How rail plans tracked with mineral leases

John Arney, of Helensburgh and District Historical Society, traces the origins of the Illawarra Railway, plus how three local creeks got their names.

In October 1862, William Charles Wentworth with his wife and family departed Sydney for England.

In the following year a series of advertisements were placed, on his behalf, in the Sydney Morning Herald calling for tenders for the sinking of a coal shaft and the construction of an 18-mile long tramway from Sydney to Port Hacking. The proposed mine site is believed to be in the vicinity of today’s Maianbar or Bundeena.

Wentworth did not return to Australia and died there in 1872, aged 82 years. Although the work did not proceed with the Port Hacking mine or tramway, he had perhaps sown a seed of interest for others to follow in that, and nearby, Parishes.

In the later part of 1872 increasing interest in a rail link between Sydney and the Illawarra began to appear in various newspapers, with a number of proposed routes being suggested over the following year. The route that was eventually chosen was from the southern side of the Georges River via the Port Hacking Valley, then via a tunnel through the Bulgo Range to Stanwell Park (under Bald Hill).

Route details were presented in a talk to Royal Society members in Sydney on 11 December 1873. This proposal did not go unnoticed.

On 19 December, just eight days later, a then Sydney businessman, Mr Alexander Stuart, took out five mineral leases totalling 1150 acres (465ha) along the route of the proposed line towards the southern end of the Hacking Valley. These leases were registered in the Sydney Branch of the Department of Lands. (Alexander Stuart entered the NSW Parliament in December 1874 and was Premier from 1883 to 1885. He died in 1886 at the age of 62.)

Fourteen days after Stuart took out the leases, on 2 January 1874, the NSW Government, by a notice published in the Government Gazette, reserved the following lands from sale: “County of Cumberland, parishes of Wattamolla, Bulgo, Heathcote, and Southerland, about 36 square miles. (9000ha.) The Crown Lands within the watershed of Port Hacking Creek and Port Hacking from its source downwards to the sea.”

This reservation did not include Stuart’s newly acquired lands.

On the 8th of January, six days later, Henry Wilson applied for a Conditional Purchase of 200 acres (81ha), and he was soon after followed by Michael Cawley (40ha) and James Frew (60ha). These three men had applied for their Grants at the Campbelltown Branch of the Department of Lands, however, unbeknown to the Campbelltown Office, they were within Stuart’s leases. This trio was to spend around three years improving their properties before they were forced to leave.

In 1879, after several years of petitioning the then Government, they received compensation: Wilson £500, Cawley £240 and Frew £250.

Today the approximate location of their properties is preserved in the names of the creeks that run through these localities.

Next time: more on coal and the Hacking Valley Railway route.