WAVERLEY traces its origins from Barnett Levey's "Waverley House", built at Bondi Junction in 1827. Levey was inspired by Sir Walter Scott's 'Waverley Novels', named for the Abbey of Waverley located near Farnham, Surrey, England.

BEN BUCKLER was a name used as early as 1831. It was reportedly called "Ben-becula" by Governor Macquarie; also "Ben Buckley" after an ex-convict. The Mitchell library advises it was known as "Ben Buckler's Leap" when a man of that name was killed by the collapse of a rock shelf.

BONDI has endured many spellings (Bundi, Bundye, Boondi) and according to some authorities, it is an aboriginal word meaning "water breaking over rocks". The Australian Museum records that Bondi means "a place where a fight with nullas took place".

BONDI JUNCTION was originally called Tea Gardens, named after a local pleasure ground on the site of the present Tea Gardens Hotel. The tramline to Bondi opened in 1884, creating a "junction" with the line already operating to Charing Cross, hence Bondi Junction came into being.

BRONTE is located on Nelson Bay and it is from Admiral Lord Nelson's title of the Duke of Bronte, given to him by the King of Sicily, that this suburb takes its name. Although Robert Lowe built Bronte House, he always referred to it as "the house at Nelson Bay", never as Bronte House.

CHARING CROSS was named by Waverley Council at its meeting of September 6, 1859. There is not much doubt it traces its origins to Charing Cross in London. The "Cross" was evidently intended as the centre of the Waverley Municipality being a definite village when the "Tea Gardens" (now Bondi Junction) was just a collection of shops.

CLOVELLY was once known as Little Coogee and was renamed Clovelly after the seaside village of that name in Devon, England. While most of this suburb is in the Municipality of Randwick, a small portion forms the southern boundary of Waverley.

DIAMOND BAY origins remain obscure, but the earliest record of that name appears in a "Report and Map of the Harbour Defences", dated January 3, 1863.

DOVER HEIGHTS, once the site of Joseph Barracluff's ostrich farm, was first mentioned in municipal records in March 1886. It is believed to take its name from England's "white cliffs of Dover".

MILL HILL is named for the windmill which stood in Mill Hill Road. It had been built to grind corn and other cereals, by Henry Hough c.1840 on his 10 acres of land called "Hope Farm".

ROSE BAY, the largest bay in Sydney Harbour, was named by Governor Arthur Phillip after Sir George Rose, England's Secretary of the Treasury. The suburb stretches from the harbour through Woollahra Municipality and crosses Old South Head Road into Waverley.

TAMARAMA was first recorded as a name in 1885 when a fatality at the beach was reported. A military map of the coastline in the 1860's marked the area as "Gamma Gamma", possibly a native word. Also known as Dixon's Bay after a Dr Dixon who was a nearby land owner, it later became "Fletcher's Glen" when David Fletcher bought a 10 acre frontage.

VAUCLUSE is a corruption of the Latin meaning "enclosed valley". Sir Henry Hayes arrived in Sydney in 1802, having being transported for life for abducting an heiress. He was granted 475 acres upon which he built Vaucluse House, named after the village Vaucluse in France, where he had taken refuge while on the run from the authorities.

Published by Waverley Library from sources in the Local History Collection.

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