Croydon Park was originally used as agricultural land from the time of European settlement to well in to the 1920s. The Shillabeer family owned land in the vicinity that stretched from Torrens Road to Regency Road. The land was initially used as grazing land for dairy cattle with crops such as wheat and barley also being grown there. In the late 1920s the first of the subdivisions began when AW Shillabeer sold some of his land to developers. The majority of the houses built in the Croydon Park area were built from the late 1930s onwards. After World War Two a large part of the suburb was developed into a housing estate for returned soldiers. It subsequently attracted waves of Post-war European immigration. Over time, the children of these residents largely vacated the area, leaving a relatively elderly population. Today however, the area has started to attract interest from many home buyers due to its close proximity to the CBD, and affordable houses on large blocks of land. In response to this some of the industry in the area have relocated to outer suburbs and the land redeveloped for housing.
Geography
Croydon Park lies on the western side of South Road, in the section between Torrens Road and Regency Road. It is a large inner western suburb of Adelaide.
Facilities
The suburb is not served by a public primary school. Croydon Park Primary School was closed at the end of 1997 due to declining enrolments. The former site at Hudson Avenue was later developed into housing. The closest primary schools are Challa Gardens Primary School, to the west in Kilkenny, or Brompton Primary School in Brompton. However, St. Margaret Mary's, a Catholic primary school operates within the suburb. The localhigh school was Croydon High School, in adjacent West Croydon. The site is currently occupied by the School of Languages and the Adelaide Secondary School of English. Polonia Reserve, the base of State League football teamCroydon Kings is located on the eastern side of Croydon Park. The suburb is well known for its various Vietnamese restaurants and other Asian eateries along Days Road, dubbed 'Little Vietnam'.
Demography
As of 2016 Census, Croydon Park had a population of 3,971: 49.3% female and 50.7% male. The median age of the Croydon Park population was 37 years, the same as the national median of 37. 46.3% of people living in Croydon Park were born in Australia, with the other top responses for country of birth were Vietnam, India, Greece, Italy, Myanmar. 38.7% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were, 15.3% Vietnamese, 7.6% Greek, 3.6% Italian, 2.4% Mandarin, 2.1% Punjabi. The religious make up of Croydon Park is 22.6% Catholic, 21.2% No Religion, 11.4% Buddhism, and 10.4% Eastern Orthodox, while 1.2% were of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent. 38.2% of people are married, 41.1% have never married and 8.7% are divorced and 3.4% are separated, meanwhile, 49.3% of the people living in Croydon Park are employed full-time, 32.5% are working on a part-time basis and 12.9% are unemployed.
Places of worship include the Greek Orthodox Holy Monastery of St Nectarios and St Margaret Mary's Catholic Church.
Transport
The 300, 230 and 232 bus routes serve Regency Road. The 230 and 232 also serve Pym Street and Days and Harrison Roads. The 251, 252, 253 and 254 serve Torrens Road. All of the bus routes except 300 travel between Adelaide's CBD and Arndale Central Shopping Centre. The 300 bus is a cross metropolitan circular bus service. These bus routes are all handled by Adelaide Metro.
Future developments
A current review is looking at land use policies applying to a large area of underutilised industrial zoned land at Days Road and Regency Road, Croydon Park. The zoning review is intended to enable the future development of the land for residential, retail, and commercial uses. The current plan includes a shopping precinct along the northern boundary with Regency Rd, with the remaining southern half zoned residential.
