Heritage trail now open at Rileys Hill Historic Dry Dock
Want a pleasant afternoon’s outing with a gentle walk and touch of local history?
Not far north of New Italy, off the Pacific Highway at Broadwater, is the Rileys
Hill Historic Dry Dock Heritage Reserve. The Reserve Trust has just installed a
new heritage trail – six interpretive signs that will introduce you to the history of
this important historic place.
Rileys Hill Dry Dock is the best surviving of the three Northern Rivers historic
government dry docks. Opened in 1900, it became a vital part of the busy
Richmond River for almost a century before being closed in 1991. It was an
important facility for both commerce and life throughout the entire Richmond
valley. For most of the region’s historic period, the majority of goods now
transported along the Pacific Highway were carried in ships along the Richmond
River. The dry dock was an essential facility for maintaining and repairing the
hulls of those hundreds of ships, ferries and boats that worked the Richmond
River.
The dry dock is now managed by a voluntary Trust, the Rileys Hill Historic Dry
Dock Heritage Reserve Trust, on behalf of the Department of Lands. The Trust is
slowly restoring the whole site, and is currently working on repairing the three
sheds on the site: the original pump shed built in 1990; the former Byron Bay
pier shed; and a former Woodonbong sewage works shed. The latter two were
brought to Rileys Hill during the dry dock’s working life. The dock itself is
reasonably complete, although it is silted up. The gates, however, while still in
place, are in poor state. The rest of the site is a large area that was formerly
quarried to provide stone for the river mouth rock walls at Ballina, and there are
a few remains of the heavy machinery that was used at this location for decades.
To help bring this important historical place to life again, the Trust has recently
installed a set of six interpretive signs at the site, and now welcomes the public
to visit and take a short self-guided walk through the reserve. To get there, turn
off the Pacific Highway onto Rileys Hill Road at the south end of Broadwater,
drive through Rileys Hill. Just as you leave the village, there is a small road –
Rileys Hill Dock Rd – to the right; follow that until you come to the reserve gate
and park there.
Just inside the gate you will find the first sign and your introduction to the
history of Rileys Hill Dry Dock. A gentle and level walk by the river takes you to
the dry dock and its sheds: you are following the one of one of the old railway
lines that serviced this site. When you get to the end, you will find interpretive
signs that introduce you to the history of the dock itself, from its initial
excavation in 1899 and extensions in 1930 and 1984, to its closure in 1991. The
gates are still there, and if you arrive at low tide, you can get a good view of them.
They were built from local materials, using a design very similar to one originally
published by Leonardo Da Vinci! The large white shed next to the dock is the
original pump shed – not yet open to the public – which still contains the
remains of two steam-driven centrifugal pumps built by Milne Bros in Sydney.
These are two of only five ever built. As you approach the dock and its sheds, you
may notice the remains of wharves, the quarry and heavy machinery. Two other
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signs will introduce you to these: close you eyes and imagine the site bustling
with large work crews, quarrying and transporting rock, the noise of steamdriven cranes and trains, and the sounds of the equally busy wharf that lined the
river bank for most of the length of the reserve.
If you’d like more information about Rileys Hill Dry Dock or the Trust, please
contact Bill Boyd (Trust Secretary) on (02) 66 286314 or Bruce Grant (Trust
Chairman) on (02) 66 828418.
PS: Next time you are Sydney, you might like to visit Darling Harbour. There you
will see the SS South Steyne, now a floating restaurant. The South Steyne was one
of the last ships to be serviced at Rileys Hill before it closed in 1991.
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