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Pearce's Corner, Wahroonga

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IdentifierPhoto 00656DateNovember 1934Photographernot specifiedKeywordsAaron PearcePearce's CornerPennant Hills RoadWahroongaDescriptionIn the old days of horse-drawn vehicles, landmarks such as hills or road junctions were often given titles.
Many of these have now been forgotten, but others, such as Pearces Corner, remain as prominent and readily recognisable locations.
Aaron Pearce from Buckinghamshire, England, was transported to NSW after his conviction in 1810, and arrived on the Admiral Gambier in 1811, under life sentence.
Pearce took as his wife another convict, Ellen Holland, who arrived in Sydney in 1813 on the transport ship, Archduke Charles.
Initially Pearce worked for the government as a sawyer in the lumber yard.
By 1828, he was working as a sawyer on government land at Lane Cove, which was the title given to the area north as far as modern Hornsby.
His family had gradually grown to include Elizabeth (born 1813), James (born 1816), John (born 1819), Jane (born 1819), Mary Ann (born 1821), Elizabeth (born 1823), George (born 1825), Louisa (born 1827), Catherine (born 1827) and Ellen (born 1830).
Hard work as a sawyer enabled him to obtain a lease of land, in 1834, extending from the present Pearces Corner back towards Hornsby.
He eventually purchased the land.
Life must have been relatively isolated at that time.
Pennant Hills Rd extended from Castle Hill, past Pearces Corner through what are now the north shore suburbs to the north side of the harbour.
The Lane Cove Rd, as the section between Pearces Corner and the harbour was known, was rough, and it was commented in 1853, that “not a farthing of public money had been expended on it”.
Pearce built a slab house to the west of Pennant Hills Rd, near to where a track branched off to the north, formed by the timber-getters who exploited the thick forest of the area.
The house had a large room with smaller rooms above it.
The walls were constructed from vertical planks and the roof from shingles.
He planted orchards on the land and dug saw pits to process the huge trees logged on his property.
By 1837, Pearce also owned a boat, which was probably used to transport timber down the Lane Cove River to Sydney.
It was reported in that year that some items had been stolen from the boat at the Market Wharf, where Pearce and his son had docked.
Aaron Pearce died in 1849 and his wife in 1856.
In 1894, John and James Pearce still had homes at Pearces Corner, while his son-in-law John Clark inherited some of the Pearce property.
The two convicts may have left descendants throughout our district but even more certainly, their family name is enshrined in one of the most significant road intersections in the Sydney area.
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Pearce's Corner, Wahroonga