Macdonaldtown was 4 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, adjacent to the suburbs of Newtown, Eveleigh and Erskineville.

[3] Nicholas Devine, the first principal superintendent of convicts called his property Burren Farm, after a region of County Clare in his native Ireland.

The streets around the early Macdonaldtown subdivision are named after relations of the Macdonald family - Amy, Flora, Eve, Coulson and Rochford.

[5] On 19 July 1872, the first council, consisting of six aldermen in one electorate, was elected (Charles Brandling Henderson, Henry Knight, James Bryan, Alexander Swanson, William Irwin and James Heighington), with Henry Knight elected as the first mayor at the first meeting on 23 July 1872.

[8][9] In the late nineteenth century, the inhabitants were originally market gardeners, though brick making and tanning also became dominant industries.