North Sydney

History Walk “All the conveniences Introduction In the 1830s on the north side of the harbour of town” only a few isolated huts were in existence. The Government Gazette on 9th October 1838 made th A walking tour of the 19 it known that a site had been fixed for the Century Township of North Township of St Leonards. The layout of the Sydney township had been proposed by Major Thomas Mitchell, the surveyor general between 1838 and Distance: 4 Km 1840. The Government Gazette advertised ½ Approximate time: 3 hours acre residential block in the township. Grading: low to medium Many of the settlers in this period were timbergetters and harbour workers (boatmen). In 1846 the census counted only 412 people living in the district of St Leonards. In the very early days of the township, the first hotels, schools, churches and business premises were set up in the vicinity of Blues Point and Milsons Point close to the water and ferry services and transport to Sydney city. As the population grew the businesses started to move further from the water. By 1881 the population had risen to 11,010 and by 1893 the area became known as North Sydney. The walk commences from Don Bank Museum, 6 Napier St, North Sydney. The land on which this timber slab cottage stands was part of the land grant given to Edward Wollstonecraft in 1821.The cottage was built on the far south-eastern boundary of what became known as the Berry Estate. When Edward Wollstonecraft died in 1832 at the age of 49, the estate passed to his sister Elizabeth who in 1827 had married his business partner Alexander Berry. The cottage was originally built as a small four- room cottage (possibly as an estate workers North Sydney History Walk : “All the Conveniences of Town” Page 2 cottage) on the Berry estate. We cannot give an S Halstead (hay and corn dealer) and J A exact date of its construction. It was originally Lambert’s (coach factory and repairs). thought to have been built as early as 1820s but we have no concrete evidence. However By 1905 James White and his family were long newspapers were found in the house dating to term residents of the area and living in James 1835. The house, then known as St Leonards Street. During this year he bought St Leonards Cottage , was most likely built in the late 1830s Cottage/Don Bank and leased the cottage out. or early 1840s. Although he and his wife Joanna never lived in the house, his son Thomas (also a saddler) Prominent colonial occupants of the house moved in 1915. When James died in 1925, included Charles Palmer secretary to Governing Thomas inherited the cottage and continued to body of Bank of NSW, and retired sea captain, live there with his family until his death. Captain Jenkins. Lane Cove Road (formerly Gordon Road) was a main thoroughfare for traffic going north. It cut through the fringe of the Berry Estate which on the West side was largely undeveloped. As foot and horse drawn traffic increased in the area there was a demand for formed roads rather than just tracks. Heavy rains made roads impassable on many occasions. The Freemans Journal correspondent in 1867 reported on the state of the road to Milsons Point: “The disgraceful and impassable state of the road. The traffic on it was for several days Walk down Charles St to Pacific suspended until the [horse-] bus owners early Hway last week set their men to work to fill up the chasms which were in several parts of it”. On the corner of Charles and Lane Cove Road (the Pacific Highway as we know it today) By 1878 there were two lines of horse buses stood the saddlers shop of James White who conveying passengers from Milsons Point ferry - came to live in St Leonards in 1858. He opened - one running via the Lane Cove Road, (as far as up his saddlery business in 1867 at the age of the Green Gate -- Killara); the other went along 21. the Military Road (to George’s Head – Middle Head). He was one of the many tradesman /shopkeepers who set up business on the By 1886 cable trams were running from Milsons fledgling north side of the colony. At that time Point to a terminus at the corner of Ridge and there were a number of tradesmen and Miller Streets near St Leonards Park. Electric shopkeepers in Lane Cove Road providing trams were introduced in 1893. services for horse drawn traffic included Edward Brophy (blacksmith), Joseph Fogg, (drayman), North Sydney History Walk : “All the Conveniences of Town” Page 3 Lower North Shore residents had the use of gas teachers of the School of Arts and a in their homes from about 1876. Charles Watt Churchwarden of St Thomas Church. and JW Fell manufactured and supplied gas in a system of pipes to householders in the Ward was a keen amateur photographer and Municipalities of St Leonards; East St Leonards took many of the earliest photographs of North and Victoria and also providing some street Sydney (see view in Berry St on left). Dr Ward lights. also joined the St Leonards Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1861. Turn left at Pacific Hway and proceed uphill to Berry St traffic lights St Leonards Volunteer Rifle Regiment was to become one of the most controversial parts of the Township’s social network. It was the cause of a rift among this close knit society. It brought the spectre of sectarianism to the area when a number of catholic tradesmen (including James White the saddler) applied to join the regiment but were ‘blackballed’. A secret ballot system had been introduced to replace a show of hands as the method for voting in new members. The men were deemed unsuitable (of bad character) to join. In retaliation the men aired their grievances in letters to The Freemans Journal. On the opposite corner stood the house (above William Forster also took up the cause of the – North Sydney Heritage Centre, PF 177) of Dr men and in 1870 the Volunteer Act Amendment Robert Dalzell Ward who was the first doctor Bill was introduced into Parliament to ban the on the North Shore. He arrived in Sydney in secret ballot system. The Bill sparked a lively 1852 as a surgeon superintendent on the ship and vicious debate in Parliament between the David M’Ivor. William Tunks (the north shore member of parliament). He was born in the West Indies and was a slightly eccentric figure even in those days who Volunteer regiments (the equivalent of reservists reputedly dressed in a duck suit and pith helmet today) became part of colonial life from the when visiting patients on his extensive North 1850s and were formed to supplement British Shore rounds. He apparently always walked with troops. The first volunteers were recruited in an umbrella over his shoulder. The house was 1854 when a Russian invasion was feared demolished in the mid 1970s. (Crimean War) and they came largely from the middle classes (gentlemen and clerks – those Ward was very much part of the St Leonards who had money and could pay for their own establishment becoming an Alderman of the St uniforms). However, as the threats of invasion Leonards Council, one of the founders and North Sydney History Walk : “All the Conveniences of Town” Page 4 diminished by the close of the decade the On this site (the heart of the Berry Estate) lived Volunteer Rifles had virtually ceased to exist. Alexander Berry in his highly admired Crows Nest House . Berry trained as a doctor in However, the Volunteer regiments were Scotland and became a ships surgeon with the resurrected in 1860 when there was a fear of East India Company. war with the French. Under the Volunteers Act 1867 , land grants of 50 acres were offered to By the early 1820s, those who served 5 years. As a result, many Berry had secured a shopkeepers and tradesmen were encouraged land grant of several to join. However professional men were still thousand acres in the keen to be involved and these included Dr Ward Shoalhaven area and and John Guise (the first chemist in the area). was in a successful business partnership Continue uphill on the Pacific Hway, with Edward cross over Doohat Ave and stop near Wollstonecraft who had the bus stop received 524 acres on the North Shore. No. 172 Pacific Hway An early colonial stone house, Woodstock was Formal portrait of Alexander Berry, 1867. built in 1870 by John Brown an early pioneer Photograph by Edward Dalton. (Courtesy State and timber merchant on the north side. He had Library of NSW) acquired hundreds of acres of land stretching from Pearce’s Corner (Normanhust/Hornsby) By the late 1830s Berry was a very wealthy down through Lane Cove and eventually to St landowner, successful businessman and very Leonards. He transported logs by bullock much part of the establishment of the colony as wagons and jinkers down to Fidden’s Wharf (on a member of the legislative assembly. highway at Killara), from where they were carried by barge to Sydney. Work began on the mansion (see below) in the 1840s but, sadly, his wife Elizabeth (sister to his Although the house has been restored, it still business partner Edward Wollstonecraft) died shows the Georgian symmetry but in true before it was completed. Berry lived here until Australian style including a verandah and his death in 1873. beautifully spaced carved timber columns Continue along Pacific Hway and cross over Bay Rd and proceed to McLaren St traffic lights Note the elaborate stone/iron fence and gates surrounding the North Sydney Demonstration School North Sydney History Walk : “All the Conveniences of Town” Page 5 the Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains, bought the house in 1875 and lived here until his death in 1898, after which the house was tenanted out after his widow returned to England.

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