The Great Secession

By the early 1890s, the residents of Eastwood and Marsfield felt a growing sense of alienation from the rest of Ryde. This disillusionment was caused by a "perceived inequitable provision of council services". They were ratepayers contributing to the municipal coffers, yet they saw little of that revenue reinvested in their own rapidly growing localities in the form of roads, drainage, lighting, and other essential amenities.

This simmering discontent brought about formal political action on July 7, 1893, when a petition bearing 98 signatures formally requested that Marsfield and Eastwood be severed from Ryde to form their own, separate municipality. The state government accepted the petitioners' case, and on June 5, 1894, the "Municipal District of Marsfield" was officially proclaimed. Its creation represented a significant victory for local citizens.

Local History

Before 1800

The Field of Mars Common

A defining feature of the region was the Field of Mars Common. In response to petitions from early settlers struggling on small grants, Governor Philip Gidley King gazetted 5,050 acres (2,044 hectares) as public land in 1804. Stretching from Hunters Hill to Pennant Hills, this vast tract was intended for the public grazing of livestock, following the English tradition. For much of the nineteenth century, the Common served as a buffer against extensive settlement and preserved large swathes of bushland. However, by the 1840s, it had acquired a reputation for harbouring "unsavoury characters" and facilitating illegal activities like timber cutting and squatting.

This growing lawlessness, combined with the district's increasing population and the pressing need for better transport links to Sydney, led to calls for the Common's resumption. The colonial government passed the Field of Mars Resumption Act in 1874, enabling the land to be cleared, subdivided, and sold. The proceeds were earmarked to finance the construction of the Gladesville and Iron Cove bridges, critical infrastructure that would physically and economically connect the northern districts to the city. The first land sales from the resumed Common commenced in 1885, laying out the allotments that would eventually form the suburb of Marsfield.

The Iron Horse and the Orchardist: The Divergent Paths of Early Eastwood and Marsfield

The late nineteenth century saw Eastwood and Marsfield embark on markedly different developmental trajectories, a divergence dictated almost entirely by transport infrastructure.

Eastwood's story is one of railway-led development. The opening of the single-track railway line from Strathfield to Hornsby on 17 September 1886 was the single most transformative event in its history. A station was established, initially named 'Dundas', but was renamed 'Eastwood' on 1 September 1887, taking its name from the nearby 'Eastwood House', the grand estate of prominent local figure Edward Terry. The railway station immediately became the rural district’s gravitational centre, making the area highly attractive for residential settlement. This spurred the rapid subdivision of the area's great nineteenth-century farming estates, including Gregory Blaxland's Brush Farm and the Terry family's Eastwood and Denistone House estates. Advertisements from 1904 and 1905 for land sales on the Darvall Estate and the Highlands Estate vividly illustrate this process. Eastwood quickly evolved into a desirable "railway suburb," offering professionals large blocks of land on which to build Federation-style homes with gardens, tennis courts, or even small ‘gentlemen’s farms’, all within a reasonable commute from Sydney town.

Marsfield's development was completely different. Its genesis lay in the methodical, and much slower, subdivision of the Field of Mars Common. Crucially, it lacked a railway station. Land buyers in the 1880s and 1890s were attracted by the promise of a tramway that would connect the Field of Mars to the city via the new Gladesville Bridge, but this infrastructure never fully materialised; the line terminated at Hattons Flat in Ryde. This failure of "infrastructure denied" had a profound impact, leaving Marsfield in a state of arrested development. For decades, it retained a distinctly semi-rural character, dominated by orchards, poultry farms, and market gardens that supplied fresh produce to the growing metropolis. This fundamental economic and social divergence between the two adjacent suburbs would directly shape the priorities and actions of their respective Progress Associations.

A Tale of Two Municipalities: Secession, Governance, and Re-amalgamation (1894-1949)

The administrative landscape of the district was as dynamic as its physical development. Initially, both Eastwood and Marsfield fell within the vast Municipality of Ryde, incorporated in 1870. However, by the 1890s, tensions had emerged. Ratepayers in the less-developed Marsfield area, which included parts of what is now Eastwood, felt their rates were being used to fund services elsewhere in the municipality, leading to resentment over this perceived inequity.

This dissatisfaction culminated in a successful petition for secession. On 2 June 1894, the "Municipal District of Marsfield" was officially proclaimed, creating a new, smaller local government area. The new council, with Arthur Fitzhardinge as its first mayor, held its inaugural meeting on 15 August 1894. The very act of secession created a more localized and, in theory, more responsive political entity. This environment of small-scale governance was fertile ground for citizen lobby groups like the Progress Associations, as they could exert more direct influence on a council composed of their immediate neighbours and peers.

However, the gravitational pull of the railway soon asserted itself. By the early 1900s, Eastwood, with its station and burgeoning commercial strip along Rowe Street, was undeniably the district's economic and social hub. Recognizing this reality, the council passed a resolution in 1906 to change its name. On 17 July 1907, the "Municipality of Marsfield" officially became the "Municipality of Eastwood". This change reflected the ascendancy of the railway suburb over its rural neighbour.

In a peculiar quirk of development, while the municipality was named for Eastwood, its administrative heart remained physically in Marsfield. A purpose-built Town Hall, serving as the council chambers, was erected on Agincourt Road, Marsfield, in 1911. This created the unusual dynamic of a council named for one suburb meeting in another, a situation that persisted for nearly four decades.

This era of localized governance came to an end after the Second World War. The New South Wales government, seeking to streamline infrastructure development, passed the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948. The act abolished many of Sydney's small councils, and on 1 January 1949, the Municipality of Eastwood was re-amalgamated into the larger Municipality of Ryde. This marked the end of an era of intimate, local-level politics and the beginning of a more centralized and professionalized system of municipal administration. The political consolidation would, in time, diminish the direct influence of the very Progress Associations that had thrived under the old system.

The Eastwood Progress Association

The Eastwood Progress Association was established by local citizens with the explicit purpose of lobbying local and state government on matters concerning the suburb's development and welfare. As an organized body of residents, it provided a formal channel through which collective aspirations could be articulated and advanced. While the exact date of its formation is not specified in the available records, it was clearly an active and influential body by 1904, when it began its campaign for a public park.

The association's influence cannot be understood without acknowledging the central role of Charles Robert Summerhayes. A figure of immense local standing, Summerhayes was an architect, builder, and politician who served as Chairman of the Eastwood Progress Association. His power to effect change was magnified by his concurrent roles within the formal structures of government. He was elected as an alderman for the West Ward of Ryde Municipal Council in 1905 and served multiple terms as Mayor of Ryde, including from 1911 to 1912 and again in 1922. This unique concentration of roles in one individual created a powerful, self-reinforcing loop for development. Summerhayes could identify a community need through his leadership of the EPA, advocate for it as a lobbyist, promote and vote for it as a municipal legislator, and, in many cases, oversee its physical creation as the project's architect. This dynamic demonstrates that the EPA's influence was not simply a matter of grassroots pressure; it was strategically amplified and directed by an elite "civic entrepreneur" who could masterfully navigate the levers of power. His architectural practice left a lasting physical imprint on the suburb, including designs for St Philip's Anglican Church (1907), the commercial Summerhayes Shops group on Rowe Street (c. 1920), and the grandstand at Eastwood Park (1933).

The EPA's activities extended beyond local amenities into the realm of high-level municipal politics. In April 1926, the association was reported to be "making an attempt to secure a larger municipality". This move indicates a sophisticated political ambition, aiming to expand Eastwood's administrative boundaries and, by extension, its political and economic influence over the surrounding districts. The association's longevity is confirmed by reports of its annual meetings, such as one held in November 1922, demonstrating its sustained operation as an organized civic body.

Parks, Arts, and Infrastructure

The EPA's agenda was focused on securing the essential social infrastructure that would transform Eastwood from a mere residential subdivision into a cohesive and desirable community. Its two most significant and well-documented achievements were the creation of a public park and the establishment of a School of Arts.

The campaign for public recreational space was a primary objective. The association began lobbying for a park in 1904, a fourteen-year effort that culminated in the granting of an eight-acre (3.2-hectare) parcel of land in 1918. This space, Eastwood Park, became the suburb's green heart, a vital community asset for leisure and sport. The park's importance is underscored by the later addition of a war memorial after World War I and the construction of a grandstand designed by the EPA's own chairman, C.R. Summerhayes, in 1933.

Equally important was the EPA's role in fostering the suburb's cultural and educational life. The association was instrumental in founding the Eastwood School of Arts in 1906. In the early twentieth century, a School of Arts was a key marker of a suburb's cultural maturity and ambition. It was far more than a library; it was a centre for adult education, recreation, debate, and social gatherings—the intellectual and social hub of the community. Though the original building was later demolished to make way for new development , its establishment was a landmark achievement. The success of the Eastwood School of Arts created a powerful precedent in the district, directly inspiring the Marsfield Progress Association to lobby for a similar institution in their own suburb just months later, as their president—the very same C.R. Summerhayes—explicitly cited Eastwood's success as the model to emulate. This demonstrates a dynamic of competitive civic improvement, where the EPA's actions set a benchmark for neighbouring communities.

Beyond these major projects, the EPA was an ongoing concern, holding regular meetings and engaging in regional issues. Its willingness to cooperate with the Marsfield Progress Association on the broader campaign for a tramway extension shows an understanding of the need for regional solidarity on major infrastructure projects that transcended local boundaries.

Economic and Social Influence

The EPA's achievements had a direct and lasting economic and social impact on Eastwood. By successfully lobbying for amenities like a park and a School of Arts, the association played a crucial role in creating a "complete" suburb. These were not mere embellishments; they were essential assets that significantly enhanced the quality of life and increased the suburb's attractiveness to prospective middle-class residents and businesses. The presence of such civic infrastructure would have had a positive effect on land values and commercial vitality, reinforcing the growth cycle initiated by the railway.

The EPA's story is a powerful illustration of how organized citizen advocacy could shape the suburban landscape. It demonstrates a sophisticated approach that combined grassroots lobbying with the strategic deployment of influential leaders who held positions of power. The legacy of the Eastwood Progress Association is written in the very fabric of the suburb it served—most tangibly in the green space of Eastwood Park, a direct and enduring result of its persistent, fourteen-year campaign.

The Marsfield Progress Association

In contrast to the Eastwood Progress Association, which represented a maturing suburban centre, the Marsfield Progress Association (MPA) was the voice of a community striving to overcome its developmental disadvantages. Its history is characterized by a persistent and ambitious campaign to acquire the basic civic and transport infrastructure that its neighbour, Eastwood, already possessed. The MPA's activities reveal a clear-eyed understanding of its suburb's needs and a sophisticated approach to political lobbying, even if its ultimate ambitions were not fully realized.

The Campaign for Connectivity and Culture: The 1906 Meeting

A detailed report of the MPA's monthly meeting, held in Agincourt Hall on a Monday evening in April 1906 and published in The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, provides an invaluable snapshot of the association's strategy and priorities. The proceedings from this single evening encapsulate the typical "lobbying lifecycle" of a progress association in a developing suburb, moving from achievable local goals to ambitious regional campaigns.

The first item of business was a proposal to establish a School of Arts in Marsfield. President Summerhayes spoke "warmly in support of the project," explicitly referencing "the success which had attended a similar effort at Eastwood" as the model and motivation. The proposal received unanimous and enthusiastic support, demonstrating the community's cultural aspirations. The campaign was immediately bolstered by a generous offer from local magnate Harry Curzon Smith, who pledged the use of his Agincourt Hall free of charge for 12 months for the school's purposes, along with a cupboard for books. The association also resolved to solicit a £5 donation from the local Member of Parliament, Edward Terry, who had promised to distribute his parliamentary allowance to local institutions. This multi-pronged approach—drawing on community enthusiasm, local benefactors, and political connections—proved successful, and the Marsfield School of Arts was established in Agincourt Road later that year.

The meeting then turned to the critical issue of transport. A motion was passed unanimously for the MPA to become affiliated with the "Joint Committee Strathfield to Hornsby line". This was a highly strategic decision. By joining a larger, more powerful lobbying bloc that represented multiple suburbs along the northern railway corridor, the MPA amplified its political voice. It recognized that its local concerns, particularly regarding major infrastructure, were best advanced as part of a coordinated regional effort.

With this new affiliation secured, the association focused on its ultimate prize: a tramway. On the motion of Mr. J. Lovell, it was resolved to write to the Eastwood Progress Association, asking for its cooperation in a joint effort to lobby the Minister for Works. The goal was to urge the government to act on a long-promised extension of the tramway network into their districts, pointing to a recent commitment to duplicate the Drummoyne line as precedent. This action highlights both the association's primary ambition and its pragmatic understanding that inter-suburban cooperation was essential for success.

Beyond these major campaigns, the MPA also engaged in fostering local culture, such as supporting efforts to resuscitate the Marsfield Brass Band, another important element of community-building in the era.

Measuring Influence: Successes, Setbacks, and Legacy

The MPA's record is one of mixed success. It achieved its immediate cultural goals, successfully establishing a School of Arts and fostering a sense of community identity through initiatives like the brass band. Its persistent advocacy, along with that of other local bodies, undoubtedly contributed to the general improvement of roads and services in the municipality over time.

However, the association's most significant and transformative goal—securing a direct tram or rail link for Marsfield—was never achieved. This failure was its greatest setback and had a profound and lasting impact on the suburb's development. It ensured that Marsfield remained less developed and more rural than Eastwood for many decades, its growth hampered by the very isolation the MPA had fought so hard to overcome.

Like its Eastwood counterpart, the MPA's activities appear to fade from the public record in the post-World War II era. The 1949 re-amalgamation of the Eastwood Municipality into Ryde Council created a larger, more distant bureaucracy, diminishing the direct influence of such local bodies. Furthermore, the eventual construction of major arterial roads like Epping Road (completed in 1940) and the profound demographic shifts of the post-war decades rendered the association's original purpose largely obsolete. While it failed to secure its tramway, the legacy of the Marsfield Progress Association lies in its role as a unifying force that gave a voice to an aspiring community and successfully established the cultural institutions that formed the bedrock of local social life.

The Post-War Transformation: Demographic Shifts and the Fading of the Associations

Marsfield shares much of its early history with Eastwood, yet followed a somewhat different trajectory due to geography and delayed urbanization. The area’s name is a direct nod to the Field of Mars, the grand expanse of common land set aside in 1804 for use by local settlers. This common – stretching from modern-day Ryde to Pennant Hills – kept Marsfield largely bush-covered and unsettled until the late 19th century. In the 1880s the Field of Mars Common was finally broken up and sold. New roads were laid out and tellingly, many were given battlefield names (Vimiera, Culloden, Agincourt, Balaclava, etc.) in honor of “Mars” (the god of war) – a tradition that endures in Marsfield’s street map today. Small farms of 1–4 acres were established, and portions of land were reserved for a cemetery and wildlife refuge, but a true village center was slow to form. Transport was the biggest hurdle: the much-hoped-for tram line from Ryde into the Field of Mars never materialized in the 1890s, leaving Marsfield relatively isolated except for rough roads and the distant train at Eastwood.

In 1894 the agrarian community of Marsfield asserted its identity by forming its own local government. The Municipality of Marsfield, proclaimed that year, encompassed Marsfield and the eastern side of Eastwood. Residents had felt that Ryde Council was neglecting their unpaved roads and sparse settlement. With their own council, Marsfield locals could direct rates into local infrastructure. The new council’s presence, in turn, spurred development: Harry Curzon Smith’s investment in the area around 1897–1900 – including the construction of Curzon Hall, a castle-like sandstone mansion – gave Marsfield a landmark and a boost of confidence. Smith even opened a private school in 1901 (on Agincourt Road) and later donated the building to serve as Marsfield’s public hall. By 1906 the community had added a School of Arts (library and hall) and was hosting regular church services. A small village known as Marsfield began to coalesce near these facilities.

A curious twist came in 1907: the State government renamed Marsfield Municipality to “Eastwood Municipality”, reflecting the reality that Eastwood, with its railway and growing population, had become the district’s major town. Despite the name change, Marsfield’s civic heart did not move – Eastwood Town Hall (1911) was actually built on Agincourt Road in Marsfield, adjacent to the Marsfield School of Arts. This meant Marsfield continued to host the council chambers, town hall, and other institutions even as “Eastwood” became the official name. The decision appears odd to modern eyes (the Eastwood Town Hall was “so far away from Eastwood proper” as one historian notes, but it underscores how Marsfield and Eastwood were administratively intertwined. Many Marsfield residents no doubt felt a loss of recognition with the name change, but the area remained represented on council and active through its Progress Association.

Through the first half of the 20th century, Marsfield stayed predominantly rural. While neighboring Eastwood filled up with bungalows on quarter-acre lots, Marsfield’s larger land holdings lent themselves to agriculture. The Soldier Settlement program after World War I encouraged returned servicemen to take up poultry farming in Marsfield’s outskirts. Dozens of poultry farms, along with orchards and plant nurseries, operated in Marsfield and North Ryde – contributing eggs, fruit, and flowers to Sydney’s markets. Basic services lagged behind; for example, town water and sewer lines were slow to reach every household. As late as the 1930s, many Marsfield farmers still relied on wells and cesspits, leading to the 1939 nightsoil protest when modern garbage service was imposed. One important road link did arrive: Epping Road, completed in 1940, which cut east–west through Marsfield and finally gave the suburb a direct highway connection to the city (via Lane Cove). Even so, Marsfield’s population remained small, and in 1948 its local governance fully reverted to Ryde when Eastwood Municipality was absorbed into a new City of Ryde.

The transformation of Marsfield from green fields to suburban streets began in earnest in the post-war decades. In the 1950s Marsfield was included in the metropolitan Green Belt under the County of Cumberland Plan, which for a time restricted residential subdivision to lots of at least 5 acres, aiming to prevent urban sprawl. This delayed intensive development, but not for long. By the early 1960s Sydney’s growth pressures demanded change. In 1963 the NSW Government selected Marsfield/North Ryde as the site of a new metropolitan university – Macquarie University – to be built on former green belt lands. The announcement was a turning point: in 1964 about 939 acres of Marsfield’s green belt were rezoned for the university campus, new housing, and an associated high-technology industrial park. Macquarie University opened in 1967 just outside Marsfield’s eastern border, catalyzing a wave of suburban development. Tracts of Marsfield that had been poultry farms were rapidly subdivided in the late 1960s and 1970s to house university staff, students, and Sydney’s expanding workforce. The Macquarie Park commercial/technology district also rose immediately to the east, bringing jobs and modern infrastructure. By the 1980s, Marsfield was effectively a fully urban residential suburb, though remnants of its rural past – old farm houses, pockets of bush (on the Terrys Creek escarpment), and the enduring street names of the Field of Mars – still dot the landscape.

The world in which the Progress Associations had thrived was irrevocably changed by the Second World War and its aftermath. The post-war period saw the character of the entire district shift dramatically from rural and semi-rural to suburban residential. This was driven in part by government initiatives like the Ryde Housing Scheme, which constructed hundreds of affordable homes to address post-war shortages.

The most profound change, however, was demographic. The post-war decades brought successive waves of immigration that reshaped the social fabric of Eastwood and Marsfield. Initially, migrants from Italy and Greece settled in the area, with many finding work in the district's numerous market gardens and orchards. This was followed by the arrival of Vietnamese refugees after 1976, who added to the area's growing diversity.

The most significant transformation began in the 1980s, with a large-scale influx of migrants from China and South Korea. This wave profoundly reshaped Eastwood in particular, turning its commercial precinct into a vibrant and bustling hub of Asian-Australian economic and cultural life. New businesses, restaurants, and community networks emerged, reflecting the needs and cultures of the new residents.

In this new context, the original Anglo-Australian-led Progress Associations, born from the specific concerns of early twentieth-century suburbanization, likely became anachronistic. Their founding missions—to secure parks, halls, and basic transport—had either been achieved or rendered obsolete by larger governmental actions and changing social priorities. The 1949 re-amalgamation of the council had already shifted the political centre of gravity away from intimate local bodies. The subsequent rise of new community structures built by successive migrant groups created different forms of social and political organization. The natural result was the fading of the old Progress Associations, their purpose dissolving into the more complex, multicultural, and centralized world of modern Sydney.

Today Marsfield is known for its mix of low-density homes and garden estates, its proximity to Macquarie University, and the dominance of Macquarie Centre over local commercial life. Much of this character can be traced back to patterns established long ago: the large blocks of the Field of Mars Common, the civically minded planning of early residents, and the delayed but then accelerated growth spurts mid-century. Importantly, the early Progress Association’s influence is still felt. It secured community focal points (like the site of Marsfield’s School of Arts, now a community center) and instilled a tradition of residents engaging with council to shape the suburb’s future. Marsfield’s journey from common land to modern suburb was gradual, but it was guided at each step by local citizens determined to see their area thrive.

Eastwood

Eastwood is a suburb with colonial roots and a multicultural present, and has been thoroughly shaped by the civic initiatives of its residents. Originally home to the Wallumedegal Aboriginal tribe, who called the area Wallumetta, Eastwood’s recorded history began with land grants in the 1790s. In 1804 Governor King set aside the Field of Mars Common (5,050 acres of public grazing land) just east of present-day Eastwood, which preserved bushland for decades. When the common was eventually subdivided and sold off in the late 19th century, Eastwood emerged as an attractive rural district. The suburb’s name comes from Eastwood House, an elegant villa built in 1840 by William Rutledge and later owned by local-parliamentarian Edward Terry. Surrounding estates like Brush Farm (purchased by explorer Gregory Blaxland in 1807) and Denistone (home of the Darvall family) formed a patchwork of gentleman farms in the 19th century. Notably, Eastwood was the birthplace of the Granny Smith apple, Maria Ann “Granny” Smith cultivated the first of the famous green apples on her Eastwood orchards in the 1860s, a fact that has become local lore.

In the winter of 1904, when steam trains still screamed through Eastwood cutting, a handful of orchardists and shopkeepers gathered beside the platform lights and resolved to wrest a public reserve from the railway department’s surplus paddock. They named themselves the Eastwood Progress Association, and after fourteen years of petitioning, deputations and letter-writing, the NSW Government surrendered eight acres that became Eastwood Park in 1918, a victory remembered as the suburb’s first collective triumph.

MARSFIELD

Marsfield traces its origins back to the expansive Field of Mars Common, a colonial reserve named in 1804 and subdivided in the 1880s into small farms, orchards and streets with martial names like Agincourt, Crimea and Balaclava. In 1894 residents unhappy with inequitable council services secured municipal secession from Ryde, forming the short‑lived Municipality of Marsfield. That entity later reorganised and renamed itself the Municipality of Eastwood in 1907, before being re‑amalgamated with Ryde in 1949

Just north of Eastwood, Marsfield’s farmers followed suit. By 1910, their own progress association was lobbying for a public school, a bridge across the Lane Cove River and a School of Arts to civilise what was then considered a ‘country district’. The Marsfield Progress Association’s unofficial mastermind, local entrepreneur Harry Curzon-Smith, even sketched tourist pavilions for what is now Top Ryde.

Through the inter-war decades those bodies became the suburbs’ unappointed guardians. The Eastwood Association founded a volunteer fire brigade in 1914, then agitated until permanent firefighters were posted in 1924; they campaigned for streetlighting, drainage and the preservation of Brush Farm House, rallying neighbours with handbills tacked to telegraph poles.

Marsfield’s committee spoke for dairy families when the first subdivisions sliced up paddocks in the 1930s, and later for ex-servicemen who needed mortgage guarantees after 1945. Both associations faded in the 1960s, they were victims of suburbanisation.

Ordinary residents have long steered the district’s destiny.