Enfield, New South Wales

While Enfield is probably most notable for a large freight train marshalling yard, the yard is technically in the neighbouring suburb of South Strathfield and Enfield itself is actually quite small in area being bounded by Liverpool Rd, Coronation Pde, Mitchell St and Burwood Rd. It has a small commercial area along Liverpool Road and is close to the larger commercial areas of Burwood and Strathfield.

1 History
2 Residents
- 2.1 Notable residents
3 Transport
4 External links

[edit] History

Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the Enfield area belonged to the Wangal people, a clan of the Darug tribe, which covered most of Sydney. In the early years, the Darug people were badly affected by smallpox, which arrived with the British. Many of the clans became unsustainably small and the survivors formed new bands who lived where they could. While it would wrong to say the Darug gave no resistance to British land claims (Pemulwuy being a notable example), within thirty years or so of the colony's establishment, most of the land in the inner-west had been granted to British settlers.

William Faithful was granted 100 acres in 1810 covering what is now Enfield as well as much of Croydon Park and parts of Burwood and Croydon. In 1812, Liverpool Road was built through Faithful's land and the high position of Enfield made it a sensible spot for a staging post along the road. By the mid 1840s a small village had formed and the surrounding area supported vegetable gardening and a timber industry. St Thomas' Anglican Church which was built in 1848.

In 1853, a post office was built. This was the first recorded use of the name Enfield for the area although it may already have been unofficially known as that. In 1889, the area was deemed large enough to have its own municipal council which covered a larger area including those parts of the current Burwood and Strathfield councils south of Liverpool Rd. In 1891, its municipal population of 2,050 was larger than that of neighbouring Strathfield (1,850) and only just smaller than another neighbour Canterbury (2,426). Enfield retained its separate identity until 1949 when the NSW state government decided to abolish a number of small local councils by amalgamating them with their neighbours. Thus Enfield was absorbed into Burwood and Strahfield.[1]

[edit] Residents

According to the 2001 census, Enfield had a population of 2,448. Like many neighbouring suburbs, it had a high migrant population with more than half the population speaking a language other than English at home. The most common languages were Italian (8.0%), Arabic (7.8%), Greek (6.1%), Cantonese (5.8%) and Korean (3.8%). There 1,130 people in the labour force with the most common industries being business services (6.0%), health services (4.2%) and retailing (3.7%).

[edit] Notable residents

James Anderson (1894-1973): tennis player, Australian Open men's singles champion in 1922, 1924 & 1925.
Andrew Chan (1984-): Australian drug courier arrested in Bali in 2005 and later sentenced to death.
Gerry Hazlitt (1888-1915): Australian test cricketer (9 tests).
Norman 'Wizard' Smith (1890-1958): racing car driver and holder of the Australian land speed record in the 1930s.[2]
Bob Windle (1944-): Australian swimmer, won the Olympic 1500m gold at Tokyo in 1964.

[edit] Transport

Enfield is situated on the corner of two major roads: Liverpool Road and Coronation Parade and as such road traffic is the major form of transport in the area.

There are no trains in Enfield but there are a few bus services in the area:

The 400 goes from Burwood to Bondi Junction via Enfield, Campsie and Sydney Airport;
The 462 & 464 go from Ashfield to Mortlake via Enfield and Burwood;
The 466 goes from Ashfield to Cabarita via Enfield and Burwood; and
The 480 & 483 go from the city to Strathfield via Enfield.

Prior to the 1960s, there was a tramline which ran from Ashfield to Mortlake and Cabarita via Enfield and Burwood following the route of the modern day 462, 464 & 466 bus services.