Bushell's Lagoon - a Hidden Gem

A recent attempt to gain permission for water skiing on Bushell’s Lagoon at Wilberforce has thankfully failed, due to well-founded community opposition, including some input from myself. This magnificent wetlands area, a Wildlife Refuge, principally comprises two Lagoons which do not form one continuous body of water except at times of flood.

Bushell’s Lagoon is named after the Second Fleeter Paul Bushell, a resident of Wilberforce from 1798 to his death in 1853. His success story is far greater than you might imagine, because Bushell was not granted a single acre of land in New South Wales. He purchased all of it, by saving his pennies while serving his time as a convict and then by establishing small business enterprises at the Hawkesbury to supplement his income as a successful and hardworking farmer. He established an equine business and a shoemaking business, for example, and did not make his money from the alcohol trade, like most others who prospered economically.

Paul Bushell was almost, if not totally, unique among Australia’s earliest settlers in his decision to prove himself independent of all government handouts. Aside from non-receipt of a land grant, he and his family were never recorded in receipt of government stores from the time he moved to the Hawkesbury area around 1798. Indeed the opposite was true - he contributed greatly to community development, helping to establish the first school at Wilberforce around 1807, the church and school at Ebenezer in 1808-9 and St John’s Church at Wilberforce from 1846.

His first purchase of the land around Bushell’s Lagoon occurred around 1803, when he bought the 25 acre allotment originally granted to Thomas Lawrence, on which there was some high ground suitable for building his permanent home. Here he lived for the next 50 years and his widow and children continued to live there for many more years after his death in 1853.

In 1818 he acquired 50 acres of the Benjamin Cusley land by virtue of a bequest in the will of Peter Clark. By October 1820 he had acquired a further 60 acres of land which had once belonged to Cusley, as well as the 55 acres shown on parish maps as a grant to William Cross. In 1821 he purchased two further 30-acre parcels of Cusley’s old land and around this time he purchased 20 acres of John Cobcroft’s grant facing the Lagoon. The map shows the extent of his holding in 1821.

As well as the land shown, which he purchased for his own purposes, Paul Bushell bought about half of the Edward Robinson grant and gave it as a wedding dowry to his adopted daughter Isabella Jane Forrester when she married in 1822. At this point he owned virtually all the land surrounding the Lagoon.

While researching the Bushell book, I spent much time in the Hawkesbury. Aside from one spot in Argyle Reach Road, it proved virtually impossible to view Bushell’s Lagoon from any vantage point without entering private land. Bushell’s Lagoon is truly a hidden gem. The cover picture for my book (above, taken in April 2010) was taken from private land, with the permission of the owners. I tried to gain access down Brewer’s Lane for photography purposes, but decided the narrow dirt road was unsuitable for a normal passenger vehicle and did not travel all the way to the Lagoon.

For most of the last ten years the Lagoon has been very dry and quite shallow, demonstrated by the picture, taken from Argyle Reach Rd five or six years ago.

This raises the important issue of where does the private land end and the Crown land begin? Paul Bushell had a number of disputes over this point – at times of high water, much of his land disappeared beneath the waters of the Lagoon. There would be significant potential for disputes over trespass if power boats start travelling across land which belongs to private landowners, even if that land happens to be under water due to seasonal conditions. I understand that signs are soon to be erected banning the use of power boats on the Lagoon.

Given its historical significance, I’d like to suggest the alternative notion of promoting ‘passive’ historical tourism for Bushell’s Lagoon, using a ‘story board’ to explain its history.