As recently as 1995, the view west from an upper-level window in Campbelltown City Centre was surprisingly rural … rolling hills with the occasional Moreton Bay fig and tall bunya pines, Victorian homesteads and livestock reminiscent of quiet country living.
But this was not Campbelltown Council’s initial vision for this part of the world. The area originally owned by John Kidd, an emigrant Scot who named his homestead “Blair Athol” (after a town in his native land), was purchased in 1945 by electrical engineering firm Crompton Parkinson. On this land, close to the railway, the company eventually built the first major factory at Campbelltown, much to the delight of Council, who happily (and hopefully) designated the entire section west of the railway line as industrial area. But for many years, most of the hilly land of Blair Athol remained vacant, with factory development being concentrated off Blaxland and Badgally Rds, with other burgeoning industrial areas at Minto and Ingleburn eventually becoming the focus of new development. With the exception of the Johnson & Johnson plant opening in 1977, the rest of the industrial estate remained undeveloped.
When Johnson & Johnson moved its operations to Botany in the early 1990’s, and restructuring of Crompton Parkinson saw a downsizing of that company’s operations, Council reluctantly swallowed its hopes for the area’s industrial growth, and rezoned much of the land to “Residential”. Interestingly, in the “wedge” of Blair Athol that remains industrial (towards Badgally Rd) there is STILL (2025) a sizeable portion of land remaining undeveloped. However, this was not the case once the rest of the land was opened up for housing construction, with an entire new suburb springing up in the years around the turn of the century.
Re the cache ... People walking home after shopping pass through the gap between the two clumps of trees. Please make sure the cache is not just left hanging in easy view. "Fork it", thanks.