Cronulla sand dunes

The sand hills of Kurnell possess historical, cultural, scientific and natural significance as a place of early European contact with the Gweagal people. The site has significant Aboriginal signs of habitation, from carvings, ceremonial sites, middens and sites of flaked sharpening stones. The site is of significant interest to the Aborginal community, as many of the other hills and dunes that were inhabited by their ancestors have now disappeared. As the dunes move or drift, most of the sites once occupied by the Aboriginal people have been covered and preserved.[2][3][4]

The original inhabitants on the Kurnell Peninsula were the Gweagal people, a clan of the Tharawal (or Dharawal) tribe who occupied the region for thousands of years. Their tribe spanned the areas between the Cooks and Georges Rivers from the shores of Botany Bay and westwards towards Liverpool. According to a Gweagal elder, "Dharawal is similar to a state and Gweagal is similar to a shire within the state, Cunnel (Kurnell) is a family village within the shire". A clan consisted of approximately 20 to 50 people who lived in their own territory. They had no written language and each tribe had its own dialect. They knew how to light fires long before the arrival of white man. Their clothing consisted of a woven hair sash in which they used to carry tools and weapons and sometimes the optional possum-skin coat for the winter season. The Gweagal were the northernmost people of the Dharawal nation. They fished from canoes or from the shore using barbed spears and fishing lines with hooks in and around Botany Bay and the Georges River. Waterfowl could be caught in the swamplands (Towra Point), and the variety of soils would have supported a variety of edible and medicinal plants. Birds and their eggs, possums, wallabies and goannas were also a part of their staple diet, in which they made fur coats and ceremonial attire. The abundance of fish and other foodstuffs in these heavily timbered waterways meant that these natives were less nomadic than those of Outback Australia. The various middens, rock carvings and paintings in the area confirm this.[5]

The Gweagal were the guardians of the sacred white clay pits in their territory. Members of the tribe walked hundreds of miles to collect the clay, it was considered sacred amongst the indigenous locals and had many uses. They used it to line the base of their canoes so they could light fires, and also as a white body paint, (as witnessed by Captain James Cook). Colour was added to the clay using berries, which produced a brightly coloured paint that was used in ceremonies. It was also eaten as a medicine, an antacid. Geebungs and other local berries were mixed in the clay and it was eaten as a dietary supplement with zinc. Today members of the Tharawal people still live near the Cronulla sand dunes and participate in their traditional Aboriginal art and culture.[6]

On 29 April 1770, Captain James Cook, on board the HM Bark Endeavour, landed in Botany Bay, stepping ashore near Silver Beach. Shortly after, James Cook looked down from the sand hills at what is now known as Cronulla Beach. The sand dunes were completely covered in vegetation, so Cook made no mention of any sand dunes during his visit to the Kurnell peninsula. Cook along with his crew stayed in Botany Bay for eight days. During his visit he collected botanical specimens, mapped the area and tried to make contact (unsuccessfully) with the indigenous population. When Cook reported back to England he said that the land was suitable for agriculture, it had sandy soil and the area was lightly wooded.[1][2] Captain Arthur Phillip, arriving with the First Fleet, stepped ashore on 18 January 1788, after following Cook's advice. They began to clear land and dig wells, but a week later decided to abandon the site and sail north to Port Jackson.[1]

Less than 100 years after Cook's landing, most of the original vegetation had been cleared and burnt, larger trees had been ring barked or simply cut down. Thomas Holt who was the first owner of the area (and who also owned most of what is today the Sutherland Shire) planned to use the dunes for farming sheep, this industry failed more or less. To promote grass growth he destroyed as many of the oldest trees as was viable and to his dismay all that regrew was dense impenetrable thorny scrub. By 1868 the forests of blackbutt and ironbark were cut down for houses and bridge construction whilst the remaining vegetation was cleared for grazing.

Looking over the dunes, south towards Cronulla.

The first land grant was issued in 1815 when a whaler and merchant by the name of James Birnie, was given 280 hectares (700 acres) of land and 65 hectares (160 acres) of saltwater marshes on the Kurnell Peninsula. The grant included Captain Cook's landing place. He called it ‘Alpha Farm’, and built himself a cottage there. In 1801 John Connell, an ironmonger, arrived in Sydney as a free settler. In 1821 Connell was granted 400 hectares (1,000 acres) at Quibray Bay next to Birnie's grant. When James Birnie was declared insane in 1828 John Connell gained possession of his property. John Connell now had full ownership of the Kurnell Peninsula. Connell erected a new house, which he named ‘Alpha House,’ built on the foundations of Birnie's original cottage.

James Connell and his two grandsons, Elias and John Laycock, were the first land owners to log the peninsula. They began to harvest timber from the estate in 1835. In the 1840s a canal from Woolooware Bay was built so that logs could be floated into Botany Bay, loaded onto ships and sailed up to Sydney. When John Connell died in 1848, he left his estate to his two grandsons. The first Crown land auctions in the area took place in 1856. It was here that John Connell Laycock bought another 280 hectares (700 acres). This increased the size of the estate to 1,800 hectares (4,500 acres).

Looking south at Cronulla from the dunes

Holt purchased Laycock's entire estate on the peninsula in 1861 for A£3,275. Holt, originally from Yorkshire, sailed into Sydney sometime in 1842. He made his fortune during the gold rushes of the early 1850s. Holt moved to Sutherland and further increased the size of his property to approximately 5,300 hectares (13,000 acres). He erected several mansions, ran his ‘Sutherland Estate’ in the English manner, and travelled into Sydney to manage his business affairs. In 1868, Holt's land was still mostly uncleared virgin bushland. After Holt had cleared most of the timber, he began to plant grass seeds imported from Germany. The Sutherland Estate was divided into eleven portions. It was then divided into 60 smaller paddocks using Brushwood fencing. The fence posts used to divide these lots can still be found in Towra Point, which is also part of the Kurnell Peninsula.

Holt attempted grazing, first with sheep which had to be destroyed when they became infected with footrot, and then with cattle. The land on his estate was not suited for intensive grazing, so after most of the trees were felled, herds of cattle then removed the stabilizing grass cover and exposed the sand dunes underneath. Large expanses of sand had been exposed along the coastline. The dune system that covers an area of 400 hectares (1,000 acres), measuring 40 metres (130 ft) above and 90 metres (300 ft) below sea level, became unstable and began to move north at a rate of eight metres (twenty-six feet) a year. Land clearing and cattle grazing resulted in a degraded landscape, but created the distinctive Cronulla sand dunes of today.

In December 1885 the train line from Oatley to Sutherland opened. It was extended to Waterfall in 1886, and finally to Kiama in 1888. The area began to attract visitors and day-trippers from Sydney. Popular destinations were Oatley, Como and Waterfall. Horse-drawn coaches began to travel the distance between the railhead at Sutherland to Cronulla on the coast, and in 1911 a steam tram service began operation. This opened up the area to seaside holiday-makers. By the 1920s and 1930s the sand dunes were acknowledge to be a desolate and desecrated landscape and their economic viability was minimal. However, by the 1920s Cronulla had become famous for its surf beaches with uninterrupted golden sand which stretched for five kilometres (three point one miles) along the coast and the bare dunes became synonymous with Cronulla. Though desolate, the large expanses of sand became a popular playground for generations of children.[1]

Between 1920 and 1930 the sand hills were acknowledged to be a deserted and desecrated landscape, and their economic value was minimal. However, by the 1920s Cronulla had become notable for its beaches with over five kilometres of sand stretched along the coastline. The bare sand dunes became synonymous with Cronulla. Between the 1920s and the 1950s the large expanses of sand became a popular playground for generations of children for activities such as sandboarding.[7]

In 1933 Sutherland Shire Council declined an offer to set aside 1,800 hectares (4,500 acres) between the Cronulla Golf Club and Kurnell as a reserve. In 1937 it declined another offer to buy 290 hectares (720 acres) of sand hills. In the 1930s the Holt family began to remove sand for use in the building industry.[1]

The desert atmosphere attracted filmmakers. In 1941, the Charles Chauvel movie, Forty Thousand Horseman about the Australian Light Horse Regiment during World War I and starring Chips Rafferty, was filmed on the sand hills. The site has been used as a backdrop for several Australian movies, such as the epic 40,000 Horsemen (1941), The Rats of Tobruk and more recently Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.[1]

On 11 January 1965, the bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, were found in the sand hills just off of Wanda Beach. They had been beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted. Despite an extensive police investigation, the killer has never been identified and the case remains one of Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes, known as the Wanda Beach Murders.[1]

In 1933 the Sutherland Shire Council asked the Government to set aside the 810 hectares (2,000 acres) between Cronulla Golf Club and Kurnell as a reserve. In April 1937, Haymarket Land and Building Co. offered Sutherland Shire Council 290 hectares (720 acres) of land near the entrance to Kurnell for eight pounds per acre. Most of the councillors wanted to declare the site a National Park. They wanted it to be titled "the Birthplace of Australian History and Gateway to Captain Cooks Landing Place." The dunes at Towra Point were to be included in this park. The Council was evenly split, but Joe Monro, the Council's President [now referred to as the Mayor], argued that because the site "was nothing but sand it was completely useless". He decided to vote against the purchase. The sandhills were doomed from that point. The Government couldn't see any reason to establish another National Reserve so near to Captain Cooks Landing Place Reserve.

In the 1930s the Holt family began its sand mining operations to supply the expanding Sydney building market and continued until 1990 with an estimate of over 70 million tonnes of sand being removed. The sand has been valued for many decades by the Sydney building industry, mainly because of its high crushed shell content and lack of organic matter. The site has now been reduced to a few remnant dunes and deep water-filled pits which are now being filled with demolition waste from Sydney's building sites. Removal of the sand has significantly weakened the peninsula's capacity to resist storms. Ocean waves pounding against the reduced Kurnell dune system have threatened to break through into Botany Bay, especially during the storms of May and June 1974 and August, 1998.[2][8][9]

Looking north over the Kurnell Peninsula.

In 1951 Caltex Oil Company first approached Sutherland Shire Council to build a new oil refinery at Kurnell. It required a site of 160 hectares (400 acres) and initially the Council rejected the proposal. The issues sparked a series of protests from environmental groups and those concerned that the refinery would despoil the Captain Cook Landing Place Reserve. Shortly after, however, the Council withdrew its objection, and what became known as the Australian Oil Refinery Company, a subsidiary of Caltex, opened in 1954. At the same time, the Sutherland Shire Council built Captain Cook Drive to service the refinery.[1] The refinery ceased operation in October 2014.

The Australian Oil Refinery Company remains the largest single industry on the Peninsula. The Holt Group (owned by the descendants of Thomas Holt) continues to be a major landholder, but large sections of the Peninsula have been progressively sold off to other private interests and, since the 1950s, the area has been heavily industrialised. The removal of sand from the dunes began in the 1930s, but following the post-war building boom, it has been estimated that in excess of 70 million tonnes of sand have been removed. The Australian Oil Refinery, once obscured by towering dunes, is now visible from Cronulla, and a fraction of the original dunes remain.[1]

Looking south with the Australand construction zone in view

A sign at the start of the walking track leading into the duned area

Industrialisation of the Kurnell Peninsula continues to be an ongoing problem amongst community groups and environmentalists. Plans for further development at the site has been cause for continual public protest between developers, locals and environmental groups.[10] A proposal to build a chemical plant by the German pharmaceutical company, Bayer in 1986 resulted in public protests, environmental objections and a Commission of Inquiry, chaired by John Woodward. The plan never went ahead on the grounds of both environmental and economic issues.[1]

In 2004 a major housing development at the Kurnell site just north of Wanda Beach was cleared by the Land and Environment Court after developer Australand appealed Council's rejection of the plan. The court has allowed building on one-third of the 62-hectare site, "subject to conditions such as safeguarding the environment.[1]

Sutherland Shire Council's objections included issues such as the impact on the threatened green and golden bell frog and concerns about two key ecosystem impacts on the sandhills and the freshwater wetland area. The court's commissioners rejected Sutherland Shire's case, ruling in favour of the Australand development. The court also accepted that the Wanda sand hills had to be revegetated to stop the sand from filling up ponds and swallowing up the vegetation in the area. The council spent $650,000 on the case and wanted the area set aside for tourism, environmental conservation and heritage.

In 2010, after two and a half years of negotiations, approval was granted for the rezoning of 130 hectares (320 acres) of land owned by Australand and Breen Holdings for a major residential housing subdivision of around 420 single dwellings and recreation / sporting areas to include ten community-owned playing fields, a skate park and other facilities worth up to $25 million plus an additional 49 hectares (120 acres) of public open space on top of the existing 42 hectares (100 acres) already committed as open space. Treated water is to be diverted from the nearby sewerage treatment plant to be used for toilet flushing and garden irrigation for all homes in the subdivision and to irrigate the ten new playing fields on the site.[11][12]

The Kurnell Peninsular has been the subject of a number of Commission of Inquiries through the 1970s and 1980s. The most recent Commission of Inquiry in 1986 by Commissioner Woodward led to the re-zoning of the Australand site to permit non-residential uses, including tourist facilities, serviced apartments, commercial, recreational and light industrial uses. The area had been subject to sand extraction since the 1950s and the only portion of the land not subject to sand removal was the H2 dune, which is the high dune to the north-east of the site. Its protection as a surviving remnant of the former Cronulla dunes was recommended along with an Interim Conservation Order under the Heritage Act. In 1990 Australand bought Lot 113, DP 777967 from Breen Holdings and the Hooker Corporation. Sand removal ceased in 1990 and the area has been vacant since and remains largely denuded.[1]

One effect of recent sand extraction on the site has been the creation of a number of artificial ponds or waste dumps which have filled with water. In a number of these, the endangered Green and Golden Bell Frog has established itself and these ponds are now important breeding grounds. In 1996 the Cronulla Dunes and Wetlands Protection Alliance nominated the dune for protection under the Heritage Act.[1]

The Aboriginal community holds a strong interest in the remaining undisturbed sand dune. The action of the shifting sand has the potential to capture objects, and all traces of Aboriginal objects are necessarily destroyed by sand removal. Therefore, the H2 dune has high potential to reveal archaeological evidence of former Aboriginal occupation such as middens, flaked sharpening stones, carvings and ceremonial sites.[1]

The Cronulla Sand Dune and adjacent Lucas Reserve and Wanda Beach demonstrate a high level of intactness in terms the modified dunal landscape as it was created following late nineteenth-century grazing activities. They form an intact remnant of historical landscape that no longer exists. The long term conservation of the dunal system and in particular the unvegetated mobile sand dune may require stabilisation and revegetation works.[1]

• Beaglehole, J. C., ed. (1955). The Journals of Captain Cook on his Voyages of Discovery.
• Carter, N. (1969). Australian Natural History: A "Paradise Lost" - the Kurnell Peninsular Since 1770.
• Hilferty, Kevin (1986). Sutherland: Australia's Birthplace.
• Jackson-Stepowski, Susan: Heritage Planning Consultant (2011). Wanda Beach 'Cultural Landscape' & Cronulla 'Heritage Dune' - Statement of Heritage Impact for track up-grade.
• Kirkby, David R. (1970). From Sails to Atoms: First Fifty Years of Sutherland Shire 1906-1956.
• Mary Dallas Consulting Archaeologists; Tuck, Dan; MDCA (2013). Archival Photographic Recording: Former Sandmining & Processing Works Depot - Shearwater Landing, Greenhills Beach, Sutherland Shire, NSW.
• McKenzie, Garth (1996). Cronulla Integrated Resort: DA and EIS.
• O'Rourke, Claire (2003). Heritage list draws a line in the sand to protect dunes (SMH article).
• Rienits, Rex; Rienits, Thea (1968). The Voyages of Captain Cook.
• "(not stated)". Sutherland Shire Environment Centre.
• Wanda Heritage Dune Pathway: Aboriginal Heritage Impact Assessment. Australian Museum Business Services. 2011.

This Wikipedia article contains material from Cronulla Sand Dune and Wanda Beach Coastal Landscape, entry number 01668 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.