By David Rushton, Bulletin 10/2024, December
On a drizzly Saturday morning, 2 November, a group of around 24 people met up with Max at Glebe Town Hall. Happily the rain stopped, but it stayed cool and overcast – perfect conditions for our walk.
Max first gave us a potted history of the Council wards of Glebe and Forest Lodge (a separate ward from 1871), the demise of the old pubs, and the businesses that once flourished in Forest Lodge (including factories for coaches and munitions, Arnott’s biscuits and macaroni).
Churches have been more important socially than in recent secular times, with the Congregationalists prominent, and St James Catholic Church (Forest Lodge), though situated geographically in Glebe Ward, wanting to be part of Forest Lodge to avoid mixing with the protestants.
We wandered through back lanes to Arundel Street (the original Parramatta Road), sighting a typical Ambrose Thornley house at 123. David Elphinstone was the other key early builder in the area.
The passage of time is evident in the home of colonial architect James Barnet (now Officeworks), the site of Sydney’s former state coroner’s court and morgue (now aptly NSW Central Ambulance Station), and the unusually ‘commonly held’ Bakers Lane (named for Aaron Baker, not an actual bakery).
Orphan School Creek had started in Stanmore and was the original Western boundary of Forest Lodge, a fact noted with a plaque in Arundel Street Reserve.
On to Short Street with its pre-1880s terraces to the western end of St Johns Road near May Pitt Playground – which honours one of only two women ever elected to the Glebe Council. We had a look at the former Rehoboth Church (built in 1892) – home of the ‘Primitive Methodists’, a branch of Methodists who mainly hailed from the potteries in England and from Wales, and who were prominent in Annandale, Leichhardt and Newcastle. They merged with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1902. Durst Mechanical, next door, had operated for 100 years until recently sold.
From the end of St Johns Road, we went along Junction Street – once home to an ostrich feather factory.
We learnt of the ironbark bridge, all 450 metres of it, that crossed Orphan School Creek at Pyrmont Bridge Road. Built in 1859–1860 as a toll bridge (vehicles and pedestrians had to pay!), it was gone by 1912. There were ongoing maintenance disputes between Glebe and Camperdown councils, many featuring George Wigram Allen, local councillor and prominent landholder.
We had a meander along Horseshoe Lane off Junction Street – part of Andrew McGovisk’s building work. We then crossed over Bridge Road and down to a memorial for Merv Flanagan, shot during a strike in 1917 (there may be an untold story involving sly grog). This marked the start of the beautiful and peaceful public walkway under Celtis trees, following the old Orphan School Creek line next to the site of the former Camperdown Children’s Hospital (1906–1995). We passed the lower ends of Foss and Hereford Streets, before crossing Wigram Road where the path follows the canal and becomes Johnstons Creek. The walkway is there thanks to the committed efforts of FRROGS (Friends/Residents/Ratepayers of Orphan School Gully). We were honoured to have one of the original members, Judith Christie, on our walk. Judith continues to care for this vital bushland with others in the Glebe Society’s Blue Wren Subcommittee, helping to maintain habitat for many small birds and other animals – including at least one scrub turkey, who joined the walk.
Max gave a brief history of Harold Park – established in 1883 as the Lillie Bridge Running Ground, home of trotting until 2010 and greyhound racing until that went to Wentworth Park in 1939. The area was sold and redeveloped into apartments by Mirvac in 2010. The redevelopment included the Tramsheds where a number of us repaired for brunch at Garçon, to hear tales of Max’s boxing career – but that’s another story …
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