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Punggol

Background
The original Malay community in what was popularly known as Kampong Punggol, were mainly fishermen who had settled near the Dekar River mouth. Kampong Punggol, which was located in the vicinity of the Punggol Jetty, existed even before Raffles' founding of Singapore, and was believed to be more than 200 years old, making it one of the oldest settlements in Singapore. The early Chinese immigrants who settled in Punggol from the mid-19th Century onwards, were engaged in rubber planting and poultry rearing. Fishing was then the main activity, with fruit and vegetable planting an important source of income. The marketplace, at the former 8th milestone of Punggol Road, traded on farm produce, fruits and vegetables and gradually evolved into a distribution centre for farm produce. The mouth of the Serangoon River was a popular docking point for fishing boats and fishermen hawked their catch here. The Teochew nicknamed it Kangkar meaning "river bank". For 2 cents, a sampan would take children along the Serangoon River to Catholic schools in Kangkar.

Punggol Jetty was built only in the 1930s and Punggol Point, the humble seaside eateries at land's end, soon gained fame for serving sumptuous seafood, especially chilli-crabs and the unbeatable tung-hoon crabs. There were boatels too that provided services like docking and renting of boats for boating, water-skiing and skin-diving lessons. During World War II, Punggol Beach was one of the unfortunate sites where young Chinese men were massacred. Many were machine-gunned near where Yap's boatel once stood. A seaside hotel built at the end of Punggol Track 24 prior to the Japanese invasion in 1941 was suspected to have been the site where Japanese spies in the guise of fish dealers had gathered. After the war, the hotel was demolished. Pieces of Qing pottery and opium shards seem to indicate that the Japanese had been involved in both trade of rare Chinese goods and opium smuggling.

Redevelopment commenced in the 1970s, and the poultry and pig farms were gradually phased out along with seafood restaurants and boatels. Even so, remnants of Punggol's rural life are evident with jackfruit trees, rambutan, guava, duku and mangosteen flourishing along the main roads.

Reclamation work will narrow the sea channel between Coney Island and Ponggol, allowing for the development of a marina and commercial centre. The Ponggol 21 project will see 8,000 houses built on 110 ha of reclaimed land between Coney Island and the mainland.

Key Features
Allied forts, reminders of World War II, lie crumbling at north-east Punggol, between Punggol Seventeenth Avenue and Cheng Lim Farmway 1. Like Fort Siloso in Sentosa, this had been built to assist allied defenders to keep the Japanese forces at bay but never fulfilled its purpose. Instead, it languished as a farm storehouse for many years.

Construction of the Punggol Marina began in July 1995. The sea sport centre boasts the world's largest multi-tier boathouse with a capacity of housing up to 800 boats in its dry stack and a further 50 in the wet berth.

The Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her sister church, St Anne's, the St. Francis Xavier Seminary Minor and the St. Francis Xavier Seminary Major (along Seventeenth Avenue) indicate the strong presence of a Catholic community which started as early as the late 19th century.

Variant Names
Malay Names: Ponggol in Malay literally means "hurling sticks" - a method of bringing down fruits off fruit trees. It came to refer to a place where fruits and forest produce are offered wholesale, an indication that Ponggol was a renowned fruit-growing district.



Author
Vernon Cornelius



References 
Ramachandra, S. (1961). Singapore landmarks, past and present (pp. 23-24). Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
(Call no.: RCLOS 959.57 RAM) 

Punggol revisited (pp. 204-208). (1996). Singapore: OracleWorks.
(Call no.: RSING q959.57 PUN) 

Punggol 21 - a waterfront town of the 21st century (pp. 4, 10). Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority and Housing & Development Board.
(Call no.: RSING q711.4095957 SIN) 

Duo unearth Japanese and Qing artifacts at Punggol Beach. (1989, October 11). Straits Times, p. 3.

An urban Punggol tries to preserve part of its past. (1988, June 14). Straits Times, p. 19.

Fort ruins in Punggol may be turned into tourist attraction. (1988, June 14). Straits Times.


Further Readings
Punggol Community Club official opening 13th March 1993 souvenir magazine. (1993). Singapore: Punggol Community Club, 1993
(Call no.: RSING q307.095957 PUN)

Waterfront town at Ponggol with 8,000 houses on reclaimed land. (1995, November 8). Straits Times, p. 2.


List of Images
Punggol revisited. Singapore : OracleWorks, 1996. (RSING q 959.57 PUN).  Pages 204 to 214 provide a good range of pictures of early Punggol (c1950s-1960s) buildings, landscape and people. 

Subject
Architecture and Landscape>>Streets and Places
Suburbs--Singapore
Street names--Singapore
Urbanization--Singapore
People and communities>>Social groups and communities
Law and government>>National development>>Urban development



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