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:''For the suburb of Auckland, see Chatswood, New Zealand


'Chatswood' is a suburb on the lower 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.

Contents

History

Geography

Commercial Area

Transport

Schools

Hotels

Parks

Population

Demographics

Culture

Willoughby Spring Festival

References

External links

History

Chatswood is believed to be named after the pet name "Chat" of the second wife of Richard Harnett (a pioneer of the district) and the original "wooded" nature of the area.

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.

Commercial Area

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, Smiths Snackfoods, IBM and NEC. A number of high-density residential towers are also located around Chatswood.
'Chatswood Chase', completed in 1988, 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 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.
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 and Singaporean restaurants and eateries.
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.

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 Road, Willoughby Road and Eastern Valley Way.

Schools

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

★ St Pius X College (Years 5-12, Catholic boys school)

★ Mercy Catholic College (Years 7-12, Catholic girls school)

★ Our Lady of Dolours (Years K-6, Catholic primary school)

★ Chatswood Primary (Years K-6)

★ Chatswood High (Years 7-12).
Other schools within the vicinity are easily accessible by bus or train.

Hotels

★ Saville Park Suites (near Chatswood railway station)

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.

Population

Demographics

In 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%. The proportion of residents born in Australia was 34.7%.
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%).
39.3% of people in the suburb speak only English. However, 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%) & Greek (0.4%).
Of the 65% people born overseas in Chatswood, most were born in China (10.8%), Hong Kong (7.6%), South Korea (7.3%), Taiwan (3.3%) & Japan (2.5%).

Culture

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.

References

External links

★ Willoughby City Council

★ Chatswood/Roseville - community profile

★ Chatswood West/Lane Cove North - community profile

★ Chatswood Directory - Business and services directory