Randwick – How Simeon Pearce's Village Began – From Bidjigal Country to the Steam Trams

In short: Randwick didn't just grow, it was talked into being. For thousands of years this sandy, swampy heath between the harbour and the sea was Bidjigal and Gadigal country. Then in 1847 a young Gloucestershire migrant called Simeon Henry Pearce bought four acres of market garden on the heights above Coogee Bay, named them after the village he was born in, and spent the next forty years turning the name into a suburb. With his brother James he bought up land, pushed for roads, got a church, an asylum and a council, and in February 1859 Randwick became one of the very first municipalities in New South Wales, with Pearce as its first mayor. By the 1880s the steam trams were rattling up from the city and the old village was on its way to becoming the Randwick we know.

The Pearce family at Blenheim House, Randwick, about 1885. Simeon and his wife Alice are seated. J. Roarty, State Library of New South Wales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Randwick: Bidjigal and Gadigal Country

Long before anyone thought of naming it after an English village, this was Aboriginal land. A heritage report written for Randwick City Council says the Bidjigal and Gadigal people of the Eora Nation were coastal clans who lived in and around the Coogee area and relied on the harbour and the ocean for their food. The same report says the traditional custodians of the wider Randwick City area were mostly Bidjigal, along with Gadigal and the Muru-Ora-Dial people around Maroubra.

Historian Pauline Curby, writing for the Dictionary of Sydney, describes the country as "a land of swamps and heath". And the people go back a very long way here. In 1995 an Aboriginal hearth, a campsite, was found on the high ridge off Avoca Street. It was dated to 8,000 years before the present, and at the time it was the oldest such site known in coastal Sydney.

Curby also makes the point plainly: the handful of European settlers who came out this way in the first half of the 1800s, land grants or not, all did well out of land that had been taken from its Aboriginal owners.

Sandhills, Market Gardens and a Few Early Landholders

For the first sixty years of the colony hardly anyone lived out here. It was a long, sandy haul from town. The council's heritage report says much of what is now Randwick Junction was Crown land before it was granted to early landholders, naming J. Pearce, Simeon Pearce, Alexander Macarthur and Samuel Hebblewhite. Among the small number of people already working the ground were market gardeners. One of them, George Hooper, matters to our story, because he's the man who sold Simeon Pearce his first four acres.

The Hooper family of Randwick, in an undated 19th-century photograph. A George Hooper, market gardener, sold Simeon Pearce his first block. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Simeon Pearce, the Man Who Named It

From Gloucestershire to Sydney

Simeon Henry Pearce was born on 27 January 1821 at Randwick in Gloucestershire, England, the son of James and Elizabeth Pearce. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he and his cousin Samuel came out as bounty immigrants and landed in Sydney on Christmas Day 1841, on the Lady Clarke. The two set up as butchers, but the partnership was dissolved in March 1844.

Simeon was then backed by an innkeeper, James Thompson, and in January 1848 he married Thompson's eldest daughter, Alice Isabella. His brother James, who came out in 1848, married Thompson's youngest daughter in 1849. When she came of age in 1852, each brother received £1300. That money went a long way in land.

The parish church at Randwick, Gloucestershire, near Stroud, in Simeon Pearce's home village. St Jude's in Sydney was first designed as a copy of it. Vincent Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Court Farm in the original Randwick, Gloucestershire, photographed in 1963. Geographer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Four acres and a name

Randwick City Council's own history site says Pearce first visited the area, then called the Coogee Hills, in 1844. In September 1847, says the ADB, he bought four acres (1.6 hectares) of market garden on the heights above Coogee Bay and named them Randwick. The council says he bought the lot from George Hooper and meant to go into market gardening.

In 1848, soon after his marriage, he borrowed money from Hooper and built a solid house on the block. The council calls it the first stone house in the area. He called it Blenheim House, and it's still standing in Blenheim Street. From then on, the council says, Simeon dreamed of building a village on the model of his Randwick back home.

Blenheim House, Randwick, the stone house Simeon Pearce built in 1848. The first Anglican services in the district were held here. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The commissioner who bought the best blocks

Here's where it gets interesting. In August 1849 Pearce was made a bailiff, after a run of petitions to Sir Thomas Mitchell about saving the vegetation on the sandhills. From 1851 to 1856 he was commissioner of Crown lands in Sydney. The council's history is blunt about what that meant: the job gave him power over the sale of land in the district, and while he held it he started buying the best parcels himself and later resold them "earning him immense profits".

By 1854, the ADB says, Simeon and James had bought 200 acres at Manly and French's Forest, and over 200 acres in parcels around Randwick and St George. These were subdivided and sold at a good profit once Randwick had been promoted as a fashionable place to live. The council says that at one time the brothers owned nearly all the land in Randwick, including all of Struggletown.

Struggletown was built on Pearce land. It started as market gardens, and later stone cottages went up for the brothers' workers and their families. That gave the workers a roof and gave Simeon a steady rent.

Roads, fox hunts and a bishop

Nobody was going to move out to Randwick without a decent road. In 1853 Pearce petitioned for a road from the city to Coogee, later surveyed it, and became a commissioner of its trust. Not everyone was impressed. In March 1855 the composer Isaac Nathan publicly ran down his work. The council says the Old Botany, Randwick and Coogee road trusts improved the roads, and people began to move in.

Pearce knew how to sell a suburb. He and Alice hosted fox hunts across Randwick and Maroubra to bring the colony's leading people out for a look. One of them stuck. The council's heritage report says Bishop Barker of Sydney visited Pearce in 1855, liked what he saw, and decided to put his new residence, Bishopscourt, at Randwick instead of Newtown.

Sandgate in Belmore Road, one of a row of five sandstone investment houses Simeon Pearce built. Wikipedia says it stands on Crown land Pearce bought in 1853. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Asylum on the Hill

What really put Randwick on Sydney's map, says Curby, was the decision in the 1850s to move destitute children out of the crowded city to this rural spot. The council says Pearce played a key part in setting up the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children and secured the land for the asylum building in 1854. The ADB says he backed the building of the asylum in 1856, was a founding director and for a time president of the board, but "thought the children were too well treated".

The Asylum for the Relief of Destitute Children was officially opened in 1858. Its big sandstone buildings on Avoca Street went up between 1856 and 1880. Wikipedia says it was partly paid for by the legacy of Dr Cuthill, remembered in Cuthill Street, and that a southern wing was added in 1863. The Dictionary of Sydney says that wing housed a further 400 children. It was celebrated at first, but Curby writes it became overcrowded and scandal-prone, with cases of abuse. In 1915 the children were sent elsewhere and the buildings became a military hospital. It was later named the Prince of Wales Hospital.

One more thing about those walls. The council says the very first business meeting of Randwick Council was held inside the asylum.

From The Protestant Standard, 7 November 1874: the portrait of singer Catherine Hayes that hung in the boardroom of the Randwick Asylum. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sandy Track: Randwick and the Races

Randwick and racing go together, but the sources tell the early part a little differently. Wikipedia says Governor Richard Bourke set aside the land for a racecourse in January 1833, that the first race there was a private one in June 1833, and that it was known as the "Sandy Course" because of the ground. It says racing stopped in 1840 and the track was used only for training, until the Australian Jockey Club moved its headquarters there in 1860. Racing came back that May in front of 6,000 people, and in 1863 the land was formally granted to the AJC.

Curby's version in the Dictionary of Sydney has racing held "spasmodically from the 1840s" on the "sandy track", and from the 1860s as a permanent fixture. Either way, by the 1860s, she writes, the name Randwick had become another word for horse racing.

Spectators at Randwick Racecourse, about 1872, from the Holtermann collection. Attributed to Charles Bayliss, State Library of New South Wales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1859: Randwick Gets a Council

Curby says a big reason for forming a council was money: somebody had to pay for the upkeep of the road joining Randwick and Coogee, which had started growing as a separate village in the 1850s. Pearce campaigned hard. A petition went up, and according to the council's history, Pearce's well-placed contacts helped get the incorporation through despite objections. The ADB says the protests came from Coogee residents, while the council's site says they came from neighbouring Waverley.

The incorporation was gazetted in February 1859. Randwick City Council's history site gives 22 February 1859 as the day Pearce was elected first mayor. Randwick now calls itself the second-oldest local government area in New South Wales, according to the Dictionary of Sydney.

The win didn't go down quietly. Isaac Nathan and other beaten candidates attacked Pearce's election, and in April 1859 Bell's Life in Sydney published "The Book of Simeon", which the ADB calls "a damaging exposé". Among the first aldermen was William Ellis. Wikipedia names him as one of Randwick's first six elected aldermen, and the man who built the towered sandstone building in Avoca Street in 1859.

The early council was a scrappy affair. Pearce's chief opponent was Charles Moore. In 1860 Pearce tried and failed to split the borough into wards that would each raise their own funds, which would have held back Coogee. In 1867, though, he stopped Coogee residents from breaking away altogether. Curby says the bad blood between Randwick and Coogee came to a head in the early 1860s, over the second St Jude's.

Randwick Town Hall in Avoca Street. Curby says it opened in 1882, designed by Blackman and Parkes. Wikipedia dates it to 1881. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St Jude's and the Fight Over a Dead Man's Money

Pearce was a devout churchman. The first Anglican services were held in his own house. He picked a site for a church, schoolhouse and parsonage, plus burial ground, on Crown land set aside for them. The first, temporary St Jude's Church and schoolhouse opened on 23 May 1858, largely paid for by the government. In November 1857 Pearce had become one of its trustees.

Then came the row. In 1856 Frederick Jones had left £3000 in his will for an Anglican church at "Big Coogee". The ADB says Pearce talked Canon Allwood, a trustee of the estate, into accepting that since the will was written, Randwick had replaced Coogee as the name of the area. So the church went to Randwick. Allwood laid the foundation stone in May 1861 (the council gives the date as 25 May 1861). The church was first designed as a copy of the parish church at Randwick, Gloucestershire.

Within a month Charles Moore took the matter to the Supreme Court. He was nonsuited at first on a technicality, and lost his appeal in July 1862, but the court costs ate up half the bequest. St Jude's was finished in 1865 and, says Curby, became the centre of village life, just as a church would be in an English village. Wikipedia credits the original design to Edmund Blacket, while the Dictionary of Sydney says some of the interior fittings were by Blacket. It also says the church holds the only ringable set of eight steel bells in the world, cast at Vickers in England in 1864.

St Jude's Church, Avoca Street, Randwick, completed in 1865. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St Jude's. The Dictionary of Sydney says the tower was raised in 1877 to take the clock. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The cemetery at St Jude's. As cemetery trustee, Pearce was caught up in a lawsuit over its drainage in 1864. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The High Cross and an English Village

Curby writes that Randwick began to feel like an English village when a vacant patch opposite the asylum, near the crossroads, started to be called the "High Cross", just as in the English Randwick. Today it's High Cross Park, the triangle on the highest ridge of Randwick.

High Cross Park, Randwick, named after the High Cross in Pearce's Gloucestershire village. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Coach and Horses

Every village needs a pub. The council's heritage report says the earliest commercial building at Randwick Junction was at the corner of Avoca Street and Alison Road, where the Coach and Horses Hotel, first run for a few years as the Vauxhall Gardens, was set up in 1856. It acted as a temporary post office and ran a horse-drawn service to Sydney.

Its man was John Grice. The Dictionary of Sydney says he ran it first as a general store with pleasure gardens around it, and ran the first Randwick to Sydney horse omnibus from 8 March 1859. He was the village postmaster until 1864. Curby says he sold drinks at town prices and put on shows at holiday time, with band music, dancing on the green, quoits and skittles in the Vauxhall Gardens. From 1870 the hotel had 17 boxes for racehorses, and the gardens had a bowling green, a menagerie, swing boats, skittle alleys, croquet lawns and a dancing room.

The Coach and Horses Hotel on Avoca Street, still pouring beers after more than 150 years. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Captain Cook Looks Toward Botany Bay

A little further down Avoca Street is the castellated sandstone building with the tower. Wikipedia says William Ellis built it in 1859 as an investment. For a short time it was the Star and Garter Inn, run by Mrs Elizabeth Shipway. Later it became the home of Captain Thomas Watson, a Sydney Harbour pilot, who the Dictionary of Sydney says added the tower so he could see Botany Bay.

Watson paid sculptor Walter McGill £700 for a statue of Captain Cook, carved from Pyrmont sandstone. It was unveiled on 27 October 1874, facing Botany Bay. The Dictionary of Sydney says it's probably the first statue of Cook put up in Australia.

Walter McGill's statue of Captain Cook, unveiled at Randwick in October 1874. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Big Houses on Avoca Street

As the money came, so did the mansions. Curby says that between 1860 and 1910 northern Randwick went from fairly rural country to near-continuous suburb. Ventnor, a two-storey sandstone house with ocean views on Avoca Street, is one example, though the sources disagree on who built it (see below). Nugal Hall in Milford Street, designed by Mortimer Lewis, had its southern part built in 1853 for the shipping merchant Alexander McArthur, says Wikipedia.

Ventnor, Avoca Street, Randwick, once home to mayor George Kiss. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Getting There: Horse Buses and Steam Trams

For years the way to town was by horse. Grice's omnibus started in 1859, and Curby says horse buses and then an extensive tram network made commuting from Randwick possible.

The trams came almost by accident. Wikipedia says four steam tram motors were brought out from the Baldwin works in Philadelphia for the 1879 International Exhibition, running from Redfern station to near the Botanic Gardens. The line was so popular that an extension to Randwick opened in 1880. By 1894 there were more than 100 steam trams running. The Randwick Tramway Workshops opened in 1881 to look after the steam engines on the line between the city and the racecourse.

The heritage report says the trams, and the workshop jobs, brought settlers in large numbers. The original landholders began subdividing and selling to developers, and Randwick Junction had its biggest building boom, laying out the street pattern you can still see.

Sydney's first steam tramway depot at Pitt Street, about 1880, the year the line was extended to Randwick. Adam.J.W.C., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Pearce's Last Years

Pearce was mayor again in 1866 to 1868 and in 1882, and a magistrate from 1861. The council says that in the 1870s and 1880s he pushed for better services, including land for a cemetery and an extension of the railway to Randwick. He went back to his birthplace in 1857 and again in 1881. In 1884 he resigned from the council after a stroke, and he died on 18 January 1886 after a second one. The ADB says he left £28,320 to his wife, two sons and four daughters. In 1889 the west end windows of St Jude's were put in as his memorial.

By the 1890s the village was filling in. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart opened in Avoca Street on 6 May 1888, the Presbyterians built on the high point near Alison Road in 1890, and the post office went up in 1897, all according to the Dictionary of Sydney. Randwick wasn't the English village Simeon dreamed of any more, but it was very much his town.

The former Randwick Post Office of 1897, at Randwick Junction, now called Easts House. Collywolly, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A sandstone paving block in Simeon Pearce Park, Randwick, named after the town's founder. Sardaka, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• About 8,000 years ago: an Aboriginal hearth is used on the ridge off Avoca Street (found in 1995).
• 27 January 1821: Simeon Henry Pearce is born at Randwick, Gloucestershire.
• January 1833: Governor Bourke sets aside the racecourse land; first private race in June (Wikipedia).
• 25 December 1841: Simeon and cousin Samuel arrive in Sydney on the Lady Clarke.
• 1844: Pearce first visits the Coogee Hills.
• September 1847: Pearce buys four acres from George Hooper and names them Randwick.
• 1848: Blenheim House is built; Pearce marries Alice Isabella Thompson; brother James arrives.
• 1851 to 1856: Pearce is commissioner of Crown lands in Sydney.
• 1853: Pearce petitions for a road from the city to Coogee.
• 1854: Land secured for the destitute children's asylum.
• 1856: Coach and Horses (Vauxhall Gardens) established; Frederick Jones leaves £3000 for a church at Coogee.
• 23 May 1858: temporary St Jude's Church and schoolhouse opens. The asylum is officially opened this year.
• February 1859: Randwick's incorporation is gazetted; Pearce becomes first mayor (the council gives 22 February).
• 8 March 1859: Grice's first Randwick to Sydney horse omnibus.
• May 1860: AJC racing comes to Randwick before 6,000 people.
• May 1861: St Jude's foundation stone laid; court fight to July 1862.
• 1863: asylum's southern wing; racecourse land granted to the AJC.
• 1865: St Jude's Church completed.
• 27 October 1874: Captain Cook statue unveiled.
• 1880: steam tram extended to Randwick.
• 1881: Randwick Tramway Workshops open.
• 1882: Town Hall opens (1881 per Wikipedia).
• 18 January 1886: Simeon Pearce dies at Randwick.
• 1888 to 1897: Sacred Heart Church, Presbyterian church and post office are built.

Where the Sources Disagree

• First municipality or second? The heritage report written for the council calls Randwick "the first municipality in NSW". The Dictionary of Sydney calls it the second-oldest local government area in the state.
• Who protested the 1859 incorporation? The ADB says Coogee residents. Randwick City Council's history site says neighbouring Waverley residents.
• How long was Pearce mayor? The ADB lists his inaugural term, then 1866 to 1868 and 1882. The council's history site says he was mayor "for the first ten years" from 1859 to 1868, but its own list of dates in office gives 1859 to 1860, 1866 to 1868 and 1882. Wikipedia says he was mayor six times.
• The early racecourse. Wikipedia has the first race in 1833 and racing stopping in 1840. The Dictionary of Sydney has spasmodic racing from the 1840s on the "sandy track".
• Ventnor. The Dictionary of Sydney says Ventnor was built by mayor George Kiss. Wikipedia says Alderman Edward Dawson built it in 1859 and Kiss lived there in the 1870s.
• Town Hall. The Dictionary of Sydney says it opened in 1882. Wikipedia says it was built in 1881.
• Blacket and St Jude's. Wikipedia says Edmund Blacket designed the church. The Dictionary of Sydney says some of its interior fittings were by Blacket.

My Earlier Posts

• Randwick Asylum For Destitute Children - Now Prince Of Wales Hospital
• St Jude's Cemetery – Avoca Street – Randwick
• Newmarket Precinct - Young Street - Randwick NSW
• Randwick Tramway Workshops - King St - Randwick
• Frenchman's Road - Eastern Suburbs - Randwick - Bondi
• Montepellier - Randwick - New South Wales
• Sherbrooke House – 20 Coogee Bay Road – Randwick
• Swan Aisle – 87 Darley Road – Randwick
• Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail
• The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935

Sources

• Pauline Curby, "Randwick", Dictionary of Sydney, 2015: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/randwick (including its linked entries on the Coach and Horses, St Jude's, Captain Cook statue, Star and Garter, Sandgate, Ventnor and the Randwick Tramway Workshops)
• Ruth Teale, "Pearce, Simeon Henry (1821–1886)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5, 1974: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pearce-simeon-henry-4380
• Randwick City Council, Our Story, "Simeon Henry Pearce": https://ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1498 (draws on Brendan O'Keefe, Simeon Pearce's Randwick: Dream & Reality, 1990)
• City Plan Heritage for Randwick City Council, Heritage Assessment, Randwick Junction Town Centre: https://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/367952/CP10-23-App2-Heritage-Assessment-Randwick-Junction-Town-Centre.pdf
• Wikipedia, "Randwick, New South Wales": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randwick,_New_South_Wales
• Wikipedia, "Randwick Racecourse": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randwick_Racecourse
• Wikipedia, "Steam trams in Sydney": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_trams_in_Sydney
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, with credits under each picture.

The Coogee Pier – Sydney's English Seaside Pier at Coogee Beach 1928–1934

For about six years in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coogee had something no other Sydney surf beach ever had: a proper English-style amusement pier, running out about 180 metres from the middle of the beach into the Tasman. It was meant to be Sydney's answer to Brighton, with a 1,400-seat theatre, a ballroom for 600, a 400-seat restaurant, shops and a penny arcade. What actually got built was a lot less grand. The money ran short, the crowds drifted away as the Depression bit, and the surf did the rest. By 1934 the superstructure was gone. The shark net hung off it outlasted the pier itself by more than ten years.

The Coogee Pier stretching out from the middle of the beach, photographed by Samuel Wood some time between 1928 and 1934. Samuel Wood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Coogee Before the Pier

Coogee had been a day-tripper's spot for a long time before anyone drove a pile into the sand. The Dictionary of Sydney says that for local Aboriginal people "koojah", or Coogee, was a rich source of food, and that in the nineteenth century the place became a favourite for weekend picnics, cricket, shell collecting and swimming.

Tom Roberts, Holiday sketch at Coogee, 1888. Coogee was a pleasure resort long before anyone thought of a pier. Tom Roberts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The big drawcard of the Victorian era was the Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths, opened on 23 December 1887. It was designed by the architect John Smedley, Italian in style, with a fancy octagonal dome over the middle. The Sydney Morning Herald called it a "most exquisite addition to Sydney's places of entertainment". People came to see seals, sharks and live fish, and there were bandstands, aviaries and an open-air bar. The novelty wore off pretty quickly, though, and the 1890s depression didn't help.

Coogee Bay around 1889, not long after the Aquarium opened. Restored by aussiejeff, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Electric trams replaced the steam trams in November 1902, and that made the trip out from town a lot easier. In 1929 the Coogee Advancement League published a promotional booklet called Beautiful Coogee: Australia's Most Beautiful Seaside Resort.

Coogee beach, esplanade and trams around 1905, a few years after the electric trams arrived. Star Photo Co., State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Coogee Beach in a William Henry Broadhurst view from the early twentieth century. William Henry Broadhurst, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Swimming was booming too. The Coogee Life Saving Brigade was formed in 1907, it built a wooden clubhouse in 1910, and a big new surf club building went up in 1929. Coogee also had a darker reputation for sharks. Ashley Kingston of the Randwick & District Historical Society told the ABC in 2026 that there were two fatal attacks at Coogee in 1922. After them the beach got a galvanised steel shark observation tower on concrete piles, fitted with an electric bell, plus a shark-proof fence that collapsed before the swimming season even started.

Champion swimmer Mina Wylie at Coogee in 1913. Unknown photographer, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Big Idea: An English Pier for Coogee

The pier was a private venture by the Coogee Ocean Pier Company Limited. Randwick City Council's Our Story history says work began in 1924 with a budget of £250,000, and that the company modelled the pier on English seaside piers like the Palace Pier and West Pier at Brighton. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was designed by G.L.D. James. It also records, with a bit of a smile, that the company had a "somewhat unimaginatively" chosen name.

The plans were huge. According to the Council, the pier was meant to run 250 metres out to sea and hold:

• a 1,400-seat theatre
• a ballroom for 600 people
• a 400-seat restaurant (the Dictionary of Sydney says upstairs)
• small shops
• a penny arcade

The company sold the pier to investors as built to last. The Council says the contractors claimed it would be "considerably stronger than any similar pier constructed in England", and the Dictionary of Sydney traces that boast to the company's abridged prospectus, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 January 1926.

Driving the First Pile

Sydney got caught up in it. The Council says big crowds gathered to watch the first piles being driven on 24 July 1926, and radio stations 2BL and 2KY broadcast the proceedings live. Radio was still new then, so a live broadcast of piling work at a beach shows how much of an event this was.

The piles weren't concrete. Ashley Kingston told the ABC the pier stood on cast-iron screw piles: "They basically had a long piece of cast iron that had an attached thread and they were screwed in with an electric winch."

Opening Day and What Was Actually Built

Coogee Pier, a photograph dated 1928. Unknown photographer, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Randwick City Council and the Dictionary of Sydney's entry for the structure both say the pier opened on 24 July 1928, two years to the day after the first pile went in. Not every source agrees, and I've set that out further down.

What opened was a cut-down version of the dream. The Council says that because the money ran short, the pier only reached about 180 metres (other sources say 183 metres) and had "minimal facilities". It was over budget and late. What the records show actually happened out there is dancing, regular concerts and a café. The Dictionary of Sydney paints a nice picture of Sunday afternoons and evenings, with the pier all lit up and orchestras and popular singers playing to the dancing crowds.

Ashley Kingston, talking to the ABC, put it bluntly: the full-sized theatre, the ballroom and the rest of the bold plans "never made the final structure".

Summer crowds on Coogee Beach with the pier behind them, around 1929. Hall and Co., State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Shark Net: The Pier's Real Success

Funnily enough, the most useful thing the pier ever did was hold up a net. The Council says the pier made the shark net possible. The net cost £6,750, stretched across the southern half of the bay and was tied to one of the pier's pylons. The Dictionary of Sydney puts the cost at "more than £6,500" and says it got worldwide publicity as a revolutionary idea.

The opening was a huge party. It was run alongside the unveiling of the new Giles' Ocean Baths complex and new surf sheds, all promoted as "Come to Coogee" Week, and the Council says 135,000 people turned up. A National Library panorama by EB Studios dated 16 November 1929 is catalogued as taken during the opening of the shark-proof enclosure by the Mayor of Randwick, with the pier in the background.

Panorama of Coogee Beach on 16 November 1929, taken during the opening of the shark-proof enclosure by the Mayor of Randwick, looking from the Oceanic Hotel across to the pier. EB Studios, National Library of Australia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Within four months more than 800,000 bathers had used the netted water. When a hole showed up in the net, the Council says 40,000 people came down just to watch a diver inspect it. That says a lot about Sydney in 1930.

Night Surfing Under the Lights

The pier and the net together made night surfing possible. The Council says floodlights were installed that were strong enough for night surf carnivals, and crowds of 20,000 to 30,000 came down of an evening. The Dictionary of Sydney adds that the penny entry charge did very nicely for Randwick Council.

A huge crowd of surfers on Coogee Beach at night in the 1930s. Floodlit night surfing was one of the big drawcards of the shark-net years. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Giles's Hot Sea Baths at Coogee, photographed by Sam Hood. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ashley Kingston thinks the old photos show which attraction people actually loved. Both cost money to get into, and the Depression had just hit, but "the shark net's full of people and the pier's practically empty," he told the ABC. "Then when the pier came down, the shark net stayed up. And in fact, they actually extended it."

Depression, Storms and Debts

The pier opened at the top of the boom and was dragged down by the bust. The Council says crowds thinned out over the next few years as the Depression hit, and storms damaged the buildings. Coogee's surf is no millpond, and an iron pier standing in the middle of the break copped it.

Four unemployed men of Randwick and Coogee with toy aeroplanes they made for Christmas 1934. The Depression that sank the pier hit the suburb hard. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Money troubles reached right into the company office. A bookseller's description of the 1929 promotional booklet Beautiful Coogee: Australia's Most Beautiful Seaside Resort says its author, Charles Henry Rolleston, was secretary of the Coogee Ocean Pier Co., and that the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 January 1931 reported him in bankruptcy court. I couldn't open that newspaper report myself, so treat it as the bookseller's account.

"Beach and pier from reserve, Coogee, looking south", a Samuel Wood postcard view of the pier in its last years. Samuel Wood, uploaded by aussiejeff, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pulling It Down

The end came in 1933 and 1934. Randwick City Council's history says "the dream of an English-style resort ended with the demolition of the pier superstructure in 1933–34". The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia both give 1934 for the demolition. The Kasz Books description of the Beautiful Coogee booklet says the pier was "ordered for demolition by council in 1933". The Council's February 2026 meeting wrap-up simply says the pier "was destroyed by storms in 1934".

So the pier lasted only about six years from opening, or about eight from the first pile. Kingston told the ABC it came down because of financial failure. The Council puts it down to falling patronage and the sea. Both were true at the same time.

Coogee surf, 25 October 1936, two years after the pier came down. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Net Outlives the Pier

The shark net kept going long after the pier. The ABC says it was held up by its own tower on the beach once the pier was gone, and a 1937 Mitchell Library photo shows the net's support structure next to the base of an old shark tower. Another shark tower went up on the beach in the 1940s, but reports at the time called it too flimsy and the lifesavers wouldn't use it.

How the net ended depends on who you read. The Council says it fell into disrepair during the Second World War because materials were scarce and the foreshore was fortified, and it was finally pulled out after more heavy seas. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was removed for security reasons during the war. The ABC says it collapsed in 1945 and was never replaced.

Coogee Beach in November 1938, taken for The Sporting Globe. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Aquarium Next Door and the Shark Arm

The pier wasn't Coogee's only famous attraction. A year after the pier came down, the old Coogee Aquarium was the scene of one of Sydney's strangest crimes. In 1935 a captured tiger shark coughed up a tattooed human arm in front of the crowds, and that started the Shark Arm case. I've told that story in full in The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935.

The tiger shark at the Coogee Aquarium in 1935, the year of the Shark Arm case. Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tramway swimming at the Coogee Aquarium baths, 27 March 1935. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia says the Aquarium's big dome collapsed in a storm in June 1945. The building was heritage listed in May 1982, according to the Dictionary of Sydney, and was rebuilt as the Coogee Palace. It reopened in August 2014 as the Coogee Pavilion after a renovation by the Merivale group.

The old Aquarium building, the Coogee Palace, in 2009. Mme Mim, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The same building today as the Coogee Pavilion. Sam Wilson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What's Left: The Mystery of the Pylons

For decades Coogee locals have sworn that bits of the pier are still under the sand. Wikipedia mentions lifeguards finding remains on the sea floor about 50 metres out, and some locals reckon the rip in the middle of the beach is partly caused by old pier foundations.

Then in July 2022 rough surf exposed a row of twelve concrete pylons on the beach. Randwick Council removed them because they were shifting in the sand and were a danger to swimmers. At the time everyone called them the last of the pier. City Hub reported in August 2022 that Council planned to turn the "historic Coogee Pier pylons" into public art, after Cr Joanne McCafferty's motion to consult local artists and residents. Cr Bill Burst also suggested a historical plaque.

Then came the twist. In August 2026 the ABC reported that Ashley Kingston had matched the pylons to old photos of the shark towers and the shark-net support tower. They weren't pier piles at all, because the pier stood on cast iron. Kingston said the mix-up went back at least to a 1975 Sunday Star report. Randwick Council's February 2026 meeting wrap-up agreed: heritage advisers said the blocks were "most likely columns from early shark net infrastructure" from the 1920s to 1940s. That meant they had little heritage value and weren't practical to reuse. Instead, Council said it would mark the pier's history "through interpretation and storytelling", for the 100 years since the first pier pylons went in.

Pier Court, a block of flats on Coogee Bay Road, photographed in 2019. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

So nobody is building a new pier at Coogee. What's planned is a way of telling the story of the old one, a century after Sydney crowded the beach to watch the first pile go in.

Surfers at Coogee in 2019, where the pier once ran out into the break. Johnorchard, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 23 December 1887 – Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths open.
• November 1902 – Electric trams replace steam trams to Coogee.
• 1907 – Coogee Life Saving Brigade formed.
• 1922 – Two fatal shark attacks at Coogee. A steel shark tower and shark fence follow (Kingston, via the ABC).
• 1924 – Coogee Ocean Pier Company begins the project, budget £250,000 (Randwick City Council).
• 30 January 1926 – Company's abridged prospectus published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
• 24 July 1926 – First piles driven, broadcast live on 2BL and 2KY.
• 24 July 1928 – Pier officially opens (Randwick City Council, Dictionary of Sydney structure entry). The Dictionary of Sydney's Coogee entry gives 24 July 1929.
• 1929 – New Coogee surf club building constructed.
• 16 November 1929 – Shark-proof enclosure opened by the Mayor of Randwick, during "Come to Coogee" Week (135,000 people).
• 6 January 1931 – Pier company secretary C.H. Rolleston reported in bankruptcy court (per Kasz Books).
• 1933–34 – Pier superstructure demolished. Most sources give 1934.
• 1935 – The Shark Arm case at the Coogee Aquarium.
• 1945 – Shark net collapses and isn't replaced (ABC). The Aquarium dome collapses in a storm in June.
• May 1982 – Aquarium building heritage listed.
• August 2014 – Coogee Pavilion opens in the old Aquarium.
• July 2022 – Twelve concrete pylons exposed by surf and removed by Council.
• February 2026 – Council confirms the pylons were most likely shark-net infrastructure and plans to mark the pier's centenary through storytelling.
• August 2026 – ABC reports Ashley Kingston's findings on the shark towers.

Where the Sources Disagree

• When did it open? Randwick City Council's Our Story page and the Dictionary of Sydney's structure entry all say 24 July 1928. Catie Gilchrist's 2015 Coogee entry in the same Dictionary of Sydney says the pier was built in 1928 and opened with a gala on 24 July 1929. The Coogee Media local history site has been reported as giving 10 November 1928, but I couldn't load that page to check. I've gone with 24 July 1928, which most of the sources give.
• How long was it? The Council and the Dictionary of Sydney structure entry say 180 metres. Gilchrist's Dictionary of Sydney entry says 183 metres. The plan was 250 metres.
• Did it ever have the theatre and ballroom? The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia describe it as having a 1,400-seat theatre, a 600-person ballroom and a 400-seat restaurant. The Council says those were the planned attractions and that the finished pier had "minimal facilities", with dancing, concerts and a café. The ABC, quoting Ashley Kingston, says the bold elements "never made the final structure".
• When was it demolished? The Council's Our Story page says 1933–34. The Dictionary of Sydney, Wikipedia and the Council's 2026 meeting wrap-up say 1934.
• Why did it go? The Council blames falling crowds and storm damage. The ABC says it was dismantled "owing to financial failure". Wikipedia puts it down to Coogee's rough surf.
• Shark net cost and end: The Council says £6,750, while the Dictionary of Sydney says "more than £6,500". The net was removed for wartime security (Dictionary of Sydney), fell into disrepair and was then dismantled after heavy seas (Council), or collapsed in 1945 (ABC).
• The pylons: From the 1970s right up to 2022, the concrete pylons were reported as pier remains (City Hub, 2022). The Council (2026) and Ashley Kingston (ABC, 2026) now say they were most likely shark-net and shark-tower footings, because the pier stood on cast-iron screw piles.

My Earlier Posts

• The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935 – Jim Smith, Reginald Holmes and Patrick Brady
• Sherbrooke House – 20 Coogee Bay Road – Randwick – New South Wales
• Wedding Cake Island
• Drawings Of The Sydney Eastern Suburbs In Colonial Times
• Aboriginal Land Names Across The Eastern Beaches
• Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail

Sources

• Randwick City Council, "Coogee Pier", Our Story: ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/9753
• Randwick City Council, "Wrap-up from first Randwick Council meeting for 2026" (February 2026): randwick.nsw.gov.au
• Dictionary of Sydney, "Coogee Pier" (structure): dictionaryofsydney.org/structure/coogee_pier
• Catie Gilchrist, "Coogee", Dictionary of Sydney, 2015: dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/coogee
• Declan Bowring, "Historian finds Coogee Beach's concrete cylinders held up shark towers", ABC News, 29 August 2026: abc.net.au
• Erin Modaro, "Historic Coogee pier pylons to be transformed into public artwork", City Hub, 6 August 2022: cityhub.com.au
• Kasz Books, listing for C.H. Rolleston, Beautiful Coogee (1929): kaszbooks.com
• Wikipedia, "Coogee, New South Wales": en.wikipedia.org
• National Library of Australia, EB Studios, Panorama of Coogee Beach, 16 November 1929: nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn6006062
• Images: State Library of New South Wales, National Library of Australia and contributors, via Wikimedia Commons

The Wreck of the Malabar – Long Bay – 2 April 1931 – The Ship That Gave a Suburb Its Name

Early on the morning of Thursday 2 April 1931, in a thick sea fog, the Burns Philp motor ship Malabar ran straight onto the rocks under the northern headland of Long Bay, south of Maroubra. Nobody died. All 28 passengers and the crew got ashore in the lifeboats in about half an hour, and three stud horses swam for it. The only casualty was the ship's cat, which wouldn't leave. The surf broke the Malabar up within days, and over that Easter weekend Sydney turned out in its tens of thousands, some say hundreds of thousands, to watch, picnic and pick cargo off the rocks. Two years later the locals, sick of living in a place named after a gaol, had their suburb renamed after the wreck. That's why we call it Malabar today.

The MV Malabar hard aground under the northern headland of Long Bay, April 1931. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

I've always found it a funny bit of Sydney history. Most suburbs get their names from a governor, a landowner or an English village. Malabar got its name from a shipwreck, and from a captain who kept his speed up in the fog. Here's the whole story, from the shipyard in Glasgow to the rusty engine block divers still swim around today.

The Ship

Burns Philp's first motor ship

Burns, Philp & Company was started by James Burns and Robert Philp in April 1883. It grew into one of the big Australian trading and shipping lines of the South Pacific, running ships and stores right through the islands and up to Asia.

The old Burns Philp building in Sydney, headquarters of the company that owned the Malabar. Sue mcarthur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the early 1920s shipowners were working out that motor ships, driven by diesel engines, made more sense than steamers. With no coal bunkers there was a lot more room for cargo. Michael McFadyen, the Sydney diver who's researched the wreck more than anyone, writes that Burns Philp ordered its first motor ship in 1924 to replace the Montoro on the Java to Singapore run. She was launched from the West yard of Barclay, Curle and Company at Scotstoun in Glasgow on 9 July 1925, a date the Randwick Council history gives as well.

The Malabar in her prime: Burns Philp's first motor ship, 4,512 tons, built in Glasgow in 1925. State Library of Queensland, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

She was named Malabar, and here the sources part ways a bit. The Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database, the Dictionary of Sydney and McFadyen all say the name came from a small town in Java, south of Bandung. Wikipedia's Malabar suburb article says it came from the Malabar region of Kerala in India, the old spice coast. McFadyen adds a nice bit of trivia: nearly all of Burns Philp's ships had seven-letter names starting with M.

What she was like

McFadyen gives her particulars from Lloyd's Register:

• She was 350 feet long and 48 feet 6 inches wide, and measured 4,512 gross tons.
• Her engine was an eight-cylinder Burmeister & Wain type diesel of 2,700 horsepower, built by John G. Kincaid and Company and driving a single screw. It gave her a top speed of 13.2 knots.
• She had berths for 156 passengers in one, two and four berth cabins.
• She had five cargo holds plus insulated holds for fruit and frozen meat, 202,920 cubic feet in all.
• She carried 602 tons of oil fuel.
• She had an exhaust gas boiler built into the funnel, which ran a small steam engine for the ship's domestic needs. McFadyen says she was the first ship fitted out that way.

Things didn't start well. On her trials in the Firth of Clyde in October 1925 her steering failed and she rammed the Wemyss Bay railway pier. McFadyen calls it "an ominous sign of things to come".

The Singapore run

She left Avonmouth on 17 October 1925 with 2,188 tons of cargo and 17 passengers, and reached Sydney on 17 December 1925. McFadyen says she was the first motor ship working the east coast of Australia. Her first Singapore voyage left Sydney on 2 January 1926 and called at Brisbane, Townsville, Thursday Island, Darwin, then Surabaya, Semarang and Batavia in Java. Her regular run was Singapore to Melbourne and back, with a call at Port Moresby every three or four months.

The crew was a real mix. The cooks were Chinese, the engine room hands and cleaners Indian, the deckhands Malay, and the officers white. She had her share of colour in those five years. In April 1926 Customs found 100 tins of opium hidden in egg containers in her galley. In 1927 a crewman was caught trying to smuggle out 24 painted finches hidden in a pair of ladies' bloomers. And in 1926 she carried the overland driver Francis Birtles and his Oldsmobile back to Melbourne after his record run to Darwin.

Burns Philp's wharf 7 on Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, in 1949. NSW State Archives, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By 1931 her days on the Singapore run were numbered anyway. Under a 1929 mail contract Burns Philp had promised a new ship for the route, the Macdhui, and planned to move the Malabar onto the Sydney to Rabaul run.

The Last Voyage

Leaving Melbourne

Burns Philp ships on the Singapore run swapped some of their crew at Sydney. A relief crew took the ship down to Melbourne and back, and Captain George William Leslie often relieved her regular master for those trips. Underwater Australasia says he was 71 at the time, with an unblemished record as a master and harbour pilot.

On 31 March 1931 the Malabar left Melbourne under Captain Leslie, bound for Singapore with Sydney as her first port of call. According to the inquiry's statement of the case, quoted by McFadyen, she carried 109 officers and crew and 28 passengers. McFadyen counts 63 Chinese and 26 Malays among the crew. It was her 32nd trip. She also carried three valuable stud horses bound for Darwin.

Into the fog

McFadyen's account of the morning goes like this:

• At about 6.35am on 2 April she passed Cape Baily near Cronulla, three-quarters of a mile off, steering 18 degrees magnetic.
• At about 6.45am she was a mile off Cape Banks, the northern head of Botany Bay.
• The weather turned hazy, and her course was said to have been altered to 23 degrees.
• She ran into dense fog, and at 6.52am she was on the rocks on the northern side of Long Bay.

Why she went that way is where the stories differ. The Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database says Captain Leslie ordered a 5 degree turn to starboard to take her away from the coast, but the helmsman misunderstood and turned her 5 degrees to port, towards the land. Underwater Australasia tells it differently. In its version Leslie ordered 5 degrees of rudder to take her further out than the half mile he'd planned, but kept the engines at Full Ahead and sounded the foghorn for any fishing boats instead of slowing down. Moments later he and the quartermaster saw the cliff dead ahead, and the ship drove up onto the rocks at 12 knots, just missing a local fishing boat.

"Burns Philp motorship Malabar stranded on Blow Hole, NSW, April 2nd, 1931," as the photographer captioned it. Allan C. Green, State Library Victoria, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The weather itself was strange. McFadyen notes that photographs taken later that day show a sea as flat as a millpond, while the Sydney Morning Herald reported the swell picking up at high tide. Photos taken aboard after the grounding show plenty of fog about. The Dictionary of Sydney calls it simply "negligence by Captain George Leslie".

Getting Everyone Off

McFadyen says the Malabar hit about 50 metres inside the northern headland. Leslie rang for full speed astern, but she was stuck fast. He stopped the engines and ordered everyone off. The Randwick Council history says the evacuation took half an hour, with the lifeboats landing the passengers and crew at Long Bay.

Stuck fast on the rocks at Long Bay. Notice how close she sits to the cliff. State Library of Queensland, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The three stud horses were swum ashore. The ship's cat is the one bit of the story that always gets a mention: it refused to leave and was the only life lost. Both the council and McFadyen tell it.

There was a go at saving her. McFadyen writes that the trawler Charlie Cam turned up at about 10am and tried to tow her off, but the line parted. The tug St Aristell was made ready, but by then it was too late. The captain, three officers and the ship's doctor stayed aboard until noon. Then they stood off in a small boat until about 1.30pm, by which time she had a bad list to starboard and was filling and settling at the stern.

Crowds line the rock platform as the Malabar lies broadside to the swell. State Library of Queensland, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Easter at the Wreck

The wreck happened right on Easter, and Sydney made a holiday of it. McFadyen quotes the Herald of 4 April 1931: "There were two principal places of amusement on the Good Friday holiday – the Show and the Malabar – and it appeared that everyone went to both."

Sightseers on the rocks above the wreck. Visiting the Malabar became the outing of Easter 1931. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Nobody agrees on how many came. McFadyen says the Daily Telegraph and the Herald reported 150,000 on Good Friday alone, and the Telegraph reckoned 500,000 by 7 April. The heritage database puts it at about 300,000 over the weekend. Whatever the true figure, the photos show the headland and rock platform covered in people.

Another view from the headland, with the crowd spread across the sandstone. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

It turned into a fair. People set up stalls selling fruit, sandwiches and soft drinks, photographers sold pictures of the wreck, and musicians busked. McFadyen says thirty police were on duty to keep order, with another eight directing traffic. On 5 April a snake charmer from Surry Hills, George Aither, was bitten on the hand by one of his snakes while performing at the wreck. He was taken to the Coast Hospital nearby and let go after treatment.

The ship broken and settling, seen from the cliffs of the headland. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

She breaks up

McFadyen says the ship broke up in heavy seas on Good Friday, 4 April, and her cargo went into the water. Goods washed ashore along the coast between Sydney and Newcastle, and even inside the Harbour. The Herald told of young blokes risking their necks to drag a keg of beer out of the surf. One man made his son a little chair from timbers off the wreck. McFadyen says the family still had it in 2015, and five generations had used it.

Locals picking over cargo and debris washed ashore from the wreck. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The surf going right over what was left of her. From the William Hall collection. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Heavy seas pounding the wreck. Within days she had broken in two. State Library of Queensland, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The seas finish the job on the Malabar. State Library of Queensland, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Opium, a Stolen Compass and a Lost Diver

The wreck threw up some odd stories. McFadyen writes that police had been tipped off that some of the Chinese crew were smuggling opium and were waiting at the wharf. When word came of the stranding they rushed out to Long Bay and followed one of the crew. On 12 April they raided an opium den in Dixon Street, smashed through a brick wall, and found 16 cans of opium. Three of the Malabar's crew were among those arrested.

On 6 April two men were arrested for stealing the ship's compass. One of them, Bruce William Tilley, faced Central Police Court on 20 April charged with stealing a compass worth £90.

Allan C. Green's photograph labelled simply "Malabar wreck". Allan C. Green, State Library Victoria, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Salvage

According to McFadyen, the wreck was sold to the Penguin Salvage Company on 7 April 1931, for £140 for the hull and £41 for the cargo. The heritage database says only that the wreck and cargo were sold at auction. Work started on 8 April, and the binnacle stand, some furniture and basins came off before heavy seas stopped it the next day. On 10 April James Williams, one of the Penguin partners, swam out and rescued the ship's Union Jack and the bosun's store. He also saved the medicine chest, which his grandson still owned when McFadyen wrote.

On 15 April, the Herald reported, some fishermen had got hold of a diving suit and sent a man down to look for goods. His safety line was lost and he "walked helplessly about the bay" until he kicked off his weighted boots and shot feet-first to the surface. He was unhurt.

"Malabar wreckage": the superstructure tipped over in the surf. Unknown photographer, State Library Victoria, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sam Hood's photograph of divers and helpers with their diving rig, catalogued as "Malabar wreck, Maroubra", about 1933 to 1934. Sam Hood, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Inquiry

A Court of Marine Inquiry sat in Sydney on 15 and 16 April 1931 before John Laidlaw, the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate of New South Wales. Captain Leslie was charged with failure of duty in the navigation of the Malabar. McFadyen gives the result in one line: "The Court found the charge proved and cancelled the Certificate of George Leslie."

Underwater Australasia says the inquiry found him negligent for not altering course sooner and not slowing down when the visibility closed in. At 71, that was the end of his career at sea.

From Long Bay to Malabar

A suburb with a bad name

Before the wreck, the place wasn't called Malabar. Wikipedia's suburb history says the area was Church and School land, offered for sale as allotments from 1869. It was proclaimed the Village of Brand in 1899, though everyone kept calling it Long Bay. It only really grew once the tram reached the Coast Hospital in 1901. Between about 1910 and 1920, campers and holiday shacks filled the dunes behind the beach on weekends.

Long Bay on a Broadhurst postcard, some time between 1900 and 1927, long before anyone called it Malabar. William Henry Broadhurst, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Parade, Long Bay, another Broadhurst postcard from the early 1900s. William Henry Broadhurst, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A day out at the beach at Long Bay, around 1900. Unknown photographer, Randwick Library, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The problem was the gaol. Building started in 1902 on the State Reformatory for Women, south of the village, and it opened in August 1909. The State Penitentiary for Men followed in 1914. "Long Bay" came to mean prison to every Sydneysider. The heritage database says plainly that the name was seen to reflect badly on the suburb because of the gaol nearby.

The entrance to the Long Bay Gaol, which is why the locals wanted a new name. Unknown photographer, Randwick Library, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kate Leigh's prison photograph from the Long Bay Women's Reformatory. With residents like her, it's no wonder the locals wanted rid of the Long Bay name. State Records NSW, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The renaming

The wreck gave the locals their chance. The heritage database says interest in the Malabar led to a residents' petition to name the suburb after her, and the new name was published in the Government Gazette of 29 September 1933. Wikipedia gives the same date. McFadyen adds a footnote: the NSW Geographical Names Board didn't formally approve Malabar for the suburb until June 1977.

The entrance to the Long Bay Correctional Complex today. Samuel Martin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Outfall Next Door

The Malabar had wrecked almost on top of Sydney's sewage. Wikipedia says the ocean outfall on Malabar Headland was built in 1916. By 1959 the growing flow of sewage had badly fouled the water in Long Bay, and the local surf club eventually folded in 1973. McFadyen says the wreck lay within metres of the outfall. The Health Department and Randwick Council closed Malabar Beach and a nearby ocean pool in the mid-1960s, and the wreck was too foul to dive. Underwater Australasia makes the wry point that the "thick brown sludge" at least kept the souvenir hunters off her for decades.

That changed on 22 September 1990, when the Malabar treatment plant's deep-water outfall was switched on, pumping partly treated sewage three to four kilometres out to sea. McFadyen grew up nearby and says the water around the old outfall at Yellow Rock was clearer within hours.

The Wreck Today

Before the clean-up, the wreck had already been picked over. McFadyen says pioneer scuba divers stripped the valuable metal in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Barry May blew up parts of the wreck to salvage them, and with John Bissett he raised the bronze propeller some time before 1962. It was 15 feet 6 inches across and about six tons, and it had to be broken up to move. Jon Jacobs took the main bell in 1961. A smaller bell inscribed "Malabar 1926" was stolen from a farm veranda in 1990 and seemed to turn up for sale on eBay in 2008. In about 1964 John Cann, of the La Perouse snake show family, salvaged one of the anchors, which now sits out the front of Juniors at Malabar. In 1974 a commercial diving class practised with gelignite on part of the wreck.

On 5 October 1990, a fortnight after the new outfall opened, McFadyen and his brother went looking for her. They found the anchor, rudder, davits, capstans, drive shaft and the big engine, all in only 9 to 10 metres of water.

Long Bay, Malabar, in 2009. The wreck lies under the northern headland on the left side of the bay. Adam.J.W.C., CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Diving the Malabar

There isn't much ship left. The site is shallow and wide open to Sydney's worst seas, so the hull, decks and superstructure are just twisted, rusted metal. Depths differ a little between accounts. The heritage database says 13 to 18 metres, Underwater Australasia says 6 to 12 metres, and McFadyen says the main pieces lie in 9 to 10 metres. Divers' accounts mention:

• the rudder and stern frame, at about 6 metres according to Underwater Australasia
• lengths of the drive shaft, some still bolted together at the flanges
• what's probably the auxiliary steam engine
• the main engine lying on its side, with its crankshaft, pistons and conrods, full of blackfish and bream
• a large propeller that can't be the Malabar's own, since hers was salvaged. McFadyen thinks it came from the Goolgwai, wrecked nearby in 1955, or was a spare.
• a big wheel, possibly the flywheel

McFadyen believes the funnel and its built-in boiler ended up a kilometre away at Tupia Point on the far side of Long Bay, in about 8 metres. The huge seas of July 2001, up to 12 metres off Sydney, cracked the engine in two and threw rocks of two to four metres across the wreck.

Malabar Beach from the rocks on the southern side of the bay, 2015. Red-back spider, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Malabar Beach in 2007. J Bar, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

A headland of wrecks

The Malabar wasn't the only ship to come to grief here. Wikipedia's Malabar Headland article lists the St Albans in 1882, the Hereward in 1898, the SS Tekapo in 1899, the Malabar in 1931, the Belbowrie in 1939, the Try One in 1947, the SS Goolgwai in 1955 and a barge the same year. The headland itself is now mostly Malabar Headland National Park. It was set up in 2012 and has been on the State Heritage Register since 2005, alongside the old rifle range.

Walkers on the cliffs of Malabar Headland National Park, 2017. Timothy M Roberts, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The rifle range on Malabar Headland in 2004. Paul Clarence, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• April 1883: James Burns and Robert Philp start Burns, Philp & Co.
• 1899: The Village of Brand is proclaimed at Long Bay.
• 1902 to 1909: The State Reformatory for Women is built at Long Bay and opens in August 1909.
• 1914: The State Penitentiary for Men opens.
• 1916: The ocean outfall is built on the headland.
• 1924: Burns Philp orders its first motor ship.
• 9 July 1925: The Malabar is launched at Barclay, Curle's yard in Glasgow.
• October 1925: She rams the Wemyss Bay pier on trials.
• 17 December 1925: She arrives in Sydney on her maiden voyage.
• 2 January 1926: Her first Singapore voyage leaves Sydney.
• 31 March 1931: She leaves Melbourne for Singapore under Captain George Leslie.
• 2 April 1931, 6.52am: She runs aground in fog on the northern side of Long Bay. Everyone gets off safely.
• 4 April 1931 (Good Friday): She breaks up in heavy seas while huge crowds watch.
• 7 April 1931: The wreck and cargo are sold to Penguin Salvage.
• 12 April 1931: Police raid an opium den in Dixon Street and arrest three of her crew.
• 15–16 April 1931: The Court of Marine Inquiry sits and cancels Leslie's certificate.
• 29 September 1933: The name Malabar is gazetted for the suburb.
• Before 1962: Her bronze propeller is salvaged.
• Mid-1960s: Malabar Beach is closed because of pollution.
• June 1977: The Geographical Names Board formally approves the suburb name, according to McFadyen.
• 22 September 1990: The deep-water outfall opens.
• 5 October 1990: Divers rediscover the wreck.
• July 2001: Huge seas crack the engine.
• 2005: Malabar Headland goes on the State Heritage Register.
• 2012: Malabar Headland National Park is set up.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Where the name came from. The heritage database, the Dictionary of Sydney and McFadyen say a small town in Java near Bandung. Wikipedia says the Malabar region of India.
• Why she turned towards the shore. The heritage database blames a helmsman who turned 5 degrees to port instead of starboard. Underwater Australasia and the inquiry finding, as McFadyen reports it, put it on the captain for not altering course sooner and keeping full speed in fog.
• How many crew. The inquiry statement and the heritage database say 109 officers and crew. The Randwick Council history and McFadyen's own narrative say 108.
• How many sightseers. 150,000 on Good Friday (the Telegraph and Herald, via McFadyen), 300,000 over the weekend (heritage database), and 500,000 by 7 April (the Telegraph, via McFadyen).
• Where exactly she hit. Wikipedia's suburb article says Miranda Point. Other accounts say the northern headland of Long Bay, and one contemporary photo caption says "Blow Hole".
• When the name became official. 29 September 1933 in the Gazette, according to the heritage database and Wikipedia. June 1977 by the Geographical Names Board, according to McFadyen.
• How deep the wreck lies. 13 to 18 metres (heritage database), 6 to 12 metres (Underwater Australasia) or 9 to 10 metres for the main pieces (McFadyen).
• Steamer or motor ship. Several sources call her a steamer, but she was a diesel motor ship.

My Earlier Posts

• The Wreck of the Dunbar – South Head – Watsons Bay – 20 August 1857
• The Greycliffe Ferry Disaster – Sydney Harbour – 3 November 1927
• The Shark Arm Case – Coogee Aquarium – 1935
• Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens
• The Cadigal People And The Eastern Beaches
• Aboriginal Land Names Across The Eastern Beaches

Sources

1. Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database, "Malabar", shipwreck ID 1151: environment.gov.au/shipwreck/public/wreck/wreck.do?key=1151
2. Michael McFadyen, "MV Malabar", Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site, drawing on Lloyd's Register, the Sydney Morning Herald of April 1931, Burns Philp histories and the Marine Inquiry result of 16 April 1931: michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php?page_id=68
3. Underwater Australasia, "Introductory Rust Diving on the Wreck of the Malabar": underwater.com.au/article/id/6407
4. Randwick City Council, Our Story, "Shipwreck of MV Malabar": ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/8138
5. Dictionary of Sydney, "Malabar Shipwrecks site": dictionaryofsydney.org/place/malabar_shipwrecks_site
6. Wikipedia, "Malabar, New South Wales": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malabar,_New_South_Wales
7. Wikipedia, "Malabar Headland": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malabar_Headland
8. Wikipedia, "Burns Philp": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Philp
9. Wikipedia, "Long Bay Correctional Centre": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Bay_Correctional_Centre
10. Pictures: Wikimedia Commons, from the Australian National Maritime Museum, State Library of Queensland, State Library Victoria, State Library of New South Wales, Randwick Library, State Records NSW and individual photographers, as credited under each picture.