St Johns Park 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 ...

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 ...

35 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 ...

s of the

City of Fairfield The Fairfield City Council is a local government area in the west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council was first incorporated as the "Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield" on 8 December 1888, and the coun ...

. It is part of the

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...

region.

History

St Johns Park was originally home to the Cabrogal people who inhabited the broad Liverpool-Fairfield area. When the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

arrived in Australia, the colonial administration designated this area the parish of St John. Nineteenth century maps indicate a St Johns Farm in the area and it is through this connection that the suburb gained its name. By the 1890s there was a public school on Parkes Road (now Edensor Road), a post office (opened in 1888), and a growing community, with an unusual number of Italians, who had arrived in the 1880s after the failure of the Marquis de Rays's expedition to New Ireland. The Bellotti and Gava families established vineyards on Bulls Road. Yugoslav migrants Theodore and Samuel Serovich arrived in 1885, also cultivating wine grapes. Both the Italian and Yugoslav communities were renewed and expanded during the period of postwar migration in the 1940s, and St Johns Park is still a very multicultural area. Chicory and wild fennel growing along the banks of Clear Paddock Creek are relics of the early European farmers.

People

According to the 2021 census, St Johns Park had a population of 6,302 people with a median age of 43, which was higher than the national median age of 38. Over a third of people were born in Australia (39.0%), with the other most common countries of birth being Vietnam (18.2%), Iraq (7.1%), Cambodia (6.0%), Croatia (3.4%) and Laos (2.0%). The majority of people spoke a language other than English at home (85.2%), with Vietnamese (23.9%), Cantonese (5.5%), Croatian (5.0%), Arabic (4.9%) and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (4.8%) forming the top responses for languages spoken at home. About a fifth of people (20.9%) spoke only English at home.

Housing

At the time of 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 ...

, St Johns Park had a total of 1,660 occupied private dwellings, of which 93.1% were separate houses, 6.4% were semi-detached dwellings and 0.4% were flats or apartments. Of these occupied private dwellings, 50.1% were owned outright, 29.6% were owned with a mortgage and 17.2% were rented.

Landmarks

St Johns Park sits beside Clear Paddock Creek which runs along 500m. The 'Restoring the Waters' project, which was the first of its kind in Australia, consisted of the restoration of the concrete channel into a living stream. It took seven years to plan and build and was funded with the assistance of a $1.33 million grant from the NSW State Government through its Stormwater Trust.

Schools

* St Johns Park Public School St Johns Park High School

Places of worship

* St James Smithfield * St Johns Park Baptist Church * St Nikola Tavelić Croatian Catholic Church and Community Centre * St Hurmizd Assyrian Church of the East Cathedral * Vietnamese Buddhist Phap Bao Temple * Tinh Xa Thanh Luong, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple

Clubs

* St Johns Park Bowling Club * St Johns Park Sports Club (also known as Jadran Hajduk Croatian Club).

Services

* Cardinal Stepinac Village is a retirement hostel and nursing home

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Park, New South Wales Suburbs of Sydney City of Fairfield