Macquarie Park, New South Wales

Macquarie Park is a suburb in northern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Macquarie Park is located 12 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Ryde. Macquarie Park is part of the Northern Suburbs region and it is one of the most important business and education hubs in Sydney.

Macquarie Park was part of the suburb of North Ryde until it was gazetted as a suburb in its own right on 5 February 1999, and many businesses still use North Ryde as the address. Both suburbs share the 2113 postcode but Macquarie University, which is located at the northern part of the suburb, has its own postcode of 2109. Macquarie Park is also the location for the Lane Cove River Tourist Park where Home and Away now film the Summer Bay caravan park scenes.

History
The area between Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers was originally known by its Aboriginal name Wallumatta. The Aboriginal name survives in a local park, the Wallumatta Nature Reserve, located at the corner of Twin and Cressy Roads, North Ryde.

Macquarie Park is named for Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1762–1824), a British military officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. The area that is now Macquarie Park was part of the suburb of North Ryde from the late 19th century. The area was once filled with market gardens, poultry farms and vast tracts of bushland, with many beautiful picnic spots and waterfalls.

The mid-1960s saw the establishment of Macquarie University and the 'Macquarie Park Employment Area' which saw the rezoning of 'Green Belt' bushland to allow for industrial activities. The initial concept for Macquarie Park was based on the idea of a similar hi-tech industrial area surrounding Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, the goal being to provide for the interaction between industries and the university.

During the 1970s, companies such as Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited, Beiersdorf, Racal and Universal Press located their corporate headquarters in the area. Macquarie Park has since gained a reputation of being a leading high-tech industrial area in Australia. It attracts many local and international companies from high-tech fields including electronic, scientific, computing, medical, communication, pharmaceutical and business supply solutions.

Commercial area
Macquarie Park is an important centre for business in Australia and the state of New South Wales. The corporate prestige, close access to facilities and aesthetically pleasing environment are an attraction for many corporations. Macquarie Park had a total number of 32 308 jobs in 2001, making it the fourth largest concentration of jobs in NSW after Sydney CBD, North Sydney and Parramatta. Large businesses in the suburb include: AC Neilsen, Avaya, AstraZeneca, BOC, Canon, CA, Compuware, Australian Radio Network: 101.7 WSFM & Edge 96.1, CSC, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Ford Motor Co/Premiere Automotive Group (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover), Foxtel, General Motors (Holden & Saab), George Weston Foods, Hitachi, Hyundai, Johnson & Johnson, Kenwood, Kimberly-Clark, Lucent Technologies, Metcash, Microsoft, Nestle Purina, Nortel Networks, Novartis, Bilfinger Berger, Optus (moved in late 2007 from North Sydney), Oracle Corporation, Orix, Philips, Raytheon, Sanofi-Aventis, Siemens, Memjet, Sony, Toshiba, TPG Telecom, Warner Music Group, Wesfarmers Industrial & Safety. Businesses that have previously operated in Macquarie Park include Mix 106.5 (until 2006 when it moved to Hornsby), Network Ten (until 1991 when it moved to Ultimo then Pyrmont in 1996) and Global Television Network Studios (until mid-2007).

The Macquarie Centre is a major regional shopping Centre at Macquarie Park. Macquarie University takes up a large part of the suburb.

A substantial re-development of the Herring Road precinct in Macquarie Park is planned as part of the NSW government's Urban Activation Precincts program. The objective is to provide housing and employment close to transport to help meet Sydney's growth needs. , investigations are on-going to refine the scope of the precinct and the necessary planning studies.

Transport
Macquarie Park has access to the M2 Hills Motorway, that runs through the northern part of the suburb. It is serviced by Busways, Forest Coach Lines, Hillsbus, Sydney Buses and Transdev NSW bus services.

During peak hour, the whole area gets very congested with traffic.

Macquarie Park railway station, Macquarie University railway station and North Ryde railway station are underground stations on the Epping to Chatswood rail line of the Sydney Trains network. The line opened on Monday 23 February 2009.

At the 2011 census, only 27.3% of employed people travelled to work on public transport and 42.4% by car (either as driver or as passenger).

Education
Macquarie University is one of Australia's largest universities. It features a 126 hectare park-like campus beside a high-technology corridor. The University is affiliated with a number of colleges also located in the suburb including Dunmore Lang College, Robert Menzies College an Anglican college, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Sydney Institute of Business & Technology.

Macquarie University has in recent years become a major research centre, with Macquarie University Hospital and the Cochlear Research Centre located within the university grounds.

Demographics
At the 2011 census, Macquarie Park recorded a population of 6,143. Of these:
 * Age distribution : In keeping with its proximity to the university, Macquarie Park shows an over-representation of younger adults compared to the rest of the country. Macquarie Park residents' median age was 30 years, compared to the national median of 37. Children aged 0–14 years made up just 8.7% of the population (less than half the national average of 19.3%) and people aged 65 years and over made up 13.0% of the population (national average is 14.0%).
 * Ethnic diversity : Just over one-third (36.3%) of Macquarie Park residents were born in Australia; the next most common countries of birth were China 13.3%, India 5.5%, Malaysia 3.0%, Hong Kong 3.0% and Philippines 2.6%. However, only 12.2% identify their ethnic ancestry as Australian; the other most common self-identified ancestries were Chinese 19.6%, English 14.5%, Indian 5.3% and Irish 4.9%. Less than half (43.2%) of people only spoke English at home; other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 12.4%, Cantonese 6.2%, Korean 2.7%, Hindi 2.1% and Indonesian 1.9%.
 * Religion : This is an optional question on the Census. Of the people who answered it, the most common response by a large margin was "No Religion" (28.5%). The next most common responses were Catholic 16.8%, Anglican 9.0%, Buddhism 5.8% and Islam 5.0%.
 * Income : The average weekly household income was $1,258, almost identical to the national average of $1,234.
 * Housing : Most private dwellings (77.7%) were flats, units or apartments. A further 21.5% were semi-detached (townhouses etc.), and only 0.3% were separate houses. About half (49.3%) were family households, and most of the remainder (39.4%) were single person households, while 11.3% were group households. The average household size was 2.0 people.

Politics
Macquarie Park is in the State of New South Wales electorates of Lane Cove and Ryde, and the Federal electorate of Division of Bennelong.