This week, Roy decided that he wanted to share one of his favourite, hidden places in Sydney, one which he recently shared with his cousin Toby. Sydney has so many beautiful parks and reserves, many of them close to the water, and as many of them are very popular, and it can be hard to find a quiet place. Sawmillers Reserve though is a quiet, tranquil place, full of history - it even has a 'shipwreck'! Roy thought this would be the perfect place to share with you.
If you would like to visit Sawmillers Reserve it is located in North Sydney (NSW). To get there, turn off Blues Point Road into either French Street or West Crescent Street. Here you will be able to find a parking spot and wander into the reserve. Alternately, head into Munro Street and walk down the winding steps into Sawmillers Reserve. There is plenty of room for a picnic and to kick a ball, but the reserve is on the waterfront, so make sure to supervise children near the waters edge. There is also a 'shipwreck', a Maritime Services Hopper Barge which was scuttled at the site in 1948, and if you go at lowtide you can walk across a narrow strip of sand to see it up close!
Although you might not know it from looking at this small, tranquil spot, Sawmillers Reserve was once a hive of industrial activity. In fact, Sydney harbour was a hard working harbour, with industry along the shores including boat building, timber milling and even mining! As the name suggests, Sawmillers Reserve was the site of a sawmill, which belonged to the Eaton Timber Merchants. In 1880 a small sawmill was established near what is now North Sydney Railway Station by John W. Eaton. However, his brother Frank soon moved the sawmill closer to the water, to a site near Berrys Bay. Being close to the water, it was easy to bring logs to the site and take the processed timber away by boat.
A wharf was built to make it easier to load and unload the boats and the sawmill also had a crane to assist in this process. Sawdust and other waste from the mill were burned to produce power, and electricity was generated on site at their own electricity plant. In addition, there were two actual sawmills on the site, as well as an engineers shop, blacksmiths shop and joinery. The height of success for the timberyard was between 1890 and 1920, but even in 1940, when Anthony Eaton joined the family business (he was about 12 years old) he remembered the sawmill employing about 100 people. The timber produced by the mill was widely used during the war, including in refitting the cruise ships Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary to carry troops. They even made prefabricated Churches in the joinery, to be taken to the Islands! After the war though, things started to get more difficult. The land was very valuable and there were fewer and fewer local residents to work on the site. In the 1950s, parts of the mill business were moved away from the reserve, and by the 1980s the site was mainly unused. The reserve was established in 1982 and there are relics from the days of the timber mill to see, including parts of some of the buildings, as you can see in the photos.
