Lindfield was originally the home of the Kuringgai indigenous people. Europeans first became active in the area in around 1810, when the colonial government set up a timber gathering camp staffed by convicts. By the 1840s, fruit growing and farming became the suburb's primary industries. Settlement began to increase in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Lindfield railway station opened in 1890, and Lindfield Post Office opened on 5 January 1895. Land values increased in the area around the railway and more professionals moved into the area. The name "Lindfield" means a clearing in the lime forest, and derives from the name given by an early landowner, Francis List, to a cottage he built in the area in 1884. List likely named his cottage after Lindfield, Sussex, England. When a railway line came through the area in 1890s, the name of the property was used to identify the station and neighbourhood. During the years after World War II the suburb experienced significant growth.
Heritage listings
Lindfield has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
is on the North Shore & Western Line of the Sydney Trains network and is about 30 minutes by train from the Sydney central business district. The Pacific Highway is the main arterial road through Lindfield. Lindfield has a small commercial area on both sides of Lindfield railway station on the Pacific Highway and Lindfield Avenue. The former Commonwealth Bank is an art deco style building on the Pacific Highway. Lindfield Library is a branch of the Ku-ring-gai Municipal Library Network. There are two community halls: East Lindfield Community Hall at Crana Avenue and West Lindfield Community Hall at Moore Avenue. There are two tennis courts at Lindfield Community Centre and a further two courts at Lindfield Park in Tryon Road.
Commercial developments in Lindfield are situated along the Pacific Highway, Lindfield Shopping Village and nearby Tryon Road. Lindfield Arcade was demolished in 2016 in order to facilitate the construction of residential apartments.
Residential
Residents
Demographics
At the 2016 census, Lindfield recorded a population of 9,791. Of these: ; Age distribution : Lindfield residents' median age was 39 years, higher than the national median of 38. Children aged under 15 years made up 20.3% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 16.0% of the population. ; Ethnic diversity : 56.6% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China 7.8%, England 4.5%, Hong Kong 3.9%, South Korea 2.5% and India 1.7%. 64.2% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 9.7%, Cantonese 7.9%, Korean 2.9% and Japanese 1.3%. ; Income : The median weekly household income was $2,513, higher than the national median of $1,438. ; Housing : Stand-alone houses accounted 59.7% of occupied private dwellings, while 37.4% were flats, units or apartments. The average household size was 2.8 people. ; Religion : The most common responses for religion in Lindfield were No Religion 32.8%, Catholic 20.6% and Anglican 16.8%.
Iva Davies, a singer from the band Flowers/Icehouse, lived in Lindfield during the 1970s to early-1980s whilst he was part of the ABC Sinfonia and started the band there. The song "Icehouse" was written about the house Iva lived in at 18 Tryon Road and also a dishevelled old house across the street, which Davies later learned was a half-way house for psychiatric and drug rehab patients.
