Arcadia is a semi-rural suburb of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, in the state of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

42 kilometres north-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 ...

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

Hornsby Shire Hornsby Shire is a local government area situated on the Upper North Shore as well as parts of the Hills District, of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The shire stretches from the M2 Hills Motorway in the south to the Hawkesb ...

History

Arcadia is derived from Arcadia, a region in

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and in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

was a pastoral retreat.Oxford Companion To Classical Literature, M.C.Howatson (Oxford) 1989 Arcadia Post Office opened on 1 December 1895 (renamed from an earlier ''Upper Galston'' office) and closed in 1974.

Aboriginal culture

The original inhabitants of the area were the

Darug people The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...

European settlement

The name ''Dooral'' appeared on Surveyor James Meehan's map of April 1817 and originally covered the whole area which includes present day Arcadia, as well as Dural, Glenorie and Galston.Book of Sydney Suburbs, Frances Pollon (Angus and Robertson) 1990, p. 5 Timber cutters opened up the area from 1817 and the early settlements were originally known as Upper, Middle, Lower, North and Little Dural. The name Arcadia was given to a public school that opened in this area in 1895 and was later adopted for the suburb.

Demographics

According to the 2021 census of Population, there were 1,475 residents in Arcadia. 79.6% of residents were born in Australia. The most common other countries of birth were England (4.8%), New Zealand (2.0%), South Africa (1.0%), Scotland (0.9%) and China (0.9%). 88.1% of residents spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian (1.3%), Arabic (0.9%), Mandarin (0.9%), German (0.5%) and Croatian (0.4%). The most common responses for religious affiliation were No Religion, so described (33.3%), Catholic (27.0%) and

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

(17.5%).

Transport

Arcadia Road is the main road through the suburb that provides access from Galston and leads north into Bay Road to Berrilee and Berowra Waters. Arcadia Road also links to Cobah Road which leads north to Fiddletown.

Landmarks

* St Benedict's Monastery * St Columb's Anglican Church * Arcadia Public School * Arcadia Park – Arcadia Rural Fire Service is located here * Arcadia Community Hall

Schools

Arcadia Public School
is the local primary school in Arcadia, catering for children from Kindergarten to Year 6.
A website
and a book on the history of Arcadia the suburb and Arcadia Public School was created in 2014 as part of the Arcadia Public School 120th celebrations. The 120th Anniversary committee were the recipients of the 201
Owen Nannelli Memorial Award
presented by Hornsby Shire Council. Northholm Grammar School uses an Arcadia address. Northholm is a private school catering for Kindergarten to Year 12.

In the media

Arcadia Road and houses on Roscommon Road were featured in the Australian movie Tomorrow, When The War Began.

References

External links

* C-By-SA {{The Hawkesbury River Suburbs of Sydney Hornsby Shire