Winmalee, New South Wales

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Winmalee Sydney, NSW
View from Hawkesbury Lookout, Winmalee
Postcode:	2777
LGA:	City of Blue Mountains

Winmalee is an Australian suburb officially established in 1972. Along with the nearby township of Yellow Rock the population has been estimated as approximately 8,000 (as of the time of this article's publication). The suburb has historical significance as it was once considered a part of Springwood, the first settlement in the Blue Mountains.

1 Location
2 History
- 2.1 Aboriginal heritage
- 2.2 Official establishment
3 Population
4 Facilities
5 References
6 Related links

[edit] Location

Winmalee is located to the north of the suburb of Springwood, situated in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. The suburb is surrounded by Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park, as with most of the city of the Blue Mountains. This World Heritage National Park was recently placed on the World Heritage List and is known as the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site. The Blue Mountains is officially known as "The City Within a World Heritage National Park".

Winmalee extends north from Linksview Road/Birdwood Avenue to Coramandel Avenue and east to a point part-way along Single's Ridge Road.

[edit] History

[edit] Aboriginal heritage

The area now officially known as Winmalee was once inhabited by a race of Aboriginal Australians known as the Dharug tribe. This was a nomadic tribe which inhabited much of the Lower Blue Mountains until European exploration and settlement. The dialect spoken by the tribe is known as the Dharug language. Current figures (as of the time of this article's publication) place the date of this settlement as beginning up to 50,000 years ago.

Except for a small number of descendants there are no members of the Dharug tribe now living in the area. The majority of this group were thought to have moved northward in the Blue Mountains and to have merged with the Gundungurra tribe. Others are thought to have been wiped out during European exploration and settlement.

Archaeological evidence from the aboriginal inhabitants is common throughout Winmalee and includes several open sites and occupation shelters.

[edit] Official establishment

In 1970 the Geographical Names Board of NSW suggested that the area which had been unofficially known as North Springwood be made an independent suburb of the Blue Mountains and renamed "White Cross" because of the rapidly increasing population growth of Springwood. However residents of the area objected to the naming of the suburb "White cross".

In 1971 the Department of Education selected "Winmalee" as the name for a new school in the area. Though the residents of the area approved this as the name for the proposed school they rejected it as a name for the suburb. The name Winmalee was chosen by the Department of Education as the result of a competition that had been organised amongst the local people. Terry Macauley, who was to be one of the school's original primary students, suggested the name "Winmalee", an Aboriginal word for North.^[1] The word was in fact never used by the Dharug tribe's people in relation to the area, but is instead a reference to its previous unofficial name.

Winmalee was finally officially established as an independent town on 28 April 1972 after the Minister for Lands, Tom Lewis MLA announced the suburb's independence from Springwood and approved the name Winmalee despite objections from residents.

[edit] Population

On the night of the 2001 census there were 6,315 persons residing in Winmalee (50.7% female, 49.3% male). The population consisted of 81.1% born in Australia, including 1% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, whilst 6.2% were born in England, 1.4% New Zealand, 0.9% Scotland, 0.7% Netherlands, and 0.5% Germany.^[2]

[edit] Facilities

[edit] High schools

The first High School established in the Winmalee area was St Columba's High School. Originally a Catholic seminary, it was re-established as a high school in 1979, but did not cater for years 11 and 12 until 1993. The school and its grounds are some of the oldest forms of architecture in the area.The St Columbas property is one of the largest property holdings in the Blue Mountains and is rich in native flora and fauna.The whole of the St Columbas property is a Heritage property. .^[3]

Winmalee High School was the first high school developed after the suburb was named Winmalee and had established independence. It was officially established in 1985. Winmalee High has Sister School agreements with both Arima Senior High School in Japan and Aurora College in Invercargill, New Zealand.

[edit] Primary schools

Primary Schools include:

St Thomas Aquinas Parish School - Opened in 1921 with a total school enrolment of 24 pupils. The school was staffed up until the early 1980s by the Sisters of St Joseph. The school moved to its current site off Hawkesbury Road in 1982, which is situated on the same grounds as St Columba's High School.

Winmalee Public School - The school's first year was in 1972 when pupils boarded at Springwood Primary. The first classes were actually held at Winmalee in the last weeks of 1972, but the school really began on the site at the beginning of 1973.

Ellison Public School - Ellison Public School received its first complement of pupils in February 1986 under the supervising care of its foundation principal, and a staff of eight teachers. With an initial enrolment of 228 pupils, the school was organized into eight classes catering for kindergarten through to fifth grade. Ellison Public lies near the border of Springwood and Winmalee, drawing students from both regions.^[4]

[edit] Parks

Summerhayes Park is a Council Public Reserve which is frequently used by locals for active sport and other recreational activities like bushwalking. Its facilities include tennis and netball/basketball courts and fields for various codes of football. It is also the home of Springwood Soccer & Sports Club.It also has a rich diversity of native flora and fauna and contains many Threatened and Endangered species and ecological communities.Summerhayse Park is also a great bushwalking area with many interesting tracks and vistas. The Park is also rich in aboriginal archeological sites.

[edit] Public and private enterprises

The recently constructed Winmalee Village Centre

The Winmalee Village centre was officially opened in the early 1980s with the new and updated refurbished centre opening in late 2005 and is the centre of infrastructure for Winmalee and many surrounding areas. It comprises twenty four specialty outlets, a mall, veterinary clinic and a Coles supermarket as major tenant.