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A Brief History
The first written use of the name ‘Lane Cove” occurred on 2 February 1788 , soon after the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson. Lieutenant William Bradley, while surveying, referred to the river into which he sailed by this name. Several possibilities for the name have been suggested, but none have been supported by written evidence. One suggestion was that it was named after Lieutenant Michael Lane , a respected cartographer, who worked with Captain James Cook in Canadian waters. The other possibility is that the name was bestowed in honour of John Lane , son of the Lord Mayor of London , and a good friend of Governor Arthur Phillip.
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The Lane Cove River cuts a gorge through the main Hawkesbury sandstone ridge of Sydney's north shore. Freshwater creeks further divide the ridges to form what is locally known as 'the five fingers of Lane Cove' – Greenwich, Northwood, Longueville, Riverview and Linley Point. The steep rocky slopes and ridges are alternated with small estuarine swamps and river flats, where Aboriginal people gathered seafood and Europeans cut grass for fodder and thatch. The slopes and gullies were forested with tall eucalypts, used by settlers for building and flooring. Bluegum, stringybark, blackbutt, red mahogany and turpentine were all prized by early timber-getters.
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In 1885 the first bridge crossing the Lane Cove River was opened. Named the Fig Tree Bridge, it linked Linley Point to Hunters Hill. It was an opening bridge, built of iron trusses. The first Gladesville and Iron Cove bridges also opened early in the 1880s and the combination of the three bridges provided the first road link from Lane Cove and the north shore to Sydney and districts south of the harbour.
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When the municipality of North Willoughby was proclaimed in October 1865, it was divided into two wards, with the Lane Cove district forming the River Ward. In February 1885, 150 residents petitioned the Colonial Secretary, asking for River Ward to be separated from North Willoughby to allow local self-government, but this fell on deaf ears. Residents of the Lane Cove Ward again petitioned for self-government in 1893, and in February 1895 the new municipality of Lane Cove was proclaimed.
In the years following World War II, rapid changes and increased residential and industrial development occurred. The first block of flats was built in 1962 and by 1979 nearly 200 blocks of flats had been built along the main roads around the Lane Cove village. The residential area of Lane Cove has retained a single-house character into the twenty-first century.
The stats for the 2021 Census have recently been released, so of course we checked out the Lane Cove results, and bring you some of the highlights.
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The stats for the 2021 Census have recently been released, so of course we checked out the Lane Cove results, and bring you some of the highlights.
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