Sydney Upton - Malaysia
OverOz has recently travelled to Singapore and Malaysia to revisit some of the original OverOz Explorer ‘Sydney Upton’s stamping grounds and work prior to his arrival in Australia in 1929. Sydney Upton (Engineer) was engaged in various projects throughout the world in the development of virgin territory.
Our first stop did not take a great deal of investigative work, whist in Singapore Sydney’s address was Sydney Upton, Raffles, Singapore.
From 1921 Sydney was instrumental in developing Tea and Cinchona Plantations in the Cameron Highlands Malaya. The cinchona used for quinine in the treatment of malaria was grown amongst the tea without affecting yield allowing greater productivity over a smaller land area.
In 1922 Sydney was engaged as District Engineer, Public Works Department, Segamat, Johore, Malaya to oversee the construction of new truck roads to open Northern Johore for plantation estates.
After our stay in Singapore and with century old photographs in hand, we drove from Kuala Lumpur to Batu Anam in search of Sydney’s grand residence. The local people including the police took a keen interest in our endeavours. On discovering what we believe to be the relocated and modified house, friendly neighbours gave us some history and leads as to where its original location was. They told us it was moved in pieces from the local “Dunlop Estate’ (Plantation).
The local coppers, who we met by chance at a petrol station, immediately took an interest in our plight and were happy to take on our ‘case,’ giving us a police escort through the armed boom gates into the plantations in search of where the home originally sat. We were treated like VIPs with salutes from the constabulary at each check point. While extremely friendly these guys are not to be crossed.
One of the plantation managers offered to relieve the police of their duty and continued as our guide. After some exploring of old residences, he took us up to where we believe to be the original site of Sydney Upton’s residence, which now is home to the Plantations ‘Big Boss’ on ‘Ladan Paya Lang’ Estate originally part of ‘Dunlop’ Estate. The plantation is now predominantly Oil Palms with some Rubber Trees and Coconuts.
While the Oil Palm Plantations seem to be endless, to their credit, the Malaysian Government has locked up 50% of its total land mass for protection of the jungles and its indigenous flora and fauna.
We stayed in the ‘Heritage’ old town at Melaka and were lucky enough to catch the vibrant end of Chinese New Year festivities.
Aqueduct still operating in 2020, Batu Ferranghi
We then travelled on via the highlands through Ipoh and on to Penang avoiding the monkeys that occasionally sprang across the roads.
From 1925 Sydney Upton was in charge of the construction of extensions to Penang’s water supply including Intakes, Aqueducts, Bridges and Roads on what was very difficult topography. Based in Batu Ferringhi he was faced with many challenges of which the steep terrain was just one.
A skilled engineer and visionary Sydney designed and patented ‘Upton's Gravity Liquid Lifter’ which is an ingenious system of raising water using only the static pressure created from a running current without the mechanical intervention.
Local friends in Penang showed us all facets of Penang from George Town to the remote villages and everywhere to eat in between. In my view Penang is no doubt the food capital of the world. We timed out visit to coincide with the annual Thaipusam Festival. A colourful, loud, exciting and sometimes confronting cultural experience, with lots of culinary delights tossed into the mix. An event thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated or just looked on.
