Waterloo, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
Waterloo is an inner-city suburb of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Waterloo is located 4 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district
Sydney central business district
The Sydney central business district is the main commercial centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It extends southwards for about 3 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of first European settlement. Its north–south axis runs from Circular Quay in the north to Central railway station in...

 and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney
City of Sydney
The City of Sydney is the Local Government Area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia...

.

History

Waterloo took its name from the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 in 1815, when Allied and Prussian forces under the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

 and Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...

 defeated the French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

.

In the 1820s Waterloo began supporting industrial operations including the Fisher and Duncan Paper Mill and the Waterloo Flour Mills owned by William Hutchinson and Daniel Cooper. William Hutchinson
William Hutchinson (Superintendent)
William Hutchinson was a British convict who was transported to the Australian colonies, ultimately to become a successful public servant and businessman.Hutchinson was by trade a butcher in England...

, superindendent of convicts and public works, had been granted 1400 acres (5.7 km²) of land in 1823. He sold Waterloo Farm to Daniel Cooper (1785-1853) and Solomon Levey (1794-1833). Cooper later bought out Levey's share and on his death the Waterloo Estate passed onto his son, also named Daniel Cooper, who was the first speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

.

Location

Waterloo has been a relatively poor area, until recent times. It is still dominated by public housing estates for those on low-incomes, which were built in the second half of the 20th century by the New South Wales Department of Housing. Today, despite some social problems in some parts of the suburb, Waterloo is undergoing gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 with a rising business district focusing on technology-oriented firms and the development of more green space such as parks. By 2006, median individual income in Waterloo was slightly higher than the Australian average.
Green Square
Green Square, New South Wales
Green Square is a district in the inner-city of Sydney in the suburbs of Alexandria, Zetland, Waterloo and Beaconsfield. It is located 4 km south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney....

 is a district in the south of the suburb that is being redeveloped. It involves an urban renewal program with a planned town square in Waterloo (Green Square area) which the developers claim will make it the most modern area of Sydney. This is attracting considerable amounts of investment in modern housing and retail developments.

The Waterloo Urban Conservation Area is a residential area of predominantly 19th century terrace and cottage housing. New development and redevelopment in this area is encouraged to be sympathetic to the existing heritage style.

Transport

Waterloo is serviced by State Transit Authority Sydney Buses routes to the Sydney CBD. Green Square underground railway station, on the Airport line of the City Rail network, is located in the south-west corner of the suburb. Redfern railway station is located close to the north-west corner of the suburb.

Churches

Waterloo hosts the city campus of Hillsong Church
Hillsong Church
Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal megachurch affiliated with Australian Christian Churches and located in Sydney, Australia. The church's senior pastors, Brian and Bobbie Houston, began the church in 1983 as the Hills Christian Life Centre in Baulkham Hills...

 (affiliated with the Assemblies of God
Assemblies of God in Australia
Australian Christian Churches , also known as Assemblies of God in Australia , is a Pentecostal Christian denomination and the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world...

). Other churches include Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Waterloo Uniting Church, Waterloo Salvation Army, Waterloo Congressional Fellowship

Population

According to the 2006 census, Waterloo has a population of 11,122 people, with indigenous people
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...

 making up 3.4% of the population (higher than the national average). 43.3% of the population was born overseas. English was primarily spoken at home by 48.8% of the population, with the most important other languages being Chinese languages (10.0%), Russian (5.9%) and Indonesian (2.8%). The largest religions were Catholicism (22.4% of the population), Anglicanism (10.0%), Buddhism (5.7%) and Eastern Orthodoxy (3.7%). Furthermore, 19.7% of the population identified with no religion/atheism, slightly above the national average. 47.0% of the population lived in public housing, and the unemployment rate was 16.6%, significantly higher than the national average.

Recreation

The Waterloo Skate Park, is a modern skate park and the first of its kind to copy the urban streetscape layout of popular skate spots like Martin Place and Cathedral Square, in Sydney.

The skate park includes upgraded lighting, a smaller half-pipe as well as a large plaza area featuring a pedestrian streetscape with benches, steps and ramps catering for beginners through to experienced skateboarders.

The park is located next to Waterloo Oval and the South Sydney Youth Services building on Elizabeth Street.

External links

Local Residents Group
Local Community Centre
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK