Kanahooka - History

See also Dapto - history

Land grants

Richard Brooks, who was one of the Illawarra's first five land grantees, gave his son Henry a grant of 600 acres. It was portion 17, Parish of Calderwood and located to the north of his father's property "Exmouth". The land was marked out in 1825 by surveyor James McBrien and was bounded by Lake Illawarra to the East and Brooks Creek to the South. The area of this land grant encompassed Kanahooka Point. (McDonald, W.G. Nineteenth-Century Dapto, 1976).

Early residents

Charlie Hooka

The Hooka Islands are situated in the north-west waters of Lake Illawarra; these islands are named Hooka after the last aboriginal chief who laid claim to them. "Charlie Hooka was a great chief, whose land extended along the western shores of the lake from the mouth of Mullet Creek northerly to Budjong, now known as Killys Creek, by the range on the north and on the west and south by Dapto and Mullet Creeks…. Hooka was a sturdy well made man of medium height. He did not mix much with white people…but preferred to remain with his tribe in their wild state, his only garment being an opossum skin cloak…" (Organ 1990, p. 355) According to an article by 'Old Pioneer' in the Illawarra Mercury dated 30th November 1923. King Hooka advised the early white settlers to take their goods and cattle back to Wollongong to avoid a confrontation with the Coolangatta tribe. He then went to give battle with his men along the road to Brownsville.

"Early in the morning the tribes gave battle. All day long they fought and at night the Coolangatta tribe retired south leaving the place in charge of the victorious Hooka tribe….The cost was great and many warriors killed, and amongst the dying was good King Hooka…" (Organ 1990, p. 375 Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin October 1970)

Richard Brooks and "Exmouth"

Richard Brooks was born in 1764 at Bermondsay, Surrey, England. He was a sea captain and a former East India Company Officer. He was granted 1300 acres by Governor Macquarie on January 17, 1817. It was called "Exmouth" or "Koonawarra" by the local aboriginal people. Like most of the early grantees he did not live on his Illawarra property. "Exmouth" was managed by William or John Neale and an assistant named Cream.

Richard Brooks died at "Denham Court" near Ingleburn in 1833. He and his wife were buried on the Denham Court estate. Brooks had two sons both associated with Dapto history Henry Brooks was granted 600 acres at Kanahooka point in 1825. (McDonald, 1976)

Early industry

Smelting

The establishment of the Dapto Smelting Works was an important part of Kanahooka's history. The Dapto Smelting Works came about through the ill fated "Lake Illawarra Harbour Scheme". This scheme gave a great impetus to the growth of the town of Dapto in the early 1900s.

In 1890 a Parliamentary Act was passed authorising the Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation to begin projects near Dapto that would involve an outlay of many hundreds of thousands of pounds. The scheme involved building a channel through Lake Illawarra to allow ocean going vessels to come up to Elizabeth Point, a short distance north of Kanahooka Point. A railway was also built at a cost of 42,000 pounds to allow coal to be brought from a local colliery to be loaded onto the ships.

With the opening of the railway the Smelting Company of Australia Ltd. had been formed and with the backing of overseas capital a large smelting works was established. "The site chosen for the works was an elevated one, contiguous to Mullet Creek and about half a mile from its mouth. The more northerly of "the Twins" - two similar hills- was decapitated, thus providing a series of levels to which the ores would gravitate, in the various processes from bins to crushing and roasting plants, then to the blast furnaces before being sent to the refinery.." (O'Malley 1950, p. 6)

The works were operating at full production by 1899 and were prosperous for several years. They treated lead, silver, zinc, copper and gold from Broken Hill, Zeehan, Mount Morgan and Western Australia.

"The main plant of the smelting works consisted of three blast furnaces, roasting plant, refinery, sulphuric acid plant, steam engines, blowing engines, pumps and a foundry…The products from the works were Dore bullion (gold and silver conglomerate), soft lead and a high-grade copper matte containing gold silver and lead." (O'Malley 1950, p. 8)

Numbers of employees at the plant peaked at between four and five hundred. Half of the employee population lived in tents and there was a group of fifty in the clump of swamp oaks just north of the works. The success of the smelting works lead to Dapto being a boom town in the early 1900's. The report of the Commissioner for Railways for 1903 declared Dapto the most valuable station on the Illawarra line, its goods transfer totalling 22,000 pounds.

Quite suddenly in 1905 everything folded, competition cut off the supply of ore from Western Australia and Broken Hill, an ambitious scheme for treating nickel from New Caledonia came to nothing and in 1905 the works closed. (McDonald, 1976; O'Malley, 1950)

Early transport

See also Dapto history page

Railway

The most significant early transport experience for Kanahooka was the establishment of the railway line. This line was to transport coal from a colliery known as 'Flemings Mine' in the range behind West Dapto to ocean going vessels at Elizabeth Point. The railway was five and a half miles long and was built at a cost of 42,000 pounds. The failure of the Lake Illawarra Harbour scheme lead to this railway becoming defunct although some relics can still be seen.

Roads

"Fowlers Road uses part of its road bed, old rails forming part of the spur which connected it to the main line were embedded in Marshall Street and are still in position behind the high fences on either side and old embankments, cuttings and broken viaducts can be seen at various points around Kanahooka, Bong Bong Road, Wongawilli and West Dapto." (McDonald 1976, p.69)

Also significant was the building of the bridge over Mullet Creek. After the establishment of the Central Illawarra Council it was decided to build a bridge over Mullet Creek to avoid the isolation of residents in the large tract of country between the Creek and the Macquarie River. During times of flooding these residents were cut off from Wollongong for days. In 1860 Mr Weaver, a well known architect was employed and selected the high banks close to the Dapto Mill as the most appropriate site. In August the following year the bridge was opened with much fanfare. "The bridge was built entirely of local timber, was twenty feet wide and it is confidently calculated that it will withstand any flood likely to visit that portion of the district. (McDonald 1976, p. 37)