Glebe, New South Wales


Glebe is an inner-western suburb of Sydney. Glebe is located southwest of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney, in the Inner West region.
Glebe is surrounded by Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay, inlets of Sydney Harbour, in the north. The suburb of Ultimo lies to the east and the suburbs of Annandale and Forest Lodge lie to the west. The southern boundary is formed by Parramatta Road and Broadway. Broadway is a locality sited along the road of the same name, which is located on the border of Glebe, Chippendale and Ultimo.

History

Glebe's name is derived from the fact that the land on which it was developed was a glebe, originally owned by the Anglican Church. 'The Glebe' was a land grant of given by Governor Arthur Phillip to Reverend Richard Johnson, Chaplain of the First Fleet, in 1790.
In the 19th century, Glebe was home to architect, Edmund Blacket, who had migrated from England. Blacket built his family home, Bidura, on Glebe Point Road in 1858, designing it along conventional Victorian Regency lines. He also designed St John's Church, on the corner of Glebe Point Road and St Johns Road. The church was built from 1868 to 1870.
The suburb of Glebe was home to a first grade football team in the New South Wales Rugby League, now the National Rugby League. The Glebe Dirty Reds were formed in 1908 and played in the first seasons of rugby league in Australia, with home games at Wentworth Park. The foundation club did not win a premiership, and was excluded from the competition in 1930.
In the 1970s, feminist activists took over an abandoned terrace house and set up Australia's first women's shelter, the Elsie Refuge.

Original vegetation

The original vegetation was the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest. A veteran Ironbark still grows at the grounds of St John's Anglican Church, at Glebe Point Road.

Landmarks

At the 2016 census, there were 11,532 residents in Glebe.

Commercial areas, restaurants and cafés

is the main road through the suburb, featuring a shopping strip, known for its specialty shops and cafés and for its variety of ethnic restaurants – Indian, Thai, Italian, Nepalese, Dutch-Indonesian, and other minority ethnic tastes.
Broadway Shopping Centre was built on the landmark site of the former Grace Brothers department store. The shopping centre includes a food court and cinema complex, and completed a renovation in July 2007 which added a fourth floor.
Glebe has a popular market which is held on Saturdays in the grounds of Glebe Primary School. Arts, crafts, clothing and edibles are sold. They are known as the alternative markets for the alternative lifestyle goods that are offered. New and second-hand goods are sold there.

Sport and recreation

, which features a greyhound racing track, is on the border with Ultimo.
Glebe mini skateboarding ramp is located in Bicentennial Park off Chapman road, in between Glebe and Annandale. The mini was originally tall with a hump in the middle. Circa 2005 the original mini was removed and replaced with a traditional ramp, sans hump.
Balmain South Sydney Cricket Club play at Jubilee Oval in Glebe.

Education

Schools in the suburb include Glebe Public School, St James Catholic School, Forest Lodge Public School and St Scholastica's College. The Blackwattle Bay Campus of Sydney Secondary College sits on the site of the old Glebe High School. Tranby Aboriginal College is located in a heritage-listed house, Tranby, in Mansfield Street.

Transport

The Dulwich Hill Line of Sydney's light rail network has two stations in the suburb, Glebe and Jubilee Park, with the journey from Glebe to Central railway station taking just under twenty minutes. Transit Systems Sydney routes 431 and 433 run regularly from Martin Place via Castlereagh Street, Broadway and Glebe Point Road, terminating at Glebe Point and Balmain respectively. The journey time from Glebe Point Road to Town Hall on either of these services is typically between ten and twenty minutes. Glebe Point Road is also serviced by State Transit's route 370, which runs from Leichhardt to Coogee via Newtown, Alexandria and the University of New South Wales.

Houses

19th century housing stock is largely intact, having undergone restoration as a result of gentrification. It is popular with city-workers and students due to its proximity to the Central Business District as well as University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Notre Dame Australia. Glebe is a popular destination for backpacker tourism due to the bars and cafes of Glebe Point Road and the aforementioned proximity to the City.

Public Housing

At its south-eastern end is the Glebe Estate, an area of Housing Commission properties, mainly consisting of low density affordable Victorian terrace houses, single cottages and small complexes, purchased by the government of Gough Whitlam as a massive urban renewal project to provide public housing for the needy. Some houses in the Glebe estate have been sold off to private real estate, including a high density tower block, and a large complex. This area has the third highest Aboriginal population in Sydney.

Heritage listings

Glebe has a number of heritage-listed sites, including the following sites listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register:
The following buildings are listed on other heritage registers:

Dictionary of Sydney entries