The Timber Industry - Granville

The history of Granville dates back to the first settlers in 1788. Captain John Hunter reached the banks of Duck River on one of his exploration trips. At that time Granville was a dense forest of the native fauna, gum trees. Three of the old saw-pits related to timber industry can be traced to the south of Park Hill.

Granville was named in Honour of British foreign Minister in 1881. At the time, the population of Granville was 372, 176 males and 196 females.  Two district court judges called Granville their home; E.B. Docker who lived in William Street and Charles E. R. Murray in Woodville Road.

Granville became a municipality in 1885 and Mr John Nobbs was Granville’s first mayor. In the same year, its first newspaper “Granville Express” was started by Messrs. Davey and Withers. In 1888, the Granville Town Hall was built.

The history of Granville can be divided into four periods:

• The Chase
• The Timber and Charcoal
• The coming of railway, settlement, fruit growing and meat industry
• Manufacturing

Timber - In the late 1700s and early 1800s timber e.g. cedar & mahogany were cut from the Hawkesbury district. As a result supplies were reduced for building and shipbuilding by the early 1820s.

Red cedar was first logged at the Kowmung River in the Camden district in 1818 and developed into small profitable enterprise. Some other timber producing areas were Burragorang Valley, Badgery's Creek, the Nepean district and Liverpool.

Mr Nevett was the first wood contractor in Granville. He employed number of men for years to cut great ironbark trees that characterised the forest of Granville. There were other timber contractors – Pat Finnigan, John Tunk, Scott and Jolly to name a few. Timber contractors cut ironbark on the Duck River in the 1830-40s whilst Scott & Jolly purchased the timber rights to Newington Estate in the 1840s. In 1855, the Australian Timber Company was established to collect the timber at Newington.

Granville had really fine trees and its surrounding area was covered with the dense forest. Timber from the Granville and Blacktown areas was used to supply steam engines. Following the construction of the railway line in outer Sydney during the 1860s, timber was gathered for railway sleepers and building materials and many commercial timber cutters and yards were established.. Werrington and Kingswood sidings were situated close to prosperous timberyards. Later in the nineteenth century, timber yards were established in the Fairfield & Smithfield areas along the railway line. Timber cutting became a big business in 1870s, the timber was mainly used as firewood. The timber industry drew migrants to work on various projects such as in 1852, John Fear migrated from England to work on the railway project. He stayed in Granville district carting wood.

In 1880s, industries like Hudson Brothers engineering works were being established in Granville. In 1890s, due to financial problems Hudson Brothers closed down and reformed as Clyde Engineering in 1896. James Niblett lived in Granville since 1860s and built the Granville Hotel in 1881. As a growing area, many young families were living in Granville. Granville Public School was opened in 1881. Granville had 6 factories, 2 banks, 3 hotels and 787 houses by 1888.

Ship Building - Initially the Government forbid the construction of any vessels however Governor King was in favour of ship building. The Hawkesbury district was for some time the most industrious settlement in NSW and the main form of transport and communication was via the Hawkesbury River. It became necessary to construct cheap boats locally and the Hawkesbury and surrounding (including Granville) area had a good supply of suitable timber.

Several of the early settlers were involved in the industry of boat building along the Hawkesbury district. The most prominent were Jonathon Griffiths, Alexander Books and William Grono.