Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lewisham
is a
suburb
in the
Inner West
[2]
of
Sydney
, in the state of
New South Wales
,
Australia
. Lewisham is located 7 kilometres south-west of the
Sydney central business district
, in the
local government area
of
Inner West Council
.
History
[
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]
Lewisham took its name in 1834 from the estate of Joshua Frey Josephson, a German-born businessman who would later become mayor of
Sydney
.
[3]
The estate was named after the
London
borough of
Lewisham
, which means Leofsa's village or manor.
[4]
The original residents of the Lewisham area were the
Wangal
clan of the
Darug
tribe. Artefacts found near the
Cooks River
indicate at least 7,000 years of habitation in the local area.
[5]
When the
First Fleet
arrived in 1788, the settlers set up camp in the middle of Cadigal territory. While the first governor
Arthur Phillip
tried to establish cordial relations with the Cadigals and their neighbours, the two groups were competing for the same food sources and tensions inevitably developed. In 1789, a
smallpox
epidemic wiped out the majority of the Cadigals.
[6]
By 1809, all the land within Lewisham had been granted.
Heritage listings
[
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]
Lewisham has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Transport
[
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]
Lewisham railway station
is on the
Inner West & Leppington Line
of the
Sydney Trains
network. This provides access to Sydney CBD, the interchange station of
Strathfield
and the commercial centres of
Burwood
,
Newtown
and
Parramatta
.
Lewisham is notable in railway history as the termination point for the first train journey in the NSW colony in 1855, although the railway station was not built until 1885. The whipple
truss bridge
over
Long Cove Creek
was constructed 1885-1886 featuring North American technology developed by Squire Whipple.
[10]
It is probably the most significant railway bridge site in Australia, certainly in NSW. It has the unique distinction of four different types of bridges from different eras.
Engineers Australia
designated the Viaduct in 1994 as an historic engineering marker.
There are two stations serving Lewisham on the
Inner West Light Rail
. These are Lewisham West, adjacent to the former flour mill on the border with Summer Hill, and Taverners Hill, near
Parramatta Road
. Access to the city is quicker by conventional train, but the light rail may be used for some cross-regional journeys. It also interchanges with
Dulwich Hill railway station
on the
Bankstown Line
.
The 413 bus service, between
Campsie
and the city, cuts through the middle of Lewisham and provides an interchange with the railway station. Several bus services (461 - Burwood to the city, 480 & 483 - Strathfield to the city) run along Parramatta Road. These interchange with the Taverners Hill stop. The other bus corridor is along New Canterbury Rd. This is served by the 428/L28 from
Canterbury
to the city via Newtown and route 445 from Campsie to
Balmain
.
[11]
Schools
[
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]
A Trinity Grammar School Infants School was opened in February 2006 at 5 Thomas Street, Lewisham.
[12]
The site was formerly
Saint Thomas Becket
Primary School
which was founded in 1855 by the Sisters of Mercy. The school was originally for girls but became co-ed in the 1950s.
Christian Brothers' High School
is located on 58 - 61 The Boulevarde. Lewisham Public School is located on 71 The Boulevarde Lewisham. Petersham Public School is on the border of Lewisham and
Petersham
,
the John Berne School
(formerly the Berne Education Centre) and the Catholic Intensive English Centre are located on the site of the former St Thomas Boys High School, which closed in 1997.
[
citation needed
]
Churches
[
edit
]
St. Thomas Becket's Church Lewisham
Saint
Thomas Becket's
Catholic
church is located in Thomas Street. The current priest is Fr. Gerald Gleeson. The Servants of Mary Help of Christians operated its Marian Centre from St Thomas Becket Primary School Hall. It is now at 2 Missenden Rd, Camperdown, NSW 2049, operating from St. Joseph's church.
Lewisham is also the home of the Maternal Heart of Mary Latin Mass Parish, a Personal Parish for the celebration of the
Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
, of which Fr Duncan Wong FSSP is the Parish Priest. The church is situated behind St Thomas Becket's, on Charles O'Neill Way.
NASA image of Sydney's CBD and inner west suburbs, with borders of
Lewisham
shown in orange
Demographics
[
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]
Lewisham's population was shown as 3,164 in the
2016 census
[13]
and had risen to 4,060 in the
2021 census
.
[14]
According to the
2011 census
, Lewisham had a population of 2927. The character of its population was different from neighbouring suburbs, by having a smaller proportion of residents born overseas. After Australia, the most common countries of birth were
England
(4.0%), New Zealand (2.5%) and
Portugal
(1.8%). There were also a reasonable number of
Greek
(3.2%), and
Portuguese
(2.3%) speakers, who were the most common languages in the area after English.
Indigenous Australians
numbered 32 people (1.1%) which was less than the state and national figures.
[15]
The population had a greater proportion of people in de facto relationships and a smaller proportion of people in registered marriages than the New South Wales and Australian figures. It had a greater proportion of people stating that they had no religion (33.4%) but fewer Anglicans (9.5%) than the state and national figures, while the proportion of Roman Catholics (25.9%) was lower than New South Wales (27.5%) but slightly higher than the national figures (25.3%).
[15]
Notable residents
[
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]
- Clive Caldwell
(1910?1994),
World War II
air ace
- Les Haylen
(1898?1977), author and politician, he was the local federal member of parliament from 1943-1963.
- John Shand (1897?1959), Sydney barrister from the 1920s to the 1950s who took on a number of very high-profile cases of the day.
[16]
- Mother Xavier (1870?1938) who was head of the Little Company of Mary (1899?1929) which ran Lewisham Hospital and helped make it one of the top hospitals in Sydney.
[17]
- Patrick Joseph Hartigan
, bush poet, who wrote under the pseudonym "John O'Grady".
- Percy Hordern
(1864?1926), a member of the
New South Wales Legislative Council
died in Lewisham.
References
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]
External links
[
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]
33°53′42″S
151°08′40″E
/
33.8949°S 151.144415°E
/
-33.8949; 151.144415