History

Milson's Passage

Originally Milsons Passage would have been part of the lands of the Dharruk people who fished and hunted along the river they called "Deerubbun" for thousands of years. The first Europeans to pass our way was on June the 17th 1789; a longboat under the command of Governor Arthur Philip. He was searching for pastures greener than the sandy scrub around Sydney Cove. The settlers who followed used the river as a road as he did. Their produce went down and along the coast to Sydney. Everyone traveled by boat including the parson, postman, doctor, grocer and apparently an extraordinary variety of salesmen. In the early days, oranges were commercially grown at Milsons Passage, while others used it as a base for fishing.

Milson Island

Milson Island has a colourful history too. At different times in the last 100 years it's been a trading post, a mental institution, a veteran rehabilitation centre and jail. It's now a Sport and Recreation Camp run by the NSW State Government. www.dsr.nsw.gov.au/milsonisland/index.asp

Bar Island

Before the coming of the railway and the emergence of Brooklyn, historic Bar Island just up river from Milsons Passage, with a school, church and cemetery, played a central part in the river community. It’s well worth a visit.

As the Hornsby Council’s website reported in June 2006, efforts are about to get underway to preserve these remnants of the past, including the remnants of Aboriginal and European times:

These locations have all been listed by the National Trust and recommended for listing on the New South Wales heritage register.

The State Heritage Incentives Program has given Hornsby Council $22,600 for the conservation of the remaining Aboriginal and European heritage items on Bar Island. Council will match the funds, creating a total project pool of $45,200.

The new conservation works include midden protection and path work, re-routing the track around an historic rock inscription bearing the name of the wife of the first Minister of the church on Bar Island, as well as repair of the headstones and memorial.

Previously council has undertaken work including the restoration of the chimney of St John's Church (the only standing part of the church remaining), as well as regeneration of large areas of bushland, saltmarsh restoration and interpretive signs.

Bar Island is the subject of one of the first books council published for the Centenary celebrations Bar Island and the Lower Hawkesbury River Settlements by local author and historian Tom Richmond.

The island has a rare association with poet Henry Kendall, who wrote a poem to the mother of a small baby who was buried in the cemetery. An Aboriginal woman with links to many pioneer families, 'Granny Lewis', is buried on Bar Island.

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