Leichhardt is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Leichhardt is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Leichhardt is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and is the administrative centre for the local government area (LGA) of the Inner West Council. The suburb is bordered by Haberfield to the west, Annandale to the east, Lilyfield to the north and Petersham, Lewisham and Stanmore to the south.
History
Aboriginal anthropology
Leichhardt was once an area broadly inhabited by the Wangal band of the Dharug (Eora) language group. The 'Eora people' was the name given to coastal Aborigines around Sydney – Eora means from this place – local Aboriginal people used this word to describe to Europeans where they came from, and in time the term became used to define Aboriginal people themselves. Wangal country was known as 'wanne' and it originally extended from the suburbs of Balmain and Birchgrove in the east to Silverwater and Auburn in the west. It is unclear how many people were in the tribe, some research indicates in the broader Sydney region there was between 8000 – 10000 indigenous people, migration over the seasons and violence between tribes would alter this number at different periods.
The northern boundary was the Parramatta River. Neighbouring Darug bands were the Cadigal to the east, the Wallumattagal on the northern shore of the Parramatta River and the Bediagal to the south.
European settlement
Leichhardt is named after the Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who in the 1840s was feted for his 4,800 km (c. 3000 mi) expedition in search of an overland route from southern Queensland to Port Essington, a British settlement on the far northern coast of Australia (some 300 km to the north of the modern city of Darwin). In 1848, he famously vanished without trace on his attempt to cross the continent from the Darling Downs in Queensland to the Swan River Colony on the Western Australia coast.Leichhardt was proclaimed a municipality in 1871. In 1949, it was merged with the municipalities of Annandale and Balmain. In 1967, the municipal boundary was altered to include Glebe and parts of Camperdown. In 2003, the municipal boundary was again changed, to exclude Glebe and Forest Lodge, which are now part of the City of Sydney.
Weather
Things to do
Leichhardt Fire Station on the corner of Marion Street and Balmain Road
Leichhardt Hotel (Former) on the corner of Balmain Road and Wetherill Street
Norton Hotel on the corner of Norton Street and Parramatta Road
Old Cyclops Toy Factory on William Street
Palace Cinema on Norton StreetThe following buildings are listed on the Register of the National Estate:
Leichhardt Town Hall, corner Norton and Marion Streets (1888)
Post Office, corner Norton and Weatherill Streets (1888)
Public School Buildings, Marion Street (first building 1891, second building 1897)
Church of England, corner Norton and Marion Streets (1883)