Homebush, New South Wales

Homebush is a suburb in the Inner West^[2] of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Strathfield. Homebush is located south of Homebush Bay, an inlet of the Parramatta River. and north Homebush West.

History

The first name of settlement at what is today called Homebush was "Liberty Plains". This was a group of grants given to the Colony's first free settlers, who came on the ship "Bellona", in 1793. Most of the original settlers soon departed for agriculturally more attractive places, like the Hawkesbury. One of them, Edward Powell, later returned and established there the Half Way House Inn, on Parramatta Road just west of the creek that now bears his name. Later, when the Great Western Railway line came through there, with a station just behind Powell's inn, the name Homebush was borrowed from the nearest large estate, that of D'Arcy Wentworth. A shopping centre by the name of Homebush has since grown around the railway station of that name. There also used to be a Ford factory in Homebush, which manurfactured the Telstar and the Laser. But the factory closed in 1994.

It is commonly thought that the property and house with the name of Homebush was established and named by the Colony's then assistant surgeon D'Arcy Wentworth. Historian Michael Jones who had been commissioned by Stathfield Council to write the history of that Municipality wrote: "Wentworth is popularly credited with having called the area after his 'home in the bush', although Homebush is also a place in Kent".^[3] It is considered unlikely that it was named after the village in Kent as D'Arcy Wentworth was Irish and had no links to the English county.^[4] According to local historian David Patrick ^[5] it wasn’t D'Arcy Wentworth who named Homebush but an earlier grantee on the land – that being the military figure Thomas Laycock. It would appear that after Laycock became mentally ill, following his direct involvement in suppressing the Castle Hill convict rebellion D'Arcy Wentworth became his doctor. It has been reputed that D'Arcy Wentworth either bought the Laycock Homebush Farm from Laycock or, more fancifully, won the property in an unfair game of cards from the ailing Laycock. Wentworth retained Thomas Laycock's name of the property and added to its extent. Homebush once had a very famous racecourse, established by Wentworth.

Village of Homebush

SS Ayrfield, Homebush Bay

Billesdon
Burlington Road

Warwick
Abbotsford Road

The Village of Homebush estate was a section of the Underwood Estate located to the south of the railway. The land had boundaries of The Crescent, Homebush, Beresford, Coventry and Bridge Roads, was subdivided in 1878. Within the estate, Broughton, Abbotsford and Burlington Roads and Rochester and Meredith Streets were also gazetted. In the December of that year, 381 house blocks were auctioned. By the end of the century many large houses and substantial villas had been built. In the 20th century house construction continued and most blocks had been built on by the end of the 1920s.^[6]

Houses

• Billesdon, 104 Burlington Road, was built in 1915 for Stephen Rabone to a design by Rupert Minnett.^[7]
• Broughlea, 82 Abbotsford Road, was built circa 1881 for Horatio Aylward, a solicitor in the firm of Aylward and Wild.^[8]
• Camden Lodge, 102 Burlington Road, was built circa 1917 for Robert Trevethan.^[9]
• Dunkeld (now Edensor), 17–21 Meredith Street, was built circa 1903 for James Pearce (1857–1916), who was the proprietor of the Strathfield Flour Mills.^[10]
• Florenceville, 44 Abbotsford Road, was built in the early 1880s by John Shiply.
• Hawthorn, 78–80 Abbotsford Road, was built circa 1886 for Frederick William Binney to a design by Cyril and Arthur Blacket. Binney was Secretary of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company and the Northern Collieries Association.^[11]
• Ingera (now Inglemere and trading as Darcy's Hotel), 2 Abbotsford Road, was built circa 1894 for William Norton.^[12]
• Rothsay, 72–76 Abbotsford, was built circa 1884 for Samuel Thompson (1821–1910), who was a stockbroker.
• Warwick, 96 Abbotsford Road, was built in the early 1890s in the late Victorian style. It became known as Warwick in 1902 when it was bought by public subscription for Emily Forrester (1842–1917), widow of William Forrester (1842–1901) who had owned Warwick Farm as a private racecourse before he died owning nothing. The Forrester Fund raised £1387 and its committee paid £800 for the Homebush house.^[13] Emily Forrester died at Warwick, Homebush, in 1917.^[14]

Transport

Homebush railway station is the terminus of all stations services on the Airport, Inner West & South Line of the Sydney Trains network. Parramatta Road and the M4 Western Motorway are the main arterial roads passing through the suburb.

Commercial area

Homebush has a small row of shops along Rochester Street, opposite Homebush Public School. These shops extend to The Crescent, oppositeHomebush railway station. Many more shops sprang up along Parramatta Road in the past. However these are mostly now shut or abandoned-looking in common with other parts of Parramatta Road, a condition attributed to increased congestion and lack of parking. At least for the time being car sales yards continue to flourish along Parramatta Road but this main artery through Homebush has now been re-zoned high density by Strathfield Council, such that highrise can be expected to appear all along it in future.

Schools

Homebush Boys High School

Homebush Public School

• Homebush Public School, a government primary school, was established in 1885 on its present site between The Crescent, Rochester Street and Burlington Road. Brick buildings were originally built facing The Crescent in 1897 and Burlington Road in 1916.
• Homebush Boys High School was founded in 1936 and is a comprehensive public high school for boys. Formerly a selective high school until the 1970s, Homebush Boys was regarded as one of the academically best-performing comprehensive schools, and has, in the past, been ranked above selective schools on the Higher School Certificate results.^[15] The school has an enrolment of approximately 1200 students and the students and staff are from diverse backgrounds and many of them live outside the area.

Population

At the 2011 census, there were 6,195 residents in Homebush. The majority of people were born outside of Australia, with the top overseas countries of birth being India 11.8%, China 9.4%, Korea, Republic of (South) 8.1%, Sri Lanka 7.0% and Nepal 2.0%. Most people spoke a language other than English at home. Languages spoken at home included Korean 9.8%, Tamil 9.5%, Mandarin 8.4%, Cantonese 5.7% and Hindi 3.1%. The top religious affiliations were Catholic 21.9%, Hinduism 20.5% and No Religion 15.2%.^[1]

Notable residents

• D'Arcy Wentworth, surgeon
• James Lang, politician
• Thomas Keneally, author of Homebush Boy: A Memoir (1995)
• Fenella Kernebone, arts presenter
• Warren Rodwell, former soldier, university teacher and hostage survivor ^[16]
• Evan Mander-Jones, director of education ^[17]
• Rosa Angela Kirkcaldie, hospital matron and army nurse ^[18]

Gallery

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  Davey Square memorial

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  Homebush Public School

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  Shops, The Crescent

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  Former Homebush Post Office, The Crescent

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  Horse and Jockey Hotel, Parramatta Road

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  Former cinema, Parramatta Road

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Homebush, New South Wales.