Municipality of Hurstville: An Early History

The history of colonisation in Australia starts when Captain Cook gave the order to drop the anchor of the “Endeavour” on April 29, 1770, in Botany Bay. We had hoped to start the history of Hurstville from the same point, for, on May 4, Cook set out to explore what is now Georges River, but which he referred to as “the head of the harbour”.

Alas, we cannot get the captain further up the river than what is now Shipwright’s Bay, where he found a spring of water.

There is little doubt, however, that, in January 1788, Governor Phillip or his officers landed on the shores of Hurstville in search of the fine meadows which Cook found on the shores of the bay.

From the date of the settlement at Sydney Cove until 1810 the Hurstville district was largely untouched, with an occasional visit from escaped convicts or hunters employed by the Government.

In 1811 occurs the first reference to the district in the Historical Records of N.S.W. This occurs in a letter, written on September 22, 1811, by Dr. Robert Townson to Earl Liverpool. The letter is a complaint. The doctor relates that he arrived in the colony some years before, with a letter from the home authorities authorising him to receive a grant of 2,000 acres. This authority, however, Governor Bligh refused to honour, but after that Governor’s departure he received his grants from Colonels Foveaux and Paterson. On Governor Macquarie’s arrival, in 1809, however, these grants were annulled and it was not until nearly a year and a half later that the doctor prevailed on Macquarie to re-issue the grants.

Even then his troubles were not over, for on making a request to be allowed to sell his land and return to England the Governor refused permission. Townson refers in his letter to the fact that, his brother had received grants a year previously.

Now our interest in these grants is that if you draw a parallelogram, with an area of 1,605 acres embracing parts of Hurstville and Kogarah, you would be defining the grant of Dr. Townson, and if on the north-east of this you marked two areas, one of 1,950 and the other of 250 acres, embracing parts of Hurstville and Kogarah, you would he marking the grants of Captain John Townson.

The only relics of the brothers are a street name in Kogarah and in the name Townson Bay, and even that is in danger of disappearing under the modern name of Kogarah Bay.

In 1830 Dr. Townson’s grant came into the hands of John Connell. Connell had acquired also grants at what is now Kurnell, and one derivation of the name of that locality is that it is a corruption of Connell’s name. When Connell, acquired Townson’s grant, the locality became known as “Connell’s Bush”, sometimes spelt “Connelly’s”. In his will Connell bequeathed this land to J.C. and E.P. Laycock, and later on it was brought under the Real Property Act. In 1869 that part of the grant between Hurstville, Dumbleton, Broad Arrow, and Queensbury Roads was subdivided by E.P. Laycock under the title, “Subdivision of Connell’s Bush, Penshurst”.

Here we have, as far as can be traced, the first use of the name Penshurst, although it may have been in use locally before 1869.

It is understood that the name was derived from Penshurst Park, near London, and support is lent to this theory by the fact that, in a resubdivision of the original subdivision in 1883, the name given to it was “Penshurst Park”.

As the area was cleared, the Penshurst district became noted for its market gardens and orange orchards.

Some time prior to 1861, the south-western half of Dr. Townson’s grant was acquired by Mr. T.S. Mort, and from this gentleman the name of Mortdale arose.

Now let us turn to the grants of Captain John Townson.

On April 11, 1810, the Captain received three grants from Governor Macquarie, one of 1,950 acres, which was to be known as “Townson’s Farm”; the second of 50 acres to be called “The Retreat”, and the third, which adjoined his main grant was of 250 acres.

On December 31, 1812, Captain Townson sold the three grants, totalling 2,250 acres, to Simeon Lord, one of Sydney’s early enterprising merchants, for the sum of £800.

On March 20, 1844, the executors of Simeon Lord sold the estate to John Rose Holden and James Holt, who, in turn, sold on November 18, 1850, 1905 acres to Michael Gannon for £732.

It is interesting to note that when Holden and Holt sold to Gannon, the starting point in the description of the land was a dead string-bark tree at the S.W. corner of James Chandler’s grant called “Bexley”.

Another interesting reference is that the area sold ran down to a new line of road “from the dam on Cooks River to Woronora Ferry”.

With the mention of the name of Michael Gannon we come to the derivation the early name of the district, “Gannon’s Forest”, and the nucleus of the Hurstville of today which was known as “Gannon’s Village”.

The name of Hurstville is probably derived from the town of Hurst, in Lancashire, England.

The next large grant in the Hurstville district was that to James Oatley. Oatley Bay, the railway station of Oatley, and Oatley Park, perpetuate the name of this pioneer. This grant is dated August 31, 1833, and was under the hand of Governor Bourke, but, it was recited, that the grant is issued in pursuance of a promise given by Governor Brisbane. The area is 300 acres and the land is described as bounded on the north by “Dr. Townson’s Farm” and on the south by Georges Road.

James Oatley was a watch and clock maker whose premises stood in George Street, opposite the Town Hall, on the site now occupied by Kerr & Co. Jewellers. There is a story told that when Governor Macquarie wanted a turret clock for the prisoners’ barracks at the top of King Street (still standing and now used as law courts) he offered Oatley a grant of land in exchange for the clock and this offer was accepted.

It is possible that this grant was the reward for the clock, although, as stated, it was given on a promise from Brisbane, Macquarie’s successor.

James Oatley died on October 8, 1839, and he bequeathed the 300 acres, which is referred to in his will as “Needwood Forest”, to his adopted son, Frederick Stokes, otherwise Oatley.

In March 1881, Frederick Oatley sold the 300 acres to Charles Cecil Griffiths for the sum of £10,000.

Today the land comprising the grant is partly in Hurstville and Kogarah, the railway line approaching Georges River being roughly the dividing line.

When he received this grant Oatley was already settled in the neighbourhood for, on October 19, 1831, he had received from Governor Darling a grant of 175 acres, which is described as adjoining Miller’s and Lee’s farms. The grant adjoined on the west, Captain Townson’s 250 acres. On December 28, 1835, Oatley received a further grant of 40 acres in the locality and this grant was based on an order dated August 5, 1824, under the hand of Governor Brisbane.

An interesting reminder of James Oatley came to light in the year 1925. As stated, James Oatley died on October 8, 1839 and was buried on his estate. In 1925 Mr. W. Sivertsen of Bexley came on his tombstone lying on some vacant land on Moorefield Estate. In response to a request, Mr. Sivertsen prepared, at the time, a sketch showing the approximate position of the stone. The land was on the southern side of Ponyara Road, between Pallamana Parade and Kooemba Road, and the tomb of stone was about 433 feet from Pallamana Parade. Mr. Sivertsen could not find the vault but he was informed that when opened it was empty.

Adjoining the Oatley and the Townson grants was one of 500 acres to Hannah Laycock known as Kingsgrove Farm, hence the name of the district, and to the north a large area of 1,200 acres was granted to J. Chandler. These two grants are now partly incorporated in the Municipality of Rockdale – once a part of Hurstville.

Following the large grant of land in the Hurstville district came the smaller grants and the ultimate division of the large grants.

In the Sydney ”Echo” of October 25 1890, a writer has given a list of some of the pioneers of the Hurstville district, Donnelly Fisher, he states, had 116 at Jewfish Point on Gungah Bay; John A. White, 80 acres on Georges River; T. Lawrence owned 120 acres at “Soily Bottom”, Lugarno; while Frewin Sleath, James Draper, James Eaves, James Wilshire, Mary Shapley, Thomas McCaffray, Jane Trotter, Patrick Galvin, James Ryan, John Lackev and others had grants varying from 30 to 80 acres. Mr. J.G. Tucker purchased an estate 118 acres and Mr. Wm. Hebblewhite bought a considerable portion of Captain Townson’s grant.

Peakhurst derives its name from Mr. Peake who was an early settler in the district. Dumbleton Farm gives its name to that centre. When the “Echo” article was written, the old farm house was still standing.

Mr. James Flood purchased 40 acres of Captain. Townson’s grant from Mr. Thomas Kelsey, and Mr. Thomas Bates’ land adjoined this estate on the west. Mr. Edward Flood had a farm at Peakhurst; and a large pear tree, portion of his orchard, was still flourishing in 1890.

It is state by one writer that Dr. Townson farmed portion of his grant and erected a house on it, but we have not been able to confirm this statement, If he did so, his produce must have been carried to Sydney by boat as there were no roads in the locality in his day. This, of course, was possible as the lime, produced by burning shells, in the vicinity of Lime Kiln Bay, was carried to Sydney in luggers.

The major portion of the area, now the Municipality of Hurstville, in a pristine condition, was covered by a forest of trees and one of the early industries was that of timber getting. For this purpose saw pits were dug and the sound of the axe and the rip of saws was heard in the land. Then the charcoal burners came and numbers of purchasers of blocks of land in Hurstville wondered where the deposit of ashes on their land came from.

The timber getters and the charcoal burners were a race of hardy and lusty men and their occupation developed a gargantuan thirst. It is not surprising therefore, that about 1850 a public house was erected and opened in the district. This was the Blue Post Inn, a low weatherboard structure, built by Richard Fulljames. It stood in Forest Road, nearly opposite where the public school now stands. In 1852 the Currency Lass Inn became a rival of the Blue Post. This inn stood near the present Post Office. Other early inns were the “Man of Kent” at Kingsgrove, and at Dumbleton, the “Robin Hood and Little John”.

In writing a social history of any part of Australia one must take account of its inns and public houses, for these, in the early day, took the part now played by Clubs and Schools of Art and other meeting places. In the inns, local problems and needs were discussed and action often followed these discussions.

We can be sure that one of the most discussed topics in the early inns of Hurstville and Kogarah was that of roads. Roads have been well compared to arteries, for it is along them that the lifeblood of commerce flows. Few travellers, gliding along Princes Highway at thirty or forty miles an hour, as they flash through Rockdale and Kogarah, or along the Forest Road through Hurstville, pause for a moment to reflect that once upon a time there was no bridge across Cooks River, that where the well-graded highways now run there were only bush tracks, and that along those tracks men contrived to haul loads of timber and charcoal and farm produce.

In the early days, Cooks River presented a formidable obstacle in the direct path between the City of Sydney and the Hurstville district. There are references to a ford, then a darn was thrown across the river at the Cooks River Road, and a bridge built higher up, which became known as Unwins Bridge, after Unwin’s sugar manufactory. Both the dam and bridge are shown on a plan, drawn about 1856.

On Dixon’s Map of N.S.W., of date 1842, the main roads of the Illawarra Suburbs District are shown to be few in number and indicate that travellers to the city in that year had to pursue a circuitous route.

In 1843 Surveyor-General Mitchell conceived the idea of connecting Sydney with the Illawarra district with a more direct road than the way by Liverpool and Appin. The road was completed in 1845 and with a few slight deviations Mitchell’s Road, through Peakhurst to Lugarno, is the Forest Road of today.

In the seventies, coaches ran from the city to the Cooks River Dam, and as the population grew the service was extended over the river to Kogarah and to Hurstville.

We cannot trace when Mr. Daniel Joseph Treacy started the direct bus line to Hurstville, but on December 8, 1881, that gentleman sold to Mr. Charles Fripp, “of Cooks River, near Sydney”. “All those several horses and mares (numbering in all Five) which with their respective colours and brands are respectively mentioned and described in the schedule at foot hereof, And also all the harness trappings and gear in use severally belonging thereto, And also all that wagonette numbered 283 hitherto and at present used and employed by the said Vendor for the plying for hire of passengers and parcels on the line of road between Sydney and Hurstville and vice versa, Together with the full right benefit and enjoyment of him the said Vendor in the entire line of roads between Sydney and Hurstville afore said as now held and used by the said Vendor in such plying for hire as aforesaid”.

And the purchase price for all this was one hundred and thirteen pounds sterling!

Mr. Fripp developed the business and an old faded photograph shows one of his four-in-hand buses standing before the “Hurstville Hotel”.

When Mr. Fripp, in 1881, paid over his one hundred and thirteen pounds, he did not realise that events were shaping, which, in the end, would drive his buses off the road and transform Hurstville from a country village into a thriving city.

This article was first published in the April 1965 edition of our magazine.

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