Kariong () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

of the Central Coast region 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 west of

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extre ...

along the

Central Coast Highway Central Coast Highway is a highway through the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It connects Pacific Motorway ( M1) at Kariong with Pacific Highway (A43) at Doyalson. The highway was named after the region it goes through ...

. It is part of 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 ...

History

Kariong's first British settler was W.H. Parry in 1901. The Mt Penang Training School for Boys (later the

Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Centre The Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Centre is a heritage-listed former juvenile detention centre, now a parkland and redevelopment precinct known as Mount Penang Parklands. It is situated on the Pacific Highway at Somersby, Central Coast, New ...

) was opened in 1911. Many of the boys came from the training ship Sobraon, which had been in

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

before being condemned, as did former officer Basil Topple. The village of about fifteen families, mostly workers at the training school, was first called Kendall Heights, then Penang Mountain. The name Kariong was assigned in about 1947.

Kariong Mountains High School Kariong Mountains High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in , a suburb of Gosford, in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Established on 22 February 2010 for student ...

opened in 2010 at Kariong.

Etymology

Kariong was once believed to mean

meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defini ...

place in the local Aboriginal language, and that is how it is described by the Geographical Names Board.

Geography

Kariong's boundaries include a considerable section of the

Brisbane Water National Park The Brisbane Water National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated north of Sydney, west of , and southwest of . Features The ...

to the south, and the

Mount Penang Parklands The Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Centre is a heritage-listed former juvenile detention centre, now a parkland and redevelopment precinct known as Mount Penang Parklands. It is situated on the Pacific Highway at Somersby, Central Coast, New ...

, with its native gardens. Kariong is considered the entry point to the Central Coast as it borders the Pacific Motorway M1. A visitor information centre for the Central Coast is located just off the Central Coast Highway, near the entry to the Mount Penang Parklands.

Population

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 6,385 people in Kariong. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.6% of the population. * 77.7% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 5.0% and New Zealand 2.3%. * 86.0% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 30.6%, Catholic 21.2% and Anglican 20.3%.

Culture

The

NAISDA Dance College The NAISDA Dance College (usually referred to as simply NAISDA) is a performing arts training college based in Kariong, New South Wales for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It was established as the Aboriginal Islander ...

, a

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

training college for

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

people from all over Australia, is based in the Mount Penang Parklands in Kariong.

Gosford glyphs

The

Gosford Glyphs The Gosford Glyphs, also known as Kariong Hieroglyphs, are a group of approximately 300 Egyptian-style hieroglyphs located in Kariong, New South Wales, Australia. They are found in an area known for its Aboriginal petroglyphs, just between Go ...

, which are a group of approximately 300 carvings which appear similar to

Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

carved into two parallel

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, are located in the area. They were first reported in 1975 by Alan Dash, a local surveyor who had been visiting the area for seven years. These are now generally dismissed as a hoax.

Kenneth L. Feder Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder (born August 1, 1952) is a professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as '' Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Scien ...

, ''Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum'', page 120-121(Greenwood, 2010).

References

External links

Kariong Mountains High School
{{Suburbs of Central Coast (New South Wales) Suburbs of the Central Coast (New South Wales)