51-548: The Nepean River ( Darug : Yandhai ), is a major perennial river , located in the south-west and west of Sydney , New South Wales , Australia. The Nepean River, and, continuing by its downstream name, the Hawkesbury River , almost encircles the metropolitan region of Sydney. The headwaters of the Nepean River rise near Robertson , about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Sydney and about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from
102-505: A Macquarie University master's thesis by Jeremy Steele, "The Aboriginal Language of Sydney", provided an analysis of 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 ,
153-522: 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 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
204-465: A distinction of vowel length , but this is difficult to determine from the extant data. The Dharug language highlights 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
255-803: A feasibility study into building a freeway following Bells Line of Road. The proposed freeway would have linked to the M2 Hills Motorway in Sydney and connected to the Great Western Highway west of Lithgow via a route across the Newnes Plateau. The study report, published in November 2004 concluded that, while feasible to build from an engineering perspective, it would not be economically feasible and would have massive impact on adjacent national parks and local communities. The Great Western Highway has been
306-422: 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, 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
357-505: A potent effect, blocking migratory native fish like Australian bass (also locally commonly known as perch) from much of their former habitat, and reducing floods and freshets needed for spawning. Nevertheless, the Hawkesbury/Nepean remains an important and popular wild bass fishery. The luscious banks of the Nepean River provide a natural haven for local flora and fauna and a quiet location for local residents to relax. At Emu Plains ,
408-579: A series of weir lakes rather than a freely flowing river and is also impacted by dams in the Upper Nepean catchment. The Wallacia Weir was initially built as a wooden weir for the John Blaxland flour mill at Grove Farm. The first Australian fishsteps were built when the current concrete weir was built at the beginning of the Nepean Gorge, an anticendant entrenched meander caused by the slow uplift during
459-784: Is a 59-kilometre (37 mi) major road located in New South Wales , Australia , providing an alternative crossing of the Blue Mountains to the Great Western Highway . The eastern terminus of the road is in Richmond , 51 km northwest of Sydney , where the road continues eastward as Kurrajong Road, which intersects the A9 . The western terminus of the road is in Bell , in the Blue Mountains, where
510-516: Is at Bellbird Hill, where the road rises around 450 metres (1,480 ft) from the Hawkesbury Valley to the Bell Range. The road is steep with a grade of 1:8 and has several tight bends. Other steep sections include the east and west ascents of Mount Tomah and Mount Bell as well as "The Glen" on the west side of Kurrajong Heights. The next trafficable road north of Bells Line of Road that crosses
561-414: Is located on the west bank of the Nepean River. Water from the Nepean River is pumped into baptismal pools at the mandi for ritual purification . Aboriginal people used the river regularly, and their fish traps could be seen at Yarramundi before sand and gravel mining redirected the river. Charles Darwin also wrote of people at Emu Ford , commenting on their skill with spears, while Watkin Tench of
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#1732845637848612-512: Is the turn off to the villages of Mount Wilson and Mount Irvine . At the village of Bell, Bells Line of Road turns south to run along the crest of the Darling Causeway to Mount Victoria, passing the site of the now-demolished Hartley Vale railway station. From Bell the majority of traffic uses Chifley Road, which goes west to Lithgow and Great Western Highway . The route has numerous sections of steep and winding road. The steepest section
663-570: The 2021 New South Wales floods , the Nepean River became overflowed, peaking at 10 m (32.81 ft), with Windsor Bridge submerging in its waters, leading to inundated homes and isolated animals in the surrounds. The Australian Mandaean community in the Sydney metropolitan area regularly performs masbuta (baptism) rituals in the Nepean River, typically in and around Wallacia Mandi . Darug language The Dharug language , also spelt Darug , Dharuk , and other variants, and also known as
714-610: The Blue Mountains orogeny carved down through the fifty-million-year-old Hawkesbury sandstone . In the 1950s, the building of the Warragamba Dam across the steep gorge of the Warragamba River , the Nepean's major tributary, intercepted the flow of the great bulk of its waters and diverted them to meet the needs of the growing Sydney metropolitan area, reducing the river to a shadow of its former self. These dams and weirs have had
765-719: 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 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
816-548: The Grose River , the Nepean becomes the Hawkesbury River. The river supplies water to Sydney's five million people as well as supplying agricultural production. This, combined with increased pressures from land use change for urban development, means the river has been suffering significant stress. There are eleven weirs located on the Nepean River that significantly regulate its natural flow. The river has been segmented into
867-548: 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 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
918-503: The Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA) announced plans to lower the speed limits along much of Bells Line of Road. Within a week, sufficient opposition was expressed that the changes were put on hold. In October 2008, the same changes were again announced, with the RTA claiming that there had been community consultation, but numerous users of the road, including politicians and councillors based west of
969-532: The Royal Marines also noted their use of spears, lines and nets to capture fish. The people of the Nepean region also regularly traded with people of the western plains via a route that Bell followed when he laid down an alternate route over the mountains, now called Bells Line of Road . Near Penrith, since 1971 numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in Cranebrook Terraces gravel sediments deposited by
1020-561: 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 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
1071-557: The Tasman Sea . The river flows north in an unpopulated water catchment area into Nepean Reservoir , which supplies potable water for Sydney. North of the dam, the river forms the western edge of Sydney, flowing past the town of Camden and the city of Penrith , south of which flowing through the Nepean Gorge . Near Wallacia it is joined by the dammed Warragamba River ; and north of Penrith, near Yarramundi , at its confluence with
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#17328456378481122-446: The 1960s to extend the planned Castlereagh Freeway (subsequently partly-built as the M2) to connect with Bell's Line of Road at Kurrajong Heights. If this project were to be implemented it would force major improvements to be undertaken to the route followed by Bell's Line of Road, due to the traffic volumes that would be generated by a freeway. Conversely, a freeway could not be justified without
1173-600: The Bell Range of the Blue Mountains, passing through Kurrajong Heights . When on the range, it proceeds through the fruit-growing areas of Bilpin and Berambing , before climbing and descending Mount Tomah , passing by the Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens. After Mount Tomah it proceeds through the Blue Mountains National Park passing Mount Bell and Mount Charles and passing close to Pierces Pass and Mount Banks. Eight kilometres (5.0 mi) before Bell
1224-958: The Blue Mountains is the Bylong Valley Way , which forms a more direct route between the Central West region and the Hunter Valley , including the Port of Newcastle . The passing of the Main Roads Act of 1924 through the Parliament of New South Wales provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Main Roads Board (later Transport for NSW ). Main Road No. 184
1275-522: The Blue Mountains, claimed to have been unaware of any consultation. As a result of the changes, the maximum speed limit east of Bell is now 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). For many years, road-lobby groups have been pushing for what they call a "superhighway" across the Blue Mountains. They claim that the poor roads across the Blue Mountains are impeding economic growth west of the Mountains. In 2002, road-lobby groups secured $ 2 million in funding for
1326-614: The Home Office and a close personal friend of Arthur Phillip. It took about three years to realise that the Nepean flowed into the Hawkesbury. Nepean river was also one of the pivotal sites of the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars , fought between the Kingdom of Great Britain and local aboriginal clans in the late 1700s and early 1800s. During the 1820s, the Nepean district's most famous early settler,
1377-405: The Nepean River 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, according to repeated, revised and corroborated radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating. At first when these results were new they were controversial. More recently in 1987 and 2003 dating of the same sediments strata has revised and corroborated these dates. A great many more artefacts made by people have been found in the region dating back to within
1428-437: The Nepean River estimated to have reached 13.4 metres (44 ft) in the river, and 27.47 metres (90.1 ft) AHD . This flood carried away the approaches to the recently built Victoria Bridge . Emu Plains, Castlereagh, and the lower parts of Penrith were all under flood, causing immense loss of property. Many houses were carried into the river by landslides. Many residents were forced to take refuge in public buildings such as
1479-482: The Penrith Hospital and the public schools. A major flood such as that of 1867 would cause inundation of over 16,000 dwellings and damage costing approximately A$ 1.4 billion . There have been other notable floods since, particularly that of July 1900 and March 1914. Again there was much flooding of streets and loss of houses and property along the river. 1974 was another significant La Niña flood event. During
1530-546: The clans of the Eora Nation. Another example of the strong link between people and place, but without 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: Bells Line of Road Bells Line of Road
1581-516: 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 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
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1632-521: 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 the region earlier than thought. Dharug people recognise William Dawes of
1683-422: The effective western and south-western boundary of the metropolitan region of Sydney for its entire length, there are very few fixed crossings of the Nepean River. Going upstream, these comprise: The first flood on record - apparently a small occurrence - was in 1795. Others followed in 1799, March & October 1806 and 1809. In 1810, after a series of major floods on the Hawkesbury, Governor Macquarie proclaimed
1734-500: 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 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
1785-402: The landowner and physician Sir John Jamison (1776–1844), erected a Georgian mansion, called Regentville House, on the model estate which he had established on a rise overlooking the river, not far from the present-day city of Penrith . Jamison is considered one of early Australia's most important political and agricultural pioneers. A fire devastated the house in the 1860s. Despite forming
1836-631: 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 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
1887-608: The last 5,000 years. Karskens et al. have made an attempt to recover, integrate and map archaeological data of the area from both published and unpublished reports. When the British colony was established at Sydney in 1788, the Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip, charted the coast 50 km north to the mouth of the Hawkesbury and around 32 km upstream till they were stopped by a waterfall, most likely at Hawkesbury Heights. Phillip named
1938-517: 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 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
1989-663: 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 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
2040-403: The main route across the Blue Mountains since its construction in 1815, but after the above studies found that a freeway would be too expensive to build along the route of Bell's Line of Road, the idea was abandoned. However Roads and Maritime Services' 2017 road corridor improvement program provides for a somewhat more modest program of upgradings. It is also revisiting studies last undertaken in
2091-472: The place those specific people are from); Gadigal (identifying 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
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2142-511: The process, and designing tools to reclaim the languages. During the 1990s and 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
2193-542: The river after Lord Hawkesbury, later titled Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool , President of the Privy Council Standing Committee on Trade. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Watkin Tench set off to walk inland, west of Sydney. About 60 kilometres (37 mi) inland, at the foot of the Blue Mountains , he discovered a large river which he named Nepean after Evan Nepean , the Under Secretary of State at
2244-559: The road continues as the Chifley Road. The route, part of the traditional Aboriginal pathway network, was shown to Archibald Bell, Jr. by Darug men Emery and Cogy in 1823. Subsequently, he was accompanied by the Government Assistant Surveyor and the route marked was known as Bell's Line, to be later cleared to become the second road across the Blue Mountains. Due to its condition and the gradients around Mount Tomah it
2295-543: The route is still used as an alternative route across the Blue Mountains and is also a popular tourist drive. The eastern terminus of Bells Line of Road as an identified route began at the edge of the town of Richmond, but now officially begins at the Richmond Bridge across the Hawkesbury River . West of the Hawkesbury River it passes through the town of North Richmond and the village of Kurmond , before bypassing Kurrajong . At Bellbird Hill it then proceeds to climb onto
2346-522: The western bank of the river provides a location for outdoor theatre productions on warm summer nights. The eastern bank at Penrith provides barbecue facilities and children's play equipment, as well as a wide pathway running for several kilometres for strolls along the riverbank. The eastern bank is also the home of the Nepean Rowing Club. Wallacia Mandi , a Mandaeans mandi (temple) in Wallacia ,
2397-627: The ‘Macquarie Towns’ of Windsor , Richmond, Wilberforce , Castlereagh , and Pitt Town in an attempt to ensure that development was restricted to higher ground, free of flooding. The devastation caused by flooding in February 1817 prompted Governor Macquarie to issue a notice exhorting settlers, in the strongest possible terms, to build their residences above the established flood levels. More flooding occurred in 1857 and twice in 1860, both February and May. The most devastating flood occurred in June 1867 with
2448-457: Was actually used. A website devoted to Dharug and Dharawal resources says "The word Daruk was assigned to 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
2499-592: Was amended to Main Road 184 on 8 April 1929. The passing of the Roads Act of 1993 updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Bells Line of Road retains its declaration as part of Main Road 184. The route was allocated part of State Route 40 in 1974. With the conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 2013, this was replaced with route B59. In November 2007,
2550-470: Was declared along this road on 8 August 1928, from Richmond, via Bilpin to Bell (and continuing southwards along Darling Causeway to the intersection with Great Western Highway at Mount Victoria , and continuing eastwards via Windsor along Windsor Road to Parramatta ); with the passing of the Main Roads (Amendment) Act of 1929 to provide for additional declarations of State Highways and Trunk Roads, this
2601-412: Was rarely used before World War II. The road was improved between 1939 and 1943, as an alternative to the Great Western Highway for the war effort. At the same time that it was improved, the road from Bell via Scenic Hill to Lithgow was built, so that the Darling Causeway (the conjoining road connecting Bell and Mount Victoria) carries relatively little traffic, but is a significant tourist route. Today,
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