Catalina Park
Encyclopedia
Catalina Park is a disused motor racing venue, located at Katoomba,in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales
, Australia
. It was the official Dog Off Leash area for Katoomba (this status has since been rescinded) and is recognised as an Aboriginal Place due to the long association of the local Gundungarra and Darug
tribes to the area.
Originally used for top level motorsport
including touring car
, open wheeler, motorcycle
and sidecar
racing in the 1960s. The mountain location caused problems with fog
causing delays in the race programs, also the track was very narrow by today's standards and surrounded by walls, armco railings and hillside. The track became used less with the opening of other circuits nearer to Sydney
such as Oran Park
and Amaroo Park
. Bruce Weston is the current lap record holder.
In the 1970s the circuit was used for Rallycross
, where the cars would use half the bitumen track and a dirt infield section with jumps, like Motocross
.
By the 1980s the track was only being used for lap dashes with single cars on track at one time and was used until the mid 1990s for this.
The circuit still exists and can be walked around however it has deteriorated quite badly with grass growing through the track surface on what was Lockheed
Straight and Dunlop
Corner, and water seepage has caused part of the track to collapse between Craven A
corner and Castrol
corner.
Before white settlement the Traditional Owners of the Gully – the Gundungurra and Darug peoples – used the Gully as a summer camp. Settlement at the foot of the mountains forced many Gundungurra and Darug people to resettle permanently in the Gully well before 1950. The flooding
of the Burragorang Valley
in the 1950s made this process irreversible.
In 1957, their relatively peaceful co-existence was shattered. The traditional owners were forcibly removed from the Gully to make way for a racetrack organised by a group of 83 local businessmen (the Blue Mountains Sporting Drivers Club Limited) who were supported by the then Blue Mountains City Council. The trauma caused to the land and to the community of people who were living in and around the Gully was profound – and still reverberates.
The Gully was declared an Aboriginal Place on 18 May 2002. From the time it was nominated until its declaration as an Aboriginal Place, took only nine months. The Gully in Katoomba became the largest Aboriginal Place in NSW. The Aboriginal Place declaration was warmly welcomed by the Gundungurra and Darug Traditional Owners and was marked by Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike with an official celebration in November 2002.
Under section 84 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW) ("the Act"), an Aboriginal Place declaration recognises the cultural attachment Aboriginal people have to land. Section 85 provides a mechanism for the New South Wales Government to provide appropriate protection to ensure the area is neither damaged nor destroyed. In this case, the legislation requires the landholder (the Blue Mountains City Council together with the NSW Department of Lands) acting with the Gully Traditional Owners, to protect the Indigenous heritage of the area.
Under section 90 of the Act, permission from the Aboriginal people of knowledge of the area is required before the landholder can disturb or destroy the cultural significance of the Aboriginal Place. What this has meant in practice is that local councils that are landholders have set up mechanisms of consultation with the Aboriginal people of knowledge of the area. The Gully Traditional Owners do not see this system as fulfilling the requirements of the Act. They have asked BMCC for a system of co-management.
Although there is nothing yet in the annals of the Mountains City Council and no signage on the ground to act as proof, the fact is that since 2002, a significant amount of goodwill has slowly built up in Katoomba. Several small victories have taken place in the symbolic field. Amongst the most significant of these is the documentation of the history of the Gundungurra and Darug peoples in a new book whose publication was supported by both the Sydney Catchment Authority and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (‘ACIJ’) at the University of Technology, Sydney. Sacred Waters: The Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners has been written in close collaboration with the Gully people by Blue Mountains resident for 20 years anthropologist Dr Dianne Johnson.
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...
. It was the official Dog Off Leash area for Katoomba (this status has since been rescinded) and is recognised as an Aboriginal Place due to the long association of the local Gundungarra and Darug
Darug people
The Darug people are a language group of Indigenous Australians, who are traditional custodians of much of what is modern day Sydney. There is some dispute about the extent of the Darug nation. Some historians believe the coastal Eora people were a separate tribe to the Darug...
tribes to the area.
Overview
The 2.1 km circuit opened in the early 1960s and remained in use until the 1990s.Originally used for top level motorsport
Motorsport
Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...
including touring car
Touring car
A touring car, or tourer, is an open car seating five or more. Touring cars may have two or four doors. Often, the belt line is lowered in the front doors to give the car a more sportive character. They were often fitted with a folding roof and side curtains. Engines on early models were either in...
, open wheeler, motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
and sidecar
Sidecar
A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, producing a three-wheeled vehicle.-History:A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper Motor Cycling. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was...
racing in the 1960s. The mountain location caused problems with fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
causing delays in the race programs, also the track was very narrow by today's standards and surrounded by walls, armco railings and hillside. The track became used less with the opening of other circuits nearer to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
such as Oran Park
Oran Park
Oran Park may refer to:*Oran Park, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney in Australia*Oran Park Raceway, a former motor racing circuit in Sydney...
and Amaroo Park
Amaroo Park
Amaroo Park was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It opened in 1967, hosting its first motorcycle meeting on 26 February with a 30 lap production race won by Larry Simons on a BSA Spitfire in heavy rain. The...
. Bruce Weston is the current lap record holder.
In the 1970s the circuit was used for Rallycross
Rallycross
Rallycross is a form of sprint style automobile racing, held on a closed mixed-surface racing circuit, with modified production or specially built road cars, similar to the World Rally Cars, although usually with about stronger engines, due to e.g. their 45 mm turbo restrictor plates. It is...
, where the cars would use half the bitumen track and a dirt infield section with jumps, like Motocross
Motocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
.
By the 1980s the track was only being used for lap dashes with single cars on track at one time and was used until the mid 1990s for this.
The circuit still exists and can be walked around however it has deteriorated quite badly with grass growing through the track surface on what was Lockheed
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
Straight and Dunlop
Dunlop Tyres
Dunlop Tyres is a British company owned 75% by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and 25% by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which bought the right to sell Dunlop-branded road tyres....
Corner, and water seepage has caused part of the track to collapse between Craven A
Craven A
Craven "A" is a brand of cigarette which were made in Canada, Jamaica, Vietnam, and North Korea. The cigarettes exhibit the English-style flavor of a Virginia-tobacco dominant blend, with that plant's attendant nutty sweetness. The cigarette was named after the third Earl of Craven in 1860.Craven...
corner and Castrol
Castrol
Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications...
corner.
History
Catalina Park commonly known as The Gully is a beautiful piece of land situated in Katoomba and is also known as the Katoomba Falls Creek Valley. The Gully forms the headwaters of the Katoomba Falls Creek and is therefore part of the Warragamba Catchment area that provides Sydney’s water. It is an ecologically and culturally sensitive place.Before white settlement the Traditional Owners of the Gully – the Gundungurra and Darug peoples – used the Gully as a summer camp. Settlement at the foot of the mountains forced many Gundungurra and Darug people to resettle permanently in the Gully well before 1950. The flooding
Lake Burragorang
Lake Burragorang is the water storage impounded by Warragamba Dam. It collects the waters of the Coxs, Kowmung, Nattai, Wingecarribee, and Wollondilly Rivers. It is the major water storage for Sydney, Australia...
of the Burragorang Valley
Burragorang, New South Wales
Burragorang or Burragorang Valley is a locality in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, in Wollondilly Shire. It is home to Lake Burragorang which is impounded by Warragamba Dam...
in the 1950s made this process irreversible.
In 1957, their relatively peaceful co-existence was shattered. The traditional owners were forcibly removed from the Gully to make way for a racetrack organised by a group of 83 local businessmen (the Blue Mountains Sporting Drivers Club Limited) who were supported by the then Blue Mountains City Council. The trauma caused to the land and to the community of people who were living in and around the Gully was profound – and still reverberates.
The Gully was declared an Aboriginal Place on 18 May 2002. From the time it was nominated until its declaration as an Aboriginal Place, took only nine months. The Gully in Katoomba became the largest Aboriginal Place in NSW. The Aboriginal Place declaration was warmly welcomed by the Gundungurra and Darug Traditional Owners and was marked by Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike with an official celebration in November 2002.
Under section 84 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW) ("the Act"), an Aboriginal Place declaration recognises the cultural attachment Aboriginal people have to land. Section 85 provides a mechanism for the New South Wales Government to provide appropriate protection to ensure the area is neither damaged nor destroyed. In this case, the legislation requires the landholder (the Blue Mountains City Council together with the NSW Department of Lands) acting with the Gully Traditional Owners, to protect the Indigenous heritage of the area.
Under section 90 of the Act, permission from the Aboriginal people of knowledge of the area is required before the landholder can disturb or destroy the cultural significance of the Aboriginal Place. What this has meant in practice is that local councils that are landholders have set up mechanisms of consultation with the Aboriginal people of knowledge of the area. The Gully Traditional Owners do not see this system as fulfilling the requirements of the Act. They have asked BMCC for a system of co-management.
Although there is nothing yet in the annals of the Mountains City Council and no signage on the ground to act as proof, the fact is that since 2002, a significant amount of goodwill has slowly built up in Katoomba. Several small victories have taken place in the symbolic field. Amongst the most significant of these is the documentation of the history of the Gundungurra and Darug peoples in a new book whose publication was supported by both the Sydney Catchment Authority and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (‘ACIJ’) at the University of Technology, Sydney. Sacred Waters: The Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners has been written in close collaboration with the Gully people by Blue Mountains resident for 20 years anthropologist Dr Dianne Johnson.