Bronte, New South Wales

Bronte is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bronte Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the Waverley Council local government area of the Eastern Suburbs.[2]

Bronte Beach
Sydney, New South Wales
Bronte Beach
Bronte Baths
Bronte Beach
Coordinates
Population6,733 (2016 census)[1]
 • Density5,062/km2 (13,110/sq mi)
Postcode(s)2024
Area1.33 km2 (0.5 sq mi)
Location7 km (4 mi) E of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)Waverley
State electorate(s)Coogee
Federal Division(s)Wentworth
Suburbs around Bronte Beach:
Waverley Bondi Tamarama
Waverley Bronte Beach Tasman Sea
Randwick Clovelly Tasman Sea

Bronte Beach sits on Nelson Bay, surrounded by Bronte Park. Bronte offers scenic cliff-top walking paths south to Coogee via the Waverley Cemetery and north to Tamarama and Bondi Beach. The cliff-top path offers views which extend from Ben Buckler in the north to Malabar in the south. Bronte is located about 2.5 km south of Bondi Beach.

The suburb has previously been declared the best of 641 Sydney suburbs by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Suburbs Guide in 2008.[3]

History

Robert Lowe who later became Viscount Sherbrooke, bought 17 hectares (42 acres) of land from Mortimer Lewis, the English-born Australian Colonial Architect who owned most of the frontage in the area in the 1830s. His home was completed in 1845 and was named Bronte House, for Lord Nelson, who was the Duke of Bronte, a place in Sicily, Italy. The house, a single-storey stone bungalow located in Bronte Road, is owned by Waverley Council and leased to private tenants who hold open days a few times a year. It is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register[4] and on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.[5]

Lowe became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He later moved back to England where he became a writer with The Times.

Trams
Main article: Trams in Sydney

The former Bronte tram line branched from the North Bondi via Bondi Junction line at Bondi Junction, running down Bronte Road and MacPherson Street to Bronte Beach. A feature of this line was the final approach to Bronte Beach in a rock cutting parallel to the Pacific Ocean. The line opened to Waverley in 1890, then to Bronte in 1911. Electric services started to Waverley in 1902, then Bronte in 1911. Through services ran from Circular Quay or Railway Square. The line was closed in 1960 and replaced by a bus service that follows the route between Bronte and Bondi Junction of bus 440 and from early 2018 route 379.

Heritage listings

Bronte has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

Demographics

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 6,733 residents in Bronte. In Bronte, 62.8% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were England 7.9%, New Zealand 2.6%, United States of America 1.5% and South Africa 1.5%. 78.8% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included French at 2.0%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 38.6%, Catholic 24.8% and Anglican 12.3%.[1]

Culture

In recent years Bronte's eating scene has developed, with the introduction of several popular restaurants in Macpherson St.

Sport and recreation

Bronte has an important surfing culture. The Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club was founded in 1903 and claims to be the oldest surf lifesaving club in the world. An annual long-distance ocean swimming event is held in December each year between Bondi Beach and Bronte.

Bronte is represented in one of the most popular sporting competitions across Australia, the National Rugby League competition, by the local team the Sydney Roosters, officially the Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club (ESDRLFC).

The Bronte Splashers Winter Swimming Club claims to be the oldest Winter Swimming club in the world founded in 1921[7] and compete against Bondi Icebergs Winter Swimming Club, South Maroubra Dolphins Winter Swimming Club, Cronulla Polar Bears Winter Swimming Club, Maroubra Seals Winter Swimming Club, Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club, Clovelly Eskimos Winter Swimming Club, Coogee Penguins Winter Swimming Club, Wollongong Whales and Cottesloe Crabs in the Winter Swimming Association of Australia Championships.[8]

Notable residents
  • Bronte House
  • Uniting Church, Leichhardt Street
  • Heritage-listed house, Bronte Road
  • Grave of Henry Lawson, Waverley Cemetery
  • Waterfall, Bronte Gully

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Bronte (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  2. Gregory's Sydney Street Directory, Gregory's Publishing Company, 2007
  3. Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 2008
  4. "Bronte House". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. H00055. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  5. The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981, p.2/121
  6. "Waverley Cemetery". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. H01975. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. http://www.wsaainc.com/
  9. http://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/8728/FamousWaverleyLocals.pdf
  10. "How a triumphant return turned sour". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 January 2008.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.