Doonside Profile
History
The traditional owners and early settlement
The Dhurug people are the traditional owners of the local land. The area now known as Doonside was named 'Bungarribee' (Bung meaning the 'creek' and garribee meaning 'cockatoo').[citation needed]
In 1802, Governor Philip Gidley King reserved a large proportion of land for a Government Stock Reserve.[citation needed] For the next twenty years the land was used as grazing land for cattle and sheep by convict herdsmen. In 1822 part of the Government stock run was granted by Governor Thomas Brisbane to Scottish immigrant, Robert Crawford. Robert first named his 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) Milton before renaming it "Hill End".[citation needed] In 1826, John Crawford purchased land adjacent Hill End fronting Richmond Road which he named Doonside. The region had various names, before officially becoming Doonside.
Demographics
Doonside's population was 13,614 in the 2021 Australian census. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.7% of the population.
There was a mix of housing tenures in the suburb with 21.6% of properties owned outright, 30.6% being purchased and 43.6% being rented. The median household income of $1,340 per week was slightly lower than average and while the median rent ($310 per week) was also lower than average, the median mortgage repayment of $1,950 per month was higher. The most common industry of employment was hospitals (4.3%).[2]
48.1% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were Philippines 10.5%, India 6.5%, Fiji 3.3%, New Zealand 2.3% and Nepal 1.4%. The most common ancestries were Australian 18.8%, English 16.8%, Filipino 13.1%, Indian 6.2% and Australian Aboriginal 4.2%. 47.2% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Tagalog 6.6%, Arabic 4.0%, Hindi 3.7%, Punjabi 3.2% and Filipino 3.0%. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 28.5%, No Religion 16.8% and Hinduism 9.4%