Macquarie Fields, New South Wales

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For other suburbs with Macquarie in the title, see Macquarie Links or Macquarie Park.

Macquarie Fields
Sydney, New South Wales

Population:

13,000 (2006)

Established:

1883

Postcode:

2564

Location:

42 km (26 mi) south-west of Sydney

LGA:

City of Campbelltown

State District:

Macquarie Fields

Federal Division:

Werriwa

Suburbs around Macquarie Fields:
Macquarie Links	Glenfield	Holsworthy
Macquarie Links	Macquarie Fields	Holsworthy
Ingleburn	Ingleburn	Long Point

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

Macquarie Fields has a mix of public and private housing and is surrounded by bushland. Nearby Macquarie Links, is a high-security housing estate based around an international standard golf course.

1 History
- 1.1 Aboriginal Culture
- 1.2 European Settlement
2 Transport
3 Schools
4 Sport and Recreation
5 Population
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Macquarie Fields is named in honour of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

[edit] Aboriginal Culture

The traditional owners of the Macquarie Fields area were the Darug people of western Sydney. The rich soil of the area was home to an abundance of plants which in turn attracted animals such as kangaroos and emus, both of which along with yams and other native vegetables and fruit were part of the diet of the Darug. They lived in small huts called gunyahs, made spears, tomahawks and boomerangs for hunting and had an elaborate system of tribal law and rituals with its origins in the Dreamtime. However, following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, they were pushed off their land by the British settlers.

[edit] European Settlement

The first land grant in the area was to Jason Snowden, a man known as the local pioneer of Macquarie Fields. He was transported to Sydney as a convict in 1789 for his involvement in the Irish Rebellion. Pardoned in 1805, he later became Surveyor-General of New South wales and in 1810, Governor Macquarie gave him 2020 acres, which he named Macquarie Field, in honour of the Governor. He used the rich soil to grow cereal crops, fruit trees and to graze livestock.^[1]

The property changed hands a couple of times after Snowden's death and in the 1840s, Martha Terry built a mansion, Macquarie Fields House, which still stands to this day. In 1883, then owner William Phillips subdivided the land to create a new town he called Glenwood Estate with grand boulevards and fine buildings. A railway station was added to the line in 1888 but the depression of the 1890s meant the grand town failed to materialise with only a few small houses built on the lots. In the next Great Depression of the 1930s, the area became popular with the homeless who made makeshift huts not unlike those of the earlier Darug people.

After World War II, the village grew steadily. A public school was opened in 1958 and by 1971, the population reached 3700. Around this time, a large Housing Commission development was built on the east side of town. This led to a huge population growth and there was even talk of splitting the suburb in two with the newer Housing Commission area taking the name Glenwood but opposition to the proposal put an end to that idea. Private housing developments sprung up further around and the weight of population contributed to a larger town centre.

Macquarie Fields gained notoriety as the location of riots in 2005. Allegations were made that these were the result of the Housing Commission area being something of a ghetto. Since then, there has been a move to sell or demolish many of those houses, moves which are resisted by tenants, some of whom have lived there for thirty years or more.

[edit] Transport

Macquarie Fields railway station is serviced by the South, Cumberland and East Hills lines of the CityRail network.

[edit] Schools

Macquarie Fields High School
James Meehan High School
Macquarie Fields Public School
Guise Public School

[edit] Sport and Recreation

Swimming pools, tennis courts, a school, a gym and various sporting fields are some of the facilities available.

[edit] Population

Macquarie Fields is a suburb with a diverse community. According to the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census, it had a population of 12,973 people. Languages spoken in the area included Arabic (4%), Samoan (2.8%), Hindi (2.6%), Bengali (2%) and Spanish (1.8%). The unemployment rate (10.6%) was more than double the national average and the median family income ($1005 per week) was slightly lower than average. The most common occupations were clerical and administrative (18%), technicians and tradespeople (16%), labourers (15%) and machinery operators and drivers (14%).^[2]