North St Marys, New South Wales

North St Marys is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales Australia. North St Marys is located 47 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith. North St Marys is an extension of the adjoining suburb of St Marys.

Aboriginal culture
Prior to European settlement, what is now North St Marys was home to the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people who spoke the Darug language. 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. Little else is known of their customs and there are no known carvings or rock paintings in the area. By 1816, their numbers had been reduced by smallpox and clashes with the British settlers.

European settlement
The first land grant in the area was made in 1820 to Phillip Parker King, son of the Governor Phillip Gidley King. He named it Triangle Farm but did very little with the land and it remained largely vacant land until the 1940s when it was bought by the Commonwealth Government to house workers at the St Marys munitions factory.

Demographics
According to the 2006 census, North St Marys had a population of 3,646, who tended to be a bit younger (33) than the national average (37). Most people were Australian born (71%) with minorities born in England (3.3%), Philippines (2.5%), New Zealand (1.7%), Fiji (1.2%) and Samoa (0.8%). The language spoken most commonly, other than English, was Arabic (2.6%). The median income was $350 per week, noticeably less than the national average of $466. Most houses were either owned outright (25%) or were being paid off (32%) but the number of rental properties (39%) was higher than the national average and over half the rental properties were rented from the Housing Commission.

Governance
At a local government level, North St Marys is part of the east ward of Penrith City Council, represented by Kaylene Allison, Greg Davies, Tanya Davies, Jackie Greenow & Marko Malkoc. At the state level, it is part of the Electoral district of Londonderry, represented by the Liberal's Bart Bassett. Federally, it is part of the Division of Lindsay, represented by Labor's David Bradbury.