Baulkham Hills is a suburb in the Hills District of Greater Sydney, in the state of

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, Australia. It is 30 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district within the local government area of The Hills Shire. Baulkham Hills is the administrative seat of The Hills Shire, an outer metropolitan shire within Greater Sydney. The suburb is also the most populous within the Hills Shire. It is known colloquially as "Baulko". Baulkham Hill’s Norwest Business Park is home to several Fortune 500 companies, a number of shopping centres, high-rise buildings, and industrial and recreational spaces.

Geography

Baulkham Hills is predominately a residential suburb of the Hills District, with

Norwest Business Park The Norwest Business Park is a business park in the suburbs of Norwest and Bella Vista in the local government area of The Hills Shire in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Norwest Business Park is bordered by Windsor Road to the east, and Old ...

in the northern part of the suburb. Baulkham Hills Junction is the intersection of three major roads;

Windsor Road Windsor Road is a notable road in the Hills District of Sydney. It starts from Windsor, New South Wales and ends at Northmead, New South Wales. However, Windsor Road is not continuous. The northern section of Windsor Road (Windsor to Kellyvil ...

, Old Northern Road, and Seven Hills Road. It is also bound by

Old Windsor Road Old Windsor Road is a notable road in Sydney, Australia. It starts from Kellyville, New South Wales and ends at Northmead, New South Wales, just north of Parramatta. The northern end links with Windsor Road while the southern end links with Cum ...

and the North-West T-way in the west; and the Hills Motorway in the south, forming part of the

National Highway National highway or National Highway may refer to: * National Highways (England) * National Highway (Australia) * List of National Roads in Belgium * Brunei National Roads System * National Highway System (Canada) * Trans-Ca ...

History

The land that is now called Baulkham Hills was originally home to the Bidjigal people, who are believed to be a clan of the Darug people, who occupied all the land to the immediate west of Sydney. The best-known

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

person from that time is

Pemulwuy Pemulwuy (also rendered as Pimbloy, Pemulvoy, Pemulwoy, Pemulwy or Pemulwye, or sometimes by contemporary Europeans as Bimblewove, Bumbleway or Bembulwoyan) (c. 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, born around 1750 in ...

, a Bidjigal leader who led the Indigenous resistance movement against the British forces, including sacking farms in Castle Hill, before his eventual capture and execution by the British militia. The Bidjigal people are today commemorated by Bidjigal Reserve which straddles the suburbs of , Baulkham Hills, , and . The first European settler in the Baulkham Hills Shire was William Joyce, who arrived in Australia in October, 1791. In December, 1794, he was given a grant of 30 acres (121,000 m²) in what became Baulkham Hills. He built a farmhouse on this land, but it was damaged by a fire in 1804, so he rebuilt it. The house still stands; however, it is now on a 2,055 m² property which backs onto Old Windsor Road. The suburb was largely made up of land grants until the mid 19th century, when many of these started to be subdivided into farms. This was accelerated by the construction of the Rogans Hill Railway Line. Urban developments were expedited from the 1960s. The name Baulkham Hills was given to the area by Andrew McDougall, a settler from Buckholm Hills, County of Roxburgh,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. The name, which reminded McDougall of his homeland, was officially recognised in 1802. Baulkham Hills Post Office opened on 1 April 1856. On 29 June 2018, a small portion of the Baulkham Hills suburb was proclaimed as part of the new suburb of Norwest.

Heritage listings

Baulkham Hills has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Seven Hills Road, Bella Vista: Pearce Family Cemetery

Demographics

According to the , there were 37,050 residents in Baulkham Hills. 60.1% of residents were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China 6.9%, India 4.8%, England 2.7%, South Korea 2.0% and Sri Lanka 1.6%. 61.8% of residents spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 8.3%, Cantonese 4.1%, Korean 2.6%, Hindi 2.3% and Tamil 1.6%. The most common responses for religious affiliation were

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

26.6%, No Religion 23.6%, Anglican 14.2% and Hinduism 5.7%.

Transport

The bulk of Baulkham Hills residents own private vehicles and travel to work using these, however bus services and the new Sydney Metro North West line services the suburb. At the intersection known as Baulkham Hills Junction several major roads meet including: Seven Hills Road, Old Northern Road and

. The fastest route from the Sydney CBD is via the M2 Hills Motorway, exiting at Windsor Road. Baulkham Hills is serviced by the Hillsbus bus company, which provides services to the nearby commercial centres of Castle Hill,

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

and frequent services to the Sydney CBD. Hillsbus provides services to the City via routes 610/610X which cover the previous route M61, 614X and 615X. The 610/610X services can also be caught in the westbound direction serving Kellyville. Services are also provided to St. Leonards,

Milsons Point Milsons Point is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of North Sydney Council. ...

and North Sydney, through route 612X. Route 600 provides a high-frequency service to the areas around Parramatta, Pennant Hills and Hornsby. In the past, there was the Rogans Hill line, connecting the suburb to Parramatta. Railway Street near Baulkham Hills Junction is a reminder of this. It was closed down in 1930 due to traffic problems on Windsor Road and large financial losses. Land owned by the rail authority was sold to the Hills Bowling Club in the mid-1970s to build their two front bowling greens.

Commercial area

Grove Square Maple Grove is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 70,253 at the 2020 census. making it Minnesota's 11th most populous city. Maple Grove serves as a retail, cultural and medical center in the nor ...

is a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes ...

, located on the intersection of Windsor Road and Old Northern Road. It features supermarkets operated by Coles,

Woolworths Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

, and

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, whe ...

plus 70 specialty shops. A redevelopment was completed in 2008 to significantly expand the floor space of the centre. In the northern part of the suburb, there is another shopping centre called Norwest Marketown, together with many other businesses. The

located nearby is partially in Baulkham Hills and Bella Vista.

Hospital

The Hills Private Hospital on Windsor Road (near the corner of Merindah Road) was redeveloped into a rehabilitation and mental health hospital, after the previous hospital's owners, Healthscope, moved its operations to the nearby Norwest Business Park. The hospital includes a 92-bed rehabilitation unit and a 19-bed mental health unit, providing both inpatient and day program services.

Parks and reserves

Baulkham Hills features a number of parks and reserves, such as the Bidjigal Reserve (previously known as Excelsior Reserve), with native fauna such as koala, swamp wallaby, echidna, and eastern water dragon. Smaller reserves include the Sophia Doyle reserve and the Crestwood Reserve, which are habitat to brushtail and ringtail possums and a wide range of birds and lizards. The Baulkham Hills Shire Bushland Conservation Committee is a voluntary committee of Council that assists with the management of the Shire's bushland.

Schools

* Matthew Pearce Public School * Crestwood High School * Crestwood Public School * Baulkham Hills High School * Model Farms High School * Baulkham Hills North Public School * Jasper Road Public School * St. Michael's Primary School * Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School Baulkham Hills High School also has an Army Cadet Unit, which is open only to students at Baulkham Hills High School.

Places of worship

Baulkham Hills has some 15 places of worship belonging to various

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

denominations including: * St. Michaels Catholic Church * Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church * Holy Trinity Anglican Church * Crossway Anglican Church * St Matthews Uniting Church * The headquarters of Hillsong * Norwest Anglican Church (Chapel Lane is the evening congregation) * Africa Inland Mission International A Baha'i Spiritual Assembly is also located in the suburb.

Culture

Baulkham Hills has a public library. It does not have a theatre or a cinema; although these are found in the adjacent suburb of Castle Hill where many residents make use of them. The regions

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popul ...

station, Alive 90.5, broadcasts from studios and a transmission tower in the suburb. File:Northbound on the Old Northern Road at Baulkham Hills (1).jpeg, Old Northern Road at Baulkham Hills File:Northbound on the Old Northern Road at Baulkham Hills.jpeg, Old Northern Road at Baulkham Hills File:Northbound on the Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills.jpeg, Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills File:Norwest Lake.jpg, Norwest Lake

Events

The annual Orange Blossom Festival is held in Baulkham Hills Shire each September. The HYPE Festival is held every April during National Youth Week and again in September during the Orange Blossom festival and attracts large crowds of youths each year. It has featured high-profile Australian music acts such as Gerling, Something With Numbers, Parkway Drive, and The Getaway Plan.

Notable residents

Doug Bollinger Douglas Erwin Bollinger (born 24 July 1981) is a former Australian cricketer. He has played first-class cricket for the New South Wales cricket team and international cricket for Australia. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm fast bowle ...

, Australian cricketer * Tom Burton, Sailor and Olympic Gold Medalist * Dave Evans, Australian Radio/TV Personality ( Triple M /

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

) *

Delta Goodrem Delta Lea Goodrem AM (born November 9, 1984) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Goodrem signed to Sony Music at the age of 15. Her debut album, '' Innocent Eyes'' (2003), topped the ARIA Albums Chart for 29 non-consecutive wee ...

, pop singer and actress. * Denise Hofman, co-author of "Forever Nine'', a study of

Michael Guider Michael Anthony Guider (born 20 October 1950) is an Australian paedophile, serial child molester and manslaughterer who was imprisoned on 60 charges of child sexual abuse in 1996. He received an additional sentence in 2002 for the manslaughter o ...

Dave Jones David, Dafydd, Dai, Dave, Davy, or Di Jones may refer to: People Arts and entertainment Music * David Jones (jazz musician) (1888–1956), American jazz saxophonist * Davy Jones (musician) (1945–2012), English musician and member of The Monkees ...

, YouTube Engineering Video Blogger * Nick Phipps rugby union professional * Jana Pittman, Australian Olympic athlete * Mitchell Starc, Australian cricketer * Ray Warren, TV personality and football commentator *

Matt Castley Matt may refer to: *Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) *Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...

, Australian TV Actor