Arncliffe is located 11 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district (CBD).
The Gweagal, Bidjigal and Gadigal Clans
Aboriginal people of the the Gweagal, Bidjigal and Gadigal Clans lived a mobile lifestyle. mostly staying near water sources, in the region.
The valleys of Wolli Creek and Bardwell Creek show evidence of Aboriginal people with smoke-blackened caves.
Early
information was recorded about Aboriginal people by David Collins (author) and James Neagle (engraver), in,
An account of the English colony in New South Wales with remarks on the dispositions, customs, manners, &c. of the native inhabitants of that country …, 1798. Read
here |
| Drawings by Messrs. Howitt, Atkinson, Clark, Manskirch, &c. : with a supplement of New South Wales [ca. 1819]. Read here |
1840sWilliam Hirst, created a subdivision in 1840, named The Village of Arncliffe Estate. William Hirst was born in Settle, Yorkshire, England. Arncliffe is named after a small
village called Arncliffe in North Yorkshire, England.
The first inn at Arncliffe was the "Yorkshireman's Arms", from 1842.
In 1843, Forest Road, part of Surveyor
General Thomas Mitchell's line of road to the Illawarra District, commenced, using convict labour.
Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell' reported Georges River' was marked and recommended the supply of a punt. On 1 July 1843, Mitchell reported that a ferry was in place. A hand-winced ferry with a capacity of two horse-drawn carts or three with skilful manoeuvring and the rear gate left partly open was established, replacing the previous row boat system. The road pursued the ridges from Arncliffe to Lugarno, where a punt crossed the Georges River.
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| Propeller (Hurstville, NSW : 1911 - 1954) |
Auction of
land at Arncliffe.
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 28 February 1845 |
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 30 July 1844 |
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 15 August 1848, |
1850s
Arncliffe Hill was known as Cobbler's Hill and the area became the vegetable garden for Sydney.
From 1853-60, Levi Barden was the licensee of the Bold Forrester Inn, on Wollongong Road, Arncliffe.
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| People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator (Sydney, NSW : 1848-1856), Saturday 15 November 1856 |
ANNUAL LICENSING MEETING, SYDNEY, 1857: Thomas William Lane, Governor Denison Inn, Cook's River. Arncliffe.
1860s
1870s In 1872, a Publican Licence was granted for the Highbury Barn, on the corner of Barden Street and Forest Road. Arncliffe. Frewin Sleath, the licensee of the Highbury Barn Inn, also operated a quarry.
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 4 September 1879, |
1880s
Brothers, Thomas and Alexander Milsop bought land on Wollongong Rd in 1884 and built identical houses, Belmont and Fairview.
171 Wollongong Road Arncliffe, was built by Frederick John Gibbins and completed in 1885. It is currently the Macquarie Lodge Retirement Village.
William George Judd's estate "Athelstane" was built near the corner of Wollongong Road and Dowling Street, about 1884. The estate of seven acres was later
reduced to 2 acres. Judd arranged for a bridge to be built over Wolli Creek and also had land set aside for parks at Arncliffe, Marrickville and Penshurst.
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William George Judd and Family Outside "Atheistane, Arncliffe, NSW(The Education Department resumed the land in 1949 for a school) |
In December 1884, a post office was opened when Arncliffe Railway Station opened.
"Mintaville"/St Joseph's Convent was built by Robert James Parish in 1887, in the Victorian Italianate style, and
named for his wife, Annie Minta Parish.
1890sBy March 1898, a post office building opened on Firth Street, a short walk from the railway station.
Western Outfall Main Sewer, a former sewage farm outfall sewer and now ocean outfall sewer near Valda Avenue Arncliffe was constructed in 1898, The vent was demolished about 2015.
1900s |
| Arncliffe Railway Station, Sydney, N.S.W. - very early 1900s. The station was reconstructed into an island platform and opened in 1906.https://www.flickr.com/photos/hwmobs/ |
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| St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 23 June 1906, |
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| St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 23 June 1906 |
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| Arncliffe, Sydney, N.S.W. - very early 1900s. Park St (corner of Realm St) Arncliffe looking east out to Botany Bay. Aussie Mobs |
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| Catholic Church at Arncliffe, N.S.W. - early 1900s, Aussie Mobs |
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| This former Methodist Church was built in 1907 and became part of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977 and in 1980 a Coptic Orthodox Church. Methodist services had been held in a small building in Arncliffe since 1875. St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 23 March 1907 |
Steam trams travelled up Wollongong Road from Arncliffe Station to Preddy's Road, called "The Arncliffe to Bexley Tram," from 1909 to 1926. An hourly service ran from early morning to midnight.
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| Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Friday 10 September 1909 |
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| ARNCLIFFE RAILWAY STATION, NSW - 1907, Rockdale Library |
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| Bexlcy Tramway by the Minister for Works, the Hon. O. A. lee, M.L.A. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 20 October 1909 |
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| Arncliffe to Bexley steam tramway opened on 13 October 1909 and operated from Arncliffe railway station, NSW, NLAUST |
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| MR. J. H. A. PIKE, THE YOUNG AUSTRALIAN INVENTOR" IN WIR.ELESS TELEGRAPHY, WAITING FOR MESSAG ES IN HIS OPERATING ROOM AT ARNCLIFFE. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Wednesday 2 March 1910 |
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| Laying of he foundation-stone of St. David's Church of England, Arncliffe, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 26 January 1910 |
George Fortescue & Sons at Arncliffe made windmills and other machines.
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| Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 19 July 1911 |
An open-air
theatre opened at Arnclife in 1911.
Many Victorian, Federation or Californian Bungalow houses were built around Arncliife. (
today there are many unsympathetic alterations to many of these houses)
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| Chinese garden at Arncliffe, NSW, Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Tuesday 30 December 1913 (possibly, Chinese market garden of Kim Too, which was situated where Arncliffe Park is now) |
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| St. George Cricket Premiers — ArncliffeA Team St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 19 April 1913 |
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| Death of Mrs. S. M. Morgan. The death occurred recently of Mrs. Susannah Maria Morgan, at her residence, "Teluba," Arncliffe, Sydney.Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 9 July 1913 ("Teluba", used by the St George School Education Area, is a Victorian style vila on the corner of Segenhoe Street and Avenal Street) |
WWIThe South Coast Waratahs were one of the recruiting marches that came through Arncliffe (
1.).
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| Pte. R MCulloch, Arncliffe, NSW, killed, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 20 October 1915 |
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| Laurences of Dove Street, Arncliffe, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 4 September 1918 |
The pneumonic flu epidemic broke out in December 1918. (About 40 per cent of the population became ill and somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 people died)
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Arcliffe-Bexley Tram, 1915-20. NLAUST
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1920s |
| St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Friday 25 November 1921 |
The New Lyric Theatre operated at Arncliffe in a tin shed.
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| St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Friday 1 December 1922 |
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| Arncliffe Savings Bank, NSW, ca. 1900-1927, SLNSW |
David Unaipon, an Aboriginal man, whose face is on Australia's $50 note, lived in Arncliffe, during the 1920s. Read
more |
| Bunyip (Gawler, SA : 1863 - 1954), Friday 24 August 1934 |
The Myee Babies' Home and Myee Hostel was established in 1926 in Arncliffe and
run by the Child Welfare Department.
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| Steam Motor with two Trailer Carriages waiting to depart for Bexley, from Arncliffe, NSW, on the last day of operations 31st December 1926 |
1930s |
FIERCE GUST of wind to-day swept Mr. G. Lewis's store in West Botany-street, Arncliffe, and left & trail of damage as shown above. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Tuesday 18 November 1930 |
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AUSTRALIAN VERSION.— Some of the Aborigines Rugby League team from the La Perouse mission station who played against the Arncliffe Scots' Club at Earl Park.The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954) View title info
Mon 20 Aug 1934 |
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| The Round Tower Church of Arncliffe, built by Rev. Father Rafferty, andconsecrated last December. Catholic Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1932 - 1942), Thursday 9 December 1937 |
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| The Nest Girls' Home, Wollongong Rd, Arncliffe, NSW, (closed in 1969 and was
converted to aged care.) Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Sunday 14 April 1935 ( example of domestic style Victorian architecture) |
1940s and WWII |
| Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Thursday 5 June 1941 |
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| Sylvia Evans, photographed by her husband Alan, showing off her new electric refrigerator at ‘Alwyn’, Arncliffe ,Sydney, 1941. This photo may look staged, but it is not, Museums NSW |
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| 1 Wollongong Road, Arncliffe, NSW, before Al Zahra Mosque was built (nd) |
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| Miss E. Lynch, Forest Road, Arncliffe, seeks news of her brother, Private A. T. Lynch, 2/19 2 Batt., last heard of in Singapore. Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW : 1941 - 1955), Saturday 18 December 1943 |
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| Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Monday 26 May 1941 |
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| I'lying Ofiicer 1. J. Meliee, of ArnclilTe, awarded the DtFC for gallant service.Captain of a Lancaster bomber in England, he has been promoted In acting Flight-Lieutenant. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Thursday 22 February 1945 |
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| Owner Ordered to Let Vacant House to Digger Owner of an Arncliffe cottage that has been vacant for 14 years was ordered by a magistrate today to let it to a "Tohruk Rat" with a wife and three children. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Friday 13 July 1945 |
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MR. E. ANSELL, of Arncliffe. NSW (left), says he wouldn't swap his 1907 Renault for the I9^W
Ford V8 owned by Mr. Hugh Lambert, of Dulwich Hill. Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956), Saturday 27 December 1947 |
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| Arncliffe Hotel, crn Princes Hwy and Forest Rd, Arncliffe, NSW, 1949 |
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| This four-bedroom brick house was moved 30ft. on to new foundations in Prince's Highway, Arncliffe, today, to- allow for the widening of the road. According to Mr. W. Diggelman, contractor, it was the first time an attempt had been made to move a complete brick dwelling in Australia. The house was dragged to its new foundations by winches and the job was completed in an hour without a brick being forced out of place. Preparatory work took almost three weeks. Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW : 1941 - 1955), Tuesday 11 October 1949 |
1950s |
| Interior scenes from the film Jedda (the first film to feature Aboriginal people in lead roles) were shot at. Avondale Studios at Henderson St Turrella (next to Arncliffe), Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Sunday 6 December 1953 |
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| Propeller (Hurstville, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Thursday 15 April 1954 |
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Arncliffe Anglican Church, NSW, 1958
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1960s "Athelstane" mansion was demolished in the 1960s, and three two-storey school blocks were built.
1980sThe Fatima Al-Zahra Mosque, established 1980.
Fairview hosue was used as a sheltered workshop and hostel for disabled people until the mid 1980s.
2000s |
| The Arncliffe, NSW, vent stack, built 1898, and 27 metres in height, demolsihed, 2015 |
Around Arncliffe
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| Historically significant Fairview 197 Wollongong Road Arncliffe,, NSW, built 1890 |
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| "Gladstone and Wentworth", semi detached terrace houses on Forest Road, Arncliffe, NSW, were built in 1886 in the Victorian architectural style |
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| Glenwood house, Arncliffe, NSW, circa 1886, built in the Victorian style |
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| Lourane is a Victorian style cottage on Dowling Street, Arncliffe, NSw, built 1898 |
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| Cairnsfoot Loftus Street, Turrella, NSW, was built from 1880 to 1884 by Edward M. Farleigh |
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| By March 1898, a post office building opened in Firth Street, a short walk from Arncliffe, NSW, railway station |
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| Arncliffe station, NSW, opened on 15 October 1884 |
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St Francis Xavier’s Catholic Church, Arncliffe, NSW, completed in 1932
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| Former Rosslyn Hospital, Arncliffe, NSW, (Forest Rd), Victorian style villa |
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| Federation façade, 'Lidsdale', built 1902, Arncliffe, NSW |
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| Former Commercial Bank of Australia, Arncliffe, NSW |
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| Firth Street, Arncliffe, NSW |
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| Arncllife, NSW, hertage house |
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| Arncllife, NSW, hertage house |
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The former Arncliffe Fire Station, NSW, opened in 1909, now pre-school
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