| Historical notes: | The earliest description of the lagoon was written by Gregory Blaxland himself in his journal of the famous expedition across the mountains by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, with four servants. On 12 May 1813 the party ‘ascended the first Ridge of the Mountains [and] fell in with a large lagoon of good water full of very Coarse rushes’. (Blaxland, 1813, ed. Mackaness, Fourteen Journeys, I 10-11)
In the following year, 1814, William Cox and a team of convicts built the first road and in 1815 the arrangements at Glenbrook Lagoon were described in his private journal by Major Antill, who travelled over Cox’s new road with Governor and Mrs Macquarie. Antill wrote in his private journal:
‘About 5 1/2 miles [8 km from Emu Plains], came to the first depot established by Mr, Cox [in July 1814], when making the road, as a place of safety for his provisions for his working party. A small guard of soldiers are stationed here in a good log hut with two rooms, one of which answers as a store. It is placed about 100 yards [100 metres] on the right [east] of the road, near a small lagoon of fresh water. The soldiers had enclosed a small piece of ground for a garden, and one of them had displayed some taste in laying it out in little arbours and seats formed from the surrounding shrubbery, which gave the place an appearance of comfort and simplicity.’
(Antill, 1815, ed. Mackaness, Fourteen Journeys, I 84)
Although the constant fresh water was clearly Cox’s motive for placing the depot where he did, neither Cox nor Governor Macquarie mentions the lagoon in his account. The military guard at the lagoon remained to police the passage over the Mountains, on Macquarie’s own instructions. (Macquarie, Tour, 1815, ed. Mackaness, Fourteen Journeys, I 81)
Since the second depot, at Springwood, soon replaced Glenbrook depot as the first port of call for travellers going westwards and Springwood in turn was overtaken by the Weatherboard Inn at Wentworth Falls, little is heard of the lagoon, although it presumably remained a welcome source of water after climbing Lapstone Hill by Coxs Road. When Coxs Road was bypassed between Emu Plains and Blaxland first by Dumaresq’s Old Bathurst Road in 1826 and then by Mitchells Pass in the early 1830s, Glenbrook Lagoon ceased to be a convenient watering place for travellers. (Cf. SHI for BX 003)
The lagoon became needful again with the steam railway in 1867. Since the west-bound locomotives were thirsty after climbing the Lapstone ZigZag ((G 024), Glenbrook Lagoon became an essential source of water. A pipe-line brought water from the lagoon to an iron water-tank beside the original railway track. To guarantee sufficient supply, the lagoon was dammed on the eastern side, leaving an exit for the headwaters of Lapstone Creek, and was extended in size. (Aston, Rails, Roads, & Ridges, 10)
The dam wall was used as a thoroughfare called Railway Street, which after 1918 became known as Glenbrook Road. (Woods, Street Whys, 45)
The long drought from 1877 until 1884 reduced the dam level dangerously and it was reinforced by water pumped up from the Duckhole down in Glenbrook Creek 1500 metres away to the south-west on the other side of the ridge. (Aston, rails, roads, & Ridges, 11) With the realignment of the line through Glenbrook Creek Gorge, with a tunnel under The Bluff in 1913, water from Glenbrook Creek was more convenient for railway needs and the lagoon gradually lost its significance.
For local recreation needs the water in the Blue Pool in Glenbrook Creek a little north of the causeway became a preferred swimming place, while the Duckhole some 2 km to the north again on Glenbrook Creek was a ‘haven for swagmen and bushmen’. (Glenbrook Village, Gateway to the Mountains. 9-10)
The Glenbrook Lagoon Society was created to restore the native vegetation by removing weeds and has encouraged the wildlife which luxuriates in the reeds along the edge of the water. The housing development particularly on Lagoon Drive close to the water on the west has had a considerable effect on the amenities of the lagoon and the only reserve readily available to the public is approached from a small parking area off Glenbrook Road. |
