5 This was the home of David Surrey Gibson Littlemore (1910-1989) and his family from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Littlemore had been firstly married to Sylvia Nora (1907-1977) daughter of Mark Cowley Lidwill [1] but they divorced and he remarried in 1942 Agnes Mould Curry. It was this family of David and Agnes Littlemore (with their three boys) that lived in this house. David Littlemore was a renowned architect and worked on the Qantas Building in Chifley Square and the Sydney Opera House. Through his friendship with Sir Garfield Barwick [2] he was on the Council of Macquarie University. One of their sons is Stuart Littlemore a journalist, author and a Queens Counsel.
[1] For more information on Lidwill see a separate article on this website under People.
[2] For more information on Barwick see a separate article on this website under People.
8. The house is listed on the Hornsby Shire Council Heritage Register which comprises Schedule 5 (Environmental Heritage) of the Hornsby Local Environment Plan 2013.
15. This was the home built by Mary and Robert Dougan. Mary was a great plantswoman who called her home ‘Poverty Ridge’ because of its poor soil. Through a joint interest in gardens she was a friend of the Barwicks and Joyce Vickery – both having separate articles on this web site under People [1]. Prior to marriage she also worked for the ophthalmologist Alan North whose practice was in Beanbah, Macquarie Street, Sydney and who was a keen Blue Mountains gardener, having grown up in the North family home Lynwood, Malton Road, Beecroft.
The garden is listed on the Hornsby Shire Council Heritage Register which comprises Schedule 5 (Environmental Heritage) of the Hornsby Local Environment Plan 2013.
[1] interview with Mary Dougan accessed on the oral history page of the Australian Garden History Society: www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/publications/mary-dougan (accessed 13 September 2021).
18. Professor L J Thomas was a member of the Civic Trust between at least 1985 and 2008 and this was his address.
22 This house is of the ‘waterfall austerity’ style. Note the use of brick and glass to gift a strong sense of the horizontal line while also providing the softness of curvature. It was the home of Professor Peter Diderik Groenewegen (1939-2018) and his family. He was the son of Reverend Jan Barend and Ruth (nee de Leeuw) Groenewegen and had been born in Kerkrade, The Netherlands and migrated with his family to Australia in 1952. In 1963 his parents lived at 114 Centennial Avenue, Lane Cove. He married Eileen Jennifer and had children Sarah and Stephen. He graduated from the University of Sydney with First Class Honours in Economics in 1961 and obtained his Masters in 1963. His doctorate was obtained from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1965. He had a range of appointments at the University of Sydney but was appointed Professor in 1981 and then Emeritus Professor in 2002. He had a distinguished career and was a leading international scholar. His areas of expertise included the formation of classical economics (especially in France) to 1776, the life and thought of the economist Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) and public finance especially within the Australian fiscal federation. In 1968 he and his family were living at 11 Old Beecroft Road but by at least 1972 there were living at Kirkham Street. He was a member of the Civic Trust between 1985 and 1992.