Local history fast facts - E
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
EASTBOURNE ROAD, Darling Point - Name changed from Bank Street to Eastbourne Road in 1916.
EASTERN SUBURBS RAILWAY - Proposals were made to extend the suburban rail system into the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, some going back well into the 19th century. A start was made in immediate post WWII years and work was carried out at Central (Chalmers Street excavation) and at the eastern end of the Domain but ceased in the late 1950s. The scheme got under way again after the 1965 State Election with the intention of going as far as Kingsford. However, the section as far Bondi Junction was built, and officially opened by the Premier, the Hon. Neville Wren at Martin Place Station on Saturday, 23 June, 1979.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive and the supplementary research file.
ECCLESBOURNE - Ocean Avenue, Darling Point. A castle-like structure was built by Whistler Smith and occupied by him during the early years of his marriage o he married Maria Street in 1847. The house was sold in the 1850's to Dr James Norton who enlarged it and added extensive gardens - the gardens have been replaced by units facing Ocean Street. The house is currently managed by the 'Cancer Patients Assistance Society of N.S.W'.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
EDGECLIFF HOUSE - Demolished house in Edgecliff. It stood on the corner of Ocean St and Edgecliff Rd and was built about 1861 by Edward Wise, Justice of the Supreme Court, later occupied by William Busby (see also Redleaf). The big Fig trees were given to the Woollahra Council with the land from Edgecliff House by the Terry family on the condition that they would not be cut down.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
EDGECLIFF PREPARATORY SCHOOL - A school was rounded by St Mark's Church in 1857 in the St James' Glebe - Thomas Ware Smart a benefactor. It later became the Edgecliff Preparatory School under the management of Miss Isabel van Heuckelman who, from 1913, leased the property from the Church. The School was housed in a fine sandstone building which was rebuilt down the hill and near Glenmore Road. The Sydney Grammar School acquired the school in 1956 and it moved to the Alma Street, Paddington site when construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway began in the early 1970s.
ELAINE - 550 New South Head Road, Double Bay. Built in 1863 for W. F. Norie, has been in the Fairfax family since purchased in 1891 by Geoffrey Fairfax.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
EMMA CHISETT - Edgecliff. A sign on a weatherboard wedge-shaped house on the corner of Cameron and Gr Thorne Streets which used to house a corner shop going back to the 1860's. Legend has it that the name is a strine variant of the request How much is it?
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
Emma Chisett, corner of Thorne and Cameron Streets, Edgecliff. Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive, pf001758.
EMMA'S WELL - New South Head Road, Rose Bay. This spring is permanent water and formed the northern arm of a stream which flowed through the Tivoli property and into Rose Bay at 'Sophia's Falls'. Legend has it that the spring was named after a nearby Aboriginal resident 'Emma Collins' - other names were 'The Spring' and the romantic 'St Agnes Fountain' (cf the St Wenceslas carol). Mr George Thorne of Claremont is given the credit of having a trough placed there in 1874 for the benefit of horses labouring up the long hill. Iron cups were also placed there for human use and a stream of water from the land of the Hon. Sir John Hay was diverted to it to ensure a constant supply of water.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
ENGEHURST - A fine Classical Georgian mansion was designed by JOHN VERGE for Frederick Augustus Hely, Superintendent of Convicts in 1832 - Hely died in 1836 before the house was completed. John Elly Begg, merchant, bought the property in 1868 and it was duly subdivided. Part of the Servants Offices can still be seen at No. 56a Ormond Street.
For more information please see the Woollahra Libraries Digital Archive.
EORA - The Eora was a grouping of Aboriginal peoples who inhabited the southern shore of Port Jackson (Sydney City to Woollahra), their language being a dialect of the Darug, and comprised a number of bands or clans such as the Cadigal and Birribirragal.
ETHAM - Demolished house, previously near Etham Avenue, Darling Point. House built for James Sutherland Mitchell, 1870, part on each of the southern Holt grant and the Chisholm grant, demolished in 1920. The drive to the house was along Etham Avenue - Mitchell's name is commemorated in two streets nearby.
EULALIE STREET, Vaucluse - Nulla Street was originally known as Eulalie Street. Named changed in 1935.