Location
Cooranbong is a town and rural suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia, 6km west of the town of Morisset off the Sydney-Newcastle M1 Freeway. Cooranbong is surrounded by the Watagans National Park.
The town’s name is derived from the Aboriginal word “Kour-an-bong”, meaning “rocky bottom creek” or “water over rocks”. Officially proclaimed with the establishment of the first postal receiving office in 1866.
History
For eons the Awabakal peoples inhabited this region. It is unknown as to how long the people lived collectively as a single group and the nature of their interactions through peace and conflict with other people not of their own kin.
Following the first land surveys in 1820 and with the removal of most convicts from the Newcastle penal settlement in 1823, settlement became possible. In 1826 an Englishman Lieutenant Percy Simpson with family took up a 2,000-acre grant bordering on Dora Creek where there was known to be the first fordable land crossing connecting the Colony of Sydney, Brisbane Water and Newcastle. With six assigned servants, as per grant conditions a homestead was built, land cleared, fenced, and cattle grazed. Although Simpson only stayed for two years, one of his Irish convicts, Moses Carroll remained in the homestead as overseer, becoming the first constable in 1835 with a lock up built close by. Moses Carroll stayed on with his family ending his days here. With the convergence of tracks at this northern tip of the grant known as Simpson’s Homestead and lock up along Simpsons track, and with the abundance of quality timber (ironbark, tallow wood and cedar) a scattered and struggling community grew.
Following the 1861 Robertson Land Act land settlement began. April 1861 saw the first recorded burials in what was to become the catholic cemetery and soon after in November 1861 the growing community banded together to build a timber church and with a 17-year lease from the Board of Education, operating a National School on weekdays, and a catholic church on Sundays.
For the township village of Cooranbong timber getting was the predominate activity with steam mills operating, ketches loading for lake and then ocean voyage to the growing Colony of Sydney. Confidence grew with population numbers reaching 700 in 1883, also buoyed when a passage through Cooranbong was mooted as a viable rail route from Sydney to Newcastle, but this did not eventuate.
Structures
* 1861 Seven lots purchased along Babers Road becoming a village centre
* 1861 Cemetery coming into use with burial of Mary Blackford on 3-acre northern tip of Simpson’s grant
* 1861 Catholic timber church built with 17-year lease as National school, on 3-acre northern tip of Simpsons grant
* 1860s Six sawmills operating along Dora Creek
* 1864 Hotel The Cricketers Arms, later renamed The Royal Hotel on Babers Road
* 1866 First bridge over Dora Creek at Cooranbong
* 1866 First postal receiving office in home of Thomas D‘Aran, town of Cooranbong proclaimed
* 1870 Anglican church and cemetery, Martinsville Road. Church demolished 1950s
* 1872 Sawmill King and Co, on Dora Creek
* 1873 Police station and Court house, Martinsville Road
* 1879 17 year Lease for National school in timber building expired, school relocated to Government Road site
History after 1880 When the rail line was finally constructed from Sydney to Newcastle in the 1880s, it passed about 6 km east of the Cooranbong town centre. The station and associated settlement were originally labelled Cooranbong but 3 weeks later, renamed Morisset. This was devastating to the local economy in conjunction with the significant economic depression occurring in the colony. Consequently, the population declined to 206 people by 1891. With the relocation of the National School to a close by site, the original building then re-opened after Easter as a catholic school staffed by Sisters of St Joseph and continued to operate until 1896 when school enrolments and population numbers were in decline. It is interesting to note that in 1895 Mary MacKillop head of the Order, who was to become Australia’s first saint in the catholic church, visited her sisters at the school and convent close by. In that same year Ellen White of the Seventh-day Adventist community also visited the area, advocating the establishment of an educational facility on the adjoining 15,000-acre Campbell grant. This early vision was to become the thriving Avondale community, educational facility, and University of today.
Structures
* 1880 National School relocated to Government Road site, currently open
* 1880 Catholic school opened Easter staffed by Sisters of St Joseph, closed 1896
* 1881 Sandstone Post Office and Telegraph Station occupied, closed 1919, building currently in private ownership
* 1887 Rail bridge constructed over Dora Creek at Newport. Low height prevented masted vessels from continuing to Cooranbong
* 1895 Area visited by Mary MacKillop, head of Sisters of St Joseph Order, and by Ellen White, 7th-day Adventist visionary
* 1896 Catholic school closed
* 1896 Avondale cemetery first burials
* 1896 Martinsville cemetery first burials
* 1897 Avondale community established
* 1902 Daniel Couper dies in England (owner of Simpson’s land grant), 3 acre northern tip sold to Catholic Church for 10 shillings
* 1906 Humble gothic brick church of St Patrick and St Brigid built on same site as original timber 1861 church, currently open as mass centre for parish of St John Vianney, Morisset
* 1909 Sanitarium Health Food Company established, closed 2015 relocated to Berkley Vale
More Recent Happenings
* 1941 Town water connected
* 1962 Major flooding event
* 1975 Freemans Drive named, formerly Maitland Road
* 1982 Catholic cemetery listed as a nationally significant site with Australian Historical Society
* 1989 Avondale Shopping Village opened
* 1993 Catholic Church and Cemetery listed as locally significant site
* 1993 Cooranbong Town Common established, arched footbridge and music shell built, later incorporating children’s playground
* 2005 Watagan Park development began
* 2016 Cooranbong Men’s Shed established
* 2020 Extensive playing fields and amenities developed adjoining Cooranbong Park
Details above supplied & written by Frances Dunn
South Sea Islands Museum
The South Sea Islands Museum is located at 27 Avondale Road in a historic house adjacent to the Sunnyside Historical Home built and occupied by Eelen G. White. The museum contains a collection of historic South Sea Island artefacts gathered by Seventh-day Adventist missionaries during their work on Pitcairn Islands, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Kiribati. Its centerpiece is an enormous war canoe. The records of the missionaries’ work in Australia and in the South Sea Island region dating from the 1880s are held in the Adventist Heritage Centre at Cooranbong. According to the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage, “these rich and diverse records of provenance add to the significance of items in the museum.”
Sunnyside Historic Home
This historic home was constructed by Seventh-day Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White and served as her home base for six years while she lived in Australia (1895-1900). It originally sat on 40 acres of land Mrs White bought from the church for $1,350 in an effort to provide needed funds for the school development. The home was where she wrote significant portions of her most popular books, including the Desire of Ages, a work on the life of Christ. Ellen White was instrumental in founding Avondale College, and the home sits near the campus. It was bought by the Australasian (now South Pacific) Division in 1960, and they restored Sunnyside. The home is available for tours.
Details above by Wikipedia
Places of Interest
