Berry Island
Location: Wollstonecraft, SydneyLocated at the end of Shirley Road, Wollstonecraft, Berry Island, which was joined to the mainland by early white settlers, is one giant midden, a dumping ground of shells, bones and refuse from centuries of meals enjoyed here by the local Aborigines. Berry Island remains the most rugged and natural of Sydney s Islands. Two kilometres upsteam from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the island s caves and middens are still carpeted with shells collected by generations of Aborigines who once dwelt around the shores of Sydney Harbour.
The island held great cultural significance to their occupants, the Cadigal and Wangal tribes, as evidenced by a vast sea creature carved into a flat grey ceremonial rock on the forested island a short paddle from the shore. The carving today is almost as faded as the dreamtime stories it evokes, of victories for the Camaraigal people whose culture was decimated soon after the arrival of European settlers in 1788.
The Europeanisation of the island and the peninsula on the end of which it sits, began in 1819 when British merchants Edward Wollstonecraft and Alexander Berry settled in Sydney. Wollstonecraft took up a 524 acres grant that included present day Wollstonecraft. He built a house on the highest point, and named it Crows Nest, a name which is still in use today. Berry received a much smaller land grant next to Wollstonecraft s, which included the island which now bears his name.
Berry rarely visited the place - his interests were in pastoral properties in the Shoalhaven district, and it was perhaps his lack of interest in developing the island that has seen in stay in its natural state. After he died age 91, the property was passed to his sister. By this time, the waters around the island were popular among fishermen, and had become an official breaking up ground for derelict ships. Many skeletons of ships still rest in the deep water surrounding the island.
In the early 19th century, Berry Island was attached to the land of Edward Wollstonecraft by a stone causeway over mud flats (now reclaimed as lawns). The island was dedicated as a nature reserve for public recreation in 1926. Today there are public toilets, picnic areas, seats and benches and a children s playground, but care has been taken not to let these creature comforts encroach on the natural beauty of this small island. This award-winning Gadyan Track is a 20-minute bushwalking track around the island, guided by interpretative signage detailing the island s Aboriginal and European history.
Gadyan Track: Follow the Gadyan Track and learn the story of the Cammeraigal who used the area as a campsite. Sites include numerous middens and a carving of a giant sea creature, a waterhole and axe grinding grooves. Regular walking tours of the Gadyan Track are conducted by the North Sydney Council (Tel 02 9936 8100), the guide being the Council s Aboriginal Heritage Officer.
How to get there: If arriving by car, turn off the Pacific Highway at Shirley Road, North Sydney, and follow it to it s end. There is limited street parking. By public transport it is a short five to ten minute walk from Wollstonecraft railway station.
Berry Creek Reserve: The walking track from Smoothey Park through Milray Reserve to Berry Island passes through one of a number of delightful pockets of natural bushland on Sydney Harbour's Lower North Shore. It s easy to forget how close you are to the heart of the Sydney and North Sydney business districts walking along the bush track which follows Berry Creek to the harbour foreshore. The ripple of the water as it cascades over the rocks and the natural vegetation of the valley is what you would expect to hear and see in the middle of some rural bushland paradise, not the heart of a city like Sydney. It is only the sight of the oil tanks of Gore Cove when they come into view that jolts one back to the reality of how close this natural oasis is to the city that surrounds it.
UBD Map 6 Ref J 1. Smoothey Park, Milray Avenue, Wollstonecraft.
How to get there: train to Wollstonecraft station. Entry to park via Milray Ave.
If you enjoy the Berry Reserve bushwalk and would like more of the same, similar harbourside walking paths are located at Berry Island Reserve; Gore Creek Reserve, Northwood; Tambourine Bay Reserve, Riverview; Boronia Park, Gladesville; Buffalo Creek Reserve, North Ryde; Harrott Park; Sirius Cove Reserve; Athol Bay and Taylors Bay, Mosman.
