
Liverpool 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 ...
of
South Western Sydney
South Western Sydney is a region of the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian c ...
, 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 ...
, south-west of the
Sydney CBD. It is the administrative seat of the
City of Liverpool and is in the
Cumberland Plain.
History
Indigenous
Before British colonisation, Liverpool was the country of the Cabrogal people of the
Dharug nation. The term "cabro" (also pronounced "cobra" or "cabra") refers to the edible insect larvae found in timber around the region. The country of the Cabrogal clan extended from the areas of what is now
Cabramatta and Liverpool, east to the mouth of the
Georges River.
British colonisation
Liverpool is one of the oldest urban settlements in Australia, founded on 7 November 1810 as an agricultural centre by Governor
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Gove ...
. He named it after
Robert Banks Jenkinson,
Earl of Liverpool
Earl of Liverpool is a title that has been created twice in British history. The first time was in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1796 for Charles Jenkinson, 1st Baron Hawkesbury, a favourite of King George III (see Jenkinson baronets for e ...
, who was then the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the English city of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, upon which some of the area's architecture is based.
The Post Office opened at Liverpool on 1 March 1825 - one of the first Post Offices to be opened in New South Wales. Liverpool was one of the six stations on the first line of Telegraphs to be constructed in this Colony.
On 26 January 1858, a Telegraph Office was opened at the Railway Station. Later, on 12 July 1878, these two offices were amalgamated and plans proposed to construct a joint office.
Finally, a Foundation Stone was laid prior to construction starting. Mrs. N. G. Bull of Cabramatta had the honour of laying the Stone - such a responsibility given to a woman bringing great indignation by the Mayor and several of the leading men. An Indignation Meeting held soon after confirmed unanimously that Mrs Bull was "a fit and proper person" to have laid the stone.
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
of Sydney across the
Cumberland Plain soon reached Liverpool, and it became an outer suburb of metropolitan Sydney with a strong working-class presence and manufacturing facilities. The Liverpool area also became renowned for its vast
Housing Commission estates housing thousands of low-income families after the
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
and
urban renewal
Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
programs in inner-city Sydney in the 1960s.
Heritage listings
Liverpool has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
* 251 Bigge Street:
Liverpool Courthouse
* Birkdale Crescent:
Collingwood
* College Street:
Old Liverpool Hospital
* Elizabeth Drive:
St Luke's Anglican Church
* Georges River, Heathcote Road near Newbridge Road:
Liverpool Weir
* Great Southern railway:
Liverpool railway station
* 17 Speed Street:
Rosebank
Commercial area

Liverpool is currently the major city centre in South Western Sydney. The city centre has a
Hoddle Grid layout with many little laneways and arcades, similar to that of Melbourne. The central retail strip is Macquarie Street which contains numerous small cafes. In recent times the extension of the Westfield shopping centre has seen many new fashion stores come in. The Central Business District is being touted as Sydney's Third CBD centred around the Western Sydney Airport and
aerotropolis. The CBD was rezoned for mixed use in 2018 to allow for more homes, offices and shops.
The main shopping area is centred on Macquarie Street, with
Westfield Liverpool, a major
shopping centre
A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...
at the northern end. Liverpool Plaza is a shopping mall located between Macquarie Mall & Northumberland Street. The northern end of the city has been zoned for high density residential
apartments. The southern end of the city is zoned for high density commercial developments. Liverpool has a large
teaching hospital, two technical colleges and many shopping centres and office buildings. The
private hospital operator
Healthscope owns the Sydney Southwest Private Hospital in Liverpool.
Transport
Liverpool is well served by roads such as the
Hume Highway (also known as Liverpool Road), the
M5 Motorway, and the
Westlink M7 Motorway.
Liverpool railway station is on the
Main Southern railway line. Liverpool has services to the Sydney CBD,
Leppington,
Parramatta
Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...
and
Schofields. The
Liverpool to Parramatta transitway provides a bus-only route for buses.
For details of long distance and local bus services see
Liverpool station.
Schools
There are three public primary schools within the suburb of Liverpool: Liverpool Public School, Liverpool West and Marsden Road. Liverpool Boys and Liverpool Girls are the two public secondary schools. The Mainsbridge School caters to children with intellectual disabilities and Liverpool Hospital School for children hospitalized for lengthy periods.
Private schools include All Saints Primary School,
All Saints Catholic College and
Al Amanah College.
Post secondary education is catered to with the South Western College of
TAFE, Macarthur Community College, Liverpool U3A: School for Seniors, University of Western Sydney English Language Centre, School of Arts in Macquarie Street, and the
University Of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public university, public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately south of Sydney. , the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 s ...
.
Places of worship
St Luke's Anglican Church, located in the city centre across the road from
Westfield Liverpool, is the oldest existing Anglican church in Australia. All Saints Catholic Church in George St is located with the All Saints schools. St Raphael, Nickolas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church is in Forbes Street and the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...
of the Apostle Luke is on Flowerdale Rd.
Ganzibra Dakhil Mandi is a
Mandaean temple located in the city centre of Liverpool, and is the largest of its kind in Australia. It is led by Rishama (head priest)
Salah Choheili.
Sport and recreation
Parks

There are many open spaces within the city centre, including botanical parks and sporting facilities. Bigge Park on the east side of the city features a War Memorial while Pioneer Memorial Park to the north has a historical cemetery. Woodward Park to the west is the main sporting precinct containing a number of outdoor playing fields and the Whitlam Leisure Centre, hosting a swimming pool and a 3000-seat indoor sports stadium. Other notable sports facilities within the suburb of Liverpool include Collimore Park (netball) and Paciullo Park (soccer and touch football).
Sporting teams
Prominent local teams include Fairfield-Liverpool Cricket Club which plays in the
Sydney Grade Cricket competition, Liverpool City Netball, which has participated successfully in many State and representative competitions, Hinchinbrook Hornets Junior Rugby League and
FC Bossy Liverpool which plays in the
New South Wales Super League and Liverpool Rangers FC which is located at Ireland Park, Memorial Avenue. The
West Sydney Razorbacks basketball team used to play out of the Gough Whitlam Centre while they were in the
NBL. Liverpool is also home to
Australian Ice Hockey League team the
Sydney Ice Dogs who play out of the
Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink and Liverpool little athletics.
Media
Liverpool has an arts and creation centre which provides music lessons with instruments such as:guitar, drums and banjo etc.
Liverpool is currently served by a full-time radio statio
89.3FM 2GLFwhich broadcasts local information, music and ethnic programming. It is one of the first FM radio stations setup in the early '80s.
Liverpool has had several newspapers since the late 1800s. The first newspaper appeared in Liverpool in 1886 was ''The Liverpool Times'' which was soon superseded by ''The Liverpool Mercury''. Both of these newspapers were then incorporated with ''
The Liverpool Herald''. There was also the free newspaper ''
The Liverpool News'' that ran from 1904 to about 1973.
Liverpool now has two newspapers, ''The Liverpool Leader'' and ''The Liverpool Champion'' published every Wednesday.
Demographics

According to the
2021 census conducted by 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 ...
, Liverpool had a population of 31,078. These came from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds; approximately one-third (33.9%) of residents were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
(11.3%),
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
(4.9%),
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
(3.1%),
Fiji
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
(2.7%), and
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
(2.2%). The most popular ethnic responses were Australian (9.4%), Iraqi (8.3%), English (8.3%), Serbian (6.9%), and Indian (6.8%).
24.6% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 19.2%, Serbian 6.5%, Vietnamese 4.4%, Hindi 3.2%, and Urdu 2.4%.
Liverpool is remarkable for the high proportion of people who reported following some religion in the Census; only 12.1% stated that they had no religion, much lower than the national average of 38.4%. This Census question is optional and 10.9% of residents did not respond to it, which introduces some uncertainty into all the religious figures. The most common responses for religion were Islam 16.4%, Catholic 16.2%, and "Miscellaneous Religions" 9.2%.
Currently in 2025, the population for Liverpool is 250k people living there according to new statistics. It is also projected that the population will increase by 37% b
2046.
Notable people
*
Mark Bosnich, former footballer
*
Leslie Camilleri, convicted criminal with 3x life imprisonment charges
*
Michael Clarke, cricketer
* Sir
Jenkin Coles, auctioneer and politician
*
Walter Hampson Cooper, journalist, playwright, politician and barrister
*
Isaac De Gois, rugby league player
*
Mitchell Duke, soccer player
*
Michael Dwyer, Irish Rebellion Leader (1798–1803) and Chief of Police Liverpool (1813–1820)
*
Nathan Foley, former member of
Hi-5, entertainer
*
Frederick Augustus Forbes, store-keeper, grazier and politician
*
Scott Gardiner, first golfer of
Aboriginal descent to play on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
*
Liam Hatcher, cricketer
*
Vic Hey, rugby league player
*
Brett Hodgson, rugby league player
*
Harry Kewell, soccer player
*
Craig Knowles, politician
*
Terry Lamb, rugby league player
*
Anthony Minichiello, rugby league player
*
Mark Minichiello, rugby league player
*
Brad Morrin, rugby league player
*
Pat Richards, rugby league player
*
Richard Sadleir (1794–1889), first mayor of Liverpool (in 1872)
*
Lenny Zappavigna, boxer
Politics
The suburb of Liverpool is split in its representation at all three levels of government with Hoxton Park Road the divider in each case. At the local level, Liverpool is part of the
City of Liverpool, which is divided into two wards, the North Ward on the north side of Hoxton Park Road and the South Ward on the other side. Each ward elects five councillors and the council currently consists of four Labor councillors, four Liberals, two members of the Liverpool Community Independents Team (LCIT). There is also a directly elected mayor, Ned Mannoun.
For
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 ...
state elections, the north side of Liverpool is located in the
Electoral district of Liverpool, held by
Charishma Kaliyanda,
while the south side is in the
electoral district of Holsworthy, held by
Tina Ayyad.
Kaliyanda is a member of the Labor Party while Ayyad is a member of the Liberal Party. Federally, the north side of Liverpool is located in the
Division of Hughes held by
Jenny Ware of the Liberal Party. The south side is part of the
Division of Werriwa, held by Labor's
Anne Stanley.
The table above illustrates recent election results in the Liverpool area by combining results from each of the booths located in the suburb of Liverpool. The table regards only the first-preference votes. The winner(s) of each election is highlighted in yellow.
Geography

The
Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark ecological community and
Cumberland Plain Woodland are the indigenous flora community of the area, which are found in remnants within the suburb.
Climate
Liverpool has a
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
: ''Cfa'') and is a few degrees warmer than the
Sydney CBD at daytime, although nights are slightly cooler than Sydney's. If the maximum temperature is 27 °C in the city, in Liverpool it could typically reach as high as 33 °C, while in winter the temperature can be close to 0 °C while it is above 7 °C in central Sydney.
The hottest day recorded in Liverpool was on 1 February 1977 when it reached 45.8 °C.
[http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_067035_All.shtml] At the time this was the second highest temperature recorded in Sydney's metropolitan area, being 2 °C behind Richmond's record set in 1939.
Rainfall is somewhat spread throughout the months, although the first half tends to be wetter. July to September tend to be drier, due to
foehn winds originating from the
Great Dividing Range. Frost can occur in the winter; the lowest recorded temperature was –5 °C, on 25 July 1994.
Notes
References
External links
Liverpool City Council website
Spokey Blokeys - Liverpool - Episode 25
{{Authority control
Populated places established in 1810
Suburbs of Sydney
1810 establishments in Australia
Cities in New South Wales
Hume Highway
Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool