RESEARCHER Ian Richardson may have re-written the history books when it comes to the date and year Green Hills officially became Bonny Hills.

In 2023, he set out to find the actual date the Post Office was approved and opened, having been involved in the Bonny Hills Progress Association’s 70th anniversary celebrations in 2018.

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Mr Richardson said his research was to guide the planning of the 80th and potentially centenary anniversary celebrations.

Up to that point, all references to the change of name had relied on a published memoir of Mr A. Bartlett (1993) in which he gives the year of the correspondence with the PostMaster General (PMG) as 1947.

“I discovered this year, by registering and attending the National Archives of Australia (NSW), that there was a single page item of correspondence giving the date as 1 November, 1948,” Mr Richardson said.

So, the renaming was a year later than previously thought.

To mark the discovery, the Progress Association, in conjunction with the Wauchope-Bonny Hills Surf Life Saving Club will hold a “Raise a Glass to Bonny Hills” evening on Friday, 1 November – with a special toast at 6pm.

Town’s timeline

Through his research, Mr Richardson discovered that in 1947, an application for Green Hills to have a Post Office and telephone exchange was declined by the PMG because there was another Green Hills already registered.

So, the local community had to come up with a new name.

Of the three they submitted, the PMG chose “Suterville” after Jack Suters, the first European to purchase land in the area.

But Mr Suters did not want to be recognised in this way, so an objection was lodged and the Progress Association had to come back with other suggestions.

“The strange part of the story was that through meticulous searching in Trove and in reading copies of local papers published at the time, there is no record of the opening of the Bonny Hills Post Office or the change of name,” Mr Richardson said.

Bonny Hills is one of at least four names used officially or locally for the area and community.

The Birpai name, Mr Richardson said, “seems to have disappeared into history”.

“Grants Head is referenced in ‘Return to Lake Innes: Journals and Letters written by Annabella Innes’ (2020).

“Annabelle Innes (later Boswell), a niece of Major Innes, wrote after 1848 of riding her horse from Lake Innes House and refers to Grants Head by name.

“She describes looking towards the Camden Haven and back towards Tacking Point.

“In 1969, the official NSW topography map shows 40 houses on Grants Headland and 30 in the central area of Bonny Hills.

“When Shire maps were first published, the name used was Green Hills (sometimes written as Greenhills).

“Yet there are also a few records of Wauchope locals using the nickname “Creamy” instead of Green Hills.

“One area was known as Spooneys and this name is sometimes used instead of Green Hills.”

A file in the National Archives dated 26 July, 1972, to the District Postal Manager Kempsey, states:

– Bonny Hills was opened as a telephone office on 11 August, 1948, under the name of

Suterville. This was one of the three alternatives originally submitted by the local people for consideration.

– Shortly afterwards, the Progress Association requested that the name be changed to Bonny Hills and this was supported unanimously by the residents.

The origin of the name was not given.

However, the Department agreed to the change of name and the telephone office became known as Bonny Hills on 1 November, 1948.

By Sue STEPHENSON