| Historical notes: | Aboriginal Occupation and Early European Settlement of the Liverpool Region
Some 40,000 years before European settlement of this region of the Georges River, this land was occupied by the Darug people and the neighbouring Tharawal and Gandangara peoples. The land was known as Gunyungalung. The Georges River has been seen by some as the natural (east-west) boundary between the Darug, or 'woods' tribe, (north of the river and east to the coast); the 'coast' tribes of the Tharawal (south of the river and east to the coast) and the Gandangara (west of the river, inland). Others argue that the region around Liverpool (where the river runs generally west to Botany Bay) signifies an important north-south cultural divide between the Darug peoples living north of the river and the Tharawal to the south of the river. The river demarcated rather than divided groups, providing an 'important corridor of mobility' that enabled transport, communication, economic and cultural interaction up, down and across the river on light, rapid bark canoes (Goodall & Cadzow 2009: 21).
The Georges River area first felt the impact of European settlement in the 1790s when early settlers around the Parramatta area sought out fertile soils for cultivation, moving south along Prospect Creek to the alluvial flats around Liverpool. Facing the steep banks and sandstone cliffs of sections of the Georges River, settlement penetrated slowly in the 1790s.
From the early 1800s the area saw Aboriginal hostilities against settler intrusions with raids on settler crops and stock led first by Pemulwuy of the Bediagal (until his death in 1804, likely at the hands of settlers). Some prominent settlers, who argued that the smaller settlers were the aggressors, themselves sought communication and interaction with Aboriginals, employing them as shepherds and allowing them to remain on the fringes of their landholding. Governor King's 1801 edict, however, prevented settlers harbouring Aboriginal peoples thus effectively excluding Aboriginals from the settled areas. Following the Appin massacre of 1816 the Gandagara and Tharwal kept their distance from the settlers, but they remained around the Georges River.
Governor Macquarie's policy was two-pronged. He authorised settlers around the Georges River to take action against Aboriginal raiders and later instructed the military to make pre-emptive strikes. He also sought conciliation, meeting with the Tharawal when he toured the Cow Pastures in 1810. Kogi of the Tharawal was one who met with Macquarie and who, like other Tharawal, developed close relationships with settlers around the Liverpool area. In 1816 Macquarie issued a call to Aboriginals of the Georges River to lay down arms in return for food, education and secure title to land in the Liverpool area. Kogi was one who took up this option, receiving a King Plate from Macquarie which identified him as "King of the Georges River". Land grants were the only means of effecting land transfer prior to the 1850 legislation that reserved Crown land exclusively 'for the use of Aborigines'. The are few records of land grants to Aboriginals arising out of the 1816 agreement but there is anecdotal evidence of Aboriginal freehold land along the Georges River until the late 20th century (Goodall & Cadzow 2009: 47-56).
In 1810 the Liverpool area was the frontier of settlement, with its alluvial and clay soils increasingly being cleared for farming. Small farming enclaves characterised the area around Liverpool which Governor Macquarie proclaimed on 2 November 1810 as the first of his new towns. The first land grants followed. Partly because of Aboriginal hostilities the area did not take off for settlement, however, until the 1830s.
The construction of Liverpool Weir in 1836 would have impacted on the different Aboriginal groups' use of the river as a communication channel. Construction of the weir would also have gradually changed the ecology of the river upstream.
(Keating, 1996; Goodall & Cadzow, 2009; www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/aboriginalpeople.htm; Tuck & Douglas, 2002)
Liverpool Weir was constructed in 1836 to supply water to local farmers and the town of Liverpool and to serve as a causeway across the George's River.
It was designed by David Lennox, master mason, Superintendent of Bridges for the colony of NSW and Australia's first major bridge builder. Before arriving in Australia in 1832, David Lennox, master mason, had occupied responsible positions in Britain for more than twenty years, working on many bridges including Telford's great suspension bridge over the Menai Straits and the stone-arch bridge over the Severn River at Gloucester. Lennox was appointed by Governor Brisbane as Superintendent of Bridges for the colony of NSW in 1833. Lennox was Australia's first major bridge builder but he also undertook many other civil engineering works in NSW from 1832 to 1844, when he was appointed superintendent of bridges for the Port Phillip District in Victoria. For nine years he had charge of all roads, bridges, wharves and ferries and acted as advisor to various government departments. In this period he built 53 bridges. Liverpool Weir is the only weir Lennox is known to have designed in the colony.
Liverpool Weir was one of the two last convict-built public works at Liverpool, the other being Lennox's Lansdowne Bridge over the Prospect Creek on the Hume Highway, Lansvale. On finishing Lapstone Bridge at Mitchells Pass in the Blue Mountains, Lennox took with him the ironed-gang of at least 60 convict workers to start work on Lansdowne Bridge in 1834. These convicts were stationed around Lansdowne Bridge in a township of convicts and the soldiers who guarded them. They were housed in 'caravans' that were probably like the portable sleeping boxes used by the road gangs. Married soldiers built themselves tiny slab huts, white-washed and roofed with sheets of bark. Another ironed gang of 50 convicts, together with their military guard, were stationed at a quarry opened by Lennox on the George's River near Voyager Point (east of present day Holsworthy). The convict workforce quarried and cut stone and punted it up the Georges River to the bridge site. Lansdowne Bridge was completed and opened by Governor Bourke with great fanfare on 26 January 1836, a testament to the skill of Lennox's design and its convict workforce. The bridge remained closed until September 1836, to allow for construction of the stone tollhouse. (Keating, 1996, 63; ADB, Liston, 2009, 18; ).
Liverpool Weir, also convict-built, was constructed between February and August 1836. In February some of Lennox's convict gangs from the Lansdowne Bridge encampment moved over to the Liverpool Weir site on George's River, below the Liverpool Hospital (Keating, 1996, 64). Work on Liverpool Weir would have proceeded concurrently with construction of the Landowne Bridge tollhouse. Lennox also used the Voyager's Point quarry for Liverpool Weir with the stone being moved up river on barges. (Colonial Architect's correspondence, Clarke, 2010: pers. comm.)
Captain William Harvie Christie of the 80th Regiment, who had been appointed assistant engineer and Superintendent of Ironed Gangs at Liverpool, oversaw the construction of Liverpool Weir. On Christie's departure from Liverpool in 1839 the populace made him a presentation of a piece of silver plate, expressing their gratitude for the "great improvements which under your direction have been made in the approaches to this town, in the draining of its streets, but more especially...in the completion of that noble work, the Liverpool Dam" ' (ADB, 1969, pp. 393-4; Keating, 1996, 64). Tegg's Almanac of 1842 concurred in this view that Liverpool Weir had boosted the prosperity of the region, noting that it had brought 'abundance ...to the door of thousands [and that] cultivation is intended and much waste or inaccessible land has been stamped with an intrinsic and permanent value' (quoted in Keating, 1996, 64).
The weir at the existing site was a compromise between Lennox's initial suggestions of a dam of wooden piles and puddled clay a short distance upstream of the hospital, and a larger masonry structure 11 miles downstream including a road crossing, lock and swivel bridge.
(James Brindley, 1716 -1772 one of the most notable British engineers of the 18th century, developed clay puddling to a fine art to make his canals watertight, by mixing clay with a proportion of sand. It was then wetted and kneaded by either labourers who 'heeled' it with their boots, or by animals driven over the surface until the right quality of puddle was achieved - 'An Illustrated History of Civil Engineering' by J P M Pannel, 1964. From his extensive experience in Britain, Lennox would have been familiar with the technique of puddle clay to achieve water-tightness.)
The weir has a curved downstream face and is one of the first 'engineered' weirs built in the colony.
Liverpool Weir effectively divided the salt water from the fresh water of the Georges River, allowing the river to be used for irrigated crop growing. But without pumps or reticulation it would seem, in this period at least, water would have been carted to the town of Liverpool. The town had to wait until 1891 for a piped water supply. But it did provide the first cart access to the Moorebank and Holsworthy areas (Keating, 1996, 64, 90).
The weir remained the town's only crossing of the Georges River until the first bridge (a timber truss) was built in 1896 just south of the railway station to connect the town with the rural landholdings. A high level bridge was erected in 1958.
A wharf was constructed at the weir and boats up to 140 tons displacement carried timber and farm produce to Sydney via Botany Bay. (LEP, 1994).
The top was pitched with freestone blocks. Further detail is provided in a letter from the Colonial Architect in 1857, which described the original construction (AONSW 2/600 dated 21/9/1857). It noted that the principal wall was ashlar 4 feet (1.2m) thick, built in a circular form with joints radiating to the upstream side. Built on a bed of large blocks of stone 'loosely thrown in', 8 feet (2.4m) high in the centre and 11 feet (3.4m) from the bottom of the wall to the base of the river. The 2 feet (0.6m) thick ashlar back wall was constructed 13 feet 6 inches (4.2m) from the centre of the front wall. Three cross walls of unspecified material, but presumably stone, were built to connect the front and back walls at the centre and 20 feet (6.1m) on either side. A statement by Peake (quoted in Laurie, Montgomery & Petit, 1980, 3) was contradicted by the Colonial Architect in 1857 who said that the fill was clay puddle and not ballast and silt. This has been confirmed by later site investigation.
The importance of projects such as this in the early colony cannot be underestimated. The provision of water infrastructure was a problem and a focus for government throughout the 19th century. The construction of a weir in Liverpool happened at the same time as major infrastructure projects in Sydney including the construction of Busby's Bore (Sydney's second water supply, after the Tank Stream) and was immediately followed by the construction of Circular Quay. Liverpool Weir also appears to have been one of the first weirs constructed and still surviving in south and western Sydney.
While bars and riffles are present , it is thought that the river was navigable upsteam of the weir site before the weir was constructed. Governor Macquarie noted in his journal that Liverpool was 'admirably calculated for Trade and Navigation ....where the Depth of Water is sufficient to float Vessels of very considerable Burthen' (Sydney Gazette, 15 December 1810. p. 1). It is also likely that Eber Bunker, sea Captain and owner of Collingwood upstream of the weir, sailed his ships to Collingwood to unload. The piers of Bunkers Wharf still survived into the living memory of older (former) residents of Liverpool who were alive at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Navigation would have been curtailed by construction of the weir. However, the pond created by the weir would have permitted the passage of local water craft for some distance upstream ( Andrews, 2010, submission ).
The river was the most efficient way of transporting goods to and from Liverpool and inland areas so it is likely that the weir would have been used as a transfer point between land and sea-based transportation. Although a wharf had been constructed adjacent to Liverpool Hospital in 1818, a number of industries were located further upstream closer to the weir (including a grain mill and paper mill). It is also possible that the hospital wharf had fallen into disrepair by the 1830s (Corroneos, 1996, 8). An 1876 photograph of Liverpool Weir shows a substantial pile of rock directly in front of the weir which would have precluded the weir being used for loading and unloading cargo. However, it also shows a derrick crane on the western side, which supports the theory of the downstream end adjacent the left (west) bank being used for cargo handling purposes.
Colonial Architect correspondence (AONSW 2/600) notes the need for repairs as early as 1851. Liverpool Weir was damaged by floods in 1852, by which time the masonry was leaking and the paving between the walls was sinking.
In September 1855 the Colonial Architect reported to the Colonial Secretary that in his opinion the masonry in the circular, lower face of the dam and the straight wall at the back allows water to percolate through; this softens the puddle between the walls which eventually oozes out at the base of the lower wall thus undermining the paving on the top which consequently sinks. He indicated this was the present state of the dam 'although it was repaired not more than two or three years ago'. He also noted that the piles on the upper side of the dam do not appear to have been closely driven, and in his opinion the injury to the dam arises from its not being water tight.
By 1857 the right (eastern) bank had been washed away. Following a joint report by the departments of the Colonial Architect and Railway in 1957, repair work was carried out in February 1858. It consisted of filling the whole internal portion with puddle clay on which was laid a 9 inch thick bed of concrete covered with stone flagging 12 inches thick, set in mortar and grouted with Portland cement. About 25 feet of the front wall was rebuilt and a wall added at the right end; a row of close piling was driven into the bank at the right bank end of the front wall; and a rubble stone apron of 7260 (square) feet was laid with 2000 (square) feet being required to complete it.
In 1860 another large portion of the eastern (right) bank of the Liverpool Weir was washed away in flooding, cutting a channel around the abutment. As the weir was still being used as the main thoroughfare into Liverpool, it was necessary to extend the weir (and the road on top) across the new channel (Keating, 1996, 82; NSW Govt Arch Office, 1996, 10-11).
For the next 100 years the weir appears to have been left largely untouched. Eventually, decades of flooding caused considerable erosion and the weir needed repairing on several occasions, with a major rebuilding in the 1970s and remediation works in 2007-8.
In the later 1970s part of the front wall that had been washed away was replaced and a precast concrete road was built part way across the top of the weir (this was later removed). Further repair works were carried out in the mid 1980s when the scouring on the eastern (right) bank was addressed reinstating the bank using gabion baskets topped with recovered sandstone blocks. In 1985 surface flagging on the eastern side was replaced following washout of the core, with cast in-situ 1m square concrete units.
A fishway was constructed in 1997 through the heavily modified and extended eastern section of the weir (NSW Govt Arch Office, Liverpool Weir Remediation, September 2009). Damage again occurred in the right bank area in November 2007. Further major remediation works to re-stabilise and prevent erosion to the main wall were carried out in 2007-08.
While originally built to provide water supply and a river crossing for Liverpool, the weir now plays an important role in stabilising the upstream riverbanks and maintaining the hydraulic regime of the upper part of the Georges River estuary. The reaches of river under the influence of the weir have drastically changed since construction in 1836. The construction of a fishway in 1997 provides native fish passage past the weir and improves the ecology of the Upper Georges River, modified by the weir's construction. (Chipping Norton Lake Authority Annual Report 2008-09)
(Sources: Renwick, 2010 pers. comm.; Clarke, 2010 pers. comm.; Chipping Norton, 2009; NSW Govt Arch Office, 2006, 2009; DNR, 2006; Liverpool LEP, 1994; Keating, 1996, Corroneos, 1996; ADB, 1969; AONSW 2/600; Cole, 2000; Laurie, Montgomery & Petit, 1980). |
