Shedding Some Light: Singapore Quarry
by Kevin Lee
Between the bustling Upper Bukit Timah Road and Jalan Asas (which bustles with eateries) is a road that seems caught in a time-warp. The road has no identification signs and is apparently nameless. The first part of the road is choc-a-bloc with rocks and what appear to be chips from bricks and tiles. Perhaps the chips came from buildings that once stood beside this nameless road.
The unnamed road leads to a bridge, which spans across the Malayan Railway track. In the past, traffic (whether on foot or on wheels) must have crossed the bridge – why else would it have been built? The bridge must have led somewhere then. Now, it ends where the slope falls precipitously to Upper Bukit Timah Road. Across this road is a condominium. Who knows what once stood in its place?
Decades ago, calloused feet could have left the huts to trudge across the bridge towards a hard day’s toil. Now, the only feet on this unnamed road are here for leisure – soft feet clad in the fancy footwear of white collar workers who need the workout they don’t get in their white collar jobs, unlike the labourers of yore.
The labourers would probably not have stopped to admire the Morning Glory flowers, if indeed they grew at all then at this location. At that time, this nameless road must have been a busy one, with literally heavy traffic; which is possibly why it was built with granite.
The granite for the road might have been torn with brute force from the quarry at the end of the road. Though the road is not marked on a street directory the quarry is. The quarry even has a name: Singapore Quarry (Mighty Minds, 2002).
Singapore Quarry is one of two quarries in the Bukit Timah Hill area; the other one being the Hindhede Quarry. The hill (Singapore’s highest at 164m) was once an active quarrying site in the mid-1900s (National Parks Board). Indeed, the granite from this site was called “Bukit Timah Granite”, with its origins about 200 million years ago (Ecology Asia).
With strikes taking place among Singapore’s quarry workers, the Housing Development Board opened its own quarries in Pulau Ubin to ensure regular supplies (Waller in Habitat News, 2005). Singapore Quarry has been abandoned and left in peace now, with hardly anyone about. Where blasting once split the air, the area is now silent but for the rustling of trees and chirping of birds. The quarry is now fenced up, its waters resting in peace.
About the writer: Kevin Lee enjoys journeys to wide open spaces and into the past by bicycle. He rides around Singapore occasionally to “paint with light”, photographing scenes that may shed light on bits of the island’s past. This way, he can relive in future, memories of the past even when what has been photographed has disappeared. After all, when things are gone, all we have left are memories which may dim with time - and photographs.
References
Ecology Asia, undated. Bukit Batok Nature Park … a 200-million year oasis. Retrieved 30 Jun 07 from http://ecologyasia.com/html-loc/bukit-batok.htm
Habitat News, 2005. Pulau Ubin Stories. Retrieved 1 Jul 07 from from http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/heritage/ubin/stories/archive/2005_04_01_archive.html
Mighty Minds, 2002. Singapore Street Directory 2002/2003 Edition. Singapore
National Parks Board, undated. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Retrieved 30 Jun 07 from http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nature_bukit_history.asp
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