Doonside redirect here. For the South African town see Doonside, KwaZulu-Natal

Doonside Sydney, New South Wales
Nurragingy Nature Reserve
Population	13,087 [1]
Established	1929
Postcode(s)	2767
Location	40 km (25 mi) west of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	City of Blacktown
State/territory electorate(s)	Blacktown
Federal Division(s)	Chifley
Suburbs around Doonside: Glendenning Quakers Hill Woodcroft Rooty Hill Doonside Blacktown Eastern Creek Huntingwood Arndell Park

Doonside is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Doonside is located 40 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Nurragingy Nature Reserve are popular tourist attractions in Doonside. Doonside is now colloquially known as 'Doony'.

History [edit]

Early settler Robert Crawford (1799 to 1848) named his 2,000 acre (8 km²) grant Hill-end but later the area became known as Crawford. By the time the railway station was built on his land in 1886 it had been changed to Doonside, after his father’s estate in Scotland. When the railway station was being constructed, an Aboriginal name ‘Wolkara’ was used and this was also the name of the post office that opened here in 1921, but in April 1929 it was changed to Doonside.^[2]

People [edit]

Doonside's population was 13,087 in the 2011 Australian census. There was a mix of housing tenures in the suburb with 21.8% of properties owned outright, 33.6% being purchased and 41.2% being rented. The median family income of $1,203 per week was slightly lower than average and while the median rent ($210 per week) was also lower than average, the median mortgage repayment of $1,900 per month was higher. The most common industry of employment was hospitals (3.9%).^[1]

Notable residents include:

• Robert Crawford (1868–1930), poet
• Henry Kater (1841–1924), chairman of CSR Limited from 1901-1920^[3]
• V8 Supercars Ford driver Mark Winterbottom was brought up in Doonside.

Transport [edit]

Doonside railway station is on the Western Line of the City Rail network. It provides direct links east to Blacktown, Parramatta and Sydney CBD and west to Mount Druitt and Penrith. The Great Western Highway runs along the southern border and the M4 motorway is just to the south. Busways offers a number of bus services in the suburb including the 753 from Doonside station to Blacktown Interchange through the north of the suburb and the 725/726 services from Doonside to Blacktown through the south of the suburb. The 756 runs between Blacktown and Mount Druitt passing through the north of Doonside and providing connections with suburbs such as Woodcroft, Glendenning, Plumpton and Rooty Hill.^[4]

Schools [edit]

Doonside is home to two government run primary schools, Doonside Public School, near the station, and Crawford Public School, on Power Street in the north of the suburb. Not far from Crawford is Doonside Technology High, a government run high school. There are two non-government schools in Doonside. Mountain View Adventist College, on Doonside Road south of the railway line, is run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. St John Vianneys Primary School is a diocesan Catholic school associated with the neighbouring church, also called St John Vianney's.

Recreation [edit]

On the western edge of Doonside lies the Nurragingy Nature Reserve, which is situated in the Western Sydney Regional Parklands. The Reserve is a 90ha park featuring picnic grounds and original bushland. It was established a nature reserve in 1981 and named after Nurragingy, a Darug man given a land grant in the Blacktown area in 1819.^[5][6][7] Just south of the railway line is the Featherdale Wildlife Park, a private zoo etsablished in 1953 and specialising in Australian native animals and birds.^[8]

Across the railway line from Nurragingy is Kareela Reserve, a sporting complex, home to a number of local sporting teams including the Doonside Roos rugby league team,^[9] Doonside Cricket Club^[10] and Doonside Little Athletics.^[11] The Doonside Hawks soccer club plays out of Glendenning Reserve in neighbouring Glendenning^[12] while the Doonside Diamonds Netball Club play all their games (home and away) at the Blacktown City Netball Association complex in Blacktown.^[13] All these clubs use maroon and white as their colours.

References [edit]

• The 2001 City of Blacktown Social Plan

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Coordinates: 33°46′10″S 150°52′00″E / 33.7694°S 150.8666°E / -33.7694; 150.8666

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