Putney

Putney

Putney is one of 16 suburbs that form the City of Ryde. Its western boundary is Church Street (but not including the properties facing Church Street) from the Parramatta River to Morrison Road. Morrison Road generally forms the northern boundary but an additional area has been added so that the Putney shopping centre and the Putney Public School are within Putney. The added area includes Parry Street to Acacia Street then a line drawn north to the southern boundary of Tyagarah Park. The eastern boundary is a line drawn in an almost southerly direction from the eastern end of Tyagarah Park to the eastern shore of Morrisons Bay.

At the time of the arrival of Europeans at Sydney Cove in January 1788 the Wallumedegal or Wallumede were the traditional owners of the area that they called Wallumetta. This clan formed part of a large Dharug language group.

The settlement and suburbanisation of Putney

Putney shares its early history with Ryde, as part of the Eastern Farms, which were granted to emancipists and others in the first decade of settlement. The area of Putney was named much later after the London suburb on the Thames, site of the famous Oxford/Cambridge boat race.

The peninsula on the western side of Morrisons Bay is the heart of Putney today, and was originally part of the land granted to Nicholas Bayly in 1799. From around 1805 to the 1840s, the farm boundaries began to change as many landholders' efforts were unsuccessful and their land was bought up by more successful farmers and wealthier settlers. In that time, the farming practices changed from the growing of cereal crops to the production of fruit, especially citrus, peaches, apricots and grapes. Such an abundance of fruit was available that an amount of it was made into peach cider. [1]

James Squire was originally granted land in the Eastern Farms (somewhere near where Addington is at present) in 1795. He arrived in the First Fleet on board Charlotte. By 1798, he was the licensee of a pub at Kissing Point called the Malting Shovel. At that time, the wharf at Kissing Point (built near the building now known as Halvorsen's Boatshed) was a regular stopping spot for watermen moving between Parramatta and Sydney. At the 1802 Muster, James Squire owned 118 hectares of land of which nearly 50 hectares were cleared and 11 planted with wheat and corn. He had 57 farm animals and was supporting 10 persons including his family and farm workers. By 1806, his land holding included the farms of 13 early grantees. In 1822, shortly before his death, he purchased Bayly's original grant of 47 hectares. It is on this grant that the original Putney was built. Squire was friendly with Aboriginal leader Bennelong, and his younger associate Nanbarry, who were both buried on Squire's land when they died. The location of the graves has been lost but they were probably in the vicinity of Bennelong Park.

In 1856, Eugène Delange bought what had been the Bayly grant for subdivision. Delange called the subdivision the Village of Eugénie and named many of the roads after generals in Louis Napoleon III's army that won the day at Sebastopol (at least in the Francophile view of the resolution) in the Crimean War. Eugénie was the name of the wife of Napoleon III and was also reminiscent of his own given name, Eugène.

The main street was originally called Napoleon Street but this has changed to Delange Road. Others named after French marshals were Bosquet Street, changed to Phillip Street, and Canrobert Street, now Morrison Road. Only Pellisier Street remains, although that is misspelt from the original spelling of Marshal Pélissier's name. [2]

The estate did not sell except for a few blocks suitable as small farms. In 1878, Delange's son sold 49 hectares to Phillip Walker. Walker changed the street names from French to a more English orientation. The estate was advertised in December 1878 and finally went on sale in February 1879. [3] Walker also bought some of the original Callaghan grant to enlarge the subdivision. It was probably Phillip Walker who first conjured up the name Putney for his subdivision of 1879. [4]

In 1937, well-known local resident Dame Eadith Campbell Walker of Yaralla died. In February 1940, her executors, the Perpetual Trustee Company, in order to finalise her affairs, decided to sell land she had owned on the northern bank of the Parramatta River in the vicinity of Kissing Point. This land had been purchased by the Walker Trust to preserve the bush views available from the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital, located across the river almost opposite Kissing Point. When Eadith Walker opened the hospital in 1893, she gave an illuminated address where she indicated that the land opposite the new hospital afforded patients a wonderful bushland view that would be conducive to their convalescence. At that time, there were two gentlemen's residences close by the river and visible from the Convalescent Hospital. They were Cleves (built c1849) at Kissing Point and Lunnhilda/Dudhope (built c1886) at Putney Point. However, it was mainly bushland, especially around the waterfront.

The land was used from 1918 by Kidman and Mayoh as a shipbuilding site. They had leased the land from the owners of the Cleves Estate. And we know that the Burnside remained unfinished on the slipway until 1923 when she was burnt where she stood. It is hard to know precisely when Eadith Walker bought the land – it is possible that it was some time after 1923. There was a covenant placed on that land presumably so that it could never again be used as an industrial site or even used as waterfront residential property.

The auction for the advertised 'Walker Estate' (not to be confused with Phillip Walker's Putney Estate) was held on Saturday 17 February 1940.[5] Because of the war, it does not appear to have been a prime time to sell or purchase real estate. However, the possibility of owning a waterfront blocks of land at Kissing Point must have been an attractive business proposition, because two large real estate agencies were involved in selling the 26 blocks on offer, of which 24 were absolute waterfronts.

The site map was prepared and the auction advertised. On that map, there was a small roadway shown. It was to occupy the area of one of the blocks of land and was named Yaralla Road. It remains there today seemingly without function, but in 1940, it was designed to relate the estate to Walker's Yaralla Estate across the river.

Suddenly, and indicated in handwriting on the poster, the blocks were withdrawn from sale prior to auction. The question arises, why? In their enthusiasm for the sale, the vendors must have overlooked the covenant that existed on the title deeds and/or the beneficiaries must have seen no valid reason to remove the covenant. Whatever the reasons, the land remained bushland until it was bought by Ryde Council for use as public parkland. [6]

River transport

The river has been an important 'highway' for the residents of Putney from the beginning of European settlement. Initially, watermen carried freight and passengers to and from Parramatta and stopped where directed. These passage boats operated from 1793 for those who could afford them. A favoured stopping place was the Kissing Point wharf, near where the Halvorsen boatshed is currently located. It was operated by James Squire.

A regular and scheduled Sydney–Parramatta ferry service was commenced as early as 1831 but by 1884, with the change in propulsion technology from paddlewheel to propeller-driven vessels, the terminus changed from Queen's Wharf at Parramatta to Redbank at the junction of the Duck and Parramatta rivers just west of the present Silverwater Bridge. From here, passengers were transported to Parramatta by steam tram. This ferry service lasted until 1928 but the trams kept running until 1943.

In 1888, the owner of the ferry company, Charles Edward Jeanneret, sold the company to Phillip Walker who had bought land at Putney in 1878. In his advertisement for the land he referred to the new bridge being erected (Gladesville Bridge opened in 1881) and a regular ferry service: '…excellent and fast steamers … [can now call at]… the new Putney Wharf …' [7] Thus, some steamers might have called at Putney wharf from around 1879. Remnants of the ferry wharf are still visible at the end of a sealed strip leading from Pellisier Road near the approach to the Putney punt. This roadway was the original Pellisier Road. [8]

Sydney Ferries introduced Fleet Class ferries back to Meadowbank 1984/5 and these were replaced by the RiverCats in 1993, after dredging of the river as part of the celebration of the Bicentennial year of 1988. The service began from Rydalmere in June 1993 with the Marlene Matthews and in July 1993, the Charles Street wharf was opened at Parramatta and the service began in December 1993.

Parramatta River ferries stopped at Cabarita, and Ryde (at the bottom of Belmore Street). [9] Ferries also stopped at Putney, Mortlake and Meadowbank (at the bottom of Bowden Street) at some times during their period of tenure on the river. The new wharf at Kissing Point (not to be confused with the original Kissing Point wharf) was opened in 2002. [10]

A vehicular ferry still crosses the Parramatta River between Putney Point and Mortlake. It commenced operating in 1926 to provide a convenient form of transport for AGL Mortlake's army of workers. The punt was officially opened by the Minister for Lands, RT Ball. [11] The Putney punt is the last such ferry in the Sydney area and runs on a restricted schedule, operating in the early mornings and the late afternoons during the week and on a timetable during weekends.

Trams

The first Gladesville Bridge was opened in 1881. By 1899, horse-drawn buses ran from Circular Quay to Drummoyne, Gladesville and Ryde and in December 1902, electric trams terminated at the eastern side of Gladesville Bridge and the horse-drawn buses took passengers the rest of the journey to Ryde. In 1910, electric trams began running to Ryde along Victoria Road. [12] In 1914, the line was extended to Ryde (now West Ryde) station. The trams were finally taken off the route and replaced by buses in 1953. Putney residents walked from Putney to Victoria Road to catch the tram.

Recreation on the river

Putney was well serviced by tidal river baths. There were baths in Morrisons Bay, in Kissing Point Bay near Putney Point, the Princes Regent Baths at the foot of Regent Street and the Ryde Baths, closest to the Ryde Road Bridge a little east of Shepherds Point. The first of these baths was the Ryde Baths, built in 1904 and opened 20 January 1905. Mixed bathing was initially prohibited but later this was relaxed. The baths were the brainchild of a Mayor of Ryde, John Forsyth. The Ryde Baths were demolished in 1930.

With the demise of the Ryde Baths, locals decided to take matters into their own hands. Residents from Princes, Regent, Wade, Osborne and Waterview Streets planned a replacement swimming baths. In 1932, they formed the Princes Regent Swimming Club and with local fundraising activities and the approval of Ryde Council and the Sydney Harbour Trust, a swimming enclosure was constructed at the bottom of Regent Street. The baths were opened in October 1932 and closed in 1945 or 1946.

The Putney Baths opened around 1920 and closed at the beginning of World War II.

The baths in Morrisons Bay were privately owned by the Connington family but used by the community during the Depression. [13]

The Concord and Ryde Sailing Club (originally called the Concord and Rhodes Open Sailing Club) was started in 1945 and was located in Llewellyn Street, Rhodes, beside the original Ryde Road Bridge. The first boatshed and clubhouse was not erected until the 1951–52 sailing season and the power not connected for a further two years.

Although plans were underway for an extension to the club facilities in 1957, the cost of such a venture, and uncertainty about the permanency of the Rhodes site, put the plans on hold. The Department of Main Roads announced that a new road bridge was proposed and this meant the demolition of the boatshed and clubhouse. During the 1959/60 season, the name of the club was changed to the Concord and Rhodes Sailing Club.

In April 1960, an approach to Ryde Council was made to ascertain its attitude to moving to the Ryde side of the river. A year later, the club changed its name to the Concord and Ryde Sailing Club at the suggestion of Ryde Council.

The next 15 years saw protracted negotiations with Ryde Council, Putney residents and the State Planning Authority in order to get a proposal for the new clubhouse approved. In the meantime, repairs were carried out to the Uhrs Point premises and the club continued with a very successful racing program. During 1982, the club applied to Concord Council to relocate at Mortlake Point but eventually nothing came of this. The Department of Main Roads agreed to relocate the club but baulked at the $400,000 price tag for a new clubhouse at Kissing Point Park.

In 1986, the new bridge was built and the Department of Main Roads decided to relocate the old clubhouse to land next door. Unfortunately, the building collapsed when it was lifted by crane. It was not until January 1987 that the club received notification from the Minister for Public Works which stated:

... it is now proposed to construct the new clubhouse on the site to the east of the Naval Facility and in front of the mangrove cluster at Kissing Point Park ... [14]

The work commenced on the new site in August 1987 and on 6 October the club finally moved in.

The club today is very strong and vibrant. It boasts over 100 boats on its register and fleets of over 80 boats can be seen racing every Saturday afternoon from September to April on the club's sailing course from Ryde Bridge to the Putney-Mortlake punt.

Recreation on land

The Putney-Tennyson Bowling and Recreation Club was established in 1971 as an initiative of the Putney Progress Association. The first President was Tom Hickey who had agitated within the Progress Association for the formation of such a club. The Bowling and Recreation Club shares the emblem of the sailing ship Macquarie with the Progress Association. The Women's Club was formed in 1972 with Marjorie Whitehouse as President. The first bowls rolled across the club's first rink in November 1973. Tom Hickey and Marjorie Whitehouse did the honours. The official opening took place on 12 July 1975.

The Putney-Tennyson Bowling and Recreation Club is located in Frances Road, opposite Morrison Park. While it has greens for the bowlers, it is very much a community club, hosting many meetings of service organisations including Lions and Probus and supporting many local sporting clubs and other local organisations.

Morrison Park contains football pitches and cricket wickets and is used extensively by local sporting teams. The park is sited on reclaimed land. During World War II, much army disposal gear was used as fill and there are a myriad of stories about how children from the surrounding area went to the tip and 'retrieved' belly tanks and reused these as metal canoes. The reclaiming of non-ferrous metals was also a source of pocket money for locals. [15]

Industry and boatbuilding

The AGL Gasworks at Mortlake provided much work for the men of Putney. The Putney Punt was inaugurated in 1926 to ferry workers and vehicles across the river. Although not situated in Putney, the gasworks were an important source of work. There was also a vehicular ferry running between Meadowbank and Rhodes from 1898. This was stopped when the Ryde Road Bridge opened in 1935. This bridge, built to Department of Main Roads specifications but financed by Ryde Council, was constructed to give workers access to industries located on the southern side of the Parramatta River.

As one might expect of a suburb on the Parramatta River, boatbuilding and repair have been important industries. Around 1900, on the western shore of Putney Point, Christian Nielsen operated a boatshed that built racing sculls, fours and eights. Nielsen was born in Denmark in 1860. He ran away to sea at 16 and eventually, because of his prowess as a sculler, found his way to the Parramatta River. [16] He was one of many such boatbuilders along this Parramatta River rowing course.

Stretching west from Putney Point is Kissing Point Bay. In January 1943 the Slazenger Company leased 1.6 hectares of waterfront land there to build 14-metre-long plywood punts for the United States Army. The facility became a wholly owned government works managed by Slazenger on behalf of the Australian Shipbuilding Board. There were about 80 shipwrights, painters and dockers working at the site.

In 1944, work began on building motorised scows for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). These boats were 17 metres long with a 3.6-metre beam. They were built of oregon and the hull, from the keel to the waterline, was copper-sheathed. They were fitted with diesel motors.

These craft were destined for the Pacific area. Six were completed and another 27 were in production by the end of World War II in 1945.[17] Even though much of the Putney peninsula is now occupied by Putney Park, there are still slipways in the shoreline to link the area with its boatbuilding past. Further west around the bay is the slipway of Keith Brown, long-time Putney resident, boatbuilder and sailmaker. Other important boatbuilders were Bill Fisher and his family. [18] Bill Fisher is probably the last of the Fishers to be a boatbuilder on the Parramatta River. His boatshed has been on the Parramatta River since 1929. His Australian nautical inheritance goes back to his great-grandfather, Henry Fisher, who arrived in New South Wales in 1832. Since then, the eldest son of each generation has been called William. They have all built wooden boats.

Kissing Point Bay is also the location of The King's School boatshed that was originally situated in Hen and Chicken Bay.

On the western side of Kissing Point Bay is Kissing Point, named by Captain John Hunter. A 'kissing point' is a naval term defined as that point near the head of an estuary beyond which deepwater vessels could not proceed without being grounded. The term 'kissing' refers to the vessel brushing its keel on the bottom of the waterway.

The Braeside and Burnside

Kissing Point was the site of a shipbuilding venture that went horribly wrong. In July 1918, the company of Kidman and Mayoh was contracted by the Commonwealth Government to construct six wooden ships. The company was not a shipbuilder –Kidman was a pastoralist and Arthur and Joseph Mayoh were engineers who had come to Australia around 1909.

The company leased land at Kissing Point that land had formerly been part of the Cleves estate. By the end of 1918, the keel of one of the ships had been laid. However, because the war had finished, the government varied the Kidman and Mayoh contract from six to two ships. The ships under construction were assigned the names Braeside and Burnside.

Their construction proceeded until 1920 when the Australian trading company Burns Philp made an offer to buy the two ships. This sale was conditional on the ships receiving a certificate of seaworthiness from a Lloyd's surveyor. When the Braeside was launched in April 1920, faults in the design and construction became apparent and the surveyor refused to issue the necessary certificate of seaworthiness. Burns Philp withdrew from the contract and litigation between all the parties commenced. This led to a Committee of Public Works investigation that found against the Kidman and Mayoh Company. The company was dissolved in 1922.

In 1923, the Braeside was eventually towed off Sydney Heads and burnt. The Burnside, still on the stocks, was sold to the Union Box and Timber Company, which stripped the hull of its useable timber. What remained, including the 80 tonnes of ballast in the form of iron bolts, was burnt where it stood. This was a sad end for the two ships, the biggest wooden vessels ever built in Australia. [19]

Halvorsen boatbuilding

A large building built over the water and situated west of Kissing Point was formerly the Halvorsen boatshed. The Halvorsen boatbuilding tradition began with Norwegian-born Lars Halvorsen who arrived in Sydney in 1925. He had five sons and two daughters. He began boatbuilding at Drummoyne and then at Neutral Bay. He died in 1936. The business was carried on by his sons who, in 1937, bought two hectares of land at Ryde.

The Ryde boatshed was located where Squire's Brewery Wharf had originally been built. [20] It was adjacent to The Malting Shovel inn, licensed to James Squire and conveniently located to slake the thirst of the boatmen who transported passengers between Sydney and Parramatta. [21] Squire's Wharf was so busy that by 1820, special permission was needed to land there. [22]

During World War II, the Halvorsen Company built many launches as well as fast, motorised, wooden, 34-metre submarine chasers called Fairmiles. After the war they continued to build motor cruisers. In 1961, they built the 12-metre yacht Gretel which was Australia's first entry into the America's Cup. [23]

The Halvorsen complex was taken over by the Royal Australian Navy and used as a small craft station. The Navy has since left the site which is in 2010 occupied by a variety of tradespersons dedicated to repairing and maintaining large and small boats. The boatshed and accompanying land are now known as Putney Marina. However, the complex has been sold and residents are eagerly awaiting plans for the site.

Putney's lost heritage

As you approach the Putney punt along Pellisier Road, you pass Putney Park. At the end of the park and facing the river is a cleared area where an elegant house once stood on land was originally granted to Nicholas Bayly in 1799. It was bought by Eugène Delange around 1850 and subdivided into the Eugénie Estate. Around the early 1880s, land that now makes up most of Putney Park passed to Phillip Walker who sold it in 1884 to Francis Wright.

Wright built a magnificent home that he called Lunnhilda, a reference to his mother's maiden name, Lunn. He died in 1903. The property was sold to William Scrymgeour in 1908. It was Scrymgeour who named the property Dudhope after a castle in Dundee, Scotland. This castle was for three centuries the residence of the Scrymgeour family who were Constables of Dundee. [24] In 1920, it was sold to John Connolly with a mortgage held by Richardson and Wrench. Eventually, Richardson and Wrench sold part of the land to Emanuel Silva in 1926 and to William Tilly in 1928. In 1928, both Silva and Tilly sold their land to Ryde Council for 'public recreation'.

During the Depression years, Dudhope became a focal point of the district. Dances were held in the house and mini-golf played in the grounds. It was a popular spot for picnickers. The house became derelict and was finally demolished in 1942.

If you stroll over the spot today, you will see steps and retaining walls, exotic plants, a circular garden and a capped cistern, once part of the house's water supply.

Cleves was a fine stone house near the waterfront and was originally built by John Bayley Darvall, the son of Major Edward Darvall who had come to the district in 1840, and acquired the site for Cleves in 1848, later giving it to his son. The estate had been the eastern portion of James Squire's Brewery near Kissing Point. Cleves was sited on the south-western corner of what is now Charles and Waterview streets.

In 1852, John Bayley Darvall sold the property to Charles Blaxland, the third son of Gregory and Elizabeth Blaxland of Brush Farm. Charles was born in 1810 and was their first Australian-born child. He would have grown up at Brush Farm. He married Elizabeth Russell. Two of Charles's elder brothers also lived in the Ryde district – John at the Hermitage and George at Ryde. His eldest sister, Elizabeth, resided at Brush Farm with her husband Dr Thomas Forster and their family.

Charles returned to Sydney in 1852 as a successful grazier. As he had grown up in the Ryde area, he bought a home in the district. That was the gentleman's residence, Cleves, where he lived for the rest of his life.

From baptismal archives at St Anne's, Ryde, we have a record of the children born while the Blaxlands lived at Cleves. The first born, a daughter, Bertha, was baptised in June1852, then Russell in October 1854, Edwin in September 1856, Harold Forster, in October 1858, Ernest Gregory in June 1862 and a daughter, Fanny Eliza in July 1864.

Charles Blaxland died 2 August 1888 and Elizabeth on 17 August 1889 at Cleves. [25]

In summary, Putney is developing as an upwardly mobile community, a considerable leap from when it was known as 'Struggle Town'. This nomenclature was current when author Alex McAndrew was growing up in Putney. Then it was a solid working class suburb where its residents struggled to meet their financial commitments, especially during the great depression of the 1930s.While it threw off its 'struggle' descriptor after the end of World War II, it still remained an affordable place to buy real estate and renovate if necessary. But almost from the beginning of the twenty-first century, the lure of a healthier river, as well as the removal of the gasworks at Mortlake and its replacement with high value apartments on a sculptured landscape, has seen Putney gradually change out of its working class overalls and into white collars and ties. Houses, instead of being renovated are now generally demolished, and modern, often two-storey, multi-garaged homes, with little garden, have replaced the originals, especially where a there is a glimpse of the river.

Putney's attraction certainly lies in its proximity to the Parramatta River and its foreshores, its village feel and the convenience of having a major shopping precinct close by at Ryde.

References

Graeme Andrews, Ferries of Sydney, Oxford University Press with Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1994

Gregory Blaxell, The River: Sydney Cove to Parramatta, (second edition) Halstead Press, Sydney, 2010

Philip Geeves, A place of pioneers: the centenary history of the Municipality of Ryde, Ryde Municipal Council, Ryde, New South Wales, 1970

Alex McAndrew, Putney on Parramatta: From Struggle Town to Peninsula Paradise, self-published, Epping, New South Wales, 2003

David Keenan, The Ryde Line of the Sydney Tramways System, Transit Press Sydney Tramway Museum, Sutherland NSW, 1988

MCI Levy, Wallumetta: a history of Ryde and its district, 1792–1945, self-published, Ryde, New South Wales, 1947

Megan Martin, A pictorial history of Ryde, Kingsclear Books, Alexandria, New South Wales, 1998

Kevin Shaw (ed), Historic Ryde: a guide to some significant heritage sites in the City of Ryde, Ryde District Historical Society, Ryde, New South Wales, 2002

PR Stephensen, The History and Description of Sydney Harbour, Rigby, Adelaide,
1966

Notes

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