One of these settlements, the hamlet which developed along its coastline, east of Rockdale, was called Lady Robinson's Beach for a brief period in the 1880s.
Lady Robinson Beach and Cook Park form the eastern border of Brighton-Le-Sands, on Botany Bay, south of Port Jackson.
From here the boundary runs in a straight line in a south-westerly direction to President Avenue, immediately north of the lakes of the Rockdale Bicentennial Park: see Sydways Street Directory, 2001.
Land acquisitions in the district began in the 1840s but no significant development occurred until the railway opened to Hurstville, via Rockdale in 1884: see New South Wales Government Gazettes, POD.
Before this extension could proceed it was necessary to build a bridge over Muddy Creek, a tributary of Cooks River.
In 1883 Thomas Saywell suggested extending the road to the beach: Archives Rockdale Municipal Library, POD.
Following the completion of the railway Thomas Saywell decided, in 1885, to construct a tramway along Bay Street from Rockdale to Lady Robinson Beach.
It took another ten years before the old tram tracks were removed and Bay Street was re-surfaced to assist with the problems ensuing from the increasing number of cars now using the road: Archives Rockdale Municipal Library, POD.
Initially the route to the area was via what is now Canterbury, then by horse coach across a dam spanning Cooks River at Tempe.
Amateur fishermen lined the shores of the bay or fished from small water craft and the promenade of the baths.
At the instigation of Arthur Aspinall, the Presbyterian Church was looking for a building suitable to establish a boarding school for the children of outback pastoralists.
The Scots College found the race course and the distraction of the beach for its pupils unacceptable and left the area.
The racecourse operated for many years: Archives Rockdale Municipal Library; SMH 25 January 1896, p12.
As more people of few material means began to settle in the district the standard of living declined.
The phrase "Lady Robindon's Beach" remained in use for many years after the name change for the suburb.
Gradually the use of the name became confined to the actual sandy beach rather than to the suburb: (see editions of the Sydney Morning Herald up to 29 December 1925 and possibly beyond that date).
In the electoral rolls a number of abbreviations are used for the name of the suburb including: "B-l-S", "B.-le-S", "Br-le-S" and "Br.-le-S".
The land beside Muddy Creek at the northern end of Francis Avenue was originally a swamp.
Beyond Carinya Avenue there was a dairy with a live-in residence and Tasker's market garden, abutting Bestic Street.
Several isolated shops were built in Rowley Street to cater for the daily needs of the local inhabitants of this new housing development.
A butcher shop was built on the north west corner of Rowley Street and Moate Avenue.
Purnell's greengrocery and milk bar was located on the north side of Rowley Street between Moate Avenue and Reading Road: E. A fourth shop was built on the south west corner of The Rowley Street/Reading Road intersection.
Just as Australia began to recover from the Depression of the early 1930s, World War II started.
Grace Archbald, the last surviving member of the family and unmarried died in 1942: [NSW BDM Index on the Internet].
Also, with the advent of widespread refrigeration and bottled milk the dairy was no longer required in the region.
In the late 1940s the first part of Archbald's Paddock to be released for housing was that located along Henson Street.
Tasker's Market garden still operated at the corner of Bestic Street and Francis Avenue: CER, TD.
Eventually, about ten years later, Tasker's market garden and number 35 Francis Avenue, where the Erskines had continued to live, were also sold.
The floods were particularly bad when water cascading down the hills on the two streets coincided with a high tide in the creek: Archives Rockdale Municipal Library.
By 1925 a doctors surgery had been opened on the south west corner of the intersection of Crawford Road with Bay Street: POD.