Chatswood, New South Wales

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For the suburb of Auckland, see Chatswood, New Zealand
Chatswood
Sydney, New South Wales

Victoria Avenue pedestrian mall, facing west towards Chatswood station
Population: 11,684
Established: 1876
Postcode: 2067
Area: 3.55 km² (1.4 sq mi)
Property Value: AUD $1,200,000 (2007)
Location: 10 km (6 mi) north of Sydney CBD
LGA: City of Willoughby
State District: Willoughby
Federal Division: Bradfield
Suburbs around Chatswood:
Roseville Castle Cove Middle Cove
Chatswood West Chatswood North Willoughby
Lane Cove Artarmon Willoughby
Buildings on Pacific Highway
Buildings on Pacific Highway

Chatswood is a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Chatswood is located 10 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Willoughby. Chatswood West is a separate suburb. Chatswood is colloquially known as 'Chatty'.

Contents

[edit] History

Chatswood was named after Charlotte Hartnett, wife of then Mayor of Willoughby, Richard Hartnett (a pioneer of the district) and the original "wooded" nature of the area. The moniker derives from her nickname "Chattie" and was shortened from Chattie's Wood to Chatswood. There are no confirmed reports of Charlotte being very talkative, otherwise it would have made the nickname a lovely coincidence.

Residential settlement of Chatswood began in 1876 and grew with the installation of the North Shore railway line in 1890 and also increased with the opening of the Harbour Bridge in 1932. [1]

[edit] Geography

The main thoroughfare is Victoria Avenue, which travels east-west is dissected by the railway line. Most of Victoria Avenue lies to the east of the Chatswood railway station, with only a few hundred metres to the west of the railway line, until it ends at the Pacific Highway. To drive from one end of Victoria Avenue to the other, it is necessary to detour via Help Street. Pedestrians can cross directly over the railway line, via the railway station.

The Interchange was a small shopping centre and bus interchange built in the late 1980s which provided pedestrian access between the two halves of Victoria Avenue. Demolition of The Interchange began in April 2005 to accommodate the construction of the Epping to Chatswood railway line.

From the train station proceeding east, Victoria Avenue is a mall with pedestrian access only to Chatswood Westfield and Lemon Grove Shopping Mall, it then reverts to a road continues past Chatswood Chase into residential parts of the suburb, towards Willoughby.

Victoria Ave and Archer St, view towards Chatswood Station, April 2005.

Shops at Westfield Shoppingtown.

'Civic Place' in Victoria Avenue.

[edit] Commercial Area

Chatswood Commercial area, Pacific Highway
Chatswood Commercial area, Pacific Highway

Chatswood is a major commercial and retail hub of the North Shore district. It has two major shopping centres, several high rise office and apartment towers The retail half of Chatswood lies mainly to the east of the train line, whereas the majority of high rise office buildings lie to the west. Chatswood has the Australian headquarters of Vodafone and offices of companies such as Nortel Networks, Optus, Smith's Snackfood, IBM and [[NEC Corporation|NEC], Cisco Systems. A number of high-density residential towers are also located around Chatswood.

'Chatswood Chase', completed in 1983, features a David Jones store, K Mart, Coles and 120 specialty stores, focusing on designer-label brands. Westfield Chatswood features a Myer store, Target, Coles supermarket and Hoyts cinema complex, and 300 speciality stores. There is a second Hoyts cinema complex in the smaller shopping centre called the 'Mandarin Centre'.

'Westfield Chatswood', owned and managed by The Westfield Group, originally opened in January 30 1986 and was redeveloped in the late 1990s to incorporate a previously free-standing Grace Bros store. Major stores in the centre include Myer, Coles, Target, Toys 'R' Us, JB Hi-Fi and Rebel Sport.[1] The centre also includes a 6 screen Hoyts cinema complex. Westfield Chatswood has its own parking station and is a two-minute walk from Chatswood station. 'Lemon Grove' is a small shopping centre located opposite the pedestrian mall.

The Melody Markets are held each Thursday in Chatswood Mall, Victoria Avenue and feature food and craft stalls. Often there is live music performing in the centre of the mall including bands from students in the surrounding schools. Visitors can also challenge each other on the giant chess board.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, a relatively high percentage of immigrants from Hong Kong, China and a few other southeast-Asian groups have settled in the area. This has provided a good selection of Cantonese, Vietnamese and Greek restaurants and eateries. There are two hotels in Chatswood, Saville Park Suites near Chatswood railway station and The Sebel near Westfield shopping centre.

'The Interchange', Victoria Avenue entrance. April 2005. Under reconstruction.

'The Interchange', north-eastern side. April 2005. Now demolished.

Chatswood skyline

[edit] Transport

Chatswood railway station is on the North Shore Line of the CityRail network. Rail services run south to the Sydney CBD and continue west to Strathfield and beyond. Rail services run north to Hornsby and peak hour services run to Gosford, Wyong and Newcastle. An extension of the Northern line will soon see North Sydney connect via Chatswood to North Ryde and Epping.

Chatswood is also a major bus terminus with services to Bondi Junction, Sydney, North Sydney, Mosman, Balmoral Beach, Manly, Warringah Mall/Brookvale, UTS Ku-ring-gai, Belrose, Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Eastwood, Gladesville, West Ryde, North Ryde, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, Parramatta and Dundas. There is also an interstate bus service stopping at Chatswood from Sydney to Brisbane via the North Coast, New South Wales.

Chatswood is on the major arteries of Pacific Highway, Mowbray Road, Boundary Street, Willoughby Road and Eastern Valley Way.

[edit] Schools

Chatswood is home to private and public, primary and secondary schools. These include:

Other schools within the vicinity are easily accessible by bus or train.

[edit] Parks

Chatswood Oval is located south of the railway station and features a grandstand and seating surrounding the oval. It is one of the Lower North Shore's largest sportsgrounds, and home ground of the Gordon Rugby Football Club. Chatswood is close to Lane Cove National Park.

[edit] Population

According to the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing, the population of Chatswood was 13,513, in area of 3.55km sq. The gender ratio of the suburb was Males 46% and Females 54%.

[edit] Demographics

The proportion of residents born in Australia was 34.7%. Of the 65% of residents born overseas in Chatswood, most were born in China (10.8%), Hong Kong (7.6%), South Korea (7.3%), Taiwan (3.3%) and Japan (2.5%). 39.3% of people in Chatswood speak only English and 60.7% of the population speak a language other than English. The second largest language group are Chinese languages (27.7% of population), followed by Korean (7.6%), Japanese (2.9%), Indonesian (1.6%), Italian (1.5%), Croatian (0.7%), Arabic (0.4%), Tagalog (0.4%) and Greek (0.4%).

Religious affiliation in the suburb are as follows, Non Religious(24.6%), Catholic (22.6%), Anglican (10.4%), Buddhism (8.1%), and Presbyterian & Reformed (4.4%).

[edit] Culture

[edit] Willoughby Spring Festival

The Willoughby Spring Festival is an annual event in Chatswood. The festival is the second-largest in Lower Northern Sydney and is a testimony to a modern, multicultural and prosperous Chatswood. For more information visit Spring Festival.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/ Willoughby City Council

[edit] External links

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Suburbs of City of Willoughby · North Shore · Sydney
List of Sydney suburbs
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