The St George region of Sydney is part of the southern suburbs 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 ...

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 ...

. The area includes all the suburbs 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 ...

Georges River Council Georges River Council is a local government area located in the St George region of Sydney located south of the CBD, in New South Wales, Australia. The Council was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of the Kogarah City Council and Hurs ...

and the part of

Bayside Council Bayside Council is a local government in New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Sydney, around part of Botany Bay, to south of the CBD. It includes suburbs of South Sydney and the St George area separated by the Cooks River. It compris ...

which was Rockdale City prior to 2016. The eastern boundary of the district is

Lady Robinson Beach Lady Robinsons Beach is the stretch of beach between the mouth of the Cooks River and the mouth of Georges River on the western shore of Botany Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Originally known as ''Seven Mile Beach'', it was renamed ...

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 ...

. The name "St George" derives from the cadastral Parish of St George (used for land title purposes), and the area was later covered by the St George County Council, the electricity supplier for the councils in this region.St George County Council get-together sparks electric memories
St George Leader 24 November 2013

History

Indigenous Australians

The first inhabitants of the St George area were

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

s. At the time of the arrival of 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 ...

, the Eora tribe inhabited land from

Port Jackson 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 ...

and the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, located to the south and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The river travels for approximately in a north and then easterly ...

.''Pictorial Memories St George: Rockdale, Kogarah, Hurstville'' Joan Lawrence, Kingsclear Books, 1996, Published in Australia There is evidence to suggest that these people belonged to the

Gweagal The Gweagal (also spelt Gwiyagal) are a clan of the Dharawal people of Aboriginal Australians. Their descendants are traditional custodians of the southern geographic areas of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Country The Gweagal lived on t ...

Bidjigal The Bidjigal (also spelt Bediagal, Bejigal, Bedegal or Biddegal) people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The ...

and

Cadigal The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Indigenous people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Gadigal originally inhabited the area t ...

clans.

European settlement

James Cook sailed HMS ''Endeavour'' into

in 1770 for his first landing on the continent of

. Captain Arthur Phillip led the

into the bay on 18 January 1788 to found a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

there but found the sandy infertile soil disappointing and moved the site of the settlement north to the natural harbour of

. The ridge between the Cooks River and

was covered in a dense forest which first attracted timber cutters to the area. Wood gatherers, bark collectors, sawyers and charcoal burners moved into the area to work the forests of

Simeon Lord Simeon Lord ( – 29 January 1840) was a pioneer merchant and a magistrate in Australia. He became a prominent trader in Sydney, buying and selling ship cargoes. Despite being an emancipist Lord was made a magistrate by Governor Lachlan Mac ...

and supply Sydney’s timber needs. By the 1840s,

Major Mitchell Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New Sou ...

was building the Illawarra Road (now Forest Road) on the ridge through ‘Lord’s Bush’, which required enormous amounts of trees and bush to be cleared. Irishman Michael Gannon was innkeeper at Cooks River in the 1840s. He acquired land in the area, part of which became known as ‘Gannons Forest’ which later was the centre of

Hurstville Hurstville is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Georges Riv ...

. By 1851 it was estimated that 50 to 100 carts of timber and lime crossed the Cooks River daily. St George Parish was one of the original parishes within

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberla ...

. It is one of nine parishes named after saints, of which only St George and St James are still commonly used as place names. A map of the parish revealed that the land was cut into areas ranging from 30 to and a few large land grants of . The recipients were William Packer, Josh Thorp, James Oatley, Hannah Laycock, F. W. Unwin, Reuben and David Hannam, Patrick Moore, J. Beehag, John Porter and the larger grants were James Chandler and John and Robert Townson. The parish also covers the former City of Canterbury, now the eastern part of the

City of Canterbury-Bankstown The City of Canterbury Bankstown (also known as Canterbury-Bankstown Council) is a local government, local government area located in the South Western Sydney, South Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The council was formed on ...

, although most customary references to the "St George area" today do not include that part of the parish. In 1920, the local councils in the St George area constituted St George County Council, to deal with distribution of electricity in the region. St George County Council was merged with Sydney County Council (another inter-council electricity supplier) to form "Sydney Electricity" in 1989. The regional identity was reinforced by the creation in 1949 of a federal electorate, the

Division of St George The Division of St George was an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales. It was located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, and co ...

, in the area. The Division was abolished in 1993. The area's identity is reflected in the name of the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...

team who play in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, and the

St. George Bank St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be ...

Suburbs in St George Area

Culture and sport

The St George area is a culturally diverse region. Major centres feature a substantial number of Southern European and Asian migrants and their families, with Hurstville often being referred to as Sydney's real Chinatown in the media. In terms of sport, the area is known as the home of the

, one of the most successful rugby league teams.

Commercial areas

The biggest commercial areas in the St George area are located at

Kogarah Kogarah () is a suburb of Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres (9 miles) south-west of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George, New South ...

and Rockdale. Hurstville is the largest

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

in southern Sydney and features a large

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre ( Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...

called Westfield Hurstville. Additionally Rockdale features another large shopping centre, Rockdale Plaza.

Transport

The St. George Area is serviced very well by public transport. The

Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line The Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line (numbered T4, coloured azure blue) is a commuter railway line in the eastern and southern suburbs of Sydney and is a part of the Sydney Trains network. The line was constructed in the 1880s to Wollongong to ...

South Coast Line The South Coast Line is an intercity rail service operated by NSW TrainLink that services the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The service runs from , and runs the entire length of the eponymous South Coast railway line to . T ...

and Airport Line have frequent services to the city directly or via

Wolli Creek Wolli Creek () is an urban watercourse of the Cooks River catchment located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Wolli Creek rises south of Narwee, within Beverly Hills Park, Beverly Hills, and fl ...

. There are also abundant bus routes serving the region operated by

Transit Systems Transit Systems Group is an Australian-based public transport company, which also operates overseas through its subsidiary Tower Transit Group. Transit Systems Group is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group, formerly SeaLink Travel Group. History ...

Punchbowl Bus Company Punchbowl Bus Company is an Australian bus company operating services in Sydney Region 5, servicing the Hurstville, Roselands, Bankstown, Strathfield and surrounding suburbs. It also operates bus services in Goulburn and Crookwell in the Souther ...

and

Transdev NSW Transdev NSW is a bus operator in the northern, southern and western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, operating on behalf of Transport for NSW. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Australasia. It is a different subsidiary to Transdev John Holland, whi ...

Population

The population of the St George region, as estimated in 2020, was 285,214.About the Profile Area - St George Region
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St. George name

Several major local institutions have 'St. George' in their title: * St. George Asian Business Association *

* St. George Basketball Association * St. George College, TAFE NSW Sydney Institute * St. George & Sutherland Community College *

St George AFC St George Australian Football Club Inc is an Australian Football club competing in the AFL Sydney competition and based in the area of St George, New South Wales. At one stage affiliated with the Adelaide Crows football club, they reverted to th ...

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

District Junior Rugby League * St. George Girls High School * St George Christian School * St. George Hospital *

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

(

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

Team)
St. George Leagues Club * St. George Masonic Club * St George Model Boat Club * St. George Motor Boat Club *

St George Rowing Club ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

* St. George Rugby Union Club * St. George Sailing Club * St. George Soccer Football Association *

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader The ''St George and Sutherland Shire Leader'' is an Australian Community Media-owned community newspaper distributed in the southern Sydney region. It currently has a monthly readership of 423,832 people and caters for the St George and Suther ...

newspaper

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George, New South Wales Regions of Sydney Georges River