Villawood, 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 ...
of
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
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 ...
and
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 ...
, is 22 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 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 ...
, and is a 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
The
Aboriginal tribe of Gandangara once lived in the area. European settlement began in the early 1840s. During the 1860s, Villawood was used as pastoral land, but it was overrun with wild dogs. Woodville Road, which runs through Villawood, was once named Dog Trap Road because many farmers set dog traps for these wild dogs. A train station opened in 1922 to service the area was originally known as Woodville Road. Unfortunately, there was confusion with another place called
Woodville in the
Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...
and thus the name was transposed into 'Villawood'.
The Villawood area is home to a large
public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
estate constructed around the 1950s-1970s consisting of detached cottages, semi-detached townhouses, walk up apartments on Urana street, and formerly a
Radburn design housing
Radburn design housing (also called Radburn housing, Radburn design'', ''Radburn principle, or Radburn concept) is a concept for planned housing estates, based on a design that was originally used in Radburn, New Jersey, United States.
History ...
complex on the site of Thurina park, which became infamous for serious social issues, such as drugs and anti-social youth crime, even eventually breeding a gang called "the Bronx boys", dabbling in the drug trade and car-rebirthing before the eventual demolition of the complex in 1998.
Schools and churches
Villawood East Public School Villawood may refer to:
* Villawood, New South Wales
* Villawood Immigration Detention Centre
* Villawood railway station
See also
*
* Valla Wood {{Coord, 58.40300, N, 15.58986, E, display=title
Valla Wood (in Swedish, ''Vallaskogen'') is a na ...
and Sacred Heart Primary School are located in the suburb. There are also day and community centres, several Christian churches and a Mosque conducts Islamic services in the old post office building on Woodville road at the shopping centre.
Commercial area
Villawood Place was once a major shopping centre, serving the surrounding areas. After nearby
Bass Hill
Bass Hill, () a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydne ...
Plaza opened, many Villawood businesses went into decline, leaving a legacy of abandoned shop fronts and buildings, including the abandoned
Franklins supermarket and large
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 ...
office. There has been rejuvenation and renovation of Woodville (Villawood) Place since with construction of the new
Aldi
Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...
supermarket,
Bunnings
Bunnings Group Limited, trading as Bunnings Warehouse or Bunnings, is an Australian household hardware chain. The chain has been owned by Wesfarmers since 1994, and has stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Bunnings was founded in Perth, Wester ...
, a bakery, chemists, grocers and other shops. It is located in proximity to
Villawood railway station
Villawood railway station is located on the Main South line, serving the Sydney suburb of Villawood. It is served by Sydney Trains T3 Bankstown line services.
History
Villawood station opened on 8 October 1924 when the Main South line was e ...
. A business park in Villawood holds enterprises concerning hardware products, furniture, auto parts and second-hand goods.
Leightonfield railway station
Leightonfield railway station is located on the Main South line, serving the Sydney suburb of Villawood. It is served by Sydney Trains T3 Bankstown line services.
History
Leightonfield station opened on 24 August 1942 to service the adjacen ...
services an industrial area in the eastern part of Villawood.
Vilawood now houses a variety of youth recreational and entertainment venues including AMF Bowling, Wiggles World, M9 Laser Skirmish, Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym, and Kartatak go-karting, and further recreational and food attractions are planned. These are all part of a complex called The Woods Action Centre, which is located on the northern side of the railway line, directly across the road from the station on the Villawood station exit which is opposite the shopping centre. For fast food, Villawood has KFC, McDonald's, Domino's, and Hungry Jack's.
Transport
Villawood railway station
Villawood railway station is located on the Main South line, serving the Sydney suburb of Villawood. It is served by Sydney Trains T3 Bankstown line services.
History
Villawood station opened on 8 October 1924 when the Main South line was e ...
and
Leightonfield railway station
Leightonfield railway station is located on the Main South line, serving the Sydney suburb of Villawood. It is served by Sydney Trains T3 Bankstown line services.
History
Leightonfield station opened on 24 August 1942 to service the adjacen ...
are on the
Bankstown Line
The Bankstown Line (numbered T3, coloured orange) is a commuter rail line operated by Sydney Trains in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It serves Canterbury-Bankstown and parts of the Inner West and Western Sydney. The Bankstown railway ...
of 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.
Sport and recreation
Apart from the Woods Action centre (see above) which includes Indoor Climbing, Ten-pin bowling, Go-karting and the Wiggles indoor play centre, Villawood is home to three other major sport and recreation areas: The Wran Leisure Centre, Thurina Park and Villawood Skatepark.
The Wran Leisure Centre (named after
Neville Wran
Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman ...
) houses a swimming pool, tennis courts, a gymnasium and squash courts.
Thurina Park houses two multi purpose sporting fields that cater for
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
and
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
. Thurina Park is also home to the Villawood United Soccer Club.
Population
At the , Villawood recorded a population of 6,032. Of these:
[
* The median age of Villawood residents was 36 years, compared to the national median of 35 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 20.1% of the population (national average is 18.7%) and people aged 65 years and over made up 12.5% of the population (national average is 15.8%).
* There is a very diverse ethnic range. Fewer than half (43.9%) of residents were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were Vietnam 13.8%, Lebanon 7.4%, China 2.6%, New Zealand 2.5% and Iraq 1.8%. Looking past the country of birth to residents' self-identified ancestry shows another dimension of this cultural diversity: the most common ancestries were Lebanese 15.1%, Vietnamese 14.5%, Australian 10.8%, English 9.3% and Chinese 6.9%. Less than one third (26.0%) of people spoke English at home; other languages spoken at home included Arabic 22.0%, Vietnamese 17.1%, Cantonese 3.6%, Mandarin 1.8%.
* The most common response for religion was Islam at 25.5%.
]
Detention centre
The suburb is home to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre
Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, originally Villawood Migrant Hostel or Villawood Migrant Centre, split into a separate section named Westbridge Migrant Hostel from 1968 to 1984, is an Australian immigration detention facility located in ...
, which is situated at 15 Birmingham Avenue. It was originally a hostel
A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...
, constructed in 1949, to accommodate post-war
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
refugees from Europe. In 1976, a subdivision of the original camp was converted into an immigration detention centre. In addition to housing asylum seekers
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and mi ...
, people refused entry into the country at international airports and seaports may also be detained in the centre.
The centre has been the focus of much controversy, with accusations of human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
abuses. In January 2008, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body funded by, but oper ...
(HREOC) said the high-security section of Villawood Detention Centre was the "most prison like" of all Australia's immigration detention centres, and demanded it be closed immediately.
See also
* Radburn design housing
Radburn design housing (also called Radburn housing, Radburn design'', ''Radburn principle, or Radburn concept) is a concept for planned housing estates, based on a design that was originally used in Radburn, New Jersey, United States.
History ...
References
External links
The Fairfield City Council Website
Bankstown City Council Community Profile
{{Authority control
Suburbs of Sydney
City of Canterbury-Bankstown
Hume Highway
City of Fairfield