DID YOU KNOW THESE HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT PYMBLE? • The first Europeans in the Pymble area were timber getters, entering the district in the very early 1800s. The whole region was covered in magnificent trees such as blue gum, blackbutt, turpentine and stringybark. Wood products were highly sought after in the growing Sydney colony. Once felled, the logs were carted by bullock to the top of Fiddens Wharf Road in Killara, then transported down to wharfs that were built at the bottom of the line meeting the Lane Cove River, then onto Sydney Harbour. • Pymble was “officially” settled by Europeans in 1826. The suburb’s namesake, Robert Pymble, was granted 600 acres for catching a bushranger. His home sat exactly on the site of the current Pymble station. • Robert Pymble was one of the first to establish a large orchard that prospered for over 50 years before the crops began to deteriorate, probably due to lack of fertiliser, poor management and disease. • Horse racing was the favourite pastime on the Upper North Shore in the 1850s and the settlers often raced, gambled and drank to let off steam. The most important horse race in the area was held in Robert Pymble’s back paddock. The course started where the post office used to be (now corner Pacific Highway and Post office Street) to the top of the paddock (where current Graham Street is) then down Alma Street and back. A silver cup was received by the winner each year. • A creek ran straight through what is now Robert Pymble Park and has since been covered. • Pymble Hill was first known as Wright’s Hill. • Richard Porter, an early settler, built a house near the top of Beechworth Road on the West Side of the highway. In 1866 he gave up orcharding and built a hotel (pub) next door called the Gardener Arms Hotel. It was later rebuilt and called the Pymble Hotel. He also built a two-story residence next door called Grandview that still stands to this day and is situated next to the current Spanish Mission style Ku Ring Gai Town Hall. • In 1895 Mr Toohey of the famed Toohey’s Brewery purchased the Pymble Hotel. Mr Toohey lived nearby in Wahroonga and his house at the time is now the well-known Ewan House at Knox Grammar Preparatory School. • The hotel was demolished and rebuilt further down the Highway in 1939, where it stands today. • With the completion of the train line in 1890, which originally was only one track and not duplicated till years later, population started moving in and the grand estates and orchards were slowly subdivided into the residential plots we know today. Source: The Railway Came to Ku Ring Gai by Kerrin Cook
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