Nothing to do with motorcycling today, I’m sorry, but plenty to do with another passion of mine, Australian history.
Yesterday we went up to Sydney to visit our son. Graeme lives in the leafy suburb of Marrickville and, since he doesn’t own a car, much of his exploration of his environs is done on foot. Nothing wrong with that as it aids fitness, of course, but, as a by-product, you get to find out some very interesting things about your suburb. And, while we were returning from an excursion to the shops, Graeme suggested we take a couple of back streets because there was something he wanted to show us.
So, down an almost impossibly narrow street, we found a parking spot outside what looked like a little childrens’ park sandwiched between a row of old houses. It certainly looked pretty (see above) but the park wasn’t what he wanted us to see.
At the back of the park and fenced off by a very substantial mesh fence, was this little pond, almost a lake, I guess.
Native water birds were swimming on the surface and it seemed such an anachronism to find in the middle of suburbia. Fortunately, the locals are intensely proud of their suburb’s history and it is marked on the local history trail and signified accordingly.
So there it was. The pit was a quarry where the local brickmakers quarried clay that was used to make bricks. Those of you who know their inner-Sydney history well will know that many such works were common in the latter half of the 19th Century, making and supplying bricks to keep pace with Sydney’s rapidly expanding suburbs. The most notable is, of course, the brickworks on the southern end of Newtown, the remains of which are now preserved though the plant has long since stopped firing bricks.
Unlike today when industries are required to remediate sites that have been used and fallen into disuse, the Dibble Street quarry was just left as it was when quarrying stopped and it gradually filled up with water. Clay makes a good lining for dams and ponds so it was only natural that this should happen.
However, in heavy storms, the pond would overflow so a system was devised that would keep the pond at a constant level and prevent flooding of the surrounding area. An overflow pipe was connected to the pond at the appropriate level and it was directed under the nearby street and onto the grounds of the golf course across the way. A pumphouse was sited at the entry to the pipe and, whenever the water goes above a pre-set level, the pump kicks in, pumps the water over to the golf course where it is used to water the greens and fairways.
So there, a little history lesson hidden in the back streets of a Sydney suburb. I am guessing that many of the locals know about it but I wonder how many other Sydneysiders know about this little slice of their city’s history.
Of course, I am sure that you have already guessed one of the reasons why the place was interesting to me.
Thanks for reading.
