NSWRail & telegraph
Kogarah
The railway town that became the centre of the St George district.
1884Railway station opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Kogarah lies between Botany Bay and the Georges River, in country divided into large grants under Governor Macquarie that stayed thinly settled for decades. The Illawarra railway gave it a station when the line’s first section opened on 15 October 1884, and shops and houses grew up along the parade beside the line. The name is said to mean ‘place where the rushes grow’.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Residents petitioned for local government soon after the railway arrived, and the Municipal District of Kogarah was proclaimed in December 1885. A steam tram ran from Kogarah station to Sans Souci from 1887, and the St George Cottage Hospital opened in 1894. By the early 1900s Kogarah was the main town of the St George district, with its own newspaper, the St George Call, from 1904 and council chambers opened by the Governor in 1912.
TURNING POINTS
1884The first section of the Illawarra railway opens on 15 October, with a station at Kogarah.
1885The Municipal District of Kogarah is proclaimed in December after 300 ratepayers petition for it.
1887A steam tramway opens from Kogarah station to Sans Souci.
1894The St George Cottage Hospital is established at Kogarah.
1912Governor Lord Chelmsford opens the new council chambers in Belgrave Street on 7 September.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A suburb in the Georges River Council area and home to St George Hospital.