History of Rozelle

Rozelle was part of the original land grant of 550 acres made to colonial surgeon William Balmain in 1800 by Governor Hunter.

1842 Broughton House, a two storey GeorgianMansion with circular driveway and pleasure gardens built at CallanPark.

1861 The peninsula boundary line was placed at Elliot, Reynolds and Crescent Streets, Balmain. The land lying to the west of this boundary extending to the gates of CallanPark was called Balmain West.

1870s Alfred Hancock, W.H. Paling, R.J. Paling, Dr L. Foucart and others purchased large blocks of land in Balmain West. These blocks were subdivided and sold to those who had arrived in the area to build CallanPark and the IronCoveBridge. This was known as the 'Home for the People Scheme'.

1873 Callan Park Estate purchased by the Parkes Government for use as an asylum for the insane. St Paul's Church built on the corner of Darling Street and Weston Road.

1874 St Thomas ' Anglican Church, Darling Street, designed by Edmund Blacket.

1877 Balmain West residents petitioned for a post office, as the Balmain Post and Telegraph Office was not adequate for the developing suburb. The CallanPark branch of GladesvilleMental Hospital was opened with the transfer of 44 male patients from GladesvilleHospital to the 'Callan Homestead'. A boat, the "Mabel", made daily trips between the two hospitals.

1878 Balmain West Public School opened. Designed by John Horbury Hunt. Work commenced on the new stone buildings at CallanPark, designed for approximately 700 patients. The stone was quarried on site.

1880s The grocery shop on the corner of Weston Road and Withecombe Street became the Balmain West Post Office. Joseph Gosling, the grocer, was the postmaster. By this time the area had expanded into a large shopping centre, accelerated by the availability of cheap property and trams to Ryde.

1884 Balmain West Public School became known as DarlingRoadPublic School. In 1885 it was renamed DarlingRoadSuperiorSchool.

1885 New asylum for the insane, CallanPark, officially opened. Named after North American physician Thomas Story Kirkbride the complex was described as a magnificent collection of buildings.

1887 Volunteer Fire Brigade established at 584 Darling Street.

1892 Postmaster General declared Rozelle as the official name of Balmain West. The origin of the name Rozelle is unknown. The bay had been called RozellaBay for many years. The name Rozelle may have been after the rosella bird or the rosella flower. First steam tram in the area terminated at DarlingRoadSuperiorSchool, corner of Darling and Merton Streets. The same year the tramline was extended to GladstonePark.

1894 Rozelle Post Office opened.

1895 The Volunteer Fire Brigade ceased to exist.

1896 A public telephone was installed at Rozelle Post Office (one of fifteen in the metropolitan area).

1902 Tramline electrified.

1907 Rozelle Mechanics Institute built on Weston Road. DarlingRoadSuperiorSchool renamed RozelleSuperiorPublic School.

1909 Rozelle Fire Station, No. 49, opened on the corner of Darling and Oxford Streets.

1912 Tramline connecting Rozelle with Leichhardt was opened. Broughton House, now known as Broughton Hall, opens as Number 13 Australian Army Hospital, treating returned servicemen.

1921 Broughton Hall becomes NSW's first psychiatric clinic for voluntary patients.

1925 Rozelle Theatre was opened on the corner of Red Lion and Darling Streets.

1945 Rozelle Fire Station closed and was used as Bush Fire Station No. 99 until 1956.

1959 Post office demolished to widen Victoria Road. The widening had been under discussion since the 1920s.

1966 Rozelle Junior Boys High School finds itself in the news when it is revealed on the ABC current affairs programme "Four Corners" that the school is the most disadvantaged in NSW.

1976 Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic merges with CallanParkHospital to become RozelleHospital.

1980s Rozelle's reputation as a solidly working class residential suburb begins to change. Many of the area's houses underwent 'gentrification' - renovation by their new owners who were overwhelmingly tertiary educated and middle class. The changing demographics of Rozelle in the 1980s mirrored the experience of neighbouring Balmain in the 1970s, and came about in tandem with the closure of much of the areas industry

1990s In the 1990s Rozelle and neighbouring Balmain experience a housing boom as huge swathes of land are redeveloped into housing on sites previously zoned industrial.

1994 The historic Kirkbride building at RozelleHospital closes its doors to psychiatric patients after almost 120 years; all patients were transferred to other sites on the RozelleHospital campus.

1996 After extensive renovations the Kirkbride building re-opens as the new home of the University of Sydney's SydneyCollege of the Arts.

2002 NSW Health Department releases a draft Master Plan for the CallanPark site. The plan's recommendations include the transfer of all hospital facilities at RozelleHospital to the ConcordHospital campus and the sale of approximately 20% of the site. The Master Plan's recommendations meet fierce resistance from community members, led by the resident action group Friends of Callan Park. The level of community reaction to plans for the site results in the State government's decision to shelve plans to sell a portion of the site for development.

2005 NSW government announces that plans to relocate RozelleHospital to the ConcordHospital site have been put on hold.