NSWFarming
Lane Cove
Soldiers’ farms and riverside tanneries before the tram arrived.
1794First soldier farms granted on the river
WHAT STARTED IT
The suburb sits on the sandstone ridges above the north bank of the Lane Cove River, where the first grants were made to soldiers in 1794. Timber-getters, grass-cutters and lime-burners worked the slopes and bays, and the river carried their produce, and later the goods of waterside industries, to Sydney.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
For most of the 19th century ‘Lane Cove’ meant the whole north bank as far as Gordon, and the area was reached mainly by water. Industries such as the Ludowici tannery at Burns Bay grew along the creeks, and the Fig Tree Bridge of 1885 gave a road link to Hunters Hill. The ward broke away from Willoughby as the Borough of Lane Cove in 1895, and the tram extension of 1909 brought suburban subdivision.
TURNING POINTS
1794Lieutenant-Governor Grose grants 25- and 30-acre farms to 27 men of the New South Wales Corps in October.
1858John Ludowici and Albert Radke move their tannery from Balmain to Burns Bay on the Lane Cove River.
1885The Fig Tree Bridge opens, linking Linley Point with Hunters Hill.
1895The Borough of Lane Cove is incorporated on 9 February, with John Roberts as first mayor.
1909An electric tram line opens in March to a terminus at Longueville and Burns Bay roads, named Lane Cove.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb and the council centre of the Lane Cove local government area, with shops around Lane Cove Plaza near the old tram terminus.