Windmills
In 1836, Charles Darwin sailed up the Sydney harbour and saw 'in the distance, stone houses, two and three storeys high, and windmills standing on the edge of a bank'. Many people today would be surprised to hear of windmills in Sydney. Yet windmills feature in many of the early paintings and drawings of Sydney Town. They were strung out along the ridges and provided the colony with both distinctive landmarks and a source of renewable energy. In parts, they dominated the landscape, and were an important part of the city's early history. They were both an economic necessity and a cultural link to 'home'. While they are long gone, their memory lingers on, in those paintings, in a few scattered heritage items, and in some of Sydney's street names.
Power sources
The Europeans arrived with limited technology. This reflected both the scientific knowledge of the times and the nature of the colony. Convict labour and draught animals were deemed suitable 'power sources' for the early settlement, with water power from flowing streams to be used for more demanding tasks. Forty hand-mills had also been sent out with the First Fleet, for grinding wheat for flour. However, as early as July 1790, Governor Phillip had notified the colonial office in London that they were unsatisfactory, because they were 'easily rendered useless, and destroyed.'
Steam engines, as developed by both James Watt and Matthew Boulton, had been used from the late eighteenth century in Britain in agriculture, mining and industry. The use of steam power for flour milling was introduced into London in 1784, but this method was still new and uncommon when the Australian colony was established.
Between 1790 and 1793, a Sydney convict, James Wilkinson, experimented with 'man mills'. They consisted of nine convicts walking in a circle around a capstan. But this was slow, tedious, and also prone to failure. In his dispatches, Governor Philip told London that 'windmills will be wanted' and the first windmill was built in the colony under Governor Hunter. It began operating in January 1797, at what became known as Windmill Hill, along the ridge where York Street now runs. It was to grind grain into flour for the new colony.
Windmill Hill and Millers Point
Soon windmills were built anywhere they could be utilised. They operated best when built up high, to catch the air currents. Windmill Hill, now called Observatory Hill, was one of the highest natural points around Sydney Cove. By 1806 the windmill here had been replaced by larger ones elsewhere.
The second windmill built in Sydney was the 'Military Windmill'. It was delivered up in December 1814, for the use of the troops of the 46th Regiment, although it later reverted to public use. A third windmill was later erected on the same ridge, in an area appropriately named Millers Point. One of the first streets built there was named Windmill Street. By 1815, Jack Leighton operated three windmills on the point.
Parramatta also had an early mill, a water mill on the Parramatta River. However, water mills were notoriously inefficient. George Caley, a botanist in the employ of Sir Joseph Banks, was critical of the water mill at Parramatta because it required four men and four horses to work it. In a report to Banks in 1803, he argued that had the British government 'sent out by the first fleet, a steam engine and the machinery of a mill, with a man to work it ... it would be one of the most valuable acquisitions to the colony at present'.
Other ridges in the early settlement were suitable for windmills, and on the other side of Sydney Cove, where Macquarie Street now runs, another batch of three windmills were built, at what became the upper Botanic Gardens. These were Boston's Mill, Palmer's Mill, which was owned by John Palmer, and one built by Nathaniel Lucas. The merchants Kable and Underwood rented Lucas's windmill until 1811 when it was advertised for sale as Kable's Mill.
By 1809 there were seven windmills operating in Sydney Town, and more were gradually built in the following decades. In 1820 William Charles Wentworth ended a poem with the words,
The lofty windmills, that with outspread sail
Thick line the hills, and court the rising gale.
Darlinghurst mills
As the early settlement spread further east, the next suitable ridge was to be found where Darlinghurst Road now runs, from Oxford Street to Macleay Street. Here, the three South Darlinghurst mills were built. Clarkson's mill and two wooden-post mills were 'erected so as to enable them to be turned by manual labour to the wind'. Two more mills, the North Darlinghurst mills, were constructed near where Kings Cross stands today. Another in the area was called the Craigend Mill, after Major Sir Thomas Mitchell's nearby property.
By the nineteenth century, with subsequent arrivals of convicts and early colonists, there was a growing demand for wheat. Yet a busy miller's life could have its costs. In June 1831, the Sydney Gazette reported that,
A miller of Parramatta was last week brought before the Bench at that town, charged with having allowed his windmill to work on the Sabbath Day. The magistrate fined him five shillings with costs.
Eventually new technological developments rendered the windmills largely redundant. In 1815 the first steam engine in New South Wales began operating on Darling Harbour, and steam gradually became the preferred form of motive power. It was both efficient and more dependable than wind or convict labour. Nevertheless, windmills continued to be built and Hough's Windmill was the last one to turn. It was operated by Henry Hough from 1841 to about 1879 on his 10-acre (4-hectare) Hope Farm, along the Old South Head Road, in Waverley.
In all, there were 19 windmills in Sydney Town. Others were located at Pyrmont, Windsor, and Mount Gilead, near Campbelltown.
Remains of the windmills
Today there are a few reminders of the era of the windmill. Near Windsor, in the Windsor Downs Nature Reserve, there are the remains of a historic windmill. Mill Hill Road at Waverley is a reminder of Henry Hough's mill there. In the Rocks area, there is a Mill Lane. There are still streets in Sydney called Windmill Street, reflecting past associations with this early power source. At Millers Point, Windmill Street meets Lower Fort Street at the Hero of Waterloo Hotel.
With current concerns about climate change and renewable energy, windmills are back on the agenda. Today, public interest is turning back to clean and natural sources of power, and wind power is once again at the forefront.
References
Len Fox, Old Sydney Windmills, Potts Point, New South Wales, 1978
