Burwood is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of Municipality of Burwood.
Burwood Heights is a separate suburb to the south. The Appian Way is a street in Burwood, known for its architecturally designed Federation-style homes.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates people were living in the Sydney area for at least 11,000 years. This long association had led to a harmonious relationship between the indigenous inhabitants and their environment, which was interrupted by the arrival of the British in 1788. The European desire to cultivate the land aided and abetted by a smallpox epidemic that forced the local people, the Wangal clan, away from their source of food and their spiritual connection with the land.
Captain Thomas Rowley (1748–1806) received a grant of in 1799, and called his property Burwood Farm after Burwood Park, England. Following more land grants, his estate increased to . The grant stretched from Parramatta Road to where Nicholson Street and The Boulevarde are today and eastwards where to Croydon railway station is now. This is where he ran merino sheep on the property.
The first house, Burwood Villa, was built in the area in 1814, the same year that a stagecoach began running between Sydney and Parramatta. Burwood became a staging post along the road and the beginnings of a settlement started to develop. One of its most prominent early residents was Dr. John Dulhunty, a former naval surgeon who was appointed the Superintendent of Police for the Colony of New South Wales after his arrival in Sydney from England in 1826. Dr. Dulhunty became famous in the colony for fighting a gang of bushrangers that attacked his residence, Burwood House. He died suddenly in the house in 1828 but his son, Robert Dulhunty, went on to become the founder of the New South Wales regional city of Dubbo.
Subdivisions in the Burwood area in the 1830s propelled the growth of a village and by 1855, when the railway line opened, Burwood was one of the initial six stops on the Sydney-to-Parramatta route. The railway led to a huge growth in population. In 1874, the area became a municipality.
Landmarks
Burwood features many fine examples of architecture from the Victorian and Federation styles. St Paul's Anglican Church on Burwood Road was designed by colonial architect Edmund Blacket and built in 1871. Sir Donald Bradman and Lady Bradman, Jessie Menzies were married here in 1932. The church and its pipe organ is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register and on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.
Nearby Woodstock in Church Street was built in the early 1870s by tobacco manufacturer Edwin Penfold. In the 1940s, it was taken over by the army, later becoming Broughton Migrant Hostel, before being bought by the council in 1974 for use as a community centre. Radio station 2RDJ-FM has been broadcasting from Woodstock since November 1983.
Further south on Burwood Road is The Priory, built in 1877 by local councillor Mowbray Forrest, and Gayton, built in 1888 by NSW parliamentarian Richard Jones. St Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church in Railway Parade was formerly a Methodist church and was built in 1879, listed on the local government heritage list.
Running between Burwood Road and Liverpool Road is The Appian Way, a model housing estate conceived by George Hoskins at the turn of the century. The street has been described as one of the finest streets of Federation houses in Australia and is listed on the local government heritage list. In the centre of the Appian Way is a communal reserve which was converted into a lawn tennis club.
Heritage listings
Burwood has a number of heritage-listed sites, including the following sites listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register: 168a Burwood Road: Burwood Post Office 205 Burwood Road: St Paul's Anglican Church, Burwood 213 Burwood Road: The Priory 223 Burwood Road: St Cloud 4 Clarence Street: Lynton Great Southern and Western railway: Burwood rail underbridge Great Southern and Western railway: Burwood railway station, Sydney Railway Parade: Burwood Sewer Vent
The following buildings are listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate and/or local government heritage registers: Congregational Church, Burwood Road Gayton (1888), Burwood Road, Deolee, Burwood Road Methodist Ladies College, Rowley Street Woodstock, Church Street St Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church, Railway Parade