Historical Context
The area now known as Springwood was originally occupied by the Aurang-ora band of the inland Dharug people.
 |
| Aurang Jack, chief of Springwood and his two wives |
Crossing the Blue
Mountains
On Tuesday, May 11, 1813, Mr. Gregory Blaxland, Mr. William Went worth, and Lieutenant Lawson, attended by four servants, with five dogs, and four horses laden with provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries, left Mr. Blaxland's farm at the South Creek, for the purpose of endeavouring to effect a passage over the Blue Mountains.
On 13th May the explorers reached the vicinity of Springwood, “After travelling about a mile on the third day, in a west and north-west direction, they arrived at a large tract of forest land, rather hilly, the grass and timber tolerably good, extending, as they imagine, nearly to Grose Head, in the same direction nearly as the river. They computed it at two thousand acres. Here they found a track marked by a European, by cutting the bark of the trees. Several native huts presented themselves at different places. They had not proceeded above two miles, when they found themselves stopped by a brushwood much thicker than they had hitherto met with. This induced them to alter their course, and to endeavour to find another passage to the westward; but every ridge which they explored proved to terminate in a deep rocky precipice; and they had no alternative but to return to the thick brushwood, which appeared to be the main ridge, with the determination to cut a way through for the horses next day. This day some of the horses, while standing, fell several times under their loads. The dogs killed a large kangaroo. The party encamped in the forest tract, with plenty of good grass and water.
Extracts
from ‘Journal
of a tour of discovery across the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, in the year
1813’, by Gregory Blaxland
On 25th April,
1815 Governor Lachlan Macquarie
set out with his wife Elizabeth and a party of ten including officers, civil
servants and prominent citizens, to travel over the newly constructed road to
Bathurst. In his journal he recorded the naming of Springwood, the accompanying
artist John Lewin was among the party and painted the scene.
We then Halted at three O’clock in a very pretty wooded Plain near a Spring of very good fresh Water and Pitched our tents near the side of the Road. This Stage is 12 Miles from Emu Ford and our first on the Mountains - The Place being very pretty I have named it "Spring - Wood.
Capt. Henry Colden
Antill recorded a more enchanting portrait of the location where they lingered
until late the following day, in his
journal while en route with the Governor:
After riding 7 ½ miles further we arrived
about 3 o'clock at our first encampment, the road tolerably good the whole way
from Emu Ford. We found all our baggage, caravans, and servants safely arrived
before us, and drawn up in regular order to receive us, which they did with
three cheers. . . . After tea, took a short distance in the wood to enjoy the
novelty of the scene around me, and this being our first encampment it may not
be amiss to describe our situation. We were encamped in an extensive forest of
large lofty trees, mostly of stringy and iron-bark. Our party had formed into
different groups, each having a large fire of its own. . . . Some were busily
engaged cooking, others were smoking, making their huts or cutting down timber
for fuel and reminded me, by their various occupations, of what I had read of a
camp of gipsies or the bivouac of a continental army.
“Thursday, April 27th: . . . Before we left the
ground, the Governor and Mrs. Macquarie and a few more walked down to the
spring where we had been supplied with water, situated about half a mile down a
deep glen. In rainy seasons the water might be had much nearer. There appears a
water course at the back of the encampment which extends down to a spring
issuing from a rock. The water (of the spring first mentioned), is good, but
something of a mineral quality. From this spring and the surrounding forest the
Governor gave the name of SPRINGWOOD to this station. We did not leave this
place till 12 o 'clock. ...
 |
| The Springwood spring, Meg Turner left, Bert Honeysett right (SHS 551) |
The spring is still there and may be visited in Birdwood Gully Park on the north side of
the Great Western Highway.
 |
| Springwood Map 1882 (PF 671) |
A military post was
established almost at once on the south side of William Cox's newly constructed
Western Road in 'a fine forest of tall trees, with some little grass
between', as Barron Field described it in 1822. Although the first
land-grant in Springwood was made in 1834, development of a village did not
commence until the 1840s.
The founding father of the village was Thomas
Boland, a former constable in the Irish police force who arrived in the Colony
in 1838 and came to Springwood in 1843, where he held the position of Superintendent
of Road-gangs at the military stockade. The stockade, located to the north side
of the road, was discontinued soon afterwards and in 1845 Boland bought the
strategically placed site and developed the officers' quarters into the
Springwood Inn. (SP 007)
With the gold discoveries over the Mountains in
the early 1850s, traffic on the western road increased and Springwood soon
developed into a busy settlement with consequent growth in population, but
still in 1866 it did not rate a mention in Bailliere's Gazetteer of NSW.
The critical turning point for Springwood, as
for other Mountain villages, was the coming of the western railway in the later
1860s. When the track was opened as far west as Wentworth Falls in 1867, Thomas
Boland was appointed the first station-master at Springwood and a platform was
built in 1868.
During the 1870s the village progressed so that
a public school was necessary in 1878 and a police presence in the following
year, while postal services had begun in 1877. A new hotel, the Springwood
Hotel (later the Oriental) was opened in 1877 and Thomas Boland built the Royal
Hotel opposite the railway station in 1881: these two hotels have continued to
serve local and visitors until the present day.
Shops began to multiply and wealthy Sydney
professional people were tempted to the cool air of Springwood. These country
retreats included Charles Moore's Moorecourt of 1876, John Fraser's Silva Plana
of 1881, James Norton's Euchora of 1884 and James Lawson's Braemar of 1892.
By 1888, therefore, Springwood was well
established as 'a favourite resort of visitors to the Blue Mountains', and its
core commercial centre was taking shape along the main road beside the railway
(now known as Macquarie Road and Ferguson Road). Churches were soon built,
Christ Church Anglican in 1888-9, the first St Thomas Aquinas Catholic in 1892
and the Frazer Memorial Presbyterian in 1895.
The core village contained an interesting
mixture of commercial premises, workers' cottages, churches and quite grand
houses. The east end of the present Macquarie Road, the entry to the village
from Sydney, was and remains the superior residential part of the area, with
its four family homes erected on the 24 hectares owned by the Lawson family,
set within the original garden and orchard area of the Oriental Hotel. The land
opposite on the northern side of Macquarie Road was an undeveloped part of John
Frazer's ‘Silva Plana’ estate, and remained vacant until the Catholic Church
was transferred there in 1919 and Buckland Park and the Bowling Green were
established in 1936.
One’s first
impressions of Springwood are exceedingly pleasant, and we can honestly state
that subsequent explorations only serve to confirm them. Pausing at the
station, which, by the way, is one of the prettiest upon the line, and quite in
harmony with its surroundings, one’s eye rests upon a road of a warm red colour
and sidewalks shaded with the dense blue-grey foliage of turpentine trees, the
scene flanked at each side with cosy buildings of wood and stone. Even the
police-station exhibits a display of taste, and everything seems in harmony. Up
the road, on the left, is a substantial school-house, from the windows of which
issue the sweet sounds of many voices.
To the right from
the station runs a road faced by a few cottages; in the middle distance the
pretty villa belonging to Mrs Hoare, set in the midst of garden and green
sward, and, further still, a background of forest trees, between which one
obtains glimpses of blue mountains.
From The Illustrated Sydney News, 3 October
1889.
Macquarie Road
 |
| Central Springwood showing Bathurst Rd. c. 1915 |
As far back as 1936
the section of Macquarie Road that passes through the shopping centre was known
locally as Macquarie’s road, although it was a part of the main road to
Bathurst. Originally it followed closely the 1813 track of the Three Explorers
and later William Cox’s road of 1815 and was also known variously as Cox’s
Road, Bathurst Road, The Western Road, Main Western Road, Main Western Highway
and Great Western Highway. With the realignment of 1968 the highway bypassed
the shopping centre and a new name was needed.
The Springwood
Historical Society suggested it be renamed Macquarie Road to commemorate the
town’s founder; and the section on the north side of the railway line to the
Moorecourt Road intersection, to be named Ferguson Road after a local family
who operated a general store and blacksmith in the location. The section west
of the rail underpass near the railway station had changed from Railway Parade
to Macquarie Road in 1945. The new names were officially adopted in October
1969.
 |
| Macquarie Rd 1964 (SHS 85a) |
The Sites
Numbers in square
brackets following the name refer to the Springwood Historical Society ‘Historical
Culture Walk’ brass plaques usually mounted on the kerb, where they exist.
Numbers in Macquarie Rd are the corresponding street numbers.
The walk commences
at the eastern end of the shopping centre at ‘Glen Lawson’ 100 Macquarie Rd, then
continues along the south side of Macquarie Rd through the shopping centre,
crosses the railway line at the pedestrian crossing gates, along Ferguson Rd,
through the commuter car park and the railway pedestrian underpass then along
the northern side of Macquarie Rd to Buckland Park and the War Memorial finishing
at the Springwood Sports Club opposite Braemar.
 |
| Danebury c. 1910 (PF 3111) |
The house known as
Glen Lawson for most of its existence reflects the coming of age of Springwood
as a residential village at the end of the nineteenth century. Glen Lawson has
special features, as a grand family and retirement home on a very large urban
holding of 24 hectares (60 acres) which was only very gradually over the first
third of the twentieth century broken up into spacious residential allotments
specifically for members of the Lawson family. The Lawson family, James Hunter,
who established a major furniture business in Sydney, and his sons William
Maxwell, who contributed his woodworking skills to the Presbyterian Church in
Springwood and James Robert, who created the well-known firm of Lawson
Auctioneers in Sydney, constitute a significant success story of Scots in New
South Wales with residences in the Blue Mountains.
Glen Lawson was
built around 1895 by James Hunter Lawson and his Australian-born wife, Emma
Glen, deftly combining the couple's surnames. James Lawson was a Scottish
cabinet-maker, born in Greenock in 1836, who had immigrated to Australia in
1855. He worked initially in Sydney, married Emma Glen of Pyrmont in 1857 and
became licensee of the Royal Oak inn in Pyrmont in the following year. He
reverted to his original craft in the 1860s and in the 1870s established a
successful furniture factory in Newtown, with premises later also in William
Street in the city.
The Lawsons
prospered and in 1890 purchased 24 hectares (60 acres) of land in Springwood,
part of a 32 hectare (80 acre) block owned by Frank Raymond. Raymond had
acquired this land, portion 52, later portion 2a, Magdala parish, county Cook,
in 1878 and had built the Springwood Hotel on the site of the present Oriental,
but left the rest of the land to the east along Macquarie Road
undeveloped.
When Lawson bought
his 24 hectares (60 acres) of Raymond's grant, he remodelled the existing hotel
in 1890-1 and renamed it the Oriental, while in 1892 he built Braemar as a
holiday residence for himself and family immediately east of the hotel, on the
western part of the extensive orchard and garden area serving the needs of the
hotel.
After about three
years, Lawson built a larger house, Glen Lawson, next door to Braemar, which
was initially occupied by his married daughter, Flora Urquhart, and
subsequently leased to a variety of tenants. Glen Lawson then became the
principal residence for James and Emma Lawson until their deaths in 1926.
Although the rates
for Glen Lawson after 1907 were in the name of Flora Urquhart, who was by then
widowed, she was merely named as heir in remainder and on her death her son
Ernest, a local dentist, transferred back these Urquhart rights to James Lawson
in 1914. When James died in 1926 (and his widow the following day), Glen Lawson
passed to his third son, William Maxwell. The eldest son, James Robert Lawson,
had created his own auctioneering business in Sydney in 1886, which still
flourishes under the Lawson name, and played only a social role in Springwood.
He survived his parents by only seven months.
The new owner in
1926, William Lawson, was a prominent Presbyterian, sixty years of age, who had
previously lived in another house nearby, The Knoll, 86-88 Macquarie Road. He
was, like his father, a cabinet-maker, and had used his skills to manufacture
the fine pulpit, communion table and chairs which still adorn the Frazer
Memorial Presbyterian Church at 158 Macquarie Road. He remained a prominent
adherent of the kirk and used his own car to drive the visiting supply ministers,
during the years 1925 to 1942 when there was no settled minister at Springwood
and when he was too old to drive, loaned his car to them instead.
Like his father,
William Lawson lived long. Around 1946, when he was eighty, he sold Braemar
next door to the Platts, who had been running it as a guesthouse, and on
William's death soon afterwards his son Ernest Alexander leased Glen Lawson to
a local doctor, Walter McPherson Roberts, in 1947. After sorting out the
estate, the three sons of William, Ernest, who was a postmaster, Raymond Glen,
a bank manager and James Alan, a clerk, all resident in Sydney, finally sold
the property to Dr Roberts in 1950.
In 1990 Glen Lawson
was renamed Danebury, housing the New Danebury Gallery, where works of art were
exhibited. The gallery has now closed and the house is once more a private
residence, retaining the name Danebury.
Danebury, formerly
known as Glen Lawson is probably the finest federation house in Springwood. An
excellent example of a federation bungalow, the house features well detailed
brickwork, interesting roof forms and fine timberwork. With its neighbouring
house Braemar, the house illustrates the good taste of its builder James Lawson
and the continued success of the Lawsons in Springwood. The house is also
important as one of a group of substantial houses with large gardens on the
south side of Macquarie Road overlooking Buckland Park.
 |
| Braemar c. 1900 (PF 123) |
Braemar, 104 Macquarie Rd [14]
Braemar reflects the
growth and maturation of Springwood village in the last decade of Victoria’s
reign. As an elegant retreat for a prosperous Sydney family, it is
representative of a feature of the Blue Mountains at the time. It is less usual
in being superseded quickly by a grander house for the same family next door
and in being thereafter leased for half a century by the family as a residence
for professional men and their families or as a guesthouse.
When Lawson bought
this land in 1890, he acted first to develop the Oriental Hotel into a larger,
two-storied building and then in May 1892 he had the Sydney architect G.A. Down
draw up plans for a country retreat to be built over the west end of the
orchard-garden. These plans and elevation have never left Braemar and show the
present house with an extensive service wing at the south-west rear corner
which has been demolished and has been replaced by the lending library. The
plasterer was George Ismay, the bricklayer A.H. Panton: the plumber and
carpenter also signed Down’s plans, but the names are not legible.
Braemar was completed
later in 1892 and was used by the Lawsons as a mountain retreat. In 1895 James
and Emma Lawson and their married daughter, Flora Urquhart, were occupying the
house when the verandah was used for Presbyterian church services pending the
construction of the Frazer Memorial Church, but the Lawsons had decided to
build next door to the east a grander, permanent home for James’s retirement
and when Glen Lawson was completed in 1895 or 1896, Braemar was leased for the
next fifty years to a series of tenants.
The first tenant was
a nurse, Lonie Treble, a Lawson family friend, who converted the house to a
convalescent hospital briefly in 1896-7. After a short reoccupation by the
Lawson family - James’s son William Maxwell spent his honeymoon in Braemar in
May 1897 - the house was leased to Thomas Garrett, a lawyer who had been an
outstanding international cricketer. Garrett and his family used Braemar as
their home until about 1907.
In 1908 Braemar was
a guesthouse run by Mrs Mulvey for an unknown period. Between 1918 and his
death in 1923 Dr Andrew O’Flanagan was tenant, using the house both as a family
residence and as his surgery. From 1924 onwards, however, Braemar reverted to
being a guesthouse, owned still by the Lawsons, James until his death in 1926
and then his son William Maxwell, until his death in 1947. The successive
proprietors of the leased guesthouse were: Gillman (1924-6), Gardiner
(c.1927-30), Ireland (1931-8) and Platt (1941-7).
Lionel and Alma
Platt were tenants when William Maxwell Lawson died in 1947 and they bought the
property from the Lawson executors, continuing to run the guesthouse until old
age overtook them in the late 1960s. They lived quietly in Braemar for a while,
but sold it in 1971 to a local estate agent, Charles Degotardi, who in turn
sold it in 1974 to the Blue Mountains City Council.
The City Council’s
library was housed in Braemar from 1974 until 1976, when the rear section of
the house was demolished and the present library erected, linked to the 1892
house. When the books were transferred to the new premises in 1976, the
Electricity Department of the Council occupied Braemar. After the change to
Prospect County Council in 1980, the new organization continued to occupy
Braemar until 1984. The City Council then decided to utilize the old house as
an art gallery and local studies centre associated with the adjacent library
and the official opening of Braemar in its present function was in March 1988.
 |
| Springwood Civic Centre 1968 |
Site of Springwood Civic Centre - now the Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub
In 1933 a determined
effort was made by the Springwood Development League to secure a public hall
for the town. Residents of long standing can recall moves for a hall even many
years earlier.
The land was
originally purchased by the former Blue Mountains Shire Council in 1938 from
the James Lawson Estate for the sum of £800. However disagreement of the local
ratepayers as to whether a hall was necessary, coupled with start of World War
II, put off further moves for definite implementation.
In 1946 the Blue
Mountains Shire Council conducted a poll of the Springwood residents to
ascertain their wishes in respect to a proposal for the borrowing of £30,000
for the erection of a Springwood War Memorial Hall, with the result that 180
recorded dissident votes whilst 90 voted in favour of the proposal.
Later that year the
Community Centre Committee submitted a proposal for a £10,000 Hall project to
the Blue Mountains Shire Council, but consideration of this had to be abandoned
because of the post-war restrictions on the use of building materials. At that
lime several organisations in Springwood were actively engaged in raising funds
for the project. The restrictions on the use of building materials remained in
force until after 1950.
Following the rapid
development of the Springwood area, the requirements for a larger hall were
renewed, and these, together with the mounting inflation that had occurred
increased the anticipated cost of the building. However as a consequence of the
economic conditions in the 1950s, loan funds had to be applied to works deemed
essential such as water, sewerage, electricity and road construction, and money
could not be allocated for a hall.
In 1958, a Committee
of three local citizens: Ald. E Lesslie. Mr. L Summerhayes and Mr. A Hall was
appointed to advise the Council, which then sought approval to borrow funds, to
supplement monies held in reserve, and finance which could be obtained from
rate revenue sources from the Springwood area to erect a public hall. The
design was submitted by local architect Mr. EN Skarratt, at an estimated cost
of £40,000 ($80,000). Again, construction had to be deferred because of the
lack of loan finance.
Finally in 1964, the
Council received Governmental approval to obtain loan funds for the provision
of a Hall and Council Administrative Offices, and in November of that year it
accepted the tender submitted by Alex Gall (Constructions) Pty. Ltd., the final
cost was $168,000. Work commenced on the building in February, 1965 and was
completed in February 1966.
The new Civic Centre
was officially opened on Saturday, March 26 1966, by the Governor of NSW, Sir
Roden Cutler, who planted a lemon-scented gum (Corymbia citriodora) and
unveiled the commemorative plaque and the Springwood Crest, designed by Norman
Lindsay. The Springwood District WWI Honor Roll, from the old Springwood School
of Arts, was also mounted in the foyer.
Planning for a new
civic centre commenced in 2012 and demolition of the old building commenced in
October 2013. The new Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub opened in March
2015. The original lemon-scented gum was removed due to poor health but its
seedlings live on.
 |
| Francis Smith headstone, Springwood Cemetery (SHS 221) |
Francis Smith Memorial
Originally in a
small park, the memorial was unveiled on 5 May 1990. Francis Smith was born in
Middlesex in 1793 and in 1813 enlisted in the 4th Foot of the Kings Own
Regiment. He fought against Napoleon in Spain and Andrew Jackson in North
America. In August 1832 he arrived in Australia and was a part of the convict
guard stationed at Mt. Victoria, Coxs River, Emu Plains, Linden and Springwood.
He died at Springwood Stockade on 5 May 1836, aged 43; originally buried at the
Springwood Stockade, his headstone was later moved to Springwood Cemetery. Survived
by a wife and daughter, his descendants are still living in Australia. The
plaque, now considerably faded, sits on a sandstone slab which was moved when
the HUB was opened in 2014 and is now located in the native garden at the front
right hand side. http://monumentaustralia.org.au/search/display/23051-private-francis-smith
 |
| Francis Smith plaque |
Oriental Hotel [15]
One of the three
hotels established in Springwood by the 1880s, the Oriental has local
significance as a century-old residential hotel with a restaurant, catering for
locals and visitors alike on the edge of the central business district,
competing successfully with the Royal. Its significance is enhanced by its half
century of ownership by the Lawson family, important as furniture-makers and as
developers of their substantial acreage in the heart of Springwood.
In 1976 Frank
Raymond built the first hotel on this site, it stood on the corner of his Crown
grant of 80 acres, on the main road to Bathurst. It was a single storey
building named the Springwood Hotel, not to be confused with the Springwood Inn
built I 1845 by Thomas Boland. Raymond used parts of the building as a store,
post office and newsagency.
In October 1889 James
Lawson (1860-1926) bought part of Raymond’s land including the Springwood Hotel.
Lawson saw the commercial opportunities of the old hotel and constructed a much
larger two storey building which he opened in 1891, with the new name of The
Oriental Hotel, the first licensee was Frank Brandon. However during the
economic downturn of the 1890s Brandon became bankrupt and a long line of
licensees followed.
In 1891 Springwood
had a permanent population of around 400, but by 1900 this was more than
doubled by railway work-gangs stationed in the area carrying out duplication of
the western railway line, originally opened as a single track in 1867. Over 900
workmen, including navvies and fettlers,
camped in tents in an area known as Canvas Town in bushland on the northern
side of the railway station and provided the town with much needed extra business,
if at times the hotels became a little rowdy on paydays.
The Oriental was
also a venue for balls, dances, social club meetings, pigeon shooting matches,
and a rendezvous for search parties combing the bush lost walkers. It has also
been remarked by older residents that James Lawson’s Presbyterian leaning encouraged
a mainly Protestant clientele to balance to the ostensibly
Catholic, Royal Hotel up near the railway station.
James Lawson’s son
William Maxwell Lawson owned the hotel for twenty years after his father’s
death in 1926 and commenced major refurbishment of the hotel in 1928. William
was also a cabinet-maker and donor to the Frazer Memorial Presbyterian Church
near the Oriental, both of which contributed to the cultural life of Springwood
in their own ways.
During World War II children
from Sydney's Burnside Homes in North Parramatta were evacuated to the Oriental
Hotel in 1942. The licensee, Wally Edwards, constructed a temporary bar on the
corner of Raymond and Macquarie Roads, later occupied by Galivante Men's shop
and now a real estate agency.
The Oriental hotel
has aesthetic significance as a surviving substantial Victorian Hotel in the
commercial centre of Springwood. While its original highly decorative character
has been compromised by various alterations, it does retain its general form
and proportions. With its location at a prominent corner in the town, it is a
local landmark and is one of the few buildings left in the commercial centre of
Springwood which give a sense of the town’s early history.
 |
| Oriental Hotel 1920 (SHS 62) |
Frazer Memorial Presbyterian Church [16]
Built with a bequest
from Hon. John Frazer of ‘Silva Plana’, Hawkesbury Rd. The foundation Stone was
laid on 17 August 1895 and the church was opened on 8 December 1895 by Rev.
John Walker of Woollahra. It is classified by the National Trust.
The Frazer Memorial
church is a striking example of Victorian philanthropy, financed entirely from
the generosity of a prosperous Presbyterian businessman in Sydney and his
widow, Elizabeth Frazer. It reflects significantly the rapid growth of the
Scottish and Northern Irish Presbyterian community in the Lower Mountains in
the last years of the nineteenth century.
The trees associated with the Frazer Memorial Church, the Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) which was grown from a seed brought back from Lebanon by Mrs Elizabeth Frazer, Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and the Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) are of high significance at a local level for their historic association with the construction of the establishment of the Church.
The design of the Frazer Memorial Church is a tribute to the important architectural firm of Slayter and Cosh.
The trees associated with the Frazer Memorial Church, the Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) which was grown from a seed brought back from Lebanon by Mrs Elizabeth Frazer, Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and the Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) are of high significance at a local level for their historic association with the construction of the establishment of the Church.
The design of the Frazer Memorial Church is a tribute to the important architectural firm of Slayter and Cosh.
 |
| Frazer Memorial Church, early postcard (PF 2413) |
The funds to build
this strikingly beautiful church derive from the bequest of 500 pounds and the
gift of 1.4 hectare (3.5 acres) in central Springwood made by John Frazer, who
died in 1884. Frazer was a successful Sydney merchant. Born in co. Down in 1827
to an artisan Presbyterian family, he had come from Ireland to seek his fortune
in Australia along with three siblings when he was fifteen years old. After a
period working in the bush, followed by a clerical position in Sydney, Frazer
opened a wholesale grocery business in 1847 and never looked back, leaving an
estate of £400,000 on his death.
Frazer's connection
with the Blue Mountains began in earnest when he built Silva Plana at
Springwood in 1881. This country retreat on the east side of Hawkesbury Road,
on a landscaped site of 14 hectares (35 acres) now partly occupied by the
Buckland retirement village, was characteristic of the Mountain estates
developed in the later Victorian period by a number of Sydney businessmen, politicians
and lawyers, including friends of Frazer's such as Sir Henry Parkes, whose son
Varney designed Silva Plana.
In 1884 Springwood
had no church of any denomination and Frazer, with the encouragement of his
friend, the Revd. James Cameron, a fellow councillor of St Andrew's College,
donated land he had acquired from Frank Raymond's grant in central Springwood,
in a very long narrow allotment, and instructed his trustees to spend 500
pounds on the building of a Presbyterian church there.
There was, however,
a long interval between Frazer's death in 1884 and the opening of the church in
1895. This was caused by the reluctance of his trustees to release the money
until it was plain that there were sufficient Presbyterians in the Springwood
area to support a minister. In 1893 the first Presbyterian services in
Springwood were held under the turpentines on the land donated by Frazer, just
where the great cedar of Lebanon stands today, then in the Oriental Hotel and
finally in 1895 on the verandah of James Lawson's Braemar. Attendance increased
dramatically from 25 to 50 to 100, and the trustees were convinced, once the
local people had guaranteed 60 pounds a year for the minister.
On 17 August 1895 the foundation stone for the church was laid by the sister of the widowed Mrs Frazer, who was abroad at the time. Memorial stones were laid by Mrs Frazer’s sister, the widow of John Frazer’s business partner, William Manson; by Mrs Rayner, wife of the Methodist storekeeper whose premises were just across the road; by Mrs Ellis, wife of John Ellis of Valley Heights, who had signed the building contract on behalf of the church; and by Mrs Flora Urquhart, the daughter of James Lawson, the Scottish cabinet-maker who had built Braemar and the Oriental Hotel, where services had been held in expectation of the building of the church.
On 17 August 1895 the foundation stone for the church was laid by the sister of the widowed Mrs Frazer, who was abroad at the time. Memorial stones were laid by Mrs Frazer’s sister, the widow of John Frazer’s business partner, William Manson; by Mrs Rayner, wife of the Methodist storekeeper whose premises were just across the road; by Mrs Ellis, wife of John Ellis of Valley Heights, who had signed the building contract on behalf of the church; and by Mrs Flora Urquhart, the daughter of James Lawson, the Scottish cabinet-maker who had built Braemar and the Oriental Hotel, where services had been held in expectation of the building of the church.
The church was
designed by the well-known Sydney firm of Slatyer and Cosh, whose plans dated
26 June 1895 survive in the archives of their successor firm, Spain, Stewart
and Lind. The original design provided for a porch, with six steps up from
either side, but no tower or spire, although a small turret above the east end
of the porch was included, but not erected. The vestry was to be at the rear,
on the east side, with no chancel. The contractor was Neil Livingston, who
worked expeditiously, employing James Wallace Park as stonemason, so that the
church was opened only three months later, on 8 December 1895.
Mrs Frazer returned
from her trip to Europe and the Near East in 1896, bearing the seed from which
the cedar of Lebanon grew beside the church, on the site of the grove of
turpentines where the first services had been held. Elizabeth Frazer was not
satisfied with the church building, however, As the Lower Blue Mountains
Presbyterian magazine commented in December 1945, Mrs Frazer immediately
had additions made and the building beautified. The present chancel and
the porch and steeple were added.
Further, she sent
her gardener [from Silva Plana] to lay out the grounds and plant the
trees, which add to the beauty of the surroundings. (Maddock, 35)
These additions were
done by the same firm of architects, but now under the name of Spain and Cosh,
and by the end of 1896 the church had been transformed into its present
appearance. Slayter and Cosh, later to become Spain and Cosh, were important
Federation architects. Amongst their body of work was Culwarra Chambers in
Macquarie Street, Sydney; Hollowforth in Neutral Bay and Glassyn at
Mosman.
The pulpit had been originally designed also by Spain and Cosh, to be carved in stone. The design was implemented but in wood, carved by William Maxwell Lawson, the craftsman son of James Lawson of Braemar.
During World War II the children who lived at the Burnside Homes, the great philanthropic enterprise in North Parramatta owned by the Presbyterian Church, were evacuated from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. Both the Buckland Hospital and the Oriental Hotel in Springwood were requisitioned to house the children and this brought heavy responsibilities to the minister and congregation of the Frazer Memorial church. The evacuation was partly organized by the distinguished theologian, Ronald G. Macintyre, who had been professor of Systematic Theology at St Andrew’s College and was now in retirement in Springwood. Macintyre had already dedicated the present manse behind the church in 1941; in the following year the hall, to the east of the church, was opened by Macintyre .
The pulpit had been originally designed also by Spain and Cosh, to be carved in stone. The design was implemented but in wood, carved by William Maxwell Lawson, the craftsman son of James Lawson of Braemar.
During World War II the children who lived at the Burnside Homes, the great philanthropic enterprise in North Parramatta owned by the Presbyterian Church, were evacuated from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. Both the Buckland Hospital and the Oriental Hotel in Springwood were requisitioned to house the children and this brought heavy responsibilities to the minister and congregation of the Frazer Memorial church. The evacuation was partly organized by the distinguished theologian, Ronald G. Macintyre, who had been professor of Systematic Theology at St Andrew’s College and was now in retirement in Springwood. Macintyre had already dedicated the present manse behind the church in 1941; in the following year the hall, to the east of the church, was opened by Macintyre .
 |
| Rayner's Store 1890s (SHS 028 |
Old Bakery Arcade, site of W.J. Rayner’s Butchery
and Bakery [17]
Elizabeth and William Rayner came to Springwood with their eleven children to set up a General Store in about 1877. They had formerly operated a tweed mill in Penrith that ceased making fine tweed in December 1879. Before the Rayners began their store there had been some kind of store, approximately where Braemar now stands, operated by James Stratton. Frank Raymond, from whom William purchased 40 acres of land, also had a store in his Springwood Hotel. However, Rayner's Store was a big enterprise, selling just about everything. An 1882 tourist publication stated:Old Bakery Arcade, site of W.J. Rayner’s Butchery and Bakery [17]
The general store of Mr W.J. Rayner will be a great boon to visitors, as
they can here be supplied at about town prices with every requisite for camping
out or arrange for the temporary occupancy of cottages; and no necessity will
exist for taking supplies from Sydney.
The store soon
expanded to incorporate a butchery and a bakery, with a large room attached to
it, known as Rayner's Hall. This was where most of the meetings and gatherings
of the town were held - the Progress Committee, various Lodges, political
gatherings, the Literary and Debating Club and concerts, despite its inadequate
size. This continued until 1893 when William found he needed the extra space
for his business. Rayner had his slaughter yards at Yellow Rock in North
Springwood and prepared tallow for sale from trimmings and poor quality
carcasses.
In December 1892
Rayner bought up a shipment of cattle that had been killed and maimed in a
goods train derailment just west of Springwood station and proceeded to boil
them down at his shop. The weather was hot and the stench pervasive, eau de
cologne was said to be at a premium and after two court sessions Rayner was
forced to move his operations to Kable’s Spring near St Columba’s, a sparsely
settled neighbourhood at that time.
In 1894 - “Mr. Rayner is constructing a Lawn Tennis
Court on his ground adjoining the store, and judging by the labour
bestowed on it, should prove a very
perfect court.”
The store
(demolished 1920s) was on the site of the present Westpac bank and also served
as the town’s first public hall. The butchery & bakery building (built
1890s) was demolished in 1983, the Old Bakery Arcade now occupies its site.
 |
| The School of Arts in 1915 at the time of the Coo-ee March (SHS 836) |
In August 1901, a
meeting was held in the Oriental Hotel to consider an offer made by Mr. Jas. R.
Lawson of a piece of ground to be used as the site for a public hall. Accepting
this offer, the meeting decided to erect a building to be used as a Mechanics
Institute and Public Hall, the cost of which was not to exceed £350. From this
move came the School of Arts and although it was in use in 1908, the official
opening by Brinsley Hall, MLA for Hawkesbury, did not take place until 5 April
1913. Fifty-six years later, in 1969, it was demolished and the site became a
car park.
In 2002 the upper
portion was established as a town square named School of Arts Square. Original
plans to incorporate a water feature were modified to a water themed sculpture,
this was later removed after it was vandalised. A memorial plaque to local
Aboriginal artist, Ian Watson (Bundeluk)
is attached to the wall near the community noticeboard. The square is well used
by the community for events and meetings. In September 2017 the tree became
known as the Love Tree and the focus of community debate
leading up to the same-sex marriage plebiscite. The original memorial plaque
from the official opening is attached to the tree planter.
 |
| Royal Hotel c.1900 (SHS 008) |
Thomas
Boland came to Springwood as superintendent of road gangs after a period as
licensee of the Weatherboard Inn at Wentworth Falls. Boland became the most
significant of the early developers of Springwood, opening the Springwood Inn
in 1845 and acquiring a good deal of land.
About 1870 Boland sold the Springwood Inn but continued to live locally and in 1881 built the Royal Hotel in Macquarie Road for his son, Thomas Edwin, to manage. In the 1891 census the occupant of the Royal is shown as Adam Mutch, along with four males and five females on the night of the census.
About 1870 Boland sold the Springwood Inn but continued to live locally and in 1881 built the Royal Hotel in Macquarie Road for his son, Thomas Edwin, to manage. In the 1891 census the occupant of the Royal is shown as Adam Mutch, along with four males and five females on the night of the census.
The hotel was
situated on a large estate, with a cottage on the west side, built by Thomas
Boland in 1876, a kitchen garden on the southern side and tennis courts on the
east side. The estate was auctioned by
Richardson & Wrench on 11th October, 1889, following the death of Thomas
Boland Sr. in March, 1889.
Lot 8 was the site
of the hotel and cottage. This was
sub-divided subsequently into Lots 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, as well as the Lot 8
on which the hotel stands.
Building development
on adjacent properties occurred as follows:
Lot 1: Shop and residence erected in 1897
Lot 2: Shop and residence, c.1892
Lot 3: 2 shops erected in the early 1920's
Lot 15: 2 shops
erected in 1902, a further shop erected on the west side in 1924
Lot 8: 3 shops and residence erected on the east
side of the hotel in 1935-36
Lot 14:
Entertainment hall next to Boland's cottage was erected in 1903, the first
moving pictures in Springwood were shown in this building.
The hall and
buildings on adjacent sites were destroyed by fire on 3rd August, 1921. A garage
was erected on the site until 1964, when the present shops were built. The
balance of Lot 14, site of Boland's cottage, had four shops erected on it in
the early 1930's.
Electricity supply
to Springwood was provided about 1924 and town water in either January, 1936 or
1937.
The original
Victorian style building appears to have been of rectilinear form, two storey
building, with basement. Two storey verandah of cast iron columns and first
floor cast iron balustrades on front and rear facades; return verandahs on part
of the east side; closed-in verandah on ground floor level on the west side.
Hipped corrugated
iron roof, with separated corrugated iron roof to verandahs, with a slight
‘bullnose’ profile.
Two brick chimneys
with corbelled brickwork and chimney pots; triangular rendered brick pediment
projects above gutter level, with inscription "ROYAL HOTEL A.D.
1881".
It appears that
significant improvements and additions were carried out from the early 1900's
to about 1909 by the then licensee, Mr E. Maidment. The following quotations
from the Nepean Times support this:
J.B. Burrows applied for licence
to be transferred to E. Maidment. Sergeant Harris objected to transfer on
grounds place was dilapidated and in unsanitary condition.
Improvements were to commence
that day. Mr Maidment swore he had agreed to carry out improvements.
Fortnight's postponement in
matter given by Bench". (11.7.1903)
Mr Maidment of the Royal Hotel
is making some big improvements f at present the hotel is a wreck. Partitions
have been removed and others put in also the acetylene gas installed. According to the plans, the Royal when
finished, will be something like up-to-date." (6.6.1908)
The front of the
hotel was dramatic in spring time in the early part of the 20th century, with
wisteria blossoms:
It is good for the eyes to
behold the Royal Hotel, with its glorious wisteria in full bloom - almost
covering the front from roof to ground."(Nepean Times 10.9.1913)
A photograph of c.1934
shows a new two storey front verandah, with no return to the east side. The
owner of the time was Herbert Tate. This verandah was probably built in the
1920's.
An 'art deco' style
facade was installed in the late 1930's, incorporating a porte cochere, to
permit motor cars to unload passengers under cover.
Extensive
renovations were carried out in 1974, including modifications to the deck area
over the porte cochere and provision of a stair connection from deck to ground
level fitted. Ensuite facilities to first floor level accommodation were also
incorporated at this time.
Licensees
The first licensee
for the Royal Hotel was Thomas Boland Jnr, from 1881. The licence was
transferred to Nicholas Heggarty in 1882.
W. T. Dickson Jnr held the licence from 1884; in 1889 J. Lummins was the
licensee, until 4th February, 1893 when F. Mennie (previously Miss Smith) took
over.
It is not certain
whether the above is a complete list of early licensees, and if there is a gap
in the list to when J. B. Burrows became the licensee (at a date unknown) he
transferred the licence to E. Maidment in July, 1903.
Again, there is a
possible gap in the names of the licensees, until 1920, when records are
available:
WILLIAMS, Harry January 1 1920
SIMONSENS, Christie February 7 1921
HUGHS, Herbert James November 16 1925
PIERCE, David September 3 1928
DWYER, William August 6 1929
HALE, Emily December 2 1929
LUMSDEN, Reginald
Louis October 20 1931
TATE, Herbert April 24 1935
ESTELL, Leah Madge September 10 1951
TATE, Herbert July 7 1952
ESTELL, Leah Madge September 8 1952
THOMPSON, William April 15 1953
THOMPSON, Geoffrey November 29 1973
SMART, James 988
MARDEN, Ronald
Leslie October 31 1988
YOUNAN, David December 17 1996
Ownership
is another matter and in 1906 Martin J. Ryan, a Sydney commercial traveller,
acquired the Royal. The new owner promptly built commercial premises, known as
Ryan House, on the Royal's tennis courts (212-218 Macquarie Road, SP 058). When
Martin Ryan died in 1924, the hotel passed to his son, a Sydney solicitor, JCJ
Ryan, who died in 1945.
In 1998 extensive changes took place in the Royal's fabric and the Brasserie, a new, fashionable restaurant, was opened at the rear of the hotel, with commanding views over Fairy Dell.
In 1998 extensive changes took place in the Royal's fabric and the Brasserie, a new, fashionable restaurant, was opened at the rear of the hotel, with commanding views over Fairy Dell.
 |
| Royal Hotel 1913 (PF 4094) |
 |
| Royal Hotel 1934 (PF 4096) |
 |
| Royal Hotel 1964 (SHS 532) |
After the Springwood Hall was destroyed
by fire on 3rd August, 1921, a Garage was built on the site. On 31st October,
1929, the property was transferred from the Estate of William Honeysett to Ted
Honeysett, who for the next ten years conducted the business known as ‘The
Station Garage and Towing Service’. Later owners of the garage included Alf
Aldridge and Stan Johnson.
 |
| Honeysett's Springwood Garage 1926 (PF 208) |
 |
| Royal Hotel top, Criterion Hotel centre, Springwood Hall right (SHS 178) |
Springwood Hall was built by
William Honeysett in 1908. It stood on the site of the later Kirklands Store. The first moving pictures
exhibited in Springwood were shown in this hall. After the hall was destroyed
by fire on 3rd August, 1921, a Garage was built on the site.
 |
| Springwood Hall 1932 (PF 3097) |
On Friday evening of last week a send-off was tendered to Private Tom Brett, in the Springwood Hall. Private Brett has been employed as a fire-man at the Valley Heights depot. On learning that he had decided to enlist his mates determined to suitably recognise the event of his departure.
Nepean Times 29.7.1916
 |
| Macquarie Rd 1990 showing the Arnold shop right, Oxley's pharmacy centre (SHS 693) |
One of the earliest
surviving buildings in this stretch of Macquarie Rd. A two storey interwar
building with 'E N Arnold' and 'Kinkara Tea' sign painted high on the western wall, now
partly obscured by modern graffiti.
 |
| The Ferns guesthouse 1910 (SHS 180) |
Site of The Ferns Guesthouse
Built 1883 by John
Ogle who lived there with his family, later leased by Fanny Smith licensee of
the Royal Hotel and later by the Palmer family - Mr Palmer was a school master
at Springwood Public School.
Mr Ogle died in 1893
at the age of 39, and in 1897 Mrs Ogle sold it to Judge W Kippax and family for £750. The Kippax family came to reside in the Springwood area in the late
1890s, taking up residence in The Ferns. A news item in the Nepean Times in
July 1897 noted that Judge Kippax had been keeping a boarding house there for
the last twelve months and, because he was happy with the business, purchased
the property from Mr Ogle.
William Kippax
senior had married Elizabeth Robertson in 1849 and eleven children were born.
Annie R. was the first, born in 1850, followed by Eliza 1852, William 1854,
Elizabeth 1857, Edwin 1859, Frank 1862, Walter 1864, Lizzie 1867, Kate 1869,
Norman Surrey 1871 and Elsie May 1874
The 1903 electoral roll impressively listed
Norman Surrey Kippax and William Kippax as ‘men of independent means’ while
Eliza, Elizabeth, Elsie May and Lizzie were noted as performing mere domestic
duties. This seems ironic when one considers that the women of the family, and
in particular Lizzie, were the driving forces behind the operation of The Ferns
as a guesthouse.
In 1941 Miss Hazel
Wordsworth celebrated her 18th birthday there.
In December 1943,
Mrs Marjorie Frances Broomhead, wife of Mr John Charles Broomhead, "The
Ferns," Bathurst Road, Springwood, fell to her death from the cliffs at
the Gap, Watson's Bay. She was 34 years of age and had been in ill-health, she left
a daughter, Edle.
The last known guest
house proprietor was Mrs Breen in 1938. In the early 1950s it was occupied by Herbert
Tully, ladies hairdresser. The Ferns was demolished around 1955. Several
commercial premises, including the RSPCA shop and Blue Mountains Credit Union
now occupy the site.
 |
| Rest Park 1965 (PF 561) |
This park is situated in Macquarie Road,
opposite the subway at the
western end of the Springwood Shopping Centre. This land was part of Thomas
Boland's Portion: 1A which he had acquired on 7th January, 1862.
The Boland family in 1885 donated a block of
land and the sum of £100 for the purpose of erecting a Roman Catholic Church in
Springwood. When Rev. Father McGough took charge of the Blue Mountains Parish
in August, 1890, there was an amount of £164 ready for the building of the
church.
A contract was let to Mr Frederick Lawrence for
a weatherboard, iron-roofed Church 40 feet by 20 feet, with a 12 feet by 10
feet vestry at a cost of £160. A paling fence around the ground cost £20. In
January, 1892 the Church of St Thomas was blessed and opened by Dr Higgens,
Auxiliary Bishop.
The congregation was small at first but as it
grew a larger Church became necessary. The block of land on which the building
stood was too small for extensions to be built so in 1918, the present Church
site was purchased from the Frazer estate for the sum of £800, and the new
Church was erected and opened in 1919.
To provide school accommodation the old building
was in 1921 removed and re-erected alongside the new building. (This building
has now been demolished)
With the Church no longer requiring the land it
was resumed by the then Blue Mountains Shire Council and gazetted for public
recreation on 15th June, 1923; the Church receiving 150 pounds compensation.
In June 1924 The Nepean times reported:
The new Rest Park is taking shape and Mr. Jack Johnson, who carried out
the improvements, on behalf of the Urban Committee, has done his work well. The
Horticultural Society has donated a handsome garden seat for the Park. Who'll
give another?
In September, 1924 efforts were made to lease
the land and erect a Soldiers' Memorial Hall. The Shire Council referred this
to the Springwood Urban Committee, who rejected the proposal, stating they had
already spent a large amount of money to establish a park on the site.
In August 1947 the Springwood Urban committee
remarked that the Shire Council “ in view of the Committee's frequent requests,
has now completed public conveniences situated in Rest Park, for which we
express our appreciation.”
Recent plans to rezone the park for possible development have been unpopular - http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/5312025/no-burial-for-springwoods-rest-park-after-all/
 |
| Fire Station 1985 (PF 2332a) |
This site was
originally occupied by the railway station master's residence. Springwood's
first fire station was in Jerseywold Avenue, this was followed by one opposite
the Post Office. It was then bought by the New South Wales Board of Fire Commissioners in 1951 after
severe bush fires had demonstrated that the 1937 Fire Brigade premises in the
shopping area were insufficient.
In 1951 the building was renovated for its new
purpose and a shed was built to house fire equipment. In 1958 a complete
remodelling of the former stationmaster's house was undertaken to provide 'a
modern fire station, featuring washroom, amenities hall, meeting room, kitchen
and store rooms', with a motorised pump and a water tanker housed in another
building to the side.
In 1986 the site was cleared and the building,
with its foundations, was demolished to permit the construction of the present
fire station. This new station, designed by Davey, Brindley and Vickers Pty Ltd
of Neutral Bay, and built by Welch Bros of Wetherill Park, was much larger,
with space for four fire-fighting appliances, a mess, an activities room, a
store, a kitchen and shower room.
Site of the Roxy Theatre, Springwood Boys &
Girls Club - 288-290 Macquarie Rd
During World War I the Goldsmith family of
Katoomba owned the whole of lot 7 in section 1 of the sub-division of western
Springwood. They built a cottage on part of the allotment and used the
remainder as a wood yard.
In 1923 George Goldsmith jnr and John Ephraim
Goldsmith sold the entire allotment to Harry Williams of Springwood, who built
a fairly basic amusement hall on the wood yard site, seating 450 people. This
Plaza Picture Show opened in February 1923, showing films on Wednesday and
Saturday evenings.
Later in the 1920s Williams divided the
allotment, selling the cottage to the local baker, Henry Taber, and the picture
theatre to Mrs Yvonne Saul, who was succeeded in 1930 by her daughter, Miss
Lilian Jean Saul. Lilian Saul lived on the north coast of New South Wales, at
South West Rocks, and in 1933 sold her inherited Springwood investment to
William Woodrick of Haberfield, who was already involved in the cinema
business. (Rate Books)
In 1936 -7 Woodrick remodelled the old Plaza
(described as a large barn without a roof) into the fashionable Roxy,
redesigned in 'Continental modem style, suitable for Neon and floodlighting',
with a 'streamlined' interior and a new front vestibule. The architects for the
transformation were well-known theatre designers Guy Crick and Bruce Furse. It
was hailed in autumn 1937 as 'an up-to-date amusement hall... [which] will be
the scene of many balls and social functions during the winter. (Nepean Times,
1 April 1937; Katoomba Daily, 30 July 1936)
It is not known when
the Roxy Theatre eventually closed its doors as a picture show, but it
eventually found a new life as a children’s sports club.
On 12th January, 1956 a town meeting in the Roxy Theatre was addressed by Ald. K.
C. Bates. (President of the Blackheath Boys' Club) who stressing the need for a
similar club to be formed in the Springwood District.
The speech was met by great acclamation and the meeting was then addressed by the local Alderman, Ald. Manners on the same lines. It was then moved by Mr F. Watson and seconded by Mr H. Townsend that a club named the Springwood & District Citizens' Boys' Club, be formed. This motion was discussed and a suggestion put that the name be changed to read Youth Club, this amendment was defeated by vote and the club was formed. The initial aims to “afford the boys an opportunity of participating in healthy recreation and to be taught the principles of good citizenship.”
By the end of 1956, the club had a large number
of boys involved in activities. They were running games nights, Physical
Training nights and had three football teams. Numerous Carnival days had been
held at Lomatia Park and competitions organised between the club and other
clubs, schools etc. Sometime in 1956 activities were switched from the Church
of England hall to the RSL Hall.
The year 1958 saw the club grow further in
numbers with more equipment being purchased. It also saw the club move its
activities to the Springwood School of Arts located in what is now the car park next to the Westpac Bank below the
present Town Square.
In 1958, a separate Springwood Girls Club was
formed and used the same premises and equipment as the boys club, with which it
eventually merged. In 1963 the combined club now known as the Springwood Boys
and Girls club, had the opportunity to purchase the now run-down Roxy Theatre.
The old theatre needed much work, but by the end of 1963, the club had occupied
the building and commenced activities.
In 1964 the club finalised the purchase and this became its new home.
By the 1980s it was becoming clear that old
building was inadequate and new premises were needed. Through the strenuous
fund raising efforts of parents and volunteers, State and Federal grants and a
loan from Blue Mountains Council, a modern purpose built
permanent venue, equipped with Olympic standard gymnastic equipment (including
a full sized sprung floor) was completed for the Springwood
& District Citizens Boys & Girls Club at Valley heights in
1995.
Although the Boys and Girls Club, Roxy Theatre,
and the Plaza before it, enjoyed widespread community support as a focal point
of entertainment and children’s activities in the Springwood district, the
total destruction of the hall and its replacement by the massive Community
Health Centre in 1997 have eliminated all traces from the site.
 |
| Homedale c.1930 (SHS 248) |
The Baptist Church
is on the site of "Homedale", built for JB Hoare in 1881. In 1918
this became the Blue Mountains Grammar School. The first headmaster was EK Deane,
whose son John took over on his death in 1944.
In 1951 Deane sold
his school to the MacLaurin C of E School which had opened in Leura in 1949 and
was moving to Coorah, the former home of the Pitt family at Wentworth Falls.
The new name of Blue
Mountains CofE Grammar School was adopted. Homedale was converted into flats
and later acquired by the Baptist Church.
In 1957 a small
wooden church was bought in Sydney and re-erected in the Homedale grounds as
the first Baptist church. The present
church was opened in 1965 and, at about same time, the Wingara retirement complex.
Homedale was demolished in 1975 to expand the retirement village.
[Adjacent Homedale
St runs off Macquarie Rd.]
 |
| Macquarie Memorial 1965, 150th anniversary of the naming of Springwood, Tom Morony holds the Springwood Crest drawn by Norman Lindsay. From left: John Eddington, Bruce Jackson, Mayor Tom Hunter. (SHS 199) |
In 1937, His Honour
Judge Curlewis, the Hon. T.D. Mutch and Mr Surveyor J.F. Campbell. F.R.H.S., at
the request of the Springwood Development League, visited Springwood to locate
the site of the original Springwood Military Barracks and the spring after
which Macquarie named Springwood in 1815.
They decided that the barracks were located adjacent to the residence of
Mr W.G. Gibbs of Railway Parade (now Macquarie Road), Springwood and the spring
was in Madeline Gully off Boomerang Road.
It was decided to
erect monuments at both sites and Mr William Gibbs, retired Gulgong Shire
Clerk, agreed to donate a small part of his land (9ft 1in.) to the Blue
Mountains Shire Council for the Macquarie Monument in Railway Parade. The deeds for this portion of land were duly
forwarded by solicitors Lawson, Waldron, Edwards and Nicholls to the Council.
In March, 1939,
members of the Royal Australian Historical Society, invited by the Blue
Mountains Shire Council and the Springwood Development League, came to
Springwood for the unveiling
of the monument by their President, Mr K.R. Cramp. Also present were Judge Backhouse, Mr Joseph
Jackson, M.L.A., and Cr W. Mathews, President of the Blue Mountains Shire
Council and Crs A. Hodgson and B. Honeysett.
After the unveiling, the party enjoyed afternoon tea at the Royal Hotel
and a trip to the Hawkesbury Lookout.
In May 1965, the
site of the Monument was chosen to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the
naming of Springwood. Tom Morony from the Springwood Historical Society accepted the
Springwood Coat of Arms drawn by Norman Lindsay.
[Now return to the
railway pedestrian crossing gates, cross over Ferguson Rd. and turn right.]
 |
| Boland's Inn, later Loorana (SHS 27a) |
The site on Ferguson
Road has special significance for the early development of Springwood, as the
location first of the re-sited military stockade and then of the earliest inn
within the settlement on the Bathurst road. Stockade sites, with a military
presence supervising convicts engaged primarily on road works, are of very high
significance at the State level along Cox’s and Mitchell’s lines of road over
the Mountains.
As an inn and
guesthouse intermittently for ninety years, the site retained a historical
presence, strategically located close to the railway station of 1867. Around
1833 the military stockade was moved to this location, where it operated until closing
in1845, at which time its buildings and land were acquired by Thomas Boland.
The buildings on the
site included a slab hut with three bedrooms, a sitting room and pantry, a
detached kitchen, storeroom and stables. There was a vegetable garden well
supplied with water. Boland, with his inn keeping experience and time spent
working on the Western Road, could see the need for an inn in Springwood to
serve increasing number of travellers on the road to Bathurst.
Boland did not
demolish the officers’ quarters, but developed the building so that it ‘had
sandstone flags for the floors and the verandah, the kitchen was separate from
the house with an overhead cover connecting it to the dining room’. Boland used
timber from the barracks to convert the slab building to weatherboard rather
than to build from scratch. The stone foundations and cellar which were
excavated early in 2003 almost certainly belong to the officers' quarters.
The stockade had its
water supply from a dam of which there are surviving elements on the north side
of the present Great Western Highway, in the garden of 1 Boomerang Street,
Springwood. The primary function of this dam was to irrigate the military
vegetable garden, which was some distance from Boland’s building, so the well
in the backyard of 8-9 Ferguson Road was either dug for the convenience of the
officers or by Boland after 1845.
Boland licensed the
reconditioned building as the Springwood Inn, a single-storey weatherboard on
what was then the main road west and is now Ferguson Road: he remained the
owner and licensee for more than two decades and many local identities used his
facilities, including Sir Henry Parkes and Sir James Martin, as well as the
philanthropist, Caroline
Chisolm travelling with groups of young women immigrants en route to the
interior. In the 1850s large numbers of Chinese diggers camped in the grounds
on their way to the gold fields. This period saw the opening of the western
railway, with Springwood station conveniently close to the inn, and Boland
became the first stationmaster in 1867.
The rail-link to the city encouraged travel, tourism and the construction of holiday homes. The Springwood Inn (usually known as Boland's Inn) benefited from this increased traffic. Presumably because of diversifying interests and advancing years, Boland chose to sell his inn around 1870, while continuing to live locally, along with Madeline, his stormy petrel of a daughter.
The rail-link to the city encouraged travel, tourism and the construction of holiday homes. The Springwood Inn (usually known as Boland's Inn) benefited from this increased traffic. Presumably because of diversifying interests and advancing years, Boland chose to sell his inn around 1870, while continuing to live locally, along with Madeline, his stormy petrel of a daughter.
By 1890 the old inn
had become a guesthouse, called Loorana, run initially by Thomas Edwin Boland,
a son of the original Thomas who died in 1889. Thomas Edwin also ran the Royal
Hotel (SP 045), built by his father around 1808. (BMCC Local Studies, Boland
file). In the early 1890s Loorana was operated by W. Jenkins and from 1895
until probably 1898 by Mrs Eeg. For a time the guesthouse was unoccupied and
used by the Reading Room Group in the township in 1898, but from at least World
War I until 1939 it was run by the Johnstone family. (Pam Smith) A photograph
of Loorana, in use as a guesthouse, survives from about 1930. (Local Studies,
photo 270).
In 1939, on the
death of Theodore Johnstone, the building which had successively been the
former officers’ house, an inn and a guesthouse was demolished and a
single-storey brick cottage was built on the site (Silvey 91). The cottage was
used as a residence and also as medical consulting rooms until it was
demolished in 2002.
Former railway cottages, 1- 3 Ferguson Rd [7]
Built for railway
staff, they date from the early 20th century.
Thomas Boland Place [8]
Thomas Boland has
been described as "The Father of Springwood". He was born in Tipperary in Ireland in 1819 and arrived in Australia with his wife and
daughter in 1838. Thomas was a lifelong friend of Sir Henry Parkes, both having
travelled to Australia on the same ship but a year apart.
After selling The
Springwood Inn he built a residence, "Clearview", at Faulconbridge
and died there in 1889, aged 87 years. He is buried in the Emu Plains Cemetery.
The plaque is within the Springwood commuter Car Park which now occupies this
space.
[Now cross under the
railway line via the pedestrian tunnel and turn left.]
 |
| Springwood Railway platform looking west (PF 3103) |
Springwood Railway
Station Group is of state significance as an important railway station for over
140 years with several trains to and from Sydney starting and terminating here.
The first, wooden,
railway platform was built in 1867 during construction of the main western rail
line. Thomas Boland’s son, James Tanner was Springwood's first station master.
The main station
building dates from 1884 and is the second oldest surviving station building in
the Blue Mountains. It is an unusual example of a Victorian Gothic railway
station building and one of three
stations in the Blue Mountains dating from upgraded in 1880s, demonstrating
increase of tourism activity (the others being Lawson and Wentworth Falls) and
is the only station building surviving from this period.
The walls of the
original building are Flemish bond tuck-pointed brickwork with sandstone
capping to the parapets and sandstone quoins to the external corners and reveals
to openings. An arch on the centre of the original parapets has a stone infill
carved with 'ERECTED 1884'. Sandstone finials top the gables and bull’s-eye
vents in the gables are edged with sandstone.
Modifications to the
building resulting from the duplication of the railway line in 1902 retained
the elegant Victorian Gothic character of the station. With the intact lavatory
building it is an important element in the chain of railway stations across the
Blue Mountains. The size of the main station building and its solid
well-detailed construction suggests the growing importance of the village of
Springwood in the 1880s. Springwood Railway Station Group is important to the
local townscape forming a landmark at the curve in Macquarie Street towards the
western end of the shopping centre.
[Now cross under the
railway line via the pedestrian tunnel and turn left up the platform steps to
inspect the railway station.]
 |
| Manners Park and the old Police Station 1985 (PF 2332b) |
Manners Park has
been closely associated with law and order in Springwood from the 1880s until
the 1970s. It contains not only the striking little lock-up but also a
nineteenth-century underground cistern and the archaeological site of the
original wooden police-station, when the first police officer,
Constable John Illingworth was in charge.
Early records show this portion No 60 comprising
41 acres being acquired by Crown Purchase on 11 November1875 by Madeline Boland,
daughter of Thomas Boland, see entry for Boland’s Inn. However on 5 November
1875 this land had been reserved from public sale to be used for future Crown
use, a fact that did not surface during Miss Boland’s acquisition.
On 5th November 1876, this small roughly
triangular section was notified as a
reserve for public buildings. The Council of Education acquired the
eastern part of the land in 1877 to build a school and teacher's residence.
(This area is now a car park). The land to the west of the school grounds was,
in 1879, taken up by the Police Department.
Prior to the 1876 notification of the reserve,
Madeline Boland had built a cottage named ‘Bonnie Doon’ on the site but was
forced to abandon it in return
for £50 which she accepted and built a cottage on land to the north of the
railway line in an area now called Madeline Glen at the end of Boland Ave.
Bonnie Doon became part of the new school master’s residence. In 1892 Miss
Boland opened the town’s second grocery shop, the other was Rayner’s store, see
entry.
In 1881 Springwood's first police station was established
on the site as a result of lengthy community lobbying. According to local
businessman Frank Raymond, Springwood in the later 1870s was becoming a lawless
place. He wrote as much to Sir Henry Parkes soliciting his help in a campaign
to have a police officer permanently stationed at Springwood. He argued that
the increasing incidence of lawlessness warranted a permanent constable and
quoted from his sure knowledge cases of several thefts from the railway
platform, one stolen horse, one attempted suicide, two cases of insanity, one
imbecile, sly-grog selling, larrikinism and the immense problem of
deforestation caused by the wood cutters and bush-men. He wrote:
Unfortunately we a getting a very rough class of men around us in the wood-cutters and bush-men, and this class is likely to be largely augmented by those who will be brought here with the object of getting sleepers for the new railway extensions.
Raymond suggested that the old Criterion Hotel
opposite the railway platform be rented as a residence for the constable noting
its convenient position to survey both the road and rail traffic. He begged Sir
Henry Parkes to help him "in procuring what appears to me a great boon
to the residents of Springwood and its vicinity"
An Inspector James
Ryeland was sent to Springwood in September 1877 to investigate the veracity of
Raymond's claims and the need or otherwise for a permanent station. He reported
that he, "found the neighbourhood very quiet and the constable who
attends here in duty informs me that he has never seen any misconduct in the
neighbourhood nor has any case of petty theft been reported to him "
The report of this investigation was sent to the
Inspector General of Police, Edmund Fosberry, who concluded the investigation
by stating,
The number of residents in the neighbourhood will probably increase and it may become necessary to station a constable there but at present I do not think one as required. A similar application has been made to me from Mount Victoria where I am of the opinion a constable is more needed than at Springwood - but I have not felt justified in complying.
And there the matter dropped for another two
years.
By 1879 the problems that Raymond had referred
to had grown worse. Another inspection was made of the town by a Police Inspector
to gauge the necessity or otherwise of a permanent police station. This officer
found,
...the greatest cause for complaint is from tramps and drunken rowdyism, drink it appears being procured from Penrith. Hotel well conducted the houses are mostly isolated and the principal occupants necessarily away a good deal. Therefore no doubt if a police station has to be established it will give general satisfaction...
The principal issue
now was where a police constable's quarters could be found or established in
the town. The investigating officer found that there were none to rent and no
Government land available in the town with the exception of that part in the
possession of the Council of Education. It was described as,
...about 3/4 of an acre, fenced, in a good position with a weatherboard room about 12x12 iron roof thereon and not in use which would make a temporary station for a foot constable (single man) if the Council of Education would grant the use of the same and give the land or part thereof as a site for a police station.
The ‘weatherboard
room’ was in fact Miss Boland’s cottage that she had been forced to relinquish.
The matter was
discussed at a meeting in April 1879 and the School Board agreed that a portion
of the land applied for by the Police Department for building purposes should
be granted being 150 feet along the railway fence starting from the angle near
the platform (16).
The Board allowed
this concession having refused the full 180 feet which had been requested by
the Police Department; the difference appears to have been what is now the site
of the Post Office which was retained by the School. The site was slightly
smaller than it now is; it acquired a portion in 1900 bringing it to the
present boundaries. The Council also refused the use of the old cottage which
was then moved to the back of the headmaster's house. Approval for the land
grant was given on 12 May 1879. On 13 June 1879 the Under Secretary wrote to
the Council of Education to inform it that the Colonial Secretary had approved
the offer made by the Council to provide part of its site for a police station.
The site available
for the police lacked any quarters or working buildings for the new constable.
To remedy this situation tenders were called in March 1880 for the erection of
a police station at Springwood. The plans and specifications were prepared by
the Colonial Architect and were available to be viewed at both his office and
the Court House at Penrith. Neither plans nor specifications for the buildings
survive. The successful applicant for the work was F. Staveley. He was notified
of his commission by April 1880. Frederick Staveley owned 40 acres in
Blackheath, Staveley Pde there was named
after him in 1889.
The weatherboard building that was erected
served as residence, lock-up and police office until 1894 when it was reported
that the constable’s quarters were not sufficient for his family and a new
detention cell was built separately from the house. In 1901, just prior to the duplication of the railway line adjacent, the
lock-up was moved
four metres farther away from the line and has remained disused for half a
century.
Other buildings were added to the Police Reserve
over the following years. They included water closets, a stables, wash house, garage and another cell. From 1939 the site was only used for police administrative purposes; a residence was rented elsewhere in Springwood. The buildings in Manners Park, except for the detention cell, were demolished in 1954.
Springwood's second police station was erected
as a temporary building in 1952, pending the construction of a new station on a site on the eastern side of the
post office (which was never built). It remained in police use until 1982 when the new
police station was built across the railway line in Jerseywold Ave. However the
old temporary building is still in use as a youth drop-in centre operated by
community services staff known as The Mountains Youth Services Team.
Following the demolition of the original police
building, the Springwood Progress Association was very active in its efforts to
have the site put to some use. This bore fruit for, on the 13th April, 1956,
the area became Manners Park, so named after a local resident and alderman of
the Blue Mountains City Council, Gunson ‘Gus’ Manners.
The footprint of the
original police station is now outlined in brick pavers and a plaque featuring
the building of Cox’s Road was installed in 2015. The small stone relic on the southern boundary
is the top of the large underground tank, built in 1881, that supplied water to
the original police station. The tank is still probably within the site and is
described on the plans as having a capacity of 6797 gallons (about 25,000
litres).
The detention cell is a rare example of its
type, the only one listed for the entire Blue Mountains local government area
and one of few in the state. It is the most visible, intact relic of the
nineteenth century station.
The mature cedar deodar was planted in 1978 when
the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre opened and was part of celebrations for
International Year of the Child in 1979. It is decorated by the local school
children every Christmas.
 |
| Post Office 1985 (PF 2332 c) |
Postal services took
some time to be regularised in the Blue Mountains. The first post office
between the Nepean River and Mount Victoria was for railway workers at
Wentworth Falls between 1864 and 1868, but the first general postal facility
was Valley Heights post office, opened in December 1876.
In Springwood, the
few residents, gingered by Charles Moore, petitioned for a post office in 1876
at the same time as the same group successfully applied for a public school.
Although the postal authorities in Sydney were less impressed than the school inspector,
claiming that there were 'only five residents at Springwood besides Mr Moore',
a receiving office on Springwood railway station was opened in May 1877 and a
postmaster was appointed in 1880, in reflection of increasing business.
The railway station
remained the focus of postal facilities for the rest of the nineteenth century.
The lamp room was fitted out as a post and telegraph office in 1891-2, but this
proved to be 'damp and unhealthy' and in 1897 negotiations began to acquire the
western 20 metres (66 feet) of vacant land between the public school on
Macquarie Road and the police-station beside the railway station. The transfer
of land was finally agreed in 1899, when Varney Parkes, son of Sir Henry, was
Postmaster General, at the cost of 500 pounds.
Tenders for a post
office building were called in July 1900 and the successful contractor, J.
Beaumont, completed the work on 24 January 1901. It opened for business on 5
February 1901. A shelter shed for letter-carriers' horses was completed in the
following June and the back verandah was enclosed at the end of 1903. From
1912-1965 it also housed the manual telephone exchange.
The Springwood Post
Office is much altered from its original 1901 form. It is inter-war in
character with only a few hints of its federation origins. The building has a
hipped roof wing fronting Macquarie Road with a rear hipped roof wing facing
east to the adjacent carpark. The entry to the present office is through the
verandah on the east side of the rear wing, despite the recessed porch off
Macquarie Street. A rear hipped roof wing with a corbelled brick chimney could
be a survivor from the 1901 post office, along with a gabled building in the
rear yard. The building retains significance since it has never ceased to be a
post office. In a central location in the main shopping area of Springwood, the
post office retains an important part of the community.
 |
| Springwood Public School, Empire Day 1910 (SHS 074) |
The first school opened
here in 1878 when Springwood's population was about 200, mainly railway workers
and small land holders. Mr C.F. Schowe was the first teacher. The present
carpark area was the school playground. The weatherboard Scout & Guide Hall
was a classroom building moved from its original position facing the street in
1960. The present primary school in Burns Road was opened in November 1954.
In 1876 there was no government school between
Penrith and Mount Victoria. The Springwood local community, headed by men like
Charles Moore and Frank Raymond, was the first Blue Mountains group to make
application for the establishment of a school. The minimum number of school-age
children to justify the creation of a government school was twenty: Springwood
claimed 49 such children within 3 kilometres of the railway station. The
Inspector of Schools supported the application and the Council of Education
accepted his recommendation in 1876.
The preferred site was in a small reserve just
to the east of the railway station and south of the railway line. There was, however,
already a house on this land. Madeline, daughter of the prominent local
innkeeper and entrepreneur. Thomas Boland had acquired the land by conditional
purchase in 1860 and built a cottage called Bonnie Doon. Amid much acrimony,
the house was demolished, with money compensation of ten pounds to Miss Boland,
and the police station and lockup were erected on the site, while the
schoolmaster's cottage and the classroom were completed on the garden site to
the east in 1878. Springwood's population was then about 200,
consisting mainly of railway workers and small land holders. Mr CF Schowe was
the first teacher appointed.
The population of Springwood continued to grow
and an extra classroom was built in 1880, but with the successive establishment
of schools at Katoomba in 1881, Wentworth Falls in 1887 and Glenbrook in 1892,
pressure on Springwood school subsided for two decades. A third classroom was
needed in 1915, built of stone, to accommodate 124 children, but this number
was soon exceeded and in 1928 another classroom had to be added.
After World War II the population of Springwood
soared and the site was incapable of sufficient expansion. Accordingly a new
site was acquired in Bums Road and in 1954 a new double-storied school was
opened, with capacity for 450 pupils.
The old school buildings and the residence on
Macquarie Road were demolished, with the exception of the 1928 weatherboard
classroom, and a Baby Health Centre erected on the eastern part of the site.
The 1928 classroom remained on the site until 1960, when it was moved to a position
immediately east of the carpark. Title was transferred to the Boy Scouts in May
1960. The building was used by Girl Guides also after 1962, but in 1994 the old
classroom was severely damaged by fire.
Telecom Park
Contains the
‘Footsteps in Time’ marker showing a point on the 1814 survey by George Evans.
This survey mapped the 1813 explorers track and was used by William Cox to
construct the 1815 road to Bathurst.
Also on a sandstone
rock is a plaque commemorating the 175th Anniversary Naming of Springwood - http://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/101980-175th-anniversary-naming-of-springwood
A third plaque
refers to Simon's Place, named in memory of Simon Cook who tragically lost his
life in 1987.
The park was
extensively renovated in 2018 with new turf, garden beds, edging and seating.
 |
| Buckland Park 1972 (PF 009) |
The park represents
the only part of substantial open space remaining from John Frazer’s Victorian
country retreat, Silva Plana. It remains open space because the Blue Mountains
Shire Council had the foresight in 1936 to purchase much of the 4 acres to
endow a public reserve in honour of Sir Thomas Buckland, who had just completed
the endowment of the Buckland Convalescent Hospital on Hawkesbury Road and who
lobbied for and obtained the town water supply in Springwood in the 1930s.
The entire area
south of the railway line, north of Macquarie Road and west of Hawkesbury Road
was originally part of Silva Plana, the country retreat of John Frazer, one of
the wealthiest businessmen in Sydney in the mid-Victorian period. Before his death
in 1884, Frazer had shown himself an outstanding philanthropist, generous to
the University of Sydney, to St Andrew’s College and to the city of Sydney
(where his great fountains in Hyde Park and in the Domain still play). He left
money and land in central Springwood for the establishment of a Presbyterian
church, finally opened as the Frazer Memorial Church in 1896, so the Frazer
name continued to resonate in the area.
In 1918 the Frazer trustees sold the eastern portion of the land south of the railway (now identified as 73 -77 Macquarie Road, lot 1 in DP 801908) and the Catholic trustees proceeded to erect St Thomas Aquinas and the Angels Guardian Church. The remaining Frazer estate south of the railway was purchased by the Blue Mountains Shire Council in 1936 and was named Buckland Park. At the same time Springwood Bowling Club was formed and created its first green on part of the parkland: its initial patron in 1937-8 was Buckland.
In 1918 the Frazer trustees sold the eastern portion of the land south of the railway (now identified as 73 -77 Macquarie Road, lot 1 in DP 801908) and the Catholic trustees proceeded to erect St Thomas Aquinas and the Angels Guardian Church. The remaining Frazer estate south of the railway was purchased by the Blue Mountains Shire Council in 1936 and was named Buckland Park. At the same time Springwood Bowling Club was formed and created its first green on part of the parkland: its initial patron in 1937-8 was Buckland.
The Red Cross Hall
was built in 1995 to replace a small timber building which previously occupied
the site of the adjacent link road.
 |
| War Memorial and Dr Baxter Gates 1972 (PF 010) |
The Dr Baxter
Memorial Gates rest on sandstone pillars removed from ‘Moorecourt’, the
historic home of Sir Charles Moore on the Great Western Highway, built in 1876
and after Moore’s death in 1895, the home of Springwood Ladies College,
demolished in 1958. Moore had originally
acquired some of the sandstone building blocks used in ‘Moorecourt’ from the
convict lockup on Pulpit Hill west of Katoomba, which dated from the 1820s.
The gates were
designed by the artist Wynn Davies, after whom Davies Ave, Springwood is named;
and pay tribute to popular Springwood doctor, Ernest Joel Baxter (1902-1950) who
had become famous at the scene of a railway accident in which he crawled under
an overturned carriage to carry out an amputation to free an injured passenger.
 |
| Springwood Bowling Club 1972 (PF 011) |
During the few years after 1936 the Blue Mountains
Shire Council developed Buckland Park and created a children's section, bowls
section, club house, tennis courts and a park in front of the tennis courts.
The tennis courts were actually built in 1939 and the bowling greens completed
in 1937 with officers for the Bowling Club being elected in July of that
The Council made available a piece of land on
lease and further assisted with the finance in the form of a grant and a loan
for the purpose of erecting a Club House at a cost of approximately one
thousand pounds.
The first full committee was elected for the
1938-1939 year and was headed by: Patron - Sir Thomas Buckland; President - O H
Little; Vice-Presidents - R G Maclntyre, DD CMG; and E J Baldwin ITO; Secretary -
A Gaskill and Treasurer - W Cheadie.
The original Club House was constructed of a
timber frame with a tiled roof. Efforts by Members and wives in the promotion
of dances, card parties and other social functions resulted in the raising of
finance for furnishing the Club House and the laying down of the two greens.
A critical period was suffered during the years
of World War Two and on numerous occasions the existence of the Club was in
doubt.
A Club badge was designed in 1948 based upon the
spring from which Springwood derived its name.
The Club was granted a Liquor Licence in 1955.
Growth of membership resulted in a need for
extension of the Club House and such extension was officially opened in July
1966 followed by yet another extension which was opened in April, 1970. At that
time membership had reached 540 and once again further extensions to the Club House
were instigated for opening in 1974.
In 2000 the Club purchased the adjoining tennis
courts and changed its name to Springwood Bowling & Recreation Club. As
part of the purchase agreement with the Blue Mountains City Council, the Club
built additional courts in Spring Street, for the Springwood Tennis Club at a
completed cost of $950,000.
Due to the rapid increase in population in the
Lower Blue Mountains and the resultant growth in membership of the Club it
became obvious that the existing facility could not house the amenities
dictated by an enthusiastic population. As a consequence they searched for
their entertainment and catering requirements outside the Lower Blue Mountains
area.
With funds available to purchase the previously
closed premises of the Springwood & Districts Community Club (formerly the
Springwood RSL Club) in Lawson Road, Springwood, the Springwood Bowling &
Recreation Club relocated whilst its original building in Macquarie Road,
Springwood was demolished to make way for a new state-of-the-art Club House.
The purchase cost of the Springwood & Districts Community Club was $870,000
with the transaction being completed in 2006.
Tenders were called with the Reed Group being
the successful construction company.
The Development Application was lodged with the
Blue Mountains City Council on April 11, 2004 and officially approved almost
four years later with the first sod being turned on October 31, 2007 and
construction commencing on November 12, 2007.
Whilst construction proceeded on the new Club,
the relocated Club began trading at a healthy profit regardless of the fact
that it was located in an industrial area remote from public transport. This in
itself engendered even greater enthusiasm and assurance for the Directors to
give their all to what was obviously going to be a tremendous boost to the
Club's Members and the Blue Mountains as a whole.
The management consultants engaged to assist the
Directors throughout the various facets of pre and post opening operating
stages strongly advised the Club be renamed in keeping with the modern era
where younger generations consider a bowling club to only cater for 'oldies'.
Hence the initiative to rename the Club the 'Springwood Sports Club'.
The new Club took 67 weeks to build at a cost of
$9.6 million.
At 9.30 a.m. on Friday, March 6 2009 the Club
opened its doors to its Members and the general public. The Club was densely
crowded throughout the day and became even more so from early evening to the
point where the Club could not handle the volume of enthusiastic community. The
front door had to be closed and, as people left, the same numbers of people
were permitted to enter. Well over estimated numbers continued to frequent the
Club and membership just prior to the Official Opening reached over 9,000.
Whilst the Club was opened to Members and the
general public, construction work continued to a minor degree together with
landscaping. It was also necessary to build an outdoor Gaming Room for smokers
and this building was completed on July 3, 2009 bringing the overall cost of
the Club, including landscaping, to over $10 million.
The Club was
officially opened on Saturday, July 25, 2009 by Her Excellency Professor Marie
Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New South Wales
Following financial
problems in 2016, the Sports Club amalgamated with Mingara Recreation Club on
the Central Coast. The premises served as the region's evacuation centre during
the October 2013 bushfires. The club logo utilises the Springwood Crest
designed by Norman Lindsay.
[Congratulations you
have completed your tour through the recent history of the commercial area of Springwood.]
*****
Note to the reader: this is not a history of Springwood, nor does it attempt cover every building and business that has existed since the beginning of the township. To do so would be far beyond the scope of this article.
A shorter version of
this walking tour was originally prepared by Local Studies Librarian, John Low.
The present notes utilise information from various sources including:
Springwood Historical Society, The Springwood Historians, Trove Newspapers, NSW
Office of Environment & Heritage, and the Local Studies Section of the Blue
Mountains Library.
Useful links and sources of further information:
John Merriman
Local Studies
Librarian, 2018
