The suburb is named after surgeon
William Redfern, who was granted of land in this area in 1817 by
Lachlan Macquarie. He built a country house on his property surrounded by flower and kitchen gardens. His neighbours were Captain Cleveland, an officer of the 73rd regiment, who built
Cleveland House and John Baptist, who ran a nursery and seed business. Sydney's original railway terminus was built in Cleveland Paddocks and extended from
Cleveland Street to Devonshire Street and west to
Chippendale. The station's name was chosen to honour William Redfern. At that time, the present
Redfern station was known as
Eveleigh. When
Central station was built further north on the site of the Devonshire Street cemetery, Eveleigh station became Redfern and Eveleigh was retained for the name of the
Eveleigh Railway Workshops, south of the station. The remains of Cleveland Paddocks became
Prince Alfred Park. In August 1859, Redfern was incorporated as a borough. The
Municipality of Redfern merged with the
City of Sydney from 1 January 1949. The first recorded and codified game of
Australian rules football in NSW was played in Redfern on the Albert Ground, Redfern between the Rugby Union Club, Waratah, and the
Carlton Football Club from
Melbourne. On 17 January 1908, the
South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby football club was formed at
Redfern Town Hall to compete in the
first season of the
New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. In July 1947, the
Redfern Council commissioned the firm Smith and Styles for large-scale proposals for
Urban renewal in Redfern, to conform to the
Cumberland County Council masterplan zoning. The proposal included "clearance" of wide swathes of buildings across the suburb, a national theatre and opera house. This planning scheme was required by the Local Government (Town and Country Planning) Act 1945. From 1949 Redfern was absorbed by the
City of Sydney council. In the 1960s and 70s,
Liquidambar styraciflua trees were planted in Baptist Street in attempts to green and improve the physical environment. The notorious
Redfern Mail Exchange was built in 1965, after 300 people were evicted from their homes on the site. It became the scene of many industrial disputes when the automatic mail-sorting machinery, which was supposed to sort mail more efficiently, destroyed many letters and became known as the Redfern Mangler. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a
black power movement, centred around Aboriginal Australian migrants to the city, formed and resulted in the creation of health clinics, food drives, housing co-operatives and a legal aid centre. A
green ban helped save the Redfern Aboriginal Centre in the 1970s and activists from Redfern created the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. A 1981 transport report described Redfern as "Basically split" into three communities: East Redfern, Central Redfern, and West Redfern; the last "generally being considered with the Chippendale area". Contracting shopping opportunities was considered a problem on Regent Street/Botany Road, particular the Western side, due to the heavy traffic of this major road. The
2004 Redfern riots began on 14 February 2004, at the end of Eveleigh Street outside
Redfern station, sparked by the death of Thomas 'TJ' Hickey. The teenager, riding on his bicycle, was allegedly being chased by a police vehicle, which led to his impalement on a fence. Members of his family were then reported to have started grieving for TJ around Eveleigh Street with a crowd gathering commiserating with the family. Fliers were distributed blaming police for TJ's death. The police closed the Eveleigh Street entrance to the railway station, but youths in the crowd became violent, throwing bricks and bottles; this escalated into a riot. A subsequent inquest found that although the police were following Hickey, they had not caused the accident, a verdict that caused controversy in Redfern's Indigenous community. The riots sparked fresh debate into the welfare of
Indigenous Australians and the response of the police to those living in the Redfern area. == Buildings ==