Royal National Park Coastal Cabin Communities

About

Royal National Park Coastal Cabin Communities are heritage-listed cabin communities in the Royal National Park, Lilyvale, New South Wales, Australia. They were built from 1930 to 1950 by private citizens using their own initiative, resources and labour. It refers to the specific communities of Little Garie, Era and Burning Palms, also known collectively as the Royal National Park Coastal Shack Communities. The area is owned by the Department of Planning, Housing & Infrastructure. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 April 2012.

In the 1870s, Sydney was expanding at a rapid pace, helped partly by the extension of the railway network, but railroads needed a helping hand to make them viable and keep them expanding. Premier of New South Wales John Robertson believed this could be achieved by encouraging people to take train rides to the countryside. At the time, appreciation of the wilderness was a growing trend in Sydney and around the world, and the world's first national park was proclaimed in the United States at Yellowstone in 1872. Robertson was also concerned about both logging and the growth of the city continuing unchecked without green spaces. In 1879 he proclaimed an area south of Sydney as a national park. In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II travelled through the park by train and in 1955 it became the Royal National Park.

The cabin communities of Little Garie, Era, and Burning Palms and were generally built between the late-1930s and early-1950s on freehold land with the permission of the landholder or the person holding grazing rights. The land at Portions 1, 7, 13, 44, 47 and 48 Parish Bulgo, County of Westmoreland are collectively known as the "Era Lands". Portion 1, the largest portion, was a grant in 1832 to Andrew Byrne. On Byrne's death, c. 1868, the land was managed by a Trust along with other property of Byrne for the benefit of the Trustees. The other portions were in various ownership; Portions 13 and 44, where Little Garie is sited, were owned by the Adams and Collaery families respectively.

Byrne, who held land in Sydney and Appin, ran cattle on these lands and this was continued by his descendants who used the Burgh track to move cattle to and from the area. This track was later used by Helensburgh miners and people fishing to get to the coast in what later became the cabin areas.

The Aboriginal sites recorded within and around the cabin groupings provide evidence of the long Aboriginal use and occupation of this area. This association was continued during the pastoral use period and oral history indicates that the first hut was built at Era by the Aboriginal stockman "Old Tom" and that it was present in about 1910-1912. Tom was employed to look after the cattle on the land that supplied meat to southern Sydney and the Illawarra. This cabin was later taken over by the Lightfoot family of Helensburgh, and today is believed to be cabin No. 88.

In the 1910s and 1920s, people from the nearby mining town of Helensburgh often visited the coast and camped in the area, usually to fish. During the Depression, the number of campers and occupants increased with extended periods of occupation. Little Garie was known as Tin Hut at this time. The Collaery family allowed the building of cabins on the area they owned or had grazing rights over. In the late 1930s, Robert Gray, who had a World War I soldier settler grant on top of the escarpment, obtained a grazing lease from the Trustees of the Byrne Estate. Gray allowed the building of shacks, allocated sites for them and collected rent, initially a shilling a week, rising to 2 shillings per week by the 1940s.

During the mid-to-later 1930s, more bushwalkers from Sydney discovered the area as a recreation resource, some arriving from the adjoining National Park with others making their way down the ridge to what were termed "hide away" villages in the press of the time.

During World War II and immediately after, the numbers of huts grew as people from Sydney joined those from Helensburgh. This reflects a pattern of social and workplace reforms in NSW at that time including the introduction of annual leave in 1944. In 1944 there were approximately 38 cabins at Era, 13 at Little Garie and 15 at Burning Palms. At this time a number of Sydney artists "found" Era and people such as Margaret Olley, Max Dupain, David Moore, Hal Missingham and many others visited and stayed at the community.

In the mid-1940s, rumours circulated that the Byrne estate was to sell the land. People at Era and Burning Palms formed a Protection League with its first meeting taking place on 14 October 1945 at Era in order to try to purchase the land, or otherwise seek the protection of the cabin communities. A notice of sale for the Portion 1 Byrne Estate land was placed in the Sun Herald newspaper in February 1950.

After considerable organisation and lobbying by bushwalker organisations and the Protection League the land was resumed by the State Government in February 1950 for the purpose of public recreation. At that time some nature conservation groups questioned inclusion of the area into the National Park because of the recreation development focus of the National Park Trust, preferring inclusion into Garawarra State Park. Indeed, some evidence suggests that a close relationship existed between Deputy Premier Joseph Cahill, who was also the Chairman of the National Park Trust, and the Little Garie community that may have played a part in the decision to resume.

Nevertheless, in September 1953 the area was incorporated into the National Park administered by the National Park Trust. In 1953 there were 37 cabins at Little Garie, 116 at Era and 43 at Burning Palms. At the time of resumption the Lands Minister advised the Secretary of the Protection League that cabin owners could "remain in possession" of their huts and tents. The National Park became the Royal National Park in 1954 in honour of the Queen's visit to Australia. The Royal National Park, first established in 1879, is an iconic national park being the oldest in Australia and the second oldest in the world.

The State Park Trust prepared a full inventory of the cabins in 1953 (including size, construction and ownership details) with Lands Inspector Mr Kentwell recommending that the cabins and their occupation was an appropriate use of the land and that the revenue would provide important revenue for the Trust. At this time the Trust relied to some extent on the income of permissive occupancies. At Bonnie Vale on Port Hacking, adjacent to Bundeena, it had planned and managed the construction of what became a cabin village.

For the next 16 years, rental on the cabins was collected by the National Park Trust and cabins were bought and sold, with the Park Trust being notified of these transfers. Some current members of the cabin communities purchased their cabins during this time.

Embryonic community moves to set up surf clubs at Era and Burning Palms received added impetus following a drowning at Era in 1938. Asher Joel (later Sir Asher Joel), then publicist for the National Park Trust, was charged by the Trust to assist with setting up Surf Clubs at Garie Beach, Era and Burning Palms. He became the first President of the Garie Surf Life Saving Club. Those three clubs operate to this day and it is their proud boast that they have not had a single drowning on a patrol day.

There was no formal documentation of licences until in 1965 the Park Trust was forced by the then Minister of Lands (and later Premier) Tom Lewis, to issue a Permissive Occupancy that regularised the occupations. This Permissive Occupancy (PO) document prevented the transfer of cabins in the future. Cabin owners opposed it, but by 1966 were forced to sign the PO agreement after threats that if it was not signed "action would be taken".

With the passing of the National Parks and Wildlife Act (NSW), 1967 the Park Trust was dissolved and the National Parks and Wildlife Service established to manage national parks in NSW. The philosophical environment in this period favoured the reinforcement of natural values by removing where necessary cultural places and uses, in particular places of habitation. Within RNP, occupancies tolerated by the National Park Trust were removed. In the immediate area fishermen's shacks at Werrong, Jibbon and Marley were all removed, and the historic Allambie Guest House was burnt down. Other guest houses on the Hacking River were demolished, whilst other buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair and were removed.

The 1966 Permissive Occupancy agreement was replaced in 1979 by a licence that was terminable at the will of the Minister and non-transferable. The National Parks and Wildlife Service adopted the policy of removing the cabins on the death of the owner, or if rent fell into arrears. Over the next thirty years over 55 cabins at Era, Burning Palms and Little Garie and the whole community of Bonnie Vale (with the exception of approximately 8-10 cabins) were removed.

In order to circumvent the cabin demolition policy, there were unofficial transfers of cabins. In some instances, when people died the family did not notify the NPWS of the death and the family continued to pay the rent. Other transfers of cabins occurred with elderly people who could no longer maintain them adopting another community member, particularly a Surf Club member, to assist with and take over the cabin.

In the 1980s, the communities sought and achieved heritage listing with the National Trust of Australia and the Australian Heritage Commission and nominated the groups for protection under the 1977 Heritage Act (NSW). As a result of these listings and nomination the NPWS prepared a state-wide huts study, part of which was a draft Cabins Conservation Plan that was placed on public exhibition in September 1994 along with a revised Plan of Management for the Royal National Park. The draft CMP recommended the retention of all the cabin communities and the Plan of Management recognised that the cabin communities were of cultural significance and should be retained.

Along with the public exhibition of the draft Cabins Conservation Plan a moratorium was placed on cabin demolition. The Plan of Management was adopted in February 2000 and a subsequent RNP Coastal Cabins Areas Conservation Management Plan (CMP) was prepared in 2005.