The Malabar Headland is a heritage-listed former public recreation area and military installation site and now nature conservation and public recreation headland area located at Franklin Street, Malabar in the City of Randwick local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Long Bay Rifle Range, Anzac Rifle Range and Boora Point. The property is owned by the New South Wales Government, which established Malabar Headland National Park in 2012. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 July 2005.
Overview
Malabar is a suburb of Sydney, located south of the Sydney central business district. The suburb is named after a passenger cargo steamer called the MV Malabar shipwrecked at Long Bay on 2 April 1931. The ship was named after the Malabar region of the Indian state of Kerala famous for its history as a spice trade centre. Prior to the shipwreck, the suburb was known as either Brand or Long Bay. The local residents petitioned the government to change the name to avoid the association with the Long Bay Correctional Centre; the new name Malabar was gazetted by the government on 29 September 1933.
There have been several shipwrecks on the Malabar headland – the St Albans in 1882, the Hereward in 1898, the SS Tekapo in 1899, the MV Malabar in 1931, the Belbowrie in 1939, Try One in 1947, the SS Goolgwai in 1955 and a barge in 1955.Malabar, New South Wales
The Malabar headland includes dramatic sandstone cliffs and provides spectacular coastal views. The western and eastern sections of the headland contain rare examples of the once extensive Port Jackson mallee scrub (Eucalyptus obstans, formerly Obtusiflora).
The headland was first used by local aboriginal people for fishing and cultural activities. Since European settlement, the headland has been used for dairy farming, recreational shooting, military use as a training facility, and a defensive position during World War II known as the Boora Point Battery.
ANZAC Rifle Range on the headland has been in active use since recreational target shooting first began in the 1850s, and is believed to be the oldest rifle range in Australia. It was previously known as the Long Bay Rifle Range and was renamed ANZAC Rifle Range in 1970 by the Army as a tribute to the rifle club members who served the nation during two World Wars and the Korean Campaign. The range has hosted numerous national and international shooting competitions including the prestigious Empire Matches, the Bicentennial Shooting Championships and the annual NSW Queen's Prize competitions.
The central area of the Malabar headland was used for uncontrolled industrial waste disposal from 1968 to 1988. The Labor Government announced its intention to sell the headland in 1986. The tenders included a proposal from Club Med to build a 300-room resort complex linked to an eighteen-hole golf course on the headland. A legal action brought by the NSW Rifle Association blocked the sale of the headland in 1990. The use of the headland has more recently been shared by a number of recreational organisations including rifle and pistol clubs, horse riding school, model aircraft flying club, bush conservation, bush walking, jogging, bird watching and rock fishing. Discharge of firearms can only occur at an approved target shooting facility. In the greater Sydney metropolitan area there are over 55,000 licensed firearms owners who are required by law to use their equipment two, four, or more times per year. The number of people using the headland exceeded 1,000 per week until the Labor Government terminated the user leases in October 2011 citing questionable health and safety concerns. The Labor Government demolished over $5 million worth of community infrastructure including the Malabar Riding School structures, Army Barrack huts, caretaker's cottage, Smallbore Rifle Range and the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia Bench Rest Rifle Range in October 2012.
History
Chronology of the Malabar Headland Major developments include: pre-1780slocal Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities, in particular it was used as a site of initiation ceremonies. The land was known as Boora to the Aboriginals; rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens were recorded during a 2005 survey but a 2009/2010 survey failed to find the original survey sites. 1789Governor Arthur Phillip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay 1819The land at Long Bay is rented for farming and running stock according to the Government Gazette 1820sCrown grant for "Church and School Lands" of included the nominated area 1842The Sydney Rifle Club is formed as the first civilian rifle club in Australia 1855village reserve set aside at Long Bay 1850srecreational shooting began on the rifle range site 1859Randwick Municipal Council created, covering the nominated area 1861Church & School Lands resumed by the Crown and land sales begin 1888recreational target shooting reported to be in action 1898the Hereward wrecked on cliff base 1899the Tokapo wrecked on cliff base 1902NSW Government reaffirmed public recreation reserves in the nominated area 1910NSW Government dedicated the whole headland for military purposes 1916a cliff face ocean outfall for sewerage established south of the nominated area 1919a permanent rifle range site was surveyed on the site 1929control of the rifle range was transferred to the Commonwealth 1931the MV Malabar wrecked near Boora Point, and the name quickly adopted for the local village to distinguish it from Long Bay Gaol 1939-1945various military installations (c43 in number) built on the site, notably the Boora Point Battery 1951Cumberland County Plan zoned the nominated area as "special uses" 1967NSW Rifle Association clubs transferred to the site from Holsworthy 1968–1988rifle range site used for extensive land fill operations, possibly from nearby industrial sites 1970name of the area changed to the ANZAC Rifle Range 1986Commonwealth announced intention to dispose of property, and official military use ceased 1980sthe name Malabar Headland began to be used after early natural vegetation surveys began 1990slegal action undertaken by NSW Rifle Association to prevent disposal of the site.
Indigenous history Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years.Turbet, 2001. The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1,500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug,Randwick Library webpage, 2003. while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial".City of Sydney webpage, 2003. By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.
European history One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.
Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce (1821–86) and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841 as a 21-year-old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee (achieved in 1853) and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.Pollen, 1988, 217-8.
Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-drawn omnibus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St. Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.
In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.
Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-drawn omnibus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.
Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.Pollen, 1988, 218-9.
Transfer of land from the Commonwealth to New South Wales On 19 January 2016, Federal Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt and NSW Environment Minister Mark Speakman announced the completion of the transfer of ownership of the South-Eastern Malabar Headland (also known as Lot 304) from the Commonwealth to the people of New South Wales. "We have quadrupled the size of land on the Malabar Headland that will be owned by the people of New South Wales," Minister Hunt said. 'The South-Eastern Headland is the most beautiful and scenic part of the Malabar Headland with panoramic coastal views rivalling any other section of Sydney's stunning coastline. We have fully funded a $5 million upgrade to the Central Malabar Headland, confirmed in the recent release of the 2015-16 Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook. This includes funding to return the South East Equestrian Club to the Headland. The necessary remediation and constructions works are expected to be commence shortly. Funding will also be used to improve safety and other amenities on the ANZAC Rifle Range, as well as completing a scoping study to investigate alternative sites for a mutually agreeable relocation of the New South Wales Rifle Association. We are committed to ensuring the whole of the Malabar Headland is kept in public hands in perpetuity,' Minister Hunt said.