Blair Athol 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 ...

. Blair Athol is located 57 kilometres south-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 Campbelltown and is part of the Macarthur region.

History

British settlers began moving into the area in the early 19th century, establishing farms and orchards in the fertile soil. John Kidd, a Scotsman, built the original ''Blair Athol'' homestead in 1879. He named it after the village of

Blair Atholl Blair Atholl (from the Scottish Gaelic: ''Blàr Athall'', originally ''Blàr Ath Fhodla'') is a village in Perthshire, Scotland, built about the confluence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Gr ...

in Scotland. The following year he became the area's member of parliament, a position he held until 1904. In 1945, the land was sold to an engineering company who planned to build a factory in the area. Campbelltown Council rezoned the entire area as industrial in the hope that other industries would also move into the area but for the most part the land remained vacant. In 1992, the Council rezoned the land back to residential and the current suburb was born.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census of Population, there were 2,711 residents in Blair Athol. In Blair Athol, 51.0% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Philippines 10.2%, India 4.3%, Fiji 4.1%, Laos 3.2% and New Zealand 2.2%. 53.0% of residents only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Hindi 6.6%, Tagalog 6.6%, Lao 3.8%, Filipino 2.7% and Spanish 2.4%. The most common responses for religion in Blair Athol were Catholic 35.3%, Anglican 11.3%, No Religion 8.0%, Buddhism 7.9% and Islam 7.3%.

References

Suburbs of Sydney Towns in the Macarthur (New South Wales) City of Campbelltown (New South Wales) {{Sydney-geo-stub