Tempe, New South Wales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tempe is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 9km south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Marrickville Council. The postcode is 2044.
Tempe sits on the northern bank of the Cooks River and is separated from Kingsford Smith International Airport by Alexandra Canal (also known as Sheas Creek). The Wolli Creek waterway also empties into the Cooks River near Tempe.
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[edit] Commercial Area
Tempe’s main shopping and commercial area is located along the Princes Highway. the shopping strip includes a newsagency, a light and sound store, a doctor's surgery, a dentist's surgery, and martial arts goods and apparel store called Zoe's. Perhaps the most well-known shop in Tempe is Tempe Tyres, a garage specialising in automotive wheels and tyres. The former Riverview Hotel (now the Harp Irish Pub) is located on the Prince's Highway close to Deno's Diner (formerly known as Cobb & Co.), a fast food outlet designed on the 1950s drive-in model. In the past, Tempe had many more shops including a chemist and several convenience stores.
[edit] Transport
Tempe railway station is serviced by the City Rail Illawarra line and is sometimes still used as a junction for the East Hills line.
The Sydney Buses service route 422 runs along the Princes Highway from Tempe to Newtown to Circular Quay, in the Sydney CBD, while the 425 route connects Rockdale to Dulwich Hill via Tempe. In the past, Tempe was the terminus for the 425 route.
[edit] History
Tempe was named after the mansion on the southern banks of the Cooks River in what is now known as Wolli Creek. Alexander Brodie Spark (1792-1856), an immigrant from Elgin, Scotland, built Tempe House in 1836. It was named after the 'Vale of Tempe', a beautiful valley in ancient Greek legend set at the foot of Mount Olympus in Greece. Tempe House, designed by John Verge (1772-1861), has a Georgian feel and is regarded as one of the great houses of Sydney. Spark also donated money towards the purchase of land and the building of St Peter’s Church of England, which gave its name to the suburb of St Peters, to the north of Tempe.
Frederick Wright Unwins, who gave his name to Unwins Bridge Road, was a clever man in the legal profession in Sydney’s early days. William Bede Dalley, after whom Dalley Street was named, studied under Unwin and became one of the members of the first parliament in New South Wales in 1856. A prominent businessman during the late 1800's, William Fanning, had Fanning Street named after him, which is situated in what used to be known as Tempe Village.
Trams once ran from Circular Quay to the Cooks River. When buses replaced trams, the Tempe Tram Depot became the Tempe Bus Depot and is now home to the Sydney Bus Museum. The railway station opened in 1884 but was originally called Cooks River. It became a popular resort, with large crowds attracted for swimming and boating on the river.
Over the years, Tempe Recreational Reserve, a large park next to Cooks River, has undergone numerous facelifts, including improvements in irrigation, the development of football fields and cricket pitches, and an extensive jungle-gym for children. The park is home to the Robyn Webster Centre, an indoor sporting complex.
Tempe was once home to a landfill site known colloquially as Tempe Tip, which caught fire in 1988. The tip does not exist anymore, and has been redeveloped into extended parkland which now contains a golfing range.
[edit] References
- The Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8
[edit] External links
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- Street map from Street Directory, MSN Maps and Multimap.
- Satellite image from Google Maps, WikiMapia and Terraserver.
| Suburbs and localities within Marrickville Council | Inner West | Sydney |
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Camperdown | Dulwich Hill | Enmore | Lewisham | Marrickville | Marrickville South | Newtown | Petersham | St Peters | Stanmore | Sydenham | Tempe |
| List of Sydney suburbs |
