Leumeah () 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 ...

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52 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. It is north of the suburb of Campbelltown and is part of the Macarthur region.

History

The name Leumeah recognises both early settler John Warby, who called his farm ''Leumeah'', and the

Tharawal people The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, s ...

who originally inhabited the area. It means "Here I rest" and comes from the

Tharawal language The Dharawal language, also spelt Tharawal and Thurawal, and also known as Wodiwodi and other variants, is an Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales. Phonology Consonants Vowels Vowels are phonemically /a i u/. See also * ...

. Clans of the Tharawal roamed over a wide area from

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

to the

Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven River is a perennial river that rises from the Southern Tablelands and flows into an open mature wave dominated barrier estuary near Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Location and features The Shoalhaven ...

and inland to Campbelltown. They lived a nomadic

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, eating local foods (

bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...

) such as

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

, fish, yams and berries. They made tools out of stones, bones and shells to help them build bark shelters, canoes and possum-skin clothing.Liston, C: ''Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History'', Allen & Unwin, 1988: p.1-2. John Warby was a

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

explorer transported to Sydney on the ''Pitt'' in February 1792. In 1802, he was given the job of protecting the cattle roaming free in the Cowpastures area, as the area south west of Sydney was then known. He befriended the Tharawals and learnt some of their language. In 1816, he was granted at what is now Leumeah where he built his house, a barn and stables. The barn still stands as part of the Colonial Motor Inn. In 1887, a railway station was built in the area. Originally, it was named Holly Lea after the property of a local politician but local opposition swiftly got the name changed to Leumeah. In 1926, a substantial amount of land was released as a sub-division although the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

deferred substantial growth in the area until after

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 opposin ...

. Subdivision continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s and in 1969, the suburb was formally named Leumeah. The first ''Campbelltown North'' Post Office opened on 16 September 1960 and was renamed ''Leumeah'' from 1961. The streets of Leumeah are named after famous dams, lakes of NSW, explorers and pioneer farmers. Continuing the theme from the suburb's own naming,

Campbelltown Stadium Campbelltown Stadium, formerly Orana Park and Campbelltown Sports Ground, is a multi-use stadium in Leumeah, New South Wales, Australia, owned by Campbelltown City Council. It is the home ground of the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Wests Ti ...

, home of Macarthur Football Club, was originally called Orana Park after an aboriginal word for "welcome".

Heritage listings

Leumeah has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Holly Lea Road: Holly Lea and Plough Inn

Commercial area

Leumeah Shopping Centre has an IGA supermarket,

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post o ...

and many local shops within walking distance of Leumeah Train Station, which is located on O'Sullivan Road. Wests Leagues Club is on Old Leumeah Road. Local shops are also located on Parkhill Crescent.

Transport

Leumeah railway station Leumeah station is located on the Main South line, serving the Sydney suburb of Leumeah. It is served by Sydney Trains T8 Airport & South line services. History Leumeah station opened in 1886. The station is the main access station for Cam ...

is serviced by the

Airport & South Line The Airport & South Line (numbered T8, coloured green) (''commonly called the East Hills Line)'' is a suburban commuter rail line in Sydney, Australia. It connects the Sydney central business district with the southwestern suburbs via Sydney Ai ...

on the

Sydney Trains Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The network is a hybrid urban- suburban rail system with a central underground core that covers over of track and 170 ...

network. Image:Leumeah Station afternoon.jpg, Leumeah Railway Station platform 1 entrance area. Image:Bus stop leumeah.jpg, Bus stop on the eastern side of the railway station serving Buasabout route 881 and Interline routes 870-872 Image:Rose Payten Drive-Pembroke Road, Leumeah.JPG, Pembroke Road, Leumeah's main road leading north to

Minto Minto may refer to: Places Antarctica *Mount Minto (Antarctica) Australia *Minto, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Minto railway station * Minto County, Western Australia * Parish of Minto, New South Wales Canada * Minto City, British C ...

and south to Campbelltown Image:Leumeah Roundabout1.JPG, Leumeah Roundabout on Old Leumeah Road outside the railway station Image:Pembroke Road, Leumeah.JPG, Pembroke Road as viewed from eastern section of Rose Payten Drive

Schools

* Leumeah Public School *

Leumeah High School Leumeah High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in , a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1977, the school caters for approximately 750 students fro ...

Population

In the 2006

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, Leumeah had a population of 8,661 people which could almost be described as a

microcosm Microcosm or macrocosm, also spelled mikrokosmos or makrokosmos, may refer to: Philosophy * Microcosm–macrocosm analogy, the view according to which there is a structural similarity between the human being and the cosmos Music * Macrocosm (alb ...

of Australian society with most key statistics such as place of birth, average age and income similar to the national averages. The suburb was more religious than the country as a whole with greater numbers of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

s (29%),

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

s (26%) and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s (4%) and fewer non-religious people (11%) than the national figures. There were a number of small groups of people from non-English speaking backgrounds including

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

(3%),

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

(1%),

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

(1%), Samoan (1%) and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

(1%). Most families were couples with children (46%) although there was a slightly higher than average number of single families (22%).

Sport

(formerly known as Orana Park & before that Alfred Duguid Oval) in Leumeah is the home ground of Macarthur Football Club. Image:Campbelltown Stadium.jpg, Entrance to Campbelltown Stadium Image:Leumeah Scene.JPG, Wests Club, Mosaic Apartments in the background Image:Wests Club Entrance.JPG, Wests Club Entrance File:Wests club leumeah1.jpg, Wests Club at night Image:Wests Club Electronic Notice Board1.JPG, Wests Club Electronic Notice Board

References

External links

Leumeah High School
(Rarely updated)
Leumeah Public School

Campbelltown City Council
{{Sydney Campbelltown suburbs Suburbs of Sydney