Chatswood, New South Wales
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- For the suburb of Auckland, see Chatswood, New Zealand
| Chatswood Sydney, New South Wales |
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| Population: | 11,684 |
| Established: | 1876 |
| Postcode: | 2067 |
| Area: | 3.55 km² |
| Property Value: | AUD $875,000 |
| LGA: | City of Willoughby |
Chatswood is a suburb in North Shore in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and the seat of the City of Willoughby local government area. Chatswood is believed to be named after the pet name "Chat" of the second wife of Richard Harnett (a pioneer of the district) and the original "wooded" nature of the area.
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[edit] Geography and setting
Chatswood is located about 10 km north of downtown Sydney and is the major commercial and retail hub of the North Shore district. Chatswood has a station on the North Shore Line and has bus links to the suburbs to the east and west. It has two major shopping centres, several high rise office and apartment towers and is close to Lane Cove National Park. The retail half of Chatswood lies mainly to the east of the train line, whereas the majority of high rise office buildings lie to the west. Chatswood has the Australian headquarters of Vodafone and offices of companies such as Nortel Networks, Optus, Smiths Snackfoods, IBM and NEC.
The main thoroughfare is Victoria Avenue, which travels east-west across the path of the railway line. The railway station itself can only be crossed on foot, thus to drive from one end of Victoria Ave to the other it is necessary to detour via Help St. Most of Victoria Ave lies to the east of the railway station, with only a few hundred metres to the west of the railway line until it ends at the Pacific Highway.
The Interchange, a shopping centre and bus interchange built in the late 1980s provided pedestrian access between the two halves of Victoria Avenue. Demolition of The Interchange began in April 2005 to allow improvements to the railway line to accommodate the Epping to Chatswood railway line.
From the train station proceeding east, Victoria Avenue provides a mall with access to Chatswood Westfield and Lemon Grove Shopping Mall, then continues towards Willoughby (away from the railway station) passing Chatswood Chase and continuing into residential parts of the suburb.
South of the railway station is Chatswood Oval, with a grandstand and seating surrounding the oval. It is one of the Lower North Shore's largest sportsgrounds, and home ground of the Gordon Rugby Football Club.
[edit] Shopping and commercial district
Chatswood has two semi-distinct shopping styles based loosely around the divide between the two shopping groups: locals and North-Shore shoppers.
The North-Shore shoppers come to Chatswood because it is a regional centre. They come generally to shop in the Chatswood Chase and Chatswood Westfield shopping centres and a few shops in the surrounding mall.
Chatswood Chase, completed in 1988, features a David Jones store, K Mart, Coles and 120 specialty stores, focusing on designer-label brands. Westfield Chatswood features a Myer store, Target, Coles and Hoyts cinema complex, and 300 specialty stores. There is a second Hoyts cinema complex in the nearby Mandarin Centre.
Westfield Chatswood, owned and managed by The Westfield Group, originally opened in 1986 and was redeveloped in the late 1990s to incorporate a previously free standing Grace Bros store. Major stores in the centre include Myer, Coles, Target, Toys 'R' Us, JB Hi-Fi and Rebel Sport.[1] The centre also includes a 6 screen Hoyts cinema complex. On September 23, 2005 a woman fell on top of another woman who was six floors below her. The woman fell six floors over the side of an escalator, and both women were rushed to hosptial.[1] Westfield Chatswood has its own parking station and is a two-minute walk from Chatswood station.
North-Shore shoppers don't generally stray out into the surrounding areas (at least not much beyond the Chatswood Mall area) which means that those areas tend to maintain a more local flavour. The local population has (since the beginning of the mid 1990s) a relatively high percentage of immigrants from Hong Kong, China and a few other southeast-Asian groups. This leads the local areas to tend to have a good selection of Cantonese and Singaporean restaurants and eateries.
The Melody Markets are held each Thursday in Chatswood Mall, Victoria Avenue and feature food and craft stalls. Often there is live music performing in the centre of the mall including bands from students in the surrounding schools. Visitors can also challenge each other on the giant chess board.
[edit] Transport
Chatswood is on the North Shore Line with rail services to Penrith, Richmond, Epping and Parramatta via Sydney CBD and Strathfield, and north to Hornsby and peak hour services to Gosford, Wyong and Newcastle. The suburb is also a major bus terminus with services to Bondi Junction, Sydney, North Sydney, Mosman, Balmoral Beach, Manly, Warringah Mall/Brookvale, UTS Ku Ring Gai, Belrose, Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Eastwood, Gladesville, West Ryde, North Ryde, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, Parramatta and Dundas. There is also an interstate bus service stopping at Chatswood from Sydney to Brisbane via the North Coast, New South Wales. Chatswood is on the major arteries of Pacific Highway, Mowbray Road, Boundary Road, Willoughby Road and Eastern Valley Way.
[edit] Schooling
The Chatswood CBD is home to both private and public along with primary and secondary schools. These include:
- St Pius X College (Years 5-12)
- Mercy Catholic College (Years 7-12)
- Our Lady of Dolours (Years K-6)
- Chatswood Primary (Years K-6)
- Chatswood High (Years 7-12).
Other schools within the vicinity are easily accessible by bus or train.
[edit] Hotels
- Saville Park Suites (Near Chatswood railway station)
[edit] Residents
In the 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing the population of Chatswood was 11,684, in area of 3.55km sq. The gender ratio of the suburb was Males 46% and Females 54%. The proportion of residents born in Australia was 53.8%. Religious affiliation in the suburb are as follows, Catholic (26.3%),Non Religious(19.4%), Anglican (15.7%), Buddhism (6.4%), Uniting Church (3.9%). Presbyterian (3.5%), Orthodox (1.7%), Baptist (1.5%), Oriental Christian (1.5%), Islam (1.3%), Hinduism (1.1%).
At 54.7%, most people in the suburb speak only English. However, 39.8% of the population speak a language other than English. The second largest language group are Chinese languages (19.6% of population), followed by Korean (3.2%), Japanese (2.7%), Italian (2.2%), Armenian (1.7%), Croatian (1.3%), Indonesian (1.0%), Arabic (1.0%), Tagalog (0.9%), Greek (0.8%).
Of the 47% people born overseas in Chatswood, most were born in China (6.5%), Hong Kong (5.5%), United Kingdom (4.1%), Taiwan (3.4%), New Zealand (3.3%), Japan (2.3%), Indonesia (1.5%), Italy (1.4%), India (1.3%) and Malaysia (1.1%). In 2001 4348 people were born in a country of Non-English Speaking Background.
Chatswood is a relatively affluent area with 40.1% of the population earning over AU$87,724 in 2001. (ie the highest Australian quartile of income earners)
The unemployment rate in Chatswood (2001) was 5% compared to 6.1% in the rest of Sydney, and the labour force comprised 57.7% of the population.
 Victoria Ave and Archer St, Chatswood, looking west towards Chatswood Station, Apr 6, 2005. |
 Shops in Chatswood are towered over by the large Westfield Shoppingtown, which is looked upon by the high residential towers located around Chatswood. |
 Civic Place in Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, 6 April, 2005. Planned to be replaced by modern buildings. |
 Eastern side of The Interchange in Victoria Avenue, April, 2005. This area of the Interchange is no longer accessible because of the ongoing construction. |
 Northern side of The Interchange in Victoria Avenue, April, 2005. This has since been demolished. |
[edit] Willoughby Spring Festival
The Willoughby Spring Festival is an annual event taking place each year in the North Shore suburb of Chatswood. The festival is the second-largest in Lower Northern Sydney and is a testimony to a modern, multicultural and prosperous Chatswood. For more information visit 2006 Spring Festival.
[edit] References
- ^ "Six-floor fall onto woman", Sydney Morning Herald, retrieved 26 November 2006
[edit] External links
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- Street map from Street Directory, MSN Maps and Multimap.
- Satellite image from Google Maps, WikiMapia and Terraserver.
- Willoughby City Council
- Chatswood/Roseville - community profile
- Chatswood West/Lane Cove North - community profile
| Suburbs of City of Willoughby | North Shore | Sydney |
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| Artarmon | Castlecrag | Castle Cove | Chatswood | Gore Hill | Middle Cove | Naremburn | Northbridge | Roseville | St Leonards | Willoughby |
| List of Sydney suburbs |
