Harbord, New South Wales

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Harbord is a suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located between Curl Curl and Queenscliff beaches and is part of the Warringah local government area. It is popular stopping point on the Manly to Curl Curl walk, and hosts Freshwater Beach, a beach with a good family-friendly atmosphere.

Its attractions include a hotel/pub affectionately known by locals as the “Harbord Hilton”, due to its previous state of dis-repair but which has recently been modernised and is a mere 200 metres walk from the beach; the Harbord Diggers, a Leagues club with bowling greens and glorious views of the ocean in daytime; and a recently opened restaurant Pilu at Freshwater which was awarded two hats in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2006.

[edit] Australian Home of Surfing

In December 1914, Duke Kahanamoku, the world sprint swimming champion, was touring Australia. He selected timber from a Sydney firm to fashion a board modelled on those used in his native Hawaii, and during a demonstration to the press, introduced surf board riding to Australia at Freshwater Beach on Thursday 24 December. It was the first recorded time that anyone had surfed the clean waves beyond the break in this Hawaiian-style surfing.

It was so popular that a second spur of the moment demonstration was given on a Sunday in January 1915. Duke topped the performance by taking a local young girl, Isabel Letham on the board with him to surf the waves. Isabel went on to become a pioneer of Australian surfing.

The board has been kept in a display in the Freshwater Surf Club since 1952.

[edit] History

The area was once home to the Kuring-gai people and evidence of their habitation remains today in the form of rock engravings, open campsites, and rock shelters.

The first Crown grant of land in the Harbord area was to Thomas Bruin on 27 September 1815 and consisted of fifty acres directly opposite the beach. The Manly Land Company subdivided and named the property Freshwater Estate in December 1884. In 1886 W M Gordon surveyed the subdivision named Harbord Estate. The land, divided into two sections, north and south of Curl Curl Lagoon (now named Manly Lagoon) was offered for sale in August 1886. The name Harbord was given in honour of the sister of Lady Carrington, the Honourable Judith Harbord.

For many years, the beach and the district behind it was known as Freshwater. However, some time after the naming of Harbord Estate, a number of residents began to believe that the holiday image of Freshwater should be upgraded by a name change to Harbord. The change of name attracted much controversy and debate and occasionally became quite heated. When the first local district school was built in 1912, a petition was sent to the Minister of Education requesting it should be called Harbord Public School. The Minister declined and officially opened it Freshwater Public School. Pressure was then directed towards renaming the post office. The Postmaster-General finally accepted the views of those who wanted a residential image and Freshwater officially became Harbord on 1 September 1923.

In 2003 the Harbord Chamber of Commerce submitted a request to Warringah Council to support an application to the Geographical Names Board to rename the suburb of Harbord to Freshwater. In public consultation 774 voted in favour and 161 voted against. The results were recorded in council minutes on 8 March 2005