| 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 Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora. There is no written record of the name of the language spoken and currently there are debates as whether the coastal peoples spoke a separate language "Eora" or whether this was actually a dialect of the Dharug language. Remnant bushland in places like Blackwattle Bay retain elements of traditional plant, bird and animal life, including fish and rock oysters.
With the invasion of the Sydney region, the Cadigal and Wangal people were decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today. All cities include many immigrants in their population. Aboriginal people from across the state have been attracted to suburbs such as Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle, Glebe and Redfern since the 1930s. Changes in government legislation in the 1960s provided freedom of movement enabling more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney.
(Information sourced from Anita Heiss, "Aboriginal People and Place", Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani )
In 1809 Colonel William Patterson granted 30 acres of land to Patrick Walsh, a convict who arrived from Ireland in 1801. This area encompassed today’s Potts Point. Potts Point, became known as Paddy's Point, due to its association with Patrick Walsh. In 1810, after the arrival of Governor Macquarie it was reported that all Grants or Orders of Occupancy of Land given by Colonel Patterson would be cancelled and Patrick Walsh waited to be informed if the land he held was to be given up. Patrick Walsh occupied the land at Paddy's Point (Potts Point) until the early 1820s during which time he cleared part of the land and erected fences and a hut.
In 1822 Patrick Walsh’s land grant was revoked and the land granted to Mr Drennan. Governor Macquarie had built huts for the Aboriginals at Paddy’s Point and requested the successor of Mr Drennan to let him have the land back again in exchange for other land, as he was interested in what could be done in the way of "civilising the adult natives" who still remained on the point. The land was given back and besides building more huts for the local Aboriginal population, Macquarie provided a fishing boat, fishing tackle and salt and casks to salt their fish with, and so established the Cove as a native village. He gave the village the name of Elizabeth Town, in honour of his wife.
The Aborigines had disappeared from the area after the departure of their Patron Governor Macquarie and his successor, Governor Brisbane, decided on Potts Point as the site for an asylum. Nothing came of this plan and after the departure of Brisbane, Elizabeth Town was granted to important public servants in the Colony who were encouraged to build grand villas.
One of the first of these land grants was made to Sir John Wyle Judge Advocate in 1822 who was Director of the Bank of NSW. The grant was for eleven acres and was situated at the entrance end of Potts Point. The largest of the grants was made to Alexander Macleay, then Colonial Secretary, who received 54 acres in 1826 from Governor Darling. This land grant stretched from the present Macleay Street down to the water’s edge.
By 1831 seventeen grants of land had been made on Woolloomooloo Hill to a selection of the most politically and economically powerful men in the colony. The purpose of the grants was to establish a stylish area of housing, and for this reason there were certain provisos on them. Residences were to be erected within three years, the house was to cost in excess of £1,000 and had to face Government House across the bay.
The final name of the area Potts Point comes form its association with Joseph Hyde Potts, a Clerk with the Bank of NSW, who was appointed Accountant to the Bank of New South Wales and purchased six and a half acres.
Major subdivisions of Macleay’s Estate included the Elizabeth Bay Estate, 1865 allotments on Macleay Street, Elizabeth Bay Road and Roslyn Gardens, Macleay’s Estate 1882 (Billyard Avenue, Onslow Avenue) and Elizabeth Bay House 1927 and 1934, (Onslow Place).
In 1891 the Municipal Council of Sydney, decided to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria by naming the Junction of Victoria Street, Darlinghurst Road and upper William Street as Queen’s Cross. Eight years later the City Council decided to remove duplications of names in the city area. Queens Square, in Macquarie Street, named at the time of Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1888, clearly had precedence, so Queens Cross became Kings Cross, in line with the gender of the ruling monarch.
West of Macleay Street, the Challis Estate 1889, and various smaller subdivisions along Victoria Street represent the earliest layer of intensive residential development. Subdivision of the Mansion Estates occurred in the early twentieth century with Tusculum 1901, Campbell Lodge 1910, Grantham Estate, 1922 and Orwell House 1921. Many of the grand houses of the period remained until the 1930s when many were replaced by flat buildings. A further group were demolished in the 1960s such that only two of the original grand villas remain today (Rockwall and Tusculum).
The spread of flats in the 1920s and 30s was one of the most marked developments in Sydney housing. It was accompanied by large population increases in the municipalities it affected. Flats were the antithesis of suburbia and nowhere was that more evident than in Kings Cross. . William Street was again widened in the 1930s to relieve the traffic pressure. The idea of a tunnel, making a direct route from St. Mary’s Cathedral to the junction of New South Head and Beach Roads was put forward but never realised.
One of the biggest war-time construction operations was the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island. The growing naval strength and expansionist policy of Japan in the late 1930s led to a request from the Admiralty in 1938 that a graving dock be built in Sydney. Work began in July 1940 but was not finished until early 1945. Sydney Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board reclaimed 33 acres of the sea bed between Potts Point and the southern shore of Garden Island.
During the 20th century the area evolved into a bohemian enclave populated with Sydney’s artists, writers and other like minded individuals. The Americanization of the Cross, the growth of night clubs and strip clubs, black market trading and rampant prostitution, dates largely from the second World War. The unique character of this area was all but lost by the 1960s as the American soldiers and sailors on "rest and recreation" leave in Australia during WWII and the Vietnam War sowed the seeds of its present character. The area became home to Sydney’s sex industry, was populated with gambling venues and was notorious during the 1980s for its stories of corruption and underworld crime. Recently the sex industry has started to move to the suburbs and the Casino in Pyrmont has removed much of the gambling activity.
In 1969 a roadway linking William Street and Bayswater Road via a tunnel under Victoria Street was constructed. A total of 118 properties were involved in the acquisition and many of the landmarks of the Cross disappeared forever. On 15 December 1975, the Premier of New South Wales, Tom Lewis, officially opened the Kings Cross tunnel.
During the 1970s Potts Point became the focus of the green bans over development plans for Victoria Street which were lodged in October 1971. Many residents on the city side of the street had already moved out, as the principal developer, Frank Theeman’s, Victoria Point Pty. Ltd., offered them favourable terms. Those who wanted to retain the street’s historic buildings for low and middle income earners were not prepared to do so. The New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation indicated that it would block demolition of the buildings with a green ban and hosts of other sympathisers engaged in a protracted battle with the developers. The battle waged on until 1976 when a fifth plan which called for restoration of 22 of the 32 houses on the building site with a 10 storey complex behind them was approved, and the "green bans" lifted.
The late twentieth century saw increasing property prices in Potts Point and a revived interest in the 1920s and 1930s Art Deco buildings.
The Kings Cross / Potts Point precinct is listed on the Australian Heritage Commission Register because it is the only place in Australia with Art Deco development of that scale and in such a high concentration. |
