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. |