Croydon

Croydon is located 11 kilometres west of the Sydney Central Business District. Croydon is split between the two local government areas of Burwood Council and Ashfield Council.

Nestled between the commercial centres of Ashfield and Burwood, Croydon is a quiet village-like suburb with mostly detached housing built in the early part of the 20th century in what is known as Federation or California styles. The suburb is bounded by Parramatta Road to the north, Iron Cove Creek to the east, Arthur Street to the south and a number of different streets to the west.

Croydon is on the Main Western Railway Line.

For more information about the population characteristics of Croydon, please visit our online Community Profile and Atlas.

Commercial Area

Croydon's principal commercial area is located around the railway station. The Strand, south of the railway line, features a number of restaurants and cafes while the older Edwin Street precinct, north of the line, is mainly specialist businesses such as printers.

History

Aboriginal settlement

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area now known as Croydon was home to the Wangal clan of the Dharug people. Their territory was believed to be centred on Concord and stretched east to the swampland of Long Cove Creek. The diet of the Wangal was primarily fish so they spent most of their time living near the shores of the Parramatta River.

The arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 had a devastating effect on the local people, mainly from the introduction of smallpox, to which the indigenous had no resistance. The disease spread quickly so that many indigenous people died of this white man's disease without ever having seen a white man. The Wangal certainly got to see the white Arthur Phillip, and was taken by him to England.

After establishing the colony at Sydney Cove in early 1788, Phillip ordered that a second settlement be established at Rose Hill (now called Parramatta) later that same year to increase the prospects of establishing successful farms. Within a year or so, a land route had been established between the two settlements, cutting through the territory of the Cadigal, Wangal and Burramattagal along the way. This rough track later became the main artery of the expanding Greater Sydney and, as the northern boundary of what is now Croydon, dictated early British settlement in the area.

Early British settlement

Governor Phillip showed great reluctance to grant large amounts of land to his colonists, restricting land grants to the towns and people actively planning to farm the land. After his return to England in 1792, acting governor Major Francis Grose and his successor Captain William Paterson pursued the opposite policy granting large swathes of land to their friends prior to the arrival of the second official governor John Hunter in 1795.[4]

The first land grant in the Croydon area was to Captain John Townson in April 1793 who received 100 acres (0.4 km2) on Parramatta Road stretching west from Iron Cove Creek and south to what is now Queen Street. Further grants were made in 1794 to: Private J Eades (25 acres on Parramatta Road to the west of Townson's holding); James Brackenrig (30 acres on the other side of Eades's land); Augustus Alt, the first surveyor-general of NSW, (100 acres stretching south from Townson's land to roughly what is now Thomas Street); and Sarah Nelson (15 acres west of the southern corner of Alt's land in the area now known as Malvern Hill). Alt was the first to take up residence on his land, naming it 'Hermitage Farm'. However, his house was burnt down by a group of indigenous people (possibly led by Pemulwuy) in 1797 and he didn't return to Croydon, establishing himself in neighbouring Ashfield,[4][2] and selling his property to John Palmer.[5]

By 1820 a large part of the area had been subsumed by Joseph Underwood's large 'Ashfield Park Estate'. This property remained largely intact for more than 40 years, until it was subdivided into large blocks after the death of Elizabeth Underwood in 1858. By this time its proximity to the railway made it a desirable area. One of these subdivisions was the 'Highbury Estate', on part of which Anthony Hordern, son of the founder of the great retail firm, Anthony Hordern & Sons, eventually built his house 'Shubra Hall', just beyond the west border of Ashfield. It later became part of the Presbyterian Ladies' College, the current boundaries of which give an idea of the extent of the Hordern property.[5]The College, including Shubra Hall, the main school building and the Meta Street entrance gates, is now listed on the Register of the National Estate.[6]

From around 1800 to 1860, development in the area was slow with the forests gradually being cleared for orchards and grazing land.

In 1855, the Sydney-Parramatta railway was built through the area which led to a housing boom around the stations at Ashfield and Burwood. This in turn led to local governments forming in the two areas with the land divided roughly equidistant between the two centres. In 1874 a new station was built on the boundary of the two areas and was named Five Dock after another settlement to the north. Because Five Dock was actually a long way north some confusion ensued and Ashfield Council renamed the station in 1876 to Croydon after the suburb in London. The suburb remains divided between the two neighbouring councils to this day.

Source: Wikipedia

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