The mysterious hidden lake of Bukit Gombak

Following my earlier posting of a video clip of the stream flowing from Bukit Gombak, my friend SK Yum sent me some pictures he took while exploring Bukit Gombak with his children a year ago.

He was surprised to find a lake at the top of the hill. The lake is the source where the stream flows endlessly till this day.

Here are the pictures he took of the stream and lake.
Read on further to learn some surprising facts about this lake.

My sincere thanks to Yum Shoen Keng for providing the personal photos above.

Though the lake has been there for as long as most Bukit Gombak town residents have lived there, the lake was only formed in the late 1970s.
This was when the government closed all the granite quarries in Singapore, (except for Gali Batu) and restricted quarrying offshore to Pulau Ubin.

The lake was formed when water started to fill the pit that was the old SENG CHEW Granite Quarry at Jalan Perang. It continues to fill till this day.

The stream that flows out from this lake acts as an overflow vent to drain excess water should the lake fill to the brim, which happens during intense rainfall. Otherwise, the lake is constantly fed by the natural Gombak springs.

Though not officially restricted as an out-of-bounds area, the lake is cordoned off due to the danger of sudden drop offs. NParks does not encourage visitors there as it is undeveloped with hidden dangers.

The old Jalan Perang Taoist Temple.
In the olden days, there used to be several shrines and one major Taoist temple along Jalan Perang.
The Jalan Perang Taoist temple was noted by residents near and far for its effective talismans given out at this temple.  This Taoist temple also had waters springing from Bukit Gombak which were eagerly collected by worshippers for its 'magical' or spiritual qualities. This temple and all the minor shrines at Jalan Perang were demolished during the construction of Bukit Gombak New Town.

Sorry I am not able to elaborate more on the Taoist temple
(I am not taoist and depended on hearsay for info on it).




Related links:
The old Gombak Nature Trail photos
Streams at Bukit Gombak
Bukit Gombak Nature Trail article

A jungle dirt track saved 400 soldiers from certain death.

Unless you lived in the remote Choa Chu Kang area in the past, or unless you know your local geography or history really well, you probably would not have heard of Jalan Perang.

Before the 1970s, Jalan Perang was really a non-descript jungle track leading to places where people would not normally venture.
It ran along the western Bukit Gombak slope, running south from Choa Chu Kang Road all the way to Jurong Road.

Click on sketch to enlarge to full size.

This small dirt track was mainly used by kampong villagers to their smallholdings within the Choa Chu Kang/Jurong farmland as well as by trucks carrying granite from the 4 major quarries on Gombak Hill.  It looked exactly like the picture below, except I remembered it was much narrower.

One of the last few country dirt tracks left in Singapore now.
(Bahtera track at Sarimbun)

The track was called Jalan Perang in English, but rightly it should be in the Malay pronunciation of Pērang, meaning 'dirt track'. However over  the years, it became anglicised and pronounced as Perang (per-rung), which in Malay means war!

This brings me to the story which I will now tell you of how this dirt track became the salvation for 420 soldiers during the Japanese invasion of 1942.

On 8th Feb 1942, the Japanese Army crossed Johore Straits and invaded Singapore through Choa Chu Kang. The defending force there was the 22nd Australian Brigade led by Brigadier Taylor. 

However, the Australians were pushed back by the Japanese from Choa Chu Kang Sarimbun Beach all the way to the south of Tengah Airfield. There they set up a defensive blockade along Choa Chu Kang Road.  (See map below to have a clearer idea)

A reserve unit, called the Special Reserve Battalion comprising over 400 soldiers, was quickly despatched to Choa Chu Kang and given to Brigadier Taylor for assistance. They were ordered to defend the hills south of Choa Chu Kang Road near Bulim and were duly positioned there.

By the afternoon of 9th Feb, Brigadier Taylor withdrew his forces away from the battlefront to Ulu Pandan. In his haste to escape from the advancing Japanese, he forgot to inform the newly arrived Special Reserve Battalion about the withdrawal! 

Click on the map for a detailed view.

By the time the commander of the S.R. Battalion realised he had been abandoned by the 22nd Brigade, the Japanese forces had already bypassed his position in the north and south. Gallantly, the commander, Major Bert Saggers, led his men through the only way out, heading due East in growing darkness, all the time avoiding any contact with the enemy.

Fortuitously, he hit upon the dirt track and from then could make a speedy retreat towards friendly lines at Bukit Batok Hill. Thus, having saved his battalion of 420 soldiers from being annihilated by the surrounding Japanese forces. They then took up defensive position at a small hill at Bukit Batok facing the oncoming Japanese army along Jurong Road. Today, on the hill where they camped that night in 1942, stands the Church of St Mary of the Angels Bukit Batok.

Major Bert Saggers, was captured at the surrender of the British capitulation and was sent to the Thai-Burma Railway as a prisoner of war.  He survived and returned to Australia after the war.

Major Bert Saggers
Commanding Officer
Special Reserve Battalion, Feb 1942.

Today Bukit Batok West Ave 5 and Bukit Batok East Ave 5 follows the identical route that used to be Jalan Perang, all the way from Choa Chu Kang Road to Hillview Avenue.



Related links:
Tragedy at Sleepy Valley
Hillview Ave to Jurong Road
WW2 relic at Hillview Avenue

Bukit Gombak Hill

Princess Elizabeth Estate was built on the slopes of Bukit Gombak.
Bukit Gombak is the second highest hill in Singapore at 139m (437 feet) and used to house the British Royal Air Force radar station in the 1950s & 1960s.

Today, almost the entire ridge of Bukit Gombak, from Choa Chu Kang to Hillview, has been fenced off as a restricted military zone. In fact, Bukit Gombak is the location of the Ministry of Defence in Singapore and therefore one of the most secured areas here.

However, when the RAF were based at Gombak, they only occupied the summit and the hillsides around Gombak were squattered by hundreds of kampong houses all round.
The main areas for squatters and their kampongs were at Bukit Panjang beside the KTM railway tracks, around Chua Chu Kang Road near the British Army BOD (British Ordnance Depot), and at Jalan Perang which ran around Bukit Gombak on the Choa Chu Kang/Jurong side.

Closer to Princess Elizabeth Estate, the entire Chinese kampong that was at  Lorong Taluki and Lorong Seburut were also built at the base of Gombak.

Here is a montage sketch of the Bukit Gombak ridge. I think there's TMI (too much info!) in it but I think you get the idea. (click on the sketch if you really want to see a detailed view)

There were 3 major quarries on the western side of Gombak ridge along the old Jalan Perang. Only the smallest today is conserved as the Little Guilin Park.

When Singapore took over from the British and converted Gombak into a military zone, all the kampongs and squatters around Gombak were resettled.

The demolition of the kampongs and squatter housing around Bukit Gombak.

The above 3 photos are taken from PICAS, the Heritage Board photo archive.

My blogger friend Lam Chun See had just posted a series of 12 photographs in his blog he received from his British friend who was based in Singapore in the1960s. I am prompted by his posting of the photos to write this post.

Photo from Lam Chun See's blog Good Morning Yesterday.
Taken from the top of Bukit Gombak, it shows the Dairy Farm Quarry (right)
with the Union Carbide factory at Hillview (white building).
The large green patch (left centre) beside the quarry is the old Dairy Farm meadow.

I recommend you visit Chun See's blog to see alll the pictures of Gombak ridge, read his comments and those from his readers about Bukit Gombak. His blog is at this link  click here.

Related link: Exploring Bukit Gombak

Hillview Avenue to Jurong Road

The development of Hillview Avenue

Hillview Avenue and Hillview Road were built in 1947 to provide access to the two new post-war factories that was being built at Hillview Ridge. These were the Union Carbide and Malayan Guttas factories.
It was extended in 1951 when the small SIT estate of Princess Elizabeth Park was constructed for housing, at the same time that it was extended another kilometre to service the new factories that were being built in the 'Colonial Industrial Estate in Bukit Timah' after 1951.
It was still a cul-de-sac that started as Hillview Road at the junction with Upper Bukit Timah Road. 

(A parallel narration of the development of Jurong Road at this stretch follows in the captions for the street directory maps) 

The original Jurong Road started from Bukit Timah Village (7-1/2 ms Bukit Timah Road)

Hillview Ave was further extended in 1965 during the construction of Popular Estate and ended at the Cycle & Carriage new car assembly plant. Beyond this laid the kampongs and farms of Jurong. 

Jurong Road was diverted in the early 1960s to connect to Upper Bukit Timah at 8ms near Lorong Sesuai
The original stretch of Jurong Road from Bukit Timah Village to the 'new'
diverted Jurong Road was renamed Jalan Jurong Kechil

In post 1965 independence period, Jurong Industrial Estate was the major focus of economic development. As a result, critical access to Jurong Industrial Estate were necessary and Jurong Road was widened, re-aligned and improved.

In 1967, Jurong Road was widened and re-aligned and a section
became the 'Old Jurong Road' (coloured orange above map)

By the early 1970s, Hillview Avenue was extended to join Jurong Road by connecting it to Jalan Perang. It became an alternative bypass between Jurong and Woodlands, provided you were able to get under the girder bridge at Hillview Road.

Hillview Ave connected to Jurong Road by joining it to Jalan Perang

In the early 1980s, HDB built the Hillview Estate to the north of P.E.Estate.
While to the southern end of Hillview, Bukit Batok New Town was beginning to be developed by the mid 1980s.

In the  late 1980s, with the construction of the Bukit Batok New Town, 

a section of Hillview Ave was renamed Bukit Batok East Ave 2, 

while the part of Jurong Road that ran through the new Bukit Batok Town was renamed 

Bukit Batok East Ave 6 and Bukit Batok West Ave 6.

The stretch between Upper Bukit Timah Rd and Jalan Jurong Kechil
was renamed 'Old Jurong Road' (in orange).
The original Old Jurong Road was expunged with the re-development of Bukit Batok Nature Park

By early 2000, factories along Hillview Ave were replaced by condominiums

Old Jurong Road was like this in the 1960s.

The only remnant of Jurong Road today now lies parallel  to the PIE from Bukit Batok Road to the PIE ramp at Jurong West Ave 2. The stretch that was previously known as Jurong Lama. It is still functioning as a minor roadway today.