Part of the land occupied by the Cadigal Aboriginal people, this prime land near the banks of the historic Cooks River was given to Reverend Richard Johnson in 1793 which he named Canterbury Vale. With its good soil and abundant water sources, the land was cultivated to support crops of wheat, corn and a grazing area for a selection of farming stock. It was so successful that Johnson was often referred to as the best farmer in the colony.

By the mid 1800s this agricultural land had been subdivided into smaller farms with a sugar mill constructed in the 1840s. The necessity of its workers to live nearby would moved the fledgling village towards urbanisation. With the railway line extending through Canterbury in 1895 and the establishment of the Boys and Girls Schools, this picturesque, riverside suburb became more attractive for young families looking to escape the overcrowding of nearby Newtown and Stanmore.

Originally an empty paddock on the outskirts of Canterbury, The Canterbury Racecourse became a popular local attraction by the 1880s with the caretaker Jim Monk setting up a small zoo within the grounds for further entertainment of the racecourse's younger patrons.

Just slightly further west than the popular inner western residential suburbs of Sydney, today Canterbury is a quiet suburb still favoured by families and houses a large Arabic and Greek community.

External Links

Map of Canterbury

History of Canterbury

Indigenous History of Canterbury

City of Canterbury

Location:

SSC11183: Canterbury

Longitude:

151.115843886

Latitude:

-33.9123484994