Fairfield, New South Wales

History

For more than 30,000 years, Aboriginal people from the Cabrogal-Gandangara tribe have lived in the Fairfield area.

The earliest recorded white settlement in the Fairfield district is described in William Bradley's Journal where he noted an expedition from Rose Hill to Prospect Creek to determine whether Prospect Creek led to Botany Bay. Bradley described a place on the Creek where the water changed from fresh to salt with a drop of 4 feet (1.2 m). The presence of salt water confirmed Prospect Creek's connection to the sea.

Breton Gabriel Louis Marie Huon de Kerrileau, a soldier in the NSW Corps arrived in the colony in 1794, having fled France during the French Revolution. In 1807 he received a grant of 100 acres (40 ha) in the centre of Fairfield, which he named Castel Paul. This was an Englished form of the town in which he was born in Brittany, Kastell-Paol kastɛlˈpawl, Saint-Pol-de-Léon in French. By 1814 Castel Paul had been combined, by subsequent owners, with several similarly sized grants to form a largely uncleared 700 acres (280 ha) estate.By 1814 Castel Paul had been combined, by subsequent owners, with several similarly sized grants to form a largely uncleared 700 acres (280 ha) estate.

The free settler John Horsley purchased the estate in that year and named it Mark Lodge, after family properties in Essex, England. Horsley, a Magistrate and Coroner at Liverpool (1825-1834), and his large family were among the pioneers of white settlement in the Fairfield District. Later, a Colonial Treasurer, Thomas Ware Smart (1810–1881) bought the estate and in the 1860s built the mansion, 'Fairfield House'.

Fairfield railway station was opened in 1856 and has the oldest surviving railway building in New South Wales. Development began in the mid 19th century supported by railway construction in 1856. Around the start of the 20th century the area had a population of 2,500 people and with fertile soils, produced crops for distribution in Sydney. Electricity was connected in 1921.

Rapid population increase after World War II saw the settlement of many ex-service men and European migrants. Large scale Housing Commission development in the 1950s swelled the population to 38,000. By 1979, the population had reached 120,000 and the City was becoming one of the larger Local Government Areas in New South Wales. During the 1980s war between Iraq and Iran, large number of Assyrians fled Iraq and settled in Fairfield, making it the most popular settlement for Assyrians. In recent years it has been dubbed the murder capital of Sydney because of the increased wave of murders and gun crime which has happened recently.

Commercial area and culture

Fairfield supports a mixture of commercial and residential developments, mostly characterised by medium-density buildings and some new high-rise apartments. Fairfield has two shopping malls: Fairfield Forum and Neeta City. The latter contains a Big W discount department store as well as a Woolworths supermarket. Fairfield's culturally diverse population is reflected in multicultural local businesses such as over twenty different types of cafés and restaurants that include Assyrian, Iraqi, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, South American and Thai cuisine.

Fairfield's large Iraqi and Assyrian community has had the media describe the suburb as 'Little Iraq' or 'Little Assyria'. More Iraqi businesses have opened in Fairfield, mostly around Ware Street. These businesses include everything from jewellery shops to restaurants, making the area favourite entertainment and shopping hotspot for the Iraqi/Assyrian community.

Fairfield also has many Assyrian churches, sporting clubs, cultural associations and health groups. Sydney's Iraqi community congregated in Fairfield to celebrate Iraq qualifying for the Asian Football Cup finals in 2007. More than 7000 people joined in street celebrations around Fairfield on Sunday 29 July 2007 after Iraq won the Asian Cup finals.

There is a large library in the heart of the suburb.

Media

Fairfield has two local newspapers, The Fairfield Advance and the Fairfield Champion, which are issued every Wednesday.

Transport

Fairfield railway station is on the Airport, Inner West & South and Cumberland lines of the Sydney Trains network. Trains run frequently from Fairfield to Campbelltown, Parramatta and the City Circle. Fairfield also has a major bus interchange adjacent to the railway station. For setails of bus services from the interchange see Fairfield railway station

Schools

Public Schools in Fairfield include: Fairfield High School, Fairvale High School, Fairvale Public School and Fairfield Public School. Private Schools are: Patrician Brothers' College and Our Lady of the Rosary Primary School, which are catholic schools. Patrician Brothers' Primary School was also previously located in Fairfield but closed in 2006.

Geography

Much of the original bushland cover within the City has been cleared through past land management practices. A few small areas of this original bushland remain, including examples of Cumberland Plain vegetation, which is listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act.

Eight creeks, 80 kilometres in length, have their headwaters in Fairfield City and flow into the Georges River and Hawkesbury Nepean catchments. The impact of development over the past 50 years has resulted in severe degradation of the natural habitat in the creek banks and water quality has been assessed as very poor in recent years. Strategies are being implemented so that this trend is being reversed.

Air quality in the City is heavily impacted upon by an insufficiently integrated public transport system, creating an over reliance upon private vehicles for moving people and freight.

Climate

Fairfield has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). Summer weather may come from north-east (humid) or the north west (dry). Fairfield is usually a few degrees warmer than Sydney on summer days and a few degrees cooler on winter nights. There could be a temperature differential of 5 degrees Celsius in summer due to sea breezes in the City that don't generally penetrate inland, and in extreme cases there could be a 10 degrees differential. It receives less annual rain than Sydney CBD by about 400mm. Even though fair amount of rain is spread throughout the year, late winter and early spring get the least rain, whilst late summer and autumn get a lot of rain.

NOTE: Fairfield is a large suburb, therefore some areas in it may be adjacent to the climate of the top or bottom table.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, the suburb of Fairfield had a population of 17,032 people, the majority of whom (67.3%) were born outside of Australia.

The largest groups were born in Iraq (22%), Vietnam (8.5%), China (2.8%), Cambodia (2.4%) and Philippines (1.8%).

The most common languages spoken other than English being Arabic (14.4%), Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (13%), Vietnamese (10.5%), Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (4.7%) and Spanish (4.5%).

The most common ethnic groups were Assyrian (11.1%), Chinese (9.3%), Vietnamese (8.4%), Iraqi (8.2%) and Australian (6.5%).

The top responses for religious affiliation were Catholic (34.5%), Buddhism (13.1%) and Islam (9.8%), No Religion (7.1%) and Assyrian Apostolic (6.9%).

50.2% were couple families with children, 22.6% were couple families without children and 24.3% were one parent families. Children aged 0–14 years made up 20.9% of the population. Of people over 15 years, 48.2% were married and 12.7% were either divorced or separated. 12.9% of single parents were male and 87.1% were female. Of all households, 76.5% were family households, 21.1% were single person households and 2.4% were group households.

Of occupied private dwellings in Fairfield, 44.0% were separate houses, 18.9% were semi-detached or townhouses and 36.8% were apartments. 45.6% of the dwellings were owned and 50.1% were rented. The median family income of people living in Fairfield ($892 per week) was much lower than the national median ($1481). The most common occupation in Fairfield was labourers (16.2%), followed by technicians and trade workers (15.7%).

Politics

Fairfield is led by Fairfield City Council, with Frank Carbone as Mayor, Guy Zangari as State MP, and Chris Bowen and Chris Hayes as Federal MPs for the seats of McMahon and Fowler respectively.

Sports and recreation

Fairfield Adventure Park, a large playground for older children and teens, was opened in April 2015. Costing $1.4 million, the park features a 11 metre high climbing net, a sky bridge and three-slide combination, one of the tallest of its type in the country, and a 33 metre long double flying fox.

Nearby is the Fairfield Youth and Community Centre and the Fairfield Leisure Centre, which contains two swimming pools (indoor and outdoor), a mini-water park and a sports court.

These facilities are all situated in Fairfield Park, a large urban park and sports ground that contains native trees, children's playground and walking paths. Prospect Creek winds through it.

The Crescent Park is adjacent to the station, which features public seating surrounded by native and exotic plants. Another park is the David Carty Reserve, a small reserve that features a number of camphor trees, which are exotic evergreens native to eastern Asia.

Notable people