| 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 Gadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora.
With European Occupation of Sydney region from 1788, the Gadigal and Wangal people were largely decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today.
For information about the Aboriginal history of the local area see the City’s Barani website: http://www.sydneybarani.com.au/
In October 1811 Lachlan Macquarie ordered that the area surrounding the Lachlan Swamps should be set aside as a common. 1305 acres was reserved as a place for stock to be grazed where they would not eat the private gardens and parks of Sydney. The prosaically-named Sydney Common reflects the growing sophistication of the convict colony, where at earlier periods a common may have been seen as unnecessary.
In 1825 it had become apparent that Sydney’s water supply was not adequate with the growing population which had led to the Tank Stream becoming unreliable, as well as polluted. The Lachlan Swamps was recommended as the replacement supply and the Busby’s Bore was constructed to supply this water. However, this supply was found to be vulnerable to drought and later on water was piped from the Botany Swamps.
From the 1850s development around the edges of the common happen with the first game of cricket being played at the Garrison Cricket Ground in 1854. This ground was later known as the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Randwick racecourse was established in the area in 1860. In 1869 part of the common area became Moore Park. This area was bigger then it is today because it occupied all the land that Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls high schools are currently occupy. Other neighbours included the Royal Agricultural Society and the Victoria Barracks.
With the development of the racecourse, Moore Park and the showground and the remaining common was ripe for developing. The developing of the Upper Nepean river as a water supply for Sydney meant that the Lachlan Swamps were no longer going to be relied on for water. While Sir Henry Parkes took much of the credit for Centennial Park, despite neither the original idea nor the name coming from him. Frederick Augustus Franklin, a civil engineer approached Lord Carrington, the Governor, and suggested a carriage drive be built around the domain and Botanic Gardens. The Governor thought the idea a good and instructed Franklin to inspect this and other potential sites.
Part of Franklin’s proposals was the suggestion to erect a building such as the late Garden Palace on the most elevated part of the proposed park. Precisely why Sydney needed a grandiose monument was difficult to say. Franklin’s conception was based on the Crystal Palace and its surrounding gardens at Sydenham where he had worked in 1853-1855.
Sir Henry Parkes took this idea further proposing a vast State house to be built on the South Head Road (now Oxford Street) frontage of the park. The building was meant to be symbolic, rather then useful, and it had views to Botany Bay, site of the first landing of the First Fleet. This proposal was vigorously lampooned in press and Parliament. Conceived as a national monument it soon became known as Sir Henry’s dead-house. While the park itself was favourably received the state house was subject of stringent criticism.
The park was to be 640 acres as a minimum (this magical figure being one square mile) and the improvements and state house were to be financed by the sale of building land around the park. In total the park was 763 acres, with another 60 acres in Queen’s Park. This was comfortably larger than the 600-odd acres of Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, which was then the largest park in London, making Centennial Park one of the largest urban parks anywhere in the world at that time. The surrounding areas, 193 acres in all were to be subdivided and sold as mansion sites. Parkes suggested that the land would fetch up to £10 per foot, and with 20,000 fee of frontage he expected to see about £200,000 raised. Of this we shall want £50,000 for converting the land into a park, and £150,000 for the erection of this national mansion. Mr Trickett thought many of these allotments would realise £20 or £30 a foot, so that, instead of £200,000 the land would fetch £300,000. As Richard Twopeny wrote in 1883 in Town Life in Australia, "this land speculation is quite a feature of Australian life, and at certain periods it is difficult to lose money by it." The cost of building the State House and the park were grossly underestimated. 1894 it was reported that despite the expenditure of £200,000 on the park another £40,000 was necessary to complete the capital works program.
Precisely who had drafted the plan in unclear and the street layouts and block sizes planned for the perimeter lands were very different to the final result. In latter years Frederick Franklin claimed the plan was his and produced a pamphlet containing detailed correspondence to back up his claim for government compensation for all his work.
Between 1887 and 1904 the subdivision pattern was finalised and work finished on the roads and set out of the subdivision. Appropriately, given that the sale of the land was originally earmarked to finance the State house, the streets were given the names of illustrious figures from New South Wales past. Sir Thomas Mitchell, Reverend John Dunmore Lang, Sir James Martin, Captain James Cook, Sir John Darvall and Sir George Dibbs were all honoured with street names. Given Dibbs had been the most vociferous opponent of the scheme, his inclusion seems rather ironic, especially as the street he was given is a short one with no park frontage and with no houses facing it. Sir Henry Parkes already had a road named after him within the park and was not included in the subdivision street naming. In other parts of the subdivision names of surveyors and explorers, such as Govett, Oxley and Flinders were used. Large auctions were held on-site on the 18th and 25th of March 1905, with a supplementary auction of some of the unsold blocks, again on-site, on thee 15th of April.
While a number of blocks were sold at these auctions, the Lang Road frontages with their good views proving particularly popular, much of the subdivision remained unsold. The subdivision was gradually sold off, auctioned a few blocks at a time by Richardson and Wrench. By August 1909 all of the Lang and Cook Road blocks had been sold and the area had been built out by the 1920s.
The houses that were built in Lang Road represented a fine collection of architect designed dwellings. The prosperity of the area is underlined by the large number of garages built at the same time of the houses or shortly afterwards. Most of the houses were for owner occupation.
By the late 1960s the area was coming under increasing pressure. Some of the larger houses in Lang Road had been converted to boarding houses. Under the City Commissioners high rise was permitted in Cook Road. As well as leading to the destruction of much historic housing in Cook Road, this had an adverse impact on surrounding housing. In 1972, Tom Lewis , Minister of Lands and Tourism (later Premier) unveiled plans for a huge sporting complex as part of a bid for the 1988 Olympics. This would have obliterated most of Moore Park, a substantial portion of the south- east corner of Centennial park. It would also have led to the demolitions of the entire Martin Road/Robertson Road area.
A coalition of interest under the banner of "Save the Parks" began to fight the proposal. Months of campaigning (co-ordinated from the Runcie's residence at 2 Martin Road) culminated in a massive meeting in Centennial Park on 18th June 1972. A similar meeting was also held at Sydney Town Hall that evening, and Jack Mundey of BLF announced that the entire proposal was the subject of a Green Ban.
The result of such campaigning was the proposal was abandoned and shortly afterwards Sydney Council overturned the high rise zonings in Cook Road.
Further resident pressure lead to the establishment of the Centennial Park Trust in 1983 to better manage the park. |