Liverpool is one of the oldest urban settlements in Australia, founded on 7 November 1810[2] as an agricultural centre by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He named it after Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool, who was then the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the English city of Liverpool, upon which some of the area's architecture is based.[3]
The Post Office opened at Liverpool on 1 March 1825 - one of the first Post Offices to be opened in New South Wales. Liverpool was one of the six stations on the first line of Telegraphs to be constructed in this Colony. On 26 January 1858, a Telegraph Office was opened at the Railway Station. Later, on 12 July 1878, these two offices were amalgamated and plans proposed to construct a joint office. Finally a Foundation Stone was laid prior to construction starting. Mrs. N. G. Bull of Cabramatta had the honour of laying the Stone - such a responsibility given to a woman bringing great indignation by the Mayor and several of the leading men. An Indignation Meeting held soon after confirmed unanimously that Mrs Bull was "a fit and proper person" to have laid the stone.[4]
Urban sprawl of Sydney across the Cumberland Plain soon reached Liverpool, and it became an outer suburb of metropolitan Sydney with a strong working-class presence and manufacturing facilities. The Liverpool area also became renowned for its vast Housing Commission estates housing thousands of low-income families after the slum clearance and urban renewal programs in inner-city Sydney in the 1960s.[citation needed]
Heritage listings
Liverpool has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Liverpool is currently the major city centre in South Western Sydney. The city centre has a Hoddle Grid layout with many little laneways and arcades, similar to that of Melbourne. The central retail strip is Macquarie Street which contains numerous small cafes. In recent times the extension of the Westfield shopping centre has seen many new fashion stores come in. The Central Business District is being touted as Sydney's Third CBD centred around the Western Sydney Airport and aerotropolis. The CBD was rezoned for mixed use in 2018 to allow for more homes, offices and shops.
The main shopping area is centred on Macquarie Street, with Westfield Liverpool, a major shopping centre at the northern end. Liverpool Plaza is a shopping mall located between Macquarie Mall & Northumberland Street. The northern end of the city has been zoned for high density residential apartments. The southern end of the city is zoned for high density commercial developments. Liverpool has a large teaching hospital, two technical colleges and many shopping centres and office buildings. The private hospital operator Healthscope owns the Sydney Southwest Private Hospital in Liverpool.
There are three public primary schools within the suburb of Liverpool: Liverpool Public School, Liverpool West and Marsden Road. Liverpool Boys and Liverpool Girls are the two public secondary schools. The Mainsbridge School caters to children with intellectual disabilities and Liverpool Hospital School for children hospitalized for lengthy periods.[citation needed]
Post secondary education is catered to with the South Western College of TAFE, Macarthur Community College, Liverpool U3A: School for Seniors, University of Western Sydney English Language Centre, School of Arts in Macquarie Street, and the University Of Wollongong.
Places of worship
St Luke's Anglican Church, located in the city centre across the road from Westfield Liverpool, is the oldest existing Anglican church in Australia.[12][13] All Saints Catholic Church in George St is located with the All Saints schools. St Raphael, Nickolas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church is in Forbes Street and the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Apostle Luke is on Flowerdale Rd.
There are many open spaces within the city centre, including botanical parks and sporting facilities. Bigge Park on the east side of the city features a War Memorial while Pioneer Memorial Park to the north has a historical cemetery. Woodward Park to the west is the main sporting precinct containing a number of outdoor playing fields and the Whitlam Leisure Centre, hosting a swimming pool and a 3000-seat indoor sports stadium. Other notable sports facilities within the suburb of Liverpool include Collimore Park (netball) and Paciullo Park (soccer and touch football).
Sporting teams
Prominent local teams include Fairfield-Liverpool Cricket Club which plays in the Sydney Grade Cricket competition, Liverpool City Netball, which has participated successfully in many State and representative competitions, Hinchinbrook Hornets Junior Rugby League and FC Bossy Liverpool which plays in the New South Wales Super League and Liverpool Rangers FC which is located at Ireland Park, Memorial Avenue. The West Sydney Razorbacks basketball team used to play out of the Gough Whitlam Centre while they were in the NBL. Liverpool is also home to Australian Ice Hockey League team the Sydney Ice Dogs who play out of the Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink and Liverpool little athletics.
Liverpool has an arts and creation centre which provides music lessons with instruments such as:guitar, drums and banjo etc.
Liverpool is currently served by a full-time radio station 89.3FM 2GLF which broadcasts local information, music and ethnic programming. It is one of the first FM radio stations setup in the early '80s.
Liverpool has had several newspapers since the late 1800s. The first newspaper appeared in Liverpool in 1886 was The Liverpool Times which was soon superseded by The Liverpool Mercury. Both of these newspapers were then incorporated with The Liverpool Herald. There was also the free newspaper The Liverpool News that ran from 1904 to about 1973.
Liverpool now has two newspapers, The Liverpool Leader and The Liverpool Champion published every Wednesday.
Demographics
According to the 2021 census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Liverpool had a population of 31,078. These came from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds; less than one-third (33.9%) of residents were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were Iraq (11.3%), India (4.9%), Vietnam (3.1%), Fiji (2.7%), and Philippines (2.2%). The most popular ethnic responses were Australian (9.4%), Iraqi (8.3%), English (8.3%), Serbian (6.9%), and Indian (6.8%).[1]
24.6% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 19.2%, Serbian 6.5%, Vietnamese 4.4%, Hindi 3.2%, and Urdu 2.4%.[1]
Liverpool is remarkable for the high proportion of people who reported following some religion in the Census; only 12.1% stated that they had no religion, much lower than the national average of 38.4%. This Census question is optional and 10.9% of residents did not respond to it, which introduces some uncertainty into all the religious figures. The most common responses for religion were Islam 16.4%, Catholic 16.2%, and "Miscellaneous Religions" 9.2%.[1]
The suburb of Liverpool is split in its representation at all three levels of government with Hoxton Park Road the divider in each case. At the local level, Liverpool is part of the City of Liverpool, which is divided into two wards, the North Ward on the north side of Hoxton Park Road and the South Ward on the other side. Each ward elects five councillors and the council currently consists of four Labor councillors, four Liberals, two members of the Liverpool Community Independents Team (LCIT).[29] There is also a directly elected mayor, Ned Mannoun.[30]
The table above illustrates recent election results in the Liverpool area by combining results from each of the booths located in the suburb of Liverpool. The table regards only the first-preference votes. The winner(s) of each election is highlighted in yellow.
Liverpool has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) and is a few degrees warmer than the Sydney CBD at daytime, although nights are slightly cooler than Sydney's. If the maximum temperature is 27 °C in the city, in Liverpool it could typically reach as high as 33 °C, while in winter the temperature can be close to 0 °C while it is above 7 °C in central Sydney.[citation needed]
The hottest day recorded in Liverpool was on 1 February 1977 when it reached 45.8 °C.[35] At the time this was the second highest temperature recorded in Sydney's metropolitan area, being 2 °C behind Richmond's record set in 1939.
Rainfall is somewhat spread throughout the months, although the first half tends to be wetter. July to September tend to be drier, due to foehn winds originating from the Great Dividing Range. Frost can occur in the winter; the lowest recorded temperature was -5 °C, on 25 July 1994.[36]
Climate data for Liverpool, New South Wales, 1962-2014
^This column is focused on the electoral divisions of Liverpool and Holsworthy, polling places counted are Liverpool Uniting church, Liverpool public school, Liverpool City Brass and Pipe band hall, Hilda M Davis Senior Citizens Centre and Marsden Road Public School.
^This column is focused on the polling places known as Liverpool Hughes PPVC, Liverpool West (Werriwa) and Liverpool Werriwa PPVC. Labor and Liberal are highlighted, with Labor winning Werriwa and Hughes going to the Liberals.
^Edgar, Suzanne. "Sir Jenkin Coles (1843–1911)". Coles, Sir Jenkin (1843–1911). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
^Nairn, Bede. "Walter Hampson Cooper (1842–1880)". Cooper, Walter Hampson (1842–1880). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
^Morrison, A. A. (2006) [1972]. "Frederick Augustus Forbes (1818–1878)". Forbes, Frederick Augustus (1818–1878). Vol. 4. Melbourne University Press. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
^"Liverpool Hughes PPVC". Australian Electoral Commission. 112 Moore St, Liverpool NSW 2170. 14 June 2022. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^"Liverpool (Werriwa) - polling place". Australian Electoral Commission. Liverpool Public School, 1 Railway St, Liverpool NSW 2170. 22 June 2022. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^"Liverpool West (Werriwa) - polling place". Australian Electoral Commission. Liverpool Presbyterian Church, 117 Moore St, Liverpool NSW 2170. 18 June 2022. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^"City of Liverpool Mayoral Election". New South Wales Electoral Commission. 21 December 2021. Archived from the original on 1 February 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024. Ned Mannoun (LIB) was declared elected as Mayor on 21 December 2021.