NSWFarming
Jilliby
A creek-flat farming district below the timbered Watagan Range.
1889Provisional school opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Jilliby lies in the Dooralong Valley below the Watagan Range. Licensed sawyers cut red cedar and later hardwood in the ranges, and the valley floor along Jilliby Jilliby Creek was taken up for farms.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
A provisional school opened at Jilliby Jilliby on 5 May 1889 and became a public school in 1891. Poor roads to Wyong kept the district isolated into the twentieth century, and parents campaigned for a teacher’s residence.
TURNING POINTS
1889Jilliby Jilliby provisional school opens on 5 May.
1891The school becomes a public school.
1910It is renamed Jilliby Public School.
1921Poor roads from Wyong help force the school to close for three months.
1989The school marks its centenary.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A large rural locality of farms and bushland, next to Jilliby State Conservation Area. Its school, marked by the bunya pine planted in 1889, remains a focus for the district.