Lost Sydney: Glebe Island
Location: Glebe, SydneyOne would never know today that there once existed an island to the north of Rozelle Bay were it not for the existence of the Glebe Island Bridge. The area to the north of the western approach to the bridge is what used to be Glebe Island before being joined to the mainland when the grain handling facilities were first installed there in the 1920s.
Prior to that, the island was part of land granted to First Fleet chaplain Reverend Richard Johnson as church land where it remained as a 12 hectare island covered in thick tea trees, scrub, gum and oak trees until 1842 when it was subdivided and sold. In 1852, a stock yard and abattoir were developed on part of the island and remained in operation until the construction of the grain terminal.
Glebe Island and White Bay has of late been a key facility in the NSW transport and logistics network. It has been Sydney s principal centre for receiving, storing and distributing imported motor vehicles and dry bulk goods and has a total of 9 berths.
Glebe Island, 1857. W.G. Mason
The rocky outcrop known as Glebe Island was originally accessible from the Balmain shoreline only at low tide, until a causeway was laid in the 1840s. Surveyor William Wells created a subdivision for the Balmain end of the island in 1841, with four intended streets and six sections containing a total of 86 lots. The subdivision did not eventuate. In 1850 1854, Colonial Architect Edmund Blacket designed stone buildings for a public abattoir on the island. According to Joan Kerr, Blacket s chosen architecture was Norman in inspiration round-headed openings and simple decoration. Kerr states that the abattoir was almost certainly based on an American design.
On 7th September 1860, Balmain Council resolved to approach the owners of the unsold parts of the Balmain Estate for a grant of land to build a road to the island. The Pyrmont Bridge Company built a low-level timber-framed bridge that connected the island to Pyrmont, and thus to the city, in 1862.
The abattoirs featured prominently in the 1882 Royal Commission into noxious and offensive trades, instigated by complaints from Balmain and Glebe Point residents. The commission found that in 1882, 524,415 sheep, 69,991 cattle, 31,269 pigs and 8,348 calves were slaughtered there.
On 28th June 1903 a new bridge to Pyrmont, designed by Percy Allan, Assistant Engineer for Bridges in the NSW Department of Public Works, opened. Like the ground-breaking Pyrmont Bridge being built at the same time, the second Glebe Island Bridge was a swing bridge swivelling on a massive central stone pivot-pier with timber-trussed side spans. The two bridges, both of which were openned using tram motors, are among the few remaining structures standing as monuments to Allan's skill.
From 1912, the Sydney Harbour Trust (later Maritime Services Board) planned broadside wharfage at Balmain East and along the southern shore of Balmain, including Glebe Island. Also in 1912 the Metropolitan Meat Industry Board resolved to abolish the abattoirs and build a new facility at Homebush. By 1915 Robert Saunders, the Pyrmont quarry master, had been commissioned to level the island to make it suitable for wharves. Saunders firm dumped a great quantity of excavated ballast at the eastern end of the island for wharfage. Many cubic feet of quality dimension stone, however, were carefully cut away and almost certainly used for construction projects. Some 250 of Saunders men were still working on the island in 1920. Glebe Island was an early success for the Harbour trust. Wharves were built on three sides of the levelled rocky outcrop from 1912. The reconstructed fourth side was attached to the Rozelle shoreline as part of the extensive reclamation of Rozelle Bay and White Bay which had begun in the 1890s.
Glebe Island became the site of a grain elevator and tall concrete silos, operated from 1921 by the Grain Elevators Board of NSW. The 1958 Australian Encyclopaedia records that the bulk wheat terminal had a capacity of 7,500,000 bushels (202,500 tonnes). During World War II much of the island was commandeered for the main United States army depot in Sydney. Bulk handling of grain continued until 1990 when the wheat terminal was transferred to Port Kembla and the wharfage remodelled for containerised cargo. Some silos were demolished, while from 1991 Australian Cement (now Cement Australia) used 16 of them as a bulk cement terminal. These are now heritage-listed.
In the 1990s a high-level, cable-stayed, reinforced concrete six-lane bridge spanning 345 metres between two 120-metre towers was built above the older Allan-designed Glebe Island Bridge. Named ANZAC Bridge, the arterial structure opened on 3 December 1995. Until November 2008, the island was the Australian Amalgamated Terminals (AAT) facility for imported motor vehicles.
White Bay, on Sydney Harbour, lies between Glebe Island and the suburb of Balmain. The bay is named after John White, the naval surgeon aboard the First Fleet to Australia in 1788. Since the nineteenth century the bay has been used for water-based transport and industrial activities. In conjunction with adjacent Glebe Island it has been a multi-purpose port, owned and controlled by the Government of New South Wales since 1901. White Bay was the first port in New South Wales to handle containerised shipping, from 1969. Container handling moved out of White Bay in late 2004, relocating to Darling Harbour.
White Bay Cruise Terminal, just west of Anzac Bridge at Balmain, opened in April 2013, and takes care of smaller cruise liners that are able to pass underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, leaving the Overseas Passenger Terminal on West Circular Quay to handle larger vessels. The terminal is located near the iconic Anzac Bridge and best accessed from James Craig Road in Rozelle. Most cruise lines offer customers the option to book a transfer from/to Sydney Airport or Central Station in Sydney. The White Bay terminal has the capacity to hold three cruise ships simultaneously. White Bay is also used for marine refuelling.
Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays are part of a chain of bays which branch off the head of Sydney Harbour to the west of The Rocks/Millers Point peninsula. The growth of Sydney in the 19th century, combined with the lack of space for the development of shipping facilities on Sydney Cove, forced shipping companies to look east of Sydney Cove and exploit the extensive deep waters of White, Johnstons, Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays and Darling Harbour. Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay continue as two of the few remaining working parts of Sydney Harbour and use of the bays by commercial and recreational operators has formed part of economic development.
Rozelle Bay was named because of the large number of Rosellas seen here. These bird were originally named Rose Hillers as they were first seen around the settlement of Rose Hill.
Blackwattle Bay is located between the Pyrmont Peninsula and the foreshores of Glebe. The foreshore area is approximately 1.3 hectares in area, part of which is reclaimed land with wharf structures built on piles over submerged land. At the time of the arival of the first British colonists at Sydney Cove in 1788, what is now Wentworth Park was low lying mangrove swamplands which the colonists named Black Wattle Swamp. The name was noted in an early survey by colonial Surveyor-General, Charles Grimes.
The swamp was fed by Black Wattle Swamp Creek, which rose in a swamp where Prince Alfred Park is today and passed the old brewery on Broadway - it was the brewery's water supply and the reason for the plant being located there. The creek then followed the line of Blackfriars Street, entering Blackwattle Bay where the Sydney City Council Depot in William Henry Street now stands.
