Scotland Island, New South Wales
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Scotland Island is an island in the north of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Church Point is located 33 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Pittwater Council.
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[edit] Geography
Scotland Island sits in Pittwater, off Church Point. Scotland Island is about 1 km in diameter and it is a 3 km walk around the circumference which takes about 40 minutes. Its highest point is about 120 metres above sea level. Pittwater is a tidal waterway in the south-eastern part of Broken Bay, in the Hawkesbury River. To the east is Newport, west is Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, south is Church Point and Bayview. Pittwater connects to the ocean to the north, past Palm Beach.
Around 18,000 years ago Scotland Island was just a hill, but after the last ice age the sea levels rose, flooding Pittwater, making it an island. The water surrounding it is saltwater which flows in from the Pacific Ocean/ Tasman Sea. There are many small beaches, but they are not naturally sandy. They consist mainly of mud, mangroves and rocks. There are no rivers or cliffs, but some small caves towards the top of the island. The top of the island is sandstone and the lower part consists of shale.
[edit] Land Use
Scotland Island is one of two inhabited islands in the Sydney area. It has a population of about 1000 residents. Most of the island consists of bushland and residential zones, with approximately 350 houses. There are no shops, cafes or industrial zones, but it was not always like that. Around 1900, salt was extracted from seawater near what is now known as Tennis wharf. Using an oil burner about 90 kg were extracted each week. Sheep farms were located on the island at one time but now most people commute to the mainland for work.
[edit] Community
The only non-residential buildings are a kindergarten, Community Hall and Fire Station. The Child Centre and Community Hall were built by the residents in the 1980s and 1990s and are used for various purposes, including a pre-school, ballet classes, karate, yoga and the island theatre group. There are various other community groups on the island, such as Island Thinkers, which organises regular discussion groups. The island is also noted as home to a number of artists. 2006 saw a large arts and film festival organised by the community and held on the island. For many the festival was marred by a fire in an art gallery in neighbouring Newport, New South Wales which destroyed a collection of artworks created by people associated with the island or the other foreshore communities of Pittwater.
There is no road access to the island, so the volunteer fire brigade fulfill a number of essential services normally performed by full-time emergency service personnel in other areas of Sydney. Primarily the Scotland Island Rural Fire Brigade (SIRFB) is a fire service. The entirely volunteer brigade has about 30 active (firefighting) members and about another 30 associate (non-firefighting) members. There are three fire vehicles - two tankers and a 4WD to move people. The brigade also maintains a high-speed fire boat and, as the primary fire response vessel on Pittwater, attends boat fires and is regularly called to help brigades in other areas.
SIRFB attends bush, structure and boat fires on the Island, in the surrounding national park, on Pittwater and out of area in support of other fire districts. In addition, the brigade provides emergency medical response in support of the NSW Ambulance Service and assists residents with the after effects of storm damage
[edit] History
European discovery and first exploration of the island was in 1788, shortly after the establishment of a penal colony in Sydney Cove, some 30 kilometres to the south. The island was originally named Pitt Island by Arthur Phillip, Governor of the colony, in honour of William Pitt, the British prime minister at the time. The first European settler to own land on Scotland Island was Andrew Thompson who created a successful salt works there. He then renamed the island Scotland Island after his homeland. He also built boats there up until his death in 1810. The island was sold as a whole several times in the nineteenth century before being divided and sold off in lots in 1906. Permanent residents only took up residence in the 1960s. Power was only connected to the island in 1967.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Scotland Island, New South Wales is at coordinates Coordinates:
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