Ferry travel is quintessential Hunters Hill. 150 years ago, the network of ferries was Hunter’s Hill’s main link to the rest of Sydney. The first regular ferry service was established by Didier Joubert in the 1850s. Joubert wanted boats that could carry drays so that farmers could ‘start to market with their produce at five in the morning, and return home by seven in the evening. Instead of now starting at 12 o’clock at night, and returning at five the next evening, and being during that time at the expense of keeping themselves and cattle in Sydney.’ Sydney Morning Herald, 5th July 1856.
Before the Sydney Harbour bridge was opened in 1932, the Sydney Ferries limited was the biggest ferry company in the world. According to bill Allen, ferry researcher, the company provided 47 million passenger trips every year. The steamers of the early 1900s were ‘small single-ended craft, quite open on the top deck, with curtains of canvas which were lowered in wet weather; and were illuminated at night with a few kerosene lamps’ Captain Albert Heesh of longueville. They took about an hour to run from erskine Street in the city to get to Fig Tree.
Today the only active ferry wharves are at valentia Street, Alexandra Street and Huntley’s Point, but old maps show more than 20 public wharves in Hunters Hill. These include Ady Street, Alexandra Street, Crescent Street (Garrick’s wharf), De Milhau road (villa Maria wharf), Ferry Street, Fig Tree, Fern bay, Gale Street, Dick Street, Herberton Avenue, Margaret Street, Mornington, Mount Street north (long Wharf) and Mount street South, Park road north (Mary Street north), Princes Street east, Pulpit Point, Punt road (bedlam Point), Serpentine road, valentia Street (onion’s wharf) and William Street.
Ferry Street terminal
The Hunters Hill wharf was built at the end of Ferry Street in 1855. only a parapet, stone steps and waiting shed remain today. up until 1927 the Sydney Ferries limited provided a free service between villa Maria and Ferry Street where passengers could join other ferries to Parramatta or the city. The una, pictured, used to collect passengers from wharves at villa Maria, Herberton Street, Huntley’s Point, Mount Street and Cambridge Street.
Una at the Ferry Street Terminal, 1915
Pig escort to Fig tree ferry
eugenie McNeil tells the story of how in the 1890s her father Hippolyte Delarue and one of the young Jouberts used to walk to Fig Tree wharf every morning. They wore frock coats and carried sticks with elaborate silver tops which they used to salute other gentlemen. Apparently they doffed their toppers and bowed deeply when they encountered ladies. ‘their self esteem was in no way pricked by the fact that Monsieur Joubert’s pet pig used to follow at a respectful distance and after seeing them safely onto the ferry, would run squealing all the way home’. (eugenie McNeil A Bunyip close behind me: recollections of the nineties retold by her daughter Eugenie Crawford, 1972).
Ferries to remote region of Killara
The recreational potential of the lane Cove river opened up when the Joubert family started the Hunter’s Hill and lane Cove river Steam Ferry Company in 1871.The Sydney Morning Herald extolled the virtues of the river’s ‘calm, secluded bays and cool retreats for picnic parties and pleasure seekers’. The service operated from Figtree House where people could make use of the Avenue Picnic Grounds or hire boats and fishing tackle ‘so that a cheap and novel excursion could be had’. The 1888 Illustrated Sydney News described how ‘a romantic looking stone bathing house projects into the tide, and one of the most magnificent fig trees in the colony overhangs the bank.’
Thomas Ashcroft of Joubert Street sought permission to build wharves and landing stages along the lane Cove river above Fig Tree bridge. ‘I am asking you to grant me permission to erect these wharves charging only a very nominal rental say one shilling per wharf per year and reserve to me the right to run a launch plying for hire for otherwise, chartered to these wharves’. Sydney Harbour Trust records, 1908.
Una at Villa Maria Wharf, 1915
Two launches Native rose and Killara ran a feeder service to Killara from the Figtree steam ferry terminus. ‘On week days, they provided the only regular link with Sydney for residents of the remote regions of the headwaters; at holiday times they carried pleasure seekers to popular excursion grounds like ‘Fairyland’. The launches carried groups of 60 to 70 people up to the Fairyland Pleasure Grounds. When silting became a problem in the river, the upper lane Cove Ferry Company’s launches were replaced by Fairyland’s own single deck, shallow boats, the escort and Twilight.
Fairyland was an enormously popular picnic ground where hundreds of people gathered for fun. There were organised activities such as cricket, dancing, tug-o-war, sack races and egg-and-spoon races. The play equipment included boat swings, a flying fox and razzle-dazzle. The Swan family created picnic areas by planting exotic plants, including pines, phoenix palms and soft ferns. eventually, in 1978 Fairyland became part of the lane Cove river State recreation Area.
Lady Denman at the Figtree Ferry Depot, 1925
Avenue Picnic Grounds adjacent to Figtree House, circa 1920
Remains of the Park Road wharf
Park road wharf today (previously known as mary Street north)
People who use the Great North Walk in boronia Park will know a tiny sandy beach where the crabs scuttle in the mangroves and wading birds poke about the mud. but they may not know the story behind the regular pieces of sandstone that are lined up at the edge of the lane Cove river. These stones are all that is left of the old Mary Street wharf. At one time, what is now known as Park road was called Mary Street. between 1908 and 1920, passengers could take a ferry from here to travel up the lane Cove river to Fairylands, or go east to another lost wharf at the end of Princes Street and then to Figtree wharf. A large wedge of public land links barons Crescent, to the Great North Walk and the lane Cove river. Council, with the help of a State government grant, has recently organised for weeds to be cleared from this land. What is needed next is for funds to be found to repair the eroded track and clearly signpost it so that people can access this public space and get down to the river.
The Mary Street wharf was in operation for just a few years, but the nearby midden heaps remind walkers of the Walumeda and Camaraigal people who lived by the river for millennia, with plentiful supplies of oysters, fish, crabs and waterfowl.
Hunters Hill Trust is always interested in building the local archives. Please contact us if you have any old photos of Hunters Hill ferries, wharves and harbour activities that we can borrow to scan and include them in the collection.
Some of the lost wharves of Hunters Hill
Ferry travel is quintessential Hunters Hill. 150 years ago, the network of ferries was Hunter’s Hill’s main link to the rest of Sydney. The first regular ferry service was established by Didier Joubert in the 1850s. Joubert wanted boats that could carry drays so that farmers could ‘start to market with their produce at five in the morning, and return home by seven in the evening. Instead of now starting at 12 o’clock at night, and returning at five the next evening, and being during that time at the expense of keeping themselves and cattle in Sydney.’ Sydney Morning Herald, 5th July 1856.
Before the Sydney Harbour bridge was opened in 1932, the Sydney Ferries limited was the biggest ferry company in the world. According to bill Allen, ferry researcher, the company provided 47 million passenger trips every year. The steamers of the early 1900s were ‘small single-ended craft, quite open on the top deck, with curtains of canvas which were lowered in wet weather; and were illuminated at night with a few kerosene lamps’ Captain Albert Heesh of longueville. They took about an hour to run from erskine Street in the city to get to Fig Tree.
Today the only active ferry wharves are at valentia Street, Alexandra Street and Huntley’s Point, but old maps show more than 20 public wharves in Hunters Hill. These include Ady Street, Alexandra Street, Crescent Street (Garrick’s wharf), De Milhau road (villa Maria wharf), Ferry Street, Fig Tree, Fern bay, Gale Street, Dick Street, Herberton Avenue, Margaret Street, Mornington, Mount Street north (long Wharf) and Mount street South, Park road north (Mary Street north), Princes Street east, Pulpit Point, Punt road (bedlam Point), Serpentine road, valentia Street (onion’s wharf) and William Street.
Ferry Street terminal
The Hunters Hill wharf was built at the end of Ferry Street in 1855. only a parapet, stone steps and waiting shed remain today. up until 1927 the Sydney Ferries limited provided a free service between villa Maria and Ferry Street where passengers could join other ferries to Parramatta or the city. The una, pictured, used to collect passengers from wharves at villa Maria, Herberton Street, Huntley’s Point, Mount Street and Cambridge Street.
Una at the Ferry Street Terminal, 1915
Pig escort to Fig tree ferry
eugenie McNeil tells the story of how in the 1890s her father Hippolyte Delarue and one of the young Jouberts used to walk to Fig Tree wharf every morning. They wore frock coats and carried sticks with elaborate silver tops which they used to salute other gentlemen. Apparently they doffed their toppers and bowed deeply when they encountered ladies. ‘their self esteem was in no way pricked by the fact that Monsieur Joubert’s pet pig used to follow at a respectful distance and after seeing them safely onto the ferry, would run squealing all the way home’. (eugenie McNeil A Bunyip close behind me: recollections of the nineties retold by her daughter Eugenie Crawford, 1972).
Ferries to remote region of Killara
The recreational potential of the lane Cove river opened up when the Joubert family started the Hunter’s Hill and lane Cove river Steam Ferry Company in 1871.The Sydney Morning Herald extolled the virtues of the river’s ‘calm, secluded bays and cool retreats for picnic parties and pleasure seekers’. The service operated from Figtree House where people could make use of the Avenue Picnic Grounds or hire boats and fishing tackle ‘so that a cheap and novel excursion could be had’. The 1888 Illustrated Sydney News described how ‘a romantic looking stone bathing house projects into the tide, and one of the most magnificent fig trees in the colony overhangs the bank.’
Thomas Ashcroft of Joubert Street sought permission to build wharves and landing stages along the lane Cove river above Fig Tree bridge. ‘I am asking you to grant me permission to erect these wharves charging only a very nominal rental say one shilling per wharf per year and reserve to me the right to run a launch plying for hire for otherwise, chartered to these wharves’. Sydney Harbour Trust records, 1908.
Una at Villa Maria Wharf, 1915
Two launches Native rose and Killara ran a feeder service to Killara from the Figtree steam ferry terminus. ‘On week days, they provided the only regular link with Sydney for residents of the remote regions of the headwaters; at holiday times they carried pleasure seekers to popular excursion grounds like ‘Fairyland’. The launches carried groups of 60 to 70 people up to the Fairyland Pleasure Grounds. When silting became a problem in the river, the upper lane Cove Ferry Company’s launches were replaced by Fairyland’s own single deck, shallow boats, the escort and Twilight.
Fairyland was an enormously popular picnic ground where hundreds of people gathered for fun. There were organised activities such as cricket, dancing, tug-o-war, sack races and egg-and-spoon races. The play equipment included boat swings, a flying fox and razzle-dazzle. The Swan family created picnic areas by planting exotic plants, including pines, phoenix palms and soft ferns. eventually, in 1978 Fairyland became part of the lane Cove river State recreation Area.
Lady Denman at the Figtree Ferry Depot, 1925
Avenue Picnic Grounds adjacent to Figtree House, circa 1920
Remains of the Park Road wharf
Park road wharf today (previously known as mary Street north)
People who use the Great North Walk in boronia Park will know a tiny sandy beach where the crabs scuttle in the mangroves and wading birds poke about the mud. but they may not know the story behind the regular pieces of sandstone that are lined up at the edge of the lane Cove river. These stones are all that is left of the old Mary Street wharf. At one time, what is now known as Park road was called Mary Street. between 1908 and 1920, passengers could take a ferry from here to travel up the lane Cove river to Fairylands, or go east to another lost wharf at the end of Princes Street and then to Figtree wharf. A large wedge of public land links barons Crescent, to the Great North Walk and the lane Cove river. Council, with the help of a State government grant, has recently organised for weeds to be cleared from this land. What is needed next is for funds to be found to repair the eroded track and clearly signpost it so that people can access this public space and get down to the river.
The Mary Street wharf was in operation for just a few years, but the nearby midden heaps remind walkers of the Walumeda and Camaraigal people who lived by the river for millennia, with plentiful supplies of oysters, fish, crabs and waterfowl.
Hunters Hill Trust is always interested in building the local archives. Please contact us if you have any old photos of Hunters Hill ferries, wharves and harbour activities that we can borrow to scan and include them in the collection.