My Electorate

The electorate of Lane Cove is one of the most picturesque electorates in the state. It covers the suburbs of Artarmon*,  Chatswood West*, East Ryde*, Gladesville, Gore Hill, Greenwich, Henley, Hunters Hill, Huntleys Cove, Huntleys Point, Lane Cove, Lane Cove North, Lane Cove West, Linley Point, Longueville, North Ryde*, Northwood, Osborne Park, Putney, Riverview, St Leonards, Tennyson* and Woolwich. Suburbs marked with * also fall into other electorates.

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History of Lane Cove

The first written use of the name “Lane Cove’ occurred on 2 February, 1788, soon after the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson.  Lieutenant William Bradley, while surveying, referred to the river into which he sailed by this name.  Several possible origins for the term have been proposed but none is supported by written evidence.  One suggestion is that it was named after Lieutenant Michael Lane, a respected cartographer, who worked with Captain James Cook in Canadian waters.  Another more likely proposition is that it was named in honour of John Lane, son of the Lord Mayor of London, and a great friend of Governor Arthur Phillip.  Certainly, when used during most of the Nineteenth Century , the name ‘Lane Cove’ did not refer to the small tract of land we now know as the Municipality of Lane Cove, but to a much wider area stretching to the east of the Lane Cove River.

The Lane Cove River was surveyed over a two year period, 1788 to 1789, by Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant William Bradley, who had a number of encounters with the aborigines of the area.  The Cam-mer-ray-gal Group (sometimes spelt Gamaraigal, Kameraigal or Cameragal) of the Ku-ring-gai Tribe, which inhabited the north shore of Port Jackson was one of the largest in the Sydney area, and its members the most robust and muscular in physique.  The deference paid these people, and the unusual and exclusive privilege with which the group was endowed of extracting a front tooth from the members of other tribes in the area, supports the view that it was also the most powerful.  Like other tribes in the region it was decimated by the smallpox epidemic which raged in 1789.

In 1788 Lieutenant Henry Ball crossed the Greenwich Peninsula on return from a trip to Middle Harbour. The next recorded landing of a white man in the Lane Cove Municipality is that of Lieutenant Ralph Clark, who on 14 February 1790 landed not far from the entrance to the River (the suggested site is the head of Woodford Bay). Here he had a friendly encounter with two aborigines, a relationship which he developed on the following and subsequent days.

The first land grants in the present area of Lane Cove were made in 1794, the majority of them to privates and non-commissioned officers in the New South Wales Corp, by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose.  Many Grants were never settled by the owners, being exchanged for land elsewhere, sold or cancelled.

For those who attempted to settle, life was not easy.  Much of the area was steep, heavily timbered, with poor, rocky soil and few roads.  The settlers were plagued with bushrangers, aborigines defending their land and natural hazards, particularly bushfires. 

In 1788, Lieutenant Henry Ball crossed the Greenwich Peninsula on return from a trip to Middle Harbour.  The next recorded landing of a white man in the Lane Cove Municipality is that of Lieutenant Ralph Clark, who on the 14 February 1790, landed not far from the entrance to the River (the suggested site is the head of Woodford Bay).  Here he had a friendly encounter with two aborigines, a relationship which he developed on the following and subsequent days.

From the earliest days of the settlement in farm Cove, Lane Cove was important as a source of timber for house and ship building, of grass for fodder for animals of the colony, and of shells which were burnt to produce lime for building.  A stockade was erected in Woodford Bay, with a permanent garrison of soldiers to protect the convict workers and settlers.  Throughout the 19^th Century farms (of a fairly unproductive nature) and dairies were established.

One of the earliest manufacturing industries was Rupert Kirk’s soap and factory, established in 1831 in what is now Longueville.  Later factories established included the Ludowici and Radke tanneries on Burns Bay in the 1860s and the Phoenix and Sydney Potteries later in the century (adjacent to the site now known as Pottery Green).  These were followed by the boiling down works of the Charlish and Whatmore families in West Lane Cove, and the Australian Woodpipe Company, in Burns Bay in 1912. 

The Chicago Cornflour Factory was opened on the Lane Cove River near Stringybark Creek in 1894, to be followed by the Cumberland Paper Mill on the Creek itself in 1912.  After the almost complete demolition of the latter plant in a fire in 1928, the site was used for a chemicals manufacturing plant, owned firstly by Robert Corbett and Sons, and later by CSR Chemicals. Presently the largest industrial complex, the Shell Company of Australia distribution and storage depot at Greenwich, was started in 1903 as John Fell and Company Ltd, oil refiners, blenders and distributors - one of the pioneers of the oil industry in Australia.

The Lane Cove West Industrial Area centred on Mars Road, was developed in the 1960s on the site of the former sanitary depot.

Local Government in its present form did not extend north of the harbour until 1865, when an area of the North Shore, including the present Municipality of  Lane Cove, was proclaimed the “Borough of North Willoughby”.  There were no wards until 1876, when Lane Cove formed part of the Lane Cove River Ward (later to become the “River Ward” and the “Lane Cove Ward”).  After a petition from ratepayers of the area the Governor proclaimed the “Borough of Lane Cove” a municipality in its own right in February 1895.

Since its incorporation, Lane Cove has had four Council Chambers.  The first, a small building, was erected on the site of the present Lane Cove Bowling Club, on the corner of Kenneth Street and River Road West, Longueville.

In 1906, after considerable controversy and a referendum, the generous offer made by a Greenwich resident to supply the land and a building for a second Council Chambers and Town Hall was accepted.  This was constructed on the corner of Pacific Highway and Bellevue Avenue, Gore Hill.  The third Council Chambers, the building presently occupied by Lane Cove Library, was built in 1924.  It was replaced when it became inadequate, by the fourth and present administrative centre.  This was completed in two stages, the Town Hall in 1958, and the Council Chambers in 1961.  This building was rebuilt as Lane Cove Civic Centre in 1992.

It is difficult to picture the present day Lane Cove as it was in the 19^th century – country with impenetrable cliffs and forests along the river, tall grasslands on the ridges, and the “resort of disreputable people… as great a set of ruffians as the colony holds.”

Thank you to the Lane Cove Library Local Studies Section for the above information

History of Gladesville

Gladesville was given its name by a solicitor and developer, named Billyard, who purchased and then subdivided the farm of John Glade after the old convict died there in 1848. Who was John Glade and what was his story?

On June 10^th 1789 18 year old John Glade was one of two men said to have entered the Roebuck Public House in London and to have stolen a copper kettle, two punch bowls, six cups and saucers and tobacco from the taproom. The two culprits, were caught, brought before the court and sentenced to seven years transportation. Glade arrived in New South Wales on the Third Fleet in August 1791.

The young John Glade apparently behaved himself and by 1797 was in charge of a farm at Kissing Point belonging to a Marine, Richard Paterson, who had purchased it from the original grantee, John Doody.  By 1802, Glade owned this grant and that of Ann Benson, described in the records as the "land opposite Concord“. In 1797 he married a fellow convict, Sarah Simes, and a daughter was born soon after.

Most convicts were from urban areas and rarely successful farmers, but Glade a Londoner, was an exception to the rule and his farm flourished.  He did however have some disappointments in life. Two days before Christmas in 1804, while he was visiting his wife in Parramatta who was unwell, his wheat stock was destroyed by fire. Two years later his home was reduced to ashes. Glade almost lost his life in 1827 when the boat in which he was transporting his peaches to market capsized in Darling Harbour in a sudden squall. Luckily, a local man saved him and his passengers, though the 11 baskets of peaches were lost.

In 1834, after 37 years of marriage, Sarah Glade died. Glade soon found another woman to share his life, when in 1836 the 67 year old married the 31 year old Mary Ann Lewis. John and Mary Ann had two more children, the last born when John was aged 73 years, old. He died at the ripe old age -for that time -of 79 " and both he and his second wife, Mary Ann (later Blanchard), were buried in St Anne's Churchyard Ryde.

Thank you to Julie Dawson for providing the above information

History of Hunters Hill

Hunters Hill, one of Australia's oldest residential areas, is positioned on a peninsula between the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers with much of the suburb enjoying spectacular views over Sydney Harbour. It is conveniently located only 7 km from the heart of Sydney with regular ferry and bus services into Sydney city and along the Parramatta River.

Hunters Hill was named after the second governor of the NSW Australia colony, Captain John Hunter, in 1794 and proclaimed as a borough in 1861. It is both the smallest local government area in metropolitan Sydney, as well as the oldest area on the north side of the Sydney harbour.

Formed during the mid to late 1800's many of the buildings date back to that period and have been built from the local sandstone.

The style of building in the Hunters Hill area is diverse, as the areas founders came from France, Italy, Switzerland and other European countries. Hunters Hill was once commonly referred to as the French Village.

A Marist monastery was established along Tarban Creek and this later became St. Joseph's College - which is the largest building in the area. The college, made of sandstone, is a landmark for miles around, and it is also the largest boys boarding school in Australia.