Sadleir

Sadlier was one of six suburbs that formed the Green Valley Housing Estate created by the Housing Commission of New South Wales during the affordable housing crisis of the 1960s. The first sod was turned on the 3rd of August 1961. Sadleir’s urban infrastructure was substantially developed between 1961-1965. Sadleir was gazetted as a suburb on 7 April 1972.

What’s in a name?

The suburb of Sadleir is named for Richard Sadleir, a naval officer who arrived in Sydney in 1826 and Liverpool’s first mayor in 1872.

Sadleir was appointed to a Commission of Enquiry into the ‘state of the Aborigines’ in 1827. He wrote a book about his findings and proposed that reserves of land with food and tools should be provided to the Aboriginal Peoples, but the financial cost was considered too high. A copy of his book ‘The Aborigines of Australia’, published in 1883, is held in the Liverpool City Library Heritage Collection.

Sadleir went on to become the Master of the Male Orphan School at Liverpool, replacing Reverend Cartwright when he retired. The school housed 170 children and included 800 hectares of land. Sadleir married Reverend Cartwright’s daughter, Ann and remained at the school for 22 years until it was closed in 1850.

He later moved to the Hunter Valley area, where he became a parliamentary representative for the Lower Hunter. At that time, members of Parliament were not paid a salary and he could not afford to stand for re-election.

Sadleir returned to Liverpool as a magistrate in 1865 and, at the age of 78, became the first Mayor of Liverpool in 1872. He died at Liverpool on 6 March 1889.

Green Valley

Between 1961 and 1965 housing was developed for the Green Valley project for over 30,000 residents. The Green Valley Progress Association and the Liverpool & District Historical Society proposed names for the suburbs with local associations, which included Sadleir.