The Greenway
An historic goods railway corridor becomes a link between the Parramatta and Cooks River.
If I had to choose only two words to describe The Greenway, then they would be “accessible” and “history”.
It is only a bit under 6kms long and is beside the light rail, so any level of capacity can be accommodated. There are also some playgrounds along the way. You can walk the lot, walk there and back, or 1km and then take the light rail.
It also gives us access to parts of Sydney we may otherwise never visit.
The rail line itself is an integral part of transport history as are the businesses which sprung up along it.
It is pretty flat and an ideal spot for an amble.
Transcript
From Typhoid Fever to a community corridor linking the Parramatta
Speaker:and Cooks River, the Greenway.
Speaker:Hello and welcome to Urban Aling here.
Speaker:it's surprising when you're preparing for another, episode that you stumble
Speaker:upon these things that, were relevant in past episodes and you might recall.
Speaker:Then in the last one, my son Duncan, made a very interesting point that, um,
Speaker:oysters became absolutely essential, for the building of the European
Speaker:buildings in Sydney, because they needed mortar and they needed lime.
Speaker:in the course of looking at this, episode, which relates to, I'm Koval.
Speaker:For reasons I'll explain Shortly.
Speaker:Also known as Long Cove.
Speaker:I came upon this piece of information, and it's a government and general
Speaker:order, and it's from the Secondary's office of the Civil Department
Speaker:on the 21st of October 18, 18.
Speaker:And this is the text it being necessary to reserve for the making of lime for
Speaker:the various public government buildings.
Speaker:Now in progress at Sydney.
Speaker:All the seashells found in the surrounding coves, and particularly
Speaker:those in long and Iron Cove.
Speaker:His Excellency, the Governor is pleased, hereby to order and direct
Speaker:that no person whatever shall remove or otherwise possess himself of any of the
Speaker:shells in Long Cove or on Cove forset upon pain of being prosecuted for the
Speaker:same and on conviction of being fined.
Speaker:The direction of a bench of magistrates in any sum, not less than five pounds,
Speaker:which was pretty significant money in those days, Sterling, one half of which
Speaker:fine is to go to the informant and the other half to go to the police fund.
Speaker:So, uh, when I said, just in passing that you could say Sydney was built on
Speaker:bricks and, uh, oysters, it seems that was, uh, more correct than I've thought.
Speaker:the walk, the greenway begins just at the southern end of what we
Speaker:call arm cove, but there's been various names, over the years.
Speaker:Was originally named Long Cove and there's this description going
Speaker:back to the early 18 hundreds.
Speaker:Long Cove is as its name in ports, a long south arm of the Parramatta
Speaker:River, receiving waters of the Iron Cove and long cove creeks.
Speaker:It has several small bays, the principle being sisters and
Speaker:Half Moon Bay and Iron Cove Bay.
Speaker:There is a small rocky island called Burke Island about the middle of the
Speaker:cove, a favorite place for picnic and oyster parties, and a group of
Speaker:small rocks or washer, blow tide called sisters rocks on the east side.
Speaker:Obviously enough, the oyster parties on the island would've
Speaker:come to a, to a pretty sudden end and at an earlier time in a map.
Speaker:In fact, from 1822, it was referred to as Iron Stone Cove.
Speaker:So all that's a mystery of where it ended up.
Speaker:Probably doesn't matter much, but originally.
Speaker:iron Cove was just re, re reserved for a small bay, running roughly
Speaker:northeast, southwest towards the western side of what, was called Long Cove.
Speaker:So that's where it starts.
Speaker:again, it's, it's very accessible to public transport.
Speaker:You can get the light rail to, north, light car.
Speaker:I think it's, and, uh, it's a very simple and easy walk down to what is called the
Speaker:Hawthorne Canal, but was, long Creek now.
Speaker:It's been open fairly recently.
Speaker:It's, I think it's only a matter of months, but it
Speaker:certainly seems very popular.
Speaker:I was asked to, to describe the Greenway in two words.
Speaker:I think what I'd choose, is accessible and history.
Speaker:And within inaccessible there's two things really.
Speaker:There's, first of all, just, you know, people's physical and, other
Speaker:capacities, and dealing with that.
Speaker:The great thing about this walk, it's not that long.
Speaker:It's only around six kilometers.
Speaker:it's all beautifully, wide pave footpath.
Speaker:It's really pretty flat.
Speaker:There's something occasionally you'd call a small rise, but it's nothing difficult.
Speaker:But the great thing is it, it's basically running beside the light rail.
Speaker:So there's all these little stops along the way.
Speaker:so if you could take.
Speaker:You know, grandpa and grandma are right down to the small children, and
Speaker:I think everyone could be accommodated.
Speaker:So it's a, it's a fantastic resort.
Speaker:we did it recently.
Speaker:I didn't count the number of children's playgrounds, but I
Speaker:certainly recall there were two.
Speaker:So you'd be able to keep everyone occupied, and if someone didn't
Speaker:want to go the whole way, then they could stay in a park and whatever.
Speaker:But the other side of accessibility, which struck me, is that.
Speaker:It gives you a very interesting insight into various suburbs in that fairly
Speaker:small distance between the two rivers.
Speaker:And, we all tend to get stuck at our places in Sydney and don't
Speaker:really know a great deal about.
Speaker:other suburbs and we tend to get preconceived ideas, but what you
Speaker:discover on this walk is just again, how many delightful spots
Speaker:there are to live in Sydney.
Speaker:And, you get a real, I suppose you'd call it a cross section
Speaker:of, of the, those suburban areas.
Speaker:So that's the two levels of accessibility.
Speaker:Then the other word history there is enormous history here.
Speaker:and I'll come to in a minute, the fact that there were about three factors,
Speaker:which meant we were lucky enough to have the public land still available to
Speaker:actually build this, this great facility.
Speaker:and we'll touch upon that and some of the historic things that have happened there.
Speaker:Now look, the suming up, summing up the walk overall, that's, I mean,
Speaker:you wouldn't go to see the scenery.
Speaker:it's not.
Speaker:It's not stunning bush or gardens.
Speaker:There's bits and pieces that are pleasant.
Speaker:so you'd call it pleasant but not scenic.
Speaker:But look, it's certainly interesting.
Speaker:now if we can go back a bit.
Speaker:The story is, is all too common.
Speaker:I mean, going back some episodes we talked about how we, humans, European
Speaker:humans managed to successfully, wreck all.
Speaker:Early sources of water.
Speaker:We did it to the tank shrimp.
Speaker:We know we did it to the Cooks River.
Speaker:And again, we did it and did it masterfully to long, Cove Creek.
Speaker:And I should just explain.
Speaker:Long Cove Creek became later on, it was post-war in this, the last century.
Speaker:it was.
Speaker:Made into a canal, and it was named the Hawthorne Canal, after one of the
Speaker:members of parliament from those times.
Speaker:I think his name was John Hawthorne.
Speaker:the state of the river of the creek rather, was just extraordinary.
Speaker:in its disgusting.
Speaker:Depravity, and here are some of the descriptions from the the
Speaker:late parts of the 18 hundreds.
Speaker:The method in which that land has been laid out for building purposes has been
Speaker:conducive to the soil becoming charged with filth and fever, poison, and the
Speaker:evils arising from this state of things are becoming aggravated by additional
Speaker:surface drainage as a consequence of the increase in the population.
Speaker:now bear in mind, Haberfield, which was designed as a garden suburb in
Speaker:it's, you know, very lovely place, in the early part of the 19 hundreds.
Speaker:they must have improved things a lot before they began trying to sell houses
Speaker:in Haberfield, which actually adjoins the western edge at the beginning of the,
Speaker:of the canal, but going on again, and I mentioned in the, the title about typhoid.
Speaker:just this passage during the summer of 18 84, 85, there was heavier
Speaker:than usual outbreak of typhoid fever in Sydney, heavier than usual.
Speaker:That sounds encouraging, doesn't it?
Speaker:Local papers, published , instances of disease, municipal neglect,
Speaker:contaminated water and milk supplies, the state of the cesspits and so on.
Speaker:In February, 1886, an outbreak of Tyfort in ly car was traced to a
Speaker:dairy on the hemp hell Somal estate.
Speaker:Now, that estate was right up near the point where the creek joined onto a farm
Speaker:cove or long cove on the eastern side.
Speaker:this land was located near the Esry and on the east side of Long Creek.
Speaker:As I just said, report to the president of the Board of Health by the medical
Speaker:advisor, Dr. Ashburn and Thompson found that the dairy was served by
Speaker:a well that was located so as to receive the drainage of two cemeteries
Speaker:and night saw from its own backyard, particularly high levels of hygiene.
Speaker:Among 147 customers who were supplied from this dairy, there were 35
Speaker:cases of typhoid that was distinctly dis traceable to the dairies milk.
Speaker:and of course, it was a matter of a great concern was raised in Parliament
Speaker:and the local member Hawthorne.
Speaker:Mentioned John Stewart Hawthorne said this in Parliament, during a speech, at
Speaker:those times, the dairy is unfortunately situated on a watercourse and is
Speaker:subject to the abominable smells, which pour down from the surrounding
Speaker:municipalities into Arm Cove Bay.
Speaker:ARD is one of the best situated suburban boroughs.
Speaker:It has several miles of water frontage.
Speaker:It is very high and naturally well drained, but unfortunately it is
Speaker:a receptacle for the drainage of Petersham five Dock and Asheville.
Speaker:And so it was a, it was a pretty appalling state that everything had
Speaker:got into, and it's really nothing, sort of a miracle that it's been
Speaker:brought back to this facility, the public facility we've now got.
Speaker:There was another interesting description about.
Speaker:The state of things.
Speaker:The residents were so outraged in 1889.
Speaker:They got the, the Minister for Public Works who was called Bruce
Speaker:Smith down to inspect the creek.
Speaker:And apparently, apparently the smell was so bad.
Speaker:He cut, he cut the, uh, visit short and lift filling decidedly ill.
Speaker:So eventually, obviously they, they got things done because that's why
Speaker:we've got what we've got today.
Speaker:now as I just mentioned before, there are a number of factors which combined
Speaker:happily to mean that there was this basic corridor of public land running this whole
Speaker:six kilometers between the two rivers.
Speaker:Now there are a number of factors.
Speaker:The first factor was that, long Creek itself was pretty substantial, and as
Speaker:you see it now, confined within the walls of the canal, is quite different
Speaker:to what, it wasn't spread out a lot more as you'd expect it would've been titled.
Speaker:So it was a significant waterway.
Speaker:So the solution happily, in this case wasn't just to pipe it
Speaker:underground, build over the top.
Speaker:So that's the first factor, the geographical factor that it was there.
Speaker:Now the second thing, is really quite interesting, and that is at
Speaker:one time there was a serious proposal to dam the upper reaches of the,
Speaker:of Long Creek by means of, three.
Speaker:Wes say it'd have a tiered reservoir, and it would've started roughly
Speaker:around where the main line from.
Speaker:Central to Strathfield goes and then, gone up from there.
Speaker:And how that came about is in 1867 and 68, there was a Royal Commission that
Speaker:were appointed by Sir Henry Parks, the then premier, the very famous premier,
Speaker:into this future of Sydney's water supply.
Speaker:And for those of you recall, uh, the episode about Sir James Martin,
Speaker:it was a matter that concerned him, and we were very fortunate.
Speaker:Foresighted people in those days who were trying to plan ahead for the fantastic
Speaker:water supply that we have got now.
Speaker:There were two members, there were, sorry, five members, for the
Speaker:Royal Commission, but two of them,
Speaker:One name.
Speaker:We know Edward Morte.
Speaker:There was an episode, a few back about him, a very interesting engineer, and
Speaker:another chap called Thomas War, W-O-O-R-E.
Speaker:Now, Morty.
Speaker:Proposed and, and pressed for the up and the Pean system, which is in fact
Speaker:the system that was ultimately built.
Speaker:And that starts way up near in the Southern highlights, up
Speaker:almost at Robertson, a very short distance north of Robertson.
Speaker:and he pressed that.
Speaker:But Mr. War's idea was, that.
Speaker:The there'd be a dam created on the Warwick Gamba River and the water then
Speaker:be taken by pipe or canal, down to a reservoir to be built on Long Creek.
Speaker:Now, there were apparently technical problems with war's proposal.
Speaker:Main one being that.
Speaker:To get gravity falls from Warwick and to Sydney, you would've needed an
Speaker:enormous dam, which was just beyond the, the capacities at the time.
Speaker:so ultimately the Royal Commission found in favor of two of,
Speaker:mortis up in the Pean system.
Speaker:And, war was outraged by this.
Speaker:And they all got quite fractious, but in a funny way, they were both right.
Speaker:Because War Who continued to adv advocate his war gamba scheme after the Royal
Speaker:Commission, he in fact was proved right?
Speaker:'cause ultimately that dam was built.
Speaker:and, it was in 1960 that the War Gamba Dam was built.
Speaker:And of course, by that time, the, the construction materials, the engineering,
Speaker:the, the building capacity was such they could build a large enough dam.
Speaker:Uh, and it's funny, when I saw that date, I remembered as a very young
Speaker:school child, we went on a, a bus trip, a school excursion to war dam.
Speaker:Just when it was built was, uh, yeah, it was a big deal in those days.
Speaker:So that's the, the second factor that it, it didn't end up as, as a reservoir.
Speaker:And the third factor is probably the.
Speaker:Probably the most important one.
Speaker:and that is the building of the goods line, which is of course
Speaker:now what is used by the light rail and the corridor that was there.
Speaker:the goods line is where The pathway is substantially placed now.
Speaker:The suburban line, that's the line running from Central to Strathfield,
Speaker:all the stations in between, that was built in about 1855.
Speaker:And in 1895, they built a spur off the Illawarra line and ran a line
Speaker:out towards D Hill and Marrickville.
Speaker:Now the problem that arose, was that all the rail, trucks and carriages
Speaker:and trains, from all over the central and southern part of the state,
Speaker:all had to come down that one line between Strathfield and Central, and
Speaker:that was causing enormous problems.
Speaker:I should just say.
Speaker:That how the railway system evolved is there was the Sydney railway system with
Speaker:all the lions going west and southwest, coming to Sydney, and then there was
Speaker:the separate Newcastle system where all the lions went up to the north and
Speaker:northwest, but ended in Newcastle and they weren't joined up by the Newcastle
Speaker:Sydney Lion until roughly 18, 18 85.
Speaker:In 1894, there were 10,807 railway trucks, brought to Darling Harbor.
Speaker:But by 1,908, that figure had more than doubled to 23,829.
Speaker:And another just interesting, probably irrelevant, uh, fact is by 1,909
Speaker:there were 595, uh, trucks, carriages, whatever you call, uh, laden with wool.
Speaker:Were arriving at Darling Harbor, uh, in November, which was
Speaker:the time after the, the she.
Speaker:So there was another parliamentary inquiry.
Speaker:It was mercifully quick.
Speaker:They sat in February, 1910, and in, July, 1910, they gave the go ahead.
Speaker:So the line was built and the idea was that it would run from Darling
Speaker:Harbor and also, Glebe Island.
Speaker:Rose Hill down where it.
Speaker:Currently runs now to Dulwich Hill and join in with that line, which in
Speaker:turn to the west, fed into the big Enfield marshaling yards, out in the
Speaker:Strathfield area so they could bring all the goods traffic off the Strathfield
Speaker:central line and bring them round.
Speaker:So it was a very sensible and necessary proposal.
Speaker:And, um, because the, railway was there and of course there was a
Speaker:lot of country produce coming.
Speaker:So a lot of the industries saw this as a great opportunity to, uh, have
Speaker:their businesses and, um, uh, have the transport right beside them.
Speaker:And it's also interesting that once the railway went in both the.
Speaker:Commonwealth Department of Defense and the New South Wales, department
Speaker:of Public Works, had large depots just in the area of Charles Street
Speaker:at Lyt, between the railway and the the canal and the Commonwealth.
Speaker:depot was approved in, March, 1918, and then remained there,
Speaker:As recently as early two thousands, 2003, there was this Commonwealth Depot,
Speaker:and they were very keen to have it.
Speaker:One of the reasons was they said that it would have water access, which, could
Speaker:be terribly important in times of war.
Speaker:As indeed it was during the Second World War, and the, American forces
Speaker:made substantial use of of that area.
Speaker:during the war, and one of the side benefits of that when defense were
Speaker:there is they took over the dredging of the, the entrance to the creek and,
Speaker:and the bottom of, iron Cove because they wanted to have, make sure they
Speaker:could have all their craft landing.
Speaker:They were also proposed that it would be a very good spot for
Speaker:loading troops in barges onto boats.
Speaker:So again, there's a bit of extraordinary history, in the area.
Speaker:And, one other thing you'll see on the walk, one of the great things is they've
Speaker:got all those little explanatory signs.
Speaker:And when you get up to, near Parramatta Road and where the main central
Speaker:Strathfield line crosses, just as you go under that, have a look and
Speaker:you'll see there's this old form of a, a segment of Lattice bridge.
Speaker:and that was the original, part of the original bridge for the railway.
Speaker:And it's interesting in itself because it was an unusual method of
Speaker:construction by something called a Whipple, W-H-I-P-P-L-E, truss Bridge.
Speaker:And that was the invention of the us engineer called Squire Ripple.
Speaker:Whipple rather, fantastic man.
Speaker:He sounds like some English Noble.
Speaker:and it was very unusual at the time when they chose that because obviously
Speaker:inevitably they always used to favor the English, systems of construction.
Speaker:But the advantage of the Whipple Bridge was said to be that it was lighter.
Speaker:Consumed less steel, and was more graceful and, I think they're right.
Speaker:Stop and have a look at it.
Speaker:It's a very, quite an interesting pattern, you know, when you look
Speaker:at it against the sky and, it was in fact in operational till 1993.
Speaker:And, when they removed the bridge, the railways department agreed to leave a span
Speaker:precisely so that it could be on exhibit.
Speaker:And now they've got the path there and, and all has explode As I mentioned,
Speaker:because the, rail line was there, a lot of industries, especially ones depending
Speaker:on agricultural matters, a a agricultural products, set up along the goods line.
Speaker:And here's just a list of some of the industries that sprung up beside the.
Speaker:The Lewisham Freezing Works in 1924.
Speaker:Lavender and Hudson in 1924.
Speaker:Sounds like a perfume business.
Speaker:Sanitarium Health Foods.
Speaker:Our Wheat Bits, mgo SCO Flour Mill in 1920 and that's still there.
Speaker:It's now been turned into a very nice residential, multi-use complex.
Speaker:Some of the old Conical Towers, I can't think of the name are still there.
Speaker:Mgo Scott's a wonderful, wonderful sounding name, but I
Speaker:couldn't find anything about him.
Speaker:The some mentioned that there was a Mgo Scott, but there we go.
Speaker:Next, the great Western milling company.
Speaker:In 1916, the city council, that'd be the Sydney City Council's coal Sid.
Speaker:It'll be an interesting story in itself.
Speaker:1917, Sydney Williams engineering company he was associated with the other business.
Speaker:That was 1920 and the come work Come works and I, Sydney Williams
Speaker:was involved in Comet Windmills.
Speaker:They were founded in 1925.
Speaker:There was also CanDos Cement.
Speaker:Sury sightings.
Speaker:Well, what assumes that, uh, that had something to do, presumably
Speaker:with me and interesting.
Speaker:The, the government abattoir used to be at, at blue Points.
Speaker:but it was moved to, home Bush many years ago.
Speaker:And of course, ultimately it was there until it was used for the Olympic Park.
Speaker:And finally there was the Dulwich Hill Goods Yard.
Speaker:So enormous, number of industries, but the, and you can have a look
Speaker:at the science about them all, but.
Speaker:one I just wanna mention is, is the Comet Windmill factory because,
Speaker:it, it's a very interesting story.
Speaker:Uh, windmills aren't all that common these days, but certainly when I was
Speaker:young, there were windmills everywhere and most of them were comets on the tail.
Speaker:The tail blade, that you'd always have the comment.
Speaker:And I saw an interesting fact.
Speaker:windmills, all the windmills scattered around the state.
Speaker:Were capable of raising 200,000 gallons of water a day.
Speaker:It's an extraordinary, uh, extraordinary figure.
Speaker:So Comet was founded, in Rockhampton actually in 1879, but in 1920 they set
Speaker:up their factory in Sydney and it was a big factory, 2.5 acres, in Dulwich Hill.
Speaker:And it was very fortunate they were there because when the second World War
Speaker:came, they were pressed into service and instead of windmills, or they would've
Speaker:made a few, they were manufacturing tanks, parts for armored carriers.
Speaker:And still framed army huts.
Speaker:And there is a bit of a, a one of those informative plaques there.
Speaker:It's worth having a look at.
Speaker:And the works were there until 2002.
Speaker:So it was a very example of, of renewable energy use in a very early time.
Speaker:And it's just a bit sad that, we didn't pursue something in which
Speaker:we had a lot of, knowledge and, uh.
Speaker:We're ahead of the times there, but there it goes.
Speaker:But the company still exists.
Speaker:It's got a facility manufacturing in, in Maxville on the North coast and
Speaker:they still do a lot of manufacturing to do with renewable energy.
Speaker:there's only two other things I'll mention time's marching on.
Speaker:Amazing how it does.
Speaker:Um, as you get down a bit further, almost to the end, near Dulwich Hill, look on the
Speaker:right, if you're going south and there's a little area, it's quite green and you'll
Speaker:hear frogs creaking, which is wonderful.
Speaker:And it's a bit of, it's the remnant of a creek, which used to be a tributary To the
Speaker:Cooks River, and I assume it, this must be the only bit that's left, not in a pipe,
Speaker:but, and good on the council's endeavoring to rehabilitate it as best they can.
Speaker:It's a very commendable exercise and obviously they're having some success.
Speaker:I'm gonna give one plug here, which I normally wouldn't do, but can
Speaker:I just say that, the MGO Scott.
Speaker:Mill, uh, just near there on the eastern side.
Speaker:The left side is heading south.
Speaker:Uh, there's a very pleasant little cafe.
Speaker:It's about halfway.
Speaker:And we called in there and I must say they had the best ham and cheese Swiss
Speaker:pancakes that you could ever eat.
Speaker:So very nice people.
Speaker:So a bit of a plug for them.
Speaker:And, a great spot just to, to have a break.
Speaker:So that's it.
Speaker:as I said, they're not terribly, scenic, but very interesting.
Speaker:Great exercise.
Speaker:If six kilometers isn't enough, you can just walk back.
Speaker:you can get the light rail.
Speaker:It's all these advantages and if you want to continue on, there's
Speaker:one thing I forgot to mention about the Cooks River or two things.
Speaker:the first is that if you, get to the end of the Cooks River at the Princess
Speaker:Highway, near Tempe House Crossover.
Speaker:You go past the, the, rowing club I've mentioned, and you keep walking.
Speaker:Say you're heading out to Botany Bay now, there's no clear path there.
Speaker:You've just gotta find your own way.
Speaker:It's not hard to do, but what you'll come across when you get near the, you're on
Speaker:the south side of the Cooks River, you're near the end of the East West runway.
Speaker:there's in fact this spot that time forgot.
Speaker:There's all these little market gardens and it's just quite extraordinary.
Speaker:It's developed all around, but there's these small areas of market gardens.
Speaker:Now it's about four years since I've been there, but someone mentioned
Speaker:to me the other day, it's still there and it's worth looking.
Speaker:and just finally, when you.
Speaker:Stop at the D Hill station, but I suggest you just walk down.
Speaker:It's only a couple of kilometers to the river.
Speaker:And as you get near the river, there's a very wonderful line of
Speaker:paper bugs, very old paper bugs.
Speaker:And there's a good explanatory sign there.
Speaker:It's worth having a look at.
Speaker:But what it says is those.
Speaker:Paper, were originally on the edge of the Cooks River, so you get a
Speaker:sense of how big the river was.
Speaker:And I checked on it, and in fact had, this is before it was diverted for the airport.
Speaker:It had quite a delta and apparently there was a, an incredible forest there at
Speaker:the, the entrance of, of the Cooks River.
Speaker:So you can imagine, what a wonderful.
Speaker:place It would've been for the Gadigal peoples who were the, people who lived
Speaker:in that area before we all turned up.
Speaker:There it is, enough for me.
Speaker:The little fact of the day, uh, is just something that took my fancy a bit.
Speaker:I I never really knew much about St.
Speaker:George, uh, the Saints.
Speaker:I knew the flag of England was the Red Cross of St. George.
Speaker:but as you probably heard, people get excited and think it's important to wrap.
Speaker:The flag of St. George around buildings and poles.
Speaker:but as someone pointed out, someone better explain something to them because
Speaker:a lot of it is sort of anti-immigration, but I don't wanna go into all that.
Speaker:But, someone said, well, someone should point out to them in fact, that St.
Speaker:George was a gentleman born in Turkey and he, in fact never set foot in England.
Speaker:and, he became the saint because.
Speaker:The, the legend, the, the learning about him came back with the crusaders from the,
Speaker:from the, middle East when they returned.
Speaker:But the other interesting thing is, is that, amongst the cities that,
Speaker:that claim, St. George as their patron saint is Moscow and be Beirut.
Speaker:Probably two places you wouldn't wanna visit.
Speaker:And countries apart from England, such as Portugal, Bosner, Hertz,
Speaker:Govia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, Catalan, and Aragon.
Speaker:So there you go.
Speaker:People should perhaps learn a bit of history before they get
Speaker:carried away with about things.
Speaker:Well, that's it.
Speaker:I've gone far too long.
Speaker:thanks for listening.
Speaker:Until next time, keep rambling, keep exercising, choose to be
Speaker:happy, and until next time.
