North St Marys 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 ...

in western

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 ...

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 ...

. North St Marys is located 47 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. North St Marys is an extension of the adjoining suburb of St Marys.

History

Aboriginal culture

Prior to European settlement, what is now North St Marys was home to the Gomerrigal-Tongarra 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

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 ...

s 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. Little else is known of their customs and there are no known carvings or rock paintings in the area. By 1816, their numbers had been reduced by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

and clashes with the British settlers.

European settlement

The first land grant in the area was made in 1820 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 ...

. He named it Triangle Farm but did very little with the land and it remained largely vacant land until the 1940s when it was bought by the Commonwealth Government to house workers at the St Marys munitions factory.

Population

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 3,921 people in North St Marys. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.6% of the population. * 69.3% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 3.7% and the Philippines 2.7%. * 73.3% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were Catholic 28.8%, No Religion 24.0% and Anglican 17.4%.

Governance

At a local government level, North St Marys is part of the east ward of Penrith City Council, represented by Prue Car, Greg Davies, Maurice Girotto, Jackie Greenow and Tricia Hitchen. 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

Prue Car Prudence Ann Car (née Guillaume) is an Australian politician serving as the 20th and current deputy premier of New South Wales since March 2023. She has served as the Labor member for Londonderry in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly si ...

of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

. Federally, it is part of the Division of Lindsay, represented by Liberal's

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Saint Marys, New South Wales Suburbs of Sydney City of Penrith