VALETTA - A weatherboard house on a 13/4 acre site on the corner of Moore Street and Gladstone Street (now Hopetoun Avenue), Watsons Bay - the house straddled today's Beach Avenue - from the 1870s to the early 1900s. It was occupied for a time by Mr R.R. Bligh and a Mrs Taylor.

VAUCLUSE - The suburb of the Woollahra Municipality. The name is derived from the village in Provence, France, Fontaine de Vaucluse to which the Italian poet Petrarch retreated in 1337 - suffering from a distant amorous relationship with a 'Laura' and disenchantment with secular society, The name came from the Latin Vailis clausa, a closed valley and bestowed by Sir Henry Browne Hayes to the property, an amalgamation of the Laycock and Cardell grants which he 'bought' in 1803, building a cottage nearby and left in 1812.

VAUCLUSE BEACH - The Beach is unique in that it is the only one in the Municipality which is intact in that the stream entering it has not been altered by drainage works nor has the beach front been changed through land fill or retaining walls - it looks much like it did before urban development took place. Bordering the stream there are 'sandstone walls which would have supported a wooden bridge carrying traffic along 'Lower Vaucluse Road' and over the stream before the present Wentworth Road was put in place.

VAUCLUSE HIGH SCHOOL - Laguna St, Vaucluse. Opened as a Boy's school on February 2, 1960, eventually becoming coeducational, motto, Lumen Scientiae (Light of Learning), colours Royal Blue, Gold and White.

VAUCLUSE HOUSE - Wentworth Road. The house as seen today was built between 1827 and the late 1830's by William Charles Wentworth incorporating the original cottage built in 1803 by Sir Henry Browne Hayes the house was never finished. Wentwodh left for England in 1853 and sold up all his personal effects returning only once in 1860-61 - after that, family members and tenants occupied the house. Significant buildings include the stables built around the same time incorporate some of the first Gothic styling in the colony (Cookney, architect) and the laundry - the convict barracks stood on the hillside north east of and above the stables but were demolished in 1917 when Olola Avenue was put through. The property was acquired by the N.S.W. Government in 1910 administered by the Nielsen-Vaucluse House Trust coming under the control of the Historic Houses Trust in 1980.

VAUCLUSE PUBLIC SCHOOL - Cambridge Ave, Vaucluse. The school began on the site of the Old Warsone Bay School in 1877 being preceded by the 1858 'South Head School'. The present school opened in 1925, motto 'Be Thorough', colours Royal and mid Blue and Gold.

VAUCLUSE MUNICIPALITY - Resulting from a petition in 1894, a new borough was proclaimed on March 29, 1895 with its southern boundary, Bay View Hill/Towns Roads. Following on a Royal Commission looking into reduction in Local Government areas in 1945, Woollahra and Vaucluse council areas were amalgamated and the first meeting of the combined council took place on December 14, 1948.

VAUCLUSE TOWN HALL - The building, No 17 Military Road, Watsons Bay was built over 1909-10, architect Varney Parles, and officially opened as a Town Hall and Council Offices on 20 April, 1910. The upper level hall subsequently saw use as a picture theatre - Rivoli, Rex, Village and Watsons Bay Theatre. The Council moved into Dunbar House in 1924.

VAUCLUSE UNITING CHURCH - Russell St, Watsons Bay. Established in 1839 as the South Head Independent Chapel, on South Head Road (now No. 212-14) - the 'Church with the Chimney'. A Mission Hall known as the 'Watsons Bay and South Head Congregational Church' was built on the corner of Robertson Place and Dunbar Street (the Tin Tabernacle) in 1891. The present church hall in Russell Street served as a church from 1909, until the present Church was built in 1960.

VAUCLUSE WAR MEMORIAL - In common with a number of First World War Memorials it was erected before the war finished - dedicated October 26, 1918. People were dutifully horrified by the senseless carnage of the event.

VICTOR MOTOR WORKS - Stafford Street, Double Bay. The plant on the foreshore of Double Bay manufactured the Victor marine engine for island trading vessels and did occasional repairs for shipping and jobbing work in the general engineering field as well as manufacturing equipment for commercial and industrial refrigeration. The company closed down operation at Double Bay in 1936 and moved to Alexandria. The Art Deco unit blocks 18 to 26 Stafford were erected on the site.

VILLAGE AT VAUCLUSE - In 1838, William Charles Wentworth planned a sub-division of his Estate incorporating a design for a village, roughly on the original Cardell grant of 25 acres which was located on the foreshore, the northern half of the area between Parsley Bay and Gibsons Beach The 'village' centre would have been a 'square' near the present day junction of Cambridge and Hopetoun Avenues with cross streets named Petrarch and Laura perpetuating the 14th century romantic association. However the village did not eventuate and the present alignment of streets bear little resemblance to his plan except for Cambridge Avenue and Village High Road - the latter planned as the main road into the village.

VILLA D'ESTE - 1A Victoria Rd, Bellevue Hill. Two storey house built on the site of 'Cranbrook Cottage' in 1937 and designed by F. Glen Gilling.

VIVIAN STREET, Belleuve Hill - was originally known as Balfour Street but renamed in 1912 after Charles A. Vivian, Town Clerk of Woollahra from 1883 to 1920.