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WAHROONGA If you could distil the North Shore into one suburb it would be Wahroonga. It is the spawn-point for North Shore fuckboys, who typically enjoy sailing, Ralph Lauren polo shirts, and RM Williams’ boots. Obnoxiously wealthy and elitist, this suburb is populated by socially active housewives, future lawyers, and basic bitches perpetually sporting activewear – I fit into the latter category.
is reflected in the conceptualisation of this restaurant from its exposed wood-beam ceilings to its tastefully framed miniature tools. Suffice to say timber was damn important to early Northshorians and it was another timber-getter, John Brown, who later acquired Hyndes’ land and named the Wahroonga avenues Ada, Lucinda, and Roland, after his children.
The name ‘Wahroonga,’ is an Aboriginal word that translates to “our home.” The state of the suburb as we know it today begins, like most of colonial Australia, with a convict. This particular convict, one Thomas Hyndes, became a timber-getter and wealthy landowner, holding the lease on 2000 acres of land in 1822, and receiving a grant for a further 640 acres of land in 1838. This land included Eastern Road, later renamed ‘Turramurra’ meaning “high hill,” just north of the land held by Robert Pymble, an early settler. Pymble received a land grant in 1823 after petitioning Governor Macquarie for one. Together Pymble and Hyndes formed a partnership, employing hundreds of convicts for their timber-business and establishing the North Shore as a key supplier of timber in the years following. Native trees such as blue gum, ironbark, stringybark, and blackbutt were cut down and used as housing materials.
‘Only In Sydney’s North Shore,’ a self-congratulatory Facebook page that humorously reflects Northshorian values and opinions, ranks Wahroonga as being in the “Godly Tier” of suburbs alongside Mosman and Neutral Bay. A large aspect of this superiority complex may be attributed to a private school upbringing most likely at Abbotsleigh or Knox Grammar. If you’ve ever driven past Abbotsleigh you may have noticed that it is always under construction. That’s because the “Sports Hall, Aquatic Centre, flood-lit all weather hockey/soccer pitch, Gymnasium, fully equipped strength and conditioning centre, dance studios, Plexicushion tennis courts, and indoor and outdoor basketball and netball courts,” just aren’t quite enough, the school clearly needs more government funding. That was only a small fraction of the list of facilities named on Abbotsleigh’s website. “Plexicushion,” by the way, is the same acrylic-based hardcourt tennis surface that is used in the Australian Open tennis courts including Rod Laver Arena where the top tennis players in the world play. It’s all very sickening I know.
The Sawmill, a pizzeria owned by two very hot Italian twin brothers, sits on Duneba Avenue just a little ways away off Ryde road in West Pymble. The logging history of the area
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