Wetherill Park

History

Aboriginal culture

Aboriginal people from the Cabrogal clan of the Gandangara tribe, have lived in the area for more than 30,000 years.

European settlement

Wetherill Park was named after a businessman who offered 21 acre of his property to the State government as a park. The offer was accepted and the park was named after the donor. The first settlers in set up their homes north of the present school site at Wetherill Park. One hundred years ago, there were not enough homes in this suburb to need a school.

With the commencement of the Prospect Reservoir Waterworks, a local storekeeper, Samuel Booth, made available a section of his land for a school, free of charge. The school, called 'Macquarie Park', was located on the corner of Victoria and Daniel Streets being 365 Victoria Street, Wetheril Park. It opened in May 1882 with 8 children but it was changed in June 1882 to 'Boothtown' for Samuel Booth's involvement in the establishment of the school. In 1884 it became Reservoir Public School and in 1896, it became the Wetherill Park Public School. In 1986 the school made way for the Phuoc Hue Temple, and was relocated down the road to Lily Street and renamed William Stimson Public School, in honour of the first mayor of the City of Fairfield.

Street names

A characteristic of Wetherill Park is that all the streets are named after famous writers. Some examples include: Vidal Street (for Gore Vidal), Shakespeare Street (for William Shakespeare), Stevenson Street (for Robert Louis Stevenson), Locke Street (for John Locke), Gogol Place (for Nikolai Gogol), Swinburne Crescent (for Richard Swinburne), Homer Place (for Homer), Emerson Street (for Ralph Waldo Emerson), Wordsworth Street (for William Wordsworth), Dickens Road (for Charles Dickens), Longfellow Street (for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), Chaucer Street (for Geoffrey Chaucer), Ainsworth Crescent (for William Harrison Ainsworth), Coleridge Road (for Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Frost Close (for Robert Frost), Gissing Street (for George Gissing), Maugham Crescent (for Somerset Maugham) and Langland Street (for William Langland).

Commercial areas

• Stockland Wetherill Park is a major shopping centre in the area and features one of Australia's largest cinema complexes owned by Hoyts. The shopping centre opened in 1983, the first major expansion took place in 2003.

: In 2013, a second expansion saw the building complex expand to fill the entire lot, with parking moved underground and multi-storey rooftop parking. The 2013 expansion cost over $200 million AUD and was complete in 2016. A large stand-alone Chinese restaurant existed on the lot until the early 2000s. It hosted Chinese diplomats and VIPs as well as lavish Chinese New Year functions until the location was purchased by the Local Government and turned into the Wetherill Park Library.

• Wetherill Park Shopping Centre (now known as Market Town) opened in the early 1980s on the corner of The Horsley Drive and Rossetti Street, adjacent to Emerson Street Reserve tennis courts. It originally featured approximately 25 specialty shops. In recent years, the shopping centre underwent renovations which saw the shopping complex completely reformed and the rear parking lot expanded. Today, the complex also features a bowling centre and supermarkets.
• Greenway Plaza is a larger, outdoor shopping complex with many stores. There are also a few restaurants, cafes, a TAB, an employment service provider and Service NSW office within the complex.

Industrial area

Wetherill Park is home to the largest industrial estate in the Southern Hemisphere, with companies such as Jaguar, BMW, Subaru and Mercedes-Benz situated in the area. Despite the heavy industrial presence, the suburb maintains a coppice environment dominated by eucalyptus trees. Within the industrial estate, there are furniture stores, home depot stores, car mechanic services and clothing factories, among others.

The headquarters of the Australian paper manufacturer ABC Tissue Products (which operates tissue paper brands such as, Quilton, Naturale and Symphony, among others) is situated in Redfern Street.

Transport

T-way bus route T80 operated by Transit Systems, opened in 2003 and runs partly through Wetherill Park. It is also located close to the Westlink M7 Sydney Orbital motorway. The Horsley Drive is the major road which runs through Wetherill Park. Other major roads include Polding Street and Victoria Street.

Climate

Wetherill Park has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with warm to hot summers and cool, drier winters. Frost is not unheard of in winter. Afternoon thunderstorms can occur in the warm months.

|Jan record high C = 47.0 |Feb record high C = 46.4 |Mar record high C = 39.5 |Apr record high C = 37.1 |May record high C = 29.4 |Jun record high C = 25.6 |Jul record high C = 26.5 |Aug record high C = 29.4 |Sep record high C = 35.0 |Oct record high C = 39.0 |Nov record high C = 42.0 |Dec record high C = 44.4 |year record high C = 47.0 |Jan record low C = 10.0 |Feb record low C = 10.8 |Mar record low C = 7.9 |Apr record low C = 3.6 |May record low C = 1.2 |Jun record low C = -0.8 |Jul record low C = -0.6 |Aug record low C = -0.5 |Sep record low C = 1.7 |Oct record low C = 4.5 |Nov record low C = 6.8 |Dec record low C = 7.8 |year record low C = -0.8

: The closest weather station is located within Prospect Reservoir on the Prospect–Wetherill Park border (in the northern outskirts of the suburb).

Demographics

According to the 2021 Census, the most common ancestries in Wetherill Park were Australian 11.0%, Assyrian 10.7%, Italian 9.4%, English 8.7%, and Iraqi 7.4%.

43.2% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Iraq 18.0%, Vietnam 3.2%, Italy 3.0%, Syria 2.4% and Croatia 1.6%.

The most common responses for religion were Catholic 46.4%, No Religion 10.1%, Not stated 6.2%, Assyrian Church of the East 6.1%, Islam 7.0% and Eastern Orthodox 6.1%. Overall, Christianity was the largest religious group reported (74.0%).

32.8% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 12.4%, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic 9.5%, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic 6.3%, Spanish 5.0% and Vietnamese 3.9%. Combining the varieties of Assyrian and Chaldean, Neo-Aramaic will be the most common language at 15.8%.

Schools

• William Stimson Public School

Parks and recreation

The suburb features a large recreational park and an urban forest, Wetherill Park Nature Reserve. Adjacent to that Reserve is the Emerson Street Reserve, which is a 6-hectare, rectangular-shaped sports ground which features a walking track, a tennis facility, a skate park, a basketball court, cricket practice nets and a soccer field. Although not in the suburb, Rosford Street Reserve is adjacent to the eastern outskirts of Wetherill Park.

As part of Fairfield City Council's Parks Improvement Program, Shakespeare Park was upgraded in 2006.

Places of worship

Wetherill Park is home to a large Vietnamese Buddhist temple, Phuoc Hue Temple, which was visited by Prince Charles in 1994.

Notable residents

Wetherill Park was once home to famous Italian footballer, Christian Vieri.

References

References

1. {{Census 2021 AUS
2. {{Census 2011 AUS
3. "2006 census MapStats : Wetherill Park (State Suburb)". Australian Bureau of Statistics.
4. "Place Management and Town Centres".
5. [https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/south-west/dont-forget-the-southern-hemispheres-largest-industrial-zone/news-story/479f600dcc096d0325ad60fab0372f99 Don’t forget the Southern Hemisphere’s Largest Industrial Zone] by Marie Hogg and Simon Benson, Fairfield Advance, 13 November 2015
6. Emily Lawrence Gazal. (June 15, 2015). "Leafy suburbs around Sydney". [[Domain Group]].
7. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070914021551/http://www.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/default.asp?iDocID=504&iNavCatID=3&iSubCatID=51 Fairfield City History] Fairfield City Council
8. "FAQs". ABC Tissue.
9. {{Cite New South Wales transport timetables. BT80
10. [http://www.westlinkm7.com.au Travelling on Westlink M7?] Westlink
11. Fairfield City Council (1999) ''Strategic Plan for Fairfield City 1999-2010'' Fairfield City Council
12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820054019/http://www.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/upload/jixey25822/AR1Overview.pdf Annual Report 2006/2007] Fairfield City Council
13. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070919035440/http://www.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/default.asp?iDocID=350&iNavCatID=162&iSubCatID=165 Kids get crafty as Shakespeare Park receives makeover] Fairfield City Council
14. (18 February 2012). "Leader advocated social harmony". Fairfax.
15. (4 August 2016). "Christian Vieri's playing return could bring him back to western Sydney".