This is a suburb of northern Sydney located 60 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD, in Hornsby Shire and Baulkham Hills Shire. Canoelands is part of the North Shore region. Canoelands is not really a suburb but a small settlement consisting of some about 65 houses and extending towards the east from Old Northern Road. The area forms part of Canoelands Ridge. This is high and undulating terrain with many gullies and covered with dry sclerophyll forest.
In the olden days the place was a timber-getting area for Sydney. The treefellers often found tall stringybark gum trees with large patches of missing bark. The traditional owners of the land used these pieces of bark to make canoes to sail on the Hawkesbury River. Such trees were aptly named canoe trees. This is most probably the origin of the name – Canoelands
The first and still the only street light in the suburb were put in place on the corner of Old Northern and Canoelands Roads on June 6, 1994. At first, it was only programmed to be activated by the approaching car however, after some time this idea was abandoned and it now remains lit from sunset to sunrise.