Bushland, is one of the last remnants of the remaining 0.5% (as at 2007) of original and endangered turpentine-ironbark forests on Wianamatta shale soil in Sydney. See Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest. European settlement Ryde is the third oldest settlement in Australia, after Sydney and Parramatta. The name 'Eastern Farms' was given to the district with the 10 initial land grants in 1792. This name remained in use for a few years before 'Kissing Point' became the common name. North Ryde was established in the mid 19th century as a farming district, in what was a heavily vegetated area, next to the already established district of Ryde. The Field of Mars Common was considered dangerous, as escaped convicts and bushrangers were known to frequent the area. Early European settlers The earliest settler to receive a land grant in the area bordered by the Field of Mars Common and Bridge/Twin and Badajoz Roads that is now North Ryde was Jane Wood in 1800. Following land grants were to David Brown in 1802, William Kent Jnr in 1803, "Tudor Farm" being the largest land grant in the district, which included all the land between Lane Cove, Herring, Bridge and Waterloo roads, James Weavers and Michael Connor in 1804, and Thomas Granger in 1809. Amongst the earliest settlers was James Weavers, a farm labourer born in 1752, who was sentenced to death at 28 March 1787 Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) Assizes. His sentence was reduced to transportation for life and he arrived in the colony aboard the ship Surprize on 26 June 1790. He was granted 30 acres of land in what is now Putney. He married Mary Hutchinson (1765-1850) in 1792 and they had four children. James Weavers and his descendants were part of a remarkable pioneering family whose members variously survived the hardships of harsh conditions, disease, infant mortality and the tragic loss of many of its members in an isolated settlement. James Weavers did well as a farmer and in 1803 he purchased a 60-acre farm (originally granted to Jane Wood, now the site of the North Ryde Golf Course) and received a 100-acre grant of adjoining land in 1804. James Weavers is thought to have been killed by Aborigines on 3 April 1805 and although his burial was registered at St Philips Church, his descendants believe that he was buried on his own land. The earliest settlers to farm in the