Oatley, New South Wales

The area now known as Oatley lies either on the traditional lands of the Dharug people or the coastal Eora people, both of whom spoke a common language. It lies close to the lands on the Tharawal on the south bank of the river.[2][3] Georges River Council acknowledges that the Biddegal/Bidjigal/Bedegal clan of the Eora are the original inhabitants and custodians of all land and water in the Georges River region.[4]

Evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the land now known as Oatley exists in the form of numerous shell middens and rock shelters near the shore of Georges River.[5] Lime Kiln Bay once had more extensive shell middens, made over centuries by local people; the bay gets its name from early settlers burning the shells to create lime.The kilns were located in what is now Oatley Park.[6]

One of the earliest contacts between British settlers and Aboriginal people occurred on 20 January 1788, just to the west of Oatley. Arthur Philip and Philip Gidley King, leading a party of seamen from the First Fleet rowing two open boats, explored the 'South-West Arm of Botany Bay' (now Georges River). They are now thought to have gone as far as Lime Kiln Bay, where they landed at two locations, thought to be just west of the boundaries of modern-day Oatley. Not finding enough freshwater, around Botany Bay and its two 'arms', the colonists moved on to Port Jackson, where the settlement of Sydney began six days later.[7]

This suburb's name can be traced to James Oatley Snr, a convict clockmaker, who was transported to Botany Bay for life in 1814. [8] Seven years later, in 1821, Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted Oatley a conditional pardon and appointed him overseer of the Town Clock for his work in installing the clock at Hyde Park Barracks.[9][10]

On 17 August 1898, Oatley was the site of a pursuit and gun battle involving a party of police and George Peisley (or Peasley), a fugitive cattle and horse thief, who was using a sandstone cave on the eastern side of Gungah Bay as his hide out.[11] Peisley escaped capture,[12] but was arrested at Arncliffe on the following day[13] and eventually sentenced to four years hard labour.[14]

The post office opened in 1903, thus giving the district its official name of Oatley. Prior to this, the area west of the railway line was officially in the suburb of Hurstville and attached to the Hurstville Post Office with "Oatley's" in parentheses at the end of the address. Likewise, the streets east of the railway line were officially in the suburb of Kogarah and attached to the Kogarah Post Office. In the late 1890s both Hurstville and Kogarah were much larger suburbs and were later divided up into separate suburbs.

Oatley is notable as the terminus of the first railway electrification project in Sydney, which reached this station from Sydney Central in 1926.

In January 1946, the foreshore of Oatley Bay, near Russell Street, was the site of a horrific fatal shark attack, in shallow water.[15][16] Large sharks have been sighted in the shallow bay, many times over the years, and dogs have been taken.[17][18][19][20] Swimmers at Oatley Park and the Oatley Pleasure Grounds are protected by shark-proof enclosures.[21]

When a group gathered in Oatley Park in December 1959, to form a Bowling Club, it was inevitable that the founding members should choose a clock as the club emblem. The hands on the clock were set at 15 minutes after 10 - the precise time the first meeting of the Oatley Bowls Club was opened.[22] The club has since closed, though the greens and Club premises remain.[23]

The Oatley campus of Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education opened in 1981 on the site of the former Judd's Brick Works and quarry. In 1981, when many teachers' colleges were amalgamated, it became The St George Institute of Education, part of Sydney College of Advanced Education, and subsequently a campus of the University of New South Wales. It is now a secondary school – the Oatley Senior Campus of the Georges River College.[24]

Although now an entirely residential suburb, Oatley was the site of several industries in the past.

For over a century, Sydney Rock Oysters were grown commercially along the shores of Georges River at Oatley. Freshwater from the Woronora River, a tributary that joins the Georges River opposite Oatley, lowered salinity resulting in good-tasting oysters.

Six families of oyster farmers worked from the head of Neverfail Bay just to the east of the Como Railway Bridge[25] There was a smaller oyster farming site at the head of Jewfish Bay just outside the eastern boundary of Oatley Park. Modern-day oyster shell 'middens' and a few decaying remnants of oyster farming still existed at these locations in 2021. Oysters were cultivated both on racks on the river mudbanks and, west of the Como rail bridge, on the rocks of shoreline leases. For many years, oysters were shipped to market in hessian sacks from Oatley railway station by electric rail parcel vans. There was also long-standing criminal activity involving the theft of oysters from the leases.[26][27] Oyster farmers would at times patrol their leases at night, using boats fitted with small searchlights that could scan their shoreline leases.

This local oyster farming industry survived increasing urbanisation and water pollution but finally succumbed in the mid-1990s to the spread of 'QX disease',[25][28] which is caused by a parasite that affects Sydney Rock Oysters.[29]

Judd's Hurstville Brickworks was located on the northern side of Hurstville Road; its 13-hectare site straddled the northern boundary of Oatley with neighbouring Mortdale. It operated from 1884 to 1972, making bricks using shale from a quarry that occupied much of the Oatley-end of the site. Two tall brick chimneys were demolished in June 1973, along with the brick-making plant and kilns.[30] Fifteen brick cottages were built along the western side of Judd Street, Oatley, to rent to workers at the brickworks; some still survive.

A factory owned by Albert Page, which once existed on the south-eastern corner of Rosa Street and Hurstville Road, manufactured vehicle number plates from 1935 to the 1950s.[31][32][33] The Quill paper products factory was later on the same site. Surelli Furniture Pty Ltd operated a factory on the western side of Ada Street near the junction with Hurstville Road, until the late 1980s.[34][35] Both these factory sites are now occupied by medium-density housing. The Cuthbertson family ran a small factory making children's and babies' shoes, behind their residence at 46 Rosa Street, from after WWI until 1959 when they moved the factory to a site in Mortdale.[36][37][38]

Oatley Park[45] is a tree covered promontory that is almost completely surrounded by the Georges River. It covers an area of about 45 hectares (110 acres) and it is one of the significant areas of bushland remaining in the St George area.[46]

Oatley Park became a public recreation area on 25 March 1887. In October 1893, when the nearby residential subdivision was sold off, it was known as Peakhurst Park. It was renamed to Oatley Park in March 1922.

It protects important examples of the natural environment which occur throughout the park. In addition, there is a swimming area, a playground featuring an old steamroller, lookouts, barbecues, a soccer/cricket oval, and a "castle".[47] The man-made wetlands of Lime Kiln Bay Reserve which adjoin Oatley Park provide refuge for bird species such as chestnut teal, Pacific black ducks, dusky moorhens and purple swamphens.[48] Native mammals which are uncommon in the region can still be found within the park, including the short-beaked echidna and the swamp wallaby.[49][50]

Oatley Pleasure Grounds is a bush park located on Annette Street. It covers an area of 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) and was built by Harry Linmark before 1934. Numerous performances occurred in the park previously, and a wine bar was constructed. The bar was later shut down due to noise complaints.[51]