CLONTARF HILL

Statement of Significance

Clontarf Hill, originally set aside for the future expansion of suburban highways, has social value to the community, as evidence by Clontarf Action Group's efforts to stop the Eastern Bypass and conserve the area as undeveloped urban bushland.

History

Clontarf Rd was named by John Healy, the owner of the Winterfold Estate. His land comprised 300 acres north of Healy Rd, 200 acres south of Bibra Lake, and 100 acres in Spearwood. Winterfold Rd was gazetted a public highway in 1937. The reserve was part of a 2000 acre grant to George Robb in 1830. Robb developed a farm at the southern end of the reserve, near what is now Cardigan Street. In August 1830, the farm’s address was listed as Hamilton Hill, suggesting that the area now known as Clontarf Hill may have been the original Hamilton Hill for which the area east of there was later named. The 1913 PWD plan shows no buildings in the area, which is beyond the edge of the residential subdivision. A southeast section of the reserve was used for market gardening up to the 1950s. The reserve was not developed as it had been set aside for the future expansion of suburban highways, originally Roe Highway and later the much-protested Eastern Bypass, which was eventually abandoned in 1992. In 1993, the Clontarf Action Group described the place as a ‘relatively large area of publicly owned, undeveloped urban bushland’ and urged its conservation as it was no longer earmarked for future road use. The group noted that due to a lack of active management, with resulting dumping of rubbish, weed invasion, quarrying and human disturbance, the reserve had become degraded.

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