Sydney Suburbs: Berowra, Berrilee

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Berowra 

Location:

38 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Hornsby Shire. Berowra is south-east of the suburbs of Berowra Heights and east of Berowra Waters.

Name origin:

Berowra is an Aboriginal word that means place of many winds. The Berowra area has many Aboriginal carvings and is the site of the world’s oldest living amphibian fossil.

About:

• Population in 2011: 4,623

• Berowra contains large areas of recent suburban expansion.

• Products/industries of the area include fishing and oyster farming from the Hawkesbury River area. There are also retail, service and various small industries including hobby farming, citrus fruit orchards, poultry farming, horticulture, and tourism.

• The first land owner in Berowra was Mary Wall, whose land was gazetted in 1879. Under the terms of her grant, she had to be at the property and work it at least once per week. So, once a week, she walked from Sydney to Berowra at night, worked the next day on her land, then walked back to Sydney. Onya Mary.

Gallery:

Berowra Station, steam train on the right.

Berowra Village shopping centre, 1971

“The Squirt”, a railmotor used before the electrification of the line, at Berowra Railway Station

Off to Berowra Creek, now known as Berowra waters, c 1922

Berowra Station, 1960. The train shown were the standard trains of those days and were known as “Red Rattlers" because they were red and because . . . 

The punt, Berowra Waters, 1964.

Years 1, 2 and 3, Berowra Public School, 1929

Berowra Public School, Class 1, 2 & 3, 1936

Berowra Public School, Classes 4, 5 and 6, 1937

Berowra Waters, 2012

Daytrippers to Berowra Waters, 1920’s

Caravanning, Berowra, 1940

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Berrilee

Location:

Berrilee is a semi-rural suburb about five kilometres west of Berowra

Name origin:

The name Berrilee goes back to 1840, and is taken from a Dharug word, 'burra', probably meaning 'place of kangaroos'. 

There are alternative origin explanations:

• that the village was named for the local Aboriginal word for pig. Pigs were kept by some of the early European settlers in the area and the Aboriginals were said to have called sows and piglets 'Birra Birra', which later became Berrilee;

• that the name is derived from an Aboriginal word 'Buraillee' possibly having something to do with mouth or food

About:

• Population 2011: 235

• Berrilee was also known as Calabash in the early 1900’s, meaning a gourd, or the dried, hollow shell of the calabash (tree), used as a vessel.