Location
Glebe is an inner-western suburb of Sydney. Glebe is located 3 km south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney, in the Inner West region. (wikipedia)
History
Glebe’s name is derived from the fact that the land on which it was developed was a glebe, originally owned by the Anglican Church. ‘The Glebe’ was a land grant of 400 acres given by Governor Arthur Phillip to Reverend Richard Johnson, Chaplain of the First Fleet, in 1790.
In the 19th century, Glebe was home to architect, Edmund Blacket, who had migrated from England. Blacket built his family home, Bidura, on Glebe Point Road in 1858, designing it along conventional Victorian Regency lines. He also designed St John’s Church, on the corner of Glebe Point Road and St Johns Road. The church was built from 1868 to 1870.
The suburb of Glebe was home to a first grade football team in the New South Wales Rugby League, now the National Rugby League. The Glebe Dirty Reds were formed in 1908 and played in the first seasons of rugby league in Australia, with home games at Wentworth Park. The foundation club did not win a premiership, and was excluded from the competition in 1930.
In the 1970s, feminist activists took over an abandoned terrace house and set up Australia’s first women’s shelter, the Elsie Refuge.
Original vegetation
The original vegetation was the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest. A veteran Ironbark still grows at the grounds of St John’s Anglican Church, at Glebe Point Road. (wikipedia)
Places of Interest
