Jurong

[1] Although Jurong's geography was documented on a few maps and records following Singapore's founding in 1819, the area only became clearer to the British in an 1828 geographical survey of the island by Lieutenant Philip Jackson.

[1] the sea shore is low and overgrown with mangroves, and occasionally broken by the entrances of salty creeks, which, penetrating sometimes to the extent of six or seven miles, overflow their banks, and convert their neighbouring soil into marsh.Jurong is home to two prominent rivers, Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan, both of which flow into two larger water bodies, Jurong Lake and Pandan Reservoir respectively.

Named the Jurong Formation, the sedimentary rock deposits can trace its roots back to the late Triassic and early to middle Jurassic periods.

[1] Most of the Malays and Orang Laut in the area were natives of the land, settling in squatters and villages located along the coast of Jurong long before the founding of Singapore as a British colony in 1819.

In a visit to the area in 1848, the then-Chief Surveyor of Singapore, John Turnbull Thomson, made one of the earliest accounts regarding human settlements in Jurong.

[1] In 1853, US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry led a maritime expedition to Japan in an attempt to open up the country (then under self-imposed isolation) to the world for trade and the possible building of political and economic ties.

Perry's crew anchored their fleet of two frigates and two sloops-of-war along Selat Sembilan and Sungei Jurong, where they surveyed the surroundings of the strait and the river.

Wilhelm Heine and Eliphalet Brown, two of the official expedition's artists, were tasked at producing a lithograph depicting the villages along Sungei Jurong.

[3] Before the early 1960s, the area was dominated by small and large plantations, cultivating crops such as pineapple, pepper, gambier and nutmeg.

[1] Rubber was also a popular agricultural industry in Jurong during this period and was regarded as a strong competitor to the thriving gambier plantation businesses.

By the first half of the 20th century, rubber tapping and plantation practices had largely replaced the planting and harvesting of gambier, which had previously dominated Jurong's agricultural scene.

This livelihood was predominantly undertaken by the local Malay and Orang Laut community, most of whom chose to live along the coastlines of Jurong or had already settled there for many generations.

Local businesses involved in brick manufacturing and earthenware production were largely set up around Yunnan in Jurong West, where the soil conditions there could yield much clay and terracotta.

The earliest brick factories in Jurong emerged in the 1920s, exporting large quantities of building materials to construction sites around Singapore and Malaya (now Malaysia).

Set up by Chinese immigrants in the 1940s, this pottery manufacturer, along with its neighbouring counterpart, the Jalan Bahar Clay Studios, continues to exist to this day and remains the only possessor of a pair of dragon kilns in Singapore.

[1] Following the invasion of Thailand in the beginning of December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army was rapidly heading southwards down the Malay Peninsula towards Singapore.

Issues such as the difficulty of clearing thick jungle foliage, the cost of building and developing the training base's site, the lack of access to freshwater and the risk of contagious malaria and other diseases made Pulau Ubin unsuitable for a possible location.

Later on, during the formation of the Singapore Armed Forces, the proposed site for the training bases were located at Pasir Laba and Pulau Tekong respectively.

Located at the mouth of Sungei Jurong, the island featured a single man-made structure consisting of a lone bungalow formerly owned by Jewish businessman Joseph Brook David.

Compounding the issues of widespread unemployment and resulting poverty was the government's need to address the country's high birth rate, which was increasing annually by about 4%.

[1] With the Cold War and the then-constant threat of communism spreading from Malaya, the country's Legislative Assembly was being pressured to keep the British-ruled crown colony financially stable and economically strong.

A crucial element of the party's agenda upon coming to power was the promise of creating more and better employment opportunities for the people and the need to build and strengthen the weak economy of a newly developing self-governing nation.

[13] To address this urgent need, the new PAP-led government tasked Dr. Goh Keng Swee, the then-finance minister was quickly put in charge of tackling Singapore's economic challenges.

While the idea of industrialisation in Singapore was not new, Dr. Goh's plans for an industrial estate in Jurong were far more ambitious and comprehensive than previous proposals.

In 1962, the then-finance minister of Singapore, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, laid the foundation stone for the newly established National Iron and Steel Mills, the first factory in the new industrial estate.

As Singapore's economy continued to grow rapidly, addressing the challenge of accommodating new businesses and industries became increasingly pressing.

A number of heavy-type industrial companies and firms, such as DuPont and Teijin Polycarbonate, began operations on the island in the late 1990s.

On 12 October 1978, a Greek oil tanker, Spyros, exploded at Jurong Shipyard, killing more than 70 people in the immediate vicinity.

This mall targets young adults and families with stalls selling fashion, food and beverages, sports, entertainment and lifestyle products.

The largest outlet mall in Singapore, IMM is located within walking distance from Jurong East MRT station.

Philip Jackson's Plan of the British Settlement of Singapore. The region that is now Jurong can be seen on the south-western end of the map of mainland Singapore (top).
A stretch of Sungei Ulu Pandan in Clementi , the western branch of Sungei Pandan
Pandan Reservoir at sunset
The lithograph of Sungei Jurong made during the Perry Expedition of 1853 to 1854
Jurong Port with Pulau Damar Laur in the background. The location of Tanjong Balai would have been relative to the southern portion of the present-day port.
A 1942 map of Singapore from the book, Australia in the War of 1939–1945 , highlighting the Jurong-Kranji defence line in red along the stretch between Sungei Jurong and the Kranji River
Jurong Industrial Estate with Jurong West in the background
A road corner with a dozen individual signs each pointing in the same direction
Signs pointing to Jurong Industrial Estate in 1964
Boon Lay, located in Jurong West, is one of the oldest housing estates that still currently exist in the area
Jurong Regional Centre
Jurong East Station
The main entrance to Jurong Point Shopping Mall