St Marys, New South Wales
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| St Marys Sydney, NSW |
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| Location: | 45 km (28 mi) west of Sydney CBD | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Penrith | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Electoral district of Penrith | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Division of Lindsay | ||||||||||||
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St Marys is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales Australia. St Marys is located 45 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith.
St Marys sits between South Creek forms the western boundary and Ropes Creek the eastern boundary.
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[edit] Transport
M4 Motorway sits along the southern boundary with entrance and exit ramps to St Marys and the Great Western Highway is another major road in the suburb. Sydney Street and Marsden Road are on the northern and southern boundaries.
Dunheved is a major industrial, and commercial centre to the north. Between March 1942 and March 1986 Dunheved was served by a branch rail line that left the main western line approximately 200 meters west of St Marys station as part of the Ropes Creek branch line that was constructed to serve the munitions works formerly operated by Australian Defence Industries. While the rail infrastructure was left in place for many years after the closure, nothing now remains of this branch line beyond Christie Street.
[edit] History
The suburb of St Marys was named after the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, built between 1837 and 1840. It was consecrated by Bishop Broughton in 1840 and is one of the oldest churches in New South Wales that still has regular services. St Marys is one of the few townships in the world to be actually named after a church.
The site was believed to have been chosen by the mother of Phillip Parker King. The property had been acquired from John Oxley in 1828 by King, the original grant having been made in 1823. Other land grants in the area included those to Anna Josepha King in 1807 (Dunheved), Samuel Marsden (Mamre), and Mary Putland (Frogmore). The area was first called South Creek, because European settlement was originally centred along the banks of the creek. The land grants became working holdings because of the permanent water supply. The rich alluvial soil along the banks of the creek ensured an expanding agricultural community and its location on what was then called the Great Western Road, later renamed to the Great Western Highway, meant that it became a convenient staging post. The name St Marys was first used when the St Marys Post Office was opened on 1 October 1840. The township formed part of a grant to Mary Putland (later married Sir Maurice O'Connell), the daughter of Governor William Bligh. Closer settlement of the area was made possible when in 1842 part of the O’Connell Estate was subdivided.
St Marys has a long and rich industrial and agricultural history, including tanneries and munitions formerly operated by Australian Defence Industries. The area which is now the suburb is much reduced from its historical perspective known as St Marys.
[edit] References
- The Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8
[edit] External links
- St Marys, New South Wales is at coordinates Coordinates:
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