Appin, New South Wales - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Appin is a town in the Macarthur Region

Macarthur, New South Wales

Macarthur is a region in south-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region includes the local government areas of the City of Campbelltown, Camden Council and Wollondilly Shire. It covers an area of 3,067 square kilometres and has a population of close to 240,000 residents...

of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

in Wollondilly Shire. It is situated about 16 kilometres south of Campbelltown

Campbelltown, New South Wales

Campbelltown is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Campbelltown is located 51 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Campbelltown.- History :Campbelltown...

and 35 kilometres north west of Wollongong

Wollongong, New South Wales

Wollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...

Early history

Appin is in the lands of the Dharawal

Tharawal people

The Tharawal people were the Aboriginal inhabitants of southern Sydney and the Illawarra region in 1788, when the first European colonists arrived. The Tharawal people lived in the areas from south side of Botany Bay, around Port Hacking to north of the Shoalhaven River and inland to Campbelltown...

people.

"During the Dreaming a great fire swept through the land. Wiritjiribin led the people to sanctuary in a cool green gully
which had been missed by the fire, under the rocky cliffs of a gorge south of Appin. Those
who had perished in the fire were reincarnated as animals and Wiritjiribin appeared as a
lyrebird, which became the clan’s totem, a symbol of peace and caretaker of the Land of
Gawaigl, an area which became a meeting place for Peoples from all over the east coast of
Australia"

European settlement in the Appin district was prohibited for some years; Appin was part of the 'Cowpastures' where a small herd of cattle had established themselves, having escaped from the Sydney Cove settlement. To protect these and help feed the colony, Governor Macquarie

Lachlan Macquarie

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...

ordered 'No person to hunt or travel into the Cowpastures without licence under penalty of death'.

Naturalist George Caley had visited the area in 1807 exploring 'from Prospect to the upper waters of George's River and the Cataract and Cordeaux Rivers' and reporting his findings. Settlement began in 1811 with a 1000 acres (4 km²) land grant by Governor Macquarie to William Broughton, who had arrived with the First Fleet.Deputy Commissary General W. Broughton: in tribute to the Governor, Broughton named his grant Lachlan Vale; it is now known as Northhamptondale. For the next five years, smaller grants of 40 to 150 acre (0.607029 km²) were made to a score or so of others, former soldiers, emancipated convicts. Governor Macquarie was pleased to give 'The District of Appin' its name, after Appin

Appin

Appin is a remote coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded west by Loch Linnhe, south by Loch Creran, east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and north by Loch Leven...

, in the Scottish West Highlands where his wife, Elizabeth, was born.

Mrs Allan McPherson, visiting circa 1856, wrote:

"The next morning was fine and bright, and with somewhat better spirits we set out again, but the roads were heavy, and our progress consequently not very rapid, so that it was one or two o'clock before we reached "Appin," a small village, the last resting place on the Sydney side of Mount Keera. As it was too late to attempt crossing the mountain--at all times a formidable undertaking--that evening, we were obliged to make up our minds to stay here. We were not by this time very difficult to please in the way of accommodation, but it seemed doubtful if we should meet with any in this out-of-the-way little place. At last the landlord of a little inn took compassion on us, and let us in, though giving us to understand it was quite as a favour, for he was giving up his business that week, and his house was in a great state of confusion. I afterwards learnt we owed the accommodation, such as it was, to the compassion of the landlord's wife, who chose to weave a little romance about us to the effect that we were a newly married couple, and who was not a little disappointed when I informed her I had been married several years, and had three children! I must be excused if my recollections of Appin are not very favourable, for at this half-dismantled little inn we were detained three days by incessant torrents of rain, such as I had hardly ever witnessed before, even in the colony. What to do with ourselves we really hardly knew. We had neither writing nor drawing materials, nor were they procurable…"

The Appin Massacre

Dharawal people made friendships among several Appin settlers, but others came into conflict. In 1814, both Aborigines and Europeans died in skirmishes, usually over stolen crops. After further deaths at Bringelly

Bringelly, New South Wales

Bringelly is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Northern Road between Penrith and Camden. It has a public school. Bringelly is also the name of a local hill.-History:...

The killings of Europeans were possibly by Gandangara intruders hunting during a time of drought. See Whitaker, p. 11 Macquarie sent a punitive expedition to round up all Aborigines in the area. Those who resisted were to be shot. On 16 April, at least 14 were killed by shooting; others were driven to jump to their deaths into a rocky gorge, near Broughton's Pass.

Notable Citizens

Among Appin's free settlers was one Andrew Hamilton Hume, father of the explorer Hamilton Hume

Hamilton Hume

Hamilton Hume was the first Australian born explorer. Along with Hovell in 1824, Hume was part of an expedition that first took an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip near the site of present day Melbourne...

. Hamilton Hume and his brother John were tireless investigators of the local countryside, often journeying in the company of Duall, a Dharawal man. Hamilton Hume became an expert bushman, and was well-prepared for major exploration when he set out in 1824 from 'Humewood', in the company of William Hovell

William Hovell

William Hilton Hovell was an English explorer of Australia.-Early life:Hovell was born in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England and went to sea as a boy, becoming a Royal Navy captain before settling in New South Wales, arriving in October 1813 aboard the Earl Spencer with his wife Esther née Arndell...

, to explore the land

Hume and Hovell expedition

The Hume and Hovell expedition was one of the most important journeys of explorations undertaken in eastern Australia. In 1824 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, commissioned Hamilton Hume and former Royal Navy Captain William Hovell to lead an expedition to find new grazing land...

between the Sydney settlements and Port Phillip

Port Phillip

Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...

, at the request of Governor Brisbane

Thomas Brisbane

Major-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet GCH, GCB, FRS, FRSE was a British soldier, colonial Governor and astronomer.-Early life:...

. A stone monument to this event stands on Campbelltown Road, erected by the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1924. Stone was obtained from the ruins of Hamilton Hume’s house.

Appin is the birthplace of John Fuller

Dan Morgan (bushranger)

John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. He was their illigitimate son and from the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts...

, better known as the bushranger Dan 'Mad Dog' Morgan.

Rachel Henning

Rachel Henning

Rachel Henning was born in England. In 1854 she went to Australia, but returned to England in 1856 due to homesickness and the hot climate. However, in 1861, she returned to Australia where she settled permanently...

spent several months at Elladale Cottage in Appin. Of the area, she wrote:

"I am glad [Biddulph] is going to leave Appin, however, for I am sure he will
never make any money on this farm. Do you remember our saying that there
must certainly be something the matter with it, when he wrote word of how
low the rent was, that there must be a want of water or that nothing
would grow? There are both these drawbacks here. The soil is wretchedly poor, and this is said to be the very driest part of Australia. Frequently, when there have been torrents of rain at
Wollongong and Sydney, on each side of us, we have not had a drop here.
There are no springs on the farm, only a waterhole, and that was dry for
nearly six weeks in the summer, and then we had to fetch water from the
river three miles off. It is a pity Biddulph ever took this farm; still,
he has gained some experience here, and, as his expenditure was chiefly
in cattle and furniture, he has not lost much."

Agriculture and Industry

Appin was for decades a major wheat-growing, and dairy-farming area, but wheat rust

Wheat leaf rust

Wheat leaf rust, is fungal disease that effects wheat, barley and rye stems, leaves and grains. In temperate zones it is destructive on winter wheat because the pathogen overwinters. Infections can lead up to 20% yield loss - exacerbated by dying leaves which fertilize the fungus. The pathogen is...

, and new railways reaching other primary producing areas of the State, reduced its importance. From 1869, however, the district became the major supplier of Sydney's water, when construction commenced on the Upper Nepean Scheme

Upper Nepean Scheme

The Upper Nepean Scheme is a series of dams in the catchments of the Cataract, Cordeaux, Avon and Nepean rivers of New South Wales, Australia. The scheme includes four dams and supplies the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wollondilly Shire, and metropolitan Sydney.- History :The Upper Nepean...

: four major dams and an associated 40 miles (64.4 km) of canals and tunnels supplying Prospect Reservoir.

Prospect reservoir

Prospect Reservoir is a water storage reservoir located at the headwaters of Prospect Creek in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Prospect, in New South Wales, Australia. The dam wall is known as Prospect Dam.-History of the site:...

The Appin Colliery, exploiting the Bulli Seam by longwall mining

Longwall mining

Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice . The longwall panel is typically 3–4 km long and 250–400 m wide....

opened in 1962. The West Cliff Colliery opened in 1976.

Infrastructure

A town plan was completed in 1834. Several of the proposed street names are in use today, including Toggerai, the Dharawal name for the Upper reaches of the Georges River. A track from Campbelltown was in use from 1815; as settlement advanced along coastal Illawarra, routes to Sydney found their way up the escarpment

Illawarra escarpment

The Illawarra Escarpment is the fold created cliffs and plateau eroded outcrop mountain range west of the Illawarra coastal plain south of Sydney, Australia, enclosing the region known as the Illawarra which stretches from Stanwell Park in the north to Kiama, Gerringong and the Shoalhaven river in...

, and through Appin; the resulting traffic increased the town's prosperity.

Appin had a permanent Post Office by 1841, and a telephone line was connected to it in 1888. Appin had to wait until 1945 for an electricity supply. Despite its proximity to several large dams, Appin did not receive a reticulated water supply until 1961. As of 2010, a town sewerage scheme is in its planning stages.

Several examples of early sandstone buildings remain in Appin's commercial centre on Appin Road. These include the former Courthouse and Gaol (1860s), the derelict Appin Inn (1826), a stone cottage used as offices, built circa 1840, the Headmaster's residence at the primary school, and St. Bede's Roman Catholic Church, 1834-7. Other buildings of heritage value include the disused motor garage at Darcy’s Corner (1955), the Appin Hotel (1840), and St Mark The Evangelist Church (1843)

Community Facilities

The Wollondilly Mobile Library visits the township weekly. Appin has a Playgroup; a Mobile PreSchool; a Community Hall, two sportsgrounds, and an off-leash area for companion animals near Wonson Oval. The Appin Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade (now known as the Appin Rural Fire Service) was formed in 1944; Joe D'Arcy was its first Captain. The current Fire Shed was opened in 2002.

In the Surrounding Area

The 16th World Scout Jamboree

16th World Scout Jamboree

The 16th World Scout Jamboree was held 30 December 1987 to 7 January 1988, the first World Scout Jamboree held in the Southern Hemisphere, and the first to change the date from the traditional August to January to coincide with summer...

was held at the Cataract Scout Camp, the first such Jamboree held in the Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

. The Dharawal State Recreation Area and Nature Reserve is located to the east. Appin is part of the Upper Georges River Catchment. The Bureau of Meteorology operates a Weather Watch radar station at Bulli

Bulli, New South Wales

Bulli is a northern suburb of Wollongong situated on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Bulli is derived from an Aboriginal word signifying "double or two mountains"....

, known as the "Sydney (Appin) radar" 34°15′36"S 150°52′12"E. Its coverage extends to Newcastle, Bathurst, Lake George and Ulladulla."

Industries, Employment

The coal mines continue to be a major employer. Inghams Enterprises operate several factory farms. An industrial area has been established to the south of Appin. Here also is the Macarthur Water Treatment Plant. Completed in 1995, which supplies the Camden, Campbelltown and Wollondilly areas.

Education

Appin Public School was opened in 1867. Before this, Catholic and Anglican Denominational Schools had been conducted in the district, but both had closed by 1870.

Secondary school students today attend High Schools in Campbelltown

Campbelltown, New South Wales

and other areas. Tertiary education is available from institutions in adjacent towns: the University of Western Sydney at Campbelltown, the University of Wollongong

University of Wollongong

The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...

and Campbelltown College of TAFE.

Sport

North of town lie the Appin Greyhound Track and the Appin Motocross Circuit Motocross. Tennis courts and a sportsground are located within the township (Wonson Oval). Appin is home to the Appin Dogs Rugby League Football Teams: a women's rugby team was established in 2010. Appin United Soccer Club have their home ground at the Gordon Lewis Oval.Appin alsohave their own Netball team:Appin Netball Club.