| Doonside Sydney, New South Wales |
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Nurragingy Nature Reserve |
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| Population: | 13,000 (2006) | ||||||||||||
| Established: | 1929 | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 2767 | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 40 km (25 mi) west of Sydney CBD | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Blacktown | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Blacktown | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Chifley | ||||||||||||
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Doonside is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Doonside is located 40 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Nurragingy Nature Reserve are popular tourist attractions in Doonside. Doonside is now colloquially known as 'Doony'.
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Early settler Robert Crawford (1799 to 1848) named his 2,000 acre (8 km²) grant Hill-end but later the area became known as Crawford. By the time the railway station was built on his land in 1886 it had been changed to Doonside, after his father’s estate in Scotland. When the railway station was being constructed, an Aboriginal name ‘Wolkara’ was used and this was also the name of the post office that opened here in 1921, but in April 1929 it was changed to Doonside. [1]
Doonside's population was 13,031 in the 2006 Australian census. There was a mix of housing tenures in the suburb with 22% of properties owned outright, 33% being purchased and 39% being rented. Of the latter, 60% were rented from the Department of Housing. The median family income of $1097 per week was slightly lower than average and while the average rent ($170 per week) was also lower than average, the average mortgage repayment of $1554 per month was higher than average. The proportion of the labour force employed full time (62%) was higher than average with the most common industry of employment being hospitals (4.2%).[2]
Notable residents include:
Doonside railway station is on the Western Line of the City Rail network. It provides direct links east to Blacktown, Parramatta and Sydney CBD and west to Mount Druitt and Penrith. The Great Western Highway runs along the southern border and the M4 motorway is just to the south. Busways offers a number of bus services in the suburb including the 753 from Doonside station to Blacktown Interchange through the north of the suburb and the 725/726 services from Doonside to Blacktown through the south of the suburb. The 756 runs between Blacktown and Mount Druitt passing through the north of Doonside and providing connections with suburbs such as Woodcroft, Glendenning, Plumpton and Rooty Hill.[4]
Doonside is home to two government run primary schools, Doonside Public School, near the station, and Crawford Public School, on Power Street in the north of the suburb. Not far from Crawford is Doonside Technology High, a government run high school. There are two non-government schools in Doonside. Mountain View Adventist College, on Doonside Road south of the railway line, is run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. St John Vianneys Primary School is a diocesan Catholic school associated with the neighbouring church, also called St John Vianney's.
On the western edge of Doonside is the Nurragingy Nature Reserve, a 90ha park featuring picnic grounds and original bushland. It was established a nature reserve in 1981 and named after Nurragingy, a Darug man given a land grant in the Blacktown area in 1819.[5][6][7] Just south of the railway line is the Featherdale Wildlife Park, a private zoo etsablished in 1953 and specialising in Australian native animals and birds.[8]
Across the railway line from Nurragingy is Kareela Reserve, a sporting complex, home to a number of local sporting teams including the Doonside Roos rugby league team[9], Doonside Cricket Club[10] and Doonside Little Athletics[11]. The Doonside Hawks soccer club plays out of Glendenning Reserve in neighbouring Glendenning[12] while the Doonside Diamonds Netball Club play all their games (home and away) at the Blacktown City Netball Association complex in Blacktown[13]. All these clubs use maroon and white as their colours.