Advertise on podcast: Urban Ambling

As you travel down from Brooklyn to the rivers mouth at Cowan Water you will see ahead a high ridge of land. This is the Lambert Penninsula. Behind it to the east is a tied island, Barrenjoey. Both are N.ational Parks and provide stunning views of land and water. They are yet another example of Sydney’s gems. The lower Hawkesbury has nearly all pristine land and bush on either side. Again , a rare gem. This is partly due to topography and isolation, but , in the case of the Lambert , a lot of luck. We also give a brief description of the life of Eardly Henderson McGaw and his wife on the Lambert.

Brooklyn is on Sydney’s northern edge, but is totally different to the rest of the city.It is a small isolated settlement on the Hawkesbury River. Arriving by train is like stepping back 100 years.The Hawkesbury itself is somewhat ignored by Sydney residents, but it was described by a British traveller in 1873 as having scenery superior to that of the Rhine!!Brooklyn was featured on the original 5 Pound note from 1913 to 1932. This was because of its connection with the Federation of the Australian Colonies.To top it all off , it has the grave of Robert Buie which records that as a Lewis Gunner he was responsible for shooting down the ‘Red Baron ‘ on the 21st April , 1918. Not too many places could top that.

An historic goods railway corridor becomes a link between the Parramatta and Cooks River. If I had to choose only two words to describe The Greenway, then they would be “accessible” and “history”. It is only a bit under 6kms long and is beside the light rail, so any level of capacity can be accommodated. There are also some playgrounds along the way. You can walk the lot, walk there and back, or 1km and then take the light rail. It also gives us access to parts of Sydney we may otherwise never visit. The rail line itself is an integral part of transport history as are the businesses which sprung up along it. It is pretty flat and an ideal spot for an amble.

James Bloodworth, like James Smith, was an early arrival in Sydney Town. The similarity ends there, however, as Smith's time was not successful, but Bloodworth was a stunning success. In many ways, he was critical to the survival of the infant settlement. Born on 7-3-1759, he was convicted in October 1785 of the dreadful crime of stealing a game c**k and two hens! He left England on the “ Charlotte “ on 13-5-1787. Such was his worth to the colony that by 1-9-179,1 he was appointed Superintendent of Brick Makers and Layers. He died at the age of 45 on 21-3-1804 . Governor Philip Gidley King accorded him an early form of a State Funeral. Not a bad effort. Arrives as a convict and 16 years later has a State Funeral.

At 47 years of age , James Smith paid his fare for a passage to Botany Bay with the First Fleet. The arrangement was made with Captain Sever of the Lady Penrhyn. The Captain did not consult with Captain Arthur Philip about the arrangement. Philip found out about Smith when the Fleet were all together in Cape Town. He was furious as it was outside the instructions he had been given. In the end result, Smith was allowed to stay in the colony which he did until he left on HMS Gorgon in 1791. Smith was eccentric and elusive, but he was still either the first free settler or the first paying tourist. Either way he should be recognised as such.

Abused, Ignored and avoided were apt descriptions of the Cooks River over the years from 1788 to the mid 1970’s. It started as a Arcadian Wonderland, but industrial, chemical and plastic pollution, together with urbanisation, almost destroyed it. But the river won through and now has a delightful pathway following it for most of its course. A delightful spot to amble!

A passing mention of an engineer, Moriarty, on an historical plaque by the Moruya River, leads to some enquiries. These, oddly enough, result in learning that the sandstone circular dam that created Lake Parramatta, is of some distinction. It was the first arch dam built in Australia and was the 12th engineered dam built in the world since Roman times! The bonus was finding a delightful spot to amble through bushland whilst going around the lake.

It is apt that Martin Place, like the man after whom it is named, progressed from humble beginnings to pre-eminence. Such was the life of James Martin, who arrived in Sydney at the age of one with his Irish parents. Over the next 65 years, he rose to be Premier of NSW on three occasions and finally to be the Chief Justice of NSW. The motto he adopted gives an insight into his personality: "AUT VIAM INVENIAM AUT FACIAM: If there is no way, make one."

On the 22nd of September,1918 the first direct radio message from England was received in Australia. Surprisingly, it was sent from a Transmitting Station in the NW of Wales to a radio station in a suburban house in Wahroonga , a suburb of Sydney. The message was to the people of Australia from the Prime Minister, W M Hughes.He spoke of his recent visit to the Western Front in France. Hughes, Guglielmo Marconi and Ernest Fisk of Sydney were the principal organisers. We sketch out the life of Fisk, a remarkable person.

Despite the fabulous name , this is not about a Spike Milligan or Barry Humphreys character. There really was an Eccleston Frederick Du Faur. He left a wonderful legacy to his adopted city of Sydney. In his quiet methodical way he made his dreams come true and left Sydney a better place than found it. As if being one of the founders of the Art Gallery of NSW was not enough, he was the driving force behind the creation of the Kuringai Chase National Park. That preserved a large area of rugged native bushland on Sydneys northern edge. A gift for the ages!!

In 1890 the University of Sydney received 250,000 Pounds from the Estate of John H Challis. It was the first major private benefaction. In today's money , that is $ 42,000,000! The gift was used to create professorships in Law, Medicine, Veterinary Science, Biology,Civil Engineering English Literature, History and Philosophy. Challis thus made a major contribution to Sydney. He arrived in Sydney at the age of 22 with little money.Over the next 26 years he worked as a merchant, and clearly made a lot of money. What do we know about him ? The answer seems to be, not very much; even though Challis House is in Martin Place and Challis Avenue , Potts Point is named after him.

There is a statue of Allan Cunningham on the Bent Street frontage of the Lands Department , at the corner with Loftus Street. There is an obelisk to his memory in a pond in the Botanical Gardens, just near the kiosk. As if that was not enough- the Federal Electorate of Cunningham commemorates him; Cunninghams Gap ( which is the access from the coast to Toowoomba ) commemorates his discovery of it and the Cunningham Highway ( which runs from Ipswich 327 kms to Goondiwindi ), is named in his honor. He has certainly left his mark. He was first and foremost , a botanist , and discovery was used to allow him to collect and record plants.  This pod sketches the life of a very well travelled person.

Naval Surgeon, Explorer, Adventurer, and perhaps a would-be Smuggler George Bass was an extraordinary person, enormously talented and incredibly brave. It was her, together with Matthew Flinders who carried out early exploration from the infant colony at Sydney by traveling down the south coast and ultimately proving there was a large body of water between what is now Victoria and Tasmania. previously maps had all been drawn with Tasmania drawn connected to the “northern island”. He was an extraordinary man but was never fully recognised in a public way for his efforts. He was highly regarded by those who knew him well, referring to him with phrases such as “ingenious, enterprising, and remarkable” - praise any of us would be overwhelmed to have applied to ourselves. Despite that,  history didn’t treat him well and he is often overshadowed by Flinders. The best indication of which is that no one wrote a biography of him until 1952. There is a subsequent one but it took all that time for someone to tell us about this wonderful man. He is one of the statues on the Lands Department building, on the Northern Facade of the building. It is truly extraordinary how much he packed into 32 years, the entire span of his life. If you asked ten Australians who George Bass is or what he did, not many could do it but hopefully this will help close that gap.

If you are visiting Sydney, and only have a day or two and you’re wondering what the best thing would be to do. Then I don’t think there’s much doubt that you should go up to Observatory hill. It’s a little bit out of the way so it has the benefit that it’s not too crowded, but it gives you some marvelous views of Sydney Harbour, particularly to the west. There’s also a delightful park that surrounds it. On top of all that there’s the Observatory itself, which is particularly interesting. What a visit to this spot does is it really tells you a lot about getting an overall sense of Sydney. You get an idea of the geography of Sydney , the topography, the development of the European settlements, the history of the place, and the scientific endeavors that went on in the observatory. It is simply a gem.

In this episode we return to Churchill, which is on the Rocks Ridge, and move away from the valley of the tank stream heading down towards Darling Harbour, and millers point. On the way, we mention why gas lane is called gas lane, and also go past two very interesting and historic buildings called the Glover Cottages and the Richmond villa. Moving along the eastern side of Kent street, we come to the Agar stairs. Then we turn down high street and turn down to really have a look at the Darling Harbour, Millers Point area. Indeed, there was down on millers point in the very early 1800s, three wooden post windmills. We’ll say a little bit about those and particularly owner of the first windmill who was obviously quite a character. That will then bring us back to finish for this episode at the Lord Nelson hotel which dates back to the 1840s.