Wahroonga is a suburb in the Upper North Shore of Sydney, 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, 18 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of

Ku-ring-gai Council Ku-ring-gai Council is a local government area in Northern Sydney ( Upper North Shore), in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area is named after the Guringai Aboriginal people who were thought to be the traditional owners of the are ...

and Hornsby Shire. North Wahroonga is an adjacent separate suburb of the same postcode .

History

Wahroonga is an

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

word meaning ''our home'', probably from the Kuringgai language group. In the early days of the British colonisation of

, the main activity was cutting down the tall trees which grew there. Wahroonga was first colonised by the British in 1822 by Thomas Hyndes, a convict who became a wealthy landowner. Hyndes's land was later acquired by John Brown, a merchant and timber-getter. After Brown had cleared the land of timber, he planted orchards. Later, Ada, Lucinda and Roland Avenues were named after three of his children. His name is in Browns Road, Browns Field and Browns Waterhole on the

Lane Cove River The Lane Cove River, a northern tributary of the Parramatta River, is a tide-dominated, drowned valley estuary west of Sydney Harbour, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The river is a tributary of the Parramatta River, winding t ...

. The last member of the Brown family was Gertrude Mary Appleton, who died in 2008 at the age of ninety-three. She is buried in the cemetery of St John the Baptist Church, Gordon. After the North Shore railway line was opened in 1890 it became a popular place for wealthy businessmen to build out-of-town residences with large gardens. Wahroonga Post Office opened on 15 October 1896. Much of this development occurred in the 1920s and 1930s.

Housing

Wahroonga is known for its tree-lined, shady streets and well maintained gardens. Notable streets include Water Street, Burns Road, Iloura Avenue and Billyard Avenue.

Heritage listings

Wahroonga has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * 9 Highlands Avenue: ''Highlands'' * 62 Boundary Road: ''Jack House'', Wahroonga * 69-71 Clissold Road: Rose Seidler House * 61-65 Coonanbarra Road:

St John's Uniting Church, Wahroonga St John's Uniting Church is a heritage-listed Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church (building), church located at Coonanbarra Road in the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga, New South Wales, Wahroonga in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government ar ...

* 16 Fox Valley Road: ''Purulia'', Wahroonga * 69 Junction Road: Evatt House * North Shore railway: Wahroonga railway station * 1526 Pacific Highway: ''Mahratta'', Wahroonga * 1678 Pacific Highway and Woonona Avenue: Wahroonga Reservoir * 23 Roland Avenue: Simpson-Lee House I * 14 Woonona Avenue: ''The Briars'', Wahroonga ''Highlands'', in Highlands Avenue, is a timber house designed by John Horbury Hunt and built in 1891 for Alfred Hordern. Hunt was a Canadian architect who used the Arts and Crafts style and the Shingle Style popular in North America. ''Highlands'' is listed on the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Herita ...

and was listed on the (now defunct)

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

. Architect William Hardy Wilson designed and built his own home, ''Purulia'', on Fox Valley Road. Built in 1913, the home is in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

style and became, according to some observers, a prototype for North Shore homes. It is listed on the Register of the National Estate. Berith Park, in Billyard Avenue, was designed by F. Ernest Stowe for Alfred Smith, who bought the land in 1897. The house was finished circa 1909. ''Westholme'', in Water Street, was designed by Howard Joseland in the Arts and Crafts style for John Bennett, one of the pioneer developers of Wahroonga. Bennett came from England but migrated to Australia with his wife and acquired property at Wahroonga in 1893. Westholme was built in 1894. Another house was added at the other end of the block, but this was demolished in 1991 after changing hands several times. ''The Gatehouse'', in Water Street, was originally part of the John Williams Hospital. The hospital also includes the Federation mansion ''Rippon Grange'', designed by Howard Joseland. ''The Gatehouse'' is listed on the local government heritage register. ''Craignairn'', at the corner of Burns Road and Cleveland Street, was also designed in the Arts and Crafts style by Howard Joseland. The client was Walter Strang. Joseland also built his own home ''Malvern'' two doors away from the Strang home in Burns Road. An example of the Federation Bungalow style, it has been described as "unpretentious and solidly comfortable." Between ''Craignairn'' and ''Malvern'' in Burns Road, Joseland also built ''Coolabah'', another fine Federation Bungalow example. ''The Briars'', in Woonona Avenue, is built on land that was granted to John Hughes in 1842, and later divided into four estates. Jessie Edith Balcombe built ''The Briars'' on one of these estates in 1895. It is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register. The Rose Seidler House, in Clissold Road, built by Harry Seidler between 1948 and 1950, was one of the first examples of modern residential architecture in Australia.

Commercial areas

The main shopping and commercial area is the Wahroonga Village located adjacent to the west side of the railway station. It has a variety of stores including several cafes, restaurants, health stores and boutiques as well as an IGA supermarket. The smaller commercial centres are the Hampden Avenue shopping strip in east Wahroonga, and Fox Valley Shopping Centre on Fox Valley Road in south west Wahroonga. There is also a commercial area at the intersection of Fox Valley Road and The Comenarra Parkway which contains the Sydney Adventist Hospital,

Globalstar Globalstar, Inc. is an American satellite communications company that operates a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for satellite phone and low-speed data communications. The Globalstar second-generation constellation consists of 24 lo ...

's Australian office, and the offices of the

South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists The South Pacific Division (SPD) of Seventh-day Adventists is a sub-entity of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which oversees the Church's work in the South Pacific nations of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the isl ...

Transport

Wahroonga railway station is on the

North Shore & Western Line The North Shore & Western Line (numbered T1, coloured orange) is a commuter rail line operated by Sydney Trains in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It serves the North Shore, parts of the Inner West and Western Suburbs. It was previously ...

of the

Sydney Trains Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger Railways in Sydney, rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Railways in Sydney, network is a hybrid urban rail, urban-suburban rail system with a central un ...

network, with frequent rail services to Central and Hornsby. Wahroonga is the Sydney end of the M1 Motorway to Newcastle. The Pacific Highway connects Wahroonga by road with the rest of the

North Shore North Shore or Northshore may refer to: Geographic features Australia *North Shore (Sydney), a suburban region of Sydney **Electoral district of North Shore **North Shore railway line, Sydney *Noosa North Shore, Queensland * North Shore, New So ...

and

Pennant Hills Road Pennant Hills Road, a section of Cumberland Highway, is a major urban highway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The road links the suburb of Wahroonga in the northeast, to the major central business district of Parramatta in the ...

’s northern end begins in Wahroonga and intersects the M1 Motorway at Pearce's Corner. The Comenarra Parkway is a minor arterial road that stretches from Thornleigh to West Pymble via Wahroonga and South Turramurra. Transdev NSW’s Upper North Shore services provide sporadic bus services to parts of Wahroonga.

Parks

Wahroonga Park is located to the north-east of the railway station, and features a significant number of well established introduced trees, a rose garden and a children's playground. The Glade, located near Abbotsleigh, has an oval, two tennis courts, a half basketball court and cricket nets. There is also a small

Blue Gum High Forest The Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion is a wet sclerophyll forest found in the northern parts of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It has been classified as critically endangered, under the New South Wales government's ''Thre ...

, next to the tennis courts. Browns Field is a small sporting oval, formerly a historic logging area. Sir Robert Menzies Park is a small park located within Fox Valley.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, s ...

is located north of Wahroonga. It is the second oldest national park in Australia and is very popular, offering many walking tracks, picnic spots and Aboriginal sites with rock carvings. The park has a large proportion of the known Aboriginal sites in the Sydney area.

Schools

Primary: *

Wahroonga Public School , motto_translation = To the highest , established = 26 May 1944 , type = Public and comprehensive primary school , principal = Allison Filipic , city = Sydney , state = New South Wales , country = Australia , ca ...

* Waitara Public School * Prouille Catholic Primary School * Wahroonga Preparatory School * St Lucy's School for children with disabilities Secondary: *

St Leo's Catholic College , motto_translation = God's Law In The Heart , established = , founder = Congregation of Christian Brothers , type = Independent systemic secondary day school , educational_authority = New South Wales Department of Education , re ...

* St Edmund's School for students with vision impairment and other special needs K-12: * Knox Grammar School * Abbotsleigh School for Girls * Wahroonga Adventist School

Gallery

Image:(1)The Briars in Wahroonga-1.jpg, The Briars File:Craignairn.JPG, Craignairn heritage-listed home, Burns Road Image:RipponGrange.JPG, Rippon Grange, heritage-listed mansion, Water Street File:RoseSeidlerHouseSulmanPrize.jpg, ''Rose Seidler House'', Clissold Road File:(1)Knox Grammar Preparatory School Wahroonga.jpg, Knox Grammar Preparatory School Image:(1)St Lucys School.jpg, St Lucy's School Image:Prouille_School_Wahroonga.jpg, Prouille School Image:St_Edmunds_School_Wahroonga.jpg, St Edmund's School Image:(1)St_Leos_Catholic_College_Wahroonga-1.jpg, St Leo's Catholic College

Population

Demographics

According to the , there were 17,371 residents in Wahroonga. 60.4% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were England 5.6%, China 5.6%, South Africa 2.6%, India 2.2% and New Zealand 1.9%. 71.7% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

(6.7%),

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

(3.1%),

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

(1.7%), Persian (1.2%) and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

(1.1%). The most common responses for religion in Wahroonga were No Religion 27.6%, Catholic 21.9% and Anglican 18.8%.

Notable residents

Halse Rogers Arnott Halse Rogers Arnott (1879May, 1961) was an Australian medical practitioner, company director and chairman of Arnott's. Family and early life Arnott was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, the youngest son of William Arnott (1827–1901) ...

, medical practitioner,

company director A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

and chairman of Arnott's, lived on Burns Road * Dorothy ('Dot') Butler, bushwalker, mountaineer, and conservationist, lived in Boundary Road * David Campese, former Wallaby *

Grace Cossington Smith Grace Cossington Smith (20 April 189220 December 1984) was an Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting in Australia and was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to her home country. Examples of her work are held by every m ...

, Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting, attended Abbotsleigh School * Clive Evatt, politician and barrister *

Nicholas Fitzgerald Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and it ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

player for the Brisbane Roar *

Martin Flood Martin Flood is an Australian quiz show contestant who competed and won on the show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'', and participated in the short-lived program '' The Master''. Flood was an I.T. analyst for Westpac bank at the time of winning ...

, Australian quiz champion *

Adam Garcia Adam Gabriel Garcia (born 1 June 1973) is an Australian stage, television, and film actor who is best known for lead roles in musicals such as '' Saturday Night Fever'' and ''Kiss Me, Kate''. He is also a trained tap dancer and singer. Garcia ha ...

, actor *

Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician. In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his sign ...

, frontman of 1980s band Midnight Oil and Member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Austra ...

for Kingsford Smith from 2004 to 2013 was born and raised here. *

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocal ...

, actor, was educated by members of the

Congregation of Christian Brothers The Congregation of Christian Brothers ( la, Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. Their first school was opened in Waterford, Irela ...

during his high school years *

Stuart Inder Stuart Gerald Inder, (7 November 1926 – 30 January 2015) was an Australian journalist, publisher, and editor. He specialized in the news and current events of the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea for more than sixty years. Life Stuart I ...

, journalist, editor and specialist in

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of ...

affairs *

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...

, actor * Howard Joseland, architect, responsible for many of Wahroonga's finest early homes. * Richard Makinson, physicist *

Ollie McGill Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver, Olive, Olympia, Olga or Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly and Olly. People Given name * Ollie Marie Adams (1925–1998), American gospel and R&B singer * Olli ...

, keyboardist and backing vocalist for The Cat Empire *

Deborah Schofield Deborah Schofield is an Australian academic in the Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University where she is the director of the Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine (GenIMPACT) Background Schofield was born in 1965 in Wahroonga ...

, director of the Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine,

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third univer ...

* William Hardy Wilson, architect, artist and author * Ellyse Perry, Australian dual-international footballer and cricketer * Natalie Tobin, association footballer player for

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was ...

* John Toohey, founder of Tooheys Brewery and politician, lived at Innisfail, now part of Knox Grammar School * William Windeyer, justice of the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court ...

and decorated soldier * Harry Wolstenholme,

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solici ...

and amateur

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

lived in Wahroonga

References

External links

* CC-By-SA">Creative_Commons_license.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA/nowiki>
Information on Wahroonga
at Ku-ring-gai council's website
Rose Seidler House

Heritage Homes of Wahroonga
*Rover Crews - for young people aged 18–25 - at nearb
Turramurra

Kissing Point
* CC-By-SA">Creative_Commons_license.html" ;"title="/nowiki> CC-By-SA/nowiki> {{Authority control Wahroonga, New South Wales"> Suburbs of Sydney">Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA/nowiki> {{Authority control Wahroonga, New South Wales"> Suburbs of Sydney 1822 establishments in Australia Populated places established in 1822