The Indigenous people on the southern side of
Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) called the north side
warung which meant
the other side, while those on the northern side used the same name to describe the southern side. The first name used by European settlers was
Hunterhill, named after a property owned by
Thomas Muir of Huntershill (1765–1799), a Scottish political reformer. He purchased land in 1794 near the location where the north pylon of the
Sydney Harbour Bridge is now located, and built a house which he named after his childhood home. This area north of
Gore Hill became known as
St Leonards. The township of St Leonards was laid out in 1836 in what is now North Sydney, bounded by what is now Miller, Walker, Lavender and Berry streets. By 1846 there were 106 houses here and by 1859, the commercial centre had extended from
Milsons Point to Miller Street. A bus service operated by Jeremiah Wall ran between Milsons Point and
North Sydney Shops, and North Sydney thus developed its own identity. The North Sydney municipality was incorporated in 1890 and after naming disputes,
North Sydney was settled upon. The post office which opened in 1854 as St Leonards was changed to North Sydney in 1890. The first public school which opened in 1874 as St Leonards was renamed North Sydney in 1910. In the interwar period, North Sydney's appeal grew as people sought alternatives to crowded inner-city living, with railway extensions and the opening of the new
Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, enabling residential expansion. At the same time,
Art Deco hotels replaced older architectural styles. North Sydney underwent a dramatic transformation into a commercial hub in 1971–72. In this period no less than 27
skyscrapers were built.
Trams The history of the North Sydney tramway system can be divided into three periods – the first from the original opening in 1886 to 1909, when the
McMahons Point line opened. The second period covers the time until the Wynyard line was opened across the
Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, and the third until construction of the
Cahill Expressway on the eastern side of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the wider closure of the system in 1962. The first part of the North Sydney tramway system was a double-track cable tramway which commenced at the original
Milsons Point ferry wharf, located where the north pylon of the Harbour Bridge is now. The line originally extended via Alfred Street (now Alfred Street South), Junction Street (now
Pacific Highway), Blue Street and Miller Street to the
Ridge Street Tram Depot. It used cable grip cars called "dummies" and un-powered trailer cars. A feature of these lines was the underground tram terminus at
Wynyard railway station (the only one in Australia), and the tracks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Trams ran from Blue Street over a now-demolished steel arch bridge over the Harbour Bridge Roadway, then over the eastern side of the harbour bridge (now road lanes), through a tram platform at
Milsons Point railway station, before descending underground into platforms 1 and 2 of Wynyard station. == Heritage listings ==