Glenbrook, NSW, is located in the foothills of the NSW Blue Mountains, approximately 60km from Sydney on the north side of the Great Western Highway.
The eastern entrance to Blue Mountains National Park, the Jellybean Pool, and the Red Hands Cave, can be found in Glenbrook. The area also showcases various
heritage buildings of interest.
Dharug People
Aboriginal people have been living in the region of the Nepean River (Dyarubbin) for about 40,000 years. A rock shelter at Shaws Creek near Winmalee shows evidence of Aboriginal occupation going back about 17,000 years.
Some sources claim that the Oryang/Aurang Clan of the Darug people occupied the area which is now the Lower Blue Mountains. However, D. E Ford (2010) states: "The recently contrived 'Clan’ called ‘Oryang-ora’ at Springwood in the Blue Mountains did not exist." G. E. Ford's Thesis is available online
Ford also claims that: "The recent term ‘Darug’ for the Western Sydney Aborigines, as contrived by J.L. Kohen for Blacktown and District Historical Society to apply to
local people and publicised in his untested 1993 book, does not represent either the Hawkesbury River Darkiñung or the Georges River Dharug people. It is derived from the meaning of a vegetable root (‘darook’) at Tandarook in Western Victoria."
Examples of Aboriginal occupation
can be found in the Red Hands Cave, a rock shelter in the National Park at Glenbrook, where the art is believed to be between 500 -1600 years old. The cave walls display hand stencils from adults and children. On the way to the cave, along Campfire Creek, you can see Aboriginal axe grinding grooves.
Many Dharug people wore possum skin cloaks during the colder times of the year. These cloaks were made from many possum pelts sewn together with kangaroo sinew.
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| Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook, NSW |
Other red handprints, found in a cave near Glenbrook train station, that an expert declared to be Aboriginal and "culturally significant", were exposed as fakes, made by teenage brothers in the 1960s. Read
here
Many Aboriginal artefacts, such as grinding stones and spears have been found in the Lower Blue Mountains. Areas such as Yellomundee Regional Park, the Nepean River, Shaws Creek and the lower Blue Mountains, are still rich in Aboriginal sites and artefacts (Knox and Stockton 2019).
Some examples of Aboriginal occupation that may be found are: camp-sites, tools, rock shelters with artwork, middens, and carved trees.
The Darug People lived a
hunter-gatherer lifestyle which required specialised knowledge and skill. As mentioned above, the name Darug comes from the Aboriginal word for "yam" tubers, which were an important food for Darug people, and
traditionally collected by women.
Generally, there are three levels of Aboriginal kinship: Moiety, Totem and Skin Names. A person's Moiety can be determined by their mother's side (matrilineal) or their father's side (patrilineal). A moiety involves the division of society in two. Marriages were arranged with members of the opposite moiety. For example, a Crow man could not marry a Crow woman.
Totems were split between Moieties. Aboriginal people may have several totems, coming from animals, plants, landscape features, or the weather. These totems are connected to the Dreamtime and are an important part of everyday life, in terms of what a person could hunt or eat, their relationships, marriage partners,
ceremonies and connections with ancestors.
Skin Names (roughly parallel to subsection) come from the mother’s name in a matrilineal system or the father’s name in a patrilineal system. If you
meet someone with the same skin name, that person is your "brother" or "sister", their mother is your "mother".
Aboriginal Animism is a religion that sees human beings as part of an interconnected web of life. Animism is the most widely held religious belief of indigenous peoples around the world.
The Dreamtime, for Aboriginal people, was when the natural world—animals, trees, plants, hills, rocks, waterholes and rivers, were created by ancestral creator beings. Songlines were the marks left by these creator beings as they travelled across the land or sky.
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| Hara-o & Karadra in drawings and etchings of Nepean and Springwood Aboriginal men, c1819. The French vessel l'Uranie, on a scientific voyage, arrived in Sydney in 1819. Louis de Freycinet's three-year scientific and ethnographic expedition around the world in 1817-1820. Alphonse Pellion and two others, travelled across the Blue Mountains and made a number of sketches. These two Aboriginal men are from the lower Blue Mountains, NSW |
The British
Watkin Tench led an expedition west from Rose Hill and discovered the Nepean River on June 27 1789. He wrote, "we found ourselves on the banks of a river, nearly as broad as the Thames at Putney and apparently of great depth".
Lieutenant William Dawes led a party into the mountains across the Nepean River penetrating 15 miles (24 km) in 3 days. Later naming the river Nepean after Sir Evan Nepean, Secretary of State (and Hugh Grant's ancestor).
In 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson became the first European settlers to successfully find a path across the Blue Mountains.
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| Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson became the first European settlers to successfully find a path across the Blue Mountains, NSW |
Gregory Blaxland wrote about Glenbrook Lagoon in his journal on Wednesday 12th May 1813, when the explorers "ascended the first Ridge of the Mountains [and] fell in with a large lagoon of good water full of very Coarse rushes."
Late in 1813, Governor Macquarie sent Surveyor George Evans to follow the explorers' trail. However, while surveying the route, Evans
crossed the Great Dividing Range into the interior, founding the O'Connell, Mitchell, Macquarie and Bathurst Plains.
In July 1814, Macquarie appointed William Cox as Superintendent of Works for building a cart road over the Mountains.
In 1814, Cox established a water depot at Glenbrook lagoon, and its
surrounding areas were used as a camp by a group of convicts lead by Cox, as they built the first road over the Blue Mountains.
By 21st January, 1815, with the labour of convicts from the compound at Emu Plains, the road was completed.
Major Henry Colden Antill, who travelled over Cox’s new road with Governor and Mrs Macquarie in 1815, wrote about Glenbrook Lagoon:
"A small guard of soldiers are stationed here in a good log hut with two rooms, one of which answers as a store. It is placed about 100 yards [100 metres] on the right [east] of the road, near a small lagoon of fresh water. The soldiers had enclosed a small piece of ground for a garden, and one of them had displayed some taste in laying it out in little arbours and seats formed from the surrounding shrubbery, which gave the place an appearance of comfort and simplicity." John Oxley, who had been Evans's assistant earlier,
passed through the district in 1817 to continue the work of exploration started by Evans.
Glenbrook Creek was named by Sir John Jamison, 15th November 1818. The name appeared on a Plan of Emu Plains and Lines of Road up Lapstone by Surveyor Rusden, 29th July 1831.
The French surgeon René Primevère Lesson and the naturalist and explorer Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville travelled to Bathurst in 1824. They stayed at "Government House" at Emu Plains. Napoleon had previously considered that he might be able to regain some losses by taking over part of New South Wales. See
here
Rene Primvere Lesson, wrote on January 1 1824: "The road rises in a gentle, easy slope, and is well marked as far as Springwood."
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This is a picture of a Government House of the early colonial days. It was on the Western Road, just west of the present Public School and on the area on which "Dungarth", Mr. E. A, Maguire's
property, now stands. *"Dungarth" was demolished to make way for Emu Plains shopping centre. Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), Thursday 25 November 1948
Until the 1850s, the Nepean River was crossed at Emu Ford or via the punt service to the south of the present bridge.
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The Glenbrook Lagoon
area was used as a military depot to check the permits of travellers who were journeying over the Blue mountains.
In 1825 Barnett Levey was granted a provisional lease of 320 acres at Lapstone Hill. Later, 640 acres was added to this grant and the property became known as Mount Sion. Levey was first free Jewish settler in the colony.
Mr Barnet Levey erected on the land at Lapstone Hill a good-sized weatherboard house of four rooms, with outhouses, piggery, stables, etc. He has also put up from three to four hundred rods of a four-rail fence and cleared about fifteen acres of land, of which ten were under cultivation. Barnett Levey became insolvent, and John Wood became the owner.
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| This picture, the original of which was made in the year following the establishment of the 'Sydney Herald,' will appeal to the thousands of motorists who now ascend the well-known Lapstone Hill on their way to the Blue Mountains. Convicts are shown at work on the road, and the prisoners are guarded by soldiers dressed in the quaint uniforms of the period. In 1832 road works constructing , "The Western Road", today's Mitchell's Pass, passed behind the Pilgrim Inn, requiring the removal of the stables, stores and fencing. Sydney Mail |
The Lennox Bridge
The Lennox Bridge, located in Glenbrook, was designed by David Lennox and
built from 1832 to 1833 by James Randall and other convicts. This is the oldest surviving stone-arch bridge on the Australian mainland.
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| Lapstone Bridge finished in July 1833, NSW. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 8 July 1933 |
By 1838 there were two inns at the top of Lapstone Hill: The Pilgrim Inn and the Late Lord Byron.
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Lapstone Hill was a whole day's pull for bullock waggons. The Pilgrim Inn at its top was a welcome sight to man and beast."
"
ANOTHER GREAT MAIL ROBBERY.—Intelligence reached Sydney yesterday of the robbery of the Western down mail at Lapstone Hill." John Foster alias Clarke and The Lapstone Hill Mail Robbery: 11 March 1864.
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| The Pilgrim Inn, Lapstone Hill, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 29 June 1927 |
The Mail Coach |
| Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 21 May 1913 |
The Railway
From 1865-67 the railway was extended to Weatherboard, now known as Wentworth Falls, which brought large numbers of workers to the area, that would later become Glenbrook.
The train station was named Watertank, due to the two large storage tanks, one each end of the platform, which gravitated water to a well from Glenbrook lagoon (11/7/67). This was the start of the town. Water was sourced from Glenbrook Lagoon and the Duck Hole.
The ZigZag
The Lapstone Zig Zag, constructed between Emu Plains and Blaxland stations, was designed to deal with climbing the steep gradients with minimal need for tunnels and heavy earthworks.
The Knapsack Viaduct and the Lapstone ZigZag opened in 1867. John Whitton, Chief Engineer of the New South Wales Railways, assisted by George Cowdery and other
engineers designed the seven-span sandstone Knapsack Viaduct.
In 1870 the name was changed from Watertank to Wascoe's Siding. Wascoe Siding became a passenger station in 1877.
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| Original Glenbrook Station, NSW |
"Ulinbawn" house was built by a Mr Yeomans about 1870. He was an engineer who worked on the construction of the railway.
The land occupied by the RAAF base was originally owned in the 1870s by John Lucas, where he had the houses, "Lucasville "and "Logie built".
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| Knapsack Gully Viaduct, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW) Saturday 1 January 1876 |
Lucasville Platform on the top road of the Zig Zag and below Lucasville house was opened 15th April 1878 on the
country estate of John Lucas, M.L.A. A stairway was cut into the rock which led from the house to the platform. The house "Lucasville" was destroyed by bushfire.
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| Lucasville homestead on the Lapstone Zig Zag, NSW, (Photo - Blue Mountains Library) |
Lucas was born in Newtown, Sydney, in 1818. He became a Minister for Mines in Sir John Robertson's Ministry (1875-77). He was a heavy, stout man, and a caricature of him by Phil May depicted him driving his phaeton, weighted down on one side.
John Lucas sold
some of his land including, "Logie", to Captain Charles Smith, who extended the building, which was later incorporated in the Lapstone Hill Hotel, now part of the RAAF base.
The name of the train station was changed from Wascoe's Siding to Brookdale on September 3 1878, and on April 21 1879, to Glenbrook. The name Glenbrook was given by Sir John Jamison.
1880s
In the year 1886, there were only seven houses in Glenbrook, with a population of about 30.
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| Howletts store was probably on of the first to open in Glenbrook, operating in Wascoe St from the late 1800s until the early 1920s. It was later at one stage a butcher then a bakery. The bakery was moved by Jack Cattell to Mann St. The old wooden building was turned into a residence for the McCann family, then demolished and Mr & Mrs Skarrett's residence now stands on this site. Howletts operated a second general store from about 1913, on the corner of Glen & Burfitt St. This store was later converted into a farrier by Jim Moore. Mrs McCleave's residence now stands on this site today. Blue Mountains City Library. History: www.glenbrookhistory.org |
1890s
"Fire's on" is an 1891 painting by Australian artist Arthur Streeton, which depicts the construction of the Glenbrook Tunnel. The painting's title refers to the warning call before the blast of the explosive.
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| Arthur Streeton , Glenbrook Tunnel, c1891- Fire's on - Google Art Project |
The Zig Zag railway closed in 1892, when the Main Western line was diverted via the Glenbrook Deviation. A tunnel was built through the hill to the Old Glenbrook station. However, water seeped from the nearby creek, the hill climb was difficult for trains, and they often became stuck in the tunnel.
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| Glenbrook Tunnel, NSW, was built from April 1891 and was completed in December 1892. However, due to its steep incline and the climate within the tunnel, it caused some serious issues when it was open. Some trains often couldn’t make it up the slope and often had to try multiple times to get through. The seepage in the tunnel caused trains to slip on curves in the tracks. |
A Provisional School was finally granted for Glenbrook in 1892. However, parents had to supply the school building. The second-hand weatherboard shack cost them 80 pounds. With a fireplace and a water tank, the room had only two windows, and an iron roof (until 1896).
Glenbrook Provisional School became Glenbrook Public School in October 1892.
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| Glenbrook Public School, NSW, 1890s |
Murder!
On October 28 1896, Frank Butler and Captain Lee Weller arrived at Glenbrook Station.
Some days later, Butler caught a train at Emu Plains Station without Weller.
Butler moved about from Sydney to Newcastle and then left by ship for America, using the identity of Captain Weller.
One of Weller's friends in Sydney informed the police of his disappearance, and an investigation commenced. Weller's body was found in a kneeling position, in a shallow grave, in rough scrub country, underneath a hanging rock,
in the bush not far from Glenbrook Train Station.
The hunt was on to find Frank Butler.
As the ship "Swanhilda" entered the Golden Gate at San Francisco, the vessel police boarded, and despite Butler's attempts to escape and conceal his identity, he was arrested and eventually extradited to Australia. For his crime, Butler suffered the death penalty.
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| Captain Weller, Western Australian Goldfields Courier (Coolgardie, WA : 1894 - 1898), Saturday 26 December 1896 |
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| Frank Butler, Western Australian Goldfields Courier (Coolgardie, WA : 1894 - 1898), Saturday 26 December 1896 |
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| Lennox Bridge, Glenbrook, NSW. (1890s) Notes: the photographer's assistants in waistcoats, pose with a sort of swag on a stick, their jackets would have been left by the horse-drawn darkroom out of shot. Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies |
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| Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), Saturday 7 November 1891 |
1900s
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| "Hare Street, Glenbrook, NSW, " by Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, c1900 |
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| Railway Station - Glenbrook, NSW, 1900. Dated: c. 31/12/1900. NSW State Archives |
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| Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Friday 22 December 1905 |
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| Blue Mountain Echo (NSW : 1909 - 1928), Saturday 25 December 1909 |
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| Regular carnivals on the King's birthday held at Glenbrook, NSW. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 24 November 1909 |
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| Bushfires near Mr Hall's property at Glenbook, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 6 January 1909 |
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| Glenbrook Zig Zag Railway, NSW. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 10 June 1908 |
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| Railway Station Glenbrook, NSW, c1911 - This site is on GWH. Sandstone building at Caltex Service Station is all that remains |
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| The funicular railway, Glenbrook/Lapstone, NSW. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 24 January 1912 |
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| Working on a face of cliff 400 feet above the bottom of the gorge, Glenbrook Deviation, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 24 January 1912 |
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| Glenbrook Tunnel, NSW, being built, circa 1911-1913 |
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| Glenbrook deviation - cutting in the new trackwork. Dated: by 31/12/1912, NSW State Archives |
The 1892 built Glenbrook Tunnel closed in 1913 when a new double-track tunnel at the Bluff Point was built. The Old Glenbrook station was relocated from next to the Great Western Highway to its current location next to the village of Glenbrook at the end of Ross Street and was officially opened on 11 May, 1913.
About 1400 men were living at the Bluff near Glenbrook working on the tunnelling; mostly navvies, their families living in the rough, primitive style of railway camps.
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| The Bluff railway camps, Glenbrook, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 1 May 1912 |
WWI
PRIVATE KEITH D. ROBINSON.
Private Keith D. Robinson, younger son of
Mr. and Mrs. G. M. Robinson, of Bond-street,
Mosman, and Glenbrook, Blue Mountains, died
in France on July 22. He took part in the
charge at Hill 60 at Gallipoli.
1916 'WAR CASUALTIES.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 24 August
1920s
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| Cars passing over the old Knapsack Valley railway bridge on the Lapstone Hill, NSW, deviation. Taken over for road traffic in 1926. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Monday 25 October 1926 |
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| Lapstone Deviation OPENED BY THE GOVERNOR The Lapstone Hill deviation on the Great Western Road, between Penrith and Blaxland, Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Monday 25 October 1926 |
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| Original Glenbrook Railway Sign and Monument, NSW |
Evans Property Exchange was located on the corner of Ross & Park Streets in the 1920s.
1930s
The luxury Art Deco Lapstone Hill Hotel was officially opened in 1930.
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| Lapstone Hill Hotel, NSW, Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 19 October 1930 |
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| At the Lapstone Inn, NSW. Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 26 October 1930 |
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| The Centenary Celebrations on the Bridge, Lennox Bridge, Glenbrook, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 26 July 1933 |
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| The old road up Lapstone Hill, Blue mountains, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 18 October 1933 |
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| Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Sunday 29 January 1933 |
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| Campers in the bush near Glenbrook, NSW. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 24 November 1933 |
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| Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Friday 6 November 1936 |
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| Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Tuesday 30 June 1936 |
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| Glenbrook railway cutting, Glenbrook. Dated: No date. NSW State Archives |
1940s and WWII
During World War II the RAAF used the Glenbrook Tunnel (built 1892) into a mustard gas storage facility (one of 15 in Australia). After the war, the tunnel was used for growing mushrooms.
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| During WW2, Glenbrook Tunnel, NSW, was used to store mustard gas |
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| The Ellis family lived near Glenbrook Lagoon, NSW, in the 1940s, running an orchard and garden. The remains of their cottage can be found near the lagoon today |
A roadside bar at the Lapstone Hill Hotel opened in 1940, the first roadside bar in the State. It provided refreshments for the many visitors travelling from Sydney to Katoomba. The bar ceased functioning as a bar in 1952, and until 1981, was the guardhouse for the RAAF Base. In 1981 a new guardhouse was built.
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| Road bar at the Lapstone Hotel, NSW. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Wednesday 3 April 1940 |
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| Glenbrook RAAF disaster, NSW. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Wednesday 29 January 1941 |
In 1946, Jim & Nellie McCall operated the Glenbrook Bakery in Mann Street, Glenbrook, which became the largest employer in the Blue Mountains. In the 1970s, due to competiton from large bread companies, they were forced to sell to Fielders
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| The seven sandstone arches across Jamison Creek are five and a half metres wide and thirty-eight metres high. Up until 1913, when the Glenbrook deviation was built, the Knapsack Bridge formed part of the Lapstone Zig-Zag. It was reopened to road traffic in 1926 and finally closed in the 1990s. (Penrith City) c1948-50 |
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| A.I.F. Casualties (1943, February 18). Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), |
In 1949 the Lapstone Hill Hotel and grounds were offered to the Commonwealth Department of Defence as a new headquarters for the RAAF’s Eastern Area Command, the RAAF Base Glenbrook.
1950s
The New Lapstone Hotel was built in the 1950s further up the Great Western Highway at Blaxland.
Tapestry artist Helen Baldwin married architect Eric Norris Skarratt in 1943, and they lived in Glenbrook:
"My husband and I lived in a very small house known as Foo’s cottage for that is the name locals had chalked up on the front door."
"It was the first store house in Glenbrook as the railway crossing was just in front of it. It was mighty dilapidated and had a bull-nosed iron verandah which one stepped off onto the street and an old Butcher shop on the corner – which we pulled down and for years and years nothing would grow because of the salt in the ground. Later we built behind this house as we had a garden and didn't want to part with one bed as we only had two silky oak trees on our block to begin with and we had planted so much. I had made figures in concrete a recipe on how to do it written out by Norman Lindsay and my husband had made a fountain use an old washing machine motor to work the reticulation. The little house was bursting at the seams. It was demolished with regret." See
here  |
| FIRE-FIGHTERS. Back row: Stan Edwards, Neil M Campbell, Len Glossop, George Bunyan, Royal Harris. Front: Arthur Waugh, Alen Liness, Melton Knowles, Les Harris, Ken Fitzgibbon, Rodney Campbell. Glenbrook, NSW. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 23 January 1952 |
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| BATCH OF CAKES is all in a day's work for Mrs. George Bunyan, wife of the captain of the Glenbrook Voluntary Bushfire Brigade. With other firemen's wives, Mrs. Bunyan cooks for the parlies and dances held to raise money to equip and maintain the brigade. Glenbrook NSW. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 23 January 1952 |
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| TALL GUMS make a pretty frame for the little wooden St. Peter's Church, Glenbrook, NSW, as the congregation, led by the babies, leaves after the ceremony for the christening party at Mrs. Stan Faul's home at Glenbrook. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 8 October 1952 |
1960s
Mrs John Green owned a haberdashery and Dr Peter Bell was the medical man.
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| Remains of the Pilgrim Inn c1968. Glenbrook, NSW. Notes: In 1968 the Blue Mountains were struck by the most disastrous wildfires. The remains of the Pilgrim Inn are beside McDonalds, Blaxland |
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| Glenbrook, NSW, 1960s (School of Arts, now cinema) |
1970s
Darks Common, located between Glenbrook and Lapstone, became a public reserve in the 1970s to prevent further housing development. The leading voice in the conservation movement was Micheal Dark, son of author Eleanor Dark and her husband, Dr Erick Dark.
Conflict/Operation Vietnam, 1962-1975: Wing Commander P. W. Mahood of Lucasville Road, Glenbrook.
On 16 January 1976, one man died, and ten others were badly injured, when a heavily laden goods train ploughed into the rear of a four-car passenger train about 500 metres east of Glenbrook Station.
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| The Lagoon Store in Skarratt Street, Glenbrook, NSW, in the 1970s, was owned by Hennessey family at one time (and Mr Dillion back in the 60s) |
1980s
The Glenbrook rail disaster occurred on 2 December 1999 at 8:22 am on a curve east of Glenbrook railway station. Seven passengers were killed and 51 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries.
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| Glenbrook Fire Station in the 1990s, NSW |
2000s
The 2001/02 Black Christmas fires ravaged the mountains. The Glenbrook-Warrimoo area lost 20 homes.
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| Smoke from bushfires at Glenbrook, NSW, 2001 |
2012 |
| The Glenbrook Tunnel (built 1892), a mushroom farm, in 2012, NSW |
2013
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| Ross St, Glenbrook, NSW, c 2013 |
2016 |
| Cafe, Glenbrook, NSW, in 2016 |
2021
The Glenbrook Tunnel will open for recreational purposes and will link Glenbrook and Lapstone villages with Leonay and Penrith's Great River Walk. Read
here
Around Glenbrook
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| Remains of Lucasville Station, on the Zig Zag line, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| The steps leading to the property the holiday home of Mr John Lucas MLA, Minister for Mines, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Knapsack Viaduct (5-17 Great Western Highway) was built between 1863 and 1867 to carry rail traffic across Jamisons Creek and into the “little zig zag”, which climbed the eastern side of the Blue Mountains to Glenbrook, NSW. The structure stands at 130 feet (40m) tall, is 388 feet (118m) long with 7 sandstone arches rising imposingly above the gully. It was built at a width of 30 feet (9m) to accommodate a single railway line. |
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| Bonnie Doone, 33 Moore Street, Glenbrook, NSW, built by John Colquhoun Dunn in 1896 |
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| Railway Pointsman's House, Glenbrook (78 Great Western Highway), Blue Mountains, NSW. This stone cottage and rear privy, believed to have been built in the late 1870s, are the last vestiges of a group of early railway structures erected in this location as part of the old Lapstone Zig Zag Railway. The cottage functioned as the pointsman's residence for many years and was later home to the Station Master, even after 1913 when the nearby station was closed and a new station built south of Glenbrook Village. After the Great Western Highway was completed in 1926, the cottage became part of a petrol garage to service passing cars. |
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| The 1927 Glenbrook, NSW, destination board, christening the Glenbrook section of the Great Western road, "Garlick Parade" — after John Garlick, who had worked for the Main Roads Board |
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| Wascoe Siding Miniature Railway, Glenbrook/Blaxland, NSW |
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| Lennox Bridge, opened in 1833, is the oldest surviving stone arch bridge on the Australian mainland. It crosses Brookside Creek (also known as Lapstone Creek) on the road known as Mitchells Pass, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Glenbrook Tunnel, NSW, 2020 |
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| Ulinbawn, Glenbrook/Lapstone, NSW. Then name is associated with County Wicklow, Ireland |
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| Euroka Road, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Lucasville Rd, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Explorers Rd, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Ilford House, Wascoe St, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Glenbrook Cinema was originally the School of Arts, NSW (ugly front on the original) |
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| This private home on Lucasville Road was owned by the Brennan family who ran a cinema here in the 1920s, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| 29 Great Western Highway: Briarcliffe (now RAAF Base Glenbrook, NSW). GHD Morris designed Briarcliffe and named it after his home back in England. Built by John Coliquhoun Dunn of Glenbrook and his son James J C Dunn. Built sometime between 1921-31 |
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| Glenbrook School of Music, NSW, Australia. Federation bungalow in a large informal garden setting. It features fine quality sandstone work by the local builder, John Dunn |
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| 37 Lucasville Road: Kalamunda, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| 2 Ross Street: Horse Trough, Glenbrook, NSW. Bills horse troughs are watering troughs that were manufactured in Australia and installed to provide relief for working horses in the first half of the twentieth century. The troughs were financed by a trust fund established through the will of George Bills |
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| Park St, Glenbrook, NSW, built 1916 |
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| Glenbrook Gorge, NSW |
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| Red Hands Cave, National Park at Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Great Western Highway, John Whitton Memorial, Glenbrook, NSW. John Whitton (1820-1898) was engineer in chief of railway development in New South Wales from 1856 until his retirement in 1890 |
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| Glenbrook Lagoon, NSW |
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| Remains of the Ellis family cottage near Glenbrook Lagoon, NSW |
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| Jelly Bean Pool, National park, Glenbrook, NSW |
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| Gatekeeper's Cottage No 1 (Glenbrook, Blue Mountains) was built in 1867, where the railway crossed the road about to climb Mitchell’s Pass. The level crossing was replaced by an overbridge in 1913 when the track was duplicated to cross the new Knapsack Gully Viaduct (G 025). The cottage was leased as a residence called Green Gables. It was ultimately sold by the railway authorities in 1945 but in 1968, it was severely damaged in a bushfire and lost its roof |
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| Along Campfire Creek, National Park, Glenbrook, NSW, you can see Aboriginal axe grinding grooves. These grooves were made when Aboriginal people shaped and sharpened stone axes by grinding them |
Things To Do and Places to Go
Glenbrook & District Historical Society – History Walks
Glenbrook Historical Society Museum -10 Ross St, Glenbrook NSW 2773
Red Hands Cave walking track
ABORIGINAL SITES IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS YOU CAN ACTUALLY VISIT
