Macquarie Fields | |||||||||||||
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 Glenquarie Shopping Centre, Macquarie Fields | |||||||||||||
  Macquarie Fields Location in metropolitanSydney | |||||||||||||
 Interactive map of Macquarie Fields | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates:33°59′40″S150°53′15″E / 33.99444°S 150.88750°E /-33.99444; 150.88750 | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | New South Wales | ||||||||||||
| City | Sydney | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Established | 1883 | ||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Elevation | 40 m (130 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 14,023 (SAL2021)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 2564 | ||||||||||||
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Macquarie Fields is asuburb ofSydney, in the state ofNew South Wales,Australia. Macquarie Fields is located 38 kilometres south-west of theSydney central business district, in thelocal government area of theCity of Campbelltown and is part of theMacarthur region.
Macquarie Fields is surrounded bybushland. NearbyMacquarie Links, is a high-security housing estate beside an international standardgolf course. The suburb has multiple high schools includingMacquarie Fields High School andJames Meehan High School.
The original inhabitants of the Macquarie Fields area were theDarug people of western Sydney.[3] The rich soil of the area was home to an abundance of plants which in turn attracted animals such askangaroos andemus, both of which along with this part withyams and other native vegetables and fruit were part of the diet of the Darug.[4] They lived in small huts called gunyahs, made spears, tomahawks andboomerangs for hunting and had an elaborate system of tribal law and rituals with its origins in theDreamtime.[5] However, following the arrival of theFirst Fleet in 1788, they were pushed off their land by the British settlers.[6]
Macquarie Fields was named by early landholder James Meehan in honour of theGovernor of New South Wales,Lachlan Macquarie.[7] The area was surveyed by Meehan in the early 19th century. Although transported to Australia as a convict for his role in theIrish Rebellion of 1798, Meehan had trained as asurveyor in Ireland and in 1803 was appointed an assistant to NSW Surveyor-General Charles Grimes. In 1806 he was granted a full pardon and in 1810 became Surveyor-General. For his work, he was granted a number of parcels of land including 2,020 acres (8.2 km2) in what is now Macquarie Fields and neighbouring suburbs. He used the rich soil to grow cereal crops, fruit trees and to graze livestock.[7]
The property changed hands a couple of times after Meehan's death and in the 1840s, Samuel Terry built a Regency mansion, Macquarie Fields House, which still stands to this day. It is now listed on the Register of the National Estate.[8] In 1883, then owner William Phillips subdivided the land to create a new town he called Glenwood Estate with grand boulevards and fine buildings. A railway station was added to the line in 1888 but the depression of the 1890s meant the grand town failed to materialize with only a few small houses built on the lots. In the nextGreat Depression of the 1930s, the area became popular with the homeless who made makeshift huts, not unlike those of the earlier Darug people.[7]
AfterWorld War II, the village grew steadily. A public school was opened in 1958 and by 1971, the population reached 3700. In the mid-1970s, a large Housing Commission development was built on the east side of town and given the suburb names of Bunbury (later Guise) and Curran after the local creek. Residents of the privately owned areas of Macquarie Fields were strongly opposed to the new developments being included in their suburb and this continued well into the 1980s. Since that time, local authorities have tried to blend the area into a single suburb. Private housing developments sprung up further around and the weight of population contributed to a larger town centre.[7]
In 2005, riots were sparked by a high-speed police pursuit on 25 February through the Glenquarie housing estate in Macquarie Fields. The chase resulted in the driver, 20-year-old Jesse Kelly, crashing the stolen vehicle into a tree and killing his two passengers, 17-year-old Dylan Raywood and 19-year-old Matthew Robertson.
Macquarie Fields has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
According to the2021 census, there were about 14,023 people in Macquarie Fields.
Macquarie Fields railway station is on theMain Southern railway line. Transit Systems currently operate a bus depot in Macquarie Fields.
Macquarie Fields was serviced by fourInterline Bus Services bus routes. In September 2023 these were taken over byTransit Systems NSW who was awarded theSydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts Region 2 until 2031.[11]
The town is home to Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre, which contains an indoor aquatic centre and an outdoor Olympic sized swimming pool. It also encompasses a gymnasium and indoor sports facilities.There is also a number of sporting fields in the town. Sporting fields include Bensley Road, Hazlet Oval, Monarch Oval and Third Avenue.
Macquarie Fields contains theWorkVentures Connect Centre at Macquarie Fields.
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)