Prestons

Prestons was officially gazetted on 7 April 1972.

What’s in a name?

At the turn of the 20th century a local Irish family called the Prestons opened a Post Office at the corner of Bringelly (now Camden Valley Way) and Ash Roads. The post office was commonly called Preston’s and the name came into common use for the locality.

Colonial Land Grants

Early landowners in the Prestons area included Donald McLeod, Charles A. Scrivener, Mary Graham, Henry Kitchen and Thomas Marsden.

Donald McLeod, staff surgeon to Governor Brisbane, was granted 400 hectares in 1829 and built a small cottage he named Bernera, after his island home in the Outer Hebrides off the mainland of Scotland. McLeod and his family lived in the cottage until the 1850s. The land was then purchased by Allan MacPherson, the first Collector of Internal Revenue. He built the Bernera homestead that stood for 135 years before it was destroyed by fire in April 1986.

Prestons Primary School

The school opened in 1926. Children in the area previously had to go to either Glenfield or Hoxton Park schools.

^{Maypole dancing at Prestons Primary School, 1954}