HISTORY WEEK 2009

~ THE CASTLEREAGH TALKS ~

 

Some Talks about The Past 

 

WHERE THE RIVER, THE PLAINS AND THE MOUNTAINS MEET

 

( Reflecting on a possible ?50,000 years of local human presence, 40 million years of the river's presence,

the origin of the Blue Mountains, and the beginnings of modern human behaviour in South Africa.  )

 

~ and possibly a very very short mention of "The first dog" ~

FOR ALL THIS AND POSSIBLY MORE

COME TO THE CASTLEREAGH ACADEMY

Saturday 5 September 2009

 

 

 

Come to the end of the road on Saturday  5 September.

 

This is an area very interesting for the past (European history, archaeology and geology).

 

Speakers/displays, all day from 10:00 a.m.:

* Rev. Russel Davies .     - "Castlereagh Wesleyan Chapel - then and now". 

* Fr. Eugene Stockton   -  "The Bioregion of Deerubbin".   

 

* Dr. Andy I.R. Herries    -  "Hot rocks, shells and red earth - The origins  of  modern

                                                 human behaviour in South Africa".

* Tessa Corkill                 -  "Aboriginal stone hatchets".

* Dr David Branagan      - "The Eastern Edge of the Blue Mountains".

* Ted Matthews              -  "The Secrets of Hidden Gravels and Cobbles".

* Matt Poll -  Display from Stockton collection, Macleay Museum.

* Nepean District Historical Archaeology Group - Photos/publications.

 

( Rev. Stockton discovered broken pebbles and cobbles in the ancient gravels at Upper Castlereagh.  He and colleagues thought only the hand of man could have caused such.   Immediately west  rises the 'Blue Mountains' and we'll be considering how that came about.  All theories involve "the river" and  Fr Stockton proposes region renaming - no longer just plain old "western Sydney" but by Aboriginal name of the river, Deerubbin.)

( NDHAG, above  = Nepean District Historical Archaeology Group ) 

The Penrith area, west of Sydney, is a place where river, mountains and plain meet - a grand but "puzzling" landscape.

 

Why puzzling?  Well, for many decades geologists and geomorphologists have pondered just how all this  formed.

 

There's prominent N-S structural zones of faults and monoclines involved.  There's a long NNE river trend (Wollondilly-Nepean) similar

as the coastline's (cf. rifted margin morphology?).   There's evidence that a 'great lost river' followed this trend in Tertiary time as far

as Maroota (see the Maroota Sands heritage project).  There's appearances that the 'modern' river predates uplift  of the Blue Mountains, as was long ago discerned and discussed by early workers (Craft, Griffith Taylor, Edgeworth David) etc.

 

Geologist Dr David Branagan, will giving a talk entitled "The Eastern Edge of the Blue Mountains".   This will traverse the history of  the attempts to understand how this land configuration west of Sydney evolved.   It's a long, complex and fascinating story.

And one that probably most would agree has not been fully unravelled yet.   Dr Branagan's talk will  deal

with the attempts to understand the area from earliest European times through to the present day.

 

[ More info: Contact John at john.mail@ozemail.com.au, or see http://www.geo-sites.zoomshare.com/files/castlereagh-hist-pre-seminar.htm ]

 

** Cost and sustenance:   There is no cost and free morning and afternoon tea may be provided - but bring your own lunch,

 or maybe buy something at the nearby Muru Mittigar Aboriginal Cultural Centre -  www.murumittigar.com.au  (see map).

 

NOW DON'T GET LOST!

GETTING THERE SHOULD NOT BE DIFFICULT  - AND THE BELOW MIGHT ASSIST

Getting there, step 1:   Drive north from Penrith along Castlereagh Road for a bit till you get to this intersection (where there is

seen a hedge on the roundabout in the form of two rowers in two separate row boats or kayaks.  This is the intersection

of Andrews Road to the right and Old Castlereagh Road to the left.  Turn left here and follow Old Castlereagh Road

 to the end of the road.

 

[ NB: Step 1 is NOT the venue, and the "A" here does not mark the venue - this is just the roundabout where you'll turn west. The venue is seen

in the next image below. But get through this roundabout successfully, step 1, and you'll then be 100% guaranteed to find the right place

as after that you simply keep driving till "STOP" signs in front of you force a stop. ]

 Enter here

And this is where you are heading for.  You'll reach the (blocked-off) end of the road here, at No. 297-305 Castlereagh Road.

 The meeting hall is where the number "297-305" is seen on the image.

 

General map of district:   On this map the Upper Castlereagh meeting place of the Castlereagh Academy is shown marked with the words "CASTLEREAGH EDUCATION CENTRE", "cemetery" and also the symbol denoting the Upper Castlereagh Trig (which

Trigonometrical Survey Station marker is located right in front of the meeting hall).   The place where you can buy frood

(Muru Mittigar) is located on northern side of the E-W length of (old) Castlereagh Road just west of the words

"PENRITH LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION  CENTRE".

 

On display at the meeting will be photos showing the activities of the Nepean District Historical Archaeology Group (NDHAG)

"Discovering and Recording Local History".  They (NDHAG) have done surveys and recordings at sites

off Castlereagh Road.  This includes the John Lees site (in 1804 former Rum Corps soldier John Lees and his wife Mary

 took up a ninety- acre land and later built the chapel there - this being how the current Penrith Uniting Church can trace its

 origins back to the First Wesleyan Methodist Church in the Southern Hemisphere) and McCarthy's farm.  McCarthy

was a prominent early Catholic presence.   Along the McCarthy's Lane (no longer exists) there is the McCarthy's

cemetery (still exists) - and also notice near bottom of the map "McCARTHY CATHOLIC COLLEGE"

 which is a local school named after that early settler family.

 

 

Some other local history links for this area: