Bidwill, New South Wales
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Bidwill is a suburb of
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, in the state of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Bidwill is located 48 kilometres west of the
Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...
, in the
local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...
of the
City of Blacktown Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...
and is part of the
Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...
region.


History

Bidwill takes its name from
John Carne Bidwill John Carne Bidwill (5 February 1815 – 16 March 1853) was an English botanist who documented plant life in New Zealand and Australia. He is attributed with the discovery of several Australian plant species. Life in England Bidwill ...
(1815-1853) appointed as botanist in charge at the Botanic Gardens in 1847. Prior to settlement and colonisation of Australia, Bidwill and the surrounding area was inhabited by the Darug tribe. Bidwill was dominated by the development of public housing in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent times, Bidwill has been associated with social and economic problems. These have resulted in an increase of crime and such trouble as riots. Over the years Bidwill has become a community where more than 90 per cent are living on
Centrelink The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carer ...
payments. For many of its residents, what started as a short stay in public housing has turned into years and generations of unemployment and welfare reliance. It is renowned for drug use, violence, mental illness and poverty.


Commercial areas

Bidwill is primarily a residential suburb with extremely limited commercial activity. It is quite close to the suburbs of
Mount Druitt Mount Druitt is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 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 reg ...
and St Marys, which have larger shopping centres, banking facilities and railway stations. Limited commercial facilities such as
supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s and
Filling stations A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasol ...
are available at
Emerton Emerton is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrew Emerton (born 1972), British Anglican priest and Bishop-designate of Sherwood * Audrey Emerton, Baroness Emerton (born 1935), British nurse and politician * Brett Emerton (bo ...
and Plumpton rather than in Bidwill itself. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there used to be a service station on Carlisle avenue. It was located in front of where a small supermarket complex existed at Bidwill in the 1980s and 1990s, but failed due to competition from larger facilities nearby. There have been ongoing attempts to reopen the shopping complex.


Transport

On the day of the 2016 Census, the methods of travel to work for employed people were car (either as driver or as passenger) 74.5% and public transport 12.4%. Public transport through this area is provided by
Busways Busways is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis ...
. By road Bidwill is adjacent to the
Westlink M7 The Westlink M7 or M7 Motorway, formerly Western Sydney Orbital, is a tolled urban motorway in Sydney and is a part of the Sydney Orbital Network. Owned by the NorthWestern Roads (NWR) Group, it connects three motorways: M5 South-West Motorwa ...
motorway which can provide very easy access to the
Great Western Highway Great Western Highway (also known as Broadway from to , Parramatta Road from Chippendale to , and Church Street through Parramatta) is a state highway in New South Wales, Australia. From east to west, the highway links Sydney with Bathurst, ...
and the
M4 Motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
, providing road access to the western sections of the city and eastward to the Sydney CBD. This suburb is linked by several private bus companies to the train stations located at
Mount Druitt Mount Druitt is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 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 reg ...
and St Marys. Cycleways running through Bidwill run from Poppondetta Park to Mt Druitt and the M7 cycleway, which in turn connects to the cycleways on the M4 and M2 motorways.''2004 Bike Routes Around Blacktown City''
,
Blacktown City Council Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...
, 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2007.


Education

Bidwill Primary School and the Bidwill campus of
Chifley College Chifley can refer to: * Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949 * Chifley, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra named after him * Chifley, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Division of Chifley The Division ...
share a campus with a pre-school. Combined, these separate organisations provide care and education from pre-school (3 years) to Year 12 (17–18 years). Upon completing year 10 at the Bidwill campus, students continuing public education can either move on t
Chifley College Senior Campus
located in Mount Druitt, or continue their final years at Bidwill Campus. In 2016 in Bidwill 38.4% of people were attending an educational institution. Of these, 27.7% were in primary school, 20.6% in secondary school and 9.4% in a tertiary or technical institution.


Population

According to the 2016 census of population, there were 4,280 people in Bidwill. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 13.1% of the population. * 65.3% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 3.6% and Samoa 2.8%. * 72.3% of people only spoke English at home. Houses with two or more languages are spoken amount to 25%. Other languages are: ** Samoan 6.2% ** Arabic 2.4% ** Tongan 1.4% **
Cook Islands Māori Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. Cook Islands Māori is simply c ...
1.3% ** Spanish 1.3% * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 24.6%, Catholic 21.9% and Anglican 15.6%.


Housing

Housing is very heavily dominated by public housing built throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with large numbers of freestanding
fibro Asbestos cement, genericized as fibro, fibrolite (short for "fibrous (or fibre) cement sheet") or AC sheet, is a building material in which asbestos fibres are used to reinforce thin rigid cement sheets. Although invented at the end of the 19t ...
houses and extensive terrace-style complexes. The houses are gradually transferring to private ownership and as this continues these government-built premises are being replaced with privately built, modern homes, similar to those being built in other areas of Sydney. Most local housing is owned by either the
Department of Housing The Department of Housing was an Australian government department with responsibility for housing, including the administration of housing schemes and grants that existed between December 1963 and November 1973. Structure The Departm ...
or Aboriginal Housing Office. Of occupied private dwellings in Bidwill, 64.6% were separate houses and 33.6% were semi-detached.


Politics

For federal elections, Bidwill is in the safe
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...
electoral division An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
of Chifley. This seat is currently held by
Ed Husic Edham Nurredin Husic (born 3 February 1970), commonly known as Ed Husic, is an Australian politician serving as Minister for Industry and Science since 2022. Husic is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, elected to represent the ...
, of the
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
. The seat has been held continuously by the Labor Party since it was proclaimed in 1984. For NSW state elections, Bidwill is in the Electoral district of Mount Druitt. This seat is currently held by Edmond Atalla, of the Labor Party. It has been held by a Labor candidate since it was proclaimed in 1971.


Notes

#
State Election 2007 - Polling Booth Results
courtesy State Electoral Office of NSW.'' #

courtesy
Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...
.''


References


External links


Image of Bidwill's boundaries
from the
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, a statutory authority of the Department of Customer Service in the Government of New South Wales, is the official body for naming and recording details of places and geographical names in the s ...
. {{Sydney Blacktown suburbs Suburbs of Sydney City of Blacktown