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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
MacRitchie, John

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

MacRitchie, John

Author

John MacRitchie is local studies librarian at Manly Library, Sydney

Balgowlah as Author

Balgowlah Heights as Author

Bantry Bay as Author

Clontarf as Author

Fairlight as Author

Fairy Bower as Author

Grotto Point lighthouse as Author

Ivanhoe Park as Author

Little Manly as Author

Little Manly Baths as Author

Seaforth as Author

Smith, George as Author

The Corso as Author

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Balgowlah

Known as Kay-ye-my or Jilling to its Aboriginal inhabitants, Balgowlah was settled early by convicts, farmers and market gardeners. Rural until the 1900s, Balgowlah was developed and subdivided after the Spit and Harbour bridges were built.

Balgowlah Heights

Home to the coastal Aboriginal people, much of Balgowlah Heights was virgin bushland until the early-twentieth century. Until this time the area mainly comprised public reserves and harbour defences, until the bush finally gave way to the backyard.

Bantry Bay

Situated on Garigal land, a nineteenth-century pleasure ground, Bantry Bay was a defence site for much of the next century. Having been returned to the people, it is now a little-known harbourside retreat right in people's backyards.

Clontarf

Named for a seaside town near Dublin, Clontarf's beach was a popular picnic spot by the 1860s. In 1868, at a picnic in the pleasure grounds, Prince Alfred the Duke of Edinburgh was shot, in an unsuccessful assassination attempt, by Henry O'Farrell who was hanged. Clontarf remained a cheap suburb, with a tent city springing up in the Depression of the 1930s, but a new bridge in 1958 made it more accessible.

Fairlight

An early market garden for Sydney, Fairlight developed after the 1850s, with large houses on extensive grounds. It was called after Fairlight House from the 1890s, though only made official in the 1930s. Inhabited by Manly's leading citizens, Fairlight became more accessible when trams came through in the 1910s, and grew between the wars. Shops and denser development followed.

Fairy Bower

Built on the short-lived Fairy Bower pleasure gardens established in 1858 by Charles Hemington, the earliest European residents were fishing families. From 1880, subdivision into housing lots had begun, with little success. More people moved in between the wars in the twentieth century, creating the area's distinctive streetscape.

Grotto Point lighthouse

Grotto Point became an important part of navigational safety with the erection of a lighthouse in 1910.

Ivanhoe Park

Saved from redevelopment in 1883, Ivanhoe Park remains one of Manly's most prized public green spaces.

Little Manly

Part of the Bassett-Darley estate tied up in legal wrangling until 1877, Little Manly was not subdivided until the 1880s. Baths and a boatshed were built there, and later made way for a public reserve.

Little Manly Baths

The Gentlemen's Baths, built in 1879, were damaged several times by storms by 1896, and were taken over by the gasworks on Little Manly Point. They remained in disrepair, and repeatedly damaged by storms and floating debris, until Manly council rebuilt them in the 1980s.

Seaforth

Subdivided in 1906, Seaforth was a new suburb built on the hill above sheltered beaches popular with campers and picnickers.

Smith, George

Businessman and sportsman who was Mayor of Sydney in 1859 and later a prominent citizen of the Manly district.

The Corso

The Kay-ye-my people walked for thousands of years along the track between the cove and the beach at Manly, but the first boardwalk was only built in 1855 when Henry Gilbert Smith began developing Manly as a resort. The Corso had a hotel at each end, and most of Manly's commerce along its length, until the rise of the car and the shopping mall in the twentieth century.