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Ridgewood Estate - Landcom vs Berowra
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DetailsThe former Grange farm in Rawson Road was purchased by the NSW Education Department in 1963 for Berowra’s planned High School, however by the late 1960s the High School project was deferred indefinitely which left the land vacant and unused.
The area was a common location to take stolen and unwanted vehicles, to race around before they were pushed off the steep cliffs on the western edge. It became known locally as “the Racetrack” and, in 1976, nearly 200 hundred nearby residents signed a petition to council complaining about the huge number of dumped cars in bushland in and around the area. Eventually council worked with the Education Department to remove the wrecks and close off the area to vehicles which then turned it into a popular informal BMX circuit track. It was also often raided by police looking for marijuana crops.
By the 1980s the NSW Education Department deemed the land “excess to their needs,” and they handed it over to Landcom for residential development. Landcom put together an unimaginative proposal to construct an 82 “multi-unit development”, that would have seen the 8.5 hectare site entirely cleared of all bushland.
When neigbouring residents were informed of the proposed development they immediately labelled it inappropriate and set up a community group called, Caring About Berowra (CAB) to fight Lancom’s plan.
Experts came in and some of the bushland on the land was identified as significant including mature angophoras, bloodwoods, scribbly gums, turpentine and stringybark trees (these species of trees were identified on Mary Wall’s land in 1881 when it was formally surveyed). Some vegetation was even identified as remanent bushland dating pre-European settlement (over 200 years old at that time) including one eucalyptus racemosa tree known as “the bee tree”, because of the huge hive of native bees it hosted.
CAB took their protest “on the road” by door knocking over 3,000 Berowra residences and setting up stalls at the Village Shops. They received almost 100 percent support and a massive petition was collected against the Landcom development proposal.
After enlisting the support of the local media and most Hornsby Councillors, as well as writing numerous letters to both sides of politics, waiting out an election that saw a change of State government, and getting the support of the Rural Fire Service who said the Landcom development on the proposed site would be extremely dangerous in a bushfire, CAB’s fortunes changed and the Landcom proposal was scrapped.
The new State government transferred the sale of the land from Landcom to Lindfield based surveyors, Proust & Gardner, who came up with, “Ridgewood”, the residential development we see today. This saw a housing development in-line with the style of the rest of Berowra as well as a central piece of bushland retained as a public park and retention of many of the significant native trees. In addition, there were no buildings on the cliff tops and asset protection areas were included. This development was also the first in Berowra with powerlines being placed underground.
Had the Landcom development been allowed to proceed as originally proposed it may have set an irreversible precedent for the area turning it into a very different place to the Berowra we know today.
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsBerowraHouses
The area was a common location to take stolen and unwanted vehicles, to race around before they were pushed off the steep cliffs on the western edge. It became known locally as “the Racetrack” and, in 1976, nearly 200 hundred nearby residents signed a petition to council complaining about the huge number of dumped cars in bushland in and around the area. Eventually council worked with the Education Department to remove the wrecks and close off the area to vehicles which then turned it into a popular informal BMX circuit track. It was also often raided by police looking for marijuana crops.
By the 1980s the NSW Education Department deemed the land “excess to their needs,” and they handed it over to Landcom for residential development. Landcom put together an unimaginative proposal to construct an 82 “multi-unit development”, that would have seen the 8.5 hectare site entirely cleared of all bushland.
When neigbouring residents were informed of the proposed development they immediately labelled it inappropriate and set up a community group called, Caring About Berowra (CAB) to fight Lancom’s plan.
Experts came in and some of the bushland on the land was identified as significant including mature angophoras, bloodwoods, scribbly gums, turpentine and stringybark trees (these species of trees were identified on Mary Wall’s land in 1881 when it was formally surveyed). Some vegetation was even identified as remanent bushland dating pre-European settlement (over 200 years old at that time) including one eucalyptus racemosa tree known as “the bee tree”, because of the huge hive of native bees it hosted.
CAB took their protest “on the road” by door knocking over 3,000 Berowra residences and setting up stalls at the Village Shops. They received almost 100 percent support and a massive petition was collected against the Landcom development proposal.
After enlisting the support of the local media and most Hornsby Councillors, as well as writing numerous letters to both sides of politics, waiting out an election that saw a change of State government, and getting the support of the Rural Fire Service who said the Landcom development on the proposed site would be extremely dangerous in a bushfire, CAB’s fortunes changed and the Landcom proposal was scrapped.
The new State government transferred the sale of the land from Landcom to Lindfield based surveyors, Proust & Gardner, who came up with, “Ridgewood”, the residential development we see today. This saw a housing development in-line with the style of the rest of Berowra as well as a central piece of bushland retained as a public park and retention of many of the significant native trees. In addition, there were no buildings on the cliff tops and asset protection areas were included. This development was also the first in Berowra with powerlines being placed underground.
Had the Landcom development been allowed to proceed as originally proposed it may have set an irreversible precedent for the area turning it into a very different place to the Berowra we know today.
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsBerowraHousesRelated
CollectionNathan TilburyLocationBerowra
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Nathan Tilbury, Ridgewood Estate - Landcom vs Berowra. Hornsby Shire, accessed 25/04/2026, https://hornsbyshire.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/5197