Mulgoa, New South Wales

Mulgoa is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mulgoa is located 66 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

Mulgoa is an outer rural suburb that covers 5530 hectares, south of the suburbs of Regentville and Glenmore Park.

Aboriginal Culture
Mulgoa takes its name from the Mulgoa people who were the indigenous inhabitants of the area and spoke the Dharug language. The name is believed to mean black swan. The Mulgoa weren't the only inhabitants of the area. They shared the Mulgoa Valley with the Gandangara people of the Southern Highlands, whose territory extended up into the Blue Mountains. They lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. Their homes were bark huts called 'gunyahs'. They hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants.

European Settlement
Following the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney, there were a number of bloody battles between the British settlers and the local indigenous people in this area, however, it is believed that the Mulgoa people were generally peaceful and most of the clashes were with the Gandangara. The first government land grants in the area were made in 1810 to Edward Cox, the four-year-old son of Captain William Cox, who constructed a famous road across the Blue Mountains in 1814. William Cox built The Cottage on the land in about 1811. Not far away dwelt Cox's friend Sir John Jamison, who erected the colony's finest mansion, Regentville House, in 1824, on an eminence overlooking the Nepean River. The centre of Mulgoa's spiritual life in the colonial era was St Thomas' Anglican Church, which dates from 1838. It was the first public building in the Mulgoa Valley and was constructed out of sandstone and cedar on paddocks donated by the Cox family, with Sir John Jamison serving as one of its patrons. The Reverend Thomas Cooper Makinson was St Thomas' inaugural rector. Attached to the church was Mulgoa's first school. It operated until 1871-72, when the Mulgoa Provisional School replaced it.

In 1893, Mulgoa's population was sufficiently large to be granted the status of a municipality. Its area extended beyond the current suburb boundaries. In 1949, however, council rationalisations led to it merging with Penrith, St Marys and Castlereagh into a larger Penrith Municipality. These days, Mulgoa is still primarily a rural area.

Transport
Mulgoa Road is the main road in the suburb, connecting with Penrith. Westbus, a private company, provides a bus service which runs from Warragamba to Penrith along Mulgoa Road.

Education
There is a government-run primary school, Mulgoa Public School, and a privately-run school, Nepean Christian School.

Demographics
The recorded population of Mulgoa in the 2006 census was 2217. The majority of residents are Australian born (78%) with small minorities born in England (3.9%) and Malta (2.3%). There are a large number of couples with children (57%) and most houses are owned outright (39%) or being paid off (38%). The number of renters (17%) was substantially less than the national average. The median income ($560 per week) was higher than the national average ($466).

Notable Residents

 * Captain William Cox (1764-1837), Mulgoa pioneer, military officer, landowner and road-builder;
 * Sir John Jamison Kt, MD (1776-1844), landowner, physician and Member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales;
 * Robert Dulhunty (1803-1853), landowner, police magistrate, alderman and founder of the Dubbo district in central-western New South Wales; and
 * The Reverend Thomas Cooper Makinson (1809-1893), Mulgoa's first resident Anglican clergyman and schoolmaster, who later converted to Catholicism.
 * Tiarn Bill, a.k.a 'the local bogan', who speaks a slurred version of english called 'Mulgoan'. Whilst most maintain that she is harmless, encounters can be quite disturbing and it is recommended that you keep your distance if you encounter this particular species of Mulgoian.

Governance
At a local government level, Mulgoa is part of the south ward of Penrith City Council, represented by Jim Aitken, Mark Davies, Karen McKeown, Susan Page and Gary Rumble. The current mayor is Pat Sheehy. At the state level, it is part of the Electoral district of Mulgoa, represented by Diane Beamer, of the Labor Party. Federally, it is part of the Division of Lindsay, and represented by the Australian Labor Party's David Bradbury since 2007.