CHAPTER 5: A Railway for Parkestown? (1883-1896) Between 1873 and 1880, many negotiations had been carried on by the Government over the building of a railway line to the lllawarra Coast. Several routes through the parish of St George had been suggested, one of them cutting through the “ Wolli Ranges” somewhere around the western boundary of today’s Earlwood. By 1881, however, the Minister for Public Works had decided on the route that the line now follows, and this meant that suburban development, encouraged by the presence of public transport, would take place towards the south of the parish. Earlwood and Canterbury were left as a backwater, a fact which did not please the Aldermen of the new Council at all. The people of Canterbury, spurred on by land speculators who had commenced to buy up vacant blocks of land, held a series of public meetings in 1881 and 1882, with a view to forming a “ Tramway League” Sydney’s tramway system expanded rapidly after the building of the first line in 1879, and the local people saw no reason why their district should not be favoured by a public transport route. Again, several rival routes were suggested, but the one which gained much support was an extension of the line from Newtown to Marrickville (opened 1881), across the Canterbury Estate to the valley of Cup and Saucer Creek, then following the line of today’s Harp Street to Salt Pan Creek. No sooner had this line been suggested, than speculators began to buy up land along the route. Then a railway surveyor named Bell appeared, to survey a “ Loop Line” connecting the lllawarra Line to the Great Southern Line by a branch railway from St Peters, through Marrickville, Nobbs Flat, Parkestown, Moorfields, across Salt Pan Creek to Bankstown and Liverpool. In November 1882, the gentlemen of the Sydney Permanent Freehold Land, Building and Investment Society negotiated with Mrs Jane Ann Tompson and the Hon. Richard Hill for the sale of the 450 acre Undercliffe Estate for £18 000. Two of the Directors of the Society, John Fitzgerald Burns and George Withers, were Members of the Legislative Assembly. The Society also bought parts of the subdivision of Nobbs Flat in June 1883, giving them substantial holdings of property through which Bell’s Line of Railway was to run. No doubt the market gardeners and quarrymen of Parkestown and Nobbs Flat were also very excited about their prospects of making a small profit on their own parcels of land. Joseph Nobbs junior had died on March 15, 1880, leaving his property at Tempe to his family, but making no mention of the Nobbs Flat farm. This resulted in an equity suit in the Supreme Court, and the farm was subdivided to be sold on behalf of Jo se p h ’s children and grandchildren. The family home on lot 4 went to F. J. Barker, but lots 6 and 12 went to William James Nobbs (son of Joseph), his sister Eliza Louisa Bush, and her husband Benjamin Bush. Both men were employed in Parkes’ quarry, and also worked as market gardeners and poultry farmers. The old house near the loop in the river still stood at this time, and was only demolished when Cooks River was diverted in the 1930s. All buildings pertaining to it have now gone, and the only distinguishing object to indicate the site is a large fig tree (now on the opposite side of the river after the diversion), which grew near the house. Benjamin and Eliza Bush lived for a period in a small stone house which had been Ben’s first home when he had been married to Eliza’s elder sister, Mary Jane Nobbs. (She died in 1875). The first house was too small for Ben and Eliza’s growing family, so Ben built, on the same property, another stone house. He demolished and used a portion of the stone walls of the first dwelling to build a Dance Room
Joseph Nobbs junior's house, 173 Riverview Road, built 1853.
near his second home, where he taught dancing. In early 1916 the property was sold and a dairy farm was established. The second home was demolished and the cow bails erected in this area. “ Nobbs Flats” have now been built in the vicinity. The Parkes sisters remembered the enjoyable times they had at barn dances on the neighbouring farms, including the Nobbs farm. Frank Lee (brother of Catherine Nobbs) and Francis Nobbs were accomplished accordion and concertina players and provided music for the dances. While the excitement about the coming of public transport to the area continued, the first of the speculators to try his luck was an estate agent, Richard Whitley Webb, of Burwood, who owned the parcel between William Street and Homer Street, extending west almost as far as today’s Glenview Avenue. In January 1883, he measured this land out into one-acre allotments, and advertised it as the “ Cintra Estate” It did not sell, principally because there were many subdivisions much closer to the new lllawarra Line which were more attractive to buyers. Other important people began to show an interest in acquiring the remaining large blocks of land in the Parkestown area. On January 31, 1884, Thomas Parkes sold for £875 the small farm which he had inherited from his mother (lot 3) to George Wallace Nicoll, joint proprietor of steamships engaged in the coastal shipping trade between Sydney and the Richmond River. On this land Nicoll built “ Blink Bonnie” a fine single-storeyed late Victorian mansion, set in landscaped gardens, with a view across Arncliffe towards the entrance of Botany Bay. His brother and business partner, Bruce Baird Nicoll, bought land just south of Cooks River at Canterbury, where he also built a house, “ Taybank” The Nicoll brothers were born in Scotland and for this reason gave their houses distinctly Scottish names. George Wallace Nicoll became interested in local affairs and was an alderman of Canterbury Council from 1890 to 1899 and Mayor in 1899. Owing to ill-health, he was forced to resign as an alderman, but when the Forest Hill Progress Association was formed in 1902, he attended many meetings. G. W. Nicoll died at “ Blink Bonnie” on November 4, 1906, at the age of 58, leaving a widow, seven sons and one daughter, Mrs G. F. Hocking. “ Blink Bonnie” was one of the illustrations in a publication Our Beautiful Homes NSW published about 1908, when it was the home of Mrs Nicoll’s second husband, E. E. O’Connor. The mansion may still be seen today as 1 Doris Avenue, near Cameron Avenue — only a shadow of its former glory, completely surrounded by houses which have 24