The Cronulla Fisheries Centre or Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre is a heritage-listed former fisheries research centre and now public reserve and marine rescue base located at the Southern end of Nicholson Parade, Cronulla, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney Australia. It was built from 1904. It is also known as The Cronulla Fisheries Centre and Hungry Point Reserve; NSW Fisheries Research Institute; CSIRO Fisheries Division and the CSIRO Division of Fisheries & Oceanography. The property is owned by the NSW Department of Primary Industries, a department of the Government of New South Wales. The site has heritage listed buildings and several Australian Aboriginal sites. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Following a long history of internationally recognised research, in 2011 a decision was made by the Government of New South Wales to decentralise the Centre's functions and staff to regional centres at Coffs Harbour, Port Stephens and Nowra. The decision created a degree of controversy as it was announced without any staff consultation, or a cost-benefit analysis. A Parliamentary Inquiry was held during 2012, and its chairman, Fred Nile MLC, reported that:
In December 2012 the Government rejected the inquiry's recommendation, and in 2013 the Centre was closed. In 2014 the Government committed itself to keeping the site in public ownership. The Hungry Point Reserve Trust was created to manage the Crown land, and existing facilities are used by Marine Rescue NSW, the Water Police and Transport for NSW.
Location The former fisheries centre, and now Hungry Point Reserve, occupies an area of 3-hectares located at 202 Nicholson Parade at the southernmost tip of Cronulla Peninsula overlooking Salmon Haul Bay and Gunnamatta Bay on Port Hacking. It is also opposite Bundeena in the Royal National Park. It is bound on the north by Darook Park, residential properties fronting Nicholson Parade and Cowra Place, and Salmon Haul Reserve on the north east of the site.
History Indigenous history The Gwiyaga (Gweagal), a clan of the Dharawal tribe of indigenous Australians, are traditional custodians of the southern areas of Sydney. The Gweagal hunted and fished in the swamps between Botany Bay and Port Hacking. They spoke the Dharawal language. Radiocarbon dating indicates that Aborigines were using areas of the Royal National Park at least 7,500 years ago. Midden deposits are present along the entire foreshore with minor concentrations associated with rock shelters and extensive midden deposits visible beneath building foundations.
The area would have provided rich marine resources for inhabitants, in terms of both food resources and shelter. Shellfish and fish such as Sydney rock whelk and Sydney rock oyster were integral to the diet of coastal Aboriginal tribes, as were snapper and bream. Both men and women spent considerable time fishing. The diet of Dharawal people could also have included rhizomes of bracken fern, seeds of the wattle, fruit of the geebung (snotty gobbles) and the terminal buds of the cabbage tree palm.
Frank Cridland in his book The Story of Port Hacking, Cronulla and the Sutherland Shire (1924) spoke of Darook Park, and particularly the Wahgunyah Cliffs, immediately north of the Fisheries site, lamenting that the evidence of occupation of the area by the Aboriginal people was in danger of destruction by modern development. He commissioned surveyor and recorder of engraving sites, W.D.Campbell, to record the engravings visible (at the time) in the Cronulla area, including the vicinity of the Fisheries site.
In the early 1960s archaeologist Ian Sim recorded engravings in the Darook Park area, along Darook Park Road (adjacent to the Wahgunyah Cliffs). Some of these engravings may still exist, but are now on private property.
Colonial history The earliest description of the area from a European perspective was given by explorer Matthew Flinders, who in April 1814 spent time navigating the shores of Port Hacking. Explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders camped adjacent to the "Fisheries Site" at (presumably) Salmon Haul Bay in 1776. They liaised with two of the local native people, a very early example of friendly relations between Europeans and members of the local native population.
Surveyor Robert Dixon worked here in 1827-8, naming the beaches. At the south end of Bate Bay and north of the entrance to Port Hacking, John Connell was the first European settler, receiving a 380-acre grant in 1835. The suburb's name is from the Aboriginal word "kurranulla" meaning the place of pink seashells. In 1840 the beach was known as Kurranulla. In 1895 the area was subdivided and land offered for sale at 10 pounds per acre; in 1899 the NSW Government named the area Gunnamatta (meaning sandy hills) but on 26/2/1908 it was officially changed to Cronulla, and Gunnamatta became the name of the beautiful bay on the Port Hacking side of this suburb.
After the railway came to Sutherland in 1884, the area became popular for picnics - for which Cronulla has two assets: a fine ocean surfing beach, and on its southern side beautiful Gunnamatta Bay, an arm of Port Hacking. Before Cronulla was linked to Sydney by rail in 1939, it was necessary to travel to Sutherland and transfer to a steam tram which chuffed its way through sandy, sometimes bushland areas to the beach. An official post office opened in 1891, known as Cronulla Beach post office as at the time most of the settlement was on the beach side. It closed in 1893, reopened in 1907 and in 1929 its name changed officially to Cronulla. The first public school opened in 1910. Today there are two public schools and a high school, as well as convent schools.Pollen & Healy, 1988, 74
Development of the Fisheries Research Centre Hungry Point area and the evolution of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre (CFRC) Scientific fisheries research has been carried out at the Cronulla location for more than 110 years. The research aquaria was built in 1904 and is now heritage listed. It was the first such research facility in the southern hemisphere, and according to fisheries scientist Professor Tony Pitcher of the University of British Columbia, has a "long and distinguished international reputation in fisheries research". The southernmost part of the Cronulla peninsula has a "rich fabric of Aboriginal occupation". Surveyor Robert Dixon visited Cronulla and surrounding areas in 1827, and secured the native names of the beaches and bays, e.g. Cronulla (Kurranulla), Burraneer, Woolooware and Gunnamatta.Harley, 2012, 11-12 On 24 December 1861 a Government Reserve of was notified. In 1865 the NSW Fisheries Act was passed.Nimmo, 2016, 2 The first research at that location was carried out by Harald Kristian Dannevig (1871–1914), Superintendent of fisheries investigations and fish hatcheries, who later became Commonwealth Director of Fisheries. He was assisted by David George Stead (1877–1957).
In the late 1800s and early 1900s the NSW Government was concerned at serious depletion of fish stocks in estuaries as a result of illegal overfishing and gross chemical pollution of Sydney harbour emanating from measures to combat the rat plague. The plan of the Fisheries Commissioners at the time was to employ aquaculture to supplement stocks of local species and also to improve the quality of the seafood available by importing live fish from the northern hemisphere for culture and release into local waters.
In 1881 the NSW Commissioners of Fisheries were appointed under the Fisheries Act 1881. In 1895 Hungry Point was reserved for defence purposes.
The Hungry Point site now occupied by the CFRC was held as a reserve for defence purposes from 1895 until 1902, when an area of 1.37 ha on the Gunnamatta Bay side of the site was transferred from the Commonwealth for use by the NSW Government for the purpose of fish culture. The NSW Government was determined to appoint a fisheries expert of world repute, and in 1902 selected a 31 year old Norwegian, Harald Dannevig, who had constructed the Dunbar and Aberdeen Marine Fish Hatcheries, and supervised their operation for 9 years. He had extensive knowledge of the commercial fishing industry in the North Sea, based on early training with his father, Gunder Dannevig, regarded as a world leader in fisheries stocking. In 1902 Harald Dannevig began duties in Sydney in the newly created position of Superintendent of Fisheries Investigations and Marine Hatcheries. He transported adult fish from the UK to Sydney, to supplement stocks in depleted NSW estuaries. He carefully selected the Cronulla site for the new hatchery and supervised construction and operation. All aspects of a potential fishing industry, both fresh and marine water, were investigated and extensive plans formulated by Dannevig. His plans were always based on expert practical work in the field and extensive discussions with fishers. He was called on by Government Commissions looking into fishing and food industries as well as giving advice to other Australian states.
The Cronulla hatchery, experimental pool and laboratory were built in 1904, commissioned in 1905 and became fully operational in early 1906. Initial stocks of the hatchery included whiting, red bream, flathead, trevally and crayfish. Later snapper and other finfish were introduced. These all flourished in the pond but did not spawn. Dannevig had more success with flounder from Tasmania, resulting in the liberation of 20 million young fish into Port Hacking, Botany Bay, Middle Harbour and Brisbane Water. The hatchering continued to culture finfish and shellfish species but more emphasis was placed on investigations into the biology of local species by hatchery staff and staff from Sydney University. The hatchery was closed in 1914, and the NSW Government embarked on other fisheries related projects including developing a commercial ocean trawl fishery.
The Commonwealth Government appointed Dannevig to the position of founding Director of Fisheries for Australia in 1908. He designed and supervised construction of Australia's first marine research vessel, and went on to conduct the first investigations of fish resources off Australia until his death (aged 43), when the Commonwealth research ship FIV Endeavour was lost in extreme gale conditions off Macquarie Island in 1914. With the vast disruption of World War I, the absence of Dannevig's leadership and insight, fisheries research and development did not progress in Australia until creation of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, later CSIRO) in 1926. The CSIR's brief included initiation and conduct of research in connection with promotion of primary and secondary industries, training research workers, making grants for pure research and supervision of testing of scientific apparatus and standardisation. In 1929 the saltwater pool was used for experiments on the effect of electrical fields on sharks by Swedish engineer Dr E.O.Moller.Harley, 2012, 11
In 1937 Dr Harold Thompson was appointed as the first Officer in Charge of the Fisheries Investigations Section of CSIR, which was renamed the CSIRO Division of Fisheries and Oceanography in 1956. The NSW Government's part holding of the Hungry Point site was transferred back to the Commonwealth in 1938 to accommodate the newly established CSIR Fisheries Division, and provision was made to also house the NSW Fish Biology Branch and students from Sydney University. Programmes were quickly developed in a wide range of research areas, initially related to tuna, whales and dolphins, coastal and estuarine hydrology, fish preservation, mullet and oysters. Subsequent decades saw the rapid expansion of research programmes in physical and chemical oceanography, fish biology, population dynamics and plankton research. The CSIRO Fisheries main building (Building 1) was completed in 1938.
Cronulla Migrant Hostel (1949–1967)