This year, Osborne Park Progress Association Inc. (OPPA) is celebrating its centenary.
Osborne Park began as an isolated area of scattered homes and dairy farms, and has grown into a well-connected residential community.
OPPA has played a significant role in this change, forging a link between residents and Lane Cove Council to help create and maintain amenities, including a kindergarten, tennis court, recreation area, and bushland park.
Where is Osborne Park?
Osborne Park is a neighbourhood of streets between Lane Cove Village and Greenwich, south of the Pacific Highway and flanked by Bushland Park and the Lane Cove Golf Course.
It is not recognised as a suburb by the Geographical Names Board of NSW. It was once an official suburb, but that designation was withdrawn in 1999.
Fri 22 Sept 1995 [Issue No.116]
Osborne Park Progress Association Inc Celebrations
To mark the 100-year milestone, OPPA celebrated on Sunday, 2 November 2025, with over 50 people attending, including Mayor Merri Southwood and East Ward Councillor David Roenfeldt.
The Mayor unveiled a commemorative plaque in Osborne Park.
A Display in the Lane Cove Library
The Lane Cove Library and OPPA have put together a photo and document display in the Local Studies Section of the Lane Cove Library. It will be on display until 18 January 2026. ITC has visited the display, and it’s well worth checking out.
2025 OPPA Committee
The current committee was out in force at the 100-year celebration.
L-R : Mark McCall (Tennis Court Manager), Ros Noone (Secretary), Peter Hackforth (Public Officer), Peter Bennett (President), Shantelle McCall (Assistant Tennis Court Manager), Mike Smith (Treasurer).
Absent: Brian Hall (Auditor).
The OPPA Story
Ros Noone, the current OPPA Secretary, compiled the following information.
The name Osborne Park originated with a 1905 purchase by Edward Osborne Litchfield, who subdivided the land into one- and two-acre lots. He sought Council assistance in building a road to access the property. Council requested the princely sum of 15 pounds for expediting this.
The OPPA was founded in 1925 by residents seeking better services and amenities in an area of mud tracks and cow paddocks, with no direct access to shops. The first meeting was held in a cow shed by the light of a hurricane lamp.
After the Second World War, many soldier settlers with young families moved into the area, building houses amid the dairy and goat farms. Cows grazed on what is now the Golf Course. Lane Cove was still reached by a bush track or muddy road to the Pacific Highway, then a tram to the shops.
However, a timely visit by the Mayor, who found himself bogged in the mud with a puncture, led to swift improvements – at a subsequent Council meeting, the sealing of several local roads and the connection of First Ave with Phoenix St was approved. Lobbying by the OPPA and Greenwich Community Association saw the roads strengthened and a bus service started in the 1940s.
The first bus was greeted by waving and cheering crowds and still runs today. A footbridge built over Gore Creek, as an alternate route to Longueville Road, improved access too.
Growing families wanted more local recreational facilities. Over several years, the OPPA raised money through raffles, housie, card evenings, fetes and even film nights in a local garage.
When Council resumed a vacant block and contributed a loan of 2,000 pounds, development moved apace. Volunteers cleared weeds and levelled the ground, creating the Osborne Park Recreation Area. By 1953, the Tennis Court had been built, and when a resident donated some old packing cases, previously used for tractor parts, these were cleverly converted into the first tennis shed.
Completed in 1956, the Progress Hall quickly became a meeting place for the small community and the centre of an extraordinary array of community-run activities – including indoor bowls, gym classes, a table tennis club, scout meetings, flower shows – and a dance every Saturday night.
A couple of years later, local mothers started the first child-minding centre there. This eventually grew into Dingle Dell Kindergarten. A few years later, the Council built a larger Scout Hall, and these two buildings now operate as the highly regarded KU Children’s Services Osborne Park Preschool.
Over the years, the OPPA advocated for the preservation of the neighbouring bushland, and in 1985, our very own bushwalk, Norm James Way, was created.
In later years, the ownership of the Tennis Court and Progress Hall passed to the Council. However, the Tennis Court is still managed by volunteers of the OPPA and enjoyed by the community using a new internet-based booking system. In 2017, those original packing cases were replaced by a smart new Tennis Club House, thanks to Council support.
Recently, OPPA lobbying and Council support have led to approval for a new pedestrian crossing at Dorritt Street to ensure safe walking access for locals – especially schoolchildren- to Lane Cove. The story of our community continues……
The Future
As societal norms and expectations change, so do community needs. Technology allows us to have links far beyond our local neighbourhood. Our lives are busier, families are more mobile, and we seek divergent hobbies and pastimes from those of the first residents of Osborne Park. But a desire for community, connection to neighbours and love of our natural environment remains in Lane Cove.
Perhaps this anniversary is an opportunity to give a quiet thanks to those earlier residents who helped shape the community we are part of today – creating recreational facilities, supporting young families and protecting bushland. And maybe reflect on how we can work together in the future to continue this amazing legacy – both here in Osborne Park and in the wider community.
Prepared by Ros Noone Secretary – Osborne Park Progress Association Inc. (Email: [email protected])
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