Lidcombe

Lidcombe is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

History

Lidcombe, through various name changes, is one of the oldest suburbs in Sydney. It lies around 20km west of the Sydney CBD. Suburbs next to it are Homebush West (eastern side), Newington and Silverwater (north), Auburn (west) and Berala, Chullora and Regents Park (south).

It is a traditional working-class suburb. Today, the suburb is a multicultural one reflecting the waves of immigration of postwar Australia. There is a large ethnic population, in particular Ukraininans, Croatians, Filipinos, Vietnamese (ie Khanh's Tribe) and Chinese.

The postcode of Lidcombe is 2141.

Schools

Lidcombe Public School was established in 1879 making it one of the oldest in the Sydney suburbs. The school is located on John Street.

A Catholic school, called St Joachim's Parish School, is located on Mary Street. The Sisters of St Joseph founded the school in 1885 and remained active in the school until 1984. After that time the Sisters handed the Principalship over to lay staff who have continued to uphold the traditions and spirit of Blessed Mary MacKillop, who walked the playground and worked at the school, and her Josephite Sisters. The school caters for children up to Year 6.

There used to be a Marist Brothers boys-only school located on Keating Street, behind St. Joachim's Catholic Church. It closed down after the amalgamation of several Catholic schools in the area. The school catered for boys up to Year 6. This site is now the location of various Catholic Church enterprises, including the Inner Western Regional Office of the Catholic Education Office, Sydney, the Catholic Adult Education Centre (run by the Opus Dei movement) and a bookstore specialising in Catholic publications("The Mustard Seed").

University

The University of Sydney's Health Sciences Campus (Cumberland Campus) is located on East Street, next door to the Lidcombe TAFE.

Detention Centre

The Minda Detention Centre, at Rookwood Road, is a juvenile facility for girls. Minda is the only detention facility of its type catering for juvenile female offenders in New South Wales. The Centre was also used as a filming location for the UK-Australian TV mini series, the 'Leaving of Liverpool'.

Hospital

The heritage-listed Lidcombe Hospital was closed in the 1990s. It is now being developed as a residential estate.

Lidcombe Oval

Lidcombe Oval, situated in Church Street, on the northern side of the railway line, was the home ground of the Western Suburbs Magpies from 1967-1986. The playing surface is enclosed by a cycling track. The ground earned a reputation as a fortress for the home side, particularly in the late 1970's to the early 1980's when the Magpies were at their most competitive. Games against rivals Parramatta and Manly would usually draw large crowds during this era. The attendance record for the venue is 21,015 (Wests vs Parramatta, 30.7.78).

Transportation

Lidcombe has good transportation links being the junction of three main railway lines - one to the Richmond/Emu Plains line, the Bankstown line and the Liverpool line. A line leading to the nearby cemetery was closed as cars became more popular, previously this special funeral line left the decorative platform (designed by a woman architect who is commemorated where it used to be) at Central station, located on the Broadway side. Lidcombe station is also a hub with a sprint platform to the Olympic Park line (opened prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics)

Golf Course

The Carnarvon Golf Course, located at Nottinghill Road and Joseph Street, has had a varied history reflecting the social history of Lidcombe:
1. The first site was in use from 1927 to 1932 and occupied an area running east and west on the northern side of Parramatta Road, Lidcombe between Wetherill Street and Hill Road in an area currently covered by the M4.
2. The “Old Course” was in an area of three paddocks north of Fariola Street in an area owned by the Newington State Hospital (now Silverwater Prison) which consisted of nine holes in the top paddock (holes one-eight and eighteen). Seven holes in the bottom paddock, now Wilson Park, and the sixteenth and seventeenth holes in a paddock leased from Lidcombe Council on the southern side of Holker Street.
3. This course was in use from 1932 until early 1943 when the top paddock and the Clubhouse were taken over by the U.S. Navy during World War II.
4. The Silverwater Course was used from 1942 to 1949 and was a nine-hole course where the bottom paddock held holes one-two and five-nine with the third and fourth holes in the Council paddock.
5. The present site which originally consisted of Lidcombe Sports and Showground and the western grazing paddock of Lidcombe State Hospital was obtained in 1947 and officially opened in December, 1949.[1]

Association with Rookwood Cemetery

The two main streets are John and Joseph, named after the early colonial priest John Joseph Terry.

Lidcombe is next to Rookwood Cemetery, being called Rookwood in the early days but soon after the inhabitants wanted to change the town's name. After much disagreement, they decided to combine the previous mayor and current mayor's last names: Larcombe and Lidbury. Thus Lidcombe was born. Rookwood cemetery is also the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere.

Due to the proximity of the suburb to the cemetery, it comes as no surprise that Lidcombe has many places of worship including:

• St. Joachim's Catholic Church on John Street
• The Armenian Catholic Church on John Street
• The magnificent Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Church Street
• An Orthodox Church on Joseph Street
• The Baptist Church on Kerrs Road
• The Presbyterian Church on Yarram Street (now closed and being sold off)
• A Pacific Island Christian Church at Martin Street (currently being built)
• St Stephens Anglican Church on Mark Street
• A Christian Church on the corner of Olympic Drive and Vaughan Street
• A Russian Orthodox Church on Vaughan Street

People

Notable Liddies include:

• Alberto Dominguez. A Qantas baggage handler who was on holiday in the USA. He died on board American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001 which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre.
• Nadia Jamal. A Sydney Morning Herald journalist, she has co-written a book called "The Glory Garage" ISBN 1-74114-649-6 which is a collection of stories about growing up Lebanese Muslim in Australia.
• John Ernest Sullivan. A longstanding member of the Australian Labor Party, he went to the Marist Brothers school (now closed, since turned into the Catholic Education Office) located on Keating Street.
• Rod Taylor. For some years after his Hollywood success, his mother still lived at a local street (reference: Schoolfriends messageboard, now inactive). He went to Parramatta High School.
• Michael Wenden. An Olympic swimmer, attended Marist Brothers Lidcombe, he won gold in the 100m and 200m freestyle, silver in the 800m freestyle relay and bronze in the 400m freestyle relay at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Industry

Parts of Lidcombe are home to major industries.

• Macquarie Goodman own a couple of business parks on Parramatta Road and Birnie Avenue.
• The Dairy Farmers' distribution centre is located at Birnie Avenue. Dairy Farmers is a milk co-operative and supplied most of NSW's milk before competition was opened to milk suppliers from other states.
• Carter Street was best known to be part of Lidcombe before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Some organisations now consider it as part of Homebush Bay (postcode 2127) as this was deemed trendier. Officially it still is but organisations such as Phil Gilbert Toyota (Parramatta Road and Bombay Street) and the new NSW Rural Fire Service headquarters on Carter Street prefer Homebush Bay for reasons known only to themselves. Of course the whole Olympic site used to be a stockyard and abattoir.
• Masons servicing the nearby Rookwood Cemetery are located on Railway Street
• Arthur Street business park just on the border with Strathfield Municipality.
• Dooley's Lidcombe Catholic Club (has created a franchise in Silverwater as well).
• McVicar's Bus Service depot was located at the corner of Joseph and James Streets. It closed in 1978.

Tooheys

The Toohey's division is part of the Lion Nathan conglomerate. Sometimes, one can smell the hops especially during the night as they get wafted through the air. The brewery is located on the corner of Parramatta Road and Nyrang Street. The site was bought in 1955.

Like the Guinness family Tooheys has an Irish connection being founded by two sons of Irish migrants: John Thomas Toohey and James Matthew Toohey. They ran pubs in Melbourne (The Limerick Arms and The Great Britain) before moving to Sydney in the 1860s. In 1869 they bought a brewery and expanded it. They made their first beer : Tooheys Black Old Ale. By 1875, demand for their beer had soared and they established The Standard Brewery in inner-Sydney Surry Hills.

The Tooheys stag seen on every label of the beer had its origins in their patronage of the Bald Faced Stag pub. The stag has equal points on either side of its antlers making it a good stag to hunt.

Trivia: Tooheys was bought by the infamous businessman Alan Bond and Bond Corporation in 1985 before the company and himself went bankrupt.

Bibliography

Jamal, Nadia and Chandab, Taghred (2005) The Glory Garage Melbourne: Allen and Unwin ISBN 1-74114-649-6

NSW Parliament (2003) Legislative Assembly Hansard Full Day Trsnacript: Parramatta High School

Stafford, Ted (1991) Living in Liddy Ettalong Beach, NSW ISBN 0-646-05153-9