City of Canterbury Bankstown: History
=== Early history ===
The traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the land now known as the Canterbury-Bankstown were the Dharug (Darag, Daruk, Dharuk) and Eora peoples. Early indigenous groups relied upon the riparian network of the Georges River and Cooks River catchments towards Botany Bay, with extant reminders of this lifestyle dating back 3,000 years including rock and overhang paintings, stone scrapers, middens and axe grinding grooves.
Following the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788, the new British settlers in the area burned oyster shells from the middens along Cooks River to produce lime for use in building mortar. In 1793, Rev Richard Johnson, a chaplain aboard the First Fleet, was the first to receive a land grant of 40 hectares and given the name Canterbury Vale. The land was located in the Ashbury-Hurlstone Park area. He named his estate 'Canterbury Vale', presumably after the See of Canterbury in England. The date of the grant was May 1793 although he (Johnson) occupied the land months earlier. Johnson also cultivated land around his cottage in Bridge St Sydney and at another location called the Brickfield near Central Station. Johnson was praised by Watkin Tench as being one of the best farmers in the colony.
The first incursions and eventual land grants in the area by Europeans led to increasing tensions, culminating in a confrontation between Europeans and a group of Aboriginal people led by Tedbury, the son of Pemulwuy, in what is now Punchbowl in 1809. However, following Tedbury's death in 1810, resistance to European settlement generally ended.
The District of Bankstown was named by Governor Hunter in 1797 in honour of botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The area remained very rural until residential and suburban development followed the development of the Bankstown railway line with the passing of the Marrickville to Burwood Road Railway Act by the NSW Parliament in 1890, extending the rail line from Marrickville Station (later Sydenham Station) to Burwood Road (later Belmore Station) by 1895. With the passing of the Belmore to Chapel Road Railway Act in 1906, the line was extended further to Lakemba, Punchbowl and Bankstown by 1909.
The first ambulance to service the area was in 1908. It was called the 'Canterbury District Ambulance Corps' and it used volunteers to transport patients to the hospital. A stretcher on wheels with a hooded cover over it (hand litter) was used to transport patients to the Western Suburbs Hospital. If a patient lived in an area around Belmore, the hand litter was transported by train from Campsie to Belmore, then it was pushed along the rough unsealed roads to the patients home, back to Belmore station, then taken by train to Campsie Station and along the streets to hospital.
The Canterbury District Memorial Hospital commenced business on 26 October 1929. The hospital was opened by Secretary for Public Works Buttenshaw. Prior to the opening of the hospital [in Canterbury], residents attended the Western Suburbs Hospital or the cottage hospital located in Marrickville, which was established in 1895.
In 1940, the events of World War II were made known to the residents of Canterbury-Bankstown. Men and women who were drafted had to report for duty at a drill hall located on Canterbury Road Belmore. Camps were set up in Canterbury Race Course and surrounding parks in the region. …