Cambridge Gardens is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

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,

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 ...

. Cambridge Gardens is located 54 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 Penrith 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

Cambridge Gardens is a relatively new suburb, having only been gazetted in 1981. It was formerly part of the suburb of Cambridge Park.

Aboriginal culture

Prior to European settlement, what is now Cambridge Gardens was home to the Mulgoa people who spoke the Darug language. They lived a

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. Their homes were bark huts called 'gunyahs'. They hunted kangaroos and

emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

s for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants. Shortly after the arrival of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

in Australia in 1788, an outbreak of smallpox decimated the local indigenous communities and made it easier for settlers to dispossess them of their land.

European settlement

The first land grant in the area was made in 1831 to Phillip Parker King, son of the Governor

Phillip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence ...

. It became part of the Werrington estate belonging to his sister Mary Lethbridge and was run as a farm until the 1880s when the estate was subdivided into smaller farms. This area was renamed Cambridge Park. In 1978, a second primary school was established in Cambridge Park and given the name Cambridge Gardens Public School. Three years later, the name was adopted for the surrounding area and the suburb of Cambridge Gardens was born.

Demographics

According to the

2016 census Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film dir ...

of Population, there were 2,014 residents in Cambridge Gardens. 82.0% of people were born in Australia and 89.7% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 33.0%, No Religion 25.5% and Anglican 22.5%. CC-BY icon

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Notable residents

Governance

At a local government level, Cambridge Park is part of the north ward of Penrith City Council, represented by Lexie Cettolin, Kevin Crameri, Ross Fowler, Pat Sheehy (currently mayor of Penrith) and John Thain. At the state level, it is part of the

Electoral district of Londonderry Londonderry is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Prue Car of the Labor Party. It includes the suburbs of Berkshire Park, Caddens, Cambridge Park, Castlereag ...

, represented by Liberals'

Bart Bassett Bart Edward Bassett (born 4 March 1961) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2015, representing the electorate of Londonderry. He was elected as a member of the Liberal Party, bu ...

. Federally, it is part of the Division of Lindsay, represented by Liberal Party member

Fiona Scott Fiona Meryl Scott (born 1 March 1977) is an Australian politician. She was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Lindsay in New South Wales from the 2013 election until the 2016 election. Ea ...

References

External links

Penrith Local Suburb Profiles
{{Sydney Penrith suburbs Suburbs of Sydney City of Penrith