NSWPlanned settlement
Coogee
A government village by the sea that became a seaside resort.
1838Village of Coogee gazetted
WHAT STARTED IT
Governor Bourke ordered a village laid out on the shores of Coogee Bay in 1837, and it was gazetted the next year. Allotments were sold in Sydney in February 1840, but the bay was a long drive from town and few people settled. Once a road through Randwick was finished in the late 1850s and trams followed, the beach drew day-trippers rather than residents.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Only 14 houses stood at Coogee in 1858, but Randwick Council made a park at the beach in 1860, and steam trams reached the bay in 1883. The Coogee Palace Aquarium and Swimming Baths opened beside the tram terminus in December 1887. An amusement pier opened in 1929 and was demolished in 1934, and from the 1920s flats and villas made Coogee a place to live as well as visit.
TURNING POINTS
1838The village of Coogee is gazetted, a year after Governor Bourke ordered it laid out.
1840Eight allotments in the village of Coogee, near South Head, are sold at auction in Sydney in February.
1883A steam tramway from the city reaches Coogee Bay.
1887The Minister for Education opens the Coogee Palace Aquarium on 23 December.
1929An amusement pier opens on 24 July, and a shark net is installed off the beach in November.
1934The pier, battered by rough seas, is demolished.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A beach suburb of flats, hotels and cafés. The 1887 aquarium building still stands on the beachfront.