Balmain owning the land

Click anywhere to close

During the year 1800, 550 acres of land was granted to William Balmain. Balmain was an Assistant Surgeon on the First Fleet, Senior Assistant Surgeon at Norfolk Island from 1791 to 1795 and returned to Sydney in August of that year to act in the position of Principal Surgeon. He remained in the Colony until 1801 when he returned to England.

This area covered what are today the suburbs of Balmain and Rozelle. This grant was sold to William Gilchrist in 1801 and subsequently lots within Balmain were auctioned off. The first release was noted as being at Peacock Point in 1836. Although no direct evidence was found, although that area around Elkington Park would have been part of a release in 1852. It is likely that E.W. Cameron purchased land in the area at this time.

A plan of Balmain from 1882 shows an area of the site as a Public Reserve. This plan does not however include White Horse Point or the area below Fitzroy Avenue within the Public Reserve boundary.

Click anywhere to close
Source 5

“ … William Balmain received a land grant of 550 acres on the west side of Cockle Bay, an area which was to become the suburbs of Balmain and Rozelle. Balmain was an Assistant Surgeon on the First Fleet, … Senior Assistant Surgeon at Norfolk Island from 1791 to 1795 and returned to Sydney in August of that year to act in the position of Principal Surgeon. He … remained in the Colony until 1801 when he returned to England.“


Hogg, Samuel Nisbet. (1907)

Elkington Park and White Horse Point

Elkington Park is a direct result of the request for a public swimming pool by local residents. In May 1880 four acres of land 'near White Horse Point' were purchased by the then Balmain Council from E.W. Cameron. During this time there was rapidly increasing popularity in recreational bathing and the Balmain area required suitable accommodation to construct a tidal bath. Other tidal baths in Sydney Harbour included Rushcutters Bay, The Domain and Lavender Bay. None of these baths now remain.

White Horse Point Cliff

The area in which people fished and had picnics.

Anecdotal history states that White Horse Point got its name after a prisoner said to have been the notorious Frederick Ward, aka the bushranger “Captain Thunderbolt”, who allegedly escaped from Cockatoo Island gaol on the 11th of September 1863 and swam to the point. It was at this location where his female companion his aboriginal soon-to-be wife, Mary Ann Bugg was waiting for him with a white horse which he used for his escape (allegedly to the New England area).

Her daring break-out took a few weeks to plan, and another week to take place. In the middle of the night, she would sneak out of the house she was a domestic in, and swim across the shark-infested waters to scout out Cockatoo Island and would come home with a plan in the back of her mind. One night, she swam the breach between them and passed some tools through his bars. A few days later. Captain Thunderbolt and a fellow prisoner, Frank Britten, left their filed-through shackles and prison uniforms on the shoreline. This made it look like they had escaped, and swam off, but in reality, they hid out on the island. The authorities took the shore and gave them clothes to wear that she had stolen. The next day, she smuggled them up the later called White Horse Street under a bale of hay in a cart, which, funnily enough, was led by a horse, and escaped from the later called White Horse Point. The surrounding land was subdivided in 1866, and the street running towards White Horse Point was inevitably named White Horse Street. Now, this would all be very well, but now 1 get to the actual point. On the 11th of March 1881, the Balmain Municipal Council changed the much more romantic and historically important White Horse Street to boring old White Street. This incredibly interesting side of Balmain was locked up just fifteen years after it was uncovered, and the thrown away key has gotten rusty over the one-hundred and twenty-nine years it's been there. But it is not forgotten!

Source 22

“Elkington Park is located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour at the confluence with Parramatta River, on the northern side of Balmain. The park is bounded by Glassop and White Streets to the south, Fitzroy Avenue to the east, and 500 metres of coastline that adjoins Sydney Harbour (Parramatta River) to the north. Elkington Park is a direct result of the request for a public swimming pool by local residents. In May 1880 four acres of land 'near White Horse Point' were purchased by the then Balmain Council from E.W. Cameron. During this time there was rapidly increasing popularity in recreational bathing and the Balmain area required suitable accommodation to construct a tidal bath. ... The tidal pool was originally named White Horse Baths, taking its name from the nearby point. This was renamed Elkington Park Baths in November 1883 after Mayor, Alderman Elkington who originally worked to secure the land from the Cameron Estate. In 1968 the pool was again renamed as The Dawn Fraser Pool, after the well known Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimmer, a Balmain local and once a trainee at the pool. The park, however, has retained the current name Elkington Park.”


Leichhardt Municipal Council. (2004)

19th Century

A 1914 newspaper states the first European settlement at Balmain was in the 1830s. After the 1830s the population of Balmain increased. Photographs and descriptions provide insights into how Elkington Park and its immediate surroundings have changed since the description of early settlers. White Horse Point begins to change as pathways, street light poles and benches are built in the area, creating a structured park.

Source 6

“ ... as we pulled our boats towards the shore ... I saw nothing but bush, bush everywhere if I remember aright the trees were not tall and straight, but rather of the nature of shrubs (ti-tree prevailing I think). Wildflowers grew in abundance ... plenty of birds ... snakes … wallabies, bandicoots, and native cats I do not remember seeing one solitary house in Balmain in 1841, but in this, you tell me, my memory must have failed me, for it is on historic record that the very first steamer that ever plied between Sydney and the North Shore was built in our suburb in the early forties … To me, indeed, it seems as though the stretch of water between the city and Balmain had shrunk considerably, and perhaps it has so in reality by the wharves on either side encroaching on the fair way. ”


Hogg, Samuel Nisbet. (1907)

Comparison of White Horse Point

Here you have see the native brush land that occurpied the point before european design. With this rocky peninsular and an old canoe in the mid ground on the water.

Click anywhere to close
Source 7

“ … even after Balmain was thrown open for settlement progress was slow. In fact, for years Balmain remained as nothing more than a fishing ground for blacks [sic] and a picnic-place for the white inhabitants of Sydney. It is stated that the shores were covered with mussels and cockles, … but it was not easy of access to and from the city. … The first settlement at Balmain took place about 80 years ago. It was at Peacock Point.


unknown. (1914)

Source 4

“ … Four Aboriginal cultural sites are identified at Yurulbin Point* - Long Nose Point, Yurulbin Cave, Shed Cave and Five Hands Shelter. At these locations, evidence of etchings and middens show the Gadigal and Wangal people, whose lands Yurulbin Point lay close to the border of, used the waterfront for fishing and conducting feasts. Deborah Lennis, D'harawal woman, local Elder, and cultural advisor to the CEO of Inner West Council, said there are sites of significance to be found along the harbour foreshore. “We lived there, we fished there, we were saltwater people,” she explained.” *Note: Yurulbin Point is 1.5 km north of Elkington Park


Hore, A. (2021)

20th Century

By the turn of the century the natural vegetation was removed and replaced by the planting of trees and European design. 20th century photographs show quite sparse vegetation around the Elkington Park Baths. Today the vegetation and trees around the Dawn Fraser Baths are dense.

Click anywhere to close

Elkington Park in 2024

An aerial 360 view of the vegetation around the point.

References