BLACKTOWN CITY HISTORY
Anzac Day, Lucas Road and Seven Hill
by John Horne
Lucas Road is a two-kilometre arterial road running from Stephen Street, Blacktown, to the Prospect Highway at Seven Hills. It has a direct connection to ANZAC Day, having been named after Lieutenant Colonel John William Stewart Lucas— a First World War officer who served with the Australian Imperial Force Field Artillery at Gallipoli in 1915 and later on the Western Front with the 5th Division Artillery between 1916 and 1917. He returned to Australia in September 1917 due to ongoing ill health.
In October 1923, Lucas moved to‘ Jerseyville’, a sprawling bungalow set on thirty-nine hectares along Seven Hills Road. A planned estate road ran through his property, which would later become known as Lucas Road.
Locals affectionately referred to him as“ The Colonel” as he drove around the district in his 1924 brown Vauxhall Tourer— notably without a hood. Electoral rolls between 1931 and 1949 list his occupation as either a grazier or“ independent”, indicating he was financially secure. He passed away on 3 January 1949.
Shortly before his death, the NSW Housing Commission resumed his property, along with others in the area, to create a new housing estate stretching from present-day Seven Hills Road North through to Seven Hills West and Lalor Park.
Sergeant Hubert Walker West, a Light Horseman( second from the right) and Gunner Ross Raynor West( far right), from Seven Hills with four other Light Horsemen.
Major Lucas, outside his dugout at Artillery Headquarters at Gallipoli in Turkey, in 1915.
Lucas Road became a main thoroughfare through this developing community.
While Lieutenant Colonel Lucas returned home, many other local servicemen were not as fortunate. Their stories form an important part of Seven Hills’ history, and their final resting places lie far from home.
Privates Peter, William and Joseph Edward Brunton lived with their parents at‘ Ravenswood’, a thirty-acre mixed farm on Station Road. Joseph Brunton was killed at Passchendaele, Belgium, on 4 October 1917 during heavy shelling after his battalion repelled a German attack. His body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. His brothers, Peter and William, survived the war.
Trooper Walter Bede Greenhalgh, a farmer from The Meadows, Seven Hills, was killed in action at Beersheba on 31 October 1917 and is buried in the Beersheba War Cemetery in Israel.
Private Eric John Howard, a steam engine
fireman with NSW Railways, died from a gunshot wound to the neck at Passchendaele on 24 July
1917. He is buried in France near the No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station where he died.
Private Walter Rae McKenzie, who attended school at The Meadows, died from chest wounds sustained during the Battle of Pozières on 12 August 1916 and is buried in France.
The Brunton Family in 1909. Joseph stands in the back row, third from the left. Peter stands next to him on the right and William is next in line beside his sister, Elizabeth.
Private Arthur Walter Page, a bedstead maker, was declared missing in action near Bullecourt, France, on 15 April 1917. It was later confirmed he had been killed. He has no known grave and is commemorated at the Australian National Memorial in Villers- Bretonneux.
Private Robert Owen Pickburn, an orchardist, died of wounds on 21 October 1917 at the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in Belgium. He had been serving as a Lewis Gunner when he was struck by shrapnel during heavy shelling. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
Driver Harold Tuck, a horse breaker, was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a German aircraft at Beersheba on 31 October 1917 and died the following day. He is also buried at Beersheba.
Sergeant Hubert Walker West, a clerk, was killed in action on 25 September 1918 in Syria. During an engagement near Semakh, he bravely advanced on a Turkish machine gun position with a fellow soldier. Although most of the enemy crew fled, Sergeant West was fatally shot. He is
buried in the Haifa War Cemetery.
His younger brother, Gunner Ross Raynor West, was among the first volunteers from Blacktown Shire and the first local soldier to return home. Wounded during the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915, he initially lost the use of his left wrist and hand. Determined to serve, he later re-enlisted and returned to the Western Front. He was killed in Belgium in September 1917 by a shell explosion and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.
Private Cecil Whitney, a farmer, was killed on 20 April 1916 when heavy shelling struck his battalion, killing twentyfive and wounding fifty men. He is buried in the 13th London Graveyard at Laventie, France.
On ANZAC Day 2026, we pause to remember the men of Seven Hills who made the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War. Their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
Wooden crosses in the Beersheba War Cemetery, 1917. Photo Julianne T Ryan.
EMERTON VILLAGE
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Blacktown and District Historical Society Incorporated
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Founded in 1976 to ensure that the history of the Blacktown area would be collected and conserved for all time by tapping into documents and people’ s memories.
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10 ISSUE 61 // APRIL 2026 theindependentmagazine. com. au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT