Mulgoa, New South Wales

Mulgoa is a village, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 66 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

Mulgoa covers 5530 hectares, south of the Penrith suburbs of Regentville and Glenmore Park.

History

Aboriginal culture

Mulgoa takes its name from the Mulgoa people who were the indigenous inhabitants of the area and spoke the Dharug language. The name is believed to mean black swan. The Mulgoa weren't the only inhabitants of the area. They shared the Mulgoa Valley with the Gandangara people of the Southern Highlands, whose territory extended up into the Blue Mountains. 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.^[1][2]

European settlement

Following the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney, there were a number of bloody battles between the British settlers and the local indigenous people in this area, however, it is believed that the Mulgoa people were generally peaceful and most of the clashes were with the Gandangara. The first government land grants in the area were made in 1810 to Edward Cox, the four-year-old son of Captain William Cox, who constructed a famous road across the Blue Mountains in 1814. William Cox built The Cottage on the land in about 1811. Not far away dwelt Cox's friend Sir John Jamison, who erected the colony's finest mansion, Regentville House, in 1824, on an eminence overlooking the Nepean River. In 1821, three large land grants were made on the Nepean at Mulgoa to the Norton family: James Norton, the founder of Sydney's first law firm and his father and brother, Nathaniel.^[3][4]

Saint Thomas Church of England, Mulgoa from the Sydney Morning Herald, 18 July 1914

The centre of Mulgoa's spiritual life in the colonial era was St Thomas' Anglican Church, which dates from 1838. It was the first public building in the Mulgoa Valley and was constructed out of sandstone and cedar on paddocks donated by the Cox family, with Sir John Jamison serving as one of its patrons. The Reverend Thomas Cooper Makinson was St Thomas' inaugural rector. Attached to the church was Mulgoa's first school. It operated until 1871–72, when the Mulgoa Provisional School replaced it.

In 1893, Mulgoa's population was sufficiently large to be granted the status of a municipality. Its area extended beyond the current suburb boundaries. In 1949, however, council rationalisations led to it merging with Penrith, St Marys and Castlereagh into a larger Penrith Municipality. These days, Mulgoa is still primarily a rural area.^[1]

Mulgoa Post Office opened on 1 September 1863.^[5]

Transport

Mulgoa Road is the main road in the suburb, connecting with Penrith. Westbus, a private company, provides a bus service which runs from Warragamba to Penrith along Mulgoa Road.^[6]

Education

There is a government-run primary school, Mulgoa Public School, and a privately run school, Nepean Christian School.

Population

Demographics

The recorded population of Mulgoa in the 2006 census was 2217. The majority of residents are Australian born (78%) with small minorities born in England (3.9%) and Malta (2.3%). There are a large number of couples with children (57%) and most houses are owned outright (39%) or being paid off (38%). The number of renters (17%) was substantially less than the national average. The median income ($560 per week) was higher than the national average ($466).^[7]

Notable residents

• Emmanuel Margolin, entrepreneur and former operator of El Caballo Blanco^[8] (His Mulgoa property also contained Sydney's largest private zoo);^[9]
• Captain William Cox (1764–1837), Mulgoa pioneer, military officer, landowner and road-builder;
• Sir John Jamison Kt, MD (1776–1844), landowner, physician and Member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales;
• Robert Dulhunty (1803–1853), landowner, police magistrate, alderman and founder of the Dubbo district in central-western New South Wales; and
• The Reverend Thomas Cooper Makinson (1809–1893), Mulgoa's first resident Anglican clergyman and schoolmaster, who later converted to Catholicism.
• Senator The Honourable Marise Payne ^[10]

Governance

At a local government level, Mulgoa is part of the south ward of Penrith City Council, represented by Jim Aitken, Mark Davies, Karen McKeown, Susan Page and Gary Rumble. The current mayor is Pat Sheehy. At the state level, it is part of the Electoral district of Mulgoa, represented by Tanya Davies, of the Liberal Party. Federally, it is part of the Division of Lindsay, and represented by the Liberal Party's Fiona Scott since 2013.

References

• Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volumes 1 & 2, edited by Douglas Pike, (Melbourne University Press, 1966–1967), under "Cox", "Jamison" and "Makinson".
• St Thomas' Church, Mulgoa, 1838–1988: A Parish History, by Stephanie Walsh and Peter Robinson, (Sydney, 1989).

External links

• Penrith Local Suburb Profiles

Coordinates: 33°50′46″S 150°39′09″E / 33.8461°S 150.6525°E / -33.8461; 150.6525