Austral, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Austral
city = Sydney
state = NSW


caption =
lga = Liverpool City Council
postcode = 2179
est = 1891
pop = 2800 (2006)
area =
propval =
stategov = Liverpool
fedgov = Werriwa
near-nw = Kemps Creek
near-n = Cecil Park
near-ne = Cecil Park
near-w = Rossmore
near-e = West Hoxton
near-sw = Rossmore
near-s = Leppington
near-se = Leppington
dist1 = 42
dir1 = south-west
location1= Sydney CBD

Austral is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Austral is located 42 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool.

It is bound to the west by Kemps Creek, to the east by a Sydney Water supply channel, to the north by a straight division, and to the south by Bringelly Road. Bonds Creek flows southeast-northwest and confluences with kemps Creek near Fifteenth Avenue. It is of note in its design, its streets laid out in a grid pattern, and all horizontal ones named 'Avenue', in numbers from south to north increasing.

History

The area that now constitutes the suburbs of Austral was a parcel of land in West Hoxton purchased by the Austral Banking and Land Proprietary. When residents pushed for a second public school in the Hoxton Park area in 1891, Austral Banking and Land Proprietary donated three acres of its land for the site and, in return, the school was named Austral Public School. The name of the school became synonymous with the area although it wasn't officially recognised until 1972. [cite web | url= http://www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/adetailedhistoryofliverpool.htm#suburbs | title=History of our suburbs: Austral | publisher=Liverpool City Council | accessdate=2008-04-12 ]

Landmarks

Austral has a sportsground, youth centre, tennis court and skate ramp at Craik Park, the W V Scott memorial Park, with a pavilion, and a bowls grounds, Petanque. It has a Rural Fire Service station, primary school (Austral Primary), a retirement village (Scalabrini Village) and a small area of commerce, including a post office and telephone. It is the site of Camp Austral girl guides camp, and another small shopping area near the corner of Fifteenth Avenue and Edmonson Avenue. It is also the site of a Sikh temple and an animal shelter.

People

According to the 2006 census taken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Austral had a population of 2,801, the majority of whom were Australian born (63%) but there was a substantial Italian community, 13% were born in Italy and 20% spoke Italian at home. Other languages spoken in the area included Arabic (7%) and Maltese (4%). The number of Catholics (57%) was more than double the national average (25%) while the percentage professing no religion (6%) was a third the national figure (19%) The most common industry of employment was road freight transport (7%) while the second most common industry, mushroom and vegetable growing (6%) well above the national average of 0.2%.Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC16109 | name = Austral (State Suburb) | quick = on | accessdate = 2008-04-15]

Transport

Bringelly Road connects Austral to Liverpool and the Westlink M7, a pay road providing relatively quick connection to Sydney CBD and other parts of greater Sydney. The only public transport in the area is the Route 853/855 bus service connecting Bringelly to Liverpool via Rossmore, Austral, Hoxton Park and Cartwright. [cite web | url= http://www.busabout.com.au/HTML/Route853-4-5/R853-4-5Map.html | title=Route 853/854/855 Map| publisher=Busabout | accessdate=2008-04-15 ]

References

External links