Discover many lives of land that’s now home to Marrickville Golf Club

Last year Gabby went on a quest to discover the name of her house and to answer a puzzling question about the street she lives in.
“Why do they call it Wharf Street?”
The first Local History Night will be the story of the piece of land that Marrickville Golf Course now occupies.
It starts with what was there before 1788 and then what became of the land in the hands of the colonial settlers. The land and river provide a backdrop to the triumphs and tragedies that befell the resident families before the land was sold to the Crown in 1911.
There is a celebrity chef, a Member of Parliament and a nation builder among the inhabitants of the beautiful 19th century homestead that has been buried beneath the Golf Clubhouse.
Gabby said: “I have a photo of the graceful home that somehow morphed into the architectural disaster that is the Marrickville Golf Clubhouse. I hope the council might one day restore it to its former glory.”
Once sold to the Crown, the land became Riverside Park and included picnic grounds, playgrounds, sports fields and a nine-hole golf course in 1940, then an 18-hole in 1953.
A current draft plan of management by the Inner West Council, includes a proposal to take nine holes off the course.
Gabby muses over how times change: “In the 1940s, the Golf Club set off a chain of events that brought the council to its knees. Eighty years later, elements within the council are returning fire.”
This free community event is about the fascinating story of the piece of land now known as Marrickville Golf Club but which has had many lives before its present one. And yes, you will find out why Gabby’s street was named Wharf Street.
To book a group table for the free history talk, call the Golf Club on 9558 1876.