Warringah Council’s 1936 plan to build a road along a sand dune

A 1936 Warringah council plan proposing to link Dee Why and Long Reef by a sand dune road was part of a bigger vision for a grand marine scenic drive from North Head to Palm Beach. John Morcombe looks back in history at the failed plan.

The sand dune between Dee Why and Long Reef looking south.

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• What happened to the footbridge across Dee Why Lagoon
• The 96 years of a vessel plying waters from Pittwater to the Yarra
• How the lagoon at Newport was destroyed

IT’S SAID the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

And if a proposal in 1936 to build a road along the sand dune connecting Dee Why and Long Reef had gone ahead, it’s unlikely the result would have been heavenly.

Yet that was what some Warringah councillors were promoting in 1936 as part of a plan to create a grand marine scenic drive from North Head to Palm Beach.

And Warringah wasn’t the only council with grand plans for marine scenic drives in the 1930s — Manly Council built a scenic drive around Seaforth Bluff from The Spit to Powder Hulk Bay in 1935 along what is now called Seaforth Crescent and in 1936 the North Head Scenic Drive was opened.

Plaque to mark the opening of the Seaforth Scenic Drive in 1935.

Manly Council also wanted to build a scenic drive from The Spit to the head of North Harbour via Clontarf, Castle Rock, Crater Valley, Reef Beach, Forty Baskets Beach and Wellings Reserve.

Thankfully the scenic drive from The Spit to the head of North Harbour was scaled back to a small circle called Dobroyd Scenic Drive at Balgowlah Heights that was completed in 1938.

Since the end of World War I, Warringah Council had been trying to gain control of land surrounding Dee Why Lagoon that was owned by the Salvation Army, including the sand dune between Dee Why and Long Reef that separates the ocean from the lagoon.

Dee Why Lagoon from Pittwater Rd near Hay St

And the council knew — or least it had earlier argued — that a road along the sand dune was impractical because it told the Salvation Army as much in 1920, when the Salvos wanted to subdivide and develop its land around the lagoon, including the sand dune between the lagoon and the ocean.

The Salvation Army dragged its feet in its negotiations with the council through the 1920s but by the early 1930s the negotiations were becoming more serious.

By the time 1933 rolled around, the council was hoping that if it could obtain the land around the lagoon, it would erect a retaining wall around the lagoon itself and drain the surrounding land, after which the lagoon, which was Crown land, would be dredged and deepened to become a boating and bathing resort.

A photo of Dee Why Beach c1910.

The council’s idea of converting the lagoon into a boating and bathing resort went across like a lead balloon with environmental groups and the council quickly poured cold water on its own idea and instead said the area would become a bird sanctuary.

The council had already planned a scenic ocean drive from South Curl Curl to North Curl Curl, that would link with Freshwater, Queenscliff and Manly at the southern end and with Dee Why at the northern end that cost £6700 and was completed by the end of 1933.

The council felt that if it could continue the scenic drive along the sand dune from Dee Why Beach to Griffith Park at Long Reef, the result would be unequalled in Sydney, especially if the construction could be done using unemployed relief labour with the assistance of a State Government grant.

The sand dune between Dee Why and Long Reef looking north.

A bridge would have to have been built over the mouth of the lagoon linking the sand dune to Griffith Park using an existing road reserve where there was a footbridge from early 1925 to early 1942.

The road reserve across the mouth of the lagoon even had a name — Leone Rd — according to a street directory from the late 1930s or early 1940s.

There was a man named A.E. Leone living in Jamieson Ave, Collaroy, in 1928 and at the corner of Suffolk Ave and Norfolk Ave, Collaroy in 1937 but it’s not known if there was any connection between A.E. Leone and the road that bore the same name.

Dee Why from Pittwater Rd, Collaroy. Courtesy State Library of NSW

Eventually the scenic drive was to pass through Narrabeen, climb Narrabeen Head and descend to Mona Vale before carrying on to Newport, Bilgola, Avalon and Palm Beach.

It was even proposed by one councillor in 1935 that the scenic drive from Dee Why to Long Reef be named after Arthur Griffith, the former lands minister who had overseen the resumption of Long Reef, which had already been named Griffith Park.

As far as Warringah Council was concerned, the only question was whether its scenic drive should be connected at the southern end to Manly either by a road over the top of Queenscliff or via a tunnel drilled through Queenscliff Head.

Eventually Warringah Council got its hands on the land around Dee Why Lagoon at a cost of £6200 but thankfully the scenic drive along the sand dune to Long Reef — or the tunnel through Queenscliff Head — never eventuated.

THE WESTERN HARBOUR TUNNEL

That’s not to say the council always treated the lagoon with the respect it deserved — in the late 1960s it “reclaimed” the southeastern part of the lagoon by using it as a garbage tip and then laying turf over it.

The area is now known as James Meehan Reserve.

But times — and attitudes — were changing and in 1973 the lagoon and its surrounds were gazetted as wildlife refuge.

In 1980 the community-based group Friends of Dee Why Lagoon was established and both by itself and with the council, has helped regenerate the Dee Why Lagoon Wildlife Refuge, which in 1997 was registered on the Register of the National Estate database due to its natural heritage values.