North St Marys 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 ...

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

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 ...

. North St Marys is located 47 kilometres 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 Penrith A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. North St Marys is an extension of the adjoining suburb of St Marys.

History

Aboriginal culture

Prior to European settlement, what is now North St Marys was home to the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people who spoke the

Darug language The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in th ...

. They lived a

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

. Their homes were bark huts called 'gunyahs'. They hunted

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s and

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

s for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants. Little else is known of their customs and there are no known carvings or rock paintings in the area. By 1816, their numbers had been reduced by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

and clashes with the British settlers.

European settlement

The first land grant in the area was made in 1820 to Phillip Parker King, son of the Governor

Phillip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1806. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detaile ...

. He named it Triangle Farm but did very little with the land and it remained largely vacant land until the 1940s when it was bought by the Commonwealth Government to house workers at the St Marys munitions factory.

Population

Demographics

According to the of Population, there were 4,123 people in North St Marys. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 10.5% of the population. * 64.8% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 3.1% and the Philippines 2.6%. * 68.1% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 31.8%, Catholic 22.2% and Not stated 15.2%.

Governance

At a local government level, North St Marys is part of the east ward of

Penrith City Council Penrith may refer to: Australia *Penrith, New South Wales Penrith is a city in New South Wales, Australia, located in Greater Western Sydney, 55 kilometres (31 mi) west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Nepean R ...

, represented by Prue Car, Greg Davies, Maurice Girotto, Jackie Greenow and Tricia Hitchen. At the state level, it is part of the

Electoral district of Londonderry Londonderry is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Prue Car of the Labor Party. Geography On its current boundaries, Londonderry takes in the suburbs of Berkshir ...

, represented by

Prue Car Prue may refer to: People Given name Prue is a feminine given name, sometimes a short form of Prudence Prudence (, contracted from meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. ...

of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. Federally, it is part of the

Division of Lindsay The Division of Lindsay is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Ever since Lindsay was first contested at the 1984 Australian federal election, 1984 federal ele ...

, represented by Liberal's

Melissa McIntosh Melissa Iris McIntosh (; born 24 August 1977) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Liberal Party and was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2019 federal election, running in the New South Wales seat of Lindsay. Ear ...

References

External links

Penrith Local Suburb Profiles
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Saint Marys, New South Wales Suburbs of Sydney City of Penrith