Kearns is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

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 ...

57 kilometres south-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 ...

of the City of Campbelltown and is part of the

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region.

History

Kearns was named after a local farmer, William Kearns, who owned a large property in the area during the 1800s. He gained notoriety for a court case in 1824 where a neighbour sued him for getting his 14-year-old daughter pregnant. During the case, Kearns was defended by William Charles Wentworth a young Lawyer at the time, Wentworth had evidence proving the neighbour was a man who lied about other matters so not a person to be trusted. Kearns had to pay a far lesser amount than the neighbour had wanted. William and his new wife Elizabeth went on to bring up the little girl from the former relationship the child adored her father. Kearns's land was originally owned by the

Tharawal people The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

until they were dispossessed by British settlers in the 1820s. They first named the land River Hill but by 1828 it had been renamed Epping Forest by Kearns. By purchasing neighbouring land grants, he expanded his property to and established a thriving

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

farm and

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. After his death in 1880, the property stayed within the family until 1978. In 1975, Campbelltown Council began planning a major development in the area and chose the name Kearns for the suburb since Epping Forest would have caused confusion with the suburb of Epping elsewhere in Sydney. Streets were named after famous rivers of the world such as

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

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and

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and the first residents moved in in 1985. Not long after, a primary school was established in 1992.

Heritage listings

Kearns has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Mississippi Crescent:

Epping Forest, Kearns Epping Forest is a heritage-listed former farm and residence located on Mississippi Crescent, Kearns, New South Wales, an outer suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was designed and built from 1825. The property is privately owned. It was added to ...

People

According to the from the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

, Kearns had a population of 2,693 which could be best described as young families on better than average incomes. The average age was 36 compared to the national average of 38 and the median family income was $2,312 per week compared with a national median of $2,120. 54.4% of the population were families with children and almost the entire suburb (96.5%) was detached housing. 73.4% of people were born in Australia and 73.6% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic at 6.2%. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 32.9%, No Religion 24.6%, Anglican 12.8% and Islam 8.9%.

References

Suburbs of Sydney City of Campbelltown (New South Wales) {{Sydney-geo-stub