Pittwater Online News

 PITTWATER. Commemorative Cairn. TO BE UNVEILED TO-DAY.
(BY G. A. KING.)

During his five years' Governorship of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip played many parts. Not only was he the head of the Government of a colony thousands of miles from a base, but he was the officer commanding the naval and military forces in the new colony, and he was also the chief gaoler-the term Is used with due respect to the memory of a great man-responsible for many of the most-hardened criminals the English gaols of the day could produce. Those responsibilities would be sufficient for any ordinary man, but Phillip, a man of remarkable energy and action, found time for many other activities calculated to advance the welfare of this Greater Britain In the Southern Seas. Not the least important of these activities was his desire to become acquainted with the virgin country which surrounded the new settlement at Sydney Cove.
This afternoon, Phillip's successor in the post of officer commanding the naval forces in Australian waters-Rear-Admiral Evans will unveil a cairn at Barrenjoey to commemorate the naming of Pittwater by Phillip 141 years ago. Commendable, If tardy, recognition of the first Governor's work is at last being made, and the three principal historical societies-the Royal Australian, the Parramatta, and the Manly bodies-have of recent years erected quite a number of memorials, which, apart from their main object, exemplify the increased interest now being taken in the early history of the Commonwealth.
Admiral Evans will proceed to Barrenjoey by motor car, and as he gazes over the great expanse of water In Broken Bay, Pittwater, and Brisbane Water the thought will doubtless occur to him of the hazardous undertaking of his Illustrious predecessor, who, with his officers, explored the uncharted coastline and Inlets adjacent to Port Jackson.
PHILLIP'S ENERGY.
It Is remarkable evidence of the first Governor's unbounded energy that within six weeks of the first landing at Sydney Cove he should have had the new colony sufficiently in order to warrant him setting out on a voyage of exploration to examine what Cook, in years previously, had described as "broken land, which appeared to form a bay," and which the great navigator named Broken Bay. There is, however, a grave doubt whether the Broken Bay we know to-day is really the Inlet so named by Captain Cook, or whether the part of the coastline he referred to was In the vicinity of Collaroy and Narrabeen Lake. The distance of Broken Bay from Port Jackson as Phillip found it did not agree with that given in Cook's journal. Phillip did not comment on this discrepancy, but subsequently Flinders suggested that Cook's "broken land" was in the neighbourhood of Narrabeen Lagoon.
Phillip's examination of Broken Bay and Pittwater was the second great discovery made by him within two months of sailing into Botany Bay with the First Fleet, the units of which were coated with the sea-crust of a long and weary eight months' voyage. The first Governor had "discovered" Port Jackson, although it had been sighted and named (but not entered) by Cook; and In March, 1788, he explored and named Pittwater after William Pitt, the younger, who was then Prime Minister of England.
Fortunately for posterity Phillip left a full record of his work, and equally fortunate is it that these records, for the most part, remain Intact. "On the 2nd March," he wrote, "I went with a long-boat and cutter to examine the broken land mentioned by Captain Cook, about eight miles to the north- ward of Port Jackson. We slept In the boat that night within a rocky point In the north- west part of the bay (which Is very extensive), as the natives, tho' very friendly, appeared to be numerous; and the next day, after passing a bar that had only water for small vessels, entered a very extensive branch, from which the ebb tide came out so strong that the boats could not row against It in the stream; and here was deep water. It appeared to end In several small branches, and a large lagoon that we could not examine for want of time to search for a channel for the boats amongst the banks of sand and mud. Most of the land on the upper part of this branch was low and full of swamps. Pelicans and variety of birds were here seen in great numbers. Leaving this branch, which I called the north-west branch, we proceeded across the bay and went into the south-west branch, which is very extensive, and from which a second branch runs to the westward, affording shelter for any number of ships, and as far as we examined there is water for the largest ships, having seven fathoms at the entrance, and deep water as you go up. But the almost continual rains prevented any kind of survey. Here the land is much higher than at Port Jackson, more rocky, and equally covered with timber, large trees growing on the summits of mountains that appear to be accessible to birds only."
FIRST ENTRY TO PITTWATER.
On the same day-March 3, 1788-Phillip's party crossed Broken Bay, and he recorded that "Immediately round the headland that forms the southern entrance Into the bay there is a branch, which I think the finest piece of water I ever saw, and which I honoured with the name of Pitt Water. It Is, as well as the south-west branch, of sufficient extent to contain all the navy of Great Britain, but has only eighteen feet at low water on a narrow bar which runs across the entrance." The last-quoted phrase is eloquent of Phillip's thoroughness in examining the Inlet.
"Within the bar," continued Phillip, "there are from seven to fifteen fathoms of water. The land here Is not so high as in the south-west branch, and there are some good situations where the land might be cultivated. We found small springs of water in most of the coves, and saw three cascades falling from a height which the rains had rendered inaccessible. I returned to Port Jackson after being absent eight days in the boats. Some of the people feeling the effects of the rain, which had been almost constant, prevented my returning by land, as I Intended, In order to examine a part of the country which appeared open and free from timber."
Pittwater was the first place in Australia formally named by Phillip. The Governor apparently had a keen eye for the topography of the country, and although he did not have time during his first expedition to Broken Bay to make a thorough examination of the inlet he concluded that somewhere away In the hills (which he named Carmarthen, the Lansdowne and the Richmond Hills) there must be a large river.
From the time of Phillip's governorship, the Hawkesbury River, Broken Bay, and Pittwater have always occupied prominent places in the history of New South Wales. This afternoon's ceremony is particularly associated with Pittwater. Barrenjoey, near which headland the commemorative cairn has been erected, is at the extremity of the road from Manly, and forms the southern headland of Broken Bay. Stories of smuggling are associated with the early days of Broken Bay, and even as recently as 1870 there was a Customs House in Pittwater, just under Barrenjoey-or as It was for many years called, Barrenjuey.
Now, however, the district through which some of the earliest exploring parties travelled to reach Pittwater is a thriving pleasure and residential area, and the road from Manly to Barrenjoey Is dally thronged with streams of motor cars. Pittwater Is now almost as accessible as was Mosman in Phillip's time, but the cairn at Barrenjoey will remind the pleasure-seeker of the debt due to Phillip and his officers for their splendid work nearly one hundred and fifty years ago.
The cairn is a simple monument, and bears the following inscription:-"Erected by the Manly, Warringah, and Pittwater Historical Society to commemorate the naming, of Pitt-water by Governor Phillip on 3rd March, 1788. A.D., 1929. W. H. Ross, president; P. W. Gledhill, hon, sec."
PITTWATER. (1929, September 28). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 13. Retrieved January from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16588226

View of Pittwater Picture from Newspaper: VIEW OF PITTWATER. (1929, September 28). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16588213