Our Neighbourhood

ASHFIELD

Known for its bustling street life and wide multicultural mix – a fact that is celebrated each year with the famed ‘Festival of Cultures’ in Ashfield Park – Ashfield is a community of vibrancy and depth.
Positioned on the rough bush track – soon to be known as Parramatta Road - that was built in 1790 to join the two settlements of Sydney Cove and Parramatta, Ashfield was an area known to the very first European settlers. With the first land grant made to the Reverend Richard Johnson in 1793, the entire area was settled by 1810 and had been amalgamated into the large estates of Canterbury Estate and Ashfield Park – the latter of which was named after Ashfield in Scotland. The village of Ashfield was subdivided from Ashfield Park in 1838 by owner Elizabeth Underwood.

One of six original stations on the Sydney-Parramatta railway line that opened in 1855, Ashfield’s population expanded rapidly and was granted a municipal council in 1872. Ashfield was seen as a desirable retreat for city workers around the turn of the 20th century, with many grand Victorian homes being built. A move to smaller homes and apartments during the 1920s and 1930s has continued to the present day, though many heritage listed homes remain. Although not noted as an industrial suburb, industries included the AWA radio factory, Australian Six Motor Car factory and the Peek Freans Biscuit factory, with its iconic tower now part of Bunnings.

Centred primarily around Liverpool Road, Ashfield’s businesses include the Daily Brew Café, Rhystyled landscapers, Ashfield Youth Theatre, Kmart and the Ashfield Aquatic Centre. Approximately 9km to the centre of the city, Ashfield is bordered by Summer Hill and Dulwich Hill to the east, Haberfield to the north, Croydon and Burwood Heights to the west and Ashbury and Canterbury to the south. An ever changing streetscape and community make Ashfield one of the inner west’s most exciting and colourful neighbourhoods.