St Helens Park, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = St Helens Park
city = Sydney
state = nsw


caption =
lga = City of Campbelltown
postcode = 2560
pop =
est =
area =
propval =
stategov = Wollondilly
fedgov = Macarthur
near-nw = Ambarvale
near-n = Bradbury
near-ne = Airds
near-w = Rosemeadow
near-e = Holsworthy
near-sw = Gilead
near-s = Gilead
near-se = Wedderburn
dist1 = 56
dir1 = south-west
location1= Sydney

St Helens Park is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. St Helens Park is located 56 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Campbelltown.

History

St Helens Park was named after the imposing Gothic mansion of St Helens Park, which can be seen from Appin Road. An early farm in the area was Denfield, presumed to have been built in 1837 by John Farley - supposedly the first man to have first seen the ghost of Fred Fisher (Fisher's Ghost). Denfield still stands in the southern portion of the suburb. But one of the earliest land grantees to settle in the area was Samuel Larken, who called his farm Ambarvale. Although this grant stood on the modern location of St Helens Park, the name was actually given to its neighbouring suburb.

The Larken property was later combined with nearby Egypt Farm and other grants and by 1886 had been purchased by George Charles Westgarth. Westgarth, a Sydney solicitor, had been in search of a country residence. His elaborately-gabled mansion was built with stone quarried at Minto, in 1887. It was based on a design by George Mansfield, also the architect of old Campbelltown Public School and the Queen Street building now occupied by the Macarthur Advertiser.

Subsequently the property passed into many hands, and by the 1940s it was known to many locals as 'Blowfly Farm', because it was used as a fly spray testing laboratory, until it was bought in 1949 and restored by Cyril and Mary Brookes. By April 1970, it consists of 123 acres (49ha), surrounded by Appin, Woodland Roads and the Georges River, and was run as a grazing property.

Housing

St Helens Park is one of the more modern suburbs of Campbelltown, with new subdivisions taking place as of 2006. The vast majority of new development in the suburb is in the form of detached housing.

Transport

St Helens Park is well connected by road to both Campbelltown and Wollongong via Appin Road. The suburb is also serviced by Campbelltown's local bus company, Busways. It has three routes (887, 889, 890), two directly from St Helens Park to Campbelltown and one on the route from Campbelltown to Appin and Wollongong. [cite web | url= http://www.busways.com.au/files/maps/Ctownnetwork.pdf | title=Macarthur Bus Network Map| publisher=Busways | accessdate=2008-04-16 ]

References

External links