Northmead

Northmead is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Northmead is located 26 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of the City of Parramatta. Northmead is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

Northmead is a hilly suburb with low to medium density houses, townhouses and apartment buildings. It is also home to a large light industrial area. Northmead is located to the northeast of the junction of Darling Mills Creek and Toongabbie Creek, which combine to form the beginnings of the Parramatta River.

With the British settlement of Parramatta, the area was originally part of the domain of Government House. What is left of this domain, including Government House, now forms Parramatta Park. The name Northmead is derived from the location of the north "mead", or meadow, of the governor's domain. The land was subdivided between 1859 and 1889 and the Northern Meadow and Western Meadow of the domain were split off and called Northmead and Westmead. From this time, orchards were established by many new settlers, including some whose names were well known in the Parramatta area - George Oakes, Nat Payten and William Fullagar among them.

The main commercial areas include Northmead Shopping Centre which is located at the corner of Windsor Road and features an IGA supermarket and many specialty shops. Specialty shops include a Thai take away restaurant, medical centre, florist, deli, butcher, bakery, dry cleaners, chemist, fruit shop and a Chinese restaurant. Another commercial area is known as The Junction shops, located on the corner of Windsor Road and Briens Road. This centre features a number of retailers for home furnishings, hardware, car accessories (Supercheap Auto, Repco), office supplies and electrical, Office Works and food outlets Subway, Hungry Jacks, Winning Appliances and Hog's Breath.

Northmead is the home of a large number of light industries, especially around Briens Road which runs along the back of the Westmead Hospital district. Along Briens Road are Coca-Cola Amatil, australian Paper and Ontera Carpets.

Schools include Northmead Public School and Northmead High School.

The North West T-Way connecting the Hills with Parramatta runs through Northmead. Northmead's public transport needs are catered by buses, namely those of the Hillsbus bus company. This results in highly operational bus services in the Hills District - an area that is one of the fastest growing in Australia. The major roads are Windsor Road and the Cumberland Highway. Currently, there is no train line that services Northmead with the closest being the Main Western Railway Line that runs through Westmead and Parramatta.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northmead