Initially part of
Albert Park in the district of Woodville, the new suburb of Hendon was laid out in 1921 by Wilkinson, Sands and Wyles Ltd, on part of the land previously owned by the aviator,
Harry Butler, who established the adjacent aerodrome there in 1920. Consequently, several streets were named after aircraft. The Commonwealth had originally intended to fund the development of Parafield Aerodrome through the subdivision and sale of the land at Hendon, but with the end of the 1920s economic boom, these plans lapsed and the site remained as a cow pasture. Soon after the outbreak of
World War II the still vacant former Hendon aerodrome was one of three sites in South Australia set up as munitions factories (the others were at nearby
Finsbury, and
Salisbury). The Hendon factory, used to manufacture small arms ammunition, was serviced by an adjacent
railway station located on a spur from the
Grange railway line; after the station's closure in 1980, the rail corridor was later reused for the easternmost section of
West Lakes Boulevard. By 1947 the entire site of the former munitions factory had been acquired by
Philips Electrical Industries. This was a major accomplishment of the
Playford Government, with the Hendon site becoming "the company's Australian headquarters, and as such, the country's largest producer of electronic components, and a major centre of technological skills and research". At its peak in the late 1950s the factory employed almost 3,500 skilled workers, mostly women, who were valued for their dexterity and patience. The company's activities were progressively reduced during the 1970s, but one notable feature of the period was the collaboration of the company with the Polish-Australian artist
Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski, a pioneer of the use of laser, sound and image technology in art. The Philips factory was finally sold in 1980 to the Emanuel Group of Companies, becoming the "Hendon Industrial Park". Tenants at the site have included the
South Australian Film Corporation, which operated the Hendon Studios from 1981 until production moved to new studios at
Glenside in 2011.
Groundwater contamination In 2012 concerns emerged about the pollution of groundwater beneath Hendon and surrounding suburbs, and in May 2012 residents were advised not to use bore water for any purpose. Contaminants including
perchloroethene (PCE),
trichloroethene (TCE),
dichloroethene (DCE) and metals in groundwater and soil vapour had been detected, and noted by a consultants' report from 1992, which attributed the pollution to a former munitions manufacturing site on Philips Crescent. The Environment Protection Authority is now "working with site contamination consultants to better characterise the current nature and extent of the contamination, and to ascertain potential risks". ==Geography==