Granville, New South Wales
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Granville, is a working class suburb in the west of Sydney and is part of the City of Parramatta Local Government Area in New South Wales, Australia. A minor part in the north-west of the suburb belongs administratively to the City of Holroyd.
South Granville, which was formerly regarded as a suburb on its own, is included in this article. The distinguishing feature of South Granville is a light industrial area in the south.
Granville evolved primarily after 1855, when it became the final stop of the first railway line of New south wales. The place was originally referred to as Parramatta Junction, In 1880 it was named after the British Colonial Secretary, the 2nd Earl Granville.
The suburb is infamously known for being the location where 83 people died in the Granville railway disaster of 1977, Australia's worst railway accident.
The postcode is 2142 and is shared with Rosehill, Camellia and Clyde.
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[edit] Location
The suburb borders in the north west on Parramatta, in the north to Harris Park and Rosehill, in the east on Clyde. the Duck River provides a boundary with Auburn. The southern limits are defined by Chester Hill. Guildford in the south-west and Merrylands north thereof close the circle.
Usgar, Redfern, Heath and Mona Streets form the approximate border between Granville and Granville South.
[edit] Description
Granville is primarily dominated by freestanding weatherboard, fibro and unrendered brick buildings. The area is no longer exactly "typical" quarter acre block territory, but 500-600 m² block are resonably common. Terraced houses are rare, but increasing in number. Apartment blocks, generally three to four storeys in height, are becoming more common as the vicinity to the railway station increases.
Granville can not offer many architectural highlights. Some, but few, residential buildings might aspire to reflect ambition, but rarely any object finds more admiration than derision.
Buildings that deserve some attention are:
- St Marks. the Anglican church dates back to 1882. Also the building to its immediate left is attractive.
- the Town Hall, which goes back to 1888.
- the Royal Hotel corresponds with the architecture of the Town Hall just about 200m away.
- the St. Aphanasius Church, which caters for the Unkrainian Autocephalic Orthodox denomination, adds some interest to William Street. It dates back to 1956.
- the Bingo Crest building on Blaxcell Street, which reflects a hint of dynamic 1920s Art Deco however poorly, but not often seen in Sydney.
- the Brianna's function centre building just nort of the railway line on Goode Street might fascinate some.
- the White Palace in South Street might also be of some interest. Its exterior also has some Art Deco like fetures. The building has been gutted and completely redevelopped in 2006/07.
- the Granville RSL Sub-Branch Building serves as an interesting example of modern architecture. The round, space ship like appearance has some appeal.
The suburb these days is mostly composed of immigrants from Lebanon and other Arab countries. There are also many south sea islanders and an increasing number of black Africans, with Sudan being one of the main proveniences.
Granville is home to a quite sizeable Muslim community.
[edit] History
Before the white invasion the area was settled by the Wategora (sometimes Wadigora) tribe. The locality was heavily timbered. Large iron bark, blackbutt, box, stringy bark and eucalypts dominated. Along creeks ti-trees and casuarinas were prominent.
In the early days the wood was harvested to fuel the steam engines in Sydney and Parramatta.
Granville, then called Parramatta Junction became the end point of the first railway line in New South wales, which started at today's Central Station (→ Rail transport in NSW, Sydney-Parramatta Line) in 1855. This led to a speeding up of the development of this area. It attracted speculators and some local industries.
In 1862 a major estate, Drainville, became subject to a mortgegee sale and subdivided for villa homes, and small agricultures. At the end of the decade a Tweed Mill was established, which was steam powered using water from the Duck River.
By the 1860s the supply of wood was basically exhausted. The remainder was used by scavengers who made a living by collecting firewood. Wattle bark found use with tanners and stringy bark was used for roofing of huts.
1878 the locality received its own post office, which was then part of the stationmasters house.
In 1880 Parramatta Junction was renamed to Granville, after the British Colonial Secretary, Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville. The place then had a population of 372, of which 176 were male and 196 female.
In this era some Gernman settlers, Joseph Klein and P W Merkell, tried to establish vineyards in the area, but found the land eventually not suited. More men were to find out about the limitations the local soils provided and fruit growers complained about the menace of flying foxes. Thus, the only use for the grasslands which replaced the timberland was often for dairy cattle.
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[edit] Education
Granville has a major college of Technical and Further Education, which is part of the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, and a number of schools, such as Granville Boys High School which was founded in 1926.
The suburb is also home to a branch of the Parramatta City Library.
[edit] Entertainment
The suburb boasts four pubs. The Royal Hotel and the Granville Hotel are located south and north of the railway line respectively. The Rosehill Hotel is located on the northern side of Parramatta Road and the Vauxhall Inn is on the same street on the western edge of Granville on the corner of woodville Road.
Granville is also home to a sub-branch club of the RSL, which features in its stylish building a large Chinese run restaurant, occasional life music, regular bingo hours, and, of-course, plenty of poker machines.
[edit] Sports
Granville has an olympic size pool and a football (soccer) facility. The Granville and Districts Soccer Football Association is claimed to actually be the southern hemispheres oldest football association, celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2002.
Parramatta City Raceway caters for enthuisiasts of speedcars with races every saturday vening in the summer-half year. Rose Hill, a major horse racing venue is located in the homonymous suburb just to the north of Granville.
A privately run Taekwondo School also deserves mentioning.
[edit] Notable Residents
- John Devitt, Olympic gold medallist in the 100m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics and manager of the Australian Commonwealth Games team grew up in Granville
- Paul Hogan, actor of Crocodile Dundee fame, is known to have grown up in Granville
[edit] Literature
- Parramatta - a Past Revealed, Terry Kass, Carol Liston, John McClymot, 1996, Parramatta City Council.
[edit] Links
[edit] External links
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- Street map from Street Directory, MSN Maps and Multimap.
- Satellite image from Google Maps, WikiMapia and Terraserver.
- Council of the City of Parramatta
- Granville Historical Society
| Suburbs and localities within the City of Holroyd | Western Sydney | Sydney |
|---|
|
Fairfield | Girraween | Granville | Greystanes | Guildford | Guildford West | Holroyd | Mays Hill | Merrylands | Merrylands West | Pemulwuy | Pendle Hill | South Wentworthville | Wentworthville | Westmead | Woodpark | Yennora |
| List of Sydney suburbs |
| Suburbs and localities within the City of Parramatta | Western Sydney | Hills District | Sydney |
|---|
|
Camellia | Chester Hill | Clyde | Dundas | Dundas Valley | Eastwood | Epping | Ermington | Granville | Guildford East | Harris Park | Kingsdene | Model Farms | Northmead | Oatlands | Old Toongabbie | Parramatta | North Parramatta | Pendle Hill | Rosehill | Rydalmere | South Granville | Telopea | Toongabbie | Winston Hills | Wentworthville | Westmead | |
| List of Sydney suburbs |
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