Ropes Crossing 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 ...

Blacktown Blacktown is a suburb in New South Wales, Australia, west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Sydney, Greater Sydney. History Before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the area of ...

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 ...

. Ropes Crossing is located 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 Blacktown Blacktown City Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Esta ...

and is part of the

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, far western and the Blue Mountains sub-regions with ...

region.

History

Ropes Crossing was originally part of the suburb of St Marys. The suburb is named as a crossing of

Ropes Creek Ropes Creek, a perennial stream, watercourse that is part of the Hawkesbury River, Hawkesbury-Nepean River, Nepean catchment, is located in Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Ropes Creek rises in the Great ...

, a watercourse which is approximately long rising near Devils Back Tunnel and flowing north into South Creek. The creek itself was named for Anthony Rope, a

First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

who it is assumed was granted land fronting the creek. The area was the site of a World War II munitions area, now formerly known as

Australian Defence Industries Thales Australia (formerly Australian Defence Industries and ADI Limited) is a defence contractor based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the French defence technology conglomerate Thales Group. Thales Australia had been engaged in numerous ...

or (ADI). The area had its own

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

which was

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

in 1957. When the line first opened on 1 May 1942, it only ran from St Marys to Dunheved at a distance of 50.350 rail kilometres from Central railway station and on 29 June 1942 the line opened from Dunheved to Ropes Creek at 53.010 rail kilometres from Sydney. When electrification was extended on the western line in the late 1950s a new station was built and called Cochrane and was located 52.480 rail kilometres from Sydney. The station opened on 2 September 1957. The line was mainly munitions traffic with morning and afternoon passenger services for munitions workers. Towards the end of the line being open, the only traffic seen on the line was the occasional scrap metal trains that visited

Sims Metal Sims Limited (formerly Sims Metal Management Limited) is a global environmental services conglomerate, operating through a number of divisions, with a focus on: (a) Ferrous and Non-ferrous metal recycling, (b) enterprise data destruction and c ...

which was located off the Up line just south of Dunheved. Working of these trains meant that the trains worked to Dunheved where the locomotive ran around the train and proceeded back to the Sims Metal Siding to shunt loaded cars in and empties out as required.

Suburb facilities

Housing

, the suburb is being developed for housing by Lend Lease with up to 2,200 homes and will contain a regional park in the centre. Housing is divided up into five villages – Aurora, Barinya, Brookwood, Talloway and Woodlands. Rochford Place is allocated as "Over 55's Living".

School

Ropes Crossing Public School was opened in 2008.

Population

In the , Ropes Crossing recorded a population of 7,280 people.

References

External links

NSWRail.net
For dates and kilometre reference points. *

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

for reference points.
Ropes Crossing Housing estate
{{Sydney Blacktown suburbs Suburbs of Sydney City of Blacktown