Many readers will know of and have perhaps traversed the hand cut tunnel or ‘wormhole’ through the headland at Queenscliff.
If they searched to find its origin, they would have learnt, ‘it was dug out in 1908 by local fishermen to avoid them having to climb around the rocks to get between Freshwater Beach and Queenscliff and Manly Beaches’.
This explanation is ubiquitous on the Internet, but unfortunately is not true. A moment’s thought would perhaps make you question why fishermen would be sufficiently motivated to spend months excavating a 25-metre tunnel through sandstone. Was the walk over the top really that onerous?
The actual builder was Robert David Lewers. Moving to Manly in the early 1900s, he invested substantially in real estate at Queenscliff and in the Freshwater/Harbord district. He lived with his family in a lovely home at Queenscliff called ‘The Eyrie’, with panoramic views to the south over the lagoon and Manly Beach. His best-known local legacy is The Kiosk at Freshwater Beach, now the Pilu Restaurant.
Lewers built The Kiosk in 1908. It was and still is located on a rise at the southern end of the beach, at the foot of the long flight of steps built in 1884 over the Queenscliff headland.
Wishing to make access easier for Manly day trippers, he contracted the building of a tunnel through Queenscliff Point. He intended it to be part of a scenic walkway between the Queenscliff and Freshwater beaches.
The contractor was D. Bevan. He and his team finished the work in only three months, also in 1908, and by January 1909 the press reported that a great many people had walked through it.
Tragically, Lewers committed suicide in 1911. The final portion of his planned walkway, from the tunnel to The Kiosk, was never built.
Richard Michell