Toongabbie 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 ...
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 ...
. One of the oldest suburbs in Sydney, Toongabbie is located approximately 30 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 ...
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. Toongabbie is split between 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 ...
s of the
City of Parramatta
The City of Parramatta, also known as Parramatta Council, is a Local government in Australia, local government area located to the west and north-west of Sydney CBD in the Greater Western Sydney region. Parramatta Council is situated between th ...
, 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
Cumberland Council. The suburb is often locally referred to as "Toonie".
Geography
To the north across Old Windsor Road the next suburb is
Winston Hills; to the east is
Old Toongabbie; to the south-east, the next suburb (and railway station) is
Pendle Hill; to the south is
Girraween; to the south-west is
Prospect; and to the west the next suburb (and railway station) is
Seven Hills.
History
The traditional custodians of the land are the
Dharug
The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...
peoples. These peoples usually lived along the waterways. Plant and animals life was abundant in streams and bushland in the area now known as Toongabbie.
Toongabbie is derived from an
Aboriginal word, reported as meaning ''place by the water'' or ''the meeting of the waters''. It was named in June 1792 after
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Gree ...
asked the local Aboriginal people what they called the place.
European settlement

Toongabbie is noted for being the third mainland settlement (after Sydney and Parramatta) set up after the
European colonisation of Australia began in 1788, although the site of the settlement is actually in the separate suburb of
Old Toongabbie.
Governor Phillip established a government farm and convict station on 640 acres (259 ha) in 1791 to grow food for the colony. It was supplement to the farms already established at Rose Hill. By December 1791 there were 500 men working at clearing the land. After eleven years, the government farm was closed and the land was given as grants to settlers and convicts who had done their time. The
Battle of Parramatta, a major battle of the
Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, occurred in March 1797 where Aboriginal
resistance leader
Pemulwuy
Pemulwuy ( /pɛməlwɔɪ/ ''PEM-əl-woy''; 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug, an Aboriginal Australian people from New South Wales. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is n ...
led a group of
Bidjigal
The Bidjigal (also spelt Bediagal, Bejigal, Bedegal or Biddegal) people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The ...
warriors, estimated to be at least 100, in an attack on a government farm at Toongabbie, challenging the colonists to fight.
In 1860, the railway was extended to Blacktown but it took 20 years before any arrangements were made for trains to stop at Toongabbie. The first school in Toongabbie
Toongabbie Public School opened on 3 May 1886. By April 1911, the school closed due to low enrolments. The school reopened February the next year and has stayed open ever since.
The first post office in the area was opened after many years of campaigning by local residents in 1887 in a private house on Old Windsor Road and this arrangement continued until the 1960s. The first post master was a Mr Birks and he was paid 25 pounds a year to manage the office and bring the mail bag over from Seven Hills on horseback each day. By 1922 the number of residents and businesses had grown sufficiently to support a second office in a weatherboard cottage in Wentworth Avenue, known as Toongabbie West. A purpose built office was opened in the main shopping area in Portico Parade in 1960 becoming Toongabbie Post Office whilst the old Toongabbie Post Office was renamed Old Toongabbie.
The Emu and Prospect Gravel and Road Metal Company Limited opened a private railway line from Toongabbie to Prospect Quarry on 7 April 1902. Following the inability of the Government railway to supply rail wagons, trains stopped running on the line in 1945, however the rails remained in situ until the early 1960s.
[''Sydney's Forgotten Quarry Railways'' - Oakes, John, pp. 9–27, ]
In 1908, what was probably the second scout group formed in Australia, 1st Toongabbie Scout Group was organised by Errol Knox (later knighted for his services to journalism). The first scout hall was a barn on his parents' property, "''Montargis''" in Binalong Road. Later, in 1934, the Group moved to its present location in Bungaree Road on donated land which had also once been part of the Knox landholdings.
The first bank branch in Toongabbie, the
Commonwealth Bank
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...
, opened in 1957 although bank agencies had operated in the area.
Toongabbie was connected to electricity in the mid-1920s and to town gas and mains sewerage in the mid-1960s. The biggest increase in population occurred after World War II. A sizable area west of the shopping centre, which had previously been farmland and orchards, was subdivided into a housing development called "The Old Roman Estate"; several streets in the area have Roman names, including Marcia St, Lavinia St, Portia St, Lucretia Rd and Portico Parade.
Since the 1990s, many detached homes have been demolished to make way for apartment blocks, especially around the main commercial area of Toongabbie.
Old Toongabbie
To the east of Binalong Road and Reynolds Street is the small suburb known as
Old Toongabbie, which includes the sites of the original colonial settlement. In the 1990s, this area was reduced, with the part immediately north of Wentworthville, which is also known unofficially as the locality of Constitution Hill, being reclassified as Wentworthville. In 2006, Constitution Hill officially returned, but only as a small area between Bogalara Road and the Cumberland Highway.
Winston Hills
The more northerly parts, north of Toongabbie Creek, became known as
Winston Hills in the late 1960s. Originally this was simply the name of a large housing development in the area, but a major section of what was once Old Toongabbie was officially renamed Winston Hills in the 1970s, a trend that has been echoed in many other areas of the western suburbs.
Commercial area
Toongabbie's shopping precinct is located in Aurelia Street to the south of the railway line next to the station. The shopping precinct for many years included a small independent suburban cinema, the "Rocket Theatre",
located opposite the railway line, next to the overhead road bridge. It operated from the late 1950s until the early 1970s, when it was demolished and replaced by a row of shops. A small park by the name of Portico Plaza, directly opposite the train station and next to Toongabbie Hotel. A small shopping centre and supermarket, the Piccadilly Centre, was built in the 1960s in the area bounded by the Toongabbie Hotel and the Catholic Church. This operated until 2004 when the Piccadilly shopping centre and surrounding properties were purchased by a developer to eventually build
Portico Plaza, a shopping centre with a
Woolworths supermarket and over 40 specialty shops. During the 2010s, many stores and takeaways catering to South Asian residents began opening in Toongabbie.
Transport
Toongabbie railway station is on the
T1 Western Line of the
Sydney Trains
Sydney Trains is the brand name and operator of Railways in Sydney, suburban and intercity train services in and around Greater Sydney in New South Wales, Australia.
The metropolitan part of the network is a hybrid urban rail, urban-suburban r ...
network. The original unstaffed station opened on 26 April 1880 and was upgraded over the years with additional platforms and loading facilities. In the late 1880s the first rail official was appointed to manage the station, a Miss Amy Arnold. The current station was opened in 1946 and the line was electrified in 1955. The overhead road bridge was opened in 1947 (before that there was a level crossing where the western end of the station platforms are now). The train station was upgraded in the late 2010s to include elevators.
Toongabbie is also served by private buses with connections to
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 ...
via
Blacktown Road,
Seven Hills via the
Prospect Highway, and both
Parramatta
Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...
and
Westmead via the
Great Western Highway
Great Western Highway is a state highway in New South Wales, Australia. From east to west, the highway links Sydney with Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst, on the state's Central Tablelands. The highway also has local road names between the ...
. Toongabbie is also served by the
North-West T-way
The North-West T-way is a continuous series of bus-only lanes and bus roadways between Parramatta, Blacktown and Rouse Hill in Western Sydney. Opened in stages between March and November 2007, the T-way was the second bus rapid transit route t ...
.
Landmarks
Although Toongabbie is relatively densely settled, in recent years programmes of bushland regeneration, and pollution control in local waterways have improved the few and small pockets of vegetation in the suburb. The main waterway is Greystanes or Girraween Creek which flows the length of the suburb from Fox Hills Golf Course in the south to join Blacktown Creek in the north. A one kilometre section of Greystanes Creek has been
channelised as part of a flood-mitigation project. Greystanes Creek often floods heavily during rainy days, sometimes overflowing onto Station Road.
Recreation
There are multiple parks and recreational areas in Toongabbie. Fox Hill Golf Club is located on the western side of the suburb. McCoy Park is located in eastern Toongabbie, next to the border with
Seven Hills, and close to a small row of shops. It contains toilets, a large field, and a playground. It is located by the creek. Toongabbie Sports Club is located along Station Road, containing a bowling club.
Demographics
According to the , 16,177 people lived in Toongabbie. Their median age was 35 years; children aged 0–14 years made up 20.2% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 12.8% of the population. 43.8% of people were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were India 20.5%, Sri Lanka 6.0%, Philippines 2.7%, China 2.7% and Nepal 2.1%.
According to the , 13,003 people lived in Toongabbie. Their median age was 35 years; children aged 0–14 years made up 20.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 11.6% of the population. 54.8% of people were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were India 8.9%, Sri Lanka 4.7%, China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 2.8%, Philippines 2.7% and New Zealand 2.0%.
The most common religions were Catholic 30.1%, Anglican 13.8%, Hinduism 13.5%, No Religion 11.0% and Islam 3.7%.
Notable residents
*
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford (; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally ...
– film director, writer, and producer spent his childhood here
*
Ebanie Bridges – boxer grew up here
*
Karl Filiga – former professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
footballer for the
Cronulla Sharks
*
David Klemmer – current
Rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
player for the
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...
*
John Larkin – author, winner of the 2012 Victorian Prize for Literature for
The Shadow Girl, grew up here
*
Lawrence Thomas - Football Player for most notably Melbourne Victory.
Education
Toongabbie has several schools including Toongabbie Public School, Toongabbie West Public School, Toongabbie Christian College and Metella Road Public School. There are also multiple preschools.
End notes
References
* Sargeant, Doris A. and others, ''The Toongabbie Story'', Toongabbie, 1964 published by the Toongabbie Public School
* ''Toongabbie, The Third Settlement'', John Goode, The third settlement bicentennial committee, 1988, Published in Australia, .
External links
*
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{{Sydney_Blacktown suburbs
Suburbs of Sydney
Populated places established in 1792
1792 establishments in Australia
City of Parramatta
Cumberland Council, New South Wales
City of Blacktown