Pagewood, New South Wales


Pagewood is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 8 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. It is part of the Bayside Council.
Pagewood has a mixture of residential and industrial areas.

History

Pagewood was originally planned as a garden suburb, similar to neighbouring Daceyville. However, it was developed to provide housing after World War I when there was a shortage of land. The new suburb began developing in 1919 as an estate called Monash Gardens. The suburb was named Pagewood in 1929 to honour the late Alderman Fred Page, the Mayor of Botany Council in 1928.
National Studios was opened in 1935 and for nearly thirty years, Australian and British cinema was produced here.
In 1940, the site was bought by General Motors Holden, which operated a car manufacturing plant until 1981.
In 1953, the Pagewood Rex Hotel, currently called the Pagewood Hotel, opened.
In 1960, the council considered changing the suburb name to East Botany. Residents battled to retain the name, particularly since Botany was becoming an industrial area, while Pagewood retained its identity as a mainly residential area.
Westfield Eastgardens shopping centre in Wentworth Avenue was built in the northern part of the suburb on the old Pagewood Bus Depot and part of the former site of the General Motors Holden car manufacturing plant and opened in 1987. The remainder of the site was sold to W.D. & H.O. Wills. Eastgardens, which covers the area around the shopping centre, was officially declared a separate suburb in 1999.
Astrolabe Park, in the north corner of the suburb, was named after one of the ships commanded by La Perouse, the French explorer who arrived at Botany Bay just days after the First Fleet in 1788.

Population

In the 2016 Census, there were 3,805 people in Pagewood. 61.4% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 3.2% and England 2.7%. 61.1% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Greek 8.6% and Mandarin 3.6%. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 33.3%, No Religion 16.9%, Eastern Orthodox 12.9% and Anglican 10.7%.

Education

A number of well-known sporting teams represent the local area. One of them is the well known NRL club named the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Botany Rams some other teams are Pagewood Botany Soccer Club, Botany Golf Club, Bonnie Doon Golf Club, Eastlake Golf Club and The Lakes Golf Club.

Notable residents