Douglas Park, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
Douglas Park is a town of the Macarthur Region
in New South Wales
, Australia
in Wollondilly Shire. It is near the Hume Highway
and on the Main Southern railway line
. Its station is served by CityRail
's Southern Highlands services
. It is about 80 km southwest of Sydney
. Locals refer to the area as Douggo. At the 2006 census
, Douglas Park had a population of 827 people.
. The first European settlement was named Hoare Town. The area is named thus on a map made by Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell, in 1865. The two largest land grants in the district were those of Dr Henry Grattan Douglass and Jean Baptiste de Arrietta. Douglass in time gave his name to the town, the final "s" of his name being lost due to a cartographer's error; de Arrietta is remembered by the locality "Spaniard's Hill", lying to the north of the town.
Douglass had numbers of convicts working on his farm, as muster rolls
in the State Records of NSW show. This farm may, however, have belonged to, or been managed by, Douglass' son.
The railway reached Douglas Park in 1863 as a station on the extension of the Main South Line from Campbelltown to Picton.
In 1889, writer Ethel Turner
, at the age of 17, visited the area:
Douglas Park is home to a Catholic religious community known as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, at Saint Mary's Towers in Douglas Park Drive. The community includes an historic sandstone house that was once the home of famous New South Wales surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell. The house, first known as Park Hall, was completed in 1845. The Saint Mary's Towers Retreat Centre is also located here, utilising the historic novitiate and junior seminary buildings, and the local Catholic community of Douglas Park and Wilton is based here and uses the historic, timber Sacred Heart Church for their liturgical celebrations. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have lived in community here since 1904, and so "the Towers" - as it is affectionately known - has been the focus of the local Catholic (and wider) community for more than 100 years.
The Douglas Park Evangelical
Church meets each Sunday at 4:30 in the Community Hall. YIPOC (Youth in Pursuit of Christ
) meet after church services on school weeks.
which includes a Post Office
. Adjacent is a service station
. There is no Police Station
: Douglas Park is part of the Camden Local Area Command.
Douglas Park Sports Ground is home to The Douglas Park-Wilton Razorbacks Soccer Football Club in the winter and in the summer season Douglas Park Little Athletics
Club, and soon-to-be Douglas Park Cricket Club. There are two tennis courts at the sportsground.
The Spaniard's Hill Catholic community had a Parish School in 1860. Douglas Park Public School opened in 1883. Buses and trains now carry the town's secondary students to High Schools in the Wollondilly Shire and beyond. A Long Day Care
service is available, a playgroup
, and a rural mobile pre-school.
The Progress Hall, built by the Douglas Park Progress Association is located on the north-western corner of the sportsground.
Douglas Park Rural Fire Service Shed is also located at the sportsground.
runs through a rocky gorge. The causeway
crossing the river on Douglas Park Drive is a popular swimming and canoeing site for residents, and others from surrounding districts.
The weir at this location is currently (August 2010) undergoing modification, having been identified as a major barrier to fish migration. An improved vertical slot fishway
will be installed, as part of Sydney Catchment Authority's
Weirs Project.
Downstream from this spot was once a suspension road bridge
, of a similar design to the Maldon Suspension Bridge, upstream on the Nepean River.
At this location also are the Douglas Park twin bridges, carrying northbound and southbound lanes of the F5 Freeway
over the Nepean River. This bridge was opened in 1980, as part of the extension of the Hume Highway from Campbelltown
to Yanderra. In 2007, Douglas Park residents expressed concern that coal-mining in the area would cause the collapse of either or both of these bridges, possibly resulting in many deaths.
Macarthur, New South Wales
Macarthur is a region in south-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The region includes the local government areas of the City of Campbelltown, Camden Council and Wollondilly Shire. It covers an area of 3,067 square kilometres and has a population of close to 240,000 residents...
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in Wollondilly Shire. It is near the Hume Highway
Hume Highway
The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and...
and on the Main Southern railway line
Main Southern railway line, New South Wales
The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and the Riverina regions.- Description of route :...
. Its station is served by CityRail
CityRail
CityRail is an operating brand of RailCorp, a corporation owned by the state government of New South Wales, Australia. It is responsible for providing commuter rail services, and some coach services, in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities of New South Wales. It is...
's Southern Highlands services
Southern Highlands railway line, New South Wales
The Southern Highlands Line is a section of the Main South railway line, and part of the CityRail outer suburban network. Its main service areas are the Southern Highlands Region , the Southern Tablelands Region and the Wollondilly section of the Macarthur Region of New South Wales...
. It is about 80 km southwest of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. Locals refer to the area as Douggo. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Douglas Park had a population of 827 people.
History
The area is in the lands of the Gandangara people and the Tharawal peopleTharawal people
The Tharawal people were the Aboriginal inhabitants of southern Sydney and the Illawarra region in 1788, when the first European colonists arrived. The Tharawal people lived in the areas from south side of Botany Bay, around Port Hacking to north of the Shoalhaven River and inland to Campbelltown...
. The first European settlement was named Hoare Town. The area is named thus on a map made by Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell, in 1865. The two largest land grants in the district were those of Dr Henry Grattan Douglass and Jean Baptiste de Arrietta. Douglass in time gave his name to the town, the final "s" of his name being lost due to a cartographer's error; de Arrietta is remembered by the locality "Spaniard's Hill", lying to the north of the town.
Douglass had numbers of convicts working on his farm, as muster rolls
Muster (military)
The term muster designates the process or event for the of accounting for members in a military unit. Within the United States Army Reserve, it is an annual event used for screening purposes.-Historical:...
in the State Records of NSW show. This farm may, however, have belonged to, or been managed by, Douglass' son.
The railway reached Douglas Park in 1863 as a station on the extension of the Main South Line from Campbelltown to Picton.
Picton, New South Wales
Picton is a small town in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire. The town is located 80 kilometres South-west of Sydney, close to Camden and Campbelltown. It is also the administrative centre of Wollondilly Shire....
In 1889, writer Ethel Turner
Ethel Turner
Ethel Turner was an Australian novelist and children's writer.She was born Ethel Mary Burwell in Doncaster in England. Her father died when she was two, leaving her mother Sarah Jane Burwell with two daughters . A year later, Sarah Jane married Henry Turner, who was twenty years older and had six...
, at the age of 17, visited the area:
6th April: Went to Newington Sports. Took cab to the grounds. The Sports were very poor.
I walked with Mr Curlewis a little and after with Mr Curnow. We left Annie, then Lil and I
hurried off and caught the 5 o'clock train to Picton to stay with the Daintreys.
10th April: Mr Daintrey took us all in a buggy to Douglas Park for a picnic. It was a fearfully long drive but very pleasant there, we went mushroom hunting. Afternoon we went to the Show. It is the first country show I have been to. We had tea on the grounds with the Abbotsford Antills and a lot more people.
Religious Organizations
The Church of the Sacred Heart began as the town’s community hall, which was built in 1937, and consecrated as a Catholic Church two years later. It is located on the south side of the railway station, and is now known as the 'Catholic Community Hall'.Douglas Park is home to a Catholic religious community known as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, at Saint Mary's Towers in Douglas Park Drive. The community includes an historic sandstone house that was once the home of famous New South Wales surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell. The house, first known as Park Hall, was completed in 1845. The Saint Mary's Towers Retreat Centre is also located here, utilising the historic novitiate and junior seminary buildings, and the local Catholic community of Douglas Park and Wilton is based here and uses the historic, timber Sacred Heart Church for their liturgical celebrations. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have lived in community here since 1904, and so "the Towers" - as it is affectionately known - has been the focus of the local Catholic (and wider) community for more than 100 years.
The Douglas Park Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Church meets each Sunday at 4:30 in the Community Hall. YIPOC (Youth in Pursuit of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
) meet after church services on school weeks.
Community Facilities
Douglas Park has a General StoreGeneral store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
which includes a Post Office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. Adjacent is a service station
Service station
Service station may refer to:* Filling station, a gasoline or petrol station* Automobile repair shop, a place where automobiles are repaired* Rest area, a public facility on motorways or controlled-access highways for resting or refuelling...
. There is no Police Station
Police Station
Police Station is a American TV series that aired in syndication in 1959. Stories were taken from actual files.- Cast :*Baynes Barron as Sergeant White*Larry Kerr as Detective Chuck Mitchell*Henry Beckman as Detective Stan Abramson...
: Douglas Park is part of the Camden Local Area Command.
Douglas Park Sports Ground is home to The Douglas Park-Wilton Razorbacks Soccer Football Club in the winter and in the summer season Douglas Park Little Athletics
Little Athletics
Little Athletics is an Australian activity which introduces children aged 5 to 15 to sport through modified athletics events....
Club, and soon-to-be Douglas Park Cricket Club. There are two tennis courts at the sportsground.
The Spaniard's Hill Catholic community had a Parish School in 1860. Douglas Park Public School opened in 1883. Buses and trains now carry the town's secondary students to High Schools in the Wollondilly Shire and beyond. A Long Day Care
Day care
Child care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
service is available, a playgroup
Pre-school playgroup
A pre-school playgroup, or in everyday usage just a playgroup, is an organised group providing care and socialisation for children under five. The term is widely used in the United Kingdom. Playgroups are less formal than the pre-school education of nursery schools...
, and a rural mobile pre-school.
The Progress Hall, built by the Douglas Park Progress Association is located on the north-western corner of the sportsground.
Douglas Park Rural Fire Service Shed is also located at the sportsground.
Natural Heritage
Douglas Park is surrounded by low hills, pasture, and bushland. To the south of the town, the Nepean RiverNepean River
The Nepean River is a river in the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia.The headwaters of the Nepean River rise near Robertson, about 100 kilometres south of Sydney and about 15 kilometres from the coast. The river flows north in an unpopulated water catchment area into Nepean Dam, which...
runs through a rocky gorge. The causeway
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
crossing the river on Douglas Park Drive is a popular swimming and canoeing site for residents, and others from surrounding districts.
The weir at this location is currently (August 2010) undergoing modification, having been identified as a major barrier to fish migration. An improved vertical slot fishway
Fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on...
will be installed, as part of Sydney Catchment Authority's
Sydney Catchment Authority
The Sydney Catchment Authority is a New South Wales, Australia Government agency created in 1999. The SCA manages and protects Sydney's drinking water catchments and catchment infrastructure, and supplies bulk water to its customers, including Sydney Water and a number of local councils.The SCA's...
Weirs Project.
Downstream from this spot was once a suspension road bridge
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
, of a similar design to the Maldon Suspension Bridge, upstream on the Nepean River.
At this location also are the Douglas Park twin bridges, carrying northbound and southbound lanes of the F5 Freeway
Hume Highway
The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and...
over the Nepean River. This bridge was opened in 1980, as part of the extension of the Hume Highway from Campbelltown
Campbelltown
Campbelltown can refer to:Places in Australia:*Towns/suburbs:**Campbelltown, New South Wales**Campbelltown, South Australia**Campbell Town, Tasmania*Government areas:**Electoral district of Campbelltown, state electoral district in New South Wales...
to Yanderra. In 2007, Douglas Park residents expressed concern that coal-mining in the area would cause the collapse of either or both of these bridges, possibly resulting in many deaths.