1900 - 1945 Western Sydney - an outline history

1900+ Campbelltown Hurlestone Agricultural High School
1902 Parramatta tramway built from Parramatta to Baulkham Hills
1902 Southern LGAs Cataract Dam constructed
1904 Blue Mts The Hydro Majestic opened as a hydropathic sanatorium at Medlow Bath
1906 Baulkham Hills Baulkham Hills Shire created
1906 Blacktown Blacktown Shire incorporated
1907 Fairfield Phylloxera destroyed many of vines of Thomas Ireland.
1909 Parramatta Granville Technical College opened to support the growing industrial development in the area.
1910 Liverpool Lord Kitchener visited Liverpool and recommended that land be reserved at Holsworthy for military camp
1910 Baulkham Hills Tramway extended from Baulkham Hills to Castle Hill
1910 Liverpool Large areas of land acquired for military use prior to war. Holsworthy used for internees and then established as permanent military camp
1911 Auburn Light rail link established from Lidcombe to Regents Park
1911 Baulkham Hills Burnside Homes opened on Pennant Hills Road
1912 Liverpool Land acquisitions at Holsworthy for remount depot and military uses.
1912 Parramatta Parramatta Electric Supply Company formed
1912 Blue Mts Norman and Rose Lindsay purchase house at Faulconbridge
1912 Blue Mts Impact of motor cars required new routes. Berghofer's Pass opened as alternative to steep Victoria Pass
1912 Auburn State Brickworks opened at Homebush Bay. Sold in 1936
1912 Parramatta The Parramatta and Granville Electric Supply Company was formed
1913 Auburn Name of area changed from Rookwood to Lidcombe
1913 Auburn Rookwood Asylum renamed Rookwood State Hospital
1913 Blue Mts Electric power for Katoomba generated by the Carrington Hotel (opened 1882 as the Great Western Hotel)
1913 Blacktown Grantham Poultry Stud at Seven Hills resumed by government and subdivided for Grantham Soldier Settlement farms after the war.
1914 Fairfield Butterfly Theatre at Fairfield, one of earliest cinemas, with its own power supply. (1944 purchased by RSL for its hall)
1914 Liverpool With outbreak of war, internment camp for Germans set up at Holsworthy
1914 Liverpool Military training camp established at Holsworthy.
1914 Camden Werriberrie, a Gandangara man born about 1830, and known by his European name of William Russell, dictated his recollections in 1914 and they were published in 1924 - the only first hand account of an Aboriginal person's life in this region
1914 Penrith Emu Plains Prison farm established north of railway station.
1915 Auburn Electricity extended to private consumers in Auburn and Lidcombe
1916 Liverpool Army riot at Casula camp, joined by men at Liverpool camp. Troops broke into hotels, commandeered a train to Sydney. Lead to introduction of six o'clock closing in NSW hotels
1916 Auburn State Abattoirs opened at Homebush and operated until 1988.
1918 Campbelltown Soldier settlement poultry farms established east of Campbelltown.
1918 Southern LGAs Cordeaux Dam constructed
1919 Liverpool Returned soldier settlement scheme established farms at Chipping Norton and Hillview.
1919 Liverpool Influenza epidemic - many deaths at Liverpool among Germans at the Internment Camp
1919 Blue Mts Blackheath proclaimed a municipality
1920 Auburn Silverwater becomes increasingly industrial in its uses
1921 Fairfield Electricity supplied to Fairfield by local council which purchased it from Sydney City Council.
1921 Holroyd Emu and Prospect Gravel and Road Metal Company taken over the NSW Blue Metal Company
1921 Southern LGAs Avon Dam constructed near Bargo
1923 Baulkham Hills St Gabriel's school for deaf boys established at Castle Hill.
1923 Holroyd Bond's cotton spinning factory opens at Pendle Hill, giving name to area.
1924 Southern LGAs Construction of Liverpool via Regents Park railway
1924 Campbelltown Electricity provided to Campbelltown
1924 Baulkham Hills Railway extended to Rogan's Hill from Castle Hill.
1924 Auburn Railway from Lidcombe to Cabramatta opened
1925 Liverpool Electricity available at Liverpool, with electricity purchased from railways
1925 Southern LGAs Nepean Dam constructed near Bargo
1926 Blue Mts Great Western Highway from Emu Plains to Blaxland opened along original railway route (a new alignment up the eastern escarpment having opened in 1913)
1927 Auburn Rookwood State Hospital renamed Lidcombe State Hospital
1927 Holroyd Prospect and Sherwood renamed Holroyd Municipality
1927 Camden Gandangara people at St Joseph's Farm reserve at Burragorang forcibly removed to La Perouse.
1927 Blacktown Electricity provided for Blacktown
1929 Southern LGAs Electrification of railway to Liverpool via Regents Park
1929 Liverpool Electric train services operated to Liverpool
1930 Liverpool Thomas Moore's house and old Moore College demolished for unemployment relief scheme. Colonial hall built in its place.
1932 Liverpool Archdeacon Hammond set up Hammondville to provide housing for families whose breadwinner was unemployed.
1932 Baulkham Hills Closure of Parramatta to Rogan's Hill railway
1932 Blue Mts The Giant Stairway and platform lookout at Echo Point opened by Premier of NSW
1932 Blue Mts Blue Gum Forest, Grose Valley, notified as public recreation reserve, following campaign by bushwalkers to protect the forest from clearing leases
1933 Parramatta Grace Bros opened store in Parramatta
1933 Blue Mts Katoomba Scenic railway officially launched
1935 Auburn; Parramatta Lidcombe Hospital absorbed patients from Parramatta's Macquarie Street Asylum when it closed
1935 Auburn Ford Motor Company opens factory at Lidcombe which operated until 1994
1938 Parramatta City of Parramatta proclaimed
1938 Holroyd Greystanes estate taken over by NSW Blue Metal Company
1939 Holroyd Holroyd site of wartime industries and US Naval Hospital
1939 Campbelltown Ingleburn military camp developed during World War 2.
1939 Penrith North of the railway line, a large area of St Marys was established as a major site for munitions manufacturing, with its own rail link and Dunheved and Rope's Creek stations.
1940 Baulkham Hills City water supply extended to Kellyville
1941 Blacktown Land was resumed between Schofields and Quakers Hill for an airstrip for the British Navy Air Wing. After the war it became the base for Royal Australian Navy apprentice training, known as HMAS Nirimba.
1944 Liverpool Internment of Italian Australians in camp on Liverpool rifle range.

 

 

back