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Friday, 8 November 2024

 LITHGOW DISTRICT RAILWAY STATIONS

4. CLARENCE

Clarence station takes its name from nearby Mt Clarence, itself named from the English Duke of Clarence. The construction of the western railway brought development to an otherwise wilderness area.

Activity at Clarence may be divided into four main periods.
1. 1867-1869. Excavation of the tunnel and construction of the great ZigZag.
2. 1869-1910. The Ten Tunnels and related deviations.
3. 1910-1972. A new Clarence station built.
4. 1972-present. The tourist Zig Zag railway constructed and operating.

Thank you to NSW Lands 2004 for the use of this map


Clarence Station 1913
The date for the Clarence Station under snow image is probably an error. See the article below suggesting that 1910 is probably the correct date.
 "20th July 1910.Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday
It was at Clarence however that one could understand the plentitude of the present storm and people living there have seen enough of it to be satisfied for many a day. At this spot there are a great number of people camped in connection with the deviation works. Some of them live in very primitive structures hardly built to sustain the wintry conditions. They had a very trying time, especially the women and children, although the latter for the once thoroughly enjoyed themselves snowballing and creating the inevitable snowman."

Clarence station and township 1911


Clarence station in 2023

The new Clarence station built in 1910 on the Ten Tunnels deviation had very little use after the closure of the Zig Zag. Most of the population moved away to other places where railway construction was going on, especially to the Glenbrook deviation in the lower Blue Mountains.
The story of the Zig Zag Railway, based on Clarence station since 1988, will be told in another blog.

View this video: a Trip down the Zig Zag Railway:






Monday, 4 November 2024


 LITHGOW DISTRICT RAILWAY STATIONS: 

3. NEWNES JUNCTION


From Blue Mountains Map 1921

The years around 1910 were rather busy for the Great Western Railway. The 10 Tunnels Deviation to eliminate the great Zig Zag was being built, deviations of the main line to accommodate this were being constructed and the line was being duplicated.  Duplication was completed to Mt Victoria. New platforms were erected on most stations, between Lithgow and Glenbrook, the one at Bell being typical (see the previous Blog).


                                  Newnes Junction Station 1908

A branch line from the oil shale mines at Newnes in the Wolgan Valley was completed in 1907. The Newnes Junction station shown above was on the as yet undeviated main line to Lithgow, which was still a single track. The present station was built on the new line in 1910 and is about 500 metres south of the original platform. It is the highest station on the western railway (3503 feet above sea level).

The railway to Newnes closed in 1932 but the station remained open until 1975. The buildings were destroyed in the 2019 Gosper's Mountain bush fire.


Before the fire                                                       After the fire


A famous photograph of the Station Master at Newnes Junction during the heavy snow storm of July 17/19 1965. The caption reads: "The down Central West Express stands at Newnes Junction waiting for the tracks ahead to be cleared. The diesel loco is obscured by the station master...who has cleared enough snow from the platform to keep his feet dry. (Daily Telegraph)"

Video: After the fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-v1CaynrYohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-v1CaynrYo

Video showing Newnes Station: 
 https://whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjmT9xe6miIww.youtube.com/watch?v=SjmT9xe6miI

Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs
Shoalhaven District Geology.   

Friday, 4 October 2024

 LITHGOW DISTRICT RAILWAY STATIONS.  

2. BELL. 

The locality we know as "Bell" was named for Archibald Bell Jr who, in 1833 located the route across the Blue Mountains from Kurrajong which is usually known as "Bell's Line of Road". 

The construction of the railway line from Sydney involved the building of the Lithgow Zig Zag, opened in 1869. The entire area was rugged bush land at the time and no stations were provided between Mt Victoria and Clarence, where the descent into the Zig Zag began.

What happened next was intimately bound up with the settlement of Mt Wilson, a fertile plateau 14 km from the site of Bell.

Surveyor William Romaine Govett discovered the plateau in 1838, but it remained wild and inaccessible for another 25 years. In 1862 Mt Wilson was subdivided and put up for sale by the NSW government, but little interest was shown by the public. In 1868 the lots were put up for sale again, this time more successfully. Many lots were purchased by wealthy Sydney families and soon costly homes began to appear in the bush, surrounded by extensive gardens.

The Mt Wilson we see today, over 150 years later, is celebrated for its fine gardens.


The construction of the railway line was the driving force behind this development and no doubt quantities of building materials and tools were soon being dropped off near where Bell's Line of Road meets the railway.
A station was opened at Bell (bearing the name Mt Wilson) in May 1875.
Quotations from the "NSW Railway Guide" for 1881:
 "The distance of Mt Wilson from the railway is about 8 miles by Bell's Line of Road." "In 1875 the sixty-two allotments previously measured, and containing in all about 1,025 acres were taken up by 33 purchasers." "EC Merewether, Mr E King Cox, Mr Wynne, The Hon. JB Wilson, Mr Henry Stephen, others, are the owners of land in this picturesque and beautiful locality."
The station was relocated to its present site in 1889 and renamed Bell. It was reconstructed in 1910/11 when the line was duplicated following the Zig Zag diversion in 1910.



Videos worth watching:
Trains at Bell. Sydney Trains Vlog
Bell Station in Snow 2019. Diesel Dave Trains

Thursday, 11 July 2024

LITHGOW DISTRICT RAILWAY STATIONS.                           1. HARTLEY VALE

The locality we know as "Hartley Vale" roughly corresponds to what Governor Macquarie called "The Vale of Clwydd" in 1815. This name has now migrated over the ranges to the eastern end of the Lithgow Valley. "Petrolea Vale" was also used for the locality where kerosene shale (torbanite) was mined. "Kerosene Creek" was applied to the stream draining the main workings.

               
Hartley Vale 1902 (from "Kerosene Shale Deposits of NSW" by J Carne)
Kerosene Shale (torbanite) is widely distributed in the Illawarra Coal Measures in the western part of the Sydney Basin of NSW. It is much less dense than ordinary black coal but was apparently formed in a similar way from vegetable matter, most likely of algal origin. When heated it liberates large quantities of  flammable gas, much of which can be condensed to a liquid which was widely used in lamps before electricity replaced it.
The railway line from Sydney opened at Mt Victoria on 1st May 1868. At first products from the mines went via Victoria Pass to Mt Victoria station by horse drawn trucks. Construction of the Great Zig Zag which took the line down into the Lithgow Valley had been going on for years before the line opened to Bowenfels on 18th October 1869.
The Hartley Vale mining companies constructed a narrow gauge line and a cableway to bring their products to the new railway at what became Hartley Vale Station.
There is an interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 13th April 1866. This is well before the railway was opened to Mt Victoria. "The one great difficulty lies in the matter of carriage. Every ton of mineral must necessarily reach Sydney by the road described in the preceding chapter. (ie via Victoria Pass). This drawback is, however, of a temporary nature.
The great trunk line of New South Wales Railway is in progress within a mile of the works, and will ere long be opened many miles further up the country."
I believe that freight from (or for) Hartley Vale was probably being carried by rail to Mt Victoria before the official opening of the line to Bowenfels in 1869. 
The following information comes from NSWrail.net.
Hartley Vale Station.
1876 Opened. 6  April 1975 Closed.
Consisted of a 200m island platform. On the down side were sidings serving a goods shed. There were
 also exchange sidings for the 1m gauge tramway to the nearby Hartley Vale kerosene works.


2005

The station no longer exists. The only sign of its location is where the tracks still diverge around where the platform once lay."
Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs
Shoalhaven District Geology.






Tuesday, 18 June 2024

VICTORIA PASS BLUE MOUNTAINS NSW

The Victoria Pass (Pass of Victoria) is one of the places on the NSW highway network where traffic can be delayed by sections of 2 lane highway and steep grades.
A good starting point in understanding the pass is the monument raised to commemorate its construction. The turnoff to Mitchell's Ridge is on the left (descending) immediately before the traffic control unit.

The reserve was probably used to house convicts during   
the construction of the Pass. Much later it became a camping area run by the NRMA. Today it is a popular rock climbing location. Watch this video on the reservehttps://youtu.be/1vMFnQkSUNQ .

The basic layout of the pass is the same as when it was constructed nearly 200 years ago. The major obstacle which had to be overcome was the deep gully about half way down. This was filled by convict labour and is in good order today. This "bottleneck" is what prevents the highway being expanded to four lanes.
Alternative descents into the Hartley Valley.
The first Europeans to cross the sandstone plateau (the Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson party in 1813) reached the western end of Mt York, west of the present day town of Mt Victoria. This turned out to be a bad place to descend and over the next 20 years efforts were made to improve it. Major Mitchell located a better route in 1830 which lead to the construction of the Pass of Victoria (1830-38).
Watch this video about Mt York: https://youtu.be/l0galH5HAXo

With the introduction of motor vehicles in the 20th century it was soon discovered that most could not cope with the grade. The local council (Blaxland Shire) constructed an alternative road known as Berghofer's Pass after the Shire President who lived close to the foot of Victoria Pass. You can walk this route and look up at the massive roadworks at Mitchell's Bridge.

Watch this video about Berghofer's Pass: https://youtu.be/wkunvkvzZtQ

The Convict Workers
Not much has been said about the convicts who did the physical work to construct Victoria Pass. Here is a comment written about 50 years later. (Blue Mountains Guide 3rd Edition 1892-93)

Saturday, 30 March 2024

 WILLIAM ROMAINE GOVETT

William Romaine Govett (1807-1848), surveyor, was born on 3 October 1807 at Tiverton, Devon, England, the third son of John Govett, surgeon, and his wife Susanna Price, née Owen. He was at Blundell's School, Tiverton, from 1817 to 1820. He was appointed assistant surveyor in the Surveyor-General's Department of New South Wales on 10 July 1827 at £240 a year, reached Sydney in the Asia next December and began work on (Sir) Thomas Mitchell's staff. Part of his work included surveying on the old Bathurst road, during which he discovered Govett's Leap in the Blue Mountains, which was named by Mitchell in his honour. Mitchell was pleased with Govett and described him in a report on the department in 1832 as a wild young man who needed control, who had come to the colony ignorant of surveying but with much natural talent had become perhaps the ablest delineator of ground in the department, and who was remarkably clever at dealing with unexplored country.

In February 1829 Govett was sent to the Hawkesbury River, where many farms required measurement, but in 1833 his career ended abruptly when the department was reduced. Govett returned to England in the Ann in March 1834 with a letter of recommendation from Mitchell to the British government. After his return to England Govett lived at Tiverton, where he wrote several articles on New South Wales which were published in the Saturday Magazine between 7 May 1836 and 2 September 1837 under the title 'Sketches of New South Wales'. They dealt with such topics as the nature of the country he had helped to survey, the habits of the Aboriginals, and life in Sydney; they were illustrated with twelve paintings by Govett, which were later advertised for sale by G. Michelmore & Co.

Govett appears to have undergone a personal crisis after his return and repented of his wild early life, but although he considered going abroad again and making a fresh beginning he did not live long and died on 22 August 1848 in London."

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (Melbourne University Press), 1966

From Govett's descriptions it appears that the discovery of the famous waterfall named after him by Sir Thomas Mitchell was not made at what is now "Govett's Leap Lookout" but at the point where Govett's Leap Brook meets the cliff edge near Barrow Lookout. The monument was placed at Govett's Leap Lookout as this is the place where visitors are most likely to see it.

Govett went on to discover what we know as Mt Wilson.

Govett's Leap's location matches the place mentioned by Assistant Surveyor William Romaine Govett in his letter to Surveyor General Major Thomas Mitchell dated 1st July 1831. “The Creek near ‘Blackheath’ after running about two miles and a half falls abruptly after the manner of the cascade at the ‘Weatherboard’ into one of the Gullies of the Grose River; at a point near this fall of water you have a grand view of two cascades, and that break of rock which forms such a particular (feature) in this Survey. Indeed I have not as yet seen a view which shews (sic) so well the character of the mountain feature …”. (Quoted from “Blackheath Today from Yesterday” p 131, edited by Peter C Rickwood and David J West, 2005).  
                                                                           
Govett's Leap from Barrow Lookout
No doubt Govett discovered the waterfall by following the creek we now know as Govett’s Leap Brook, rather than the ridge which ends with the present day Govett’s Leap Lookout. We need to take note at this point that the correct name for the waterfall is “Govett’s Leap” (not the Bridal Veil or Bridal Veil Falls), which name appears to have been given by Mitchell soon after Govett’s discovery. The monument at Govett’s Leap Lookout reads as follows: “This fall of water was named Govett’s Leap from the circumstance of William Romaine Govett Assistant Surveyor first having come upon the spot in June 1831”.

This concise statement of the facts is in stark contrast to the bizarre stories that abounded from the early 1870’s onwards, which had Govett as a bushranger, an escaped convict or convict overseer, a murderer and general vagabond. His “leap” was supposed to have been on horseback over a rocky gully (which he and his horse survived) or over the cliff (in which case they didn’t). Those responsible for promoting tourism in Blackheath could have easily contradicted these wild stories; however it seems that they used them to promote interest in the town and district. Even today poor Govett is seldom shown the respect he deserves.

                            

Wednesday, 27 March 2024

 ARCHDEACON FRANCIS BERTIE BOYCE 

OF BLACKHEATH

                                                               (1844-1931)

                                                      Canon Boyce by Julian Ashton

"A good Australian, he was no narrow patriot, and was interested in history, writing on the church of England and some of its notable figures. He was a fellow of the (Royal) Australian Historical Society, and saw history as recounting the development of a moral sense in mankind; in this way, he could account for, and defend, his own reformist activities."

published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, (MUP) 1979 

Boyce's final parish was in Sydney where he spent his abundant energy on helping disadvantaged people. You will need to read the article mentioned above to understand this side of the man.

His holidays and whatever spare time he may have had were spent in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. He was involved in a wide range of community activities especially those which  were aimed at bringing new residents and tourists.

The Blackheath Council named Mt Boyce after him and there is a monument and picnic area there, just off the Great Western Highway. Perhaps his name is better remembered today since it has been attached to the weather station and truck inspection facility.