First Exit To Brooklyn

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday May 6, 2000

Alex Buzo is the author of Big River and Pacific Union.

It has a bridge, but that's about as close at it gets to its brash New York namesake, writes Alex Buzo.

FOR an out-of-Sydney experience, the first place where strangers say ``g'day", there is a small town on the Hawkesbury that can deliver the goods. On the south bank of the river and facing the northern sun all winter, Brooklyn is also a discount Riviera.

Technically, Sydney does not end until halfway across the river, which is pronounced ``Hawk Spree" in the Brooklyn accent, but in all other senses it has long since ended. Although listed in the Sydney phone book and governed by Hornsby Shire Council, Brooklyn is the first stop beyond Sydney, not the last exit before leaving the city.

Just 50 minutes by train and 70 minutes by car from the big, bad metropolis, Brooklyn is definitely a rural community. The same names have recurred for over a century of its history Ross, Cole, Davidson, Lewis, Hibbs, Peat, Buie, Lucca, Danglade and others while nearby Dangar Island was finally named for its pioneer, Henry Dangar, 160 years after Governor Phillip called it Mullet Island when his crew reeled in dozens of the oily fish in 1788.

The landscape is the same as it was when Phillip's expeditionary boat sailed along the green-brown water bounded by unvarying brown-green rocks and gums. In 1887 the railway bridge was built by the Union company from Brooklyn, USA, but local historians deny the town was named after this raucous borough of New York City, citing a mention in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1883: ``Brooklyn is destined to become a thriving and important commercial township." Tenders for the bridge were not called until 1884.

The Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers were named for a couple of titled stay-at-homes, Baron Hawkesbury and Sir Evan Nepean, and when it was discovered that it was all the same river, the names were retained so as not to offend the absent. Brooklyn is at the mouth of this 110-kilometre waterway and at the epicentre of its prize product: the Sydney rock oyster, or Saccostrea commercialis.

At Bayou Bill's there are shells everywhere and the owner is getting ready for a busload of tourists. His oyster farm is the first step on a tour of the area that then proceeds on the trimaran Hawkesbury Princess. Just offshore lie the wooden stakes which he calls ``underwater flypaper" where the oysters thrive on the temperate salty water.

Bill Smith was not as famous a name as his fellow beach inspector Aub Laidlaw, but the two of them patrolled the broiling sands of Bondi in the 1950s armed only with a ruler for measuring bikini decency. A genuine Sydney character, Smith left the city for Brooklyn in the 1970s and has farmed oysters ever since. ``The lease gets flushed out twice a day by the tide, which runs at four or five knots. Oysters don't like it below 18 degrees and they need a certain amount of salinity. This is where you get the best Sydney rock oysters."

He is unlyrical about the pale and fleshy Pacific oyster, an introduced species which can be found as far south as Tasmania.

The SRO grows only in the NSW latitudes, and when the railway station at Brooklyn opened, hawkers were quick to swarm over the platform offering bottles of oysters for sale. This put the township on the map, and seafood (oysters, prawns, jewfish, whiting, perch and mullet) has been its business ever since. Tourism is a recent phenomenon, and there are now 46 cruisers plying the distinctive khaki waters.

The other tourist attraction in the area is Dangar Island, which is 15 minutes by ferry from Brooklyn wharf. A good brisk walk will take you around in about half an hour, but if you go looking for the Aboriginal shark carving it will take a lot longer. I found this rather like the Search for the Golden Boomerang lots of adventure and interest, but no sign of the yellow returnable.

``The carving does exist, and there are two sharks," says local historian Michael O'Flynn, who takes tour groups on a one-hour walk at weekends. ``There are also Aboriginal middens dating from the time the whole river was known as the Deerubbin."

What is not in dispute is the tranquillity of the island and its microcosmic landscape, from rocks to sand then gums, palms and creamy, flowering monsteras. Up on the Flats there is a bowling green set among jacarandas.

One reason for the quiet is that there are only two motor vehicles on the island the firetruck and a communal ute for the 269 residents, who vary from a High Court judge to single parents on a pension, and live on blocks that range from $650,000 for a north-facing beachfront to less than $100,000 on the slope below the Flats. ``This is not a retirement village," says Michael O'Flynn. ``We have 50 schoolchildren here."

This part of the world has reached something of a crossroads, with two different groups, SHURE (Save the Hawkesbury's Unique River Environment) and FOND (Friends of the New Developer) competing for the future. All agree the Brooklyn Bridge is not for sale.

A large marina with shops, restaurants and accommodation has already opened at Brooklyn wharf, and landscaping is planned for the walkway leading to the town, but development proposals for a resort hotel on Peat Island have failed to go ahead. According to some long-time residents, Brooklyn has lost a few of its old charms and needs to acquire new ones.

At 79, Max Buie has the classic Brooklyn pedigree. His grandparents were Scottish immigrant settlers, his father ran the first general store in the area, and his uncle shot down the Red Baron in World War I. A leading oyster farmer for much of his life, he is in no doubt that the Sydney rock oyster is the once and future king. I asked him if Brooklyn produced the best SROs and he simply stood on his record. ``For 25 years running I won first prize for the biggest dozen at the Oyster Farmers' Exhibition."

To get to Brooklyn by car involves crossing the freeway bridge, coming back on the old bridge and driving briefly down the winding Pacific Highway where thousands of children used to get carsick. The first sign of the town is the cemetery where the headstone on Robert Buie's grave confirms his role in ending the life of the German flying ace Baron von Richthofen. ``Uncle Bob died on Anzac Day 1964," says Max Buie. ``But his greatest feat was in 1918 when he was a gunner in the artillery and he shot down the Red Baron. It was witnessed by a Mr Wormald, and I have the full documentation."

The antique steam train called 3801 is occasionally brought out for fetes and special events in Brooklyn 3801 was Robert Buie's serial number in the army.

The other famous scrapper from the area was Victor Patrick Lucca, who as Vic Patrick won the Australian lightweight boxing title and was a headliner at Sydney Stadium in the 1940s before becoming a leading referee. The son of a Hawkesbury fisherman, Salvatore ``Tory" Lucca, Patrick married Nancy Davidson, whose brother Claude is a prawn trawler to this day. The old fighter often returns to the town; Brooklyn is a lifelong addiction.

``It's a very labour-intensive industry, oystering, and the wages aren't high, but there's no problem hiring people," says Bill Smith. Why is it so? He gestures at the river banks, at the groves of casuarinas and Cocos Island palms, at the sunlight winking from the low, even waves, at the small boats rocking and making their friendly slap sound. ``Where would you prefer to work?"

The quiet of Brooklyn is shattered on two days a year: the bridge-to-bridge water-skiing race and the Lion Island Classic, for motorboats as well as skiers. For those who like it quiet, there is increasing interest in the Dangar Island walk, which is now going out up to three or four times on a good weekend.

Claude Davidson sells his prawns at the Fisherman's Co-Op at the wharf, and does not rate tourism anywhere near fishing as an economic factor here. For visitors, there is the ugliest pub in the world, the Angler's Rest, which has a surprisingly high quality restaurant, and some cafes, such as JJs, which is run by Bill Smith's son Joshua Joseph under the banner ``Burgers Galour". Despite the sign, JJs has the fresh and delicious fish grilled or fried you would expect in such a setting.

Brooklyn is located on a thin strip of land along the bank of the river. According to Max Buie, the only way it can go is up, while tourism chief Jeff Rudge thinks it should go out a bit, too, with some reclamation and a retaining wall. ``I bought a block of land here for $200 in the 1950s," says Buie, ``and it's now worth $145,000."

Split-level houses are creeping up the hill, but the total population of the area (including Dangar Island and Wobby Beach) is unlikely to increase beyond its current 2,200 unless something is done about space and height.

``This is the most studied community ever," says Michael O'Flynn. Hornsby Council has been conducting survey after survey, trying to work out whether Brooklyn is a thriving river port, an isolated rural community, or a tourist goldmine. ``I suppose we'll find out sooner or later," says O'Flynn with an equanimity that is not foreign in these parts.

Alex Buzo is the author of Big River and Pacific Union.

* Further information: Hawkesbury River Tourist Information, 5 Bridge Street, Brooklyn, phone 9985 7064; Dangar Island Bushwalk, Michael O'Flynn, 9985 7021; Hawkesbury Princess Oyster Tour/Cruise, Tues, Wed, 10am-1.30pm, 9985 8237; Halvorsen Cruisers, Bobbin Head, 9457 9011; Bayou Bill's Oyster Farm (Bill Smith), 9985 7328; Dangar Island General Store, the Wharf, lunch and snacks, 9985 7300; Brooklyn Marina, 45 Brooklyn Road, 9985 7290; Brooklyn Cruisers and Yachts, the Marina, 9985 7108.

© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald

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