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Jeffrey Street Kirribilli
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Jeffrey or Jeffreys Street, Kirribilli is famous as one of the most popular vantage points for views of Sydney, the harbour and the harbour bridge. The street is on the Lower North Shore of Sydney Harbour and leads from the harbour in a northerly direction to the small shopping village of Kirribilli. The spelling of the street as "Jeffreys" is the version favoured by North Sydney Council as it correctly renders the surname of the 19th-century local landowner, Arthur Jeffreys, after whom it was named when first laid out in the 1860s. The street was frequently used by the national Australian television station as their backdrop for the evening news bulletins. A number of broadband webcams used by the Australian television networks are located in or close proximity to the street. Thus, the view from Jeffrey Street is well known to most Australians. The lookouts adjacent to Jeffrey(s) Street are popular tourist destinations and provide excellent views. There are 14 heritage listed properties in the street, possibly the highest concentration of heritage listed properties in Australia. Landmarks The main landmarks in the street are as follows (from the harbour up the hill listed from south to north): * Jeffrey Street Wharf * Captain Henry Waterhouse Reserve * Copes Lookout * Jeffreys Street Lookout (east side of track) * Stanton Lookout (west side of track), named after Alderman James Street Stanton, Mayor of North Sydney 1938/39. * , an independent, Catholic, day school for boys secondary school *Whyalla, a victorian mansion which is the senior school (years 11 and 12) for * Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre History of Jeffrey or Jeffrey's Street Kirribilli Pre-European history The Aboriginal tribe “Cammeraygal” lived in the Kirribilli and Milson's Point area. The area was a fertile fishing ground, and thus the name “Kirribilli” which is derived from the Aboriginal word "Kiarabilli", which means "good fishing spot". First european inhabitants Samuel Lightfoot Kirribilli was settled quite early in the history of the Colony, Land on the North Shore was first granted in 1789, to an expired convict, Samuel Lightfoot. Lightfoot was a former convict who had arrived in Australia on the First Fleet in 1788. Thomas Muir The land was acquired by a Scottish political exile, Thomas Muir 1794. Thomas Muir was an exiled Scots Martyr accused of religious subversion. Muir called the area "Hunters Hill" (not to be confused with the modern day suburb) before escaping Australia in 1796, aboard an American ship, the Otter. After Muir escaped, the grant was retracted and it reverted to the government. Muir died in France two years later. Robert Ryan In 1800, 30 acres (12 hectares) of Lightfoot's Grant was included in a 120-acre (48.5-hectare) grant to Robert Ryan, a soldier, for his service in the Royal Marines and the NSW Corps. Robert Campbell In about 1806 Ryan sold his land to a Sydney merchant, Robert Campbell, then the largest private owner of cattle in the colony. Robert Campbell was one of the richest men in NSW and he elected never to occupy the land. James Milson In 1822, Campbell leased the whole area to James Milson, the first white person to permanently settle in the area. Milson supplied ships in Sydney Harbour with fresh provisions and water, as well as ballast from a quarry near Careening Cove. There is some suggestion that Milson was a friend of Campbell. Over the following decades, Milson and his sons built several large homes in the immediate area: Grantham, Wia Wia, Elamang and Coreena. Some of these buildings survive and are listed as heritage items. James Milson subsequently received a land grant of 50 acres, making him one of the area’s most prominent landholders and businessmen. This grant was situated close to what became Jeffrey(s) Street. Indeed, Milsons Point, the neighbouring suburb, was named in his honour. Disputed ownership Devastating bushfires in 1826 resulted in land disputes between Milson, Ryan and Robert Campbell. Milson and Campbell disputed each other's title to the land. Campbell was eventually recognised as the owner without registered title and Milson the permissive occupant. Maps survive of this area from about this time. Arthur Frederick Jeffreys Arthur (Frederick) Jeffreys (born in Surrey, England, in 1811) was a clergyman's son who decided to emigrate to Australia when aged in his late 20s. He arrived in Sydney on 20 February 1839, on the 'Honduras'. Prior to emigrating he was a commissioned lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Arthur Jeffreys married Sarah Campbell (daughter of Robert Campbell) in 1841. In 1843, at the end of a severe five-year-long drought, Jeffreys purchased a property of 1,742 acres, near Queanbeyan, NSW, which he named "Acton" after a town in Denbighshire, Wales. The name is perpetuated in the City of Canberra suburb of Acton, which forms part of the Australian Capital Territory. Robert Campbell was one of the considerable pastoralists, merchants and land-owners in the early colony of NSW with significant land holdings in Kirribilli, Duntroon on the Limestone Plains, and the Canterbury Estate near Sydney, among others. By way of marriage into the Campbells, Arthur Jeffreys, became a prominent land-owner in Kirribilli. Arthur Jeffreys and his spouse Sarah Campbell lived in the area for some time in the 1840s. When Robert Campbell died in 1846, Arthur Jeffreys inherited a proportion of the estate in Kirribilli and also a large estate in what became the residential Sydney suburb of Canterbury. By this time Jeffreys was a wealthy man. He subsequently became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council (1851-54). He was the Elective Member of the first Legislative Council 1843 - 1856 for the Pastoral District of Maneroo Jeffreys died in England 1861 and his family also returned there to live. The street was named in his honour in the early 1860s. The land was subdivided and the first terrace houses were constructed there in the late 1860s. The row of terraces still exists. The son of Jeffreys Senior, Arthur Frederick Jeffreys (who was born in Kirribilli in 1848), continued to visit Australia from England. He reportedly purchased the modern-day site of the Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre at the top of Jeffreys Street in 1873. Later in life he became a British Conservative politician. A grandson became a prominent military commander and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Jeffreys in 1952. Early maps Map The first known map of the area (circa 1840) is held by the State Library of NSW. The document does not show any streets which can be identified on a modern map; however, it does delineate the shoreline and the locations of buildings, one of which appears to be in what is now Broughton Street. Early structures Graves The first known map also shows the location of graves which are believed to have been dug very close to the line of the modern Jeffrey(s) Street. From this evidence, it is deduced that Jeffrey(s) Street was the site of the first European burials on Sydney's North Shore. The graves in question contain three typhoid victims, from the ship ‘Surry’, and the attending physician. The location of the graves is believed to be approximately at 24-26 Jeffrey(s) Street. Heritage reports note that the headstones were later discovered as hearthstones in cottages (located approximately 50-metres west of the location of the graves shown on the early map); but these cottages were demolished for the construction, further west, of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in what is now Bradfield Park. (u. Church The First Congregational Church on the North Shore was built at Jeffrey(s) Street in 1863, at what is now St Aloysius' College, Kirribilli. The church became the chapel for the college, when it purchased the first private mansion to accommodate the school in 1903. Whyalla The college also bought the Victorian mansion, Wyalla, on the east side of Jeffrey(s) Street in 1916. Anecdotally, the earliest church records reputedly refer to Jeffrey Street rather than Jeffreys Street, so the confusion over street names is now almost 150 years old. Construction Terraces The earliest terraces in the street are likely to have been the row of terraces close to the harbour at 18-32 Jeffrey(s) Street. Four tall terrace houses at 44 to 50 Jeffrey(s) were erected in the 1880s. Some of the terraces close to the harbour were built before then, probably in the 1870s. Other terraces, at numbers 34-42, were constructed in the 1890s. Thus, by y the turn of the 20th century, the street presented a virtually complete row of terraces. St Aloysius' College TBA Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre The Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre (or KNC) was built as a private residence in 1873 by Henry Bligh and is heritage-listed. The Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre is run as a community neighbourhood centre by a committee governed by the North Sydney Council. The centre provides spaces for community activities and parties or celebrations. It also provides a wide range of adult education courses, holds a monthly market, and offers activities and services for all ages. Rooms with views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are available for hire. Streetscape The row of terraces on the west side of Jeffrey (or Jeffreys) Street (one of the oldest largely intact streets in Sydney) has changed very little for more than 100 years. Confusion over the name of Jeffrey(s) Street As to the confusion about the street's name, various NSW government departments use either the long or short version of the spelling. Some GPS units appear to accept both names. It appears that the street was called colloquially “Jeffrey Street” for much of the past 150 years. Certainly, it is easier to pronounce the name of the street without the "s" on the end of Jeffrey. When North Sydney Council changed the street sign from "Jeffrey" to “Jeffreys” in about 2005 (in order to accurately reflect the historical-name connection), there was a minor local uproar reported in the local paper. Some common name variations follow: Jeffrey Street is used by the following * North Sydney Council * Various federal government agencies * St Aloysius' College * Google maps * A large number of real estate agents Jeffreys Street is used by the following * North Sydney Council * Geographical Names Board of NSW (but only in relation to the wharf) The confusion over names has often been publicised. Sydney Morning Herald article on 19 May 2010 refers. There is some evidence that both names have been in widespread usage for almost 150 years. Heritage Heritage register The Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre (located at the intersection of Jeffrey and Fitzroy Streets) is on the Register of the National Estate: A number of the terrace houses in the street are heritage listed including those at 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52-56 Jeffreys Street have been gazetted as heritage items by the Local Council. The heritage status of the terraces at 34,36,38,40,42 Jeffrey(s) Street is disputed. Historical collections and books Collections Relevant historical collections are recorded at the following libraries: * Stanton Library (North Sydney Council) * State Library of NSW * St Aloysius' College Books and articles The following books and articles are noteworthy: * From Milson to Medium Density: A Walking Tour of Kirribilli, North Sydney Heritage Leaflet Series No 36, available online at http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/2408-leaflets-and-walks.asp * Lianne Hall, Down the Bay: the Changing Foreshores of North Sydney, North Sydney Council, North Sydney, 1997 * Ian Hoskins, Aboriginal North Sydney: an outline of Indigenous history, North Sydney Council, North Sydney, 2008 * Michael Jones, North Sydney, 1788-1988, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards NSW, 1988 * Margaret Park, Designs on a Landscape: A History of Planning in North Sydney, Halstead Press and North Sydney Council, North Sydney, 2002 Track to the harbour The track at the south end of Jeffrey(s) Street running up the hill from the Jeffreys Street Wharf to Kirribilli Avenue is most probably the remains of the oldest track on the Lower North Shore of Sydney Harbour. Television and film The long row of heritage listed terrace houses in Jeffrey9s) Street and the views from Jeffrey Street of the harbour and bridge have been immortalised in a large number of films and movies. The row of terrace houses also feature in a number of Australian films and television shows. Local residents The longest resident in the street has been the artist Eva Kubbos. Eva purchased 42 Jeffrey Street in 1962 with proceeds from the Trustees' Watercolour Prize from the Art Gallery of NSW which she won in 1963. Eva's paintings are held by a number of public and private galleries and prominent private collections. See Also
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