DISCLAIMER:  The information on this page almost certainly does contain

errors.  It is largely of DRAFT quality intended for private study, by

members of a cooperative for the study of the Lachlan/Sydney/Hunter

regions.  If you would like to join this cooperation and/or contribute

information, please contact LachlanHunter at john.mail@ozemail.com.au

or telephone (Sydney) 02 9747 3701.

 

 

 

 

 

GALSTON

 

Diatreme in Cabbage Tree Hollow, in Hawkesbury Sandstone, close to Gilligans Road.

 

Fagans Park - Arcadia Road.  Mittagong Formation should comprise plateau surfaces at northern end of Fagans Park but little outcrop can be found.  A small clay pit and brick kiln existed in this vicinity (not visited).

 

 

 

GLADESVILLE

 

Mooreview Brickworks  -  14 Tennyson Road.

 

 

 

GLEBE

 

Cardigan Street

 

 

Cardigan Street in Glebe appears to have been constructed with locally extracted sandstone

blocks, as are now exposed between Darghan Street and Darling Street.  Now regarded

as heritage stonework and is to be preserved.  (Photo: Tony Carr)

 

The Wentworth Park infill.   Wentworth Park is an infill of the upper part of Blackwattle Bay.  Although the original creek there may have had some brick clay extraction along it (?'kiln' marked alongside it on one early map) this is unconfirmed.  The swamp began to be infilled in 1876.  A number of compartments were created with seawalls and dykes, and these were eventually filled in.  The filling largely consisted of dredgings form Sydney Harbour.  Some residual lakes remained unfilled as late as 1910.  The park  served as one of the camps for the American Army in Sydney during WWII.  Post-1939 it has contained a dog racing track.

 

 

GLENBROOK  (Upstream home of the Great Lost River)

 

"Aboriginal" stone mounds.   Reported on in local newspaper in the 1970s, saying they were believed to be of Aboriginal origin, and had been excavated by archaeologists and material taken away for examination (and results might not be available for 'years').  Enquired in May 2008 to local NPWS about where results of this study could be found.  

 

The "Great Lost River":

 

The "Great Lost River" is a 'vague' but evocative name used to refer to the river that once flowed through Glenbrook.  The river may have flowed northeasterly, no doubt headed towards the sea, and possibly through Maroota where there is also evidence of a great ancient river having flowed (its deposits now form the Maroota hill or the Trig hill there - viz.  http://maroota.sands.googlepages.com ).   This river probably flowed over tens of millions of years ago, in the early Tertiary period, and possibly has never really stopped flowing and still flows today under the name of Nepean (the Nepean-Hawkesbury system).  However much more needs to be investigated about the Great Lost River before it could be confidently assumed that after a very long history of twists and turns it still flows today as the Nepean. 

 

 

Great Western Highway at Glenbrook, at entrance to RAAF Base.  Left of the two cars is

remnant of partially filled-in railway entrenchment cutting.  Paleaeochannel gravel is

exposed in situ in this cutting.   (Source:  Google Maps, viewed 2008)

 

Opposite RAAF entrance, Lapstone Hill.  The rise up the front of the Blue Mountains plateau edge between Emu Plains to Glenbrook is loosely named 'Lapstone Hill' although it is just one segment of plateau front, not a free standing hill.  At the top of the rise, ascending westwards, is the entrance to a RAAF base.  A light coloured building with rounded corners used to mark the main entrance but signage has diminished over the years.  On the opposite (southern side) of this point, remnant of an old railway cutting is found, which is part of the abandonned Lapstone Zig Zag system that was the first method trains employed for ascending the eastern face of the Blue Mountains plateau.  In the cutting there is good exposure of a former (Tertiary) channel of the Great Lost River (possible precursor of the present Nepean-Hawkesbury system?), cut down into Hawkesbury Sandstone.  Large water-warn cobbles are found in the channel fill.  About 40% of the clasts are igneous rocks, and quartzites make up much of the remainder.  Cobbles and pebbles, presumably from the former erosion of such deposits are also found in the soil of the vicinity.

 

Lapstone hill may be so named after its cobbles.  Cobblers formerly held cobbles between their knees to beat (lap) leather against, and it is thought that this is why the hill was named Lapstone.   Access to this RAAF land to look for cobbles was disallowed under the Howard government, citing security concerns.  After the change in government to the Rudd government, a re-application to visit the place was readily allowed.

 

 

 

Further east and down the escarpment face.  At this point there is Tertiary gravel at

east side of the highway and the sandstone outcrop to the west looks like steep

drag on reverse faulting.  The Tertiary here overlies the Mittagong Formation

whereas at the RAAF Base entrance it is entrenched into the Hawkesbury

Sandstone.   This suggests that the old river course was probably not

greatly disrupted during the earliest phase of Blue Mountains uplift. 

 

 

 

Heavy blue dots above, in a NNE line, link the two gravel exposures shown above.   Was this the 

course of the Great Lost River?   If so it cuts right across RAAF Glenbrook.  LachlanHunter

members John B and Tessa C arranged to meet the base commander (executive officeer)

Squadron Leader Brett Docket at 1 p.m. on Thursday 8 May to look over the base

grounds where this line might trend.  (Grid on this map is not N-S)

 

 

Same trend line in greater detail.   The meeting point for 1 p.m. on Thursday 8 May 

is shown by the blue "balloon" with the black dot in it.

 

 

Area where the trend line crosses the N-S escarpment edge.

 

 

GLENBROOK (South from)

 

Euroka clearing.  Diatreme.  Once Euroka Farm.  This is an equant area of about 12 ha, largely cleared and about 400m in diameter.  It is a very popular picnic area and has toilet and camping facilities.  Most evenings kangaroos converge on the clearing to graze the grass.  NPWS signposting saying this is a diatreme site, and had also been 'mined' (prospected) unsuccessfully for coal (small shaft sunk on an inclusion of coal in the breccia) and for diamonds.  Weathered breccia, some with concentric or onion-skin weathering, may be seen in the eastern bank of the creek on the south side of the clearing adjacent to Appletree Flat campsite.  David (1896. Royal Society of New South Wales, Journal and Proceedings, 30, 33-69) described the discovery of a coal seam here in 1895 and the sinking of a 12 foot shaft upon it, which showed the coal as narrow and lenticular and cutting out after a depth of about 6 feet.   According to David's sketch the coal was contained within a body of fine grained carbonaceous greenish grey sandstone located at the northern margin of the diatreme.  Such material, including coal and individual coalified trees (as at Hornsby diatreme) has generally been regarded as younger Mesozoic sediments which have subsided down the vent. 

 

Mount Portal Lookout.  This is a lookout over the Nepean River and the gorge of Glenbrook Creek which joins the river north of the lookout.  Atop of the hill at the lookout cobbles can be found showing that there is Tertiary gravels thereabouts.  Also, just near the pillar at the lookout itself there is a good exposure of ripple marks on top of one of the beds of sandstone.  Ripple marks as distinct as seen here are generally hard to find in the Hawkesbury Sandstone.   They are perhaps best known from towards the top of the formation.

 

Red Hands Cave.   Smooth cave wall in Hawkesbury Sandstone, with some ironstone bands.  Occupation dated to 500-1600 BP or earlier.  Contains a prolific gallery of hand stencils in red ochre.   Some grinding grooves are also nearby.  Discovered in 1913 and badly ruined by vandalism in or before 1934.  Today heavily protected by caging, with a perspex viewing window.

 

 

 

GLENORIE

 

Maroota Forest - Shale, and possibly sandstone extracted in southern Maroota Forest (formerly Maroota State Forest - now transferred to Aboriginal ownership), Glenorie.  This area is accessed via Neich Road, and the quarrying was possibly active up into the 1970s (local infromation).  This was possibly at a site marked on the Wilberforce 1:25K map as "sandstone outcrop" with a large star on it (significance of which is unknown as a star symbol like this does not appear in the map legend).   The area is now overgrown and disused, located off to the NNW beyond the sealed end of Neich Road.  

 

    

 

Shale lens (bottom at left, top at right) at quarry face off Neich Road.

(Photos:  Tessa Corkill)

 

Following an information request to Baulkam Hills Shire Council in 2007, which was not successful in locating any knowledge of the quarrying, the above photos were obtained in March 2008 to better help locate and specify the sites.  Two shale quarries were found in a visit to the area off the end of Neich Road.   The time since abandonment could be gauged by the height of the young trees on the quarry floor.  The shale lens exploited is up to 7-8m thick.  The quarry face photographed is at GPS grid reference E311595 N6282570 (AMG map reference, Zone 65; on the Wilberforce 1:25K map sheet).  Another abandoned quarry noted is about 1 km to the southwest along another track and is probably at about the same elevation (ca. 100m ASL) and might possibly be the same shale lens.  The tracks to the quarries are shown on the 1:25K map.  Some of the shale lenses of the Hornsby Plateau area are thought to possibly extend over large areas; others are distinctly lenticular - there are no markers known to easily track continuity with.

 

  

 

 

GOSFORD

 

Gosford quarry - Sawn sandstone quarry at John Whiteway Drive.   This quarry closed in 1974.

It commenced in 1922 as "The Hawkesbury Sandstone Co." and marketed the stone as "Gosford Grey".

Quarrying probably began at the northern end of the quarries area, near where the court house now stands at the corner of Henry Parry Drive and Donnison Street.  Henry Parry ran the company for 35 years or more.

 

 

(Photo: Spike)

 

Hawkesbury Sandstone concretions - 

 

There appear to be few references to concretions in the Triassic sandstones of the Sydney Basin.  Good examples have been found at Wondabyne quarry, which is in the upper Narrabeen Group; and a horizon rich in concretions that are likely more weathered or leached occurs near the top of the Hawkesbury Sandstone and could possibly be widespread.  Brenda Franklin referred to the presence of carbonate concretions in "Stone - The role of petrography in the selection of sandstone for repair" (Seminar on conserving historic building fabric, Sydney, April 13-14, 2000) but did not state any specific occurrences.  

 

 

 

The concretions bearing interval is well exposed along Woy Woy Road. Top photo

is near Lyre Trig and bottom one is about 250m NE of Staples Lookout along

Woy Woy Road (Lat 33.47585, Long 151.29257 deg).  There is also

regular polygonal jointing on the high points of sandstone hereabouts

(Photos: Shaun Bourke, above; Ray Norris, below) 

 

 

Same area - 50m east of Woy Woy Road on the western slope of Mt Lyre,

viewed looking north.  (Photo:  Bob Pankhurst)

 

 

Weathering-out of a concretion, at the Calga Springs engravings site,

Australian Wildlife Walkabout Park, just off F3 Freeway at Calga.

(Photo: Ray Norris) 

 

 

 

A similar small spheroidal sand body south of the Hawkesbury River, at the Elvina Track engravings site; accessed via first car park on the right after toll booth at West Head Road, in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (Lat 33.64365, Long 151.26398 deg).  This area is described, and suggested to be

an "Astronomical map" site in Peter Stanbury and John Clegg's 1990 book "A field guide to

Aboriginal rock engravings" (page 20); and it is also stated therein "It has been suggested

 that the holes [15-20 cm in diameter and 3-7 cm in depth] mark the position

of astronomical bodies and that the whole area is a celestial map". 

(Photo: Ray Norris) 

 

 

Comparison.  Concretions, with haematite concentration, formed in the terrestrial (aeolian)

Navajo Sandstone of Utah.  (Photo:  Geology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City)

 

 

Box Head, "Fossil Trees" - Highly ferruginous cylindrical structures, first interpreted as fossil trees, were described briefly, with a photo published, in 2003.  They are at Box Head, standing upright in Narrabeen Group sandstone.  An excursion to there in November 2007 found the features to be enigmatic and lacking in any distinctive wood-like features.  Also, there is quite a diversity of concretionary iron oxide manifestations in the same host unit of sandstone, as an excursion to examine the "trees" discovered.  Some photos taken on that excursion are below.  The excursion was organised by Peter Adderly, who may be contacted for further discussion of the area, viz. - http://www.acay.com/~adderley

 

The 2007 excursion members thought the objects were concretionary rather than fossil trees - because a wider variation of forms was found to be present there in the sandstone than just the very regular cylindrical tree-like ones first illustrated.

 

 

Aerial view over Box Head looking south across Broken Bay to Barrenjoey.  The approach road, Hawk Head Drive (fire trail not suitable for all vehicles), is shown and where it reaches a NPWS gate.

Beyond that there is a further considerable walking distance to reach Box Head. 

(Photo:  Peter Adderly, Box Head excursion organiser, November 2007)

 

 

Walking routes beyond the NPWS gate.  Ascent is gentler from Tallow Beach.  The 

prominent jointed sandstone unit with vertical faces rising from sea level is the unit

with much concretionary iron oxide, some of it as distinctly cylindrical bodies.

The sandstone unit is Unit "M" of the Terrigal Formation in the below N-S

vertical section by McDonnell (1980).  (Photo: Peter Adderley).

 

 

McDonnell, K.L., 1980.   Notes on the depositional environment of the Terrigal Formation.

New South Wales Geological Survey.  Bulletin 26, pp. 170-176.  

 

 

Further north Unit "M" could be expected to outcrop in some of the creeks

within Bouddi National Park, inland from the coast and below the

Hawkesbury Sandstone cliffs.  (Photo: Peter Adderley)

 

 

 

Ditto enlarged.  (Photo: Peter Adderley)

 

 

Eastern side of Box Head, looking south.   The site of the ferruginous cylinders seen below

is about 100m around the headland and about 15m above sea-level, fide Peter Adderley.

(Photo:  Tessa Corkill, 2007)

 

 

The existence of the Box Head "fossil trees" structures was first published on in 2003.

(This photo, taken by Andrew Taylor, was published by Tas Walker in 2003)

 

 

Photo of the site by Tessa Corkill, on an excursion convened by Peter Addely in November 2007

to visit these structures (then thought to be fossil trees).  Avalon headland is on horizon to south.

 

 

The ferruginous pipe-like concretions seen close up.  This close, it can be seen that the 

sandstone crossbedding passes through them, and that they cannot be after trees.

(Photo:  Chris Herbert)

 

 

 

 

Box Head.   Another iron oxide cylinder viewed from above; again showing cross-bedding

of the sandstone passing through the cylinder.   (Photo: Tessa Corkill, Nov 2007) 

 

 

 

For comparison:  At Box Head only the concretionary form is cylindrical and the sand inside of the 

cylinder shape is undisturbed.  Thus the bodies are quite unrelated to many other reported pipe

structures in sandstone attributed to phenomena like dewatering.  Above is one such pipe-like

formation in the Early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of the Colorado Plateau.  Such pipes may 

reach immense.  (Paul Ostapuk, Glen Canyon Natural History Association)

 

 

 

Circular banding in sandstone, Little Tallow Beach.  Box Head in background.

(Photo: J. Turner)

 

 

Typical Leisegang banding in sandstone such as seen here (North American example)

also occurs in Narrabeen Group sandstone at Gosford.  But is it often as finely

and evenly laminated as in the Box Head concretionary bodies?

(Phote:  Marli Miller, University of Oregon)

 

 

 

 

Leisegang banding, at a headland near Maitland Bay.  In this case

the banding is obviously of late stage formation, and postdates 

the formation of joints in the rock

(Photos:  Larry Barron, 2007)

 

 

Symmetrical iron oxide banding on each side of a vertical joint in the sandstone where the

two "tree-like" vertical cylinders were first noted.

 

 

 

Very fine concretionary lamination in the sandstone, Little Tallow Beach. 

Seen transecting sedimentary lamination at upper right.

(Photo: J. Turner)

 

 

A cylindrical body weathering from the the sandstone, and seen to be composed of such finely

laminated concretionary structure.  Photo by Peter Adderley (2007) on excurion to Box Head

walking south from Little Tallow Beach (and who noted "the further towards Box Head we

ventured the more of these strange concretions we saw").

 

 

The concretionary ironstone bodies may be weathered out as extending 20-30 cm above

the surface of the sandstone.  (Photo:  Peter Adderly, 2007)

 

 

 

An example with some enveloping of less regular concretionary iron oxide layering.

(Photos:  Peter Adderly and Chris Herbert, 2007)

 

 

Blunts Quarry, fossil fish etc. - Hundreds of fossil fish were found in Blunt's Quarry, in beds near the top of the Narrabeen Group.  Blunt's quarry, opened by the railways contractor Mr Blunt ca. 1886 to supply broken stone for ballast, was a line-side quarry situated just to the north of Gosford railway station on the western side of the line. A sandy shale and mudstone unit was met with in the quarry, about 1.5m thick, which was found to have a 15 cm thick layer that was very rich in fossils. The fossil fish occurrence was reported to the Geological Survey in late 1886. In 1887 a specimen from Gosford (likely from this site) was exhibited at a Linnean Society of New South Wales meeting.  The specimen showed two fossil fish and also what looked like a tadpole.  This "tadpole", perhaps a labryrinthodont at the tadpole stage of life, has since been lost track of, and is presumed discarded or lost (although it could still be in some private collection somewhere?). Over the 1880-1890s, the Geological Survey (Mr C. Cullen) collected over 400 fossils from the quarry, mostly fish but also four labryrinthodonts and other fossils. Of the 14 fish species present one is a lungfish, named Gosfordia.

 

Coal - Coal has been mentioned to occur as follows, in the book:  Swancott, C., 1954. The Brisbane Water Story. Part 2 - Woy Woy & Hawkesbury River. Brisbane Water Historical Society.

- Page 53 records that:  Lou Dillon took up a selection called "Cedar Brush" a half mile from salt water up Patonga Creek. George Dillon had 40 acres on Patonga Creek above Lou's property and here found coal in the creek bed.  He later leased this property to the Caloola Club of bushwakers.

- Page 105 records that:  According to Billy Strachan who worked in the Woy Woy tunnel a seam of coal was encountered during the excavation of the tunnel.

 

Woy Woy - Thick limonite capping developed upon a weathered dyke.  [Has been mined?]

 

 

 

GOSFORD-WYONG

 

Fishermans Bay.  In the mouth of the creek is an engraved boulder surrounded by an Anadara shell accumulation 1.3m deep.  Numerous stone tools have eroded out of foreshore deposits in this area.  Most artefacts are igneous.  Some are silcrete.

 

 

 

GRANVILLE

 

Duck River brick clay.  The railway from Sydney to Parramatta was commenced in 1850 and seven brickfields were opened along the route.  The line would require large amounts of bricks for construction work.  In 1854 it was recorded that the best bricks on the line were being made at Duck River (Report of Select Committee on Roads and Bridges.  NSW Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings 1854).  The line opened in 1855 and the Sydney Morning Herald described the route.  Referring to the gentle curve just west of present Cyburn station, it noted: "Curving to the left we pass over Duck Creek from here it is a straight two mile run to Parramatta.  Beside the track are heaps of burnt clay which was used for Railway ballast" (Preston 1980, p.49).  What the reporter saw may have been waste from the brickmaking operation.   Presuming the reporter sat on the left hand side on the trip to Parramatta, for a better view (the right hand side would have faced other trackway), this early kiln operation was likely on the southern side of the railway line.   Later quarrying at Duck River was on the northern side of the line.

 

 

 

GROSE VALE

 

Burralow Creek - This creek, west of Grose Vale, is thought to have been affected by the Burralow Fault which is downthrown to the west, resulting in the formation of an accumulating peat swamp.

 

 

 

GUILDFORD(?)

 

Cobbity Claystone Bed - A 2.5 to 5 cm thick 'white clay seam' encountered in the Pipehead-Potts Hill tunnel may be the Cobbitty Claystone Bed (Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board, Drawing Numbers G26-49-9 and G26-49-10).

 

 

 

HABERFIELD

 

Dobroyd Brickpits.  Early clay digging was carried out on the northern side of Ramsay Road just east of Iron Cove Creek (now a stormwater channel at this point).   This commenced probably before 1885.  This might be on the creek or gully leading upstream to the Cumberland Brickwords, or a slightly different site.

 

Shirley Brickworks.  This brickworks was somewhere on western side of Long Cove Creek around the present day Lord Street, formerly noted as the junction of Ramsay Street and Duckarma Street (now Sloane Street North).  William Mainer was the brickmaster at these works between 1882 and 1887.  The early home "Kiomi" at 25 St Davids Street, Dobroyd, is believed to have been constructred from the local bricks, made in kilns belonging to William Mainer.  He also built three distinctive terrace houses on the corner of Lord Street and Hawthorne Parade.  The bricks in all these houses are unobserable; painted over.  A 1890s Water Board plans also show that claypits formerly existed (by then abandonned and water-filled) in this area each both sides of Long Cove Creek.  The pit along the east of the creek would be north of Lords Road on that side, and the pit along the west side mostly south of Lord Street on that side (assuming that a foot bridge shown crossing the creek on the Water Board plan connected Lord Street and Lords Road).  The plan shows only 'waterholes' and it is an assumption that these are man-made holes.  Their elongation to the creek confirm that it was valley fill sediment that was being sought.  These pits were later used for rubbish dumping by Ashfield Council.  NSW Government Gazette, 13/6/1899, page 4517, classifies this land as unfit for human habitation on account of the putrescent refuse dumped there.  No trace of these elongate pits alongside the creek can be seen today.  Almost nothing is know of Mainer's Shirley Brickworks but his orbituary in The Advertiser on 2/9/1899 described him as the "owner of large brickfields" and "just and liberal with his employees", suggesting a sizeable operation.  

 

Claypits north of Marion Street.   Claypits north of Marion Street were on the western side of Long Cove Creek, perhaps near the junction of Tessider Avenue and Hawthorne Parade.  Thomas McGill and John Riley may have extracted clay here in 1880-1882.  

 

 

Cumberland Brickworks, Algie Park.

 

 

Algie Park. The N-S elongation possibly reflects a former gully/structure under an infill of domestic rubbish placed there by Council after it acquired the site.  The history of this site, however is somewhat mysterious/puzzling/elusive.  Since the site is topographically below the Ashfield Shale it

cannot be like the usual shale pits of other brickmakers in the Ashfield area.

 

 

This area has an interesting area of brickmaking and as an area where quite a number of poor squatted in shanties in the 1890s and for some time later.  These two things possibly have some connection but the absence so far of precise records of where the clay pit(s) where, and anything about their nature, makes it difficult to connect the sparse facts.  A pottery also relocated to Dobroyd Point, but this too may or may not be associated with the local clay availability in some way.  Further research might clarify what actually did happen at Dobroyd.  It is generally thought that the main pit was located at what is now Algie Park.  Algie Park (named after a former Mayor of Ashfield) is believed to have been a claypit that served the nearby Cumberland Brickworks, although there is no current signage about its origin.  Exactly where the kilns or other features were situated is not yet known.   Sandstone outcropping there indicates that there could have been but little, if any, remnant Ashfield Shale clay to extract - and there is no reason to think that the site was exploiting any shale lens within the sandstone (possible but considered extremely unlikely).  It is known that brickmakers Thomas McGill and John Riley moved to this area from working along Long Cove Creek, in about 1884.  As with other brickmaking operations, activities in this area did not survive the 1890s depression.  McGill and Riley ceased production about 1892.  The Cumberland Brickworks, which is listed in Sands Directories in the same area, operated over a similar time range, 1882-1894.  Operations apparently extended along a gully draining to Iron Cove.  There is nothing like any gully there today but perhaps it has been infilled.  It is thought, tentatively, that the Cumberland Brickworks were at the head of the 'gully', and were owned by the Lamb Brothers, Herbert, Charles and Frederick.  Presumably McGill and Riley may have operated somewhere further down the gully but no details to confirm this have been found.

 

After Ashfield Council acquired this land, and infilled it, it was named after Charles Hugh Algie who had lived nearby, with his wife Sarah, at "Gowan Brae" 16 Forrest St. (now numbered 42 Barton Ave.), and who had earlier lived at "Ilford" 24 Barton Ave.  Mr. Algie was a commercial traveller who had been Mayor of Ashfield in 1913-1914 (when Council is also known to have been dumping rubbish there).

 

Commencing about 1893, with the area perhaps derelict and abandonned by its brickmaker lessees it began to become known as a squatters camp occupied by those thrown out of work in the depression.  This camp of the unemployed grew to become quite extensive.  At first 50 tents were noted there, and thereafter the number of tents, shacks, humpies and bark huts rose to 200 by 1895 (Sydney Morning Herald, 27/7/1895).  This must have been once of the last extensive uses of bark huts around Sydney(?).  Generally with camps sited around old  clay pits, also likely rubbish dumping places, it appears that typhoid broke out in the area.  However, an Inspector of Nuisances who visited there in early 1895 found the place to be not too bad.  On that occasion he found that the whole of the camp was clean and free of offensive smells.  The Sydney Morning Herald (July 1895) reported that "On the opposite side of the road [Ramsay Street] to the camp, and situated in a gully, is a large clay-pit, evidently the site of an abandoned brickworks."   People were drinking water of a "most forbidding appearance".  At one end of the gully was a "large and evil-smelling rubbish-tip" and the other end a "miasmatic swamp".

 

The actual outbreak of typhoid at the time appears to have been in Five Dock, yet for some reason it got attributed to the unsanitary condition of the camps at the old clay pits, and Five Dock council made complaints. This is no doubt what then lead to the Inspector of Nuisances visiting the area in January 1895, and the reporter for the SMH visiting in July of the same year. The Inspector of Nuisances' report is only known fide the SMH reporter's report.  It was Bradley Henry Burton, of the NSW Supreme Court, who died of typhoid fever at his house "Llewellyn" in Five Dock, in 1894. Burton had a vital interest in the subject of sanitation and wrote many letters on this to the Sydney Morning Herald. He also was the honorary secretary of the Health Society of New South Wales. He lectured and wrote much against the dangers of typhoid, which is what actually killed him. He died on 29 December 1894.  It was perhaps his death that mobilised the Inspector of Nuisances to visit the area.

 

The general area remained a shantytown of some size until about 1905 when the land developer Arthur Rickard & Co. (established by Sir Arthur Richard in 1904) further subdivided the Dobroyd estate land and "banished the community of human derelicts."   The Richards company itself was liquidated in the next depression that followed, in 1930.  

 

A Health Department field notes book (Health Dept. Reference Book 428, ?drawing 884), for the mapping of unhealthy building land at Dobroyde Estate (Mitchell Library ADHS collection), suggests that the 'gully' must have run northwards from just west of Empire Street at Ramsay Street.  A builder, George Chidgey, bought 8 acres of this land north of Ramsay Street, opposite Alt Street, in 1911.  To overcome the health embargo on the land Chidgey offered some of it to the local government authorities and this is what later became Algie Park.  After being given this land Council began filling two of the former clay pits there, presumably with household rubbish.  These two holes received 800 loads by 1913, which by that time had only part filled them.  Therefore something like 1600 loads of clay might have been taken from the area by the former brickmakers.  Chidgey, in partnership with Robert Tanner, then operated a concrete block plant on part of the land.  This also failed in the 1930s depression, closing probably in 1933.

 

Crowe (1978) in describing the character of Habefield also noted how older persons recalled the "Ramsay's Bush" on the Dobroyd estate as long the abode of an array of society's then poorer people - ranging from Aborgines to Chinese to "gypsies".  Many humpies were beween Wattle Street and Dalhousie Street.  The period involved is not noted.  It was in a brochure of ca. 1916 that the developers of the area, Arthur Richards and Co, claimed that estate subdivision and sale had "banished the community of human derelicts."  However the last know humpy dwelling in the area persisted in living there till his death in 1934.  Except for this man, Mr A. A. Vince there is very little known of the humpy dwellers. Just east of the unsanitary 'gully' of bricklands being used for dumping, between Waratah St and Loudon Avenue was the house "Dalhousie", owned by James Ramsay.  After he died in 1913 Mrs Ramsay aged 85 continued living there till 1923 when the family agreed to sell that block to the government for a school.  However, no school did get built there till 1937 and in the interim Mr Vince moved onto the vacant land and squattered there.  He had a tent and later built a humpy of discarded materials.  He took out a Miners Right and sank several holes there.  He claimed that he had been in all the big gold rushes and knew gold-bearing land and knew there must be gold on this land.  The Sydney Morning Herald reported his death on 2 October 1934, as "Old man's death.  Alone in humpy".  The paper wrote that the old man who was bent and had a beard reaching his chest, and who was aged 90, was found dead in his hut, his old pipe in his hand.  The government had tried to evict him and had even summonsed him to the Supreme Court but even there he insisted on his Right to live there and told the Court "I will never leave the land until I am carried off dead", which prediction proved true.  Although he dressed in rags and tatters he was said to be of excellent education.  He distained to apply for any pension and had no known means of support.  His transport was presumably the two horses he kept on the land, and he also managed to keep a dog.  Some well wishes gave him food or help, including a local butcher, although one resident (Mrs. Byrne) complained that Mr. Vince's presence was adversely affecting her chances of letting her house.  In 1933 the Sheriff executed a writ of Habebe Facias Possessionem, whereupon the police moved in and destroyed Mr. Vince's property.  But Vince was not deterred and the police report on the action later added that he was "obdurate and has remained on the property".  He died there 17 months later.  The police report noted the place as near the rubbish tip and from there Mr Vince took materials to rebuild his destroyed humpy.  The last record of Council tipping in the area so far found is 1913, but it would seem that the area remained a rubbish pit into the thirties.   It is not certain, however, that the rubbish tip of the time was Algie Park because there is also local belief that another "hole" once existed close to the school.

 

Dobroyd Pottery.  Dobroyd Pottery was located west of Boomerang Street and north of Waratah Street but the exact site is undetermined.  Its business address was given as Boomerang Street. It opened there about 1903, first known as the Macarthur's Clyde Pottery Ltd., and established by potters who had formerly operated at Camperdown.  In about 1907, William E. Abbott and his son George took over the company.  Following that it was known as Abbott & Sons Terra Cotta Ware.  The Powerhouse Museum holds one 10 cm fragment of a fine intricately scrolled unglazed white terracotta artwork produced at this works.  It also produced many objects like flower pots, vase, pedestals, butter coolers, rusticated wares, chimney pots, bird fountains and in fact anything terra cotta.  The pottery ceased about 1911, but reopened and operated for a time again after this at Fivedock, till about 1919.  Where the pottery obtained its clay, and how much was local, is not recorded.     

 

 

 

Further enlargement of above view of Algie Park, at eastern entrance path,

showing a northerly trending sandstone ledge.

 

 

A ledge of sandstone outcrops in Algie Park at its eastern side.   This is the only outcrop of anything at all known in the immediate area today.  It appears to be a natural (?exhumed) north trending ledge, since it's steep (western) side underhangs inwards (slopes back eastwards) and hence is it is not any remnant of the man-made edge of some former quarry.  The ledge's trend presumably follows a major jointing direction.  This is also minor weak orthogonal jointing developed along it.  The surface of this sandstone ledge in places has small remnants of a distinct and well developed smooth compact dark coloured patina coating over it, less than a millimetre thick.  Such a patina might not take all that long to develop but is not likely a product of the present weathering environment.   It suggests that the ledge was more fully exposed over a lengthy period, long ago.  And as the site is a fair height above sealevel, if detrital clay really had extended this high up the palaeo-'gully' then a Tertiary age for the clay must be suspected.   Presumably there should be some clay still there below the rubbish infill, since the brick making was terminated by the 1890s depression, not by resource exhaustion.   There is nothing to support the other possibility, that the clay used was a weathered dyke, and the seeming size of the operations would not support that possibility either.

 

Waratah Street - According to local information there may have been a clay pit close to the Dobroyd Pt public school.

 

 

 

HOLROYD

 

Goodlet and Smith Ltd Brickworks (a.k.a. Merrylands brickworks/brickpit) - "Brickworks Square".  The works and large quarry in Ashfield Shale were located formerly off Brickworks Drive and Refractory Crescent.  Remains of the brickworks plant have been incorporated in the Holroyd Gardens estate development was completed in December 2004 by Masterton Homes; and a later phase in 2005 by Delphin Lend Lease (General Manager Simon Pagett).  It is near Holroyd Gardens park which was formerly known as Walpole Street Park - at the corner of Walpole and Pitt Streets, north of Merrylands shopping centre and railway station.   Although actually in Holroyd, the proximity to Merrylands shopping centre has meant that many referred to the brickwords also as Merrylands brickworks (and whilst serving as a rubbish tip it was also known as the Merrylands waste disposal site).  In early years of operation the Goodlet and Smith works described themselves as being at Granville.  The firm was established by John Hay Goodlet (1834-1914) in 1855, who was the driving force.  Nothing seems to be known of his partner James Smith, timber merchant, being active in the business although he must have initially helped finance it.  The company moved from timber products to pottery and brick making about 1868, with the establishment of a works in Riley Street, Surry Hills.  They bought the Merrylands site in the 1870s, from the Junction Brick and Pottery Works which previously had set up there adjacent to a'Beckett's Creek.   New works including a Hoffman kiln were constructed which began operating in 1878.  They retained the name Junction Brick Works, as shown by the below 1905 bill (Holroyd Council archives):

 

 

This brickworks became one of the largest in Sydney, employing hundreds of people and comparable to those at St Peters.  By the early 1880s it was producing 200,000 bricks per week.  Cement manufacture was also commenced at the site with a cement plant construction in 1893.  The works produced cement from 1894 until 1919.  The firm was largely bought by West Australian Cement Co. in 1919, then by Newbold Refractories in 1955 (and in 1960 Newbold also acquired the nearby Clyde brickworks).  The pit terminated at over 30m deep.  It supplied a large proportion of Sydney's building requirements between 1880s and the late 1980s.  It produced bricks, tiles, roof filials and cappings, and pipes.  The pit was exhausted of clay by the 1950s and shale extraction continued after that for years.  It was finally acquired by the Metropolitan Waste Authority for rubbish disposal in 1978.  Filling took place in the years 1978-1984.  The works continued to operate with imported materials and the brick kilns stayed in operation during pit filling.  Some of the methane generated from the buried garbage was used for brick kiln firing.  The gas was also for a time used to generate power in a small plant at Walpole St Park.  

 

The area was fully acquired by L.J. Hooker by 1979 (Manufacturing Resources of Australia [50% owned by Hooker] bought Newbold Refractories in 1975 in a hostile takeover, and Hooker bought out that company in 1979).  All extraction from the pit ceased in 1979 and all manufacture on site ceased permanently in 1989.   Council purchased part of the area in 1993 for redevelopment.   The quarry was filled, and the land transferred to Holroyd City Council by Waste Services Sydney NSW in 1999.   The main 5 ha area has finally been converted to dense housing with 330+ low to medium rise (6 storey) dwellings housing over 800 people, and expected to rise to over 1000.   Heritage consultant was Eric Martin & Associates (Project 0268 - Statement of Heritage Impact and technical advice on adaptive reuse of former brickwords, 2002, for Delfin Lend Lease).  Part of the area (318 Brickworks Drive) was built upon by Camellia Developments for Brickworks 328 P/L.

 

 

 

(Photos:  Sally, 2007)

 

 

 

 

HOLSWORTHY

 

Silcrete clasts (rare) in Tertiary sediments.

 

Up to 15m of lateritised raised Tertiary alluvium, mainly clays, clayey sands and silt, occur along the course of the Georges River in the Holsworthy area.  

 

 

 

HOMEBUSH BAY

 

Mason Park - Mason Park is a reserve of about 8 ha along Underwood Road near Coleman Road.  It may be a relatively undisturbed remnant of the lower floodplain of Powells Creek, emptying into Homebush Bay.  The area is surrounded by extensive fill operations, and any surviving wetland is only a fraction of the original extent.  The area has been subject to filling since 1826, including use as a council tip.  Some acid sulfate soil has been regarded as potentially problematic towards the end of present saltmarsh area where seawater now reaches only infrequently.  This site was a stop on the SuperSoil 2004 conference field trip, with a short talk by soil scientist Colin McKay.  The acid sulphate soil is attributed to the dewatering impact which has caused oxidisation of the pyritic sediment.   The soil profile may be of some interest here, grading downward from Holocene to potentially Pleistocene sediment at 1.6m which has an oxidised top shown by red/orange/grey mottling.

 

 

 

HORNSBY

 

 

Hornsby diatreme

 

 

 

 

 

The east face of quarry, showing stratified volcanic breccia

in a concave configuration.

 

 

Quarry Road, Old Man Valley.  Quarry in diatreme or volcanic neck.   (Lot 1, DP 926103; Lots A and D, DP 318676). GR 23E, 69N to 9130-IV-S.   Registered in the National Estate, 1/11/1983 as place 1/13/016/0008.

 

The Hornsby quarry is located in the NW section of Old Man Valley, which is a narrow SW trending depression 1.5-2 km long, resulting from the weathering of the volcanic neck.  The first family to settle at what is now Hornsby was the Higgins family, of Thomas Eward Higgins, a son of a second fleet transportee.  Higgins supposedly named the valley Old Man in recognition of the old man kangaroo. Thomas Edward Higgins was promised a land grant of 250 acres by Governor Brisbane in 1823 with the land grant formally recorded in 1836 by Governor Bourke.  Higgins cleared 35 acres and cultivated it for orchard and market garden production. That of all his land he began farming on the diatreme is presumably testimony to the greater fertility of the soil there.  This fertile patch may have been known about as early as 1823.  The Higgins' and descendants became famous for burying their own, with a family cemetery in the valley that interred an estimated 23 persons between 1879 and 1931. The ages of those buried (more than one third of whom did not reach maturity) attest to the hardships of pioneer life.  Family members have maintained, and later conserved, the place and it is exemplary model of a family cemetery well conserved and continuously valued.  As matters concerning the burial of the dead became increasingly regulated, Mrs. Dorothy Jansson applied for special permission to enable the burial of Loretta Jansson there 1931.  This was granted because of the economic hardship of the Great Depression.  However that was the last burial there.  Thomas Higgins IV also wished to be buried in the cemetery but this was not allowed.  In the late 1960s, the last of the family left the valley, and their last standing residence was demolished.  This was a house erected on the site of the original homestead built by Thomas Edward Higgins II.  This house was last occupied by Percy Higgins (tenth child of Thomas III and Ann), his wife, Clifton Forrest, and later their daughter Freda and her husband.  A monument dedicated to the pioneering Higgins family was erected by Farley and Lewers on the site of the house in 1970.

 

The nature of the land as igneous was recognised probably in the 1800s and quarrying was in progress ca. 1903.  The "blue metal" was hauled out by horse and dray, using two draught horses in tandem for the steep climb out of the valley.  By the 1920s the quarry was a major one and light rail haulage installed.  Hornsby Shire Council acquired the lease to operate the quarry from the then land owner at that time.  Soon afterwards the licence was sold to "Hornsby Road Metal Limited" which worked the quarry for more than ten years and installed a continuous bucket chain to deliver crushed rock a screening plant 300 feet above the valley floor. The quarry closed temporarily during World War II, Council apparently regained the lease over it.  Council worked the quarry irregularly itself but continuous production did not resume till the 1950s.  In 1954, the Council sub-leased the quarry. The lessee worked the quarry until 1959 and production increased dramatically during this time.  By 1959, the ?dormant Hornsby Blue Metal Pty Ltd was acquired by Farley & Lewers Ltd and again re-acquired the quarry and Council lease.  Farley and Lewers was at some stage taken over by CSR Limited (date uncertain) and incorporated within the Readymix Group.  Residents complained about blasting and in 1961, Hornsby Council successfully sued Farley & Lewers Ltd in the Supreme Court for nuisance [Council of the Shire of Hornsby v. Farley and Lewers Ltd (1961) 78 WN (NSW) 936; Farley and Lewers Ltd v. The Attorney-General (1963) 63 SR (NSW) 814 (on appeal)]. The Court granted injunction that hampered Farley and Lewers blasting or other noise generating activities at the quarry.  This reduced the usefulness or profitability of the quarry and as early as 1966 Farley & Lewers Ltd explored selling the quarry land and surrounding land back to Council.   After Farley & Lewers were acquired by CSR Ltd (and delisted in 1981) CSR-Readymix considered ways to fill the quarry and sell land for residential development.  After the land became zones Open Space in 1977 the company's residential land sale hopes were impacted and it then intended filling the eastern part of the held land to become level playing fields.  Such filling progressed from 1982 through 1989, then in 1990 involved a Land and Environment Court case to enforce Council conditions relating to the land fill operations at the intended sporting fields.  This second court case again arouse out of residents' objections and concerns.  Through the 1990s CSR Readymix found operating the quarry to be of decreasing attractiveness and viabilty.  It had been adversely affected by the various imposed restrictions and also by a growing trend for volcanic breccia to be replaced by cheaper recycled concrete supply, something that was increasing due to more public demand for general recycling measures.   With the quarry considered unviable CSR Ltd served notice on Council to acquire the site on 22 March 2001 under terms of the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act.  The Open Space zoning Council had given the area under the Local Environmental Plan had meant that there would be obligation for Council to acquire the quarry site upon receipt of a notice in writing from the owner to do so.  By May 2002 CSR Readymix had abandonned the site, leaving it to Council to take over ownership.  CSR Ltd initially asked for $24M and the final transfer took place in 2006 for $25M.  

 

Is there an Aboriginal tradition on Old Man Valley?  According to Professor Peter Read, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Cross Cultural Studies at Australian National University there may be.  This is in his book "Haunted Earth" (UNSW Press, 2003, pp. 53).  Read describes taking Dennis Foley there: "Long before we arrived, he knew where we were going. In the company of his Gai-mariagal elder, Uncle Gar, who had taught him so much of the lore of the sandstone, he had already been there as a child.  Travelling in the late 1950s from Fairfield, with his own son and Dennis, to go fishing at Bobbin Head, Uncle Gar had detoured five kilometres to Hornsby, to show the boys the site, amongst the highest points on the ridge that divides Berowra Creek from Cowan Creek. Perhaps, Dennis now wonders, he wanted to pay his own respects. From his uncles, Dennis learnt that Old Man's Valley is a woman's site in the edge of the escarpment, a dolerite outcrop, female to the relational male dolerite hill, already mined to destruction, near Blacktown on the western Sydney plain. A freshwater spring, now evidently dry or destroyed, used to bubble from the bottom of what is now a quarry. Traditionally, it was guarded by Gurang, the old Kangaroo people - perhaps this is why the area is still known as Old Man Valley. The boys were told to stay in the car while Uncle Gar muttered words under his breath, and walked agitatedly about the site."

 

 

 

HORNSBY HEIGHTS 

 

Montview Parade - Brick clay pit, and also a small kaolin or ball clay extraction (after 1971) operated by Turramurra Industries.

 

 

 

HORSLEY PARK

 

Cnr Old Wallgrove Road and Burley Road (or Chandos Road).  Bringelly Shale quarry.  PGH Industries.  The amount extracted in 1990/91 was 97,860  tonnes and the reserve then remaining was 2.5 Mt.

 

Wallgrove Road and Old Wallgrove Road.  Bringelly Shale quarrying and ceramic plants (plants 1 and 2 off Wallgrove Road and plant 3 off Old Walgrove Road).  Austral Bricks.  The amount extracted in 1990/91 was 274,252 tonnes.  The reserve then remaining was 30 Mt at plants 1 and 2 area and 10 Mt at plant 3 area.

 

"Oakdale" property.  Bringelly Shale intended quarrying site, near plant 3.  Austral Bricks.  A reserve of 15 Mt.  Status uncertain.

 

 

 

HUNTERS HILL

 

 

Woolwich Dock - A local company, W. Solomon & Sons began excavating 85,000 cubic metres of sandstone about 1899 to construct a new dry dock which was opened in December 1901.  Woolwich Dock was the largest in Australia, measuring 188m long and 27m wide.  The dock was later lengthened to 260m long.   

 

Kelly's Bush (and 7-9 Nelson Parade) sites - Kellys Bush area has shell middens and a scouring groove used for stone axe sharpening.   Kelly's Bush, between Nelson Parade and Alfred Street is Lots 1,2,3 of DP 549711.  The northern part of the original Kelly's Bush was renamed Weil Park after its purchase by Hunter's Hill Council and the Cumberland County Council in 1956.  On this part of it the Council cleared the bush and turned the land into a sports oval.

 

This is an area of a former tin smelter, on the waterfront (see map above) and also is recurrently in the news because of minerals waste, much of it radioactive, reportedly in the area [see Feb. 26, 2008 report by Ben Cubby, below].  The resurgence of publicity in 2008 was accompanied by speculation that the Iemma State government might alter the 1983 announcement by then Premier Neville Wran that Kelly's Bush would be set aside for the people of New South Wales for full public access on a permanent basis

(quoted by NSW Heritage Office, 1999).   Despite Premier Wran's assurance, the area may have finally been rezoned to residential, from open space, by Council, and that change may have remained in place.  A proposal via Department of Planning (MP08-0008) to spend $2.1 on remediation of land at Nos. 7-9 Nelson Parade and adjoining foreshore land was formulated in  a 2007.   This particular land is immediately west of Kelly's Bush reserve and may have little or no remnant bushland values(?).  It was previously of industrial use, and local statements say residential homes were later built there but thereafter demolished (possibly by Department of Health after acquiring the land on account of radiation hazard being thought too great for it to be lived on?). 

 

In 1910, Kelly's smelter (Sydney Smelting Company) treated 1,500 tons of tin ore from various fields in NSW.  The company commenced operations on the site in 1892 and was in production by 1895.  It was established by Irishman Thomas Hussey Kelly (1830-1901) and continued by his son and grandson (also both named Thomas H. Kelly).  It smelted both copper and tin ores.  Uranium ore from Radium Hill in South Australia was also later processed, for extraction of radium, in 1911-1916 (the plant for this was off 5-11 Nelson Parade, perhaps on reclaimed land at base of the 10-12m high cliff adjoining Fern Bay).  The foreshore along the bay has been reclaimed here largely with broken sandstone fill (perhaps from Woolwich Dock excavation?).  The relationship of the radium plant to Kelly's operations is not certain - was it a leaseholding(?).

 

Kelly was very prominent in mining matters and by 1901 was a significant shareholder or director in no fewer than twenty gold and copper mining ventures.  The works closed at this site 1967 when the Company moved to Alexandria, and an option on its Woolwich land (12 acres) was gained by A.V. Jennings with the intention of using it for 147 home units, including three eight storey blocks of units.  Hunter's Hill Council opposed the Jennings plan and wanted the area to be dedicated as open space, however the Askin State government, with very high level involvement, supported the Jennings proposal.

 

After the smelter closed the area was sought for promotion of housing development, which was opposed by local residents.  When unions refused to participate in bulldozing the site in 1971 this became the world's first "Green Ban" (an outgrowth of the older term 'black ban').  It is also thought that this perhaps provided inspiration for German activist Petra Kelly (note the surname ... is this coincidental) that lead to the world's first Greens Party, die Grunen in Germany.  With the change of State government in 1977 it was announced that no development would be allowed at Kelly's Bush.

 

The group "Friends of Kelly's Bush" later experimented there with smoke-water method of native seed germination, which followed on from information from Alan Hunt, the former manager of the smelting works about how after they'd burn off the surrounding bush every few years it lead to significant re-growth of native trees.  The Hunters Hill Trust Inc. has written of a heroine of Kelly's Bush, 'Contance Mary (Connie) Eward - For peace and the bush' who died aged 78 in 2004.  In 1954 she and her husband moved to a wooden cottage in Woolwich with the front garden planted with potatoes, near the O'Byrne's house, when Woolwich was not the silvertail haven it is today.  She later wrote history of the industrial village of Wollwich.  Connie wrote of the early days: "The night soil man took care of the human waste and much of the rest was thrown over the cliff.  Only termites lived in luxury".  Connie became a science teacher at Hunters Hill High School and also became a member of SANE (Scientists Against Nuclear Arms).   Late in her life she spent two years writing syllabus on Peace Education for NSW schools, only to see it pulped when the government changes in 1988 from Labor to Liberal.  Connie knew the Sydney Smelting Works when it was operating and had taken students to visit it.  (Memories of Connie written by Gil Wahlqust - Hunters Hill Trust News, July 2004).

 

 

 

 

 

 

""""
Records raise fears over smelter site's toxic legacy

Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter
February 26, 2008

THE site of a former uranium smelter in Hunters Hill could be more radioactive than first thought, test records found in the national archive show, while up to 500 tonnes of radioactive waste remains in the harbour next to the toxic area.

Readings taken on a vacant residential block in Nelson Parade in 1965, next door to the two blocks bought by the NSW Government in 1977, show that people exposed to the hot spot would have received the annual allowable dose of radiation in 11 hours - the equivalent of an X-ray every 40 minutes.

The NSW Government plans to rehabilitate the area by removing the soil, contaminated with tailings of the uranium smelter that operated there between 1911 and 1916. It then plans to sell the land for residential housing. It has said the site is safe, based on tests in 2005.

"Anyone digging into that spot would have been exposed to a significant amount of radiation, and a long-time resident claims workmen on the site were 'taken ill'," said the Liberal MP Michael Richardson, who is calling for a public inquiry into contamination of the site.

Tonnes of radioactive dirt, rock and uranium tailings were dumped into the harbour on the waterfront site, where a wharf existed in the early 20th century.

A report by the NSW Department of Public Health, published on December 21, 1965, noted higher levels of gamma radiation in a neighbouring block than in the two blocks bought by the Government in 1977.

It means residents of suburban Sydney were potentially exposed to higher radiation than people affected by the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in the United States in 1979, Mr Richardson said.

"The radioactive material on [block] No. 11 was capable of giving anyone exposed to it for eight hours a day a dose 265 times higher than this over the course of a year," he said.

But the 1965 report said rumours of residents dying of leukaemia and bone malignancies was false, and said the level of radiation was unlikely to be hazardous. Maps produced by the Cancer Council of NSW show no concentration of cancer deaths in Hunters Hill.

(http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/records-raise-fears-over-smelter-sites-toxic-legacy/2008/02/25/1203788248562.html)

""""

 

 

 

HURLSTONE PARK

 

Cooks River at Foord Avenue, sandstone quarry - A sizeable sandstone quarry extends west alongside the river from Foord Avenue.  Nothing is known of its history.  Alongside a concrete pathway in the quarry, at the western end, there is seen a strong westerly orientated joint which shows traces of an usually intense iron oxide development along it.  Only one face of the joint ?zone is seen, the pathway excavation work having removed any other possible exposure along the full length of it.  Remant patches of iron oxide along the joint have fragmental texture in places but at one patch the material has a dense vertical laminated structure.  The iron oxide may be an accumulation along an usual joint or crush zone perhaps, but in other localities where vertical laminated dense limonite or haematite occurs the source has been suspected (unproven?) to be basaltic dyke weathering.  The surface of the sandstone at this place also preserves some original outcrop features, the most noteworthy of which is a series of vertically superimposed 'smoothly scooped out' hollows.  Iron oxide deposition fronts in sandstone often takes the from of intersecting scallops and perhaps this weathering form merely reflects that.  An alternative interpretation, of them being an series of "lowered" potholes in some small stream, now vanished, which once descended to the river here, would suggest stream level fall (controlled by sea level fall) recently enough for such forms to not yet be lost to ongoing erosion.  

 

 

 

 

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