Castle Cove

Castle Cove Early History

Castle Cove was first settled by the Europeans, it was a rugged, heavily timbered peninsula in Middle Harbour. It was inhabited by the Camaraigal people, who lived in this section of the lower North Shore. Middens or rubbish heaps still remain along the Middle Harbour foreshores.

Castle Cove was first visited by the Europeans when Governor Phillip and members of his staff paid a brief exploratory visit to Middle Harbour, in search of arable land and a source of water supply, some three months after the arrival of the first Fleet in Port Jackson in January

1788. The steep slopes and rugged terrain were unsuitable for these purposes.

The peninsulas of Middle Cove, Castle Cove and Castlecrag remained Crown land until the first property boom in the 1850s.

In 1858, some twenty-five survey portions, ranging from 20 to 53 acres in area, were offered sale at public auction. Only six portions in Castle Cove were sold. By 1878, all land on the peninsula had been sold apart from the Yeoland Point Reserve. All these portions, totaling 492 acres were sold to Andrew Armstrong who developed the Cammaray Estate in 1886. Very few lots were sold because of the remote location.

Armstrong then proceeded to form the Cammaray Estate Land Company in order to purchase the balance of the estate. He also applied for permission to connect to the St Leonards government cable tramway, recognising the need for better transport to serve the estate. The Willoughby and Gordon Tramway Act were passed on 13 July 1887 and in 1888, the promoters assigned their rights to the North Sydney Investment and Tramway Co Ltd.

Construction on the tramway commenced in 1889 but was slow and fraught with difficulties. Meanwhile, the boom period moved into severe depression in the 1890s and the company went into liquidation in 1893. The first permanent residents of the Castle Cove peninsula were the Hon Henry Willis and his wife Annie and their family. Initially, they built a weatherboard "weekender" and installed a floating pontoon to give access by water from the Spit, before building their family home in 1903-04, a Tudor Gothic Castle they called "Innisfallen" (Irish for the Isle of the fields). The Castle was inhabited by members of the Willis family from 1905 to 1988.

In November 1920, Walter Burley Griffin formed the greater Sydney Development Association Ltd to purchase and develop land on the three Middle Harbour peninsulas: Castlecrag, Middle Cove and Castle Cove.

In Castle Cove, the golf course and the original Castle Cove Country Club stone clubhouse were designed by Griffin. The clubhouse was destroyed by fire in July 1957.

Transport was still a problem for Castle Cove. The completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Eastern Valley Way were keys to the emergence of Castle Cove into a residential community. Hooker Corp Ltd carried through a development program from 1956 to the early 1970s. Subdivision commenced at the western end of the Peninsula in the early 1950s. The Headland Height Estate was subdivided progressively eastward from 1958 and 1960. At that time the eastern end of the Peninsula was designated as County Open Space under the provisions of the County of Cumberland Planning Scheme, gazetted in 1951. Following representations from the Willis family and the Press Estate, the land was rezoned in 1966 for residential purposes although the steep foreshore bushland areas were retained as open space.

The last of the two subdivisions, known as the Innisfallen Castle Estate and the HC Press Estate were subject to stringent development controls to maintain views to and from Innisfallen Castle.

-Extract from Development of Castle Cove & Middle Cove by Esther Leslie 1988 and the Nov 2009 Castle News

HC Press Reserve

Henry Christian Press purchased property at Middle Harbour in 1909. His intention was to build a home and to turn a portion of the land into a small farm. His idea changed when his wife Annie was reluctant to leave their residence in Darlinghurst. The Press family was involved in the boat shed business and operated boat sheds situated in Woolloomooloo Bay, Tempe, Como and Audley in the Royal National Park. The family also built and participated in the 18 footer sailing races.

The first area cleared in the early years was near the stone steps. Two sheds were built, one near the stone steps and another in the fernery area. These three sheds consisted of tables and bench seats. The official opening day was around 1912 and was in full swing in the 1920s. During 1938 to 1939 the wharf, swimming pool, and dressing sheds were constructed and a running track was top dressed. In 1948 the tables and benches were added to the fernery and the greenery sections grassed behind the shop and pathway fences were repaired.

Around 1943 the bush road was continued down to the running track.. The bush road was nicknamed the Burma Road.

In the early days the official name of the picnic grounds was "The Palmer Pleasure Grounds" named by HC Press. In 1939 it was renamed HC Press by the family. The picnic grounds were opened to public between September and May on weekends and usually the parties to be booked in advance. Special arrangements for sole rights on a weekend or a moonlight excursion were available. Entry was by water only with most picnic activity on a Sunday. The busiest time was between 1935 and. 1958. During this period it was common to see between 400 to 900 people. The record for any one-day during this period was 1250 people.

Interruption and hardship was experienced during the construction of the Spit Bridge. On many occasions, ferries would bring the people to the Press Grounds and then return back to Sydney. Sunday was the 18 foot sailing league race on the harbour. After the race they would return back for pick up of the parties. Unfortunately some people were stranded sometimes as late as 11 p.m. waiting for their ferries to return. As there were only certain times one could pass the construction site at the Spit, if the boat missed the time they would have to wait. Another reason was that more people were buying cars and going on short trips on weekends.

In 1958 members of the Press family scaled down the intake of parties accepting bookings from only a few of the regular organisations until about 1966. The swimming pool was removed in the 1960s after a section was damaged during a severe storm. Since there was no future for the picnic grounds it was decided to remove the whole structure.

After years of frustration with negotiations with firstly Cumberland County Council and then the State Planning Authority and Willoughby Council to have the land released from the green belt an agreement  was signed in 1968 with the State Authority and Willoughby Council for its acquisition.

Up to about 1970 the Press family supervised the area and during 1970 - 71 the old cottage was set alight and the whole area was vandalised. One would see where weatherboards and building timber was missing. Some found their way to various buildings around the waterfront of Sugarloaf Bay and the termites devoured the rest.

One got the impression that the Council of the day didn't know that they had possession of the land and that it was just letting the area return to bush.

The caretakers. Some of the caretakers that lived at the picnic grounds included George Kenny. Early one morning he had rowed across Sugarloaf Bay and tied the boat to be wharf at Torquay Point Castlecrag and then went to purchase provisions. After returning unfortunately he fell from the boat and drowned at the stone steps.

Another caretaker was George. He was lazy and liked the alcohol. Many times he would go missing and the provisions of the shop were stolen. On occasions he would be found in the bush worse for wear with cuts to his face and body due to falling whilst drunk.

The hermit that lived on the adjoining reserve kept away when the parties were at the grounds. The Presses would give him food or leave it with the caretakers for him to collect.

"I met the other people that have lived in the cave after the hermit had died. One was an elderly couple. They had a fuel stove at the eastern end of the cave and used hessian to partition sections. They were very nice people. Council later evicted them."

The last people to inhabitat the cave were the three Walter Brothers. They were stonemasons and I understood that they worked for the Gosford Quarries.

Oyster gatherers who illegally collected oysters from the rocks opened the oysters in the next Cave west of the hermits cave and bottled them there. This lightened their load and then they were sold in hotels.

-Extract from the Nov 2009 Castle News; Photos & article submitted by family member Keith Press