Chifley is a suburb in

south-eastern Sydney South-Eastern Sydney is the metropolitan area directly to the south and east of the Sydney central business district in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The area forms part of the larger Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The area stretches from th ...

, 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. Chifley is 13 km south-east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the City of Randwick. The postcode is 2036. Chifley is surrounded by the suburbs of Matraville,

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

Little Bay Little Bay is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Little Bay is located 14 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Randwic ...

and Phillip Bay.

History

The first house built in the Chifley area was Bunnerong House, which was built in 1825. Most land in that area was owned by the Crown; during the Depression of the 1930s, land was leased to people who built homes in the area gradually, over a drawn-out period of time. Chifley was named after

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...

(1885–1951), Australia's Labor Prime Minister at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Randwick Council made the area, which had been part of southern Matraville, a separate suburb in 1964. A large public housing complex was established in the area in the 1960s. It featured a number of four- and five-storey buildings, plus some smaller buildings containing bedsit-style accommodation, in which lounge-room and bedroom are combined in one room.Randwick Website:Retrieved 22 April 2009

Chifley today

Chifley today is predominantly residential. Its low to

medium-density housing Medium-density housing is a term used within urban planning and academic literature to refer to a category of residential development that falls between detached suburban housing and large multi-story buildings. There is no singular definition of m ...

has attracted a larger proportion of families with children than many other suburbs in the City of Randwick. In recent years, much of the original housing stock has been demolished and replaced by larger and taller family homes. There are also a number of townhouses which fill up the streets of Chifley. The suburb contains two schools, Chifley Public School and Matraville Sports High School, and a number of preschool centres. Recreational areas include the Women's Athletic Field and Dr Walters Park. The western edge of Chifley contains a small remnant of

Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub The Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is a remnant sclerophyll scrubland that is found in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Listed under the ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' as and endanger ...

, which was once the major flora habitat in this coastal region of Sydney. Efforts are being made to remediate and preserve this area. A number of notable local points of interest adjoin Chifley, including the

Long Bay Correctional Centre The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, loc ...

, Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park and the Bunnerong Equestrian Park.

Population

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 4,974 people in Chifley. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.1% of the population. * The most common ancestries were Australian 20.6%, English 20.2%, Irish 10.4%, Chinese 5.6% and Scottish 4.9%. * 66.0% of people were born in Australia and 70.8% of people only spoke English at home. * The most common responses for religion were Catholic 35.8%, No Religion 19.3% and Anglican 15.4%.

Schools

* Chifley Public School * Matraville Sports High School

Parks

* Dr Walters Park on Mawson Parade * Women's Athletic Field

References

{{Sydney Randwick suburbs Suburbs of Sydney