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Berowra's legacy from Mary Wall
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DetailsOnce Mary Wall was established at Berowra some of her adult children followed her out to the district. However, she had a particularly difficult on-off relationship with one of her sons, Nathaniel James Wall, who, in 1878, took out a land grant at Dural. In October 1900 he was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, assaulting his mother, and for this he was fined.
Once, when he was estranged from his mother, Nathaniel cleared a large area of 30 acres and set up an orchard around modern-day Beaumont Road, between Mt Kuring-gai and Berowra. Up until the late 1960s, prior to it being rezoned for industrial use, this area was known as, “Wall’s Ridge”.
In 1909 Mary relocated to her husband’s home at North Hornsby, and her son, Nathaniel, moved with his family to Berowra to manage his mother’s established farming operation.
He also worked carting food and supplies for the workers constructing the railway line duplication between Hornsby and the Hawkesbury River (1908/09).
Mary’s daughter, Elizabeth Smith, also lived in the huge 14 room house at Berowra, as did many of Mary’s grandchildren who came out to live permanently on the farm.
Mary was raising many of her grandchildren and this is why she was known as, Granny Wall. She was called this by all in the district and even referred to as Granny Wall long after her death.
Her grandchildren on the farm included Bill Wall, Maud, Sid, Pat and Viv Lawless, as well as Lot, Maude, and Nat Wiles, and Annie Duephoy. There was also Annie and Jack Coyle who were informally adopted when their mother, who was working at the International Dining Rooms in Sussex Street, Sydney, sent Anne and Jack up to stay at Berowra for a while. However, the mother disappeared and was never heard from again, so the kids stayed on and grew up in Berowra under the care of Granny Wall. Elizabeth Smith helped raise all the children and understandably was known as, Auntie Smith.
Although reportedly illiterate herself, Granny Wall, together with Auntie Smith, who was well educated, recognized the importance of education. They applied for a school in Berowra then lobbied hard for its establishment. Together with five other families (Crispoe, Ginn, Neal, Morris and Windybank) they successfully petitioned the Department of Education, with their request granted in 1894. Permission given to open a part-time school in one of the front rooms of Mary Wall’s 14 room house. For this Mary received an allowance from the education department.
The kids on the farm were worked very hard under their grandmother’s strict but fair rules and routines. Every morning before school one of the Lawless boys would deliver the milk and the paper down to Edward Windybank at Waratah Bay, on Cowan Creek. Another would go down to Jack Smith’s boat shed, at Frank’s Bite on Berowra Creek, with supplies.
Food was also delivered to Mary’s husband in North Hornsby. The kids on the farm would also pick fruit, collect eggs, plough the ground, chop wood, milk the dairy cows, tend to the horses and much more. There was always something to do on the farm.
Granny Wall was a strong disciplinarian. In the evenings she made the kids sit quietly, eat their meals and behave themselves. They were extremely healthy from all the fresh farm produce, as well as the constant activity farm life gave them. It was an excellent upbringing with very good role models. Unsurprisingly Mary’s grandchildren did very well, going on to bigger and better things in their adult lives.
Between 1885-87 Amos & Co. constructed the railway through the district and many of the senior employees of the company rented rooms in Mary’s house at Berowra. The lower-level navvies lived in tents as part of the large camps along the railway route. The railway between Hornsby Junction and the Hawkesbury River opened on 7th April 1887, with a railway station at Berowra.
In 1896, Auntie Smith saw an opportunity and obtained a licence to establish a wine bar in Cowan Parade, on the eastern side of the railway line (where the M1 runs through today). This must have been popular with the fettlers as well as with the fishermen and campers who were on their way down to Waratah Bay. She also sold a lot of cigarettes and drinks to passengers on trains stopped at Berowra. By 1902 Auntie Smith also owned and was running the refreshment rooms on the Berowra Railway Station platform.
In May 1910, the remainder of Mary Wall’s 60-acre (24-hectare) farm was sold for £1,800 by her daughter, Elizabeth Smith, to a well-known Sydney property developer named Sir Arthur Rickard, from Arthur Rickard Real Estate. It was divided into 146 lots of various sizes with several roads formed off Peat’s Ferry Road. These early Berowra roads were Waratah, Rickard and Goodwyn, as well as Crowley Road at the back. Ironically it was Mary’s grandson, Bill Wall, who got the job of forming the new roads.
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsBerowraMary WallWall Family
DetailsOnce Mary Wall was established at Berowra some of her adult children followed her out to the district. However, she had a particularly difficult on-off relationship with one of her sons, Nathaniel James Wall, who, in 1878, took out a land grant at Dural. In October 1900 he was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, assaulting his mother, and for this he was fined. Once, when he was estranged from his mother, Nathaniel cleared a large area of 30 acres and set up an orchard around modern-day Beaumont Road, between Mt Kuring-gai and Berowra. Up until the late 1960s, prior to it being rezoned for industrial use, this area was known as, “Wall’s Ridge”.
In 1909 Mary relocated to her husband’s home at North Hornsby, and her son, Nathaniel, moved with his family to Berowra to manage his mother’s established farming operation.
He also worked carting food and supplies for the workers constructing the railway line duplication between Hornsby and the Hawkesbury River (1908/09).
Mary’s daughter, Elizabeth Smith, also lived in the huge 14 room house at Berowra, as did many of Mary’s grandchildren who came out to live permanently on the farm.
Mary was raising many of her grandchildren and this is why she was known as, Granny Wall. She was called this by all in the district and even referred to as Granny Wall long after her death.
Her grandchildren on the farm included Bill Wall, Maud, Sid, Pat and Viv Lawless, as well as Lot, Maude, and Nat Wiles, and Annie Duephoy. There was also Annie and Jack Coyle who were informally adopted when their mother, who was working at the International Dining Rooms in Sussex Street, Sydney, sent Anne and Jack up to stay at Berowra for a while. However, the mother disappeared and was never heard from again, so the kids stayed on and grew up in Berowra under the care of Granny Wall. Elizabeth Smith helped raise all the children and understandably was known as, Auntie Smith.
Although reportedly illiterate herself, Granny Wall, together with Auntie Smith, who was well educated, recognized the importance of education. They applied for a school in Berowra then lobbied hard for its establishment. Together with five other families (Crispoe, Ginn, Neal, Morris and Windybank) they successfully petitioned the Department of Education, with their request granted in 1894. Permission given to open a part-time school in one of the front rooms of Mary Wall’s 14 room house. For this Mary received an allowance from the education department.
The kids on the farm were worked very hard under their grandmother’s strict but fair rules and routines. Every morning before school one of the Lawless boys would deliver the milk and the paper down to Edward Windybank at Waratah Bay, on Cowan Creek. Another would go down to Jack Smith’s boat shed, at Frank’s Bite on Berowra Creek, with supplies.
Food was also delivered to Mary’s husband in North Hornsby. The kids on the farm would also pick fruit, collect eggs, plough the ground, chop wood, milk the dairy cows, tend to the horses and much more. There was always something to do on the farm.
Granny Wall was a strong disciplinarian. In the evenings she made the kids sit quietly, eat their meals and behave themselves. They were extremely healthy from all the fresh farm produce, as well as the constant activity farm life gave them. It was an excellent upbringing with very good role models. Unsurprisingly Mary’s grandchildren did very well, going on to bigger and better things in their adult lives.
Between 1885-87 Amos & Co. constructed the railway through the district and many of the senior employees of the company rented rooms in Mary’s house at Berowra. The lower-level navvies lived in tents as part of the large camps along the railway route. The railway between Hornsby Junction and the Hawkesbury River opened on 7th April 1887, with a railway station at Berowra.
In 1896, Auntie Smith saw an opportunity and obtained a licence to establish a wine bar in Cowan Parade, on the eastern side of the railway line (where the M1 runs through today). This must have been popular with the fettlers as well as with the fishermen and campers who were on their way down to Waratah Bay. She also sold a lot of cigarettes and drinks to passengers on trains stopped at Berowra. By 1902 Auntie Smith also owned and was running the refreshment rooms on the Berowra Railway Station platform.
In May 1910, the remainder of Mary Wall’s 60-acre (24-hectare) farm was sold for £1,800 by her daughter, Elizabeth Smith, to a well-known Sydney property developer named Sir Arthur Rickard, from Arthur Rickard Real Estate. It was divided into 146 lots of various sizes with several roads formed off Peat’s Ferry Road. These early Berowra roads were Waratah, Rickard and Goodwyn, as well as Crowley Road at the back. Ironically it was Mary’s grandson, Bill Wall, who got the job of forming the new roads.
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsBerowraMary WallWall FamilyClick on the image to add
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Nathan Tilbury, Berowra's legacy from Mary Wall. Hornsby Shire, accessed 13/04/2026, https://hornsbyshire.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/6059