This suburb south of Sydney would be named after the English village of Bexley which had been home to James Chandler, one of the district’s first land owners. The heavily forested area saw timber getters move into the area, with its isolation making the forests a popular hiding place for escaped convicts and bushrangers who were known to frequent Forest Road which ran from Bexley towards Sydney. One of the first inns built in Bexley would reflect this, romanticising the more sensational aspects of the suburbs past with The Robin Hood and Little John Inn.

As Sydney's inner suburbs became more populated and the colony expanded in the mid 1800s, Bexley would become a popular Sydney outcrop for residential development by Sydney's wealthy business owners and merchants. Historic Lyndam House which was built in the 1860s for businessman Joseph Davis and his family is one of the oldest examples of colonial architecture in the St George region and stands today as a perfectly preserved example of how the wealthier residents of Bexley once lived. With the addition of dirty industry to Bexley, which included some of the state’s primary abattoirs operating out of the suburb in the early 1900s, the suburb once home to Sydney's elite would become more working class

Still a fairly isolated suburb with few accessible transport routes, the extension of the southern railway line through Bexley in 1884 would be the catalyst for further residential development with land alongside the railway line subdivided to accommodate the new demand. And with the housing boom between the World Wars through to the 1940s, it would be Bexley's comparatively large residential blocks which would prove a popular choice for new home owners. An influx of eastern European migrants and refugees to the area following World War II is still evident today with Bexley home to significant Arabic, Macedonian and Greek communities, whilst more recent migration activity from Asia has seen the formation of a large Chinese community in Bexley. 

External Links

Bexley, part of Rockdale Council

A Timeline of Rockdale and surrounds

Architecture in Rockdale and surrounds

Bexley Swimming Centre

Historic Lyndham Hall, Bexley

Location:

SSC11095: Bexley

Longitude:

151.119868783

Latitude:

-33.9534419167