West Ryde

Much of the land in the Ryde area was originally bought by Gregory Blaxland, famous , along with William Lawson and William Wentworth, for forging a path across the Blue Mountains in 1813.

Up to that time the mountains denied the fledgling colonists access to the rich farming lands that lay to the west of the Great Dividing Range. Once the mountains were breached, the land beyond rapidly became the food bowl for Britain's first Australian outpost.

Today West Ryde is bisected by busy Victoria Road and is part of Ryde City, which administers most of the territory between the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers.

West Ryde is within sight of Olympic Park, just across the river, with its sports facilities, wetlands and open spaces.

The Ryde district"s pioneers included Maria Ann Smith, who grew the first of her famous Granny Smith apples in her kitchen garden, and the colony"s first hop-grower and brewer, James Squire, whose name lives on in the beers now being produced by the award-winning Malt Shovel Brewing Company at Camperdown in inner-Sydney.