Location
The village of Kendall
is on the NSW Mid North Coast, about 3kms west of Kew and the Pacific
Highway and half way between Taree and Port Macquarie. It's one
of seven villages that make up the Camden Haven region of the Port
Macquarie/Hastings Local Government Area.
The Kendall
District includes Kew, Heron's Creek, Logan's Crossing,
Lorne and Ross Glen.
Other villages in the vicinity are Bonny Hills,
Comboyne, Dunbogan, Lake Cathie, Laurieton and North Haven;
the bigger
towns are Port Macquarie, Taree and Wauchope.
Map
Download
a (PDF)
History
The Birpai Nation
Long before Europeans arrived in what is now Kendall and district,
it was the home of the Birpai
people who lived in settled villages along the river banks and
around the lakes.
The entire northern coast of New South Wales supported a substantial number of Aboriginal
Australians. The rich strip from the Camden Haven to the Queensland
border and from the coast west to the Great Dividing Range –
30,000 square kilometres – might well have nourished 45,000
people. More
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Timber Cutting and Milling
By 1856, cedar was being exported on ships that called into the
Camden Haven. The first organised timber
cutting and milling is said to have been that of Mr Perrett
who built a mill near present day Kendall in the 1860s. From 1883, Crown Land in the Port Macquarie district was 'set aside from sale for preservation and growth of timber'.
Reserve No. 15038 on North Brother Mountain was notified on 9 January
1989. More...
Cattle and Dairying
The teams of bullocks
that worked throughout the district were of mixed breed: Devons,
Ayrshires, Jerseys with the odd black and white Friesian. The very
intelligent Jerseys were often leaders of the team, they frequently
also brought up the tail. From the 1880s, as settlement in the area
increased, many people took up dairying.
More...
Henry Kendall
Kendall was named in honour of the poet, Henry
Kendall (1839 – 1882). Kendall
came to Camden Haven, as the village of Kendall was then called,
in 1876 to work for his friend, Michael Fagan, whose timber mill
stood on the site of today’s Kendall Services & Citizens
Club. He lived and worked in
Kendall from 1875 until 1881. More..
Kendall School of Arts
The Kendall
School of Arts, a much loved building, has been the focus of
many district activities for nearly a century. It is well built
of local timber, indicative of the timber industry which was the
major local industry for approximately one hundred years.
The site of today’s
Kendall Community Centre was initially notified as Camping Reserve
No 132 on 1 August 1881. The Camping Reserve was used to rest horses
and bullock teams after they drew logs from the forests to the Kendall
timber mills. More...
Railway
The opening of the railway in Kendall on 12 April 1915 contributed greatly to Kendall’s
commercial and social activity.
The first government-owned
railway in New South Wales opened on 26 September 1855 with lines
to the Hunter and the west of the state following very soon after.
The treacherous bars of the swollen coastal rivers caused so much
loss of life and property that it is not surprising that railway
surveys began on the north coast as early as 1872. More...
Population
According to the
2001 census, the population of the Kendall/Kew/Lorne district was
2,654, of which 50.4% was female, 23.8% was over 65 years and 13.1%
was under 15 years. |
Points
of Interest Around Town
There are also a number
of special
places in the surrounding country
Henry Kendall
125 years after his death, a granite
statue depicting Henry Kendall has been installed at the corner
of Comboyne and Orara Streets. It commemorates him as an resident
of Kendall from 1875 - 1882 (then called Camden Haven) and as
the first NSW Inspector of Forests. |
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Kendall School of Arts
Built in 1908 by the citizens
of Kendall on Crown Land dedicated for the purpose. Restored
during the 1980s. |
Fred
Norrie Riverside Reserve
A delightful park and picnic
area beside the Camden Haven River.
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Kendall
Pool
The pool
was opened in 2004 following years of fund-raising by the
Kendall community
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War
Memorial
The War memorial records the
names of soldiers who went from the district to fight in World
War I.
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Heritage Walk
This walk takes in 16 heritage sites and is a comfortable
walk around the village.
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Anglican
Church
All Saints Church of England
was built in 1889, dedicated in 1902 and Church services were
held until 2002
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Machinery Display
Boiler from a locomotive used on the Longworth Logging Tramway
from 1916 to 1929, and fly wheel from a diesel engine used
at a timber mill at Bob’s Creek around the end of World
War II.
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Kendall
Cemetery
The heritage cemetery
has graves dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. |
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Uniting
Church
The Uniting Church was built in 1915 by Albert
George Smith with bricks hand made on his Batar Creek property |
Leaves
of Kendall
At the entrance
to Kendall is a sculpture designed and constructed by Kendall
resident Girikami Weissmann. |
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Catholic
Church
The first Church of St
John the Evangelist was built of local timber in 1890 and
replaced by the current brick church in 1918.
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Poet's Walk
The Poet's Walk
around Kendall reveals poetry by Henry Kendall and a number
of modern-day Kendall residents. See map
for locations.
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Showground
The Kendall Showground
hosts the annual Camden Haven Show every March as well as
regular pony club meets and markets. |
Tourist
Map
The tourist map can be found at the corner
of River Street and Railway Street.
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Kendall
Mural
The mural on a building in the main street was painted by
a local artist, Dallas Sutherland, in 1988 and depicts scenes
from poems by Henry Kendall
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