Historical Sydney Suburbs: Bexley, NSW: Many Postwar Californian and Art Deco Bungalows

Bexley, NSW, is a suburb in southern Sydney, located 14 kilometres south of the CBD. Many postwar Californian and Art Deco bungalows are found in this area.

Gweagal and Bidjigal People

The Bexley area is part of the traditional lands of the Gweagal and Bidjigal people.

The Gweagal were also known as the "Fire Clan". They are said to be the first people to make contact with Captain Cook, in 1770. (The British were searching for Terra Australis, a hypothetical southern continent)

The Gweagal lived on the southern side of the Georges River and Botany Bay, towards the Kurnell Peninsula.

They used barbed spears and fishing lines with hooks made from crescent-shaped shells to catch fish. Birds and their eggs, possums, wallabies and goannas were also a part of their diet.

Aboriginal Middens (rubbish heaps) have been found along tidal sections of the Georges River, full of shells and fish bones.

They are part of the Dharug language group.

The Bidjigal clan were the first Indigenous Australians to encounter the First Fleet (Pemulwuy speared Governor Phillip’s gamekeeper John McIntyre on 10 December 1790 and hostilities broke out between the British and Aboriginal people).

Pemulwuy's left eye was "blemished" and one foot turned. The foot injury is said to have been made with a club showing that he was a “clever man”.

Painting of Pemulwuy, the leader of the Aboriginal resistance in the Bidjigal clan. Samuel John Neele (1758-1824) - State Library of Victoria

Aboriginal people had a mobile lifestyle, moving about according to the seasons and food sources.

1800s

Thomas Sylvester was granted land in about 1810. This land, “Sylvester’s Farm” was purchased by a free settler, James Chandler in 1822, who named the suburb after his birthplace, Bexley, in London, England.

Chandler soon afterwards, petitioned Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane and was granted 1200 acres (4km2) of land in “any part of the colony already surveyed” and four convict servants.

It was the land adjoining his existing property that Chandler acquired, and this later became Bexley. (also some parts of Bexley North, Rockdale and Kogarah). Chandler also established a shop at 99 Pitt Street, Sydney.

Chandler became known locally as the "Squire of Bexley", but bushrangers and escaped convicts occupied the property, so Chandler sold the land to Charles Thompson in 1836.

The estate was heavily timbered and a track through the centre used by timber-getters, is today called Forest Road.

Lydham Hall, the oldest surviving residence in the area, stands on part of the original land grant of 1822.

In the early days, most of the buildings were slab huts with bark rooves (1.)

Example of a slab hut built by settlers in Australia

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 16 April 1847

Charles Tindell began subdividing the land by 1856 for home sites.

John Downey's Cottage on the corner of Downey Street and Mimosa Street West Bexley, was built in 1855, by the Irish immigrant John Downey.

Many inns opened in the area including the Man of Kent, the Robin Hood and Little John Inn and the Highbury Barn.

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 30 August 1856

1880s

The railway line to Hurstville opened in 1884 and a two-tier wagonette and hansom cab conveyed train travellers to their home.

This double-decker steam tram, which operated for the <! y first time in 1879 between the old Red fern railway station !| ? and the corner of Hunter and Elizabeth Sts., Was the start ! y of Sydney's present transport system. Four steam enginesand six cars were imported from America to start the V I service, which was originally planned to convey passengers to the Exhibition being held in the Botanic Gardens, ? The double-decker cars were replaced by single-deckers '> ? about 1892, but the old steam engines were in use com- <! 5 paratively recently on the Baulkham Hills-Parramatta, J Arncliffa-Bexley, Kogarah-Sans Souci and other lines, SYDNEY'S FIRST TRAM (1949, September 13). Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW : 1941 - 1955),

“Montrose” in Broadford Street, Bexley, built circa 1887.

1890s

A heritage-listed house, "St Elmo" on Harrow Road, Bexley, was designed by William Kenwood and built in 1897 in Victorian style, with some Federation features, for Joseph Palmer.

1900s

Bexley had its own council, known as the"'Municipality of Bexley" from 1900-1948. The council would later be amalgamated with the Municipality of Rockdale.

Stone’s Slaughterhouse in Stoney Creek Road began operations in the 1890s.

Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 24 November 1900,

The Arncliffe to Bexley steam tramway officially opened on the 13th October 1909 and operated until the 1st January 1927. It ran from Arncliffe Station along Wollongong Road to a terminal loop located between Preddy's Road and Mimosa Street in Bexley.

The Arncliffe to Bexley steam tramway officially opened on the 13th October 1909 . Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 20 October 1909

"The foundation stone of Christ Church, Bexley, Parish of St. George, was laid by theRight Rev. Dr. Barry, LL.D., D.D., Primate of Australia, on the 17th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1886. St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 22 December 1906. (Anglican services at Bexley commenced in the open air, under a large tree, near White's brick kiln, and were conducted by Rev. R. Kelly,

In 1900, Hurstville Council ceded its Bexley ward which became Bexley council. Bexley Council was merged with Rockdale Council in 1948 to form the Municipality of Rockdale.

An upsurge in development began after the installation in 1909 of a steam tram that ran between Bexley and Arncliffe.

WWI (1914-1918)

Bexley Public School, NSW, 330-354 Forest Rd,Bexley in 1914.

St George Call (Kogarah, NSW : 1904 - 1957), Saturday 6 November 1915

Family, who last 8atu'day entered .Into 'possession of the cottage erected for tnem by the Bexley hraneh of the Voluntary Workers' Association. The land on wh|ch the cottage wan built was a gift from the branch, and. a cheque for' £33 towards the homo- was received from th» ?? ? ' . Rockdale Congregational Guild.Mirror of Australia (Sydney, NSW : 1915 - 1917), Saturday 16 September 1916

Bexley Boys' Home was a Salvation Army home that was located on the corner of Kingsland Road and Barnsbury Grove at Bexley North. It commenced as a Probationary Home for Boys in 1915, taking boys referred from the courts. It became a boys' home in 1931. Some boys were abandoned or relinquished by their families. However, abuse was rife. See here

BOYS OF THE' SALVATION ARMY HOME AT BEXLEY, NEAR SYDNE. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), Monday 3 April 1916

SERGEANT A. E. ALLSOPP. ... who was within a month of registering his 24th birthday, enlisted at Helensburgh, and left for the war on 20th December, 1915, as a Private. He went to Egypt and France and received promo-tion to corporal in France and was made sergeant five months before he was killed. He was also awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery. He leaves a wife and child, who reside at Bexley. Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 - 1950), Saturday 24 November 1917

N.S.W. Soldiers Killed in Action. Pte. G. Maltby (OF BEXLEY). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 22 May 1918

1920s

BEXLEY GOES TO WORK "Bexley's front door" known locally as "the slippery slide," "Bexloy's Alps," and "the goat walk." About 2000 people climb this steop dump daily. Tho alternative is a walk of over a quarter of a mile. In tho wot weather the route has its points. The dump is clay, and it sticks so nicely to boots and shoes when it is wet. The procedure is interesting. You take one step upwards and slide three steps backward. By the time you reach " the top you are climbing on your hands and knees, while on your clothes is a deep layer of clay, and in your heart is a deep, undying hate of the powers that be. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Wednesday 22 August 1923

The former Masonic Lodge on Forest Road was built in 1923.

Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Thursday 1 November 1928

St Elmo, house in Harrow-road, Bexley, where three women and a man were shot dea , and another man was critically wounded. Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Thursday 1 November 1928

1930s

Propeller (Hurstville, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 13 July 1934. ABORIGINAL / FOOTBALLERS.
In the Soccer grounds of Prince Edward Park, Carlton, next Sunday afternoon, commencing at 3 o'clock, a team of Aboriginal . footballers from La Pe-rouse will play a $10 challenge match against Bexley Waratahs "A" grade team The early match 2 o'clock will be between "Sun" Newspapers and the
Bexley Wanatah "B" Grade team. During the afternoon tho aboriginals will give. an exhibition of boomerang throwing supplemented by music from a gum-leaf band.

Santa Claus and children at the I.O.O.F. Christmas party, Bexley, 22 Dec 1934 / by Sam Hood https://www.flickr.com

EARLY BEXLEY:

Resident's Reminiscences.

Mr. and, Mrs. W. Richardson, of Bayview Street, Bexley, recently celebrated their golden wedding, being married at Bexley in 1886. Howling dingoes in the Bexley gullies and piggeries where the main shopping centre now stands were recalled by Mrs. Richardson in looking over fifty years of progress.

She was born in a large house on the site now occupied by the St. George Bowling Club, which was adjacent to what was then known as "Spring Creek." This water was so pure, owing to the springs, that chemists used to come from Newtown to take the water for medicinal purposes.

Her grand-mother, Mrs. Isaac Parkes, was known throughout old Bexley as old "Granny Parkes, " who acted as nurse and doctor to many people. She made her own ointments and medicines, and was a great boon to the workmen of that time, mostly timber-getters in Gannon's Forest.

Mrs. Richardson's grandfather was the toll-collector on the old toll bar gate in Gannon's Forest Road, where Clarence Street now is. This was the main route to Sydney from Bexley, although the road then was mostly quagmire in a dense forest.

Bexley residents could not see Botany Bay then, owing to the large trees, but they could hear the waves
beating on the shore. The area was wild and real bush, and Mrs. Richard-son said she could well remember on many occasions when dingoes would howl at night in the gullies, although they never gave any trouble by attacking people. These animals seemed content to remain in the gullies away from the little growing suburb.

Other early visitors to Bexley were (A)boriginals, who often looked in on their way from Tom Ugly's Point. They secured provisions and were quite friendly with the new settlers, leaving in large companies with donkeys to carry the loads.

Propeller (Hurstville, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Thursday 2 April 1936

PIONEER DAYS OF BEXLEY

......... the whole of these districts was blanketed under a vast primeval forest—broken only by the rare clearings of the very first pioneers. Across the landscape there snaked the thin scraggly lines of Gannon's Forest Road, Rocky Point Road, and a rough track which ran out towards Canterbury. Of course, they were nothing like roads as known to-day, but just dusty divisions between the eternal trees, and slushy boggy channels in wet weather. To the first settlers—in days before radio, telephones, railway or even a postal ser-vice—these tracks were the only means of access to and from the out-side world. Carts and horses were the only vehicles—otherwise one simply walked.

In her young womanhood Mrs. Carey thought little of walking from Bexley to Cook's River, and miles on to the old St. Peter's Church of England at Tempe, for Sunday service. That was the nearest chapel of her denomination in those times, and thenearest stores and shops were at Newtown........

When I was a girl we used to carry our washing down the hill and do it beside the creek. In those days it was nothing unusual for me to have to carry nine buckets of water from the spring up to our house on Forest Road each morning before breakfast.”

At that time there were not even such things as kerosene lamps—just candles, and my mother used to make her own by pouring ordinary house-hold fat into the six-in-one candle moulds, using string for the wicks. When set hard the candles were taken out of the mould, and these served as our only means of light.

Many an hour I have seen my mother sewing with needle and thread beside the flickering light of a home-made candle. There were no sewing machines then, and we made all our own clothes by hand. Mother used to make all our school hats, from the leaves of the cabbage-tree palms which grew wild in Bardwell Creek gully.

PIONEER DAYS OF BEXLEY. (1939, November 30). The Propeller (Hurstville, NSW : 1911 - 1954), p. 8.

The St. George Theatre opened in July, with a plain facade. In 1939, it was re-modeled in a Streamline Moderne style. It was re-named Odeon in August 1952 but closed on 12th September 1959.

1940s and WW11

Postwoman Mary Davenport delivering mail. Mary wears a Postmaster General's (PMG) uniform and peaked cap and worked at the Bexley Post Office.1942, AWM

A special A.I.F. broadcast interview of families who live near Bexley Park, Bexley, NSW, ABC weeklyVol. 4 No. 1 (3 January 1942)

Bexley man reaches 100

Thunderbolt stole, returned his watch

MR. JOHN GROTH, of 61 Stoney Creek-road, Bexley, who has just celebrated his LOOth birthday, had his gold walch stolen and returned lo him the next day by Thunderbolt, the bushranger, in 1863.

Mr. Groth was 20 and a shepherd in the Narrabrl district. He had arrived from Denmark the year before, and when held up somewhere betweenArmidale Armidale and Narrabrl. He could only protest in Danish. The next day, the mail-man told Thunderbolt, with whom he was friendly, that he had taken from a poor shepherd. Thunber-bolt returned the watch, saying: "I don't want to take things from these people. Give it back to hint."
Bexley man reaches 100 (1943, October 10). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954),

London, England. 1945-03-05. Portrait of 420284 Flight Lieutenant H. J. Shipley, of Bexley, NSW. AWM

“Wanslea", at Bexley, was a residence for around 18 homeless girls of working age that was opened by the Women's Australian National Services (WANS) in New South Wales in 1944. (Wanslea was at 28 Harrow Rd, Bexley, NSW)

In 1946, Wanslea, the Victorian mansion, became Rachel Forster Hospital for Women, and operated until 1971,

Lady Wakehurst wore brown shoes and gloves instead of regulation black with her W.A.A.N.'S. uniform yesterday when she opened Wanslea, the Women's Australian National Services' new home at Bexley. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), Sunday 20 May 1945 (WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL SERVICE WAS AN ORGANISATION OF WOMEN THAT WAS ESTABLISHED DURING WORLD WAR II TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING ON THE HOME FRONT)

Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 - 1861; 1863 - 1889; 1891 - 1954), Wednesday 25 September 1946

Baby Health Centre, Bexley, Sydney, 1946, Building and engineering.No. 11 (25 November, 1946)

1950s

Dawn Anzac Service At Bexley. Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW : 1941 - 1955), Wednesday 25 April 1951

Forrest Inn, Bexley, NSW, 1950s, ANU

New School at Bexley North, NSW, (11 March 1953)

1970s

DGT Leyland OPD2-1 2497 with a body built by Clyde in 1951 on an HCVA Special Hiring showing Route 472 Bexley North Station in Bexley Road, Bexley North. City of Sydney Archives, 1972

DGT Leyland OPD2-1 2497 with a body built by Clyde in 1951 on an HCVA Special Hiring showing Route 492 Rockdale Station in Forest Road at Bayview Street, Bexley. City of Sydney Archives, 1972

1980s

PTC Leyland Atlantean 1192 with a body built by PMC in 1972 showing Route 494 Drummoyne on an HCVA Tour in Frederick Street, Bexley. City of Sydney Archives, 1980-

00938CT Historic Commercial Vehicle Association Leyland OPS4-1 003 (ex MTT Perth fleet No 3) converted from ex MTT Perth UQB-268 ex M&MTB 332 showing Caution Towing Bus And Truck Museum towing South Pacific Electric Railway AEC 664T Trolley Bus 19 ex DRT&T No 19 with a body built by Ritchie Brothers of Auburn in 1937 showing Special in Forest Road at Bayview Street, Bexley. City of Sydney Archives, 1988

2000s

State Transit Authority Scania L113CRL 3793 with a body built by Austral pacific Group in Tamworth in 9-1997 on Route 493 Rockdale Via Kingsgrove turning from Shaw Street into Bexley Road, Bexley North. City of Sydney Archives, 2010-

2024

502 Forest Road, Bexley, named “Forest Manor”, is scheduled for demolition.