Henry Halloran

{{Short description|Australian property developer}}

{{for|the poet and public servant|Henry Halloran (poet)}}

File:Henry F. Halloran c.1924 (The Sun (Sydney), 14 Dec 1924, Page 13).jpg

Henry Ferdinand Halloran (9 August 1869 – 22 October 1953) was a major property owner and developer in New South Wales, in the early part of the twentieth century.

Halloran was born in Sydney. His father was a bank clerk and architect named Edward Roland Halloran and his mother was Adeline Burgess, {{née|Reuss}}. His grandfather was also called Henry Halloran and his great-grandfather was Laurence Hynes Halloran, who arrived in Australia as a convict, transported to Sydney.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography

|last= Atchison

|first= John

|authorlink=

|year= 1983

|id= A090164b

|title= Halloran, Henry Ferdinand (1869 - 1953)

|accessdate= 1 January 2011

}}

Halloran attended Sydney Boys High School and Newington College.Newington College Register of Past Students 1863-1998 (Syd, 1999) pp 81 He qualified as a surveyor in 1890 and became a conveyancer and valuer. After establishing Henry F. Halloran & Co. in 1897, Halloran became a significant figure in property development and urban planning in New South Wales, from the 1880s until the 1950s. His developments included Seaforth and Warriewood in Sydney in 1906, and the unsuccessful Environa, near Canberra, in 1930.{{cite book |title=Undiscovered Canberra |first1=Allan J. |last1=Mortlock |first2=Bernice |last2=Anderson |isbn=0-7081-1579-9 |publisher=Australian National University Press |place=Canberra |year=1978|pages=42–47}} There were other Halloran subdivisions at Stanwell Park,{{Cite news |date=1908-02-01 |title=Topical Taps |pages=1 |work=St George Call |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209631438 |access-date=2023-01-01}} near Orient Point,{{Cite news|date=1929-01-19|title=Advertising|work=Daily Telegraph|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246391027|access-date=2021-11-06}} and at Currarong.{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://currarong.org.au/about/history/|access-date=2021-11-06|website=Currarong Community Association|language=en-AU}}

He also built structures at Tanilba Bay in 1931.{{cite news|url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6196331/wild-weather-has-us-in-a-radar-daze/#gsc.tab=0|title=Mailbag|date=8 June 2019|author=Tim the Yowie Man|newspaper=Canberra Times|accessdate=13 July 2020}} He attempted to create a development called Pacific City, near Jervis Bay.{{cite web|url=http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2005/oct05/story-2.pdf|author=Jennifer Horsfield|year=2005|title=Environa: Marketing a Life-Style Near Canberra 80 Years Ago}} The site of Pacific City was to have been west of Hyams Beach and would have extended west to the St Georges Basin shoreline.{{Cite web|title=Part of Pacific City and Jervis Bay, St. George's Basin [cartographic material] : for private sale|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-372562426|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Trove|language=en}} He also initiated a development he called Port Stephens City, at present day North Arm Cove,{{cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231550750/view|author=Henry F Halloran|year=1920|title=1st subdivision, Port Stephens city estate}} but, despite a significant area of land outside the present-day village being subdivided and sold, only a small village eventuated.{{Cite web |title=Some early history of the Cove |url=https://northarmcove.nsw.au/historyheritage/some-early-history-cove |website=North Arm Cove}}

Halloran began the revival of the ghost town of South Huskisson, on the western shore of Jervis Bay. He renamed the deserted "Old Township", Vincentia, in 1952.{{cite web|title=Shoalhaven Family Local and Cultural History Fair NSW|url=http://www.shoalhaven.net.au/historyfair/history.html|accessdate=2014-08-16|archive-date=2015-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716023546/http://www.shoalhaven.net.au/historyfair/history.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|date=1952-09-15|title=Nowra council May Reject Road Finance Offer|pages=5|work=South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus (NSW : 1900 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143096676|access-date=2021-01-09}} He did not live to see it reborn as a holiday destination, following land sales for holiday homes, also known as "weekenders", which occurred in the 1950s{{Cite news|date=1954-01-06|title=Advertising|pages=13|work=Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910–1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231328501|access-date=2019-02-27}} and 1960s.{{Citation|title=Vincentia Jervis Bay : formerly known as the Deas-Thomson Estate or South Huskisson|date=1963|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/165068982|publisher=Sydney : Realty Realizations Ltd|language=English|access-date=2019-02-27}}

Halloran died on 22 October 1953, at the age of 84.