| Historical notes: | Statement of Country:
Berrys Bay has long been used and valued by the Cameraygal and Gadigal. The Cameraygal (also Cammeragal, Gamaragal, Cam-mer-ray-gal, Cameraigal) (Aboriginal Heritage Office 2024) were amongst the first peoples to interact with colonists of the First Fleet (Tench 1793). The Cameraygal are connected to Sydney Harbour's northern shores, particularly its higher slopes. Berrys Bay was a traditional place to collect cockles and oysters and a variety of plant and animal resources s (WSP 2022). As late as 1878, Aboriginal people were camping on Berrys Bay foreshore (Hoskins 2010). The area is named for Carradah, a leader of the Cameraygal.
Aboriginal occupation:
There is evidence of Aboriginal occupation of Waverton Peninsula over millennia (AILA, 2018). Following European contact, epidemics of smallpox dramatically affected the population, including loss of access to traditional lands and resources, and starvation. By the 1820s, Aboriginal people remaining in the Port Jackson area lived on the margins of European society (AECOM 2024).
As late as 1878, Aboriginal people were camping on Berrys Bay foreshore, but as the population and social structure of clans was comprehensively undermined, the people remaining were 'relocated' to La Perouse in the 1880s (Hoskins 2010).
European Discovery, development and inspiration.
In April 1788, Governor Phillip led a party north from Manly Cove to assess terrain. One group led by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball walked back to Port Jackson, arriving opposite Sydney Cove on the 17th. Balls Head was probably named after Ball on this occasion, and it is believed they emerged near it. Carradah was a Cameraygal leader who befriended Ball.
Edward Wollstonecraft and Alexander Berry, Scot were partners who came as free settlers with promise of a grant c.1819, setting up as merchants. In 1821, Wollstonecraft orchestrated their each getting adjoining grants of 2000 acres on the South Coast, bargaining for his to include 524 acres on Sydney harbour's northern shore. He named it Crow's Nest farm, for sweeping views from its plateau. This grant included waterfront from Gore Cove to Berrys Bay.
They shipped wine, tobacco and wool from Britain and exotic ports, and c.1826 - 39 were significant exporters of (red) cedar from south-coast holdings for Britain and Van Diemen's Land. In 1821, Berry was on a vessel with new Governor, Thomas Brisbane, who then granted him and Wollstonecraft 10,000 acres on the Shoalhaven. This was cleared for timber then cropped, for Sydney's market. By 1828 they held 30,000 acres - 1200 cleared and 650 cultivated (AECOM 2024). Their activities impacted Berrys Bay. From 1824 Shoalhaven timber, grain and food came to Sydney in small ships to their Berrys Bay wharf. This had advantages: deep water, a foreshore rock-shelf, proximity to markets and port.
In 1827 Berry married Wollstonecraft's sister Elizabeth. In 1829 Berry suggested to Wollstonecraft they close their city office and transfer business to the Crow's Nest estate, with convicts building a stone-floor storehouse, accommodation for a clerk and stable at Berrys Bay (AECOM 2024). Berry considered the foreshores could add stevedoring. New works occurred in the secondary cove (now Torpedo Bay).
In 1832 on Wollstonecraft's death, the estate passed to his sister Elizabeth, Berry's widow, with Berry as administrator. He continued operating the Shoalhaven properties (AECOM 2024).
While foreshores were for commerce, the bay's space was appreciated from lookouts. Vantage points funnelled views of harbour and city, their beauty inspiring people from 1800. Professional artist Conrad Martens arrived in 1835, settling locally. In 1837he created several images, including from Berrys Bay.
The 1840s depression saw Berry modify cliffs on the western shore with quarrying and levelling for yards. In 1845, he began subdividing and in 1853, leased the wharf, storehouse and cottage to the P & O Company and General Steam Screw Ship Company for coal stockpiling and repairs. They brought steamers from England, meeting high demand and relatively little competition. This lasted under two years, but the bay was used for repairs for a few additional years (AECOM 2024). A new house was built to the north for the clerk from stone quarried at the wharf. Later modifications included straightening the shoreline and reclaiming about an acre.
The 1860s saw transformation of harbour foreshores: boatbuilding spread west with Mort's facilities in Balmain and others confirming the western harbour as the hub of Sydney's working waterfront. Berry's stevedoring complex was well placed and Berrys Bay thrived until the 1930s. Well-established boat builders arrived in the 1870s, joined in the 1880s by John W. Eaton's timberyard. Between 1872 and the 1880s a distillery operated from the stone store.
The biggest change occurred after Alexander's death (variably noted as 1878 in AECOM (2024) and 1873 in the Australian Dictionary of Biography). The estate was inherited by his brother David. Crow's Nest farm had never been productive, but the prime waterside position suggested subdivision would pay. David leased most of the southern foreshore to the NSW Torpedo Corps from 1877-89, to defend Sydney. It became known as Torpedo Bay. When war with Russia seemed likely in 1885, the Corps built workshops, packing room, hydraulic testing house and office. It moved to Middle Head in 1889. A severe storm in 1889 destroyed some depot property, fences and a small boat shed (AECOM 2024).
David Berry (last of that line) died in 1889, leaving his estate to his cousin, John Hay. To cover legacies payable, Hay advertised it from 1895, divided into thirteen blocks. It was offered for lease, which, along with distance from the ferry at Milsons Point, proved unpopular. By 1900 ballast and timber were stored here. A sizable strip was given to the government to build the Milsons Point to Hornsby railway, by 1893. Completion of Waverton station added to the land's attractiveness and Hay put subdivisions on the market however few sold. In 1904 more followed, rapidly. When he died in 1909, Lady Hay approved sales in 1911, 1913 and 1921 (Hoskins 2010).
1900 saw renewed harbour activity with commerce and plague forcing resumption and redevelopment of the Rocks and Millers Point. In Berrys Bay, boatbuilders Dunns built over 400 vessels between the 1870s and 1902. Deep-water frontages lured mercantile interest (Hay 2024).
Great hopes were held to industrialise Balls Head as a mirror image of Darling Harbour. In 1906 the NSW government acquired land around it and Berry Island, in exchange for agreeing to build and maintain a public hospital in Berry on the South Coast. The bay's deepwater suited industrial or commercial development and, thus, could offset costs.
Sobraon, later HMAS Tingira
Sobraon was built in Aberdeen as a tea clipper was launched 1866. It was the largest composite sailing ship built of teak, iron, and NZ kauri, 317' long, 40' beam and 27' deep hold accommodating 250 passengers and crew of 70 (Ships of Yesteryear n.d., 19). She was one of Devitt and Moore's line of packets to Australia, bringing passengers and merchandise and returning with passengers, wool and wheat. She made one voyage a year from London in September and Melbourne in February (Roberts 1997). The name commemorated an important battle won by the British in India (RAN 1973: 13).
Sobraon was sold to the NSW government in 1891 and fitted out as a delinquent training establishment for boys under control of the welfare department. In late 1892 she anchored off Cockatoo Island, renamed Nautical School Ship, Sobraon and trained over 4000 boys until 1911 (RAN 1973). She trained 6,000 boys by 1927 (Thurston 1927).
With creation of the Royal Australian Navy, Sobraon was sold to the Commonwealth in 1911 and renamed HMAS Tingira (an Aboriginal word for 'open sea'). She was Australia's first naval cadet training ship and a prominent landmark for years, moored in Rose Bay (Roberts 1997).
HMAS Tingira was decommissioned in 1927. Mr W.M. Ford purchased it in November 1927 and took her to Kerosene (Berrys) Bay, where she lay rotting until being broken up in 1940 (Cillett n.d.: 74). The wreck is visible in a 1943 aerial photograph at the head of Berrys Bay. It likely survives partially under landfill of Waverton Park, partially under the seabed (Dr Brad Duncan, HNSW).
Artists and Berrys Bay:
As wharves of the bay's south developed, there emerged new artistic interest in its older waterfront. Several post-impressionist artists were attracted to the 'picturesque' qualities of its working waterfront. High ground on the approach to Balls Head afforded perspective over the water from near Larkin Street, an ideal platform to paint or sketch shipyards on the bay's east (AILA 2018).
In 1917, Roland Wakelin moved to Waverton . His 1916 painting 'Down the Hill to Berrys Bay' its simplification, and hints of early abstract work, alarmed the conservative Royal Art Society. He befriended Lloyd Rees, whose first known oil painting of Berrys Bay dates to 1918 and was reportedly, inspired by Wakelin's, and was acquired by Wakelin. In 1922, Rees produced a book of drawings including the 'Gas Company and numerous extensive coaling wharves' (AILA 2018). The bay and waterfront including Berrys Bay feature in a range of artworks at this time.
Twentieth Century history
The Anglo Persian Oil Company's occupation of the bay's west dates from c.1908 (Hoskins 2010)/1922 (AILA 2018, North Sydney Council, 11/2024). In 1923, a prefabricated oil tank from England was installed (AILA 2018). That year saw five more installed, before the site was leased to the Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd (COR), in a joint venture (AECOM 2024). In 1926 major construction began of at least 10 more oil tanks (AILA 2018).
North Shore suburban developed increased following the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. However, Berrys Bay remained largely industrial. COR modified cliffs on its west from 1935-37. Stone from Berry's warehouse, demolished in 1933 to make way for tanks was reused for 'historical interest' as a bund wall in 1936 to contain spillages (Hoskins, 2010). When demolishing it, it was noted its stones had convict marks (AECOM 2024).
In 1952 Anglo-Iranian (former Persian) Oil Company bought-out the federal government's half-share of COR. In 1954, it became British Petroleum (BP), with 31 tanks in place by 1967. In 1959, two adjoining cottages were purchased to house site-manager and staff. Over the next 30 years the industrial character of Sydney's western harbour intensified (AILA 2018).
The steel framed Dolphin Wharf was built in the 1950s to enable larger tankers to berth and discharge oil to the oil storage site alongside (M. Stevens, submission, 10/2024).
By the 1990s several oil sites were redundant and companies relocated (AILA 2018). From 1994, the site began to close and be sold. The two houses were sold and tanks and buildings dismantled and removed. Soil contamination remediation began.
State planning studies were prepared for housing on the site. Community resistance to this sought to keep it in public hands (North Sydney City Council, submission, 10/2024).
In 1997 Premier Bob Carr announced that this site, the Coal Loader and Caltex Sites would be public open space. A Strategic Master Plan (1999) proposed strategies for conservation, development and management, informed by community consultation. The site was handed over to North Sydney Council in 2003 to redevelop as parkland.
The Master Plan transformed the precinct, echoing the vegetation of Ball's Head Reserve. Construction was completed in 2005, when the name 'Carradah' Park was confirmed, after Cameragal man Carradah. In 2006 it won an AILA NSW State Award for Excellence, and a National Merit Award (McGregor + Partners in association with North Sydney Council). |