Middle Dural is a semi-rural

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, 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 ...

s of

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 ...

and

The Hills Shire The Hills Shire (known until 2008 as Baulkham Hills Shire) is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Greater Western Sydney, Greater Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The area is north-west of the Sydney ...

Dural Dural is a semi rural suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 36 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and The Hills Shire. Dural is part of the Hills ...

is a separate suburb to the south.

History

Dural is derived from Dooral-Dooral, an Aboriginal name meaning ''a smoking hollow tree''. The original inhabitants of the Dural 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 ...

. The name ''Dooral'' appeared on Surveyor James Meehan's map of April 1817 and originally covered the whole area including present day Glenorie, Galston, Arcadia and

. Timber cutters opened up the area in the early 19th century and the settlements were originally known as Upper, Middle, Lower, North and Little Dural. Located on the

Old Northern Road The Great North Road is a historic road that was built to link early Sydney, in the Colony of New South Wales, now Australia, with the fertile Hunter Valley to the north. Built by convicts between 1825 and 1836, it traverses over of the rugg ...

, a historic road built by convicts between 1825 and 1836 to link early Sydney, in the Colony of New South Wales, with the fertile Hunter Valley to the north. In 1831 George Best established the Half-Way Inn at Middle Dural. Since the 1970s the Banana Cabana Primate Sanctuary has existed in Middle Dural as a retirement facility for ex-circus and zoo monkeys such as hamadryas baboons, long-tailed macaques, rhesus macaques, black-handed spider monkeys, brown capuchins, common marmosets and even a tortoise species (leopard tortoise).

Demographics

At the 2021 census, the suburb of Middle Dural recorded a population of 1,040 residents. Of these: * The age distribution was older than the country in general: the median age was 46 years, compared to the national median of 38 years. Children aged under 15 years made up 17.8% of the population—the national average was 18.2%—and people aged 65 years and over made up 21.2% of the population, the national average was 17.2%. * 73.4% were born in Australia, the next most common countries of birth were England 4.4%, Italy 2.8%, China 2.1%, India 2.1%, and Lebanon 1.6%. 48.2% of people had both parents born in Australia. * 80.7% only spoke English at home; other languages spoken at home included Italian 3.4%, Arabic 2.1%, Mandarin 2.1%, Punjabi 1.1%, and Greek 1.0%. * The median household weekly income was $3,067, compared to the national median of $1,746. The median monthly mortgage repayment was $3,588. * 88.9% of households were family households, 11.1% were single-person households and 0.0% were group households. The average household size was 3.4 people.

References

External links

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] {{Sydney Hornsby suburbs Suburbs of Sydney The Hills Shire Hornsby Shire