Birchgrove - A suburb that began with a single house.

Well hello again!
I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, I have recently become super agent Cherry Owen's assistant and she's had me rushed off my feet!
We've seen the market in Inner West take off with media reports showing a growth in the area by over 11% in the past year!
http://www.smh.com.au/national/affluent-suburbs-lead-new-rise-in-house-prices-20100127-myzj.html
While Balmain is now considered to be a new member of the million-dollar suburb club: http://www.smh.com.au/news/domain/australian-capital-territory/milliondollar-clubs-unlikely-new-members/2010/03/22/1269106231444.html

Today I want to talk about the suburb of Birchgrove which is buried in the northern end of the peninsular and is now, one of the premier suburbs in Sydney.

The original inhabitants of the Birchgrove area were aboriginals belonging to the Eora gens. The land back then was known as "Yurulbin" or "Swift running waters". In 1796, the area was granted to a Private George Whitfield by Governor Macquarie who built an orange grove on the area. In 1806, the land came under the ownership of Captain Edward Abbott who was a key member of the Rum Rebellion that deposed Governor Bligh. Abbott was later court marsheld for treason and sent back to England but not before he had sold the land to John Birch, a paymaster, of where Birchgrove gets its name.

In 1810, 22 years after the First Fleet landed in Sydney, John Birch built the first house on the Balmain peninsular and named it "Birch Grove." It stood for 157 years until 1967 when it was demolished. At the time of its demolition, it was the second oldest house in Australia. The site of Birchgrove House is where no.67 Louisa Road currently stands. I will speak more about Birchgrove House in the future.

In 1882, the NSW government purchased land to build the Birch Grove Recreation Ground, what is now known as Birchgrove Oval.

A bridge was also proposed to be built from Yurulbin Point to Manns Point in Greenwich. But it was scrapped because the tight road of Louisa Road would have made the thoroughfare impractical.