Beacon Hill is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. It is part of the Northern Beaches region.
History
Beacon Hill was given the title when the Department of Lands built a trigonometric beacon there in 1881.
Aboriginal culture
Little is known of local aboriginal culture in the Beacon Hill area but other local areas towards the sea have a rich and diverse aboriginal background. There are some aboriginal carvings in rocks to the north of Red Hill.
European settlement
Daniel Egan, a member of the NSW Parliament, purchased two parcels of land on 5 October 1857.
Most of the houses in the suburb were built in the boom days after World War II, in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the streets in Beacon Hill are named after notable battles, military men or places where Australian troops served in World War II. These include Owen Stanley Avenue, Kokoda Crescent, Goroka Place and Lae Place.
Beacon Hill Post Office opened on 1 August 1949 and closed in 1986. Beacon Hill High School was established in 1964 and closed in 2002.
Demographics
According to the , there were 7,814 people in Beacon Hill. 68.2% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were England 5.5%, China 2.6%, Italy 2.3% and New Zealand 2.0%. 77.1% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian 3.2%, Mandarin 2.4% and Cantonese 1.3%. The most common responses for religious affiliation were No Religion 36.4%, Catholic 29.3% and Anglican 13.3%.
On 13 October 2017, Paul Toole, Minister for Lands and Forestry transferred responsibility for the Trust to Northern Beaches Council.
Notable residents
- Angry Anderson – rock singer
- Brian Carlton – radio announcer
- Ivan Cleary – rugby league coach
- Gerry Duggan – actor
- Bill Leak – cartoonist
- Freddy Lussick – rugby league player