orchardists with properties bordering the Field of Mars Common in North Ryde. They were among a few men and women who represented the sizeable proportion of Ryde's population who were small landholders based on family farms and who actively campaigned for a local school in what is now North Ryde. Motorcycling In 1928 the Chatswood Motorcycle Club built a course in the area now known as the Commandment Rock Picnic Area of Lane Cove National Park. The North Ryde circuit was an early version of off-road speedway. The first North Ryde meetings were held in May and October 1928. It was reported that the October meeting attracted 7000 spectators. The Commandment Rock course was closed and another circuit known as the North Ryde Speedway was developed on what is now part of North Ryde Golf Course (then known as Cox's Paddock), opposite from the present day School of Arts in Cox's Road. The track was located in a natural amphitheatre giving spectators an excellent view of the events. A typical meeting comprised 30 events of ten laps each. It closed in about 1935 when the golf course development began and the Chatswood Club merged with Willoughby Motor Cycle Club. One upcoming rider was Ray "Broadside" Taylor, who went on to become Australian Speedway Champion and an international speedway star of the 1930s and 1940s. His motorcycle was named "Daisy" after his wife. As a boy he moved with his family from Dubbo, NSW, to the Sydney suburb of West Ryde where he finished his education. His first dirt track race meeting was at North Ryde run by the Chatswood Motorcycle Club where he won five of the six races entered. World War II During World War II a substantial army base, the 3rd Australian Ordnance Army Vehicle Park was located in North Ryde, bounded by Epping, Wicks, Cox's and Blenheim Roads. Substantial numbers of Jeeps, tanks, transports, emergency motorcycles, generator sets and searchlights, and various military vehicles and equipment were located there, along with heavy transport workshops, personnel and barracks. Post-World War II North Ryde remained rural until after World War II, with a small population whose main activity up until that time was farming. Orchards, market gardens, vineyards and poultry predominated the landscape. In the 1950s and 1960s the State Government purchased and subdivided much of the land for Defence Service Homes and public housing. During the postwar years