NSWPlanned settlement
Annandale
A rebel officer’s farm replanned as a ‘model township’.
1877North Annandale bought for a model township
WHAT STARTED IT
Annandale was the farm of George Johnston of the New South Wales Corps, granted in stages from 1793, and it was from here that he came in 1808 to arrest Governor Bligh. In 1877 builder John Young’s company bought the northern part of the estate and laid it out as a model township, with large lots on the ridge and a 100-foot-wide main road, Johnston Street.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Ferdinand Reuss junior won the prize for the township plan, and lots were auctioned from 1878. Villas and Gothic houses rose along Johnston Street, but most of the suburb filled with artisans’ cottages, and timber yards spread around Rozelle Bay. Annandale left Leichhardt to become its own borough in 1894, with Young as its first mayor.
TURNING POINTS
1793George Johnston is grazing cattle on the first grants of Annandale Farm.
1808Johnston comes from Annandale to Sydney on 26 January and arrests Governor Bligh.
1877The 309-acre North Annandale estate is sold to a Sydney land company to lay out a model township.
1878F. H. Reuss junior wins the £150 first prize for the township design.
1894The Borough of Annandale is formed, with John Young as mayor.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential inner-west suburb of Victorian houses and terraces. Johnston Street keeps its 19th-century width and several of its landmark houses and churches.