Hurstville Grove, New South Wales

Hurstville Grove is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Hurstville Grove is located 19 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the Municipality of Kogarah, in the St George area.

Hurstville Grove stretches from Hillcrest Avenue to the shore of Oatley Bay, on the Georges River. It is mainly residential with a few shops located on Hillcrest Avenue. Hurstville and South Hurstville are separate suburbs, to the northeast.

History
The Hurstville area was granted to Captain John Townson and his brother Robert Townson in 1808. Captain John Townson was granted 1950 acre which was on the land now occupied by the suburb of Hurstville and parts of Bexley. Robert Townson was granted the land which is now occupied by Penshurst, Mortdale and parts of Peakhurst. The next year Captain John Townson was granted an additional 250 acre in the area now occupied by Kingsgrove and Beverly Hills. However, the Townson brothers were not happy with the heavily timbered land that they were given because it was not suitable for the farming of sheep for wool. It is likely that the brothers never occupied their land.

The land was sold to a wealthy merchant named Simeon Lord (1771-1840) in 1812, who called his land Lord's Bush. When Simeon Lord died the land became the property of John Rose Holden and James Holt of the Bank of NSW.

The land was sold to Michael Gannon (1800-61) in 1850 and became known as Gannon's Forest. The Gannons Forest post office opened in 1881. The local school was known as Hurstville by School Inspector MacIntyre in 1876. When the railway arrived in 1884, the station took the name Hurstville from the school. Hurstville municipality was incorporated in 1887.

Churches

 * St Annes Catholic Church
 * St Aidans Anglican Church

Parks and waterways

 * Poulton Park, Willunga Reserve, Moore Park, Grove Park, Quarry Reserve
 * Oatley Bay, part of the Georges River waterway.

Population
According to the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population, there were 2,300 people usually resident in Hurstville Grove. 38.4% stated they were born overseas with the top countries of birth being China 4.1%, Hong Kong 3.6% and Croatia 2.2%. English was stated as the only language spoken at home by 57.9% of residents and the most common other languages spoken were Greek 9.5%, Cantonese 9.5% and Arabic 3.8%. The most common responses for religious affiliation were Catholic 32.0%, Orthodox 17.1% and Anglican 15.9%.