Click here to read an Historical Overview of Glebe.

If you wish to find out more about Glebe's historic places and residents, use the Index of People and Places. We have included only a few of the historical people and places in The Glebe, but for those who wish to dig deeper we have prepared a bibliography about our suburb. If you wish to explore Glebe's past and family history in greater depth, it should be noted that the Glebe Library holds a collection which may be of interest to the public. The library is located on the corner of Glebe Point and Wigram Roads.

A longstanding member of the Society, Marianne von Knobelsdorff, who was born in Germany, has written an account of the her experiences in The Glebe Society 1975-2003. Click here to read her story.

Writing about the restoration of the Glebe Estate, former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, has written that "few places in Australia are richer in history than the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe …" Click here for full extract.

The Glebe Society has also published a comprehensive 40-page walking guide, Historic Glebe, which contains a map and a more detailed overview of Glebe's history. Click to download a Publications Order Form.

If you wish to learn more about Glebe, go to our Bibliography.

More about the History of Glebe

Places and People

Glebe was originally inhabited by the Cadigal clan which occupied a territory that embraced Sydney Cove and stretched along the southern side of Port Jackson from South Head to about Petersham. As Sydney Town expanded, Glebe's aboriginal population dwindled and no evidence of the Cadigal's presence is found in modern Glebe.

The places and people of the relatively more recent Glebe are inextricably linked and this is reflected in its distinctive character. In the early struggling years of the first settlement at Sydney Cove (1788), Governor Phillip first surveyed, in 1790, the penal colony at Sydney town and made a grant of 400 acres of land to the Church of England, in the person of the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the First Fleet. This land became known as 'The Glebe' (or St Phillips Glebe) from the Latin word glaeba (a clod of earth) and, through its ecclesiastical use, signified church land.

From the 1830s onwards, people such as the stern philanthropist, George Allen and his famous son, Sir George Wigram Allen, forged our local history. Other notable figures included Dr. James Bowman and some of the most famous colonial architects, Edmund Blacket, John Verge and James Barnet.

Financial difficulty forced the church to sell some of its land by 1856 and a two strata society began to develop: the homes of the gentry were built on Glebe Point while many workers lived at The Glebe. Gradually the big estates on the point were subdivided and the professional and middle income groups changed The Glebe from a quiet peninsula into a fashionable suburb.

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