Along with a map of the strip of land that makes up Bradfield Park [North], there is the following text (with a couple of photos of buildings, taken in 1926):
Layers of History: The Local Landscape
An Overlay of the 1920s Buildings Footprints
with Todays Parkland
At least two Aboriginal clans occupied the northern side of Port Jackson [Sydney Harbour], the Wallumedegal and the Cammaraygal clans, part of the larger Kuringgai group. The Cammeraygal clan was distinguishable from other Sydney clans by their weapons, tools, body decoration, songs and dances. In 1798, they were described as:
a very powerful people…, by far the most numerous tribe of any within our knowledge. It so happened that they were also the robust and muscular…"
David Collins, 'Account of the English Colony in New South Wales' (1798)
The traditional Aboriginal lifestyle was altered forever following the occupation of the British settlers.
Significant reminders of the Aboriginal presence in the North Sydney region include ochre hand stencils, rock engravings and place names such as Cammeray and Kirribilli. The Aboriginal word kiarabilli means 'a good fishing spot'.
Image B, 115-119 Alfred Street North Sydney c. 1926.
Substantial Alfred Street residences Source: State Library of NSW
By 1800, Robert Ryan had been granted 120 acres including part of the current park. Ryan did not develop the land and it was left to the wealthy merchant Robert Campbell and his neighbour James Milson to develop Milsons Point in the 19th century.
Image A, 129 Alfred Street, North Sydney c.1926, a grocery shop operated
by Cecilia and Thomas Jenkins Source: State Library of NSW
The establishment of ferry services in the 1860s attracted a cable tram and railway network, which fuelled the further subdivision of the area.
Photographs dating from the early 1920s show the mixed character of the area. By the 1890s, the area was a transport, commercial and residential centre.
In the 2003 upgrade of the park the building footprints were interpreted on the ground using paving to outline the locations of the buildings.
Visited: 1213, Friday, 10 March, 2017