Darlinghurst lies on the edge of the City of Sydney. Although sometimes confused with its illustrious neighbour, Kings Cross, Darlinghurst is a place in its own right. It occupies a wedge to the east of the city, situated between Woolloomooloo, Kings Cross and Surry Hills, although its boundaries have not always been so clear. The name Darlinghurst applied to Kings Cross, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay for much of the nineteenth century, while some was previously regarded it as part of Woolloomooloo. By the twentieth century however, its present boundaries had been defined.

It is bounded by William Street in the north, Hyde Park in the west, Oxford Street to the south and the appropriately named Boundary Street in the east, with Paddington beyond. Its elevated situation gave rise to its first naming by Europeans as Woolloomooloo Heights, while those areas closest to the city have recently been more often referred to as East Sydney.

Prior to European arrival the area was within the traditional lands of the Gadigal people and they continued to visit and use the place into the 1840s when settlement by Europeans took hold.

Although the Darlinghurst area is close to Sydney it was not developed by Europeans in any great extent until the first decades of the 1800s. Rocky ridges and shallow soil made the area less attractive for the early settlers than other more productive, arable sites. The sandstone ridges did however provide stone for the expanding town, quarried by convict gangs. Stone continued to be extracted from the steep ridges into the second half of the nineteenth century, with prisoners from the nearby Darlinghurst gaol working the quarries. Exposed sandstone faces, with houses perched above in the streets climbing up out of the valley to the ridge, remain in Darlinghurst as evidence of these early labours.

Chisholm Street dates back to the earliest days of European settlement. In 1794 it was part of John Palmer’s estate. John Palmer first came to Sydney in 1788 as Purser on the Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet. He then became the Commissary, in charge of stores. After Oxford Street was built in 1803 Governor Macquarie set aside land for a 1,000-acre water supply catchment. In 1816 land was granted to Edward Riley and was subdivided and then sold to Mr Chisholm, after whom Chisholm Street is named. In about 1880 James Park built an unpretentious single-storey cottage for himself at number 46, which has remained on site ever since. It has undergone some alterations and additions.

46 Chisholm Street is a quaint white picket fenced weatherboard cottage. Together with its corrugated iron roof, it sits snugly into the fulcrum of surrounding Darlinghurst in a narrow but picturesque Robinia-lined street of bright green-leafed trees.

The 1877 edition of Sands’ Urban Directory notes that the street was occupied at the time by a stonemason, carpenter, butcher, carter, upholsterer, currier [leather worker], and carter, indicating the working class nature of the area.

The house still retains its original form with a small garden facing the street.

Chisholm Street is a narrow street lined to the east with two-storey, Victorian houses including some terraces.

Chisholm Street is part of a tightly knit pattern of streets and lanes bounded by Oxford Street, Flinders Street and South Dowling Street. The western side of the street has the rear wings and garages to the properties fronting Flinders Street.

Even the original shingle roof of number 46 remains but is now overlaid with corrugated iron. It is now rare and has strong associations with the life or works of people of importance in NSW’s cultural or natural history. It demonstrates aesthetic characteristics dating from the earliest building period for the area.

By Andrew Woodhouse  

Heritage Solutions