47-515: The Hawkesbury River , or Hawkesbury-Nepean River ( Dharug : Dyarubbin ) a river located northwest of Sydney , New South Wales , Australia . The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary , the Nepean River , almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. The river between Wisemans Ferry and the Pacific Ocean marks the boundary of Greater Metropolitan Sydney in the south and
94-524: A fifth ferry, the Berowra Waters Ferry , crosses a side-arm of the river. The ferry is named after its founder, Solomon Wiseman , a former convict (1778–1838), who received a land grant in the area from Governor Macquarie in 1817. Wiseman established the ferry service in 1827 for the transport of produce and provisions to the convicts building the Great North Road to link Sydney with
141-510: A significant number of meanders . Initially the river passes the towns of Richmond and Windsor , which are the largest settlements on the river. At Windsor, the river is joined by South Creek , which drains much of the urban runoff in Sydney's western suburbs that does not fall into the Parramatta River catchment. As it flows north, it enters a more rural area, with only small settlements on
188-464: A third crossing at Navua Reserve in Yarramundi , and at North Richmond , 50 metres from the current Richmond Bridge Site are causing public opposition. Activists do not believe that these bridges will alleviate traffic, citing that a North Richmond and Richmond by-pass is required. The Hawkesbury River is navigable from Windsor to the sea. There are no dams or locks on the river, and the effects of
235-719: A traditional heritage spanning thousands of years, approximately 70 per cent of the Eora people died out during the nineteenth century as a result of the genocidal policies of colonial Australia, smallpox and other viruses, and the destruction of their natural food sources. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity occurred in and around Sydney for at least 30,000 years, in the Upper Paleolithic period. However, numerous Aboriginal stone tools found in Sydney's far western suburbs gravel sediments were dated to be from 45,000 to 50,000 years BP, which would mean that humans could have been in
282-438: Is operated by a private sector operator under contract to Transport for NSW and is free of tolls . The crossing is 366 metres (1,201 ft) in length and takes approximately 4 minutes. The ferry operates on demand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no regular maintenance closure. Two ferry boats are available at this crossing, operating on separate sets of cables, and when traffic demands it both may be in use. The larger of
329-456: Is the traditional language of the Dharug people . The Dharug population has greatly diminished since the onset of colonisation . The term Eora language has sometimes been used to distinguish a coastal dialect from hinterland dialects, but there is no evidence that Aboriginal peoples ever used this term, which simply means "people". Some effort has been put into reviving a reconstructed form of
376-726: The Central Coast region to the north. The Hawkesbury River has its origin at the confluence of the Nepean River and the Grose River , to the north of Penrith and travels for approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) in a north–easterly and then a south–easterly direction to its mouth at Broken Bay , about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the Tasman Sea . The Hawkesbury River is the main tributary of Broken Bay. Secondary tributaries include Brisbane Water and Pittwater , which, together with
423-813: The Hawkesbury River in New South Wales , Australia. The ferry operates from the eponymous community of Wisemans Ferry on the south bank, to a point on the north bank downstream of the Hawkesbury River's confluence with the Macdonald River , connecting with the old Great North Road . The crossing has remained in use on its current site since 1829, making it the oldest ferry crossing still in operation in New South Wales, and possibly in Australia. The ferry
470-546: The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars , a series of skirmishes and battles between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the resisting Indigenous clans that took place between late 1780s and late 1810s. The Hawkesbury River was one of the major transportation routes for transporting food from the surrounding area to Sydney during the 1800s. Boats would wait in the protection of Broken Bay and Pittwater, until favourable weather allowed them to make
517-611: The March 2021 Australian floods , with government ministers disagreeing on what needs to be done. Plans to replace the Windsor Bridge , and direct traffic through the historic Thompson Square caused significant community opposition culminating in the Community Action for Windsor Bridge (CAWB) movement. Despite this opposition, work on the replacement bridge was completed in May 2020. Plans for
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#1732844911786564-555: The GIVE A DAM movement began to protect the ecological, historical and Indigenous heritage of the additional area prone to flooding due to the raising of the dam wall. A significant portion of the land to be inundated is located within the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area designated by UNESCO , which stated that this status could be revoked if parts of the world heritage area were to be submerged. Activists also claim that
611-627: The Government gamekeeper, allegedly by Pemulwuy , a Yora man. The Indigenous population of Sydney gradually started using English more in everyday usage, as well as New South Wales Pidgin. This, combined with social upheaval, meant that the local Dharug language started to fade from use in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. A wordlist of the local Sydney language was published by William Ridley in 1875, and he noted that, at that time, very few fluent speakers were left. The Dharug language had largely been lost as an extinct language, mainly due to
658-536: The Hawkesbury River proper. Going downstream, these comprise: In the lower reaches of the river there are also a few passenger ferries that cross the river. These include the Palm Beach Ferry service from Palm Beach to Ettalong and Wagstaffe , and the Hawkesbury River Ferries service from Brooklyn to Dangar Island and Little Wobby . A list from 1829 made by Reverend John McGarvie includes
705-594: The Hawkesbury River, flow into Broken Bay and thence into the Tasman Sea north of Barrenjoey Head . The total catchment area of the river is approximately 21,624 square kilometres (8,349 sq mi) and the area is generally administered by the Hawkesbury–Nepean Catchment Management Authority. The land adjacent to the Hawkesbury River was occupied by Aboriginal peoples: the Darkinjung , Darug , Eora , and Kuringgai . They used
752-613: The Iyura (Eora) people as a language group, or more commonly referred to as the people that sustained their diet by the constant digging of the yams as a vegetable supplement. The Dark, Darug, Tarook, Taruk Tarug is related to the word Midyini , meaning yam". The traditional territory of the coastal variety ("Iyora/Eyora", or Kuringgai ) was estimated by Val Attenbrow (2002) to include "...the Sydney Peninsula (north of Botany Bay , south of Port Jackson , west to Parramatta ), as well as
799-793: The Nepean. The Warragamba, formed by the joining of the Wollondilly River , the Nattai River , the Kowmung River and Coxs River drains a broad region of New South Wales on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range . The other principal component of the upper Hawkesbury river system, the Grose River , rises in the area of Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains. Once formed, the Hawkesbury River proper flows generally northwards, albeit with
846-727: The New South Wales state government released the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy, that proposed raising the height of Warragamba Dam by an additional 17 metres, using the Climate Change Mitigation Fund. It was claimed that this would reduce the risk of flooding to homes downstream along the Hawkesbury-Nepean river, that is the most at-risk region of Australia to devastating flooding, exacerbated by Global Warming . A large public opposition campaign culminating in
893-620: The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place in Hawkesbury. Windsor and also Dargle ski park on the Hawkesbury river each year hold a Circuit Boat race meeting with boats travelling from all over country According to the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority, the Hawkesbury River estuary supports the second-largest commercial coastal fishery of estuary prawns, oysters (prior to
940-401: The Sydney language, with neither Dharug (S64) nor Eora being in the historical record as language names. Language scholar Jeremy Steele and historian Keith Vincent Smith have postulated the name "Biyal Biyal" for the language, based on evidence that this term or something like it was actually used. A website devoted to Dharug and Dharawal resources says "The word Daruk was assigned to
987-608: The country to the north of Port Jackson, possibly as far as Broken Bay ". Attenbrow places the "hinterland dialect" (Dharug) "...on the Cumberland Plain from Appin in the south to the Hawkesbury River in the north; west of the Georges River , Parramatta, the Lane Cove River and Berowra Creek ". R. H. Mathews (1903) said that the territory extended "...along the coast to the Hawkesbury River, and inland to what are now
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#17328449117861034-523: The fertile Hunter Valley . Initially located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) downstream of its present location, the crossing was moved to its present location in 1829 when the Great North Road was repositioned and reconstructed. In 1832, the Wisemans ferry service was purchased by the government. Until the opening of the Peats Ferry Bridge across the Hawkesbury at Brooklyn , Wisemans Ferry was on one of
1081-558: The grammar in a partial reconstruction of the language. The notebooks of William Dawes were the main source, together with word lists compiled by First Fleeters David Collins , John Hunter , Philip Gidley King (in Hunter), Daniel Southwell , Watkin Tench , David Blackburn , a notebook called "Anon" (or "Notebook c"), Henry Fulton , and later contributors such as Daniel Paine, James Bowman , and others. In particular, largely thanks to Dawes,
1128-411: The historical effects of colonisation on the speakers. Some vocabulary had been retained by some Dharug people, but only very little grammar and phonology . For many years non-Aboriginal academics collected resources for Aboriginal languages to preserve them, and more recently, Aboriginal people have been getting involved in the process, and designing tools to reclaim the languages. During the 1990s and
1175-524: The language. The speakers did not use a specific name for their language prior to settlement by the First Fleet .The coastal dialect has been referred to as Iyora (also spelt as Iora or Eora), which simply means "people" (or Aboriginal people ), while the inland dialect has been referred to as Dharug, a term of unknown origin or meaning. Linguist and anthropologist Jakelin Troy (2019) describes two dialects of
1222-419: The lower Hawkesbury to Mangrove Creek, upper Hawkesbury, inland Hunter and lower Blue Mountains. Also known on the banks of the river were the Eora and Guringai people. In 1789 two expeditions explored the Hawkesbury to the northwest of Sydney and the Nepean River to the southwest. It took about three years to realise they had discovered the same river system. Hawkesbury River was one of the pivotal positions of
1269-599: The new millennium, some descendants of the Dharug clans in Western Sydney have been making considerable efforts to revive Dharug as a spoken language. In the 21st century, some modern Dharug speakers have given speeches in a reconstructed form of the Dharug language, and younger members of the community visit schools and give demonstrations of spoken Dharug. In 2005 a Macquarie University master's thesis by Jeremy Steele, "The Aboriginal Language of Sydney", provided an analysis of
1316-427: The ocean journey to Sydney Heads . With the opening of the railway from Sydney to Windsor in 1864, farm produce could be shipped upriver for onward transportation by train. However, by the 1880s the river had become silted up between Sackville and Windsor, and Sackville became the head of navigation for sea-going vessels. Until the end of the 19th century coastal steamers linked Sackville to Sydney. The Hawkesbury River
1363-499: The operation of Australia's last riverboat postman , a river service that delivers mail to properties on the river between Brooklyn and Spencer. The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic , a 111 km canoe race, is held annually in October or November. The race starts at Windsor and finishes at Brooklyn . The Bridge to Bridge is a water ski race that is run in the opposite direction, from Dangar Island to Windsor . The Australian leg of
1410-590: The outbreak of QX disease ) and fish in New South Wales, with a wholesale value of $ 6.3 million annually. Dharug language The Dharug language , also spelt Darug , Dharuk , and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language , Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in the region of Sydney , New South Wales , until it became extinct due to effects of colonisation. It
1457-562: The people), man of Gadi - Sydney within Gadigal Country (identifying the place those specific people are from); and, Kamaygalyan (identifying the people), woman of Kamay - Botany Bay (identifying the place those specific people are from). This people-and-place naming convention within the Dharug language can be seen throughout all of the clans of the Eora Nation. Another example of the strong link between people and place, but without
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1504-566: The place names used by the Aboriginal people along the river, including the name of the river itself Dyarubbin . An alternative spelling of the Aboriginal name for the river was published as Deerubbun in 1870. The two main Aboriginal tribes inhabiting the area were the Wannungine of the coastal area on the lower reaches (below Mangrove Creek) and the Darkinyung people , whose lands were extensive on
1551-471: The raising of the dam wall will give rise to additional developments downstream, which are currently not allowed to build on floodplains with a risk of a one-in-hundred-year flood. They also claim that any raising of the dam wall will be ineffective at flood mitigation, as the Warragamba River only contributes around 15% of water volume to the Hawkesbury-Nepean system. This issue has again been raised after
1598-528: The reconstructed Dharug language, and parts of the language have been taught at the Sydney Festival . In December 2020, Olivia Fox sang a version of Australia's national anthem in Dharug at the Tri Nations Test match between Australia and Argentina. The language may have had a distinction of vowel length , but this is difficult to determine from the extant data. The Dharug language highlights
1645-504: The region earlier than thought. Dharug people recognise William Dawes of the First Fleet and flagship, the Sirius , as the first to record the original traditional tongue of the elder people of Sydney Dharugule-wayaun. Dawes was returned to England in December 1791, after disagreements with Governor Phillip on, among other things, the punitive expedition launched following the wounding of
1692-571: The river as a source of food and a place for trade. In the languages of the traditional custodians the river is Deerubben or Dyarubbin . In March 2021, the river level rose, and many areas were flooded as part of the March 2021 Australian floods . The headwaters of the Hawkesbury River, the Avon River , the Cataract River , and the Cordeaux River , rise only a few kilometres (miles) from
1739-424: The river from the north. From here to the river mouth, road access to the river is limited to a few points. At Milsons Passage , the river is joined by Berowra Creek from the south. In the area around Brooklyn the river is crossed by the major road and rail services that follow the coast north from Sydney. The river finally reaches the ocean at Broken Bay . From the confluence of the Nepean and Grose Rivers to
1786-550: The river. On this stretch it passes Sackville and Lower Portland , where it is joined by the Colo River . The Colo River and its tributaries drain the northern section of the Blue Mountains. From Lower Portland, the Hawkesbury River continues flowing northwards to the small community of Wisemans Ferry where it is joined by the Macdonald River . Here its course turns eastwards and the surrounding landscape gradually becomes steeper and more rugged. At Spencer , Mangrove Creek joins
1833-469: The sea, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Sydney. These streams start on the inland-facing slopes of the plateau which forms the escarpment behind Wollongong . Flowing north-west, away from the sea, these streams combine to form the Nepean River, and flow north past the towns of Camden and Penrith . Near Penrith, the Warragamba River emerges from its canyon through the Blue Mountains and joins
1880-431: The sea, the Hawkesbury River has a total length of some 120 kilometres (75 mi). Islands in the Hawkesbury River include, in order going downstream are Barr Island , Milson Island , Snake Island , Peat Island , Spectacle Island , Long Island , Dangar Island and Lion Island . Despite forming the effective boundary of the metropolitan region of Sydney for its entire length, there are very few fixed crossings of
1927-410: The strong link between people and place through its clan naming convention. This can be seen through the suffix identifier -gal and -galyan which refer to -man of and -woman of . Clan names such as Burramuttagal (identifying the people) therefore translate to man of Burramutta - also known as Parramatta (identifying the place those specific people are from); Gadigal (identifying
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1974-406: The suffix, can be seen with the nation name 'Eora' itself, which translates to people and from here or this place . The name Eora refers collectively to the people of the Sydney region and also translates to the name of the (Greater Sydney) region inhabited by those people. Examples of English words borrowed from Dharug are: Wisemans Ferry Wisemans Ferry is a cable ferry across
2021-427: The thesis shows how verbs operated. Past and future tenses were indicated by suffixes or endings, often with further pronoun suffixes attached, revealing who (I, you, they, etc.) was responsible for the actions concerned. A recreated version of the language is spoken at welcome ceremonies conducted by the Dharug people. As of 2005, some children at Chifley College 's Dunheved campus in Sydney had started learning
2068-401: The tide are felt as far as Windsor. Whilst use of the river to carry farm produce and other goods has now largely been superseded by road transport, the river remains the only form of access to a significant number of isolated homes and communities. This is especially true in the lower reaches of the river, where the steep and rugged terrain inhibits road construction. One consequence of this is
2115-426: The towns of Windsor , Penrith , Campbelltown ". The word "Eora" has been used as an ethnonym by non-Aboriginal people since the late 19th century, and by Aboriginal people since the late 20th century, to describe Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region, despite there being "no evidence that Aboriginal people had used it in 1788 as the name of a language or group of people inhabiting the Sydney peninsula". With
2162-605: The two boats carries up to 24 cars, while the smaller one carries 18 cars. The ferry is one of two cable ferry crossings in the community of Wisemans Ferry, the other being Webbs Creek Ferry , which crosses the Hawkesbury River to a point upstream of the confluence with the Macdonald River. Two other such ferries cross the Hawkesbury River proper, these being the Sackville Ferry and the Lower Portland Ferry , while
2209-729: Was given its present name by Governor Phillip in June 1789, after Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool , who at that time was titled Baron Hawkesbury, after the Cotswolds village of Hawkesbury Upton in England, where the Jenkinsons still live. An obelisk was unveiled in 1939 at Brooklyn to commemorate the naming. In 1794, 22 families were granted land at Bardenarang, now known as Pitt Town Bottoms, near Windsor. In that same year, confrontations between Aboriginal people and settlers broke out. In May 2017,
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