McMahons Point, New South Wales

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McMahons Point
Sydney, New South Wales

Blues Point tower
Postcode: 2060
Location: 3 km (2 mi) from CBD
LGA: North Sydney Council
State District: North Shore
Federal Division: North Sydney
Suburbs around McMahons Point:
Waverton North Sydney Lavender Bay
Greenwich McMahons Point Milsons Point
Goat Island Millers Point Dawes Point

McMahons Point is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. McMahons Point is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. McMahons Point sits on the peninsula flanked by Berrys Bay to the west and Lavender Bay to the east. The lower tip of the peninsula is known as Blues Point, prominent for its spectacular views of Sydney Harbour and the Blues Point Tower. The postcode is 2060.

While once predominantly working class, it is now amongst Sydney's most exclusive, with beautiful views on either side of the peninsular. McMahons Point is primarily a medium to high density residential area. Mcmahons Point is surrounded by the suburbs of Waverton, North Sydney and Lavender Bay.

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[edit] Commercial Area

At the northern end of Blues Point Road (adjacent to the North Sydney central business district) there is a concentration of businesses primarily associated with advertising/marketing, publishing, media, computing, engineering, architecture and creative arts. This precinct is also home to many al fresco style street cafés and restaurants and some speciality retail stores.

[edit] Transport

The suburb is served by a ferry wharf for harbour ferry services and the railway stations (Waverton, North Sydney and Milson's Point) on the North Shore line of the City Rail network.

[edit] History

Mcmahons Point is named after Maurice McMahon, an Irish manufacturer of brushes and combs, who in the 1864 built his home on the headland. He became Mayor of the Borough of Victoria (later North Sydney) in 1890.

[edit] Aboriginal Culture

The original occupants of this region were the Cammeraygal (or perhaps Quiberie as tribal affiliations seem to have been a tad loose and amorphous). These people lived along the foreshores and in the bushland, cliffs and rock shelters prior to European settlement.

[edit] European Settlement

Some land in this area was originally settled and farmed by James Milson, a Napoleonic war veteran, in 1806. Further grants were subsequently made to Billy Blue, a Jamaican convict turned Sydney Harbour waterman, in 1817, remaining within the family until the 1850s. Subsequently, the estate was progressively subdivided, with the earliest developments occurring on the northern end. Blues Point Road had been gazetted from 1839 as a thoroughfare from the ferry wharf to the St Leonards township. Most of the middle and southern sections of the peninsula were subdivided by the 1870s. A tramway line was extended to the McMahons Point in 1909, further stimulating development, particularly along Blues Point Road.

Large numbers of passenger and vehicular ferries, plied between Blues Point/McMahons Point and the city at the turn of the century. When the Sydney Harbour bridge opened in 1932 the wharves of McMahons and Blues point provided services every 10-15 minutes and served six million passengers per year. The opening of the harbour bridge immediately rendered the bulk of these ferries redundant, and in 1935 small ferries operated by Hegarty Ferries took over the runs formerly operated by the larger craft operated by Sydney Ferries Ltd to McMahons Point. Similarly the tram service was replaced by buses in 1933.

In July 1890, the Boroughs of St Leonards, East St Leonards and Victoria (incorporating McMahons Point) merged to form the Borough of North Sydney. Foreshores were popular for boat building and other maritime activity through the latter half of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. In 1957, a vast area of McMahons Point was to be rezoned as 'waterfront industrial' by North Sydney Council, but a group formed by residents and architects, led by Harry Seidler, argued for a residential vision. Seidler proposed a 29-apartment block development set in gardens. This redevelopment was in turn opposed by a new council and residents; only two towers were built - Blues Point Tower [1] and Harbour Master, half way up Blues Point Road, which is rather less obtrusive than Blues Point Tower.

A stretch of railway line dating from 1893 runs through the suburb's North-West before tunnelling under the point to emerge at an off-peak storage depot in Lavender Bay. It no longer carries passengers as a newer line (known now as the North Shore railway line) was constructed in 1932 which uses the North Sydney and Milsons Point stations.

[edit] References

  • The Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8

[edit] External links

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Suburbs of the North Sydney Local Government Area · North Shore · Sydney
List of Sydney suburbs