Greendale is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, in the state of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

History

Greendale was originally home to the Mulgoa tribe of the

Darug people The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...

. The first British explorer to visit the area was botanist

George Caley George Caley (10 June 1770 – 23 May 1829) was an English botanist and explorer, active in Australia for the majority of his career. Early life Caley was born in Craven District, Craven, Yorkshire, England, the son of a horse-dealer. He was ed ...

in 1800. A number of land grants were made in the area in 1811, one of which was to a Mary Birch who named her property ''Greendale''. Another 1811 grant was made to Ellis Bent who was the colony's judge-advocate. Bents Basin, a recreational area on the Nepean River at Greendale is named after him. The land was mainly used for wheat farming until 1861 when wheat rust infected the entire crop. The local farmers tried other crops unsuccessfully and gradually moved to other pastoral areas, effectively killing off the town that had grown up in the area. By 1929, the bakery, post office, school and churches had all closed down. A

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

in 1939 destroyed virtually all the buildings left in the town. Today, even though the suburb has a population of a few hundred, there is no town centre.

References

Suburbs of Sydney City of Liverpool (New South Wales) {{Sydney-geo-stub