The suburb occupies a peninsula on the northern side of Sydney Harbour, at the opening of the Lane Cove River. The suburb features harbour views, a few pockets of bushland, shops, restaurants and cafes, a harbour swimming pool with shark net.

The suburb's name is derived from its namesake Greenwich, by the banks of the Thames in London. Parramatta River had been known as the 'Thames of the Antipodes' and other nearby suburbs were also named after Thames localities of Putney, Woolwich and Henley.

The Cammeraygal clan of the Guringai people were the first inhabitants of the Greenwich area, and lived along the foreshores of the harbour, hunting in the hinterland and trading with other clans.

The first known occasion when a European went to the area was in 1788, when Lieutenant Henry Ball passed through the area while returning from a trip to the Middle Harbour area. Land grants began in 1794 and industries developed in the area during the 1830s.

Aboriginal people were still present in the 1820s, but disease and displacement had driven them out by the 1860s.

Early land grants were made to Samuel Lightfoot, a convict, in 1794, and William Gore, public servant, in 1813. Gore built a road from his farm at Artarmon to Gore Cove, which was the beginning of Greenwich Road.

In the 1830s George Green and his father Amaziah bought land in Greenwich, with access to the harbour, and along with others began a shipbuilding industry on the foreshore. When Green subdivided his land in 1840, the name 'Greenwich' was mentioned for the first time.

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