Bytes: SYDNEY SUBURBS: CONCORD, CONCORD WEST

CONCORD:

Location:

Concord is a suburb in the inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales. It is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay.

Concord West is a separate suburb, to the north-west.

Name origin:

Concord takes its name from Concord, Massachusetts, in the USA, which was the site of the Battle of Concord, one of the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1778).

It was named after the town in Massachusetts by Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose, who had served there during the American War of Independence.

Some historians believe the Sydney suburb was named Concord to encourage a peaceful attitude between soldiers and settlers.

Battle of Concord

About:

The first land grants in the area were made in 1793.

The original Concord Council was established in 1883. Concord Council amalgamated with Drummoyne Council in 2000 after 117 years of self governance to form the City of Canada Bay.

Concord features Majors Bay Road Shopping Village. It includes several cafes, restaurants, Coles supermarket, post office, medical centre and other commercial enterprises. There is also a small shopping strip on Cabarita Road known as 'Cabarita Junction' and just up the road as you head towards Breakfast point you will find a small cafe and restaurant precinct on the corner of Mortlake Street and Brays Road.

At the 2016 census, there were 14,533 residents in Concord. 62.1% of whom were born in Australia. The most common other countries of birth were Italy 6.4%, China 5.3%, England 2.0%, South Korea 1.8% and India 1.5%.

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Canadian Exiles 1840 monument, Bayview Park. Unveiled by the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada, May 1970

The monument commemorates the French Canadian Exiles.

In 1837 and 1838 there were revolts in Lower Canada (now known as Quebec) by French Canadian Patriots who held a number of grievances against British government rule, most notably the need for greater participation in government and an increase in the legislative power of the lower house. Following the crushing of the revolts some of the rebels were executed while others were sentenced to transportation.

In 1840 the ship Buffalo transported 91 English speaking rebels to Tasmania and 58 French speaking Canadians to New South Wales. They were sent to the Longbottom Stockade a less severe prison however conditions were still harsh for the convicts. At first there was no bedding while food and clothing was of poor quality. Work included breaking stones for the construction of Parramatta Road. Many of them collected oyster shells along the shores of Parramatta River to be be made into lime, a commodity then in high demand for building purposes.

In 1842 the good behaviour of the French Canadians led to their being granted a ticket-of-leave which allowed them to work outside the Stockade. They found work in the colony as clerks, gardeners, builders and in saw milling. Some worked in the construction of the Victoria Barracks in Paddington. Free pardons were granted to the French Canadians between November 1843 and February 1844.

Eventually all but three of the Canadian Exiles returned to Canada: two died while one, Joseph Marceau, married a local women and settled at Dapto. Longbottom Stockade was located in the vicinity of present day Concord Oval, St Luke`s Park and Cintra Park.

Bayview Park wharf

Bayview Park ferry wharf is a commuter wharf located in the Sydney suburb of Concord, New South Wales, on Hen and Chicken Bay. It is situated adjacent the namesake Bayview Park reserve, and upon the site of the historical Burwood ferry wharf, where Canadian exiles from the 19th century Lower Canada Rebellion landed in Sydney. Services to the wharf were decommissioned by Sydney Ferries in October 2013, alongside Balmain West after patronage declined to a weekly average of 28 passengers. No operators currently service the wharf, although the structure still remains, with plans to return private ferry services to the wharf as part of a redevelopment project for a factory in eastern Concord.

Concord, view from Hen and Chicken Bay

No one knows, nowadays, how Hen and Chicken Bay got its name. It is surmised that Captain Hunter’s chart-making boat party in February 1788 gave it that name as an interim identification because two sandstone boulders, prominent on shore nears its entrance, had a fancied resemblance to the shape of a hen and a chicken. This would be an analogy with the naming of Sow and Pigs Reef in the Lower Harbour and Long Nose Point in Birchgrove.

Aerial view of Concord

Concord Repatriation General Hospital, commonly referred to as Concord Hospital, is a major hospital in Sydney, on Hospital Road in Concord.

Prior to the Second World War, the 16-hectare (40-acre) Yaralla Estate on which the hospital is built belonged to philanthropist Thomas Walker and subsequently his daughter Dame Eadith Walker. A small hospital had already been established on the site, known as the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital. Following the death of Dame Eadith in 1937, the property was bequeathed to the Crown for development as a public hospital.

Dame Eadith Campbell Walker (1861 - 1937)

The current hospital was commissioned in 1939 as a general hospital for the Australian Army and opened on 11 March 1941. When completed in 1942, the 2,000-bed Yaralla Military Hospital was the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere. The main hospital building was one of the tallest buildings in Sydney when completed.

Following the war, the hospital became a repatriation hospital for returned servicemen under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth government, with a change in name to Repatriation General Hospital, Concord. In 1963 it became a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney.

Recognising the growing community need, the hospital began providing care for general community patients in 1974, including the opening of an emergency department in 1977. In 1993, the hospital was transferred to the Central Sydney Area Health Service of the New South Wales Department of Health as a public hospital and renamed to the current Concord Repatriation General Hospital.

Although it is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the hospital retains a historical significance to the veterans community in New South Wales. A number of memorials maintain these links, including:

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur memorial, a stained-glass window adjacent to the main entrance of the hospital

Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway and memorial rose garden, forming the major part of the designated route for commuting to/from Rhodes railway station.

Anzac Day remembrance services

Stained Glass window of AHS Centaur at the hospital entrance.

Repatriation General Hospital, AMF Wing, Concord 1940s

Yaralla

Yaralla was the home of Eadith Walker and her father Thomas. The estate is historically significant as one of the last large nineteenth-century estates remaining in metropolitan Sydney.

In the 1860s, Thomas Walker commissioned the architect Edmund Blacket to design a home on the shores of the Parramatta River. This Victorian Italianate mansion became the Walker family home. From 1893 to 1899, Eadith Walker built extensions that were designed by the architect John Sulman. The entire estate is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.

Dame Eadith Walker, who never married, died at Yaralla in 1937 after a long career devoting her life to the Australian Red Cross and a wide range of other philanthropic organisations.

Yaralla House has provided high-level care for people with HIV-associated neurological conditions since 1998.

The grounds are open to the public.

Horse drawn vehicle in front of Stables, Yaralla estate, Concord West c1910

Isaac Nichols

One of Concord’s first settlers was Isaac Nichols. He was born in England in 1770 and was found guilty of stealing in 1790 and sentenced to seven years transportation, arriving in New South Wales in 1791. When his sentence expired, his diligence was rewarded with a pardon and 20 hectares of land in Concord, where he established a farm. He was later granted a further 20 hectares adjoining the original land, where he established an orchard and raised cattle to supply government stores. This land is later became the site of Concord’s grand Yaralla Estate. Isaac went on to become a prominent Sydney citizen, businessman, hotelier, and shipbuilder. Interestingly, Isaac is the first person recorded to have commemorated Anniversary Day (now called Australia Day) on 26 January in 1817.

Cabarita Swimming Centre

in the early 1920s, Concord Council netted off an area along the Parramatta River at the northern end of Cabarita Park for swimming use. It later began building a community pool during the Depression years of the 1930s. On 27 November, 1937, the Concord-Cabarita Coronation Baths were officially opened. After further development in recent years, the baths are now known as the Cabarita Swimming Centre.

Opening of the Concord-Cabarita Coronation Baths, 1937

CONCORD WEST:

Location:

Concord West is a suburb on the periphery of Sydney's inner-west, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Concord West is located 16 km west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Concord is a separate suburb, to the east.

Concord West is bordered on the west by Rhodes, Liberty Grove and Homebush Bay; to the south by North Strathfield and Homebush; and to the east by Concord, Breakfast Point, Cabarita and Mortlake. It shares the postcode of 2138 with Rhodes.

Name origin:

See entry for Concord above.

About:

Concord West was under the jurisdiction of Concord Council, until it amalgamated with Drummoyne Council in 2000 to form the City of Canada Bay.

According to the 2016 census, there were 5,914 residents in Concord West.

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