| Historical notes: | The "Eora people" was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora.
With European Occupation of Sydney region from 1788 , the Cadigal and Wangal people were largely decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today.
In 1809 Colonel William Patterson granted 30 acres of land to Patrick Walsh, a convict who arrived from Ireland in 1801. This area encompassed today’s Potts Point. Potts Point, became known as Paddy's Point, due to its association with Patrick Walsh. In 1810, after the arrival of Governor Macquarie it was reported that all Grants or Orders of Occupancy of Land given by Colonel Patterson would be cancelled and Patrick Walsh waited to be informed if the land he held was to be given up. Patrick Walsh occupied the land at Paddy's Point (Potts Point) until the early 1820’s during which time he cleared part of the land and erected fences and a hut.
In 1822 Patrick Walsh’s land grant was revoked and the land granted to Mr Drennan. Governor Macquarie had built huts for the Aboriginals at Paddy’s Point and requested the successor of Mr Drennan to let him have the land back again in exchange for other land, as he was interested in what could be done in the way of "civilising the adult natives" who still remained on the point. The land was given back and besides building more huts for the local Aboriginal population, Macquarie provided a fishing boat, fishing tackle and salt and casks to salt their fish with, and so established the Cove as a native village. He gave the village the name of Elizabeth Town, in honour of his wife.
The aborigines had disappeared from Elizabeth Bay after the departure of their Patron Governor Macquarie and his successor, Governor Brisbane, decided on Potts Point as the site for an asylum. Nothing came of this plan and after the departure of Brisbane. Elizabeth Town was granted to important public servants in the Colony who were encouraged to build grand villas.
One of the first of these land grants was made to Sir John Wylde Judge Advocate in 1822 who was Director of the Bank of NSW. The grant was for eleven acres and was situated at the entrance end of Potts Point. The largest of the grants was made to Alexander Macleay, then Colonial Secretary, who received 54 acres in 1826 from Governor Darling. This land grant stretched from the present Macleay Street down to the water’s edge.
By 1831 seventeen grants of land had been made on Woolloomooloo Hill to a selection of the most politically and economically powerful men in the colony. The purpose of the grants was to establish a stylish area of housing, and for this reason there were certain provisos on them. Residences were to be erected within three years, the house was to cost in excess of £1,000 and had to face Government House across the bay.
The final name of the area Potts Point comes form its association with Joseph Hyde Potts, a Clerk with the Bank of NSW, who was appointed Accountant to the Bank of New South Wales and purchased six and a half acres.
In 1891 the Municipal Council of Sydney, decided to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria by naming the Junction of Victoria Street, Darlinghurst Road and upper William Street as Queen’s Cross. Eight years later the City Council decided to remove duplications of names in the city area. Queens Square, in Macquarie Street, named at the time of Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1888, clearly had precedence, so Queens Cross became Kings Cross, in line with the gender of the ruling monarch.
West of Macleay Street, the Challis Estate 1889, and various smaller subdivisions along Victoria Street represent the earliest layer of intensive residential development. Subdivision of the Mansion Estates occurred in the early twentieth century with Tusculum 1901, Campbell Lodge 1910, Grantham Estate, 1922 and Orwell House 1921. Many of the grand houses of the period remained until the 1930s when many were replaced by flat buildings. A further group were demolished in the 1960s such that only four sites with grand villas remain today.The Tusculum estate was further subdivided in the 1920s and the site acquried by Cameron Investments in 1934 whith the existing building constructed shortly after. |