Freshwater is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

of northern

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, in the state of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Freshwater is located north-east of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

, in the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

Northern Beaches Council The Northern Beaches Council is a local government area located in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on 12 May 2016 after the amalgamation of Manly, Pittwater and Warringa ...

and is part of the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the entra ...

region.

History

Aboriginal culture

The area was once fished and utilised by overlapping clans of the Garigal people to the north and the Gayamaygal to the south, and evidence of their habitation remains today in the form of the

indigenous Australian art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving ...

such as rock engravings, open campsites, and rock shelters.

European settlement

The first Crown grant of land in the area was to Thomas Bruin on 27 September 1815, and consisted of 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 Curl Curl is a suburb of northern Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. It is part of the Northern Beaches region. Loca ...

Lagoon (now named Manly Lagoon) was offered for sale in August 1886.

History of the suburb name

The Harbord Estate was named to honor the wife of New South Wales Governor

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...

(gov. 1885–90). Before her marriage, Lady Carrington was the Honorable Cecilia Margaret Harbord. For many years, the beach and the district behind it was known as Freshwater which was probably named after the stream of fresh water that ran down to the beach (now Oceanview Road). 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 the school as Freshwater Public School. Pressure was then directed towards renaming the post office. The

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a Ministry (government department), ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having ...

finally accepted the views of those who wanted a residential image and Freshwater officially became Harbord on 1 September 1923. ''Freshwater Bay'' Post Office opened on 20 April 1909 and was renamed ''Freshwater'' in 1912. In 2003 the Harbord Chamber of Commerce submitted a request to

Warringah Council Warringah Council was a local government area in the northern beaches region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed on 7 March 1906 as the Warringah Shire Council, and became "Warringah Council" in 1993. In 19 ...

to support an application to the

Geographical Names Board of New South Wales The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, a statutory authority of the Department of Customer Service in the Government of New South Wales, is the official body for naming and recording details of places and geographical names in the sta ...

to rename the suburb of Harbord to Freshwater. In public consultation 774 voted in favour and 161 voted against with the results recorded in council minutes on 8 March 2005. The suburb of Harbord was officially named Freshwater on 12 January 2008.

Council

Along with all the suburbs of the Northern Beaches, Freshwater became part of the

on 12 May 2016. This followed the amalgamation of Manly,

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Ce ...

and

Warringah Warringah is a name taken from the local Aboriginal word for Middle Harbour, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It may refer to: *Division of Warringah, an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives created in 1922 *Electoral ...

Councils.

Australian home of surfing

In December 1914,

Duke Kahanamoku Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku (August 24, 1890 – January 22, 1968) was a Hawaiian competition swimmer who popularized the sport of surfing. A Native Hawaiian, he was born to a minor noble family less than three years before th ...

, the world sprint swimming champion, was touring

. He selected timber from a

firm to fashion a board modelled on those used in his native

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, and gave a demonstration to the press of surf board riding at

Freshwater Beach Freshwater Beach is a beach located in Freshwater, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Freshwater Beach is the first beach north of Manly, New South Wales, on the Peninsula. The beach is flanked by a headland at each end and can pro ...

on Thursday 24 December. It was the second recorded time that anyone had surfed the clean waves beyond the break in Australian waters using this Hawaiian-style surfing technique. The first known surf board rider was Manly local Tommy Walker who rode a board at the 1912 Freshwater surf carnival. Dukes_Day_2015_surfboard

It was so popular that a second spur of the moment demonstration was given on a Sunday in January 1915 at Dee Why beach. 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 on display in the

Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club The Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club, established in 1908, is located at Freshwater Beach in Australia. It has become a large volunteer organization with strong community bonds. The club was founded by a push from government to foster safer ...

since 1952. There is now a statue of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku on the headland at Freshwater. The statue was sculpted by artist Barry Donohoo, one of the last works by the artist before his death. In 2012,

in partnership with Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club signed a Goodwill Beach City Agreement with the coastal community of

Waikiki Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. The ceremony came as part of an annual celebration of

, who introduced surfing to Australia at Freshwater beach in 1915. The signing by Warringah Mayor, Michael Regan and Honolulu Mayor, Peter Carlisle was a celebration and strengthening of historic ties between the two regions.

Population

At the 2016 census, there were 8,866 residents in Freshwater. 66.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were England 8.9%, New Zealand 2.7%, Brazil 1.3%, United States of America 1.2% and South Africa 1.2%. 82.3% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Portuguese 1.5% and Italian 1.3%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 38.5%, Catholic 25.2% and Anglican 15.5%. The median weekly household income of $2,268 was higher than the national median of $1,438. 51.0% of occupied private dwellings were flats or apartments, 44.3% were separate houses and 4.3% were semi-detached. The median monthly mortgage payment was $2,600.

Schools

Freshwater is home to 2 primary education schools. Harbord Public School caters for students from years K-6 was established in 1912 and St John the Baptist Catholic School. In neighbouring suburb

Freshwater Senior Campus The Freshwater Senior Campus (known locally as ''Freshie'') of Northern Beaches Secondary College is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive senior secondary day school, located in Curl Curl, a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Syd ...

which is part of Northern Beaches Secondary College, caters for year 11 and 12 students.

Landmarks

is between

and Queenscliff and lies on the Manly to

Curl Curl Beach Curl Curl is a suburb of northern Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. It is part of the Northern Beaches regio ...

walk. The Harbord Beach Hotel, which opened in 1928, is 200 metres from the beach and is known to locals as the "Harbord Hilton", due to its previous state of disrepair prior to renovations.Harbord Diggers
an RSL club, used to have bowling greens and views of the ocean, although recently was re-developed by the Mounties Group into a largely expensive over 55s seniors living complex with an RSL club underneath with limited views.

Twin/sister cities

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

References

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/manly-daily/gamble-breaux-from-rhom-reveals-sydney-summers-with-a-rhos/news-story/f1afe6c92b9726f22bf9ac1132848e51

External links

Harbord Diggers
{{Sydney Northern Beaches suburbs Suburbs of Sydney Beaches of New South Wales Northern Beaches Council