Small dairy near Folly Point on west side of Willoughby Bay in North Sydney showing vacant character and steep slopes leading to bay and homes on top surface

The image above, from the collection of an unknown photographer, and dating to circa 1936, is a fascinating view on a much more rural Sydney than we are familiar with today. This photo shows Folly Point in Cammeray, but as you can see, the area was once agricultural.

According to the description accompanying the photo, this image shows a small dairy at Folly Point. Not far from North Sydney, which was well established as a town and commercial centre by the 1880s, Folly Point and Cammeray were slower to develop due to the steep topography and distance to easy transport. In fact, Folly Point remained a rural, agricultural area, in the heart of the growing city. It was an area of vegetable farms and particularly of dairies, with dairy cattle reported grazing in the area as late as the 1950s! Today it is one of Sydney’s more exclusive residential suburbs.