NSWRail & telegraph
Rockdale
Market-garden country that took its name from its railway station.
1884Rockdale station opens on the Illawarra line
WHAT STARTED IT
Rocky Point Road ran south through the low country west of Botany Bay, where market gardeners and poultry breeders worked the land before the railway came. When the Illawarra line opened on 15 October 1884 it put a station named Rockdale beside the road, and a town centre grew between the two.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The district had been proclaimed the Municipal District of West Botany on 13 January 1871. After the railway opened, Thomas Saywell ran a private tramway from Rockdale station to his hotel and sea baths at Lady Robinson’s Beach, and in 1888 a new town hall went up on Rocky Point Road near the station. Residents wanted a name of their own, and an Act assented to on 17 May 1888 renamed the municipality Rockdale.
TURNING POINTS
1871The Municipal District of West Botany is proclaimed on 13 January after 85 residents petition for it.
1884The Illawarra railway opens on 15 October with a station named Rockdale.
1886Saywell’s tramway carries 8,000 people to his new sea baths at Lady Robinson’s Beach on a single public holiday.
1888An Act assented to on 17 May renames West Botany the Municipal District of Rockdale, and a new town hall is built near the station.
1940A new town hall replaces the 1888 building on the corner of the highway and Bryant Street.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A commercial centre in the Bayside Council area, where the 1940 town hall stands on the Princes Highway at Bryant Street.
KEEP READING · SOURCESTrove · NSW Government Gazette, 13 January 1871, proclamation of the Municipal District of West BotanyTrove · Brisbane Courier, 16 October 1884, ‘Intercolonial’ (Illawarra railway opened to Hurstville)Trove · Sydney Mail, 18 December 1886, ‘Saywell’s New Sea Baths, Lady Robinson’s Beach, Rockdale’Trove · NSW Government Gazette, 21 May 1888, Act to alter the name of the Municipal District of West BotanySt George Historical Society · ‘The Sydney and Suburban Municipalities: West Botany’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 5 January 1888)Australian Dictionary of Biography · Thomas SaywellHeritage NSW · Rockdale Town Hall