Bondi
Junction is a suburb of Sydney, Australia,
about 5 kilometres east of the central
business district. It is located immediately
west of Bondi Beach. It is a largely commercial
area which has undergone many renovations
and changes since the late 20th century,
notably a new bus/rail interchange and
a major renovation along the main street
leading into Bondi Junction. Bondi Junction
station is the eastern terminus of the
Eastern Suburbs railway. Henry Hough was
first given a grant of land on the site
of Bondi Junction in 1832. On his estate,
he built a wind-powered flour mill. This
was accessed by a track leading of the
South Head Road, now Oxford Street, the
suburb's main thoroughfare. Hough named
his farm Hope, but it was colloquially
dubbed Mill Hill. In 1854 the first hotel
in the area opened. It was named The Waverley
Tea Gardens and the surrounding area quickly
took that name. Thus the original name
for Bondi Junction stuck for the next
30 years.
By
1878 steam had supplanted wind in milling
and the estate was closed. In May 1881
it was subdivided. Three streets in this
subdivision that exist today are Mill
Hill Road, Hope Street and Hough Street.
The subdivision of the estate coincided
with the opening of the first tramway
to the area - steam trams began operation
from Taylor Square in Darlinghurst on
March 12 1881. With the extension of the
tram line to Bondi and Charing Cross/Bronte
later in the decade, the term Bondi Junction
was coined referring to the junction of
the Bondi and Bronte tram lines at the
corner of the now Oxford St and Bronte
Rd. With the subdivision of surrounding
suburbs complete by 1930, Bondi Junction
quickly grew into a major entertainment
and commercial centre. Tram lines extended
to Bondi Beach via Birriga Rd, Bondi Beach
via Bondi Rd, Bronte Beach and The Spot,
Randwick and of course, the City at Circular
Quay and Railway Square. A tram depot
was established on the corner of South
Head Road (renamed Oxford Street with
the completion of widening works in Darlinghurst)
and the present day York Road. Oxford
Street, quickly became crowded and congested.
By the 1960s traffic was at the point
that Bondi Junction was one of the worse
bottlenecks in Sydney. The suburb was
historically divided by the border of
Waverley and Woollahra councils. In 2003
the boundary was realigned from Oxford
Street to the bypass road (see below),
giving Waverley Council full control of
the commercial areas of the suburb. The
Sydney tram network was closed in 1958
and the tram depot converted to buses.
This temporarily reduced the traffic problem
in the area, however the rise of the private
motor vehicle soon made the problem acute.
A railway to Sydney's eastern suburbs
was first proposed by John Young, Mayor
of Sydney in the 1870s. This was subsequently
incorporated into Dr John Bradfield's
Scheme for improving Sydney's railways.
The line was never built as Bradfield
envisaged.
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