Novar Gardens Places

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NOVAR GARDENS

Novar Gardens occupies Sections 152 and 170-172. Much of this land was originally taken up by John Morphett who built his house Cummins close to the Sturt River and the Bay Road on Section 152. By 1850 Morphett had established a substantial farm with gardens, orchards and vineyards surrounded by hay and wheat fields. In 1919 two paddocks of Cummins were sold and subdivided to provide housing for returned soldiers after the First World War. This was part of the post-War subdivision process which was undertaken in West Torrens. Also in 1920 the Novar Gardens suburb was approved by Council. This was one of the designs of Charles Reade undertaken at the same time as the Galway Gardens suburb in Marleston. 

The suburb of Novar Gardens itself was established in 1963 when the Morphett Estate was reduced to a large suburban block and thirteen hectares was subdivided to form the new suburb.

Cummins, a State Heritage Place, was sold to the State Government in 1977 and Emmanuel College leased it for a short time and then West Torrens Council took out a long term lease on the house. Emmanuel College had been established by the Lutheran Church in Novar Gardens in 1957 and the land it was on was also carved from the original Morphett Estate and purchased in 1950. 

The current character of Novar Gardens is one of recent residential development mainly between the Emmanuel College grounds on Morphett Road and the eastern section of the Glenelg Golf Course in the northern part of the suburb. [From 1998 Heritage Review]

Anzac Highway/ Bay Road: was known almost from the beginning of European settlement as the Bay Road. It was renamed Anzac Highway in November 1924 as a tribute to those who had served in the first world war.

Morphett Road: between the Bay Road/Anzac Highway and the Holdfast Bay railway line (now the Westside Bikeway) was, from the early 1880s, known as Erlestone Terrace. That road officially became part of Morphett Road in 1939.