Valley Heights

Recently our walking group paid a visit to the Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum in Valley Heights, near Springwood in the Blue Mountains. The depot is the home of three groups: The Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum, the Steam Tramway, and a Model Railway group. The photo below shows the steam tram during the Centenary of the Locomotive Depot celebrations last year.                        Location map

Steam Tram 103a, at Valley Heights

We were shown around and told something of its history. The goods engines based at Valley Heights assisted almost every freight and passenger train destined for Mt. Victoria, Lithgow and beyond, over the longest continual and most steeply graded mainline in Australia.  

Steam operations from Valley Heights ended in 1957, but electric locomotives continued to assist steam hauled trains to Katoomba until electrification was completed. In latter years the depot become a freight wagon and electric locomotive repair workshop, and remained in use until 1988.

The museum  exhibits include:
- a Goods Steam Locomotive,
- a 46 class Electric Locomotive (built in 1956),  - an Ice Van and various other rolling stock.  There is also rail heritage displays and memorabilia.

The depot is usually open to the public on the 2nd & 4th Sunday each month.

The carriage seen in the photo (right) is the beautifully restored "Caves Express" First Class carriage. The carriage was in use in the late 1920s and 30s on the Caves Express between Sydney and Mount Victoria. The photo below shows a section of the kitchen in the same carriage.

 A railway model (below) shows the depot as it once was, with roundhouse, turntable and steep timber trestle leading to the elevated coal stage storage bin.

The volunteer workers at the Depot have achieved some impressive results. It was a very interesting morning, topped off after lunch, with a pleasant 5.75km walk around a nearby fire trail. My thanks to all involved.

           We ended our walk at Valley Heights station.            

Wolli Creek and Cooks River

Our walk started at Bardwell Park, around 12Km SW of Central Sydney. The Two Valley Trail led us through bushland, parkland and riverside to Canterbury along the Wolli Creek and Cooks River Valleys, via their junction at Tempe.



The Wolli Creek Valley was filled with orchards, market gardens and other farms in the mid 1800 and early 1900s.
Our walk leader showed us a pond, which once supplied a farm house, can still be seen filling with water dripping down from the rugged sandstone escarpment above. The pond is obscured by ferns in the photo above. [more history]

This 'fishway channel' at Turrella, allows fish to travel between the saltwater section of Wolli Creek and the freshwater on the other side of the weir.
 Many native species need freshwater creeks to feed, breed and avoid predators.




below: 'At the beginning of the 1900s, the Schwebel family had quarries in Marrickville and Undercliffe, on each side of the river, and William Jackson opened a quarry above Wolli Creek. The street of six stone cottages he built for his family, Jackson Place, is an important site in the heritage of the area'.  
Judy Finlason, The Place That Jackson Built: The Story Behind Six Stone Cottages, Wolli Creek Preservation Society, 1999

The Cooks River (left) 'runs through some of the most heavily urbanised and industrialised areas in Australia, but many parts of the river and its foreshores offer beautiful riverside walkways, cycle paths and wonderful parks ...' - Cooks River Alliance

The Australian Sugar Company once refined sugar at Canterbury. The 'Sugar House' (right) near the Cooks River was a sugar mill from 1842 until it closed in 1854, due to a labour shortage caused by the gold rush. The building, built with local standstone, was converted to residential apartments in 2002.     more industrial history


We finished our walk at Canterbury and returned to the City by train.          

Ref: The Wolli Creek Preservation Society pdf

 

Birchgrove Wharf to Ballast Point Park

Balmain East

The photo above was taken from the ferry as we approached Birchgrove wharf on our trip from Circular Quay. Yurulbin Park (below) with its rocky outcrops and native garden beds adjoins the wharf.

Yurulbin Park

(below) A short walk along Louisa Rd led us to Birchgrove Park.

(left) This is one of the houses that caught my eye as we walked along Wharf Road.



The Ballast Point site was purchased in 1928 for use as an oil terminal. Over time the company, which latter became Caltex, built 30 storage tanks at the Balmain terminal.

Caltex sold the site for development in 1997, with a provisional completion date of 2005. After a major campaign by residents, to preserve this and other foreshore sites for public use, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, on behalf of the Carr State Government, purchased the site in 2002 for use as public open space. The lookout below offers great harbour views.

        Location map


        More photos of Ballast Point


It was only a 2 to 3km walk from Birchgrove Wharf to Balmain Wharf, via Ballast Point Park and  Mort Bay Park.

 My thanks to Jean who led us on this walk.                          Reference           

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Hermitage Foreshore Walk & Vaucluse House

The Hermitage Foreshore track begins at Bayview Hill Road or Nielsen Park, Vaucluse and is part of Sydney Harbour National Park.

Hermit Point, Vaucluse

Queens Beach

Our group stopping off at Vaucluse House, the sandstone mansion, built in the 1830s, for William Charles Wentworth and his family.
 
I was familiar with the front view of Vaucluse House (see Nielsen Park post), but found much more to see as we were led around to the back of the house beyond the 'castle' facade.

I saw inside on a previous visit, and thought it was well worth the visit. (Vaucluse House link)

Vaucluse House stables & carriage loop

                            

 

The estate reflected the owner’s pre-eminence in colonial affairs, and is one of the few 19th century houses on Sydney Harbour retaining a significant part of its original estate.

The stables are Gothic revival style (as is the house facade) and even the stables (above) are substantial, well designed and constructed of stone. Fine horses were another status symbol of this time. Some of the seven stone paved stalls are seen in the interior photo (left)

It was important to have a good kitchen garden and the garden (below) recreates part of the Wentworth's kitchen garden.

Vaucluse House Heritage Info

                                                                                                                             

   

Our walking group started at Watsons Bay after catching a ferry, stopping off at Vaucluse House, before continuing on to Rose Bay, where we caught a bus to Bondi Junction.  I have shown the photos above in the reverse order to this.

For more photos of this harbour walk:  Nielsen Park and Parsley Bay - click on photo below

  Woollahra Council PDF                          wildwalks link                             location map