PROGRESS OF THE SUBURBS. - WAVERLEY.—I. - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) - 7 Feb 1914 (original) (raw)

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Sat 7 Feb 1914 - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)
Page 8 - PROGRESS OF THE SUBURBS.

The Municipality of Waverley can lay

claim to some of the finest of our marine

scenery. It can be viewed from many

centres of the district. Out from the dizzy

cliffs of Bondi can be seen the Pacific, With

its wide ocean frnnt and its waves beating at

times with great fury upon the rocky-bound

coastline or rolling in with force upon the

magnificent beach, which for surf bathing

purposes is among tho finest around Sydney.

From other points of vantage, picturesque

views of the harbour and the valley of Edge-

cliff and the lints of Rose Bay now quickly

being covered with houses, can be obtained.

As a residential area few districts can sur-

pass Waverley fom a health standpoint. In

consequence it has bceome popular, and

has grown by leaps and bounds in every

direction. As a picnic ground ,tourist re-

sort and sea bathlng centre Waverley

ranks high. Indeed it has an all round

reputation of being a very fine marine suburb

It lies as far east as man can trend conseq-

uentlyit cannot spread but within the

four corners of its boundaries. A settle-

ment has taken place during the last 10

years which places Waverley in a leading

position in respect to the number of houses

built in any one suburb in a given year.

But Waverley had a small beginning.

Extensive sandhills covered with scrub,

which Included the geebung, and the five-

comer. Deep quarries from which free

stone that now adorns, many of the palatial

buildings of the city, was taken. Creeks,

ravines and gullies abounding with ferns

and native flora of every description includ-

ing the golden wattle, the crimson Christmas

Bush and the soft tints of the flannel flower,

were the characteristics of Waverley ?ill

in its wild, but natural state.

There was little habitation at Waverley prior

to the Fifities. A number of grantees

had been registered but until the early Sixties

settlement was indeed small . A few

scattered houses amongst the sccrub and the

sandhills was all that could be seen in the

way of habitation. At that time there was

llttlo means of transit to and from the city

excopt by ones own horse and trap. In the

Fifties the buses onlv ran to Paddington, but

early in the Sixties the residents managed

to secure an extension of the route to the

Tea Gardens at Waverley now called Bondi

Junction and finally the bus stand was fix

ed at Charing Cross. The fare to Waverley

was then 1s each way and 6d each way to

Paddington. Waverley was famous for its

windmill which stood on a hill near the tram

sheds almost on the western boundary of

tho present municipality, which is known to

this day as Mill Hill. It was owned and

worked by Henry Hough who had five acres of

land which at his death in the early Eighties

was sold for £1200. The same land today

is worth on an average £5 per foot. It

was not until the death of Mr Hough that

the mill got into disuse and was pulled

In the early Sixties, the Hough family were

not by reason of a windmill, the only con-

spicuous people in Waverley. There were

many other well-known residents. There was

Scotch Mary whose healing powers were

known far and wide. People who had been

given up by doctors found their way to Scotch

Mary and received benefit from the herbs she

had turned into medicine. Scotch Mary lived

on what is now Bondi Road and Flood Street

opposite the Waverley Park. She was the

keeper of quite a herd of goats and had

visitors galore. But Mary and her little

cottage by the seaside have long since dis-

appeared and the land upon which the goats

grazed is now covered with a fine house fac-

Another well-known resident of Waverley

in tho 'Sixties was Francis O'Brien, who had

50 acres of land at Bondi Beach. In fact,

the estate stretched from the beach to Old

South Head Road . Mr. O'Brien was a colliery

proprietor. He also wns tho owner of a white

metal quarry at the end of Bondi Bench, and

along those Bandy shores he laid a tramway,

of his own, and trucked the metal to the

South Head Road, from which point it was

carted into the city and suburbs for road

making purposes. This early enterprislng

settler of Waverley lived in a large house

within his land, known as "The Homestead."

A feature about the home was the erection of

a splendid mausoleum in the centre of the

estate. At his death the estate was sub-

divided, with the exceptions of tho old home-

stead, surrounded by an acre or so of land,

and which Is still occupied by the widow.

The remainder was sold, and is now entirely

Granny Coyle was an old identity of Wav-

erley. Her smull lolly shop was the happy

hunting-ground of the children, who all stood

by granny because of her kindness and the

good mensure she gave when serving out the

lollies to her little customers.

Adjoining granny's shop was the Tea Gar-

dens Hotel. Old South Head Road was largely

used by tourists and residents of the- city,

who loved to visit tho ocean front, and view

the expansive stretch of blue waters which

brought home to them memories of 'dear old

England' on the other side. The Tea Gardens

was then a popular hotel. It is still standing,

at what is now Bondi Junction. It was al-

most at the turn of the road to South Head.

It had pretty gardens in front, in which tea

was served all day to visitors. Hence the

name Tea Gardens. It was the great placo <<f

call to thoso out for a pleasure drive in the

early 'Sixties, and afterwards . to 'bus pas-

sengers. Mr. and Mrs. Webb, who kept the

hotel at that time, were very popular, but the

tea gardens and Granny Coyle's shop have

given away to modern buildings, except the

hotel building, which is still in use. The

land at that corner to-day is worth about

£100 per foot, and leading business houses

Another hostelry which became popular in

the 'Seventies was the Charing Cross Hotel,

which stood on the angle where the five roads

met. Hence the name Charing Cross. The

bus stand was removed to this junction as

settlement extended in that direction. At

the same time a well-known bus driver,

Michael Quinn, started a line of buses to

Bondi, and brought the fare to 6d. He was

regarded as quite a benefactor to the resi-

dents, for the Waverley and Paddington bus

proprietors had to follow suit, and lower the

Waverley House was another landmark of

the district. After it had been occupied in

the early 'Sixties by Mr. E. J. Bailey and

others, it became a leading private school,

conducted by Miss Hall, and many of the old

residents of Waverley received their early

education within tho four walls of this house.

The number included Mr. Massie, the famous

cricketer. The late Mr. Ebenezer Vickery,

M.L.C., nnd other leading citizens, had thelr

homes at Waverley at this time. Mr. Vickery

owned a large tract of land in the direction

of Bondi, which was afterwards sold and

built upon. It realised good prices. Mr. Joseph

Dickson, one of the early settlers of

Bondi, had 10 acres of land at Tamarama

Bay, which he bought for £160, and after-

wards sold it to Mr. Fletcher, the dentist,

who subdivided, and resold in allotments, at

30/ per foot. The land to-day is worth £4

In the 'Fifties and early 'Sixties resident of

Waverley depended upon underground wells

and tanks for thelr winter supply. It was a

never failing stream. In fact, there were

quite a number of famous springs near the

Edgocliff Road, where one had only to push a

pipe into the side of a sandhill, and a beau-

tiful stream of clear water would flow, but

with the advent of the municipal council the

city water supply found its way to Waverley

Mr. E. L. Clarke did much to bring this about.

He was a dairyman at Bondi, yet he was by

profession a barrister, but he loved animals,

and was noted for a half-dozen very handsome

ponies, which he bred to ride and drive. When

mounted Clarke with his long beard was a

figure for admiration, and in this direction

But Waverley was destined to make great

progress, and the incorporation of the

boroughin 1859 assisted in bringlng this

about. The first council had, as its chairman,

Mr. James Vickery, who is still

living at Lawson, on the Mountains. He is

a brother to the late Ebenezer Vickery. The

second chairman-or Mayor, as they are now

called was Mr. Charles St. Julian. The first

council clerk was Mt William Mortimer, and

he was followed by Mr Jonathan Wiley, who

still carries on business as an estate agent in

the city, and who can give a very interesting

account of Waverley, the scene of his boyhood

days. The income of the council in

thoso daya was so small that it was not until

1874 that arrangements wero made with the

gas company to meet and maintain 20 gas

lamps in the main roads at more than double

the amount of what similar lamps cost to-day

The same year tho council securedits first

loan of £1000, which It borrowed from the lo-

cal school mistress-Miss Hall-on debentures.

From that day the progress of the borough

was assured, and It has gone on increasing

at such a rate that the capital value of the

property of this municipality of 2070 acres

is estimated at £3,148 517. The capital value

of the land alone for assessment purposes is

£1,234,000. The council in its first years of

operation had an annual Income of several

hundred pounds . To-day the council's

annual income reaches £33,000. There are

6000 houses in existence, and a population of

about 30,000 reside in the municipality. At

the outset one of the great difficulties the

council had to contend with was the boun-

daries, which, like those of Paddington and

Randwick, were not very clear from the city

standpoint. Centennial Park, which had been

vested in the City Council as a water-shed,

was responsible for the trouble of fixing

boundaries, and the city authorties decided

that Newland Street was not to exist. So

they put up a fence to stop traffic, but the

Wnaverley aldermen quickly got an axe and

chopped the fence down, levelling it to the

ground. The city council re-erected the fence,

but the Waverley men pulled it down again,

proclaiming it was a street. They won,

and Newland Street is a main thoroughfare