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| North Ryde Sydney, New South Wales |
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 North Ryde Public School, established in 1877 |
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| Population: | 10115 | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 2113 | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 15 km (9 mi) NW of Sydney CBD | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Ryde | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Ryde, Lane Cove | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Bennelong | ||||||||||||
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North Ryde is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde. North Ryde is in the Northern Suburbs region of Sydney.
One of Australia's major business districts, North Ryde is home to many multi-national corporations such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Dimension Data and Honeywell. The suburb is the site of Macquarie University and its residents include those from the university academe and the research sector. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) also has a major site on Delhi Road in the Riverside Corporate Park.
North Ryde shares the postcode of 2113 with adjacent suburbs Macquarie Park and East Ryde. These suburbs were once part of North Ryde and many businesses and residences in these suburbs still advertise their address as being in North Ryde. Adjacent Macquarie University was issued with its own postcode by Australia Post, 2109, in the late 1980s.
The earliest reference to the area being known as North Ryde appears to be after the district's first public school (which opened on 25 January 1876) changed its name from City View Public School to North Ryde Public School in 1877. North Ryde was mainly farming area, until in 1897, it was sold to a Catholic parish. North Ryde is an extension of the adjacent suburb of Ryde which was named after the 'Ryde Store', a business run by G.M. Pope. He adopted the name from his birthplace of Ryde on the Isle of Wight, in the UK. Ryde was the name used from the 1840s and adopted as the name of the municipality in 1870.
The whole area between the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers was originally known by its Aboriginal name Wallumatta. The Aboriginal name survives in a local park, the Wallumatta Nature Reserve, located at the corner of Twin and Cressy roads, North Ryde. This small and critically endangered reserve, also known as the Macquarie Hospital Bushland, is one of the last remnants of the remaining 0.5% (as at 2007) of original and endangered turpentine-ironbark forests on Wianamatta shale soil in Sydney. See Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest.
Ryde is the third oldest settlement in Australia, after Sydney and Parramatta. The area between the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers was originally known by white settlers as the Field of Mars and then the Eastern Farms. North Ryde was established in the mid 19th century as a farming district, in what was a heavily vegetated area, next to the already established district of Ryde. The Field of Mars Common was considered dangerous, as escaped convicts and bushrangers were known to frequent the area.
North Ryde's main street is Coxs Road, (previously Coomassie Street) which was originally sandstone-lined to make it easier to haul goods up from the wharf on the Lane Cove River to the top of the hill. Cox's Road was named after Joseph Cox who owned land and lived in the area. His home there was called 'Pomona'. Coxs Road was spelt with an apostrophe (Cox's) until recent times. The original North Ryde Post Office on Lane Cove Road was opened in 1885 and in 1908 was moved to Coxs Road, and has since relocated premises within the Coxs Road Shopping precinct at least six times. The North Ryde School of Arts and Literary Institute, built in 1901 on land donated by William Cox of Pomona, became the venue for the annual ball, community meetings, fetes, art exhibitions, dances and culture. Extensions were built in 1907 with the North Ryde Library Branch located here. The original building was demolished in 1980 and a new Community Centre, School of Arts and Library complex was built.
Thompson's Shop (1904) in Coxs Road was the general store and post office for many years, and apart from the schoolhouse and a couple of heritage listed cottages nearby are the only remaining original buildings still standing from those early years. Three gas street lamps were installed in Coxs Road in the 1920s. One has been restored and is in front of the schoolhouse. The Coxs Road Shopping Centre was destroyed by a suspicious fire around 1990 and a new shopping mall was built with improved amenities.
In 1928 the Chatswood Motorcycle Club built a course in the area now known as the Commandment Rock Picnic Area of Lane Cove National Park. The North Ryde circuit was an early version of off-road speedway. The first North Ryde meetings were held in May and October 1928. It was reported that the October meeting attracted 7000 spectators. The Commandment Rock course was closed and another circuit known as the North Ryde Speedway was developed on what is now part of North Ryde Golf Course (then known as Cox’s Paddock), opposite from the present day School of Arts in Coxs Road. The track was located in a natural amphitheatre giving spectators an excellent view of the events. A typical meeting comprised 30 events of ten laps each. It closed in about 1935 when the golf course development began and the Chatswood Club merged with Willoughby Motor Cycle Club.
North Ryde remained rural until after World War II when the state government purchased and subdivided much of the land for Defence Homes and public housing. The rapid development of North Ryde in the 1950s and 1960s saw many of the older dwellings and buildings demolished.
A migrant hostel was located on the south side of Blenheim Road. During WWII the 3rd Australian Ordnance Army Vehicle Park was located in North Ryde, bounded by Epping, Wicks, Coxs and Blenheim Roads. Farming activity included orchards, market gardens and poultry. A pig farm was located in Wicks Road and was operational until the late 1960s. The House of David operated for many years on Lane Cove Road, and included a general store, picnic grounds, tennis courts, a miniature train ride, and a small zoo, later adding a VW car dealership to the complex. A Volkswagen car assembly plant was located behind the House of David in Waterloo Road before being moved to Mexico. The North Ryde Skyline Drive-In Theatre was opened in 1956 on the southern corner of Waterloo and Lane Cove Roads, adjoining the newly built North Ryde High School, and operated until the mid-1980s.
The North Ryde Station Precinct Concept Plan is a concept plan currently underway to determine the future of the areas in the vicinity of North Ryde railway station. On 4 December 2013 approval was given for the Development Control Plan (DCP) setting out vision, objectives and controls for future development of the North Ryde Station Precinct.
The M2 Hills Motorway passes through North Ryde en route to the Lane Cove Tunnel motorway, and then the Gore Hill/Warringah Freeway, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney CBD. Lane Cove Road (A3), traverses North Ryde from north to south, linking Sydney's North Shore to Homebush Bay and Sydney Olympic Park. Epping Road runs west to east and crosses the Lane Cove River Bridge to link the City of Ryde to the Municipality of Lane Cove. North Ryde is serviced by public buses, primarily the Routes 285-297, 506, and 534-535 which criss-cross the district. Private shuttle buses provide local and Airport services.
North Ryde railway station is an underground railway station on the Epping to Chatswood railway line that opened in 2009. It is located close to the intersection of Epping Road and Delhi Road, near the M2 Motorway. During the steam era, there was a proposal to build a railway station in North Ryde near the intersection of Coxs Road and Wicks Road, but the Epping-St Leonards Railway was never built.
The intersection of Epping and Pittwater Road was once destined to be a major junction of part of "Sydney's Missing Roads" until the cancellation of the North Western and Lane Cove Valley Expressways in the late 1970s. The Eastwood County Road (also referred to as Silverwater-North Ryde route or the Ermington-Epping Rd link) was also proposed, with the corridor remaining reserved today.
The intersection of Epping Road and Lane Cove Road was originally planned to be Australia's first "clover leaf" intersection. Land on all four corner of the intersection had been acquired for the flyover loops. However, as construction of the Epping Road main bridge deck progressed, the loops were dropped, leaving it as a traffic light–controlled intersection under the overpass. The land on the four corners has since been re-utilised, one being a Medical Center, another an office building. This is now one of the most congested roads in Sydney.
North Ryde has many beautiful parks and reserves, including North Ryde Common, and the adjacent Lane Cove National Park, the Field of Mars Reserve, and access to the Great North Walk and the Lane Cove River, once home to the famous Fairyland picnic grounds, when boatloads of people would come up the river from Sydney for the regular Saturday Dances. Today very little remains of Fairyland and it is almost completely overgrown.
North Ryde Park received a major upgrade in 2009 with fully refurbished amenities block and a new children's play area.
Blenheim Park is a multi-functional family park and features an off-leash area for dogs.
