Kearns, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Kearns
city = Sydney
state = nsw


caption =
lga = City of Campbelltown
postcode = 2558
pop = 2757 (2006 census)
est = 1976
area =
propval =
stategov = Camden
fedgov = Macarthur
near-nw = Catherine Field
near-n = Varroville
near-ne = Varroville
near-w = Catherine Field
near-e = Raby
near-sw = Catherine Field
near-s = Eschol Park
near-se = Eschol Park
dist1 = 57
dir1 = south-west
location1= Sydney

Kearns is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kearns is located 57 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Campbelltown.

History

Kearns was named after a local farmer, William Kearns, who owned a large property in the area during the 1800s. He gained notoriety for a court case in 1824 where a neighbour sued him for getting his 14-year old daughter pregnant. During the case, it was alleged Kearns had also committed bigamy and attempted to sell his daughter to a sea-captain. [cite web | url= http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/default.asp?iDocID=2114&iNavCatID=322&iSubCatID=1378 | title=History of Kearns | publisher=Campbelltown City Council| accessdate=2007-12-18 ]

Kearns's land was originally owned by the Tharawal people until they were dispossessed by British settlers in the 1820s. They first named the land River Hill but by 1828 it had been renamed Epping Forest by Kearns. By purchasing neighbouring land grants, he expanded his property to 360 acres and established a thriving dairy farm and orchard. After his death in 1880, the property stayed within the family until 1978.

In 1975, Campbelltown Council began planning a major development in the area and chose the name Kearns for the suburb since Epping Forest would have caused confusion with the suburb of Epping elsewhere in Sydney. Streets were named after famous rivers of the world such as Mississippi, Danube and Yangtze and the first residents moved in in 1985. Not long after, a primary school was established in 1992.

People

According to the 2006 census from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Kearns had a population of 2,757 which could be best described as young families on better than average incomes. The average age was 30 compared to the national average of 37 and the median family income was $1461 per week compared with a national median of $1171. Over sixty percent of the population were families with children and almost the entire suburb (97%) was detached housing. There were higher than average numbers of Catholics (38%), Anglicans (29%) and Muslims (4%) with the number of people professing no religion (9%) less than half the national average. The vast majority were born either in Australia (77%) or other English speaking countries although there were small minorities speaking Arabic (2.1%), Spanish (1.9%) and Italian (1.5%). [Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC11517 | name = Kearns (State Suburb) | quick = on | accessdate=2007-12-18 ]

References

External links