Indigenous Australians The first inhabitants of the St George area were
Australian Aboriginals. At the time of the arrival of the
First Fleet, the
Eora tribe inhabited land from
Port Jackson to
Botany Bay and the
Georges River. There is evidence to suggest that these people belonged to the
Gweagal,
Bidjigal and
Cadigal clans.
European settlement Town Hall Community Centre
James Cook sailed
HMS Endeavour into
Botany Bay in 1770 for his first landing on the continent of
Australia. Captain
Arthur Phillip led the
First Fleet into the bay on 18 January 1788 to found a
penal colony there but found the sandy infertile soil disappointing and moved the site of the settlement north to the natural harbour of
Port Jackson. The ridge between the
Cooks River and
Georges River was covered in a dense forest which first attracted timber cutters to the area. Wood gatherers, bark collectors, sawyers and charcoal burners moved into the area to work the forests of
Simeon Lord and supply Sydney's timber needs. By the 1840s,
Major Mitchell was building the Illawarra Road (now Forest Road) on the ridge through ‘Lord’s Bush’, which required enormous amounts of trees and bush to be cleared. Irishman Michael Gannon was innkeeper at Cooks River in the 1840s. He acquired land in the area, part of which became known as ‘Gannons Forest’ which later was the centre of
Hurstville. By 1851, it was estimated that 50 to 100 carts of timber and lime crossed the Cooks River daily. A map of the parish revealed that the land was cut into areas ranging from 30 to and a few large land grants of . The recipients were William Packer, Josh Thorp, James Oatley, Hannah Laycock, F. W. Unwin, Reuben and David Hannam, Patrick Moore, J. Beehag, John Porter and the larger grants were James Chandler and John and
Robert Townson. In 1920, the local councils in the St George area constituted St George County Council, to deal with distribution of electricity in the region. St George County Council was merged with
Sydney County Council (another inter-council electricity supplier) to form "Sydney Electricity" in 1989. The regional identity was reinforced by the creation in 1949 of a federal electorate, the
Division of St George, in the area. The Division was abolished in 1993. The area's identity is reflected in the name of the
St George Illawarra Dragons team who play in the
National Rugby League, and the
St. George Bank. == Suburbs in St George Area ==