Peakhurst 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 ...

Southern Sydney Southern Sydney, also commonly referred to as the Southern suburbs, is the southern metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Southern Sydney is a title for the regions and neighbourhoods which fall dire ...

, or the St George Area, 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 ...

21 kilometres South 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 ...

. Peakhurst is 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

Georges River Council Georges River Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the St George (Sydney), St George region of Sydney located south of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, in New South Wales, Australia. The ...

. Peakhurst has a western border on

Salt Pan Creek Salt Pan Creek is an urban watercourse of the Georges River catchment, located in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Salt Pan Creek rises west southwest of the suburb of Mount Lewis, w ...

, on the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated Ria, drowned valley estuary, that is located in Sydney, Australia. The Georges River is located south and south-west from the Sydney central business district, w ...

Peakhurst Heights Peakhurst Heights is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Peakhurst Heights is located 22 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Peakhurst Heights is in th ...

is a separate suburb to the south, which is bordered by Boggywell Creek and Lime Kiln Bay, on the

. Peakhurst Heights is sometimes still considered to be part of 'Peakhurst' by some residents of the area.

History

Peakhurst was named after landholder John Robert Peake, who bought 10 acres of land near the junction of the present Forest Road and Henry Lawson Drive in 1838. He gave a block of land on which the Wesleyan Church was built in 1855. The area was originally part of an 1808 land grant to Captain John Townson. John Robert Peake bought his land from William Hebblewhite in 1838. School Inspector Huffer suggested that Peake's name be used to name the suburb when the public school was founded in 1871. The post office opened in 1885.''The Book of Sydney Suburbs'', Frances Pollon, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, p.202, Published in Australia The first industry in the area was timber-cutting, due to the surrounding natural forests being thick with a variety of woods, especially turpentine. The timber was carted to Sydney by bullock teams. As the land was cleared, orchardists followed the timber-cutters.

Commercial area

Peakhurst's commercial centres are predominantly located along Forest Road and Boundary Road. Various retail shops, restaurants and cafes are located near the Peakhurst Inn Hotel on Forest Road. The hotel contains a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

and drive-through

bottle shop A liquor store is a retail business that predominantly sells prepackaged alcoholic beverages, including liquors (typically in bottles), wine or beer, usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom ...

. Peakhurst also contains a sizeable industrial area mainly on and around Boundary Road.

Transport

The main roads are Forest Road,

Henry Lawson Drive Henry Lawson Drive is an urban road linking Lansdowne and Peakhurst in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The road is named in honour of Henry Lawson (1867–1922), one of Australia's foremost poets. Route Henr ...

, Stoney Creek Road, Boundary Road, Bonds Road, Broad Arrow Road, Isaac Street, Baumans Road. Forest Road, which links to Henry Lawson Drive at Peakhurst, is the busiest

carriageway A carriageway (British English) or roadway (North American English) is a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A carriageway generally consists of a number of traffic lane ...

that extends through numerous other suburbs in Sydney. The nearest railway station is located in nearby Riverwood.

U-Go Mobility U-Go Mobility is a bus company in Sydney, Australia, that operates services in Region 10, which serves South Western Sydney, and Sutherland Shire. It is a 50:50 joint venture between UGL and Go-Ahead Group. History On 22 December 2022, U-Go Mo ...

operates five bus routes through Peakhurst: - 941 from Hurstville station to Bankstown station - 942 from Lugarno to Campsie station - 943 from

Lugarno Lugarno is a suburb situated in the St George area of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the local government area of the Georges River Council, 23 kilometres south of the Sydney central business distr ...

to Hurstville station - 944 from Bankstown station to Mortdale station - 945 from Hurstville station to Bankstown station

Transit Systems Transit Systems Group is an Australian-based public transport company, which also operates overseas through its subsidiary Tower Transit Group. Transit Systems Group is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group, formerly SeaLink Travel Group. History ...

operates the M91 from Hurstville Station to Parramatta station, via Peakhurst Peakhurst church

Schools

There are four public schools: Georges River College Peakhurst Campus, Peakhurst Public School, Peakhurst South Public School, Peakhurst West Public School.

Churches

Georges River Life Church, Church@thepeak Anglican Church, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, St Abraam and St Mikhail Al-Behairy Coptic Orthodox Church, Peakhurst Uniting Church, Spanish Evangelical Jerusalem Baptist Church, Samoan Assembly of God Church.

Sport and recreation

Popular recreational venues include Grandviews Bowling Club (

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

), tennis courts, Peakhurst Park and the numerous sporting fields located at Gannon's Park. The soccer clubs here are Peakhurst United and Forest Rangers.

Demographics

According to the of Population, there were 12,079 people usually resident in Peakhurst. 36.5% stated they were born overseas with the top countries of birth being China 7.1%, Lebanon 1.7%, England 1.6%, Hong Kong 1.5% and New Zealand 1.5%. English was stated as the only language spoken at home by 55.0% of residents and the most common other languages spoken were Mandarin 6.8%, Arabic 5.9%, Cantonese 5.8%, Greek 5.1% and Macedonian 2.7%. The most common responses for religious affiliation were No Religion 23.5%,

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

23.3%,

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

10.7%,

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

9.7% and Not stated 7.0%.

Notable residents

* Oliver Arnold Olds (1896-1979) Born in Burwood. Served 13th Infantry Battalion - 13 to 18 Reinforcements (December 1915 – May 1916) in World War I. A prominent resident. Lived at 78 Bonds Road. The house was built about 1921 for John Olds, and has been owned by the family ever since. In 1927, Oliver Arnold Olds took up residence and the house became known as 'Ilfracombe'. He was an alderman on Hurstville Council for many years. First elected on 6 December 1941, he retired in 1959 after serving as deputy mayor in 1944, mayor in 1946, 1947 and 1948, and deputy mayor again in 1956. Olds Park was named in his honour. * Myles Joseph Dunphy (1891-1985) - architect and conservationist. * Elizabeth (Betsy) Matthias (1882-1963) - socialist and charity-worker. * Richard Farleigh (1960s-1980s), now residing in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, a successful private investor, former

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

manager, international chess player representing

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

and

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, and "Dragon" on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

program

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it ...

Politics

The

which administers Peakhurst, consists of 12 councillors elected every four years. Peakhurst falls into the Peakhurst

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. A further four suburbs are contained wholly or partly in the Peakhurst Ward: Riverwood, Oatley,

and

Environment

An audit of the environmental impact of the industrial area was commenced in September 2002. Bushcare volunteers help preserve remnant pockets of native forestation. A very small number of fresh water watercourses exist in the suburb, mostly draining into Salt Pan Creek. A portion of the Peakhurst tree population was included in the 1990 National Trust Lugarno Tree Study. National Trust Lugarno Tree Study

References

External links

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