Histories of Green Square - City of Sydney

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Histories of Green Square Fig. 4.2 Lower Dam, Hinchcliff’s Waterloo Mills wool washing establishment. (Source: Town and Country Journal, 16 June 1877, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.) 4.3 Mills and damming The small European settlement at Sydney Cove spread west, with the success of farming on the fertile alluvial soils of the Parramatta River. The more nutrient-poor soils of the coastal area discouraged early attempts to settle the region between Sydney Cove and Botany Bay. In 1815 Simeon Lord, a successful ex-convict, constructed a mill for the manufacture, cleansing and thickening of cloth at the Botany swamp. 2 He also had a dam constructed, and it was this millpond that later became the reservoir that augmented early Sydney’s water supply. 3 A little later, in 1818, another mill was constructed on these same swamps, for the milling of paper from linen and cotton rags. 4 In 1820 a joint venture involving Hutchinson, Cooper, Williams and Leverton resulted in the construction of the Lachlan and Waterloo Mills. Originally these mills ground wheat for the growing colony and, in one week in 1821, ground 1600 bushels. 5 By 1827 these mills had been converted to woollen mills due to the rise of the colonial wool industry and its increased demand for processing facilities. 6 The Waterloo Dam continued to be used for the purposes of powering mills and in 1848 the Hinchcliff’s Waterloo Mills wool washing establishment was constructed at the Dam. This facility was still operational some thirty years later and in 1877 the establishment had two main divisions, the Upper and Lower Dam works (see Figs 4.1 and 4.2). Wool washing was carried out at both dams, with fellmongering also undertaken at the lower dam in the winter season. These activities employed large numbers of workers, most of who lived on the land with their families. The major works also involved the further clearing of the environment in the vicinity of the mills. The practice of wool washing in particular, required open space as drying grounds for the washed fleeces. These mills had a drying lawn of about ten acres in extent. 7 Fellmongering and wool washing were considered 32 noxious trades and the waste run-off from these activities caused significant pollution into Shea’s Creek and further into Botany Bay. The Town and Country Journal in 1877 described this noisome run-off: The foul water and refuse from the wash-house is carried away by a chute about half a mile long, to the mouth of the floodgate of the dam, which is now and then risen, to allow the water to escape with sufficient force to scour the weir. 8 The parish maps of Alexandria for 1871 and 1880 note the location of these establishments (see Fig. 4.3). 9 4.4 Sydney’s water supply Water supply for Sydney was an ongoing problem throughout the nineteenth century. The Tank Stream running into Sydney Cove soon became inadequate for the purposes of the growing colony, and by 1826 the population of Sydney had reached 10,000 and the Tank Stream had become, ‘…a filthy sewer’. 10 The Government turned to the swampy area to the south of the settlement. In 1825 John Busby, Mineral Surveyor and Civil Engineer, completed a survey of the swamp, and reported that the ‘water is perfectly transparent and colourless, free from every taste and smell, and so soft as to be fit for washing and every other domestic purpose’. 11 Construction of a tunnel from Hyde Park to Lachlan Swamp, in the hollow between Paddington and Randwick, began in 1827. Busby’s Bore, as it was known, was completed in 1837. 12 By 1849 the population of Sydney had grown to 40,000 and water supply had again become a pressing issue. A pumping station was erected at Lords Dam, which pumped water to a reservoir in Paddington and another in Crown Street. This impacted on many square miles of the surrounding area, including the Green Square area, because the pumping of water out of Lords Dam caused further drainage of the adjoining wetland. © Scott Cumming Fig. 4.3 Parish of Alexandria 1871. (Source: Mitchell Library, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.) 4.5 Draining the wetland In 1830 surveyor Robert Hoddle was directed to the area now known as Banksmeadow, southeast of the Green Square area on the shores of Botany Bay. His instructions were to: …procure as many spades as you have men in your party, as soon as you have determined the extremity next the Sea of the middle drain of the swamp you will set them to work to cut the ditch four feet deep in the direction of the middle line. 13 The purpose was to reclaim the swampland and make it available for division into allotments for members of the New South Wales Veteran’s Corps, which had been disbanded. The drain was dug and played an integral role in draining water run off in the region over the next hundred years. It also provides an insight into nineteenth century attitudes towards wetland environments: they were called swamps and regarded as waste lands which ought to be made ‘useful’. The area of Green Square abutting South Dowling Street, where much construction has recently taken place, was the site of the Victoria Park Race Course in the early twentieth century. Sir Joynton Smith had purchased this tract of land with the intention of establishing a racecourse and at the time of purchase he described it as a marsh covering many acres. In his My Life Story, he described himself, in 1906: …standing on a bank on the side of my purchase to the south east of Botany close to Shea’s Creek…I decided to have a trench dug through to the creek. Then the miracle occurred, the waters of the swamp were released in a solid body, a twenty foot torrent sped into Shea’s Creek, and raced with a gurgle of joy, to which I contributed, away to Botany Bay. 14 The sheer glee with which Joynton Smith relates this story is a great insight into attitudes towards wetlands and land usage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The land (along with its plant and animal life) was seen as intrinsically © Scott Cumming Chapter 4 – Chimneys and Change worthless, until it could be drained, cleared and put under construction for human purposes. Market gardens were a very prominent early industry in the area. The reserves of water under the ground’s surface provided excellent conditions for growing most vegetables (with the notable exception of potatoes!). Again, though, it was necessary to first drain away the surface water to create an environment appropriate for market gardening. 4.6 Sewerage The nature of the South Sydney wetland corridor as a natural drainage system also lent itself to use as a sewerage system. Until 1875 the sewage run-off from the city of Sydney had simply emptied into Sydney Harbour somewhere in the vicinity of Circular Quay. In 1875 a Board of Health and Sewerage was established to look into improvements to the city sewerage system. The Bondi ocean outfall was constructed but did not capture waste from these more southerly lying areas. Instead, between 1882 and 1889 the Sydney City Sewerage Farm was built on a narrow neck of ground at the entrance to the Cooks River. 15 Sewage from a point near Phels Street in Surry Hills flowed through Waterloo and Alexandria from northeast to southwest, traversing the relatively unoccupied area of the southwest side of the Waterloo Estate (see Fig. 4.5). This was not a fully closed or covered system. From Botany Road to Botany Bay it flowed uncovered in an embankment with concrete culverts constructed where the sewer crossed natural watercourses. 16 The sewerage farm met with resistance and complaints from residents in areas adjacent to it, and was eventually closed down in 1916, when an additional ocean outfall was constructed. 4.7 Nineteenth century industrial uses In 1848 an Act of the New South Wales Parliament banned the operation of noxious industries from the area immediately in and around Sydney. The attraction of the area to the 33
Histories of Green Square Figure 4.4 Sydney – Water Supply Sources 1837–1888 (Source: Dan Coward, Out of Sight, 1988). south of Sydney became immediately apparent, its natural drainage characteristics again influencing decisions about human usage. The highest concentration of these noxious industries moved further south to Botany Bay itself, but many also established themselves in the Waterloo and Alexandria area. 17 The Waterloo Swamps, situated to the north of the Lords Dam system, were separate from the Water Reserve and had outlets into Shea’s Creek. As already noted, wool washing and fellmongering industries had already been established in the area of the Waterloo Swamps, from the mid-nineteenth century. Other noxious industries followed, including hide tanning, boiling down establishments and abattoirs. 34 The 1883 Royal Commission Inquiry into Noxious and Offensive Trades noted a number of such industries in the Waterloo/Alexandria area and detailed their impact on the environment. In an examination of Mr. Benjamin Ere’s Boiling-down and Woolwashing establishment, Cooks River Road, Alexandria, the Commissioners noted that five hundred gallons of waste water ran off into Shea’s Creek every day. The creek was described as having: …a quantity of thick slimy matter…continually on the surface; making it necessary to form a surface lock, by floating a plank secured by a chain on each side until the matter collects in a mass, the lock being opened occasionally to let that go above stream. 18 © Scott Cumming © Scott Cumming Chapter 4 – Chimneys and Change Fig. 4.5 The path of the southern outfall sewer through the Waterloo and Alexandria. (Source: Mitchell Library map M4 811.18 ghhd /1892/1 Sh 2(2), courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.) 35
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Histories of Green Square - City of Sydney

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