Kariong () is a
locality of the
Central Coast region of
New South Wales, Australia west of
Gosford 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) 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 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
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 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, 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 people from all over Australia, is based in the Mount Penang Parklands in Kariong.
Gosford glyphs
The
Gosford Glyphs, which are a group of approximately 300 carvings which appear similar to
Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into two parallel
sandstone, 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, ''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)