. Architect: Mortimer Lewis.
1830's - Rockend Cottage, 40 Punt Road, Gladesville. A large, one and two storey stone cottage with commanding views over Looking Glass Bay. It was built as an Inn on the Gt North Road just north of the Gladesville punt landing. It became the home of Mrs Emily Barton whose grandson Banjo Paterson lived with her when attending Sydney Grammar School. It is now Banjo Paterson Cottage Restaurant.
1836 - Lyndhurst, 61 Darghan Street, Glebe. Double story home built for Dr James Bowman. Extended by John Verge.
1831 - Tranby, Toxteth Park, 13 Mansfield Street, Glebe. Picturesque post-renency cottage deesigned by John Verge.
1820s, 1836 - Greenwich House, 21 George Street, Greenwich. 2 storey stone house built for Capt. Cother Mann, part of which dates from late 1820s. Built as an inn to service immigrant workers working for neighbour Geogre Green, shipwright and boatbuilder. The license was refused and the property was converted into a house.
Figtree House
1835 - Figtree House, 1 Reiby Road, Hunters Hill. A 2 storey sandstone building, the ground floor being built in 1835, but demolished in part in 1850 to make way for the present north wing. Purchased by Diedier Joubert in 1851. The timber tower was built in 1890, restored in 1970s.
1830 - Bella Vista Farm, Old Windsor Road, Kellyville. A collection of mainly timber slab farm buildings erected over the years by a number of occupants. On the site of John and Elizabeth Macarthur's original Seven Hills Farm where some of the first merino sheep were bred.
1824, 1830 - State Hospital and Asylum, College Street, Liverpool. Attributed to Francis Greenway. Today the building is the home of the Liverpool Technical College.
1831 - Dargle, River Road, Lower Portland. Stone cottage built by Andrew Doyle, a builder. Doyle was transported to NSW for his part in the Irish uprisings of 1798 and 1801.
1840 - Macquarie Fields House, Quarter Sessions Road, Macquarie Fields.
1832-35 - Camden Park, Camden Park Estate, Menangle. Double storey brick home designed by John Verge for John Macarthur. Oldest sheep stud in Australia established by Elizabeth Macarthur.
1830s - Robin Hood Farm, Campbelltown Road, Minto. 2 storey stone house.
1830s - Epping Forest, Mississippi Crescent, Kearns. Single storey sandstock brick house with slab and log outbuildings built on Matthew Kearn's 1810 grant at River Hill. One of the few surviving early colonial farm complezes on the Cumberland Plain.
1820s - Lot 315 Ben Lomond Road, Minto. 3-room stone cottage believed to have been used to house farm hands working at Dr William Redfern's Campbellfield estate.
1830s - The Barn Scout Hall, 3a Avenue Road, Mosman. Building was part of Mosman's whaling station.
1830s - Boronia House, 624-632 Military Road, Mosman.
1820s - Glenmore (now golf club), Mulgoa Road, Mulgoa. The central sandstone core is the original house of Henry Cox.
Wivenhoe
1834 - Wivenhoe, 525 Macquarie Grove Road Narellan. Double storey home designed by John Verge, built for Charles Cowper.
1823 (?) - Don Bank, 6 Napier Street, North Sydney. Previously known as St Leonard's cottage. It began as a 4 room slab house on Edward Wollstonecraft's Crows Nest farm grant. Restored in 1970s by the North Sydney Council, it is the only surviving example of a slab-walled dwelling in inner city Australia.
1838 - St Matthews Church, Old Oaks Road, The Oakes. Convict built church with timber walls made of iron bark slabs with singles roof (since replaced by corrugated iron). It is said to have resembled Rev. Johnson's first wattle and daub church in Sydney.
1830 - 1 Church Street, Paddington. Built on the site of a former orchard.
1830s - 75 Paddington Street, Paddington. Convict built house.
1834 - Engehurst, 56a Ormond Street, Paddington. Designed by John Verge.
1826 - Glenmore (stone stables at rear), 61-63 Glenmore Road, Paddington.
1832 - 35 - Harrisford, 182 George Street, Parramatta. Part of Kings School. The earliest parts date from 1823. The original stone cottage was built by John Harris in 1890.
Travellers Rest Inn cottages, Parramatta
1830 - Travellers Rest Inn Group, 12-16 O'Connell Street, Parramatta. 3 low detached cottages built as barracks for Old Government House staff. Features Flemish bonded brickwork and hipped corrugated iron roof.
1832 - Headmaster's House, Marsden Street, Parramatta. Formerly part of Kings School Group, now Marsden Rehabilitation Centre. ground floor sectio built as single storey cottage. 1st floor and verandahs added in 1890.
1836 - Broughton House, Thomas Street, Parramatta. Originally called Newlands. Built by Thomas Marsden.
1828 - Linden House, Lancer Barracks, 2 Smith Street, Parramata. Originally built in Macquarie Street, Parramatta, this home was later moved and re-erected as a museum within the Lancer Barracks complex.
1824(?) - Lynwood, 41 Pitt Town Road, Pitt Town. 2 storey Georgian brick house.
1837 - Rockwall, 7 Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point.
1830, 1839 - Horingsea Park, Hume Highway, Prestons. Built for Lt Joshua John Moore.
Hobartville, Richmond
1828 - Hobartville, Segenhoe Place, Richmond. Grand mansion of the Hawkesbury district. Main section built in 1826, earlier sections were the original house. The first tenant was William Cox.
1830s - Rutherglen, 154-58 March Street, Richmond. Formerly Grimwood House, a 2 storey brick and stone residence.
1822-27 - Price's House, 120 March Street, Richmond. Brick nog house built for pardoned convict William Price.
1830 - 114 Lennox Street, Richmond. Brick cottage.
1835 - Josieville, Cnr Chapel and Francis Streets, Richmond. Ground floor built in 1835; upper floor added in 1870s by Joseph Onus, former mayor of Richmond and son of original owner, Joseph Omus senior.
Dunrath, West Pennant Hills
1830 - Dunrath, 139 Castle Hill Road, West Pennant Hills. Originally built at Cowper Park, cnr Victoria and Old South Head Roads, Bellevue Hill and used as Montiore Jewish Home. Purchased by Major De Groot, dismantled and re-erected in its present location in 1939. It was Major De Groot who broke the ribbon at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, getting him arrested.
1834 - Rose Bay Lodge, 1-7 Salisbury Road, Rose Bay. 2 storey brick house designed by John Verge for James Holt, partner of Cooper & Levy.
1838 - Merriville, Vinegar Hill Road, Rouse Hill. Home of John Palmer, known as Hambledon. Present house built by Pearce family in 1830s.
1833-1841 - Addington, 813 Victoria Road, Ryde. Colonial homestead. Owned by Ryde City Council and is leased to the Trustees of the St George Guild of former Scouts and Guides.
1837 - Ryde Police Station, Cnr Belmore Street and Victoria Road, Ryde. Believed to be the oldest Police Station still in use.
1822, 1832 - Mamre, Mamre Road, St Marys. It was at this property that Rev. Samuel Marsden developed his merino flock. Two storey brick (now rendered) Colonial Georgian style homestead featuring hipped corrugated iron roof laid over original shingles.
1832 - Newington House, Holker Street, Silverwater. 2 storey Regency house built for John Blaxland. Newington Collage established in 1863 by Weslian authorities.
1824 - Clevland House, 146-164 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills.
1835 - Durham Hall, 207 Albert Street, Surry Hills. 2 storey stucco brick Regency residence built for George Hill, butcher.
1835 - Domain Lodge, St Marys Gate, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney.
1836 - Town Houses, 39 - 41 Lower Fort Street, Millers Point. Designed by John Verge.
1837-45 - Government House, Botanical Gardens. Turreted Gothic Revival design by Edward Blore, but completed to modified specifications by Mortimer Lewis.
1827 - Watch House (former), 82 Erskine Street, Sydney. A rare example of a Colonial Georgian shop building, extended to respond to growing needs. Designed by William Dumaresq, a former NSW Government Architect (1825-29). Formerly a Watch House & Police Station.
Reynolds' Cottages, The Rocks
1823-29 - Reynolds' Cottages (Gumnut Team Rooms), 28-30 Harrington Street, The Rocks. Two x two storey Georgian stone structure with a brick and skillion addition to the rear facade. Built for Thomas Ryan, these cottages, originally one room deep, are amongst the earliest remaining domestic buildings in The Rocks. They were purchased in October, 1830 by Irish convict and blacksmith, William Reynolds.
1834 - Shop and Residence, 32 Harrington Street, The Rocks. Georgian style two storey brick shop with residence above. Built for vlacksmith William Reynolds. 1838 - Phillip's Foote Restaurant, 101 George Street, The Rocks. A plain two storey Georgian style brick shop and residence. The building has been subject to modifications since but generally in a sympathetic manner.
1826 - Osborne House, 34 Argyle Placet, Millers Point. Regency style brick painted stuccoed townhouse with Greek Revival detailing. Carriageway leads to stone flagged courtyard.
1832 onwards - 22, 24, 26, 30, 32 Argyle Place, Millers Point. This mostly intact row of two storey Colonial Georgian Terraces is part of the streetscape element facing Argyle Place, an historic streetscape comprised of a row of terrace, a central park and a dominant church, giving Argyle Place the appearance of a typical London Square.
1836 - 39-41 Lower Fort Street, Millers Point. Georgian townhouse designed by John Verge.
1832 - Ravenswood, Bents Basin Road, Wallacia. . Single storey home of Col. Thomas Shadforth, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo. Originally a two room brick-nog clad building with weatherboard outside and cement inside. Brick and shingle house added later.
1832 - Blaxland Farm (ruins), Silverdale Road, Wallacia. Ruins of the mill and brewery ventures are all that remain of the farm of John Blaxland which was established on the banks of the Nepean River across from the town of Wallacia.
1836-45 - South Head Signal Station, Old South Head Road, Watsons Bay. Building complex including an hexagonal sandstone tower and lighthouse keper's cottages was designed in restrained Colonial Georgian style by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis.
{1835 - Hopetoun House (part of Bay Cottage). 308 Old South Head Road, Watsons Bay. Single storey stone cottage.
Dunbar House
1830s - Dunbar House, 9 Marine Parade, Watsons Bay. Double storey home built for Pieter Laurentz Campbell, Colonial Secretary. Became Marine Hotel in 1854 and housed a zoo and gardens in 1850s.
1830s - Werrington Park, Gt Western Highway, Werrington. Double storey building, the home of Henry Parkes 1860-71 that was originally built for the prominant colonial family of Sir Maurice and Lady O'Connell. Has been extensively added to and bears little resemblance to the original 1830s dwelling.
1829 - Werrington House, 108 Rugby Street, Werrington. Double storey sandstone Georgian house, the home of Robert Copland Lethbridge and his wife, who was the daughter of Gov. Philip Gidley King.
1820s - 87 King Road, Wilberforce. Built by blacksmith and boatbuilder, Michael Rowland. A timber cottage, the rear section is the oldest. It is of vertical slab construction with corrugated iron roof.
1830 - Rocky Hall, Uworra Road, Wilberforce. 2 storey sandstone residence with timber shingled mansard roof, built by George Buttsworth. Restored in 1983 with a corrugated iron roof.
1822 - Claremont Cottage, Claremont Crescent, Windsor. Brick Colonial Georgian cottage of stuccoed brick with wide verandahs and low pitched hipped roof.
St. Matthew's Rectory, Windsor
1822 - St. Matthew's Rectory, 1 Moses Street, Windsor. Elegant Georgian two storey house built by William Cox of Clarendon. Controversial clergyman Samuel Marsden died here in 1838 during a visit. The stables were erected in 1825.
1820s - Freeman's Reach, Reibycroft, Gorricks Lane, Windsor. Stuccoed brick farmhouse built by Mary Reiby on land acquired by her husband in 1803.
1830 - 267 George Street, Windsor. Single storey brick cottage, now a craft shop.
1830 - 6 Bridge Street, Windsor. Brick cottage.
1830s - 1 New Street, Windsor. A pair of small cottages, now combined.
1830s - Fairfield House, Richmond Road, Windsor. Single storey section built by William Cox for his own use. 2 storey section added during the Victorian era.
1831 - Mrs Cope's Farmhouse, 312 George Street, Windsor. Stuccoed brick house.
1834 - Loder House, 126 George Street, Windsor. 2 storey brick home of son of George Loder, former NSW Corps sergaent, Windsor gaoler and pound keeper.
1837 - Doctor's House, 1 - 3 Thompson Square, Windsor.
1826 - Cobham Hall, Old Northern Road, Wisemans Ferry. Built by pioneer settler and ferryman, Solomon Wiseman, who was transported in 1806. Greatly altered from its original design.
1835 - Lansdowne Bridge
A classic example of the workmanship of colonial stonemason David Lennox, this stone arch has stood the test of time and still carries the heavy traffic of today's Hume Highway across Prospect Creek. Lennox was 45 years old when he came to Australia from his native Scotland in 1832 after the death of his wife. He found work in the employ of the government under Captain George Barney, Sydney's first Colonial Engineer, and was creating the stone wall in front of Legislative Council Chambers in Macquarie Street when Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell stopped to chat with him. Upon discovering that Lennox was a master stonemason with twenty years experience including several bridge projects in Britain, Mitchell invited him into his office. By the end of their conversation, Mitchell had offered Lennox the job of Superintendent of Bridges, which he accepted.
Mitchell believed in building things to last and saw well designed bridges as a sign of a civilised society. To him they were ". . . the most indispensable of public works. Such works constitute the capital of a nation - no country is thought anything of that does not possess them". In a piece of classic timing, Lennox left his stone wall and with his shirt sleeves still tucked up began building stone bridges for this colony. His first was the Lennox Bridge at Lapstone Hill in the Blue Mountains. One of three surviving examples of Lennox's workmanship in Sydney is Lansdowne Bridge, which was opened on 26th January 1836 by Gov. Bourke. It is the oldest surviving bridge in the Sydney region and features flat arches and narrow piers. Lennox based his design on an arch near Gloucester, England, which in turn was based on the classic arch bridges designed by Frenchman Perronet during 1774 and 1791. Based on proper engineering calculations, the design could achieve relatively large spans.
Built by a team of around 20 convicts under Lennox's supervision, its stone came from a quarry opened nearby at Stockdale Reach opposite East Hills Park. The stone was transported up the river by punt to the construction site. In November 1986 Lansdowne bridge was designated a National Engineering Landmark. Span: 34m, width 9.5m. Lennox also supervised the construction of the Liverpool Dam which was built by his team after the bridge was completed. It was built across the Georges River at Liverpool so that the river could be used more effectively for crop cultivation.
1836 - Lennox Bridge, Parramatta
One of three bridges across the Parramatta River in Parramatta itself, it replaced the first bridge built over the Parramatta River. Designed in 1833 by David Lennox and completed in 1839, it is one of the oldest bridges in Australia. Lennox Bridge is a single sandstone arch spanning 91 feet (27.73m), the clear span of the arch being 23.16 m across the Parramatta River with approaches on the line of Church St. In 1912, the parapet on the western side was removed to provide a cantilevered pedestrian way; this in turn was removed in 1934-5 with the further widening of the western side in concrete faced with sandstone. The original balustrading was replaced with an open concrete type. It was named in 1876 in honour of its designer as it was the last bridge built by him in NSW. Lennox moved to Victoria where he supervised the construction of many bridges, including the original Princes Bridge in Melbourne.
1836 - Lennox Bridge, Lapstone
Lennox Bridge at Lapstone takes the Old Bathurst Road over Brookdale Creek. Part of Mitchell's Pass (the main route across the Blue Mountains from 1834-1926), the original road across the Blue Mountains, the bridge was completed in July 1833 by its designer, Scottish stone mason David Lennox, and a party of 20 convicts. The beautiful sandstone structure is the oldest bridge on the Australian mainland, it is unique in its design as the western side is a straight line while its eastern side is a graceful curve. It was the first of many stone bridges in Australia designed by Lennox. The bridge remained part of the main route to the west until the Great Western Highway was redirected along the old Glenbrook railway line in 1926. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 1962, and after careful restoration work was completed, it was reopened to eastern bound traffic in 1982.