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| Original North Seven Hills school building |
Trove is a wonderful resource for social historians because newspaper articles often provide a wide variety of insights. The Australian Town and Country Journal, for example, had a section called Dame Durden that encouraged the opinion and viewpoints of young readers. In October 1902, Jonquil penned her view of Seven Hills as seen through the eyes of a teenager then aged 15. Jonquil described Seven Hills as a 'small country place situated about twenty miles from Sydney.' She described the area north of the railway line as having 'acres and acres of orchards' while the south side was principally bushland. The village had one store, one Anglican Church, a public school, post office, hall and two or three Sunday Schools.
Jonquil remarked on the hilly nature of the landscape, and that the large lake - in the location of the Prospect waterworks - was very pretty. Housing, at that time, comprised of 'some very nice large houses in Seven Hills' as well as a number of 'smaller ones scattered about in the midst of the orchards.' Chinamen and a 'large number of poorer inhabitants' worked in the orchards which produced some of the 'choicest fruits' - citrus and other varieties - grown for the Sydney market. Birds, as plentiful as they were, were a nuisance to the orchardists, and on moonlight nights 'young people' went about shooting hares.
She noted that convicts had been sent to the area in the earliest days of the colony with Toongabbie as one of the most favoured locations. Drought, it would seem, had been fairly severe around that time but Jonquil remarked that even though lack of rain had damaged some of the fruit, some of the orchards looked 'very well.'
This is just one small insight into the transformation of Seven Hills from a largely rural idyll.
Ref: Australian Town and Country Journal, 29.10.1902, p. 39.
