Willoughby real estate

1. A name and the first farms

There is some conjecture about how Willoughby was named. Some historians believe it took the name of a parish. Others hold that Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell chose to commemorate Sir James Willoughby Gordon, whom Mitchell had served in the Peninsular War, and who was quartermaster-general in England at the time the First Fleet reached Botany Bay.

Captain Arthur Phillip looked for what he called "good land, well watered", and that search opened Roseville Chase's rough shores to colonisation. Samuel Bates built a farm on that land, at Echo Point.

2. Post office, cottage and lane

Later came the first post office, which opened in 1871, and Pommy Lodge, built in the same year. Pommy Lodge began as the Congregational Church, a small building of sandstone on Penshurst Street, and the congregation later changed premises.

A single-storey home called Laurel Bank Cottage was built on Penshurst Street in 1884. A local Masonic Lodge owns and runs the cottage now and uses it for functions and conferences.

Around 1920 a lane named Telford Lane was laid and paved, linking Fourth Avenue with Eastern Valley Way. The paving followed a method Thomas Telford had pioneered in nineteenth-century England. Few other examples of that method survive in Sydney.

3. The incinerator

An incinerator designed by Walter Burley Griffin was built in Small Street in 1934. It has been called "a particularly successful example" of an industrial building that suits its site.

The incinerator is listed on the Register of the National Estate, which no longer operates. Telford Lane appears on the Register of the National Estate as well.

4. Television and heritage today

The Nine Network had its headquarters in the suburb for 64 years. The network moved to North Sydney in November 2020.

Beside the network's old headquarters stood the Channel 9 TV Tower, 233 metres high and the tallest in Australia. Its demolition began in April 2021, and 460 new homes were to replace it.

A number of sites in the suburb are heritage-listed. They include Laurelbank at 85 to 87 Penshurst Street, and the Walter Burley Griffin incinerator at 2 Small Street.

5. Living in Willoughby

Willoughby lies on Sydney's lower North Shore, 8 kilometres north of the central business district, and falls within the City of Willoughby local government area. The council's name comes from the suburb, though its administrative centre sits in the neighbouring Chatswood, the main commercial centre for the area.

Heritage-listed places include Laurelbank in Penshurst Street and the Walter Burley Griffin incinerator in Small Street. The suburb also holds Telford Lane, one of the few Sydney examples of that paving method still surviving.