Gymea, New South Wales

Gymea is primarily a residential suburb. The suburb's shopping strip, Gymea Village, has over the last decade become a popular shopping and 'café culture' district, with increasing numbers of cafés and restaurants opening along Gymea Bay Road. Development of such businesses has been to the detriment of other nearby suburbs such as Caringbah and Kirrawee.

[edit] Transport

Gymea railway station is on the Cronulla branch of the Illawarra railway line, part of the City Rail network, which provides regular rail services to the city. Gymea railway station is on Gymea Bay Road, in the middle of the main shopping area. Adjacent stations are Kirrawee and Miranda. Private buses, principally operated by Veolia NSW also service the local area and provide school student transport.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Art

Gymea is home to the Hazelhurst Gallery.

[edit] Sport

Like many suburbs in the Sutherland Shire, Gymea maintains an active culture of youth sport and has well-established soccer, netball and rugby league clubs.

[edit] Pop Culture

Australias lord palmerston a young board rider was residence betweenin 1988-2007 'Gymea', after living nearby to the suburb in the mid 1990s.

[edit] Education

The suburb has one public primary school, Gymea North Public School; a Catholic primary school, St Catherine Labouré Primary; and a secondary school, Gymea Technology High School. Many children in Gymea attend schools in Gymea Bay and Kirrawee. Gymea is also home to a campus of the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE.

[edit] History

The Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excelsa is a 6m tall perennial that is prevalent in the area. It was named by the local Eora people and became the inspiration for the suburb's name, by government surveyor W.A.B. Geaves in 1855. The Gymea Lily has been adopted as a symbol of the area and features on the crest of many local organisations.

Development in the area has eradicated most of the lillies but many can still be found, a few kilometres south, in the Royal National Park.

By the 1920s, steam trams operated between Cronulla and Sutherland, via Gymea. The railway station on the line to Cronulla opened in 1939.