Villawood, New South Wales facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Villawood Sydney, New South Wales
Woodville Shopping Centre
Population	6,032 (2016 census)
Postcode(s)	2163
Location	22 km (14 mi) west of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	City of Canterbury-Bankstown City of Fairfield
State electorate(s)	Bankstown Fairfield
Federal Division(s)	Blaxland
Suburbs around Villawood: Old Guildford Guildford Chester Hill Carramar Villawood Chester Hill Lansdowne Bass Hill Bass Hill

Villawood, a suburb of local government areas City of Canterbury-Bankstown and City of Fairfield, is 22 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

History

The Aboriginal tribe of Gandangara once lived in the area. European settlement began in the early 1840s. During the 1860s, Villawood was used as pastoral land, but it was overrun with wild dogs. Woodville Road, which runs through Villawood, was once named Dog Trap Road because many farmers set dog traps for these wild dogs. A train station opened in 1922 to service the area was originally known as Woodville Road. Unfortunately, there was confusion with another place called Woodville in the Hunter Valley and thus the name was transposed into 'Villawood'.

Transport

Villawood railway station and Leightonfield railway station are on the Bankstown Line of the Sydney Trains network.

Sport and recreation

Apart from the Woods Action centre (see above) which includes Indoor Climbing, Ten-pin bowling, Go-karting and the Wiggles indoor play centre, Villawood is home to three other major sport and recreation areas: The Wran Leisure Centre, Thurina Park and Villawood Skatepark.

The Wran Leisure Centre (named after Neville Wran) houses a swimming pool, tennis courts, a gymnasium and squash courts. Thurina Park houses two multi purpose sporting fields that cater for soccer, cricket and baseball. Thurina Park is also home to the Villawood United Soccer Club.

Population

At the 2011 census, Villawood recorded a population of 5,304. Of these:

• The age distribution was quite typical of Australia as a whole. The median age of Villawood residents was 36 years, compared to the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 19.9% of the population (national average is 19.3%) and people aged 65 years and over made up 12.7% of the population (national average is 14.0%).
• There is a very diverse ethnic range. Fewer than half (46.8%) of residents were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were Vietnam 14.6%, Lebanon 7.3%, China 3.3%, Iraq 2.0% and New Zealand 1.8%. Looking past the country of birth to residents' self-identified ancestry shows another dimension of this cultural diversity: the most common ancestries were Lebanese 14.7%, Vietnamese 14.6%, Australian 11.4%, English 10.4% and Chinese 6.6%. Less than one third (29.0%) of people spoke English at home; other languages spoken at home included Arabic 21.8%, and Vietnamese 18.0%.