Lilyvale - The Almost Forgotten. Part 1

Lilyvale is a beautiful, picturesque area on the southern fringes of the Royal National Park — nestled between Helensburgh to the north-west and Otford to the south. The lush valley behind the Bulgo Mountain Range adjoins the Hacking River, with tributaries including McKinnons Creek, Stuart’s Creek/Gully, Gardiner’s Creek, Cedar Creek, and Hamilton’s Creek (also known as Cedar Gully).

Key dates — Part 1

Early settlement — Bulgo Valley

The Otford/Lilyvale area appears on Robert Dixon’s Map of the Colony of New South Wales (1842) as Bulgo — the northern extremity of the greater Illawarra. Settlers began entering from southern Sydney in search of grazing land around 1815. By 1820 the country from Bulgo to Kiama was used for grazing, though only the valleys were practical; the Bulgo Range was thick subtropical rainforest.

In 1824, 1,000 acres were promised to Matthew John Gibbons for grazing, then transferred to William Bucknell in 1838. During the 1840s John Dwyer and G. W. Newcombe acquired two parcels totalling 300+ acres north of Bald Hill. Little development followed. The NSW Government resumed the Bulgo Valley to preserve flora and fauna (only valleys were granted for grazing). Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell took possession and later sold the lands to Lawrence Hargrave’s father, John Fletcher Hargrave — Supreme Court judge and MLA for East Camden — in 1872.

The Hargrave family

John Fletcher Hargrave held extensive parcels in the late 1870s: Coalcliff, Little Bulli (Stanwell Park), Otford, and Lilyvale (Bulgo Valley). He hoped to develop coal at the Coal Cliffs, but difficult terrain and lack of capital ended that ambition. In the early 1880s, ageing, he divided the land among his four sons.

Lawrence Hargrave lived at Rushcutters Bay during the 1870s. When his older brother Ralph died overseas, Ralph’s Stanwell Park home Hillcrest passed to Lawrence, who moved in during 1893.

Campaign for the Illawarra railway

The Illawarra desperately needed a rail link to Sydney — farmers and coal mines warranted the infrastructure. Proponents argued in the major newspapers; one letter I have traced to 25 March 1875 discusses the railway alongside water supply and south-coast development.

Letter to the Sydney Morning Herald — 25 March 1875

Signed J. F. H. (John Fletcher Hargrave), from Sydney:

METROPOLITAN AND ILLAWARRA RAILWAY

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD

SIR,—In continuation of my letter, inserted in your columns of the 24th instant, I will now shortly point out the importance of the above undertaking in relation, first, to the future water supply of Sydney, and secondly, in relation to the whole South coast district, from Wollongong southwards.

First, as to the water supply of Sydney—it is surely enough for me merely to quote the following passage from Sir Thomas Mitchell’s evidence before the Special Committee of the City Council, March 12, 1850 —“The weakest point in the character of this great city—for a great city it is likely to be—is the present insufficient supply of water. The basin of George’s River contains 160 square miles; its highest sources are always flowing, and are elevated 2200 feet above the level of the sea at Madden’s Plains, on the range at the back of the Illawarra. This would form the finest supply of water in the world.”

These are the words of one of those great engineers who were educated by the Peninsular War into their sound and broad decisions upon all such matters as the present and they are words which, the more they are examined, the more sound and the more accurate will they be discovered to be.

Since 1850 the main George’s River has been taken altogether out of Sir Thomas Mitchell’s views by the great changes on its waters by the progress of settlements and manufactories on its banks and creeks. I think also, it is well known that many of its creeks, especially on its western side, are brackish in their tributaries to the main channel. But in my former letter to your readers, I pointed out that a vast area of unalienated Crown lands, about fifteen miles by fifteen miles, would be brought into great value by the construction of the Illawarra Railway, and that this area is physically divided into about three equal portions, which are traversed north and south by two rivers, the Port Hacking Creek—the proposed route of the railway, and the Woronora River. The waters of both these rivers have their sources on Madden’s Plains, as described by Sir Thomas Mitchell, and throughout their whole length contain the purest and most pellucid waters in the world, without the slightest brackishness or other disadvantages, and of continuous and abundant volume.

The Port Hacking River, the most easterly towards the Pacific Ocean, must of course be left to the present and future inhabitants of that beautiful valley. But the Woronora river seems merely awaiting the arrival of some English engineer to be at once appropriated as a most valuable source of Sydney water supply…

The only other remaining topic as to which I will trespass upon your column is the vast importance of the Illawarra railway to all the landholders and inhabitants of the South Coast Districts. To estimate this importance properly let anyone take his stand, as I have often done, on the top of the Bulgo Mountain, which is the northern extremity of the Illawarra and South Coast Mountain Range, where it abuts on the Pacific Ocean, about 25 miles due south of Port Jackson. Looking due south from this position, the eye will first observe the Coal Cliff Mountain, so called by Captain Cook from the coal seams then, as now visible for human benefit on the ocean side of the Illawarra Range…

Thanking you for your space to my ideas on this subject,

I remain yours &c.,

J. F. H. Sydney, March 25 1875

Excerpt — full letter on Trove.

During the 1870s political pressure to build the railway intensified. A safe land route to Sydney was needed for dairy and mining — production was trending upward. Parliamentary debate was fierce. NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes believed Illawarra residents had little appetite for a railway. Northern members argued that Alexander Stuart had a vested interest — he owned and applied for coal-bearing lands in the Illawarra (Coalcliff Jetty Mine). Hunter Valley members protected their own mining interests, seen as direct competition.

A Sydney Morning Herald report of 19 February 1878 notes Stuart applied to mine coal in the Parish of Bulgo — today’s ground from Wattamolla to Bald Hill and out to Kelly’s Falls. He did not succeed; the area’s mine was still six years away, when John Coghlan’s drilling team discovered the Metropolitan seam in 1883–84 — developed with Charles Harper as manager. See Who discovered coal at Helensburgh?

On Friday 26 April 1878, new Illawarra MLA Samuel William Gray moved for railway construction. On 6 April 1881 Parliament passed the Act consenting to build from Sydney to Kiama. Engineer-in-Chief John Whitton appointed James Fraser to oversee the South Coast / Illawarra works.

Building the railway

At last the Illawarra would get its railway. In 1884 contractors Messrs Rowe and Smith moved in to build from Waterfall to Coalcliff. The grade was steep; many gullies and tunnels lay ahead. Gangers set up camps along the line, moving south as work progressed.

Camp Creek (Helensburgh) became more permanent when John Coghlan’s diamond drill team struck coal in Camp Gully. Cawley station — long gone — received goods from Sydney for railway works and the Metropolitan Colliery. The line reached Lilyvale/Otford (Bulgo Valley) and Stanwell Park in 1885. The full Illawarra line opened with celebrations at North Kiama on 3 October 1888.

Lilyvale station and township

On 1 October 1889 — some 50 km from Sydney — the Lilydale Railway Station officially opened. Yes, Lilydale. Later that year it was renamed Lilyvale Railway Station. The timber station stood near the southern end of Lilyvale Tunnel No. 2.

Once construction passed Lilyvale toward Otford, the camps quietened. By the early 1900s Lilyvale supported regular church services, shops, a hotel, and a post office (1 October 1898 – 1931).

Location

Related pages

• Lilyvale — The Almost Forgotten, Part 2
• Lilyvale Railway Station
• Lilyvale Tunnels
• Railway Tunnels near Helensburgh
• Coalcliff Jetty Mine
• Who discovered coal at Helensburgh?
• Bald Hill

Originally published on Helensburgh.com.au, 23 August 2010. Sources: Trove, NSW Parliament, Robert Dixon maps, local railway history.