SILT - SLUDGE - SWAMP - LINE OF RAILS

“It is announced that a scheme for reclaiming that part of Darling Harbor above Pyrmont Bridge has received further consideration, and that the Minister for Works has asked Mr. C. W. Daelet, Engineering Chief for Harbors and Rivers, for a report on the cost of filling up a section of the harbour forty acres in extent, “with silt raised by sand pumps,” as is being done in
Long Cove and other parts of Port Jackson.

[...]

Mr. Lyne may be very much “impressed with the probability” of a profitable return from the forty acres of sludge that he thinks of creating, but, as far as present profit at any rate goes, he would in more ways than one, resemble the scriptural character who built his house upon the sand. Money spent upon the long desired railway extension at Darling Island would not, as money thrown into Darling Harbour does, mean a probability, but a certainty of benefit.

[...]

Why, under the very administration that is now proposing to turn an arm of the sea into a swamp, and thence into eligible building sites, and to round off this new territory by ousting the holders of foreshores, it was some time ago proposed to connect the railway system with its main goods terminus by a simple tramway, so as to avoid the expense of converting a public thoroughfare into a regular line of rails, a change which would have necessitated heavy payments to the authority charged with the maintenance of the existing road. This tramway notion, which was really a plan to escape obligations by calling a railway a tramway, was rejected, as absurd, and it was recognised that the connecting link must be a railway in fact as well as in name.”

- RECLAMATION WORKS in The Evening News, 15th August 1892.



FILL UP THE WHOLE OF THE WATER - COMPARATIVELY SHALLOW - DREDGING - FILLED UP

“The cost of the Pyrmont Bridge would amount to from £200,000 to £300,000. Mr. Lyne stated to the deputation that in view of the immense sum of money which would be required to build such a bridge as appeared to be necessary, it was a question which presented itself to his mind as to whether it would not be better to fill up the whole of the water from Pyrmont Bridge to the head of Darling Harbor. This part of the harbour is comparatively shallow, and if it is to be of any practical service a considerable sum of money will have to be expended in dredging it. Were this part of the harbour filled up, the Minister said, a very valuable asset would be obtained,' and as far as he could judge, without going deeply into the matter, the land thus obtained would upon being sold repay the total compensation that would be required for lands on the water frontage surrounding it, and repay also the cost of filling.”

- DARLING HARBOUT AND PYRMONT BRIDGE: PROPOSED RECLAMATION: A BIG SCHEME SUGGESTED BY MR. LYNE in The Daily Telegraph, 20th July 1892.