Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the Inner West[2] of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 8 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district.
This article is about the suburb Ashfield. For the former local government area, see Municipality of Ashfield. For the current local government area, see Inner West Council.
Ashfield
Sydney, New South Wales
Ashfield's population is highly multicultural with the majority of the area's dwellings being a mixture of mainly post-war low-rise flats (apartment blocks) and Federation-era detached houses. Amongst these are a number of grand Victorian buildings that offer a hint of Ashfield's rich cultural heritage.
History[edit]
Aboriginal people[edit]
Before the arrival of the British, the area now known as Ashfield was inhabited by the Wangal people. Wangal country was believed to be centred on modern-day Concord and stretched east to the swampland of Long Cove Creek (now known as Hawthorne Canal). The land was heavily wooded at the time with tall eucalypts covering the higher ground and a variety of swampy trees along Iron Cove Creek. The people hunted by killing native animals and fish. The arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 had a devastating effect on the local people, mainly from the introduction of smallpox, to which the indigenous people had little resistance.[3]
Early British settlement[edit]
By 1790, a rough track had been built between the colony's two settlements at Sydney Cove and Parramatta. This route later became the main artery of the expanding Greater Sydney and, as the northern boundary of what is now Ashfield, dictated early British settlement in the area. The first land grant in the area was made to Rev Richard Johnson in 1793 and all of it had been granted by 1810. By the 1820s, all the grants had been amalgamated into two large estates: Ashfield Park (the northern half between Liverpool Road and Parramatta Road) and Canterbury Estate (the area south of Liverpool Road). Ashfield Park was named by Robert Campbell, whose father was the laird of Ashfield in Scotland.[4]
Commercial area[edit]
The main shopping precinct is located along Liverpool Road south of Ashfield railway station. Along this strip, there are a few medium-sized office blocks, many street-level shops and Ashfield Mall, a shopping centre containing supermarkets, a discount department store and specialty shops. This commercial area also extends into Charlotte Street and Elizabeth Street on the northern side of the station. A second commercial precinct is located along Parramatta Road consisting mostly of automotive-related retail and light industry.
Health[edit]
There are no public hospitals in Ashfield although there are two private facilities. The Sydney Private Hospital on the corner of Victoria Street and Robert Street first opened in 1931 as the Masonic Hospital. It did at one point have an Accident and Emergency Unit, an Intensive Care Unit, and a Maternity Unit. All of these were closed down in 2000 when the hospital changed ownership. It now focuses on elective surgery. The Wesley Private Hospital in Frederick Street is a well-established mental health facility.[20][21]