NSWRail & telegraph
Leura
A railway gatehouse and a land sale, then a garden village.
1881Leura Estate offered for sale
WHAT STARTED IT
The first permanent residents were gatekeepers where the new western railway crossed the Western Road. In 1881 Frederick Clissold subdivided land beside the line as the Leura Estate, for buyers who could now reach the mountains by train.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
A short-lived colliery worked coal in the Jamison Valley in the 1880s, but a railway platform, the Leura Coffee Palace and a post office followed in the early 1890s. Leura Mall grew into the shopping street between 1900 and the 1920s.
TURNING POINTS
1881Frederick Clissold’s subdivision plan names Leura Falls, and the Leura Estate goes on sale.
1885A railway siding is built to serve the Gladstone Colliery.
1891A railway platform is built at Leura.
1892The Leura Coffee Palace opens on Christmas Eve.
1957Bushfires destroy the Chateau Napier guesthouse and many other properties.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential and visitor village beside Katoomba, known for Leura Mall and its cool-climate gardens. Garden owners have opened their gardens to the public each year since 1965.