Newington Armory
Newington Armory is a heritage-listed former Royal Australian Navy armament depot, now used for tourism purposes, at Holker Street, Sydney Olympic Park, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1897 initially by the New South Wales Military Forces then by the Australian Army and later by the Royal Australian Navy. It is also known as Millennium Heritage Parklands Precinct, RAN Armament Depot Newington, Royal Australian Navy Armament Depot, Newington Nature Reserve and Sydney Olympic Games site. The property is owned by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 14 January 2011.
History
The Parramatta river area was formed during the Holocene period approximately 6000 years ago. Aboriginal people are believed to have lived in the Sydney basin for at least 20,000 years however with the rising sea levels associated with the warming of the Holocene age archaeological evidence is limited to areas above sea level such as the Blue Mountains.Evidence of the use of Homebush Bay by Aboriginal people has been found. Middens originally were present along the shores of the Parramatta River and Homebush Bay however these were substantially disturbed when used for lime making. Past reports have referenced the existence of physical evidence of Aboriginal occupation on the subject site as isolated artefact scatters and scarred trees. However these findings have since been questioned in further studies.
John Blaxland was a landowner and merchant who came to Australia in April 1807 with the sponsorship of the British government. Blaxland's holding on the Parramatta River was 1290 acres part of which was the land later to become Newington Armament Depot. Blaxland named the site Newington after his home in Kent. He had aspirations to profit from the colony but was constantly at odds with its administration, in particular Governor Bligh, over what was owed to him and the type of agricultural and mercantile enterprise he chose to undertake.
Blaxland chose to concentrate on the cattle industry: breeding, slaughtering, salting down, and selling meat and dairy produce and did not undertake crop cultivation which was the farming activity preferred by Bligh. He produced the first suitable colonial salt on the waterfront. Blaxland's estate was rich, riverside land, comprising a rural villa estate and a farming community. The farm, factory and salt works were established between 1829 and 1832. Blaxland built a house which is on land which is now part of Silverwater Correctional Centre. After the death of Blaxland in 1845 the family mortgaged and sold the property. The land was then leased for uses such as slaughterhouses and timber cutting. The property was bought by John Weatherill who intended to subdivide it but this was never undertaken and the site reverted to the government in 1880.
Defence infrastructure in the 19th century was largely located in the inner harbour of Sydney Harbour with Powder Magazines at Goat Island and Spectacle Island. In the 1860s it became apparent that Goat Island was reaching capacity and the use of Spectacle Island as a powder magazine had begun by 1865. The Sydney Morning Herald in October 1875 reported the recommendations of a board appointed by the Government of the Colony of New South Wales into the removal of the Goat Island magazine. The second recommendation was "That a separate and distinct magazine for merchant's gunpowder, capable of storing about 300 tons, be established on the right bank of the Parramatta River...". In May 1876, the Herald reported that the Government had set aside 3,700 pounds to purchase land on the Parramatta River at Newington. By 1880 both Goat and Spectacle Islands had reached capacity and another site was required to store explosives which was far enough removed from the urban population.
It was not until 1882, after Newington College had left Newington House for Stanmore, New South Wales, that land at Newington was acquired. Newington was chosen for its relative isolation and in 1882 the Government Gazette of 22 August described the resumption of land for "erection of a magazine for the storage of gunpowder and other explosives". Most of the 248 acres resumed at this time was described as mud flats, swamp and mangroves or salt marsh. Its isolated location away from urban areas made it suitable for the storage of explosives. This area was enlarged in 1884 with an extra area of 109 hectares being made available for the magazine. Further increases were made in 1941, 1946, 1949 and 1952. The large scale reclamation eventually drained 200 acres of mud flats. By 1893 the foreshore had moved out into the bay and been straightened with two miles of fascine banks. Reclamation of the wetland continued through the 1930s and into the Second World War. Part of the site was used by the Homebush State Abattoir until 1928. In 1938 and 1941 the whole site was resumed for military purposes.
In the event, construction at the site did not commence until 1897, and it was for a military magazine rather than the magazine for merchant's gunpowder as envisaged in 1875. A notice appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald in March 1897 calling for tenders for the erection of a "Magazine, Laboratory, Gun Cotton Store and other buildings" at the "Military Reserve at Newington" is in the name of the "New South Wales Military Forces". The first buildings were constructed for and manned by the New South Wales Military Forces in 1897.
An article in The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate in September 1897, reporting on the ongoing construction of the Magazine, says that: "...the Government Powder Magazine at Newington... is intended to store all the powder required for military purposes in the colony...".
In June 1895 The Sydney Morning Herald, quoting the Government Gazette of 18 June 1895 recorded the formation of:
"Ordnance Store Corps: "C" Branch of the Military Secretary's Department, now a civil branch, to be converted into an Ordnance Store Corps."
According to one account:
"The Corps comprised No 1 Gun Wharf Section with a Deputy Assistant Commissary General of Ordnance, a Lieutenant and Quartermaster, three Conductors of Stores and one Sergeant Artificer. No 2 Magazine Section was composed of one Conductor of Stores and three Privates; and No 3 Armourer's Section was composed of a Lieutenant and Quartermaster, with one Armourer Sergeant and two Privates. These appointments were filled by members of the permanent military forces."
It is the Ordnance Store Corps, and specifically the No. 2 Magazine Section, that is likely to have been the unit that commissioned the Newington Magazine in 1898.
The New South Wales Military Forces were, at Federation in 1901, subsumed into the new Commonwealth of Australia military forces. In 1902, the military staff of the Magazine, a Sergeant and three Gunners, were transferred to the new Commonwealth Ordnance Stores Corps.
The site during the period occupied by the New South Wales Military Forces was focussed on the Parramatta River side within a precinct comprising the river frontage, armament buildings and accommodation buildings on a hill away from the handling and storage of explosives.
The Military Magazine, as it was known at the time, remained in support of the Army until 1921, when it was transferred to the Department of Navy, to supplement the explosives storage available at the RAN Ordnance Depot at Spectacle Island. During the 1920s and 1930s the depot was gradually expanded to enable mass-detonating explosives, and later all explosives, to be removed from Spectacle Island. During this period it operated as a sub-depot of Spectacle Island. The navy used the site to store enough ammunition for 2 ships and 2 years practice ammunition. The Navy lobbied for the resumption of more land arguing the site was too small to be of any real value. There followed a decade of development on the subject site and land resumed from the State Abattoir.
The Second World War had a major impact upon defence in Australia and the way it was managed. The Royal Australian Navy was formed in 1911 but still played a role as a colonial arm of the British navy. In 1938 in response to the European military situation the Navy's expansion on the site dramatically increased. The armament depot was fully operational and at its peak when the Second World War was declared. In the Second World War the RAN took on a major role in defence as thousands of Allied ships arrived in Sydney, affecting docking facilities and particularly armament supply and storage. Newington Armament Depot was part of a network of Navy sites on Sydney harbour.
During World War II, the depot expanded greatly by acquisition of private property and the New South Wales State Brickyards under emergency powers. During the early part of the Pacific War, an independent US Navy ammunition depot was built within the depot, and during the later part, additional storehouses were built by the Australian Government as part of its contribution to the support of the British Pacific Fleet. Munitions were transported between Garden Island, Cockatoo Island, Spectacle Island, and Newington. All ships entering the harbour were de-ammunitioned and the ammunition was then taken to Newington for storage. Of the 5,127 dockings by Navy ships between 1939 and 1945, there were over 500 US ships and almost 400 British ones. There were smaller numbers of Dutch and French ships as well, as almost 12,000 Merchant ships which also carried armaments and naval supplies. During the Second World War Newington played an essential role in supplying Allied ships for the war in the Pacific.
At the end of the war, the Navy continued to operate the site, and it remained an intrinsic part of the Sydney Ammunition Pipeline. The Brickyards were returned to the New South Wales Government, but most of the private property was compulsorily acquired. The pipeline is the movement of ammunition from storage facilities, such as the RAN Armament Depot at Kingswood via road to Newington, where it was transported by water to Garden Island.
During the mid-1950s the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments agreed that storage of mass-detonating explosives should be transferred to the sub-depot at Kingswood and this occurred progressively from about 1957. RAN Armament Depot Newington continued to store other categories of explosives, and remained the focal point for transshipment of ammunition between road and water, through the Newington Wharf.
During this time, several animals were present at the Armory including a flock of sheep to graze on the plentiful grass, and horses that pulled the carriages filled with armaments.
During the mid-1970s the closure of the depot was first raised in connection with a proposal to hold the World Student Games in Sydney. During the 1980s, regular mowing of the forest understorey to reduce the fire risk ceased, allowing natural regeneration to commerce. In 1987, operational difficulties resulting from the adoption of new NATO Safety Principles for the Storage of Explosives focused navy and government attention on relocation of the depot to a new site outside Sydney. In March 1994 it was announced that the depot would close to allow the 2000 Olympic Games to be held at the adjacent Homebush Bay.
The RAN started to vacate the site in 1996, with ownership transferred to the Government of New South Wales to be developed as the Sydney 2000 Olympics Athlete's Village and the suburb of Newington. Remediation and redevelopment of the southern two thirds of the depot commenced in that year. The restoration of tidal flushing to the wetland occurred in 1997 and channels 2 and 3, as the wetland had become effectively landlocked as a result of the construction of the Parramatta River seawall in the 1890s and reclamation of Wentworth Bay in the 1950s.
The Navy was still using the site for the transfer of armaments up to December 1999. The RAN finally vacated the depot in December 1999 with the last ammunition operation conducted over the wharf on 14 December 1999. The site was handed to the NSW State Government in January 2000. By then the southern half of the depot was being transformed into the Olympic Games athlete's village, and subsequently the suburb of Newington. The remainder, largely intact and incorporating most of the 1897 structures, has been incorporated into the Sydney Olympic Park. It is now known as the Newington Armory.
On 14 September 2000, 34.7 hectares of estuarine wetland and 13 hectares of remnant forest were gazetted as the Silverwater Nature Reserve, later renamed Newington Nature Reserve.
Extensive stabilisation and restoration works were conducted to the buildings, railway track and locomotives in 2001.
The first public open day was held in 2003. Since then, the site has undergone progressive adaptive reuse. The rail track was extended to form a loop encircling the forest, enabling the train to operate as a visitor tour and interpretive attraction.
In 2007, Blaxland Riverside Park opened by the riverside, covering 20 hectares adjoining the Newington Armament Depot. Stage 1 of $7m works opened, comprising creation of landscaped picnic terraces, development of a riverfront promenade, cafe and parking areas. In the same year, the wharf was redeveloped and opened as part of the new park.
The cafe building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 2008.