Malabar 2036

From Brand to Long Bay to Malabar - The history of Malabar with shipwrecks aplenty. 

Since colonisation the suburb of Malabar has undergone several name changes. The village of 'Brand' was not an early marketing reference but rather a recognition of the New South Wales Governor Viscount Hampden (Henry Robert Brand) 1895-1899.  This name emerged from early subdivision plans as the European name for the village - chosen by early developers of the land. Soon the Europeans adopted the term 'Long Bay' for obvious reasons of geography. This name survived for several decades at the start of the twentieth century. The suburb of Long Bay even lent its name to Sydney's most notorious prison 'Long Bay Gaol' still close by to the suburb's north.

For the local Aboriginal peoples, the cove was known as a principle camping and healing place between Kamay and land further north along the east coast. This was well known fact as the Europeans acknowledged this migratory route in the first published history of Randwick in 1909. Malabar Headland is the site of a number of Aboriginal engravings. Historian Obed West claimed in 1882 that Aboriginal people referred to Long Bay as 'Boora' and that a rock overhang on the south side of Long Bay had been used as a shelter by Aboriginals suffering from a smallpox epidemic in the late 1700s.

In 1866 an attempt was made to create a village on Church and School Land at Long Bay when the surveyor general called for tenders for clearing timber and erecting posts for street names. This was followed by a sale of allotments in 1869. The suburb was proclaimed as the Village of Brand in 1899, though most people continued to refer to it as Long Bay. People were slow to take up residence in the area and it was not until the tram line was built to the Coast Hospital in 1901 that the suburb started to grow. By the early 1900s the village had two community halls; Anderson's Hall and Picnic Grounds on the corner of Victoria and Napier Streets and Dudley's Hall which provided a home for the school until Long Bay Public School opened in 1909, opposite Pioneer Park and the Cromwell Fountain, marking 50 years of local government in Randwick. Levitt's local shop was the location villagers collected their post, recalls Murial Leonard. Pat Kennedy has published several books to record the history of Malabar and Long Bay Gaol.

During 1910-1920 a number of entrepreneurs bought cheap land at Long Bay and erected tents and huts as accommodation for visitors who flocked to the beach there at weekends. Residents complained about unsanitary conditions and the effect of these holiday camps on land values. During this period there were also a number of more permanent residents living in shacks in the sand dunes behind Long Bay, forced into these living conditions by a housing shortage in inner city Sydney.

Construction of the State Reformatory for Women began in 1902 on a 70 acre site south of the village. This was officially opened in August 1909, followed by the opening of the State Penitentiary for Men in 1914.

On 2 April 1931 the MV Malabar was stranded near Miranda Point on the north side of Long Bay. Fishing boats rescued passengers and crew, but the vessel itself broke up on the rocks with the heavy seas during this fateful Easter break. Thousands of Sydney siders flocked to Long Bay to watch the disaster unfold, along with the locals who souvenired cargo that washed up on the beach. As it was the height of the great depression, time were tough for most. Even so, police became involved when reports of looting were rife. Don Gudgeon remembers the event as a child living with his family at Long Bay. Even the wood from the wreck was salvaged and repurposed, but food and other items were most valuable amongst the debree washed up on the beach. Soon after the suburb's named changed to Malabar. 

During World War One, Malabar Rifle Range was used for musketry practice. By 1967 with the Liverpool Rife Range closing, several rifle groups transferred their headquarters to the Malabar or Anzac Rifle Range. In World War Two, the headland became the site of the Malabar Battery, in operation from 1942-45. This comprised of two gun emplacements, tunnels, a railway line and a command post. These structures are still in existence, though are in poor condition.

The Long Bay Life Saving and Amateur Swimming Club was formed at the end of World War I, meeting at the ambulance building on Bay Parade before a clubhouse was built in 1922. In 1916 the Ocean Outfall was constructed on Malabar Headland and by 1959 increasing sewage discharge had severely affected water quality at Long Bay. A number of club members left to found a new club at South Maroubra and by 1973 the Malabar club had to be disbanded. The commencement of the Deep Water Sewer Outfall in the 1990s saw some improvement in water quality, but the clubhouse was demolished in the same decade after suffering severe water damage.

In 1950 golfers formed the Civic Golf Club and laid out the first stage of an 18 hole golf course on the cliff top between Long Bay and Little Bay. In 1962 the Malabar Golf Club opened a clubhouse in Howe Street with the amalgamation two golf clubs when the Randwick Municipal Golf Course was forced to close and relocate to Malabar due to the expansion of UNSW Campus further east up High Street.

The Bob Clarke Memorial Grove in the middle of Anzac Parade Malabar, progresses the memorialisation of ANZAC service personnel along the boulevard as originally intended in 1917. The canon in situ date from 1843 and were removed from Coogee Beach in 1982. They were originally located at Bennelong Point to defend Fort Macquarie, now the location of Sydney Opera House. Bennelong Point was formerly called Tubowgule by the Gadigal peoples. 

The first Catholic mass was held at Malabar in 1914, with the Stella Maris Convent founded in 1931. St Andrew’s Catholic Church – a pyramid shaped building, opened in 1977. The second major experiment with sustainable energy in the city happened in Malabar in 1986. A large tubular wind turbine was erected at the Malabar Sewage Treatment Plant. Imported from Belgium, this landmark was designed to show the worth of wind powered electricity generation. This was around 60 years after the Percy Bates hydro-power experiment at Lurline Bay in the 1920s. Thankfully, by the early 1990s the deep-water sewerage outfall mitigated the pollution that arrived at Malabar Beach. The beach has gradually increased in popularity, also in part to the early twentieth century ocean pool and comparatively serene locale.