Oatlands 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 separ ...

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 Mounta ...

, 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 country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It is north-west of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main 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 city centre is often referr ...

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 Parramatta The City of Parramatta, also known as Parramatta Council, is a local government area located west of central Sydney in the Greater Western Sydney region. Parramatta Council is situated between the City of Ryde and Cumberland, where the Cumberl ...

. Oatlands is part of the Hills District and

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

. The suburb extends from the south-east of Kissing Point Road and Vineyard Creek to the north-west bordering Pennant Hills Road and the

North Rocks North Rocks is a suburb in the Hills District, New South Wales, Hills District within Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, located 26 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district. Following the ...

area.

History

The name originally comes from Oatlands House, which was one of the earliest homes in the Parramatta district, being built in the 1830s by Percy Simpson. While it has been suggested that name reflects the first sowing of oats in Australia, this can't be confirmed. Instead, the name appears to be taken from

Oatlands Park Oatlands Palace is a former Tudor and Stuart royal palace which took the place of the former manor of the village of Oatlands near Weybridge, Surrey. Little remains of the original building, so excavations of the palace took place in 1964 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which was close to the lands of Lord Dundas, for whom the neighboring suburb was named. In 1840, the land was sold to James Bettington, who used it for sheep farming. Oatlands House is now used as function centre, with the surrounding land forming the Oatlands Golf Course, which was opened in 1931. Oatlands was defined as a new suburb in 1991.''The Book of Sydney Suburbs'', Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia , Page 25 Prior to this, the area had been known as Dundas West. ''Dundas West'' Post Office opened on 3 July 1967. It was renamed ''Oatlands'' in 1993. In 1997, Oatlands became the shooting location with opening scenes of The Magic Club in the children's full-length film ''

The Wiggles Movie ''The Wiggles Movie'' is a 1997 Australian children's musical comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox and Gladusaurus Productions. Released in Australia on 18 December 1997, it is the only theatrical feature-length film starring the Wiggles. Th ...

''.

Landmarks

Oatlands is home to the historic Oatlands House, located within the grounds of the Oatlands Golf Club. Annual events include the

New South Wales Women's Open The New South Wales Women's Open is a women's professional golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games ...

, attracting professional golf athletes and media attention to the area. Winners of this event include

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English female professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the first non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA ...

Lydia Ko Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a New Zealand professional golfer and the No. 1-ranked woman professional golfer. She first achieved the top ranking on 2 February 2015 at of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked ...

in 2012 (while still an amateur, and thereby becoming the youngest to win any professional tournament), Swede

Caroline Hedwall Caroline Ingrid Hedwall (born 13 May 1989) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the LPGA Tour. In 2013 she became the first player to win five matches in a single Solheim Cup event. As an amateur she ...

, in 2013 and Joanna Klatten of France in 2014. The club is well renowned in the Sydney area, and is nominated as Australia's best par 70 course by former touring professional golfer and now media personality

Brett Ogle Brett James Ogle (born 14 July 1964) is an Australian professional golfer. Early life Ogle was born in Paddington, New South Wales, adopted at 6 weeks of age and was brought up in the town of Goulburn. He was a successful hockey player in his ...

. In addition, touring professional and multiple Australian Open and Australian PGA winner

Peter Lonard Peter Lawrence Lonard (born 17 July 1967) is an Australian professional golfer who has played mainly on the U.S.-based PGA Tour. Early life Lonard was born at Epping, Sydney. Professional career Lonard turned professional in 1989 and began ...

is a product of the cadet program at the club. He also served his PGA traineeship there, and was the club professional for some years before rejoining the tour after recovering from

Ross River Fever Ross River fever is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by infection with the Ross River virus. The illness is typically characterised by flu like symptoms combined with polyarthritis and a rash. The virus is endemic to mainland Austra ...

. Oatlands also includes the area known as Burnside, which was the site of Burnside Homes, the children's homes established by

Sir James Burns Sir James Burns KCMG (10 February 184622 August 1923) was a noted businessman, shipowner and philanthropist in Australia. In particular, he is known as the co-founder of Burns Philp and Company, a shipping and trading company, and for establis ...

in 1911. Although not used for children's homes any more, the area is still the site of the headquarters of Uniting Care Burnside, an agency of the

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...

. The name is also used by Burnside Public School, which was built on land belonging to the trust. The area contains mainly new housing developments such as Burnside Gardens Estate.

Commercial area

There is a small shopping area featuring a post office, supermarket, fruit shop, liquor store, chicken shop, hairdressers, butcher, real estate, doctors' surgery, chemist and newsagency.

School

* Oatlands Public School is located on Belmore Street. * Burnside Public School

Population

At the 2016 census, Oatlands recorded a population of 5,660. Of these: * The age distribution was quite similar to the country in general. The median age was 40 years, similar to the national median of 38 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 19.1% of the population (national average is 18.7%) and people aged 65 years and over made up 15.3% of the population (national average is 15.8%). * 59.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China 7.3%, South Korea 5.4%, Lebanon 3.2%, India 2.5% and Hong Kong 1.9%. * 53.6% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 8.4%, Mandarin 7.5%, Korean 6.7%, Cantonese 5.7% and Hindi 1.9%. * The most common responses for religion were Catholic 33.2%, No Religion 19.4% and Anglican 10.3%. * Of all households, 80.4% were family households and 17.6% were single person households.

References

External links

* * * {{Sydney Parramatta suburbs Suburbs of Sydney The Hills Shire City of Parramatta