Lake Macquarie History

Rotunda at Glendale

This sizeable shingled roofed bus rotunda stood in the middle of the intersection at the Crossroads Glendale, for many years. It was a local landmark, and will be fondly remembered by many residents.

photo: rotunda at glendale

The Crossroads was the unofficial name of the intersection at Cardiff Road and Edgeworth Road (currently Main Road and Lake Road) Glendale. The suburb was originally known as the Crossroads, and was officially changed to Glendale in the mid 1950's. The name Glendale was selected by popular vote out of six possible names in a competition run by the Cardiff West P&C Association.
The results of the ballot were

  • Glendale 1581 votes,
  • Lyndale 1530 votes,
  • Fernington 306 votes;
  • Glendor 161 votes;
  • Llandaff 74 votes;
  • Cardonia 13 votes.

Signage for the new name was completed in 1952, although this name change caused dismay among many bus passengers due to confusion on timetables!

The rotunda served as a bus stop for buses between Cardiff, Wallsend, Young Wallsend (Edgeworth), West Wallsend, Speers Point and was the interchange for buses that met the the trains arriving at Cockle Street Station. It was reported to have been built in 1932 and was demolished in 1969 as part of roadworks carried out to widen the intersection. The rotunda was a focus of the area and an important transport junction dating back to early European settlement, firstly for horses and then for buses and other motorised transport.

There was a request for lighting to be installed in 1938, although this did not happen. It was reported in the Newcastle Herald that there was riff-raff and "indecent language used by larrikins" happening around the rotunda, and another submission to have lights placed in the rotunda was made in 1950, The rotunda itself may not have been the cause of the problem, as a Wine Bar and refreshment shop were also situated on the Cardiff side of the intersection. One of our library staff has fond recollections of crossing the busy roads to go to the bus stop and her mother hurrying her past the wine bar to the bus stop due to the possibility of her being lead astray! The Shire Council was also asked to place rubbish bins on this site in the early 1950's.

There were a substantial number of accidents that involved pedestrians and vehicles reported at the Crossroads, which leads us the question of why a well used bus stop was located in the middle of such a busy intersection?

Horses were the main form of transport in earlier days and there was also a large round horse trough situated on the Edgeworth side of the intersection.

Reference

Ray, Greg & Ray, Sylvia & Baglin, Douglass, 1926-2010 Austin, Yvonne National Film and Sound Archive (Australia) 2012, Changing places : Newcastle and the Hunter, Greg & Sylvia Ray, [Garden Suburb, N.S.W.]

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