Prospect Hill (New South Wales)
Encyclopedia
Prospect Hill is a small hill about 30 kilometres west of central Sydney
. It is stands up higher than the ridges of the Cumberland Plain
around it and with steeper slopes, but not much higher and not much steeper. All the same it is enough of a hill to command attention and its summit affords a “goodly prospect” west to the Blue Mountains and east to the man-made landmarks of Central Sydney. Its present-day highest point is 117 metres high, although before its summit was quarried away it rose to a height of 131 metres above sea level
People have walked round and over Prospect Hill for forty thousand years or more and have recognised it as a landmark, a meeting place and a boundary. It was known to local people as Mar-rong or Mur-rong in 1790. Prospect Hill is actually a roughly oval-shaped ridge, a bit like a caldera
. The hill has historical significance as one of the first places in the fledgling colony of New South Wales
where emancipated convicts were granted land to farm. For over 180 years quarrying of the volcanic rocks for roadstone and other building materials has been an important activity. For today's Australians it has historic significance, aesthetic values - it still has open space on and around
it - and commercial values - there are extensive industrial and housing developments on its slopes.
s of the Cumberland Plain
. It cooled into a thick disc of material and its heat changed the nature of the surrounding rock to produce a variety of minerals. It didn't quite reach the surface but pushed the surface rocks upwards to form a dome. Erosion then undermined the main mass of volcanic material and caused it to fall in on itself and create a shallow dish-shaped formation. This is referred to as a doleritic laccolith
.
In a normal laccolith the intruded material has a flat lower surface and a convex upper surface so that it is more like half a lens in shape. However because of the collapse of the volcanic material combined with subsequent surface erosion, the Prospect Hill laccolith had a concave upper surface until modern times, when quarrying altered its shape. This has given rise to its description as "caldera-like" although it is not a true caldera, and explains why the Hill, although a laccolith (which is normally dome-shaped), is in fact dish-shaped. Thus Prospect Hill is neither a volcanic crater
nor a caldera, since no volcanic material reached the surface of the earth. In a caldera, the collapse of the roof occurs during the volcanic period and is normally a much more explosive event.
The next stage of natural development, which has lasted over 60 million years, has been the slow erosion of the overlying layers of sedimentary rock by the flow of rainwater, which eventually laid bare the edges of the volcanic
and metamorphic rocks of the intrusion.
Prospect Hill is a “nodal point” of the Cumberland Plain. Rain falling on its southern slopes flows into Prospect Creek
and then via the Georges River
into Botany Bay
. The northern slopes drain into Girraween Creek and eventually into the Parramatta River
and Port Jackson
(Sydney Harbour). Close by to the west is Prospect Reservoir
and beyond it, Eastern Creek flows north-west into the Nepean-Hawkesbury River
, the mighty river that encircles Sydney forming the boundary of the Cumberland Plain and eventually flowing into the sea at Broken Bay
.
and his party on 26 June 1789. While there is no documentary evidence of Tench having named Prospect Hill, there is no doubt that it is in fact the hill that was shortly afterwards known by that name. In view of Tench's literary allusions to Milton
's Paradise Lost
, it seems highly probable that the experience of climbing it reminded him of the "goodly prospect of some forein land first-seen" by Milton's scout and that it was indeed Tench who first named it.
Statements that Prospect Hill is the hill named Belle-Vue by Governor Arthur Phillip
on its ascent by his expedition in April 1788 are unsubstantiated in contemporary record.
The earliest written reference to the name Prospect Hill is probably the account of an after-dinner walk from Parramatta to the hill by Governor Phillip
and Lieutenant (later Governor) Philip Gidley King
in April 1790. King's account shows that the name Prospect Hill had become established by then.
In 1791 Governor Phillip started granting plots of land (mostly 30 to 70 acres) to emancipated convicts. Some convicts had spent years in prison and prison ships in England before being transported. Some of those who were under seven-year sentences had therefore completed them. Thirteen grants of land at Prospect Hill were made in July 1791, ranging from 30 to 70 acres.
In 1799 Ensign William Cummings of the New South Wales Corps was granted 75 acres at Prospect Hill. A change in the interpretation of government policy in 1792 had opened the way for grants of land
to officers of the New South Wales Marine Corps. Cummings was the first beneficiary of this change.
In 1808 William Lawson was granted 550 acres on the western slopes of the west ridge where he was to build his home Veteran Hall. He then bought Cummings' grant and it was here that his third son, Nelson Lawson built a magnificent home, Grey Stanes, on the crown of Prospect Hill. Veteran Hall and its land were resumed when Prospect Reservoir was built as Sydney's main water supply in the 1880s. The Greystanes estate was eventually bought by quarrying interests. Prospect Hill was for many years the principal source of road-stone for the city's expanding infrastructure until the reserves of dolerite were exhausted.
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...
. It is stands up higher than the ridges of the Cumberland Plain
Cumberland Plain
The Cumberland Plain is a region in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia. The plain extends from 10 kilometres north of Windsor in the north, to Picton in the south; and...
around it and with steeper slopes, but not much higher and not much steeper. All the same it is enough of a hill to command attention and its summit affords a “goodly prospect” west to the Blue Mountains and east to the man-made landmarks of Central Sydney. Its present-day highest point is 117 metres high, although before its summit was quarried away it rose to a height of 131 metres above sea level
People have walked round and over Prospect Hill for forty thousand years or more and have recognised it as a landmark, a meeting place and a boundary. It was known to local people as Mar-rong or Mur-rong in 1790. Prospect Hill is actually a roughly oval-shaped ridge, a bit like a caldera
Caldera
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...
. The hill has historical significance as one of the first places in the fledgling colony 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...
where emancipated convicts were granted land to farm. For over 180 years quarrying of the volcanic rocks for roadstone and other building materials has been an important activity. For today's Australians it has historic significance, aesthetic values - it still has open space on and around
it - and commercial values - there are extensive industrial and housing developments on its slopes.
Origins
Prospect Hill was made many million years ago when volcanic material from the Earth's core was thrust upwards and then sideways into joints in the layers of shaleShale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
s of the Cumberland Plain
Cumberland Plain
The Cumberland Plain is a region in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia. The plain extends from 10 kilometres north of Windsor in the north, to Picton in the south; and...
. It cooled into a thick disc of material and its heat changed the nature of the surrounding rock to produce a variety of minerals. It didn't quite reach the surface but pushed the surface rocks upwards to form a dome. Erosion then undermined the main mass of volcanic material and caused it to fall in on itself and create a shallow dish-shaped formation. This is referred to as a doleritic laccolith
Laccolith
A laccolith is a sheet intrusion that has been injected between two layers of sedimentary rock. The pressure of the magma is high enough that the overlying strata are forced upward, giving the laccolith a dome or mushroom-like form with a generally planar base.Laccoliths tend to form at relatively...
.
In a normal laccolith the intruded material has a flat lower surface and a convex upper surface so that it is more like half a lens in shape. However because of the collapse of the volcanic material combined with subsequent surface erosion, the Prospect Hill laccolith had a concave upper surface until modern times, when quarrying altered its shape. This has given rise to its description as "caldera-like" although it is not a true caldera, and explains why the Hill, although a laccolith (which is normally dome-shaped), is in fact dish-shaped. Thus Prospect Hill is neither a volcanic crater
Volcanic crater
A volcanic crater is a circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a basin, circular in form within which occurs a vent from which magma erupts as gases, lava, and ejecta. A crater can be of large dimensions, and sometimes of great depth...
nor a caldera, since no volcanic material reached the surface of the earth. In a caldera, the collapse of the roof occurs during the volcanic period and is normally a much more explosive event.
The next stage of natural development, which has lasted over 60 million years, has been the slow erosion of the overlying layers of sedimentary rock by the flow of rainwater, which eventually laid bare the edges of the volcanic
Volcanic rock
Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...
and metamorphic rocks of the intrusion.
Prospect Hill is a “nodal point” of the Cumberland Plain. Rain falling on its southern slopes flows into Prospect Creek
Prospect Creek (New South Wales)
Prospect Creek is a small creek in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It flows from the Prospect reservoir for about 17 km until joining the Georges River at Georges Hall into the Dhurawal bay, in the Chipping Norton Lake system.As the reservoir forms a part of the...
and then via the Georges River
Georges River
The Georges River is a waterway in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It rises to the south-west of Sydney near the coal mining town of Appin, and then flows north past Campbelltown, roughly parallel to the Main South Railway...
into Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
. The northern slopes drain into Girraween Creek and eventually into the Parramatta River
Parramatta River
The Parramatta River is a waterway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson, along with the smaller Lane Cove and Duck Rivers....
and Port Jackson
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
(Sydney Harbour). Close by to the west is 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:...
and beyond it, Eastern Creek flows north-west into the Nepean-Hawkesbury River
Hawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, also known as Deerubbun, is one of the major rivers of the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its tributaries virtually encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.-Geography:-Course:...
, the mighty river that encircles Sydney forming the boundary of the Cumberland Plain and eventually flowing into the sea at Broken Bay
Broken Bay
Broken Bay is a large inlet of the Pacific Ocean located about 50 km north of Sydney on the coast of New South Wales, Australia, and is the first major bay north of Sydney's Port Jackson.- Geography :...
.
History from 1789 to the present
The first recorded ascent of Prospect Hill by a colonist is that of Captain-Lieutenant Watkin TenchWatkin Tench
Lieutenant-General Watkin Tench was a British Marine officer who is best known for publishing two books describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first settlement in Australia in 1788...
and his party on 26 June 1789. While there is no documentary evidence of Tench having named Prospect Hill, there is no doubt that it is in fact the hill that was shortly afterwards known by that name. In view of Tench's literary allusions to Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, it seems highly probable that the experience of climbing it reminded him of the "goodly prospect of some forein land first-seen" by Milton's scout and that it was indeed Tench who first named it.
Statements that Prospect Hill is the hill named Belle-Vue by Governor Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...
on its ascent by his expedition in April 1788 are unsubstantiated in contemporary record.
The earliest written reference to the name Prospect Hill is probably the account of an after-dinner walk from Parramatta to the hill by Governor Phillip
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...
and Lieutenant (later Governor) Philip Gidley King
Philip Gidley King
Captain Philip Gidley King RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. He is best known as the official founder of the first European settlement on Norfolk Island and as the third Governor of New South Wales.-Early years and establishment of Norfolk Island settlement:King was born...
in April 1790. King's account shows that the name Prospect Hill had become established by then.
In 1791 Governor Phillip started granting plots of land (mostly 30 to 70 acres) to emancipated convicts. Some convicts had spent years in prison and prison ships in England before being transported. Some of those who were under seven-year sentences had therefore completed them. Thirteen grants of land at Prospect Hill were made in July 1791, ranging from 30 to 70 acres.
In 1799 Ensign William Cummings of the New South Wales Corps was granted 75 acres at Prospect Hill. A change in the interpretation of government policy in 1792 had opened the way for grants of land
to officers of the New South Wales Marine Corps. Cummings was the first beneficiary of this change.
In 1808 William Lawson was granted 550 acres on the western slopes of the west ridge where he was to build his home Veteran Hall. He then bought Cummings' grant and it was here that his third son, Nelson Lawson built a magnificent home, Grey Stanes, on the crown of Prospect Hill. Veteran Hall and its land were resumed when Prospect Reservoir was built as Sydney's main water supply in the 1880s. The Greystanes estate was eventually bought by quarrying interests. Prospect Hill was for many years the principal source of road-stone for the city's expanding infrastructure until the reserves of dolerite were exhausted.