Earlwood's Past

Page 43

Picnic crowd on Cooks River at Undercliffe early this century. Note the steps leading to Bayview Avenue.

from Fort Macquarie to lllawarra Road Junction, forty eight minutes to Warren Loop, and fifty three minutes to Undercliffe Terminus. The fare for the full journey was threepence, and the destination sign was “ Undercliffe” with one green circle on a white background. Requests for a school had been renewed in 1912 and 1913, the Forest Hill Progress Association offering the lease of their building (presumably the Progress Hall in River Street) at a nominal rental. This time, the Inspector of Schools was a little more impressed. In 1913, he reported: There is a space between Canterbury, Campsie, Moorfields, Marrickville West, and Bexley, the central point of which is over two miles from any school by road, and natural difficulties lie between the residences of many of the pupils and existing schools. Settlement is steadily progressing; a n d . . . there can be no doubt that a new school is wanted here. Although the population was growing slowly, perhaps more important in obtaining the school was the fact that Canterbury school and the new Campsie Public School, which had commenced only in 1908 and grown quickly, were overcrowded. The Inspector did not support opening a school in any existing building, but recommended that a site be acquired and a temporary building to accommodate 100 be erected as soon as possible. This was approved in June 1913, and in March, 1914, an area of just over two acres in the Earlewood Estate was purchased. As there was already a school called Forest Hill (near Wagga), the Principal Senior Inspector of the Department, Mr L. E. Lawford, in June, 1913, wanted to know whether the residents would like to use the old name of Parkestown or prefer some new one, such as “ Le Foret” (The Forest), “ Silvestris” (Woody), or “ Endendros” (Well Wooded). Whether he consulted the residents is not stated, but the

wilds” ; that the Chief Scout “ ventured into the hinterland of Australia” and went “ into the fastness of the country around Cooks River” “ through the scrub and over the rocks and along the sandy tracks which barred the way to this unconventional camp” Baden-Powell himself in his book about his world tour said that the Scouts “ were camped in the scrub among the rocky hills, each patrol in its own little spot very much hidden from view” Proposals for a branch tram line from Marrickville to Undercliffe were considered in 1903,1906,1908 and 1911. The 1906 investigation followed a tour of inspection by the Minister for Works, Mr C. A. Lee, in August of that year of the area as far as Forest Hill (now Earlwood): a line from Undercliffe through Forest Hill to Sharp Street, Canterbury (now Kingsgrove Road) was considered but rejected on the grounds that such patronage as was offering was better served by the railway. In August, 1911, construction was approved by the Minister of the line from Marrickville Road to the Cooks River bridge at Undercliffe, and a Ceremony of Turning the First Sod was held at the corner of lllawarra Road and Barnett Avenue by Mr Lee on October 12,1911. Mr Lee was afterwards presented with a silver spade to mark the occasion. Construction of the line included a bridge over the railway line at Marrickville Station to replace a level-crossing, and it was a single track with a crossing loop, known as the Warren Loop, just south of the railway line. The Official Opening took place on Saturday, November 9, 1912, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Marrickville by the Premier, Mr J. S. T. McGowan. The official party then travelled by a “ flag adorned and heavily laden” tramcar to the terminus, where a banquet, and a picnic for children, had been arranged in Riverside Park. The small population of Undercliffe and Forest Hill from that time had access to public transport which provided a twenty minute service to and from Fort Macquarie (on the site of the Opera House), with journey times of forty five minutes

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