Sutherland, New South Wales



'''Sutherland, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia '''

Sutherland is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

'''History '''

There are two theories for the origin of the Sutherland name:

Thomas Holt (1811–88) purchased 13,000 acres (53 km²) in the 1860s that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla. The Sutherland area was originally heavily timbered and timber-cutting became the first industry. Holt initiated many commercial projects including timber cutting, coal mining, sheep farming and oyster farming. He built a forty room mansion called Sutherland House in 1881 at Sylvania, on the bank of Gwawley Bay. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1918, thought to have been deliberately lit.
 * It is suggested that the name was taken from able seaman Forby Sutherland, who died on Captain Cook’s Endeavour voyage. Sutherland Point at Kurnell is named after him, but there's no direct connection of him to the Sutherland Shire district.
 * Thomas Mitchell as surveyor general in 1835 named the first parish south of the Georges River as the "Parish of Southerland" (South with an "o"). But it appeared in the government gazette spelt Sutherland, losing the significance of the name.

The first road through the area was South Road constructed in 1842. Later Illawarra Road was built along the ridges of high land to the Woronora River. The Princes Highway became the main thoroughfare through Sutherland, linking Sydney to the Illawarra region.

The railway line was constructed in the 1880s and development followed. Residents lived in humpies or tents in the bush. Once the land was cleared, a township developed around the railway station. In 1886 there were only four permanent buildings: the railway station, the station master's residence, the railway keeper's cottage and a general store run by a man called Bromley. The post office opened on the 1st September 1886 and a school began classes in 1887. In 1906, the shire of Sutherland was proclaimed and the name Sutherland was officially declared. The first meetings were held in the shire clerk's home and the Council Chambers were built in 1915. By the 1920s, steam trams operated between Cronulla and Sutherland.

==Commercial area == Sutherland is a mostly a residential area with a shopping centre located close to Sutherland station. Some commercial developments are also located on the Princes Highway. As the administrative centre of the Sutherland Shire, Sutherland hosts facilities such as a general purpose entertainment centre where citizenship ceremonies take place, a community centre, local government council offices and a major central library. Woronora Cemetery sits on the western border of the suburb.

==Transport == Sutherland station is a junction on the Illawarra line of the City Rail network. The main line runs south to Waterfall and Wollongong and north to Sydney Central, and a branch line runs east to Cronulla.

Veolia NSW has a bus interchange at Sutherland, on both sides of Sutherland station. Services on the eastern side of the station connect Westfield Miranda, Gymea, Kirrawee and Grays Point. Services on the western side connect Loftus, Engadine, Heathcote, Menai, Illawong, Padstow, Bankstown and Woronora.

When the Southern Freeway (also known as the F6) was built linking Sydney to Wollongong, the Princes Highway was diverted away from the centre of Sutherland using Acacia Road. An F6 extension has been proposed for many years, which would link Sutherland to the Captain Cook Bridge via Miranda and onto the Southern Cross Drive via Brighton-Le-Sands.