Kingsford is a mainly residential area, situated directly south of the University of New South Wales, which is in Kensington. Many of the residents are students living in medium and high density housing. A large Australian Army depot lies in the east of Kingsford. Kingsford surrounded by Daceyville to the south, Eastlakes to the west, Randwick to the north, and Maroubra to the south, At the centre of Kingsford, on Anzac Parade and Gardeners Road, there was a large roundabout connecting a public transport system to nine possible destinations via a large number of bus services. For this reason, this part of Kingsford is sometimes referred to as "nine-ways". Due to construction on light rail, the roundabout has since been converted into an intersection with traffic lights. Kingsford is less than 5 km from Coogee Beach.
History
The area was once known as South Kensington. It was named Kingsford to honour Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, as was the nearby Sydney Airport. Kingsford was undeveloped until a land boom in the 1920s. In the 1940s, many Greeks settled in the area, particularly migrants from the island of Castellorizo. Many opened businesses in the area; and, in 1973, they built the Castellorizian Club on Anzac Parade. Kingsford was originally intended to be the terminus of the Eastern Suburbs railway line; but, as a cost-cutting measure, the line was terminated at Bondi Junction in 1979. A new light rail project linking Kingsford to the CBD via Anzac Parade opened in April 2020.
In 2010, a tribute was created to Charles Kingsford Smith in Gardeners Lane, off Anzac Parade. The tribute consisted of a mosaic of Smith, a mosaic of his plane, the Southern Cross, and a Trans Pacific Mural depicting the Southern Cross. The tribute was unveiled on 11 August 2010 by Mayor John Procopiadis. It was designed by Masoud Nodous; the artist was Tim Cole. In 2014, the mural depicting the Southern Cross was added. The artist was Annette Barlow.
Population
In the 2016 Census, there were 15,482 people in Kingsford. 36.1% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 20.0%, Indonesia 8.0%, Malaysia 2.9%, Greece 2.2% and England 2.1%. The most common ancestries in Kingsford were Chinese 29.6%, English 11.3%, Australian 10.2%, Greek 6.8% and Irish 5.9%. 38.1% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 20.4%, Greek 5.9%, Cantonese 4.9%, Indonesian 7.0% and Spanish 1.3%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 39.0% and Catholic 19.2%.
